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  Tension had formed in his chest the moment she was thrown from the horse, and the tension had stayed. He’d invited her to go riding and she had ended up being in an accident and was now injured. He gritted his teeth. Thank God it hadn’t been any worse.

  He shook his head. It was possible Carilyn would focus on the negatives of his lifestyle because of the accident. He wouldn’t blame her, but he hoped that wouldn’t be the case.

  With one last look at her, he got up and left her to sleep. He headed outside to take care of Holly and Molly in record time so that he could check on Carilyn again.

  When he returned to the house, he looked in on her and she seemed to be sleeping peacefully. He walked away from where she lay and headed through the archway to his office. As he reached his desk, his cell phone rang. He drew it out of the holster on his belt as he settled in his seat.

  The caller ID told him it was Reese. “How’s it going?” Cody asked as he answered.

  “I have an update for you on the arsonist case regarding Janice Barnhart.” Reese sounded grim. “We found her vehicle abandoned in the Bradshaw Mountains. There’s no trace of her with the exception of her purse, which was left in the car.”

  Cody frowned and started to pace as he spoke. “Any chance she’s just out for a walk?”

  “Her car is covered in at least a week’s worth of dust and pine needles,” Reese said and then added, “We located her parents in Phoenix and they haven’t heard from Ms. Barnhart in a week. Her parents said she usually contacts them on Sunday afternoons. They hadn’t been too worried because she has missed a Sunday or two in the past.”

  Reese’s mouth tightened as he continued, “Janice told her parents that she would be in town this week working on designing a new dress shop that she plans on opening in the fall. Her parents said she would have told them if she was going out of town.”

  “Damn.” Cody bit out the word as he paced his office. “This doesn’t sound good.”

  “It sure as hell doesn’t,” Reese said. “I obtained a warrant to search her apartment and the living room was a mess, indicating there could have been a struggle. But it’s possible she could just be a messy person. Toiletries were in the bathroom, the clothes closets and drawers were full, there were suitcases in the coat closet, an almost full gallon jug of milk in the fridge, which was filled with groceries, and any number of other clues that tells us she wasn’t planning on an extended stay anywhere else.”

  Cody pushed his hand through his hair in frustration. “What now?”

  “We’re treating it as a missing person’s case and we’ve started a search,” Reese said. “We’ve started locally and if nothing turns up we’ll be searching the area where we found her car.”

  Cody leaned back in his office chair. “Thanks for keeping me up to speed.”

  “No problem,” Reese said. “I’ll be in touch if I have any news.”

  When he’d disconnected the phone, Cody absently flipped the cell phone in his hands as he thought about what Reese had just told him. Did Janice Barnhart’s disappearance have anything to do with the arsonist? Were the other victims of the arsonist in danger, too?

  He gritted his teeth. Damned if he was going to let anything happen to Carilyn.

  * * * * *

  Carilyn’s head ached so badly she thought it would split. She gave a low groan as she heard a voice calling to her.

  “Wake up, Carilyn.” A male voice was speaking her name and a warm hand was on her shoulder. “I need to check on you.”

  She didn’t want to wake up, but she was inclined to obey. She blinked her eyes to a dim room and looked up to see Cody bent over her.

  He ran his knuckles along her cheek. “This might seem like a silly question, but what’s your name?”

  It did seem silly but then she surprised herself when she hesitated. “Carilyn,” she said as she pushed through the fog and grasped the answer.

  “Do you know where you are?” he asked.

  She had to think for a moment. “On your ranch. Outside of Prescott.”

  He gave a nod. “Do you know what happened to you?”

  She frowned. “I…” She had to concentrate hard. Her thoughts seemed so elusive. “There was a rattlesnake and I was thrown from your horse. From Molly. I landed on the ground and hit my head.”

  “Very good.” He raised a cup of water. “I’d bet you’d like some more Tylenol about now.”

  “You’d bet right.” She tried to smile. It hurt.

