Page 38 of Christmas Ransom

He glanced over at her, looking surprised. “Is that what I am? Angry?”

“You tell me.” She saw his jaw tighten along with his hands on the wheel, but he didn’t speak. “I wish we could just be friends again, but I can’t see how we can. That kiss proves it, doesn’t it?”

“It was just—” he started, then shook his head no. “Like hell it was,” he amended quickly, looking over at her. “What that kiss proves is that we’re still in love, Carla. Have been for years. When are we going to quit denying it?”

“I’m not denying it. We just want different things.”

“Oh, right, that’s why we broke up.”

“Would you please stop doing that,” she snapped. “And stop pretending that you don’t know why I broke up with you.”

Davy sighed. “I thought we wanted the same things—marriage, a house, kids, a life together. I thought we were in love.”

“We were.” Her voice broke. She didn’t want to argue, but she couldn’t let the past lie between them like a dead body they were both trying to ignore. “What kind of life would that have been with you on the road all the time?”

“I wouldn’t have been on the road all the time. Other people make it work—truck drivers, pilots, commercial fishermen. But that wasn’t what you wanted, was it?”

“No,” she admitted and felt tears sting her eyes. “Breaking up with you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It broke...” Her voice choked again as well and she had to look away. “It broke my heart to walk away from you.” She felt him look over at her and swallowed back the tears that threatened to fall.

“You didn’t give us a chance,” he said quietly, the pain clear in his words.

“You don’t know how badly I wanted to.” She looked over at him as she was enveloped in the memory of the kiss, of his arms wrapped about her, their bodies molded together in the heat of passion. The worst part was that she still did want to.

The moment their eyes locked she knew she could no longer fight her feelings for him. “Davy.” The word came out a plea. She wanted to throw herself into his arms and tell him that she’d never stopped loving him and plead for them to find a way to be together. She opened her mouth, but what came out was a scream as she saw headlights headed right for them.

Chapter Nineteen

At Carla’s scream, Davy’s gaze returned to the road, only to find himself blinded by the set of headlights bearing down on them. “Hang on!” he cried and jerked the wheel hard to the right. The cab interior filled with light. He braced himself for impact as he caught a flash of the vehicle as it whizzed past his driver’s-side window.

To his amazement, the vehicle barely missed the rear of the pickup as he and Carla crashed into the snow-filled ditch. The front tires dropped down into the wind-crusted depths. Snow cascaded over the hood to cover the windshield as the pickup buried itself before coming to a stop.

“Carla,” Davy said, glancing over at her. “Are you all right?” Her face had lost all color and she was hanging on tightly if her white knuckles were any indication.

“I thought for sure that car was going to hit us,” she said haltingly.

“That was way too close.” He glanced over his shoulder and saw a pair of taillights disappearing down the road. “The driver didn’t even stop. Must be drunk or...”

She looked over at him then. “It wasn’t a drunk driver. It was him, wasn’t it?”

Davy wanted to argue but couldn’t. The car had been headed unerringly at them. If he hadn’t jerked the wheel and put them in the ditch, the vehicle would have hit them head-on. It would have been a suicidal mission—if it was J. He’d caught a glimpse of the pickup as it had sped past. While he hadn’t seen the driver, his impression in that split second was that there’d been a man behind the wheel. A man wearing a baseball cap.

As Carla began to cry, he unsnapped his seat belt, then reached over and did the same with hers before pulling her into his arms. She was trembling and fighting tears. His heart was still pounding. He told himself that whoever had run them off the road wouldn’t be back to finish them off, but he was glad that his .22 pistol was under the seat. If anyone came down the road from that direction, he would be ready.

“This is killing me,” Carla said through sobs against his shoulder.

“I know. I’m so sorry.” He knew being a suspect in the bank robbery was added to her pain. That and not being able to get back to her job, her life. She’d always been so independent. She’d always been so strong. He knew how hard this was on her.

“It’s going to be all right,” he said as he ran his hand over her hair and held her close. “I’m here for you.”

At those words she pulled back, her eyes brimming with tears as she shook her head. He could well imagine what she wanted to say. The last thing she wanted was to keep him from going back to his life, the life he’d chosen over her.

“Carla,” he said, his heart breaking for her. “I’m sorry this is so hard on you, but I’m not letting you out of my sight until this monster is caught. I’ll put the past aside if you can quit worrying about the future. Maybe we could find some common ground because—let’s face it—we still feel the same, don’t we?”

She nodded, tears filling her eyes. “Yes.”

He smiled then and touched her face as he pulled her close. “We’re going to get through this.” She nodded against his chest, then sat up to wipe her tears. He saw her gather herself, her strength and determination taking over again, before he reached for his phone to call for a tow truck.

JUDLOOKEDOUTthe window, angry that Jesse had taken his truck. “What did you do?” he demanded, worry filling him with dread as she walked in the door. He could tell by her flushed face and the brittle brightness in her eyes that she’d done something. He didn’t dare guess what.

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