Wyoming Cowboy Marine

by Nicole Helm

  “My family’s ranch,” Cam replied. “Laurel lives in that cabin over there. My brother and I live here with our father. My other sister lives in town, but she comes out and cooks for us quite a bit.”

  “I don’t want to...” She didn’t have the vocabulary to explain all the ways this made her uncomfortable. How much she didn’t want to go in that house.

  “The house has plenty of room for an extra person, as you can see. This is a simple, temporary solution. Where else would you go?”

  Somewhere small. Somewhere secluded. Somewhere safe.

  “I know you don’t fully trust me, Hilly.”

  It was strange to hear someone else say her name. Someone other than her father in his rough, gravelly voice.

  “But that’s okay,” Cam was saying. “I don’t expect you to trust me yet. You don’t have to be comfortable or happy to be here. But I can’t exactly let you wander the streets with nothing. We’ve got an extra room, and Jen or Laurel will spend the night if you’re worried about the all-men thing.”

  “I’ve only ever lived with a man,” Hilly pointed out. Should she be worried about spending the night in a strange house full of men? It seemed no different than spending the night in a strange house full of women. They were all strangers.

  “Okay, then.”

  He parked his truck and Hilly felt as though something sharp had been tied around her, painfully squeezing all the air out. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t... She couldn’t.

  But then Cam’s hand rested on hers.

  “Breathe. In,” he commanded. He waited a beat while she obeyed. “Out.”

  She followed the orders. It felt like the only sane thing in this whole day. Breathe in. Breathe out. She could breathe. She had to breathe. That made sense.

  “You can have as much space or isolation as you need. We’ll go inside. I’ll show you around. You can hide in your room if you’d feel comfortable, or we can work on the case together.”

  “The case.”

  “Laurel and the sheriff’s department and fire department will investigate the fire, but your father missing isn’t going to be a huge part of that.”

  “And if it is, my father’s the criminal in their scenario,” Hilly said. She’d understood that from the questions they’d asked, from the way they’d all looked at her. They believed her father, and to an extent her, were criminals.

  “It’s true. You were living on public land, Hilly. The name not existing. The fire. ‘Confess.’ You have to admit, it doesn’t look good to an outsider.”

  Except she didn’t understand outsiders. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had an interaction with a human aside from her father prior to today. There’d been more people before they’d moved here, but Hilly didn’t remember anyone in particular.

  It had been her, Dad and the animals.

  Confess.

  “But this is where it’s rather handy I followed you home,” Cam said, and she realized even though her breathing had evened out his hand was still on hers. “I’m not law enforcement, Hilly. I don’t need to decide if your father is a criminal or not. I only have to find him for you.”

  “I can’t pay you now. My money is...gone.” Everything was gone.

  Cam shrugged, even though she knew people on the outside didn’t do anything without payment. Dad had always told her that. During the few rebellions she’d entertained long ago she’d threatened to run away. Dad had always explained she’d never get anywhere without money, and back then he’d always kept the cash hidden. It had only been as an adult that he’d trusted her enough with some things.

  But never leaving. Never with the outside world.

  Dad was right in one thing. These people had made her doubt him. His intentions, his past, everything she knew about him.

  Or had his longer-than-normal disappearance done that?

  “Come inside,” Cam urged gently. “Let’s get something to eat. We’ll need to figure out a place for Free to stay.”

  “With me. She has to stay with me.”

  Cam made an odd face, but then he nodded. “All right. With you.” He pushed the driver’s-side door open, then pulled the seat forward so Free could jump out of the back. Hilly pushed her own door open and stepped out of the truck.

  The air was cold and somehow different than the air she was used to. It wasn’t as heavy. The trees were all far away, and the mountains were majestic points on the horizon. Everything was open and vast.

  She was enthralled by it all, but in the midst of this expanse of land around her was a looming house she didn’t even want to look at, let alone step inside. Everything about the house was intimidating, from the size to the clean way it shone in the fiery sunset. It was almost as if mud and grime didn’t dare touch this place. She didn’t like it. Didn’t trust it. She wanted to stay outside, but it was silly to want that.

  She was lucky. If Cam hadn’t been there, she’d be alone and with nothing. Though she wasn’t sure she completely trusted him, he hadn’t orchestrated that fire or the law enforcement presence. He hadn’t written “confess” on her yard. Whoever he was, he was separate from this strange thing happening to her and her father.

  And he was the only one who wouldn’t vilify her father unnecessarily. At least, he said he wouldn’t. She was too tired, and, yes, hungry, to worry about if he was lying about that or not.

  She didn’t have a choice.

  But Cam had said at the end of this she’d have one, and that was what she wanted. That was what she’d work toward. She needed to start thinking ahead instead of circling unproductive thoughts and worries.

  She glanced at Cam. He was standing on the porch now, Free at his heels, waiting for her to follow. He didn’t push. He stayed there and let her look around, let her come to her own conclusions.

  Trust or not, she liked that.

  “What will you need to find my father?”

  “A picture would be the best start.”

