Deadly Secret

by B. J Daniels

  Emma felt sick. Her stepsons needed her more than ever with their father in jail. “You have to let me go to them. What is the point of keeping me here anyway?”

  “Do you have any idea what evidence the sheriff might have wanted to show them?”

  She shook her head. “Don’t you? You hear everything that is going on at that house. Aggie, this is crazy, surely you realize that? What is it you hope to hear over there?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Try me,” Emma said, although she suspected Aggie was right.

  “I told you. Your life is in danger and someone is trying to frame your husband for murder. I’m just trying to prove it.”

  Emma shook her head and laughed. “You’re the one who is trying to frame Hoyt for even your murder. You’re the one who drugged me and now has me locked up here.”

  Aggie shook her head. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me any more than the sheriff would if I took my story to her. There’s more going on here than you know,” she said mysteriously.

  Emma groaned as Aggie moved to the door.

  “You’re just going to have to trust that I know what I’m doing.”

  Good luck with that, Emma thought but wisely didn’t say as the woman left, locking the door behind her.

  * * *

  The thunderstorm that had been brewing on the horizon moved in so quickly, it seemed to take them all by surprise. They moved the calves down to the meadow, turning them out to find their mothers. The noise from the cows and their bawling calves at first hid the sound of thunder on the horizon.

  Jinx noticed the wind first. It picked up, bending the tall tops of the pines and sending dust devils whirling across the patch of dirt in front of the old ranch house.

  She squinted as dust filled the air. The clouds snuffed out the last of the light as they moved in. It felt as if someone had dropped a dark blanket over them.

  Jinx felt nothing. A numbness had settled into her bones. She sat on her horse knowing that the rustlers were watching her, almost daring her to take advantage of the storm to make a run for it.

  She knew if she made an abrupt move, one of them would shoot her and take their chances with Rafe. She saw him ride away for a moment to talk to his men, but she knew he was watching her out of the corner of his eye.

  Any other time she might have taken her chances, spurred her horse and tried to make the top of the hill behind the old ranch house. She could see the deep eroded gullies around it and a part of her knew if she could reach one of them, she would get away.

  But all the fight had gone out of her. Dawson was dead. She’d gotten him killed.

  Lightning splintered the dark sky, followed only moments later by a burst of thunder that boomed as if right over their heads. The first drops of rain were hard and cold and made her stir as if she’d been in a daze.

  Rafe grabbed her reins again and rode her over to the house. “Take care of the horses,” he yelled to one of his men as he dragged her from her mount and shoved her toward the front door.

  The huge drops of rain slanted down, stinging as they struck, the wall of rain obliterating everything around them. In a flash of lightning, Rafe threw open the front door and shoved her inside the dark cold house. Thunder rumbled around them.

  She heard Rafe turn the skeleton key in the lock. Not that he probably needed to. She suspected he’d told his men not to come near the house no matter what they heard.

  Jinx turned toward him, realizing what he had planned. She could barely see him in the darkness except when lightning flashed through the windows. She shivered, suddenly aware of the cold and her wet clothing that now stuck to her skin.

  He let out a soft chuckle. “Now it’s just you and me, Miss Brittany Bo ‘Jinx’ Clarke.”

  She felt the numbness leave her. He knew who she was. So he also knew why she was here. She thought she’d feel more fear knowing what this meant. Instead, her anger and need for justice rushed through her with a renewed fire.

  “The boss really wants to see you.”

  “Oh yeah? I really want to see him,” she said. She knew now why he hadn’t killed her. He was taking her to the boss. Isn’t that what she’d always wanted?

  She tried not to let herself think about the cost.

  “By the way, who is the boss?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “Not so fast, sweetheart.”

  Jinx stepped to Rafe, catching him off guard as she pressed her palms to his chest. “Why don’t we go meet him right now? Or did you have something else in mind?”

  In a burst of lightning, she saw him grin as he pressed his body to hers. “And here I thought I was going to have to force you.”

  She smiled up at him. “I’ve played enough poker to know when to throw in my hand.”

  Rafe chuckled. “I’ve been looking forward to this.”

  “Me, too.” Jinx pulled his gun quickly, but Rafe surprised her with the speed with which he reacted. He grabbed for the pistol as she stepped back, his hand clamping down on her wrist.

  She struggled to free herself as his other hand shot out to grab a handful of her hair.

  “I was hoping you’d put up a fight,” Rafe said, anger making his voice sound like sandpaper as he jerked her against him, both of them still struggling for the weapon. “You’re going to regret this.”

  Jinx already regretted it. Her plan had been to walk him out of here at gunpoint. Force him to take her to his boss. End this once and for all.

  Rafe was twisting her wrist and she could feel the weapon slipping from her fingers. Once he had the gun—

  The gunshot boomed inside the empty old house like the blast of a cannon. It echoed around her, the surprise of the sound making her freeze.

  Rafe released his grip on her as he grabbed his chest. In a flash of lightning, he dropped to his knees in front of her. Thunder rumbled, rattling the windows.

  “He’ll kill you,” Rafe said through gritted teeth.