  He helped her sit just enough to swallow the tablets and she chased it down with sips of water. Her mouth and throat were dry and she was glad to have something to drink.

  “You can keep on sleeping.” He checked her eyes, probably looking to see if they were dilated. Despite her confusion, she seemed to remember that much. “You need to relax and recover. A concussion is nothing to take lightly.”

  “Okay.” She felt too foggy to argue with him. As much as she felt the need to get home and work on her laptop, she also realized the last thing she should be doing now was driving. She wouldn’t be able to concentrate on work, anyway.

  He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed as he looked down on her. “Rest,” he repeated.

  “I will,” she said before she drifted off to sleep again.

  ***

  Chapter 9

  He hadn’t meant to kill her.

  Nathan stared at the body of Janice Barnhart, in the abandoned old warehouse, his stomach churning. He had only wanted to scare her.

  Right?

  But he had pushed too far and everything had gotten out of control.

  He tilted his head as he studied Janice where she lay slumped on the concrete floor against the metal support. She looked a lot like the charred blonde Barbie he’d just set fire to in front of Janice while she’d still been alive. He’d tied a gag around the doll, and bound her wrists together and her ankles too, using a chain necklace…just like Janice had been bound with heavy chain.

  He hadn’t expected Janice’s clothes to catch fire.

  Or had he known perfectly well what would happen when he tossed the burning doll at Janice’s feet?

  Her clothes had caught fire so quickly he’d known there was nothing he could do to save her. He’d thrown the blanket he’d covered her with in the car into the fire. The burning blanket had finished the job.

  He’d watched her burn. The fire had been amazing, had filled him with an excitement he’d never experienced before.

  The gag had muffled her screams and the metal support she was chained to had kept her from moving. The concrete floor in the empty part of the vast warehouse hadn’t allowed the fire to spread and it had burned itself out.

  The sickly smell and the smoke had him coughing and his eyes stung. Still, he stared at her body, fascinated.

  He’d never taken a life before. Instead of sickening him, a sense of power flooded his veins. It was as if her lifeforce had flowed into him and strengthened his own.

  Taking her to the warehouse after keeping her in his apartment for a week had been a spur of the moment thing. He’d gotten tired of her constant moaning and hadn’t been sure what to do with her once he’d had her.

  Rape was distasteful, but even without that he’d felt confident and powerful having her in his possession. He’d been in control of everything she did, day after day.

  And now the final testament to his power… Her life had been in his hands… And he’d snuffed it out.

  He frowned. What should he do with her body? He looked around the warehouse with all its junk, old and rusted tools, broken down machinery, and refuse. His gaze landed on a group of rusted red and green fifty-gallon drums. One of those would do.

  The body was burned beyond recognition, including what had been lovely blonde hair. He didn’t want to touch her so he went to his car that was parked nearby in the warehouse, and pulled a tarp out of the trunk.

  Once he was back, he crossed the chalk line he’d drawn and poured gasoline on. Carefu
lly, avoiding contact with Janice’s charred skin, he unlocked the chains that bound her to the steel support and also removed the chains from around her ankles.

  Somehow he managed to roll her body onto the tarp without touching it, and he wrapped her in it. He tied cord around the corpse to keep the tarp from coming off and dragged the body to one of the drums and let the body drop to the floor. It took the crowbar that he took from the back of the car to get the lid off the empty drum.

  Nathan wasn’t a big man and her dead weight was a challenge to get into the drum. Her tarp-covered body finally slid off his shoulder and fell into the drum with a hard thump. He tossed the remnants of the burned Barbie inside with the body.

  With relief, he put the lid back on the drum and used the crow bar to bang the lid down tight. The sound of metal hitting metal echoed in the warehouse.

  When he was finished, he tossed the crowbar and the chains into the back of the car. As he made sure he didn’t leave anything behind, he worked the scene over and over in his mind.

