Shine On Oklahoma

by Maggie Shayne

  “I know that and you know that, but Caine doesn’t know that. He thinks he can buy anyone. And if he can’t buy them, he’ll threaten them or blackmail them or something.”

  “And you were putting me in his sites? Not to mention my mother, Kendra?”

  “I didn’t put you in his sites, Dax. You were already there.”

  “Bullshit. So how much?”

  She shook her head, her explanation kept forming and dissipating inside her mind, but she’d better say something fast, or it would be too late. “How much what?”

  “How much did he pay you to come down here and slide your sweet, sharp, deadly blade between my ribs? Again.”

  She stared into his eyes and knew she’d hurt him more than she had even realized. “My father’s life.”

  He blinked.

  “He’s got Jack. If you don’t inherit and call off the accountant, they’re going to kill him.”

  He just stood there, staring at her like he wanted to be able to see through her. “Did you just make that up, just now? Cause that’s pretty good.”

  “I recorded the conversations,” she said, diving into her shoulder bag for her phone. “I saved every text.”

  “Or you made them up, you and some of your scam-artist pals. A little play acting for the idiot mark. What were you gonna do, take the job running Aurora Downs while secretly working for Caine? Or just rob the place dry and disappear? Maybe fake a second death and leave me thinking I’d lost the love of my life again?”

  “Dax, no—”

  “I need you to go,” he said. “Get out of Big Falls.”

  “I can’t.” She held his gaze hard and shook her head harder. “I need to be here for my sister.”

  “Then I’ll go.”

  “You can’t. Rob needs you. The horses need you.”

  “His sister-in-law’s a vet.”

  “He relies on you, Dax. He’s your best friend. You can’t just walk away. Who else is gonna pick up the slack once the baby comes? Who else will take care of things so he can stay with Kiley while it happens, and right after? There’s no one else who knows horses like you do, no one else he’d trust with them.”

  He lowered his head. “I don’t know why we’re having this conversation. I don’t need to explain my plans or reasons for making them to you. I’m done, Kendra.”

  “Dax, they threatened to kill my father. That’s the truth.”

  “If that was ever a real risk, it’s not anymore. Not if your con works, and let’s face it, they always do.”

  He turned and started back for his car, but she ran around in front of him and stood there blocking his path. “I didn’t have a choice.”

  “That sentence is never true. You always have a choice.” He moved to walk around her.

  She moved, too, her hands going to his shoulders in a knee-jerk movement fueled by panic. It flooded her with ice cold adrenaline and she couldn’t think rationally. She just couldn’t let him leave. The thought of him leaving this spot and then leaving town and just being gone from her life was absolute disaster to her.

  “Please Dax. You don’t have to inherit the damn thing. By the time the lawyers get here and you have your meeting, all this will be over with and you can tell them you don’t want it, just like you planned to do. You didn’t even need to know about this newspaper gag. Nothing’s changed.”

  He looked down at her face and shook his head. “You still think this is about the track?” Then he sighed, long and heavy. “But I guess that’s all it was ever about, isn’t it? Good bye, Kendra.”

  He stepped around her again, turning her as he did, then opening his car door.

  “Dax, I love you!” she shouted at his back.

  He froze as he was about to get in. “Damn. I didn’t think even you would stoop that low.” Then he got in, pulled the door closed, backed around into the road, all without even looking at her again. And then he laid rubber and was gone

  Kendra was dizzy and shaking and her heart was pounding so fast it was like the hooves of one of Rob’s horses. She hadn’t realized it until she’d said the words—words Dax obviously thought were lies. Maybe she’d thought they were, too, when they’d exploded from her chest without permission.

  “I love you.” She whispered them again and they felt just as shocking, just as impossible, and just as true.

  She opened her mouth to try to catch her breath and couldn’t, which made her breathe faster and press her hands to her chest. It felt all fluttery and stuttery and it hurt. It was a heart attack, she was sure of it.

