Three
Reaching the car, Ginny fumbled in her purse for her keys. Her hand shook so badly she couldn’t fit the key into the lock. He had to be right behind her. He had to be….
With a sob of relief she got the door open and slid inside. It was then that she realized the footsteps were no longer echoing out of the darkness. She slammed the door and locked it, then struggled to fit the key into the ignition. The engine fired and the beams from her headlights poured a wide swath of yellow light across the road ahead of her.
As she pulled out onto the road, she glanced into the rearview mirror, fully expecting to see her pursuer standing there, watching her leave.
There was no one there. No man, no other car, no lights, no movement, nothing. Had she imagined it? But she’d heard the footsteps, the ugly, taunting laugh…hadn’t she?
The thought that the whole thing could have been nothing more than a wild flight of fancy terrified her almost as much as the reality of a stalker. For weeks now she’d been afraid that the long months of hiding had taken their toll and that she was losing her mind. It was getting to the point where she couldn’t be sure anymore what was real and what was in her imagination.
Thoroughly shaken, she drove too fast, taking the curves down the hill at a speed that rocked the car from side to side. She couldn’t outrun the cold feeling of dread that gripped her. Taking a long, deep breath, she made herself slow down. She wouldn’t be much help to Cully if she landed in hospital.
Cully. Her mouth curved in a wry smile. What would he think of her if he knew the turmoil going on inside her? If he saw her fleeing from a monster that existed only in her troubled mind?
She’d always been so strong, so sure of who she was and what she wanted. The night she told him she had to get out of Gold Peak or she’d suffocate, he hadn’t even tried to change her mind. He’d known it was useless. Once Ginny Matthews had her sights set on something, she didn’t let go.
The trouble was, she didn’t want to let go of him, either. She’d asked him to go with her. He’d told her in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t city folk.
She could still hear his voice, harsh with bitterness, as he’d paced back and forth across the dingy living room of the apartment he’d rented above Bailey’s Garage. “I lived in a city once. I know what it’s like. People don’t care a damn about each other. They’d watch their neighbor die on the street without lifting a finger to help.”
“They can’t all be like that.”
“Well, they are. Take my word for it. It’s a whole different world out there. There’s a thief hanging around every dark corner and con artists just waiting to clean you out of your life savings. Folks trample all over each other to get their hands on stuff they don’t need or want and all they care about is making more and more money. If that’s what you want to be like, well you’re welcome to it.”
“I don’t have to be like them. I’m who I am. No one’s going to change me.”
“Believe me. The city changes everybody.”
She’d been close to tears, angry at him for bursting her rosy bubble. “You’ll never understand. I need to make something of my life. I don’t want see it waste away in this boring little backwoods town.”
“This boring little backwoods town was good enough for you when you were a kid looking for a home.”
“Well, I’m not a kid anymore. I’ve grown up. And you’re jealous because you don’t have the guts to leave town. I’ll be in Phoenix, making a new life for myself, while you’re stuck here day after day mucking out Judd Taylor’s stables. And you know what, Cully Black? It’s no more than you deserve.”
Maybe, if he’d begged her to stay, convinced her that he loved her as passionately as she loved him, she might have stayed in Gold Peak. She might have borne his babies and been content to make a home for them all.
But he hadn’t said a word about love. He’d stood looking out through the dust-grimed window, his back as stiff and straight as a flagpole and his thumbs jammed into the pockets of his jeans.
She’d seen him only once more after that night. He’d stopped by the Corbetts’ house, a couple of days before she planned to catch the bus out of town. At first, dizzy with hope, she’d thought he’d come to tell her he loved her and wanted her to stay. When she found out he’d stopped by to return a couple of books he’d borrowed from Jim, she’d finally faced the truth. She was good enough to lie in his bed but she wasn’t good enough to share his life. Same old story.
She’d caught up with him as he was leaving and told him goodbye. Keeping the fence between them, she’d let all her pain out in a stream of accusations and criticism. He hadn’t even flinched. That was how little he’d cared.
The blaze of lights from an oncoming car lit up her windshield, dazzling her. Realizing that her eyes were filled with tears, she dashed them away with the back of her hand. She’d done crying over Cully Black a long time ago. If she had any sense at all, she’d get right back on that plane tomorrow at noon and turn her back on Gold Peak forever.
She pulled into the parking lot of the Sagebrush Motel and cut the engine. Trouble was, she never did have any sense where Cully was concerned. It wasn’t until she married Brandon that she realized what she’d truly lost.
Wearily she climbed out of the car and slammed the door. To hell with Cully Black. She’d talk to the lawyer in the morning and then go straight back to the airport. It had been too many years since she was in the Corbetts’ house. How was she going to remember what they had enough to know it was missing?
Her sneakers made only a slight scuffling sound on the hard ground and she caught herself listening for the sound of echoing footsteps. Angry with herself, she closed the door of her room hard behind her. This is what Brandon had done to her. Turned her into a quivering mass of nerves.
If she didn’t get it together, she’d start messing up at work and that could spell disaster. The board members of Whitman’s Department Store had no patience with incompetent personnel.
She had her hand on the bathroom door when the harsh jangle of the phone made her jump. Frowning, she moved to answer it. She hadn’t told anyone where she was staying, since she’d be there just for one night. The only person who knew she was there was Cully.
Her hand trembled as she lifted the receiver and muttered a cautious, “Hello?”
She waited for an answer that never came. The silence on the end of the line unnerved her and she repeated, louder this time, “Hello? Cully, is that you? Who is this?”
The room seemed to be closing in around her. Hastily she dropped the receiver onto its stand. It must have been a wrong number. Or one of those automatic sales calls that didn’t go through. Anything. After all, she didn’t hear any heavy breathing. It was nothing.
Even so, she found it hard to fall asleep. She kept hearing unfamiliar noises and her body tensed with every sound. After watching a meaningless movie on TV, she turned on the radio, buried her face beneath the sheet and concentrated on visions of quiet lakes and soothing waves breaking on a sandy shore.
She awoke in the middle of the night, heart thumping, a sheen of sweat prickling on her forehead. Unsure of what had disturbed her sleep, she lay awake for an hour or more, before falling once more into a fitful sleep. When she woke up again, sunlight filtered through the gap where the cheap curtains didn’t quite meet.
A quick glance at the clock radio told her she’d slept later than she’d planned. Thankful that the nightmare had stayed away, she showered and pulled on the jeans she’d worn the night before. Her sleeveless blue shirt was the last clean item she had left. She packed the rest in a plastic laundry bag and stuffed it into her garment bag, then gathered up her stuff from the bathroom.
She had just finished checking out when Cully’s Jeep pulled into the parking lot a little later. She watched through the