by B. J Daniels
He was counting on that. Otherwise it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.
As he looked around the inside of the fishing shack, he couldn’t help but think about the day Andi sat in the folding chair laughing as she caught fish and he unhooked them and threw them back until long after dark.
All he wanted was to save her. He told himself that made everything he’d done right. As long as Andi was spared.
Unfortunately he had too much time to think, to speculate on who had Andi. He remembered what she’d told him about the Calhouns. All were now accounted for. Except one. A male who would be just a little older than Starr.
The voice on the phone just now had been a male’s. Cade had detected the Southern accent. He was betting the man was the missing Worth Calhoun.
Cade heard the sound of a vehicle’s engine. He checked his gun, then set it just inside the door. When he heard the vehicle stop, the engine die, he opened the door of the fishing shack.
* * *
BRADLEY SEEMED NERVOUS as he cut the engine on the SUV and looked over at her. He’d duct-taped her mouth and used plastic cuffs on both her ankles and wrists, pushing her into the floorboard of the passenger side of the SUV and ordering her to stay down.
She’d sneaked a peek as they’d left where he’d been keeping her, but she hadn’t recognized the old house. It was an abandoned farmhouse and there were hundreds of them across Montana.
With her wrists bound, her door locked and the gun within Bradley’s reach, there was little she could do to escape. She had to hope she’d get an opportunity once they reached their destination. Once they reached Cade.
She’d hold her fear at bay. She knew Bradley would have found another way if he hadn’t used her, but still she felt responsible for jeopardizing Cade’s life.
Now she looked out to see that he’d brought her to the cabin. Cade’s pickup was parked out front.
It was twilight. The fallen snow seemed to glow. Earlier the snow and wind had stopped just as quickly as it had begun. Now a couple of stars popped out in the cold, dark blue canvas of the sky overhead.
Bradley reached over and with a knife from his pocket, cut the cuffs on her ankles before quickly picking up the gun. “Take it slow. Do anything stupid like run and I shoot you, understand?”
She nodded, more worried about where Cade was and what would happen next.
Bradley released the lock on the passenger-side door, slid across the bench seat and opened the door. With the gun in one hand pointed at her head, he grabbed a handful of her hair with the other and pushed her out.
She stumbled in the deep snow and almost fell. He jerked her close to him, making a show of the gun pressed into her temple, as he pushed her toward the slight incline to the reservoir.
The door was open on Cade’s fishing shack. A wedge of lantern light spilled across the snow and ice.
She could feel Bradley nervously looking around as if he thought he was walking into a trap. Other than the cabin, there were no other structures nearby—not even other fishing shacks. And what fishing shacks there were on the lake were apparently empty, no rigs parked outside them.
Where was Cade? Inside the fishing shack?
The land around the reservoir was rolling hills. Other than a few outcroppings of rocks and several single trees, there was little place for anyone to hide.
Fifteen yards from the shack, Bradley brought her up short. “Show yourself!” he called out to Cade.
Andi’s heart raced at the sight of Cade as he stepped into the light. He wore no coat, just jeans and a flannel shirt. He held up his hands and turned slowly around to show that he had no weapon.
“Let’s see the money,” Bradley called.
Cade stepped back into the shack and returned with a large garbage bag. He dumped the money into the snow.
Bradley let out a curse. “Where’s the rest of it?”
“Inside. Let her go and it’s all yours.”
Bradley voiced his reservations. “I want to see it all first,” he said.
Cade didn’t move. “Let her go.”
Bradley tightened his hold on Andi’s hair, the barrel of the gun pressed hard against her temple. She knew he had no intention of letting either her or Cade walk away. Cade had to know that.
“Either I see the money or I shoot her right now,” Bradley called.
Cade didn’t move for a long moment. She could feel Bradley shaking with anger.
Cade stepped back into the fishing shack. A few seconds later he came out with another bag of money, which he also dumped in the snow.
Bradley swore under his breath. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch.”
“That’s all you’re going to see, now let her go,” Cade said, his voice dangerously calm.
Bradley pushed her on ahead of him, his hand still tangled in her hair, the gun still to her head. “Move away from the shack,” Bradley ordered as he got near enough that he would be able to see inside.
Andi feared the moment Cade was out of the way, Bradley would shoot him. She tried to warn Cade, but the tape muffled her words.
“Shut up,” Bradley whispered. “Move away from the shack!” he yelled at Cade.
She had to get to the metal rod in her boot, but with Bradley holding her hair... She saw Cade start to move aside. She kicked as hard as she could at Bradley’s ankle then let her body go slack.
He let out a cry of pain, his fingers digging into her hair as he tried to hold her upright. But the weight of her body had pulled him forward. He stumbled into her and almost went down with her, forcing him to let go of her hair.
As she fell toward the snow, she reached down, pulling up her pant leg to retrieve the rod from her boot. Her wrists were still cuffed but she was able to grasp the rod in one palm, her hand closing over it.
