by Debra Holt
Gray’s face sobered and he set his mug aside. “You suspect anything?”
“Doesn’t feel like rustling. Could be teenage pranks, but they’re taking quite a chance coming onto Tremayne land and most locals would know that. My men are all aware, and we’ve got eyes on the outlying sections.”
“With the crowd in town this week, it’s hard to pinpoint any strange new faces. We’re already stretched on patrols with the festival going on. I’ll see about bringing in some reservists. Thanks for the heads-up.”
Truitt nodded and slid his chair back, standing. He withdrew a couple of bills from his pocket.
Gray held up a hand. “This is on me.”
“Not this time,” Truitt responded, sliding his hat on his head. He walked to the woman at the counter and laid the money down. “His and the lady’s breakfasts are on me.”
Chapter Ten
Annie braced herself for the arrival of a tall visitor to The Gallery with a thundercloud disposition, but he never came. She was adjusting a display table near one of the front windows when her gaze caught sight of the familiar figure striding across the street, and she watched as his long, jean-clad legs carried him to his truck, then watched as he pulled away from the curb a minute or so later without even a glance in the direction of The Gallery.
Annie didn’t care for the sense of disappointment that filled her at that moment. She should feel relief. Period. Her ploy had worked. Although, she did feel guilty using such a nice man as Gray Dalton. She didn’t need to lead him on just because Truitt had kissed her, and she cut off the rest of the memories of the evening before they could take hold. They would only weaken her resolve. She had to keep her distance no matter what.
*
“Truitt has an appointment in Dallas. He flew out this morning.” Sal’s pronouncement at the dinner table later that night caught Annie totally by surprise. It also caused a strange lump to rest in the middle of her chest, and her meager appetite fled.
“That means we won’t have a riding lesson.” Jessie’s smile left her face, too.
“He did say he arranged with Pops to work with you after dinner, Jessie. He didn’t want you to be disappointed,” Sal quickly said, to soften the impact of the news.
“Truitt is so cool!” Jessie dove into her enchiladas with renewed smiles, in a hurry to finish and be off to the stables.
“Well, he may be gone a couple of days. I suppose he told you that, Annie, when he stopped by The Gallery this morning on his way to the airstrip?” Sal’s glance went casually in her direction.
“Pardon me?”
“Truitt was surprised when you were already gone this morning, so he left soon after you, saying something about stopping by The Gallery to speak to you. I assumed he did?”
“Um…actually we spoke at the bakery.” She didn’t add any more to it. She didn’t need to. Seemed news traveled fast in a small town.
“Yes.” Sal smiled across at her. “I do believe I recall hearing that now. Seems he and Gray had a few words, too.”
Annie lost any taste for food. “I don’t know about that. I didn’t join them.”
“May I be excused?” Jessie piped up at that moment.
“Yes, you may. In fact, I think I’ll go along and watch.” Annie rose quickly.
“You two have fun.” Sal smiled at them both, but it lingered on Annie. Both women knew that Annie was avoiding the subject.
*
The call came just as Truitt stepped inside his hotel suite, his fingers hastily unknotting the silk tie and unbuttoning the top two buttons of his dress shirt. He hated dressing in business attire, but the quarterly board meeting of the ranching foundation seemed to warrant the niceties. Usually, he could send Sal in his place or count on Thomas to handle such things, because he was usually on the road with the rodeo stock contracts.
However, she was busy with The Gallery and the festival events, and Thomas was on a trip with his family, so he had to make the trip. But it also gave him some space away from the charged situation between himself and Annie. He needed to try and get some perspective on the whole issue for the sakes of a lot of people.
He opened his phone on the fourth ring. It was Truman Hayes, his horse foreman. “Hey, Truman. What’s up?”
“Boss, there’s evidence a truck pulled off the road about half a mile from the first cut, and we found boot tracks leading toward the oak knoll. There was a cigar butt in the weeds at the base of the tree. We were lucky no fire was started by this idiot. Whoever the fool is, he either doesn’t know about the burn ban in this area or doesn’t care.”