  A car went by. She heard it slow, and reverse, and then someone was beside her, holding one hand, putting an arm around her back. “Hang on, hang on, I can have you at Doc Sophie’s in two minutes. Quicker than an ambulance. Come on, now.”

  She recognized the voice, the pear-shape even more. Allie Wakeland.

  Her own car’s door slammed. “I’ve got your keys. Your car will be fine.” Then she was beside her again, helping her into the passenger seat of her vehicle. She slammed the door, and hurried around to get behind the wheel.

  Kendra sat there with her hand on her chest, bent forward, gasping as Allie drove. She thought she would die before they made it to Doc Sophie’s. She couldn’t catch her breath. Her heart was racing like a runaway train. She was bouncing all over the seat, holding on for dear life. “You drive it…like you stole it,” she managed between gasps.

  “Just breathe nice and slow,” Allie said as she sped back up Main then turned right. “In and out, nice and slow. You’re safe. Everything’s all right. We’re already on Doc Sophie’s road. See?”

  “I think it’s my heart,” Kendra said. It was broken, that was what it was. Dax had broken it. She’d ruined everything with him and he’d left her and he was never coming back.

  “Hey, hey hey, easy now, come on. Breathe.”

  “I can’t get any air. I can’t get any—”

  The car stopped. Allie tapped the horn twice, then jumped out and came around. Kendra got out too, seeing the Big Falls Family Clinic sign on the lawn. Her legs were shaking so hard she could hardly stand on them. Allie pulled Kendra’s arm around her shoulders, and helped her up the front steps and onto the porch of the big white Victorian. She tried not to lean on the small, pregnant woman too much. The door opened and a redhead came out to take over.

  “I’ll call her sister,” Allie said.

  She tried to say no, don’t do that, but there wasn’t enough air in the whole place to fill her lungs and consciousness seemed to be swimming away.

  #

  “Hey, sweet sister mine.” Kiley’s voice was soft, and so was the hand that stroked Kendra’s hair up off her forehead. She was lying on a bed, but this wasn’t a hospital. The windows were floor to ceiling, forming a curve in an alcove with a padded Victorian settee. A hanging ivy trailed all the way to the floor. Kiley was smiling down at her. “How do you feel?”

  “Fine. I’m fine.” She pushed herself up onto her elbows. “Where am I?”

  “Sophie’s clinic.”

  Right. Allie had brought her. She was at Doc Sophie’s. “Did I have a heart attack? Shouldn’t I be in a hospital?”

  “It wasn’t your heart, Kendra. Sophie says it was acute anxiety.”

  Kendra begged to differ, but as she looked around the room, she saw a little heart monitor blipping away, and she figured if it had been her heart, Doc Sophie would know it. Being a McIntyre, she’d probably had the best education there was.

  “What happened this morning, Kendra? Rob said you came to the stable looking for Dax, then left without even coming in to say hello.”

  She looked sharply at her sister. Did she not know, then? Had Dax not told her?

  No, of course he hadn’t told her. Dax wouldn’t tell a pregnant woman that her father might’ve been kidnapped and her sister was trying to scam him to save his life, unless she was lying about that. He probably thought she was.

  “Kendra?” Kiley was waiting for an answer. “D
id you find Dax? Did you guys have a fight?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. I think he’s…I think…I think it’s over.” Saying it out loud made her throat close, and she had to swallow hard before she could speak again. “He can never trust me again after what I did. I should’ve known that.”

  Kiley sighed heavily, and finally said, “You really…felt something for him this time, didn’t you?”

  “I did then, too. I always have. I just…” She shook her head rapidly, pushed herself the rest of the way up, and swung her legs off the bed. “I am who I am, you know? I’m not ashamed of it.”

  There was a tap on the door, and Sophie came in. “Hey girls. Kiley, can I have a minute with your sister?”

  “Sure.” Kiley leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be right outside.”

  “Good. I’ll need a ride back to my car.”

  “Your car’s at The Long Branch.” She left the room before Kendra could ask how it had got there.

  Sophie said, “Do you wanna talk about it?”

  “No.”

