Case File: Canyon Creek, Wyoming

by Paula Graves

  “Wow, I bet you’re beat, then. Look, I can go find a place in town or something-”

  “I started a fire in the wood stove,” Hannah said quickly, darting a glance at Riley. He started this mess, so now he’d have to live with it. “The bed’s made. I put a few of my things in there because Riley’s closet is full, but there’s plenty of space for you to put your things.”

  The look of alarm in Riley’s eyes made her smile. How’s that surprise thing working for you now, big guy?

  “Are you sure?” Jack directed the question more toward Riley than Hannah.

  He hesitated only a moment, genuine affection in his eyes. “Of course I’m sure,” he said. “You’re family.”

  Jack’s grin made Hannah’s stomach twist into a knot. The poor guy looked like a grateful puppy, happy he didn’t get kicked out of the house once the new kid came along. “Can I do something around here?” he asked Riley, pushing to his feet. “I bet you two were too tired to check on the horses this morning-want me to go let ’em out into the pasture?”

  “Would you? That would be great.” Riley latched on to the idea quickly, no doubt wanting to get Jack out of the way so he and Hannah could finally get their stories straight.

  “I’ll be back in a bit.” Jack winked in Hannah’s direction, grabbed his hat from where he’d laid it on the counter by the door, and headed out the back, the screen door slamming behind him.

  The ensuing silence made Hannah’s skin prickle. Riley turned slowly to look at her. “Go on, say it.”

  “Your girlfriend?”

  “What else was I supposed to say? He walks in on you in your robe, me in a towel-”

  Her gaze fell on the towel, which had slipped down his body a notch to reveal the hard, flat plane of his lower belly. She swallowed hard and forced her gaze back up to his face.

  “We can’t tell people why you’re really here,” he said.

  She sighed. “How long do you think he’ll be here?”

  “I don’t know. This is the first time he’s been here since Emily died.” He started to sit, until he apparently realized that he was wearing only a towel. He nodded toward the hallway, as if asking her to follow.

  After a quick detour to the guest room to grab a few things she’d need, they went down the hall to Riley’s bedroom. She waited outside, standing with her back against the wall while he entered his bedroom to dress. “I guess we should get our stories straight. But I should warn you, I’m not a good liar.”

  “So we keep it simple and as close to the truth as possible. Why did you come to Wyoming in the first place?” His voice was a bit muffled.

  Trying hard not to picture a T-shirt sliding over his lean, muscular chest, she swallowed the lump in her throat. “Some friends invited me up to fish on their private lake, and then I planned to do the tourist thing at Grand Teton and Yellowstone.”

  Her friends, David and Julie Sexton, had a small ranch with a very good trout lake nestled in a valley in the Wind River Mountains. She’d spent the first four days of her vacation with them and their two school-age daughters.

  If only she’d stayed there instead of deciding to do the typical tourist thing and visit the national parks-

  “So we stick with that. You came here to go fishing, and we met by accident-”

  She heard the sound of a zipper. Squeezing her eyes shut, she sighed. “And immediately started shacking up? I’m not that kind of girl.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who gave Jack your room.”

  She glared at the opposite wall. “You started it with the girlfriend thing.”

  “Enough. Clearly, since you’re not that kind of girl and I’m not really that kind of guy, we met months ago.” He emerged from the bedroom dressed in jeans and a fresh T-shirt. “Maybe we met online.”

  If she’d thought a fully dressed Riley Patterson would be less distracting than a naked one, she’d been gravely mistaken. The T-shirt only emphasized the broadness of his shoulders and the powerful muscles of his chest, and the well-worn jeans fit him like a second skin.

  Stop looking, Hannah. Looking leads to touching and touching leads to getting your heart shattered in a million pieces the day before your wedding-

  She cleared her throat. “Where online?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t go online much.” Frustration lining his lean features, he headed toward the kitchen.

  She followed. “Do you fish?” she asked.

  He turned to look at her, leaning against the sink counter. “What is with the fishing thing?”

  “My family runs a marina and fishing camp. I’m a fishing guide, among other things.” She shot him a wry smile. “You’re looking at the Crappie Queen of Gossamer Lake.”