  “Tell me who you’re working for,” she said, dropping beside him.

  He looked at her dumbly. She could see pain and shock in his eyes.

  “Tell me,” she pleaded.

  He opened his mouth. A bubble of blood appeared at the corner of his lips. As another bolt of lightning splintered the sky outside, he fell face-first onto the dirty wooden floor.

  Jinx stumbled back, her heart in her throat. “No!” For a moment she was too shocked and upset to think clearly.

  At a sound beyond the broken window, she spun around, realizing the men might have heard the gun blast over the storm and would be busting down the door any moment. Thunder cracked overhead. Lightning illuminated the two of them in flickering flashes, followed by another crack of thunder that seemed to shake the floor under her as she stood, trembling, the gun dangling at her side.

  What was she going to do now?

  Chapter 10

  Dawson came to slowly. At first all he felt was cold. Then came the pain, the confusion. He blinked for a moment, thinking he’d gone blind.

  The darkness was total. He blinked again. Something sticky ran down into his eye and when he raised his hand to the spot over his eye, his fingers came away wet with blood from a gash in his forehead.

  He wiped the blood away and tried to sit up, suddenly aware of his shoulder. It, too, was wet with blood. He lay there for a moment breathing in the damp, musty air. He could hear what sounded like gunfire outside and, between the volleys, could hear what sounded like rain. Under him he felt cold dirt and sensed he was underground.

  With the memory of what had happened, he pushed himself up, fighting the pain; his only thought was of Jinx.

  “Jinx?” he said as he felt around on the cold floor. “Jinx?” He listened but heard nothing but the haunting echo of his own voice. Reaching out in front of him, he felt something cold
and solid. A rock wall. He inched his fingers along it until he came to what felt like weathered wood. A door? He discovered a hinge and pulled himself to his feet, using the wall for balance until the dizziness subsided.

  The doorknob was ice-cold to the touch. He turned it. The door swung open and the space filled with a dim, rain-streaked light. He stumbled out into a small covered space that ended in a row of stairs leading upward.

  He could hear the thunder now, see flashes of lightning. Breathing in the sweet scent of rain, he stepped back out into the downpour. He still felt wobbly on his feet, but some of his strength was coming back.

  Glancing back, he made sure that Jinx wasn’t in a corner of what he saw was an old root cellar that had been dug back under the house. His attackers had shot him and thrown him down here, probably thinking no one would find his body.

  But where was Jinx?

  Dawson began to climb the steps, his memory coming back to him as he mounted each old stone step. The rustlers had waited in ambush and attacked. He told himself he should have known they would do that. Hadn’t they already killed one man?

  But he hadn’t anticipated an attack. He’d believed that they were more interested in his cattle. Apparently they were more worried about Jinx than he’d thought they would be.

  Still, something niggled at the back of his mind. First her father, and now they were after Jinx. Probably had Jinx. The thought sent his heart pounding. What would they do to her? He hated to think.

  With dread, he went to find her.

  The thunderstorm snuffed out most of the day’s light. Low clouds hung over the ranch yard. Through the driving rain he saw the spot next to the wishing well where he’d last seen Jinx.

  Their horses were gone. No big surprise there. As he moved through the downpour, he looked for any sign of her and saw nothing. The old cabin was small and empty. At the wishing well, he stopped and looked down. The well was too narrow to stuff a body down. He felt relieved, though only a little.

  After a quick search, it was clear.

  Jinx was gone.

  So were the cattle and his horse. The rustlers had taken her. As he bandaged his shoulder as best he could and washed the blood from his face, he told himself that their taking her alive was a good sign. They had left him for dead and could have done the same thing with her. He had to assume they had a reason for keeping her alive—at least for the time being.

  Though he wasn’t fool enough to think she was safe. If anything, he was all the more worried about her. Where would they take her? In a flash of lightning he looked down the mountain toward the prairie. They wouldn’t be crazy enough to try to move the cattle in a thunderstorm, would they?

  For a moment he thought he heard the mooing of his cattle. He moved toward the sound, climbing up the small hill behind the cabin. At the top he waited for another crack of lightning. He didn’t have to wait long. The sky lit up, illuminating a ranch house in the distance and a large herd of black cows.

  Relief washed over him like the pouring rain. He watched, trying to estimate how many of them there might be. He’d seen at least one rider and knew there would have to be several watching the herd. The cattle would be spooked with the thunder and lightning. Just about anything could start another stampede and the cattle could scatter for miles.

  In the darkness that followed the lightning strike, Dawson saw what appeared to be a small fire glowing under an overhang on an outbuilding a little way from the house. There were no lights on in the house, no sign of Jinx. But there were horses in the corral, his and Jinx’s included.

  Dawson knew what he had to do. The bastards had tried to kill him. They’d left him for dead. Taken his horse. And his woman.

  The thought of Jinx being his woman made him smile. She would never belong to any man. But a man would be damned lucky if he could talk her into sharing her life with him.

  With each step, he thought about her and how to get her away from the rustlers. He had no weapon and he’d lost just enough blood that he was unsteady on his feet. But he was alive, and with his last breath he would find a way.

