Rewind & Go: A Blue-Collar Billionaire Romance (Sander's Valley Book 1) Read Free Page B

could call for a tow truck.
    The image of her bruised face haunted him. Somebody had hurt her. Armed robbery, she’d said. Virginia wasn’t the only place where burglaries happened. There’d been a lot more crime in the county over the last few years. Factories had closed. The coal mine had cut production. Shit like that made people who’d normally never break the law desperate. No way did he want Ronnie to be in the wrong time and place again.
    He flicked on the turn signal and took the right leading to her dad’s old cabin. Her parents had separated right after she was born but had never divorced. Ronnie’s dad had lived in their log cabin overlooking Sander’s Valley while her mom had stayed in Virginia. She had an art gallery there.
    Kyle had heard Ronnie had taken it over and opened an auction business. His brother Jack had been on its website and commented about some of its online auctions. Apparently there was a demand for paintings that looked like what his little cousin Suzie could create. Kyle doubted hers would sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, though.
    He slowed the truck around the hairpin curve leading deeper into the woods and slammed on his brakes. Ronnie’s car sat on the side of the road, its hood up. He pulled behind it and jumped out, leaving the engine running. The headlights brightened the woods. Ronnie was nowhere in sight.
    He jogged toward her car. The sweet smell of antifreeze clued him into Ronnie’s engine trouble. Without a flashlight, he couldn’t see where the leak came from, but she wouldn’t be driving it anymore tonight.
    He spun on his heel and scanned the woods. “Ronnie?”
    A muffled cry reached his ears. He took off in the direction it came from, farther down the road. Concern rushed over him. All he could picture was the Carson twins standing way too close to her. Impossible. Kyle knew that. They were still in the bar. Still, he had to be certain.
    The sight that met him stopped him dead in his tracks. Ronnie knelt on her hands and knees next to a wooden trunk, her ass in the air. A light brightened the ground under her, illuminating the spilled contents of her purse and giving him an intimate peek of her inner thighs.
    She whipped her head in his direction. Her gaze locked on to him.
    “Kyle?” She jumped to her feet, stumbled, and landed on her ass.
    He rushed forward and tugged her up, wrapping her in his arms. “What are you doing?”
    “Picking up the stuff I dropped because you yelled my name and startled me.”
    He glanced from her glinting eyes to the spilled contents of her purse. “Sorry. I saw your car but not you.” He brushed the loose wisps of her hair from her cheeks. “I was worried.”
    She frowned. “About what?”
    “We’ve had an increase in crime lately.”
    “The only thing I’d run into out here is a bear or maybe a skunk.”
    At her narrowed eyes, he cursed. “You said you had engine trouble. I wanted to make sure you made it out here, okay? Sue me.”
    “I never told you I was going to the cabin.”
    No, she hadn’t. He’d assumed it. “Why else would you drive up from Virginia? This isn’t exactly a vacation hot spot.”
    She sighed and pushed from his arms. “I should’ve taken the Benz, but Dad loved the Shelby.”
    “So you came here on purpose, didn’t just get in the car and drive.” Too bad. He’d liked the idea that she’d returned because she’d needed him, or at least for the comfort home brought.
    She dropped back to her knees and started throwing stuff into her purse. “I told you all you need to know.” She zipped her bag and stood. “I didn’t come here for you, Kyle. I’m sorry if that hurts, but it’s the truth.”
    He didn’t know what to say to that. Hurt? It fuckin’ stung. He shrugged off the annoyance and focused on the few bits of information she’d given him. “Did the robbery have anything to do with your mom’s murder? Or did somebody break into your house?”
    “Damn, you’re as