Cowboy with a Cause (16 page)

“Then I’ll see you later,” he said, and just that quickly he was back out the door, leaving only the lingering scent of his cologne behind.

The tears that had begged to be released in the café began to burn in her eyes. Was it possible that he really was in love with her? That somehow he’d been able to see beyond her wheelchair to the woman she was in spite of it?

How badly she wanted to not just accept that he loved her, but also profess her own love for him. How much she wanted to believe that somehow, someway they could build a life and be together forever.

But she didn’t.

She thought that if she gave in to her love, allowed Adam into her life on a permanent basis, she would only be destroying the life he was meant to live. He would eventually grow weary of having to lift her in and out of his vehicle. She could give him children, but she couldn’t parent them properly from a wheelchair. He needed, he deserved, a soul mate who could walk beside him through life, not one who had to be carried or pushed.

No, it was best that she keep up the charade that she didn’t love him. She’d rather dream of what might have been if she were a whole woman than live a dream turned nightmare where Adam would not only fall out of love with her but would secretly come to resent her.

She’d rather live a lonely life than have that happen. It was with a deep, aching loneliness that she went into the kitchen and stared out the back window, her thoughts still racing.

If Adam would just stay as a tenant another two or three months, then she could make a lot of headway on the back taxes owed on the property and she would no longer have to worry so much about losing the house.

But she feared, despite what he’d told her, that things would never go back to normal between them, that all too quickly he’d be ready to move on.

Her cell phone rang, pulling her from her depressing thoughts, and she dug it out of her purse and answered when she saw Tilly’s number on the display.

“Hi, Tilly.”

“Hey, darling girl. I had planned on coming over today and doing a little cleaning but my knee has been giving me a fit, and so I think it best if I just sit on my butt and keep my leg elevated.”

Tilly had arthritis in her knee, and often if there was a weather front moving in, it gave her a lot of pain.

“That’s okay,” Melanie replied. Secretly she was grateful. She didn’t feel like company, not even Tilly could ease the heartache inside her, and she didn’t want to pretend and have to put on a happy face. “Besides, I think I’m going to wheel myself down to the grocery store and pick up some candy for the trick-or-treaters.”

There was a moment of silence. “Where’s Adam?”

“He’s out for a while. I’ll be fine, Tilly. I can handle an outing that’s only a couple of blocks down the sidewalk.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to just pick up some candy for you the next time I’m out?”

“Positive,” Melanie replied firmly. “Your knee is acting up. You need to rest it. Besides, it will be good for me to take care of this myself.” She had to prove to herself that she could be alone, could take care of her own business without any help from anyone. “I’m going to head out in just a few minutes,” she continued. “It’s a nice day and I’ll enjoy the wheelchair stroll.”

“Why don’t you call me when you get back in? You know I’ll worry about you if you don’t!” Tilly exclaimed.

Melanie smiled. “Okay, I’ll call you when I get back here, but you know there’s nothing to worry about. In the meantime turn on the Food Network and keep your leg up and relax.”

The two women said goodbye and with a sense of purpose Melanie stuffed her cell phone back into her purse and headed for the front door.

She needed to get out of here, let some fresh air chase the scent of him out of her head. She needed to escape her own thoughts and feelings for just a little while and this first trek on her own to the store was a perfect opportunity to do both.

Her heart thundered an unsteady beat as she opened the front door and she wasn’t sure if it was because Adam loved her or because she was about to take her first step all alone out in the real world.

Making sure the alarm system was set, she left the house and wheeled down the ramp to the sidewalk. The thunder of her heart slowed as she gazed toward the grocery store, but the bracing air didn’t blow away a single thought of Adam.

As she began to wheel herself down the sidewalk, he filled her head. Each and every smile, the very sound of his laughter swelled in her heart.

If she’d been able to pick and choose the qualities to build a man of her dreams, she knew that in the end it would be Adam. A bump in the sidewalk jarred her and again hot and burdensome tears pressed at her eyes.

She felt like a diabetic plunked down in a candy store with no way to get out. It felt as if fate had especially delivered Adam to her doorstep just to torment her in a game of what might have been.

As she pumped her arms to turn the wheels of her chair, she was vaguely aware of a car passing by her, although she saw nobody else out walking the sidewalks.

