Protected by a Hero

by Susan Stoker, Cristin Harber, Cora Seton, Lynn Raye Harris, Kaylea Cross, Katie Reus, Tessa Layne

  “Nah. That won’t happen,” Cab assured him as he wrote it down. “Think she’s willing to testify about anything she’s seen?”

  “Maybe. I can’t say for sure.” Brian hesitated. “Don’t suppose you’d let me ride along?”

  “Can’t do that. But there’s nothing I can do to stop a civilian from driving on Montana’s beautiful highways.”

  “Copy that.” He was finally in on the action again, even if it was in a supporting role. Brian’s pulse quickened and he realized he’d missed this.

  “Just remember this isn’t a war zone,” Cab said as they left the office together.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Alice? Are you in here?” Cass, standing at the top of the stairs at the entrance to Alice’s studio over the carriage house garages, scanned the large space and finally located her sister at one of the sewing machines at the far end of the room.

  She made her way past the cluster of worktables, the racks and racks of completed costumes, and the dressmaker dummies that stood like headless sentries at various points around the room until she reached Alice and tapped her on the shoulder.

  Alice, bent over the sewing machine, jumped, which was strange because she wasn’t actually sewing at the moment. She held a swath of green fabric in her hands, and had been running it through the machine, but now the needle was stationary and she’d been staring at the wall instead of working.

  “Cass.” She took a deep breath and recovered herself. “Hi. Is Brian back?”

  “Brian? No, not yet. Why?” Jealousy pulsed through Cass, an emotion she was becoming far too familiar with these days. Worry for her sister pushed it aside. Alice was paler than normal, her features drawn. “Are you getting ill?”

  “No. Just… feeling like a loser.” Alice turned off the machine, balled up the fabric and shoved it into the space between its cabinet and the needle. Cass had never seen her treat a project so carelessly, and her concern grew.

  “You’re not a loser.”

  “Really? I let Howie steal my car—a half-dozen times. I let him use it to run drugs to Billings and Bozeman.”

  Cass’s mouth dropped open. She struggled to find her voice. “Drugs? You didn’t stop him?”

  “How could I?” Alice watched her. “Really, Cass? How could I? Without giving him up?”

  “That’s just it—why would you want to keep him if he was selling drugs?”

  “Not selling; delivering. And I don’t know. I fooled myself into believing that wasn’t what he was doing. I lied to myself. I lied to you. For a man.”

  Cass recognized the pain in her sister’s voice. “Oh, Alice—”

  “No. Let me say it. I was a fool. I was so, so stupid. If Brian hadn’t made me see what I was doing—what I was possibly throwing away—”

  “Brian?” Cass asked again. “What does he have to do with this?”

  “Everything. He’s out there right now getting my car back.” Alice picked at the rough edge of her jean shorts. “He made me realize I was worth more than Howie.”

  “Of course you are.” Cass fell to her knees and gathered Alice up into her arms. “You’re worth so much more than that. You are so special.”

  “I don’t feel very special. I haven’t in a long time.” Alice extricated herself gently and tucked a strand of Cass’s hair behind her ear. “You haven’t, either, have you? Or why would you have stuck with Bob for so long?”

  Suddenly Cass didn’t feel like hiding everything anymore. “You’re right. He was awful. Alice, he was—” She almost spilled the beans about the money, but taking in the dark circles under Alice’s eyes, decided it wasn’t the time to add to her misery. “He was an ass,” she finished instead. “He never loved me. He just wanted the ranch.”

  “Brian’s not like that, you know,” Alice said. “I don’t feel like running him off the property anymore. He was so kind when he walked me through what Howie had to be doing. He didn’t make me feel bad for hiding the truth from myself.”

  Cass nodded. She silently blessed Brian for making Alice see the light. Of course Howie was mixed up in the drug trade. What else would explain the way his silly business took off? She was ashamed of herself for being so caught up in her own affairs she never investigated what Howie was really doing.

  Thank God for Brian.

  Thank God the General had sent him.

  She had to bite back a laugh; she’d never thought she’d think such a thing.

