by SJ McCoy
“You reckon we might get there before him?” asked Carter hopefully.
“I’m praying we do,” said Mason.
“Me too,” said Beau. “I hate to think that the police are finally ready to do something, and the first thing they might have to do is arrest Chance.”
Mason nodded. That was what he feared.
When they reached the Preston ranch, Luke’s patrol car sat in the driveway.
“What do we do?” asked Carter.
Mason shut off the ignition. “We go straight on in and see what the score is.” He didn’t see what else they could do at this point.
Just as they were walking up the front steps, Luke came out the front door followed by Anna, the housekeeper. He didn’t look in the least surprised to see them.
“Gentlemen.”
Mason tipped his hat. “Luke.” He smiled. “Miss Anna.”
Anna looked scared to death. “Mr. Mason. He’d not here. He said he left first thing this morning.” Her hand flew up to cover her mouth and her eyes grew wide as she realized her mistake. “I mean, he left, he did leave first thing this morning.”
Luke raised an eyebrow at the brothers. “And that’s all I know. Guy left first thing this morning. No one has been out here today until…”
They all stared at him expectantly. Mason was dreading what he might say about Chance.
“Until I arrived just now.”
“No one stopped by this evening?” asked Carter.
Luke shook his head firmly. “Not a soul, right, Anna?”
Anna nodded. “Nobody’s been here all day. Nobody came by. Nobody caused no trouble. No fights, no nothing.”
“So what happens now?” asked Mason.
“I go file my report and see how my senior officer wants to proceed.”
“And that’s it?” asked Beau.
Luke shrugged. “Until Mike tells me what he wants to do, yeah. I can’t do anything about Guy if he’s not here.” He gave them a reassuring half smile. “And I sure as hell can’t do anything about anyone who wasn’t here.”
“Thanks.” Mason blew out a sigh of relief.
“So, I suggest you all go on home.”
“Call me when you know what’s happening?” asked Mason.
“You’d do better to call in in the morning. This is Mike’s show now, not mine.”
Mason nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Luke.” He started to walk away with his brothers at his side then a thought struck him and he turned back. “Are you okay here, Anna?”
Her eyes were still wide. She was good people. Mason had known her since they were all kids. His mom talked about her sometimes. She liked her and felt sorry for her. Anna shook her head rapidly.
Mason met Luke’s gaze. Luke gave him the slightest nod.
“Would you like to come stay at the ranch tonight?”
She nodded eagerly. “Yes! Please!”
“Come on then, we’ll get your things.”
“That’s okay.” She hurried down the steps and toward Mason’s truck. “I don’t need anything.”
Damn, she was sure eager to get out of there. He followed her and opened the passenger door for her to climb in. He went around to the driver’s door and climbed in himself. As he took his seat behind the wheel he caught a glimpse of Carter and Beau exchanging a weird look in the back. “Everything okay back there?”
“Just fine,” said Beau. Though in the rearview mirror his expression said things were far from fine. Mason knew better than to question him in front of Anna. It’d keep till they got home. He was hoping there’d be a room free for her at the lodge, but even if not he and Gina had a spare room, and his folks had plenty of them. She’d be fine. He’d just had a hunch he needed to get her out of there, and judging by her reaction, she agreed.
He couldn’t understand what was going on between Carter and Beau in the back as he drove the last few miles home. They were sitting as far away as they could from one another, each pressed up against their door. He kept an eye on them in the rearview mirror and they were having some kind of silent conversation back there.
“I’ll text Corinne,” said Beau when they were nearly back. “See if there are any rooms free at the guest ranch.”
“I don’t want to put anyone to no trouble,” said Anna. She looked over at Mason. “I’ll sleep in the barn with the horses as long as I don’t have to go back there.”
“You don’t,” said Mason. “Don’t worry, you can stay with us for tonight.”
“Do you think your momma wants a housekeeper? I ain’t never going back there.”
