by BJ Daniels
“There are worse ways to go,” Zane said as they got back into the pickup. When his cell phone rang he pulled it out of his jacket pocket, hoping it was Courtney.
“It’s Doc,” he said to Dakota, then snapped open the phone. “Hello?”
“I got back your blood test,” Doc said. “There were a variety of drugs in your system.”
“One that would cause memory loss?”
“Several that would. You’re lucky that mix of drugs didn’t kill you.”
Maybe it was supposed to. “What about the DNA on the phone?”
“I put a rush on it. We can get a basic preliminary test within twenty-four hours, so we should be hearing soon.”
Zane thanked him and hung up, more upset than he wanted Dakota to know. Her sister had targeted him. To what end, he couldn’t imagine. In fact, knowing what he did now, he was surprised he hadn’t heard from Courtney. He wouldn’t have put some sort of blackmail past her.
Of course, there was another option. That the reason Courtney hadn’t turned up was because of whoever had put her up to this. Someone she hadn’t trusted entirely and that’s why she’d taken the gun from Clay Lansing’s desk drawer. It made sense—if Courtney had feared she was going to need it.
Chapter Six
At a convenience store, Dakota borrowed a phone book. There were a half dozen Hugheses in the book, but only one C. Hughes. She jotted down the address, opting not to call first.
Fortunately, when they arrived at the address, there was a car in the driveway.
The first thing Dakota noticed about Camilla Hughes when she answered the door was how little she looked like Courtney. Camilla was a petite woman in her late fifties with dark brown hair and eyes. There was a cultured softness to both her manner and her speech. Again nothing like Courtney.
“May I help you?” Camilla asked, looking from Dakota to Zane and back.
“Hi, we’re friends of Courtney’s, just passing through town and we were hoping she might be around,” Dakota said.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Camilla said. “Courtney isn’t here. Did she tell you she was going to be here?”
Dakota stole a look at Zane, pleased that she’d been right about the suitcase. Still, Courtney’s lack of resemblance to this woman worried her. That and the fact that their last names were different.
“No,” Dakota said. “Since we were in town we thought we’d just take the chance that she might be.”
“Have you tried calling her?” Camilla asked.
“I’m not sure I have her number with me,” Dakota said.
“Come in.” Camilla waved them into her spotless, well-furnished home. “I’ll get it for you.” She went to a small desk just off the living room. As she was writing a number down for them on a notepad, Dakota moved to the fireplace.
There was a line of framed family photographs along the mantel. Dakota picked one up and turned it so Zane could see the woman in the studio shot. It was the same woman who’d showed up at Dakota’s father’s funeral, the same one Zane had taken to dinner last night. Courtney Baxter.
The other photographs were all of Camilla, a tall slim man with red, thinning hair and beautiful Courtney at various ages over the years. Dakota put the photo back on the mantel as Camilla Hughes came over to hand her the piece of notepaper.
The cell phone number Camilla had written down was different from the phone they’d found under Zane’s bed. Was that phone even Courtney’s? she wondered with surprise.
“Your name is Hughes but your daughter goes by Baxter?” Zane asked, expressing what Dakota had been wondering.
All the color washed from Camilla Hughes’s face in an instant. She took a couple of steps to the side and lowered herself into a chair. “That’s the name she’s going by?”
He nodded, and Dakota could see that like her, he was surprised that the woman had become so upset. As Camilla waved Zane into a seat across from her, Dakota joined him on the couch. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know she was doing that. Baxter was her biological mother’s name.”
“She’s adopted?” Dakota asked, unable to contain her surprise even with the obvious difference in appearance between mother and daughter. It explained why Courtney didn’t resemble either her mother or father, though. But then Courtney didn’t resemble their father or Dakota either. That meant she must have taken after her mother. Her biological mother?
“Yes, Marcus and I adopted her when she was only a few days old,” Camilla said, still looking shaken.
