These men had to be two of Zane’s brothers. Though they were very different in appearance, the muscles and self-assurance emanating from all of the gathered Hastings men stood out. There wasn’t a wedding ring in sight except for the gold band on Lily’s hand.
“About time you decided to come home,” the standing man said. “George Billings bought four hundred calves this afternoon. We need to go round them up from the Pine Hill pasture and get them to the pens for loading by Friday.”
Zane nodded.
The man set aside his empty glass. “Where are my manners?” he said, his gaze drifting to Kinsey.
“What manners?” Lily mumbled without looking up.
He ignored her as he took Kinsey’s hand. “I’m Gerard’s good-looking brother, Chance. The quiet one on the couch is Pike. And you are?”
“Kinsey Frost,” she murmured. Chance had a dazzling smile and a charming way of making a woman feel beautiful that probably got him pretty much anything, or anyone, he wanted.
However, between Chance’s lingering eye contact and Zane’s glare, there was enough testosterone floating around the room to fuel a rocket.
Pike took off his glasses as he stood up. His eyes were blue like Zane’s but darker. “Evening, ma’am,” he said. He turned to Zane and added, “Where did you run off to after Dad’s wedding? One minute you were here, the next you were gone.”
“That’s what I need to talk to you about,” Zane said. “But first of all, what do you know about the new guy you just hired?”
Lily looked up. “You asked about him earlier today.”
“Yes, I did.”
Pike folded his glasses into his breast pocket. “You must mean Jodie Brown. We’re always shorthanded this time of year and everyone in town knows it. I guess he asked around and someone gave him our name. Why?”
“He’s been here since Sunday?” Zane said.
“Yeah. I met with him in town on Saturday evening and he said he wanted to start the next morning. What’s going on?”
Kinsey took her first deep breath in quite a while. If Pike had met face-to-face with the wrangler on Saturday evening, then there was no way that man could have dumped a toolbox on her car way back in Louisiana that same night.
Zane seemed to reach the same conclusion. He took out the key chain with the Red Hot medallion and showed it to both his brothers. “You guys recognize this?”
“Sure,” Chance said. “I picked that up a few years ago when I was down in Twin Falls at a farm equipment convention. You swiped it from me when I got home. Why are you asking? Don’t you remember?”
Lily had been pouring drinks while the introductions were made and she arrived with a glass for Kinsey and one for Zane. Zane took a long swallow. Kinsey took hers to a chair by the window and sat down.
“No, I don’t remember,” Zane said. “In fact, I don’t remember anything that happened before last Friday afternoon.”
Both brothers wrinkled their foreheads and said, “What?” in tandem.
Zane took a seat near Kinsey. “Here’s the thing. I’ve lost my memory. The only reason I made it back to Idaho is because Kinsey helped me trace that key fob all the way from New Orleans. The girl at the feed store in town recognized me. I know this must sound crazy but it’s true. I don’t recognize anyone in this house or this ranch or this state.”
“What were you doing in New Orleans?” Pike asked.
“I don’t know,” Zane said. He set the glass down and shifted his gaze from one person to the other. Kinsey’s heart went out to him as his brothers mumbled disbelief.
It was Lily who spoke first. “That’s why you’ve been acting so odd. That’s why you rode up to the... I wondered. Does this have something to do with your neck?”
“Yeah,” Zane said.
“Tell me.”
Chance flashed her an annoyed look. “Aren’t you supposed to be cooking dinner or cleaning something? That is in your job description, isn’t it? This conversation is personal.”
“Dinner is cooked,” she snapped back. “And Gerard invited me.”
“Leave her alone,” Pike added. “Stop being a jerk.”
Chance tore his gaze from Lily and zeroed in on Zane’s neck. A low whistle escaped his lips. “I didn’t even see all those bruises. Have you been in a fight? Aren’t you always telling me to have a cool head? And what do you mean you don’t know why you were in New Orleans? Why would you go there?”
“I was hoping one of you could tell me that,” Zane said.
