by B. J Daniels
Her grandmother shook her head, smiling sadly. “We both know better than that. So much of this is my fault. Carlotta was right.” She teared up again but quickly wiped her eyes. “I’m just so happy that my granddaughters have found each other.”
* * *
WHEN THE MEAL was over, DJ was sorry to see it end. Dana had offered the cabins on the mountainside to Bianca, Ester and Marietta, but Bianca had declined, saying she was worried about her grandmother.
“She looks too pale,” her sister had said confidentially to DJ. “She shouldn’t have flown. I think all this might have been too much for her. I want to take her to the hospital to make sure she is all right.”
“I’m not sure what good that will do,” Ester said, not unkindly. “The doctors have told her there is nothing they can do for her. We’ve all known she doesn’t have much longer.”
“I know,” Bianca said.
“Do you mind if I come with you to the hospital?” DJ asked.
“No, not at all,” her sister said and smiled.
As Hud left to head back to work and they prepared to leave, snow began to fall as another storm came through. The clouds were low. So was the light. “I know you need this time with your family,” Beau said as they all headed out onto the porch. “But if you need me...”
That was just it. She needed him too much. He crowded her thoughts and made her ache for the closeness they had shared.
“I’d like to finish helping you decorate the tree,” she said.
“I’d like that, too. But we have time. Christmas is still days away.”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s a date, then.” She bit her tongue. “You know what I mean.”
He nodded. “We kind of skipped that part. Maybe...well, depending on what you have planned after Christmas...”
They left it at that as he started toward his vehicle.
* * *
THE CRIME SCENE tape was gone. Everything seemed to be back to normal around Cardwell Ranch, Andrei thought as he watched the goings-on through the crosshairs of his rifle.
There’d been a lot of company today. He’d watched them come and go, the man with Dee Anna Justice giving her a little more space.
Several times he could have taken a shot, but it hadn’t been perfect.
Now everyone seemed to be leaving. His birthday was only days away. He had to make his move. His leg was better. Good enough.
He adjusted the high-powered rifle and scope. It didn’t take him long to get Dee Anna Justice in the crosshairs. A head shot was the most effective, but at this distance he didn’t want to take the chance.
For days he’d been conflicted. But now he felt nothing but calm. His reputation was at stake. He would finish this.
Shooting into a crowd was always risky, but the confusion would give him his chance to make a clean getaway. Now it felt almost too easy. Was this the shot he’d been waiting for?
He aimed for DJ’s heart and gently pulled the trigger.
* * *
DJ AND HER newfound family stood on the porch, saying their goodbyes to Dana. Her grandmother stood a few feet away. DJ heard Bianca ask her if she was feeling all right.
Beau had stopped near his pickup. She could feel his gaze on her. Something in his expression made her ache to be in this arms. He was dressed in jeans, boots and that red-and-black wool coat. His black Stetson was pulled low, but those blue eyes were on her. Her skin warmed at the thought of his hands on her.
“You’re my granddaughter in every sense of the word,” Marietta said as she stepped to DJ and took both of her hands again. “If I have any money left—”
“I don’t want your money. I never have.”
Her grandmother nodded. “I am such a foolish old woman.”
DJ shook her head and hugged the woman. Marietta hugged her hard for a woman who looked so frail. As she stepped back, DJ heard Beau let out a curse.
She looked past her grandmother to see him running toward her. He was yelling, “Shooter! Everyone get down!”
DJ couldn’t move, the words not making any sense at first. Then she reached for her grandmother. But Marietta pushed away her hand. As she looked up into the older woman’s face, she found it filled with love and something else, a plea for forgiveness, in the instant before the woman stepped in front of her as if to shield her.
The next thing she knew, Beau slammed into her, knocking her to the porch floor. “Everyone down!”
In the distance came the roar of an engine. Beau was pushing her to move toward the door of the house. “Get inside! Hurry! DJ, are you hit?”
She couldn’t do more than shake her head. “My grandmother?”
That’s when she looked over and saw the woman lying beside her. Blood bloomed from her chest. DJ began to cry as Beau ushered them all inside the house, then carried Marietta in.
“Put her down here,” Dana ordered, pointing to the couch near the Christmas tree. She had the phone in her hand. DJ knew she was already calling Hud and an ambulance.
She and her sister rushed to their grandmother’s side.
“Stay here! No one leaves until I get back!” With that, Beau was gone.
* * *
BEAU DREW HIS own weapon from his shoulder holster. The sound of a vehicle engine turning over filled the icy winter air as he raced to his pickup. He could make out the silhouette of a vehicle roaring down the road toward Highway 191.
He started his engine, fishtailing as he punched the gas and went after it. By the time they reached the highway, he’d gained a little on what appeared to be an SUV.
The driver took off down the icy highway. Beau followed the two red taillights. He quickly got on his cell and called in the direction the man was headed, then tossed his cell aside to put all his attention on driving.
The highway was empty as the driver ahead of him left Big Sky behind and headed deeper into the canyon, going south toward West Yellowstone. But it was also icy. The last thing Beau wanted to do was end up in a ditch—or worse, the river. But he wasn’t going to let the man get away.
