by B. J Daniels
Abby shook her head. “It wasn’t in that context. It was...a bad memory. I know that doesn’t make any sense. It’s just this...feeling more than a memory. But I know I’ve seen him before, and wherever it was, it wasn’t...good.”
“Okay,” he said, wondering what to make of this. “And you say he recognized you? Did he call you by name?”
“No. He seemed as shocked to see me here as I was him. I made him nervous.”
Ledger took this all in.
“I know I sound crazy,” she said, stopping her pacing to step to him again. “I’m trying to remember where I saw him. So much of the past is a blank because of the concussions. I’m afraid I won’t remember.”
He held her, drawing her close and kissing the top of her head. “It’s going to be all right. You’re here.” But so was Vance Elliot—soon to be Oakley McGraw, if his father had anything to do with it. He wondered how much he should worry. Wade had scrambled Abby’s brain. Could he trust this feeling she had? Could he not trust it?
* * *
ABBY LEANED INTO Ledger’s hard body. Breathing in his scent, she felt safe and loved in his warm, strong embrace. With his arms around her, she believed anything was possible. Even the two of them having a happy ending. She never wanted him to let her go.
But she couldn’t shake off the bad feeling she’d had the moment she’d seen Vance Elliot in the hallway. Something was terribly wrong. If only she could remember where she’d seen him.
“Maybe I really am crazy.”
“You’re not crazy,” he said, a smile in his voice. “You’re going to be fine.”
In his arms, she believed it. But when she was alone with her black hole of a memory... “I don’t know.” She stepped away to move to the window overlooking the ranch. She loved this view. It was so peaceful, unlike her mind right now. “Maybe my head is so jumbled up that I might never straighten it out again.”
“The doctor said to give it time. You’ve been through so much,” he said, stepping to her and clasping both shoulders in his big hands. His fingers tightened as if he was thinking of Wade. “Trying too hard to remember is only going to make your headache worse.”
She nodded. “Thank you for not going after Wade.”
His smile was tight. “You don’t know what you’re asking. You realize that, don’t you?”
“Yes. I don’t want you to lower yourself to his level.”
Ledger let go of her. His laugh held no humor. “Oh, Abby, you don’t realize how much pleasure it would give me to beat that man to within an inch of his life. I want to give him some of his own medicine.” He smiled. “But for you, I won’t go after him. All bets are off, though, if he shows up here.”
She smiled and nodded through fresh tears. “Once this is over,” she whispered as he took her in his arms. “Once this is over.” But would it ever be over?
* * *
VANCE COULDN’T BELIEVE it as he sat behind the wheel of the ranch truck and looked at the fancy clothing-store bags and boxes piled high on the other side of the pickup.
“Treat yourself, please. Head to toe.” That was what Travers—his father—had said. That meant Stetsons to boots. Any other time, he would have been over-the-moon excited. The truck smelled like good leather and expensive fabrics. It smelled better than anything he could remember.
As he looked down at his boots, he felt for the first time like Oakley McGraw. He’d never owned a good pair of boots before. Somehow it made him feel better about himself. At least temporarily.
He pulled out the burner cell phone, sick at heart that he had to make this call now, of all times. But he didn’t know when he was going to be able to get back into Whitehorse alone.
It rang three times before a male voice answered with “You done good, boy.”
“Yeah,” he said, loving the feel of the fine leather on his feet as much as the new gray Stetson perched on his head. For a moment, he thought about hanging up, starting the engine and seeing how far he could get away before someone came after him.
He didn’t want to give any of this up, let alone have it snatched from him. He liked being Oakley McGraw, but it would be hard to get rid of Vance Elliot after twenty-five years of him living in the man’s body. As Vance, he’d made his share of mistakes that were bound to come out.
But he had a more immediate problem. “The thing is—”
“What’s wrong?”
“Abby Pierce. I crossed paths with her in the house today. She recognized me, but I could tell she was having trouble remembering where she’d seen me. But I have to tell you, that look she got in her eyes... It won’t take her long to put it together.”
“Where are you?”
“In town. Travers treated me to some clothing. He’s planning on a big press conference tomorrow to tell the world that I am his son. But if she remembers before that—”
“Meet me at the Sleeping Buffalo rocks. Fifteen minutes.”
* * *
“I’M GOING TO see your mother,” Travers said when Ledger came downstairs. “I was hoping you and your brothers would come, as well.”
“Sure.” He’d been once when he was younger. He hated seeing his mother like that, and his father had said that he didn’t want his sons going if it upset them. Cull was the only son who continued to visit her—not that she’d noticed.
“I heard she’s doing better,” Boone said as they started toward the front door for the drive to the mental hospital.
“She is,” their father said, smiling. He looked so much happier now. His prayers had been answered. Now, if Jesse Rose would turn up... “She asked about each of you the last time I saw her.”
“She’s talking?” Ledger said.
“She is. Not a lot, but she’s improved so much I have hope, and so do the doctors, that she could make a full recovery,” Travers said.
On the drive to the hospital, they talked about the ranch, the horses and finally Vance.