Pike sat back down on the sofa. “We don’t know why you left. It’s been about a week. You took off right after Dad and Grace left for their honeymoon. You looked like a man on a mission, but you didn’t share any details, like why you were leaving during mowing or where you were going.”
“Did I say when I’d return?”
“Not to me,” Pike said.
“Nor me,” Chance added.
“How about a woman named Mary or Sherry Smith?” Zane added. “Does that name ring a bell?”
“Not a one,” Pike said and Chance agreed. “Are you telling us you don’t remember being Gerard Hastings at all?”
“That’s what I’m telling you,” Zane said.
“You don’t remember Dad’s last wedding?”
“Nope.”
“Or Grace?”
“That’s the woman your...our father married, right?”
Chance chuckled. “Dad calls her lucky number seven.”
“Your father has been married seven times?” Kinsey blurted out.
“Yep, that’s why none of us boys really look that much alike. We each have a different mother.”
“Where are they all?”
“Frankie’s mom took off and disappeared a few years back,” Chance said. “Mine is in Atlanta, Pike’s mom lives in California with her movie-star boyfriend and his daughter.”
“And Gerard’s?”
“She died when Gerard was a baby.”
“Wow,” Kinsey said softly. “Is this new wife nice?”
“She’s a little on the strange side, but at least she isn’t twenty years old like the one before her. That creeped me out,” Chance said.
“Grace is a nice woman,” Pike added. “She’s just had a hard time.”
“Twenty-five years ago. Get over it already.”
“There are some things you don’t just get over,” Lily said softly.
Kinsey saw impatience on Zane’s face. This conversation wasn’t answering any of the questions he wanted addressed. “Do I have a family?” he asked. “A wife, children, an ex-wife, a current girlfriend?”
“You don’t remember Heidi and Ann,” Pike said with an uneasy sliding glance at Chance that chilled Kinsey’s heart.
Zane sighed deeply. “Who are Heidi and Ann?”
“Oh, God,” Chance groaned. He backed up until he tumbled into a red leather wing-back chair and leaned his forehead against his hand.
Pike was the one who explained. “Ann was your wife, Gerard. And Heidi was your little girl.”
“Was?” Zane said. “Where are they now?”
After a prolonged hesitation, Pike sighed. “There’s no way to sugarcoat this. They’re both dead. Man, I’m sorry.”
“When did they die?” Zane asked in a hollow voice. He’d been prepared for the possibility of his having a family, but not this.
Again, Pike responded. “Heidi died two years ago last Friday. She was six years old. Ann died the next day.”
“Were they in an accident?”
“More or less. Let’s talk about that later. Tell us what happened to you.”
“Do you have a picture of them?” Zane persisted.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Pike got up and walked to the desk. He picked up a framed photograph and brought it back to Zane. Kinsey leaned toward him to see the photo, though she noticed it took him a few seconds to do so himself.
It was a family portrait taken on a
snowy day. Zane stood behind a lovely woman with dark hair, his arms around her waist. She held a little girl of two or three in her arms, a charmer with dimples and twinkling brown eyes.
The woman looked a lot like Kinsey.
“I don’t remember them,” he said softly.
Kinsey put down her untouched drink and stood up, drawing the attention of everyone in the room except Zane, whose gaze still searched the photograph in his hands. She had to get out of here. Town was less than an hour away. She could get a room for the night, start back to New Orleans in the morning.
“Tell us what happened to you,” Chance demanded.
Kinsey took a deep breath. She wasn’t needed here. She looked down when Zane’s fingers brushed hers. “Would you mind giving them a quick run-through of the last few days while I pull myself together?” he asked.
“Not at all,” she said, and knew she wasn’t going anywhere, not yet, not tonight. She moved to the sofa, where Pike sat down beside her. Chance pulled his chair closer and Lily perched on the arm of the sofa near Pike. In a quiet voice, with as little drama as possible, Kinsey told them about the attacks on the sidewalk and the hospital, Zane’s questions about her mother and the heavy toolbox thrown off a bridge.
