The Ranger And The Widow Woman

by Bagwell, Stella

Sam grinned and nodded. “Buster never gets tired. He wants to play all the time.”

  I need a watchdog around the place.

  Charlie’s comment to his mother suddenly came back to Violet and she realized once again what a feeble excuse he’d had for bringing the dog here to the cabin. The only time Buster barked was when he was taunting Sam into playing with him.

  Charlie had brought the dog here for Sam and no other reason, she concluded. Did he love her son, too?

  The question brought another lump of tears to her throat, and she desperately swallowed them down and blinked the salty moisture from her eyes.

  “I understand Buster doesn’t get tired, but you need to let him rest now and then or he’ll get too hot. squatted down on the same level as her son. “But Sam, you’ll want a dog of your own when we find our new home. Remember? You said you wanted to call him Mike.”

  With his cheek pressed to Buster’s ear, Sam said, “I remember. But we don’t have to go find a home anymore. We live with Charlie now.”

  Chapter Nine

  Charlie must have taken the cellular phone with him. Since he’d left early this morning, Violet had searched everywhere in the house for it. And the more she looked the more she wanted to scream with frustation. She needed that phone to check on her car!

  The hum of a motor suddenly caught her attention and she slammed the closet door shut and hurried out to the front porch. The sight of Justine pulling to a halt in the yard was a relief. If anything the woman could call the mechanic for her.

  “Good morning,” Justine said brightly as she climbed the steps to the porch. “Has Charlie gone somewhere?”

  Violet nodded, then motioned for Justine to take one of the rope-bottomed chairs. “I think he was going to Portales. I’m not certain. He mumbled something about it as he left. That was about an hour ago. I’m sure he’ll be gone all day.”

  Justine appeared completely taken aback at this news. “Charlie is gone to Portales? What in the world is he doing there?”

  Violet shrugged. “I don’t know. He doesn’t tell me what he’s doing at any of the places he runs off to. Oh, he said he was seeing old friends and acquaintances. But I’m beginning to believe something else is going on with him.”

  Justine shook her head and from the puzzled expression on her face, it was obvious she hadn’t known her son had been going anywhere for any reason. “I thought Charlie had been staying here at the cabin. Resting and vacationing. You mean this isn’t the first time he’s gone off somewhere?”

  Violet couldn’t stop a disbelieving laugh from passing her lips. “Charlie’s gone nearly every day now.” She looked at Justine. “Almost ever since you brought him that note. I don’t want to seem nosy, Justine, but was that bad news or something?”

  Justine. scanned her memory, then her eyes widened as she recalled the morning she’d brought the telephone number to her son. “No. It wasn’t anything bad. His captain back in Fort Worth had called. He’d given me a number for Charlie to call him back. I asked my son about it later and he’d said he’d lucked out and his captain was giving him a few more weeks vacation. After that, I dismissed the whole thing from my mind.”

  “Well, I can tell you, Justine, Charlie deosn’t act like a man on vacation. He did the first few days we were here. But now he behaves as if...he’s on a mission or something.”

  Justine’s expression suddenly turned grim. “Damn him!” she muttered. “I wished I’d told him to go jump in the lake!”

  Of all the time she’d been here, she’d never heard the older woman curse or speak badly of anyone. Something obviously had her stirred up. “Who? What are you talking about?” Violet asked.

  “Charlie’s captain! The man sends my son out here to rest and recuperate and now he does this to him! I think I’m going straight home and call him myself. It probably won’t do any good and Charlie would kill me if he knew, but I don’t care. Enough is enough!”

  “Justine, what are you talking about? Do you believe Charlie is working? Is that why he’s mysteriously going off to all these other towns?”

  Justine nodded as anger seethed in her green eyes. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”

  Violet’s mind began to race. “But is that legal? Do Texas Rangers have the right or any legal jurisdiction to investigate a crime here in New Mexico?”

