Protected by a Hero

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

  She wasn’t looking forward to that at all.

  The day before, he’d left the shed soon after he told her she was the only woman he wanted. Cass hadn’t known what to say to that. Words were words. They didn’t mean anything—as much as she wished they did.

  When she met Lena at the stables, her sister had two horses saddled and ready to go. Cass ached when she realized how long it had been since she’d ridden.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Bob was here. I spotted his truck in the distance, but I couldn’t catch up to him. So I followed his tire tracks to see where he’d come from. You’re never going to believe this.”

  Lena mounted her horse and set out down the track. Cass scrambled to mount, too, and catch up with her.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Come on!” Lena didn’t slow down as she cut past the Park, past the pastures and into a part of the ranch Cass rarely went to these days.

  Drier, stonier, unfit for cattle, this corner of the ranch wasn’t good for much. Cass knew the track they were taking led to a canyon.

  “Why was Bob heading this way?”

  “Take a look.”

  Lena led the way down a steep grade. They’d camped here once or twice as kids, liking the feeling of being hidden away from the world, but now its isolation unnerved Cass. Why would Bob want to come here?

  Not for any good reason, she figured.

  Cass gasped when she rounded a bend in the track and had a clear view of the canyon floor. “You’ve got to be kidding me! He was living here the whole time?” The dilapidated trailer Bob said he’d hauled to the dump sat square in the middle of the flat, barren ground.

  “Not living. Working.” Once again Lena led the way. She dismounted and Cass followed suit, leaving her horse with Lena’s a dozen yards from the trailer. When they drew near, Lena veered off for a moment to grab a battered folding lawn chair sitting outside the trailer and set it under one of the windows that used to be boarded up. Cass took in the fat padlock on the door, the square of plywood on the ground and the screwdriver sticking out of Lena’s back pocket. “I got that piece off,” Lena confirmed. “We need to hurry though; who knows when Bob will be back. Take a look.”

  Cass climbed up on the chair as Lena steadied it. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the relative dimness of the trailer. Most of the other windows were still boarded up. One or two small ones had curtains over them. As her vision cleared, she sucked in a breath. “Oh… fuck. Is that… is that what I think it is?”

  “A whole hell of a lot of drugs,” Lena confirmed. “Like… a whole hell of a lot of drugs, from what I can tell. And I don’t like the look of that equipment.”

  “Is he cooking meth… here?”

  “I don’t think so—yet. I did a quick search online and there was a list of things to look for. I don’t see any of the ingredients or telltale signs that they’ve been cooking it here. Sure looks like that was the plan, though. Maybe you disrupted that when you fired Bob. Maybe they just hadn’t moved their operation yet. Meanwhile, they’re storing everything here before they ship it off.”

  Cass tried to identify what was in the various packages. “Why didn’t they at least cover everything up?”

  “Who’s going to see it here? They thought they were safe, so they didn’t bother. They’re coming in and out on the back roads, but they obviously don’t think we’re much of a threat.”

  “No wonder…” Cass climbed down off the chair. “No wonder they’ve all been after us. No wonder Bob moved all his people in like he did. It was all part of a bigger plan.”

  “Of course it was. You realize why he was doing it here, don’t you?”

  “What do you mean?” Cass was still in shock. She surveyed the clearing, wondering if anyone was watching them now. Would Bob leave such a large stash unguarded? “We should get going.”

  “We can’t just leave this stuff,” Lena contradicted her. “Don’t you get it? We’re their cover. Anything happens, it’s our fault. If the stash gets found—it looks like it’s ours.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Cass stammered, but a cold shock slid through her veins. If the drugs were found. If the authorities thought they were theirs…

  They’d lose Two Willows for sure.

  “We have to call Cab.” Cass reached for her phone.

  “No way. Get up there again and look through that window. Notice anything familiar?” Lena demanded.

  “Like what?”

  “Look!” Lena wasn’t going to back down.