“Her mother couldn’t keep her?” Dakota had to ask, wondering about the mystery woman who’d had an affair with her father.
Camilla looked even more upset. “A nurse told me in private that the mother didn’t want her, wanted nothing to do with her.” Camilla instantly bit her tongue. “I’ve never told Courtney that, of course. I shouldn’t have told you either. I’m just upset that Courtney has chosen to go by a woman’s name who didn’t want her.”
“It’s all right,” Zane said. “I’m sorry this news has upset you so.”
“Courtney has always known she was adopted, but she never seemed to have any interest in finding her birth parents,” Camilla said. “I didn’t even know that she knew her birth mother’s last name.” She seemed to shake herself out of her thoughts. “I’m sorry, but how is it that you know my daughter?”
Dakota felt telling Camilla about her relationship to Courtney would upset the woman further. Not to mention finding the ten thousand dollars tucked in the suitcase and the fact that her daughter seemed to be missing.
“We only recently met her,” Dakota said. “Your daughter has been staying with me up north of Chinook.”
“Staying with you?” Camilla asked, frowning.
“In my guesthouse. When we met, she said she needed somewhere to stay until she could find a job and get a place of her own,” Dakota said.
Camilla shook her head in obvious bewilderment. “A few weeks ago she told me she was going on a short trip. She came over and borrowed her grandmother’s suitcase. I haven’t heard from her since and she hasn’t been answering her phone… .” She frowned. “If she’s been staying up north, then why were you looking for her here?”
“She didn’t come home the last two nights,” Dakota said. “We were coming to Great Falls and thought she might be here. I wanted to let her know that a man at one of the jobs she’d applied for wanted to do a second interview.”
She hated lying but the explanation seemed to relieve Camilla a little—that is, until she took a good look at Zane’s scratched face.
“Rosebushes,” Dakota said.
“Are there any high school friends or college friends she might be staying with?” Zane asked.
“She really hasn’t been in touch with any of them that I know of.” Camilla looked close to tears. “They all have jobs. Courtney was still trying to figure out what she wanted to do.” She pursed her lips. Dakota could tell that she hated telling complete strangers such personal information. She only did so because of her obvious concern for her adopted daughter.
“Is it possible one of her birth parents contacted her?” Dakota asked.
Camilla seemed surprised by the question. “I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe that’s where she is now.” She brightened at the thought. “Now that you mention it, Courtney hasn’t been herself lately. She’s been distant, secretive. I thought it was just growing pains, a sign that she wanted to be more independent from me.”
“You said ‘lately,’” Zane asked. “The past few weeks?”
Camilla nodded. “She even purchased a second cell phone a couple weeks ago. I thought that was odd. Clearly she didn’t want me to know who she was calling—or who was calling her. I thought it might be a young man she wasn’t ready to tell me about.”
“Do you have that number?”
She shook her head. “She said she needed space. We’ve always been so close. Marcus and I spoiled her, no doubt about that. But maybe we should have pushed her out of the nest s
ooner. Then after Marcus died…I know I leaned on Courtney more than I should have.”
“What about Courtney’s birth father?” Dakota asked, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice.
Camilla shook her head. “The nurse I talked to didn’t know anything about him.”
“Isn’t his name on the birth certificate?” Zane asked.
“No. Courtney’s birth certificate shows my name and Marcus’s.”
“I’m confused,” Dakota said. “Where was Courtney born?”
“It was a home birth somewhere in Montana. We got a call. We didn’t even realize that anyone knew how much we wanted a child and hadn’t been able to have one of our own.” She looked worried now. “It wasn’t through an adoption agency exactly.”
The Whitehorse Sewing Circle, Dakota thought. That group of old women had been secretly orchestrating adoptions for years. “Did your daughter get a quilt shortly after she was born?”
“Why, yes,” Camilla said.
“So you don’t know the names of her birth parents?” Zane asked.
“Just the mother’s name. Lorraine Baxter.”