Instinctively Bradley reached for her. She swung to one side and rammed the rod into his outstretched arm.
She heard a howl of pain an instant before the air exploded in gunfire. As she looked up in confusion, she saw the front of Bradley’s coat bloom bright red, once, twice.
He staggered, the gun still in his hand, as he pointed the barrel at her head. Their eyes met in the dim, cold light and she saw an even colder light in his pale blue eyes.
Andi rolled to the side. Gunshots exploded. When she looked up, she saw Bradley. He had dropped the gun at his feet. The snow was painted red in front of him. He was looking toward the fishing shack.
Andi rolled up to a sitting position and saw Cade standing in the doorway, the .357 in his hands. Bradley said something she didn’t understand and collapsed into the snow next to her.
It had all happened in a matter of seconds.
Over the pounding of her heart, she heard voices, one in particular, ordering Cade to stay back.
Men appeared out of the snow, cloaked all in white. In the lead was Sheriff Carter Jackson.
But before he could reach her, suddenly Cade was there, falling into the snow beside her, drawing her to him.
“Are you hit?” he was shouting as he ripped the tape from her mouth. “Are you hit?”
All she could do was shake her head.
And then he was cutting the plastic cuffs from her wrists and carrying her toward the cabin.
Behind them, more men appeared out of the snow to surround the man she’d known as Bradley Harris. She heard the sheriff say he was dead and then she was inside the cabin and in Cade’s arms.
Epilogue
ANDI BLAKE LOOKED up from her computer as a sleigh pulled by two huge horses trotted down the main street of Whitehorse. Snowflakes danced in the air to the sound of laughter and Christmas carols.
Her eyes burned with tears as she finished typing and hit Print. The printer whirred. She hurriedly addr
essed an envelope with the publisher’s name on it, signed and folded the one page resignation letter, put it in the envelope and sealed it.
She’d already called Mark Sanders to let him know she was quitting and would leave the letter on his desk. It had been the hardest thing she’d ever done. But her job was waiting for her in Texas. Her old boss had promised her a huge raise and a prime-time spot.
Her story about the last of the Calhouns had made all the networks. Her boss had even sent a special film crew to Montana to shoot her account.
The Calhouns were all gone now. All of the missing robbery money had been returned. Cade had been completely cleared and Andi had done what she could to give her father justice—and peace. There was nothing keeping her in Whitehorse.
Except for the way she felt about Cade Jackson.
She hadn’t seen him since the shoot-out at the fishing shack. They’d both been taken to the sheriff’s department for questioning. She’d been sent to the emergency room to be checked out. When it was all over, it was morning and the sheriff had given her a ride to her apartment.
She hadn’t asked where Cade was because she knew the sheriff was right. She couldn’t ask Cade to leave here. And how could she stay? She would have to give up her television career that she’d worked so hard for.
But Cade had definitely changed the way she felt about him, about her career, about herself. He’d shown her a life completely alien to the one she’d lived in Texas. She knew she would never see her old life the same after Whitehorse and Cade, let alone after what had happened here.
Not that Cade had offered her an alternative. He’d called shortly after she’d gotten back to her apartment and asked how she was doing.
“Fine,” she’d said.
“You must be packing.”
“I guess so.” And that’s where they’d left it.
No reason to stay around, she told herself. Especially since it was Christmas Eve and she’d heard there was a big party down at the new restaurant that Cade’s friends had started.
But the main reason she couldn’t stay was that Cade still loved his wife. Andi couldn’t compete with Grace. And it was just too cramped in that cabin to live with a ghost, let alone the shadow of the house Cade and Grace were to live in together just up on the hill behind it.
While Cade knew his wife had been Starr Calhoun, he still believed Grace had been the part of Starr that was good, the part he’d loved and was going to have a family with. Andi knew he was hurting all over again at the loss of that woman—and his child.
If Andi left now, she could be back in Texas and settled in by the New Year. And it would make Christmas easier since she had no family to celebrate it with, anyway. Better to be busy finding a new place and getting moved in.
The bell over the front door of the newspaper jangled, bringing her head up.
Cade came in out of the storm, brushing snow from his hat and coat. She felt her heart take off like a shot.
He looked shy and uncertain standing there, so different from the man who had saved her life. The sheriff had told her that it wasn’t like Cade to ever ask for help. It had taken a lot of faith, but Cade had called his brother and told him everything long before the meeting at the fishing shack.
“You can’t understand what a big step that was for Cade to do that,” the sheriff had told her. “That says a lot about how he feels toward you.”
Andi had nodded, touched that Carter had told her, and thanked him.
“I know I told you that I don’t do holidays,” Cade said now as he stepped up to her desk. “But tonight my brother’s going to ask the woman he’s been in love with for years to marry him and I promised I would be there.”
She couldn’t have said anything even if he’d asked.
