by Cindy Stark
Rachel led the way as her new husband carried their bags inside. “Thanks for helping out,” she said as he placed her suitcase on her bed.
“No problem. I told you to use me. Plus, it’s more like play than work for me.”
She swallowed, trying to hold back her words, but couldn’t. “When the time comes, if you don’t have another job lined up and would like to hang around longer than our agreed period, I’d be happy to discuss a salary with you.”
He lifted a brow in interest. “What about the divorce? If I stay, I’d still have to be your husband.”
She shrugged, pretending indifference though her heart thought otherwise. “What will a few more weeks hurt? I could use the help until I find someone new to hire, and we seem to get along well.”
“Yes, we do.” He smiled. “I’ll definitely consider it.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Rachel halted her horse at the top of the ridge and gazed out over the valley. The frozen, barren land had been kissed by spring. Hills no longer looked brown or covered with snow, but carried a green tinge instead as plants and grasses returned to life. Aspens sported tender buds that would soon turn to leaf. Sun rained down on her shoulders and across the land, reminding her life was a circle, and what was once difficult would be good again if given enough time.
How many times had she and her uncle stopped in this exact spot? “We’re in God’s country now,” she whispered, mimicking her uncle’s words. Damn, if she didn’t agree with him. She couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
Thank God, Conway had started the paperwork to transfer the title of the land to her. In a few days, she’d be free and clear.
She started down the hill when a black and white body lying on the ground caught her attention. “Oh, no,” she whispered. Though she wanted to hurry, she allowed Gemini to continue to carefully pick his way down the hillside. At the bottom, she nudged him, increasing their speed.
As she neared the dead cow, she spotted another, and then another beyond it lying in the shadows of the mostly-barren aspens.
“Shit.” Her beautiful day had just gone to the dogs. Literally. Each cow killed by the wolves ate a nice chunk out of her profits, and she’d lost far too many that season as it was.
With a heavy heart, she paused long enough to call Joe.
“More dead cattle.” She tried to remind herself this was the cost of doing business in this area and that the wolves had been there first, but it was still hard to swallow sometimes. “Looks like three of them. Wait…four.”
“Where are ya?” Joe responded with resigned agitation.
“Just below Grizzly Ridge. Send Mickey and Abel in a truck along South Fork Road. I’ll ride out to meet them.”
The scent of death hung in the air as she approached the carnage. The belly of the smallest had been ripped open and half-eaten. The others had entrails strewn across the ground.
She placed a hand over her mouth as breakfast churned in her stomach. This was all part of nature, she knew, but it was hard not to look at the animals and pray they had a quick if not painless death.
Gemini suddenly stepped backward and whinnied. An eerie chill crept across Rachel’s skin, followed quickly by the sensation of being watched. She reassured her horse with soft words and a pat while she slid the revolver she carried from the holster with her free hand. She quickly scanned the area looking for whatever had spooked Gemini, but saw nothing.
She slowed her inspection the second time around searching for what she might have missed.
When she saw him, she sucked in a surprised breath. In a stand of trees only a few hundred yards from her, yellow eyes glowed. The wolf’s fur was so dark she almost missed it that time, too. It watched her with hungry, anxious eyes that set her on edge.
She held its gaze for a long moment, both of them frozen in place.
Magnificent.
She couldn’t use another word to describe the wolf’s awe-inspiring beauty. Death in a resplendent package. She scanned the trees behind it, searching for the rest of its pack. Nothing.
Reluctantly, she lifted her gun and fired it into the air. Gemini trembled, but didn’t buck or run. She’d trained him well. The canine rounded and bolted deeper into the trees, all muscle and glorious fur.
The sound of her shot would scare him off for now, but if they didn’t dispose of the bodies, that wolf and most likely the rest of the pack would return. She didn’t want them thinking her land was the local fast food restaurant.
By the time she made it out to the road, Mickey and Abel had already arrived. She rode up to Mickey’s window as he lowered it.
“Did you bring the tarp?” she asked.
Mickey nodded as Abel leaned forward and made eye contact with her. “Got that and the ropes.” He tipped his head toward the back of the work truck.
“Good. If you follow me, I think I can get you most of the way in. We’ll only have to use Gemini for the first part.”
“Good deal.” Mickey rolled up his window, and she turned her horse around.
She took her time, watching for rocks and other obstacles that she might have missed the first time, which might impede or stop the truck.
When she took them as far as they could go, Mickey parked. Abel pulled the tarp from the back of the truck and carried it to her. She held the awkward bundle on her lap along with the ropes they’d use to hook the tarp her horse and led the way to the slaughtered cows.
They’d fastened the tarp to her horse and were about to roll the first cow onto the dirty green canvas when her cell phone rang. She pulled it from her pocket, saw that it was Joe calling, and answered it.
“You need to get back here right now.” The strain in Joe’s voice couldn’t be mistaken.
“I can’t. We’re right in the middle of loading a dead cow onto the tarp. Tell me what’s wrong. Maybe I can help from here.” She tried not to panic, to wait until she knew what faced her.
