Under Threat

by B. J Daniels

  Hud swore as he climbed behind the wheel, started the engine and headed for the ranch. It didn’t take much to put the coffee cup and the barista named Lucy together with an apparently disturbed woman named Fiona Barkley who had a lot of priors in her past. His dead deputy had seen the report and kept the results to himself. He had the tie-in with Dillon and the barista, he thought his stomach roiling. His daughter was on a horseback ride with a killer.

  * * *

  Lucy gritted her teeth as she watched Mary ride to the edge of the mountain and dismount. As she stared at her back, there was nothing more Lucy could say. She could tell that Mary was angry with her. Angry at a friend who was just trying to help her. Mary thought she knew Chase better than her.

  Lucy wanted to laugh at that. She knew the cowboy better than Mary assumed. Maybe it was time to enlighten her. Look how easily Chase had cast her aside. How he’d gotten that irritated look whenever he saw her after that first night. He’d wanted her to go away. He’d gotten what he wanted from her and no longer needed her.

  Instead, he thought he needed Mary. Sweet, precious Mary. She glared at the woman’s back as she rode toward her, reined in and dismounted. She told herself that she’d tried to save Mary. It was Mary’s own fault if she wouldn’t listen. Now the cowgirl would need to die. It would have to look like an accident. Earlier, she’d thought about pulling the pocketknife she’d brought and jamming it into the side of her horse.

  But she’d realized that Mary had been raised on horses. She probably wouldn’t get bucked off when the horse reared or even when it galloped down the narrow trail in pain.

  No, it had been a chance she couldn’t take. But one way or another Mary wasn’t getting off this mountain alive, she thought as she stepped over to stand beside her.

  The view was just as Mary had said it was. They stood on a precipice overlooking a dozen mountains that stretched far into the horizon.

  Below them was the canyon with its green-tone river snaking through the pines and canyon walls. It would have been so easy to push Mary off and watch her tumble down the mountain. But there was always the chance that the fall wouldn’t kill her.

  Lucy reached into her pocket and fingered the gun as she said, “I slept with Chase in Arizona.”

  Chapter 19

  Chase roared up in his pickup and leaped out as Dana ran toward him.

  “The wrangler had horses saddled for them. He said they headed up the road into the mountains,” she told him as he rushed toward her. He could see that she’d been saddling horses. “Hud wants you to wait for him. If this woman is as dangerous as you say she is—”

  “I’m the one she wants. Not Mary. If I wait, it might be too late.” He swung up into the horse she’d finished saddling and spurred it forward. Dana grabbed the reins to stop him.

  “I know I can’t talk you out of going. Here, take this.” She handed him the pistol he knew she kept in the barn. “It’s loaded and ready to fire. Be careful.” Her voice broke. “Help Mary.”

  He rode off up the road headed for the mountaintop. He knew where Mary would take Lucy. It was her favorite spot—and the most dangerous.

  As he rode at a full-out gallop, he thought of his misgivings about Lucy. Fiona must have loved the fact that she’d fooled him. That she’d fooled them all, especially trusting Mary. The woman had known exactly how to worm her way into Mary’s life, how to get her claws into her and make her believe that she was her friend.

  What Fiona didn’t know how to do was let go.

  He took the trail, riding fast and hard, staying low in the saddle to avoid the pine tree limbs. His heart was in his throat, his fear for Mary a thunderous beat in his chest and his abhorrence for Fiona a bitter taste in his mouth. He prayed as he rode that he would reach them in time. That the woman Fiona had become would spare Mary who’d done nothing to her.

  But he had little hope. He knew Fiona. She had come all the way to Montana to extract her vengeance. She’d become another person, Lucy, taking her time, playing Mary. Did she know that they were on to her? That’s what frightened him the most. If she thought that Mary was turning against her or that the authorities knew...

  * * *

  Mary turned to the woman in surprise, telling herself she must have heard wrong. “What did you just say?”

  “I slept with Chase before you sent the letter.”