  When Cass reluctantly did so, she leaned farther into the window and sucked in a breath. “That’s… that’s the manual you couldn’t find. Sitting right there on the counter.”

  “And your cast-iron pan.”

  “Wait, those are Sadie’s missing garden clogs. All the stuff we’ve been looking for—it’s all here.”

  “All the stuff we never reported missing, and a lot more we didn’t even notice was gone,” Lena said. “That trailer is full of our stuff. Anyone stumbles onto it—they’d think we’re the ones storing the drugs. What do you bet there’s more in the drawers and cabinets.”

  “Cab wouldn’t think that.”

  “Wouldn’t he? Cass, if they’ve done this much to frame us, what else have they done? Think about it. Think about all those hired hands who answered to Bob. We’ve got nothing on them. As far as we know they didn’t do anything out of line while they were here except mouth off to us. We didn’t file any complaints about them. Bob’s got them in his pocket. If we call Cab and say Bob and the others are storing drugs on our ranch, he’s got five upstanding citizens to testify on his behalf. Citizens who lived here. Who watched us. Who would know exactly what we do.”

  “So they’d testify Bob had nothing to do with the trailer. That doesn’t mean anyone would believe them.” Cass hopped off of the chair. “Besides, we fired them.”

  “Which makes it look worse. Think about it,” Lena said again. “What if that’s not all they do? What if they testify that we’re the ones who moved the trailer from the Park, and we’re the ones who’ve been in and out of it all the time?”

  A cold shiver ran down Cass’s spine. Even if the charges didn’t stick… their reputations would be dragged through the mud.

  “The General,” Cass whispered. “It doesn’t matter how this goes, does it? The General is going to freak when he hears about this.” She tried to think through all the possible ways this disaster could play out.

  In the end, it was all the same.

  He would decide once and for all they weren’t capable of running the ranch right. He’d install a new round of overseers and hands… maybe he’d even follow through on his threat to kick them out for good.

  Standing with Lena next to a trailer whose contents represented the end of everything they’d worked for, Cass had never felt so helpless. The General would never understand how things had gotten this bad. Even if she tried to explain, he’d point out all the mistakes they’d made along the way.

  The worst of it was, he’d be right.

  They’d been too gullible. Too trusting. Too blind to the problems mounting up all around them. Anger, pure and clear, burned through her. All they’d ever wanted was to be left alone to live their lives. Why did everyone need a piece of them?

  “We are not going to let them ruin things for us,” she said to Lena.

  “We have to get rid of the trailer,” Lena said. “We could hitch it up to my truck and drive it out of town. Leave it somewhere.”

  “What if someone sees us? That seems like a perfect way to get caught.” Cass thought fast. “No one can know about this. No one.” It felt like old times; the two of them against the world. How many times had she and Lena concocted a plan to fight back when things seemed unfair? Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she considered the options. They needed to get rid of the evidence, even if they hadn’t committed the crime. There was one way to do that: an action commensurate with the fury that wa
s building in her heart.

  Lena waited for her to say more, and Cass knew her sister knew exactly what was running through her mind, but every time she opened her mouth to utter the words, she found she couldn’t say them. She remembered making love to Brian, opening her heart to the feelings that had coursed through her as they moved together. She remembered the tears she’d cried later, the sobs that had wracked her, but left her feeling… peace. She didn’t want to backtrack now. She didn’t want more secrets—more reasons for her family to live apart from everyone else. She didn’t want to have to hide her feelings again.

  Finally, when Cass didn’t speak, Lena began, “We could blow it—”

  “No. We can’t,” Cass said, coming to her senses. She put up a hand to forestall Lena’s arguments. “Absolutely not. There’s a big difference between setting off a bottle rocket and blowing up a trailer. We can’t do that.”

  “I know you could rig something big enough to do the job. Come on, you’ve got to admit you want to.” Lena was furious, too, and Cass understood her need for revenge.