“Take the truck. Leave them there. I’ll drive back out to help them. Come home right now. You need to be here.”
“God, Joe. You’re scaring the shit out of me. Is it my mom? My sister?”
“It’s not that, but I’d like you to be here before I give you the news.”
What could she do but comply? “I’ll leave now.” Fear left her palms clammy and her heart thudding like she’d run a marathon.
She turned to her men after she’d ended the call. “There’s an emergency down at the house. I need to go. Joe will bring back the truck. I can’t tell you what happened, because Joe didn’t tell me.”
“No problem, boss.” Mickey tossed the truck’s keys to her.
“Hope everything is okay,” Abel added.
“Me, too.” She sprinted toward the vehicle, needing but not wanting to know what had happened. She’d barely gotten her life back on track. The last thing she needed was something messing it up again.
An unfamiliar silver sedan sat parked in front of her house when she arrived. Other than that, nothing seemed unusual.
She shoved the gearshift into park, turned off the engine, and jumped from the truck, not bothering to take the keys. Joe came from the side of the house just as she reached the porch.
Trepidation showed in the way he walked and the worried look on his face.
“What the hell happened, Joe? You’re freaking me out.”
He sighed in grave despair, briefly closed his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t know how to tell you this.”
She strode forward and gripped his arm, jerking on it. “You just tell me. Now.”
He inhaled a deep breath and locked his piercing blue gaze onto hers. “Caleb’s wife is here.”
Her life force drained from her as surely as if her throat had been slashed. “His what?” she whispered, gripping her neck in hopes of easing the invisible band choking off her oxygen.
He nodded as though he was unable to say it again. “She showed up about twenty minutes ago. Said she needed to talk to Caleb. I had n
o idea who she was at the time, so I showed her to the barn. At first, they were only discussing, so I left ‘em alone. Then it turned to yelling. Then really loud yelling. I went over to investigate because I didn’t want anyone shooting anyone else, and I heard him ask her how the hell she didn’t follow through with the divorce. He said he’d signed the papers over a year ago.”
She placed her icy hands over her mouth and stared at him. She could see it now. The first brick of her life had crumbled. The rest would follow. “Who here knows besides you?”
He shrugged. “Nobody, I don’t think. I’m the only one around right now. But if he’s still married—”
“Maybe no one else heard. If no one knows, we can fix it before Franklin finds out.”
Joe’s eyes grew wide, but he nodded in agreement. “Aren’t you mad at Caleb? He lied to you. Maybe you don’t want to marry him after all.”
“What the hell do you want me to do?” She’d lost all sense of patience. “If I lose the ranch, we all lose everything. Is that what you want?”
A hard look glinted in his eye. “No.”
“Me, either, so stop making this worse.”
“Bill would have married you.”
“Is that what you want? For me to sacrifice myself on the altar so your lives can stay comfortable?” Really, that’s what she’d done in her own way, but she couldn’t tell him that.
He clamped his mouth shut, frustration building like storm clouds in his eyes. She didn’t have time to worry about his feelings right now, though.
Her phone rang again, and she ripped it from her pocket. Jessy. She exhaled and prayed for strength.
“I’m kind of busy right now, Jess. Can I call you back?”
“Shit, Rachel. No. This is important and can’t wait. I hope you’re sitting down.” She paused, and Rachel braced herself for the blow she knew would come. “Caleb is married.”
Even though she’d anticipated and feared her friend’s words, they still threatened to knock her over. “Who told you?”
“Several people. Maisie for one.”
An hour’s worth of silence spread between them in the following few seconds. Rachel’s chest felt as though it had caved inward, burying her heart beneath the rubble. She grabbed Joe’s arm, clinging to him like he was a log in a swollen river and handed her phone to him. “I can’t.”
Joe hesitated and then took her phone. “Jessy? It’s Joe. Rachel’s going to have to call you back.”
A few moments of breathing in the fresh spring air helped to calm her. She glanced up at Joe who’d patiently waited for her to collect what she could of her wits.
“Where are they?” She knew Joe would understand she meant Caleb and his…wife.
“In the house now. Been in there a while.”
“Do I go in?” She wanted to confront Caleb but wasn’t sure she could bear to look at his wife’s face.
“Up to you.”
Before she could decide, the front door opened, and out walked a woman with beautiful blond hair. She glanced at them, but said nothing as she continued to her car. Once inside, she started the engine and pulled away as though completely unaware of how her presence had destroyed Rachel’s life.
She exchanged worried looks with Joe and then gave him a curt nod. No need to assess the damage. Nothing now would save her.
Still, she needed to know what Caleb had to say for himself.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Caleb hovered on the edge of the chair near the cold fireplace in the living room. He’d fucked up everything good. How in the hell would he face Rachel long enough to tell her what had happened?
If her expression was anything like he knew it would be, it would kill him. Might as well because, right now, he wished he was dead. His inattention to detail would cost her everything.
The sound of the door opening brought him upright. Rachel spotted him right away and froze, still holding the doorknob.
They stayed like that for several long seconds. He didn’t have to worry about how to tell her.
She knew.