  “If the crime seeped over the line or had originated in Texas. And obviously one has, and Charlie’s captain has put him on it.” She sighed, shook her head and tried to collect herself. “Oh well, Charlie’s a big boy. He’s not like Sam anymore. I can’t tell him how to live his life. It’s just that I’ve been so worried about him and then when he came home and had you with him—”

  She smiled as Violet cast her a questioning glance.

  “I had hopes things were changing for my son.”

  “You don’t mean because of me, do you?”

  Justine nodded. “It’s like Anna told you. Charlie has never brought a woman home with him. True, he does like to play the rescuer, but I got the feeling you were more. I still do.”

  Groaning, Violet’s gaze dropped to her lap. “Charlie is a wonderful man. I admire his courage and intelligence and dedication to his job. I even marvel at the way he deals with Sam—and he’s never even been a father before. A ‘thank you’ couldn’t begin to repay all he’s done for me and my son, but I—”

  “You don’t care for him in a personal way. Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

  Violet was trying to think how she could answer Charlie’s mother when Justine suddenly let out a disappointing laugh. It made Violet feel even worse than she already did.

  “Well,” Justine went on with good-natured resignation. “That’s what I get for being a hopeless romantic. But I’ve wanted so long for Charlie to find someone for himself. Someone he can love and share his life with. And you seem perfect for him.”

  Violet couldn’t look at the woman. “Not really. Charlie deserves someone much better than me.”

  “Violet!” she scolded. “That’s an awful thing to say about yourself. And why would you? You’re beautiful and intelligent. Warm and compassionate. I can’t think of what else my son might want in a woman.”

  He wouldn’t want someone who’d once been labeled a thief, Violet thought sadly. He wouldn’t want a woman who’d discovered a crime and then deliberately run from it.

  She looked at the older woman, and because she’d grown close to her, she reached over and clutched her hand out of pure need. “Justine, you’re so wonderful to say these things. But you don’t understand. I didn’t come from a nice family like you. My father was...I guess still is an alcoholic. He hated me from the moment my mother brought me home. I was adopted, you see, and he didn’t want a kid that wasn’t his.”

  Justine laughed again but this time the sound wasn’t disappointment, it was relief. “Oh Violet, how silly that you could put yourself down for something like that. You didn’t have a problem, he did. And as for being adopted there’s nothing wrong with that. Anna and Adam are adopted, you know. Hasn’t Charlie told you their story?”

  Violet was totally surprised. “No. I remember when I met Anna that evening at your house, she mentioned something about being your niece and your half sister, too. I couldn’t figure out what she could possibly mean.”

  Justine smiled with understanding. “Well, to make a long story short, our father had an affair we didn’t know about until after he passed away. Months later someone, we didn’t know who at the time, left twin babies on the Bar M porch in a laundry basket. After a long investigation Roy discovered the babies belonged to Daddy and a woman originally from Houston. She was Wyatt’s sister.”

  “The twins call Chloe and Wyatt their mother and dad,” Violet said as she tried to digest Justine’s story.

  “That’s right. Chloe and Wyatt adopted them shortly after they were married. As for their real mother, she died of an overdose of drugs in a mental hosptial.”

  Violet su
cked in a shocked breath. “How awful!”

  Her expression grim, Justine nodded. “Very awful. So you see, the Murdock sisters didn’t come from a perfect family. Far from it. So quit beating yourself up.”

  Other than her mother, Violet couldn’t remember anyone making her feel good about who she was, where she’d come from, or who she would eventually be. The fact that Justine could be so loving and encouraging, even when she believed Violet didn’t want her son, was unimaginable.

  Tears sprung from Violet’s eyes and she squeezed Justine’s hand even tighter. “Oh Justine,” she said with a sniff. “I feel like an awful hypocrite.”

  “Violet? My dear, are you crying?” she asked worriedly. “What in the world is the matter?”

  “I’m in love with your son. And he says he loves me. But I have to leave. Don’t ask me why. I just do. And I need for you to help me get my car. Will you?”

  Justine rose to her feet just as Sam and Buster came barreling around to the front porch. Both dog and boy were covered with dirt and Sam was holding up a rusted piece of metal.