  “Of course I want to,” she snapped, “but that doesn’t make it right.”

  “So, you’re done with all that? Forever?”

  Her sarcastic tone assured Cass she didn’t believe it. “I’m not saying I won’t set off a firecracker or two now and then,” she said. “But I am saying an explosion, no matter how safe or how small, can’t stand in for my feelings. That’s heading down a path I never wanted to go. And I’m not going to do it anymore; I already asked Brian for help disposing of the rest of the fireworks.” She stopped, as the answer became clear. “And that’s what we need to do now. Ask him for help.”

  “A man?” Lena said scornfully.

  “Yes. A man.” It was a new idea to Cass, too, and she was just as uncomfortable with it as Lena seemed to be.

  “I asked him for help before, you know. With the hands. He didn’t come.”

  Shame twisted Cass’s gut. “That’s my fault,” she said. “He was with me. I distracted him.”

  Lena looked at her askance. “Distracted him? Like… distracted him, distracted him?” She waggled her eyebrows, and Cass appreciated that in the middle of this calamity, her sister could still find time for humor.

  “Yes,” she admitted.

  “So… was it big?”

  Cass shoved her. “Get serious.”

  “I am. Like, this big?” Lena held her hands apart.

  Cass shoved her again. “Anyway, I know he’ll help this time.”

  Lena sighed. “That’s not how we used to do things.”

  “How we used to do things got us right here.” Isolated. Vulnerable.

  She understood Lena’s reluctance to involve Brian. Every fiber of her body rebelled against the idea of asking for help.

  Even from someone who said he loved her.

  “He’ll tell the General.” But Lena sounded more discouraged than angry, and Cass wondered if she was secretly relieved at the thought of bringing in reinforcements.

  “I don’t think so. I think… I think he’s on our side.” Cass realized it was true as she spoke the words. As far as she knew, he hadn’t told the General about any of their mistakes. Instead, he’d worked hard to fix them and get the ranch back on track. “Brian wants to marry me.” It was a revelation to say it out loud. “He wants to be part of our family—and the ranch. He doesn’t want to lose it, either. I think… I think maybe we should give him a chance.”

  “I think you’re right.” Lena looked about as surprised as Cass felt. “Which kind of makes me feel sick to my stomach.”

  Cass laughed. “I know what you mean. A man… who helps. It’s a novel concept.”

  “Do you think there are more like him?” Lena asked as Cass pulled out her phone.

  “We could ask the General,” Cass joked as she called Brian.

  Lena shuddered. “Let’s not. We got lucky once, but lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice.”

  Cass couldn’t say why another chill ran down her spine as she waited for Brian to pick up his phone.

  “Cass?” Brian had just pulled up and parked behind the house when his phone buzzed.

  “We could use some help. Head down toward the stables and we’ll meet you there.”

  “Sure thing,” he said when he found his voice again. Cass, asking for help for a second time in two days? That was new. “Be right there.” He started the engine and put the truck in gear. Might as well drive down and save some time. He wanted to reach Cass before she changed her mind.

  After what she’d said yesterday, he’d been hard put to feel confident about his chances to fix things with her, but now things were looking up. All the way down the track toward the stables he wondered what the problem was, but nothing prepared him for what Cass and Lena showed him when they met up, stabled the horses they’d been riding, climbed into his truck and directed him toward the canyon, heading down a track to a barren scoop of land. He mentally scanned the map of the ranch he’d memorized back at USSOCOM where it hung on the wall, and shook his head; there was nothing down this way.

  At least, there never used to be.

  Now there was; a beater of a trailer straight out of the seventies. “What’s that?” he asked warily as he climbed out of the truck.

  “Take a look,” Cass said, climbing out, too, and pointing to the folding chair.

  He crossed the clearing, and hoped the spindly thing would hold his weight, but when he climbed up on it and peeked in, he realized the state of the chair was the last thing he needed to worry about.