Dakota recalled now that she had only glanced at the mother’s name on the birth certificate that Courtney had shown her. It could have been Lorraine Baxter.
“You never tried to find her then?” she asked.
“Good heavens, no! That’s why I was shocked when you told me that Courtney was going by the woman’s name. You must be right about the woman contacting her. But why now? She didn’t want her when she was born, why would she contact her now?”
Dakota knew there could be all kinds of reasons. She feared, though, given what they now knew, the reason wasn’t a good one.
“When she picked up the suitcase, she didn’t say where she was going?” Zane asked.
“No. That was something else that worried me. She said she had something she needed to do.” Camilla’s voice broke and tears welled in her dark eyes. “When she left, she hugged me and told me how much she loved me. But I had the most horrible feeling that she wasn’t ever coming back, that she was telling me goodbye.”
* * *
ZANE COULD SEE THAT DAKOTA was upset as they left. She’d promised to let Camilla know if they heard anything from Courtney.
“That poor woman,” Dakota said as they climbed back into the pickup. “What if something bad has happened to my sister?”
“If she is your sister,” Zane said.
Dakota frowned. “Courtney offered to take a DNA test anytime I wanted, but I didn’t see any reason since she’d already showed me the birth certificate with my father’s name and signature.”
“I suspect that birth certificate could be a fake.”
“I’m not sure how the Whitehorse Sewing Circle operates. But wouldn’t there be an original birth certificate with the birth parents’ names on it?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. If the mother thought she was going to keep the baby, then changed her mind, and the women of the Whitehorse Sewing Circle found the Hugheses, who were ready to adopt the baby, and saw that another birth certificate replaced the first. You heard what she said about the quilt. The Circle makes every baby it handles a quilt.”
“If the mother didn’t want the baby, then why would she keep the original birth certificate?” Dakota asked.
“Maybe she thought it would come in handy someday.”
“Those women in the Circle have placed a lot of babies illegally and gotten away with it. If Courtney was my father’s daughter then she was probably born somewhere near Whitehorse. Anyone with relatives or friends in Great Falls could have known about the Hugheses and their desire for a baby.”
Zane nodded. “Your father would have known about the Whitehorse Sewing Circle, which means that Courtney’s mother would have probably known as well.”
“Or maybe he sent her to the women so she could get rid of the baby,” Dakota said.
“You know your father would never have done that.”
“Do I? What if it was a woman he never should have gotten involved with?”
“A married woman?”
“Possibly.”
Zane shook his head. “We won’t know until we find Lorraine Baxter.” He started the truck engine and drove, wondering where to go next. “This birth certificate Courtney showed you, did you ask Courtney for a copy?”
“I was so shocked I didn’t ask for anything. But why put his name on the birth certificate if he isn’t involved in this?”
Zane shot her a look. Was she serious? “He had money, a ranch, a good business.”
“Still, Lorraine Baxter would have had to know him. She had to get a copy of his signature if she was going to forge his name. She didn’t just pick his name out of thin air.”
“Okay, let’s say she knew him. Maybe had been intimate with him. Maybe Courtney is your half sister. The only way we’re ever going to know everything is if we can find this woman. Don’t look so skeptical,” he said, glancing over at her. “If we’re right, she’s been in contact with Courtney and recently.”
Dakota smiled at him. “You amaze me.”
“Really?” he asked, grinning at her.
“You’re a lot smarter than you look.”
He had to laugh because he knew how he looked with his face scratched up. He really wanted to find Courtney and get some answers, Dakota’s sister or not.
“We need to try the numbers we found on her phone,” he said.
“It might not even be Courtney’s phone.”
“Or it could be the extra phone she bought.”
“So Courtney could talk to her birth mother without Camilla knowing about it,” Dakota said.
“You’re pretty sharp yourself,” he joked as he pulled over. No reason to keep driving when they didn’t have a clue where to go next.
