Soldier's Duty

by Elle James

  Shaking himself out of his ruminations, Angus focused on why he’d come back to Montana. It wasn’t for Bree. It was for his family.

  Colin and Sebastian McKinnon appeared among the crowd of passengers and converged on the family, all hugging and exchanging words. Angus clasped his two brothers in his arms then stood back while Molly and his mother brought his three brothers up to speed with an abbreviated version of what was going on as they waited for their luggage.

  Angus found his attention drifting to the woman in the black trench coat as she dragged her suitcase off the conveyor belt. A strand of her hair slipped from beneath the hat and curled around her chin.

  His heart lurched, as once again he thought of how Bree’s hair had been that same color. When she’d ridden horses, she’d pulled it back in a ponytail. No matter how firmly the elastic band had been in place at the beginning of the ride, a single strand always found its way loose and curled just like that, cupping her chin.

  Before he could question his motives, Angus took a step toward her.

  “Ready?” Colin asked, pulling Angus back to his purpose and his family.

  Sebastian and Colin had their duffel bags and had started for the exit.

  When Angus turned back toward the woman wearing the black trench coat, she’d disappeared.

  Willing his heartbeat to return to normal, Angus followed his family to the terminal exit.

  As they emerged through the sliding glass doors, a red-haired woman all but bumped into Duncan who was in the lead.

  “Oh.” She glanced up and smiled. “Duncan. Is that you?”

  Duncan gripped the redhead’s arms to steady her. “Fiona? Sweet Jesus, Fiona. How did you know…?” His face went from ecstatic to see her to clouding over in the matter of seconds. He set her away from him and let his arms drop to his sides. “What are you doing here?”

  Her smile slipped from her face, and she glanced down at where her fingers twisted together. “I was just…you know…dropping off a friend. Are you heading to Eagle Rock?”

  He nodded.

  Her brow furrowed. “I was so sorry to hear about your father.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I hope they find him soon.”

  “We will,” Duncan said, his voice gruff.

  “Well,” Fiona said and gave him a forced smile. “I’ll see you around…?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Will you be staying?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure,” he said, his tone clipped.

  She nodded, and her gaze seemed to search his face briefly before she lowered her head. “Good luck.” Then she turned and headed toward the parking lot and was lost in the sea of vehicles.

  Duncan’s gaze followed her.

  Molly came to stand beside Duncan, her gaze following Fiona as well. “I didn’t know you knew Fiona Guthrie.”

  Duncan shrugged. “We’ve known each other since high school.”

  Angus frowned. “Wasn’t she the girl you took to senior prom?”

  “Yeah.” Duncan pushed past them. “My truck is over here. Who’s riding with me?”

  Angus volunteered to ride with Duncan. Colin offered to drive his mother, Molly and Sebastian in the ranch truck.

  Once on the road with Duncan’s truck leading the way, Angus turned to his brother. “What was that all about?”

  “What?”

  “You and Fiona. I thought you two were friends from way back.”

  “We were,” Duncan said, his words clipped, not inviting further conversation.

  Angus was not deterred. “If you’re friends, why were you so cold toward her?”

  Duncan’s jaw tightened. “Look, if you’re going to start grilling me, maybe you should have ridden with the others.”

  Angus raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry I hit a sore spot. I won’t grill you anymore.” He sat back against his seat. He didn’t have room to talk. His reaction to the woman who looked so much like Bree had left him open to as many questions as he had for Duncan. And he didn’t want to go there any more than Duncan wanted his brother digging into his relationship with Fiona. “Since we’re not talking about women, let’s talk about you. What have you heard? Anything from the medical review board?”

  Duncan’s face didn’t relax. “Nothing yet.”

  “What do you think will happen?” Angus asked.

  “I think they’re going to boot me out.”

  Angus nodded without saying anything for a moment. He knew his brother had made a life in the Army Rangers and loved being a part of the Rangers as much as Angus loved being Delta Force.

