by B. J Daniels
Worried, she’d gone online and found an address for him but no phone number. In retrospect, she should never have written the letter—not in the mood she’d been in. What she hated most since he hadn’t answered her letter or called, was that she had written how much she missed him and how she’d never gotten over him and how she regretted their breakup.
She’d stuffed the letter into the envelope addressed to him and, wiping her tears, had left it on her desk in her old room at the ranch as she climbed into bed. The next morning before daylight her mother had called up to her room to say that the mare had gone into labor. Forgetting all about the letter, she’d been so excited about the new foal that she’d put everything else out of her mind. By the time she remembered the letter, it was gone. Her aunt Stacy had seen it, put a stamp on the envelope and mailed it for her.
At first, Mary had been in a panic, expecting Chase to call as soon as he received the letter. She’d played the conversation in her head every way she thought possible, all but one of them humiliating. As days passed, she’d still held out hope. Now after more than two weeks and that horrible phone call, she knew it was really over and she had to accept it.
Still her heart ached. Chase had been her first love. Did anyone ever get over their first love? He had obviously moved on. Mary took another deep breath and tried to put it out of her mind. She loved summer here in the canyon. The temperature was perfect—never too cold or too hot. A warm breeze swayed the pine boughs and keeled over the tall grass in the pasture nearby. Closer a horse whinnied from the corral next to the barn as a hawk made a slow lazy circle in the clear blue overhead.
Days like this she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. She took another deep breath. She needed to get back to her office. She had work to do. Along with doing the ranch books for Cardwell Ranch, she had taken on work from other ranches in the canyon and built a lucrative business.
She would get over Chase or die trying, she told herself. As she straightened her back, her tears dried, and she walked toward her SUV. She’d give Deputy Dillon Ramsey a call. It was time she moved on. Like falling off a horse, she was ready to saddle up again. Forgetting Chase wouldn’t be easy, but if anyone could help the process, she figured Dillon Ramsey was the man to do it.
Chapter Three
Chase was carrying the last of his things out to his pickup when he saw Fiona drive up. He swore under his breath. He’d hoped to leave without a scene. Actually, he’d been surprised that she hadn’t come by sooner. As she was friends with Rick’s wife, Patty, Chase was pretty sure she had intel into how the packing and leaving had been going.
He braced himself as he walked to his pickup and put the final box into the back. He heard Fiona get out of her car and walk toward him. He figured it could go several ways. She would try seduction or tears or raging fury, or a combination of all three.
Hands deep in the pockets of her jacket as she approached, she gave him a shy smile. It was that smile that had appealed to him that first night. He’d been vulnerable, and he suspected she’d known it. Did she think that smile would work again?
He felt guilty for even thinking that she was so calculating and yet he’d seen the way she’d worked him. “Fiona, I don’t want any trouble.”
“Trouble?” She chuckled. “I heard you were moving out today. I only wanted to come say goodbye.”
Chase wished that was the extent of it, but he’d come to know her better than that. “I think we covered goodbye the last time we saw each other.”
She ignored that. “I know you’re still angry with me—”
“Fiona—”
Tears welled in her green eyes as if she could call them up at a moment’s notice. “Chase, at least give me a hug goodbye. Please.” Before he could move, she closed the distance between them. As she did, her hands came out of her jacket pockets. The blade of the knife in her right hand caught the light as she started to put her arms around his neck.
As he jerked back, he grabbed her wrist. “What the—” He cursed as he tightened his grip on her wrist holding the knife. She was stronger than she looked. She struggled to stab him as she screamed obscenities at him.
The look in her eyes was almost more frightening than the knife clutched in her fist. He twisted her wrist until she cried out and dropped the weapon. The moment it hit the ground, he let go of her, realizing he was hurting her.
She dived for the knife, but he kicked it away, chasing after it before she could pick it up again. She leaped at him, pounding on his back as she tried to drag him to the ground.
He threw her off. She stumbled and fell to the grass and began to cry hysterically. He stared down at her. Had she really tried to kill him?
“Don’t! Don’t kill me!” she screamed, raising her hands as if she thought he was going to stab her. He’d forgotten that he’d picked up the knife, but he wasn’t threatening her with it.
He didn’t understand what was going on until he realized they were no longer alone. Fiona had an audience. Some of the apartment tenants had come out. One of them, an elderly woman, was fumbling with her phone as if to call the cops.
“Everything is all right,” he quickly told the woman.
The older woman looked from Fiona to him and back. Her gaze caught on the knife he was holding at his side.
“There is no reason to call the police,” Chase said calmly as he walked to the trash cans lined up along the street, opened one and dropped the knife into the bottom.
“That’s my best knife!” Fiona yelled. “You owe me for that.”
He saw that the tenant was now staring at Fiona, who was brushing off her jeans as she got to her feet.
“What are you staring at, you old crone? Go back inside before I take that phone away from you and stick it up your—”
“Fiona,” Chase said as the woman hurriedly turned and rushed back inside. He shook his head as he gave Fiona a wide berth as he headed toward his apartment to lock up. “Go home before the police come.”
