“So tell me about Hilde Jacobson,” he said, as their horses ambled along. The others had ridden on ahead, but Colt kept them in sight in case anything happened.
“There isn’t much to tell,” she said. Then, as if realizing he really was interested, she added, “I grew up in Chicago. My father was a janitor, my mother worked as a housekeeper. I was an only child. My father was determined that I would be the first in his family to go to college.”
“And you were?”
She nodded. “I went into business. My father had worked around corporate America and decided that would be the world that I should conquer. I gave it my best shot at least for a while.”
“How did you end up in Big Sky owning a fabric store?”
“My father died. My mother told me to follow my heart. I hated big business. I came up here skiing, met Dana and Hud, and the rest is history.”
“You and Dana are close, aren’t you?”
“We were.”
He heard the catch in her throat.
“Your turn,” she said after a moment. “Tell me your life story.”
“I grew up north of here. I married young. It didn’t work out. I went into law enforcement and got the job here.”
“You like Big Sky?”
He looked back at the country they’d just left behind and nodded. “It’s not as open as I’m used to—the mountains are so much larger—but it grows on you living in the canyon.”
“Doesn’t it?” she said. “Some people think its paradise and hate to leave.”
He saw that she was looking at the two riders ahead of them. Dee was in a deep conversation with Hud. Rick was nowhere to be seen.
* * *
DEE WAS LEANING toward Hud and pretending to be fascinated by the different types of rock faces ahead when Hilde and Colt came riding up. Colt cut Hud away from her as slick as the ranch cow dog she’d seen herding calves in the pasture.
A few moments later she found herself riding next to Hilde, also not a coincidence.
“Where’s Rick?” Hilde asked, looking behind her. “We seem to have lost him.”
“I think he needed to see a tree about a dog. Isn’t that what you locals say out here?”
“I’m not a local,” Hilde said. “I’m actually from Chicago, and I think it’s a dog about a tree.”
“Really? I just assumed you were like Hud and Dana, born and raised out West.”
“So is Rick from New York City, too? Is that where the two of you met?”
Dee smiled over at her to let her know she knew what she was doing and it wasn’t going to work. “I’m still surprised you were up for this ride today after your near-death experience yesterday.” She touched the bruise on her cheek. “I know I was still feeling the aftereffects this morning. I didn’t realize Montana was such a dangerous place.”
“It sure is—when you’re around.” With that, Hilde spurred her horse and rode on up to join Colt and Hud.
So much for that earlier apology, Dee thought with a curse.
She hadn’t planned to actually drown Hilde yesterday, but at some point it hadn’t seemed like such a bad idea. Dana would have eventually gotten over losing her friend. In fact, she would have needed her cousin even more.
But Dana would have had to lean even more on her husband. Dee had hoped to avoid all of that and just get Hilde to keep her distance. Apparently her plan hadn’t worked after the incident at the waterfalls or on the raft trip.
Hilde needed stronger encouragement to get out of her way. Dee stuck her hand into her pocket, closed her fingers around one of the rocks, hefting it in her hand. Ahead, the trail narrowed as it cut across the side of a rocky mountain face. The horses with Hud, Colt and Hilde fell into single file as they started across the narrow trail.
Dee looked down at the drop-off. Nothing but large boulders all the way down to the creek far below. She let Hilde and her horse get a little farther ahead. She didn’t want to be nearby when things went awry.
Poor Hilde. She was having such a bad week. First almost falling off Ousel Falls, then almost drowning in the Gallatin River. Clearly she shouldn’t have come along on this ride after what had happened yesterday. She really wasn’t up to it.
Dee lifted the rock, measuring the distance. The trail was narrow. If a horse bucked off its rider right now, the rider could be badly hurt—if not killed.
She told herself she had no choice. Hilde had managed to get back in Dana’s good graces. Dana was more apt to believe whatever Hilde came up with now. And there was no doubt Hilde would be trying to find out everything she could about cousin Dee.
