by B. J Daniels
The sheriff looked as if he wanted to argue, but finally sighed and said, “I’ll have him brought out to an interview room.” With that, he added over his shoulder, “Have a seat. I’ll call you when he’s ready.”
“The SOB is going to make us wait,” Blaze said. “You’re right, Jake. I need to find a good criminal lawyer.” She looked at Dave, who held up his hands and backstepped away.
“Clarkston Evans,” Jake said. “I did some research last night. I’ll text you his number. He’s supposed to be the best in the West unless you prefer to do your own research or hire a lawyer from Montana.”
She shook her head, her gaze holding his for a long moment. In her blue eyes, he saw gratitude. It wasn’t what he’d hoped to see, but for now, he’d take it. He texted her the attorney’s number and took a seat.
Unlike her, he knew the sheriff would make them wait. But in contrast, he’d learned patience—the hard way. He’d spent years with a chip on his shoulder because of the way he was treated by a lot of people. It had gotten him thrown behind bars—a place he never wanted to go again. Fortunately, Judge Landusky had saved him from a life of confinement.
But the judge had also taught him to stop daring people to try to knock that boulder-size rock off his shoulder, because life wasn’t fair. And instead to accept reality and use it to become stronger. He’d been schooled on ways to fight other than with fists. Blaze, though, was still learning that lesson.
* * *
THE MOMENT BLAZE was led into the room where her father was waiting behind a metal desk, she was almost too angry to speak. “What the hell is wrong with you?” she demanded.
Her father looked up at her, his blue eyes softening. “It’s good to see you, too. But what are you doing here?”
She stared at him. “Judge Landusky didn’t tell you I was coming?” She saw from his expression that WT hadn’t told him. Because the man wasn’t sure she would actually return? “He said you’ve turned over your power of attorney to me.”
Her father nodded. “You will be able to do whatever you want with the ranch. Just because I gave you my power of attorney, though, it doesn’t mean I want you involved in this.”
“Too bad,” Blaze said as she pulled out a chair across from him. “I can’t let you do this.”
“Peanut—”
“No.” His nickname for her felt like a stab to her heart. “Don’t call me that.” He hadn’t for years. It hurt too much because he’d called her Peanut back when they’d been a family, when her mother had been a part of it.
“I’m sorry.”
“I need to know the truth.”
Her father smiled at that. “Is that why you’re here?”
“I’m here to make sure you get a fair trial.”
“There isn’t going to be a trial.”
“Because you killed that man?”
Her father looked away. “It doesn’t matter.”
“The hell it doesn’t.” She waited until his gaze returned to her. “Yes or no.”
He snorted and looked at Jake. “Mr. Horn. We haven’t met, but I’ve heard about you.”
“All good things, I’m sure,” Jake said and started to shake Monte’s hand, only to see that he was still shackled.
Blaze shoved back her chair and stormed to the door, pounding on it until a deputy appeared. “Why is my father shackled like that? I want his restraints removed.”
“Sheriff was very specific about the shackles not being removed.”
She slammed the door in the man’s face and turned back to the table and her father.
“I know why my daughter is here, but why are you here, Mr. Horn?”
“Please call me Jake. Hopefully one day we’ll be family.”
Blaze shot him a deadly look and sat down again.
“I’m here as moral support for your daughter,” Jake answered.
This time, her father laughed heartily. “We both know Blaze doesn’t take any kind of support well, maybe especially moral support.” His gaze returned to her. “I appreciate you coming here since something needs to be done about the ranch.”
“Cal quit and took the ranch hands with him.”
He nodded. “I figured that’s what he’d do. You need to put the ranch up for sale and leave town as soon as possible.”
She stared at him. That was the last thing she thought he would say. “That’s why you gave me power of attorney? To get rid of me? Because you’re worried about me? You’re the one behind bars this time.”
He sighed. “I’ve always been worried about you because you’re so much like me.”
Blaze wanted to argue that as well, but held her tongue. She liked to believe she was more like her mother, lie or not. “What is it you think is going to happen that I need to get out of town quickly?”
“I’ve made enemies,” he said simply.
“That’s putting it mildly. You think they’ll come after me?”
He glanced at Jake. “They’ll come after both of you.” His gaze returned to her. “Please. For once, do as I ask. I know what I’m doing.”
She actually saw that he believed that and said as much. “I’m hiring a criminal attorney.” Before he could argue, she rushed on, “Judge White has made it clear he won’t take a guilty plea from you until you’ve talked to a criminal attorney.” She was buying time and she figured he knew it and didn’t like it.
“Blaze—”
“You know,” she said as she got to her feet again, “I came back to Montana believing that you were guilty. But you’ve now convinced me that something is not right. Otherwise why rush to plead guilty?”
“You don’t understand.”
“I think I do,” she said. “You’re covering for someone and I’m pretty sure I know who.” He tried to interrupt her again, but she continued, “I came here to get to the truth and I will.”
“Even if I beg you to leave it alone?” he demanded as she headed for the door.
