Big Sky Dynasty

by B. J Daniels

  “That is odd, one of the rich and famous hiding from the limelight,” Lantry drawled.

  Dalton had been thinking. “You know I saw her on the news. In some small town in Tennessee. Harvey, Tennessee? A cop was leading her through a crowd.”

  His brother sat up. “You think she was arrested?”

  “I don’t know. When I saw her, I thought I was just imagining things, but it brought back the nightmares.”

  Lantry was giving him one of those big-brother looks.

  “I’m okay.”

  “Hell, I’m not sure I’d be okay if I’d been through what you have.”

  “Maybe that’s why she’s here. She was afraid I’d seen the news and knew she was alive.”

  “What would she be afraid you’d do?”

  “Go to the cops?”

  Lantry shook his head. “You didn’t go to the cops nine years ago and you haven’t now. She has the photographs. Why would she be worried about what you would do?”

  He had a point. “Then what the hell does she want? Look, I can’t just sit around here and play games with her. I have to get to the bottom of this.”

  “I wouldn’t suggest antagonizing this woman.”

  “Believe me, just the fact that I’m still breathing antagonizes Nicci.”

  “Maybe you’d better tell me what you intend to do.”

  “Maybe I better not,” Dalton said as he picked up his keys and headed for his truck. “Something just doesn’t feel right about all this.”

  GEORGIA FELT like a schoolgirl playing hooky. But she had to admit that she enjoyed the hot springs. She and Nicci had gone down all the slides. Nicci was like a fish when it came to water. It was interesting seeing Nicci in her element. As much as Georgia wanted to keep her distance, she couldn’t help but be drawn to her.

  What surprised Georgia the most was that she hadn’t worried about the shop. It had felt very decadent, but good to play for a couple of hours in the middle of the day.

  She relieved Miss Thorp, thanking her and feeling only a little guilty when they returned.

  “You sound good,” Rory said when Georgia called her. “You must have enjoyed your time off.”

  “I did. How was Lamaze?”

  “Fine.”

  Georgia was still a little hurt that her friend hadn’t wanted her to come. “So Devlin was there?”

  “He couldn’t make it.”

  “No? Then I should have been there.”

  “You do enough for me and always have.”

  What was this about? “You’re my best friend. I’m here for you whenever you need me,” Georgia said, concerned by the strange tone of Rory’s voice.

  “Yeah, well, maybe I’ve taken advantage of you for too long.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Where would you—” her shop’s landline rang “—get such an idea?”

  “You’d better answer that. I’m glad you had fun swimming. You should do that more often.”

  “Wait. I want to know what’s going on and don’t tell me it’s nothing. I’m your best friend.” The phone rang again.

  “Nicci mentioned how overworked you were and that you never had a minute to yourself and how she wanted to get you away from the shop for a few hours because she was worried about you.”

  “That’s why you told me not to come to Lamaze?” Georgia was furious. She couldn’t believe Nicci had done that.

  The phone rang again. “She’s just worried about you and so am I,” Rory said. “You don’t get out of that shop at all. You really need to answer your phone.”

  “I love going to Lamaze with you. There is nothing I would rather do. We will talk about this later.” Georgia sighed as she snapped off her cell phone and reached for the landline.

  As she picked up the phone, she looked up to see Nicci return from the liquor store with two bottles of wine. “For after the movie,” she mouthed.

  DALTON CALLED, unwilling to take a chance of running into Nicci by stopping by the yarn shop. As the phone rang, he told himself he wasn’t doing the same thing as Nicci—using Georgia.

  “In Stitches.”

  The moment he heard her voice he almost changed his mind. “Don’t hang up. It’s Dalton Corbett. Are you still there?”

  “Yes?”

  “I need to talk to you. Is there any chance you can get away? Please. It’s important for your sake as well as mine.”

  “When?”

  “Now?”

  “I think I can arrange that. Where would you like the yarn delivered?”

  Nicci was there. He was amazed Georgia had agreed to meet him. Something must have happened. Or had she simply given what he’d told her some thought? He could only hope.

  “Do you know where Nelson Reservoir is?”

  “Yes. I can deliver that order myself. Give me twenty minutes.”

  “Thank you.”

  “No problem. See you soon.”

  Dalton hung up, hoping to hell he hadn’t put Georgia in a worse position. He would just have to make sure neither of them was followed.

  GEORGIA HUNG UP the phone and looked at Nicci still standing in the shop smiling at her. “I just talked to Rory.”

  “Oh, is that who that was?” Nicci said. “You should have told her hi from me.”

  “You told her I was overworked.”

  “You are.”

  “But I don’t consider going to my best friend’s Lamaze class work.”

  “Georgia, when was the last time you did something just for fun, no obligation for a friend, just a couple of hours for yourself? We had fun at the pool, didn’t we?”

  “I’m not arguing that. I really don’t appreciate you changing my plans for me.”

  “Come on, you had fun today and Rory was fine without you, wasn’t she?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “See? There was no harm done. Rory understood. We both care about you and tonight we’re all going to the show together. Don’t be angry. Rory and I really thought we were doing you a favor.”