He wasn’t surprised to hear that. “I don’t know about my mom, but we’ll find you something.”
She nodded gratefully. “You Remingtons are good people. Everyone says it. Everyone except him. He hates you. All of you, so that makes me know you’re good people.”
Mason nodded. “Did he really leave this morning, Anna?”
She pressed her lips together, but shook her head.
“Do you know where he is now?”
She shook her head again. “But I hope he rots in hell. Your friend…” She pressed her lips together again, apparently deciding she’d said enough.
“What?” asked Carter. “Our friend, what?”
She shook her head again and refused to talk anymore.
“Corinne said she’d meet us at the lodge,” said Beau when Mason pulled into the ranch driveway. “She’s got a room where Anna can stay tonight.”
“Thank you.”
“Okay, we’ll stop there first and get you settled in.”
Carter and Beau seemed to be doing a lot of squirming back there as they had another silent conversation. Mason wanted to just ask them what the hell they were playing at. He found Carter’s gaze in the mirror and gave him a hard stare.
“Actually, I need to get back to Summer. Can you drop Beau off to see to Anna and take me straight back to the cabin?”
Mason was about to tell him to get the fuck out and walk, but the way Carter was looking at him, he was obviously trying to tell him something.
Mason sighed. “Okay.”
A few moments later he pulled up in front of the lodge. Beau had jumped out and slammed the door behind him before the truck had even come to a stop. He held Anna’s door open and helped her down before he slammed her door shut too. Mason made to get out, but Beau waved him off. “I’ve got it from here; there’s Corinne, look.” He took Anna’s arm, hurrying her away from the truck.
“What the fuck’s going on with you two?” Mason asked.
“They didn’t want her to see me.”
Mason thought he was hearing things, he started to turn around in his seat. “Just get us back to the cabin,” said Chance. Once they were safely away from the lodge, he pulled himself up from the footwell by Carter’s feet.
“What the fuck?” asked Mason.
“I needed a ride home.”
He needed stitches by the looks of him. Mason eyed him in the mirror. He smiled. “How ya doin’, Mase?
Mason shook his head. “A damned sight better now I know where you are. What did you do? I take it Guy didn’t leave town this morning?”
Chance shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you.”
Mason scowled at him. “You better damned well tell me. What happened? Where is he?”
Chance shook his head. “The less you know the better.”
Mason slammed on the brakes and glared at him.
Chance glared right back—at least he did with one eye—the other was swelling shut and would no doubt be black in the morning.
Eventually Mason looked away. “I hope he looks worse than you do?”
Chance shrugged. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mason couldn’t believe Chance was shutting him out. He looked at Carter. Carter just shook his head.
“It’s better this way, Mase. You know it.”
“No! I need to know what happened. I need to know what’s likely to happen. You need to k
now that Mike Nelson has decided that he wants to bring Guy in.”
“Yeah, I gathered that much.”
“And…?”
“And what?”
Mason blew out a sigh. Chance might be his best friend, but he was also the most infuriating person he’d ever met. If he didn’t want you to know something, you weren’t ever going to know it. But this wasn’t something for Chance to handle on his own and freeze Mason out.
“You may as well accept it, Mase,” said Carter.
“I can’t.” He glared at Chance again.
“Well, sorry, but I can,” said Carter. “So could you drop me at Corinne’s so I can get Summer and go home? I’m pretty sure Gina’s going to be worried by now too.”
That was about the only thing he could have said that would make Mason move. He’d been determined to sit out here in the truck until Chance told him what he’d done. The thought of Gina sitting there worrying overrode that. He pointed the truck toward Corinne’s place again. She could come with him to take Chance home and help him get cleaned up. She might well have better luck at getting him to talk, too.
~ ~ ~
Gina ran outside when she heard the truck pull up. She and Summer had stayed at Corinne’s place to mind Ruby while Corinne went to sort out a room for Anna at the lodge. This had turned into one crazy evening.