Halloween was two days away and goofy ghosts and fanged vampires stared at her from each store window she passed. There was a small seed inside her that knew it would be easier to keep her porch light off and her door firmly closed on Halloween night.

It would break her heart to see each little ghost, every little goblin. Every costumed child would remind her of what she might have had...with Adam.

But she wouldn’t keep her door locked and make her house uninviting. She couldn’t run from life and she was determined to enjoy the sight of each boy and girl who knocked on her door for candy.

She stopped a moment to rest, realizing that wheeling herself around in her house and a couple of blocks down a sidewalk were two very different things, the latter requiring a lot more upper arm work on her part.

As she came toward the alley that ran between the post office and a little dress boutique, she heard the sound of somebody approaching from behind her.

She wheeled herself toward the alleyway to allow whoever was walking by enough room to pass her on the sidewalk. She forced a smile to her lips and was about to turn in her chair and greet whoever it was when she felt a sharp sting in the side of her neck.

Wasn’t it too late in the year for bees or wasps? she thought as she raised her hand to her neck. Her brain instantly became fuzzy. And then there was nothing but darkness reaching out to claim her.

Chapter 15

T
he shooting range was an indoor arena just outside the city limits of Grady Gulch. It was owned and operated by Linden Walsh, who had served as sheriff of Grady Gulch for almost twenty years before his retirement six years ago.

In the front of the huge building was a retail gun shop run by Linden’s wife, Edna, and in the back was as professional a setup for firearm practice as in any big city.

Adam stood in the booth next to Deputy Ben Temple and fired seven times with his 9mm into the paper human target fifteen yards away.

He’d hoped that by coming here, he would work off some of the tumultuous emotions that he’d carried with him when he left Melanie’s place.

She didn’t love him. How had he misread everything so badly? He’d fallen into the softness he thought he saw in her eyes when she gazed at him. He’d believed the passion in her touch.

He pulled off his headphones and hit the button to move the target toward him so he could check his shots. He had to stop thinking about Melanie and his own foolishness in actually believing she’d be happy to discover that he was in love with her.

The target stopped and Adam gazed at it, noting with satisfaction that all his bullet holes were in a tight circle over the heart of the dark silhouette.

“Nice shooting,” Ben said as he stepped up next to Adam. “I’ll be sure and tell Cameron that if he decides to take you on as a deputy, at least you know how to hit where you aim.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it,” Adam replied.

“I’m done for the day. What about you?”

Adam nodded. He’d decided that no matter how many bullets left his gun, they couldn’t take away the vast emptiness that had been in his heart since Melanie told him she didn’t love him.

“There’s a little coffee area in the back. How about we grab a cup?” Ben suggested.

“Sure.” It took only minutes for the two to clean up their equipment and then Adam followed Ben to a back room he’d never been in before.

“I didn’t even know this was here,” he said as he looked around the small area. There were two round tables, several vending machines and a coffeemaker. The aroma indicated that the brew in the carafe was fresh.

“Linden keeps it kind of quiet. He doesn’t want a lot of the riffraff that sometimes shows up to know this room is here.”

Adam smiled. “So I guess this means I officially pass the riffraff test.”

Ben laughed and nodded, then moved over to the coffee and the stack of foam cups. He poured himself a cup and then one for Adam and gestured to a table. Together the two men sat.

“Cameron told me you approached him about becoming a deputy,” Ben said.

“I did,” Adam confirmed. “It’s always been in the back of my mind that it was the job I wanted, but there was the family ranch and then Sam went away, and it hasn’t been until the last few weeks that I feel like I’m starting to walk on the path I want for myself.”

“The whole thing with Sam...it must have been rough on you and Nick.”

“It was,” Adam replied. “It still is. His trial is coming up soon.”

“Are you hoping for a good outcome?” Ben asked.

Adam took a sip of his coffee and leaned back in his chair. “What he did was wrong and he needs to pay for that. The best outcome for everyone would be for Sam to get time in prison but also to get some mental help. Even after all this time he’s still not right.” He shrugged. “But it’s all going to be up to the court.”

“Nick seems to be perfectly happy working your family ranch, especially with Courtney and their little one beside him.”

Adam grinned, grateful for the change in topic. “He’s definitely whipped, and he’s a very lucky man.” The smile fell and he took another sip of the coffee. “How come you haven’t married, Ben?”