  “I need some paper and a pencil then. I don’t have any actual photos, but I can draw okay.” She moved forward, and noted his patient expression had morphed into something like confusion. Or maybe suspicion.

  Neither mattered. Only one thing did. She met Cam on the porch, held his dark gaze. “I need to find him. I can’t do it alone. I need your help, regardless of trust.”

  Cam nodded, then led her inside.

  Chapter Six

  Cam didn’t know what to do with this woman. At turns she was lost and completely vulnerable, and then she just pulled herself together and marched on.

  She wanted paper and a pencil. So, he led her to the kitchen and pointed to a seat at the table, then gathered the supplies she’d requested.

  She settled herself at the table, and when he handed her the materials, she immediately got to work, Free curling up at her feet.

  Dad would be pissed about the dog in the house, but Cam felt he didn’t care as much as he once would have. Last Christmas, his father’s affair with a married woman had come to light, and it had changed Cam’s estimation of his father immensely.

  A man who talked about right and wrong, good and bad, who then secretly slept with another man’s wife—a woman who was part of the family Delaneys had looked down upon and been feuding with since the dawn of Bent... Well, he was not the man Cam had thought he was.

  But Dad was out of town and Cam’s relationship with his father wasn’t important. What was important was Hilly.

  “You don’t have to do this all now. You’re probably hungry.”

  She shook her head, furiously scribbling. “This first.”

  Cam had to admit he didn’t hold out much hope for a usable sketch, but if it gave her some sense of focus, it wasn’t so bad to let her have at it.

  They both reeked of smoke and would need showers. At least he was starting to overcome the stinging
shards-of-glass feeling in his throat enough to want to eat.

  Dylan would be home soon from the bank, and Cam had called Jen to come cook them dinner once she closed up the store. Though he hadn’t asked Laurel over, he wouldn’t put it past her to stop by just to poke at things for her case.

  Cam needed to do some of his own poking first. “You don’t know how to use a phone.” He winced at how abrasive that came out.

  But Hilly didn’t even look up as she focused on her drawing. “We didn’t have one.”

  “Not even a cell?”

  “Dad didn’t trust the outside world.”

  “Why?”

  She looked up at him, her expressive mouth turning downward and her dark eyebrows drawing together. “I don’t know why exactly. Lots of reasons. You can’t trust people. They’ll only hurt you. Staying away is safe. Out here...” She looked around the spacious, well-kept kitchen. “Not safe at all.”

  “But you are here.”

  “Like I said before, I don’t have a choice.” She flipped over the paper and then started writing something.

  Cam heard the front door squeak open and then click shut. Jen breezed in. “You sounded urgent on the phone so I got Lydia to come close the store for me.” She wrinkled her nose at Cam. “You stink.”

  “Fires will do that to you.”

  Jen’s lips firmed. “It isn’t bad enough you had to go risking your life as a Marine, now you’re in the middle of fires. You and Laurel just can’t seem to keep yourselves out of trouble, can you?” She took a few steps and hefted some bags onto the counter, then she turned to Hilly, all smiles.

  “Hi. I’m Jen Delaney.”

  “H-hi. I’m...” She trailed off, flicking a glance at Cam. She looked lost, and it did something uncomfortable to his chest. Made it too tight and reminded him of helpless feelings he’d hoped to leave behind when he’d left the military.

  She didn’t know whether or not to give her name. She thought the outside world was dangerous and she had no choice but to weather it.

  “This is Hilly. Who also stinks.”

  Both women gave him outraged looks, but Hilly’s mouth quirked a little bit, the reaction he’d intended to elicit.

  “Well, I’ll start on some dinner,” Jen said, clearly determined to take charge. “Why don’t you show our guest where she can get cleaned up?”

  “Oh, I—”

  Cam crossed to the table and took her elbow lightly. “You can finish the drawing later.”

  Hilly clutched the paper as he tugged her to her feet. She glanced back at Jen, then at the hallway Cam was leading her toward. Free followed them, her claws clicking against the hardwood floor.

  “I only have these clothes.” Hilly swallowed, and it dawned on him she didn’t just mean here, she meant at all. All her clothes and things had burned up. She was taking it like a champ, but he’d let himself forget her whole life had just burned to the ground.

  “I’ll find something for you to change into. Whatever you need in the next few days, you only have to ask.”

  She shoved the paper at him. “It isn’t perfect, but it might help.”

  He led her to the staircase and up the stairs as he studied the picture. It was a million times better than anything he could draw. While it was a long shot he could find anyone her father had run into, this picture was a tangible thing he could show people.

  “Hilly, this is amazing.”

  “I wrote everything he was wearing, anything he’d have on him, and hair and eye color on the back,” she said, clasping and unclasping her hands as she followed him down another hallway.

  “This’ll be a good start,” he said hoping to ease some of those nerves that were now vibrating off her.

  She needed things to do. She needed to focus on the next step instead of all the losses she was in the middle of.

  That he knew firsthand.

  He stopped at the bathroom door and nudged it open. “Here’s the bathroom. Wait right here.”

  Her eyes widened a bit, but she stood rooted to the spot as he walked farther down the hallway and went into his room. He dropped the picture on his bed, then rummaged around in his closet looking for a robe or something like it. He thought he maybe had one he’d been given as a gift at some point or another.