  His lips quirked. “Okay, we met on a fishing Web site.”

  “Which one?”

  He reached for the coffeemaker. “You tell me. You’re the Crappie Queen.”

  Over coffee, they quickly outlined their cover story. They’d met online on Freshwater Expeditions, a fishing forum that put avid freshwater fishermen together with fishing guides all over the country. Hitting it off immediately, they’d formed a friendship that became something more, and Hannah had combined her planned fishing trip to Wyoming with the chance to finally meet Riley face-to-face.

  “One thing led to another, and…”

  “And now we’re sleeping together.” Hannah’s forehead wrinkled as she finally realized the full implications of offering the guest room to Jack. She pushed away her unfinished cup of coffee and rubbed her tired eyes. “Mama’s right. My temper always gets me in trouble.”

  “I’ve got a sleeping roll I can put on the floor.”

  She shook her head. “It’s your bed. I’ll take the roll.”

  “I’ve slept outdoors on the hard, cold ground before, plenty of times. Snugged up next to the wood stove will be a luxury.” He carried their cups to the sink. “So we’re set? Is our cover story close enough to the truth for you to handle?”

  “I think so. But we should make a pact-we share whatever we tell Jack separately. There’s a lot of room to mess up.”

  The rattle of the back door cut off any response he might have made. He grabbed his gun from the counter.

  Jack entered the kitchen, his dark hair windblown and his cheeks bright with exercise. Riley relaxed, tucking the gun in the waistband of his jeans.

  Jack’s earlier glum mood was gone, replaced by a mischievous light in his dark eyes. “I took Jazz out for a run. He cut loose-you haven’t been riding him much recently?”

  “Not as much as I should,” Riley admitted.

  Hannah almost asked how many horses he had, then wondered if that was something they’d have discussed online. She slanted a quick look at Riley and found him looking a bit unnerved.

  “Do you ride?” Jack asked Hannah.

  “Yeah, though not as much as I’d like. In fact, we’ve been thinking of buying some horses and offering trail rides in the spring and fall up Gossamer Mountain.”

  “Gossamer Mountain?”

  “It’s in Alabama,” Riley interjected. “Hannah’s family has a fishing camp up there. That’s how we met.”

  “You met at a fishing camp in Alabama?” Jack looked at Riley with a confused expression. “When did you go to Alabama?”

  “No, we met online. On a fishing forum,” Riley said.

  “You go online?” Jack’s eyes widened further.

  “Not a lot,” Riley said defensively, as if his brother-in-law had accused him of being a nerd.

  Hannah stifled a grin. “It’s a forum called Freshwater Expeditions.” She checked out the forum from time to time herself to keep up with what avid anglers were talking about. It was good for business. “We hit it off right away.”

  “And when Hannah made plans to visit some friends here in Wyoming, we decided to finally meet in person.”

  “And here we are.” Hannah hoped her smile didn’t look as brittle as it felt. Playacting wasn’t one of her talents. It
was nerve-racking, wondering if Jack Drummond was buying the load of bull she and Riley were selling.

  Not to mention the way her rattled brain kept returning to the realization that she and Riley Patterson would be sharing a bedroom come nightfall.

  “SHE SEEMS NICE.”

  Riley looked up from the case folder he was reading to find his brother-in-law’s dark-eyed gaze on him. He set the folder on the coffee table. “I know this has been a kick in the teeth for you, Jack. I’m sorry we sprang it on you like that.”

  Jack pushed the rocking chair closer and propped his socked feet up on the coffee table. “Three years is a long time to be alone. I get that.”

  Pain settled over Riley, down to the bone. “I haven’t stopped loving Em. I never will.”

  “But we both know she wouldn’t want you to live the rest of your life alone,” Jack said solemnly.

  Lying to Jack about his fake relationship with Hannah was worse than Riley had anticipated. Each fib felt like a bitter betrayal of Emily and the love they’d shared. His skin prickled, as if the truth was trying to seep through his pores and shout itself to the world.

  He wasn’t over Emily! He hadn’t moved on.

  He never would.

