The Sheriff Catches a Bride

by Cora Seton

  She’d thought wrong.

  That was Jason across the street, standing next to a taxi cab driven by Alan Higgens. Glaring at her. The woman who stood next to him—a slim, exotic beauty with shoulder-length wavy brown hair, dressed in a sensible, classic pants outfit—had climbed into the back of the cab and shut the door.

  Jason didn’t move, however. White-faced and frowning, she had no doubt he’d seen them kiss—maybe worse. She slid down in her seat reflexively but he was already skirting the front of the taxi and climbing in beside Alan. Thank God Cab was already driving away from them.

  Cab turned to her, a worried frown on his face. “You all right?”

  “No. Could you hurry… please?”

  “Sure thing.” Cab put both hands on the wheel and accelerated. She knew he wouldn’t speed through town, but he wasn’t dilly-dallying, either. Thank heaven he hadn’t asked a bunch of questions.

  At first she thought they’d given Jason the slip, but a minute later a glance in the side mirror told her the taxi was following fast on their heels. She gripped the armrest, digging her fingernails into it.

  “If you need to be sick, let me know.” Cab shot her another worried look.

  “Just get me home. Fast.” Running was a mistake; she saw that now. She could have greeted Jason back in town and made arrangements to see him later. Taking off with Cab like this made it all too obvious exactly what was going on. Why was Jason following her? Was he furious?

  Would he and Cab fight?

  Cab wouldn’t. Not unless Jason started things first. But why would he? Their relationship was over—they’d settled that on the phone. She’d settled it, anyway. She realized now she hadn’t given Jason much of a chance to talk.

  Maybe that’s why he was here.

  Cab glanced in the rearview mirror. “I wonder where that taxi is headed in such a hurry?”

  Could she open the door and bail out the side of the truck? If she did, could she make it to her tree house before Cab caught up with her? Could she hide there for the rest of her life?

  Probably not.

  She should have gone to North Dakota and sorted things out with Jason in person. But how was she to know he cared that much? He sure hadn’t shown it these last few months.

  “Is that… Jason?” Cab said, looking in the mirror again.

  “I… maybe,” she said unhappily.

  Cab swung into the driveway that led to Carl’s mansion and drove toward the house. Behind them another set of lights swung off the road and flashed them. But instead of following them on up the driveway, the car behind them came to a sudden stop. Cab slowed the truck, too.

  “Are they coming in or not?” He glanced back, then looked down while he reversed gear. Rose turned in her seat, and in that split second the rear door of the taxi burst open and a slight shape darted out of it, over the driveway and into the trees beyond. Rose got just one glimpse of brown wavy hair and wide, frightened eyes before the woman disappeared into the woods.

  Rose opened her mouth to point her out, but Cab reversed the twenty feet back toward the taxi and parked the truck. “Stay here until I see what’s going on.” He was out the door before she could answer. She scanned the woods as Cab walked back toward the taxi, trying to figure out where the woman had gone. Why had she bolted from the car?

  Alan and Jason were arguing in the taxi. Jason slammed his fist against the roof once, twice, then flung his own door open and spilled out, charging around the vehicle to confront Cab. Alan got out on his side and soon all three men were yelling.

  “You slept with my fiancée, you son-of-a-bitch!” Jason hollered at Cab.

  Rose crouched in her seat not knowing what to do. Should she go out there and defend Cab? Should she go after the woman, whoever she was?

  “I don’t think she wants to be your fiancée anymore.”

  The slap of fist on flesh spun Rose around just in time to see Jason land a punch on Cab’s chin. Cab didn’t flinch. He simply reached out, grabbed Jason’s collar and put him on the ground in a split second. Rose spun away again. She couldn’t watch this. Wouldn’t watch her boyfriend beat up her ex-fiancé. Sick with shame at how badly she’d handled everything, she hid her face in her hands. A minute later Cab opened the back door of the extended cab and shoved Jason into the rear seat, his wrists cuffed in front of him. Cab climbed in the driver’s seat.