  Once Hilly was in the shower he’d ask Jen if she had any clothes he could pawn off on Hilly, but he wanted to get Hilly settled into a shower first.

  Finally he found the robe he was pretty sure he’d never worn, then he returned to the bathroom, where she stood looking like she hadn’t moved a muscle. The fear and the nerves were all back with a vengeance and he wished he had some way to take it all away from her, but it would require time.

  He handed her the robe, and then stepped inside the bathroom and opened the little closet there.

  “Towels in here. Soap and whatever in the shower itself,” he said, pointing toward the glass stall. “Feel free to poke around for anything you need. It should be pretty well stocked. Between me and my brother, and Laurel, Gracie and Jen coming and going, we usually have plenty of stuff at the ready.”

  “I thought you only had two sisters.”

  “Yes. Gracie’s my cousin. She lived with us for a while. She lives in town now, but there was some trouble a while back. Well, anyway, long boring history. You go ahead and clean up.” He stepped out of the bathroom and gestured her in.

  She took a few hesitant steps into the bathroom, looking around wide-eyed before her gaze returned to him. “Where will you be?”

  She didn’t trust him, but he was still her safe place. She didn’t know this house or his sister, but in an odd way she knew him.

  He walked over to the door to the guest bedroom. He shoved it open. “I’m going to be in here getting things ready for you. Door open. You just come in here when you’re done, and if I’m not here, trust I’ll be back shortly.”

  She nodded, clutching the robe to her chest. “Okay. Okay.” She chewed on her lip, but then straightened and closed the door, determination etched into the features of her face before the door clicked shut.

  Cam let out a breath. For a second he allowed himself to consider how completely out of his depth he was. His plan had been a quiet security business, not fires and investigations that might run counter to his sister’s law enforcement ones. His plan had definitely not been a vulnerable woman who, by all accounts, didn’t have a clue as to how the “outside world” worked.

  But she was his responsibility. He’d decided that, and if he could help her...if he could help... Well, things would be better. They’d have to be.

  * * *

  THE HOT WATER didn’t seem to run out, once she’d figured out how to get it going in the first place. The sheer heat of it was the one thing Hilly couldn’t get over. Dad had sometimes spoken of the extravagance of the outside world, so while this house was like an unfamiliar land, it wasn’t totally foreign in idea. Some people needed fancy things and too big of a space to convince themselves they were better than others, Dad always said.

  But she hadn’t expected there to be so much to that. Space and nice wood, sure. But the endless hot water was a marvel. Sweet-smelling soaps and shampoos that left her feeling soft instead of scrubbed raw. Towels, she noted as she dried off, that had more luxury than any of her clothes. Mirrors to stare at a face that wasn’t altogether familiar.

  She dried herself off watching the face in the mirror. What did Cam see when he looked at her? His sister had swept into the kitchen all smiles and chatter and Hilly had felt like some...wounded creature all of a sudden.

  She supposed it didn’t really matter what he saw. It didn’t particularly matter what she saw. What a person looked like didn’t matter. It was what they did and what they said that mattered.

  Cam had done and said all the right things so far. He was kind. She had to believe he was k
ind or she’d go a little crazy.

  And he looks very nice on top of that.

  She shook her head at the ridiculous thought and pulled on the robe. The fabric was plush and velvety. It dwarfed her completely.

  It was awkward to step out into the hallway in the too-big robe, naked underneath. It covered her entirely, but that didn’t change her knowledge of not having underwear on. Not wearing socks.

  She tiptoed to the open door Cam had pointed out earlier. It was foolish to sneak and yet her brain and body couldn’t get on the same page. He was in the room, staring out the window, the side of his face to her.

  Something about that profile, strong and focused, sharp and chiseled, made her stomach swoop and her heart pick up an extra beat. She’d never experienced this strange sensation before, but only Cam seemed to bring it out in her. Her reaction to his sisters, to the firefighters, to everyone else was far more...scared. Timid. She wanted to hide.

  Cam didn’t make her want to hide.

  Free got up from her spot lying at his feet, which alerted Cam to Hilly’s presence. He turned to face her, mouth opened as if to speak.

  But he froze, his mouth staying open while his eyebrows raised. Then he blinked and the weird shock of his expression was gone. “This is your room for now. Jen found you some clothes. I don’t know if they’ll fit, but I’ll let you sort through all that. I’ll wait just outside, then we can go downstairs and eat.”

  Hilly nodded and Cam quickly strode out of the room, closing the door behind him. There had been a tenseness in him she didn’t understand.

  But understanding Cam, or even her reaction to him, was hardly important right now. She was hungry, and she wanted Cam to start looking into the picture she’d drawn and hopefully use it to get some clue as to where Dad could be.

  She pulled on the soft pants that were a little too big, but had a tie she could use to keep them up. Once they were fastened, she dropped the robe and pulled on a sweatshirt. It should be strange to wear someone else’s clothes, but they were so much softer and warmer and cleaner than her own. It was a weird kind of relief.