Truitt drew in a deep breath. “Both ways, he’s dangerous and he’s trespassing. He’s also after something other than cattle. There’s nothing to see that close to the house. Pull some more men from the north camp and keep a buffer along the roads and house. Do it quietly. No need to let Sal know yet. She’s busy enough with other things. I’ll handle that when I get back.”
“You’ll be back on Thursday?”
“No. I’ll be on my way as soon as the pilot can get to the plane and get us headed back.”
“See you then.”
Truitt didn’t care for the news he’d just received. His gut was telling him there was something to these two incidents. Someone was coming onto Tremayne land, and coming awfully close to their home. It didn’t size up to be a rustler. They were looking for something else. Or someone. He had a bad feeling lick down his spine at that sudden thought. Such a feeling rarely occurred, but when it did, it always boded no good. He and Gray needed to have another talk. As he threw together his few bits of clothing and toiletries into their travel bags, his mind raced over bits and pieces of information trying to find one common thread that would lace them all together.
Someone had an interest in getting close to the main house, hence the oak knoll. There was no interest in the stock. Fences weren’t cut for removal of cattle that would bring a hefty price nor was there any activity in the areas where the blood stock and prized horses were quartered in their pastures and barns. Whatever the person wanted was centered on the main house. That much was clear after the latest find.
From the oak knoll, one could find enough concealment in the bushes to have a view of the back of the home still some distance away. High-powered binoculars could put a person up close and personal…or a high-powered scope. That was a thought that he didn’t want to have to pursue.
Most people in the area knew that although the Tremayne family was wealthy, their wealth was in the land, the animals above ground and the black oil and gas beneath the land. Their impressive private art collection, which was Sal’s passion, was on loan to a gallery in Fort Worth. Sal wasn’t one for jewels, so there were few of those even though the house was protected by a state-of-the-art security system.
To be on the safe side, he placed a quick call to Damian Alexander, a buddy from his Army Ranger days and now partner in one of the best security companies in the world. He would know if there were any upgrades needed to their present system.
As he was driven to the airfield a few minutes later, Truitt found Annie and Jessie settling into his thoughts. They were on Tremayne land, and they were his responsibility to protect also. He had told Annie that once before, right after she arrived and was so ill. At the time, it had seemed to relax her mind and allow the meds to do their job. That had been his purpose then. Now, the sudden thought that followed that memory caused a bright light to switch on in his mind. Annie and Jessie.
Could the appearance of this stranger have something to do with them? Both Annie and Jessie seemed too nervous in the very beginning. Jessie often had a sadness that came over her at the oddest of times and add the nightmare and her terrified screams that one night…things had kept his mind trying to figure out what he was missing.
From the beginning, he had felt there was something, or someone perhaps, that Annie was running away from. He hoped over time she would gain enough trust in him to share whatever the case might be. O
f course, he seemed to always be putting his foot in his mouth more often than not and either saying or doing the wrong thing.
Such as taking advantage of the moonlight and how incredible Annie looked at The Gallery opening. She had looked like a goddess all done up in satin and lace. From the moment he found himself standing in the lightning and rain and looking into those soul-deep jade eyes, he knew he had been fighting a losing battle. Only in the beginning, he had no idea exactly what battle it was or who or what was the problem. Until he had kissed her the first time. And then he was no longer blind. Skylar and his time with her was fading away. He could understand that the anger he had felt the past few months had been a residual of that fact. She was his first love. And who knows what their lives would have been if she had lived. Losing her had formed a wall between him and being alive.