As he raced after the vehicle, his mind raced, as well. Hud had been so sure that they had the hit man and that a local man had killed him. Was it possible another hit man had been hired when the first failed? Or had there always been two?
* * *
THIS WOULD BE how it ended. Andrei could see that now. For so long he’d had trouble envisioning his life after his forty-fifth birthday. Now he knew why.
He’d just killed some old woman. It was worse than he could have imagined. Shame made him burn. He had failed to kill his target and he wasn’t going to get away, he thought as he looked back to see the pickup right behind him.
It was that cowboy. What was his story, anyway? The PI had been suspicious and jumpy from the start. Otherwise he wouldn’t have spotted him just before he’d fired. The cowboy had probably caught the reflection off the rifle scope. Just Andrei’s luck.
Ahead all he could see was snow. He hated snow. He hated cold. He hated this contract. All his instincts had told him to let it go. Stubbornness had made him determined to finish it no matter what. And all because of the coin toss. It had never let him down before. Not that it mattered now.
He felt his tires lose traction on the icy road. He touched his brakes as he felt the back of the car begin to slide and knew immediately that had been a mistake. But it was just another mistake, he thought as he cranked the wheel, trying to get the car to come out of the slide. Instead, it spun the other way. He was going too fast to save himself. He saw the guardrail coming up and closed his eyes.
* * *
BEAU’S HEART WAS POUNDING. He still couldn’t believe how close DJ had come to being killed. If he hadn’t lunged for her. If her grandmother hadn’t stepped in front of the bullet. So many ifs.
The taillights ahead of him grew brighter as he closed the distance. He knew this road. He suspected the would-be assassin did not. He could see that the vehicle was a white SUV. Probably a rental.
The canyon followed the river, winding through the mountains in tighter turns. He pressed harder, getting closer. His headlights shone into the vehicle, silhouetting the driver. A single male.
Just then, he saw that the driver had taken the curve too fast. He’d lost control. Beau watched the SUV go into a slide. He let up off his gas as best he could. He knew better than to hit his brakes. They would both end up in the river.
The SUV began a slow circle in the middle of the road. He could see that the driver was fighting like hell to keep it on the road, no doubt overcorrecting. The front of the SUV hit the guardrail and spun crazily toward the rock wall on the other side, where it crashed into the rocks, then shot back out, ping-ponging from the guardrail to the cliffs on the slick road until it finally came to rest against the rocks.
Beau managed to get stopped a few yards shy of the SUV. He turned on his flashers and jumped out, glad there wasn’t any traffic. Drawing his weapon, he moved to the vehicle.
The driver was slumped to one side, his deflated air bag in his lap and blood smeared on what was left of the side window. Beau tried to open the driver’s-side door, but it was too badly dented. He could hear sirens in the distance as he reached through the broken glass to put a finger to the man’s throat. He was still breathing, but for how long?
* * *
“GRANDMAMA,” BIANCA CRIED and fell to her knees beside the couch. DJ, taking the towel Dana handed her, pressed it to the bleeding wound in Marietta’s chest.
“An ambulance is on the way,” Dana assured her, sounding scared. The towel was quickly soaked with blood.
DJ joined her sister, her heart breaking. “You saved my life,” she said to her grandmother. “Why would you do that?”
Marietta smiled through her pain. “It still can’t make up for what I’ve done. If I had time...”
“You have time,” Bianca said. “You can’t leave us now.”
Her grandmother patted her hand weakly. “My old heart was going to play out soon, anyway. I didn’t want you to know how bad it was or how little time I had.” She looked from Bianca to DJ and back. “Seeing the two of you together... I’m happy for you. You have a sister now.”
She looked to DJ, reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Forgive me?” she whispered.
“Of course,” DJ said, and her grandmother squeezed her fingers. “Take care of each other.” Her gaze shifted to Ester. “Take care of my girls.”
Ester nodded, tears in her eyes.
Marietta smiled and mouthed “Thank you” as her eyes slowly closed. Her hands went slack in theirs. She smiled then as if seeing someone she recognized on the other side.
Bianca began to cry. DJ put her arm around her, and the two hugged as the sound of sirens grew louder and louder.
Epilogue
Beau looked out his office window, watching the snowstorm and feeling restless. It was over. DJ was safe. The bad guys were either dead or in jail. It hadn’t taken Marshal Hud Savage long to put all the pieces together with Beau’s help. The man Roger Douglas had hired was arrested and quickly made a deal, naming not one but two hit men. Andrei Ivankov, a professional hit man, died before reaching the hospital in Bozeman. Jimmy Ryan, a thug for hire, was also dead, killed, according to lab results, by Ivankov.
Mailman Burt Olsen was in the clear. According to Dana, Burt and her sister, Stacy, had a date for New Year’s. Dana figured they’d be planning a wedding by Valentine’s Day. Apparently Stacy hadn’t waited for Burt to ask her out. She’d invited him to the movies and they’d hit it off, making Dana say, “I told you so.”
