by B. J Daniels
She smiled at Finn. She often forgot how well he knew the residents of Buckhorn. She’d known Vi almost her whole life and agreed with him. “She must be devastated, since she was the first lady of Buckhorn.”
“Especially after what was found hidden in her room.” Not just the white dress with what had been sprayed on it to look like blood, but also an extra blond wig. Now she was looking at criminal charges, since she’d knowingly helped her brother to try to cover up his crimes. But the marshal said she would probably just get probation.
Her husband, Axel, had filed for divorce and left town. Vi still had the general store, her antiques barn and their house since apparently it had been her family money that had purchased all of it.
“I’m surprised she’s staying here, though,” Casey said as she looked down the main drag of Buckhorn.
“She has a hundred hours of community service to do, and doesn’t her daughter still live here?”
“Tina? Yes. She’s pregnant.” Baby’s father unknown, but she was still living with Lars, and Lars was still having an affair with Shirley at the motel.
The story of the women Emery killed had gone viral. Buckhorn was on the map again, but maybe the ghosts would finally be at peace, as well as those poor young women’s families. She felt Finn’s blue gaze on her.
“You haven’t mentioned the hotel.”
She shrugged as she looked down the highway toward the spot where her grandmother’s Old Girl had stood. Casey had wanted it gone. Well, it was now. “I came home to sell the Crenshaw. I just hadn’t planned to stay around to see it be razed. By the way, I can’t take your money now.”
“The deal was done before it was destroyed,” Finn said and smiled. “I actually come out better with the loss on my taxes this way.”
Casey studied him. “What will you do with the land?”
“I’m donating it to the town. I guess there is talk that it could be a park. Unless there’s something you’d like me to do with it.”
She shook her head. “I promised my grandmother I would get the things that meant so much to her. I did that. I also promised her I would release Megan’s ghost and get closure for myself and her. I never planned to keep that promise, but as it turned out, I got everything and more.” Her gaze met his. “Ready?”
* * *
FINN LEANED OVER to kiss her softly on the lips. “Ready. It was nice of you to offer me a ride to San Francisco, but you do realize you’re not going to get rid of me that easily?”
She grinned. “You have something in mind?” she asked as she started the engine.
His dark gaze held hers. “As a matter of fact, I do. Maybe I’ll tell you about it on the drive.” He’d come here looking for redemption for not saving Megan. The truth was he’d been hiding out here, looking for something he couldn’t name until he’d started reading Anna’s journals and had met Casey. He saw her look again in the direction where the hotel had stood.
“Emery believed there was an evil in it that made him do what he did. I wonder if Jen believes that, too?”
He shook his head. “Megan brought her lies and her unhappiness with her. So did the others. I spent months in that old monstrosity. I fell in love with the Crenshaw and its new owner. Maybe we find what we’re seeking, even when we don’t know what we are really looking for.” She turned to smile at him. “Your grandmother believed that we get what we put into life. I think she was right.”
Casey shook her head. “My grandmother sent out those reunion invitations. Her attorney told me. She couldn’t have been in her right mind.”
He laughed. “I don’t know about that. She invited me. I assume Megan’s parents must have told her about me when they asked her to take Megan for the summer. They weren’t just getting her away from the fallout from the car wreck. They were getting her away from me. Your grandmother was making sure you and I crossed paths. We both had to put the past behind us, make things right and give her peace of mind. Anna was always worried that one of her guests might have been responsible for those missing girls. She’d never dreamed it was Emery.”
“Like he said, Anna was always kind to him,” Casey said as she hit the gas and pulled out of the Sleepy Pine Motel parking lot and onto the two-lane blacktop that would eventually take them to San Francisco.
“I’m just thankful that she got us together,” Finn said.
“What are you saying? That Anna planned it this way?”
He grinned and tilted his face back to take in Montana’s big sky overhead. Sunlight lit his dark hair whipping in the wind and made his eyes shine when he glanced over at her as she gunned the engine. “I like to think she did.”
Casey laughed. “I have to admit, it would be just like her.” She looked at the road ahead as she sped past where the Crenshaw Hotel had once stood, its scars still visible. But she was no longer dwelling on the past.
She was looking to the future from now on. Not that she had any idea where she and Finn were headed. West, until they hit the Pacific Ocean, was all she knew.
“We can’t see the future, and there’s no reason to be looking over our shoulders all the time at the past,” her grandmother used to say with a wink. “We have to look ahead and have faith that everything will turn out just as it’s supposed to.”
As Casey sped down the highway, she glanced back in her rearview mirror. Buckhorn, Montana, dissolved into the horizon. Finn turned on the radio, cranking up the music, and she pointed the car toward the ocean, leaving the shadows behind.
