by B. J Daniels
Love had saved them. As corny as it sounded, Kate knew that the love she and Cyrus shared that moment in the old hospital nursery had saved their lives.
She’d seen the change in Audie Dennison. He’d come there to kill them. He’d killed before. She didn’t doubt that he would have done anything to spare his sister. But Marie was dead and while Audie had nothing to lose, he couldn’t bring himself to kill again. Not two people who anyone could see adored each other.
McCall had arrived moments after the sound of the gunshot died away. She’d come barreling in, weapon drawn, fear that she’d arrived too late in her eyes. Maybe blood was thicker than water, because Kate could see that McCall had true affection for her cousin. It would be nice for McCall to have family again. And Cyrus, too.
She knew how relieved he was to find out that his grandmother had had nothing to do with switching Virginia’s baby with Marie’s. Kate thought maybe Virginia and Pepper’s relationship might have a chance to heal and that McCall’s Christmas wedding could bring the entire Winchester family back together.
Cyrus was still concerned that his grandmother was up to something and anxious about the wedding. He didn’t want anything to go wrong for McCall and Luke. Only time would tell, but Kate, always the optimist, thought this could be the most perfect Christmas ever for all of them.
She was looking forward to the Christmas wedding, which was now only two weeks away.
Whitehorse had been shocked when the news had come out that Joanna McCormick had been arrested for the murder of Roberta Warren. McCall had found proof, not only in Roberta’s real confession, but also in phone records, bank accounts and DNA from the scene at Roberta’s house.
Faced with all the evidence, Joanna McCormick had confessed it all. She was the one who had paid Roberta ten thousand dollars to switch the babies. Joanna would have done anything to keep her son from Virginia Winchester—including letting him believe his infant son had died.
What Joanna didn’t know was that Roberta used blackmail and five thousand dollars to try to coerce Katherine into making the switch.
Joanna had hired Audie to do more than shoe some of her horses. She’d paid him to try to scare off Kate, and when he’d balked, she’d taken the job into her own hands. She’d been the one to cut the cable and put the doll in the nursery. She’d had a key to the old library back when her husband, Hunt, had been on the library board.
After the shock and horror of what had happened, Kate had been filled with a deep sadness, but Cyrus had been there for her. It turned out that Roberta Warren wasn’t the only one to leave a detailed true confession of her part in all this. Audie Dennison had left one as well at his house.
That confession had given Kate the greatest peace of mind. He’d told her where he’d buried her mother. She’d been able to have her mother’s remains buried properly next to her aunt’s at the local cemetery.
The sisters were now buried side by side, with matching headstones and inscriptions with their real names and the dates they had died. Earlier Kate had gone by the cemetery to put Christmas wreaths on her aunt’s and mother’s graves. It seemed fitting that they were together again.
“I know the tree is a little flat on that one side, but I thought we could put it against the wall,” Cyrus said now, looking worried that she didn’t like it.
She smiled, still taken aback sometimes at how lucky she’d been to have him come into her life. She liked to think her aunt and mother had had something to do with that.
“I love the tree,” Kate said as she stepped toward him. “And look what I have.” She held mistletoe over their heads and saw his dark eyes shimmer with love. His kiss made her toes curl and her heart pound.
But it was nothing like his proposal that night under their first Christmas tree. An odd thing happened when she said yes. She thought she heard the sound of tiny tinkling sleigh bells and glanced toward the glassed-in case where her mother’s and her aunt’s bracelets now rested side by side.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6916-7
BOOTS AND BULLETS
Copyright © 2010 by Barbara Heinlein
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†Whitehorse, Montana
*Whitehorse, Montana: The Corbetts
**Whitehorse, Montana: Winchester Ranch
††Whitehorse, Montana: Winchester Ranch Reloaded
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue