Captive of the Cattle Baron (Selkirk Family Ranch Book 1)

by Irene Vartanoff

  Despite the sun’s low position in the sky, her feet quickly burned through her cardboard sandals. The sandy soil radiated the day’s heat. Up top she was more comfortable, as the sleeveless shift she wore kept the rest of her well ventilated. If her trek took long, she’d start shivering as the desert cooled in the evening.

  The shift had no pockets. Her wallet was back in her bedroom and, with it, her cash. One foot in front of the other. She’d deal with her lack of travel funds once she got back to civilization.

  A familiar noise stopped her. A Jeep crested the ridge and bore down on her.

  There was nowhere to hide. The bushes were low scrub, too small to duck behind. She pulled her knife from her makeshift belt. She would not allow Baron to take her back to that prison.

  The Jeep drew closer and slowed down. Tess was at the wheel. She screeched the vehicle to a stop and jumped out.

  “Are you okay?” Tess hugged her. She drew back and examined Addie. “Oh, my god. He even took your shoes.”

  “No, the stupid thongs fell off.”

  “You’re giving my brother too much credit,” Tess said. Her tightly pursed lips and the hardness in her eyes radiated her anger. “Running this ranch has done something to Baron’s head.”

  “You got that right.” Addie sighed. “How did you know I was here?”

  “Hoot followed you. Took Whitey. If you hadn’t calmed that horse down, Hoot couldn’t have ridden him despite all his years of rodeoing. He told me he didn’t have time to go to the ranch hands’ stables for a fresh horse.”

  They climbed into the Jeep and Tess started it up. The vast distance back to human habitation was reduced to nothing. Sunset was no threat now.

  “We were all worried when Baron came back alone. He looked like he had done murder.”

  Addie shuddered. “Let’s not go there.”

  “Hoot came to the house and told us what he saw. Then Miss Betty finally admitted the truth about Baron bringing you to the ranch against your will and refusing to let you leave. No wonder you were wearing my clothes.”

  “I thought I could convince him to let me go. Up until that nasty tabloid show.”

  “Was even half of what it claimed true?”

  “Not the part about me and Caz. Who cares about the rest?”

  “Baron.”

  Addie sighed. “Hollywood strikes again. Another potential relationship gone to hell. I don’t want to go back to the house. I don’t want to see him again for a while. Maybe never.”

  Tess let out a dry laugh. “No worries,” she said, “Baron is rip-roaring drunk at the moment and incapable of any action. I spiked his lemonade with vodka. Miss Betty and Paula locked him in his office. For good measure, we took his boots.”

  “Poetic justice.” Addie said. She sighed. “I’ve been a fool, hoping we could build something despite his preconceived notions and my evasions. Now I need to go home.”

  “I’ll help.”

  “Can you?”

  “Darn right I can.” Tess maneuvered the Jeep over the ridge to the ranch hands’ compound, then past it. “Paula flew the plane that brought us here. I’m taking you straight to the air strip. She’s getting ready to fly you out.”

  “That’s fantastic. I owe you one.”

  Tess shot her a dark look. “You don’t. Our family mess is to blame. Baron never acted like this before. Ever.”

  “Maybe it’s the sexual frustration,” Addie said. “Men always claim it drives them nuts. Maybe it really does.”

  Tess glanced at her. “You mean you never did it? Not even once? I saw the way you looked at each other.”

  Addie shook her head. “As long as I was a prisoner here, I would never have made love with Baron. Not voluntarily, anyway.” She shuddered.

  “Did you think he might—?”

  “I don’t know. That would have ruined us both.”

  Tess cursed Baron and all men. “Tell me about Hollywood. I’ve always dreamed of going there, yet you left.”

  “It was okay when I was a kid, but as an adult, I had it tougher.”

  “The fabled casting couch? Grabby producers wanting sex in exchange for a role?”

  Addie nodded. “Avoiding them took some fast talking—and a few threats.”

  Tess cursed again.

  “Of course, Baron probably thinks my life in California was all sequins and klieg lights.”

