So, she hadn’t gotten anything new, it seemed. He felt relieved although it surprised him that she hadn’t called to badger him about the DNA sample. He told himself it was just a matter of time. He’d started having breakfast with Bessie again this week, telling himself he could only avoid Leviathan so long—or Darby for that matter. Just a little over a week and Leviathan’s lease would be up. With luck the man would leave and be forgotten.

  So far Jasper hadn’t found another bag hung on his front door. Maybe the man had gotten the message. But even as he thought it, he had a bad feeling that it wouldn’t be the last he heard from him.

  That was why he started when his cell phone rang. He checked. Darby. He thought about not taking the call, but feared she would just continue to call if he didn’t.

  “No, I have nothing to report,” he said without preamble as he picked up.

  “Nice to hear your voice too,” she said.

  “I told you I would let you know if and when I had information for you.”

  “That’s not why I’m calling,” Darby said. Something in her voice sent a sliver of worry burrowing under his skin. “I have a problem.” He heard the hesitation. She sounded...scared. He’d actually thought that nothing could scare this woman. His first thought was Leviathan Nash. Had he found out what she’d done? Was he threatening her?

  “What’s going on, Darby?” His voice sounded tight, scared.

  “I don’t want to involve anyone I really care about in my personal problems. That’s when I thought of you.”

  “I wish I wasn’t sure how to take that,” he said, waiting impatiently for her to tell him what was wrong. She’d said personal problems. For her to call him sounding the way she did, it was serious.

  “You know what I mean.” He feared he did. “My former fiancé is in town. I don’t know how he found me, but he scares me. I don’t want to be alone with him. He’s determined that the two of us have to talk and he won’t take no for an answer. I told him I’d meet him at the café in twenty minutes, but I don’t trust him and the last time I saw him...”

  “Are you telling me he hurt you physically?”

  “No, but I could tell he wanted to. He was drunk and he threatened me. If I hadn’t gotten away from him when I did... I broke off the engagement, quit my job and moved here. I hadn’t seen him since—until he came into my office.”

  Well, that explained why she’d left her job to start her own weekly online newspaper. He glanced out into the growing darkness. “Where are you now?”

  “In my office with the door locked, lights out and the blinds closed.”

  “Sit tight,” he said without hesitation. “I’m on my way.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  JASPER WALKED OUT to his pickup only to see one of his tires was almost flat. He didn’t have time to change it. He hoped it had just a slow leak. Driving it over to the barn, he plugged in his compressor and aired up the tire. That would have to do since he had to get to town. It wasn’t what Darby had said so much, but what she hadn’t. This was one woman who didn’t scare easily. He thought about how she’d braved getting into Leviathan Nash’s cabin to try to find evidence. He also knew from her award-winning articles that she’d taken all kinds of risks to get a story. If she was scared, it was for a good reason.

  As he climbed behind the wheel, Ruby began to wag her tail. The pup really did like going—didn’t seem to matter where. He was almost to the main highway into town when he saw that his neighbor was moving cows.

  Jasper swore and looked at his watch. Hopefully, Darby would wait for him, but even as he thought it, he had a bad feeling she wouldn’t. He suspected she was one of those people who was always punctual when it came to time management.

  Finally getting through the cows, he turned onto the highway and raced into town. The sun had set, casting a blue-gray twilight over the small town. Town was still pretty much dead with a lot of the businesses waiting until Memorial Day to open—the official start of tourist season—and that was still weeks away.

  A semi went past, choking out diesel fuel as the driver shifted down. As its red taillights disappeared into the growing darkness beyond town, Jasper saw Darby. She’d left her office and was walking down the street toward the café.

  He swore. Of course she hadn’t waited. But that wasn’t the worst part. His not showing up on time would have rattled her faith in him and that bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

  Just as he was about to pull over and give her hell for not waiting for him, he saw movement out of one of the narrow alleyways between the buildings. The figure that came out of the shadows of the alley was large and male. The man moved swiftly, grabbing her arm as if to pull her back into the alley with him.

  Jasper swung the pickup to the curb, cut the engine and jumped out. “Let go of her!” he yelled as he stormed toward them.

  “This is none of your business!” the man yelled back and continued to drag a struggling Darby, who was fighting to free herself of his grip.

  “I said let her go.” Jasper moved in swiftly, wrenching the man’s hand from Darby’s wrist. His fist shot out, snapping the man’s head back as his knuckles connected to jawbone. The ex-fiancé let out a curse and, stumbling back, took a wild swing at him that missed by a mile.

  As the man started to reach for something in his pocket, Jasper lunged, taking him down in the alley and pressing him to the ground. He raised his fist, wanting to pummel the man, but he stopped himself even before he heard Darby screaming his name. “Jasper! Stop!” she hollered. “Jasper! Please stop.”

  He felt her hands pulling at his arm as she tried to drag him off the man. It took him a moment before he backed off. He couldn’t believe how close he’d come to beating this man into the earth. His breath heaved, heart hammering, blood pressure up and pounding in his temples. Looking through a cloud of red, he still ached to hit the man again. He’d seen him hurting Darby. But he’d stopped himself, something that surprised him and left him shaking from how close he’d come to not stopping.

