Delivering Justice (4 page)

Chapter Four

“Okay.” The handsome cowboy paused as if he was seriously considering what Jessica had just said. “Is the license a fake?”

“No.”

“Well then, I’m the one who’s confused,” he said, his voice gruff from sleep.

Jessica didn’t know Tyler from Adam and yet his calming voice and masculine strength had her believing she could trust him. There was something about the tall cowboy that made her believe he would protect her.

Then again, it wasn’t like she had a lot of options. The game had changed somewhere along the line and she hadn’t expected Milton to try to kill her. He didn’t even know that Jennifer had an identical twin, let alone that Jessica was posing as her sister.

“What’s really going on?” Tyler asked.

How much should she tell him?
Could
she tell him? She needed to say enough to convince him that she wasn’t crazy.

“I wish I knew,” she said honestly. All Jessica thought she was supposed to be doing was subbing for her party-girl sister, Jennifer, in order to give her time to fix whatever needed fixing. Since no one in Jennifer’s circle knew she had an identical twin, the two figured they could pull off a switch and no one would be the wiser. “I need to contact my twin sister and I can’t do that while
he’s
watching my every move.”

“You’re a twin?” Tyler sounded surprised but not shocked.

“Yes. Sorry for lying to you earlier,” she said quietly into the phone, praying she wouldn’t disturb Milton, who was sleeping ten feet away from her bed. Jessica despised lies. Anyone could ask her ex-boyfriend, Brent, about that. He seemed to be an expert at manipulating the truth when they’d been together.

Jessica refocused. She’d waited all night for Milton to doze off, and this might be her only chance to reach out for help. She’d be released sometime tomorrow afternoon and if she didn’t get away from Milton it would be all over. Jessica’s memory was still spotty but one thing was clear. She needed to get away from that man while she was still alive and connect with her sister before he figured her out. He kept asking her where she’d hid “it.” Jessica had no idea what he’d been talking about. Her sister had warned her that Milton believed she had something valuable and had said to pick a place to take him. When she’d taken him to the O’Brien ranch and told him she’d buried it nearby, he’d slammed a rock against her head.

“What are you asking me to do?” he asked in that deep raspy voice.

“Get me out of here,” she whispered. She was taking a huge risk in calling the cowboy. Milton could wake at any second. She had no idea what her sister had gotten herself involved in, but it must be pretty darn bad for that man to want her dead.

“Is he there right now?” the cowboy asked.

“Yes.”

Milton stirred in his sleep and Jessica panicked. She hung up the phone before he could catch her. If hospital staff didn’t show up every hour or so she figured Milton would’ve already found a way to finish the job. The fact that his earlier attempt to kill her had been staged to look like an accident made her believe that he didn’t want to be associated with a murder investigation.

If Jessica didn’t figure out what was going on and find her sister, they’d both be dead. Losing contact yesterday had settled an ominous feeling over Jessica. She wasn’t sure who she could trust anymore, except the rich cowboy who seemed determined to help. He sent her pulse racing for a whole other set of reasons she didn’t want to examine. But she’d called him as a last-ditch effort to try to help her escape and find her sister. Was that a mistake?

Milton rolled onto his other side in the chair next to her bed, causing her pulse to race.

Jessica had no idea how long she’d been lying there, staring at the white ceiling, when a pair of nurses walked in pushing a gurney.

Milton shot straight up and rubbed his puffy eyes. “What’s going on?”

The nurse shot him a warning look before checking the chart affixed to the foot of Jessica’s bed. “We’re taking our patient for an X-ray.”

Milton stood, blocking her path to Jessica.

“At this hour?” he asked, puffing out his chest, and Jessica noticed he’d done that earlier when he tried to intimidate Tyler. It hadn’t worked with the rich cowboy.

“This is a hospital, sir. We run 24/7,” the nurse shot back and she didn’t appear affected, either. “Now, if you’ll step out of the way on your own it’ll save me the trouble of calling security and having you removed from the building. We can do this any way you want. It’s your call.”