  “Look, Mommy! Me and Buster found a gun in the backyard under the tree.”

  Violet shot to her feet “Where? Let me see!”

  Since Justine was the closest adult to him, Sam handed her the object. She turned it over in her palm, then quickly laughed. “Well, my goodness, it’s one of Charlie’s old sixshooters.”

  She held the harmless toy up for Violet to see. “It shot caps. You know, the little red strips that pop when you fire the hammer.” She handed the toy back to Sam. “Charlie played with that when he was a little boy like you,” she told him.

  “Oh, wow!” He thrust the pistol into the front pocket on his jeans and strutted across the porch. “Look, Buster! I’m a real cowboy now!”

  Once the distraction of Sam’s discovery was over Violet glanced at Justine. “What about my car? Will you take me to get it?”

  Justine studied her thoughtfully for a moment. “Only if you’ll promise me one thing.”

  “What?”

  “That you won’t leave until you talk with Charlie.”

  It was not a promise Violet necessarily wanted to keep. But under the circumstances she didn’t have much choice. And in the end, she knew she couldn’t simply walk away without telling Charlie goodbye.

  “I promise,” she murmured.

  Justine nodded, then turned to Sam. “How would you like to go into town for ice cream?” she asked him.

  The idea sounded pretty good to Sam until he cast Buster a regretful look. “Can he go, too?”

  “Sure. He can ride in the back. But first I want you to go around to the water hose, wash your hands and face and then wash the dirt off Buster. Okay?”

  “Okay!”

  The boy and dog were gone like a shot and then Justine turned back to Violet.

  “You realize that once we get to the ice cream shop, I’m going to want to hear the rest.”

  Violet nodded glumly. “I know. I’ll tell you what I can.”

  Rex O’Dell. Violet O’Dell. Could it be? Charlie asked himself as he stared out the windshield of his pickup. The desert between Clovis and Roswell was flat, unending and presently brown from a long stretch without rain. There was nothing in the landscape to distract his spinning thoughts or blot out what he’d cottoned onto this afernoon.

  Mommy says it’s those damn cattle pens that do it to me. Mommy says it’s those damn cattle pens that do it to me.

  Could Sam’s innocent remark have meant Rex O’Dell’s cattle pens?

  Damn it all to hell! Charlie silently cursed. It couldn’t be, but it had to be! There couldn’t be two Rex O’Dells. The name was too unusual. And Violet had never hidden the fact that she’d been living in Amarillo.

  He felt sick and cheated. But a flicker of hope in him struggled to stay alive as he reasoned that Violet might not have known about Rex. She’d implied he was not a man she wanted to be around. But had she known the Texas Rangers were after him?

  A knot of fear in his stomach, he pressed down harder on the accelerator. He was already breaking the speed limit, but he didn’t care. The highway was virtually empty and he had to get home. To Violet and some answers.

  “Mommy, do you think I’ll grow up to be as big as Charlie someday?”

  From her seat on the couch, Violet put her novel to one side and looked at her son. She’d used one of his little belts to fashion him a holster for the rusty pistol he’d found beneath the cottonwood. Justine had offered to buy him a shiny new pistol in town, but Sam didn’t go for the idea at all. He wanted Charlie’s gun. And even though it was nearly bedtime he still hadn’t taken it off.

  “Maybe. If you eat the right things and take your vitamins.” She patted the cushion beside her. Sam sidled up to her, and she brushed his tousled hair off his forehead. “You know,” she said, “you don’t have to be big in size to be important. It’s what’s in here that makes you a brave, strong man.” She tapped him on the chest and he giggled.

  “Is that what makes Charlie brave and strong? Something in here?” He patted his own chest again.

  For more times than she cared to think today, tears threatened to well up in her eyes. She loved Charlie and Sam loved him, too. How was she ever going to be brave enough to take them away from here?

  “Yes. Charlie has something good in there,” she answered, then gave him a playful tweak on the chin. “Now, I think it’s time you went to bed, young man. Buster will be wanting to play in the morning, and you’ll still be asleep.”