  She didn’t know what to make of it, either. She found herself wondering if Brian could help sort out the hands, too.

  And the missing money. Maybe if she explained everything that had happened, Brian could pass the news on to the General in a way didn’t end up with them losing the ranch.

  Unbidden, a memory surfaced. One she thought of far too often. She’d been seventeen, and had attended a military function on the General’s command. She hated leaving her sisters behind, especially because of her mother’s request that she watch over them, but she’d done so hoping she could persuade him that they were old enough to be on their own now. The last guardian he’d hired to babysit them had developed quite a thing for one of the newer hired hands, and the two of them had indulged in a passionate relationship they carried out at all hours of the night and day—in the family home. Cass had already fielded some awkward questions from Jo, and had tried to reason with the woman to at least keep her escapades out of the house. When she asked the General about the possibility of ditching the guardians altogether, however, he’d laid down the law.

  “No guardian, no ranch,” he’d thundered. “Two Willows might have belonged to your mother, but that doesn’t mean it’s yours. I’m the one paying the bills. I’m the one calling the shots. It’s my ranch and I say what goes on there. You don’t like it—leave.”

  “What’s going on is a whole lot of fucking,” Cass had yelled back at him in her horror at the threat he’d made. She and her sisters couldn’t leave Two Willows. Her mother was buried there. The standing stone was there. The house was… her haven, for God’s sake. If he took away the ranch, Cass hadn’t known what she’d do.

  The General hadn’t slapped her, but he’d wanted to—she’d read it in his eyes—and the desire was as bad as the doing would have been. Her father hated her. She disgusted him. He didn’t care what was happening at Two Willows—or for the ranch itself, even if his own safety depended on it. “Your mother didn’t raise you to use language like that, and I didn’t bring you here to disgrace the family,” he told her in a voice taut with rage. “Get changed. You’re going home on the first flight. I thought you were my daughter. I don’t know who the hell you are.”

  He’d gotten rid of the guardian, and replaced her with a grim-faced matron of sixty-two, but that hadn’t made anything better.

  Cass closed her eyes, remembering the shame and pain she’d felt that night, second only to her mother’s death and the crushing blow of Bob’s treachery when she’d discovered he was siphoning money from the ranch. Her father had made it perfectly clear. They could lose their home at any time—for something as small as a breach of etiquette. Since then she’d held her breath, waiting for the ax to fall.

  She pulled herself together. This wasn’t about her heart; it was about Alice’s.

  “Why don’t you call it quits for the night and come back to the house?” she asked.

  “All right. I’m not getting anything done, anyway.”

  Darkness had fallen, and the maze loomed large in the light of the moon that was just rising in the east. Both of them hesitated when their path drew near it.

  “I’m afraid to ask any questions tonight,” Alice said tiredly. “I’m afraid it will tell me I’m destined for a nunnery. At least you’ve got Brian.”

  Cass’s heart throbbed, but with the memory of her father and Bob’s betrayals so fresh in her mind, she didn’t dare think of falling in love with another man. “I thought we decided not to let that happen.”

  “One of us s
hould be happy.” Alice squeezed her shoulders. “Why shouldn’t it be you?”

  When the flashing red lights sprang to life on Cab’s cruiser, Brian, lagging behind in his truck, was ready. He kept well back as Howie, in Alice’s car ahead of Cab, sped up at first, changed lanes, changed back and finally pulled to the side of the road. Howie had been driving erratically for several miles and Brian wondered what was going on. Was he fiddling with his phone? Getting high? He obviously hadn’t noticed the sheriff’s cruiser behind him until Cab turned on his lights. Then Howie must have panicked, but quickly realized he couldn’t pull off an escape in Alice’s old beater.

  Brian pulled off the side of the road behind Cab and waited for the sheriff and his deputy to make their initial approach. A few minutes later, Alice’s car’s doors opened. A thickset man with a scruff of beard and a wiry mop of hair got out of the driver’s side. A tall man with dark hair and a square jaw got out of the passenger side. A moment later, Sadie followed suit.

  Brian swore. He climbed out of his own truck and strode toward the action. Cab, noticing him, waved him over.

