"You remembered his name," Billy said, wondering if Jeremy had been trying to check into Mario's background.
"I remember names when it's important," Jeremy said. "Promise you'll keep Diesel around when you're out of the house, and if Moretti comes around again, get his license number. I can run some checks on him from my office at Burns. I have access to records other people don't."
"If it will help you rest easy, I'll keep Diesel around," Billy replied, even though having Diesel as a guard dog around Mario Moretti was pointless. Mario befriended Diesel the first time he'd encountered him because he knew and understood dogs and they responded to him, unlike the way Diesel reacted to Jeremy in the barn when he found them hugging.
Jeremy kissed her again, this time with more urgency than passion, and afterwards, he closed his arms around her, holding her firmly against the hard wall of his chest, and said, "During the ride back I had time to think, and there are things I want to tell you."
Billy realized this was about Jeremy, not her, and he was dead serious. Her first thought was that there was something in his past he needed to tell her. Maybe he had a child by one of those bunnies. "What kind of things?" she asked, then prepared for a confession.
"This is new to me, talking about feelings to a woman, but with you it's different. When I'm not around here I worry about what could happen to you, and when I'm with you I worry that something could happen that would take you away from me."
"I feel the same way about you," Billy said, "but maybe it's because things are new with us."
"We're three weeks into this," Jeremy replied. "People decide to get married in that amount of time and stay married a lifetime. When it's right, it's right."
"What are you saying?" Billy asked, while eyeing Jeremy with uncertainty.
"It's a little convoluted but I'll try to explain," Jeremy said. "The thing is, I know I'd lay down my life for anyone in my family, but it's never been tested for other people, so I don't know if I'd run into a burning house to save a stranger, but I know, without question, that I'd run into a burning house to save you. I'd lay down my life in an instant to keep you from harm. It's a strange feeling, loving someone that deeply, and I want you to stay safe, like maybe having me around all the time to make sure you're safe."
"You sound like you're talking about marriage," Billy said.
"It may only be three weeks," Jeremy replied, "but yeah, I think that's what I'm saying."
Uncertain how to reply to Jeremy's declaration of love, Billy responded by tightening her arms around him and resting her head against his shoulder and waiting for Jeremy to speak, which he did by saying, "I'm glad you didn't feed me a line of crap that you feel the same way about me because I don't expect it this soon, but maybe you'll keep an open mind."
Billy looked up at him again. "I think I do feel the same way," she said, "but I don't want to say anything more, or try to make future plans right now because it's too soon."
"I suppose you're right," Jeremy said. "If I told this to Josh or any of my brothers, or my parents, I'd hear no end to how idiotic I was to even think I was in love, especially me. I don't have a history of falling in love like my brothers do with their past girlfriends. I was always the old bachelor." He gave a little short laugh. "That's about the farthest thing from my mind now."
After another long hard kiss that seemed to have no end because Billy didn't want it to end, it finally did when Jeremy broke the kiss and said, "I've got to go because I have a long day tomorrow, and I'll be tied up pretty much for the rest of the week, having to make up for taking Friday off, but I'll stop by for a couple of hours each day to work on that porch roof and get started patching the roof on the house. I'll also be riding Ryan's mechanical bull evenings, and working out in preparation for next weekend's rodeo. It's an important one and I need to rack up more points if I want to solidify the finals cut."
"You don't have to work on the roof," Billy said. "You're way too busy and the roof can wait."
"Honey, I'll never be too busy to take care of you, and you need a mudroom and a solid roof for the winter," Jeremy said. "If I was around all the time I'd get this place shaped up fast."
"Maybe you will be someday," Billy said, and when Jeremy kissed her one last time, his kiss said it all. She was the woman he intended to marry. But whereas he innately seemed to know and understand the woman she was inside, he had no idea what he'd be getting into if he did marry her, but she was too tired at the moment to consider any other alternative.
