by Joanna Wayne
Minutes later, the engine sputtered back to life and the jerky, bumpy ride began again. Only now Emma held the baby of a dead woman in her arms. How in the world did she ever expect to take care of a helpless infant when she was on the run?
Belle squirmed and balled her tiny hands into fists, swinging them into the air and twisting her lips into a pitiful pout. Emma trailed a finger down the baby’s smooth cheek. Belle seemed soothed by the touch.
A quivery sensation stirred deep inside Emma, as if Belle had latched herself to Emma’s heart.
* * *
WOOD SMOKE CURLED FROM the chimney and filled Damien’s nostrils as he stamped the mud from his feet and climbed onto the back porch of the sprawling ranch house. His brother Durk appeared before he reached the door, carrying an armload of firewood from the nearby shed. Damien held the door for him.
“I wondered when you’d give it up and get out of that sleet,” Durk said.
“Had to move cattle into one of the closer pastures in case that snow they’re promising actually develops.”
“Don’t you have wranglers for that?”
“I had them all working most of the day, too. This is a ranch, not that plush suite of offices you work in, bro.”
“Don’t think I don’t know it. Cows are much easier to deal with than corporate policy and endless regulations.”
Durk was the CEO of Lambert Inc, and spent only his weekends at the ranch. But Damien didn’t let up on him. “Don’t worry, if it snows tonight, you’ll be recruited for ranch-hand duty in the morning,” he said. “When did you get here?”
“About an hour ago. I would have been here sooner, but there was a major traffic jam coming out of Dallas. Bridges and overpasses are already icing over. Not a fit night out for man nor beast, with the exception of polar bears—and there’s not a lot of them wondering around North Texas.”
“It’s awful quiet around here. Where is everybody?”
“Grandma’s back in her suite. Aunt Sybil is in her room watching TV and sipping her afternoon sherry. And Tague is chauffeuring Mother. I told him to be careful driving in this.”
“Where did they go?”
“Just over to the Double R.”
“In this weather? Whatever for?”
“To take Mildred and Hank Ross some of the beef-and-vegetable soup she made this afternoon. Apparently Mildred’s been sick, and you know Mother. She thinks she has to look out for the whole county.”
“When did they leave?”
“Just after I arrived, but they were going to stop off and try to persuade Karen Legasse to come stay with us until the weather improves.”
“That would make for an interesting weekend,” Damien said. “You and your ex-girlfriend snowed in together.”
“Ex is the operative word there,” Durk said. “She’s married now, with a baby. No way am I going near that, even if the sparks hadn’t cooled to ice.”
“It may be over between you two,” Damien said, “but she and Mother are closer than ever. Karen shows up at the Bent Pine almost as often as the mailman.”
Damien went to the coffeepot and filled a mug with the hot brew. “Where is Mark the Magnificent?”
“Apparently dear hubby is in L.A. for a meeting.”
“And missing all the poopy diapers. Those rich investment types know how to suffer.”
Damien lifted the lid off the big pot on the back burner of the range. The heady aroma of onions, stewed tomatoes and spices filled the room. His stomach rumbled in anticipation of his mother’s famous homemade soup.
“I’m going to grab a quick shower,” Damien said, “unless you need help bringing in logs.” With three fireplaces in the rambling old house—they could burn a lot of wood on a cold weekend.
“I’ve got it covered,” Durk said. “And then I’ll get to those boxes in the attic Mother asked me to bring down.”
“The attic is full of boxes. Did she say which ones she wants?”
“Yeah. The ones she scooted next to the opening.”
“I’ll get started on the boxes,” Damien said. “The shower can wait a few more minutes.”
Not that he liked the idea of his mother spending another long weekend buried in grief and memories. Since his father’s death, she’d spent far too much time going through old chests, boxes and trunks. It was as if she were trying to hold on to him by reliving every moment of their past.