He shut off the engine and turned to look at Dakota. He still wasn’t used to the woman she’d grown into—or his reaction to her. He felt so close to her and yet they hadn’t been around each other in years.
“Courtney must have gotten the birth certificate from her biological mother,” Dakota said, frowning. “How else could Courtney have known about her birth father? Her adoptive mother didn’t know his name and, apparently, neither did the nurse who delivered Courtney.”
“If the birth mother was telling the truth and your father is really Courtney’s father, then I doubt he ever knew he had a second daughter,” Zane said. “I spent a lot of time around your father when I was rodeoing. Your father adored you. I can’t believe he didn’t have plenty of room for another daughter in his heart. He wouldn’t have kept her a secret, and he wouldn’t have given her up for adoption.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I want to believe that. I know he had wanted more children. If my mother hadn’t gotten sick…”
Zane saw the pain behind the tears. She had hated the thought that Clay had kept Courtney from her. Dakota had idolized her father. He’d been everything to her even before her mother died. To have a sister sprung on her like this must have been more painful for her than he could imagine.
But if Courtney really was the daughter of Clay Lansing, then her mother had had an affair with him either while his wife was dying of cancer or right after.
Zane just hoped the whole thing was a scam and that Courtney Baxter shared no blood ties with Dakota.
Dakota reached over and took his hand. “Thank you,” she said, her voice breaking. “I’ve been struggling with this for weeks. I hated that I was suspicious of Courtney and I’ve been so angry with my father for keeping it from me.”
Zane squeezed her hand. Leaning toward her, he drew her into his arms. He hadn’t planned to kiss her. But at that moment, it seemed the most natural thing in the world.
Her lips parted, her breath warm and sweet. He felt a quiver run through her; his pulse kicked up as his mouth dropped to hers.
Dakota gently pushed him away. “Sorry, but your reputation precedes you.”
He heard the slight
tremble in her voice. She pulled free of his arms and he leaned back, telling himself he shouldn’t have kissed her. Especially given why they were together. Didn’t he have enough woman problems right now?
“You’re going to believe rumors about me?” he joked as he tried to cover up how even that quick kiss had affected him.
She smiled, but there was hurt in her gaze. “Let’s not forget that you went out with a woman who simply showed up at your door.”
“Yeah,” he said, sobered by the memory. And not just any woman. Possibly Dakota’s half sister. “You make a good argument.” His gaze caressed her face for a moment before meeting her eyes. “But that kiss? I was just fulfilling a promise I made you before you moved to New Mexico. Remember?”
* * *
DAKOTA FELT HER FACE HEAT with embarrassment. Oh, she remembered all right.
“Don’t you want to be the first boy I ever kiss?”
Zane looked down at her, sympathy in his gaze. “Your first kiss should be with someone special.”
“That’s why I want it to be with you.” Her voice cracked, her eyes filling with tears. “I’m moving away and if you don’t kiss me…”
“Dakota.” He touched her shoulder, crouching down so that they were at eye level. His voice was soft. “That’s real sweet, but there are going to be so many boys who want to kiss you. Boys you’re going to want to kiss, too.”
“Then will you at least save a kiss for me?”
Zane nodded and smiled, the caring look in his eyes making her love him all the more.
“Promise me that you’ll kiss me one day. Promise?”
“I promise.”
“I was just a silly kid,” she said now.
“Yeah, you were. But you aren’t anymore, are you? And I’m not sorry about the kiss.”
Courtney’s cell phone rang—the one they’d found under Zane’s bed and at least believed was hers.
The sound startled Dakota and yet she’d never been so glad for the interruption. She had wanted Zane Chisholm to kiss her since she was that silly kid who hung around him at the rodeo grounds.
But the phone was a good reminder that Zane had been with her sister two nights ago. She knew his reputation, and while she’d thrown herself at him when she was a girl and he was a teenager, she was no longer that starry-eyed tomboy. And Zane was definitely not that still-innocent teenager.