  “Okay.” She sighed. “I can write a ‘script for something calming, if you want.”

  “Do you think I need one? I mean, is this kind of thing likely to happen again?”

  “Has it ever happened before?”

  The day they took her dad away. The day they took Kiley away. They day Kendra had to move in with her first foster family. “Yeah. I guess it has.”

  “Then it could happen again. There are some tools for coping with stress. Meditation. Yoga.” She ignored Kendra’s eye roll. “Also drink more water, eat more veggies, avoid alcohol.” She shook a tiny brown bottle. “Take one of these only when nothing else works. Just one. It’s fast-working.”

  “Thanks.” She took the bottle, looked around for her purse.

  “Your clothes and things are over there.” Sophie pointed to a chair where her stuff was folded and stacked. It had floral upholstery and scrolled wooden arms and legs. “You can go ahead and get dressed now. Call me if you need me, okay? You have my number.”

  “I will. Thanks, Sophie.”

  Sophie turned for the door, then paused, and turned back. “You know, women need other women. I’m here for you if you ever want to talk.”

  Kendra lowered her head. “That’s sweet of you. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Is she all right?”

  Dax hated himself for rushing to Doc Sophie’s with Kiley when she got the call. He’d been at the stable with Rob. Kiley had stopped on her way out to tell them that her friend Allie had found Kendra gasping and clutching her chest on the side of the road.

  Right where he’d left her.

  He shouldn’t have left her there. If he’d caused something like this…

  Doc Sophie came back into the waiting room, stethoscope around her neck, its business end in a pocket of her doctor-coat.

  “She’s fine. It wasn’t her heart.”

  “Was she…faking it?” He stood there, kind of frozen, waiting for the ax to fall.

  “You don’t fake a heartrate of two-twen—I did not just divulge a patient’s confidential stats.” Then she frowned at him and tipped her head sideways. “Why do you ask? Has she been up to her old ways?”

  Sophie had gone from medical professional to McIntyre in a dragonfly’s heartbeat. She was protecting her family.

  “No.” It wasn’t a lie. Kendra wasn’t up to her old ways. She had all new ways this time around.

  Sophie watched his face. He didn’t know what she saw there. He didn’t much care, he wasn’t going to say anything that might lead to this kidnapping story reaching Kiley. Thinking her father was being held at gunpoint by killers could not be good for a woman as pregnant as she was. Besides, he didn’t even know if it was true.

  Kiley came out of the little room where they’d taken Kendra, an angry look on her face. “So now that I’m not afraid my sister’s having a heart attack, you want to tell me what happened?” She was looking right at him, hands propped on her hips, chin jutting forward, but not as much as the belly.

  “What do you mean? You’re the one who got the phone call. Allie said—”

  “I mean before.”

  Sophie put a hand on Kiley’s shoulder, and tipped her head sideways.

  “What?” Kiley snapped.

  The doc gave her a look, and apparently Kiley understood it because she looked around the room and realized they were not alone. A handful of patients were waiting their turn. “Outside, Dax,” Kiley said, pointing at the door.

  He turned and went outside. Kiley spoke to Sophie, and then joined him, walking down three steps and over to where his car sat waiting. “I texted Rob to come pick me up,” she said. “He’ll be here in a minute, so talk fast. My sister shows up at the barn looking for you. Then she leaves. And then you arrive, and she’s found having a full-blown panic attack a mile from my house right about the same time. So what happened?”

  “We had a fight.”

  She grabbed his shirt when he started to turn away. “Tell me, Dax. She’s my sister. What the hell did you do to her?”

  Rob pulled in, braked and was out of the truck and at his wife’s side all in the same breath. “What’s going on?” Hands on her shoulders, he pulled gently until she let go of Dax’s shirt.

  “They had a fight on the side of the road and he just left her there,” she said, flicking a hand at Dax.

  “I didn’t know she was gonna have a meltdown. How could I know?”

  “You don’t just break up with someone and leave them on the side of the road—”

  “She had her car, Kiley. Don’t make it sound like that. And I didn’t break up with her, because we were never together.”