Damien had no need for pictures or mementos. His father was so much a part of the ranch that he felt his presence every minute of the day. That didn’t lessen his pain or the regret that he’d never had a chance to tell his dad how much he loved and appreciated him. The two of them had tended to leave too many good things unsaid.
He finished his coffee, deposited the cup on the counter and took the stairs to the second floor. Once in the hallway, he reached for the overhead grip and pulled down the ladder. He climbed quickly to the dusty attic. Dusk was closing in fast, and he switched on the light to dispel the shadows.
His mother had four cardboard boxes and one sturdy metal file box that resembled an old-fashioned safe piled near the rectangular opening. He’d never noticed the metal safe in the attic before.
He scanned the area and realized that the large black trunk in the back corner was standing open. That trunk had been padlocked for as long as he could remember.
In fact, once when he and Durk were kids and had been playing hide-and-seek in the attic, they’d made up a horror tale about a body being buried in that banged-up old trunk.
His curiosity piqued again, Damien walked over to the trunk. One side of it was empty, a space easily large enough to have accommodated the metal safe.
The rest of the trunk held a half dozen or so old photo albums. He picked one up and opened the tattered cover. He didn’t recognize anyone in the picture, but one of the men was definitely a Lambert, an older version of Hugh.
One of the photos had fallen loose from the old-fashioned black tabs that had held it in place. Damien turned it over and read the names of the people in the picture. The man in work coveralls was Damien’s great-great-grandfather, Oliver Lambert, the original owner of the Bent Pine Ranch.
Hugh had made sure Damien and his brothers knew all about the blood, sweat, tears and glory that had gone into building this ranch. The man standing beside Oliver was Damien’s great-grandfather as a young man.
Damien picked up a new photo album, this one not quite as old. He slipped one of the pictures from its tabs. Again the names were written on the back of the photo.
Damien’s great-grandfather was standing beside a magnificent black stallion. The boy in the saddle was Damien’s grandfather. The house in the background was the same as the one Damien was in right now, although several wings had been added over the years.
Alive and dead, the Lambert roots extended deep into the earth of Bent Pine Ranch. His ancestors were buried in a cemetery near the chapel that Damien’s great-great-grandfather had built for his own wedding. All the succeeding Lambert weddings, including Damien’s parents’, had been solemnized in that same small, weathered chapel.
If Damien ever married, he’d hopefully continue the tradition. The “if” loomed larger every day. Not that Damien hadn’t dated. He’d just never clicked with a woman the way he figured a guy should click with someone he intended to spend the rest of his life with.
Damien closed the trunk but didn’t bother to latch the padlock. He made quick work of delivering the boxes to his mother’s bedroom.
That done, he made a last trip up the ladder, picked up the portable safe and muttered a curse as the lid fell open. Files and loose papers scattered about the floor, a few floating through the attic opening to the hallway below. He stared for a few seconds, tempted to leave the mess until tomorrow. It wasn’t like his mother would get to all the boxes tonight.
But his father had taught him too well. If a job needed doing, do it right and do it now.
Damien stooped to his haunches and began to gat
her the scattered papers. There were baptismal records, old report cards, outdated contracts and files containing yellowed documents. He checked the date on a receipt for fifty head of cattle. He’d paid more than that for the last bull he’d purchased at auction.
The receipt was dated thirty-one years ago, thirteen months before he was born. He figured the old records would make interesting reading over a cold weekend.
Working quickly, he gathered the loose papers by the handful and slid them into the box without putting them in any kind of order or attempting to return them to the correct files. He paused when an old birth certificate caught his eye.
The name of the baby boy was Damien Briggs, almost identical to his name, except that he was Damien Briggs Lambert. Briggs was his mother’s maiden name.
The date of birth was exactly the same as his. He found that uncannily weird. He kept reading.
The mother was listed as Melissa Briggs. The father was unnamed. The Melissa in question must have been his mother’s sister. His mother seldom talked about her family, but she had mentioned a sister named Melissa who’d died years ago.
