Too bad. He was going to keep her under his watchful eye whether she liked it or not. This was his county, his people. He was responsible for them. And for her as long as she was in the area.
Darkness seemed to open within him when he thought of her leaving again. He cursed under his breath. He’d ignore the tension between them and keep his mind strictly on the law.
Restless, he checked the time and headed out the door. He’d go talk to Winona. Now there was a woman with a man’s mind—practical and sane, not running on temperament, but logic.
Yeah, he’d go talk to her. About the case.
She was concluding a deal when he parked next to the lopsided sign out front. She and the Cheyenne shook hands and laughed, then the man departed, giving a quick nod to Judd when he passed on the way to his pickup with a wheelbarrow full of junk.
“Business looks good,” he commented as he surveyed the new items in the yard.
“It is,” she agreed. “Look at this blanket.”
Judd admired the Indian blanket she held up, which was woven with a Navajo design. The tourists wouldn’t know the difference, or care if they did, he thought cynically. “Nice,” he said.
“I’m going to enter it in the fair for his wife.” She nodded toward the road as the pickup disappeared around a bend. “It’ll fetch a fair price whether it wins a ribbon or not.”
“Good.”
“You’re in a foul mood,” Winona said. “Come have some chamomile tea with honey. It’ll soothe your nerves.”
Judd followed her across the crowded yard, keeping a sharp eye out for the goats. They liked to sneak up on him and butt him from behind, hitting him right in the back of the knee, which caused his leg to buckle. He’d bashed his kneecap on a concrete birdbath the last time that had happened.
Winona led the way inside the trailer. It always surprised him how neat and orderly it was compared to the front yard. The backyard was an oasis of flowers and peace.
They chatted about the weather and the fair while she fixed the tea. When she handed him the cup, her fingers brushed his. She jerked back as if burned.
He set the cup down and prepared to catch her, but she shook her head, telling him she was all right.
“You’ve been with Tracy,” she said.
“Yeah. I saw her briefly this morning.”
“Why are you angry with her?”
“I’m not—” He stopped abruptly when she cast a penetrating gaze on him, reminding him of a teacher he’d had in the fifth grade who could detect mischief before it got started. He swallowed. “She was with Rafe Rawlings.”
Winona sat in her favorite chair and motioned for him to be seated. He chose a straight-backed chair at the table, pulling it around so he could face his hostess.
“You shouldn’t have let her go,” Winona said, quite gently for her. She usually was pretty blunt with him.
He felt the emptiness whirl and waited for it to settle. “I’m not here to talk about that. It’s…those days are gone.”
“But not forgotten,” she said with some asperity, sounding more her usual self.
He shrugged, unwilling to discuss it. What good would it do? The past was long gone. There was no way to get it back at this late date. Not that he wanted to.
“You want to know about Tracy,” Winona guessed correctly. “You want to know if she’s in danger. The answer is yes.”
His pulse leapt like a startled rabbit. “What? Who?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I sensed it on her. Did she tell you of the first vision I had, the one from the other night when she came out for supper?”
“No.” Judd felt a chill crept over him. His lethal streak, Sterling called it.
When he was on a case, a certain coolness would sometimes come over him. His mind would become as clear as crystal. He would be able to make connections between facts that few others seemed to notice. However, in this case it felt more like fear. Tracy in danger…
Winona related the vision of the two-faced woman.
“A lot of people are two-faced,” he mused when she finished. “They pretend to be one thing when they’re really another. Or they say one thing when they mean something entirely different.”
Tracy had acted as if she loved him more than life itself, but when the chips were down, she’d turned from him without a backward glance. Not that he blamed her. He was the one who’d encouraged Thadd to be independent and unafraid.
When the doctor had walked out of the operating room and shaken his head wearily, telling them their child was gone, her love had died, too. Sometimes he thought he’d never gotten over those twin blows—the loss of his son and the loss of his wife.
A hand touched his.
He glanced into wise brown eyes and saw sympathy. A pressure built behind his eyes. Hurriedly, he took a drink of the hot tea.
“Things will work out,” Winona said. Her gaze took on a misty quality. “I see darkness ahead. Tracy…” She paused, frowned, then shook her head.
“What did you see?” he asked, his heart slamming against his breastbone.
“Nothing. Just a feeling.” She studied Judd as they sipped the soothing brew. “You’re going to have to confront your sorrow someday,” she advised.
The cup jerked, and hot tea sloshed over his hand. He grabbed a napkin and mopped it up. “What sorrow?” he asked, keeping his tone neutral. Too many emotions were being stirred up nowadays. He didn’t need an old woman that half the county thought was batty telling him about his emotions.
“There’s an emptiness in your soul,” she murmured, partially closing her eyes. A cat jumped into her lap, and she stroked it absently. “It can be filled. But the filling will be painful, and the cost high.”
The chill shot right down into his backbone. “I like the emptiness,” he said in a low growl, feeling like a cornered wolf. “Life is easier that way.”
“None of the pain?”
“That’s right,” he agreed harshly.
“But none of the joy,” the wise woman reminded him gently. “Grab the joy while it’s available. I let it go. In the end, I had only a month with the man I loved.”