  Was that all this had been? A thoughtful gesture? Or had Nicci manipulated the situation to get what she wanted—Georgia to go to the hot springs with her?

  “I appreciate the thought, but in the future—”

  “Don’t worry,” Nicci said. “I get the message.”

  Georgia listened to Nicci’s irritated footfalls on the stairs, her stomach roiling. Since Nicci had come into her life there’d been way too much drama and Georgia felt as if she were about to make it worse by meeting Dalton Corbett at the lake.

  Hurriedly, she put together an order just as she would any customer, all the time questioning her judgment. But in truth, she needed to talk to someone who knew Nicci. Her manipulative behavior scared Georgia. And Dalton’s warnings about the woman only made her more apprehensive about her renter across the hall.

  “I’M SORRY, AGNES, but there isn’t anyway to know what killed the birds you brought me,” the veterinarian said when she stopped by.

  Agnes couldn’t hide her disappointment.

  “Now, I can send the contents of the bird’s stomach to the state lab, but that is going to be expensive and take several weeks and there’s a good chance if the bird was poisoned, the poison won’t show up,” he said. “Now if it had been a dog, there would be obvious signs, but a bird…”

  Two weeks was too long to wait. “So there’s nothing else I can do?”

  “If you think someone is poisoning your birds, then you ought to let the sheriff know.”

  Agnes recalled the harshly hissed words Nicci had whispered into her ear only that morning in front of the knitting shop, when she’d walked her out to her car to get her knitting bag.

  Who’s going to believe a demented old woman without proof? You have any proof, Agnes?

  “Thank you, John,” Agnes told the vet. “I guess the birds just got into something that didn’t agree with them.”

  “More than likely, Agnes. More than likely.”

  Chapter Eight

 
As Georgia drove north out of Whitehorse, the lush green wheat and grasses bowing to the breeze, she kept an eye on her rearview mirror. No sign of Nicci’s rental car. There was little traffic on the two-lane road, but still Georgia felt nervous.

  The rolling prairie ran north toward the Larb Hills, a postcard panorama under the blue of the big sky. She put down her window and let the warm summer-scented air blow in, feeling a strange excitement mixed with fear about going to this clandestine meeting with Dalton Corbett.

  They were taking a chance meeting like this. He was a married man in the middle of an ugly divorce. Even if he and Nicci had only been together a week during the entire nine-year marriage and both seemed anxious to divorce, they must have been in love to get married.

  She was walking a very thin line, still determined not to get involved in their marital problems, but at the same time, she needed to know more about her renter. Dalton had scared her yesterday—just not as badly as Nicci had last night. And this issue with the Lamaze class had left Georgia shaken.

  Dalton didn’t need to convince her that Nicci liked to get her own way. Or that she acted badly if she didn’t.

  Nicci had lied to her about not being able to get on the ranch. Now Georgia wondered what else Nicci had lied about, including seeing Dalton’s pickup after the movie and running from him.

  Nelson Reservoir was north of town. Dalton hadn’t said exactly where to meet him, but she figured it would be near the campground and boat ramp.

  She used to come out here with Rory and her parents when they were kids. Then Rory’s little sister had disappeared. Kidnapping was unheard of in Whitehorse, but the little girl was never found. Not too many years after that, Rory lost both of her parents in an automobile accident.

  Georgia had never known her own mother or father. She’d been left on Nana Michaels’s doorstep when she was but a few hours old. No one had ever stepped forward to claim her. She had always suspected her mother had to be someone from Whitehorse because she’d left her on a kindly widow’s doorstep. How else could her mother have known that she would be lovingly cared for?

  There were a couple of trailers in the campground, one tent, and several pickups and boat trailers in the parking lot at the boat ramp.

  The lake lay like a crystalline blue puzzle piece, a perfect fit in the prairie basin. Trees lined the shores, a few cabins among them on either side of the campground.

  A boat motor could be heard putting along on the opposite shore. Another boat could be seen just to the south of a small island she’d always called Bird Island because of all the gulls and pelicans that congregated there.

  Other than the boat motor, there was no sound this afternoon and no one around—including Dalton Corbett.

  Georgia parked facing the road in and cut her engine. She’d left while Nicci was in her apartment, taking the bogus order with her in case Nicci was watching from upstairs.

  Georgia wished she hadn’t agreed to go to the movies.

  “I know I’m not going to be in town long, but I’d still like to get to know Rory better,” Nicci had said, catching Georgia at a weak moment.

  Georgia had just seen how kind Nicci had been to help Agnes get her knitting bag out of the car. Clearly Agnes had been shaken after her horrible experience with the dead birds.

  “I’ll ask Rory about the movie,” Georgia had said.

  “Great. Last time I was in a funk. I’m really looking forward to this. Call Rory now. Please?”

  Georgia had and Rory had agreed to come in from her horse ranch for the movie.

  Nicci had been beaming and it had seemed like such a small thing to agree to. But then Nicci had canceled her Lamaze class with Rory and now Georgia felt troubled about the woman again.