“That’s why Gerard wanted to know about our new hired hand,” Chance said.
Lily looked frightened, of all things. “Having someone come after you is terrifying. No wonder Gerard is jumpy.”
“It is scary,” Kinsey agreed. “But as far as the wrangler goes, the timing is wrong, it couldn’t have been him.”
“You’re really not positive the bridge attack was directed at you in particular, is that right?” Pike said.
“Yes. We need to call the sheriff and ask what he’s uncovered.”
“I’m going to keep my eyes on Jodie,” Chance said.
“Where’s Gerard’s truck?”
“No one knows,” Zane said as he finally looked up from the photograph. “How did my wife and daughter die?” he asked.
Chance got up from his chair, walked to Zane’s side and gripped his brother’s shoulder. “Don’t do this to yourself. Dad will be home tomorrow afternoon. Maybe seeing him will jar your memory and you won’t have to go through this again. Give it until tomorrow.”
“I can’t,” Zane said. “Tell me how they died. Please.”
It was Pike who took a deep breath. “Heidi climbed up where she didn’t belong. Something happened...we don’t know for sure. Anyway, she fell. Ann tried to get to her but apparently slipped in the process and hit her head. If we’d found them sooner, I don’t know. No one knows for sure.”
Zane’s stare was intense as he focused on one brother then the other. “Did Heidi fall from a tree? Did she fall from the one up on the plateau?”
“The hanging tree? No, why do you ask that?”
“It was just a feeling,” Zane said.
“You have a thing about that tree,” Chance said. “Always have.”
Kinsey cleared her throat. Zane seemed too distracted to even ask why they called the big oak the hanging tree. She glanced at Lily who quickly looked down at her hands. Her earlier reaction to their ride suddenly made sense. “They died in the ghost town, didn’t they?” Kinsey whispered.
“Yeah,” Chance said. “That’s right, they did.”
*
UNABLE TO FACE sitting around a table and enduring any more stares and questions, Zane asked for and got directions to his own house. It turned out it was located down the road that ran parallel to the river.
“What do you think of my brothers?” he asked Kinsey as their headlights startled a small herd of deer.
“I think they’re nice,” she said. “What do you think?”
“They’re different from each other,” he said. “I get the feeling Pike takes care of business and Chance gets into trouble whenever he can.”
“Me, too,” she said.
“He and Lily sure seem to dislike each other.”
“Do you think?”
“Yeah. Don’t you?”
“I’m not sure,” she said.
He yawned into his fist. It was twilight by now, and so consuming had this day been that to Zane it felt as if a month had gone by. In the back of his head he knew that dismissing Jodie Brown as an assassin was premature, and from what he’d overheard Pike and Chance saying, they agreed. Since no one had any idea what Zane had gotten himself into, how could they judge how many people wanted him dead or even if there was a conspiracy? On the other hand, he now carried Pike’s revolver.
It appeared his house was newer than the main house and less than half the size. Built partway up the gentle slope to the river, the view promised to be wonderful once daylight came.
An automatic light went on as Kinsey parked inside a carport next to a newer blue SUV. Zane was too tired and emotionally wrung out to take in many details, but as they moved to the front door, he heard animals in the nearby fields. Pike had assured him they’d been taking care of his horses, feeding his chickens and milking his cow. They might as well have told him they’d been airing out his magic carpet. Nothing had any relevance to him.
He opened the door with the key Pike had pointed out and held it for Kinsey to enter first. As usual, she carried her painting-supply tote over her shoulder and a small brown bag in her arms. It was filled with the few garments she’d purchased along the way to flesh out her limited wardrobe. Zane was still mostly living in Bill Dodge’s old clothes and set the satchel and Kinsey’s belongings on the bottom step of an open staircase leading to the second floor. Then he made sure the lock on the door was engaged and the dead bolt slid closed.