Judd looked at the old woman, startled. He’d never really thought of her being in love.
She smiled sadly. “Yes, even I was once in love. I’d never told another person until recently, and now I’ve told two.”
“Tracy,” he said, knowing at once who the other person had been. “There’s something special between the two of you. Her mother commented on it once. She said she felt almost jealous of the bond you had with her daughter.”
Winona merely nodded her head and rocked quietly back and forth, stroking the cat, whose purr filled the silence.
He sighed, then stood. “I’m going to Billings to pick up some stolen goods that have been recovered. Would you like to ride along?” He glanced around the neat trailer. “Or do you need to clean house, too?”
She laughed in delight at his irony. “So she turned you down. Don’t be discouraged. Keep an eye on her. Twice I’ve sensed danger near her. Stay close.”
“I will,” he heard himself solemnly promise.
Later, driving back to Whitehorn from Billings, the crate of stolen guns in the back seat, he thought of his conversation with the psychic. God, he’d sounded as if he’d taken an oath to find the Holy Grail.
His feelings toward Tracy were the result of two things. One, since he was sheriff of the county, naturally he felt protective toward her. Two, there was a lingering passion between them.
Well, hell, nice to know some things in life never changed. Although desire wasn’t one of the things he’d have voted for, given a choice.
After leaving the stolen loot with the officer in charge of the evidence storage room in the basement of the police station, he headed for the fairgrounds five miles south of town.
He found Tracy at the calf pens, laughing while she tried to pet a calf that was trying to suck her fingers. Rafe Rawlings stood beside h
er, one hand at her waist as she bent over the low fence.
White heat shot through Judd, followed by a coldness that left his mind crystal clear. He walked forward.
Tracy straightened up and glanced around, feeling suddenly uneasy. Her eyes met a dark and dangerous gaze.
“Hello, Judd,” she said, her voice fairly steady.
“Lo, the lawman returneth,” Rafe drawled, earning him a sardonic smile from the sheriff.
“In the flesh,” Judd returned with cool nonchalance.
Tracy gave each man a warning frown. She was not going to be a bone fought over by two dogs…or cops, in this case. She didn’t understand why men had to be so territorial in the first place.
She had decided that was the root of the earlier jealousy—if it had been jealousy she’d seen in Judd at her house. Anyway, she was going to choose her own companions.
Rafe had been asking her a million questions about forensic techniques and about the bones she was examining. She’d promised to let him see them and to explain some of the things she looked for when she was doing an investigation. As a local policeman, he was naturally curious about murder in his backyard, so to speak.
Judd, of course, thought the case should be his. It galled him that the reservation was in the county, but out of his jurisdiction. Tough. He would have to accept her authority just as the tribal council had had to.
“I’d like to see the rabbits now. The ribbons were supposed to be posted on them by noon,” she said brightly.
The two men fell into step with her. They admired the rabbits, the pigeons, chickens, turkeys and ducks. She wandered over to the ring, where prize breeding stock was being judged.
She noticed Judd checking the security at the fair. Several deputies were in evidence. Their presence would do a lot toward ensuring a peaceful gathering. She saw him nod to each lawman they met. Most of them returned his greeting with a casual salute.
The two men were still with her when she spied Winona in the bleachers watching the judging. “Hello. I didn’t expect to see you until tonight,” she said, sitting by the older woman.
Rafe slid onto the bench beside her before Judd got a chance to. Judd’s lips tightened fractionally, then he sat down in front of Tracy on the next bench and twisted around to talk to the other three.
“I got the honey collected, put in jars and labeled, so I decided to come in. I entered a pie in the fall-fruit-baking category—pumpkin and honey with wild nuts.”
“My favorite,” Judd muttered. “And you didn’t even offer me a piece when I was out there.”
“I didn’t make it until later. Besides, I couldn’t take a piece out of it and then put it in the contest.” She gave him a grin that drew crinkles around her eyes in a merry fashion. She looked like an elf with her sun-browned face and plump figure.
“I wonder if the judges will leave any after they taste it,” he grumbled.
“Leftovers go to the senior-citizen centers,” Rafe put in.
“I made one to give to Tracy,” Winona said with an innocent smile. “Maybe, if you’re real nice, she’ll give you some of it.”
Judd glanced at Tracy. She saw him hesitate. “I’ll buy that pizza you promised Winona for supper,” he declared, “if you’ll serve the pie for dessert.”
“All right,” she agreed.
“Great,” Rafe said, counting himself in. “I’ll get the ice cream to go on the pie.”
Tracy choked back laughter at the look Judd gave the young policeman. Winona had no such compulsions. She cackled aloud.
After a second, Judd grinned and dodged a mock punch from Rafe, who was also laughing.
Sterling and Jessica McCallum joined them and demanded to know what the joke was.
“Two dogs and one bone,” Winona told them.
Jessica glanced at the two men, then at Tracy. She grinned in delight and plopped down by Judd. “Looks like an even number of dogs and bones to me,” she announced, clearly putting the men in the dog category.
Her husband groaned and demanded to know how much of this stuff a man was supposed to take. That earned him a poke in the side from his wife.
