She went straight to the refrigerator and took out two beers. She handed one to Jasper. Opening her own, she took a drink before she said, “I checked with the marshal’s office. The call from the person who said they saw you attack Aiden? It was anonymous, but the dispatcher told me off the record that it had been an elderly man, she was pretty sure. The voice, she said, sounded old and low. He refused to give his name, but he said that if the woman with you hadn’t pulled you off the man, he was sure you would have killed him.”

  Darby could see that the news didn’t come as a shock to him. “If it was Leviathan, then I’d say he is definitely framing you for the murder. But that would mean that sometime that night he either stumbled across Aiden after he was attacked by the robber or he killed him in that empty lot not far from the motel.”

  “If he was the one who made the call to the marshal’s office, then he had been watching us—watching Aiden,” Jasper said.

  As she took a seat at the other end of the couch, her mind was racing. “If he doesn’t have a criminal record, then I don’t believe he killed Aiden. Why would he commit murder just to try to make you come to Gossip so he can tell you something horrible you don’t want to hear?”

  Jasper shook his head as he dropped down on the other end of the couch. “All I know is that I can’t let you go to Gossip. It’s too dangerous.”

  “But what if I don’t go?” she asked, her voice breaking. “What will he do?”

  He looked over at her and shook his head again. “I think you should get out of town for a while.”

  * * *

  DARBY COULDN’T BELIEVE that she was actually tempted to run. But wasn’t that what she’d done because of Aiden? And look how that had turned out. Some things you couldn’t run from.

  “Are you thinking what I am?” she asked.

  “I hope not,” Jasper said with a groan.

  “We need something on Leviathan Nash.”

  He shook his head. “I thought that’s what we’ve been trying to get with the DNA?”

  The answer came to her in a flash. “We need to find out where he goes at night,” she said and took a drink of her beer. She was calmer now, feeling stronger, more determined. She always was once she had a plan. She wasn’t letting some old man with his secrets run her out of town. She had fallen for Buckhorn—and a certain cowboy rancher, she thought, meeting his gaze. “We stake out his cabin and when he leaves, we follow him.”

  “What?”

  Maybe she was calmer, but clearly Jasper was not.

  “I just told you that I believe he’s trying to frame me for murder and you as my accomplice. Did I not mention that you’re in almost as deep because Leroy believes you drove Aiden’s car that night—or my pickup?” He waved a hand through the air, clearly exasperated. “Now that creepy old man has invited you into his lair? He is coming for us, you realize that, right?”

  “Which is why we have to do something other than just wait to be arrested or worse... run.” She leaned toward him, warming to her idea. “I realized the night when I got into his cabin, that I’ve heard his old truck leave town other late nights. Where does he go?”

  Jasper shook his head. “Maybe for a ride, for all we know.”

  “Exactly, we don’t know. But he seems to know all about us. Doesn’t seem quite fair.” She watched him take a long drink of his beer. She could tell that he was at least giving it some thought.

  “What are you suggesting?” he finally asked.

  Darby glanced at her phone to check the time. “He left later than this the other night. Come on, let’s go stake out the place and when he leaves, we follow him.”

  * * *

  JASPER THOUGHT OF several good reasons this was a bad idea. Leviathan was determined to tell him whatever it was he knew about him and probably his family. The man had warned him. But would he go so far as letting him go to prison for murder? What the hell did Leviathan have to tell him that was so damned important? Or was the whole thing a trap?

  He had a bad feeling that all the things Leviathan Nash had done so far were leading up to some grand finale—as if the man were saving the really bad stuff for last.

  But Darby was right about one thing. They were already in this too deep. The marshal could be coming to arrest them any day now. If Leviathan was framing the two of them—which Jasper was damned sure he was although he had no evidence to prove it—then they could just wait for it to happen or they could fight back. Just as Darby had been saying, they needed to know who they were dealing with now.

  He finished his beer, got up and walked the can over to the recycling bin in her small kitchenette. “Okay,” he said, turning to face her.

  She was already reaching for her coat. “There’s an old empty building next to Gossip. It shouldn’t be that hard to get into it. We can see the alley and his cabin from there.”

  Breaking and entering. “Why not? He knows both of our vehicles. So, we stake out the place. If and when he moves, we’ll come back for my pickup.”

  Darby smiled and reached into her purse and brought out her penlight. When he saw her check her gun and ammunition before swinging her purse over her shoulder, he felt even more worried that this was a bad idea—and one of the many reasons he hadn’t wanted to get involved with any of it—especially with this woman.

  “We aren’t shooting anyone,” he said.

  “Of course not.” She shrugged. “It’s only for protection.”

  “Right. You weren’t kidding about knowing how to use the gun, right?”

  Her smile widened. “Guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

  He nodded. “Great.”

  She moved to the front window of her apartment, drew back the edge of the curtain only a fraction of an inch and turned to him. “The light is still on at Gossip. I think we can assume he’s in there.”