  “But Charlie isn’t home yet,” he complained, “and I wanted to show him my six-shooter!”

  “It might be very late before Charlie gets home. You can show him in the morning.”

  He whined a few more moments, but finally decided to give in and let his mother tuck him into bed. An hour later he was sound asleep when the headlights of Charlie’s truck swept through the living room.

  Violet was still on the couch, trying to calm her nerves enough to understand what she’d been reading, but she’d had little success. She knew the first thing Charlie was going to notice was her car sitting out front, and she was going to have to tell him why she’d gone after it.

  While he cut the motor and walked to the house, Violet forced herself to remain in her seat and try to appear casual when he came through the door.

  She must have appeared invisible because he didn’t even notice her in the dimly lit room. Without a glance in the direction of the couch, he strode straight to the kitchen.

  “Violet!”

  His voice boomed through the little house. She jumped to her feet and hurried after him.

  “I was in the living room. What’s wrong?”

  He whirled around, then immediately went stockstill as his eyes found her in the open doorway. For the first time since he’d met her she was wearing a dress. It was pale ice blue and cut to fit her bodice. Buttons fastened the front all the way down to her knees. Charlie’s gaze lingered on the last three which had been left undone.

  “Are you hungry? I fixed goulash for supper. Sam ate most of it, but there’s a little left.”

  She started across the room to the refrigerator. As she passed him, Charlie reached out and snatched ahold of her arm. She let out a little cry of surprise as he tugged her back to him.

  “What is your car doing outside?”

  His voice was cold, and uneasiness swept through her like a sharp winter wind.

  “Your mother took me to get it.”

  “I didn’t ask how it got here. I asked why.”

  In spite of her apprehension, anger flickered in her eyes. She’d done nothing to deserve such a cool greeting. “It’s my car. I didn’t intend to leave it in Ruidoso forever.”

  “How did you pay for it?”

  She tried to jerk her arm free of his grip. When he refused to let go she glared at him. “I told you I was going to write a check on my account back in Amarillo.”

  The grip of his fingers eas
ed as surprise flickered over his face. “Aren’t you afraid Rex will find you now?”

  She was. But she was more afraid of Charlie discovering her past. “It will be a few days before the check clears the bank and the statement shows up in the O’Dell mail box. By then...” She couldn’t go on. She couldn’t bear to tell him she would soon be gone and out of his life.

  “By then what?” he prompted. “What are you planning to do? Leave? Run from me?”

  The wounded sound in his voice filled her throat with tears. She swallowed several times before she could utter a word. “Charlie, I... told you before I couldn’t stay.”

  He lifted his hat and swiped a weary hand through his hair. “And why is that, Violet? And, please, this time give me the truth.”

  Her heart thumped at his softly spoken question. She knew he truly wanted to help her. But for everyone’s own good she had to force herself to shut him out.

  “I don’t think you understand that Rex is a relentless man. He won’t stop searching until he finds me.”

  “Why?”

  Her gaze whipped up to meet his. “I’ve told you before! Because of Sam. With Brent dead, he wants to take over his grandson and make him into the man his son was before the plane crash. That’s the last thing I want.”

  She seemed so innocent, so incapable of deceit. Yet during his drive home, the more Charlie had reflected on all he’d learned, the more he knew she was somehow involved with Rex. Just how deeply he didn’t know. A part of him didn’t want to know. But it was his job. Always his job to pull the worst kind of secrets out of people. And for the first time in his life Charlie wished he was anything but a lawman.

  Clapping his hat back on his head, he said flatly, “I guess I should count myself lucky you’re still here. What’s keeping you now? You’ve got your car back.”

  Her gaze fell to the floor as the pain in his voice struck heavy blows to her heart.

  “I promised your mother I wouldn’t leave until I talked with you.”

  And she’d kept her promise. It didn’t make sense, Charlie thought. The agony on her face convinced him she was hiding something that was torturing her. Yet she didn’t love or trust him enough to confide in him.