by Cora Seton
His parents’ love for each other was equally clear. He remembered them holding hands. Kissing. Their faces brightening when they caught sight of each other—the same way their faces had brightened when they caught sight of him.
He’d learned early such happiness couldn’t last—
And that most families, while loving, weren’t anything like the one he’d known when he was young.
He’d been lucky to know such a life at all, he told himself. Lucky, too, with the home he’d found once his parents were gone. His adopted parents, Richard and Janet Drake, cared deeply for each other, and for him, even if they didn’t extend the kind of boisterous love that made you utterly certain of your place in the world.
Jack didn’t blame them for that. He’d watched other couples through the years and realized few of them possessed what his parents had. When he was younger, he’d told himself he’d hold out for it. Search the world for the woman who’d spark the kind of understanding, respect and mutual passion that could coalesce into a joyful commitment like his folks’.
Now that he was older, he realized it wasn’t likely he’d find such a woman—especially not now he was being forced into an arranged marriage.
Better to focus on his other goals. Clearing his name. Making sure he didn’t humiliate the good people who’d raised him. He’d already let Richard down in his choice of career. If he left the military a failure, it would render useless all the time and effort he and Janet had expended bringing him up.
He had to succeed at this one last mission. Had to trust he could be a good husband no matter what. He’d learned everything he could about Alice Reed—
Which had only made things worse. Alice was lovely and talented, and like Janet, ambitious. Jack knew what that meant. There was nothing wrong with talent and ambition, but you had to understand the trade-offs. Long hours at work meant fewer hours for the people who loved you. Janet’s career was crucial to the security of the United States. Richard was busy with his own career and didn’t mind Janet’s absences—he was hardly around himself.
Jack wanted something different. The kind of marriage his birth parents had. They’d worked the ranch together. Saw each other all the time. Spent long evenings on the back porch together. Walked through life side by side.
He wanted his wife’s face to light up like his mom’s had whenever his dad came into the room, and he couldn’t fool himself into believing a woman like Alice would ever light up like that for him.
It was time for him to grow up and face facts. Live in the present, rather than in some glorified past.
He’d been grateful he was the last of the men the General was sending to Two Willows, but now the day had come, he wondered if it would have been better to be the first. If he failed now, it would affect all the others. Brian was happily married to Cass, and Cass was already almost five months pregnant. Connor loved Sadie, and Hunter thought the sun rose and set over Jo. Now Logan was marrying Lena.
If Jack didn’t marry Alice, the whole house of cards would come tumbling down.
Marrying the Reed women was the mission. The prize for successful completion was part ownership in Two Willows. Jack didn’t think any of the other men had needed that extra inducement by the time they married their brides. All of them had truly been in love by then, by their own admission. Still, the Reed women loved their ranch. If Jack failed to marry Alice—
And the General stuck to his ultimatum—
None of them would have a home.
What would that do to his friends’ happy marriages?
He had to succeed—for everyone’s sake. It was as simple as that. It didn’t matter that Alice was so beautiful she could have her pick of men, or that she’d been recently hurt by a boyfriend who had dated her to get access to her ranch, or that she was ambitious enough to be going after a position as lead costume designer for a Hollywood movie—and therefore probably had little time or energy to create the kind of life he’d hoped for with a woman.
Jack was a realist, and he was willing to give up his childish ideas about marriage in order to clear his name, but one thing about Alice tripped him up and made him wonder if they could be compatible at all.
Alice thought she could see the future—and she’d convinced just about everyone around her to believe it, too.
Jack was a stickler for facts and truth. Could he marry a woman who lived a lie?
When his phone buzzed in his pocket, Jack grabbed it with relief, although he sighed when he saw the name on the screen. It was Richard Drake. The man who’d rescued him, raised him—and would be mighty pissed if he knew how badly Jack had messed things up.
Jack accepted the call, and Richard’s voice boomed in his ear. “What’s this about a trip to Montana? You’re not due for leave. And I can’t find any record of a Joint Special Task Force for Inter-Branch Communication Clarity, either. I smell a rat, Jack.”
Nothing got by him. Jack didn’t know why he’d even tried to pass this assignment off as something normal. “It’s an unusual situation.”
“How did you get involved?”
“How do you think? I was ordered here.” Jack wasn’t going to get into particulars. He hoped like hell Richard hadn’t been able to uncover the “task force’s” true purpose. “It’s not leave. The General has had some trouble at his ranch.” Maybe that would satisfy him.
“Two Willows. Read all about it. Looks like some bad characters have been trying to move into Chance Creek lately. Strange, though, the pattern of attacks on the ranch. They’re not very rational.”
“I don’t think we’re dealing with a rational enemy,” Jack said, falling easily into the kind of shop-talk in which he and Richard spent most of their time communicating.
Richard hadn’t been the first on the scene at the murder of Jack’s parents in New Mexico—he worked in Washington, DC, but was in town on an unrelated case at the time. He’d been invited by one of the local departments to come along because the murders had been so unusual, and he’d arrived at a moment when Jack’s life hung in the balance between helplessness and action. Richard had given him the tools he needed to survive, thrive and be a force for good. Without his influence, Jack wasn’t sure where he’d have ended up.
