He’d thrived in it, fantasized about it, and yet had always known deep in his heart that he would never, could never, allow himself to reciprocate it.
That alone made him a heartless coward.
And worse than that, he knew that Sammy loved him. He knew what childish dreams Sammy held in his heart, that somehow Lucas would wind up being his father. While he hadn’t encouraged Sammy, he’d certainly done little to discourage him.
If he was true to himself, he’d recognize that he’d wanted them to love him. He liked feeling special in their lives. He’d allowed himself to wallow in being loved for the first time in his life. It had been an incredibly selfish thing for him to do, and now he didn’t know how to fix things.
If he could go back in time, he’d be that spitting, cow-dung-smelling, half-civilized hick that Nicolette had assumed he’d be. But, the genie was out of the box now and her confession of love rang in his head, piercing him with sadness as he realized he wasn’t the man Cass had wanted him to be, and he wasn’t half the man he thought he’d become.
“Won’t Mom be surprised when she gets home and sees that I can ride a horse all by myself?” Thankfully Sammy’s voice pulled Lucas from his thoughts.
“Our next job is going to be to get her behind in a saddle,” Lucas replied.
Sammy giggled. “She’ll make up all kinds of excuses, but sooner or later she’ll ride, too. She won’t want to be left out when you and I go riding the range together.”
Riding the range together. But he’d already told her he rode alone, and despite all his warnings, she’d somehow convinced herself she was in love with him.
Before, he’d been able to tell himself that everything between them would come to a halt when she left to return to the city, but now she didn’t intend to leave Bitterroot.
He didn’t doubt her plans to remain here. He’d watched her fall in love with the country. He’d seen her drawing deep breaths of the sweet air, looking up at the big blue sky overhead and watching the stars at night.
He’d judged her as a city girl, but now realized she was a country girl at heart, low maintenance and happy with simple pleasures.
Cassie hadn’t shown any indication that she’d shed her love of the city, that she might stick around here and learn to love ranching and the small-town community of Bitterroot.
Friday they would begin the takedown of the damaged shed. Lucas figured it would take two to three weeks to get a new one up, depending on the weather. That shed was the final piece in Cassie’s plan. All the other storm damage had been taken care of and with the new shed in place the ranch would be in perfect order to go on the market to sell.
It was ironic that as Nicolette began to build a future here, he was going to, in all probability, lose his. He looked around the table at the men who remained. They shared friendships forged in youth and shared pain.
If the ranch sold, unless the new owner decided to keep them all on, then they would all go different directions, seeking work, seeking new lives wherever they could be found.
Maybe it was time for Lucas to pick up and leave Bitterroot altogether. He could always find work on some ranch in Texas or maybe head to Wyoming.
Certainly life would be easier on Nicolette and Sammy if they didn’t have the chance to run into him. His absence from town would probably make life better, easier for them.
“Hey Lucas, do you think I could pretend that Candy is my horse for as long as we stay here?” Sammy asked, thankfully pulling Lucas from his maudlin thoughts.
“I think Cass would have been happy if you pretended Candy was your horse,” Nick replied.
“She’d definitely want that horse to be loved by somebody,” Lucas replied. “And I can’t think of a finer cowboy than you for the job.”
“Good, because I already love Candy,” Sammy replied.
Before Sammy could continue, Lucas’s cell phone rang from his pocket. “That’s probably your mother calling to make sure you haven’t bounced off the back of a horse and onto your pointy little head.”
Sammy giggled as Lucas answered, surprised to hear Cassie’s voice. “Lucas, something weird just happened.”
He sat up straighter as he heard the edge of panic in her voice. “What?”
“Nicolette and I were just about to have dessert when she got a phone call. She immediately got up from the table and left the café. I peeked out the blinds and I saw her get into the passenger door of a dark sedan. Lucas, Samuel was driving that car.”
Shock sizzled through him. “I’ll be right there,” he said, and disconnected at the same time he got up from the table. “Nick, can Sammy hang with you for the rest of the afternoon?”
“Problem?”
“I think so. I’ll be in touch.” He gave Sammy a squeeze on his shoulder. “Be good for Nick and I’ll see you later.”
He hit the dining room door at a run, his heart pounding unnaturally as he raced for his truck in the large garage in the distance.
Although there might be many reasons a divorced couple with a child might meet, this felt wrong...so very wrong on so many levels.
What was Samuel doing here in town? Why couldn’t he have spoken to Nicolette in the café? Nicolette had been suspicious of him. What on earth could have made her decide to get into a car with him?
Lucas jumped into his truck and roared down the lane and out onto the road that would take him to Bitterroot. It just didn’t make sense that Nicolette would go anywhere with her ex-husband for any reason.
He ripped up the road, ignoring the posted speed limit. Why would Samuel show up here for a meeting with Nicolette? There was only one reason, and that had to be money. Somehow, some way, Samuel wanted the money that had been left to his son. In his heart he knew that Nicolette was in danger.
He punched the button on his steering wheel that would allow him to make a phone call hands-free. “Call Dillon,” he said out loud and was grateful when the lawman answered on the second ring.
