by Joanna Wayne
“Doggone right, unless Leif’s coming would just mean trouble. I told Effie if her dad wouldn’t drive her out here to call me and I’d send a car to pick her up—anywhere, anytime.”
“How old is she?”
“Fifteen. She lives with her mother. But get this. She loves horses and she’s already talking about becoming an equine vet. I’d sure like for you to meet her while she’s here. Maybe give her some encouragement.”
“I’d love to. But now I’d best get to my next patient. You keep an eye on Miss Dazzler for me. And remember, she needs stall rest until the swelling is gone.”
“No problem. I’ll just come down and sit with her if she gets lonesome.”
Joni suspected that if he’d taken as much interest in his children when they were growing up as he did his horses now, he wouldn’t have to use bribes and manipulation to get them to visit him.
A horse at the far end of the elaborately renovated horse barn neighed.
“Old Bullet’s calling my name,” R.J. said. “Think I’ll have Corky saddle him up so I can take him for a short ride.”
“Should you be riding alone?”
He gave her a wink and a click of his tongue. “Are you hinting you want to go along with me?”
No doubt he’d been as much a womanizer in his younger days as the locals claimed. His flirting was totally harmless now, though.
“I’d love to ride with you, Mr. Dalton, but I have three other calls to make this afternoon. I’ll be lucky if I make it back here to check on Miss Dazzler by dark.”
“You’re too pretty to work all the time. You need a man to go home to. I’ve still got four unmarried sons, you know.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Now you take care of yourself and I’ll be back first thing in the morning to check on Miss Dazzler.”
“You be careful and don’t be out on these old deserted roads by yourself at night. I guess you heard about Evie Monsant getting murdered yesterday.”
“I heard about a body being found yesterday morning. I didn’t know it was Evie’s until I saw the police tape all around her gate and house when I drove past last night on my way home.”
“The media are already claiming it might be the work of The Hunter,” R.J. said. “I don’t put no stock in that myself, though. I’d put my money on her knowing the guy who killed her.”
“Why?”
“She was a strange woman. Sticking to herself all the time. The way I heard it, she’d hardly say howdy if she met you face on. No telling what she was mixed up in.”
Joni wasn’t so sure. “The news reporters must know something if they’re saying her death could be the work of a serial killer.”
“Not necessarily. Those blowhards love putting the fear in everybody. Gets ’em higher ratings.”
“I hope you’re right. Not that it would make it any better for Evie, but the thought of a serial killer in Oak Grove is bloodcurdling,” Joni admitted.
“You just be careful,” R.J. said. “But I wouldn’t worry about it too much. This is about as peaceful a place as you can find in all of Texas. I figure Evie Monsant brought her trouble with her.”
“Maybe.” But unexpected anxiety skidded along Joni’s nerve endings as R.J. walked her to her aging pickup truck. She’d grown up in a rural area much like this one, where neighbors looked out for one another. She’d always felt safe, the same as she had since moving to Oak Grove nine months ago.
Still she might sleep with her shotgun in easy reach tonight.
She said her goodbyes to R.J., climbed behind the wheel and turned the key in the ignition. The motor made a grinding noise and then sputtered and died. It did the same on the second try. On the third try, there wasn’t even a grind.
So much for getting through and getting home before dark.
* * *
EFFIE JUMPED OUT of Leif’s black sports car and rushed to the metal gate. She unlatched it and hitched a ride on the bottom rung as it swung open, her ponytail bouncing behind her.
Her excitement over arriving at the Dry Gulch Ranch equaled Leif’s displeasure. He’d done his best to talk her into a trip to anywhere but there. He’d even considered buying her a horse of her own when she got back to California, one she could keep at the stables where she worked.
That had felt too much like a bribe. Besides, his ex would have killed him, a fate only slightly worse than playing nice with R.J. all afternoon. But Leif was also spending time with Effie, so there was a silver lining to his misery.
Once he’d driven across the cattle gap, Effie took her time getting back in the car; her gaze was focused on a young deer that had stepped out of a cluster of sycamore trees a few yards in front of them. She stood as still as a statue until the deer turned and ran back into the woods.
His daughter had obviously spent far too much time in the confines of the city.
She fastened her seat belt. “Grandpa didn’t say he had deer on the ranch, too.”
Grandpa. The word sounded irritatingly strange when used by Effie for a man he barely knew and Effie didn’t know at all. “Who told you to call R.J. Grandpa?”
“I asked him what I should call him and he suggested Grandpa. That’s what his twin granddaughters call him.”
Leif seethed but went back to safer territory. “I suspect there are all kinds of creatures who call the Dry Gulch home.”
“What kind of creatures?” Effie asked.
“Possums. Raccoons. Armadillos. Foxes. Skunks. Rattlesnakes.”
“Rattlesnakes. Really?” She screwed her face into a repulsed scowl.
“Yes, but probably not out and about much this time of the year, though it’s warm enough today you’d need to be careful if you were traipsing through high grass or walking along the riverbank.”
“There’s a river on the property?”
“More like a creek, but they call it a river.”
