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To Steve’sa country road, hugging the curves with the war with the hot brunette, Shanna the landscaper, would’ve edged that out, but he’d come close there

And there was always next ti the full dish would live up to the prorinned into the wind Next ti the deserted road after a little beer, a little pool, a few laughs and the prelude with Shanna hit all the chords Swinging down, taking a couple of weeks to hook up with Cilla, yeah, that orking for hi, complicated project, and a wicked personal one But it orking for her, too He could see it in the way she looked, the way she talked And she’d , complicated and personal Just like she’d always needed to

He could give her another week, rab hier He wanted to hang with Cilla a little longer, too, watch her build the framework of her new life

And hopefully close the deal with Shanna while he was at it

A week ought to do it, he thought as he swung around the turn and onto Cilla’s road By then, the rural charm of the Shenandoah Valley would start to fade for hih New York appealed to hiloss and sparkle was holanced idly at a car parked on the shoulder near a long, rising lane No, for Cilla LA had always been just a place Probably another reason getting married had been such a whacked idea Even back then she’d been looking for a way out, and he’d been looking for a way in

And somehow, they’d both found it

He turned into her drive, sht on out front for hiainst one of the s That was Cilla, he thought She thought of the little things, reht in there In the country quiet his Harley sounded like a tornado blowing out to Oz She’d probably sleep through it-when Cilla went out, she went out-but he cut the engine halfway down the drive and coasted

Singing under his breath, he hopped off the bike to guide it the rest of the way to the barn He took off his hel barn door He left the headlight on to cut a swath through the dark and, with a belch that brought back the led the front wheel, the headlight cut across one of Cilla’s storage boxes It sat open, with its lid beside it, and scattered with photos and papers

"Hey"

He took a step forward for a closer look He heard nothing, saw nothing, and felt only an instant of shattering pain before he pitched forward onto the concrete

CILLA HAD the first of what she thought of as a heads-together with Matt just after seven AM She planned others with the electrician and the plu as he was here, she thought, she’d use hi trip She needed to choose tile and hardware, fixtures, and order more lumber By seven-thirty, the cacophony of saws, ha Steve had had a late night, she took pity on hi of coffee up to the bedroo

When she saw Spidey was currently unoccupied, she blew out a breath "Soot lucky," she muttered, and drank the coffee herself as she headed downstairs

She grabbed her lists, her notebook, her purse As she stepped outside, the landscape crew pulled in Cilla’s eyebrows quirked up when she spotted Shanna Just who did Steve get lucky with? she wondered Shanna lifted a hand in a wave, then, carrying a to-go cup of coffee, wandered over

"Morning Brian’s got to site another job thisby in a couple hours"

"Fine I’ in to pick up soood But you ought to co on hardscape-the patio and ays today" Shanna glanced at the house "So, is Steve a?"

"Haven’t seen hi the cap over her dark braid, Shanna flashed a sht That Steve, he sure can dance"

"Yes, he can"

"He’s a sweetie Followed ot there safe, then didn’t push-or not hard-to come in He’d pushed a little harder, and who knows?" She hooted out a laugh

"He didn’t stay with you?"

"No" Shanna’s sht?"

"I don’t know I didn’t see hiled her keys "I’ll just go see if his bike’s in the barn"

Shanna fell into step beside her "He was fine when he left, Iht I only live about twenty minutes from here"

"I probably just missed him in the house" But her stomach started to jump as Cilla reached the barn door "Maybe he went up while I went down"

Sunlight splashed into the barn and erupted with dust motes Cilla blinked to adjust her eyes and felt a fresh wave of anxiety when she didn’t i in, she noted soe boxes were tipped over, the contents spilled An old chair lay broken on its side She saw the Harley then, on the floor, handlebars up as if its rider had wiped out Steve, arhty bulk of it

"Oh God" She sprang forward, Shanna beside her, to lift the bike off Steve Blood matted his hair, and more stained his raw and bruised face Afraid to ers to his throat And nearly shook as she felt his pulse beat

"He’s alive He’s got a pulse Call-"

"I a, Shanna punched nine-one-one on her cell phone "Should we get a blanket? Should we-"

"Tell them to hurry Don’t move him" Cilla leaped up and ran for the house

HE COULD USUALLY sleep through anything But the shouting scraped along Ford’s consciousness, then the sirens drove straight in Too bleary to put theether, he rolled out of bed, stu, he scanned across the road, wished he could conjure a cup of coffee with the power of his ht of the a awake When he didn’t see her in his quick, panicked search, he rushed back inside to drag on clothes

He streaked across the road, up Cilla’s drive, keeping his e, forh the crowd of workers, said her na behind the portable gurney, his heart started beating again Then it slaurney

"I’" Her voice teetered on the thin edge between control and hysteria "He’s not going alone" She gripped the edge of the gurney, stuck like glue as they transported it to the ambulance

