Christmas Rescue at Mustang Ridge. Delores Fossen

Tip Top Diner.”

      Ah, two could go in the smart-mouthed direction.

      “Fewer things to screw up at a diner,” she settled for saying.

      Jake’s forehead bunched up, and he nodded. Just nodded.

      It hit her then. Maybe he wasn’t there to kill her after all. Maybe he’d come to warn her, though she couldn’t think of a good reason why he’d be the one to do that.

      “Has my identity been compromised?” She couldn’t get the question out fast enough, and Maggie fired glances all around. The next question, however, didn’t come easily. “Does Tanner know where I am?”

      Bruce Tanner. The man who’d hired someone to gun down her sister to get back at Maggie for conducting an investigation into his multiple wrongdoings. He was in jail on death row now, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find a way to kill her.

      Get in line.

      A lot of people wanted her dead.

      “Tanner doesn’t know,” Jake said. “At least I don’t think he does.” With his hands bracketed on the steering wheel, Jake turned his head and nailed his gaze to hers. “I’m here to take you back to Mustang Ridge.”

      Maggie had anticipated Jake saying a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them. “Wh-what?”

      “Mustang Ridge,” Jake said as if that clarified everything. He started the engine and probably would have driven away if Maggie hadn’t latched on to his wrist.

      “You can’t take me back there, Jake. It’s too dangerous.”

      He looked at her as if she’d spouted a third eye. “You thought I’d come here to kill you, remember?”

      “Yeah, but in hot blood. As in the emotion had taken over so that you weren’t thinking straight. Taking me back to the one place where someone will see me and tell Tanner is premeditation—”

      “I don’t want to harm you.” Jake cursed. “I don’t want to harm you today,” he quickly amended.

      She wasn’t sure she believed that, and Jake had good reason to want to do her harm. If Maggie could go back to three years ago, she would have never started that investigation into Bruce Tanner, the rancher who was as corrupt as he was rich and powerful. But Maggie had been eager for justice. Equally eager to make a name for herself in the Amarillo P.D. She’d wanted to bring Tanner down.

      And she had succeeded in part.

      Maggie had found the evidence necessary to arrest him for money laundering through real estate deals, and in retaliation, Tanner had hired someone to shoot and kill Anna in what was supposed to look like a foiled robbery attempt at a store where she’d been shopping.

      Yes, eventually Maggie and her fellow officers had managed to pin the murder on Tanner and had put him on death row, but it hadn’t brought back her sister. It hadn’t eased Jake’s hatred of her.

      And it hadn’t eased her hatred of herself.

      “If you’re not taking me to Tanner,” she asked, “then where are you taking me?”

      “To the hospital for some tests. After that, I’ll let you go.”

      The hospital? “But I’m not sick.”

      Maggie stopped. What the heck would make Jake McCall come all this way to take her to Mustang Ridge for some tests?

      There was only one thing.

      Sunny.

      She reached across the seat and gripped on to his jacket, wadding up the fabric in her fists. “What’s wrong? What happened to my niece?”

      Maggie would have added more questions, but the sound of the sirens stopped her cold. It wasn’t a sound she heard often in Coopersville.

      The sirens didn’t stop Jake, however. He threw the truck into gear.

      “Put your seat belt on,” Jake growled.

      And that was the only warning Maggie got before Jake gunned the engine, and the truck barreled out of the parking lot.

      Chapter Three

      Jake tried not to react to the sirens wailing behind him. And he reminded himself that the local cops probably wouldn’t be after him yet.

      Probably.

      But even if they were, he still had to get Maggie out of there.

      “You’ve lost your mind,” Maggie concluded.

      She put on her seat belt as he’d ordered, though Jake wasn’t sure how she managed it with her hands shaking that hard. She was chewing on her bottom lip, too, and there wasn’t much color in her face.

      He hadn’t wanted to scare her.

      Okay, maybe he had.

      Fear was better than other things she could have chosen to do.

      Like fight back.

      Maggie had once been an Amarillo city cop with a good aim and a kick-butt attitude, and Jake had been surprised when she hadn’t pulled a gun on him and tried to defend herself. But no. She’d confused things even more by going with him and poking fun at the fact that this could have been her last few moments on earth.

      She pushed her dark blond hair from her face, looked over her shoulder and no doubt saw the Coopersville police cruiser behind them. Not close.

      And it wasn’t exactly following them.

      The cruiser pulled into the parking lot of the diner, and Jake kept going. He had to get out of there before the local sheriff realized that Maggie was gone.

      “Are you planning to let me in on what’s going on?” Maggie asked.

      Not really. But he needed her cooperation and that meant he had to tell her at least some of the truth. It was a gamble, but Jake was feeling a little better about his chances since Maggie had already asked about Sunny. Maybe that meant she hadn’t written off her niece.

      Maybe that also meant she’d help with Jake’s plan.

      “Should I be screaming and trying to flag down Sheriff Myers?” she pushed.

      Oh, yeah. She probably should, but Jake kept that to himself. “I hacked into the Justice Department database to find you.”

      “What?” She made a sound of pure outrage. “Why would you do something stupid like that? You know what could happen to me.”

      She stopped.

      “Oh, I get it.” Maggie huffed. “This is some kind of death by proxy thing. You lead one of Tanner’s goons to me so he can kill me. Yeah, you’ll lose your badge for hacking into the database. Maybe even spend some time in jail or on probation. But you’ll have your McCall justice, and I’ll be dead.”

      None of that was true. But he was glad Chet hadn’t thought of it. Jake didn’t think even his father would stoop that low, but with Chet, you never knew.

      Jake turned onto a back road before he continued. “Sunny’s sick.”

      Maggie froze and studied him a moment. “What’s wrong with her?” Her voice was tentative. As if she didn’t want to hear the answer.

      Jake had practiced this part so it would sound sterile. “Aplastic anemia. Her bone marrow isn’t producing enough new cells to keep her alive.”

      “Oh, God.” And Maggie repeated it until it strung together like one syllable.

      Jake gave her some time to try to absorb that. He wished her luck with it. He’d had several months now and was still trying to absorb it. It didn’t make sense that his baby girl would have to fight for her life this way.

      “How bad is it?” Maggie asked.