Meanwhile, Dana’s best friend, Hilde, went into labor Christmas Eve. She had a beautiful eight-pound, nine-ounce baby boy. Dana had called earlier to ask if Beau had heard from DJ. He’d said he’d been busy and now wished he’d asked how DJ was doing, since he was sure Dana had talked to her.
“You going to spend the whole day looking out that window?” demanded a deep female voice behind him.
Beau turned to look guiltily at his assistant, Marge. She stood, hands on hips, giving him one of those looks. “What do you want me to do?”
“You should never have let her leave in the first place.”
“She was going to her grandmother’s funeral in Palm Desert.”
“You could have gone along.”
He shook his head. “She needed time.”
Marge scoffed at that and shook her head as if disappointed in him. “You mean you needed time. Apparently you haven’t had enough time in your life.”
“I hardly know the woman.”
Marge merely mugged a face at him.
“It was too soon,” he said, turning back to the window. “She had too much going on right then.” He glanced over his shoulder. Marge was gone, but she’d left the door open.
He walked out into the reception area of the office to find her standing at her desk. “What? You aren’t going to keep nagging me?”
“Would it do any good?” She sounded sad. Almost as sad as he felt.
* * *
NEW YEAR’S DAY, Dana listened to the racket coming from her living room and smiled to herself. There were children laughing and playing, brothers arguing good-naturedly, sister and sisters-in-law talking food and fabrics, cousins discussing barbecue, since they had a batch of ribs going outside on the large grill. The house smelled of pine, fresh-brewed coffee and cocoa, and gingersnap cookies decorated by the children.
She wished her mother were here. How happy Mary Justice Cardwell would have been to see her family all together—finally. It was what Dana had hoped for all her life. It was one reason she would never leave this old house. Her children would grow up here—just as she had. She hoped that someday it would be her grandchildren she would hear playing in the next room.
“Do you need any help?” her cousin DJ asked from the kitchen doorway.
Dana stepped to her and pulled her into a hug. “Having you here means more than you can ever know.” She drew back to look at her cousin. She’d seen how much Beau and DJ had loved each other. But for whatever reason, they’d parted. It broke her heart.
She’d had to twist DJ’s arm to get her to fly up for the New Year. “You wouldn’t consider staying longer, would you?”
“I have to return to California. My editor has a list of assignments she wants me to consider.”
“I have to ask about your grandmother’s funeral,” Dana said.
“It was quite beautiful. As misguided as she was in the past, she saved my life. I’ll never forget that. Also, I’ve been spending time with my sister and my father, actually. He’s trying to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. That was nice of you to offer him a place here on the ranch.”
“I hope he takes me up on it,” Dana said. “After all, this is where he belongs. Zinnia would love to see him again. You know, she’s a widow.”
DJ laughed. “You just can’t help matchmaking, can you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Dana said, smiling. “Bianca is also always welcome here on the ranch. I spoke with her about coming up and spending a few weeks. She wants to learn to ride horses. So you have to come back. There really is no place like Montana in the summer.”
“You sound like Beau.” DJ seemed to catch herself. “He mentioned how nice it is up here once the snow melts.”
“Yes, Beau,” Dana said, unable to hold back a grin. “The night I saw the two of you dancing down at The Corral, I knew you were perfect for each other.”
DJ shook her head. “I’m afraid you’re wrong about that. I haven’t heard from him since I
left.”
Dana laughed. “Trust me. I’m never wrong.”
* * *
IT WAS ALMOST midnight when there was a knock at the door. The old ranch house on Cardwell Ranch was full of family. Dana had just passed out the noisemakers. DJ had seen her watching the door as if she was expecting more guests, but everyone was already there, including DJ’s cousins—Jordan and his wife, Stacy and Burt, and even Clay and his partner.
Dana ran to the door and threw it open. A gust of cold air rushed in. DJ saw her cousin reach out, grab Beau and pull him in. They shared a few words before both looked in her direction.
She groaned, afraid of what Dana had done to get Beau over here tonight. Her cousin was so certain she wasn’t wrong making this match. DJ almost felt sorry for her. As much as she and Beau had enjoyed their time together, as much as DJ felt for him, sometimes things just didn’t work out, she told herself as he walked toward her.
If anything, he was more handsome than the first time she’d seen him standing in the airport. His blue eyes were on her, and in them she saw what almost looked like pain. Her heart lodged in her throat. Tears burned her eyes.
“We need to talk,” he said as he took her hand. She was reminded of the night at The Corral when he’d said the same words. Only that night, he’d dragged her from the dance floor, out into the snowy night.
Tonight he led her into the kitchen and closed the door. When he turned to her, she looked into his handsome face and felt her pulse pound.
“I’m a damned fool,” he said. “I should never have let you go. Or at least, I should have gone with you. Since the day you left, I’ve thought about nothing but you. I would have called, but I was afraid that once you got back to your life...”
“Are you just going to talk, or are you going to kiss me?” DJ managed to say, her heart in her throat.
He pulled her to him. His mouth dropped to hers. He smelled of snow and pine and male. She breathed him in as he deepened the kiss and held her tighter.