Lassoed

by BJ Daniels

  “I saw you looking at that guy over there,” Duane would say under his breath.

  “What guy? Duane—”

  “If you do it again, I’m going to go over there and punch him in the face, you understand?”

  Tears welled in her eyes now at the memory of those horrible nights they would leave a restaurant, her in tears and Duane becoming more worked up by the minute. Billie Rae had known what was going to happen long before they got home, and she was never wrong.

  Tanner reached across the table and put his hand over hers. “Billie Rae?”

  She swallowed and wiped at her eyes with her free hand. “I’m sorry.”

  “He can’t find you here. He has no idea where you are.”

  She nodded. Tanner didn’t remove his hand. She didn’t, either. She loved the feel of his large, callused hands. In his long fingers she felt a wonderful strength that seemed to flow into her. She thought of those hands exploring her naked body last night and remembered that feeling of both pleasure and sadness.

  Billie Rae knew she would forever ache for his touch. As she looked across the table at this wonderful cowboy, her regret was that she would never see him again after today, let alone make love with him again. It was a regret she thought she couldn’t bear to live with.

  She realized Tanner was waiting for her to say more. He actually wanted to hear what she was feeling? “I was just thinking how nice this is, having lunch with you.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” he said and squeezed her hand gently before letting go.

  She felt that well of happiness that she’d experienced last night after they made love. She was happy. The word almost seemed alien to her because she hadn’t let herself admit how unhappy she’d been for so long.

  Billie Rae had gone into marriage believing it really was until death do you part. She just hadn’t known that those words had a totally different meaning for the man she married.

  “I love hearing the stories about you growing up on the ranch,” she said.

  “Where did you grow up?”

  She told him about being an only child, her father dying when he was young and her mother raising her in a small house in Oklahoma City.

  “My life was very dull compared to yours,” she said. “I wish I’d had brothers who tried to talk me into jumping off the barn roof.”

  “Sure you do,” he said with a laugh.

  “So you’re all adopted?” She loved listening to him talk about his big family. Billie Rae had always dreamed of a large family as a girl. She wanted the noise, the activity, the feeling at night of all of them under the same roof.

  “Yep, Dad likes kids. He adopted three when his first wife was alive. When three more kids needed a home, he was right there to take us. He would have taken more if he’d had better luck with wives.” Tanner seemed to realize what he’d said. He stammered, “What I meant was—”

  “It’s all right.”

  “No, you need to understand. Two of his wives died. Another…disappeared. Emma, well, he married her recently after being alone for years. He’s had a rough time of it. But I’ve never seen him happier.”

  “You’re trying to tell me there is life after marriage?”

  “Yep. And there is no shame in getting it wrong—and getting out.”

  She smiled across the table at him. He had no idea how impossible Duane would make that. There was only one way she feared she would be leaving Duane and that, as he told her many times, would be in a body bag.

  “Emma is wonderful,” she said, refusing to let Duane ruin this lunch. “I’m happy for your father. If he is anything like you…” Billie Rae ducked her head, embarrassed because she’d again thought of lying in his arms last night. But talking to Tanner was so easy. She could be honest with him without fear that what she said would set him off.

  This closeness she felt with this man both warmed—and frightened her. It was too tempting to take him up on his offer to stay at the ranch and try to handle the Duane problem through legal channels.

  But Billie Rae had already tried that. Tanner didn’t know what Duane was capable of. She did.

  After lunch, they stopped at one of the few used car lots in town and Billie Rae realized quickly that she wasn’t going to get much of a vehicle and still have gas money to leave town.

  “You can’t run far enough, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Tanner said as they walked around the last lot. “Sometimes you have to draw a line in the sand and fight. Come back to the ranch with me. I’ll help you. You’ll be safe. You shouldn’t have to do this alone. I promise. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  He reached over and took her hand, squeezing it gently, and she was reminded of last night when he had pulled her through the rodeo crowd and kept Duane from catching up to them.

  Tanner pulled her to a stop and turned her to face him. “There is something I have to tell you. Last night when I saw you,” he said as if he too had been remembering when they’d met. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but it was love at first sight. It wasn’t that I saw this beautiful woman and fell in love. I felt this strong connection as if you were some missing part of me, and when I saw you it was like this jolt…” He stopped and looked embarrassed.

  She cupped his strong jaw with her free hand and smiled as she looked into his eyes. “I don’t think you’re crazy. I felt it too.”

  “Then come back with me—”

  “I can’t. If you knew Duane you would understand. I have to go. I have no choice.” Her heart ached at the thought of never seeing him again. But if she wanted to protect him, she had to leave. Whatever had happened between them, she couldn’t put Tanner and his family in jeopardy any more than she already had because of her bad decision to marry Duane and then make a wild run across the Hi-Line.

  “At least think about it?”

  She’d nodded, but she knew she couldn’t change her mind—even as much as she wanted to.

  At the cheapest car lot, Billie Rae bought a small beat-up old car that seemed to run fine and got good gas mileage. She paid cash but the owner of the lot still needed her to fill out paperwork—all traceable when you have a cop on your tail.