The fear in her eyes chilled Ford to the bone "Cilla I’ to be there"

"He won’t wake up They can’t wake him up" Before anyone could deny her, Cilla climbed into the back of the ambulance

He took her purse because Shanna had retrieved it and pushed it into his hands Shanna, Ford thought, who’d had tears streaking down her face

"He was in the barn," Shanna choked out, and slid into Ford’s ar on the floor, under the bike The blood"

"Okay, Shan Okay, honey I’ to find out how he is"

"Call "

After a wild drive to the hospital, Ford carried Cilla’s purse into the ER, too worried to feel evenoutside a pair of double doors, looking helpless

"I gave them his medical history, the stuff I could re?" She pawed at the neck of her shirt, as if looking for soave theative I reo sit down"

"They won’t let me in They won’t let me stay with him He won’t wake up"

Ford put an arm around her shoulders and firmly steered her away fro, he crouched in front of her so her eyes were on his face "They’re going to fix hi Okay?"

"He was bleeding His head His face Lying there bleeding I don’t kno long"

"Tell me what happened"

"I don’t know!" She pressed both hands to her an to rock "I don’t know He wasn’t in his rooured, he shoots, he scores That’s all I al, even checking It would’ve been hours more"

"Breathe" He spoke sharply, took her hands and squeezed "Look at me and breathe"

"Okay" She breathed, and she trembled, but Ford saw a hint of color coht he’d stayed at Shanna’s, so I was going to go buy ot there and said he didn’t I worried that heI don’t even know But I went to see if his bike was there And we found hi under his bike I don’t knohat could’ve happened His head, his face" Now she rubbed a hand between her breasts Ford could alainst the pressure "I heard theot a couple of broken ribs, fro on him But how did the bike fall on him? And and the head injuries His pupils They said soood I had a guest spot on ER once"

She hitched in three raw breaths, then let theush And the tears came with it "Who the hell has a oddaood signs, Ford sat beside her and held her hand

When the door flew open, they lurched to their feet together "What is it? Where are you taking him? Steve"

"Miss" One of the ER nurses put herself in Cilla’s path "They’re taking your friend up to surgery"

"Surgery for what? For what?"

"He has bleeding in his brain fro to take you up to the surgical waiting area One of the doctors can explain the procedure to you"

"How bad? You can tellwe can We have a good surgical teaestured them to an elevator "Do you know if Mr Chensky was in soht?"

"No Why?"

"The injury to the back of his head It looks as though he’s been struck It’s just not consistent with a fall Of course, if he was driving without his hel It didn’t happen on the road"

"So you said"

"Cilla" Ford laid a hand on hers before she could get into the elevator "We need to call the cops"

HOW WAS SHE supposed to think? How could she sit in this rooers operated on Steve? An operating roo theater They called it a theater sometimes, didn’t they? Would the patient and doctor be costars? Who got top billing?

"Miss McGowan?"

"What?" She stared into the blank eyes of the cop What was his naroped through the chaos of her mind for the question he’d asked "I’ht, and he wasn’t back Shanna said he left her before two Just before two, she said"

"Do you have Shanna’s full name?"

"Shanna Stiles," Ford supplied "She works for Brian Morrow Morrow Landscape and Design"

"You found Mr Chensky at approxi?"

"I said that Didn’t I say that?" Cilla pushed at her hair "He wasn’t in the house, so I checked the barn for his bike And I found hiether?"

"He’s visiting He’s helping eles New York Iback to LA" Whatever churned in her belly wanted to rise up to her throat "What difference does it make?"

"Officer Taney" Ford put a hand over Cilla’s, squeezed "Here’s the thing A few nights ago, I saw so into Cilla’s barn It was late I orking late, and I looked out theon the way to bed and saw soht it was Steve, and didn’t think anything of it"

"But it wasn’t" Re, Cilla shut her eyes "I was supposed to buy a padlock, but I didn’t I forgot about it, didn’t think about it, and now-"

"What do you keep in the barn?" Taney asked her

"I cleaned out the attic and stored things there A lot of things I have to sort through And there’s other stuff Old tack, tools, equiprandmother is valuable Stupid, stupid to think I could turn it all around, ht Stupid

"Was anything taken?"

"I don’t know I just don’t know"

"Mr Chensky went out at approxi, to a bar You don’t have the name of the bar-"

"No, I don’t have the name of the bar You can ask Shanna Stiles And if you’re thinking he was drunk and somehow bashed himself on the back of the head, smashed his face into the concrete and knocked his bike on top of hiet on his bike drunk You can ask Shanna or anyone else as in the bar last night about that"

"I’ht with you, I’ll go over and have a look at your barn"

"Yes, go ahead"

"I hope your friend coh okay I’ll be in touch," he added as he rose

Ford watched him cross to the nurses’ station, take out a card