  Jasper didn’t want to assume anything when it came to Leviathan Nash and that shop of his. He checked to make sure he had his phone. He had a pistol in the pickup and a shotgun behind the seat. He didn’t plan to use either, but he knew he would if it came to protecting Darby. “Let’s go. I need to stop by my pickup and then I’m ready.”

  “Not getting involved, huh?” she said.

  “Against my better judgment.” But he knew she was right. He couldn’t stand back and just let this happen. If he was right about the man framing him for murder, then it was high time he did something about it—especially since the man had now involved Darby.

  * * *

  ENTERING THE EMPTY building next to Gossip turned out to be even easier than Darby had suspected. The old door into the place with its crystal doorknob didn’t lock. It was just a matter of prying one side of the plywood free that had been nailed over the door, slipping past it and into the pitch-black space.

  Because of the hour, there was little to no traffic. Jasper had insisted on doing the breaking and entering part while she stood back as lookout.

  “Never thought you’d be doing this as a civilian,” she whispered, unable to hide her excitement.

  “Never. Now I feel like a criminal,” he whispered back, shaking his head as he held the plywood away so she could slip in. “And you’re enjoying every minute of it.”

  She was, since breaking into an empty building was way down on her list of criminal behavior. Once inside, they both stopped to listen. With Gossip right next door and sharing a wall, they had good reason to worry that they might have been heard.

  But she could hear nothing coming through the wall and assumed that Jasper didn’t either as he turned on his flashlight and shone it around the room. It appeared that someone had started to renovate the building, but stopped in the middle of the process. “Watch out for nails,” Jasper warned as they began to step over boards filled with nails that had been torn from the walls.

  As if nails were the most dangerous thing they had to worry about, Darby thought as she headed for the stairs to the second floor. If she was right, there was a window up there that overlooked the cabin. They would be able to see and hear the truck leave.

  When she reached the top of the stairs, she moved toward the south-facing room, but stopped before she reached the closed door. Jasper, as if already thinking a step ahead of her, turned off his flashlight. They stood there for a moment, neither of them moving, before he stepped past her and pushed open the door into the room.

  Just enough light came in through the dust-covered windows that they could see where to step. Darby followed him to the window facing Gossip and the cabin and peered out. She could see light coming from the back of the shop. Which she hoped meant that Leviathan Nash was still inside.

  “Might as well settle in,” she said, holding her phone away from the window to check the time. “If I’m right, he’s a creature of habit.”

  “I guess we’ll see,” Jasper said as he dragged up two small wooden crates and offered her one. “A seat, my lady?”

  She gave him a slight bow and took it. “Thank you. We should have brought some beer. Chips would have been nice.”

  He shook his head as he sat down on his crate, making it groan under his weight. Sometimes she forgot just how intimidating a figure he made. Over those broad shoulders, slim hips and long legs was a lot of muscle. She’d gotten a look at how strong and powerful he was when he’d gone after Aiden.

  “Tell me why you left law enforcement.” Darby surprised herself. But once the words were out, she turned toward him. In the faint light coming through the dirty window from the starry moonlit night, she saw his surprise—and the way his face immediately closed up.

  “I have to know,” she said quietly, needing an answer, and looked away to the scene below her. The golden light that bled from the back of Gossip fell over the stone walkway and the front of the old truck. She concentrated on it and waited, thinking that if there was a time or place that he might tell her, this would be it.

  * * *

  JASPER RECOGNIZED THE stubborn set of her jaw. He knew he shouldn’t have been surprised by the question. Hell, she was a reporter. But he also knew that it wasn’t the reason she was asking.

  Given the way he’d kissed her the other night at his ranch, she had every right to ask. Add to that they were both probably about to be arrested for Aiden’s murder and her alleged part in the cover-up. He knew he did owe her something.

  He looked out the window, chewed at the side of his cheek for a moment before he sighed. “I lost my objectivity. I got too involved in a case. I almost killed a suspect.” He knew that was just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

  “Bessie and I think a woman was involved,” she said flatly without looking at him.

  Jasper let out a chuckle. “You and Bessie, huh? You have a long conversation about me?”

  “Long enough.” She turned then and leveled those brown eyes on him.

  He felt himself weaken. This damned woman had that effect on him in a way that stole his strength of will. She’d been hell on his barriers, worse on his heartstrings. He’d known it was only a matter of time before he opened his heart to her. But that would mean telling her the truth, opening up that private, most painful part of his life to her. She was asking if she could trust him. Or if she should fear him.

  “I got a woman killed. I promised to protect her, and I failed. Worse, the man who killed her did so because of me.”

  “He’s the man you tried to kill?”

  He felt the full weight of his past settle on his shoulders. “I failed at that too. Now because of who he is, he’s sitting in some country club–type private prison cell watching cable TV at the taxpayers’ expense.”

  “Did they fire you?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “After that it was clear to me and my bosses that I could no longer do the job I was hired to do. I had to walk away.”

