Peace River (Rockland Ranch Series)

by Jaclyn Hawkes

  She looked around for help, but there was no one, so she quietly stepped into the stall and over to the horse, talking in a low gentle voice. She tried in vain to slip the halter off, but it was pulled too tightly. She stepped back out of the stall and hurried to the trailer, grabbed a utility knife out of the drawer and ran back.

  It took her probably 20 minutes to saw through the webbing of the halter, being very careful not to get the blade anywhere near the horse’s skin. It seemed to understand she was trying to help and was amazingly still through the entire ordeal. She’d finally released it from the metal and was standing next to it inspecting the wound with the shredded halter in her hand when she heard an angry voice behind her, “Hey, what are you doing? Get away from that horse!”

  She calmly patted the horse and walked out of the stall as the man growled, “What are you doing in with my horse?” The angry face that went with the angry voice wasn’t any happier when he saw what she’d done to his halter. He calmed down when she told him what had happened and what she’d done to help. The horse needed to be stitched up and the cowboy, who had introduced himself as Leland Wilde, changed gradually and became almost too friendly to Isabel as he readied the horse for transport.

  They were in the alleyway of the barn and Isabel was just leaving when Slade walked in. He instantly tensed when he saw them and asked, “So . . . What’s going on?” His voice was as angry as Leland’s had been at first. “What are you up to, Wilde?” Isabel couldn’t believe the tone she was hearing Slade use. He strode between them, grasped Isabel firmly by the elbow and started to walk her back out of the barn. Stunned, Isabel went with him, surprised even more when he turned back to Wilde and practically threatened, “She’s with us. Stay away from her!” With that he continued almost marching her out of the barn. She didn’t want to create a scene, so she went with him, but his dictatorial manner infuriated her.

  Once out of hearing of Leland, she turned on Slade, jerked her arm out of his grip and snapped, “Don’t you dare treat me like this! Who do you think you are? Don’t you dare handle me like this!” She was furious! She had an abhorrence of physical domination after her childhood with Judd that left her angrier than she ever liked to be, and for Slade, of all people, to be one to try to push her around made her even madder. She’d trusted him implicitly. She wanted to completely tear into him, but thought better of it and spun on her heel and strode away.

  ****

  Rossen came down the trailer steps just in time to hear Isabel’s outburst and see her leave. He’d known Slade long enough that he must have known Slade was mad too. As Slade neared the trailer, Rossen asked, “What’s going on?”

  Slade shook his head. “I just found her in with the horses. Leland Wilde was standing there with her.” He knew Rossen understood immediately as he continued, “I guess I didn’t handle it too well. I thought I was protecting her, but I should have known better than to try to force her.” Slade was still mad, but in retrospect, he understood that physical force was probably the worst tack he could have taken with Isabel. He hadn’t stopped to think, before getting her away from the jerk.

  ****

  Isabel walked for more than an hour around the rodeo grounds. She knew Slade and Rossen would’ve left to go warm up their horses by then and she didn’t even care. As she walked she was calming down, but she was still angry with Slade.

  There was a little voice in the back of her head that was saying he was right to want her away from the cowboy, and she’d felt that as soon as Leland walked up. He was too slick and too self-important. And the way he’d looked at her made her uncomfortable. She’d had a sense he shouldn’t be trusted and had been in the process of excusing herself when Slade had walked up, but the fearful child in her, now turned adult, was still mad at the way Slade had treated her.

  She steamed inwardly during the entire rodeo and was still ticked as she started back to the trailer alone when the bull rides started. She heard a step behind her and it automatically made her tense. It was a feeling she hadn’t had in a couple of weeks, and it made her feel guilty for still being mad at Slade. She knew by now that he would never do anything that wasn’t in her best interest and that he must have had a good reason for behaving the way he did. At the sound behind her, she turned around and was relieved to realize it was Rossen, obviously come to see her safely home.

  He fell into step beside her. “Still mad?”

  She smiled up at his candor. “Yes.” At least she was honest. “I didn’t realize I had such a short fuse. But I’m feeling penitent too. I know Slade was right. I knew I needed to leave before Slade even walked up. I just hate to be physically forced. A holdover from my father, I suppose.”

  They walked in silence toward the trailer. Finally Rossen said, “Isabel, I don’t know how to put this delicately, but Slade had very good reason for being worried about your safety around Leland Wilde. We don’t mean to be domineering, but you should stay away from him. You aren’t safe alone with him. Slade just cares a lot about you. That’s all. Try not to be mad.”

  They’d reached the trailer and she nodded. “I know. I’m not mad any more. You can tell him it’s safe to come home. Thanks for walking me. I’ll have something to eat when you get in.” He went back to the arena and she went inside.

  Thirty minutes later Slade came in the door. He closed it behind him, and she turned. Their eyes met and held and after a moment, he asked, “You still torqued?”

  His wording made her grin as she shook her head. “No. But thanks for asking. Are you?”

  “I wasn’t mad at you.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “I’m the one you dragged off.”

  “I didn’t mean to drag you. I’m sorry.”

  “Accepted. I’m sorry too. I don’t deal well with being physically forced.”