“Haven’t found the right woman yet. Cameron, Jim and I always joke that instead of being the Three Musketeers, we must be more like the Three Stooges, because none of us have managed to find the woman we want to marry.” He sipped the hot brew and raised an eyebrow. “What about you?”

“I found the right woman, but apparently I’m the wrong man.” Adam forced a lightness to his tone as he fought the utter heaviness in his heart.

“That’s tough, man.” Ben leaned back in his chair and released a sigh. “Although it’s probably good I don’t have a girlfriend or a wife right now. We’ve been working killer hours lately. This is the first real time off I’ve had since Candy Bailey was murdered. We thought we had our man with Kevin Naperson. The kid seemed good for the crime, but then Shirley Cook wound up dead in the same way.”

He shook his head and released a puff of a sigh. “It’s been tough on all of us. And now with the attack on Melanie we’re all spinning our wheels. Cameron told me to take off for two days and then be prepared to hit it hard again.”

“From what he’s told me, there’s nothing much to investigate.”

Ben frowned. “We’re all frustrated as hell.”

For the next thirty minutes the two sat and talked about the murders of the two waitresses and the attack on Melanie.

“I say that Melanie’s attack was done by our man,” Ben said. “Everything about the attack was like the others...middle of the night and in through the window. What I don’t understand is why he didn’t just kill Melanie before she woke up. Why he moved her wheelchair and toyed with her before going after her. That definitely rings of a sadistic nature.”

“Was there any evidence at the other two scenes that the killer teased or taunted the women before he killed them?” Adam asked.

“Without an eyewitness to those crimes, it’s impossible to know what happened in those rooms before those women were killed but the evidence points to them both being killed in their sleep. We assumed Candy had let her killer into her room, but when we found her dead, she looked as if she’d been killed in her sleep. Maybe he decided to toy with Melanie because he assumed with her wheelchair gone from the side of the bed, she’d be a helpless victim who wouldn’t fight back. Maybe he didn’t anticipate that she’d wake up before he could kill her.”

Ben shrugged. “Or it’s possible he’s losing control, and murdering sleeping women isn’t doing it for him anymore. He has to escalate things now by waking them to get his thrill.”

“Some kind of creep,” Adam said with a shake of his head. “And the worst part is that he obviously lives here in Grady Gulch. He’s one of our own.”

“Yeah, sickening, isn’t it?”

Twenty minutes later Adam got back in his truck. He didn’t immediately start the engine, but rather sat there, unsure whether to go back to the house or find somewhere else to go for the remainder of the day.

She didn’t love him.

But he’d thought he’d felt her love so many times, in so many ways, in the past couple of weeks. Had he mistaken her gratitude for love? Apparently so, but it had sure felt like love to him.

He thought about driving to Nick and Courtney’s, but he felt too vulnerable to see them right now. The conversation with Ben had been good, and for those minutes when they’d talked about the crimes, he hadn’t thought about his heartache.

Being around Nick and Courtney and little Garrett would only remind him of what he couldn’t have with the woman he loved. It would only make his heartache resonate deeper, more painfully inside him.

One thing was certain. He wasn’t going anywhere. He’d told Melanie that he wouldn’t move out, that somehow everything would be fine between them, and no matter how painful that would be for him, he’d make sure it happened for her.

He had to figure out a way to look at her as his landlady, not as the woman he loved. He’d signed up for a couple of classes over the internet and he’d focus on that. Then in January his classes would begin at the community college and that would keep him busy and out of the house. Surely that would make things easier.

He also planned to follow up on his offer to financially back her new venture of costume making. He knew she’d be a big success and he had no qualms about becoming a business partner with her. What he didn’t want to think about too deeply was if he still intended to do it owing to the fact that it would keep her somehow bound to him.

All he had to do was get through the next couple of days, the next few months, and then he’d be able to focus full-time on pursuing the work he wanted to do for the rest of his life. In the meantime he’d do what he could to help out at the family ranch, which still provided much of his financial stability.

He decided to head back to the house. Staying away would only make things more awkward when he finally returned there. Under normal circumstances he’d be ready to head back there for some lunch.

He started the truck and headed back to town and Melanie’s house. Maybe he’d professed his love for her too soon. Maybe if he’d waited another week, another month, her reply might have been different.

