by B. J Daniels
He was studying her as if trying to tell if she was lying. He knew her well enough to know that she was holding back something. He got another text.
“You should get going so you don’t miss your flight.”
“If you’re sure...”
“I’m sure.” She held his gaze.
“Then start planning the wedding. We’re getting married as soon as possible. I need you on the campaign trail with me.” He sounded relieved. Almost happy. Something was still bothering him, though. If he only knew...
He leaned in to give her a quick peck. “I’ll call you later and we’ll talk.”
And he was gone. She listened to the sound of his car engine die off in the distance, telling herself he didn’t know anything. If asked, she would come up with a story for the tie, for the smell of spearmint. Or she wouldn’t mention either.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she told herself to plan a wedding. She had to concentrate on keeping Buck in the presidential race for Cassidy’s sake. For all their sakes. Later she would worry about finding a way to destroy The Prophecy.
Unless Dr. Venable gets into your head and brings back Red, the terrorist woman from your nightmares. Who knows how you will feel about any of this then.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
WHEN THE JET landed at the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, Evan offered to hang around for a few days in case Cassidy wanted to go somewhere else. Clearly, he couldn’t understand what she was doing with Jack.
“Thanks, but I think we can take if from here,” Jack said, picking up their bags and ushering her toward the door.
She hid a secret smile. Jack was acting like a jealous boyfriend. Any other time, she might have resented his behavior. But she’d never felt as close to Evan as she did Jack. There was something about him. Or maybe it was something about the way she felt when she was with him.
“Thank you so much for the plane ride,” she said to Evan and gave him a hug.
“Call me,” he whispered loud enough for Jack to hear.
Jack mugged a face, shaking his head as they exited the plane. “You actually dated that guy?” he said after they were on the tarmac headed toward the small private terminal.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asked innocently. Raised in Montana on a ranch, she’d grown up around cowboys, so they had become her image of “real men.” That image didn’t fit any of the young men she’d dated. That’s why none ever lasted more than a few months tops.
“Just because a guy looks good on paper...” Jack muttered under his breath.
She laughed. “Give me some credit. There’s probably a reason Evan is an ex-boyfriend, don’t you think?”
Jack glanced over at her. He might be a Texas cowboy, but he fit right in here in Montana. He also fit right in to her image of a real man, she thought. He wasn’t just handsome. She liked the confident way he carried himself, the way he sized up people and the way he came to a woman’s rescue.
But there was also a dangerous side to Jack, she reminded herself, still shocked how easily he’d been able to shoot the man who’d come after them. Strange, but maybe that was part of the appeal. Jack would do whatever it took to protect her. How could a woman not swoon over a man like that?
Careful, she warned herself, and balked at the thought of falling for Jack. Even if their lives weren’t so tangled in this mess with their parents, she wasn’t one to fall in love after just one kiss. And yet even as she thought it, she felt a connection to Jack that felt deeper than what had brought them together.
Jack went to get the SUV he’d called for, and feeling nervous and at loose ends, Cassidy had walked into the gift shop to wait. Impulsively, she bought Jack a T-shirt with mountains and Montana printed on it.
As she stepped out of the shop, she saw Jack pull up. She hurried outside and stopped to breathe in the cool, sweet air. She’d been gone so long that she’d forgotten this. Forgotten the way the sun shone on the pine-covered mountains. Forgotten Montana’s big sky’s deep blue color. Forgotten the way it smelled.
“Memories?” Jack asked as he opened the driver’s side door and glanced over the top of the vehicle at her.
She nodded, oddly feeling close to tears. “I’ve been away at school for years now, coming home only for family events and leaving again. I’d forgotten what I love about being here.” She smiled through fresh tears. “It’s nice to be home.”
It wasn’t until they were on the highway headed for Beartooth that she finally asked, “Are you going to tell me who you called from the plane before we took off?”
He didn’t even pretend surprise that she’d known he was lying earlier. “My father.”
She felt her eyebrow shoot up. “Was that wise?”
“We were sitting at the airport outside of Houston. Even if he could trace the call, which he might have, he wouldn’t know where we were going. He told me why he’d paid Ed to snatch you. It was just as we suspected. Leverage. Your father apparently has been thinking about pulling out of the race.”
Cassidy shook her head in disbelief. That was news to her. “So he was going to kidnap me to keep my father from doing that?” She couldn’t help being appalled.
“He said I was naive not to know that it is the way politics are done. Believe me, I’ve been hearing versions of this my whole life. All’s fair in love and war and business with him.”
“Did you ask him about The Prophecy and my mother?”
* * *
JACK CONCENTRATED ON his driving as Highway 191 began to climb toward the Bozeman Pass. This was once the route that the first settlers had taken when they’d brought cattle up from Texas to settle the Gallatin Valley.
Before her question, he’d been admiring this wild, beautiful country with its towering pine-clad mountains and clear running streams. He’d never been to Montana before but he could see why it was called the Big Sky Country.