The day ended with all of them going to the pizza place for dinner, then trooping back to Tracy’s cottage for pie and ice cream. Jennifer played with several plastic bowls and a wooden spoon that Tracy gave her. After eating some ice cream, she went to sleep on the sofa.
The adults took their coffee out on the porch afterward and watched the sky darken from twilight into night. Rafe managed to stay at her side most of the time, which paired Judd with Winona.
Tracy felt a rush of pride as he escorted the older woman, who had to be in her late seventies, with all the gallantry of a knight of old guarding a princess.
After everyone left, she put the dishes in the dishwasher, then changed into her sleep set of satin tap pants and matching green top. She fastened a floral robe over it.
A knock at the back door startled her.
“Judd,” she murmured, seeing his stern face beyond the small glass panes across the top of the door. She unlocked the dead bolt and let him in. “I didn’t hear your truck. Did you forget something?”
“No.” He thrust his hands into his pockets. “I walked over. There was something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Yes?”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me Winona sensed you were in danger?”
She stared at him in total surprise. “It wasn’t a definite thing,” she finally explained. “I mean, it was probably vibes she was getting from the bones.”
Judd shook his head. “It’s you. I talked to her earlier today. She said you were in danger.”
“Did she see something?” While Tracy heeded the wise woman’s visions, she wasn’t sure about feelings. They could be deceptive. Once she’d thought Judd loved her more than anything, but since that time, she’d learned to distrust turbulent emotions.
“No,” he admitted.
“Well, then…”
She stood in the middle of the kitchen floor, not sure what to say. Nervous flutters chased through her stomach at his silent stance. She tightened the tasseled belt of the robe.
He took a step toward her. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides while his eyes devoured her.
She felt his gaze move over her, burning into every inch. A hot tide of longing ran through her. She might not trust her feelings, but she couldn’t deny them. She still wanted him with all the wild yearning of long ago.
He must have seen it in her eyes. “Trace,” he murmured.
For once he looked as uncertain as she felt. He took another step toward her. She witnessed his struggle with the force that had drawn them together from the first moment they’d met.
Bewilderment joined the other emotions that roiled in her. She didn’t understand it—this irresistible magic that leapt into being whenever they met. She didn’t want it.
She fought it and knew he was doing the same.
“No,” she whispered, dredging up every ounce of willpower. “It’s not…we can’t.”
The planes of his face abruptly seemed harsher, the bones pressing against his skin as if demanding to escape. “I know,” he said with a bitter sigh. “Oh, God, I know.”
He pivoted and crossed to the door in two long strides. She clutched the lapels of her robe, stifling the cry that rose in her, ignoring the part that wanted to ask him to stay.
He faced her, all iron control now. The tough sheriff in a tough situation. “You might be in charge of the case, but I’m still sheriff of this county. If your life is in danger, I’m going to do my damnedest to see that you aren’t hurt…no matter what.”
He went out, then stood on the other side of the door. When she didn’t move, he rattled the knob impatiently. She rushed forward and locked the door. He nodded, then headed off into the dark, cutting through the woods in the moonlight.
Tracy turned out the inside lights, made sure the porch lights were on, then went to bed. She lay the
re a long time, worrying about the situation.
The pressure was building between them. When it got too great, what would happen?
Anxiety swept over her. She wanted to leave. She wanted to solve the case and get out of there…before it was too late.
Six
T he Sunday paper arrived with a thud on the front porch. Tracy pushed her hair back and peered at the clock. Barely past seven. She groaned, tossed the covers off and headed for the bathroom. A shower would wake her up.
Later, after eating a breakfast of cereal and banana, she read the news from beginning to end. She folded the paper and stacked it neatly in the middle of the table.
She sighed. The sound seemed to echo through the empty house. Honestly, she never thought she’d see the day she missed the friendly drip-drip of a faucet!
Shoving back the chair, she stood and walked out on the front porch. It was almost ten. Down the street, she saw a family come out of their house and get in their car. The parents and two little girls were dressed in their Sunday clothes. Probably on their way to Sunday school, she thought.
She watched them until the car disappeared down the lane. They’d looked so happy. With a soft gasp, she realized she was envious of their good fortune.
Stepping off the porch, she strolled around the yard, admiring the roses and daisies. Finally, the silence was more than she could take. She paused in her restless pacing and looked down the lane toward the south.
There was a place she’d been avoiding. She knew she’d have to go there before she left town. The psychologist had told her she had to face the past in order to get on with her life.
All right, she resolved, gathering her courage. She would.
Going inside, she clipped on her purse, rubbed sunscreen into her face and arms, donned a hat and started out.
She walked south along Pale Bluff Lane until she came to Willow Brook Road. She crossed the road and headed west until she reached a small chapel, which faced the street. The Whitehorn cemetery surrounded the natural-stone building.
Stopping, Tracy clasped the wrought-iron fence that surrounded the rolling acres and let her gaze roam from the stained-glass windows of the chapel to the delicate carving of twin angels set on the support columns at the entrance gate.
Montana Mavericks 04 - The Once and Future Wife Page 8