Reining in her horse at the edge of the pines, she pulled back her arm to throw the rock. All she had to do was hit the back of Hilde’s horse. If it spooked even a little, it might buck or lose its footing, and both woman and horse could fall.
Just as she was about to hurl the stone, a hand grabbed her arm and twisted the rock from her grip. She let out a cry of both surprise and pain. Turning in her saddle, she swore when she saw it was Rick.
“Don’t be a fool,” he said under his breath. “If she has another accident this early, it will only make everyone more suspicious.”
“I have to stop her. She’s onto me.”
Rick shook his head. “I’ll help you, but not here. Not today. Be nice to her but watch yourself.” He dug into her pocket to pull out the other rocks. “Just in case you get another smart idea while looking at my horse’s backside,” he said, and rode on up the trail to catch up with Hilde.
* * *
HILDE KEPT HER eye on Dee during the ride to the lake. But the woman seemed almost subdued after their little talk.
Rick spent most of the time talking with Hud on the last part of the ride up and even when they’d reached Elkhorn Lake. Hilde saw Dee watching the two of them. She got the impression Dee didn’t like her boyfriend talking with Hud.
When Hud broke out the lunch Dana had packed, Colt brought her over a sandwich and sat down with her on the rocks at the edge of the lake away from the others.
“Have you noticed the way she is with Hud?” she asked quietly before taking a bite of her sandwich. They’d both been watching Dee.
“Yep.”
Hilde locked gazes with him. “I think I know what she’s after. She wants Hud.”
Colt let out a laugh. “Hud?”
“I’ve been trying to figure out what she wants other than a Montana vacation, all expenses paid.”
“She likes to flirt.”
“Did she flirt with you?”
He admitted she hadn’t except for a few minutes at the river before the raft trip and he suspected that little bit of flirting with him had been for Dana’s benefit only. “If Hud’s what she’s after, then she’s wasting her time. He’s crazy in love with Dana, not to mention they have four kids together. Hud would never be interested in Dee.”
“She wouldn’t be the first woman who went after another woman’s man.”
“Or vice versa,” Colt said.
Hilde glanced at him. She knew Colt was divorced. Earlier he’d said he’d married young and that it hadn’t worked out. Had another man come after his wife? Or had Colt been seduced away from his marriage?
“But I don’t believe any woman can get a man to leave his marriage unless he’s willing,” Colt added, keeping her from asking him about his marriage. “As they say, it takes two to tango.”
“I agree,” she said. “Hud would never jeopardize his marriage for a fling with someone like Dee.” But had Colt?
“So what’s Dee’s plan, do you think?” Colt asked quietly. They both watched Dee, who was sitting in a tight circle with Hud and Rick. She was taking tiny bites of her sandwich, clearly not interested in food. Rick had Hud talking, and Dee appeared to be hanging on Hud’s every word.
“I wish I knew,” Hilde said, feeling a growing desperation as she watched the woman. Dee had wormed her way into Dana’s and Hud’s lives and she wasn’t finished yet. “Now that I kn
ow what she’s capable of, if I’m right and she is after Hud and she can’t get him through seduction, then she will do something more drastic. That’s what has me scared.”
* * *
COLT LOOKED UP from his lunch to study Hilde. She was breathtaking: the sun on her face, her hair as golden as autumn leaves. He was surprised when he’d first come to Big Sky and learned that Hilde and Dana were best friends. They were so different.
Dana was all tomboy. She could ride and rope and shoot as well as any man. Being a mother had toned her down some, but she was a ranch girl born and bred, and she was at home in the great outdoors.
Hilde was all girl, from the clothes she wore to the way she presented herself. He didn’t doubt for a moment that she was smart or that she was strong. She could get tough, too, if she had to. He’d seen that the way she’d gone after Dee on the river, but there was something so wonderfully feminine about her. Clearly she enjoyed being a woman.