  “I’m going to need some identification,” he said as he pushed the papers across the desk toward her. “Your driver’s license,” he said when she gave him what he took for a blank look. “I need to make a copy of it.”

  “I lost my purse,” she said.

  “Then I can’t sell you the car until I have—”

  “Put the car in my name,” Tanner said and placed a hand on Billie Rae’s shoulder before she could stop him. “It’s better that way,” he said to her after the owner had gone to make copies of Tanner’s driver’s license. “Duane won’t know, right?”

  She nodded numbly, thinking this would make what she had to do all that more difficult. Tanner had saved her last night in more ways than she wanted to admit and now here he was saving a woman he didn’t really know again.

  Billie Rae said as much to him and he laughed.

  “I feel as if I’ve always known you,” he said, and she thought he might be right. Sometimes she caught him looking at her as if he could see into her soul. They had connected last night at the rodeo. She’d felt it and yet even now she denied the feelings for so many reasons. How could she trust her emotions right now? She couldn’t. Not to mention she was on the run from her husband.

  But Billie Rae knew the real reason she had to ignore what she was feeling was because it scared her. Tanner was the man she’d dreamed of marrying. She’d loved being on the ranch with his family. It only made her feel worse about marrying Duane. She’d ruined her life and now the best she felt she could expect was to keep her husband from killing her.

  “I can’t go back with you to the ranch,” she told Tanner as they walked out to the car she’d bought. “I won’t put your family in any more danger than I already have. I got myself into this. I’ll get myself out.”

  “Billie Ra
e—”

  She put a finger to his lips and felt a frisson of pleasure course through her from just touching those lips. She shook her head, afraid of what she might say. Or worse, do. If only she could just lose herself in him again. To be in his arms…

  He leaned in and kissed her, and it took all of her strength not to throw her arms around his neck and let him take her back to the ranch, back to a life she had only dreamed possible, where she was safe and loved.

  “I wish there was something I could say or do to keep you from doing this,” he said as he drew back. “But I wouldn’t force you even if I could. If you ever need me, though…”

  Billie Rae had to fight tears. “Thank you for everything.”

  He pulled her to him, hugging her quickly as he whispered, “Be safe, Billie Rae.” He stepped back. “Chisholm ranch will always be here if you’re ever passing through again.”

  She realized then that he’d known she wouldn’t be going back to the ranch with him. As she drove away, she tried not to look back. When she did, though, she saw Tanner standing beside the ranch truck watching her.

  The look on his face seemed to say he knew there was little chance he would see her again. At least not alive.

  Chapter Five

  Emma Chisholm looked up to see the sheriff’s SUV pull into the yard. At first she thought it was her stepson Colton’s fiancée, Deputy Halley Robinson, stopping by, but the woman who climbed out wasn’t familiar.

  Going to the front door, she pushed open the screen and stepped out onto the porch. She hadn’t been locking the doors for almost a week now—not since she finally felt confident Aggie Wells wouldn’t be coming back.

  Emma had just started feeling safe again. She’d noticed that Hoyt, though, was keeping his distance as if he really believed there was a curse on him and that Emma was doomed to die as well.

  She couldn’t bear the thought that he might regret marrying her. They’d been so happy. She thought of Hoyt tempting her up into the hayloft of the barn and their lovemaking. They’d proven that age didn’t matter when it came to love and desire. Emma ached for her husband and had been determined to be patient with him. Once he realized that Aggie Wells was gone and that there was no stupid curse…or worse, that she might think for a moment he had anything to do with his wives’ deaths…

  Now, though, Emma felt her heart drop as she saw that the woman was the local sheriff. She’d heard that Whitehorse had a woman sheriff, but she hadn’t heard how young and beautiful she was.

  “Good afternoon, Sheriff,” she said brightly as the woman flashed her credentials.

  “I’m Sheriff McCall Crawford. You must be Emma.”

  “I am.” Emma took her hand, amused by the surprise she’d seen on the young woman’s face. Apparently the sheriff had been expecting Hoyt’s new wife to be a trophy wife—not a short, plump redhead.

  “I’d like to talk to you. Is your husband home?”

  “No.” Emma felt the first inkling of real anxiety. “Is something wrong?”

  “I just need to ask you a few questions. When do you expect Mr. Chisholm to return?”

  “He’s working on the other side of the ranch. I don’t expect him until late tonight. You know summer, with all this daylight, the men work late.”

  Emma realized she was doing too much explaining, giving away just how nervous she was. “Won’t you come in, Sheriff? As they say, coffee is always on at any decent rancher’s house. Why don’t you join me for a cup back in the kitchen?”

  The sheriff followed her to the kitchen and took a seat at the table while Emma set about getting the coffee and dishing up some of her freshly baked oatmeal cake that was still warm.

  “Mrs. Chisholm—”

  “Please, call me Emma,” she said as she placed a brimming mug of coffee and a plate of warm cake in front of the sheriff. “Cream, Sheriff?”

  “No, thank you.”

  Emma sat down across the table from the sheriff and, lifting her mug of coffee, studied the woman through the steam as she tried to still her raging nerves. “Something tells me this isn’t a social call.”