  “Yes, you were.”

  “We were… It wasn’t…” He lowered his head. “I don’t know what it was. I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry. Rob, I’m sorry. The last thing I want to do is upset Kiley--”

  “I know, buddy. I know.” Then he turned to his wife. “I don’t think Dax is the bad guy, here, hon.”

  “Hello? She had a panic attack! Do you know how many times my sister has ever had a panic attack in our entire lives?” She uncurled fingers from a shaking fist to count them off. “When our father went to prison. When we were taken from our home by social workers. And when they split us up. That’s it, Dax. So you tell me, you tell me what happened between you that was on a scale that huge? And how did you think it was okay to devastate her and then just walk away? Huh?”

  He just blinked, because he didn’t know what to say. “I… I gotta go. She’s okay, though, right? You guys… you’ve got her?”

  “Of course we’ve got her.”

  God, it hurt to have Kiley talk to him like that. They were friends.

  “Go,” Rob told him. “I’ve got ‘em both. I’ll call you later.” His eyes were sympathetic.

  Dax went to his Charger and fired it up.

  #

  If Kendra hadn’t been getting hit on by hot-rodders every time she pulled her little red ‘Vette in for gas, or food, or a restroom all the way from the east coast to Oklahoma, she wouldn’t have started noticing how they all sounded. But she had noticed. Hot rods didn’t sound like other cars. And they didn’t sound like each other, either.

  She’d noticed right away the particular way Dax’s Charger sounded. So, when it started up outside, she knew it was him. She went to the window, still pulling on her jeans, and moved the curtain with one hand in time to see him driving away, down the road. He’d been there, at the Sophie’s office.

  It was a little flicker of light in the dark hole that had opened in her chest. Maybe he still gave a damn. Maybe she could still make it up to him.

  She took a deep breath and buttoned her jeans. Then she gathered up her bag and headed back out into the waiting room, just as Kiley and Rob came in from outside. Kiley came right to her, took her arm like she needed help.

  “I’m good,
sis,” Kendra said. “If anything, I should be helping you to the car.”

  “I think you should come and stay with us, Kendra,” she said. “I want to keep an eye on you.”

  “No.” She smiled at her sister and shook her head. “I like my space. You know that.”

  “I know that,” Kiley agreed. “But…just for tonight?”

  “I’m okay, I promise.” Jack would be calling just as soon as he possibly could, to let her know he’d been released. If he’d been released. He might’ve called already, if the damn headline had worked. She couldn’t even imagine taking that call with Kiley nearby and not giving something away. She couldn’t even check her phone until she got somewhere private.

  Kiley said, “If you want to talk about…whatever happened between you and Dax—”

  “It’s not my style to slobber all over my sister every time I get my nose broken. I’m all right. But I do need to be alone to…process some things.”

  “I get that.” Kiley sighed, nodded at the truck. “We’ll drive you back to The Long Branch, then.”

  So they dropped her off in the parking lot and drove away, and she walked around back to use the outdoor stairs because she wasn’t in the mood to make small talk with whoever happened to be inside the saloon. She made it all the way to her room, closed the door behind her, and finally pulled out her phone to check for anything from Jack.

  An alert was flashing on the lock screen.

  PHONE FINDER ACTIVATED

  #

  Jack woke up so cold his teeth were chattering, and had no idea where he was or how he’d… Right, right. Vester Caine, the farmhouse, his body pounding down those basement stairs. He sat up slow as it all came back to him. It was daylight. He was on the ground, in a thin patch of scrawny trees. Saplings. His arm was throbbing and his head hurt. He remembered prying the casement window out, and crawling through the hole it left in the wee hours before dawn. He thought it a pretty good bet that it wouldn’t matter what showed up in the Aurora Free Times. He’d pissed off Vester Caine, drugged his men, and tried to steal his cigars. He was going to be shot if he didn’t get out. So he got out.

  He wondered how far he’d made it before he’d passed out. A mile? More?