Kinsey had been flipping on lights and now he looked around the house, straining to remember anything, yearning to feel a flicker of recognition that would bring his family back into focus. He’d dreaded the house being a mausoleum filled with pictures and sadness, but it wasn’t like that. Instead, it had a kind of male clutter that felt comfortable, and though there was a picture album on the table, it was mercifully closed. He wasn’t up to looking at faces he should remember.
He turned abruptly at the sound of Kinsey’s inhaled breath. She was staring into the living room, a comfortable-looking space with overstuffed furniture and lots of golden pine. What appeared to be an antique grandfather clock occupied one corner, while the other held a locked gun cabinet.
But what had caught her attention hung over the unlit fireplace. For one crazy moment, Zane wondered how Kinsey’s likeness had made its way into his house. In the next instant, he realized it wasn’t her. The woman in the painting was taller, less curvy.
“It’s uncanny how much I look like Ann,” Kinsey said under her breath, but he heard her.
“It’s quite a coincidence,” he said.
“Is it?”
He stared down at her. For days she’d been the eye of the hurricane for him, his compass. He’d grown to respect and like her. More, he’d started to envision a life with her, had wondered if love began with this aching desire never to be apart. He’d wanted her with him in every sense of the word. Finding out about a dead wife and child had jarred him and now it was clear, it had jarred her, too. He could see it in her eyes. “Of course,” he said. “What else?”
“Don’t you see?” she whispered.
“See what?”
“You were drawn to me because I look like your dead wife. Think about it. You were injured two years after her death almost to the day and the first woman you see who isn’t a doctor or a nurse is someone so similar...”
“No,” he said, grabbing her arms. “No.”
She put her hands on his and leaned her forehead against his chest. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s not your fault.”
He put his arms around her and held her so close he could feel her heartbeat. He’d been afraid of losing her because he was already committed. To lose her because a wife he couldn’t remember was dead seemed the ultimate irony.
He tilted her chin and l
ooked down into her eyes. He wasn’t sure what he could say, but he did know what he could do. He lowered his face until their lips met. The kiss had a bittersweet quality to it that was new. Then suddenly he realized what was wrong. It was a goodbye kiss.
He pulled himself away and when her eyes opened to stare up at him, he claimed her lips again, and this kiss wasn’t tentative or sweet or shy. Holding her around the waist, he lifted her from her feet, burning away her doubts and her hesitations, or at least trying to. He needed her, he wanted her, nothing had changed except everything, but that didn’t affect the way he felt about her.
“Let me go,” she finally whispered.
“No,” he said. “I can’t.”
“Not forever, Zane, just for now. Put me down. Please.”
He set her back on the floor and cupped her face in his hands. Staring deep into her eyes, looking for her soul, he whispered to her, “You have to understand something. Even when I remember my wife and our daughter and what happened to them, even when specific grief for them returns, I will continue to have the memories and feelings I have made these last several days with you. Those feelings won’t be lost when the others return.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” she said.
“Yes, I do.”
They looked at each other as the big clock in the corner ticked off the seconds.
Finally, she sighed. “Let’s just go to bed. Let’s put this day behind us and figure things out tomorrow. Pike said your father will be back in the afternoon and maybe he’ll know something that will help. For now, let’s not talk or try to figure anything out except where to sleep.”
He reluctantly loosened his grip and nodded. He picked up their bags and they climbed the stairs together.
The first room they investigated turned out to be a time bomb. It had obviously belonged to a small girl partial to bunnies and unicorns. He and Kinsey exchanged stricken looks. Without saying a word, he closed the door on what had to be Heidi’s room. It didn’t look as if it had been changed since the last time the child hopped out of bed.
The next room appeared to be a home office, the one after that the master suite. The room was stuffy. As Zane deposited their bags on a bench at the foot of the bed, he noticed a picture of himself and Ann on the dresser. Judging from his image, it had been taken several years before. Where had he met her? Had they married right away? How long had they been married before Heidi came along? Had they been happy?
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