  He thought about how she’d burned…the terror in her eyes…the screams behind her gag…

  Unexpectedly, his dinner churned in his belly and started to come up. The next thing he knew, he was puking all over the concrete floor.

  Finally, he finished and wiped his mouth with his shirtsleeve as he blinked his watery eyes, and tried to spit the acidic taste out of his mouth. He stared at the mess he’d made then slipped outside into the darkness, scooped up dirt with an old tin can he’d found in the warehouse, and returned to pour the dirt over the vomit. For good measure he found some old crude oil and poured it over the dirt. Puke no doubt would have his DNA, and he didn’t want to take any chances.

  When he’d finished gathering his supplies, he rolled up the warehouse door and drove his car out. He got out to roll the door back down again and then headed home.

  As he drove, the urge to burn again was strong. He should wait. It had just been days ago that he’d torched the redhead’s car. And he’d just played with fire once again, for the first time killing his victim.

  First things first. He needed to research everything his target did and photograph her.

  While he drove from the outskirts of town, his thoughts drifted to the redhead. She had been a spur of the moment decision. He’d needed a redhead and there she was. It had been the perfect opportunity.

  Where was she now?

  Wherever she was, he would find her.

  ***

  Chapter 10

  Every couple of hours, Cody had woken Carilyn to check on her after insisting she lay on his bed, and he’d slept in the guestroom. She’d been so out of it that every time he woke her it had seemed unreal, like a dream.

  Now, as she blinked her eyes open, she squinted against the early morning sun coming in through his bedroom window. The clean sheets he’d put on his bed felt wonderful and the T-shirt he had loaned her felt soft against her skin. His scent surrounded her. She liked the way he smelled, a heady masculine scent.

  A part of her had wanted to get home at once, and another part knew she had no business driving. Her head was splitting and she still felt foggy, and was having a hard time thinking clearly.

  Cody walked into the bedroom, smiling as he saw that she was awake, his brown eyes warm. Despite her headache, she couldn’t help but admire the pure masculinity of his presence. He wore a T-shirt that fitted snugly to his muscular frame, stretching around the width of his biceps and across his chest.

  He came closer and stood beside the bed, looking down at her. “How are you doing?”

  “Hi.” She managed a return smile and started to push herself up in bed. Her head swam and she put the heel of her palm to her forehead as if that would stop the spinning. “I guess I’ve been better.”

  “You can stay here as long as you need to.” The mattress dipped beneath his weight as he sat down on the bed beside her. “There’s no rush in leaving.”

  “You don’t need to take care of me.” She slid back down again though, fighting a wave of nausea. “Maybe you could give me a ride home to Leigh’s and I’ll get the car later.”

  “Not happening.” He shook his head. “I’m going to watch you for a full twenty-four hours. After that we’ll see how you feel. If Leigh was here to check in on you, that would be one thing. But I’m not leaving you alone.”

  She sighed. “All right. I hate being any trouble for you.”

  He rested his hand on her wrist and she looked at it. The hair on his arm was a brownish-gold against his tanned skin. His fingers were long and strong and his touch felt warm and comforting. “You’re no trouble.”

  “Ha,” she said, giving him a teasing smile as she met his gaze. “I’m being a big pain.”

  His expression turned serious. “I’m sorry this happened, honey.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.” She put her hand over where his rested on her arm and she liked the feel of his warm skin beneath her palm. “I had a great time.” She gave a wry smile. “Up until the rattlesnake spooked Molly. Whatever happened to that snake, anyway?”

  His features hardened a little, as if the thought of the snake being a danger to her stirred anger inside him. “That’s what the snake shot was for. I buried what was left of the head once I killed it. A rattlesnake’s fangs are just as poisonous when it’s dead.”

  “Oh.” She let out her breath. “I forgot about the snake shot.”

  “Are you up to going to the kitchen for breakfast?” he asked. “Or would you like me to serve you in bed?”

