by Elle James
MARINE’S PROMISE
IRON HORSE LEGACY Book #3
Elle James
Twisted Page Inc
Contents
MARINE’S PROMISE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
Montana SEAL
Chapter 1
About the Author
Also by Elle James
MARINE’S PROMISE
IRON HORSE LEGACY BOOK #2
New York Times & USA Today
Bestselling Author
ELLE JAMES
Copyright © 2019 by Elle James
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-62695-267-6
PRINT ISBN: 978-1-62695-268-3
Dedicated to my father. I miss him so very much. A good, kind man who taught me so much in his own quiet way.
Elle James
Author’s Note
Enjoy other military books by Elle James
Brotherhood Protectors Series
Montana SEAL (#1)
Bride Protector SEAL (#2)
Montana D-Force (#3)
Cowboy D-Force (#4)
Montana Ranger (#5)
Montana Dog Soldier (#6)
Montana SEAL Daddy (#7)
Montana Ranger’s Wedding Vow (#8)
Montana SEAL Undercover Daddy (#9)
Cape Cod SEAL Rescue (#10)
Montana SEAL Friendly Fire (#11)
Montana SEAL’s Mail-Order Bride (#12)
Montana Rescue
Hot SEAL, Salty Dog
Visit ellejames.com for more titles and release dates
For hot cowboys, visit her alter ego Myla Jackson at mylajackson.com
and join Elle James Newsletter at http://ellejames.com/ElleContact.htm
Chapter 1
Emily Tremont stepped out of the law offices of Halston, Butler & Kenner Attorneys at Law and drew in a deep breath of the cool Montana air. The wind tugged at the hem of her skirt, wrapping it around her thighs, making her wish she’d worn a thicker pair of tights underneath it.
Already, summer had shifted into fall, and leaves were changing colors. Before long, the jet stream would dip low and whip the leaves from their branches.
She clutched the legal-sized envelope close to her chest and hurried toward her SUV.
Emily slipped into the driver’s seat and winced as dull pain shot through her hip, reminding her it had only been three months since the car crash. Three months since she’d lost her husband. Three months since she’d lost the baby she’d been carrying. During that three months, she’d had surgery and spent much of her time in physical therapy, re-learning how to walk on her new hip. Her focus and determination to recover had been fueled by the need to know the truth.
Who had shot her husband?
That one shot had killed her husband, while he’d been driving sixty miles an hour down a country highway. She might not have been so adamant to find the killer if her husband had been the only victim. But she’d been pregnant with their first child, and in the car when he’d been shot.
The resulting wreck had completely changed her life. All she could remember from that night was the smack of the bullet against the windshield, Alex’s blood and brain matter splattering across her face, and the rush of rocks, boulders and trees coming at them as they’d plunged over the side of the road and down a hill into a ravine.
Thankfully, the impact had rendered her unconscious. When she’d woken briefly to the blur of lights in a hospital hallway, pain had knifed through her head, hip and belly. The pain had been so intense, she’d passed out.
The next time she’d opened her eyes, her sister stood beside her hospital bed staring down at her, a worried frown pressing her eyebrows together. She’d taken Emily’s hand in hers. “Hey,” she’d said.
“Hey,” Emily had replied. Her voice came out as a croak. “What happened?”
Her sister’s frown deepened. “Don’t you remember?”
“Remember what?” Emily squinted, as if by concentrating hard she could pull memories out of her cloudy brain.
“You know…,” her sister murmured, “the accident.”
Emily had stared at her sister in a fog of confusion.
Brenna had raised Emily’s hand to her cheek. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” The fog of her thoughts couldn’t latch onto much, especially when her sister wasn’t making sense.
“About Alex…” Brenna’s lips pressed together, and tears welled in her eyes. “He didn’t make it.”
Emily stared at her sister, her heart slamming into her ribs. “What do you mean, he didn’t make it?”
“Emily, Alex is dead,” her sister said.
That had been the first blow.
“And Emily…” her sister’s grip tightened on her hand, “you lost the baby.”
The resulting rush of emotion had hit her like a tsunami and dragged her back to the abyss of unconsciousness.
Three months had passed since the wreck. During those months, she’d fought through the pain, both physical and emotional, searching for her new normal. Only she still hadn’t figured out what normal was.
She pulled the seatbelt around her and clicked it into the buckle. Shifting into reverse, she glanced into her rearview mirror.
A dark SUV sat in the parking space immediately behind where she was parked. Though the windows were tinted, she could see the silhouette of a large man sitting behind the wheel.
Call her paranoid, but after having been in the same vehicle with her husband when he’d been shot, she had good reason to be suspicious.
With the envelope sitting on the seat beside her, she backed out of the parking space and pulled out of the lot onto the main road.