A tiny ray of hope lit his heart at this thought. Just because she didn’t love him now didn’t mean he couldn’t try everything possible to make her fall in love with him.

Time. Maybe it wasn’t a matter of right woman, wrong man. Maybe he’d simply rushed things, not given their relationship enough time to grow and flourish.

That tiny ray of hope burned a little brighter. Maybe there was still a chance to wind up with the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Maybe it would just take more effort and patience.

As he pulled into the driveway, he cautioned himself and tried to tamp down some of the hope, knowing he might possibly be setting himself up for a new heartbreak.

Adam didn’t know a lot about love, but he was smart enough to know that there was an element about it that was inexplicable, that sometimes there was no way to explain why people loved each other and why they didn’t.

Chemistry. He’d felt it the very first time he’d laid eyes on Melanie. But had she felt any of that same heart-pumping attraction?

He turned off the truck and got out, for a moment standing next to it as his left hand snaked into his jacket pocket and toyed with the plastic chips.

He stuffed back the pain that radiated from his heart and pasted a pleasant smile on his face as he approached the front door.

Opening the door using his key set off the tinny
beep, beep
of the alarm and he quickly moved to the control panel and punched in the numbers to prevent the alarm from going off.

“Melanie?” he called as he went into the living room. “Just wanted to let you know that I’m back.”

There was no answering reply. He went into the kitchen but she wasn’t there, either. Her bedroom door was closed, and he stared at it for a long moment, wondering if perhaps she was napping.

Still, hadn’t she heard him come in? He didn’t like the fact that she hadn’t responded in any way to his call. Maybe he was being overly paranoid, because this was the first time she’d been left alone since the attack.

He stood just outside her bedroom door and called her name once again. “Melanie?” He knocked softly, and when there was still no reply, he opened the door, surprised to find the room empty.

The bathroom door was open, indicating that she wasn’t in there, either. So where was she? He tamped down an edge of panic that had begun to thrum inside him.

There were no signs anywhere in the rooms that would indicate she was in trouble. He walked to the front door and stared outside. He’d built a ramp for her so she could leave the house whenever she wanted. Obviously she’d finally decided to use it on her own.

He wondered what time she’d left and where she was going. He hoped she hadn’t attempted to go too far on this first trip alone. The times they’d gone to the café, he’d had to push her home partway because her arms had tired.

Maybe he should just take a little walk. She’d mentioned having to get some candy for Halloween, so it was possible she’d decided to go to the grocery store.

He could head that way, and if he saw her and she was doing fine, then he could pretend he was going to the store for something. If she looked weary, then he could help her get back home.

Decision made, he left the house once again and headed down the sidewalk in the direction of the Shop and Go grocery store. As he gazed down toward the store, he didn’t see her on the sidewalk, but that didn’t concern him. It was possible she was already in the store and it was possible she hadn’t gone to get candy but had decided to have a cup of coffee at the café or whatever.

He told himself the little edge of worry that was trying to work through him was due simply to the fact that he hadn’t forgotten the sound of her screams, the horrifying sight of her as he pulled her out of her closet on the night of the attack. But it was the middle of the day and there was no reason to be concerned.

There was no reason to be concerned until he reached the alley and glanced down it. He froze, the thunder of his heart making the sound of anything else inaudible.

Her wheelchair. He knew it was hers by the tiny pink dancer that hung from one of the handles.

It was halfway into the alley, half hidden by a Dumpster. Why would she have gone into the alley? What was she doing there?

Melanie.
Her name resounded in his head as he broke his inertia and raced toward the chair, the chair that he already knew was empty.

Maybe she’d somehow fallen out of it. Maybe she’d been lying in the dirty alley, crying for help, waiting for somebody to find her.

“Melanie!” he shouted as he ran, but it took only one look at the chair and its immediate surroundings for him to recognize that she wasn’t there. What was there was her purse. It lay on the ground next to the chair.

He didn’t touch it. He didn’t touch anything as he backed up, fumbling in his coat pocket for his cell phone. It was a crime scene, his brain screamed. Melanie was in trouble.

As he punched in the number that would alert the authorities, he tried to make sense of it all. Maybe she had grown tired and had called somebody to come and get her. He immediately dismissed the idea. Melanie wouldn’t have gone with somebody and left her purse behind.

When his call was answered, he quickly gave his location and said that he needed the sheriff and every deputy in the area to respond.