  “Actually, I’m looking for Aggie Wells.”

  She knew the sheriff was also looking for a reaction and hoped to give her one she wasn’t expecting. “A delightful woman. We had her to supper a couple of weeks ago.”

  “I heard that.”

  “Oh? Aggie told you, then.” So the woman hadn’t left town as Emma had hoped. Then why hadn’t they heard from her? Because Aggie had been waiting until she had enough evidence to involve the sheriff?

  “No, actually, her niece mentioned it. Apparently Ms. Wells is missing.”

  Emma put down her mug very carefully. The feeling of finally being safe evaporated like sun-kissed dew on the morning grass. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “I was hoping you might have heard from her.”

  “No, but then I didn’t expect to.”

  McCall raised a brow. “Your business was completed with Ms. Wells?”

  Emma laughed and helped herself to the cake. “I wouldn’t say we had business together. I’m sure you know that Aggie Wells used to work for an insurance company. Apparently once she started a case, she had a hard time quitting until she was completely satisfied.”

  “And was she finally satisfied?” the sheriff asked.

  “I think she was.” Emma took a bite of the cake, closed her eyes and let it melt in her mouth. “Mmm.” She opened her eyes and chuckled. “Sorry, but I do love this cake when it is still warm.”

  “You baked it?” McCall asked, glancing around the kitchen. “You don’t have help?”

  “Oh, yes, but I can’t stay out of the kitchen. I love to cook and bake. It’s a flaw.” She felt the sheriff studying her, no doubt wondering about her other flaws. “The cook won’t come in until later. It’s the housekeeper’s day off.”

  “When was the last time you saw Aggie Wells?”

  “The night she came here for supper,” Emma said, her heart in her throat. The sheriff wouldn’t be here unless something had happened to Aggie. She couldn’t help but think about her first reaction to the woman. She’d thought they could have been friends under other circumstances.

  “Did she say where she was going when she left your house?”

  “No. But since we didn’t hear from her again, we assumed she’d left town.”

  “Do you know where Ms. Wells was staying?”

  “No. I met her for a drink, though, out at Sleeping Buffalo.” Emma could see that the sheriff was taken aback by how forthcoming she was being.

  “Did anyone see you there together?”

  She studied the sheriff for a moment, wondering if she didn’t believe her—or if she was just looking for someone who might know how to find Aggie Wells.

  “Just the bartender. A female.” She described the woman, and the sheriff nodded as if she knew her.

  “Mind if I ask what you talked about?”

  “She informed me of her suspicions concerning my husband.”

  McCall had been in the middle of sipping her coffee but quickly put it down. “You weren’t aware of your husband’s past before then?”

  “No, actually. I hadn’t cared. I knew he’d been married and that he’d lost several wives. I love my husband, Sheriff. I trust him and I know he couldn’t kill anyone.”

  MCCALL HAD JUST GOTTEN back to her office and was sitting at her desk when she looked up to find a large man standing in her doorway.

  His expression quickly changed from a slight frown to a smile as she greeted him.

  “Sheriff Crawford,” he said, stepping forward to extend his hand. His handshake was a little too firm, his smile a little too bright.

  McCall instantly didn’t trust him.

  “My name is Officer Duane Rasmussen.” He flashed his badge.

  “May I see that?” she asked as he started to put it away. She could tell he didn’t like being questioned even for something like this as he slowly handed her his s
hield.

  She studied it and handed it back. “What brings a police officer from Williston, North Dakota, to Whitehorse, Montana?”

  “It’s a delicate matter,” the cop said as he closed the door, pulled out a chair and sat down without being invited to. He leaned toward her, the smile this time self-deprecating.

  He was good looking in the way a lot of ex high school football players are. She took him for a college linebacker who’d managed to stay in good shape, probably through hours in a gym.

  “I’m looking for someone,” he said.

  She waited, knowing that if this was a professional investigation he would have come through normal channels and she would already be aware of the suspect through a bulletin.

  This cop was off the leash.

  “This is embarrassing,” he said and did his best to look bashful. “It’s my wife. She’s not well. I’m worried about her. She took off without even her purse.”

  “What makes you think she’s in Whitehorse?”

  “I found my pickup at the fairgrounds where she’d run out of gas.”

  McCall lifted a brow. “She didn’t take her own car?”

  Some of his smooth veneer fell away. “She doesn’t have her own car. She doesn’t like to drive.”

  Alarms were going off all over the place for McCall. She didn’t like this guy, was suspicious of his entire story and could see that he knew it.

  “I was just hoping that you might have heard something that would help me find her,” he said, looking as if he wished he hadn’t come by to talk to her.

  “What is your wife’s name?”

  “Billie Rae Rasmussen. But she could be going by her maiden name, Johnson.”

  McCall nodded and took down the cop’s name and his wife’s. “I’m sorry. I haven’t heard anything, but I will keep an eye out for your wife. I’m surprised, if you’re that worried about her, that you haven’t put out an APB on her.”

  “I was hoping that wouldn’t be necessary since I don’t want to upset her. I just want to get her help. We’ve been trying to have a baby. I’m afraid she went a little berserk after this last disappointment.”