The attorney had given her the package, stating that her husband had left strict instructions that she should receive the package on the third month following his death.
Her hands curled tightly around the steering wheel.
Why would Alex have planned to send her a package three months after his death?
The only reason he would do such a thing would be if he knew there would be somebody coming after him. Perhaps, someone who would want to kill him. He had no other reason to ask for a posthumous delivery.
As far as Emily had known, Alex had been in good health. He hadn’t had cancer or a debilitating disease, but he had been acting strangely and secretively over the last year of his life. So much so, Emily had worried Alex had been cheating on her. Their marriage had been rocky at best before he’d become so secretive.
They’d been together since high school. During that ten years, she’d led a guilty life, wondering if she’d chosen the wrong man to marry. In high school, it had been the three of them. Her, Alex and Colin.
They’d been the Three Musketeers, doing everything together, including horseback riding, canoeing, swimming and hiking in the Crazy Mountains. They’d even gone to the prom together, rather than leave one of them without a date.
Emily had had a tough time deciding between the two of them. Ultimately, Colin had made th
at decision for her when he’d come to her to tell her that he was joining the Marines. He’d known how she’d felt about the military, and she’d thought he’d known how she’d felt about him.
As a teenager, she’d lost her father to the war in Iraq. She hadn’t wanted to invest her emotions and her love in someone who would purposely put himself in harm’s way, forsaking his loved ones.
Right after high school, Alex had asked her to marry him, and Emily had accepted. Colin had joined the Marines. Thus, their stint as the Three Musketeers had ended.
Colin had returned long enough to attend their wedding. At their simple ceremony, he’d made a promise to Emily that if anything should ever happen to Alex, she could count on Colin to help her in any way.
After Alex’s death, Emily figured she was a big girl. She’d made her choice in Alex, and now had to make it on her own.
Colin had his life in the Marines. She didn’t even know where in the world he was at the time of Alex’s death. Besides, he might also have his own life and be married with a family of his own. The thought had hit her square in the gut and made her own grief deepen.
Hell, after ten years, Colin might not even remember her.
Emily glanced in the rearview mirror.
The SUV that had been behind her in the parking lot, now followed her. This had not been the first time she’d been followed by someone in a dark SUV.
Familiar unease raised gooseflesh on her skin. At the next light, she waited until the light turned green, and then abruptly made a righthand turn. Pressing hard on the accelerator, she sped forward to the next street and turned left.
Another glance in the mirror, affirmed the fact that the SUV was still behind her.
Her gut clenched, and her pulse quickened. At the next corner, she made another sharp right and slammed her foot to the pedal. She sped down the street to the next corner where she could only turn left. She looked back. No headlights shone behind her, but she didn’t trust that she’d lost her tail.
Emily took the turn and continued down the lane, emerging onto another street. Before she could react, the dark SUV zoomed out of nowhere and skidded to a halt in front of her, blocking her path.
Emily screamed and slammed on her brakes.
The passenger door of the SUV opened and a large man wearing a ski mask stepped out.
Fear ripped through Emily. She shoved the gear shift into reverse and punched the accelerator with her foot.
Craning her neck to look over her shoulder, she backed down the street she’d just driven on as fast as she could, zigzagging a little as she went.
She shot a glance in front of her and saw that the SUV had turned onto the street and was following her again.
Emily pulled on the steering wheel and spun the vehicle in a 180-degree turn. Then she hit the gas pedal and tried to put as much distance as she could between her and the vehicle behind her.
Another dark SUV pulled out in front of her, blocking the street and her escape.
Refusing to be trapped between the SUV behind her and the one stopped in front of her, Emily jerked the steering wheel, bumped up on the curb, swerved around a giant oak tree, drove across a yard, missed a mailbox and bumped back onto the road on the other side of the SUV.
Driving faster than she’d ever driven before, Emily raced away from the two SUVs that had tried to trap her. She had to get to someplace safe. Someplace well-lit, with lots of people. And soon.
The sun had tipped well below the horizon, casting the land, trees and houses into shadow.
Rather than head toward Eagle Rock where she lived, Emily remained in Bozeman, determined to find a place with a lot of people. She needed to hide in a crowd until the people pursuing her gave up.
Most of the small businesses had closed for the night. Their windows were dark, their staffs had long since gone home. Two sets of headlights fell in behind her, speeding toward her, quickly closing the distance between them.
Desperate to find help, Emily turned again toward the center of Bozeman. In front of her, a lot of cars were gathered around what appeared to be a tavern. A light shone down on the entrance.
Emily aimed her vehicle at the building. At the last second, she turned the vehicle sharply to the right and slammed on the brakes. The SUV slid sideways, coming to a screeching halt in front of the door.
Shifting into park, she grabbed the package from the front seat, shoved it into her purse and looped the strap over her shoulder. Taking a deep breath, she pushed open her door, dropped out, ducked and made a dash for the tavern, careful to keep her head and body lower than the top of her vehicle.