When Richard and Janet offered to adopt him, Jack had joined their family willingly. His new parents had loved him and done their best to raise him right, even if their careers often kept them on the run. It had taken years for Jack to put together what it was they actually did. Over time, he realized that the bland job titles they’d repeated so many times covered up their true positions. Richard worked for the FBI as an intelligence analyst. Janet, though a warm and loving mother at home, filled a far more shadowy position with the Bureau that kept her away sometimes for weeks. He respected them for what they gave to their country. Wished he measured up.
“You can save people with a mind like that,” Richard had told Jack early on. “You notice everything. Remember everything. That’s a gift.”
Jack had wanted to save people. He’d gratefully learned every lesson Richard had to share, and when his new father ran out of things to teach him, he’d joined the Army and the Special Forces, looking to take that purpose further. Richard would have preferred for Jack to follow in his own footsteps—or Janet’s—and reminded him of that often. Janet, when she was around to hear the conversations, told Richard to let Jack have his own way. “We don’t choose our passions, or our abilities, Richard,” she’d say.
Somehow that made Jack feel worse.
Now the Army was kicking him out. What would his parents think of that?
“I think you’re right,” Richard said. “Whoever is behind all this isn’t rational. There’s something more going on here.”
“Desperation,” Jack said. He’d sensed it for months as the attacks on Two Willows escalated. “They’re not getting more organized; they’re getting more desperate.” He wasn’t surprised Richard knew all about Two Willows and the trouble there. As soon as Jack got
reassigned to the General’s command, his pop would have looked into every aspect of the man. Richard dealt in information, and he was constantly collecting facts.
“A desperate man is a dangerous man,” Richard said. “But I didn’t think generals got to send men on personal missions.”
“I don’t think anyone other than Reed would get away with it.” Jack had no idea how the General was managing it. Didn’t want to think about it too much, either. All he wanted was an honorable way out. A chance to start over. A chance to go back to his roots. Richard wouldn’t think much of his desire to start ranching, but ranching was all Jack could think about these days.
“Are you in trouble?”
Richard’s question knocked the wind out of Jack’s sails, although it shouldn’t have, since this was his pop to a T. He put clues together until he had a picture he could understand.
“I can’t talk about it.” Jack prayed that would put an end to this line of questioning. Knew it wouldn’t, though.
“Jack, if there’s something I can do—”
“It’s just an assignment. I’ve got it under control.” A lie. A desperate lie, even. Jack glanced at Alice’s photograph. Was she mocking him? She looked like she was mocking him. Maybe he’d studied the ranch and its surroundings, the men who’d attacked it and the men the General had sent to defend his daughters. Maybe he’d done every bit of research and reconnaissance he could.
That didn’t mean he could win the enigmatic woman staring back at him.
Did she know he was coming for her?
Probably. After watching the General send men home to marry her sisters, she’d know what to expect.
Jack had no doubt she was smart. She’d fooled everyone into believing she could see the future, after all. He’d bet his life Alice’s premonitions were based on the same kind of fact-finding, minutiae-noting, pattern-matching brain he had. He was looking forward to comparing notes.
“Jack—”
“Gotta go.” Jack hung up. What else could he do? If he didn’t manage to marry Alice—and solve the mystery of who was coming after Two Willows once and for all—he’d let down the Army, the General, himself—and his family.
He couldn’t do that.
Which meant he needed to get on that plane. Now.
Shoving his phone in his pocket, he walked the perimeter of the room, closing the blinds, running his eye once more over the charts and maps—and photographs—that lined the walls. This was goodbye to USSOCOM, to his career as he’d known it—to his past.
He stopped in front of Alice’s photograph one last time. “Hello, baby girl. I’m coming to see you today.”
She didn’t answer, and Jack felt foolish. He marched toward the door and flipped off the lights but hesitated, his hand on the doorknob. He didn’t want to leave Alice’s photograph behind. One way or another, she was his future.
He was going to keep an eye on her.
He turned again, crossed the room and grabbed the framed picture. As he shut the office door behind him, a man flagged him down. “Sanders? Hold up a minute.”
There was a tightness in his voice. A pen tucked behind his ear. A phone in one hand, a folder in the other. Jack would bet he’d been carrying that folder when he answered the call that had put him in such a panic.
Bad news. Jack could read it in his eyes. Bad news that concerned someone the man counted on.
“What happened to the General?” Jack snapped.
“How did you know—?” The man shook his head. “It was a missile. It hit the compound. The General’s alive,” he said to forestall Jack’s question. “But he’s hurt. He’s been transported to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center with the rest of the injured. He’s heading into surgery.”
“I’m on my way to the airport—to Chance Creek.”
“Understood. We’ll keep relaying you information as soon as we get it.”
“How much danger is he in?” Jack couldn’t believe it. The General taken down by a missile strike? He understood the corporal’s shakiness. The General was the sun around which they all orbited. They depended on him to remain fixed in the firmament.
“Unknown, sir.”
Jack’s stomach sank. How would he face the General’s daughters with this news?
