can’t go back there.”
“We don’t have many choices in a town the size of Fort Yates. Do you have any other suggestions?”
“I can’t go home.” Her body drooped, her arms going limp. “I have nowhere else to go.”
Tuck hesitated another second, then let go of one of her arms, keeping a tight hold on the other as he led her back the way he’d come, toward the hotel casino. He berated himself inwardly for falling into her plan, but if he wanted to get to the bottom of this charade, he had to play along until he got answers.
As they neared the hotel, she slowed, adjusted the bulky shawl around her middle, bringing the fabric high around her neck. With shaking hands, she tugged the hat lower over her eyes, pushing long, loose strands of hair back under the hat’s rim.
Past being patient, Tuck nudged her forward with a little more force than he intended and stepped up on the back porch of the casino, pushing through the double glass doors to the stairwell.
The shawl-wrapped female stumbled. A small cry burst from beneath the shawl, but it didn’t sound as if it came from the woman.
“What the hell?” Tuck reached out to yank the shawl aside.
A hand whipped out, knocking his aside. Blue eyes stared up at him, sandy-blond brows diving like daggers toward the bridge of her nose. “Don’t.”
“I’m not taking you into the hotel until I know what you’re hiding beneath that shawl.” He reached out again for the shawl.
She stepped back, her chin tightening, her eyes narrowing to slits. “And I’m telling you if you try to remove the shawl, I’ll kill you.” To emphasize her point, she jabbed him in the side with the business end of a revolver. “Now, are we going to your room or what?”
Tuck’s pulse leaped. If he wasn’t mistaken, the gun appeared to be a SIG Sauer revolver, just like the one he carried on duty with the FBI. Unfortunately, his was at the armory. Headed for a week off, he hadn’t seen the need to carry. What the hell was she doing with a
SIG Sauer? The way she held the revolver was a sure sign she had no clue how to use it, but that didn’t make the weapon any less deadly. He remained calm. “Aren’t you afraid someone will see you holding a gun?”
“No.” Even after her arm came to a stop, the bulk around her middle shifted. “Now, are you going to take me to your room, or do I have to use this?”
He didn’t move, gauging whether or not she had the gumption to pull the trigger. Now more than curious about her story, he decided to go along with her plan. If necessary, he could easily disarm her when the time came. “Come on.”
She let out a breath. “Good. The sooner we get this meeting over with, the better.”
“You’re tellin’ me.” He led the way up the stairs to the third floor. When they reached his door, Tuck inserted the key and waited for her to enter.
As she passed across the threshold, she turned to face him, the gun tenting the shawl. “Don’t try anything. I know how to use this. And I really don’t want to.”
“I don’t doubt that in the least,” Tuck lied, following her into the room.
Once he had the door closed firmly behind him, he faced the woman, his heart stone cold. “Now that we’re alone, suppose you tell me why the hell a dead woman is holding me at gunpoint.”
* * *
JULIA GASPED, HER heart squeezing so tightly in her chest she couldn’t breathe. “Shut up.”
“Who are you?” Tuck Thunder Horse stalked toward her, closing the distance between them. “I watched the coroner zip the body bag on Julia Anderson.”
Julia raised her empty hand to her ear, tears filling her eyes. “Shut up,” she whispered. She’d suspected her sister was already dead, but having it confirmed stole her breath away. Her body trembled, the tremors becoming more violent until she shook so hard she could barely stand. “Shut up.”
“No. I will not shut up until you tell me what’s going on.”
Julia swallowed hard, knowing that in order to keep herself and her baby safe, she had to hold it together. Had to get Tuck Thunder Horse to take her and Lily into his protection, or they’d die before she could get them away from Fort Yates.
Die just like her twin sister.
“I am Julia Anderson. You and I were married over a year ago. I filed for an annulment the next day.” A lump of emotion lodged in her throat. Her sister lay on a cold, hard slab in the morgue. She’d already lost one of the only two people she had left in this world. She’d be damned if she let anyone hurt Lily. And Tuck was the only one she trusted to help protect her baby.
Tuck’s jaw tightened, a tic flickering in the left side. “If you’re Julia, then who the hell was in the body bag?”
The baby wrapped snugly against Julia’s belly stirred and whimpered. Lily, sweet Lily, the love of her life, her reason for living.
Julia coughed to cover the sound of the child’s whimper. “That was my twin sister, Jillian. Whoever killed her will be after me next.”
“What?” Tuck shoved a hand through his hair, her revelation hitting home. He really hadn’t known anything about Julia when he’d married her. “You expect me to believe you had a twin?”
Julia jerked the hat from her head and let her long blond hair fall down around her shoulders. She and her sister had been identical twins, Jillian arriving two minutes before Julia. Their mother had told them that Jillian had arrived kicking and screaming, Julia in a more sedate manner, calm and angelic. “Did she look just like me?”
The man studied her face, his gaze traveling from the tip of her head down the length of her body. “Hard to say when you’re covered from head to foot.”
Julia dropped the hat on the floor and slid her free hand beneath the shawl. Patting the bundle around her middle, she hesitated, reluctant to spring the next shock on a man who already didn’t trust a word she said. “Well, it’s true. We were sisters.” The ready tears sprang to her eyes, and she dashed them away with the edge of the shawl.
“Do you know what happened to her?” Tuck asked, his voice hard.
Julia nodded.
“Do you know why?” he asked next.
“Yes. That’s why I called you.”
“Why me? Why contact me after all this time?”
She drew in a long, steadying breath. The time had come to tell him the rest of the story. “We need help.”
“We? Seems a little late for your sister.”
Julia winced, actually hating this man for a minute for his callousness. Still, maybe it was better that he could be so calm, so detached. Heaven knew she couldn’t—not with so much at stake. Her sister was dead. She could be next. Her baby was at risk. All of that meant she had to convince Tuck to protect them. “I’m in trouble and need help.”
