by B. J Daniels
Harry Lester had made it as far as the car. He was trying to get in as if he thought he could still get away. LeRoy went down, grabbing his leg. Any minute that FBI agent would be firing on him.
Gun turned to find Molly standing behind him. Hadn’t she heard him tell her to get to the car? “I told you to—” The rest of the words died on his lips as he saw the gun in her hand.
“FBI,” she said.
He stared at her, so stunned that she easily took his weapon from him. He’d told himself that she was too good to be true, but he’d hoped that maybe his luck had changed.
“Apparently my stepfather was right,” he said as he met her green-eyed gaze.
“You have the right to remain silent,” Molly said over the roar of the VW as it came to a dust-boiling stop just yards from them, and Kitzie stumbled out, weapon in hand. “Molly Griffin?” She swore under her breath before she collapsed.
* * *
AINSLEY TRIED NOT to look at the cigarette burn on her wrist. Jason was right. The scar would always remind her of him—and Sawyer.
“Did you hear about the bust?” Kat asked excitedly as she joined her sister on the couch at the main house on the ranch. Ainsley knew she was trying to keep her mind off what had happened to her.
“Spotlight Images, Inc. Isn’t that the company you were working for? They were jewel thieves. The FBI busted them and the leader—” Kat took a breath “—had a tattoo of a pendulum on his ass.” Kat seemed to be waiting for Ainsley to react. “The Prophecy? Is any of this ringing any bells?”
“I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Kat stared at her in disbelief. “No one’s told you that Sarah has a tattoo of a pendulum on her backside? I know you’ve heard about The Prophecy.”
“Dad told me that some of the members tried to frame her, but that she wasn’t involved.”
Her sister rolled her eyes. “And you believe that?”
Ainsley didn’t know what to believe. Her own ordeal had left her shaken. She had to admit, she wasn’t that concerned about some anarchist group from the 1970s.
“Max and I have been digging into Sarah’s past for months,” Kat said excitedly. “We even talked to two of the men in prison, Mason Green and Wallace McGill. You should have seen their faces when I walked in. I look enough like Mother—Sarah—” she corrected herself “—that their eyes about popped out of their heads. They confirmed what we suspected. The Prophecy has something big planned, and it’s connected to Dad. That’s why there is going to be so much security election night. We think that’s when they will make their move.”
Ainsley chose her words carefully. “If any of this is true, why hasn’t Mother been arrested?” Ainsley asked. She saw her sister’s expression and didn’t wait for an answer. “Because you can’t prove any of it.”
“The members of The Prophecy covered for her. If I told you everything we’ve found out about Sarah—”
Ainsley raised a hand to stop her. “Kat, this obsession with Mother’s past has to stop.”
“She was the leader of The Prophecy and probably still is. I saw a photo of her and the men. One of them was apparently her lover. They were responsible for killing two people in a bombing right before Sarah headed for Montana and married our father. She used to go by the name Red.”
Ainsley got to her feet. She couldn’t bear to hear any more of this. “Kat, I was just abducted by a man who was obsessed with me after one chance meeting. He followed me for months. He...” Tears burned her eyes. “You have to stop this. If there was any proof, Mother would be behind bars. By the way, where is she?”
“Off to some fund-raiser in town for Dad’s campaign. She wanted me to go. I suppose she didn’t ask you in your condition. But Harper and Cassidy were both going to be there.” Kat shook her head. “It’s all going to come out, and when it does, I worry what it will do to Dad. Max will break the whole story and has promised to do his best to protect all of us.”
She’d been through enough lately that she didn’t want to even contemplate her mother being a terrorist.
“Max has bought a half dozen weeklies, including the local one,” Kat said, sounding full of pride. Her happiness bubbled over, and Ainsley found herself wanting to hug her sister. “I’m going to be his head photographer.”
This Kat was...beautiful, full of hope, not obsessing over some conspiracy theories. She stepped to her and hugged her tightly.
“What was that about?” Kat asked in surprise.
“I just felt like hugging you. I’m happy for you and Max. He’s good for you.”
* * *
SARAH KNEW SHE should be concentrating on the charity event as she drove toward town. But she was too livid as she made the call. She didn’t give her former coconspirator a chance to say more than hello before she launched in. “You called Joe!”
“Sarah?” Martin asked tentatively.
She had been trying to reach Martin since her talk with Doc. But he’d been avoiding her, letting his phone go straight to voice mail every time she called.
“I talked to Doc,” she said as she drove.
He let out a curse. “I told you all hell would break loose if you did this. But I didn’t call Joe. I haven’t said a word to him or to anyone else. Do you think I’m crazy? So if he found out—”
She let out a curse under her breath. “He’s got our houses bugged.”
Silence on the other end of the line.
“Get out of the house,” she said. Her mind was racing. When would a bug have been planted? She thought of all Dr. Venable’s visits. Of course it had to have been him following Joe’s orders.
