He watched her climb into the passenger side of the sports car next to Donovan and ride away, desperate to go after her, stop her, get her away from that man who was involved with the crime boss. Goldie had found out something about the bunch of them, and even as angry and disappointed as she was with him, she was willing to help him.
He felt his first ray of hope that he might be able to save her and this town. He was still the sheriff. His instincts had been right. But the one thing she hadn’t said was that there was hope for the two of them. His heart ached at the thought that he’d already lost her.
Whatever she had to give him tonight, she was still staying close to Donovan. Because she had feelings for him? Or because she was trying to get more information out of him?
Either way, she was risking her life and Max couldn’t bear it. He’d let her down and brought all this on them and the town. He had to get her out of this mess before it was too late.
DONOVAN HAD SEENthe exchange between Goldie and the sheriff as he’d driven down the street toward the hotel. While he couldn’t hear what was being said, he had a pretty good idea that Max was trying to get her back. Wasn’t that what Goldie wanted more than anything?
Still, it seemed strange that Max would profess his love on the main drag of Dry Gulch. He must really be desperate.
“Are you all right?” he asked as she settled into the seat and snapped her seat belt. He saw her nervously touch her right-hand jean pocket as if to check to see if something she’d put in there was still inside. Apparently, it was.
“Can we go for a ride?” she asked, looking over at him for the first time since climbing in.
He hesitated, seeing how upset she was, but it was more than that. She looked shaken, and it was from more than what hadn’t happened earlier in his hotel room. “He wants you back, doesn’t he?” he asked as he shifted the car into Reverse and backed out.
“I don’t want to talk about Max.” She looked away, out her side of the car.
Donovan felt a stir inside him. He thought of her naked in his bed, but even then, she hadn’t really been with him. He suspected the sheriff would always be in her heart, leaving little room for another man. Yet he felt a new rift from whatever had just happened between them.
As he drove out of town, he wanted to take Goldie and keep going. Malcolm wouldn’t come after them both, would he? Not unless the crime boss had a role for Goldie to play in whatever he was planning in Dry Gulch.
The thought shook him as he glanced over at her and felt a chill. He’d believed that all Malcolm wanted was for him to keep the sheriff distracted. But what if he was wrong? Surely Goldie wasn’t part of it, was she?
MALCOLM HAD NO PROOF, but he knew. Maybe something he’d seen—an expression, a slip of the tongue, not even anything he could remember. But he was certain the man his daughter had been seeing was his second-in-command, Luca Havers. Had either of them really thought he would allow this to go any further? Not a chance in hell—even if she was carrying his child.
Luca Havers was too old for Lolly. But it wasn’t the man’s age that made him all wrong for the crime boss’s daughter. Malcolm knew things about Luca, things that made him well equipped for the kind of work he did for the family, but they were why he would never be his son-in-law. He wondered how well his daughter knew this man.
It would be just like headstrong Lolly to fall for a man like Luca. He hadn’t known who his daughter was seeing before she’d brought home Donovan Cole to throw him off track, but he’d still worried. Lolly was like her mother. She couldn’t pick a decent man if her life depended on it. And now she was pregnant.
Maybe what worried him the most was that Luca Havers wasn’t the marrying kind. That was probably the attraction. Lolly always wanted something she’d been told she couldn’t have.
But why would Luca have an affair with his daughter, knowing how dangerous it would be? The man couldn’t possibly think that Malcolm would allow it. Luca also knew what his boss was capable of. At the very least the man had to know that he’d be furious and put an end to it quickly.
So why risk his life for a woman? Unless… Could Luca have fallen for Lolly? Malcolm’s daughter was beautiful and rich and spoiled rotten. Two out of three wasn’t bad, but he knew Luca. He was the kind of man who would be attracted to the wild side of Lolly only because he would want the challenge of caging her once he had her, and that was something Lolly would never stand for—and neither would Malcolm.
He rubbed his jaw for a long moment, thinking about his second-in-command and hoping he was wrong about him. Luca was ambitious. Maybe he saw a way to move up by using Lolly. Just the thought had Malcolm’s stomach roiling. He reminded himself that it had been Luca who’d told him about the bank being next door to the café. He’d sent Malcolm the photo. It was also Luca who’d told him about how small rural banks gave large loans to farmers and ranchers once or twice a year, bringing in an armored car full of cash.
Malcolm shook his head. Luca wouldn’t set him up for a fall, he told himself. The man was too smart for that, wasn’t he? Maybe not, he realized. If he was right, Luca had been seeing Lolly behind his back and had impregnated her. Which meant more than the fact that he could no longer trust the man. Malcolm had to assume that Luca was making his move on the business.
It crossed his mind that Lolly and Luca could be more than lovers. They could be in league together, working to overthrow Malcolm’s reign. Had Lolly been born a man, he would have expected nothing less from her. Maybe he’d underestimated his daughter, who liked to be in control.
It was why he’d sent Lolly to Dry Gulch with the message for Donovan. Luca would be arriving there at any time. With the clock ticking on the large haul he’d been planning, Malcolm hated that Lolly had put them both in this precarious position. If true, his daughter had made not just her worst-yet choice inmen, but one that could put her on the wrong side of the family business—not to mention a man like Luca Havers.
Either betrayal could get her killed.
Chapter Nineteen
Goldie had held back her tears until after her car ride with Donovan and she was safely inside the house she and Clancy shared. Fortunately, Clancy had gone to Billings, so Goldie had the place to herself. She walked in, closed the door behind her and let herself go, sobbing so hard she couldn’t breathe.
Max had finally said the words she’d longed to hear. All this time, she’d dreamed of the day Max would admit he’d made a mistake and wanted her back. Never had she imagined it would happen on the main street of Dry Gulch at the worst possible time.
She’d been smarting from the embarrassing experience she’d had with Donovan, saddened by the realization that she’d dragged local townspeople she cared about into her mess and only then hit with the realization that her life in this town was over when Max had dropped his bombshell.
Goldie wanted to scream as the sobs began to ebb. She was still standing in the middle of her cousin’s living room when there was a knock at the door. She didn’t want to see anyone. Donovan had just dropped her off and Max wouldn’t come to the front door.
She cleared her throat and wiped hastily at her tears. “Who is it?”