She’d come over to meet up with the girls, to talk wedding arrangements, in theory. The way things had gone down, with all the snippets that had come in from various places over the course of the evening, the gallery had burned to the ground, the police were now finally looking for Guy, and Chance had gone missing. She’d wanted to head up to town, but Mason had made her promise not to. Cassidy was there, and Shane was with her. There was nothing Gina could do. Now at least Mason was back and hopefully he’d give her some idea what the hell was going on. She pressed her hand to her stomach when she reached the front door, a sharp pain making her stop and catch her breath. Summer almost walked into the back of her.
“Are you okay?”
Gina nodded; she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
A furrow appeared in Summer’s brow. “Are you sure? You don’t look it.”
“I’m fine,” she breathed. “I just need a minute. I got up too quickly or something.” She looked down the driveway to where Mason and Carter were getting out of the truck. “Go say hi to Carter would you? Distract them for a minute and I’ll catch you up?”
Summer hesitated for a moment, then smiled. “I’ll cover for you if I can, but if Mason sees your face like that he’s going to know you’re not right.”
“Exactly, so go distract them, would you?”
Summer ran down the path to meet them. Gina had to smile, even though it felt more like a grimace as she watched Summer overdo her welcome home hugs. She threw herself into Carter’s arms, then wriggled free and hugged Mason, then she turned as the truck’s other back door opened and Chance climbed down.
Gina breathed a sigh of relief. In that moment the pain passed as quickly as it had come. It must have been just from jumping up too quickly, like she’d said. She made her way down the path to meet them.
Mason put an arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder for a moment. “Look what we found.” He jerked his head toward Chance who gave her an innocent smile. Nothing else about him looked innocent. One of his eyes was swollen shut, he had a cut on his temple, and a smear of blood dried on his cheek. He looked as though he’d been rolling in the dirt and one of his pant legs was torn. She wasn’t at all surprised to see that his knuckles were bruised.
“Hey.” He smiled. “You look tired, Gina girl. I am too. I’m going to get back to my cabin and leave you guys to it.” He tipped his hat and turned to walk away.
“Don’t you dare!” Even as she said it, she knew full well he dared. She was more surprised at herself for daring to speak to him like that. It seemed Chance was too. He stopped in his tracks, but didn’t turn around. As close as they all were, as much as everyone considered Chance to be one of the brothers, he wasn’t the same as the others. There was a gap, a distance that could never quite be bridged. You didn’t push Chance—on anything. Or at least that was the understanding they all had. He gave them as much as he had, shared as much of himself as he was able; but if any man was island it was Chance. Gina couldn’t let him walk away though. She went to him and put a hand on his shoulder. She could feel the tension humming through him. He was like a wild stallion; he might rear up or he might bolt, but what she hoped was that he would trust her enough to do neither. She felt him draw in a deep breath. That felt like a huge concession in itself.
“Can we give you a ride back to the cabin? Let me help you get cleaned up?”
He didn’t answer for a long moment, a moment in which they all stood frozen.
She felt him relax slightly before he turned around to face her. “Thanks, G.” He looked at the rest of them. “Do you all want to come over for a beer?”
“I can’t,” said Summer. “I have to stay here with Ruby.” She looked at Carter. “You go, I’m fine here.”
“You three go on,” said Carter. “I’ll catch up with you soon, Chance.”
Gina shot him a grateful smile. Carter might make out he wasn’t too smart, but he was. He knew that Chance was most likely to open up to Mason if he was going to open up to anyone at all, and she herself had just managed to batter his door down a little.
“Okay. Take care now.” Chance walked over to Mason’s truck and climbed in the back.
~ ~ ~
When they got to Beau’s house in town, Shane came around and opened the car door for her. Cassidy slid down and leaned against him.
“How’re you holding up, Princess?”
For a moment she buried her face in his chest and breathed in the scent of him. He smelled so good, so familiar, so reassuring.
“You okay?” He sounded worried.
She looked up at him with a smile. “Course I am. You know me.”