  “I’m going to have to make a detour to the detachment,” he told her evenly. “Want to ride along or stay here at Carl’s?”

  “I’ll stay here if you don’t mind,” Rose said, already fumbling with her door.

  Cab handed her a house key. “Make yourself at home. You and this one can talk things out in the morning.” He jerked his chin toward Jason who was swearing up a blue streak in the back seat.

  “Sounds good.” She finally risked a look at Jason. He shook his head at her.

  “God damn it, Rose. This is the way you’re going to play it?”

  “Sorry,” she said, her voice hardly above a whisper. “I…”

  “Tomorrow,” Cab said. He leaned over Rose and opened her door. “I’ll be back in an hour or so. Go in the house and stay put, you hear? We better talk this out, too. Lock the door behind you when you get inside.”

  Rose nodded and got out of the truck, unable to say anything more. Behind them, Alan was already backing the taxi out of the driveway. Cab quickly followed him.

  She suddenly remembered the mystery woman. “Wait… what about…?” Rose sighed as both vehicles sped away. She scanned the trees beside the drive once more, considered the key in her hand, and made up her mind. She plodded the rest of the way up the long driveway until she reached Carl’s house, let herself in and began to search for a flashlight.

  “You cheat with my fiancée and I’m the one who goes to jail?” Jason said as Cab hauled him into the detachment.

  “You’re going to jail for assaulting an officer of the law,” Cab said, “And to give you some time to cool down before you assault your so-called fiancée.”

  “She’s not my so-called fiancée. She is my fiancée.”

  “She told me she broke things off.”

  “She may have, but I sure didn’t.”

  Cab held his tongue through the procedure of booking him and turning him over to the officers who ran the detention facility. Once a row of bars stood between them, he figured it was fair game to ask the man a few questions. “Look, she took off her ring before I made my move. She told me you and she were through.”

  Jason swore. “She told me that, too, but she’s wrong. She didn’t even let me have my say.”

  “Seems to me she’s given you six years to have your say. Just how long of an engagement were you planning?” Cab pressed. “You’ve had your shot. It’s not my fault you lost her.”

  “I was trying to make enough money to do it right,” Jason said.

  “Really? You held off because of money? Why not at least invite Rose to North Dakota to live with you?”

  “She wouldn’t have liked it.” But the way Jason turned his back and walked away told Cab there was more to it than that.

  “Be honest. You had another girl over there.”

  Jason whipped around. “No. Never. I was faithful to Rose. I thought she’d be faithful to me.”

  “Then why keep away? Why not come home on weekends and holidays?”

  “I came when I could.”

  “Bullshit!” Cab had just about enough of the man’s paltry excuses. The way he saw, it if you engaged yourself to a woman you did right by her. “You came once every few months. You could have done better than that. If you love Rose, why wouldn’t you be chomping at the bit to get to Chance Creek every chance you could?”

  “Because I wasn’t working in the oilfields,” Jason blurted out. “Not full-time, anyway. I didn’t want her to know.”

  Cab frowned. “What the hell were you doing?”

  “Getting my degree.” Jason shrugged unhappily. “I saw the difference betw
een what those engineers earned and what the roughnecks made and I wanted that paycheck. I enrolled at a local school. Decided to go full time to get it as fast as possible. I graduate this spring.”

  Cab squinted at him. “Why wouldn’t you tell anyone about that? That’s something to be proud of, not something to hide.”

  “Because it meant I didn’t save any money for our wedding. Not one cent. I’m in debt, Cab. I will be until I finish school and for some years after that. I told Rose I’d buy her a house when we got married. I’m so far from that…” Jason spread his hands.

  Cab backed away from the bars, an ugly feeling swirling in his gut. He admitted to himself now that he’d cast Jason as the villain in this story. He’d truly believed the man had a piece on the side in his North Dakota town; that he’d been playing Rose for a year or two. And all the time Jason was working to be a better man for his fiancée?

  That made Cab the villain. He didn’t like that much.

  “Is she in love with you?” Jason came at him again. He gripped a bar in each hand and peered out between them. “Or was it just a fling? I can forgive her if it was just a fling. Maybe.”