But then Annie had literally crashed into his life one storm-filled night, and with her came a clarity of mind and heart that he had never experienced before. It was like coming out of a thick fog and knowing what you wanted…and who. The only question that had no answer was what did Annie think? What did she feel? There was something…or someone…holding her back. He could feel it, but he couldn’t break through the hold it had on her. It took all his patience and reminding himself that he needed to proceed slowly. He didn’t want to push her away. Yet, he lived each day with a secret fear in his heart. Time was not on his side. One day, she might drive away. That was her plan. And he had no idea how to change her mind. No idea what would become of him if he had to stand and watch her go. But in the meantime, he needed to be close and keep watch.
Trouble was coming onto his land. And it was coming in the darkness. That was even worse. Until he could get to the bottom of the whole thing, there would be no way they could create a future or that he could even protect her from whatever the menace was. Truitt just knew that he needed to stay close to her and Jessie and be prepared for anything.
*
“You better not be calling to tell me you haven’t found them. I’m beginning to think my investment in you is a losing proposition. I don’t like wasting time and money.” Paul Grantham was not pleased. And when that happened, no one would be left unscathed. It was a toss-up what angered him the most at the moment: the fact he had just lost a fifty thousand dollar bet on a horse race or that the idiot he hired to track down and deal with bringing a couple of females back to his fold had come up short over the last couple of months. He might have just let it all slide but for the fact that his wife was making home life impossible with her continual tirades about his inability to give her the latest demand. She was determined to add that youngest girl to her possessions and mold her into a likeness of herself since their own daughters had failed to please her. It was also personal to him; his sister had never listened to him. Look how she had ended up with a lowlife, do-nothing mechanic. He told her she would live to regret it.
“I’ve found them.”
“Where?” The horses and his ego were forgotten. The man on the phone had his full attention.
“In a backwater town about an hour north of San Antonio, Texas. As luck would have it, the kid was interviewed on television about being in some country parade or something. I happened to see it on the TV over the bar at the truck stop I had pulled into for some food.”
“They made it all the way to Texas?” If he weren’t so angry at wasting so much time on those two dumb brats, he might have been slightly impressed that they had it in them to get so far from him. Of course, they weren’t all that smart. They’d been found.
“Yeah. They’re staying on a ranch. Rancher’s name is Tremayne, and they’re big fish in these parts…got some of that black gold on his land. The oldest gal is working in an artsy-fartsy gallery in town. She calls herself Annie. The kid is either with her or the rancher or his aunt most of the time. She doesn’t go to school. Word among the locals is that they’re planning to leave soon.”
“You’ve found out a lot. My next question is: why are they still not back in my state?”
“The ranch is a mini-fortress. Too many people around and those cowboys are also armed. There’s a festival going on in the town and there—”
“Maybe I didn’t make myself clear enough, Mr. Black. I gave you an assignment. It was quite simple in scope. Step one: find them. Step two: get them back here. Or better yet, just the youngest one. You know how to cause the older one some trouble of the sort that will perhaps keep her quiet and behind bars long enough to allow me to get the matters settled here where I am named as guardian in the best interest of the child.
“Is there a small-town police chief you can put in our pockets? It shouldn’t be too hard for you to handle that type of hayseed. Do I need to send someone else to finish this simple job that any moron could do? Of course, your debt to me would become fully due the moment I do that. Are you prepared to pay the price for that?”
“No. I’ll take care of it.”
“Don’t disappoint me. Waste any more time, and I’ll start adding interest to your debt.” The line went dead.
Mr. Black’s anger was just below the boiling point. For being so high and mighty, Grantham was just a sleazeball in an expensive suit. Thinking he could threaten him and he’d roll over and play dead? Fat chance. That’s why he believed in insurance policies. The small recorder went back inside his jacket pocket. Paul Grantham thought he was headed all the way to the governor’s mansion and then onward from there. But he’d have to make certain he wouldn’t leave him behind. Being in charge of his security would be a cushy job for his skillset. It was just a matter of timing.
Chapter Eleven
“I can’t believe you sold those two paintings,” Sal said, still shaking her head at the news as they walked along the sidewalk. “They’ve been on display for six months.”