  “I gathered that. I should have known. It was stupid of me. Wilde just lit me up—seeing him with you. We go back. He should have known better than to even talk to you when you’re with us. Without sounding like I’m ordering you around, it would be a good thing to steer clear of him.”

  She nodded. “I will, and I’m grateful you were watching out for me.” She started to set food on the table.

  Taking a step closer, he said earnestly, “Isabel, you don’t understand. But you need to. Leland Wilde is dangerous. I don’t want to boss you, but you should stay away from him.”

  She nodded almost penitently. “I know.”

  “What do you mean, you know.” His face held concern. “Has he hurt you?”

  “No. I just knew.” She met his eyes again. “I knew he was not to be trusted the same way I knew you could be. I’m not sure what it is. There’s just this little voice in my heart that knows.” She gave him a small smile, shrugged and put dishes on the table. “Women’s intuition.”

  “Or the Spirit, giving you a prompting to keep you safe.”

  “It doesn’t sound so nutty when you say it.”

  “Just so you follow it. Dinner smells wonderful. What can I do to help?”

  Later that night Isabel checked her email. There was a message from Anna.

  It said, “Judd and some others jumped Dante in one of the barns at the horse farm and beat him badly. He’s still in the hospital, but will hopefully be home in the next few days. Be careful and stay safe. Love you, Anna”

  The message was a couple of days old. Isabel felt sick. She knew instantly why Judd had done it. He was trying to find her.

  Slade and Rossen heard her rapid intake of breath and must have realized something was terribly wrong. She looked up and met their eyes and pushed the laptop around so they could see. She was quiet for several minutes, unshed tears in her eyes. Finally she said, “I need to go home. This is because of me. They did this to try to get him to tell them where I am. But he couldn’t because he didn’t know where I am.”

  She got up and started to pace the tiny space of the trailer and whispered, “I thought by leaving that I was protecting them.” Incredible g
uilt washed over her and the tears overflowed.

  Slade stepped in front of her and she stopped and looked up at him as he asked, “How is going home going to help? It seems to me that’s the last thing you should do. Going back will only endanger them more. If Judd knows if he hurts somebody you’ll cave, then he’ll do it every time he wants something.”

  He was right. She knew it. He always was. She’d learned to respect his wisdom across the board. Still she felt terrible and said, “But I need to be there. I need to help take care of him. That’s the least I can do since I caused it.”

  Slade watched her, then shook his head sadly and said, “The only ones who caused this are the men who did it, Isabel. If Dante really cares for you, and it sounds like he does, then what he needs is to know you’re safe so he can focus on healing.”

  She sat back down at the little table. “I don’t even dare call for fear that somehow they’ll be listening in or find me.” She knew she sounded discouraged and didn’t even care.

  Slade continued, “If who you’re dealing with really is organized crime, then that’s wise. And the simple fact that he’s been so badly beaten means they aren’t fooling around. Try emailing one of them. Just be sure you don’t give any indication of where you are or that you’re with us.”

  It was after nine p.m. back home, but she was hoping someone would check their email tonight anyway. Seconds later, she was thrilled to realize Eli was online and wrote her right back. She wished she could have talked to him on the phone so she could hear his voice. She was having a ball with Slade and Rossen, but sometimes she really missed Dante and Eli.

  Eli told her what had happened in his typical level-headed way. He didn’t get too flustered about much, but he didn’t hesitate to tell her just how bad Dante was either. So she knew things were every bit as serious as they had seemed both before she had left and when she’d read the email.

  As if to emphasize that, Eli wrote.

  You be careful, girl. Judd’s crazy and the men he’s been hanging around with are as bad as they come. You were right to leave. You watch yourself and your horse.

  She told him again that she was safe and doing well and though she missed them she wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Slade was right, that would only make Judd bolder.

  Eli wrote back and mentioned that they were trying to finalize the Bonner issue. Isabel knew immediately that what he was saying was they needed her notarized signature on some sales documents. She wrote back and asked if that was something they could work on there at the hospital. That was her way of telling them that somehow she’d try to have someone pick the paperwork up at the hospital and bring it to her, without making it obvious if someone else gained access to this email. She and the guys were going to be back near that area in the next day or two.

  They stayed online for almost a half hour writing back and forth about what all was going on with the farm and those back home, and she explained in a rather bland and uninformative way that she was happy and watched over.

  She still felt terrible for what Dante had gone through because of her, but when she ended the session online, she was much happier to know exactly how he was than when she’d first gotten the email. Turning to Slade and Rossen, she said, “He has broken ribs, a punctured lung and a brain concussion. He said he recognized Judd and his nephew, but there were several others with them he’d never seen before.”

  She paused. “He also has some legal documents, part of a sales contract on a horse, that have been notarized by the buyer, but need my notarized signature.” She looked from one to the other. “What do you think would be the best way to get them? They’ll take them to the hospital. Now I just need to figure out how to get them from there. They’ve hired some off-duty policemen to guard his room, so hopefully someone can get in and out without Judd realizing we’ve been in contact.”