  She stared at the woman even as her heart began to pound. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m Fiona.”

  Mary took a step back as the woman she’d known as Lucy pulled a gun and pointed it at her heart.

  Lucy laughed. “Surprise! I read your pathetic letter, and I hated you for taking him from me. You’re the reason Chase broke up with me. Instead, the accident helped me become Lucy. You liked Lucy, didn’t you? We could have been such good friends. But then Chase showed up—just as I knew he would.”

  Mary’s mind was reeling. This was Lucy. And yet as she stared at her, she knew this was the woman who Chase said had tried to kill him before he left Arizona. The woman he’d said was delusional.

  “You think you know him so well.” Lucy shook her head. “I was in love with him. He and I were so good together. You don’t want to believe that, do you? Well, it’s true. There was something between us, something real and amazing, but then you wrote that letter.” Lucy’s face twisted in disgust. “You ruined my life. You ruined Chase’s.”

  Mary was shaking her head, still having trouble believing this was happening. Chase had tried to warn her, but she’d thought she knew Lucy. She’d really thought she was a friend.

  Until she’d taken a sip of the coffee this morning and tasted that horribly familiar chalky taste. “You drugged me.”

  Lucy shrugged. “You shouldn’t have poured out your coffee this morning. That was really rude. I was nice enough to get it for you.”

  “You wanted to make me sick again?”

  “I was being kind,” Lucy said, looking confused. “This would have been so much easier if you’d been sick. Now, it’s going to get messy.” She jabbed the gun at her. “If you had just stayed mad at Chase, this wouldn’t be happening either.”

  Mary didn’t know what to say or do. She’d never dealt with someone this unbalanced. “You want to make him suffer. Is that what this is about?”

  Lucy smiled her gap-toothed smile. “For starters.”

  “You want him to fall in love with you again.” She saw at once that was exactly what Lucy wanted. “But if you hurt me, that won’t happen.”

  “It won’t happen anyway and we both know it. Because of you.” The woman sounded close to tears. “I could have made him happy. Before the letter came from you, he needed me. I could tell. He would have fallen in love with me.”

  Mary doubted that, but she kept the thought to herself. “If you hurt me, you will lose any chance you have for happiness.”

  Lucy laughed, sounding more like the woman she’d thought she knew. “Women like me don’t find happiness. That’s what my mother used to say. But then she let my stepfather and brothers physically and sexually abuse me.”

  Mary felt her heart go out to the woman despite the situation. “I’m so sorry. That’s horrible. You deserved so much better.”

  Lucy laughed. “I took care of all of them, sending them to hell on earth, and for a while, I was happy, now that I think about it.”

  “Lucy—”

  “Call me Fiona. I know how much you hate hearing that name. Fiona. Fiona. Fiona.” She let out a high-pitched laugh that drowned out birdsong but not the thunder of hooves as a horse and rider came barreling across the mountaintop.

  * * *

  Chase reined in his horse as all his fears were realized. The women had been standing at the edge of the mountaintop, Fiona holding a gun pointed at Mary’s heart. But when they’d heard him coming, Fiona had grabbed Mary and pressed the m
uzzle of the weapon to her rival’s throat.

  “Nice you could join us,” Fiona said as he slowly dismounted. “I wondered how long it would take before you realized who I was.”

  “I sensed it the first time I saw you,” he said as he walked toward the pair, his gaze on Fiona and the gun. He couldn’t bear to look into Mary’s eyes. Fear and disgust. This was all his fault. He’d brought Fiona into their lives. Whatever happened, it was on him.

  “I knew it was you,” he said, and she smiled.

  “It’s the chemistry between us. When you pretended not to know me, well, that hurt, Chase. After everything we meant to each other...”

  “Exactly,” he said. “That’s why you need to let Mary go. This is between you and me, Fiona.”

  Her face clouded. “Please, you think I don’t know that you came riding up like that to save her?”

  “Maybe I came to save you.”

