by B. J Daniels
“Thank you. No matter what she’s done, she’s my grandmama.”
“She is that.”
Bianca closed her eyes. She’d lost her father at an early age, so all she’d had was her mother, grandmother and, of course, Ester. It was Ester who had kissed her forehead each night, who got her off to school, who doctored the scrapes and lovingly applied the medicine. Her mother had always seemed lost in thought. She assumed that no one noticed how much wine she had at night before she stumbled to her room in the huge house overlooking the ocean.
Now Bianca wondered if giving up her first child had haunted her. When she’d often had that faraway, sad look in her eyes, was it Dee Anna Justice she was thinking about?
If so, she knew she should have been jealous of the hours her mother had been off—if even in her mind—with her other daughter. Had she loved her more? It didn’t matter. She felt no jealousy.
Opening her eyes, she looked out the plane window again. They were almost there. She wasn’t going to let anything—or anyone—keep her from her sister.
Bianca had always felt as if there was something missing from a life in which she seemed to get anything she wanted.
What she’d really wanted, though, was a sibling. She remembered asking her mother once if she could have more children. She’d wanted a brother or sister so badly.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” her mother had snapped.
“I know Daddy’s dead, but can’t you find another man—”
“Stop it, Bianca. Just stop it.” She’d sent her to ask Ester about dinner. As Bianca had left the room, she’d looked back to see her mother go to the bar to pour herself a large glass of wine. Her mother had been crying.
She’d never seen her mother cry before, so she’d made a point of keeping her desire for a sibling to herself after that.
Now she understood those tears. Had her mother ached for that other daughter just as Bianca had ached for her?
The captain announced that they would be landing in the Gallatin Valley soon.
“Maybe we should call this ranch,” Ester said, but Bianca shook her head.
“I don’t want them to know we’re coming.” When Ester seemed surprised by that, she added, “If you were my sister, would you want to meet us? I can’t take the chance she might leave to avoid us, especially if Grandmama has...done something.”
Ester nodded.
Bianca reached over and took the housekeeper’s hands. “I hope she likes me.”
Ester’s eyes filled with tears. “She will love you.”
* * *
STACY WAS IN SHOCK. When she’d told her sister what had happened last night, she hadn’t heard yet about Jimmy. “Burt wouldn’t kill Jimmy. He wouldn’t kill anyone.”
“You said yourself that you’d never seen him so angry and that he hit Jimmy twice,” Dana argued after she had told Stacy about Jimmy’s body being found out by the barn, his throat slit. “Anyway, Hud has only taken Burt in for questioning based on what you told me.”
Stacy got up from the kitchen table to pace. She’d lived around her brother-in-law long enough to know how these things worked. Hud would have to go by the evidence. “Burt hit him. Jimmy fought back. Of course there will be some of Burt’s DNA on him, but that doesn’t mean Burt killed him.”
She couldn’t believe this was happening. Jimmy was dead. But that wasn’t as upsetting as Burt being blamed for it.
“Hud will sort it all out.” Her sister eyed her with a mixture of pity and concern. “I thought you weren’t interested in Burt.”
Stacy hated to admit that she’d felt that way until last night. But she’d seen a different side to him. “He rescued me from Jimmy. He followed us from the restaurant because he was worried about me. And with good reason. I don’t know why I agreed to go out with Jimmy. I made excuses for him back in high school when he forcibly took my virginity. He said he was so turned on by me that he couldn’t stop himself and it was my fault.”
Dana shook her head in obvious disgust. “All while you were saying no?”
She nodded. “I tried to push him off...but I didn’t try hard enough back in high school. Last night I would have fought him to my dying breath.”
Her sister didn’t look pleased to hear that. “I told Hud what you told me, but he will want your side of the story,” Dana said, picking up the phone.
Stacy shook her head as her sister started to hand her the phone. She realized that Hud would have questioned her earlier, but she had taken the kids to school. “I’m going down to his office. He’s questioning the wrong person.”
“I should warn you, he’ll want to know where you were last night,” her sister said behind her.
She turned slowly. “You can’t think I killed Jimmy.”
“Of course not.”
“If I was going to kill him, I would have done it years ago after he raped me. I think until last night, I was still blaming myself for what happened—just as he let me do all these years. Now that I think about it, if Burt hadn’t shown up when he did...” She looked up at her sister. “I would have killed him before I let him rape me again.”
