Page 5 of Christmas Ransom

He wasn’t sure. That was the problem. It’s why he’d stayed away today. “What’s this about you joining the sheriff’s department?” he asked, hoping to get the focus off him.

“Stop trying to change the subject,” Willie said.

All of them looked toward Willie. “Davy’s right,” James said. “I distinctly remember you saying you were never going to become a private eye. Too dangerous, you said.”

“You’d just spent a night in jail, as I remember,” Tommy interjected. “So yeah, what’s up with you joining the sheriff’s department?”

“I needed a change and we have enough PIs in the family,” Willie said with a laugh.

James narrowed his eyes at his brother. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with Dad’s death, would it?”

“Enough about me,” Willie said, standing to walk over to the window that faced Main Street. Davy looked past his brother. Lonesome looked so picturesque with its quaint old brick buildings, Christmas decorations and snowflakes falling to the distant sound of holiday music.

“Willie’s right,” James said, letting Willie off easy, Davy thought. “I’d think long and hard about revisiting that love affair. As Dad used to say, there are a lot of Buckle Bunnies out there. It isn’t like you have ever been short of female company.”

Davy sighed and shook his head. There were always cowgirls who followed the circuit. True enough, he had no problem getting a date. But none of them were Carla.

“Remember, she was the one who broke up with you because she didn’t want to be married to a rodeo cowboy,” Tommy reminded him, as if he could ever forget.

“Can’t blame her,” James said. “What woman in her right mind would?”

“Unless something has changed?” Tommy said.

Davy shook his head. “There are too many broncs waiting to be ridden.”

“Or bucked off of,” Tommy said with a laugh.

“Well, I have a few more years.” He was young, the youngest of the brood. He wasn’t ready to settle down, he kept telling himself. But he’d never gotten over Carla, and lately he’d been thinking about her more and more. When Tommy told him that she’d said to tell him hello, he’d gotten his hopes up that they might still have a chance.

“Did Carla at least seem glad to see you?” Tommy asked now.

Davy shrugged. “I was too nervous to notice.”

Willie had grown quiet, almost reflective, for a few minutes. “Davy, you’re ruining our bad reputations,” he joked. “I’m getting the feeling that you’re still hung up on this woman.”

Davy groaned and got to his feet. “Maybe I’ll go out for a while, do some Christmas shopping—”

“And maybe stop by the bank before it closes?” Tommy asked with a grin.

At the sound of distant sirens, Willie turned toward the front window again. “Speaking of the bank, it looks like something’s happening down there.”

Chapter Six

For a moment, Jud didn’t know what hit him. He’d been dragging Carla Richmond toward the door, determined to take her hostage, when he heard the pop as one of his ribs cracked from the butt of Buddy’s weapon. His own weapon was jerked from his free hand. Gasping for air, he was forced to loosen his leverage on the woman.

After that, everything went south. Carla, no doubt seeing her chance, elbowed him hard in the same spot Buddy had nailed him. The last of his air rushed from his lungs. He doubled over and the woman slipped from his hold to collapse on the floor.

He had only a few seconds as she hurried to scramble out of his reach. In that instant when she’d looked back from the floor, something had passed between them. She’d known he was going to kill her, and he’d known that she would tell the cops what she’d seen.

He kicked her, catching her temple with the toe of his boot. The blow flipped her from her hands and knees to her back. Her head struck the marble floor with a crack and she lay motionless. People began to scream and cry louder. There was shouting and he could hear some of the bank employees getting to their feet and scrambling for cover. If he’d still had his weapon, he would have turned it on all of them—starting with Carla Richmond.

But Buddy grabbed him, propelling him toward the front door of the bank before he could finish her off. The sound of sirens filled the air as the three of them stumbled across the snowy sidewalk to the diminishing sound of Christmas music and into the waiting van at the curb. Their getaway driver, Rick, sped off even before the van doors closed.

Jud looked back through the glass front of the bank. There were people kneeling next to Carla. From what he could tell, she still wasn’t moving as the getaway vehicle roared down the road. All he could hope was that she never would again.

“You idiot,” Buddy snapped as he pulled off his mask and threw it down on the floor of the van as they sped out of Lonesome—headed for the mountains. “What were you thinking?” he demanded as he struggled to shed his costume. Like the rest of them, he wore a T-shirt and jeans underneath. “The plan wasn’t to take a hostage.”

Jud glared at him, holding his side. He’d already ripped off his mask, each breath a torture as he scratched angrily at his neck. “Plans change.”

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