  Darby nodded. “Were you in love with her?”

  “I was, but maybe for all the wrong reasons since she was with the man I was investigating for murder,” he said after a moment.

  “I figured it was something like that. I take it that the man was someone with influence.”

  His chuckle held all the bitterness he still felt. “He was a US senator and one of the most dangerous and crooked men I’ve ever met. The good news is that he’ll never be able to hold office again.”

  * * *

  DARBY KNEW SHE shouldn’t ask, but she had to, even though she feared the answer. “What happens when he gets out of prison?”

  A cold, dark silence filled the room for too long. She met Jasper’s gaze and held it as she waited, now desperate to know the answer.

  “He’ll take his millions and live a life of luxury,” Jasper finally said. “He’ll find another woman he’ll abuse, and he’ll get involved with people who will do his dirty deeds. He won’t change.”

  “You can live with that?” she asked quietly.

  He chuckled. “I have to since I want a life away from all that.”

  “Which explains why you didn’t want to get involved in this,” she said, feeling regret that she’d dragged him into it. “I’m sorry.”

  He shook his head. “While I no longer want to be in law enforcement, you’ve made me realize that I can’t just stick my head in the sand when it comes to trouble. I didn’t ask for any of this and yet here I am because of Leviathan Nash—not you. You were right. I can’t hide out at my ranch. I can’t stand back and let this man destroy my life and yours. He needs to be stopped, should have been stopped, before it’s too late.”

  The light inside Gossip went out. They both froze, their conversation forgotten for the moment. Seconds later, Leviathan came out the back of the shop and headed for his cabin—just as he had done the other night when she’d been hiding behind the cabin. Only this time, he was carrying something. Flowers?

  He disappeared inside the cabin, the door closed, a light came on.

  “Was that a bouquet of flowers?” she whispered, realizing that she’d been holding her breath. She looked over at Jasper.

  He looked as surprised as she felt. “I guess we wait to see if he comes back out.”

  She settled onto her crate again to wait. “Thank you for telling me what happened. Do you think Marshal Baggins knows about your past?”

  “I’m sure he does.” Jasper didn’t sound happy about that.

  Of course. It would only give credence to Jasper losing his cool with Aiden. Only this time, nothing stopped him from killing the man who was threatening a woman he cared about.

  “I didn’t kill Aiden,” he said quietly.

  “I know that.” She felt his gaze swing to her.

  “You sure?”

  Darby turned to look at him. “Positive. You’re not a killer. I suspect that’s why the senator is still alive.”

  He shook his head. “I wanted him dead. I live with that every day.”

  The door of the cabin opened, the light inside went out and Leviathan emerged. He now wore a coat. Darby watched him carry the flowers to the truck and slide behind the wheel.

  A moment later, the truck’s engine rumbled to life.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  JASPER WAS ON his feet with Darby heading for the door. He turned on his flashlight, and they moved swiftly through the building, slipping back out onto the sidewalk. A semi roared past before they could cross the highway in its wake to climb into his pickup.

  Once behind the wheel, Darby riding shotgun, he started the engine and went after Leviathan.

  “Last night, he went straight down the back street, then turned onto that old road out of town,” she said. “Do you think he’s taking the flowers to someone? Is it possible he has a lady friend?”

  “Anything is possible,” Jasper said as he took the first street off the highway and then the next right. There was no sign of the truck’s taillights, but Jasper turned right again and raced down the back street. He hoped they hadn’t miscalculated how much of a head start the man had.

  The back street ended at the county road. He glanced over at Darby.

  “Left,” she said with enough conviction that he turned and headed away from the lights of town. Clouds moved across the moon, pitching the road into darkness beyond the pickup’s headlights. The mountains rose to their left, towering over the county road.

  “I don’t think anyone lives out here,” he said, voicing his thoughts. “It’s the road to the dump.” He was beginning to wonder if they should have turned right back at the T when he saw the flash of brake lights ahead off to his right.

  “I know where’s he going,” Darby cried as the lights they’d seen went out. “I drove out past here the other day to interview Karla Parson. He just pulled into the old part of the cemetery.”

  Jasper felt his stomach knot. If the man was taking flowers to the old cemetery then he had had kin here. He kept going up the road until the land fell away and he could stop without being seen from the cemetery. He pulled over, feeling a little sick. If Leviathan had had kin from here, then that could explain how he knew so much about Buckhorn and its residents.

  “I think we need to walk from here,” he said as the moon broke free of all but a veil of clouds, throwing a thin yellow sheen over the landscape. “If I try to drive closer, he’ll hear us.”

  “It will be hard enough to keep him from seeing us,” Darby agreed. She opened her door quietly and climbed out.

  The cemetery was a half mile back up the road. “Let’s cut through the old Miller place,” he suggested as he joined her behind the pickup. “It’s abandoned. We might have to go through a couple of barbed wire fences, but it should bring us out close to where we saw him stop.”