The plea in his tone made her turn to look back at him. As she did, she realized that the balance of power between them had shifted. There’d been a time when she’d adored him. Then her mother had left and she’d blamed him and went from idolizing the man to hating him. Now she felt a well of love for her father that she hadn’t felt in years. She knew he had to be innocent and covering for someone, and she was determined to find out why and stop him.
“Sometimes we do things that are best for those we love even if they don’t like it,” she said and met his gaze. “Isn’t that what you said to me the last time I was arrested, and you left me in jail?” With that, she walked out.
Behind her, she heard her father say to Jake, “Stop her. If you love her, save her from herself.”
Before the door closed, she heard Jake chuckle. He was still shaking his head when she turned to look back at him as he came out of the interview room.
“He’s lying,” she said, hating to hear her voice break with emotion.
“Probably. But why, given the consequences?”
“That’s what I’m going to find out.”
Jake smiled and nodded. “I expected nothing less.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “What did you just say to my father when he told you to save me from myself?”
He tilted his head, holding her gaze with his emerald green one for a long moment. “I told him I do love you and I’ll die trying to save you.”
Blaze shook her head at him, his words hitting her at heart level. She opened her mouth to say something smart, but nothing came to mind. “I better call that lawyer,” she said at last and turned toward the door.
CHAPTER SEVEN
JAKE SMILED TO HIMSELF. Blaze never could take a compliment. But he knew it was more than that. She didn’t want him dying for her. If she could have done what needed to be done up here on her own, she would have. It
was partly stubborn pride. Mostly it was not letting anyone get too close. When her mother had left, Blaze had put up a wall around her heart. He knew because he’d been trying to tear it down from the moment he met her.
As he reached to push open the outer door for her, the sheriff stopped them. “Dave left this for you.” He handed Blaze a manila envelope. “I’m not sure what you’re up to but I’d be real careful if I was you.”
“That almost sounds like a threat,” Jake said as Blaze took the envelope.
“You stay out of this,” Bud said without looking at him.
“My father’s lawyer is on his way,” she said. “Meanwhile, isn’t there a ballistics test that needs to be run?”
The sheriff sucked at his teeth, his eyes hard as stones. “Let him plead guilty and do this county a favor. He killed Frank. The sooner you sell that ranch, and you and your buffalo and your...boyfriend clear out—”
“You know, if I hear that one more time, I just might decide to stay and work that ranch, and my personal business is none of yours,” Blaze snapped.
The sheriff let out a grunt. “No one will work for you.”
“Maybe no one from around here,” Jake said. “But I can get workers.”
“I thought I told you to—”
“Sheriff...” Blaze said. “You’re starting to sound awfully vindictive for a lawman. I can’t help but notice how you want to rush this case through. Why is that? Because, like us, you know something is wrong with all this? Or will you do anything, even break the law, to get rid of my father?”
Bud shook his head. “Just remember, I warned you.” With that, he turned, walked down to his office and closed the door behind him.
When they stepped outside, Jake looked over at Blaze. “Am I your boyfriend?”
She shot him a look. “That’s all you got out of that entire conversation?”
“Just making sure.”
Blaze shook her head.
“Short of clarifying your intentions, I agree with the sheriff. You’re in danger.”
“Because they’re going to try to run me off?” She laughed. “Let them try.”
He shook his head. “The sheriff knows about it, or suspects. And we both know he isn’t going to do a damned thing about it. I don’t like this. These ranchers get together and adopt a mob mentality... It’s hard to say what they’ll do. I think you should give some thought about what to do next.”
They’d reached his pickup. She stopped to face him. “I already have. I’m betting that Cal never fixed that fence,” she said as she opened the passenger side of his rig. “I’m going back to the ranch and mend it.” When he said nothing, she gave him a pleading look. “That’s a place to start. I can’t keep these ranchers from coming after me. So I’m going to do what I can do. I can fix a damned fence.” With that, she climbed into the pickup, leaving him nothing more to say or do but drive her home.
* * *
BLAZE GROANED WHEN she came out of the house after changing clothes to find Jake saddling up two horses. “I don’t want you going with me.”
“Too bad. The judge sent me here for a reason. And right now, it seems it is to mend fences. So to speak.”
“I doubt that was the reason, but I’d love to know exactly what it was,” she said as she took a set of reins from him.
“Just to help you any way I can.”
She scoffed at that. “I just might call the judge and see if that’s what he said.”
“He was worried about you and your father. He thought I might be of help.”
She studied him for a moment before she swung up into the saddle. “I see you’ve filled a couple of saddle bags with what we need to fix the fence.”
“It won’t be my first fence,” he said with that charming grin of his as he swung a leg over and settled into his saddle.
He looked good on the back of a horse. Hell, he looked good no matter what.
“I have no idea where we’re going.”
“I know where Garrison’s ranch connects to this one. I thought we’d ride along the fence until we find the opening. Ready?” Jake was like her, at home in the saddle. They both needed this, and in truth, she didn’t mind having him along.