  He smiled to himself as he realized that he wasn’t going after the rustlers for justice. Or revenge. Or even his cattle. All he wanted was Jinx.

  * * *

  Zane watched the plane bank over the Billings rimrocks and thought about what he’d learned in California.

  “I have been worrying about Emma,” Alonzo had said. “She usually calls every few days to see how I am doing. I haven’t heard from her yet this week.”

  “She doesn’t come to visit?” Zane asked, surprised by that, since the two seemed close.

  “She knows he has people watching the house.”

  “You’re sure her former husband is still in prison?” he’d asked Alonzo. Apparently Emma had gotten involved with an abusive criminal who’d almost killed her. He’d ended up in prison for killing another man during a liquor-store holdup. Emma had turned him in. He’d sworn that when he got out he would find her and kill her.

  “I check every week. He is still inside. But he comes up for parole next year. It’s his friends I worry about,” Alonzo said, looking even more worried.

  “It might not be this ex-husband or his friends.” Zane told him about Aggie Wells and how the sheriff in Whitehorse was planning to set a trap in the morning and his brothers were helping.

  “It’s good she has such wonderful stepsons,” he’d said. “I don’t want to believe that our Emma married another killer.”

  “She didn’t. My father had nothing to do with the deaths of his other wives. The sheriff thinks this Aggie Wells might be behind it. Hopefully, we’ll know tomorrow.”

  “I know Emma loves your father. All she talked about every time I spoke with her was Hoyt this and Hoyt that. I could hear the happiness in her voice. She would never have left him if she believed he was innocent.”

  “My father is convinced of that, as well.”

  Alonzo had crossed himself and said something in Spanish he didn’t understand. “You must find her.”

  Yes, Zane thought as the plane came into its final approach. He was beginning to think his brothers were right about Emma having never left Montana—at least not of her own free will.

  Zane had promised to let Alonzo know as soon as he heard something and then he’d caught the last flight home. Now as the plane came in for the landing, he couldn’t wait to get back to the ranch. He still had a three-hour drive ahead of him, but he’d called Marshall and filled him in on everything he’d found out.

  His brothers were at the ranch waiting for him. In the morning, the five of them would leave early to go off to work on the new fence and leave the sheriff to spring her trap.

  Zane hoped to hell it worked.

  * * *

  Jinx moved around the dark abandoned house cautiously. She didn’t dare use the flashlight she’d found on Rafe. After she’d realized that the other rustlers must not have heard the gunshot over the noise of the storm, she’d searched Rafe, finding another gun, a knife and the flashlight. She tucked the knife sheath into the top of her boot, stuffed one of the pistols into her waistband and held on to the one that had killed Rafe.

  She avoided his body. She was shaking, from the cold and rain, from what had happened with Rafe.

  She’d killed a man.

  That realization, she knew, hadn’t completely settled in yet. Right now she just had to concentrate on getting away from the other rustlers. If they found out she’d killed Rafe, she had no doubt what they would do to her.

  Jinx checked the windows and saw where the other rustlers had gone. Through the pouring rain she could make out an old shed against the hillside with a lean-to on one side. They had built a fire and some of them were sitting around it. She was sure they were warmer than she was.

  Counting the men around the fire, she figured three of them must be out
with the cattle in the rain. She watched lightning zigzag across the open dark sky, listening as the thunder began to move off, and knew she couldn’t wait much longer to make a run for it.

  Even if the men were planning to spend the night here, eventually someone was going to come check on Rafe. His body lay in front of the locked door, blocking her exit. Fortunately there was a back door. In a flash of lightning she’d seen that it opened to a small gully that ran behind the house.

  If she could stay down and keep moving, she might be able to get far enough from the house that the men wouldn’t be able to find her.

  In a burst of lightning that illuminated a corner of the house, she saw the saddlebags Rafe had brought in. She found hers and Dawson’s and quickly went through them, stuffing anything she thought she might need into one and pulling on her slicker. She was still chilled and running scared.

  But she knew she stood only one chance and that was to make a run for it.

  Jinx moved to the door, waiting until the next lightning flash and the pitch blackness that followed it.

  Dawson smelled the smoke and knew he had to be close. He’d been stumbling along in the darkness and pouring rain. He was soaked to the skin and chilled and couldn’t tell if his light-headedness was from his loss of blood or from exhaustion and hypothermia.

  He crouched down as he neared a rise and saw what was left of the old ranch buildings below him. He could see the dark cattle through the steadily falling rain and the horses penned up in the corral.

  As he moved closer, staying to the gully behind the ranch house, he caught the sound of laughter, even a snatch of drunken conversation. He inched closer, anxious to see Jinx, praying she was safe.

  The smell of smoke grew stronger. As he came around a bend in the gully he could see the light from the campfire under the lean-to and several of the men sitting around the fire. He listened.

  If Jinx was with them, she wasn’t saying anything. He had to get closer. One of the men suddenly stepped to the edge of the lean-to and looked toward the house. He said something over his shoulder to the other men.