  “I don’t know,” Cab said heavily. “It was just the one time.”

  “How did it happen?”

  “I’m not going to tell you that. It won’t help.”

  “Was alcohol involved? Just answer me that. Was it after a night on the town?” The man looked hopeful.

  “No,” Cab said quietly. “It was in the middle of the afternoon and we were both sober.”

  Jason’s shoulders slumped. “Shit. I lost her. I took her for granted and I lost her.”

  Cab had no idea what to say. All his training, all his experience didn’t cover anything remotely like this. “I’m sorry,” he said again.

  “You don’t need to be sorry,” Jason said bitterly. “You just need to do her right. Don’t you break her heart.”

  Cab met his gaze. “You honestly think I would try? I’ve been waiting for months to see if you’d step away.”

  Jason blinked. “You didn’t say nothing.”

  “Of course not.”

  The other man looked away first. He scratched his neck. “Maybe it’s for the best,” he said slowly. “Maybe it really is.”

  “Why?” Cab was cautious. He wasn’t sure where Jason was heading with this.

  “I’m not coming back to Chance Creek. There’s too much opportunity out there and I’m just getting started. I’d have to move Rose all over the country if we stayed together, maybe all over the world. There are jobs for guys like me everywhere—South America. The Middle East. She’s never wanted to leave Chance Creek.”

  “You think maybe both of you knew a split was coming?” Cab said hopefully. “Maybe that’s why you let yourselves drift apart?”

  Jason nodded, still turned away. “Maybe we did. Doesn’t make it easier, though.”

  “Probably not.”

  Silence reigned a moment or two. Jason straightened up and Cab could tell he was shouldering his new reality. He wasn’t the type to cry over spilt milk. He wasn’t the type to cry, period.

  “What about Fila? Where’d she get to?”

  Cab blinked. “Fila? Who’s Fila?”

  “The girl in the taxi. I was supposed to get her to the Cruz place. Did Alan take her?”

  Cab stared at Jason. What was he talking about? Why would he make up a story like that now? Was this a ruse to get out of jail tonight?

  Should he even be in jail?

  “I didn’t see any girl in the taxi. Never heard of a Fila, either.”

  “You wouldn’t have heard of her. She came in from Billings with me. She was looking for Claire and Morgan. Medium height. Brown hair. Blue eyes?”

  Cab shook his head. “There wasn’t anyone else in the taxi when Alan left. You sure she was with you when you got to Carl’s?

  “Of course I’m sure she was with me. She was sitting right next to me.” His eyes met Cab’s, concerned. “She was upset on the bus ride from North Dakota. She said she’d come a real long way to see Claire and Morgan. She had an accent I couldn’t place and I had the feeling she was in trouble. That’s why I made sure to put her in a taxi straight to the Cruz spread. Then I saw you and Rose and… I kind of lost it. I hopped in, too.”

  “Maybe she’s with Rose,” Cab said. “I’ll look into it. She could have even walked the rest of the way to the Cruz ranch; it’s just down the road from Carl’s.”

  “Five miles down the road,” Jason said. “Shit, I can’t believe I just forgot about her. Probably scared her to death, too.” He approached the bars again. “Go look for her, Cab. I think she was on the run from something; probably from a man. Our fight…”

  “Probably scared the crap out of her,” Cab finished for him. “All right. I’m on it. And I’ll be back in the morning to sort this all out.” He hesitated. Waved a hand at the bars. “Sorry.”

  Jason heaved a sigh. “Probably more comfortable than a night at home with Dad. It’s all right. Tell Rose…” he trailed off.

  “I’ll tell her everything,” Cab said, and left.

  ‡

  Chapter Thirteen

  Fila ran for her life through the thick forest. Trees whipped past her. She leaped fallen branches, darted around thickets she couldn’t penetrate, fell, got up and ran some more. To her mind, the sound of her mad dash through the forest echoed as loud as thunder. She knew they’d trace her. Knew they’d find her.