He stepped forward, and she raised a hand between them. Pain radiated from her like an atomic blast. “Don’t.”
That one word stopped him in his tracks. “I deserve every bit of your anger, Rachel, but—”
“I only have one question for you. Are you married?”
“Let me explain.”
“Are you still married to her?” Her voice grew more lethal with each word.
He shook his head, not wanting to answer. If he didn’t say it, then maybe it wouldn’t be real. “Yes. No. I don’t know.”
She closed her eyes and put a fist over her mouth as though he’d informed her someone she loved had just died. She stayed that way for several anguishing moments before she lifted her eyelids and pierced him with a look that would haunt him the rest of his days.
“You said you weren’t.” Her voice was quiet, like the eye of a hurricane. “I placed everything I own on the line, everything dear to me, on what you’d told me.”
“I thought it was the truth, Rachel. We both signed the paperwork. She was supposed to file the next day. She’s the one who’d asked for the divorce, so I had no reason to think she wouldn’t follow through. I don’t have a permanent mailing address at the moment, so she was to send my copy to my mom’s. I thought it was a done deal. She tracked me down here because she lost the original papers and needed me to sign new ones now that she wants to get married.”
He’d always thought the divorce was the worst thing to happen to him. Standing here, telling Rachel how he’d let her down was far more devastating.
“I believed you. Believed in you. ”
Her words cut him, sent him reeling. “It’s not like I did it on purpose. I genuinely wanted to help you, and it wasn’t like you had anyone else standing in line to marry you.”
The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted them. “Ah, fuck.”
Her eyes grew wide as she worked to swallow. He didn’t think anything could be worse than her expression a few moments ago. He’d been wrong.
So very wrong.
“Rachel, I’m sorry.” He strode toward her, ignoring her attempt to stop him this time. “I didn’t mean it like that. I want to help you. I’ve always wanted to help you. Being here on the ranch is so much more than I thought it could be.”
She shook her head, her skin pale, as she stepped away from the door. “I want you to go.”
“No, Rachel. We need to talk this out.” He couldn’t walk away and leave her like this. He’d do whatever it took to make it right. “Maybe I can fly to a place that grants immediate divorces. Then we can marry again.” He couldn’t let her lose everything.
“In one day?” Heartbreak filled her eyes with tears and ripped his soul to pieces.
No words, no solutions came to mind. He’d been so consumed with happiness the past ten days that he hadn’t paid attention to the calendar at all. “Maybe? I don’t know. But I’ll find a way to fix this.” He had to.
She met his gaze, nodded, and then walked away. She didn’t look back as she reached the stairs but trudged up them instead, her shoulders drooping.
He followed a few moments later. Muffled sobs came from her room as he passed, stopped and then turned around. He knocked on her door. “Rachel? Please let me help.”
Her answer was the deafening sound of her quietly locking the door. He leaned his head against it, defeat threatening to take him down.
She wanted him gone. He couldn’t blame her.
If there was a way to fix this, he’d do it. He didn’t have millions to buy out Franklin. There had to be something else.
It couldn’t be over. Not like this.
He’d never been happier than when Rachel had asked him to stay longer until she hired a worker. They’d never discussed salaries. They’d just gone on living like they were a genuinely happy, married couple.
He’d hoped maybe, if time had been good to them, she might have decided s
he wanted him to stick around permanently. He loved her and this town, and he’d never truly been able to say that about anyone or anywhere since he’d been forced to sell his father’s ranch.
This was her home, but it had come to feel like home to him as well. Instead of saving her, he’d put both their hearts in jeopardy.
No, dammit. There had to be a glitch somewhere. Her uncle’s will. Something.
Rachel might not ever want to see him again after this, but she deserved her ranch. He wouldn’t rest until it fully and completely belonged to her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rachel paused in her packing to crack the bedroom window. Though the sun had disappeared and the evenings were still very cool, she’d been working hard to gather what was hers, and she appreciated the fresh air. This task of sorting through years of one’s life was therapeutic in a way. During the past few months, she’d discovered what was important and what wasn’t. Most of the stuff she’d thought she couldn’t live without carried little meaning now.
The things that she’d held near and dear were gone. Uncle Walt, the ranch…Caleb. She was left with a blank canvas, and the thought of filling it was daunting.
Most of the ten-day notice Conway had forced Franklin to give her was gone. In three days, she’d leave here and never come back. She’d already decided not to stay in Moose Meadows even though most of her friends were here. Once she was packed, she’d head to Argent Springs and stay with Elle until she could get her bearings. Maybe she’d stay in that small town permanently.
She’d leave Gemini with Jessy for now. Maybe forever. She sure as hell wouldn’t leave him for Franklin.
But she couldn’t stay where she’d constantly be reminded of everything she’d lost. It would literally kill her.
Really, when all was said and done, not much in the house truly belonged to her. Everything had been her uncle’s that she’d used as a household member. Even the bed she slept in.
Somewhere in the distance a wolf’s howl pierced the night air. Another followed a few seconds later. What she wouldn’t give right now to be wild and as carefree as they were.