He nodded. “Tough as old boots.”
She made a face. “I think I prefer tough as nails, if you don’t mind.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“I’d rather be thought of as sharp and shiny than old and smelly.”
Shane laughed. “You are many things, my love, but you’ll never be old and smelly.”
“You never know, I might end up that way, after we’ve been married for seventy years.”
He hugged her to him. “I still won’t notice, because I’ll be even older than you and twice as smelly.”
“You’re such a sweet talker.”
“That’d be me.” He dug Beau’s key out of his jeans pocket. “Come on, let’s try to get some rest, huh? It’s been one hell of a day, and by the sounds of it, tomorrow’s going to be the same, what with the insurance people and Mike’s people and…”
Cassidy nodded. “Do you think they’ll find him?”
Shane shrugged.
“Okay. I’ll ask the real question. Do you think Chance already found him?’
Shane shrugged again. “I hope so.” He opened the front door and let her go ahead of him. “Do you want to go take a shower and I’ll call Mason to see what’s going on?”
What she really wanted to do was call Mason herself, but she couldn’t let her need to take control trample on Shane’s. She nodded. “I love that Beau keeps this place all ready for visitors. He even stocked the guest bathrooms with Asprey since I told him I was so impressed that he had any.”
Shane gave her a blank look and she had to laugh. Why would she expect him to have any clue what she was talking about? She headed for the stairs. “Don’t worry about it. You call Mason, and I’m going to shower in luxury and be grateful that at least one Remington brother is well versed in high-end toiletries.”
As she stood under the stream of hot water, Cassidy tried to come to terms with what had happened. The gallery was gone. So much of her work was lost; so much of Gina’s work was lost. At least i
n Gina’s case there were digital files, the photographs could be reproduced. Her paintings were gone. She shrugged. She could paint more. She didn’t know if she was in shock or denial or if she was just too pragmatic. Everyone she’d seen and spoken to on Main Street tonight had been devastated on her behalf. It was so terrible, and such a great loss. They’d given their condolences as though someone had died. Yeah, it was a blow, but it wasn’t the end of the world. No one was hurt. Or at least no one that she knew about yet. She had to hope that when she got dried and went downstairs Shane would tell her that Chance was home safe and hadn’t gone anywhere near Guy.
As she toweled herself down she could hear him talking. She stepped out onto the landing to listen.
“Okay, thanks, Mase, will do…Yeah…Tell Gina I’ll have Cass call her.”
“I’ll be right down,” she called. She wanted to talk to Gina. She’d gotten through the evening assuming Gina would feel the same way she did. Gina was practical and logical, but she wanted to talk to her, make sure she was as okay as she hoped.
“Hang on. Can you put her on? Cass is coming down.”
Cassidy clutched her towel to her as she ran down the stairs. Shane pawed at it when he handed her the phone. She had to swat his hand away as she spoke.
“Hey, girlfriend.”
“Hi, Cass, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. The gallery isn’t though.”
“Yeah, I heard. Is it all gone?”
“Pretty much.” She chuckled. “Yogi the paperweight made it out, but that’s about all.”
“Well, I guess that’s something. What about all your paintings?”
“Everything that was in there is gone.” As she said it she felt tears prick behind her eyes. Evidently, she did care.
“I’m sorry.”
“Hey, it is what it is. I can paint more. I’ll just have to look at it as a chance to start over. They’re just pictures.” Cassidy felt real tears well up. They were just pictures and she could just paint more, but there was one picture that couldn’t be replaced.
“Are you really okay?”
Cassidy nodded, and swallowed hard. She turned away from Shane who was watching her with concern. “I am, I just remembered…My mom and dad….” She couldn’t continue. It was a portrait of her parents she’d done when they were still married. She loved that painting. To her it was the one tangible representation of family that she still had. Her mom had been gone five years now. Her dad loved her, doted on her from afar, but he had too many other blonde thirty-somethings to keep him busy these days.