  Fiona laughed, a harsh bitter sound. “Save me from what?”

  “Yourself. Have any of the men you’ve known tried to save you, Fiona?” The question seemed to catch her off guard. “Did any of them care what happened to you?”

  She met his gaze. “Don’t pretend you care.”

  “I’m not pretending. I never wanted to hurt you. When I heard they found your car in the river, I was devastated. I didn’t want things to end that way for you.” He saw her weaken a little and took a step toward her and Mary.

  “But you don’t love me.”

  That was true and he knew better than to lie. “No. I’d already given away my heart when I met you. It wasn’t fair, but it’s the truth.”

  “But you picked me up at that party and brought me back to your place.”

  He shook his head as he took another step closer. “Rick asked you to drive me home because I’d had too much to drink.”

  She stared at him as if she’d told herself the story so many times, she didn’t remember the truth. “But we made love.”

  “Did we? I remember you pulling off my boots and jeans right before I passed out.”

  Fiona let out a nervous laugh. “We woke up in the same bed.”

  “We did,” he agreed as he stepped even closer. “But I suspect that’s all that happened that night.”

  She swallowed and shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “I liked you. I thought you and I—”

  “But you knew better once I told you that I was in love with someone else.”

  “Still, if you had given us a chance.” Fiona made a pleading sound.

  “Let Mary go. She had nothing to do with what happened between us.”

  Fiona seemed to realize how close he was to the two of them. She started to take a step back, dragging Mary along with her. The earth crumbled under her feet and she began to fall.

  Chase could see that she planned to take Mary with her. He dived for the gun, for Mary, praying Fiona didn’t pull the trigger as she fell. He caught Mary with one hand and reached for the gun barrel with the other. The report of the handgun filled the air as he yanked Mary forward, breaking Fiona’s hold on her. But Mary still teetered on the sheer edge of the cliff as he felt a searing pain in his shoulder. His momentum had carried him forward. He shoved Mary toward the safety of the mountain top as was propelled over the edge of the drop-off.

  He felt a hand grab his sleeve. He looked up to see Mary, clinging to him, determined not to let him fall.

  Below him, he saw Fiona tumbling down the mountainside over boulders. Her body crashed into a tree trunk, but kept falling until it finally landed in a pile of huge rocks at the bottom.

  As Mary helped pull him back up to safety, he saw that Fiona wasn’t moving, her body a rag doll finally at rest. Behind them he heard horses. Pulling Mary to him, he buried his face in her neck, ignoring the pain in his shoulder as he breathed in the scent of her.

  “He’s shot,” Chase heard Dana cry before everything went black.

  Chapter 20

  Chase opened his eyes to see Mary sitting next to his hospital bed as the horror of what had happened came racing back. “Are you—”

  “I’m fine,” she said quickly, and rose to reach for his hand. “How are you?”

  He glanced down at the bandage on his shoulder. “Apparently, I’m going to live. How long have I been out?”

  “Not long. You were rushed into surgery to remove the bullet. Fortunately, it didn’t hit anything vital.”

  He stared into her beautiful blue eyes. “I was so worried about you. I’m so sorry.”

  She shook her head. “I should have listened to you.”

  Chase laughed. “I wouldn’t make a habit of that.”

  “I’m serious. You tried to warn me.”

  He sobered. “This is all my fault.”

  “You didn’t make her do the things she did.” Her voice broke. Tears filled her eyes. “I thought we were both going to die. You saved my life.”

  “You saved mine,” he said, and squeezed her hand. “Once I’m out of this bed—”

  “Slow down, cowboy,” the doctor said as he came into the room. “It will be a while before you get out of that bed.”

  “I need to get well soon, Doc. I’m going to marry this woman.”

  Mary laughed. “I think he’s delirious,” she joked, her cheeks flushed.

  “I’ve never been more serious,” he called after her as the doctor shooed her from the room. “I love that woman. I’ve always loved Mary Cardwell Savage,” he called before the door closed. He was smiling as he lay back, even though the effort of sitting up had left him in pain. “I need to get well, Doc. I have to buy a ring.”