“Everyone is going to be at the restaurant—Laci and Bridger—they own the place, my father, Loren, and his wife, Lila Bailey Jackson, my brother, Carter, and Eve Bailey, she’s the one he’s in love with, her sisters Faith and McKenna.” Cade stopped to take a breath.
Andi waited, not sure what he was doing here or why he was telling her this.
“I went to the house site this morning,” he said, the change of subject practically giving her whiplash. “I burned it down. In the spring, I’ll get a backhoe in there to take up the foundation. It will take a while for the grass to come back in. That spot will never be exactly as it was before Grace came into my life, but in time...”
He held up his hand as if he was afraid she might speak. No chance of that.
“What I’m trying to say is that I can’t pretend Grace wasn’t a part of my life. I can’t say I’m sorry that I ever met her. But in time, like that hillside, I’ll come back, too. Not the same, but maybe richer for the fact that I loved her.”
Tears welled in Andi’s eyes. All she could do was nod.
Cade took a long breath and let it out. “What I’m trying to say is that—”
The front door of the newspaper office opened, the bell jangling as Andi’s boss came in. He looked surprised to see her.
“I was hoping I would catch you before you left,” Mark said. “I just wanted to congratulate you on that story you did. Saw you on television and said to my wife, ‘That young woman was a reporter at the Milk River Examiner,’ at least for a few days,” he said with a laugh. “Best of luck in Texas.” He shook her hand and left again.
“So you’re leaving tonight,” Cade said, nodding as he backed toward the door.
“I thought there was something you wanted to tell me.” Andi knew if she let him leave, she would never see him again. She could see how hard it had been for him to come in here tonight, how hard it was for him to burn down the skeleton of the house, destroying the last remnants of the life he’d planned with Grace.
“You probably have to get going.”
“No. Please. What were you going to say?”
Cade met her gaze and held it. “I can’t let you stay in Whitehorse, not knowing how you feel about your career. I saw you on television. You are damned good at what you do. You deserve the best. I just wanted to tell you that.”
He turned to leave.
She wanted to call him back, but she knew the moment was lost. Whatever else he’d come to tell her tonight was lost.
At the door, though, he stopped and turned back to her. “It is Christmas Eve. If you’re not leaving tonight, maybe you’d like to go to the party with me.”
She smiled through her tears. “I’d like that a lot. But I will have to change. Can I meet you at the restaurant?”
She’d seen the dark blue velvet dress in the window of the shop next door. Unless she was mistaken, it was her size. She knew the dress would fit perfectly.
He smiled. “I’ll be waiting for you,” he said as he pushed his Stetson down over his dark hair, reminding her of the first time she ever saw him.
“I’ll see you soon,” she said to his retreating backside as she picked up the envelope containing her resignation and dropped it into the trash.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from ROUGH RIDER by B.J. Daniels (Book One of ROUGH RIDER AND MATCHMAKING WITH A MISSION).
New York Times bestselling author
B.J. DANIELS
takes readers back to her fan-favorite Whitehorse, Montana miniseries
with three stories of suspense and cowboys who face down danger with their own brand of Western justice.
DARK HORSE
DEAD R
INGER
ROUGH RIDER
Don’t miss any of the titles in the gripping Whitehorse, Montana: The McGraw Kidnapping series.
Rough Rider
by B.J. Daniels
BOOK ONE OF ROUGH RIDER AND MATCHMAKING WITH A MISSION
Chapter One
Boone McGraw parked the pickup at the edge of the dark, deserted city street and checked the address again. One look around at the boarded-up old buildings in Butte’s uptown and he feared his suspicions had been warranted.
Christmas lights glowed in the valley below. But uptown on what had once been known as the richest hill on earth, there was no sign of the approaching holiday. Shoving back his Stetson, he let out a long sigh. He feared the information the family attorney had allegedly received was either wrong or an attempted con job. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had tried to cash in on the family’s tragedy.
But he’d promised his father, Travers McGraw, that he would follow up on the lead. Not that he believed for a moment that it was going to help him find Jesse Rose, his sister, who’d been kidnapped from her crib twenty-five years ago.
Boone glanced toward the dilapidated building that reportedly housed Knight Investigations. According to the family’s former lawyer, Jim Waters, he’d spoken to a private investigator by the name of Hank Knight a few times on the phone. Knight had asked questions that supposedly had Waters suspecting that the PI knew something more than he was saying. But Waters had never met with the man. All he’d had for Boone to go on was a phone number and an address.
The phone had recently been disconnected and the century-old brick building looked completely abandoned with dusty for-lease signs in most of the windows and just dust in others. No lights burned in the building—not that he’d expected anyone to be working this late.
Boone told himself that he might as well get a motel for the night and come back tomorrow. Not that he expected to find anything here. He was convinced this long trip from Whitehorse to Butte had been a wild-goose chase.