“Samuel Kendall is here in town and he lured Nicolette out of the café, where she was having lunch with Cassie.”
“What do you mean he lured her out?”
“I don’t know. He called her and Cassie said she immediately got up and left the café and got into a dark sedan with him. My gut tells me she’s in trouble, Dillon. We need to find them before something bad happens.”
“Cassie didn’t get a specific make or model of the car?”
“She just said a dark sedan.”
“There are only two roads into Bitterroot. I’ll get some men to set up roadblocks on both places. We won’t let them get out of town.”
“Thanks, Dillon. I’m almost to the café now,” Lucas replied, and then hung up.
He spied Cassie standing on the sidewalk and she waved to him as he pulled to the curb. He rolled down his window. “Which way were they going?”
“That way.” She pointed down the street to the left. “Find them, Lucas. I’m afraid for her.”
He nodded and stepped on the gas, unable to hear anything but his own heartbeat banging wildly in his chest, echoing in his head.
First the kidnapping attempts on Sammy and now a sudden, unexpected encounter for Nicolette with her ex-husband, the man she had come to believe had been behind the attempts to grab Sammy.
A cold rush of wind blew through him as a sudden thought popped into his mind. What if something happened to Nicolette? Custody of Sammy would automatically go to his father, and with custody of Sammy, Samuel would have access to the millions of dollars that had been left to his son.
There had been many times in the past when Lucas had smelled the odor of evil, and right now the smell was rife in the air. If he didn’t find Nicolette as soon as possible, she’d never realize her dreams of becoming a teacher and living a wonderful life in Bitterroot with her son.
* * *
Nicolette recognized her mistake the moment she closed the passenger door. Sammy wasn’t in the car, and if she would have reacted intel
ligently rather than emotionally she would have known that there was no way Lucas would allow Samuel to take Sammy anywhere away from him and the ranch.
“You lied to me. You don’t have Sammy,” she said. She turned to open the passenger door and leave only to realize in horror that the door handle had been removed.
Samuel stepped on the gas as she stared at him in horror. “What are you doing, Samuel? Why are you here?” Her heartbeat raced as she stared at the man she’d once been married to.
Although it had been only two years since she’d seen him, he hadn’t aged well. His lifestyle had begun to catch up with him, giving him the beginnings of jowls, small broken blood vessels across his nose and the bleary eyes of a man who had seen it all, done it all.
“I told you we need to talk,” he said.
“We could have done that by phone,” she replied as she tried to tamp down a sense of panic that threatened to consume her. “But now that I’m here, what do we have to discuss? Certainly you can’t want to know about Sammy. You haven’t asked a single question about him or wanted to talk to him since I left you.”
Fear crept up the back of her throat as he turned off Main Street and onto a residential street. “You know, I went about this all wrong from the very beginning,” he said, his voice pleasantly conversational.
“Stop the car and let me out,” Nicolette said, trying to keep the panic from her voice as he turned again on another road, this one leading to the road that would take them out of town.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, and in any case I was in the middle of telling you something. It would be rude for you not to listen to me.” There was a touch of self-righteous narcissism in his voice, as if he just assumed she would want to hear anything and everything he might have to say to her.
“Tell me what you think I need to hear and then let me out of this car.” She would have used her cell phone, but she’d raced out of the café so fast she’d left it and her purse at the booth.
She glanced to the backseat and noted that both of the handles on the doors had also been removed, making it impossible for her to climb over the seat and make an escape.
“I was starting to tell you that I went about this the wrong way from the very beginning. Initially, I figured if I had Sammy in my physical custody, then I could use some friends of mine in the New York court system to get legal custody of him.”
Even though she’d suspected as much, she stared at him in horror. “So, you were behind the kidnapping attempts.”
“I know, pretty stupid, but I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time.” He took a sudden turn off the road into a field, the car bumping and rocking over the rough terrain as he headed for a stand of trees in the distance.
Every muscle in her body tensed as he pulled up near the trees and then cut the engine. He unbuckled his seat belt and turned to face her. “This all would have been so much easier if you’d still been in the city. You have no idea how much it’s costing me to be here now, all the people who had to be paid off to provide an alibi.”
Her heart beat hard and fast. “Why would you need an alibi to come out here and visit your ex-wife and son?”
“When I heard about my father’s will and realized the bastard had left me virtually nothing and instead had left you and Sammy almost everything, I have to admit that I was filled with a mindless rage. My first thought was just to get Sammy. Once I gained custody of him then I’d have access to his inheritance. Unfortunately that didn’t work out. So, here we are and I have a new plan, one that is virtually foolproof.”
Nicolette shrank against the door as he pulled a gun from his pocket. “Samuel, this is crazy.”
“Unfortunately, you are the only thing standing between me and millions of dollars. Once you’re out of the way, Sammy and his money will be mine. Over the last year or so my monthly allowance hasn’t been enough to keep me in the lifestyle I need. Now I’m going to get out of the car and let you out, too.”
She wanted to scream, but knew the odds of anyone hearing her in this vast field were minimal. “Samuel, surely we can work this out. You can’t do this. If you kill me, then you’ll be the first person they look at as a suspect.”