Jessica grinned despite trying to hold it in. Luckily, Milton’s back was to her so he couldn’t see her face. The man frightened her.

The nurse could see her, though, and she winked at Jessica as she brushed past him.

Between the two nurses, they detached Jessica from the monitors and hoisted her up onto the gurney.

Milton made a move to follow them into the hall, but the lead nurse put up a hand to stop him. “I don’t think so, sir. No one but the patient and X-ray tech are allowed where we’re taking her.”

His agitation was written in the severe lines of his forehead, and his eyebrows looked like angry slash marks. Jessica worried that wouldn’t bode well for her later. Then again, he’d made his intentions pretty clear.

Milton stood in the doorway, watching, as Jessica was wheeled down the hallway. She could almost feel his eyes on her and she’d never be able to shake the horror of turning to find him standing there, rock raised in the air, and then a sharp pain before everything went dark.

With him in the room, she hadn’t been able to sleep a wink for fear he’d make sure she never woke. But that didn’t make sense, did it? Would he be so bold as to kill her in the hospital where he could be discovered? Especially now that their situation had drawn so much attention. He’d gone to great pains to make his first attempt look like an accident. Jessica had every intention of figuring out why he wanted to kill her sister and what she’d gotten herself into by agreeing to help.

The nurses made a right turn at the nurse’s station and then broke into a run. Before Jessica could manage to get a word out, they stopped. A blanket was tossed over her head as she was ushered off the gurney. Her claustrophobia kicked into high gear but she resisted the urge to fight against it, taking a deep breath instead of giving in to panic. She could only pray that the nurses could be trusted.

* * *

“D
ON
’
T
SAY
A
WORD
,” Tyler said, turning the light on his phone toward Red as he took off the blanket.

“What are—”

“You asked me to help and that’s what I’m doing,” he said, hating how scared she sounded, looked. He expected her to argue or put up a fight. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck.

“Thank you,” she said, and he could feel her shaking.

Tyler would do whatever it took to help Red. The mystery woman stirred up all kinds of unfamiliar feelings. And seeing her in an abusive relationship dredged up all kinds of bad emotions from the past...feelings he couldn’t set aside as easily as he’d like. He’d told himself that he’d agreed to help her solely based on the fact that she was a woman in need, but there was more. The best Tyler could do was let Red explain herself. He intended to get to the bottom of what was really going on.

“Can I use that phone?” she asked.

“As soon as you tell me why you’re with that jerk.”

Shock widened her sea-green eyes. “I’m not. We’re not. It’s just that everything’s so complicated right now. I’m not sure how to explain.”

“Start at the beginning.”

“I need to get ahold of my sister first, so I can sort this out. Please.”

Tyler figured he needed to buy some goodwill so he handed over his cell.

Red made a phone call and it ran straight into voice mail.

“That’s not good. She should be picking up.” Exasperation ran deep in her voice. She called another number.

A sleepy-sounding woman answered.

“Where’s Jennifer?” Red asked.

Tyler now knew that she’d been posing as her sister. It was a trick his twin younger brothers had played on the family more than once when they were growing up. It had all been good-natured fun. But Red’s life was on the line.

And then a thought dawned on him. Red wasn’t in a bad relationship with Milton, her sister was. Maybe she was giving her sister time to get her bearings enough to leave the jerk. She might’ve been the one to deliver the message. A guy like Milton wouldn’t have taken news like that lying down. Had he gotten angry, found the nearest rock and bashed her in the head?

“What do you mean she just disappeared?” There was outright panic in Red’s voice now as she spoke quietly into the phone. “No. Don’t call anyone. Don’t tell anyone. Promise me you won’t look for her.”

Red’s shoulders slumped forward and tears rolled down her cheeks as she ended the call. She closed her eyes as if trying to shut out the world.

“Tell me what’s going on and we’ll figure something out.” Tyler’s fingers itched to hold her but making that move was a slippery slope. “Does he know who you really are?”

“No. And I have no idea what I’ve actually gotten myself into,” she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “My head hurts.”

