Montana Dad

by Jeannie Watt

  The scene that met her in her bedroom had her stumbling backward. Her belongings were strewn everywhere. The mattress had been pulled off the bed and box spring knocked askew. The contents of the dresser drawers had been dumped and the drawers themselves overturned, as if someone had been looking for something taped to the bottom.

  Alex raced back down the stairs and out the back door. Once clear of the house, she dialed 911, explained that she’d had a break-in, then called her dogs and loaded them in her car.

  There she waited for the deputy to arrive, fighting nausea as she realized what might have happened had the person who’d ransacked her house arrived while she and Nick’s daughters had been happily making chocolate chip pancakes. The girls she had grown to love could have been innocent victims of the trouble she’d brought with her to Montana.

  She pressed her hand to her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut. Was this really trouble that she’d brought? Could this have been a coincidence? Could she be the victim of a random break-in, in a relatively crime-free area so soon after suffering a similar incident back in Virginia?

  Possible, but not probable.

  Another wave of sickness swept through her when she thought about Kendra’s and Bailey’s happy faces and what might have happened to them if the person who’d committed the robbery had been dangerous. If he’d wanted answers from her about Jason that she wouldn’t have been able to give.

  She reached out for Roger, who sat on console, and rubbed his wiry head, doing her best to calm herself before the deputy arrived. Gus poked at her from the back seat and she awkwardly turned her hand to pet him, too.

  “We need to get out of here for a while, guys.” She knew she was teetering on the edge of shock and that her thought processes were muddled because of it, but one thing was crystal clear—she needed to put distance between herself and the Callahans until she had answers. She would not allow the family to be hurt because she’d blithely allowed Jason Stoddard to use her as his patsy.

  * * *

  AS NICK APPROACHED the Dunlop ranch road, a sheriff’s vehicle pulled out in front of him and turned in the direction of Gavin.

  Odd, and, given the fact that only the Dunlop ranch and his ranch were accessed by that road, more than a little unnerving. He reached for his cell and punched in Alex’s number after making the turn, but he got no answer, and when he reached the gate, it was locked.

  He undid the padlock, pulled through, then stopped and locked it again.

  When he got to Alex’s house, she was in the process of loading a suitcase into her car. Nick stopped the truck and got out without bothering to turn off the motor.

  “What are you doing?”

  Alex didn’t meet his gaze as she said, “I’m leaving for a night or two.”

  “Why? What happened? Where are my girls?”

  “Safe with Rosalie.” The mention of his daughters seemed to shake something loose, and Alex pulled in a shuddering breath as she finally met his eyes.

  “They weren’t here.”

  His stomach tightened at the odd statement. Something was very, very wrong.

  “Here for what?” he growled, needing answers. What had put that look on Alex’s face and what hadn’t his girls been there for?

  Alex shut the rear door of her car. “The break-in.”

  “What?”

  She straightened her spine and her jaw muscles tightened before she said, “I dropped off the girls, went shopping, came home and...someone had taken my house apart while I was gone.”

  A low curse escaped his lips and he reached for her, but Alex jerked back out of reach. Slowly he dropped his arms, staring at her. Her face was pale, and her eyes had an odd blankness to them, as if she wasn’t allowing herself to feel.

  “You’re in shock.”

  “No. I was in shock. Now I’m engaging in a plan of action that I worked out with the deputy.”

  He noticed then that the dogs were in the back seat. She really was leaving for a night or two. “I don’t feel safe here for obvious reasons, so I’m going to stay where there are people nearby.”

  “Come to the ranch,” he said in a low voice. He needed her there, where he could calm her, protect her, find out what had happened. Then he’d find the person who had done this and take them apart.

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  She lifted her chin. “I need to go somewhere where I can think.”

  “You need to be somewhere you feel safe. You said so yourself.”

  “That isn’t with you.”

  Nick’s chin jerked as if she’d slapped him. “What does that mean?”

  Alex glanced down at the gravel between them, pressing her lips together so hard that they started to turn white. “I didn’t mean that to sound so harsh, but it’s true.” When she looked up again, she wore an expression of stony determination. “I let myself believe things that weren’t true, because I wanted to believe them, but when things got real—” she gestured at the house, making him believe that she was talking about the break-in “—I came to my senses. I don’t belong with you, Nick. I have too much baggage to be involved with your family.”

  She reached for the car door handle, and Nick had to close his fingers into fists to keep from pushing it shut again after she opened it.

  “That’s not true,” he said in a low voice.

  “You have no idea of what’s true. And as long as you have little girls and a grandmother to keep safe, you need to let me go.”

  He needed to keep her safe, too, and he had no idea how to do that, short of wrestling her into his truck and driving her to the ranch, which he had no right to do.

  “Where are you going? At least tell me that.”

  For a moment, he thought she was going to simply get into the car and drive away, but then she relented enough to say, “The local deputy suggested a place that I can stay. I’ll be back in a day or two. When I come back, I’ll be changing the lock on the gate. You can drive through the property until then.”

