The Deputy's Redemption. Delores Fossen

away, they might never know who he really was and why he’d come after her like that.

      Colt seemed to have a split-second debate with himself about what to do, but she must have convinced him, because he took off after Gambil.

      “Watch for Reed,” he told her.

      She would. And she’d also try to watch for other cars. Elise prayed that everyone in Sweetwater Springs had stayed in tonight because with the way Gambil was driving, he could run into someone who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

      There was a flash of red ahead of them. Gambil’s brake lights. And he turned onto another road. But not just any road. The one that led to Miller’s Creek Bridge where he’d first rammed into her.

      “Why’s he doing this?” she mumbled. “Why would he go back there?”

      Colt only shook his head and kept following the man. However, they had only gone about a quarter of a mile when she heard the sound. As if the truck had backfired.

      Almost immediately, Gambil started to swerve. And it got worse. His truck pitched to the right, heading straight for the ditch.

      “Hold on,” Colt said just as he put on his brakes. He had to careen around Gambil, but he somehow managed to avoid another collision.

      Gambil wasn’t so lucky.

      His truck left the road, going airborne when it vaulted over the raised shoulder, and the front end slammed into a cluster of small trees.

      Elise had braced herself for something bad to happen, but she certainly hadn’t expected that.

      Colt and she sat there. Breaths sawing. Her heartbeat going like crazy. But Gambil didn’t get out of the truck.

      “Call Reed again,” Colt told her. “Let him know where we are.” And with that, he shifted his gun and opened his door.

      “You’re not going out there.” However, she was talking to the wind because Colt was indeed going out there.

      “If you move, I’ll arrest you,” Colt growled at her. He also shot her a warning scowl to go along with that and started toward Gambil.

      Only then did Elise remember that Colt still had her gun, and she didn’t like the idea of him not having some kind of backup.

      Not that she would be of much help.

      At best she was a lousy shot, a disgrace for someone raised on a Texas ranch, but if Gambil came out with guns blazing, she might have been able to scare him by firing over his head or something.

      Now, she didn’t even have that option.

      With her stomach churning and her heart in her throat, she watched as Colt approached the truck. He took slow, cautious steps, his attention pinned to the driver’s side.

      His gun, too.

      He had it pointed right at Gambil.

      Gambil’s headlights were still on, cutting through the silvery fog that was drifting from the nearby creek. That, along with the moon, gave her plenty of light to see Colt’s expression when he threw open Gambil’s door. He froze for a moment when he looked inside.

      Colt’s head snapped up, his gaze no longer on Gambil but on the road. And on her.

      “Get down!” Colt yelled.

      Elise froze, too, wondering why the heck Colt had told her that and why he was sprinting back toward her. He jumped into the truck, threw it into gear and hit the accelerator as if their lives depended on it.

      A split second later, Elise realized that it did.

      Because Gambil’s truck exploded into a giant ball of fire.

Chapter Three

      With his phone sandwiched between his shoulder and ear, Colt waited on hold while he watched the medic put some stitches on the side of Elise’s head. She didn’t even wince. Didn’t even seem to notice.

      Because her attention was nailed to Colt.

      She was no doubt on the edge of her seat, waiting for answers about why this nightmare had happened, but Colt figured those answers might be a long time coming.

      Especially since their suspect was dead.

      Now he needed to find answers to a couple of whys. Why had Gambil come after Elise in the first place? And why had the explosives been in the truck?

      Colt had only gotten a glimpse of the device on the ceiling of the truck, but he’d recognized the type of explosive and figured it was time to get out of there. He’d been lucky that he’d gotten far enough away to get only a few nicks and cuts from the flying debris. A couple of seconds later and he would have been a dead man, too.

      Yeah, he definitely wanted to know why, and that started with learning everything about Gambil that there was to know.

      There was a slight sound on the other end of the line to indicate he’d been taken off hold, and he heard Reed’s voice. “It’s not good, Colt.”

      Hell. Colt had already had his fill of bad news for the night and didn’t want more. “I’m listening.”

      “We just fished Gambil’s body from the rubble, and it looks as if the explosion wasn’t what killed him. He already had a gunshot wound to the head.”

      Colt was about to say that wasn’t possible, but then he remembered the sound that he’d heard right before Gambil ran off the road. A sharp pop. He’d thought it was the truck backfiring, but it could have been a gunshot.

      “Check the area for any sign of a shooter,” he told Reed.

      Elise stood even though the medic was still trying to put a bandage on her head. Her gaze locked with his, and Colt clicked the end call button so he could fill her in on something that she wasn’t going to want to hear.

      “Looks like somebody shot Gambil,” Colt explained.

      She released her breath as if she’d been holding it. “So, all of this is real.” She swallowed hard and caught onto the edge of his desk when she wobbled.

      Colt went to her in case he had to stop her from falling or fainting, but the grip on the desk alone seemed to steady her enough. Still, it probably wasn’t a good idea for her to be on her feet. He thanked the medic after he finished the bandage, dismissing him, and Colt took Elise by the arm and put her in the chair next to his desk.

      “I know I asked you this already, but do you have any idea why Gambil wanted to hurt you?” Colt insisted.

      She was shaking her head before he even finished the question. “I never saw him before today.”

      That didn’t mean there wasn’t a connection, and even though it was getting late and Elise would need to crash soon, he wanted to find out as much as he could while the events were still fresh in both their minds.

      “What about your job?” Colt asked, trying for a different angle. “Are you working on anything controversial? Maybe running a background check on somebody who didn’t want you to find something?”

      Elise didn’t immediately dismiss that. Not good. Because so far Colt hadn’t been able to rule out anything. He wanted to be able to check something off his list, and he apparently wasn’t going to be able to do that by eliminating anything work related.

      “I’m working on two cases right now.” Elise idly rubbed her head and winced when her finger raked over the freshly bandaged stitches.

      “Want something for the pain?” he asked.

      Elise looked at him. Maybe a little surprised by his concern.

      “I just need you to have a clear head right now,” he clarified. “Figured that wouldn’t happen if you were in pain.”

      The