“She won’t call. She knows I’ll come back here if she does.”
He hoped Fiona was right about the woman not making the call. Otherwise, he’d be held up making a statement to the police—that’s if he didn’t end up behind bars. He didn’t doubt that Fiona would lie through her teeth about the incident.
“She won’t make you happy,” Fiona screamed after him as he opened the door to his apartment, keeping an eye on her the whole time. The last thing he wanted was her getting inside. If she didn’t have another weapon, he had no doubt she’d find one.
Stopping in the doorway, he looked back at her. Her makeup had run along with her nose. She hadn’t bothered to wipe either. She looked small, and for a moment his heart went out to her. What had happened to that professional, together woman he’d met at the party?
“You need to get help, Fi.”
She scoffed at that. “You’re the one who needs help, Chase.”
He stepped inside, closed and locked the door, before sliding the dead bolt. Who’s to say she didn’t have a half dozen spare keys made. She’d lied about the building manager opening the door for her. She’d lied about a lot of things. He had no idea who Fiona Barkley was. But soon she would be nothing more than a bad memory, he told himself as he finished checking to make sure he hadn’t left anything. When he looked out, he saw her drive away.
Only then did he pick up his duffel bag, lock the apartment door behind him and head for his truck, anxious to get on the road to Montana. But as he neared his pickup, he saw what Fiona had left him. On the driver’s-side window scrawled crudely in lipstick were the words You’ll regret it.
That was certainly true. He regretted it already. He wondered what would happen to her and feared for the next man who caught her eye. Maybe the next man would handle it better, he told himself.
Tossing his duffel bag onto the passenger seat, he pulled an old rag
from under the seat and wiped off what he could of the lipstick. Then, climbing into this truck, he pointed it toward Montana and Mary, putting Fiona out of his mind.
* * *
THERE WERE DAYS when Dana felt all sixty-two of her years. Often when she looked at her twenty-eight-year-old daughter, Mary, she wondered where the years had gone. She felt as if she’d merely blinked and her baby girl had grown into a woman.
Being her first and only daughter, Mary had a special place in her heart. So when Mary hurt, Dana did too. Ever since Chase and Mary had broken up and he’d left town, her daughter had been heartsick, and Dana had had no idea how to help her.
She knew that kind of pain. Hud had broken her heart years ago when they’d disagreed and he’d taken off. But he’d come back, and their love had overcome all the obstacles that had been thrown at them since. She’d hoped that Mary throwing herself into her accounting business would help. But as successful as Mary now was with her business, the building she’d bought, the apartments she’d remodeled and rented, there was a hole in her life—and her heart. A mother could see it.
“Sis, have you heard a word I’ve said?”
Dana looked from the window where she’d been watching Mary unsaddling her horse to where her brother sat at the kitchen table across from her. “Sorry. Did you just say cattle thieves?”
Jordan shook his head at her and smiled. There’d been a time when she and her brother had been at odds over the ranch. Fortunately, those days were long behind them. He’d often said that the smartest thing he’d ever done was to come back here, make peace and help Dana run Cardwell Ranch. She couldn’t agree more.
“We lost another three head. Hud blames paleo diets,” Jordan said, and picked up one of the chocolate chip cookies Dana had baked that morning.
“How many does this make?” she asked.
“There’s at least a dozen gone,” her brother said.
She looked to her husband who sat at the head of the table and had also been watching Mary out the window. Hud reached for another cookie. He came home every day for lunch and had for years. Today she’d made sandwiches and baked his favorite cookies.
“They’re hitting at night, opening a gate, cutting out only a few at a time and herding them to the road where they have a truck waiting,” the marshal said. “They never hit in the same part of any ranch twice, so unless we can predict where they’re going to show up next... We aren’t the only ones who’ve had losses.”
“We could hire men to ride the fences at night,” Jordan said.
“I’ll put a deputy or two on the back roads for a couple of nights and see what we come up with,” Hud said and, pushing away his plate and getting to his feet, shot Dana a questioning look.
Jordan, apparently recognizing the gesture, also got to his feet and excused himself. As he left, Hud said, “I know something is bothering you, and it isn’t rustlers.”
She smiled up at him. He knew her so well, her lover, her husband, her best friend. “It’s Mary. Stacy told me earlier that she mailed a letter from Mary to Chase a few weeks ago. Mary hasn’t heard back.”
Hud groaned. “You have any idea what was in the letter?”
“No, but since she’s been moping around I’d say she is still obviously in love with him.” She shrugged. “I don’t think she’s ever gotten over him.”
Her husband shook his head. “Why didn’t we have all boys?”
“Our sons will fall in love one day and will probably have their heartbreaks as well.” She had the feeling that Hud hadn’t heard the latest. “She’s going out with Deputy Dillon Ramsey tonight.”
Hud swore and raked a hand through his graying hair. “I shouldn’t have mentioned that there was something about him that made me nervous.”
She laughed. “If you’re that worried about him, then why don’t you talk to her?”
