by B. J Daniels
Flint said nothing. He thought of a jury hearing this and wondered if the farmer would spend any time in prison if this ever went to trial.
Anvil looked up, tears in his eyes. “I think I’d better have a lawyer now.”
“Okay, Anvil,” Flint said, giving it one last attempt. “But I can tell you right now that a jury will go easier on you if you tell us where we can find Jenna’s body.”
The farmer closed his eyes. “I’ll speak with that lawyer now.”
* * *
“I CAN’T KEEP lying to my brother,” Lillie said as she and Trask walked through the trees away from the cabin, looking for wood for the stove.
“Flint?” he asked as he stopped to pick up a short dead branch.
Lillie shook her head. “Darby.” She turned so she was looking directly at him. “He saw my truck and asked about it.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I let him think I hit a deer, but he’s no fool. He knew I was lying.”
“So tell him,” Trask said, meeting her gaze.
She shook her head. “He might go to Flint. Or insist I do.”
He smiled. “It’s just a matter of time before Flint finds out I’m back anyway.”
“I think we should run away together. I have some money—”
He stopped to grab her arm and spin her around to face him. “Not happening, you hear me?”
“You being back, me asking a lot of questions, I feel like we’re too close to Gordon’s killer. What if...” Tears filled her eyes. “I want to run away with you.”
Trask slowly shook his head. “We’re not going anywhere. I once asked you to leave behind everything you loved. That was wrong and thank God I didn’t make you go with me. But that’s never happening again. You’ve made a life here you love. I can’t take you from it.”
“They know we’re looking for Gordon’s killer and getting close. That man with the gun last night—”
“I saw his face right before you came careening through the front gate.”
She felt a shudder. “Did he see you?”
“No, I don’t think so, but I recognized him. Lillie, it was Johnny. Johnny Burrows.”
She stared at him in shock. “Why would Johnny break into an office he has a key for?”
“Good question. I intend to ask him when I see him again.”
“It makes no sense,” Lillie said.
“It does if he wants his partners to think I broke into the office.”
She couldn’t believe this. “Not if he’s your friend.”
“I told you, my friend is in some kind of trouble.”
“Something that has to do with Gordon’s murder?”
Trask looked away. “I hope not, but my instincts tell me otherwise. I found some files in one of the locked metal cabinets. I’m not sure what or if they have anything to do with all of this.”
She felt a chill crawl up her spine. For a while in his arms, she’d felt safe. They’d felt safe. But there was still a murderer out there and a murder charge hanging over Trask’s head. Unless they left. Or stayed and proved who really killed Gordon...
“Each folder had a construction project that Gordon had proposed. Each one had apparently been approved by the bank.”
“But the projects never happened because Gordon died.”
“What’s interesting is that these projects weren’t through the construction company, but Gordon only,” Trask said. “It looks like Gordon was planning on striking out on his own.”
“Gordon was threatening to leave the company, which would have bankrupted it.”
“Where did you hear that?”
She looked away. “Junior Wainwright mentioned it last night.”
“On your...date. That must have been an interesting date if that was the topic of conversation.”
She didn’t take the bait, determined not to change the subject. “I doubt either Skip Fairchild or J.T. Burrows would have been happy about that. Add to that the fact that Fairchild was sleeping with Gordon’s wife... Where are the file folders?”
“Hidden in my truck. I can show them to you when we leave.” But he was studying her as if he had a lot more questions about her...date.
“You think Johnny was looking for the file folders?” she asked.
Trask shrugged as if it was another question he planned to ask when he saw Johnny. “If he’d learned about them, he might have been there to destroy them.
“We have enough wood,” he said as he balanced his load of limbs. “We should head back.”
* * *
TRASK COULDN’T TAKE his eyes off Lillie as they walked back toward the cabin. He felt more complete than he had in nine years. That she’d even suggested they run away had him worried, though. She was still scared and rightly so.
Gordon’s killer was still out there.
Between the two of them, they’d stirred things up. If the killer was still in town, he would have heard.
Trask had to keep her safe. That meant finishing what he’d come home to do alone. She’d saved him last night. But he couldn’t have her involved anymore.
Junior Wainwright. He tried not to think about her date with the man the night before. Whatever had happened, she’d come to him today, he told himself. Still, the old Trask wanted to pop Junior in the nose. Old habits died hard.
The sun had set. Soon Lillie would have to go back down the mountain, back to the Stagecoach Saloon, back to work with her twin brother. He hated that he’d put her in a position where she’d had to lie to Darby.
He moved across the rugged terrain as if he’d never left. He’d grown up camping in those mountains. He knew them like the back of his hand. What he hadn’t expected was how much he’d missed them.
Next to him, Lillie was watching a hawk fly high above the cabin in the distance. He glanced from her to the hawk and froze.