  “Just so you know,” Angus finally said, “I’ve put my paperwork in to separate from the military.”

  Duncan shot a glance toward Angus. “Why the hell did you do that?”

  Angus stared at the road before him. “Even if we find Dad alive, he could use help on the ranch.”

  “If anyone is getting out, it’s me. I’m the one with the bad leg,” Duncan said. “I can stay and help with the ranch.”

  “Dad’s built the place up to be a lot more than one man can handle, and he’s not getting any younger.”

  “Damn it, Angus, you’re fuckin’ Delta Force. You don’t get there and quit.”

  “I’m not quitting. I’m choosing a different life.”

  “But you love being a part of the team.”

  Angus nodded. He loved his Delta Force team like his brothers. “I’m thirty-three years old. I’ve been deployed eight times in the past thirteen years. I’ve been shot, almost blown up and nearly crashed in a helicopter. I figure, at the rate I’m going, my number will be up if I deploy again. It’s time to make room for the up-and-comers. I need to get on with my life, if I want to have one.”

  Duncan glanced across at his brother. “Is this about Bree?”

  Angus looked away. “Bree is history.”

  “Did you ever find out why she didn’t wait for you to come back?”

  “You were here when she left,” Angus said. “You know more than I do.”

  Duncan shook his head. “She was there one day and gone the next. Her mother said she packed her bag and left. She didn’t contact her until she reached Alaska.”

  “She always wanted to go to Alaska,” Angus said.

  “Yeah, well she finally got her wish.” Duncan sighed. “It’s too bad. I thought you two would be together forever.” His lips pressed together. “You had so much going for you.”

  “Yeah. Well, that’s old news. I’ve practically forgotten about her,” Angus lied. He’d never forgotten Bree. Every woman he’d dated since hadn’t measured up to his first love. He’d decided that coming home might be the only way he’d finally get her out of his system. Staying away hadn’t erased her from his memories.

  “Really, Angus,” Duncan said. “Why give up the military?”

  “I want a life. I want what other guys my age have who aren’t married to Uncle Sam.”

  “What’s that? A wife and children? A mortgage and a car payment?” Duncan snorted. “It’s not all that great.”

  “Says a man who’s never been married.” Angus chuckled. “What about you? When are you going to settle down and get married?”

  Duncan’s back stiffened. “I’m not the marrying type,” he said, his tone flat, his gaze on the road ahead.

  Angus frowned. “What do you mean you’re not the marrying type? I figured you’d be the one to have a dozen kids and an adoring wife by the time you were thirty. You’d be a great father.”

  “Yeah, well that didn’t happen.” Duncan’s voice lowered to a whisper. “And now, it probably never will.”

  Angus leaned toward his brother. “What did you say?” He knew what he’d heard, but he wanted to hear it again. Had Duncan injured more than his leg in his last battle?

  “Nothing.” Duncan pointed up at the Crazy Mountains coming into view. “Still snow up there, but it appears to be melting at the lower elevations. We should be able to get up there.”

  Angus didn’t
push his brother. When he was ready to talk, he would. Right now, they had a bigger problem to deal with. “Not much kept us out of the mountains, snow or not. And if Dad is up there, we need to find him sooner than later.”

  Duncan nodded.

  The two men fell silent. Angus went through all the possible scenarios his father could be facing, if he wasn’t buried beneath a ton of snow and rocks.

  “What have they told you?” Duncan asked.

  Angus gave him the full scoop, ending with, “We need to meet with Sheriff Barron as soon as we can to find out where Dad was headed.”

  His brother nodded as he pulled through the stone and wrought-iron gate with the words IRON HORSE RANCH spelled out in black iron and a scrolling silhouette of a horse’s face. Their mother had commissioned the arch as a gift for their father’s fiftieth birthday. He’d grumbled about it being too frilly, but he hadn’t been able to hide the smile it brought to his face.

  Angus and his brothers had made it back for the celebration between deployments. His father had been so proud of all of them, joining the military even when he could have used the help on the ranch.