  Carilyn would have shaken her head if it didn’t hurt so much. “I can get up. I need to move around.”

  He squeezed her arm. “Why don’t you swing your legs over the side of the bed and take it easy when you stand. Make sure you’re okay to walk.”

  Her bruised body complained as she sat up in bed and slowly slid her legs off the mattress and stood. His T-shirt fell to mid-thigh and the tile was cool beneath her bare feet. She felt sore, woozy, and wobbly but she gave him a smile. “I’ll be fine. Just give me a chance to put on my jeans.”

  He left the room and she grimaced as she pulled on her jeans and then she stuffed her phone in her pocket. She headed out of the bedroom with its rustic furniture, and burgundy and forest green curtains and comforter.

  “I had no idea that having a concussion could affect me like this,” she said as she entered the kitchen and saw Cody.

  “Concussions can range from mild to severe, and yours seems to be moderate.” He rested his hand on her shoulder when he reached her. “If it gets any worse, we’ll get you to a doctor. I know a couple of good ones.”

  “Thanks.” She glanced at him and tried to look like she was smiling and not grimacing. “I’m sure I’m going to be okay.”

  “I’ve know people who have seemed all right at the start,” he said, “but then it progressed to something much worse. I’ll just keep an eye on you.”

  “Okay.” She really couldn’t argue with the pounding in her head making it feel like it was splitting.

  The kitchen smelled great, of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. She figured her appetite was just fine when her stomach growled.

  “Have a seat.” He nodded at the kitchen nook table. “I’ll bring you a plate.”

  Ordinarily she would have insisted on helping, but in this case she did as he told her and seated herself at the round oak table. It wasn’t long before he was setting in front of her a plate with two four-inch round pancakes, two strips of bacon, and a good-sized portion of scrambled eggs.

  “If that’s too much, you don’t have to eat all of it,” he said. “By the same token, if you’re still hungry when you finish, there’s plenty more.”

  Carilyn picked up a forkful of eggs and found them to be delicious and her stomach more than happy to receive them. She poured maple syrup on her pancakes. “This is great.”

  He chewed and swallowed a bite of bacon. “Other than the headache, how are you doing?”

  “Sore.”
She cut into her pancakes with her fork. “But other than that and the headache, I think I’m doing well.”

  He gave her a look of approval. “Good.”

  While they ate, he told her a few stories of growing up on the ranch with his brother and parents. It was nice listening to him. He seemed to realize that it hurt her head to talk but she didn’t mind hearing him speak.

  “Thank you for inviting me and taking care of me.” She pushed her plate away. “I like your ranch and I have to say my first visit has been an interesting one.”

  The corner of his mouth tipped up. “You are one tough lady.”

  “Why, thank you.” She grinned at him. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “It was meant as one.” He smiled back at her. He got up and started clearing the breakfast dishes. “Stay there,” he said as she started to get up.

  She settled back in her seat. “What do you have planned today?”

  “I’ve done the morning chores.” He put the dishes in the sink and started rinsing them. “Now I have to finish welding a new feed trough I’m putting together, and later I have some 4-H kids coming over to look at a couple of calves.”

  “You weld, too?” she said.

  He nodded. “You learn a lot of things growing up on a ranch.”

  “You also like kids,” she said. It was clear by the way he smiled when he talked about the 4-H’ers.

  “Yep.” He grinned. “Hope to have a few of my own running around some day.”

  “How’s a guy like you still single?” Her face warmed as the question came out without her thinking about it. Her head injury must be worse than she thought.

  Cody shrugged. “Just haven’t found the right woman.” He looked at her. “I’ve been looking, though.”

  The intensity of his gaze sent a warm rush over her. Dumb, dumb, dumb to say something like that, she told herself.

  He went on, “I have a couple of exes who live around here.” He set the dishtowel he’d been holding onto the countertop. “I try to stay friends, but it doesn’t always work out that way.”