“Is this press conference really necessary?” Boone asked. “Yesterday, I was out in the pasture and a drone flew over low with a video camera attached to it. Is it ever going to stop?”
“Not for a while,” Travers said as Cull drove. “When Jesse Rose is found, we’ll have to go through it all over again, but eventually we’ll be old news.”
“That day can’t come soon enough,” Ledger agreed.
“If it ever does,” Cull said. “Whenever our name comes up, it’s in connection with the kidnapping.”
“And Nikki’s book on it isn’t going to help,” Boone said.
Cull shook his head. “I disagree. We’re in the public eye. People want the inside scoop. Well, they will get it in the book. After that there won’t be anything to add.”
“I hope you’re right,” Ledger said. “I want to marry Abby, but I don’t want to bring her into all this.”
“Patricia still has to go to trial,” Boone said. “Who knows how long it could take to find Jesse Rose, if ever. I can’t see this ending for years, so unless you want to make the mistake of putting off your marriage again—”
“Abby isn’t even divorced from her current husband,” Cull pointed out. “I think we should just be glad that Oakley has been found.”
“Yes,” their father said. “Let’s count our blessings. After the press conference tomorrow, I have a good feeling about Jesse Rose being found, as well.”
Chapter Twelve
“WELL, WOULD YOU look at this dude,” Deputy Huck Pierce said as Vance Elliot climbed out of the McGraw ranch pickup. “Oakley McGraw, all duded out. How ya likin’ livin’ in luxury?”
All the way out to the Sleeping Buffalo rocks, Vance had been thinking he should just take off. It wasn’t like he’d left anything he wanted back at the ranch. And he knew Travers McGraw would never send the cops a
fter him. Not his own son. He could just keep going.
The problem was that he would eventually run out of gas. He didn’t have a dime to his name. But as Oakley McGraw, he could have it all. It meant staying, though, and taking his chances with Abby remembering where she’d seen him. It also meant dealing with Huck and his son, Wade, he thought with a groan as he glanced past the two deputies to the rocks.
“So what’s this?” he asked, motioning to two brown boulders, a large one and a smaller one, under a roofed-over enclosure beside Highway 2. He was stalling for time and he knew it. As he stepped closer to the rocks, he saw that they appeared to be covered with tobacco and some loose cigarettes that had been broken and spread over the larger of the rocks.
“You ain’t heard the story of the Sleeping Buffalo?” Huck asked. “These rocks are sacred. Indians—excuse me—Native Americans believe it has spiritual power. You see, the Native Americans were looking for buffalo, hadn’t seen any and were worried. Then they saw what they believed was the leader of a herd perched high atop a windswept ridge overlooking Cree Crossing on the Milk River not far from here. It turned out just to be these rocks. But past it was a herd of buffalo. So they believe these rocks led them to the buffalo and that the rocks have some kind of special powers. That’s why they leave tobacco on the rocks to honor the spirits.”
“And you believe that?” Vance asked.
“You might, too, if you knew what happened back in the 1930s when the rocks were moved into town,” Wade said. “Townsfolk swore that the rocks changed positions and bellowed in the night. So they hurried up and brought them back out here.”
“No kidding?” Vance said, staring at the rocks. The larger one was way too huge for even a group of men in town to move by hand each night in order to scare people. He thought maybe there was something to the story since apparently a lot of the Native Americans believed in these rocks.
He wished he believed in something right now as he saw Huck fidgeting. He had something on his mind and Vance feared he wasn’t going to like it.
“There’s a hot springs up the road here, if you ever get out this way again,” Wade was saying.
“Are we through shooting the breeze, because I want to know how things are going out at the ranch,” Huck said impatiently.
Vance took a breath. He thought of his beautiful accommodations. He was now living in the lap of luxury—just as Huck had said—and he loved it. He’d never thought it would go this far. But now that he was so close to legally being Oakley McGraw, he didn’t want it to end.
“There could be a problem,” he said, turning away from the rocks. The sun beat down on him. Standing here, he could see the prairie stretched out in front of him for miles. This country was so open. He thought a man could get lost in it and thought he might have to before this was over.
“A problem?” Huck repeated, already looking angry.
He glanced at Wade. “It’s your wife. I didn’t realize that she was at the ranch because she’s been holed up in a room down the hall. Well, I saw her today. And she saw me. I think she recognized me from that first night we met.”
* * *
WATERS LOOKED AT the messages on his phone. Patricia. One of them caught his eye.
Travers came by to visit me.
He stared at the screen and swore. The last thing he wanted was for Travers to be talking to Patricia. Who knew what lies she’d tell him. She was determined to take Waters down with her. He didn’t know how to stop her. Surely the sheriff and Travers knew that she was a liar.
But some things would have a ring of truth in them. He’d been so sure everything would be blamed on Patricia’s conspirator, Blake Ryan. Blake had been the former ranch manager, an old family friend and one of Patricia’s lovers. He would have done anything for Patty—and did.
Now, though, there seemed to be fallout around the case and Waters knew he was directly in the line of fire if Patricia kept shooting off her mouth. Plus, she said she had evidence in emails and texts.