  Angus loved being a part of the military, but he felt drawn back to Montana and the Iron Horse Ranch more in the past year, even before his father had gone missing. He’d submitted his paperwork to get out a month ago. He just hadn’t told anyone about his plans. He suspected his father would be angry he would be giving up his career before he finished his twenty years.

  Especially since James McKinnon had completed his commitment and retired after twenty years in the Army.

  Angus squared his shoulders. If his father didn’t want his help on the ranch, he’d get a spread of his own. Montana was the place he wanted to call home. The place he wanted to be when he married and raised his family.

  The only thing standing in the way of his goal was finding a woman to share his life. One who planned on staying.

  As Duncan drove up the gravel road toward the ranch house, Angus stared out over the pastures to the tree line at the base of the mountains. An image of Bree came to mind, one of her as she’d raced across those fields riding hell-for-leather on that palomino mare she’d raised from a foal.

  He’d said his goodbyes the night before he’d left, promising to be back for her after his training. They’d get married and start their lives together, traveling wherever the Army decided to send them. Just the two of them.

  Bree had cried and kissed him, promising to wait for him. She hadn’t begged him to stay. She’d said she knew how much he’d wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps by joining the military and doing his part for his country. She would stay and start college. Her credits would transfer to wherever they went next. She wasn’t worried about that. She just wanted to be with him.

  Then she’d ridden out early the morning he was supposed to leave to say one last goodbye.

  He’d been in a hurry, but pleased she’d gone to the trouble of seeing him off. Their lives together were on hold, but he could envision how they’d come together again as soon as he got through training. Their future together was about to begin…

  Oh, how wrong he’d been about Bree.

  Well, now he’d come home to find his father. Once they’d accomplished that mission, he would work on making a life of his own by purging his system of Bree and opening his heart to the possibility of loving someone else.

  Chapter 3

  Bree Lansing hurried from the airport, her heart pounding, barely able to breathe. Of all times to arrive back in Bozeman, Montana, she’d had to pick the same time Angus McKinnon was also at the airport. What were the odds? A million to one?

  Thank goodness she’d worn the weird hat and sunglasses. For a moment, she thought he’d recognized her, but then remembered her disguise. He couldn’t have known it was her.

  But she’d known it was him. How could she forget the face of the man she’d loved since she’d tripped over him in the hallway in seventh grade?

  God, he looked good. Better even than when he’d left his home in Montana thirteen years ago as a young man on the brink of beginning his adult life. A life he’d wanted her to be a part of. A life she’d dreamed of since they’d fallen in love.

  They would’ve been married for twelve years, had events gone according to their plan.

  But they hadn’t.

  Fate had played her hand in the scheme of things. Now, Bree couldn’t be with Angus, no matter how much she wanted. She shouldn’t have come back to Montana. It was too risky. And she surely couldn’t bring her level of hell into Angus’s life. She’d made her bed that night nearly thirteen years ago. She had to live with the consequences. Angus didn’t. She wouldn’t let him. This was her cross to bear.

  The other alternative was to turn herself in, own up to her crime and spend the rest of her life in jail.

  Sometimes, she thought she would’ve been better off if she’d done just that. But her mother didn’t deserve to know her only child had committed a heinous crime. The shame she’d have to live with in the small community of Eagle Rock would be too much for her sweet mother. Hadn’t she suffered enough?

  Bree drove the rental car out of the airport parking lot. Instead of heading northwest toward Eagle Rock, the town where she’d grown up, she drove to the hospital.

  Once inside, she removed her hat and sunglasses and went to the information desk. “Can you tell me where I can find Karen Hemming? She was admitted yesterday.”

  The older woman appeared to be a volunteer. She squinted at the computer screen. “I don’t have a Karen Hemming. Are you sure she was admitted here?”

  Bree’s heart skipped several beats. “Yes. She was admitted yesterday. I received a call late last night that she was in the ICU.” Dear God. Had her mother died?

  “I don’t see…” The old woman tapped a few keys, using one finger.

