by B. J Daniels
“Are you sure Patty wasn’t in on the kidnapping?” Ledger asked.
Nikki shook her head. “Frieda didn’t know who Harold Cline had helping him in the house. It could have been Patty, but I have my doubts. Yes, she wanted your mother’s life, always did. The kidnapping I believe messed up her plans and forced her to leave. Also because of the large ransom demand, your father didn’t have any money for a long while after that.” Nikki shrugged. “It wasn’t until she had her daughter and your father had recouped his losses that she doubled back.”
“We still don’t know who fathered her baby?” Ledger asked.
His father shook his head. “I never asked. Kitten has gone to stay with an aunt. Patricia insisted.” He sounded sad. Travers had raised the child as his own and now she, too, had been taken from him.
Cull swore. “That coldhearted—”
“Patricia will get what’s coming to her,” Travers said as he got to his feet. “Boone’s right. We have a horse ranch to run. Nikki will take care of releasing the information to the media. She tells me she can do that from back home while she’s writing the book, so she’ll be leaving tomorrow. Thank you again. If you hadn’t come here...” He smiled at her, his eyes filling with tears.
“She can’t finish her book until we find the twins,” Ledger said. “So I hope that means you’ll be back.”
“We’ll see what releasing the information about the twins’ stuffed animals turns up.” She glanced over at Cull. He seemed to be studying the toes of his worn boots.
Ledger rose to his feet.
“Tell me you aren’t going into town to the Whitehorse Café,” Cull said, finally glancing up.
His younger brother shrugged. “You’ve never been in love, so you couldn’t possibly understand.”
“Uh-huh,” Cull said. “Just watch your back. I hope I don’t have to warn you about Wade Pierce.”
“There is nothing you can tell me about him that I don’t already know,” Ledger said, and headed for the door.
“You’re worried about him,” Nikki said when she and Cull were alone. She shared his concern.
“With good reason. My brother is in love with another man’s wife. No good can come out of that.” He settled his gaze on her. “So you’re leaving.”
“I’ll go home and start the book. I can do what your father needs me to do from there. No reason for me to stay now.”
“I guess not.” He lumbered to his feet. “Well, if I don’t see you before you leave, have a safe trip back home.”
* * *
NIKKI HAD TWO things she had to do before she left town tomorrow. She had to see Marianne McGraw again and then she would pay a visit to Patricia in jail.
This time she went through proper channels, and having Travers’s permission, she was taken down the long hallway to the woman’s room. Nothing had changed since the last time she’d been here.
Marianne was in her rocker, the dolls clutched in her arms, her slippered feet propelling her back and forth as she stared off into space.
Nikki dragged up the extra chair in the room and sat down in front of the woman. “You probably don’t remember me. I came here to find out who kidnapped your children. I promised I would come back when I knew.”
There was no change in expression or in the rocking motion.
“It was your cook Frieda Holmes’s boyfriend. She wasn’t involved. But the news I have to tell you is that her boyfriend is dead. She killed him and saved your babies. We suspect they went to good homes and eventually we will find them. So we believe that Oakley and Jesse Rose are alive.”
Still nothing.
“You should also know that twenty-five years ago when you thought you were losing your mind? You were being poisoned. That’s why you were confused. It’s why you were having trouble bonding with the twins. Patty, your nanny, was poisoning you. She wanted your husband—and she finally got him. She’s in jail for attempted murder because once she had Travers, she decided to get rid of him. Apparently what she really wanted was the ranch and you out of the way.”
Marianne seemed to hug the dolls tighter as she rocked.
Nikki couldn’t be sure any of this was getting through the walled-up dark place where the woman’s mind had holed up all these years.
“Now everyone knows you had nothing to do with the kidnapping. Your name is cleared and soon, God willing, your twins will be found alive and well and Patty will be in her prison.”
She looked into the woman’s face for a moment, remembering the last time she was here. She’d gotten a reaction out of Marianne, but this time there was nothing.
Standing, Nikki pushed the chair back. “I’m so sorry you can’t hear what I’m saying. I’d hoped it might free you.” She turned and walked to the door to tap on it. A moment later, the door opened.
As she started to step out, she looked back, realizing that the rocking had stopped. Marianne was looking at her. Her arms opened and the tattered dolls tumbled to the floor. The woman let out a bloodcurdling cry that Nikki knew she would hear in her dreams the rest of her life.
* * *
“I CAN’T BELIEVE you’d have the nerve to come here,” Patricia snapped as Nikki took the phone in the visitors’ room and sat down on the safe side of the Plexiglas. “Your lies got me in here. But I’ll get out. I have friends.”
“I think lover more than friend,” Nikki interrupted. “So which one of them were you arguing with the first night I arrived? Was it Blake Ryan or Jim Waters? I can see Kitten in either of them. I bet a DNA test would prove which one was her father. I’m also betting that whichever one it was, it was his idea for you to come back to Whitehorse and the McGraw ranch.”