They rode out across the pasture toward the northwest corner of the ranch through rolling prairie. The snow had receded except on the north side of the hills, leaving the ground bare and warm from the sun. Blaze breathed in the day, happy for a reprieve from winter weather. It wouldn’t last. Eventually a storm would roll in and blanket the prairie with fresh white snow that would last until April.
As she looked out across the land, she felt a strange sense of pride. This was all McClintock property. Her father had worked hard, adding more land as it became available, expanding the ranch almost to the Little Rockies. She thought of the hours she used to spend riding this ranch. After her mother had left, she spent every hour she could away from her father and on her horse.
“It’s beautiful here,” Jake said. In the distance, she spotted where the fence had been destroyed by the buffalo. On the McClintock Ranch side, the fence was solid-sided and seven feet tall. One of the largest expenses when her father had decided to raise buffalo was replacing the fences. Plain old barbed wire wouldn’t do.
Not just higher and solid-sided, the fences had to be sturdy with five strands of tensile wire along the top—often electrified. All to keep the buffalo in. Supposedly if you kept the animals watered and fed, they wouldn’t try to escape. But even then, they often tended to push against fences or anything else around, doing damage because of their size and weight. Another reason a lot of ranchers didn’t like them.
So how had one gotten out?
As they topped a small rise, Blaze reined in beside Jake to stare at the buffalo herd spread out across the prairie. Their dark furry bodies dotted the land for a good mile. She’d had no idea her father had purchased so many buffalo. She’d often tried to imagine what it had been like when they’d run free on this very land before so many were killed.
“It’s breathtaking, isn’t it?” Jake said as if awed by the sight.
“I forget what magnificent animals they are.”
“My great-grandfather used to tell stories about the herd,” he said. “I remember the reverent way he talked about the buffalo.”
She looked over at him. To his Native American side of the family, the buffalo had been much more than food.
“I love to hear about your heritage.”
He smiled at her. “It’s a part of me. Just like the Irish side.” He shrugged as he spurred his horse and she followed. She hadn’t gone far when she saw the dead bull was lying in a mound some distance from where it had broken through the fence. Of course Shane Garrison had shot the big bull. Not that she blamed him. He’d shot it on McClintock property, though, when the bison was no longer a danger to him or his family. Still, she knew killing the massive animal hadn’t calmed his need for retribution. Probably far from it.
The incident with his son proved everything the ranchers had been saying about buffalo. Now they had a cause. She knew Jake was right. There would be trouble.
Jake swung down from his horse. She sat for a moment, emotions warring each other before she dismounted.
* * *
JAKE SAW AT once how the bull had gotten out. He swore under his breath as he heard Blaze dismount behind him. “It wasn’t an accident.”
She stared at the fence where someone had purposely cut through it, weakening it. “Why here?” she asked but answered her own question. “The dirt on the other side. It’s a perfect wallowing place. They’d known that the bull would bust the rest of the way through to get to it.”
Buffalo loved to roll around in soft dirt, usually in a slight hollow. All the bull had to do was hit the corrupted fence and it would have given way. Getting through the barbed wire fence on the other
side was just a matter of walking through it for the massive bull.
“I don’t think any of the others have gotten out,” Jake said. “They seem to be staying away from the dead bull.”
“Who do you think did this?” she asked as she saw him studying the cuts in the fence.
“The damage was done on Garrison’s side.”
“What? He cut both his fence and ours? Why would he...” She met Jake’s gaze. “He could have gotten his own son killed.” Blaze looked away, but not before he’d seen the pain in her eyes. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“I can fix the fence enough until I can get a contractor up here to repair it properly. We also need to hire someone to come in and haul away the dead bison. I can take care of that, if it’s all right with you.” She nodded. “The least Garrison could have done was to let us know he’d killed the bull. The animal is starting to bloat. We could have maybe saved the meat and taken it into the local food bank or had someone from one of the reservations pick it up. It just seems like such a waste.”
Not one to waste time standing around complaining, Jake went to work. He unpacked the materials he needed to make the repairs first to Garrison’s barbed wire fence, then the buffalo fence. He wasn’t surprised when Blaze fell in to help. It was late afternoon before they finished, with her working next to him until they were both sweaty and dirty. He was reminded of how they’d worked together before.
“We still make a pretty good team,” he said.
She stopped to wipe the back of her hand across her forehead. He didn’t see anger in her blue eyes. But what he saw was even more worrisome. She looked overwhelmed, as if all of this was going to be too much for her—just as he’d feared. She was too personally involved. He could see a roller coaster of emotions traveling too close to the surface. He feared it wouldn’t take too much to derail her.
He wanted to tell her that everything was going to be all right, but he knew better than to offer platitudes. Instead, he stepped to her, grabbed the back of her neck in his hand and pulled her into a kiss. He’d caught her by surprise and it took her a moment before she pushed against his chest with her palms. She didn’t push hard, but he knew better than to ignore the gesture. He stepped back. For that moment, she’d kissed him like she used to, verifying what he already knew. What they’d had was still there.