  Her stomach knotting, Bree wanted to crawl over the counter and take over for the woman. But she held her tongue and position, not wanting to call attention to herself. The fewer people who knew Karen Hemming’s daughter was in Montana, the better.

  “Oh, there she is.” The old woman smiled up at her.

  Holding back her impatience, Bree asked evenly. “Which room, please?”

  “Oh, yes.” She gave Bree the floor and room number.

  Bree thanked her and bolted for the elevator. Once inside and alone, she let go of the breath she’d been holding in a heartfelt sigh. Her mother wasn’t dead. She wasn’t too late. Thirteen years was a long time to go without coming home to visit. But was it long enough for people to forget what had happened at Wolf Creek Ranch? Especially the sheriff and the volunteer fire department?

  As far as she knew, Sheriff Barron was still the sheriff in Eagle Rock. As for the firefighters, they could have an entirely different crew of volunteers. Bree could only hope.

  Since she hadn’t tried to hide where she’d gone, and no one had come after her, she’d lived under the assumption they hadn’t put two and two together and come up with her as her stepfather’s killer.

  The thought of Greg Hemming’s death brought back so many memories, none of which were good.

  The man had been a self-righteous, abusive bastard who’d taken pleasure in tormenting his wife and her only child. For years, Bree wondered why he’d married her mother in the first place. According to him, her mother had never done anything right. He’d always criticized her and made fun of the little things she’d done to try to make him happy.

  As much as Bree hated her stepfather, she’d loved her mother and hadn’t wanted to bring her more unhappiness by openly arguing with Greg.

  Bree arrived at the door to her mother’s hospital room. She glanced down at her trench coat and decided to remove it before going in. Once she stood in her jeans and sweater, her hair pulled back in a loose messy bun, she felt more herself and less the woman who’d run away from home after killing her stepfather.

  Pasting a smile on her face, she poked her head into
the room. “Is Ms. Karen Hemming up for visitors?”

  “Who’s there?” a gravelly voice called out.

  Bree swallowed hard to keep a sob from rising up her throat. She hadn’t seen her mother in thirteen years. What kind of daughter was she to have been away for so long?

  The very worst.

  “It’s me,” she said softly. “Bree.” And she entered the room slowly, afraid her mother wouldn’t recognize her… or worse…not want to see her after all the years.

  “Bree?” Her name ended on a sob. “Oh, dear Lord, Bree?”

  Bree crossed the floor to stand beside the bed where her mother lay against sterile white sheets, her soft brown hair streaked with gray. Bree’s heart pinched hard in her chest.

  When had her mother gotten old? The woman was only in her early fifties. The lines around her eyes had deepened and the shadows beneath were a decided purple. She looked pale and fragile, and the sight of her like that made Bree swallow hard to keep from crying.

  “Hey, Mom.” She lifted her mother’s free hand and carried it to her lips. “I missed you.”

  Tears trickled down her mother’s cheeks, and a drop of blood slipped from her nose. She reached up with the hand hooked to an IV and cupped her daughter’s cheek. “Bree, sweet Bree.” More tears slipped from her eyes. “I prayed you’d come home.”

  “I’m home, Mom. And we’re going to get you better. I promise.” She prayed she was right. The way her mother looked, her condition couldn’t be good.

  Her fingers curled into Bree’s and squeezed hard. “Ray. I need to know. What’s happened to Ray? Is he all right? They won’t tell me.”

  “Ray Rausch, your ranch foreman?”

  She nodded. “He got sick around the same time as I did. Please. Could you check on him? I’ve been too sick to get out of bed.”

  “I will.” She brushed a lock of her mother’s hair out of her face. “Are you sure you’re going to be all right?”

  Her mother nodded. “I’m feeling a little better.”

  “Has the doctor been in to talk to you? Do they know what’s wrong?”

  “They did bloodwork,” she said, waving a hand. “I don’t know. He should be back later.” She clasped Bree’s hand again. “Please, check on Ray.”