***
Jeremy came away from the Elton, Nevada rodeo with mixed feelings. Placing first, with a score of 92, got him into the money and moved him toward his longtime goal of making the cut for the National Finals, but that was overshadowed by what he and Josh were about to do.
Turning onto a ranch road just west of the town of Fallon, Nevada, where he and Josh had made a sixty mile detour to talk to the bull breeder, they passed a large sign reading JCR Bucking Bulls, and pulled up to a well-appointed facility where three bulls, hooked to the arms of a walker, were plodding along in a circle. In one of several bull pens, a couple of men were bucking a young bull with a dummy on its back, and an older man was standing just outside the pen. On seeing them drive up, the older man turned and walked over to where they'd parked and introduced himself as JC Reed.
Jeremy shook the man's hand, and after introducing himself and Josh, he said to the man, "My brother and I are setting up for raising bucking bulls and we'd like to take a look at your operation and see some of your animals, maybe consider buying a good herd sire."
The man directed them over to a lineup of bull pens, and after pointing out several young bulls that were for sale, he said, "You might want to consider buying some good bucking cows too. I started out buying five cows for $650 each, and one produced a third-place finisher in the American Bucking Bull futurity, and another produced a bull that went on to compete in the National Finals, which I later sold for $16,000."
"We intend to get some good bucking cows too," Jeremy said, as they followed along with the man through a maze of livestock panels, "but right now we're specifically looking for a bull out of Little Yellow Jacket's bloodline. I understand you have some here."
"Right now I have a two-year old that's not from that line, but already he explodes out of the chute like Little Yellow Jacket did," the man replied. "He'll be smaller though, but if he's handled right and not over bucked he'll be a world class bucker."
"I'm looking for a bull that's big enough to take the strength of riders these days, and they need to be stout in the shoulders," Jeremy replied. "That's why we're looking at Little Yellow Jacket's bloodline. We heard you sold one about a year ago."
"That was Little Red Jacket," the man replied. "He was a good bull, but he injured his hip and I figured he couldn't buck, so I sold him to a woman who was interested in raising bulls and wanted him for a herd sire."
"Maybe she'd be willing to sell him for a good price," Jeremy said. "What's her name?"
"Billy Jean Fuller," the man replied. "She bought several cows from my bucking stock, and some young bulls and a few unproved older ones in addition to Little Red Jacket. She has a ranch just this side of Fernley, but she hasn't been around in a while."
"Could I take a look at the papers on the bull out of Little Yellow Jacket?" Jeremy asked.
"Sure, I have copies on file." The man disappeared into the office, and a few minutes later returned with a photocopy of the registration paper and handed it to Jeremy, along with a color copy of Wild Card, with a large brand on his side reading P43." Jeremy glanced at Josh, who eyed him with misgiving. He also noted that the registration showed the bull as a son of Little Yellow Jacket. Returning the paper to the man, he said, "Could I get a copy of this?"
"Take that one if you want," the man replied. "I doubt if the woman will sell though. She spent the better part of a year nursing that bull back to health, and last I heard she was planning on bucking him, though I haven't heard anything
more about him."
"Maybe we'll stop by her place and talk to her," Jeremy said. "You mentioned the ranch is near Fernley. Is it on this highway?"
The man shook his head. "You have GPS on your truck?"
Jeremy nodded.
"Then I'll get you her address." The man went into the office and returned with the address scribbled on a torn-off piece of paper, and Jeremy thanked him for his time, and he and Josh climbed into the truck and left.
As they were driving toward Fernley, Jeremy said, "This doesn't make sense. There's no question that the bull in the photo is Wild Card, and it can't be coincidence that the previous owner was also named Billy."
"It's all pretty damn suspicious," Josh said. "Maybe when we get to Fernley we'll find a clone of Billy and a clone of Wild card."
Jeremy laughed to dispense with some nervous energy, but nothing about Billy from the day he mistook her for a buckle bunny has made much sense. Still, he felt certain that whatever was going on in her life, if it was illegal, she was an innocent victim. If she wasn't, he'd keep his head in the sand until he had positive proof that she was some kind of con artist.
