with this vehicle before the accident? Maybe you forgot to dim your lights and the driver got angry and wanted payback? Or you cut them off from a prime parking space? Unfortunately, road rage can get out of hand.”
Shaking her head, she said firmly, “No. Nothing like that happened today, yesterday or any time.”
A faint dimple grooved his cheek as he smiled. “You must be a very courteous driver, Ms. Sanchez.”
Looking away from him, she reminded herself that she’d never been attracted to lawmen, that they were too cocky for her taste. This one was no exception. Still, there was something about him that affected her in the most sensual sort of way.
“Most Texans are courteous drivers,” she replied. “Except for the idiot chasing me.”
He glanced thoughtfully out the windshield. “If this wasn’t a case of road rage, then why would someone be chasing you? Have you had a personal dispute with anyone?”
His questions made her squirm uncomfortably. She realized the more she tried to explain the accident tonight, the stranger she sounded. “I realize I must seem paranoid to you, or worse, a woman suffering from histrionics. But I’ve been—I believe that someone has been following me around. Stalking me.”
She glanced over to see he was staring at her with genuine concern. She was relieved he was actually taking her fears seriously.
“Have you reported this to the authorities?” he asked.
“No.” She probably should have, but without proof, law officials would have considered her a paranoid loon or something. Besides, she’d continued to hope the whole matter would simply go away.
“What about your family? Did you tell any of them about this?”
“I mentioned it to my aunt Geraldine. But at that time, it was only a feeling on my part.”
His dark gaze continued to search her face as though he was trying to see the truth. She could have told him he wouldn’t find anything underneath her skin. She was just a plain, totally forgettable schoolteacher.
“Do you have any enemies that you’re aware of?”
Lucita released a long, pent-up breath. “Not really. But in this day and age, how does anyone ever know? I do teach high school in Victoria at St. Francis. I suppose an angry student could be wanting to scare me.”
“Scaring is one thing, but stalking is a criminal act and very serious.”
The long chase she’d gone through tonight had certainly felt criminal. But she didn’t want to think about that now. She didn’t want to think that someone might have actually wanted to scare her that much, or even worse, to make her crash.
She tried to shake off the sinister thoughts. “Well, the car did go on after I crashed. I suppose if the driver had really wanted to do me harm they would have come back to finish what they started.”
The deputy’s lips pressed into a grim line. “I don’t want to scare you, but this person might have believed the crash finished you and he or she didn’t want to risk being caught at the scene of a crime.”
Lucita’s blood turned ice-cold. “I can only hope you’re wrong.”
His expression softened slightly. “I hope I’m wrong, too,” he replied, then asked, “Can you tell me more about the vehicle?”
Shaking her head, she sighed wearily. “Not much. I’m fairly certain that it was a car, low-slung and sleek. It looked black or some dark color.”
“Nothing more about the make or model? The tag?”
A dull ache was beginning to spread through her whole head. She wiped a hand over her forehead while wishing for aspirin and a cool pillow beneath her cheek. “No. I didn’t have time to catch any details. It zoomed up behind me and then I was too blinded to see anything more.”
Nodding, he jotted something down on his notepad. “Well, right now you’re probably going to be more angry with me than the tailgater, because I’m going to have to write you up on a traffic violation for reckless driving.”
Wide-eyed now, she stared at him. “What about the hog? Doesn’t it count for anything? And the tailgater—or whatever he was?”
One corner of his mouth lifted wryly. “Other than your word, I have no proof of a tailgater or a hog. But I do intend to make a search.” He handed her info back to her, then, picking up the flashlight, he opened the truck door and ordered, “You stay where you are.”
What the heck did he think she was going to do? Lucita wondered. Her car was incapacitated and her legs felt like mush. It was still several miles to the ranch. She could hardly walk home from here. And she wasn’t about to stumble around in the dark to help him hunt for a dead hog.
Far off to her left, beneath a beam of headlights, she could see her crumpled car and the officer called Lijah working to upright the barbed-wire fence. To her immediate right, Deputy McCleod was searching the shoulders of the highway, sweeping the high grass with his flashlight.
The man was a handsome devil, she thought. There was no denying the fact. Something about this man had caught her attention the moment he’d stepped up and dabbed his handkerchief to her bleeding head.
She still couldn’t believe she’d actually searched his left hand for a sign of a wedding ring. What could have possibly possessed her? The deputy’s marital status had nothing to do with anything.
She wasn’t looking for a man to curl up to. Even one that looked as good as Deputy Ripp McCleod. She’d had one good-looking, smooth-talking man in her life and now that he’d gone with the wind, along with her family inheritance, she’d vowed to never have another. But this Texas lawman was more than enough to make a woman forget her vows!
Chapter Two
Her head now throbbing with pain, Lucita pulled her handbag onto her lap and began to search for a painkiller. She was still pawing her way through lipstick tubes and crumpled receipts when the cab door opened again and Deputy McCleod slid beneath the steering wheel. With him came the warm night air and his distinctly male scent. A prickle of awareness suddenly dotted her skin with goose bumps.
“No hog, Ms. Sanchez,” he told her. “Once it’s daylight, the department will have a closer inspection of your car. Of course, if we find anything, we’ll inform you.”
She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Actually, I’m glad you didn’t find the hog. I didn’t want to think I’d ended its life, even if it would have helped me avoid a ticket.”
He reached for the clipboard and the paper where he’d jotted down her license information. “Hog. Tailgater. Whatever. You were obviously driving way too fast, Ms. Sanchez. I’d say if you put any value on that neck of yours, you’d better slow down.”
Lucita clamped her lips together as she watched him scratch more comments across the bottom of a second set of documents. He was right, but that didn’t make it any easier to watch him write what looked to be a whole stack of driving tickets.
“What am I supposed to do if someone starts to harass me on the highway again?”