“Wait.” Trask stopped to listen. He’d heard a vehicle engine when they were looking for wood but had thought it had been on the road below the mountain, since he hadn’t heard it since.
Now he heard nothing but the breeze in the pine boughs and the soft sigh it emitted. But there was something... He’d barely gotten the thought out when he heard the sound of glass breaking.
“Stay here!” he ordered Lillie. Dropping his load of wood, he ran toward the cabin through the pines when he heard more glass breaking. He’d gotten within fifty yards when the inside of the small old cabin exploded with flames, driving him back.
Someone had thrown Molotov cocktails into the windows. He stared at the cabin, completely in flames. No vandals would have climbed all the way up this mountainside to destroy an old cabin.
No, someone had thought he’d be inside. Inside with Lillie, since her pickup was parked down the mountain next to his.
Shock and fear rattled through him. If he hadn’t decided to get wood for the stove when he had... His heart in his throat, he turned at the sound of footfalls behind him. Lillie had dropped her wood. She stepped into his arms and he held her tight. What if she had stayed inside the cabin while he’d gone for wood?
“What happened?” she cried.
“Stay here.” Grabbing up a large chunk of wood, he took off around the cabin, hoping to catch the arsonist.
But when he reached the other side, all he could make out was a dark figure disappearing into the pines far below the cabin site. The growl of a four-wheeler engine echoed through the pines as it sped away.
“You need to go,” Trask said when he joined her again. The cabin was still ablaze, the old dried logs burning like kindling. “Someone is going to spot the fire and report it. Neither of us can be here when that happens.” Mostly, he wanted her far away from him because being with him was now too dangerous. This changed everything.
THE LAST PERSON Maggie expected to see after last night was Flint. He pushed open the door looking sheepish. He still wore his uniform, but he was holding a bouquet of flowers.
She tried not to be touched by the gesture, but she couldn’t help herself. It had been a very long time since any man had brought her flowers.
“I’d hoped to catch you before you left,” he said, closing the door behind him.
“Well, you did.” She smiled and heard it in her voice. Seeing him warmed her clear to her toes. She would love to have been coy, but her feelings for him were so transparent, even Flint, who often seemed confused about women’s feelings, knew how she felt.
“These are for you,” he said.
She took the flowers he offered and stuck her nose into one tiny white rose, breathing in its scent. “They’re beautiful. If this is about last night—”
“No, it’s about us,” he said.
She could see that this wasn’t easy for him. “Us?”
“I like being with you. I want to keep seeing you.”
She waited for a but. When one didn’t come, she said, “I feel the same way.”
“Good.” He burst into a smile. “I have a past, but it’s just that, past. I haven’t been interested in anyone in a really long time. I find myself smiling just thinking about seeing you.”
Her heart did a couple of cartwheels in her chest. Her throat closed with emotion. She couldn’t have spoken even if she tried. She stepped to him, kissing him lightly on the lips.
He pulled her to him and deepened the kiss. Her knees went weak. She leaned into him, telling herself that Celeste wasn’t finished with him, but maybe, just maybe, Flint was finished with her.
“Tonight,” Flint said when he drew back to look into her face. “Tonight, dinner at my house? No interruptions. What do you say?”
She smiled and nodded. “Sounds wonderful.”
* * *
DARBY LOOKED UP as Lillie rushed into work half an hour late.
“Sorry I’m late. Had to run an errand,” she said as she joined him in the kitchen. When she’d returned, she’d gone straight upstairs, showered and changed, not taking the time to wash her long hair.
“Yeah, you said that earlier.” He nodded, studying her. “Your cheeks are flushed. You’re never late for work. And I know how you feel about your pickup. You’d never crash into anything without being brokenhearted about it and you smell like a campfire. Sis, I know something is going on. This have anything to do with Junior Wainwright?”
“No. Why would you ask that?”
“He’s called, though, right?”
He had called three times and left messages about what a nice time he’d had and how he wouldn’t mind doing it again. She had turned off her phone earlier when she went to meet Trask and left it and the cell phone he’d given her in her purse locked in the truck. Otherwise, it would be ashes right now.
“He called,” she said as she pulled on one of the aprons and began to help with getting their daily special started. Tonight it was Billie Dee’s Texas chili. At least Lillie could chop some of the vegetables for it. Anything to keep busy.
Darby watched her for a moment. “You know you can tell me anything.”
She and Darby had always been close. Maybe it was the twin thing. Or maybe they just connected, unlike with their other siblings.
“I know,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. This was killing her.
Darby shook his head, clearly seeing that she was keeping something from him. “I just don’t want to see you get your heart broken again.” In other words, I don’t want you getting involved with another man like Trask.
She didn’t say anything, pretending that chopping the onions and peppers for the chili required all of her attention.