“Can you swim in it? Not now, I know, but in the summer.”
“I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“It doesn’t matter. Grandpa says there’s a spring-fed pool for swimming. There’s also a small lake where he goes fishing. He said he’ll teach me how. Do you remember the ranch at all?”
“Not from when I was a kid.”
“When else were you here?”
“I paid a visit to the Dry Gulch a few months back along with your uncle Travis and R.J.’s four other biological children. We were given a tour of the ranch.”
“You had a family reunion?”
“More like a reading of R.J.’s commandments.”
“What does that mean?”
He knew he should let it go, but all Effie was getting from R.J. was propaganda. She should be exposed to a little of the truth.
“R.J. wants all his offspring to move back to the ranch and raise cattle. It’s a requirement if we want to be included in his will.”
“So if you move back here, part of the ranch will belong to you?”
That had backfired. Effie made it sound like manna from heaven instead of the bribe it was. “I’m not moving back here, so it’s a moot point, but, yes, that’s the gist of it.”
“Why not move out here? I mean, who wouldn’t want to own part of a ranch?”
“I’m not a rancher. I’m an attorney.”
“What about Uncle Travis?”
“He’s perfectly happy as a Dallas homicide detective. Believe me, he wants no part of R.J. or the Dry Gulch, either.”
Effie exhaled sharply. “Well, I do. You could inherit it and give it to me.”
He should have known not to get into this with Effie. Horses were her current phase. Naturally, she’d think living on a ranch was a super idea.
Effie went back to staring out the window. “Did you move to Dallas to be closer
to Uncle Travis?”
“No. He moved here after I did. He was a detective in Louisiana before taking a job in Dallas.”
“So he moved to be closer to you?”
“No. He moved because he wanted a fresh start.”
“Did he get divorced, too?”
“No. He was instrumental in getting a crooked police chief sent to jail. Why all the questions?”
“No reason.” She went back to observing the passing scenery. The wooded area had given way to acres of pasture. A few head of cattle were off to the right, some grazing, most resting.
“Is this all part of the Dry Gulch?” Effie asked.
“So I was told.”
“Where’s Grandpa’s house?”
“We’re almost there. Keep watching and you’ll make out the roof and chimneys when we round the next curve.”
She stretched her neck for a better look and then started wiggling in her seat when the house came into view. The century-old structure in desperate need of a face-lift apparently excited her a lot more than his plush penthouse condo had.
A few minutes later, Leif pulled into the driveway that led to the separate three-car garage and stopped next to a beat-up pickup truck with a lifted hood. R.J. stood next to the right fender.
“Is that my grandfather?” Effie asked.
“That’s R. J. Dalton.”
She opened the door a crack and then hesitated, as if unsure of herself or of him. But when R.J. saw her and waved, she jumped from the car and ran to meet him much in the way she’d run to meet Leif when she was a little girl.
R.J. opened his arms, and Effie eagerly stepped into a giant bear hug. A pain so intense he nearly doubled over from it punched Leif in the chest. It had been years since Effie had hurled herself into his arms.
Reluctantly, Leif climbed from beneath the wheel and planted his feet on the concrete drive while R.J. and Effie exchanged greetings. He didn’t see the woman until he’d walked to the other side of the stalled truck.
She was leaning over the engine with an expression on her face that suggested she’d like to plant a stick of dynamite under the hood and put the truck out of its misery.
“What’s the problem?” Leif asked, thankful for any excuse to avoid dealing with R.J., even if only for a few seconds.
“Her battery conked out on her,” R.J. answered for her.
“With misfortune’s usual bad timing,” she muttered.
“It could have been worse,” R.J. said. “You could have been stranded on one of these back roads.”
“Like I was yesterday,” she said. “Fortunately, Tague Lambert happened by and gave me a start. He took a look at the battery and said I should get it replaced.”
“So why didn’t you?” Leif asked.
“I was planning to take it into Abe’s Garage in Oak Grove tomorrow. Wednesday’s my day off. Do you have a pair of jumper cables I can borrow, Mr. Dalton?”
“Sure as shootin’.”
Leif stepped in closer for a better look at the dead battery before turning to the woman. She wasn’t flagrantly sexy like Serena, but she had a natural girl-next-door kind of freshness about her. Impulsively, he checked her ring finger.
No golden band, but unless looks were deceiving she was much too young to engage in a tryst with a jaded, approaching-forty attorney like himself.
Not that he was interested in a new relationship. He hadn’t cleared the breakup hurdle of the one he was in yet.
“Even if you get the truck started, the battery is likely to give out on you again,” Leif said. “I don’t think you should try to drive it.”
“I don’t have a lot of choice. Sam Loden and his ailing mare are expecting me in about twenty minutes.”
“Don’t you go worrying,” R.J. said. “I’ll get you to Sam’s, but first we need some introductions.” He rested a thin, wrinkled hand on Effie’s shoulder. “This is my granddaughter Effie Dalton, the one I told you about.”
The woman wiped her hands on her jeans. “You must be the California granddaughter who loves horses?”
Effie smiled. “That’s me.”