  He took a breath and let it out before pushing himself up from the ground and off the man.

  “I could have you arrested for assault,” the man threatened as he got awkwardly to his feet. “This is none of your business, Jasper. I have the right to talk to my fiancée.”

  “She’s not your fiancée and you weren’t just trying to talk to her,” Jasper said, his anger still running wild inside him. He took a few steps back, not quite trusting himself.

  The man rubbed his jaw. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are—”

  “Aiden, he’s a cop,” Darby said.

  “Former cop,” Jasper corrected.

  Aiden had been dusting himself off, but now narrowed his gaze at Jasper. “I just want to talk to Darby.”

  “I believe that’s why she agreed to meet you at the café,” Jasper said. “Apparently you had other plans, though, since you were waiting for her in this alley.”

  “I was just planning to walk her down to the café.”

  He scoffed at the man’s lie, his fist itching to connect again with that arrogant face. He’d seen the way the man had grabbed Darby. What if Jasper hadn’t come to town? What if he hadn’t got here when he did? He knew his reaction was a hundred times more complicated.

  No one said anything for a moment as the tension waned some. “Do you still want to go to the café?” Jasper asked, turning to Darby. Even in the growing darkness he could see how pale she was. There was still a red mark on her wrist where the man had grabbed her. He felt his anger hunkered down just below the surface and Darby saw it too.

  “Jasper,” she said in warning.

  He realized that Aiden hadn’t been the only man who’d scared her and mentally kicked himself.

  “All I want is a chance to have my say,” Aiden said to her. “I came all this way. You didn’t give me that chance when you broke off our engagement. Don’t you at least owe me a few minutes of your time so I can move on like you have?” The man shot Jasper a hateful look as if he thought Darby had moved on with him.

  Jasper looked to Darby. He could see her making her up mind. It was clear that she was afraid of Aiden and apparently with good reason.

  She nodded slowly. “But don’t touch me again.”

  Aiden looked as if he wanted to argue the point, but changed his mind. Darby’s fear was only matched by Aiden’s anger. Jasper knew that kind of fury. It scared him in himself. It really scared him in this man who’d professed to love Darby.

  After Aiden finished making a show of dusting himself off, the three of them walked in the direction of the café. The highway next to them was inky black in the glow of the streetlights as they came on. Dusk had fallen over the town, taking the heat of the sun with it. Spring in Montana was often fickle. One day it could be warm and the next it could snow. Tonight was mild and yet Jasper could see his breath as they walked.

  They were almost to the café when, across the highway that cut through the middle of town, he heard a door open and close. He glanced in the direction the sound had come from. Gossip. A moment later, the light inside the shop went out. Jasper wondered how much Leviathan Nash had seen and heard.

  His pulse was only now returning to normal. He hated that he’d gotten so angry. Worse, that he’d scared Darby. It took him back to that other time in his life that he’d been trying so hard to forget.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Aiden rubbing his jaw and scowling as they reached the café. Jasper couldn’t help but wonder about this man she’d once agreed to marry.

  “You really don’t need to go any farther with us,” Aiden said, still scowling.

  “I think I do,” Jasper told him. “Consider it a personal escort through our town. Anyway, I’m hungry.”

  “Not exactly a friendly reception to your town, Darbs,” Aiden said.

  Darbs? Seriously? “Don’t worry, I won’t be sitting with you,” Jasper assured him as he opened the door to the café and let Darby and her “date” go in. As Darby passed him, she shot him a look that could have been grudging gratefulness. He knew she was glad that he hadn’t let Aiden pull her back into that alley. But at the same time, she wasn’t happy about the way he’d handled it. Or maybe it was his own emotions he was seeing in her brown gaze.

  He gave her a slight nod, pretty much agreeing with her assessment of the situation as he saw it. Aiden on the other hand glared at him and rubbed his jaw with a look that appeared to warn him not to walk near any dark alleys as long as he was in town.

  Jasper headed for his usual booth, but sat on the opposite side so he could keep an eye on Darby and her former fiancé. All his instincts told him that she would need protecting as long as this clown was in Buckhorn.

  * * *

  AIDEN BOILED WITH fury inside even as he smiled across the table at Darby. She would pay for this humiliation. Clearly she’d called that former cop. Otherwise how had he known that they were to meet at the café? How dared she betray him like that.

  He tried to rein in his anger. The night already hadn’t gone as he’d planned it. Darby had sat on the side of the booth with her back to Jasper, leaving Aiden a good view of her Good Samaritan sitting only two booths away, watching him. He swore silently.

  “Let’s not stay here,” he said and started to get out of the booth. “There must be some other place in town to eat.”

  She didn’t move. “This is the only place open this time of year. Actually a lot of the year. Also it’s here or nothing.” She didn’t even bother to look at him as she said it. Instead, she reached for the two menus leaning against the wall behind the salt and pepper shakers, napkin holder and large ketchup bottle. She tossed a menu over to him and opened hers, disappearing behind it.

