Page 41 of River Legacy (Powder River #5)

V ictoria knew she should stall. She had to do whatever was necessary because there was no way she was getting on that plane with Claude.

Ryder would be coming for her. When she’d heard his voice, her heart had leaped.

He was alive. He wouldn’t hesitate to come after her because he felt the same way she did. She knew it.

With a start, though, she feared what would happen when he got here. Maybe it would be better if she was gone—even with Claude—on the plane to Dallas. She could always call him and let him know she’d be on the next flight back. She might be saving his life if she did.

She had no idea what her father would do—if he did anything.

He might not show up at all. He might call Claude’s bluff: that was how he usually worked.

Then again, the way he dealt with trouble wasn’t with guns but with lawyers.

He had enough money to drag things out for years in the courts.

It was why he always won. But he wouldn’t win this if he did show up.

“We should get on the plane and go,” she said to Claude. “Let’s not wait for my father.”

He turned her to face him. She felt his gaze surveying her expression. “What’s going on? There’s a reason you don’t want to wait for him or your boyfriend.”

“I don’t want you to kill them,” she snapped. “There’s no reason for bloodshed. You don’t want that any more than I do.”

Claude seemed to consider that for a moment. “Give me a minute.” He pulled out his phone. After a moment, he swore. “Your father hasn’t moved any money into my account.”

Victoria wanted to scream. Did he not know her father at all? Wendell Forester didn’t pay off blackmailers or kidnappers.

As if on cue, her father drove up, parked and got out.

While he must have broken speed records to get here so quickly, he moved slowly now, looking calm.

Claude had driven under the speed limit the whole way as if this was exactly what he wanted—a confrontation that ended in spilled blood. He wanted this showdown.

As three security men from the airport and several cops came running toward them, Wendell waved them away as he calmly advanced on her and Claude. “Drop that gun and let go of my daughter,” he said quietly. “You’ve made your point. I’m here.”

“But you haven’t put the money into my account,” Claude said, pressing the barrel to her side.

“I haven’t had a chance since you also wanted me here,” her father said without raising his voice. “I can transfer the money once you and I get on the plane. Victoria isn’t going.”

“Like hell,” Claude said and started maneuvering her toward the jet. “The three of us are flying back to Dallas now. There is nothing you can say to change my mind. If you call those guards over, I will kill your daughter, then you. Your choice.”

“Claude,” her father said, measuring his tone, “listen to reason. Victoria doesn’t want to leave yet. Let her go. You can take the plane. The deposit will be waiting for you when you get there, and before you land I will give you the million in severance pay.”

“You’re saying you’ll tear up my contract?”

“Consider it done,” Wendell said. “You’re right. You probably deserve it after everything I’ve asked of you. Most men wouldn’t have put up with me this long. How’s that? Now, let her go, and let’s get this plane to Dallas.”

Victoria could tell Claude wanted to believe him, but he’d known the man long enough that he was skeptical. She didn’t blame him.

“He thinks he can control me by saying he’s going to throw money at me,” Claude said after apparently giving it some thought.

“He thinks I’m a fool. The minute I let you go, he’ll call those guards over here and have me arrested for kidnapping you.

Wouldn’t matter that he paid me to go after you and use my good judgment as to how to handle you.

” He turned to his former boss. “The thing is, Wen, this time I got it all on my phone. I can prove it was your idea, not mine, and that you blackmailed me into doing it.”

At the roar of a vehicle engine, they all looked up to see Ryder come to a skidding stop.

The distraction was exactly what her father had apparently been waiting for.

He grabbed her before Claude could react, shoving her out of the way as he went for the gun.

She screamed as she fell to the tarmac, but in an instant Ryder was there helping her up and pulling her aside.

When she looked toward her father, she saw that Claude had the gun pressed against his side as he backed him toward the plane.

R yder couldn’t believe how close a call it had been getting here. If he’d been even a few minutes later...

“Don’t try anything, cowboy,” Claude warned as he maneuvered his boss over to the plane’s steps.

“Don’t worry, this is between you and the man who stole my ranch,” Ryder said. “You work it out between yourselves.”

“Ryder, no,” Victoria cried and tried to get past him to help her father. He held on to her, not about to let her go. From the look in Claude’s eyes, he feared the man would gladly kill both Victoria and her father, so he held her back.

Not that he was doing it for her father’s sake. Wendell Forester had made this mess. Let him figure it out, he thought, though he feared Vicky would never forgive him if Claude shot her father. But he knew this woman. She would attack Claude if he let her go, and that would get everyone shot.

“He doesn’t have the guts to kill me, don’t worry,” Forester said to Victoria.

“We’re just going to go for a plane ride.

I’m sure Claude and I can work it out.” The security guards had started to approach again, but Wendell waved them back.

“Everything’s fine!” he called to them. “Just a little disagreement. We’ll be leaving now.

” Clearly, he thought he could talk Claude down.

Ryder wasn’t so sure about that. Claude seemed to be at the end of his rope.