“It was just a matter of the right person walking in at the right time. The Parsons moved to the area just a few weeks ago. Once I made some suggestions for displaying them in their formal dining room, on easels instead of the wall, something seemed to click for them,” Annie responded, smiling and returning the nods of townspeople they passed. In a short time, she had met and made some very nice friends. Or at least nice acquaintances who welcomed her and Jessie into their midst quite easily. Habits were beginning to form, also.
Each morning, she began her day with a tall mug of coffee and some chitchat with Melba. On a couple of occasions, Gray Dalton had even stopped in and enticed her to add a fritter to the coffee. Lunchtime was usually spent at the counter at the corner drugstore, where most often she would have a scoop of chicken salad on lettuce while Jessie had a grilled cheese and a milkshake.
She learned that Mrs. Dawson, who was the pharmacist and owned the drugstore, was an avid crochet buff. When she expressed an interest in learning someday, Mrs. Dawson had produced a skein of yarn and a needle the next day, and before she knew it, Annie had been taught a shell stitch pattern. A couple of the nurses from the clinic had stopped in at The Gallery one afternoon and before they left, had invited her to join their weekly book club.
Jessie had even made friends with a couple of people from the library, one of whom was the daughter of the doctor who had treated her flu. It was harder and harder to remember why moving to the city and not staying in Faris, was the better idea. The time was drawing closer when they would need to be on their way. Often, that thought was pushed away as soon as it came. For the time being, there was another four days of the festival ahead.
“The horse auction begins shortly. We need to hurry.” Sal picked up speed and Annie fell into her wake. From what she gathered, this was a pretty big deal and a major event of the festival. The arena was packed when they entered and made their way to the reserved seats at the far end from where the horses would enter.
“Have you ever been to a horse auction before, Miss Annie?” Pops asked, leaning over from his seat across the aisle.
“I’ve been to auctions before, but never to one involving lives
tock.”
“It should be interesting for you then.”
“Pops and Truitt told me all about it,” Jessie piped up from her seat just in front of Annie. She was dressed in her jeans and western shirt and she even had a cream-colored cowgirl hat on her head. Another gift from Aunt Sal. “I went to each stall this morning, and I picked out the ones I think will win.”
“Win?” Annie asked with confusion in her eyes. “I thought this was an auction?”
“It is.” Sal picked up the conversation. “First, the horses are put through their paces as working ranch horses—cutting cattle from the herd, penning, even allowing their rider to open and shut gates from their backs. They’re judged and scored. The rankings are announced. Then they go up for auction. There will be a dozen or so large ranches here today to bid and some smaller investors, too. However, the really big sale is in Fort Worth each year. We always travel to that one as Truitt generally enters some of our stock. You and Jessie must go with us next time.” Luckily, Aunt Sal turned her attention to the arrival of a couple of her friends across the way and did not see the shadow cross Annie’s face.
Annie knew she and Jessie would not be going to that show next year with the Tremaynes. They would be living in another city, and their lives would be far different than at that moment. She pushed the sudden sadness away from her mind. Making plans for the future wasn’t in the cards for them…not anytime soon. Today was the moment to enjoy. Tomorrow would come soon enough.
Annie was amazed once the event got underway. Twelve horses entered the arena, and on one, a large dappled gray gelding, sat Truitt once again in full cowboy regalia. The only difference was the red bandanna around his neck and the chaps covering his legs. These were fancier than he normally wore around the ranch and had the Four T brand displayed on them. As much as she tried to concentrate on the other competitors, her gaze kept finding its way back to him. He was the third rider and horse to go through the paces, and she watched, mesmerized by the skill. It was as if he and the animal were one being and moved as such. She marveled at how he could stay in the saddle on the sharp turns the horse made in order to separate and pen the steer who wanted nothing more than to be done with it all, free to return to its herd. She joined in the loud applause at the conclusion of his round.