“Billie Dee can do that.”
“I don’t mind helping,” she said without looking at her brother.
“You’re worrying me,” he said and went out to the bar. The regulars should be showing up any moment.
Lillie looked at the clock on the wall. She and Trask had parted company so quickly, she had no idea where he’d gone. As she’d driven away, she’d gotten the feeling that Trask had known who’d firebombed the cabin. Would he go looking for them? What if whoever had burned the cabin had seen the two of them leave and destroyed the structure knowing Trask would come looking for them? He could be walking into a trap.
“Lillie?”
She looked up, startled at the sound of Flint’s voice, and almost cut herself with the knife.
“Sorry,” he said quickly. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you being so...domestic. Or so lost in your thoughts. Dark thoughts, from the scowl on your face.”
Fortunately, Billie Dee came in then with her usual good cheer and took over the chili and the conversation.
Lillie went out in the front with Flint, surprised to find Hawk and Cyrus sitting at the bar talking to Darby. “What’s going on?” she asked, hating the tremor in her voice. All she could think was that Trask was about to be arrested, so Flint had called the rest of her family sans Ely to meet at the bar to console her.
“Can’t we just stop by for one of your café’s famous burgers?” Hawk asked, eyeing her.
“I’ve been craving one for days,” Cyrus said. “Can we get Billie Dee to fry us up some?”
“I’m sure she’d be happy to once she gets her chili on,” Darby said. “Have a beer while you wait.”
Her brothers all siddled up to the bar and Darby served them while Lillie tried to get her pulse rate to drop back to normal.
If Flint was about to arrest Trask, he wouldn’t have time for a burger and he sure wouldn’t be having a beer.
“Day off?” she asked. He always looked like a sheriff, even in a plain shirt and jeans. His uniform wasn’t much different—just a uniform shirt, jeans and boots. He always wore his side arm because he was the sheriff 24/7.
“Supposed to be,” her brother said.
Darby slid a diet cola in front of her with lots of ice. “Relax,” he whispered before turning back to the others to ask Hawk and Cyrus about the new bull, how the fencing was going and did they get as much rain down at the ranch as he did at his place.
She let her mind drift for a moment as she sipped her cola. This wasn’t an intervention. It was just her brothers having a late lunch together.
The cell phone Trask had given her rang in her shoulder bag, where she’d dropped it at the end of the bar. She quickly stepped away, saying, “I need to take this.” As she headed for the back door, she could feel Darby’s gaze on her. Before she was out of earshot, she heard Flint ask Darby, “How did her date go with Wainwright?”
So everyone knew about it?
She didn’t hear his answer as she hit Accept and asked, “Are you all right?” The fear in her voice surely a dead giveaway for a man who knew her so well.
“I’m fine. I was worried about you.”
“I was late for work. Darby is suspicious, but I’m fine.”
“I’m going to pay Johnny a visit after I hang up.”
“Just be careful. Trask, do you know who burned down the cabin?”
“I have my suspicions. I can’t get into it right now. You sound funny.”
“My brothers are all here having a late lunch, so I should go.”
“I love you,” he said, softening his voice.
“I love you.” She disconnected and went back inside. Billie Dee was singing and stirring a variety of ground chili powders into a big pot. As she walked past the kitchen, Billie Dee thanked her for helping with the prep work.
She put in her brothers’ orders for burgers and tried to relax.
“So have you found Jenna Holloway yet?” Darby was ask
ing when Lillie returned to the bar.
“Not yet,” Flint said and, spotting Lillie, patted the stool next to him.
Lillie slid onto it and her brother reached over and gave her a quick hug. This was what she loved about her family. They were all so different, often were at odds, and yet at these moments they could come together as a family as if nothing had happened.
“You think Anvil killed her?” Hawk asked.
Flint shrugged. “Not even sure she’s dead yet. How was your date?” he asked, turning to Lillie.
She could feel all their gazes on her. “It was fine.”
“Fine,” Hawk repeated. “That great?”
“I had a nice time.”
“Nice,” Cyrus said and groaned. “If Junior tried anything with you—”
“He didn’t,” she said quickly before the whole bunch of them got up in arms.
Flint’s cell phone made a sound alerting him that he had a text. He smiled as he read it.
“Big date with Maggie?” Cyrus asked.
“Don’t make more of it than it is.”
“And what is it?” Hawk asked.
“Two people enjoying each other’s company. We’re taking it slow.”
“You don’t have to downplay it for us,” Lillie said. “It would be all right if you fell in love again.”
Flint looked embarrassed. “I’m not having this discussion with you.”
“You’re giving yourself away, bro,” Hawk said and laughed. “It’s written all over your face.”
“So tell the woman,” Darby chimed in, sounding more serious than the others. “Don’t leave her hanging.”