  “Are you coming back?”

  He had a strong feeling that she wasn’t. That, after she got to her safe place, she’d spend a night or two, then head out for parts unknown, attempting to stay one step ahead of whoever she thought was after her.

  “I said I was.”

  “Do you know for certain that this is related to your past?” He gestured at the house. “That this has something to do with your boss and the missing money?”

  “I’m not willing to take the chance that it isn’t,” she said. “For all of our sakes.”

  “Alex—”

  “I have to go.” She got in the car and shut the door, leaving Nick staring helplessly through the window. Helpless wasn’t his normal mode of operation, but he had no idea how to handle the situation. Alex was right—if her presence put his daughters in danger, then they had to think of a different way to tackle this. But they needed to tackle it. He couldn’t simply allow her to drive out of his life...which she was doing.

  He stepped back automatically as she put the car into gear, then drove toward the gate that had originally brought them together.

  Then he turned and stalked to his truck, his jaw muscles so tightly clenched that his temples were beginning to throb.

  He thought about following her, then instead turned in the direction of his own ranch. The deputy had told her where to go. She had a plan and it sounded as if she was going to follow it. Unfortunately, her plan involved removing herself from his life. He hit the steering wheel with the palm of his hand before putting the truck in gear.

  Alex wasn’t the only one who had some serious thinking to do.

  * * *

  “GREAT. THANKS, COLBY. I owe you.” Nick hung up the phone and turned to his sister, who was leaning against the kitchen counter, staring at him. Now he could add relief to anger, frustration and
confusion.

  “Well?”

  “Colby can’t tell me where Alex is, but she checked in with the sheriff’s office in case they had information, so they know she’s safe. And I imagine, given the time frame, she didn’t travel too far.”

  “So she’s in a pet-friendly motel somewhere in a hundred-mile radius.” Katie folded her arms over her chest. “What now?”

  Nick gave her a frustrated look. “I have no idea. She made it clear that she thinks she’s putting our family in danger.”

  Katie scowled. “Is she?”

  Nick swallowed. “I don’t know.” And it was killing him. “But if she’s in danger, I need to figure out a way to help her without getting the girls involved.”

  Bailey came into the room holding up a pink nightgown covered with tiny metallic stars. “I’m wearing my Wapunzel dress to the sleepover.”

  Nick met Katie’s gaze over the top of Bailey’s head, then knelt down to deliver a hard truth. “Honey. Alex had to go away for a few days. There won’t be a sleepover.”

  Bailey’s eyes went wide. “But...”

  “No sleepover!” Kendra practically skidded into the room.

  “Alex had to leave for a while,” Katie said.

  “We can have it when she comes back.” Kendra had a determined edge to her voice.

  Nick thought about lying to ease the blow, but what would it get him in the long run? If he wanted his girls to trust him in the future, to believe him when he warned them about the dangers of life, then he couldn’t give them false hope now.

  “I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of Alex anymore.”

  His statement was met by stricken looks.

  “Wh-why?” Kendra asked in a small voice. “Did something happen?”

  Oh, yeah. Something had happened, and this was the reason Nick had feared diving back into the dating pool. Why he’d sworn to himself that if and when he did start dating, it would not affect his girls. Yet here they were, both hovering at the edge of a meltdown.

  No... Bailey had just gone over. Big crocodile tears started rolling down her cheeks.

  Nick gathered his girls to him, and once his arms were around them, they both dissolved. His fault. He’d gotten too involved. And Alex...he was angry with her, but he was also sick with worry.

  “Hey. Sometimes people come into our lives, but it’s only for a little while. Then we have to let them leave.”

  “But I love her,” Bailey whispered against his shoulder, and he felt Kendra nod in agreement.

  Yeah. Me, too.

  And he didn’t know what to do about it.

  An hour later, after he’d put the girls to bed, Nick joined Katie at the table.

  “Cassie called while you were gone.”

  “How’s she doing?” Nick asked, assuming that she had to be doing better than he was.

  “She sounded kind of tense. I worry about her.” Katie fixed a sad gaze on him. “But I’m more worried about you.”

  “I’m fine.” He wasn’t. “It’s the girls I’m concerned about.”

  “Kids are resilient.”

  “Then why are there all those articles out there about how kids get warped by small incidents?”

  “Your daughters have four stable individuals watching over them. Me and you, Brady and Grandma. They have a solid base.”

  “Yeah. I guess you’re right.” He studied the woodworking scars on his hands, which were loosely clasped on the table in front of him. “Colby said she’d call me if she finds out anything about the break-in that can be passed along.”

  “Aren’t you glad you dated a future deputy back in junior high?”

  He gave a short grunt of acknowledgment, then raised his gaze. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Do you love her?”

  His heart twisted inside him. Despite being angry and worried and frustrated, there was no getting around the fact that he loved her. He wanted to be with her and to protect her, but he couldn’t turn his daughters’ lives upside down.