  He lowered himself back into the booth, feeling his ire fire on all eight cylinders now. He wanted to break something, anything to let out some of the rage building inside him. He’d planned this for so long and now it had all gone to hell. “I’m really not hungry.”

  “Well, I’m starved,” she said behind her menu. “And I’m not going anywhere else with you. If you have something to say to me...”

  As the waitress approached, she lowered her menu. “I’m going to have the chicken fried steak special. Tell me you still have some of Bessie’s red velvet cake back there.” The teenaged girl said they did. “Great. Bring me one piece after dinner and the other to go for breakfast in the morning.” She put her menu back and finally looked at him.

  He could see that she was standing her ground, stubbornness behind her expressionless face and something more. Anger? He realized that she might get up and leave at any moment unless he played along. He could feel the waitress looking at him, waiting. He’d never minded letting waitresses wait. It was their job. But he could also feel Darby’s gaze on him and he knew how much she hated it when he was rude to waitstaff.

  “Just bring me what she’s having,” he said, slamming his menu closed, “but no cake. I’m watching my weight.” He looked straight at Darby as he said it. She’d always been curvier than other women he’d dated and he knew that it had bothered her when he’d commented on her food selections.

  As the waitress left and he put his menu back where Darby had gotten it, he asked, “So who’s the wise guy who slugged me?” he asked. His voice sounded strained, no doubt from fighting hard to keep his temper in check. Why had he ever agreed to talk here? And when had Darby started calling the shots? “I might press charges against him.”

  To his surprise Darby laughed. “Against a former big-city homicide detective?” She didn’t say anything else, just kept smiling, which infuriated him even more. Did she think he wouldn’t press charges against a former hotshot cop? The man had assaulted him.

  “So what is it you have to say to me that is so important you came all this way?” she asked, folding her arms in front of her on the table and looking him in the eye.

  He let out a snort. “It isn’t anything I intend to talk about here with your...friend watching.”

  “Well, this is the only place we’ll be talking,” she said, looking around at the other people having dinner. None of them were close, if that was her point.

  His already aching jaw popped as he ground his teeth hard. “I thought we could go back to my motel room and talk like adults.”

  She shook her head. “That isn’t going to happen.” She said it with such finality that he swore under his breath. When he looked up he could see the former detective watching them. The man was Darby’s protection? Or something more?

  Aiden leaned over the table and lowered his voice. “You screwing that guy?”

  Darby glared at him. “Even if I was, it wouldn’t be any of your business. You and I are done and have been for several months.”

  He leaned back and tried to calm down. This was not the way he’d planned this at all. He’d had this crazy idea that she’d be glad to see him. It had been long enough that they’d been apart that he’d thought she might throw herself into his arms and agree to just about anything. He’d figured living in a dinky town like this she’d be desperate for male companionship. Then again, he hadn’t anticipated that she might have found someone else in this short of a time.

  Glancing at the former cop, he recalled how she had pulled the man she called Jasper off him. She’d seemed angry. Jasper, however, had seemed awfully protective of her. There was something there between the two of them. But maybe it wasn’t serious.

  Reaching into his pocket, he took out the ring case and set it on the table between them, thinking it would tempt her. “I’m only going to ask this once.”

  “Don’t.” She shook her head. “Nothing you can say can make me change my mind—especially after what you did earlier. You were waiting for me in that alley. You grabbed me hard, hurting my wrist. What were you planning to do? Drag me back in there and...” The words stopped as abruptly as they’d started, all the heat and anger fizzling down to a look of horror. “There is nothing you can say or do. I want nothing to do with you. That’s why I broke off the engagement. I thought I made that clear. We’re done.”

  “How can you say that? We were so good together. My family loved you. Our friends all thought we were perfect for each other.” His voice broke and he looked away for a moment. He felt as if everyone in the café was listening—especially her new boyfriend. Heat rushed to his face and he felt his insides begin to boil to the point that he might not be able to control himself. He took a deep breath and let it out. “My life has been hell without you,” he said in a hoarse whisper. He swallowed and tried again, hating that his eyes filled with tears. “I miss you so much.” He couldn’t look at her for fear he would cry. He’d rather die than cry in front of these people, especially Jasper. “I can’t live without you.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way,” she said. “I would have thought by now that you would have found someone else.”

  “She wasn’t you.”

  Darby chuckled. “She dumped you that quickly?”

  “I dumped her,” he spat, grabbing the ring box and shoving it back into his pocket as he blinked back the tears. He was trembling with his sudden intense hatred for this woman. How dared she laugh after he’d poured out his heart to her?

  “Aiden, you need to see someone about your anger issues,” she said quietly. “I’m serious. You’re scary. That night at my apartment—”

  “When you broke off our engagement.”

  “When you were drunk and so abusive...”

  “You’re going to hold that against me? You called the cops on me. Am I holding that against you?” he whispered angrily. “Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for me?” He was breathing hard and had to battle back the urge to reach across the table and grab her by the neck and shake some sense into her. “Do you have any idea how humiliating this is, sitting here begging you to come back to me with half the town and your boyfriend watching?” he demanded through gritted teeth. He waited a beat for a reaction from her and was rewarded with nothing. “You’re making a huge mistake.”