She heaved out a breath. “I’ve been trying like crazy since the stables to find you. I heard a report that you’d been knocked off the road by a mudslide.”
Mackenzie raised a brow, and they exchanged a look. “A report from whom?”
“That’s not important.”
His remaining patience frayed. “Knock it off, Cordelia. I’m tired, hungry, cold, and bashed up. I got no more patience for talking in circles.”
Cordelia took two bottles of water from the ice chest and set them on the table. As much as his thirst clamored to be slaked, he made no move to take one. He glowered at her, arms still folded across his chest.
After an extended silence, she seemed to come to a decision. “Kevin contacted me after he got free of your duct tape and he could get a text to send. He said you’d tied him up and gone for your Jeep.”
Kevin and Cordelia were allies. He’d been right to suspect them. Had he and Mackenzie played right into enemy hands by following Cordelia to her hidden cabin? Two against one at the moment, and he had a gun. They could overpower her and escape, if he could get his limbs to cooperate. A few more minutes to keep her talking ...
“With his information, I tracked you as far as the landslide,” Cordelia continued, “and I’ve been desperately looking for you since then. There are only a few passable roads at this point, and even fewer of them would take you in the direction of the airstrip—which Kevin said was yourgoal.” She paused. “Why are you headed there? Looking to get a flight out?”
Gideon lifted his chin, which hurt, but he did it anyway. “Answer the question, then we’ll fill in our details.”
She watched them for a few seconds before she went on. “Okay. I see the flow of information only goes in one direction. I’ve been driving back and forth for the past two days, beating the bushes to find you. No success until the tip-off from my pilot friend just now.”
“But how’d you know about the landslide? We left Kevin near the river.”
“When Kevin freed himself eventually ...” She laughed. “That would have been funny to watch. He traced your route as far as that point. He got one more message through to me before he stopped communicating. I don’t know what’s happened to him. If he was smart, he left town, but maybe his phone died or ...” A shadow crossed her face. “I’m not sure.”
Gideon’s rib cage sparked with pain. He gripped the table and gave her no way to evade the question. “Why are you and Kevin working together? He was after us because of threats to his family, or so he says. What’s your motivation?”
Her lips thinned into a grim smile and her chin went up. “Kevin helped me because he hopes I’m going to stick it to his boss.”
Mackenzie jerked. “His boss?”
Her gaze found Mackenzie’s. “On your podcast, you call him Bullseye.”
The name seemed to suck all the air out of the room. Sheknew about Bullseye and the podcast? He was momentarily unable to rally another question, but Mackenzie wasn’t.
“What do you know about Bullseye?” she demanded.
“More than I care to, but the point is I’m aware he wants you two dead and I’ve been trying to prevent that.”
Prevent their deaths? Not looking to collect on a bounty?Alarm bells were clanging so loud they almost deafened him. “Hard to believe. To defy him means risking your life. What’s in it for you?”
She looked at the counter, wiped at a scratch on the Formica. “I want to wreck his plans.”
“Why?”
“He’s a bad man.” She stared at Mackenzie. “You know that better than anyone. All your talk on the podcast about bringing him to justice?” Cordelia paused a moment. “You’re right about him. He’s a killer, and I’m going to get you out alive so you can continue to harass him and maybe even send him to prison.”
Gideon held up a hand. “Listen, that sounds very grand and altruistic, but maybe this is all a ruse and you’re actually looking to get a payout from Bullseye for taking us down. There’s gotta be an extra reward for beating Al and Jerry to the finish line.”
Her mouth tightened. “I don’t want a nickel from that man, and if my actions make things harder for Al and Jerry, so much the better. They never should have trespassed at my stables. They declared war between us when they brought guns around my horses. My stable, those horses, are an inheritance from my mother.”
The silence was broken only by the bubbling of thekettle. Wordlessly, she poured the steaming water into the three mugs.
Gideon knew his doubt was probably written all over his face. “You want us to believe you’re working against Bullseye out of some vague notion of making the world a better place?”
“Believe what you want.” Hatred shone in her coal-dark eyes. “He’s determined to see you dead, you’ve got to acknowledge the truth of that. It’s why I’ve put my life on hold to protect you.”
Mackenzie was staring at Cordelia. “You’re not telling us everything.”
She smacked a palm on the counter. “Don’t you get it? Everything around here is falling apart. You have to get out. There are too many people in this town on the payroll, and that dam isn’t going to hold.”