“Right, we’ll work it out, unless I drop him off over the mountains,” Claude said with a laugh as he pushed his boss up the first couple of steps. Forester tripped on the third one and teetered for a moment before taking a step back as if to catch himself.

At Forester’s stumble, Ryder realized that he’d been waiting for an opportunity to present itself. He shoved past Vicky and rushed forward as Claude, too, was thrown off balance.

Knowing he was taking a hell of a chance for a man he despised, Ryder grabbed the weapon and wrestled it out of Claude’s hand, hoping the man didn’t pull the trigger and shoot Forester.

Claude stumbled into Forester, knocking him over the railing to the tarmac. Vicky cried out and rushed to her father as Ryder quickly pocketed the weapon so one of the security guards didn’t get trigger happy and shoot him.

Claude, no longer armed, apparently saw his chance. He ran up the steps into the airplane, pulling the door closed quickly behind him. The security guards advanced as its engine revved and it began to pull away.

“You can still stop him,” Ryder said as airport security and law enforcement officers reached them. “Security can keep him from taking off.”

Forester shook his head. “No, let him go. He’ll be dealt with when he reaches Texas.” He was cradling his arm and limped over to talk to the guards. Ryder could hear him telling them to let him go. “No harm’s been done. I’ll take responsibility.”

The guards and cops hesitated a moment, then must have remembered who they were talking to because they turned and headed toward the terminal. Ryder heard one of them on the radio telling the tower to let the jet take off. He was sure that money would change hands.

As he joined Vicky, Ryder said, “Sorry about your dad,” although he wasn’t that sorry when he thought about it.

“You saved him,” Vicky said as she stepped into his arms. “I knew you couldn’t let Claude take him.”

Ryder shook his head. “You don’t know how tempted I was to let them both fly away. He just wasn’t taking you.”

Her father walked back to them, looking confident that he’d handled things. “Thank you,” Forester said as he cradled his left arm, looking in pain. “But I would have been fine if I hadn’t stumbled. I could have handled him.”

“I didn’t do it for you,” Ryder snapped. “I did it for your daughter.”

“Yes, of course,” the man said. “My daughter.”

At the sound of the plane taking off, they both turned to watch it soar into the air. “I wonder what’s waiting for him in Texas,” Ryder said.

“Knowing my father, I wouldn’t want to be Claude.”

C laude moved up into the cockpit once the jet was in the air. He dropped into the copilot’s seat and looked out at the mountains looming ahead. He liked the view. He could get used to this.

“I suppose we could steal the plane and take it to South America,” he said, only half-joking.

JJ laughed. “Why not? It’s a nice plane. We could run drugs.”

It wasn’t the future Claude had envisioned for himself, but at this point it sounded good to him. “You’re sure Wen wouldn’t have us shot down before we could leave the States?”

“He’d have to find us first,” JJ said.

“You’re serious? We could pull something like that off?” Claude looked back as Billings began to disappear behind them.

The pilot shrugged as they continued to climb, the jet rising as he pointed it toward Dallas. “Planes disappear all the time. We’d have to make some changes to it, but it could be done.” JJ glanced over at him. “You’re really ready to burn the last of your bridges?”

Claude gave it only a moment’s thought. “Damned straight. There’s nothing for me in Montana or Texas anymore. Let’s steal this sucker and make a new life for ourselves.”

JJ nodded and grinned.

Below them, all Claude could see was mountains with jagged cliffs and dark green pines. Nowhere did he see even a road. “You know anyone in South America?” he asked.

“Not yet,” JJ said, still grinning. “When we show up with this jet, we’ll make friends fast.”

Claude laughed, feeling better than he had in a very long time. He was finally free of Wendell Forester and his daughter. The cowboy could have her. He was now in charge of his own life. No looking back, he thought, pleased with himself.

T he plane had begun to swing toward the east away from the city and out across the mountains.

Wendell walked up to join them. “We should all leave before the cops show up. I’m sure they were called. I’ll take care of Claude when I return to Dallas.”

“You aren’t going to give him any money, are you?” Vicky said.

Her father didn’t answer. “Claude and I will work it out, don’t worry. He’s just disappointed about how things turned out. ”

“Aren’t we all,” Vicky said almost in unison with Ryder.

“It’s just business,” Forester said.

“Right. You want to get out of here?” Ryder asked her.

Vicky nodded, and they started to turn away when they heard the explosion.

It made them all start and turn toward the sound.

As they watched, the Gulfstream turned into a fireball.

All three of them stood stunned and horrified as flaming pieces of the craft began to fall from the sky in the distance.

Vicky’s hand went to her mouth, her eyes wide.

All the color had drained from Forester’s face.

Ryder figured he was picturing himself on that flight as he now looked wordlessly at what was left of the plane disappear from view.

Weak with relief and revulsion, all Ryder could do was pull Vicky close. If he hadn’t arrived when he did, she could have been on that plane—Forester as well.