The two dark SUVs barreled toward her SUV without slowing.
Emily ran for the entrance and threw herself inside, praying her pursuers didn’t follow.
But they did.
Colin McKinnon had spent most of the day combing through Bozeman, searching for a girl with a unicorn tattoo on her wrist. He was convinced the woman knew something about his father’s disappearance. Perhaps she held a clue as to where they could find him. His entire family had been searching now for two weeks, praying for a sign that he was still alive.
Missing since the day he and a posse of men had set out to find an escaped con, John McKinnon hadn’t turned up. No sign, no clues, until now, and no body. A fact that maintained a glimmer of hope to the family.
None of his children could imagine him dead. The man was larger than life, tough and fair. He couldn’t be dead. Thus, the reason for the return of the McKinnon siblings to the Iron Horse Ranch. They’d come home to join the search for the patriarch of their family.
For the past two weeks, they’d combed the woods and mountains where the older McKinnon had last been seen. A snowstorm and an avalanche had buried any traces or tracks.
Their first clue came when they’d found John McKinnon’s ring on Beau Faulkner’s finger. They’d immediately jumped to the conclusion that Beau had been behind his father’s disappearance. But Beau had insisted he’d purchased the ring from a pawn shop in Bozeman.
The pawn shop owner had said he’d gotten it from a bleached-blond woman with a unicorn tattoo on her wrist. She hadn’t left her name or a forwarding address. Colin had left his phone number with the man, asking him to call if the woman came back.
Although it was like searching for a needle in a haystack the size of a state, Colin hadn’t given up hope. Thus, his reason for being in Bozeman, an hour away from the family ranch near Eagle Rock, Montana. He’d spent the entire day going from tattoo parlor to tattoo parlor, asking if any of the artists had tattooed a unicorn on the wrist of a blonde.
Not one of the tattoo parlors had panned out. Tired and disheartened, Colin had ducked into the Big Sky Tavern, a place he frequented on his rare visits to Bozeman, hoping someone had seen the woman with the unicorn tattoo. And if he didn’t find her, at least he could have a beer and something to eat before he headed back to Eagle Rock.
He glanced around the tavern. Busy for a weeknight, the tables were all taken. Unwilling to wait for one to be vacated, he settled on a stool at the corner of the bar nearest to the entrance and ordered a draft beer.
After the bartender delivered his drink, he sat back, lifted his mug to his lips and took a long satisfying swallow of the cool liquid.
He’d just set his mug on the counter when a woman burst through the front door, running full speed and plowed into him.
No sooner had she had slammed into his chest then the entire wall of the tavern, door and all, came crashing toward him.
He grabbed the woman and flung her and himself out of the way of snapping timbers and flying debris.
Tavern patrons screamed and ran for the back of the building as the shiny body of a vehicle slid sideways through the wall, coming to a stop inches from the bar where Colin had been enjoying his beer moments before.
When the vehicle and the wall stopped moving, Colin pushed the woman in his embrace to arm’s length. “Are you okay?”
She nodded a
nd turned her face up to him, a frown wrinkling her familiar brow. “Colin?”
Recognition dawned on him, and his hands tightened on her arms. “Emily. Holy hell. What just happened?”
She shot a glance through the dust at the destroyed wall, her eyes wide. “They didn’t stop.” She shook her head and met his gaze. “I don’t think I’m safe here. Heck, I don’t think anyone is safe as long as I’m here.” She looked around at the customers standing near the rear of the tavern.
Men and women held their children close. A lady was crying softly, and the bartender had his cellphone pressed to his ear, calling 911.
“I need to leave,” Emily said. “Now.” She stepped back, out of his arms and chewed on her bottom lip. “But that’s my car. I don’t have a way home.”
“I can get you there,” Colin said. “But first tell me why your vehicle is parked inside the tavern.”
She laughed, the sound a bit on the hysterical side. “You think I put it there?” She snorted. “My bet is that one of the two SUVs that’ve been following me hit it, pushing it into the wall.”
“Why would someone do that?” Colin asked.
Emily threw up her hands. “The hell if I know. One minute I’m leaving my attorney’s office, the next minute, I’m being followed, almost trapped and chased by a couple of SUVs. You tell me what that’s all about. Hell if I know.” She looked around, her gaze going to the rear of the building. “All I know is that we should get out of here before they come back or the walls cave in.”
“We’ll go out the back door. But I’m sure the sheriff will want to question you about the people who did this to you.” He cupped her elbow and hustled her to the back exit and out into the night. The tavern patrons left the building and moved around to the front where they stood in a semi-circle around Emily’s mangled vehicle, talking in hushed voices and pointing at the damage to the SUV and the building.