  “And sex with Chris Hemsworth.”

  “They never look like Chris Hemsworth.” She choked back a laugh. “That’s the problem.”

  Tess guffawed.

  The laughter made something in Addie’s chest relax. “Thanks for helping me find the humor in this. For the last few hours I’ve been in dire straits,” she said.

  “Tess and Paula to the rescue. She’ll radio for clearance from the Jackson Hole airport. Why don’t you use my cell phone and call someone to meet you there?”

  Addie called her manager, Trudy, and then Caz’s lawyer, Marty Feld. He was freaked out.

  “Thank god you called. The trial’s going faster than we expected. We need you to testify tomorrow morning. We tried to delay, since no one could get hold of you. Trudy gave us the number, but we never got through to a live person, just a recording.”

  “I hope this is a secure line,” she said. “Tabloids have been known to hack people’s phones.”

  “I’m an officer of the court. That makes hacking me a bigger crime.”

  Marty promised to arrange for someone to meet her at the private plane section of the airport, to which the paparazzi did not have access.

  Tess was as good as her word. She screeched the Jeep to a halt in front of the hangar.

  Paula came out from behind the small plane. “You okay, Addie? He didn’t hurt you?”

  “I’m good. Getting better every minute.”

  Paula handed Addie an athletic bag. “From Miss Betty.”

  “Oh, wonderful. My clothes. My boots.” She caressed the boots. “My wallet, too. Thank you.” She went inside the hangar and wasted no time changing into her jeans and putting on real footgear. In a minute she was ready.

  Paula motioned her to the plane. “I’m positioned for takeoff. Let’s go.”

  Addie went over to hug Tess. “Thank you. I won’t forget this.”

  “When Baron kicks me off the ranch, I’ll try to remember that,” Tess said. She grinned. “I love putting one over on my big brother.”

  Paula and Addie boarded the small aircraft and buckled into their seats.

  “What will happen to you when he realizes you got me out?” Addie asked.

  “Baron can ban me from the ranch, but not from seeing J.D.” Paula donned a headset and handed one to Addie, then started her preflight check of all the instruments.

  Addie shivered from reaction. She was finally escaping. Hard to believe. She’d never thought a plane would be an option.

  Paula started the takeoff. They waved through the windows to Tess as they taxied down the runway. Within a few seconds, they were airborne. “We should make Jackson Hole by sunset.”

  Addie sighed with relief.

  After a few minutes, they settled into a flight path and Paula turned on the automatic pilot. “If you don’t mind my asking, why did Baron lock you in that cabin?”

  “He said he was keeping me safe from the tabloids.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “How did I get so mixed up with his past? Am I anything like Baron’s dead girlfriend?”

  Paula shook her head. “Julie was a wimpy thing. Easy for Baron to feel protective about.”

  “That’s not me,” Addie said.

  “No, not from the little I’ve seen of you. Anyway, following him around the world, or worse, staying home alone while his geology career took him away constantly, was not for her. She wanted bright lights and the adulation of crowds.”

  “She had the typical false image of Hollywood fame,” Addie said.

  “She wanted a different life, even though it
killed her. You’re not like her at all.”

  “I would love to live in the middle of nowhere and never see a stranger’s face for weeks or months at a time,” Addie said. “My ranch in Jackson Hole wasn’t isolated enough.”

  “You’d be perfect for Baron.”

  “If he ever gets over his mad.”

  “‘Gets over his mad’ is putting it lightly, don’t you think?” Paula said, with a sober expression on her face.

  Addie watched the desert scrub below change to pine trees. “Earlier today, you said Baron had changed, that he wasn’t like this before.”

  “It started last year. Geology isn’t a career that gives a man people management skills, as far as I know. Yet Baron was forced overnight to take the reins here.”

  “With no help from his parents?”

  “They’ve completely checked out. They’re no help to anyone, if you want the truth. Hoot let on that Baron’s been having a tough time getting the ranch hands to accept him as the boss.”

  “Yes, Baron told me. Maybe that’s why he kept trying to boss me. He couldn’t turn it off,” Addie said, and lapsed into silence.

