What if he’d just nicked her and she was after him now?
He liked that idea. Being back in the mountains exhilarated him. A few weeks of hiking would sharpen his mind, body and spirit, dulled somewhat by result of the lifestyle he led in Washington, D.C. He’d be back in top-notch shape in no time. But he didn’t have a few weeks, not right now.
His knee ached where the freckled girl deputy had kicked him.
Bitch.
But he’d been energized by the conflict between them, her fight, her spirit. He hadn’t expected her. It must have been fate, he thought, that had brought her there.
“ New Hampshire…it’s the only place I can think of where Cal might have stashed your money…”
Poor Harris, trying to make good on one last gamble. But New Hampshire was a reasonable answer, and Jesse had flown in late last night, crafting a bold but well-structured plan. He’d considered Cal and Harris both associates – they’d profited from their relationship with him. How had they returned the favor? They’d double-crossed him.
First thing this morning, he’d set out into the mountains.
His mountains. They comforted him, soothed him. He was never more at peace than when he was in the White Mountains. He would never live here; to do so would diminish their power to restore him. But after a violent outburst, he would always return to them.
The gurgling cry of a baby snapped him out of his thoughts.
A woman came around a bend in the road, a baby in a little red hat bouncing in a pack on her back. She gave a start, then smiled. “Oh, hello. I didn’t realize anyone was out here.”
This, Jesse thought, was crap. Seeing how she held a fist-size rock in one hand. She had to have heard him or spotted him. These women up here. She must have heard him in the woods. Meeting her eyes, he felt recognition dawn.
“Nice afternoon for a walk,” he said conversationally.
She drew a shallow breath. “Definitely. I’m meeting a friend -”
“You’re Carine Winter, right? The photographer?”
Her hand tightened visibly on the rock. What was she going to do, bash him over the head with it? She had a baby with her, and she was thinking about beating a man to death. Him.
But she gestured vaguely up the road. “I’m running late.”
“Sure. No problem.” Jesse stepped into the shade of an oak on the edge of the road, letting her pass. “I ran into Mackenzie Stewart a few minutes ago. She scared the hell out of me. I was just hiking, and all of a sudden, she was there.”
Without saying a word, Carine picked up her pace. She had to have all sorts of questions about him, but wasn’t going to linger and ask any of them. Jesse watched the baby’s red hat bob up and down as his mother hurried on, moving as fast as she dared without hurting her son or drawing attention to her fear.
She was a Winter, and all Winters in the White Mountains were legendary hard-asses.
Mackenzie Stewart was the one who’d shocked him.
Jesse kept his tone mild as he called to Carine, “Tell your redheaded friend that I didn’t mean to hurt her. I was scared. Just scared.”
The marshals, the FBI, the state cops, the local cops – they would run everything he said and did past their experts, and they’d figure he was some kind of a head case.
That was all part of his plan, and suited him just fine.
He raised his voice a notch so Carine could still hear him. “I bought one of your calendars. Really like the picture of the loons.”
In fact, he had bought one of her calendars. It hung in his house in Mexico. She was an accomplished nature photographer who knew the White Mountains as well as he did – and had captured their soul in her pictures.
He thought he heard a car engine down the road, and quickly ducked under the oak, revived now, a fresh surge of adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream. He knew every inch of the maze of trails that snaked into the mountains. Within the hour, he would be a needle in a haystack. Even with search dogs, the police would never find him.
He pictured Mackenzie Stewart’s dark red curls, her compact, sexy shape and the crimson blood running down the smooth, creamy skin of her upper thigh.
She was so damn pretty.
Barefoot and soaking wet in her pink bathing suit, she’d still managed to disarm him and come damn close to kicking his ass. He’d had to use every bit of his willpower to get back on his feet and bolt into the woods.
His attraction to her was unexpected, as potent and as visceral as his urge to stab her. In that split second of decision followed by action, when he’d jumped out of the brush at her, he had fully meant to kill her, not just cut her. If she hadn’t stopped him, disarmed him, she’d be dead right now.
From the moment he’d spotted her at the Washington hotel with Judge Peacham the other night, Jesse had known he would have to hurt Mackenzie Stewart one day.
Today just happened to be the day.
Seven