  “An unexpected surprise,” he murmured, nodding at Sadie, who looked miserable as she stood aside and watched the deputy frisk the men. She hugged her arms across her chest, but that couldn’t hide the plunging neckline of the slinky black dress she wore. It didn’t fit with her youthful face. Neither did her heavy makeup. She looked like a teenager trying to play the part of a mature woman, but this was far more serious than a youthful prank. “Come on. Maybe she’ll talk with a friendly face around.”

  The sheriff drew Sadie away from the others as backup arrived in the form of two more sheriff’s department cruisers.

  “Spill it,” he said without preamble when they stood some distance down the road.

  “I’ve got nothing to say.”

  “Sadie, I’m taking it easy on you on account of who your father is. You should by all rights be leaning against that vehicle getting searched, too, on your way to the lockup. So let’s try this again. What the fuck were you three doing tonight in your sister’s car?”

  “We weren’t doing anything wrong.”

  “Really? Because my deputy is about to open those packages we found in the back. Want to fess up before he does? It’ll go better for you than if you wait. Looks like a big shipment.”

  Sadie’s gaze darted around them as if she was looking for a way out. Cab must have sensed it, too. He took a step nearer, blocking her escape. “You can’t run away from this. Tell me what you know.”

  “For God’s sake. It’s just a bunch of pot, okay? Big deal. It’s practically legal everywhere anyway.”

  Brian wasn’t buying her bravado. All he could think about was the photo collage back at USSOCOM. Sadie was still young, and maybe she needed to rebel against something, but all of those photos had shown a bright eyed, intelligent woman working from sunup to sundown in her garden, and he’d heard from her sisters how people came from far around for her natural cures. He’d bet his life this foray into criminal activity had far more to do with Mark than her own inclinations.

  “You like to partake?” Cab asked her. “If I go look at that garden of yours, will I find you’ve got a crop growing?”

  Sadie’s disgusted reaction was too genuine to doubt. Besides, Brian was sure he’d have noticed if the Reeds had a grow-op on their ranch.

  “There’s no pot on Two Willows. Mom would spin in her grave. We don’t need that stuff to feel—” She broke off and shrugged. Brian knew what she meant, though. They had the standing stone, the maze and their family’s mythology. They didn’t need to smoke to make the world less mundane.

  “The thing is, Sadie, I don’t have to look in those packages to know they don’t contain pot,” Cab told her. “So I need to know whatever it is you know.”

  For the first time, Sadie lost her bravado. “What do you mean they don’t contain pot? Of course they do.”

  “You want to wager money on that? It would be a bad bet.” Cab turned and gestured to one of the deputies buzzing around Alice’s car. “Art? What’ve you got?”

  The man trotted over. “Meth, pills, coke. You name it, it’s in there. Department is going to have a field day.”

  Sadie lifted a hand to cover her mouth, and shook her head. “That’s not true. Mark wouldn’t be involved in anything like that.”

  “Honey, Mark’s in it up to his eyeballs,” Cab contradicted. “He’s the one cooking up half this shit, and he’s going down for a good long while if I’ve got anything to say about it. So what I want to know is how many times you’ve shot up with him?”

  “Never. I swear! I’ve never done anything like that. I don’t even smoke his pot. I mean—I tried it once, but—”

  “Art, take her to the station. Get her statement.”

  A tear snaked down her cheek. “Cab, I swear—I didn’t—” Sadie’s voice rose in desperation. “Dad—the General,” she corrected herself, and Brian’s heart ached for her, “He’ll be furious. He’ll take the ranch. He’ll—”

  Cab, towering over her, stared down at Sadie for a long moment before softening. “Okay, settle down. You’re not going to lose the ranch.”

  “You don’t know that! He’s always looking for an excuse—” Her bravado long gone, Sadie’s tears ran freely, and Cab touched her arm.

  “You swear you never took any of that junk?”

  She nodded vigorously. “I swear. Except the pot—just once. I swear on my mother.”

  “Okay,” Cab said. “I’m going to believe you. This time. You go with Art and tell him everything. You don’t leave anything out. But if I ever see you near any of these yahoos again, I’ll find a way to bust your ass and put you in jail. Because your parents raised you better than that.”