  As Paula kept watch on the flight’s progress, Addie idly considered taking flying lessons. If she intended to live in an isolated area, she should know how to fly a plane. What other survival skills did she need out here? The ability to get through to a pigheaded man when he was fit to be tied, for one. Because she would never let Baron, or any other man, make her a captive again. Even when the captivity was meant to help her and keep her safe.

  Did it have to be another man? She thought she’d finally found the right man in Baron. Too sure his way was the only way, but basically a good man.

  Her thoughts went around and around as Paula flew the short hop to Jackson Hole. The trip that took hours by car was a mere few minutes in the plane. The sun had just gone behind the mountains when Paula landed the small aircraft at the Jackson Hole airport.

  Paula taxied to the side reserved for small planes. She did her final instrument check as Addie leapt out. Her boots struck the tarmac, solid as her makeshift mocs hadn’t been. No more rope belt, either.

  A limo driver approached Addie and spoke a code word. After locking the plane, Paula joined them.

  “Where can we take you?” Addie asked her.

  “Just drop me at a local motel.”

  “What will you do next?”

  “I’m going back to Cheyenne. Back to J.D.”

  They drove through the gathering evening gloom silently once Paula had called and found an available motel room. The limo drew up just outside the perimeter of light at the chain motel.

  “I apologize for not getting you closer,” Addie said, “but we have to keep me a low profile.”

  “I understand.”

  “J.D.’s an idiot if he doesn’t recognize what a rock you are,” Addie said, touching Paula’s arm. “I can’t thank you enough. You’re a heroine.”

  Paula smiled crookedly. “I hope that’s enough to sustain me while I wait J.D. out.”

  Addie nodded. “We’ll meet again.”

  “We will,” Paula promised.

  They hugged briefly. Paula exited the limo and walked across to the glass doors of the motel office.

  Tears trickled down Addie’s face. She’d found a stalwart friend in Paula. Tess, too.

  Chapter 11

  Addie’s limo pulled into the same hotel garage where it all started. Caz’s lawyer, Marty, tossed in a housemaid’s uniform and waited outside the tinted windows while she changed. Once she donned it, with the accompanying dark-haired wig, she looked the part. They walked to the hotel door, where Marty gave her a couple of pillows to hold. She became invisible. People didn’t look at maids’ faces, just at what they carried.

  He used a key that allowed them to take the service elevator. On a guest floor, they walked down a hall until Marty consulted a check-in folder and stopped before a door. He inserted the key to a compact room. “I had my assistant gather some clothes for you from your place,” he said, as Addie checked it out.

  “Thanks.”

  Promising to be back in the morning with breakfast, he sketched a salute, handed her the key card, and left.

  Addie contemplated the simple key card in her hand. If only Baron hadn’t tried to keep her a prisoner. She burst into tears.

  The adrenaline that had sustained her since her rescue from the cabin dropped away. She could barely put one foot ahead of another. She leaned against the entrance wall and covered her mouth so whoever was in the next room couldn’t hear her wailing.

  Eventually, the worst of the storm passed. She dragged herself to the bathroom and threw off her clothes. After turning the shower on, she stood under the water and held the grab bar so she couldn’t fall. She washed the dirt and dust of the cabin off her, ruthlessly scrubbing her damaged hands that only a few hours ago had desperately held a bare knife blade.

  A fresh gust of tears hit her, mingling with the hot water. She’d been so desperate she’d made plans to try to save her life in case Baron came back intent on harming her. How could their relationship reach such a point of wretchedness that she feared he intended violence against her? Had they been doomed from the moment he wouldn’t drive her back to Jackson Hole? All the rocky scenes between them had culminated in him treating her like a criminal merely because she’d once been on television, and physically imprisoning her in a remote and dangerous spot, without any means of contacting anyone for help. Did one act of outrageous domination lead to another and another and another? To prevent his downward spiral of behavior that led to savagery, should she have thrown herself out of the SUV that first day—no matter how fast he’d been driving?