The combination of smart, strong and ultra-feminine was more powerful than she knew. He suspected it scared away most men.
Dana had told him that Hilde didn’t date much. “She must know the kind of man she wants. I just hope she finds him. Hilde deserves someone special.”
Colt looked away. He was far from anyone special, but he did wonder what kind of man she was looking for. Or if she was even looking. He thought of his short marriage and the heartbreak it had caused. He’d told himself he would never marry again. But that was before he met Hilde.
They had just finished their sandwiches when there was a splash followed instantly by a scream. He and Hilde turned to look across the lake in the direction the sound had come from and there was Dee swimming in the clear, cold water.
She was laughing and shrieking, but clearly enjoying herself.
Colt noticed that even Hud was smiling at the crazy Easterner.
When it became apparent that she was nude, the men turned around and let her rush out of the water without them watching.
“Did you see that?” Hilde asked.
“I didn’t peek.”
“Not Dee. Did you see that even Rick turned around? Doesn’t that seem odd if the two were boyfriend and girlfriend?”
Colt shrugged. Everything about Rick Cameron seemed odd to him. Add Dee to the mix and you had a rodeo. “She does like attention,” he said.
“And she’s getting it. Hud isn’t completely immune to her. If for some reason Dana wasn’t around...”
Colt frowned as Dee came out of the trees dressed again, her hair wet, her face aglow from her swim.
Hud laughed and shook his head when Dee suggested he should have come into the water. No man was completely immune to a woman’s attention, especially one who, on the surface, seemed so much like his wife.
Colt had learned that the hard way.
Chapter Seven
After the horseback ride up to the lake, Hilde couldn’t wait to get home, shower and curl up in her bed. She hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Add to that everything that had happened to her in the past forty-eight hours and she knew she had good reason to be exhausted.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay and have dinner with us?” Dana had asked. “Hud is going to broil some steaks. I’m making a big salad.”
“I would love to, really, but the ride took a lot out of me,” Hilde said. She could see that her friend was disappointed, but Hilde had had all the Dee she could take for one day.
She gave Dana a hug, hugging her more tightly than she normally did, afraid for her friend. “Thank you for the offer, though,” she said when she let go.
“Once you get to know Dee you’ll see how vulnerable and sweet she...” Dana’s words died off as she must have seen something in her friend’s expression that stopped her.
“Be careful,” Hilde said. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Dana gave her a sympathetic look, and Hilde sensed that things had changed between them. It made her sad, but she couldn’t blame her friend. Dee was like a slow but deadly poison.
“Oh, Hilde, aren’t you staying for dinner?” Dee said all cheery, as she came down the stairs. She’d showered and now wore a sundress that accentuated all her assets—which were no small thing. “I know Dana has missed you. I’m afraid she’s getting bored with me. I’m not much fun.”
“You are plenty fun,” Dana said to her cousin. “I could never get bored with you.”
“Am I the luckiest woman in the world to have such an amazing cousin?” Dee asked with a too-bright smile. “I’m so glad she found me and invited me to Montana. I’m having a terrific time. I’ve missed having family so much.”
“I know that feeling, so I’m glad,” Dana said to her cousin, then turned to Hilde. “Change your mind about dinner.”
“Another time.” Hilde held Dana’s gaze. “Take care of yourself.” And she was out the door and headed for her SUV. It was all she could do not to run. She saw Colt glance up from where he and Hud were talking by the corrals. Concern crossed his expression, then his gaze went to the porch where Dee was standing, backlit by the light coming from inside the house.
Dee said something to the two men. Hud laughed and Dee started to come off the porch toward them. Dana called from the kitchen for her cousin. Dee hesitated, clearly disappointed, but went back inside to help Dana.
On the drive to her house, Hilde felt sick to her stomach. She’d never been violent. She was a forget-and-
forgive kind of person. At least she thought she was. But for a few moments back there at the house, she’d wanted to walk back to the porch and punch Dee in the face.