Her husband shot her a look that said he knew their stubborn daughter only too well. “Tell her not to do something and damned if she isn’t even more bound and determined to do it.”
Like he had to tell her that. Mary was just like her mother and grandmother. “It’s just a date,” Dana said, hoping there wasn’t anything to worry about.
Hud grumbled under his breath as he reached for his Stetson. “I have to get back to work.” His look softened. “You think she’s all right?”
Dana wished she knew. “She will be, given time. I think she needs to get some closure from Chase. His not answering her letter could be what she needed to move on.”
“I hope not with Dillon Ramsey.”
“Seriously, what is it about him that worries you?” Dana asked.
He frowned. “I can’t put my finger on it. I hired him as a favor to his uncle down in Wyoming. Dillon’s cocky and opinionated.”
Dana laughed. “I used to know a deputy like that.”
Hud grinned. “Point taken. He’s also still green.”
“I don’t think that’s the part that caught Mary’s attention.”
Her husband groaned. “I’d like to see her with someone with both feet firmly planted on the ground.”
“You mean someone who isn’t in law enforcement. Chase Steele wasn’t.”
“I liked him well enough,” Hud said grudgingly. “But he hadn’t sowed his wild oats yet. They were both too young, and he needed to get out of here and get some maturity under his belt, so to speak.”
“She wanted him to stay and fight for her. Sound familiar?”
Hud’s smile was sad. “Sometimes a man has to go out into the world, grow up, figure some things out.” He reached for her hand. “That’s what I did when I left. It made me realize what I wanted. You.”
She stepped into his arms, leaning into his strength, thankful for the years they’d had together raising a family on this ranch. “Mary’s strong.”
“Like her mother.”
“She’ll be all right,” Dana said, hoping it was true.
* * *
CHASE WAS DETERMINED to drive as far as he could the first day, needing to put miles behind him. He thought of Fiona and felt sick to his stomach. He kept going over it in his head, trying to understand if he’d done anything to lead her on beyond that one night. He was clear with her that he was not in the market for anything serious. His biggest mistake though was allowing himself a moment of weakness when he’d let himself be seduced.
But before that he’d explained to her that he was in love with someone else. She said she didn’t care. That she wasn’t looking for a relationship. She’d said that she needed him that night because she’d had a bad day.
Had he really fallen for that? He had. And when she became obsessed, he’d been shocked and felt sorry for her. Maybe he shouldn’t have.
He felt awful, and not even the miles he put behind him made him feel better. He wished he’d never left Montana, but at the time, leaving seemed the only thing to do. He’d worked his way south, taking carpenter jobs, having no idea where he was headed.
When he’d gotten the call from his mother to say she was dying and that she’d needed to see him, he’d quit his job, packed up and headed for Quartsite, Arizona, in hopes that his mother would finally give him the name.
Chase had never known who his father was. It was a secret his mother refused to reveal for reasons of her own. Once in Arizona, though, he’d realized that she planned to take that secret to her grave. On her death bed, she’d begged him to do one thing for her. Would he take her ashes back to Montana and scatter them in the Gallatin Canyon near Big Sky?
“That’s where I met your father,” she said, her voice weak. “He was the love of my life.”
She hadn’t given him a name, but at least he knew now that the man had lived in Big Sky at the time of Chase’s conception. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.
* * *
HE WAS IN the middle of
nowhere just outside of Searchlight, Nevada, when smoke began to boil out from under the pickup’s hood. He started to pull over when the engine made a loud sound and stopped dead. As he rolled to stop, his first thought was: could Fiona have done something to his pickup before he left?
Anger filled him to overflowing. But it was another emotion that scared him. He had a sudden awful feeling that something terrible was going to happen to Mary if he didn’t get to Montana. Soon. The feeling was so strong that he thought about leaving his pickup beside the road and thumbing a ride the rest of the way.
Chase tried to tamp down the feeling, telling himself that it was because of Fiona and what she’d done before he’d left when she’d tried to kill him, not to mention what she’d done to his pickup. The engine was shot. He’d have to get a new one and that was going to take a while.
That bad feeling though wouldn’t go away. After he called for a tow truck, he dialed the Jensen Ranch, the closest ranch to Mary’s. He figured if anyone would know how Mary was doing, it would be Beth Anne Jensen. She answered on the third ring. “It’s Chase.” He heard the immediate change in her voice and realized she was probably the wrong person to call, but it was too late. Beth Anne had liked him a little too much when he’d worked for her family and it had caused a problem between him and Mary.
“Hey Chase. Are you back in town?”
“No, I was just calling to check on Mary. I was worried about her. I figured you’d know how she’s doing. Is everything all right with her?”
Beth Anne’s tone changed from sugar to vinegar. “As far as I know everything is just great with her. Is that all you wanted to know?”
This was definitely a mistake. “How are you?”
“I opened my own flower shop. I’ve been dating a rodeo cowboy. I’m just fine, as if you care.” She sighed. “So if you’re still hung up on Mary, why haven’t you come back?”
Stubbornness. Stupidity. Pride. A combination of all three. “I just had a sudden bad feeling that she might be in trouble.”