  She had to hide.

  She spotted the tree house first and nearly tripped in shock at the sight of the high structure. Too exposed to hide in, she thought, but a few moments later she stumbled on something else. A green tarp half-hidden by layers of evergreen branches covered something someone didn’t want people to see. Panting, a stitch in her side making every breath torture, she listened for pursuers, heard none, and lifted the plastic sheet.

  Lumber.

  Someone was storing lumber out here in the woods. She had a memory—a flash of a childhood visit to a friend of the family just outside Simsbury. Climbing a rope ladder into their tree house. Eating sandwiches and telling stories.

  No one who built a tree house could be all bad.

  And no one would look for her under a tarp hidden in the woods. She slid underneath the cold, clammy surface and lined up her body parallel to the pile of boards. Pressed up against them, already shivering as the cold, autumn night drew in, she tucked the tarp around herself and tried to erase any signs of her passage under it. Then she lay still and held her breath. She’d wait a few hours, think up a plan, and escape again.

  Rose was glad she’d taken the time to collect a flashlight from Cab’s house before heading into the woods. She hoped the woman hadn’t gotten too far a head start because of it, but she figured two of them plunging headlong into the trees in the dark was most likely to end in the need for two search parties.

  All she had to go on was the direction she saw the woman run, but Rose felt certain she knew where she would end up. She wasn’t dressed for racing through the woods, so she’d have to go to ground somewhere. The tree house made a likely place.

  Ten minutes later, however, she flashed her light through the small structure and conceded that it was empty. Maybe it seemed too exposed. She climbed down the ladder slowly and ran the light over the surrounding ground. Where would she hide if she didn’t want to be seen?

  Anywhere in these woods.

  “Hello?” Rose called. “Is anyone here? It’s safe to come out—I’m the only one here.”

  She listened, but only heard the rustle of leaves in the chill autumn air. When she let out a breath, the air fogged in front of her. Had the woman been wearing a warm coat? Her head had been bare. Pretty soon she’d be awfully cold.

  “I mean it. It’s safe. Their fight had nothing to do with you, anyway. It was about me.” Her voice broke and she lowered the flashlight.

  Cab and Jason had fought over her. Cab had shoved her fiancé into his tru
ck and hauled him off to jail.

  Jason cared enough about her to come to blows over losing her.

  She shut her eyes and took a deep breath to try to calm her pounding heart. She’d been so convinced he didn’t care. She’d moved on from him. She’d given herself to Cab.

  Did it make her a bad person that she’d slept with another man so soon after breaking off her engagement? Did she still love Jason?

  No.

  The answer came loud and clear. Not because he’d done something awful, or cheated on her, or neglected her, but because she’d simply moved on. She was different now than when she’d been eighteen. She was grown up. She wanted different things.

  And she knew what she wanted. Art school. Marriage. Children. A job in academia.

  Cab.

  She wasn’t confused at all about who she was and how she felt about the future. She didn’t need more time to figure things out. It might take practice before she got good at stating specifically what she wanted, or could gainsay Cab when he got too protective, but being with him would give her that practice far faster than staying away from him. She’d think of it as a crash course in setting boundaries.

  Smiling just a little, she returned her attention to the dark woods around her. “Hello? Are you there? It’s just me—I’m all alone. I’d love to help you if I can.”

  When no answer came, she decided to check near Hannah’s corral. She paced forward carefully, not wanting to trip in the dim light. She saw the green mound that was their unused building supplies. She and Mia had covered them carefully with a tarp and pine boughs earlier in the day.

  Now the tarp was exposed in one corner.

  Rose halted. The woman was under there. She knew it. How to get her out without scaring her, though…

  “Please let me help you,” Rose said quietly. “It will be okay. I promise.”

  She held her breath as she watched the tarp. At first nothing happened. Then it rippled, shook and flipped back, revealing a disheveled woman underneath with huge, frightened eyes.

  “The men are gone; it’s just me,” Rose said, holding out a hand. She tilted the flashlight away so its beam didn’t blind the woman. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and warm.”