  She glanced at her watch, getting more anxious by the minute. If Nicci found out about this meeting with Dalton, she’d see it as a betrayal and there would be even more trouble. Georgia didn’t need more trouble from her renter. This was a bad idea. Maybe she should—

  Dust rose along the road into the campground. A pickup approached. Georgia was relieved to see Dalton behind the wheel and at the same time nervous.

  He parked next to her and got out. “I thought we could take a walk.”

  “Okay,” she said, glad he hadn’t suggested talking in one of their rigs.

  They walked down the dirt road through the trees and campsites, grass growing up between the ruts. A breeze ruffled the surface of the water, scenting the air.

  “Thank you for meeting me,” Dalton said after a few steps. “I hated to put you on the spot the way I did.”

  He slowed, glancing over at her. He couldn’t have looked more handsome, his Stetson shoved back to expose the tanned sculpted lines of his face and those amazing blue eyes.

  “I’m going to put you on the spot some more and I apologize for that, but I have to know what Nicci is doing in Whitehorse and I thought maybe you—”

  Georgia stared at him in confusion. “The divorce.”

  He was shaking his head. “The envelope you brought me was full of blank sheets of paper. Nicci just wanted you to believe that’s what was inside it.”

  “That’s not possible.” But even as she said it, Georgia knew that it was. “Why would she—”

  “Look, I’m not trying to put you in the middle of this again, but I need to find out what she wants from me. Did she mention where she’s been the last nine years?”

  Georgia was still dumbfounded over what he’d told her about the contents of the envelope. She believed Dalton. He’d been honest with her about the cut tires while Nicci had lied about not being able to get into Trails West Ranch. And now Nicci had lied again.

  “I got the impression she’d been out of the country.”

  He nodded and sighed. “Who knows if that’s true? I checked the Internet. It’s as if she really did die nine years ago. What about her rent? Was the check from a bank in the states?”

  “She paid in cash.”

  He chuckled. “I should have known. Did she fill out a rental application or show you her driver’s license?”

  Georgia shook her head. “Sorry.”

  “You didn’t get references?”

  “No, I—”

  “It’s okay. I know how Nicci can be.” His smile was warm and reassuring.

  “You must think I’m incredibly naive,” Georgia said.

  “Not at all.”

  “Well, I think I am,” she said with a laugh. “My friend Rory pointed out to me that I know nothing about the woman who is living just across the hall from me in my own building. I thought I knew her, but now…”

  “She’s done something to scare you.”

  She frowned at him. “Why would you say that?”

  “What did she do?”

  Georgia turned to look out at the lake. “I feel as if I’m betraying her trust by talking to you about this.”

  “I’m worried about you or I wouldn’t ask. But if you don’t want to tell me…”

  “It’s just that after I took the papers out to you, she wanted to know everything you said to me.”

  “You didn’t tell her.”

  “No. How did you know that?”

  “She finally called me. We met and I could tell she was angry that she didn’t know what I said to you. I told her I didn’t say anything, that this has nothing to do with you.”

  “Thank you.” They reached the end of the road and stopped again. Nearby ducks splashed in the shaded shallows and farther out, a gull cried as it skimmed over the water’s surface.

  “But it does have something to do with you. It did from the minute she ducked into your store and got you to cover for her. I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I wasn’t criticizing you. Just stating a fact.”

  “I really don’t understand what’s going on.”

  “That makes two of us.” He sighed as they started the walk along the lake back toward their vehicles.

  “I have to ask you, were you in town last night?”r />
  Dalton looked surprised. “No, why?”

  “Nicci said she saw your pickup parked down the street and that you chased her down the alley to the shop.” Georgia saw by his expression that Nicci had lied again. “She got skinned up after falling down in the alley trying to get away from you, she said.”

  He shook his head, his gaze as soft as a caress. “She’s trying to get your sympathy. She must feel you pulling away.”

  “She would go to that kind of extreme? Hurting herself?” But even as Georgia said it, she knew Nicci would. And had.

  “I wish I could explain Nicci. I just know that she seems to latch on to a person and doesn’t let go. The harder you try to get away, the more insistent she becomes to the point of an obsession.”

  “Is that what she did with you?” Georgia asked.

  “Yeah.” His gaze met hers and held it for a long moment. “You sure you want to hear this?”

  “No, but maybe I need to.”

  He stopped as a flock of white pelicans flew over blotting out the sun for a moment. “I met Nicci in Galveston in a sailing bar. I guess I don’t have to tell you how she takes over your life the minute you meet her. At first, you like her.”

  “She has a way of making you feel special and close to her, as if you’ve known her your whole life.”

  He nodded and smiled. “Exactly. But then things start to sour if you don’t go along with the program or if you listen to anyone who might talk some sense to you about her.”

  Georgia felt her stomach tighten at his words. She thought of Rory and her feeling that Nicci was trying to put a wedge between them.

  Dalton was studying her. “You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? Nicci demands complete control over you. Cross her and…well, let’s just say you’ll regret it.”

  “You make her sound dangerous.”

  “She is dangerous,” Dalton said. “I woke up married to her, wondering how it had happened. I didn’t find the drug she’d given me until two days later on our honeymoon at sea when I got suspicious and switched wine glasses with her.”