  Katie must have read his answer in his face, because she said, “I like her a lot, too.”

  “What am I going to do?” he said more to himself than to his sister.

  “I imagine you’ll do what you always do,” Katie said, raising her eyebrows in a thoughtful way. “You’ll find a way.”

  * * *

  ALEX KNEW SHE wasn’t exactly invisible living on the ground floor of a motel near the freeway in Dillon. It was difficult to walk two dogs regularly without having people notice, but the important thing was that she wasn’t alone. If someone came after her here, she’d have help nearby, something she didn’t have at the ranch.

  Alex peered through the slit between the closed curtains. The sun was setting, and soon she’d walk the dogs again and then eat yet another granola bar. The dogs were actually eating better than she was, because when she’d stopped at the local store before checking into the motel, she’d had no trouble figuring out that the dogs would want to eat dog food, but in her stressed-out state she didn’t feel like eating at all. Finally, she’d bought a couple of boxes of granola bars and a bag of apples. Subsistence food. And even though no one had followed her on the highway, she still felt like she was being watched, just as she had after the assault in her apartment.

  After pulling the curtains tightly shut again, Alex sat on the bed. Roger instantly jumped up to sit next to her and put his head on her lap. Both dogs stayed close to her, and when they weren’t actually touching her, they watched her closely, sensing that all was not well.

  Understatement.

  She kept having the nightmare thoughts about what might have happened if Kendra and Bailey had been there during the break-in. What if Nick’s daughters had been hurt because of her?

  The thought of people she loved becoming collateral damage ruined her. The Callahans had opened their hearts and homes to her, and she would not have them hurt because of it.

  Tomorrow she had to make a move—either go back to the ranch or...she had no idea. She’d thought that once she was off the ranch and in a safe place, she’d be able to calm her nerves to the point that she could think straight, but so far that hadn’t happened.

  If she went back to Virginia, she’d have to give up her two canine best friends. She couldn’t take them with her without actually adopting them—not legally, anyway—and if she found herself in a situation where she was hiding out somewhere else, then there was no way she could have two dogs with her.

  Which raised the question—did she need to hide out?

  It was possible someone had simply broken into her house to steal things, but how could she accept that as fact without any substantiating evidence? And until she knew for a fact that she was safe, she wasn’t about to have contact with Nick and his family, because she needed for them to be safe.

  This was her issue and she would handle it alone.

  Now she had to figure out how.

  And she needed to stop thinking about Nick, because that, too, was ruining her.

  * * *

  IT WAS NEARLY midnight when the text came in, startling Alex as she lay in bed with a dog on either side of her. It said simply, “I need to talk to you. Please don’t shut me out.”

  Alex stared at her phone, stunned that he’d reached out to her, and stunned at how badly she didn’t want to shut Nick out. She’d said horrible things to him, but everything in her cried out for contact with the guy who made her feel whole again. Made her feel safe, even though that had obviously been an illusion.

  Did she go with honesty or another hurtful lie to push him away?

  I have to.

  There. A painful middle ground.

  Alex pulled in a shaky breath. She was doing the right thing in the wrong way. The least she could do was to tell him the full truth instead of handling things the way she had, out of f
ear and protectiveness. Her phone buzzed again.

  I have news.

  Alex’s brow furrowed. News?

  Deputies caught kids breaking into a house tonight.

  Alex was still processing that bit of news, and the fact that Nick knew, when her phone buzzed again.

  I need to see you.

  Another buzz and another text.

  I need answers.

  True. He did. She owed him that.

  Tomorrow morning? Harrington Inn. Dillon.

  She replied, I’ll be there.

  Maybe it was because of the news about the kids being caught breaking into the house, or maybe it was sheer exhaustion, but Alex fell asleep shortly after Nick’s last text, waking with a start when her phone rang. She pushed herself up onto one elbow as Roger jumped off the bed and flopped down next to Gus near the chair beneath the window.

  The room was dark, but she could see a sliver of light shining in from beneath the curtains as she pushed her hair back. The phone rang again, and she snapped on the light to check the number on her phone against the number on the card the deputy had given her before answering.

  “This is Deputy Lauren Colby. We made an arrest for breaking and entering at a rural residence last night. They had a car trunk full of stuff. Some of it might be yours.”

  “Was there a laptop?”

  “Several.”

  Could it be that simple?

  “Thank you for telling me. What’s the next step?”

  “We have to process the items,” the deputy continued, “so we’ll give you a call and make arrangements for you to identify anything that belongs to you. Will you be in the area?”

  “Yes,” Alex said. She would. “You can reach me at this number regardless.”

  She hung up the phone and got out of bed, again wondering if the question of who had broken into her house had been solved. A part of her whispered no.

  The thieves had laptops, but was one of them hers? And if these people were thieves, then why had they taken her laptop, but ignored her jewelry, which had been scattered across the bedroom floor along with the other items in her drawer and jewelry box. Even a rookie thief should have recognized the value of her pearls and the gold-and-diamond tennis bracelet.