Somehow Damien had gotten the impression that Melissa had died when she was only a child, but apparently not so if she’d given birth to a boy on the same day he’d been born.
So where was this first cousin that Damien had never heard mentioned? Had he died in the accident that had also killed his mother?
Damien read the names and dates again. Disturbing possibilities surfaced. Was it possible that he and Damien Briggs were one and the same? Could it be that his real mother was Melissa Briggs?
No. Carolina was his mother. Hugh was his father. He’d seen his own birth certificate.
Still, the troubling suspicions refused to dislodge themselves from his mind. Acquiring a fake birth certificate listing himself as the father would have been no sweat at all for a man with the political clout of Hugh Lambert.
But then again, Hugh would never give his name to a son who wasn’t his. Case closed.
His mother’s voice drifted from the kitchen. She was home. Damien should just confront her with the birth certificate. She’d clear up the confusion. It would be over and done with.
But if his suspicions were on target, it would explain why Hugh had frequently treated him like a wild horse that he’d captured but didn’t really want in his fold.
More disturbed than he was willing to admit, Damien carried the safe downstairs and left it sitting on the coffee table. He marched out the front door, pulling it shut tight behind him.
Flakes of snow fell on his shirt and in his hair. A frigid cold settled in his bones, but he didn’t go back for his jacket. Instead, he walked toward the horse barn.
He needed to be alone to think. He needed to escape the confines of the house and to ride the open spaces of a ranch that might not really be his legacy at all.
Chapter Two
The truck jerked to a stop. Bodies squirmed and stretched. Belle balled her tiny hands into fists and swung them in the air as if she sensed the excitement growing around her.
The back doors squeaked open and a welcoming burst of fresh but frigid air filled Emma’s lungs. The darkness of night had set in completely since their last stop. She cuddled Belle closer inside the folds of her rebozo.
“El fin de la línea,” Julio called.
The end of the line. They’d made it safely.
An elderly man near the door stuck his head out and then frowned. “No Dallas.”
“Esto es Dallas, anciano,” Julio insisted.
But they were clearly not in the city. Others began to voice their fears.
“Estamos en Dallas?”
“Espero que no sea probemas.”
“Tonto,” Julio quipped. “If I let you out in the middle of town, you’d be arrested in minutes. You can see the highway from here,” he shouted over their complaints. “Catch a ride into town or walk. You’ll be in the outskirts of Dallas in less than a mile.”
Emma didn’t complain. If he was telling the truth, she could make that even carrying Belle. As soon as she came to a convenience store, she’d call for a cab and have it take her to the nearest cheap motel.
The grumbling and curses continued, making it clear that the occupants didn’t trust Julio. Not that they could do anything about it.
Emma placed Belle on her lap while she gathered her rebozo and wound it around her as she’d seen other mothers do, knotting it into a sling so that it would keep Belle cuddled against her chest and leave both hands free as she climbed from the trailer.
The woman who’d befriended her and fed Belle pushed a plastic bag holding a pacifier into Emma’s hand. “This one is sterile. To comfort the infant until you find milk.”
“Gracias.” Emma slipped the wrapped pacifier into the deep layered folds of her wrap and reached for the paper bag that held her new purchases.
Julio grabbed Emma’s arm when she reached the door and yanked her back into the trailer. “You stay.”
Her stomach rolled. Not this. Not again. “The baby,” she whispered, as if that would make a difference to this beast.
He shoved her against the wall. “Do as I say or you won’t be getting out of here alive.”
One of the men looked back, shame in his eyes that he didn’t have the strength or the courage to stand up for her. She avoided meeting his gaze, not wanting him to get shot on her account.
Dread ebbed through her veins. Would she never be free?
Once the trailer was empty except for her and Belle, Julio shoved her against the wall and slammed the double doors shut. A few minutes later, they were bouncing along again, litter left by the former occupants rolling and scratching along the floor.