  Getting out the big calendar, the three of them pored over it for a minute and then Slade said, “We could drive that route on the way to Bakersfield without going much out of our way. We won’t risk you being seen anywhere near the hospital. We’ll drop the trailer somewhere and one of us could pick up the papers and bring them to you to sign. I’m just wondering, what did the police do? About what happened to Dante?”

  “Eli said they are finally taking this seriously. Apparently, when Dante felt up to trying to identify some of the men who were with Judd and Deek, he actually identified a couple of men the police were very interested in for other things. They just haven’t been able to find them. So far none of them have turned up, but at least now they’re trying to bring them in. Before, they didn’t even want to be bothered.”

  Sounding completely disgusted, Slade said, “It’s about time they took it seriously.”

  ****

  Rossen came down with a cold the next day, and took some decongestant that wiped him out, so he was sleeping in the back seat as Slade drove with Isabel keeping him company up in front. She had been waiting for an opportunity like this to ask Slade some questions. She wondered about the church Naomi had talked about the evening they’d cooked together, and she was finally going to get up the nerve to ask Slade about the saddle. When she started riding the bay mare he’d brought, that secretly she thought he’d brought just for her to ride, he‘d simply walked into the tack room of the trailer and handed her the saddle she was using. She‘d wondered about it ever since. It was much too small for either of the men, and it had the initials CM stamped into the leather at the back.

  After worrying and hesitating, she asked, “Slade, may I ask you something?”

  He glanced over at her and back to the road. She knew she’d been quieter than normal the last little while and he had probably been wondering where her thoughts had been.

  Casually he said, “Shoot.”

  “Do you know anything about this Mormon Church Naomi belongs to?”

  He smiled. “Some.”

  Isabel turned questioning eyes to him. “She seems to think it’s the true church of Jesus Christ.”

  “It is.” He answered matter-of-factly. She turned to stare at him.

  “It is what?”

  He laughed. “The true church of Jesus Christ.”

  She was confused. “What do you mean? Why do you say that?”

  He checked his mirrors and said, “Because I believe it is the true church of Jesus Christ, headed up by Him, with the exact organization He used in biblical days. And incidentally, it’s not just Naomi. The whole family belongs. Heck, half the population of Wyoming does. At least the part we live in.”

  “The whole family? Even Rossen?”

  “Even Rossen.” He indicated the zombie snoring in the back seat. “That sleeping beauty back there is actually a returned missionary. That’s what they call them back home. The young men who are truly converted go on missions for two years when they’re eighteen or nineteen or so. Sometimes the young women go, too.”

  Isabel turned to stare at the back seat. She was stunned. “Two years! Eighteen-year-old kids? Holy Moly!”

  “All of them are returned missionaries except Cooper and he goes out next August. I assume Joey will leave when she turns nineteen here in a few months, too, although girls only go for eighteen months. They are a pretty devout family.”

  “I had no idea. Why hasn’t he ever said anything?”

  “Anything like what?” He slowed to avoid a big rig.

  “Anything about religion, or if he spent two years being a missionary, why doesn’t he ever talk about it?”

  Slade checked his blind spot and changed lanes. “He doesn’t need to. He lives it. Think about it. Think back over the last two weeks when you’ve spent practically 24/7 with him. Now compare him to the average Joe you knew in high school or college.” The truck was silent for a few minutes except for Rossen’s soft snoring.

  Shaking her head, Isabel said, “Wow. You’re right.” But then, she thought, you always are.

  Slade went on, “He’s honest, he’s clean living, he’s ha
rd working. He’s the most upstanding guy you’ll ever meet. He doesn’t party or sleep around. He doesn’t even swear--well, except when he sees Angelique coming.” At this they both smiled. The more Isabel thought about it the more she realized he was right. He was also describing himself.

  He went on, “He never passes up the chance to help someone, and if you think about it there are other things. He reads his scriptures every day, sometime. We never eat without first asking a blessing on the food. Last Sunday was about the only Sunday in forever that he hasn’t gone to church in whatever town we happen to be in. You don’t know that because you’ve only been with us this long, and last Sunday was the day we took your horse home. It was kind of an ox-in-the-mire deal. If you were going to describe someone who is trying to follow the Savior, he would be the poster child.”

  She looked up at him. “You’re just like him in all those ways.”

  Slade chuckled. “Not even close. But he has been the ultimate mentor for me. That’s what I mean by saying he doesn’t have to preach, he just lives it.”

  “So then, you belong to his church too.”

  Slade glanced over at her and then pulled at the collar of his shirt for a moment. “Well, yes and no. Yes, in that I do believe they’re right. I do believe it is Christ’s gospel, led by a prophet, but no in that I haven’t actually been baptized yet.”

  She was confused again. “Why not?”

  He hesitated with a frown. “That’s a good question. One I’ve been asking myself a lot lately. Mostly because I’m stubborn, and bullheaded to a fault, and I‘ve been a fool for way too long. When we first moved to Wyoming I’d never been around anyone very religious. Neither had my parents. The more we were around people like the Rocklands, the more we believed in what they did. I’m sure I would have been baptized a member when I was a teenager if I hadn’t foolishly let two bad experiences color every aspect of my life. I was still a good kid, don’t get me wrong, I just had a hard time understanding some things.