Following the instructions given by the voice on the GPS, about twenty miles further they turned onto a long driveway that made its way to a ranch with livestock pens and even a couple of good-quality bucking chutes. The house was modest but in good repair, but the place looked deserted. There were no signs of people or livestock anywhere, no vehicles, and no curtains on the windows. Pulling up to the house, they got out, and while Josh was checking the barn, Jeremy went up to the house and peered through a large window and saw that what had been a living room was empty. Walking around the house, he looked into other windows and every room was bare. "There's no one living here," he called out to Josh.
"Nothing in the barn either," Josh replied, "but it hasn't been vacant that long because there's fairly fresh hay in the hay racks."
"I want to stop at a neighboring ranch and ask a few questions," Jeremy said.
"Suits me," Josh replied. "Maybe the GPS took us to the wrong place."
"Maybe," Jeremy said. But from all indications, the place had either been a bucking bull or bucking bronc operation because the two chutes were definitely bucking chutes.
He still couldn't put from his mind, Mario Moretti. He hadn't been able to find out anything about him because there were hundreds of Moretti's across the country. But for some reason, Billy owned a bull with an altered brand, and a guy who looked like a mafia boss claimed he was interested in buying him, and Billy was avoiding talking about any of it, which lead to the question, why? "If Billy moved away fast, she could have been threatened by one of the neighbors, so we'd better not give out any information about her whereabouts," Jeremy said. "That guy in the SUV bothers me. He's not your average guy."
"You've got that right," Josh replied. "He could audition for a roll in The Godfather."
A few hundred feet down the road they pulled up to the house of the neighboring ranch. Jeremy got out and knocked on the front door, and a few minutes later, an older woman wearing jeans and a worn denim shirt came from the direction of the barn, while saying, "Are you looking for someone?"
"Yes, Billy Jean Fuller," Jeremy replied.
"She lived next door but she's not there anymore," the woman said.
"Do you know where she is?"
The woman shook her head. "No one does. One day she was there. The next day the place was vacant and the livestock were gone. No one's heard from her since."
"Then, no one around here knew her?" Jeremy asked, wondering if it was a pattern of Billy's to remain relatively reclusive and not make friends. She'd already given him a reason why:
I had a speech impediment and the kids teased me so I tended to stay to myself…
"Sure, we all knew her," the woman replied. "It was Billy's grandfather's place where she lived. When he passed away he left it to her, but summers when she was growing up she was always around, doing a lot of rodeo riding, especially barrel racing. She was darn good at it too."
That pretty much confirmed what Jeremy already knew. Billy Jean Fuller was Billy Bree Fitzsimmons. "Was she living alone before she moved away?" he asked, wondering about the old man.
"Her father lived in Reno and he sometimes stayed on weekends, and every once in a while her sister drove up from Vegas and stayed overnight, but most of the time it was just Billy, her dog, and all those bulls."
"A Rottweiler?" Jeremy asked, a simple question to erase all doubt.
The woman nodded. "It seemed odd to us that she moved like that without telling anyone, so one of the neighbors asked the sheriff about it and he said no one had been reported missing, and that they had no reason to suspect foul play since Billy left about the same time the stock and the contents of the house were moved, so nothing came of it."
"Then no one saw trucks going in to pick up livestock or move furniture?" Jeremy asked.
The woman shook her head. "Billy's place is back off the road some so we wouldn't have seen it, and livestock trucks go up and down this road so no one would have thought anything of it, or of a moving van. Her father's apparently gone too because one of the neighbors tried to call him from his number in the directory but the number had been disconnected, and no one knew her sister's married name. The mailbox is also gone from Billy's place so there's been no pileup of mail, so she must have stopped that too. It's a mystery though why she left so suddenly and never told anyone. Are you a friend of hers?"
Jeremy took a moment to reply. "She has a bull we might be interested in buying. Thanks for your time though."