“I told him if he wanted what was in that safe-deposit box from the bank, then he needed to call off his goons.”
“And if he didn’t?”
“I was going to take the box and everything else I knew about him to the FBI.”
“But you said we couldn’t go to the FBI.”
He nodded.
“So it didn’t scare him,” she said, sensing that the call hadn’t gone well.
“He said that if they don’t have you, they’ll take one of your sisters.”
“No!” She stared at him and then shook her head. “That’s why I have to confront my mother.”
For once, he thought she might be right.
“She’s my mother. She gave me and my sisters life. She wouldn’t hurt us.”
“And Tom Durand aka Martin Wagner is my father.” Ahead, the highway climbed up over the mountains.
“I don’t know what else to do,” she said in a pleading tone. “I don’t know what to believe.”
“I haven’t known what to believe or do since the moment this all began,” he said. The highway dropped down through the foothills, then wove through lush green countryside as it followed the Yellowstone River.
Cassidy shook her head as if in frustration either with him or the situation before turning to look out at the passing scenery. “I want to look her in the eye and ask her. If she’s behind my kidnapping...”
“I guess we’ll know soon enough,” he said. “This is a no-win situation. My father said that if I go to the feds, they will take one of your sisters. Bo. Apparently, she’s pregnant with twins?”
Cassidy looked horrified. “We can’t let them win.”
Jack rubbed the back of his neck as he drove. “Let’s stop and get some supplies, then go to this house you said we could stay in. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. Maybe after a night’s sleep...”
Cassidy nodded and he saw that she had
her phone in her hand. “My mother’s called four times. She left a message.” She played it for him.
“Cassidy, I have to talk to you. I have to know you’re okay. Please. Call. Me.”
Sarah sounded scared and worried. But was she scared and worried that her daughter had been abducted? Or that she hadn’t?
“There is something else my father told me that I think you should know,” Jack said. “He said your mother was the leader of The Prophecy. That she went by the name Red. And that we have no idea what we’ve gotten ourselves into. I think he’s at least right about that.”
* * *
RUSSELL MURDOCK OPENED his front door late that night to find the last man he would have expected standing on his front step. “Buck?”
The senator had been staring toward the Crazy Mountains behind the ranch house. As he turned his attention to Russell, it was clear this was the last place he wanted to be.
“We need to talk.”
Russell didn’t like the sound of that. There was no love lost between them since they’d both fallen for the same woman. “If this is about Sarah—”
“Of course it’s about Sarah.” Buck snapped. “Are you going to let me in or are we going to have to do this standing out here on your doorstep?”
Russell wasn’t easily intimidated, even by a man who might become his future president. “I guess it depends on what you have in mind,” he said, but stepped back to let Buck come in on a gust of mountain air.
Once in, Buck stood in the center of the living room as if suddenly unsure.
“If this is about my seeing Sarah the other day—”
“So you’re seeing her, too.” Buck didn’t sound happy about that, but not surprised.
“I just went by to check on her.”
“You think she needs checking on?”
Russell sighed. “What is it you want? Sarah made her choice and it was you. So what are you all riled up about now?”
Buck cleared his throat, his expression changing from anger to almost embarrassment. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t know where else to go. I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here. I need your help. I understand you did some checking into her memory loss.”
It was clear that Buck was anxious. Russell chose his words carefully. “It wasn’t memory loss per se. Her brain was wiped of...certain memories.”
The senator met his gaze. “I know you think I had something to do with that, but you’re wrong. It’s that doctor.”
“Dr. Venable?” The man had his attention now.
“I saw him going into her house today and it didn’t look as if it was the first time.”
“What?” Russell couldn’t believe this. “You’re sure it was him?”
“He’s older, but he looks like the photograph the sheriff showed me months ago. It’s the doctor she apparently was with in Brazil during the twenty-two years she can’t remember.”
Russell shook his head. “I knew he was back in the States. I warned Sarah. I don’t understand why she didn’t call me.”
“She doesn’t want us to know that she’s seeing him,” Buck said as he looked around. “I don’t suppose you have anything to drink?”
“Bourdon.”
Buck nodded as Russell went to the kitchen and poured them both a glass. He handed the senator his and took a chair. Buck sat down heavily in a chair opposite him.
“I just don’t understand it. She knows how dangerous this man is,” Russell said more to himself. Then it hit him. “She thinks he can restore her memory.” He swore, something he seldom did. “But doesn’t she realize he might implant false memories? Dangerous memories?”
“Maybe he already has,” Buck said with a sigh as he looked down into the dark amber of his drink. “She isn’t the same woman who left me.” Russell could tell the admission came hard for him. Buck looked up as if surprised that he’d just admitted it to a man he didn’t like, a man he’d been in competition with. “Something is definitely going on with her. I thought she just didn’t like my running for president, but I suspect it’s much deeper than that. So you didn’t know about this?”
