Page 289 of Her Reluctant Hero
She hadn’t had a choice then. The emotion, the joy had swept her up; she hadn’t known enough to be scared. What she wouldn’t give for that innocence now.
She twisted the flyer tighter—a picture of Kim and Kevin, crudely drawn, that someone had handed her as she walked into the airport. As if she’d ever forget what they looked like. Still, they wouldn’t hang around this firefighter town. Surely they weren’t so dumb.
The theory—her theory, anyway—was Kim had done this to get Gabe. She’d started the fire to get his attention, then set up his nemesis, and finally, tried to kill his lover. But Peyton hadn’t played the idea through, to figure out what might happen next. What would Kim do if she got what she wanted? Peyton was out of the way, Gabe was free. Would Kim walk away if he was what she’d worked toward?
No. Kim would go after Gabe. And as little as she was, Gabe was in no shape to resist her.
Peyton scrambled through her pack for her cell to call Agent Devlin to relay her fears, but her battery was dead. Of course. Where had she been able to plug it in? She tossed it back into her pack and dug for change, but again, she’d had no use for money in fire camp, and all her cash was in bills.
She had to call the hospital, the police, someone. She pulled out a twenty, tugged her pack over her shoulder and ran to the gift shop. She grabbed a bar of chocolate, paid, then rushed back to the bank of pay phones. Three of the four were occupied, and the fourth out of order. How could that be? Didn’t everyone have cell phones these days? She shifted in impatience but no one on the phones took the hint.
She could get to the hospital herself faster. Once she made the choice, she raced out of the terminal.
*****
A soft hand stroked Gabe’s jaw, waking him. “You came back.”
Lips brushed over his. Not Peyton. He opened his eyes to see Kim standing over him, startling in dark hair, smiling. Every ounce of will kept him from jerking away.
“You knew I would,” she murmured, moving closer, her breasts against his arm. “Now we can be together. I love you, Gabe. True love, not like Peyton.”
His mind raced. Telling her no way in hell was probably not the smartest thing, so he tried for an all-business tone. “You have to turn yourself in.”
Her expression tightened and she moved back a little. “I won’t. We have a place. We’ll be happy there, the three of us. You’ll love it, Gabe. In the mountains, surrounded by the forest.”
“Till you set fire to it,” he muttered, and attempted to sit, but his head swam. What the hell? Peyton had said he wasn’t that bad off. Why couldn’t he sit up?
And then he saw the syringe in Kim’s hand, the plunger depressed, the cylinder empty. The IV cord still swayed from her tampering as the sedative flowed into his system.
She’d drugged him. Yeah, true love.