“Then we have something in common. I love horses, too. And your grandfather has some of the most beautiful and spirited ones in the county.”
“I can’t wait to see them,” Effie said.
“You won’t have to wait long,” R.J. assured her. He turned back to the woman. “This is Joni Griffin, the best vet in six counties—the prettiest, too.”
A blush reddened Joni’s cheeks. “There you go again. Flattery will not lower your bill.”
“It’s not flattery when it’s true,” R.J. said.
Leif extended a hand to the woman. “I’m Leif Dalton, Effie’s father.”
“And R.J.’s son,” she acknowledged. “R.J.’s told me all about you.”
He wouldn’t begin to guess what that might include, since he figured R.J. knew very little about him except his name. And that he had a daughter who R.J. figured he could manipulate.
R.J. put out a hand to him. Leif had no choice but to take it or be seen as a total ass.
R.J.’s grip was much stronger than expected.
“Glad you and Effie are here?” R.J. said.
Leif only nodded. It was better than an outright lie. He turned back to the woman. “Can I give you a ride somewhere or take you to get a new battery?”
“You just got here,” she said. “You’ve hardly had a chance to say hello to your dad.”
An added benefit. “I’m sure he and Effie can find plenty to talk about until I get back.”
“Actually, that’s a dang good idea,” R.J. said. “You drive the doc to Sam’s place and I’ll have my wrangler Corky take her truck into Oak Grove so that Abe can install a new battery.”
Leif turned back to Joni. “I’m game if you are.”
“Sam’s ranch is off a dirt road. You’ll get your sports car layered in mud from last night’s rain.”
“Mud I can handle. Not too keen on driving through whatever made all those scratches on your truck, though.”
“You won’t. Those are from a few of my more adventuresome trips.”
“Through an Amazon jungle?”
“Close. Through Texas brush.”
“So that’s settled,” R.J. said. “You two go heal animals and get to know each other. Corky will get a replacement battery, and Effie and me will check out the horses and try out the cookies Mattie Mae baked this morning.”
Leif turned to his daughter. “Is that arrangement okay with you, Effie?”
“It’s better than okay. I can’t wait to see the horses.”
“Call me if you need me for any reason,” he said.
“Dad. I’m fifteen, not two.”
“She’ll be fine,” R.J. assured him, as if he knew the first thing about parenting.
Leif was relieved for the chance to escape R.J.’s company, but as soon as they started walking toward his car, he had second thoughts about driving off and leaving his daughter alone with his so-called father.
“Be sure Effie meets the twins,” Joni called back to R.J. as she stopped at the door to Leif’s car.
“Absolutely,” R.J. agreed. “I’ll give Hadley a call now.”
“The twins?” Leif questioned as he climbed behind the steering wheel.
“Lila and Lacy, your half brother Adam’s daughters,” Joni answered. “They’re three and too adorable for words.”
So Joni wasn’t the only grandchild to be welcomed into the fold. Leif had received word from R.J.’s lawyer that Adam Dalton had been the first offspring to move onto the ranch. He hadn’t realized Adam was married or had children, but then he hadn’t really given it much thought.
His hand rested on the gearshift, but he made
no move to shove it into Reverse.
“You don’t have to do this if you’d rather stay here with Effie and R.J. I can find someone to give me a lift,” Joni offered, obviously misreading his hesitation.
“Driving you to Sam’s isn’t a problem. I’m just not sure about leaving Effie here with my infamous father. Effie probably isn’t as competent on a horse as she’d like everyone to believe. R.J. is liable to put her on some wild horse she can’t control.”
“R.J. would never do that.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“I know him. He’ll watch over her like a mother hen. Hadley fully trusts him with the twins, and they’re only three years old.”
“Okay, so I’m overreacting a bit, but you can’t be too careful these days.”
“Are you sure it’s just that you’re being careful? It sounds more like vindictive.”
“Trust me—I have good reason for the way I feel about R.J.”
“I know he wasn’t much of a father to you or any of his children. He admits that. But people can change. You might even like R.J. if you gave him a chance.”
“He had lots of chances. He blew them. Case closed.”
She honored that request, and a few minutes later they were on a back road, his sleek sports car hugging the curves as they made their way to Joni’s next four-legged patient.
Leif turned and studied Joni’s profile. He’d always liked long hair on women, but Joni’s short, shiny hair looked great on her. The bouncy locks hugged her cheeks and highlighted her long, dark eyelashes.
Even without makeup, her skin was flawless, so smooth it almost begged to be touched. Her lips were soft and inviting, her smile a killer. But it was the cute, slightly turned-up nose that added the final seductive touch.
Cute, casual, no apparent pretense, outspoken. She could definitely spell trouble.
But not for him.
The sooner he got out of Oak Grove, the better. He wanted no part of any attachment that would bring him back into R.J.’s world.
* * *
JONI GAVE LEIF directions to Sam Loden’s ranch and then leaned back with her eyes straight ahead. The car, with its soft leather seats, had that invigorating new-car smell. She felt as though she were riding on a cloud. So why was she so uncomfortable?