  No, none of this was her fault. She’d been ill and hunted when she hid in his vehicle. She hadn’t been thinking straight, perhaps, but she’d meant no harm. The bad reaction to the allergy pill had made her weak and knocked her out. Everything that happened after she fell asleep was the direct result of Baron’s insistence on being the boss.

  Why did he believe he had a right to lock her up? Baron had the benefit of a sound family upbringing, plenty of material goods, and extensive education. Yet he’d behaved one step next to a cave man.

  Tess and Paula had saved them both from discovering how savage Baron could become. She shivered and turned the water hotter. Perhaps his angry determination to control her stemmed, as Paula had argued, from the frustrations involved in running the ranch. In a man’s world, being openly disobeyed by employees would be hard to take. Whether that was the situation or not, Baron needed to learn a different way to handle his frustration.

  She turned off the water, determined to get some sleep despite the questions that went around and around in her head.

  ***

  The next day, Addie dressed carefully and wore the full makeup Marty’s assistant had provided, knowing her face would be photographed extensively. A sober royal blue dress, black pumps, and a simple gold chain as her only jewelry made up her costume. She looked the part of the best friend.

  Baron might think her role was the repentant whore. No, she had to stop thinking about what negative opinions Baron might have about her. They were wrong, for one thing. He had no right, for another.

  Caz fell on her neck when she joined him in a private room at the courthouse. “You got here. I was so worried.”

  She patted his back. “Me, too. It took two heroines to rescue me from the hero who rescued me from the paparazzi.”

  “Huh?” He wrinkled his forehead.

  “Later. Let’s get you exonerated.”

  Within minutes, they were called to the courtroom. They were careful not to touch each other as they walked side by side, with Caz’s legal team running interference as they passed the scrum of reporters shouting at them.

  “Adrienne. Honey. Turn this way. Pose for me, baby.”

  “Adsy, kiss Caz for us. You know you love him.”

  “Caz, how does it feel to have your lover
finally by your side?”

  Addie resisted rolling her eyes at the silly efforts by the press to break her silence, or Caz’s. He’d donned a poker face, his “I’m a serious cop” look from his TV series. His walk had some of the swagger of the character he played, as well. She kept her expression neutral, trying not to broadcast any personality at all.

  The gauntlet they walked seemed endless, but most of the reporters were barred from entering the courtroom. She and Caz sat where his lawyers directed, he at the defendant’s table, she slightly behind him in the first row.

  Addie blanked out the next minutes, but roused when she was called to the stand. After being sworn in, and having a microphone attached, she sat down and waited for the D.A.’s questions, all of which she expected to be insinuating and nasty.

  He didn’t disappoint her.

  ***

  Baron woke on the floor of his office with the light of dawn. Stiff and achy, he felt hung over. What the hell had been in that lemonade Tess gave him? It had hit him like a ton of bricks. He was a cheap drunk, which was why he didn’t drink.

  He threw some cold water on his face in the hall bathroom. Addie. He’d left her in the cabin all night. He hadn’t meant to. Better not think about his intentions last night. None of them had been good. He’d been angry. He was always angry since coming back to the ranch.

  He took off outside, pausing in the dawn. The Jeep was missing from its usual spot. No time to waste saddling a horse. He grabbed one of the lighter vehicles, a four-wheeler, and aimed for the cabin.

  The smell of smoke was his first inkling. He maneuvered the four-wheeler around some rocks and a bend in the terrain, and suddenly the smoking ruin of what had been the cabin was before him.

  “No!” His howl went up to the heavens. “No, no, no!”

  He tore off of the vehicle and threw himself at the embers of what had been the cabin.

  Addie. Oh, my god. Oh, my god.

  His hoarse pleas rent the air. “Addie. Addie. Answer me. Please.”

  He burned his hands, but paid no mind. The fire must have started on the stove, which remained, scorched metal, akilter on the ground after it had burned through the floor and set the floorboards and everything in the cabin ablaze. The bedstead, also metal, was visible under the collapsed sheet metal roof. The metal was still hot. It singed his fingers. He ignored the pain.