  “Bob moved it here,” Lena said when he stepped down again. “We’ve got to get it out of here before anyone finds out about it. I think we should tow it away and leave it somewhere.”

  “And I think that’s a good way for us to get caught with it. A bunch of our things are in there. We think Sean stole them. He’s the one who’s always sneaking into the house with Jo. If they’re still in there and someone finds the trailer, we’ll be implicated.”

  “We can break in and get them out,” Lena argued.

  “But someone could still see us move it—and then we’d really look guilty.”

  Brian held up a hand. “Give me a minute to think this through.” He paced a tight circle, his mind flipping through all the facts at hand. A trailer full of drugs and the kind of equipment used to cook meth. Bob trying to marry Cass. Mark providing Howie with drugs to deliver.

  “If the General finds out about this, he’ll take the ranch for sure,” Cass said quietly.

  Once again, Brian thought of how much pain this family could have been spared if only there had been true communication between the different factions. When he thought of the General back as USSOCOM taking all the time to set up this elaborate plan, he had to shake his head. Why didn’t the man pick up the phone and talk to Cass and the others? Better yet, why not visit them?

  “You said Bob was here? Today?”

  “That’s right. There are several places you can access our property from the highway. Those gates are locked, but of course Bob had the key—still does; he never gave it back. And anyway, a good pair of snips will cut through any padlock we might use.”

  “Bob orchestrated everything. He found a place to store his inventory and potentially cook meth where no one would think to look,” Brian mused. “Cab said Mark’s a chemist, so he’s probably behind some of that stash—and the equipment. That pot could be homegrown or shipped up from somewhere else.”

  “Howie was the delivery man,” Cass said.

  “Scott was the muscle,” Lena put in.

  “And Sean was in the house watching us, and stealing things to incriminate us,” Cass said. “They were working together all along.”

  “We need to let them know they can’t use Two Willows for a home base anymore,” Lena said. “I say we blow that trailer up.”

  Cass was shaking her head. “I already said no to that. It isn’t safe.”

  “See what you’ve do
ne?” Lena said to Brian. “You’ve made her… reasonable.”

  “What should we do?” Cass asked him, ignoring her sister’s jibe.

  A plan occurred to Brian. One that made him smile.

  “I’m with Lena. Let’s blow it sky high.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Cass asked Wye for the tenth time as they walked up the street toward the Dancing Boot that evening. The light was fading from the sky and her nerves were keyed up tight. The plans they’d made were risky in the extreme and she still had her doubts they’d manage to pull them off.

  “Are you kidding? I’ve never done anything so exciting. I’m all in.” Wye definitely seemed excited; she had a bounce in her step that Cass envied.

  “You’ll have to distract Howie for at least an hour. Two is better.”

  “Trust me. I was born for this undercover stuff.” As the bar came into view, Cass slowed her pace until Wye grabbed her arm and pulled her along. “Come on. Let’s do this.”

  “How can you be so calm?” Cass asked her. “I can’t believe I’m about to steal a car.”

  “Borrow it, you mean. Isn’t that what Howie always told Alice when he took hers? Turnabout is fair play, right?”

  Cass took in her friend’s high heels, tight mini and the plunging neckline of her top and wondered again how she’d let Brian talk her into bringing Wye into this. Her normally calm, no-nonsense friend was practically giddy at the thought of playing her part.

  “Wye is going to be our distraction and our lookout,” Brian had said back when he’d laid out the plan in the gazebo that afternoon. “She’ll keep Howie busy while you take his truck.”

  “I don’t know how to hotwire a truck,” she’d protested.

  “He keeps a spare key under the mat,” Alice had said blithely. “Chance Creek is a small town, after all. There’s no crime here.” She had shrugged with an impish smile that made Cass breathe a little easier about Alice’s recovery. She’d hated to see her sister so brought down by Howie’s duplicity. If Alice was willing to make jokes, her heart had to be on the way to healing.