“Just a minute.” On the other end of the line, she heard the sound of footfalls, a door opening and closing. “I’m in the stairwell at my office building.” She could hear the echo. “Sarah, what have you done?”
“That’s basically what Doc said to me. He told me that I’ll be getting my memory back. Soon. He and Joe are convinced that I’ll become Red again, that I’ll be that young girl I was in college who believed I could change the world by any means.”
“What if they’re right, Sarah?”
It had been something that had kept her up at night. “I don’t believe it. Buck and my children changed me. That’s why you have to help me bring down The Prophecy.”
“I told you, I don’t know anything about what Joe has planned. Did you really think he would share that with me?” He sighed heavily. “I’ve been thinking... I can hold up the money. Joe will know right away. I’ll make myself scarce, so he can’t find me until after the election.”
“Thank you.” It wasn’t a lot, but it was something. If she could just loosen one wheel in Joe’s runaway train before the election... “What changed your mind?”
“The FBI arrested some jewel thieves trying to fence stolen property. The men were part of a video production company shooting commercials in Montana called Spotlight Images, Inc. I think it might be the one that has been supporting The Prophecy.”
“That’s the company my daughter Ainsley was working for,” Sarah said, trying to still her racing heart. “They were jewel thieves. I saw it on the news this morning.”
“The owner, a man named Devon Gunderson, had a tattoo on his butt cheek.”
“A pendulum,” she said, thinking of her own tattoo, another surprise to her when she’d been told of its existence after her return almost two years ago. “Was there any other connection to Joe?”
“Not that I know of, possibly someone Joe recruited...”
“Wait, wasn’t there a Gunderson we knew at college?”
“You’re thinking it might have been a relative?” Martin asked.
Sarah wondered how far Joe’s tentacles reached across the country. The only way to stop this was to cut off the head—her
former lover Joe.
“Because of that bust up there in Montana, Joe needs my money even more than he did before,” Martin was saying. “If you’re right and Joe’s been listening to all our conversations...”
“He’ll know I’m the one who asked you to get involved. I’m sorry, Martin. But with the election so close and another member of The Prophecy arrested, they will be tracking where the money from the video production company was going. Joe’s house of cards will come tumbling down.”
“Not before election night,” Martin said, bringing her back to earth. “From every indication, he has something big planned.”
“How am I going to stop him?” She held the phone so tight her fingers ached. Maybe delaying funding wouldn’t have any effect at all. It might get Martin killed instead. It might get them both killed or put another of her daughters in danger. Was she kidding herself that anything could be done?
“I doubt he can be stopped. He’s a fanatic. Given the current climate in this country...”
“Martin, Joe isn’t trying to change the world. We really did want to make this a better world. But Joe, he’s just playing God because this is about him and his need to be somebody. What?” she asked when he let out a bitter chuckle.
“Just that you don’t know how close you just came to the truth. He’s not exactly playing God himself, but Joe is definitely on that team.”
“What?”
Martin sighed. “When we almost lost our kids last summer? I was leaving the hospital in Houston when I saw this priest—”
“Are you telling me Joe is a Catholic priest?”
“Who knows if it was real or not, but he was dressed like one. He called himself Father John David Williams.”
“What was he doing at the hospital?”
“What do you think?” Martin said with a groan. “I talked him out of killing Jack and Cassidy. But he said if they ever remembered what they’d uncovered about The Prophecy and their...parents—”
Sarah felt sick. “That’s why he has to be stopped. He would kill us and our families without batting an eye. You don’t believe that it is for some great change for our country, do you?”
“No,” he said after a minute. “Not anymore.”
“Father John David Williams,” she repeated. “If he really is a priest, he shouldn’t be that hard to find.”
“Which is why I’m sure he was only in disguise to get into the hospital that day.”
“Martin, if you know anything else that will help me...”
“Help you get yourself and your family killed? No.”
“Don’t forget, your son and my daughter are in love and planning to get married. Whatever Joe has planned, I think you’re right, and it will happen election night. Jack and Cassidy will be there.”
“I’m so sorry I ever got involved.”
“There is no changing the past,” Sarah said, having that same regret.
“I’ll make sure none of my money gets to Joe,” he said. “But it means that I’ll have to get out of the country. I won’t be able to come back.”
“Unless I can stop Joe. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you see Jack again and our future grandchildren.”
“You just take care of yourself. Whatever happens to me... Good luck, Sarah. You’re going to need it.”
She thought of Dr. Venable and wondered why he hadn’t contacted her again. He’d said she would be seeing him soon. But how could he when since Buck had become the Republican candidate, the ranch had been crawling with Secret Service. Two of them were following her right now.
Doc had to find a way. “Once I get my memory back—”
“You could be more dangerous than Joe.”
* * *
KITZIE HURT ALL over, but her physical ailments were nothing compared to her anger. “Molly Griffin? Our boss sent her undercover without telling us? I told you he didn’t trust me to make this happen.”