  * * *

  Hud leaned back in his office chair and read the note Fiona-Lucy had left in her apartment. That the woman had lived just a floor below his daughter still made his heart race with terror.

  By the time, you find this, I will probably be dead. Or with luck, long gone. Probably dead because I’m tired of living this life. Anyway, I have nowhere to go. I came here to make Chase Steele pay for breaking my heart. Sometimes I can see that it wasn’t him that made me do the things I’ve done. That it started long before him. It’s the story of my life. It’s the people who have hurt me. It’s the desperation I feel to be like other people, happy, content, loved.

  But there is an anger in me that takes over the rest of the time. I want to hurt people the way I’ve been hurt and much worse. I killed my mother, stepfather and stepbrothers in a fire. Since then, I’ve hurt other people who hurt me—and some who didn’t. Some, like Deputy Dillon Ramsey, deserved to die. Christy Shores, not so much.

  Today, I will kill a woman who doesn’t deserve it in order to hurt a man who I could have loved if only he had loved me. He will die too. If not today, then soon. And then... I have no idea. I just know that I’m tired. I can’t keep doing this.

  Then again, I might feel differently tomorrow.

  Hud carefully put the letter back into the evidence bag and sealed it. Fiona was gone. She’d died of her injuries after falling off the mountain. Because she had no family, her body would be cremated. Chase had suggested that her ashes be sent back to Arizona to her friend, Patty, the one person who’d stuck by her.

  Two of his murders had been solved by the letter. The third, Grady Birch, was also about to be put to rest. A witness with a cabin not far from where Grady’s body was found had come forward. He’d seen a man dragging what he now suspected was a body down to the river. That man had been Deputy Dillon Ramsey, who the witness identified after Dillon’s photo had run in the newspaper following his murder.

  According to the law, everything would soon be neatly tied up, Hud thought as he put away the evidence bag. But crimes left scars. He could only hope that his daughter would be able to overcome hers. He had a feeling that Chase would be able to help her move on. He wouldn’t mind a wedding out at the ranch. It h
ad been a while, and he was thinking how much his wife loved weddings—and family—when his phone rang. It was Dana.

  “I just got the oddest call from our son Hank,” his wife said without preamble. “He says he’s coming home for a visit and that he’s bringing someone with him. A woman.”

  Hud could hear the joy in Dana’s voice. “I told you that it would just take time, didn’t I? This is great news.”

  “I never thought he’d get over Naomi,” she said, but quickly brightened again. “I can’t wait to meet this woman and see our son. It’s been too long.”

  He couldn’t have agreed more. “How’s Mary?”

  “She’s picking up Chase at the hospital. Given the big smile on her face when she left the ranch, I’d say she’s going to be just fine. How do you feel about a wedding or two in our future?”

  He chuckled. “You just read my mind, but don’t go counting your chickens before they hatch. Let’s take it one at a time.” But he found himself smiling as he hung up. Hank was coming home. He’d missed his son more than he could even tell Dana. He just hoped Hank really was moving on.

  * * *

  Chase couldn’t wait to see Mary. He was champing at the bit to get out of the hospital. He’d called a local jewelry store and had someone bring up a tray of engagement rings for him to choose one. He refused to put it off until he was released. The velvet box was in his pocket. Now he was only waiting for the nurse to wheel him down to the first floor—and Mary—since it was hospital policy, he’d been told.

  Earlier, his father had stopped by. Chase had been glad to see him. Like his father, he’d made mistakes. They were both human. He’d been angry with a man who hadn’t even known he existed. But he could understand why his mother had kept the truth from not only him, but also Jim Harris.

  He didn’t know what kind of relationship they could have, but he no longer felt as if there was a hole in his heart where a father should have been. Everyone said Jim was a good man who’d had some bad luck in his life. Chase couldn’t hold that against him.