Out of the Storm

by B. J Daniels

  As a tall man climbed out from behind the wheel, she stared, telling herself he had the wrong house even as her pulse thrummed in her ears. It was the way he moved. No limp. Not Jon. Her heart dropped as he moved toward her.

  And yet she could feel the chemistry that arced between them. It wasn’t something she wanted to feel because he was the wrong man, she told herself.

  He wore jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers along with a baseball cap and sunglasses. “Hi,” he called to her. Not Jon’s voice. A stranger. A man looking for directions. A man who just happened to have a boat named Katie.

  She’d often fantasized how Danny would come back to her. One day she’d open the door, and there he would be. Of course, Earl Ray had warned her that she wouldn’t recognize him. But once he told her who he was...

  “Can I help you?” she asked as he walked toward her. She still had her keys in her hand, her car door open—just like the garage door.

  “I hope so,” he said. She waited for him to ask directions. Clearly he was lost, since there was no place nearby to put that boat into the water.

  He must have seen how nervous he was making her, because he stopped just a few feet from her. He shook his head as he studied her. “I’m sorry. I’m making a mess of this. I can see that I’ve scared you. I’m sorry. My name’s Nick. Nick Ross. You’re more beautiful than even in my dreams.”

  She stared at him, trying to make sense of the words.

  “When Earl Ray told me that the beautiful brunette with the amazing green eyes was real and not just a figment of my delirium, I couldn’t wait to see you again. For months I’ve been trying to get back to you. Oh, Katie.” He said it with a softness that made her close her eyes to stem the tears.

  She tried to speak around the lump in her throat but couldn’t.

  “Katie.” He was so close now that she felt her name on his lips stir the hair next to her ear. He gently touched her shoulder. “I know I look nothing like the man you knew. Either of them. I’m not sure how they were able to put me back together, but all I could think about was seeing you again. Tell me I’m not too late.”

  She opened her eyes, reached over and lifted his sunglasses to see his sable brown eyes. “You’re right on time,” she said, her voice breaking as she threw herself into his arms. He held her tightly as if he never wanted to let her go. Her heart felt as if it might explode.

  Finally, she pulled back to look at him. Nick Ross stood before her, his handsome face twisted with anguish. He didn’t move, didn’t even seem to breathe.

  There was no holding back the tears. “Jon.” The name came out on a breath.

  “It’s Nick,” he said and smiled. “Think you can get used to that?”

  She let the tears fall, even though she was now laughing and smiling. “Nick,” she said. “Nick Ross.” His warm, brown gaze met hers as she buried her face into his shoulder. It felt as if she’d come home. Finally.

  “I was afraid to just come to your door. I know I look so different... I was worried, and then I saw this boat for sale and the name on the back. I knew it was a sign. So, I bought it.” His laugh was musical. She wanted to hear it for the rest of her life. “I realized it wasn’t just the boat and the name. It was my future.”

  She pulled back to gaze into those eyes again. “You came back to me.”

  “As soon as I was able. I couldn’t stay away. But Katie, I’m never going to be the man you married,” Nick said. “I don’t know that man.”

  “But you are that man, and you’re Jon. I fell in love with you both.”

  He laughed softly. “Any chance you could fall in love with Nick?”

  She leaned into him, breathing in his scent. She should have known the moment she saw the name on the boat and the man who walked toward her. She hadn’t realized that she’d said the words until he responded.

  “That’s how I feel. I should have known that I had a wife and daughters when I woke up in the hospital all those years ago. I can’t tell you how much guilt I’ve felt since learning that I was Daniel Jackson. How could I have not known?”

  “You had a terrible concussion. You didn’t even know who you were.”

  “I don’t know my daughters. Hell, I barely know you. But I want to get to know you. I want to get to know them. Can you see me for the man I am now? I can’t bear the thought that you might always still be looking for Danny.”

  She shook her head. Her days of looking for Danny were gone. “I fell in love with Jon. Even if the DNA hadn’t matched, I would still love you,” she said, wiping at her tears of joy. “So, you really bought that boat?”

  “How could I not? When I saw the name, I knew that was my future. I want to restore classic wooden boats. Apparently there’s money in it.” His voice softened. “I feel as if I spent half my life looking for you and not realizing it. Now that I’ve found you, I’m never going to let you go, Katie.”

  He pulled her to him and kissed her. It was like a Fourth of July fireworks show. All the chemistry she’d felt between them seemed to explode around them. She melted into his arms, telling herself that dreams do come true. Her husband had come home.

  As he drew back from the kiss, he asked, “What will we tell Mia and Danielle?”

  “Hopefully, we’ll know when the time comes. All that matters is that you’re here. That you’re back where you belong.”

  He grinned. “It’s nice to be home.”

  The summer sun lolled overhead as they walked over hand in hand to look at their new boat. The girls were going to love it. And love Nick, too.

  No more looking back for either of them. They had the future and rest of their lives together. Kate thought of their daughters, who would have their father to walk them down the aisle at their weddings. She thought of their grandchildren playing on Galveston Beach as she and Danny had when they were young. She thought of all the memories they would make together.

  She smiled at her husband as he took her hand again, and they walked up to the house. They were just getting started.

  * * *

  Look for the next novel in the

  Buckhorn, Montana series by

  New York Times

  bestselling author

  B.J. Daniels.

  Available March 2021

  wherever HQN Books are sold.

  Everyone says the hotel Casey Crenshaw inherited is haunted. She wants to sell it as quickly as possible, but Finn Faraday is throwing a wrench in her plans. He’s determined to figure out what happened at the hotel years ago, but Finn and Casey will soon discover that digging into the past can be dangerous...