  “You look a little beat, Riley. You were up all night with Hannah at the hospital, weren’t you?”

  “Yeah,” he answered, relieved to finally say something that was true. “It was an eventful night.”

  “Where’d she have her wreck?”

  “Just outside of Whitmore-on the road toward Jackson.”

  “Isn’t that way past here?”

  Hell. “Yeah. She wanted to drive into Jackson to do some shopping.” Women liked to shop, right? Emily always had.

  “How’d the wreck happen?”

  Riley tamped down his irritation. Jack’s question wasn’t unreasonable, and if he and Hannah weren’t lying through their teeth, it wouldn’t even matter. “Nobody’s quite sure-Hannah doesn’t remember much of what happened around the time of the wreck. The police think she might have been run off the road.”

  “Hit and run?”

  “Something like that.”

  Jack cocked his head. “I’m surprised you’re not out there hunting down the jerk who did it.”

  “There aren’t any leads. And I’m more interested in taking care of Hannah.” That was true, at least. His voice rang with conviction.

  Jack smiled, although Riley still detected a hint of sadness in his eyes. “I like her, I think. I mean, what I’ve seen of her. She seems very down to earth. Emily would approve.”

  Pain sliced through Riley’s chest at Jack’s words. He took a couple of shallow breaths and looked away.

  “I’m sorry if the way I acted this morning made you feel bad or anything.” Jack leaned forward, laying his hand on Riley’s arm. “You were a good husband to Emily. You deserve to be happy again.”

  Riley managed a smile, but inside, an ache had settled in the center of his chest. He pushed to his feet. “I’m going to check on Hannah. Make yourself at home.”

  Jack responded with a silent nod, his expression bemused.

  Riley headed down the hallway to his bedroom, opening the door quietly. Hannah lay curled on her side beneath a plaid woolen blanket, her back to him. Walking softly so as not to wake her, he settled into the armchair by the window and watched her sleep. Early-afternoon light filtered through the curtains, bathing her face with shimmering rose color. She looked weary and battered, her face a roadmap of scrapes and bruises. But beneath the imperfections was beauty that even his shuttered soul couldn’t miss.

  He wondered if Jack was right. Would Emily have liked Hannah Cooper? If this charade were the truth instead of a necessary lie, would Emily approve?

  He wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.

  THE AFTERNOON HAD WANED while she slept, cool blue shadows of twilight encroaching on the bedroom where she lay. She heard the sound of footfalls, boots on the hardwood floor. Riley, perhaps, coming to wake her for dinner.

  She was warm and comfortable. She didn’t want to move. Perhaps if she pretended she was still asleep-

  As she started to close her eyes, something shimmered in the low light. She made out a curve of silver, complex shapes and shadows.

  A silver belt buckle.

  The breath left her lungs in a shaking hiss. She tried to stir, to escape the cottony cage of twilight slumber, but she was paralyzed. The bootfalls came closer, and she heard him breathing. Slow, steady and deadly.

  Riley, she thought. Where is Riley?

  She opened her mouth and tried to scream. Only a hoarse croak emerged. Her vision narrowed to the silver belt buckle moving inexorably closer.

  A hand caught hers, tugging her up. She tried to fight, her movements sluggish and flailing.

  “Hannah!” Riley’s voice tore through the fabric of her nightmare, dragging her into consciousness with shocking speed. Her whole body buzzed with adrenaline, making her tremble.

  Riley’s hands cradled her face, his gaze intent. “Are you okay? You were crying out.”

  She dropped her head against his shoulder, pressing her nose into the curve of his neck. She breathed deeply, filling her lungs with his tangy scent. “I’m okay,” she said, her voice muffled against the collar of his T-shirt.

  He brushed her hair off her cheek. “Nightmare?”

  She nodded, hoping he wouldn’t pull away. It wouldn’t hurt to cling a moment, would it? At least until the shivers eased.

  He edged over, sliding onto the bed beside her. Tucking her against him, he waited patiently for her to relax. The silence between them was comfortable, she found to her surprise. She had not thought of him as someone who could provide much comfort, no matter how good his intentions.