EPILOGUE
CASEY ALMOST DIDN’T hear the text ping on her phone over the roar of the ocean waves. She pulled out her cell to see that Bessie Walker had sent her a photograph of the new city park at the edge of Buckhorn.
Smiling, Casey showed Finn. It was as if the Crenshaw had never existed. All that could be seen were grass, mountains and pine trees, sparkling green against Montana’s big, open sky. She texted a thank-you and pocketed her phone, thinking her grandmother would be pleased.
The Pacific Ocean lapped at her bare feet as she turned to look out at the sinking sun balanced on the water. Finn came up behind, drawing her back against him as his big hands covered her protruding belly and the baby they’d made growing inside her.
“I wish Anna had lived to see this,” Casey said as she placed her hands over Finn’s. “Sometimes, I swear I can feel her smiling down on us. She always did love a happy ending—especially if she had something to do with it.”
“Funny, but I’ve been thinking about her lately as well,” he said and turned her in his arms to look into her eyes before he kissed her. “I love you, Mrs. James.”
She smiled, thankful that they were no longer looking over their shoulders into the past. Their eyes were wide-open with wonder and looking ahead with excitement.
Finn kissed her again and put his arm around her shoulders. They wandered down the beach toward the beach house he’d given her for a wedding present. Today they would finish the baby’s room in a pale yellow, since they’d opted to wait and be surprised. But Casey had dreamed that she was having a little girl whom they would name after her grandmother. Probably more of Anna’s doing, Casey thought with a smile.
Snuggling against Finn, she couldn’t see the future, but she could feel it spreading out before them. As she glanced toward the blue sky overhead, she thought of Montana and her grandmother.
As she did, she wondered if she would ever see Buckhorn again. She could almost hear her grandmother’s words. “Have faith. Everything will turn out just as it is supposed to.”
* * *
Look for the next title in New York Times bestselling author B.J. Daniels’s Buckhorn, Montana series. Read on for a sneak peek where new characters are At the Crossroads.
At the Crossroads
by B.J. Daniels
BOBBY BRADEN WIPED the blood off his fingers, noticing that he’d sme
ared some on the steering wheel. He pulled his shirtsleeve down and cleaned the streak of red away, the van swerving as he did.
“Hey, watch it!” In the passenger seat, Gene Drummond checked his side mirror. “All we need is for a cop to pull us over,” he said in his deep, gravelly voice. It had reminded Bobby of the sound a chain saw made. “If one of them sees you driving crazy—”
“I got it,” Bobby snapped. “Go back to sleep,” he said under his breath as he checked the rearview mirror. The black line of highway behind them was as empty as the highway in front of them. There was no one out here in the middle of Montana on a Sunday this early in the morning—especially this time of year with Christmas only weeks away. He really doubted there would be a cop or highway patrol. But he wasn’t about to argue. He knew where that would get him.
He stared ahead at the narrow strip of blacktop, wondering why Gene had been so insistent on them coming this way. Shouldn’t they try to cross into Canada? If Gene had a plan, he hadn’t shared it. Same with the bank job. No one had expected it to go sideways the way it had—especially Gene, from what Bobby could tell.
Concentrating on staying between the lines, he took a breath and let it out slowly. He could smell the blood and the sweat and the sweet scent of a dryer sheet that rose from his shirt, which he’d stolen off a clothesline somewhere in Wyoming. The shirt was too big, but he’d liked the color. Blue like his eyes. It bothered him that he’d gotten blood on the sleeve. The smear kept catching his eye, distracting him.
At a sound behind him, he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Vic’s anxious face. “How’s Gus?” Bobby asked, keeping his voice down. He could hear Gene snoring, but not his usual foghorn sound. Which meant he wasn’t completely out yet. Or he could be faking it.
“Not good.” Vic moved closer, putting one big hand on Bobby’s seat as he leaned forward and dropped his voice. “He’s not going to make it.”
Bobby met his gaze in the rearview mirror for a moment, a silent agreement passing between them. They both knew what would happen if Gene’s younger brother died.
“We aren’t leaving Gus behind,” Gene said without opening his eyes. “He’ll pull through. He’s strong.” He opened his eyes and looked around. “Where the hell are we?”
“According to the last sign I saw, just outside Buckhorn, Montana,” Bobby said.
“Good. There’s a café in town. Go there,” Gene said, making Bobby realize that had been the man’s plan all along. “We’ll get food and medical supplies for Gus and dump this van for a different ride.” He pulled the pistol from beneath his belt and checked to see how many shots he had left before tucking it in again under the jean jacket he’d gotten off the clothesline.
Bobby met Vic’s gaze again in the mirror. This could get a lot worse.
Copyright © 2021 by Barbara Heinlein
ISBN-13: 9781488077845
From the Shadows
Copyright © 2021 by Barbara Heinlein
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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