He paced around his small apartment, telling himself that now would be the perfect time to leave the country. Except that what money he’d managed to put away over the years was in stocks and bonds and not that easy to liquidate. Also it was the worst possible time.
But if he could get his hands on some money...
“Calm down.” He stopped pacing, tried to stop panicking. Vance Elliot was Oakley. He’d brought him to Travers. Everything was fine. Travers wouldn’t take Patricia’s word over his. If he could just hang in...
A thought struck him. If he could find Jesse Rose, Travers would be indebted to him forever. He thought about the strange call he’d gotten from that private investigator in Butte. Probably a dead end. But maybe he should mention it to Travers. Maybe make more out of it than it had been.
* * *
“WHAT THE HELL are you talking about?” Huck demanded. “I know Abby can’t hardly remember her own name. That’s right—not only do I have friends at the lab in town, but also I have friends at the doctor’s office and in other places. She doesn’t remember anything.”
“Maybe,” Vance said skeptically. “But if you had seen the way she looked at me.”
Huck waved it off. “You’re just being paranoid. Suck it up. So how are things going with Travers McGraw?”
“Like I told you, he’s scheduled a press conference tomorrow to announce to the world that I am Oakley McGraw. After that, he wants me to change my name legally.”
Huck burst out a huge laugh and pounded Vance on the back. “Nice work. I can see that you’re enjoying the fruits of our labor. The accommodations up to your standards?”
“It’s nice living out there.”
Wade snorted. “I’ll just bet. Abby eating it up?”
“She doesn’t look good. I mean, she’s still hurt pretty bad,” Vance said. “She’s kind of limping, holding her ribs, and there’s bruises.” He could see that this pleased both men. What had he gotten himself involved in? As if he hadn’t known right from the get-go.
“So you stand up there tomorrow at the press conference,” Huck said. “You tell the world how happy you are to be back in the bosom of your family and you start going by Oakley.”
“What about the reward money? You said I’d get my share.”
Huck’s gaze narrowed. “You wouldn’t be thinking about taking off once you got a little money in your pocket, would you?”
Vance looked away.
“Listen to me,” the deputy said, closing the space between them. “This is for the long haul, not for a measly five hundred grand. You’ll get your share but not until you are settled in and Daddy’s put you in his will.”
He blinked. “Why would you care about the will?”
“You let me worry about that,” Huck said, patting him heavily on the shoulder. “I’ll let you know when we’re through doing business. In the meantime, stay clear of Abby. She’s probably picking up on your nervousness. We’re home free.”
Vance could see now how this was going to go. At first it had been about the reward money. They were to split it and then part ways. But Huck was getting greedy. Which meant the deputies would bleed him dry for years if Vance let them.
* * *
LEDGER WAS STILL shaken from seeing his mother. He hadn’t seen her since he was a boy. It had been shocking then. It was still shocking. Cull had gone to visit her at the mental institution over the years, but he and Boone had gone only once when she’d first been admitted.
He’d asked about her, though, when Cull had returned from a visit. “She’s still catatonic. In other words, she doesn’t know anyone, doesn’t talk, doesn’t respond to anyone around her,” Cull had said. “She just sits in a rocking chair and...rocks.”
Ledger had kept the rumors going around school about her over the years to himself. He didn’t wan
t his brothers or his father to know what the kids were saying about his mother.
“She’s crazy scary. The nurses are all afraid of her.”
“Her hair turned white overnight. She turned into a witch and puts spells on people.”
“She sits and rocks and holds two old dirty dolls. She thinks they’re the twins she kidnapped.”
That was the hardest part, everyone believing his mother had helped kidnap her own children. Unfortunately, none of them still knew who inside the house had handed out the twins to the kidnapper on the ladder outside the window. The ladder had been found leaning against the house—one of the rungs broken halfway down. That had led the FBI and sheriff at the time to speculate that the kidnapper could have fallen with the twins and that the six-month-old babies had died.
Fortunately, they’d found out that that wasn’t true.
Now Ledger stared at the white-haired woman in the rocking chair on the criminally insane wing of the mental hospital and wondered what was true. The woman in the rocker looked much older than fifty-seven—until he looked into her green eyes. There was intelligence there—and a whole lot of pain.
“Ledger,” she said and held out her arms.
He stepped into them, kneeling down so she could hug him, and felt his heart break for all that she’d lost. Twenty-five years. Gone. Worse, only one of the twins had been found. If Vance really was the lost twin.
Ledger couldn’t help thinking about what Abby had told him. Maybe it was just wires crossed in her brain. Or maybe not.
Worse, his mother was still a suspect in the kidnapping. But he didn’t want to believe it. This woman who’d suffered so much... She couldn’t have been responsible for helping the kidnapper take her own children.
“I want to see Oakley,” his mother said as she looked at Travers. “Will you bring him to visit me soon?”
Travers promised he would. “He seems to have taken after you.”
* * *
WADE WATCHED VANCE drive away. “We can’t trust him.”