“How did it happen?”
Alice Reed stood in the freezing darkness knee-deep in the snow, shining a flashlight on the water streaming from one of the spigots outside the old farmhouse she and her sisters had lived in all their lives. Two Willows was over a hundred years old, and so was the house, which meant sometimes emergencies like this one happened. Still, she had no idea what would make a spigot break at four in the morning.
“I don’t know,” Connor O’Riley said. Connor was married to her sister, Sadie, but apparently Sadie had slept through the excitement. He bent down nearby to get a better look, gently pushing his dog, Max, out of the way. “It must have just broken. We need to get the water turned off.”
“Shouldn’t it already have been shut off for the winter?” Alice asked. Usually Cass was the one who took care of things like that. She couldn’t imagine her careful sister wouldn’t have shut it down at the end of fall, but then things had been pretty unsettled around Two Willows for months. Maybe she’d simply forgotten.
“Is there a shut-off in the basement?” Logan Hughes asked. He was marrying Lena today. Alice could understand the worry in his voice.
“I think so.”
“I’ll go find it.” He hurried around the corner toward the back door. Alice had woken to hear him and Connor talking in low tones in the hall a few minutes ago and had followed them outside to see what was the matter.
“Sounded like an explosion when it happened,” Connor told her, keeping the dog back from the gushing water.
“I’ve never heard of something like this.”
“Pipes freeze now and then.”
“But taps don’t just fall off. Besides, if the water was frozen, it wouldn’t gush out like this.” Alice hugged her arms to her chest. It was one of the coldest nights they’d had this year. “I hope we can get a plumber out.”
“We’ll call first thing in the morning. I’m sure we’ll get it fixed.”
Alice wasn’t as confident. A few months back, when Cass had been renovating the first-floor bathroom, she’d complained about how Walter Eddings, their usual plumber, was booked for weeks, and had ended up doing the work herself. Alice could only hope things had slowed down for the man since then. She didn’t think Cass could replace a spigot—not while preparing for Lena’s wedding.
“The water’s stopping.” Connor pointed as the gush turned into a trickle and died away. “Good ol’ Logan.”
Logan reappeared a few moments later. “I got the water shut off, but the valve’s leaking inside. We’d better get a plumber out as soon as we can. I’m afraid it’s going to get worse.”
“Today of all days for this to happen,” Alice said. “The house will be full of guests later.”
Connor patted her arm. “Leave it to me. You make sure Lena’s ready for her wedding. I’ll keep an eye on the leak until the plumber comes—and an eye on Logan here. Make sure he doesn’t get cold feet.”
“My feet are freezing already.” Logan indicated their snowy surroundings with a sweep of his hands. “But I fully intend to marry Lena today. No worries there. Go get some sleep now,” he said to Alice.
“I’ll try.” Alice wasn’t at all sure she’d be able to go back to sleep, though. The sense of dread that had plagued her for weeks was even stronger this morning. Something bad was going to happen. She just hoped they made it through the wedding before it did.
She’d always gotten flashes and hunches about the future. Unfortunately, her visions were rarely clear. This was one of the murky ones. Just a feeling, nothing concrete.
“Any news from the General?” Logan asked as they headed toward the house.
“No.” None of them had heard from him since he’d gone abroad a few weeks a
go. The General had traveled all over the world during his career, and she’d never worried about him like this before. Years ago, when he’d entered the service, her mother had made a kind of deal with the land. She’d never set foot off Two Willows while he was gone, and the General would come home unharmed.
When she’d died, Alice and her sisters had worked together to honor their mother’s superstition. They made it a practice to check in with one another when they left the ranch, always making sure one of them stayed put.
Until Alice had ruined everything. A few weeks ago, she’d assumed Jo was still in the barn and hadn’t checked before she’d gone to run some errands. Only when she met up with all her sisters in town—including Jo—did she realize her mistake.
They’d rushed home, but it was too late. The damage was done—
Except they didn’t know what that damage was yet. They’d gotten no word from the General himself, and the Army refused to tell them where he’d gone.
“Go to bed, lass,” Connor said softly when they reached the back door, his Irish accent rising to the fore in the way it did every now and then. “Everything is going to be okay.”
“I hope so,” she said as they made their way inside, Max trotting obediently after Connor, but she didn’t believe it for a minute, and although she did go right back to bed, she didn’t fall asleep again.
Several hours later, she was sitting in her favorite spot in the kitchen on top of the refrigerator, eating a slice of toast and petting her white cat, Tabitha, when someone knocked on the back door.
“Who could that be at this hour?” Cass asked. She was frying bacon, her hair tucked into a messy bun at the back of her head, an apron tied over her jeans and thick sweater.
“The plumber, I hope.” Connor sprang up from his breakfast to answer it. He wore jeans, too, with a red plaid flannel shirt over the top of a gray long-sleeve T-shirt. Alice had noticed that the men had adopted a kind of uniform even though they were far from the military bases where they usually served. In the warmer weather it had been jeans and plain color T-shirts. Now they added flannel shirts. In their work boots and thick outer gear, they were hard to tell apart from behind when they were outside.