Patricia narrowed her eyes. “You think you know so much, don’t you? Prove any of it.”
“A simple DNA test will do that.”
“Like I’m going to allow my daughter to be tested.”
“You do realize that once the sheriff starts questioning Blake Ryan and Jim Waters, your...lover will turn on you and make a deal. Once the sheriff finds the old truck one of them used to force me and Frieda off the road... Once they find the man’s DNA inside... I know he shot her to shut her up. If Travers had found out that you’d withheld information on the kidnapping... Well, he might have changed his will—before you killed him—and cut you off without a cent.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know you don’t want the twins to be found. You don’t need two more McGraws turning up when you already have three stepsons watching you. But a little more poison and Travers’s next heart attack would have probably killed him. You would have had some land to sell and money to do whatever you wanted. What did you plan to do, Patty?”
“Are you sure you aren’t a fiction writer? It seems to me you just make things up as you go,” the woman said. “What do you want?”
“To say goodbye. I’m leaving.”
“Finally. Too bad you ever came here.”
Nikki stared at her. She’d met others who lacked true compassion. Psychopaths who took pleasure in hurting others. People like Patty only felt pain when it was their own. She thought of the mousy nanny. No wonder no one had suspected what she was doing to poor Marianne. Not that the sheriff would ever be able to prove it.
“Did you ever have a dog?” Nikki asked.
“What? A dog? What does that have—”
“Just curious. I’ve found that people who can’t love an animal are missing a part of their souls.”
“I have no idea what you’re trying to say,” she said, looking away.
“I told Marianne that you were systematically poisoning her twenty-five years ago and that was why she thought she was losing her mind.”
Patty laughed. “Marianne? She’s a vegetable. You really can’t believ
e she understood anything you said.”
“You might be surprised.” Nikki stood, still holding the phone. “By the way, what did you do with her diary?”
Was that surprise in her eyes? “Her life was so boring. Why would she bother to keep a diary?”
“Have it your way. I would imagine you’ll produce it if you can find a way for it to help save you. But ultimately, you’re going away for a very long time. I bet Blake is making a deal right now with the prosecuting attorney.”
Patty looked scared. Nikki felt bad that she took pleasure in seeing the woman squirm. She thought of what Patty had done to Marianne, Frieda and Travers, and didn’t feel so bad.
As she hung up the phone, she saw Patricia signal the guard that she was done.
Chapter Twenty
NIKKI DIDN’T SEE Cull when she went up to the house to say goodbye to Travers and tell him about both Marianne’s and Patty’s reactions to her visits.
“I’m sorry to see you go,” the older man said. “You saved my life. I’ll never forget that. Are sure you can’t work from here?”
“This is best.”
He nodded slowly. “My boys...well, they’re gun-shy of relationships. Rightly so, given what they’ve been through. But you and Cull...”
She smiled. “There was a lot going on. I think we all need time.”
“Maybe.” He walked her out to her new rental car, which had been delivered that morning. “We’ll talk soon.”
Nikki held back the tears until she reached the ranch gate. She made the mistake of looking back. A half-dozen of the horses stood at the fence watching her leave. She thought of her father. He’d been innocent just as her mother had known, just as Nikki had prayed.
But what brought tears to her eyes was the pain in her heart. Cull had unlocked something in her. She could just hear what her grandfather would have said—if she was crazy enough to tell him.
She’d gotten too emotionally involved. With the family. With the story. With the oldest son. She and Cull had connected in a way that had scared them both. They were too young to feel this way, weren’t they?
Look at Ledger. He’d fallen in love with Abby at the Whitehorse Café when they were teenagers—and nothing had changed even when she’d foolishly married another man. Nikki hoped they found their way back to each other. Ledger deserved a happy ending. So did Cull, but she figured it would be with some local girl now that the truth had come out about the kidnapping.
She drove away from the ranch, telling herself she’d be back but wondering if she ever would. Could she bear seeing Cull again? Bear seeing him with another woman? She thought not.
Tears blurred her eyes. She made a swipe at them as she drove, forcing her to slow down.
* * *
CULL WAS SADDLING his horse when his brothers found him. “What’s up?” he asked, half-afraid something else had happened.
“We need to talk to you,” Boone said. “What’s going on between you and the writer?”
Cull almost laughed. This was it? “None of your damned business.” He turned back to saddling the horse. He needed this ride more than either of them could imagine. Nikki was the only thing on his mind and he had to do something about that. He did his best thinking on the back of a horse.
“Are you serious about her?” Ledger asked.
Cull sighed and turned back to them. “Maybe I didn’t make myself clear—” He frowned. “I thought you went into town?”
“Boone needed my help to make you see reason. We like Nikki. We think she’s good for you,” Ledger said, taking him by surprise. “She...challenges you. You need that.”
Boone sighed. “You do realize that once she gets what she needs for her book she has no excuse to come back.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“Personally, I don’t care what you do, but Ledger is convinced you’re in love with her and too stupid to do anything about it.”
“Thanks,” he said to his youngest brother.
“Well, what are you going to do about it?” Ledger asked. “You going to let her get away?”
“She isn’t some horse I can lasso and haul back to the corral,” Cull said, annoyed that they were butting into his love life. His love life? Had he just thought that? “The woman has a mind of her own.”
“So if you could lasso her and haul her back to the corral, you would?” Ledger demanded.
In a heartbeat. “I’m not discussing this with the two of you. Not one lovesick brother who lost his woman or a brother who’s too ornery to ever lasso a woman.”
“I don’t want to see you make the mistake I did,” Ledger said, obviously not taking offense at Cull’s description of him.
“I could lasso any woman I want. I just haven’t found one worth bringing back to the corral,” Boone protested.
Cull shook his head. “What do you want from me?”
“If you love her, then go after her. Tell her how you feel,” Ledger said.
“And if she leaves anyway?” he asked, hating how vulnerable he sounded.
“Then at least you tried,” Boone said, surprising him even more. “We already have one brother moping around here over a woman. I can’t bear two. Fix it.” With that his brother turned and stalked away.
“He’s right,” Ledger said. “Fix it or you’ll regret it the rest of your life.”
“She’s already gone,” he said.
“You might be able to catch her if you take the shortcut across the ranch,” Ledger suggested. “Since you were going on a horseback ride anyway.” He smiled.
Cull cuffed his brother on the shoulder as he swung up in the saddle. “I’ll think about it.”
* * *
CULL RODE HARD toward the cutoff road. It felt good, the wind in his face, the power of the horse under him, the freedom of escape that filled him.
He couldn’t believe that his brothers had ganged up on him. Go after Nikki and what? Tell her he didn’t want her to go? Even with Patricia out of the house, things were still too up in the air.
Not only that; he also told himself that he barely knew the woman. It wasn’t like he could have fallen in love with her that quickly. It wasn’t like it had been love at first sight. He thought of her lying on the street in front of his pickup and groaned.
She’d never admitted that she’d done that on purpose. What kind of woman would risk her life for...for what? To make him more sympathetic to the book she planned to write?
Pretty daring thing to do. He hated the admiration he felt. It had been a stupid thing to do. Too risky. She could have been killed. A woman like that...well, who knew what she’d do next.
He smiled to himself at the thought. He’d never met anyone like her. He could see her fitting in just fine on the ranch now that Patricia was gone. He could see her just fine as his wife.
That thought hit him like a low limb.
He’d almost reached the road. In the distance he could make out her rental car. A tail of dust trailed behind it.
Cull brought his horse up short at the fence. Why had he let his brothers talk him into this? He had no idea what he was going to say to her. For all he knew she didn’t feel the same way. She might even have a boyfriend back home.
Not the way she kissed you. He smiled to himself, remembering those kisses and hating the thought of never getting another one. He’d never told any woman that he loved her. He’d had crushes, even dated the same girl a couple of years in high school. He’d loved her, but he hadn’t loved her. Not the kind of love that lasts a lifetime.
Nikki was getting closer. He could almost make out her face through the windshield.
Ride away now! You’re just going to make a fool of yourself.
* * *
NIKKI COULDN’T BELIEVE what she was seeing. She s
quinted through the sun-dappled windshield. Was that Cull on a horse waiting for her by the ranch fence?
She touched the brakes, wondering what he wanted as she slowed and hurriedly wiped away the rest of her tears. Maybe she’d forgotten something. But he didn’t seem to have anything in his hands. Or maybe Travers had sent him with a message.
Bringing the car to a stop next to him and his horse, she lowered the passenger-side window. “Is something wrong?”
Cull nodded. She watched him slide out of the saddle. He hesitated for a moment, his gaze meeting hers before he vaulted over the fence. As he walked toward her new rental car, her heart lodged in her throat. She’d fallen so desperately in love with this man. How had she let that happen?
He leaned in the passenger-side window she’d lowered.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said, and cleared his throat. “You’re going to have to get over your fear of horses.”
She frowned. Surely he hadn’t ridden all this way to tell her that. “Really? I suppose you have something in mind?”
Cull’s blue gaze locked with hers. “I have all kinds of things in mind.” He let out a curse and drew back only to walk around to her side of the car. Opening the door, he reached for her hand.
Still mystified, she let him take it and pull her from behind the wheel. “Cull, what—”
“I don’t want you to go.”
“I’ll be back to do more work on the book.” It was a lie. She couldn’t bear being this close to him and not being in his arms. She wouldn’t be back.
“No,” he said as if struggling to find the right words. Again his gaze met hers and held it. “I... I know it sounds crazy. It is crazy. I come riding out here like some kind of a fool being chased by the devil to tell you...” He faltered.
“To tell me...? Has something happened to your father?”
He shook his head. “I love you.” He let out a breath and laughed. “I. Love. You.”
She was so surprised that she didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t let herself admit her feelings until today. She’d blamed whatever it was between them on simple chemistry. She and Cull had been like fire and ice. But when they were fire...