“I really need some rest,” she told herself, as she parked in front of her house. Once inside, she showered and changed into her favorite silk robe before padding into the kitchen for a glass of warm milk. She knew she couldn’t eat anything the way she felt right now.
Back in the bedroom, she finished the milk and crawled into bed with a book she’d been wanting to read—the same one Colt was reading. A book would be the only thing that could get her mind off Dee and her fears for Dana and her family.
She’d read only a few pages, though, when she must have fallen asleep. When the ringing of the phone woke her, she was lying on the open pages of the book, her cheek creased and damp. It took her a moment to realize what had awakened her.
“Hello?” she said, snatching up the phone. Her first thought was that something had happened out at the ranch. Her heart took off like a shot.
“I was afraid you were out with your boyfriend.”
She didn’t recognize the voice, but her heart was still pounding. “I beg your pardon? I think you have the wrong number.” She recognized the laugh, though, and sat up in the bed, trying to shake off sleep. “Rick?”
“One and the same,” he said with another laugh. “I’ve been sitting here having a few drinks, thinking about you.”
Hilde groaned inwardly, afraid where this was headed.
“I know your type,” he continued. “You like nice things but you try to hide the fact that you come from money.”
She was momentarily surprised by his insight.
“I like nice things, too, but I’m afraid I don’t come from money. Far from it.” Another laugh. “I’ll make you a deal. You want to know the scoop on Dee? If you can get your hands on ten thousand dollars, which I have a feeling you can without much trouble, then I will tell you things about dear Dee that will make your hair stand on end.”
“You sound drunk.”
“Not yet.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I know she tried to kill you on the river. I’m betting it wasn’t the first time she put a scare into you.”
“You would sell out your own girlfriend?”
He chuckled. “That’s the other thing. Dee and I have a complicated relationship. I’ll tell you all about it when you get here. How she sold my soul to the devil a long time ago. You’d better hurry before I get too drunk, though. I�
��m starting to feel the effects of this whiskey.” With that he hung up.
* * *
COLT WAS AT the marshal’s office when the call came in. He saw the dispatcher look in his direction then said she would put the call through to Deputy Marshal Colt Dawson.
The woman on the other end of the line sounded hysterical, and for a moment he didn’t recognize Hilde’s voice. “Where are you?” he broke in, hoping she would take a breath.
“At the Lazy T Motel, room 9. It’s Rick Cameron. He’s dead. She killed him, Colt. She killed him because she knew I was coming here tonight.”
Colt wondered why Hilde was going to Rick’s motel room, but he didn’t dare ask right now. “Step outside the room. Take some deep breaths. I’m on my way.” The moment he put down the phone he called Marshal Hud Savage, then he headed for the Lazy T, siren blaring and lights flashing.
Hilde was standing outside, just as he’d told her to. She wore a pair of jeans, a blue-and-tan-print blouse and nice sandals. Her hair was piled on top of her head. Had this been a date?
Jealousy bit into him like the bite of a rattlesnake, filling him with its venom. “What are you doing here, Hilde?” he asked the moment he reached her.
“Rick called. He said he’d tell me about Dee for ten thousand dollars. She killed him. You know she did.” The words came flying out, tumbling all over each other.
“Easy,” he said and drew her to the side, away from the motel room doors. They had opened, and guests were looking out to see what was going on. “You were going to pay him ten thousand dollars?”
She nodded. “I was asleep when he called. I dressed as quickly as I could.”
He had to smile. Only Hilde would grab a matching outfit to come pay off a con man. She’d even taken the time to pull up her long hair into a do that made her look like a model on a runway.
“Stay here, okay?” he said, holding her at arm’s length to look into her face. She’d been crying, but she still looked great. As he stepped to the door of the motel, he heard Hud’s patrol pickup siren in the distance.
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