Emma’s body was jerked around like a marionette, and she struggled to make certain it was just her shoulders and elbows that banged into the side of the trailer and not Belle’s head.
Belle began to cry and Emma offered her the pacifier. The baby continued to wail, fighting the nipple. Eventually she locked her lips around it and stopped fretting.
Emma fought the growing panic as the truck rumbled along. The thought of rape made her violently ill. But how could she fight him off? Julio was twice her size and carrying a weapon.
Had she escaped ten months of captivity only to be raped and killed by some half-drunk thug on a deserted road? And if she was, what would happen to Belle?
The answer to that was too heartbreaking to consider. Emma would have to find a way to save them.
Unfortunately, no miraculous ideas came to mind.
Belle was sleeping when the truck bolted and then jerked to a stop. Emma’s heart jumped to her throat when the doors clanked and rattled open. She jumped up as Julio climbed inside, the illumination from his flashlight in the confines of the trailer casting a demonlike glow about his face.
An owl hooted in the distance. The wind whistled through the tops of trees. But there were no highway sounds. No lights behind him. No sign of anyone to hear if she screamed for help.
Julio moved toward her, the smell of whiskey strong on his fetid breath. “Put the baby on the floor,” he demanded, “and then lie down on your back.”
“You don’t want to do this,” she said.
“Sure I do, mujerzuela.”
She shook her head at the cruel taunt. “I’m not a slut. Please, I’m a mother. Let me be. I paid my money.”
“I’ll let you be when I’m done with you. Do as I say and I won’t hurt you or the baby. Cause trouble and you both die here. Now, put the baby down and spread your legs.”
It was foolish to try to fight him. It would get her hurt or killed. Then the monster Caudillo would have won without even being here.
She was still standing when Julio put his hand beneath her skirt and trailed his hand along her thigh, inching closer to her intimate areas. Emma’s insides rebelled and her instincts took over. Her knee flew up and caught him in the crotch. He yelped and staggered backward. She swung at him and her fingernail
s dug into the flesh below his left eye, leaving two bloody trails.
He muttered curses and recovered his balance, slapping her so hard her brain seemed to rattle in her skull. Belle began to wail. If Emma didn’t stop now, the baby would surely get hurt.
She was about to give in when she spotted the sharp blade of a knife he grasped with his right hand.
“Please, no. The baby needs me.”
He spit in her direction, the spittle falling short and landing near her feet. “Should I cut your pretty throat or just shred your face so that you never tempt another man again?”
“Please. Mercy. Please.”
He dabbed at the blood on his face with the dirty cuff of his sleeve and then swung at her. The knife slashed her left arm a few inches above the elbow, barely missing Belle.
Julio swung again, but this time he missed completely and lost his balance when the blade connected with nothing but air.
Bracing herself with her left arm against the side of the trailer, she got in a quick kick that struck him in the back of the knee. He fell facedown onto the hard, filthy floor.
Emma scurried to jump out the back door. Expecting to hear Julio’s footsteps behind her or the sound of a gunshot, she didn’t look back until she reached the cover of trees and brush at the side of the narrow dirt road where they were parked. To her amazement, there was no sign of Julio.
She shuddered at the icy sting of the wind in her face and the feel of warm blood running down her arm. Working quickly, she tightened the rebozo around the wound, hoping the pressure would slow the bleeding.
Belle started to cry. Emma fought back her own tears of fear and frustration. She had had no idea which way she should go, but she stumbled ahead, vaguely aware of the snowflakes sifting through the canopy of pine needles and melting against her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around Belle and held her close in a futile effort to keep her warm.
Finally, she stepped into a clearing and spied a stretch of barbed-wire fencing. Relief pumped a reviving surge of adrenaline though her veins. If there was a fence, civilization couldn’t be that far away. Her pace quickened with her pulse.