“You can start by telling me what your sister’s relationship to James Milton is,” Tyler said.

The mention of Milton’s name got her eyes open in a hurry.

“We can’t talk here.” She glanced around. “Where are we anyway?”

Tyler didn’t like the idea of taking her out of the hospital without knowing exactly what kind of danger she was in and from whom, but he had no choice under the circumstances. Milton would be asking questions soon and wouldn’t be satisfied without an answer. Tyler needed to get her away from the building. He pulled out a bundle of clothing. “Here. Put these on.”

“Scrubs?” she asked, and when he nodded she turned to face the other way.

He took the cue to untie the back of her gown and had to force his gaze away from the silky skin of her shoulder as she slipped out of the cotton material. In addition to the surgical scrubs, Dr. McConnell had provided a bra and panties and shoes. He needed to call her in the morning to thank her for arranging everything on such short notice.

Luckily she’d believed the story about Red wanting out of the relationship. Since she’d planned to release her the next day, McConnell didn’t see the harm in giving Red an out tonight. She’d joked that it was already morning somewhere and made him promise to let her stop by his place after rounds to check on her patient. Lying to McConnell sat sourly in Tyler’s gut. He’d explain the situation when he could. His first order of business was getting Red away from Milton and to safety. Then, the two of them would have a conversation about delivering justice to Milton.

“What now?” Red said, turning around to face him.

“Put these on.” He handed her a surgical mask and hair covering. “And then meet me downstairs near the ER. If he sees me he’ll think something’s up. I want to give us as good of a head start as I can.”

She took a deep breath and he assumed it was to steel her nerves.

“Okay. Let’s do this,” she said.

“You go first. That way, if he’s wandering around and happens to see you, I won’t be far behind,” Tyler said. “Once you walk out the door, make a right toward the stairs. I don’t want you waiting around for an elevator. The ER is on the first floor so you’ll have to make it down eight flights of stairs on your own. Can you handle it?”

She nodded and all he could see were her eyes, the green stood out even more against the light-blue face mask.

“Okay, then. Once you’re down, I’ll meet you at the ER bay,” he said. “Don’t forget to take off the mask before you walk out of the stairwell.”

Red stood at the door for a long moment. She pressed her flat palm against it but stopped short of opening it.

Then she stole a last look at him before walking out and to her right.

Tyler figured he needed to wait a bit before he followed. It would take all his self-control not to hightail it to Red’s room and deliver his own brand of justice. Milton needed to see what it was like to fight with a man. But that would only alert the creep to the fact that Jessica was on the run. Since Tyler couldn’t be in two places at once, he waited a few minutes, then pushed the door open. If Milton saw him at all, it could be game over.

Besides, there was a lot more to this situation than met the eye and Tyler needed to get to the bottom of what was going on before he let his fists fly. He’d take Jessica to the ranch for tonight. There wasn’t a place around with better security than home.

Tyler made it down the hall and then to the elevator without incident. In the ER, Red was standing right where he’d told her to and a part of him sighed in relief. He couldn’t be sure that she wouldn’t bolt as soon as she had the chance and he had all kinds of questions that needed answers.

Then again, she was in a strange town. Running from the one person helping her didn’t make a bit of sense.

So far, Red had told Tyler that she’d stepped in for a sister who was now missing. Twins. He shook his head as he walked toward her. Wouldn’t his little brothers Joshua and Ryder have a field day with this? Red and her sister’s trick would be right up their alley. Even though they weren’t actually identical, his youngest brothers looked enough alike that they got away with a few too many pranks, switching places to confuse people.

Tyler took Red’s arm and led her out to his waiting SUV.

“What has your sister gotten herself into?” he asked as soon as they were safe inside his vehicle. He turned the key in the ignition and backed out of the parking space.

As he meandered through the lot and onto the highway he expected her to speak. She didn’t.

“We can turn back and I’ll ask Milton, if that makes you feel better,” he threatened. No way would he go through with it but she needed a little motivation to get her talking.

“I told you before, she’s my twin sister. She’s in trouble.”

“What kind?”