  Read on for a sneak preview of From The Shadows,

  the second book in the Buckhorn, Montana series

  by New York Times bestselling author B.J. Daniels.

  From the Shadows

  by B.J. Daniels

  Chapter One

  FINN LAY ON the dusty floor of the massive, old and allegedly haunted Crenshaw Hotel and extended his arm as far as it would go into the dark cubby hole he’d discovered under the backstairs. A spider web latched onto his hand, startling him. He chuckled at how jumpy he was today as he shook the clinging strands from his fingers. He had more to worry about tan a few cobwebs. Shifting to reach deeper his fingers brushed over what appeared to be a notebook stuck in the very back.

  Megan Broadhurst’s missing diary? Had he finally gotten lucky?

  The air from the cubbyhole reeked of age and dust and added to the rancid smell of his own sweat. He should have been used to all of it by now. He’d spent the past few months searching this monstrous old relic by day. At night, he’d lain awake listening to its moans and groans, creaks and clanks as if the place were mocking him. What are you really looking for? Justice? Or absolution?

  What he hadn’t expected though was becoming invested in the history of the place and the people who’d owned it,
especially the new owner—who would be arriving any day now to see the hotel demolished. Casey Crenshaw had inherited the place after her grandmother’s recent death. Word was that she’d immediately put it up for sale to a buyer who planned to raze it.

  Finn had been looking for a place to disappear when he’d heard about the hotel, which had been boarded up and empty for the past two years. He’d known it would be his last chance before the hotel was destroyed. It had felt like fate as he’d gotten off the bus in Buckhorn and pried his way into the Crenshaw. He’d been in awe of the hotel, which had once been popular with presidents, the rich and famous and even royalty, the moment he stepped inside.

  He’d only become more fascinated when he’d stumbled across Anna Crenshaw’s journals. That’s why he felt as if he already knew her granddaughter, Casey. He was looking forward to finally meeting her.

  His fingers brushed over the notebook pages. He feared he would only push it farther back into the dark space or worse that its pages would tear before he could get good purchase. Carefully he eased the notebook out.

  This was the first thing he’d found that had been so well hidden. He hoped that meant it was the diary that not even the county marshal and all his deputies had been able to find.

  He coughed from the thick dust that floated into the air as he sat up, bringing the notebook with him as he got to his feet. As he did, he caught his reflection in the mirror on the wall and was startled by the man he saw. His dark hair was way too long, his beard scruffy.

  Shaking his head, he had to smile. Most everyone in Buckhorn, Montana, thought he was homeless and that’s why he’d been hold up in the hotel for the past few months. He definitely looked the part.

  He ran a hand over his beard, hardly recognizing himself. For months he’d avoided mirrors, avoided looking himself in the eye. At one time, it had made sense coming here. He’d known the place was empty. It had been boarded up due to the elderly owner’s declining health and subsequent death.

  But now new owner, Casey Crenshaw, was on her way. From what he’d heard, she couldn’t wait to have the hotel razed. That seemed odd—unless you’d spent some time in this hotel at night, he thought with a laugh.

  Last night, he’d stood at the window looking out at Buckhorn and wondering who was looking back at him. That feeling of being watched had never been stronger. What he hadn’t expected? After all, the Crenshaw was famous for its ghosts—especially Megan’s.

  But there was also the chance that Casey Crenshaw wanted the hotel destroyed as soon as possible because she was trying to cover up a murder.

  He’d come here looking for answers, but now he wondered if he was really ready to know the truth about this place—let alone the new owner. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he bent down and shone his flashlight into the hole. There was nothing more in the space.

  Rising, he considered the notebook. He felt like an archeologist who’d dug for days to discover nothing. Just this morning, he’d been telling himself what a waste of time this had been, but time was something he had plenty of, didn’t he.

  He flipped open the notebook, hoping, but was quickly disappointed. All there appeared to be were blank pages. Finn let out a curse. He was covered with dust and grime and had gone to all that trouble for nothing. He started to fling the notebook away when his gaze caught on a page with scrawled words. He squinted to read the cramped handwriting.

  I’m not a psychopath. I’m just sick. It’s not my fault that I kill them.

  Finn felt his pulse jump. What the hell was this?

  I shouldn’t write this down. I’m not supposed to tell anyone or they will put me away. But when I’m dead no one will understand. They’ll blame me. It’s this hotel. There’s evil here and sometimes it makes me do things I don’t want to do. I shouldn’t keep a list of their names, but I do anyway because they shouldn’t be forgotten.

  I know other people don’t feel like this. But I can’t control it.

  There is something wrong with me and I have to hide it. She tells me to bury it deep so no one can ever know what I’ve done. But I can feel it building again and it scares me.

  I don’t want to do it again. Someone please help me.

  Please don’t make me do it again.

  He examined the notebook looking for a date, a name, anything else.

  There was nothing. Just the one page, the writing becoming smaller and less legible toward the end. He told himself it could be nothing more than someone’s imagination on paper.

  But he didn’t believe that. He could almost feel the author’s pain and his own because it confirmed what he’d come to suspect.

  The Crenshaw Hotel had a killer—and Megan Boardhurst wasn’t the only victim.

  Don’t miss

  From the Shadows by B.J. Daniels,

  available March 2021 wherever

  Harlequin® books and ebooks are sold.

  www.Harlequin.com

  Copyright © 2021 by Barbara Heinlein

  ISBN-13: 9781488077715

  Out of the Storm

  Copyright © 2020 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.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  For questions and comments about the quality of this book, please contact us at CustomerService@Harlequin.com.

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