Russell shook his head and took a drink, needing to feel the alcohol burn down through him. He was angry and disappointed in Sarah. He couldn’t help but think of the first time he’d laid eyes on her. He’d almost run her over that day over a year and a half ago when she’d come stumbling out of the trees along the deserted road north of Beartooth. He’d had no idea how she would change his life.
She’d seemed so vulnerable and yet at times, he glimpsed another woman, a woman who even he suspected might be dangerous. The more he’d learned about her, the more he’d wanted to save her. It hadn’t helped that he’d fallen in love with her, almost married her. “I still can’t believe she’d let a man like Dr. Venable near her again.”
Buck shoved to his feet. “Well, I’m putting a stop to it right now. I’m going to the sheriff and have him arrested.”
“On what charges?”
“He wiped her brain of memories of her own children.”
“Not sure that one is on the books,” Russell said. “Don’t you think you’d better talk to Sarah about this before you do anything rash?”
Buck slowly sat down again. “I could kill the bastard with my bare hands.”
He felt the same way. “I think Sarah’s in trouble,” he said after a moment. “If you had nothing to do with this—”
“I sure as hell didn’t. If I was guilty, would I be here now?”
“Then we have to assume Sarah contacted Dr. Venable the night she tried to kill herself all those years ago. What is their relationship that she would trust such a man not only back then, but again now?”
* * *
“WHAT ARE THOSE MOUNTAINS?” Jack asked, in awe. Against the evening sky, they were a jagged deep purple that seemed to rise straight up out of the ground.
“The Crazy Mountains, or the Crazies, as we call them,” Cassidy said as she opened the bag from the airport gift shop. “I bought you something at the airport.”
“You did?”
“Something to always remind you of Montana.” She pulled out a T-shirt with the word Montana scrawled across mountains. In small print under the mountains were the words Crazy Mountains.
He laughed, touched by her thoughtfulness. “I love it.” His gaze me hers. “Thank you. Whenever I wear it I will think of Montana. And you.”
His gaze locked with hers for an instant. She looked embarrassed and pulled away first. “Keep going on up the road. We’re almost to the ranch.”
Minutes later he drew up in front of a small older ranch house that stood against the backdrop of the towering toothed mountain range.
“These mountains are incredible. Is that snow up there this time of year?”
She laughed and opened her door. “At one time or another, it has snowed in every month of the year in Montana.”
Jack stepped out into the cold night air. He was used to Texas summers with their muggy, hot, breathless nights. He took in the chilly sweet scent of pines as he turned to look at the valley below them. “This is your father’s ranch?”
“Pretty much as far as you can see,” she said.
He thought of his own ranch, which would have looked like a postage stamp in comparison. Dusk had settled over the valley. The pines left long dark shadows as the breeze whispered in the branches. “It’s more beautiful here than even the photographs I’ve seen.”
Cassidy nodded as she stood next to him in the growing darkness. “This is where I grew up.”
“Not a bad place to grow up,” he said, glancing over at her. “Come on, you look as tired as I feel. At least I got a little sleep on the plane.”
She laughed. “You really are jealous of Evan,” she said, turning on her heel
and heading for the house.
“I’m not jealous of that...” He shut his mouth before he pushed his boot in farther and followed her.
Cassidy retrieved a key from a ledge around the side of the house and opened the door. A gust of stale air escaped as they entered. She snapped on a light. “The ranch uses this as a bunkhouse at different times of the year. So there is bedding. We can get whatever else we need. If we’re here that long.”
Jack carried their belongings in and looked around, wondering how long they would be staying here. The old ranch house with its dated wallpaper and linoleum flooring had a lost century feel to it. “It’s homey,” he said as he closed the door behind him.
“The bedrooms are upstairs,” she said and put what supplies they’d bought in the refrigerator. “Take your pick.” He heard the kitchen faucet spew water in stops and starts and then run for a few moments before she turned it off. “All the comforts of home,” she said as she came out of the kitchen.
Jack suddenly felt awkward. The house felt too intimate here with her. He’d had relationships but he’d never let anyone move in just as he had never moved in with a woman. He liked his space.
“I’ll take these upstairs,” he said, picking up the two duffel bags with their clothing. He hesitated, wanting to warn her again about contacting her mother. “Try to get some sleep.”
She nodded. “Jack,” she said as he started up the stairs.
He stopped halfway to look back at her.
“Thank you. I’ve put you in danger and I’m sorry, but we’ll figure this out.”
“We’re in this together, remember?” Then he repeated something his mother used to say. “Things will look better in the morning.” He just wished he believed it.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“WE NEED TO talk to you.”
Sheriff Frank Curry recognized the voice as that of Senator Buckmaster Hamilton. Frank raked a hand through his graying blond hair. “We?”
“Russell Murdock and I.”
Frank blinked. He couldn’t imagine what the two of them were doing together. Whatever it was, he was betting it wasn’t good.