of the street, and he nodded toward it. “Now suppose we sit down in my car and you tell me about this person who wants to kill you.”
She nodded and took a deep breath. “It’s a long story, and at the moment I don’t know where to start.”
“Then maybe we need to go to the sheriff’s office so you can take all the time you want. Do you mind doing that, ma’am?”
She closed her eyes for a moment and pursed her lips. “Would you please quit calling me ma’am? You’re making me feel like I’m a little old lady that a Boy Scout is trying to help across the street.”
His eyes grew wide for a moment, and then he threw back his head and laughed. When he’d quit shaking, he smiled at her. “I’ll try, but old habits are hard to break. Here in the South we use those terms out of respect a lot.” He studied her for a moment. “What part of the country are you visiting the Smokies from?”
“Actually, I’m not visiting. I just moved here.”
“You did? What brought you to this area?”
“I—I came to perform at the Smoky Mountain Wild West Show.”
His eyebrows arched. “You’re a cowgirl?”
She looked down at the jeans, Western-styled shirt and boots she was wearing, and a grin pulled at her lips. “Well,” she said, “dressed like this I doubt anybody would mistake me for a Southern belle.”
His face warmed, and he swallowed. “I guess you’re right, but I have to say you’re pretty enough to be one.” He bit down on his tongue and struggled to think of something to say that would ease his embarrassment. “I’m not saying that cowgirls aren’t pretty. I’m just saying...” He paused, and her grin grew larger. After a moment he smiled, too. “I guess you know what I’m saying,” he finally said.
“I do, and thank you for the compliment.”
He looked down at the information he’d written when he first talked to her. “So your name is Cheyenne Cassidy, you’ve just moved to this area and you think someone wants to kill you. Are you okay with going to the station to give me your statement?”
She nodded. “I am. My truck is parked over there. Should I follow you?”
“No. You’re still a bit shaken. Why don’t you ride with me? I’ll bring you back here when we’re finished.”
She hesitated a moment before she smiled. “Okay, Deputy Conrad. I can do that.”
He opened the passenger-side door of his car and she climbed in. Then he walked around, got in behind the steering wheel and drove out of the parking lot into the heavy traffic that was clogging the main street in town today. He hadn’t seen this many tourists since the summer, but he was glad they had come. The local economy could always use the boost from sales, and Christmas was one of the busiest times of the year for the shops and attractions in this area.
He came to a stop at a red light, and as the car idled, he found his thoughts returning to the young woman sitting silently beside him. He’d heard the expression “deer in the headlights” all his life and had experienced having to swerve around a big buck in the middle of a mountain road several times, but now he really knew what it meant.
When she had run in front of his car, she had looked frightened, more like terrified, and her big brown eyes had stood out in her pale face. She’d dashed off the sidewalk as if she was being pursued by somebody and straight into the path of his car. And now he knew why. She said someone wanted to kill her, and he needed to find out why she thought that. But first he needed to put her at ease and convince her she could trust him.
He cleared his throat. “So, you’re new to the Wild West show. I was there last night, but I don’t remember seeing you. Did you perform?”
She shook her head. “I was there, but I didn’t perform. I just helped out behind the scenes. Tonight is my debut. I’m a trick rider.”
Her words shocked him, and he glanced at her. “Wow!” he exclaimed. “When I was in college, my roommate’s girlfriend was a trick rider. We used to go watch her perform a lot, so I know it’s really dangerous.”
“It can be if you’re not careful and if you don’t have a well-trained horse. I’ve had my horse, Patches, ever since he was a colt, and we know each other well.” Then to his surprise she said, “Maybe you can come watch us perform sometime, Deputy Conrad.”
He smiled. “I’ll do that. Sometime.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment, and then she spoke in such a soft voice that he almost missed what she was saying. “Thank you, Deputy Conrad, for everything. I appreciate your help today.”
“Luke,” he said. “Call me Luke. And it was my pleasure, Cheyenne.”
“I was so scared when I ran out of that store. If I hadn’t literally run into you, I don’t know what I would have done.”
He started to ask what she meant, but she turned her head and stared out the window. The light turned green, and he moved forward in the line of traffic. Two blocks later he turned right and pulled into the parking lot of the sheriff’s department.
When he’d pulled to a stop, she turned to stare at him. The way she bit down on her lip, and the way her eyes sparkled with unshed tears, made his heartbeat race. Something was terribly wrong. He didn’t know what it was yet, but there was one thing he did know: Cheyenne Cassidy was scared, and he had to find out why her face had the same terrified look as when he’d first seen her through the windshield of his car.
“This is the sheriff’s office,” he said, “and I promise you we’ll do everything we can to put you at ease.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Then it will be the first time I’ll feel that way in two years.”
He started to ask her what she meant, but she was already climbing from the car. He opened his door, jumped out and caught up to her when she rounded the front of the vehicle. “I’m sure everything’s going to be okay.”
She looked up at him for a moment and then shook her head. “My parents did, too, and now they’re dead.”
Before he could respond, she walked past him and pulled open the door to the building. He didn’t move for a moment and then strode after her. His mind whirled with all the things she’d said since they’d met. Something told him he was about to hear a story that was different from anything he’d experienced since becoming a deputy in this small mountain community.
Cheyenne stepped inside the building and stopped as Luke walked up beside her. A dispatcher at a desk in the entry looked up from her computer and smiled as they entered. The woman pushed a lock of gray hair out of her eyes as her gaze swept over Cheyenne and came to rest on Luke.
Her face lit up with a friendly smile. “Hi, Luke. You back for shift change?”
Cheyenne looked up at the deputy and frowned. “You didn’t tell me you were about to go off duty. I don’t want to delay you. I can give my statement to