  Sadie’s face crumpled. She turned away and a moment later, her shoulders heaved with her sobs.

  Cab exchanged a long look with Brian. “That man has got to come home and clean up the mess he’s made,” the sheriff said. “If you’re in touch with the General, you tell him I said that.”

  Brian nodded. “Will do.”

  He took Sadie’s arm and Art led the way to a police cruiser where he let Brian install Sadie in the backseat without comment. Brian followed the cruiser in his truck. By the time they left the sheriff’s department several hours later, Sadie was a mess. She’d sobbed non-stop through giving her statement, and her shame and embarrassment were far too obvious for any doubt to remain in his mind. She’d participated because she wanted a boyfriend, not for the thrill or for the money. Brian felt for her, but on the other hand, he thought the pain she felt tonight might save her a world of heartache later on. He’d had a private word with Cab, who told him Mark had tried to implicate Sadie in the operation, but Howie had the decency to say she was just along for the ride.

  “I’m inclined to believe him,” Cab finished up. “But Two Willows keeps cropping up lately when we’re talking about the drug trade. That’s not good. You’d better look into it.”

  “I mean to.”

  He’d get on that as soon as he got Sadie home to her sisters. Alice would be devastated when she found out what had happened tonight.

  Cass, too.

  He wasn’t looking forward to the confrontation to come.

  Cass was curled up on the sofa paging through a magazine when she heard soft footsteps in the hall. She thought it was Alice coming back from the kitchen with the cup of tea she’d gone to get, but instead it was Jo heading toward the stairs, Tabitha pattering along at her heels. At least Sean wasn’t with her. She hadn’t seen him since she put her foot down about him moving in.

  But given what Jo had said, that didn’t mean much.

  “Good-night,” she called.

  Jo hesitated, her hand on the bannister. Tabitha kept going. “Night.”

  When she didn’t continue up to her room after the cat, Cass patted the cushion beside her. “Come talk for a minute.” She held her breath, wondering if Jo would come, and sen
t a silent thank you to the universe when she did.

  Jo curled up beside her on the sofa like she’d used to do when she was much younger. Cass put an arm around her, grateful to spend a few minutes with her. “What did you do tonight?” she asked.

  Jo stiffened under her touch, and immediately Cass wished she could take the question back.

  “Not much. Just hung out at Sean’s place.” Jo kept her face turned away, and plucked a tiny piece of lint from the couch.

  “Was he playing video games?” Cass knew sometimes Jo watched him play for hours. She couldn’t imagine anything more boring.

  “No. Not tonight.”

  What were the magic words to get her sister to open up to her? Cass wondered. Her mother would have known.

  “Is everything all right?”

  Jo tensed again. “Yes.”

  No, it wasn’t, Cass knew. “Did you and Sean have an argument?”

  “No.” Jo sat up, pulled away from her and hugged her arms to her chest. “I wish…”

  “What do you wish?” Cass prompted, sitting up, too.

  “I wish we were young again. I wish Mom was here.”

  Cass nodded. “I know, honey. Me, too.” When Jo softened against her again, Cass put her arms around her and held on. Mom, she thought. Please—I need help here.

  She was hoping an instruction manual would fall from the sky, or perhaps she’d have some sort of epiphany. Instead, the front door flung open and Brian strode in, followed more slowly by Sadie, who was wearing the hideous, slinky dress she’d tried on for them before. Cass took one look at her smeared makeup and her heart sunk.

  “What happened?” She let go of Jo and stood up, the better to brace herself against whatever new calamity was about to unfold.

  Brian gestured Sadie forward. “Better just tell them,” he said.

  Alice appeared around the corner, cup of tea in hand. “What’s going on? Sadie? What’s wrong?”

  “You didn’t sense it?” Sadie asked flatly.

  “Sense what?” Alice looked as lost as Cass felt.

  A tear slid down Sadie’s cheek and she swallowed. Cass could see she’d been crying for some time. “Did Mark do something?” she asked. Please let him not have hurt her. She didn’t know what she’d do if he had.