  “I’m okay,” she repeated a little while later, afraid she’d tested his patience too long. She sat away from him, brushing her hair back from her damp face.

  “Do you remember what you dreamed?”

  She didn’t really. Only the nagging sense that she’d seen something important lingered with her.

  “You cried out as if you were afraid.”

  “I was,” she admitted. “I just don’t know why.”

  She couldn’t tell if he was disappointed or not. He was good at hiding his feelings. He had turned on the lamp by the bed, casting a warm glow on the shadowy room. She must have slept most of the day, for outside the window the sky was dark and the room had grown uncomfortably chilly.

  Riley crossed to the wood stove in the corner and added wood and kindling. The dying embers flickered to life.

  When he turned back to her, the wary look in his eyes drove away the memory of their earlier ease. Though she couldn’t read his thoughts in his shuttered expression, there was no softness there, only a tense watchfulness that made her skin prickle.

  He sat beside her on the edge of the bed, his gaze searching hers, as if he wasn’t sure she was telling the truth about not being able to remember. The silence between them became anything but comfortable, the air in the small bedroom crackling with electric awareness.

  Looking away, she swallowed hard and tried to remember whatever it was that was hovering just on the outer edges of her memory. There had been fear. Darkness.

  A glimmer of metal, curves and recesses…

  “A snake,” she said, her voice faint.

  “A snake?”

  She looked up and met his quizzical gaze. “The man who attacked me. I remembered what was on his silver belt buckle. It was a rattlesnake.”

  Chapter Six

  “She thinks it’s in the shape of a rattlesnake, or some sort of snake.” Riley spoke softly into his cell phone, intensely aware of his brother-in-law moving around in the guest bedroom just down the hall.

  “That’s not exactly a unique design,” Joe warned.

  “It’s more than we had,” Riley said. “Can we put someone on it, get some pictures for Hannah to choose from?”

  “Needle in a haysta
ck,” Joe said tightly.

  “More than we had,” Riley repeated.

  “I’ll put Jane on it. She’s been wanting to do something besides sit home waiting for the baby to come, and it’s safer than the patrol job she’s been trying to talk me into.”

  “Thanks.”

  “How’s it going now that Jack’s in town?”

  “A little harder than I’d planned. But so far, so good.”

  Of course, he still had a long night alone with Hannah in his bedroom to look forward to.

  Hearing the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway, he rang off with Joe and turned to find Hannah standing in the kitchen doorway, her dark hair tousled and her eyes soft with sleepiness. Though her gray sweats hid her tempting curves, she still fired his blood in a way no woman had since Emily’s death.

  What the hell was going on with him? Why her, why now? He couldn’t have chosen a worse situation-or woman-to rediscover that he was still a living, breathing, healthy male.

  She hovered in the doorway. “I could fix something for dinner,” she suggested, her raspy voice sending a shiver of pleasure skating down his back. “I mean, I’m not a great cook or anything, but I’m pretty good with a can opener.”

  Her wry smile made her green eyes sparkle, and Riley had to look away.

  “You’re still recuperating.” His voice came out gruff.

  “I’m not sick.” She sounded defensive in response.

  He looked up, annoyed with himself and the way this whole situation was spiraling out of control. But before he had a chance to apologize, Jack walked up behind Hannah and put his hands on her shoulders.

  She gave a start, but Jack calmed her quickly with a gentle squeeze. “How about I handle dinner?” he suggested, guiding her into the kitchen. “I’ve been dying to try out a chili recipe I got from a saucy little señorita I met down in Laredo.” He winked at Hannah, grinning broadly.

  Riley squelched an unwelcome rush of irritation at his brother-in-law’s easy familiarity with Hannah. “I don’t know if you’ll be able to find chili fixings here. I haven’t done a lot of grocery shopping recently.”

  “I drove to town while you two were resting.” Jack arched an eyebrow at Riley, grinning when Riley scowled in response. He crossed to the cabinet and pulled out a large canvas bag full of his purchases. “You know, that little place on Canyon Road has a really good fresh-produce stand. I had to pay a pretty penny, but it’ll be worth it.” He turned to Hannah. “How are you with a chopping knife, gorgeous?”