“They can look all they want, but they’ll never be able to tie me to a crime here in Bitterroot. I used a friend’s private plane to get to Oklahoma City. I’m not listed on the passenger manifesto. This car is stolen and can’t be traced back to me, and I have half a dozen men who will swear I spent the day skeet shooting with them and then having drinks at one of their sport lodges in upstate New York.”
He got out of the car and slammed the driver door. As she watched him stride around the front of the car, her mind raced with a million thoughts.
Had Cassie seen where she’d gone? Who had been at the wheel of the car? It was possible she hadn’t even looked out of the window blinds when Nicolette had run out of the café.
But was it possible Cassie had seen Samuel and had then called Lucas? That Lucas had contacted Dillon and his men and they were all searching for her now? Oh, please let it be so.
Samuel reached the passenger door and Nicolette pulled her legs up to her chest, knowing she couldn’t depend on any rescue from anyone else. She had to do whatever she could to save herself.
He opened the door and she kicked her legs, striking him midcenter. He grunted and stumbled backward and she flew out of the car, intent on running as fast as she could for the cover of the trees.
He might eventually kill her, but she didn’t intend to make it easy for him. She had taken only a few steps when he grabbed her hair from the back and pulled her to the ground.
She scrambled back to her feet, facing the man she’d once believed she loved, the man who had fathered her beautiful son. Sammy. Her heart cried for her child, who would be lost and alone in the custody of his cold, heartless father.
“I’ll give you the money,” she said and tried to ignore the gun that once again he pointed at her center. “I’ll sign whatever paperwork needs to be signed to make sure you get the money.”
“It’s too late for that now. Besides, I’m not going to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for you to come after me. It ends here, Nicolette. You can blame my father for this. If he hadn’t been such a self-righteous bastard and done the right thing by naming me beneficiary, then we wouldn’t be here now.”
They both turned at the sound of an approaching vehicle. The familiar black pickup appeared to drive erratically across the field and came to a stop some distance from where Samuel had pulled Nicolette up next to him, the gun pressed tightly against her side.
Lucas! Her heart leaped with both hope and fear for him.
He opened his truck door and wobbled out, a goofy smile on his face. “Hey, Nikki, what’s happening? What are you doing out here in the middle of Miller’s Field?”
His words slurred together and he leaned heavily against the open door. Nicolette’s mind raced. He appeared to be drunk as a skunk, but she knew he rarely drank and he’d never be here now drunk. He was playing a game and she knew that it was important that she play along.
“Get rid of him,” Samuel whispered harshly, the gun stabbing her in the side.
“Lucas, you’re drunk. Go home and sleep it off,” she shouted to him.
“I just knocked back a few at the Watering Hole. Who is your friend?” Lucas left the truck and took two steps forward.
“I’ll kill him right before I kill you,” Samuel whispered in her ear. “I said get rid of him now.”
“This is my ex-husband and we’re in the middle of something here. Just leave us alone, Lucas. Go back to the ranch and get some hot coffee or some sleep.”
“So, this is like a little family reunion,” he replied, again a loopy smile curving his lips. “So, is Sammy here, too?”
“He’s back at the ranch. I’ll be home soon, and Cassie is going to be angry with you if you don’t get back there right now.”
“Okay, okay. It was nice m
eeting you, ex-husband.” Lucas stumbled back to his truck door and got inside.
Nicolette watched in horror as he started the engine, pulled a U-turn and left the field, leaving her alone with a man who intended to kill her.
Chapter 17
Lucas drove down the road a short distance and then cut his engine and jumped out of the truck. With his gun in hand, he raced back toward the wooded area near where Samuel and Nicolette were, his heart pounding so hard he could scarcely breathe.
After speaking with Dillon and being assured that any dark sedan would be stopped before leaving town, Lucas had tried to crawl into Samuel’s mind.
He’d realized that if he were Samuel, he wouldn’t want Nicolette taken out of town. If he intended her harm, he’d want that to happen here in and around Bitterroot, where a local investigation would occur.
Lucas figured Samuel would want to get Nicolette into an isolated area, and a farmer’s field with no fences would be just what he’d look for. It had been by sheer luck that he’d spied the car in the distance on the Miller property.
The first thing he’d needed to do was check out the situation, and thankfully it appeared that Samuel had fallen for his drunken cowboy act.
But Lucas had seen the glint of silver of the gun in Samuel’s hand and he knew the situation was dire. Samuel had no interest in allowing Nicolette to leave that field alive. He had millions of reasons to ensure she never left that field.
Lucas now approached the trees from the opposite side, grateful that he hadn’t heard a gunshot yet. If only Nicolette could stall long enough for him to get into position, then hopefully he could take out Samuel before Nicolette got hurt.
He’d never seen this coming. They’d all been so focused on protecting Sammy, they’d never realized that Nicolette could be a target. He silently cursed his oversight now as he entered the woods.
He was grateful that the tree branches were spring supple, and he made little noise as he stealthily maneuvered in the direction where he’d seen Samuel and Nicolette standing.
A Real Cowboy Page 20