As they pulled away, Josh said, "You've spent a lot of time with Billy, and you're obviously pretty serious about her. Do you have any idea what this is all about?"
Josh was right on both counts. He had spent a lot of time with Billy and he was serious about her, so serious he was ready to rush headlong into marriage if Billy would agree, which made the whole idea seem especially ludicrous when he found himself having to reply, "All I know for sure is that for some reason Billy altered the bull's brand and changed his name from Little Red Jacket to Wild Card, and his ownership from Billy Jean Fuller to Billy Bree Fitzsimmons, and she also changed her own name, so it's pretty clear that she's running from something or someone, and she and her father are hiding out."
"Why do you say she and her father?" Josh asked.
"Because that's who the old man is," Jeremy replied.
"Then Billy told you that."
Jeremy shook his head. "I figured it out myself. It's his eyes. They're an odd color like Marc's, and they're the same as Billy's eyes. She claims she's all the family he has, and he lives with her, so it all adds up."
"I suppose you could be right," Josh replied. "Why haven't you just asked Billy?"
"Because I keep waiting for her to tell me what's going on. She knows how I feel about her and she claims she feels the same way about me, but there's something going on that she's not free to talk about or I think she would tell me at this point."
"At this point? Have things progressed between the two of you beyond what I assumed," Josh asked.
"I don't know," Jeremy replied. "What have you assumed?"
"That you're interested in Billy and going at it slowly because you've never been serious about a woman before and that's why you're not asking questions."
"You're right that I haven't been serious before now, but I am about Billy," Jeremy replied. "I'd marry her right now if she'd have me."
"Oh man," Josh said. "You'd better reel it all in because if you don't, you could find yourself rushing headlong into a mob family instead of just a marriage. You know the background of that ranch. Billy could be the sister or daughter of a mobster who's hiding her to keep another mob member from getting her, and that guy who looks like a hit man could be her bodyguard."
For some reason Jeremy hadn't thought of that, but it fit. What he'd taken for intimidation the first time he saw Billy talking to him could hav
e been advice or a reprimand, and when he'd asked if she felt threatened in any way by Moretti, she was quick to say she wasn't, then went on to claim he was an investor, which would be as good an alibi as any when trying to explain the presence of a bodyguard. It would also explain why the guy was checking a license plate to learn more about the man Billy was holding hands with. But that didn't explain it all.
"There's one problem with the bodyguard premise," he said. "Mario Moretti doesn't stay there so he wouldn't be very effective if someone with criminal intent showed up."
"I guess you're right," Josh said. "We're also not positive they're the same woman. There have been coincidences that seem almost unbelievable. This could be one of them. The name Billy is not that uncommon for a woman, and rodeos have become a popular sporting event on TV, so raising bucking bulls is on the rise, and Rottweilers are pretty common too."
Jeremy had been running the coincidence argument over in his head too, for the past half hour, but it was stretching it to believe things could line up that way. "Well, if there's still some doubt whether Billy Jean Fuller and Billy Bree Fitzsimmons are the same woman," Jeremy said, "Billy has a belt buckle she won during Cheyenne Frontier Days that will have gone to Billy Jean Fuller back then, and I can check it out when I get back."
"Assuming it checks out, are you going to ask Billy outright what's going on?"
"I'm going to ask her something," Jeremy said, "but I'm not sure what, yet."
As they drove, Jeremy tried to reconstruct everything he'd learned over the past three weeks, but after sorting through as much as he could remember, he came to the conclusion that nothing made any damn sense at all, and the only way he'd learn what was going on with the woman he intended to marry was to ask, and that's what he aimed to do.
CHAPTER 12
Billy stared out the window at the weathered barn and old bucking chutes while envisioning what she'd left behind. One day she was on the ranch she'd inherited from her grandfather and working her bulls in a pen with regulation bucking chutes. The next she was gone. No calls to relatives or friends. No returning the cable TV box or canceling the internet service. And two months later she was relocated to a far corner of Oregon.
Bucking The Odds (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 9) Page 13