Her FBI partner, Pete, shook his head from the chair beside her hospital bed. “A lot more people could have been hurt or killed if she hadn’t been there. She certainly took Gunderson down without a fight. Did you see the look on his face? She could have shot him, and I don’t think he would have been as surprised.”
“I find no humor in any of this. We could have handled that takedown. We had it under control.”
Pete lifted a brow but was wise enough not to say anything more about Molly. She and Molly had been adversaries since their early FBI training. “Did you hear about Sawyer?”
She groaned as she remembered the part she’d played. “Is Ainsley all right?”
“He saved her from her crazed stalker.”
Of course he had. She felt a huge sense of relief. If the stalker had killed Ainsley... She didn’t even want to think about that. If she hadn’t sandbagged Sawyer, then he would have been with Ainsley. Instead...she closed her eyes, groaning with a new pain. He was going to kill her for what she did, and she wouldn’t blame him.
“What did you do?” Pete asked with a sigh.
“They are all wrong for each other.”
“Kitzie.”
“So she’s all right?”
“Sawyer got there in time,” Pete said.
“Doesn’t he always,” she said under her breath. “What about Murph? Did they catch her?”
“Got her before she could get on a plane. Recovered the stolen goods, arrested the jewel thieves and Harry Lester Brown.” Pete sounded way too chipper, all things considered. “You sure you’re all right?”
She nodded, feeling close to tears. She’d lost the man she loved, and now she’d have to share credit on this bust with Molly Griffin. Not to mention living with the guilt of what she’d done to Ainsley—and having to face Sawyer.
“Have you seen Sawyer?” she asked.
“He’s in the hospital in Livingston. He reinjured his leg.”
* * *
SARAH COULDN’T BELIEVE it as she stared at the Road Closed sign ahead. She was already running late for the charity event. Just as she was leaving the house, the phone had rung. She’d rushed back inside to answer it, thinking it might be something about the benefit. Or Dr. Venable. She couldn’t understand why she hadn’t heard from him by now.
But when she’d answered, there hadn’t been anyone on the other end of the line. At least no one who said anything. She’d repeated “Hello?” several more times, a strange eerie feeling coming over her before she’d hung up.
She told herself it wasn’t Joe calling. If it had been, he would have said something. Otherwise, what was the point? Just to scare her? Just to put her on edge?
Her conversation with Martin at least had gone well. Now, as she backed up, she motioned to the Secret Service men to do the same. They had wanted to drive her, but she’d put her foot down. It was bad enough having them shadowing her all the time.
She knew she would have to take a longer route into Big Timber. She questioned whether she should even go to the benefit. Superstition aside, the way this morning was going, she’d been hesitant to leave the house again.
It was crazy thinking. She had to go. They were expecting her, and, knowing Jerrod, there would be media there. She practiced her smile. It came out a grimace that made her laugh. This was her future if she wanted to be at Buck’s side. Benefits, fund-raisers, hosting dinners with dignitaries from around the world, every kind of charitable work imaginable. Some days, it seemed too much to bear. But she loved Buck, and she would do whatever it took to make him happy.
Being on the campaign trail had forced her into the role. She could do this. She would do this, even if it killed her.
But as she looked in her rearview mirror, she told herself she would do it without the two government goons following her. She knew these roads. At least that part of her memory was jus
t fine. There was no way she couldn’t lose these guys, she told herself.
That thought picked up her mood as she tromped down on the gas, dust boiling up in a dark cloud behind her.
Once she reached the armory where the benefit was being held, she was forced to park in the far back. She’d lost the men following her, but she knew once they found their way to town, they’d show up. They’d tell Buck and he wouldn’t be happy, but too bad. She’d enjoyed herself. In fact, she felt like her old self again.
She’d just gotten out of her car when she saw the hunched-over old man.
He wore a large slouch hat and overalls. He appeared to be struggling with a box full of something...dolls, she realized as one of them fell out.
“Excuse me,” he called to her in a crackly voice. “I’m sorry, but could you help me for a moment?”
As late as she was, she had no choice. He had stopped next to an old blue van and now leaned against it as if the effort of carrying the box was too much for him.
“Here, let me get that,” she said as she rushed to him and reached for the box, but he pulled it away.
“If you could just get the one I dropped,” he said without looking up at her. He sounded winded, but she did as he asked, bending to retrieve the doll from the dirt.
The blow took her completely off guard as the box connected with her back. She sprawled into the dirt, the doll’s arm clutched in her fist. Stunned and confused, at first she’d thought the man had lost his balance and accidentally hit her.
That was until she heard him say in his normal voice, “It’s been a long time, Sarah.”
Joe Landon. Because of that, she wasn’t even that surprised to feel the knife at her throat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“I’M SORRY I got you into so much trouble,” Sheriff Curry said as he pulled up a chair next to Sawyer’s bed. “I heard you were suspended.”