She went out the door, knowing that she’d made herself look guilty. Better her than Burt.
Chapter Seventeen
Andrei heard the news at breakfast in a small café at Meadow Village. He had tried to go about his day as usual, pretending to be one of the many tourists at the resort for the holidays. No one paid him any mind, since he wasn’t limping as badly as he had been.
It wasn’t like he could go to Cardwell Ranch. The law was crawling all over the place. Dee Anna Justice wasn’t there, anyway. He hadn’t seen her or the cowboy since the two had driven away together. But he was convinced she would be back, and the ranch was much easier for his purposes than driving back into the narrow canyon to get to the private investigator/cowboy’s house. He assumed the cowboy would take her to his place.
As he ate, he knew that after last night this would be the perfect time for him to just leave, put all of this behind him.
But his pride wasn’t going to let that happen.
“The man’s throat was cut,” a woman whispered to another at the next table. She shuddered and then leaned closer to the other woman. “I heard from my friend at the marshal’s office that the dead man was a professional killer.”
That caught his interest. His heart began to pound, making it hard to hear what else the woman was saying. So, there had been another contract. He swore under his breath. Things were getting so damned complicated.
“Do they know who did it?” the other woman whispered back.
“Well...you know Burt Olsen?”
“The mailman?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her nod. “I heard he’s been taken in for questioning. He had gotten into a fight with the man earlier that night.”
“Burt Olsen? I just find that hard to believe. That he would...cut a man’s throat.” She shivered. “Burt always seems so nice.”
“You know what they say about deep water.”
Poor Burt, he thought. Common sense told him that he’d been given the perfect way out. The cops would think they had their man. Dee Anna Justice would let her guard down. So would her cowboy. He could still finish this job, collect his money and leave the country before his birthday. That’s how he had to play this while his luck held.
* * *
BEAU STOOD UP the Christmas tree in the living room and stepped back to consider it. “Wow, it looks better than I thought it would. Pushed against the wall like that, it really isn’t bad.” He turned to see DJ smiling at the tree.
“It’s beautiful. It doesn’t even need ornaments.”
He laughed. “That’s good, because I don’t own any. I thought we could string some popcorn. I’ll pick up som
e lights when I go to town.”
His gaze met hers. That kiss earlier had almost had him making love to her in the snow up on the mountain. He stepped to her now. She moved into his arms as naturally as a sunrise. He held her close, breathing in the fresh-air scent of her.
“DJ,” he breathed against her hair.
She pulled back to look up at him. What he saw in her eyes sent a trail of heat racing through his veins. She stood on tiptoes to kiss him. Her lips brushed against his. Her gaze held his as the tip of her tongue touched his lower lip.
He felt a shudder of desire. Taking her hand, he led her over to the fireplace. “Are you sure about this?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
Golden light flickered over them as they began to undress each other. He could feel her trembling as he brushed his lips across hers.
He trailed kisses from the corner of her mouth down to her round breasts. He found her nipple and teased the hard tip with his tongue, then his teeth. She arched against him as they slowly slid down to the rug in front of the fire. The flames rose. The fire crackled and sighed.
On the rug, the two made love as if neither of them ever had before.
* * *
BIANCA AND ESTER landed at Gallatin Field outside Bozeman and rode the shuttle to the car rental agency. While they waited, Bianca looked out at the snow-covered mountains. She’d never driven on snow and ice before. For a moment she questioned her impulsiveness at jumping on a plane and coming here.
Wasn’t her grandmother always telling her to slow down, to think things out before she acted? Just the thought of her grandmother made her more determined to get to Cardwell Ranch—and her sister.
“Here’s your key,” said the man behind the desk. “Your car is right out there. Do you know where you’re going?” he asked, holding up a map.
“Big Sky,” she said and watched as he drew arrows on the map and handed it to her.
“Maybe we should call,” Ester said as they left. “Just showing up at their door... Maybe we should warn them not only that we’re coming but that maybe your grandmother did something she regrets.”
Bianca shook her head. “I’d rather take my chances. Anyway, call and say what? We have no idea what is going on. For all we know...” Her voice broke. “I know she did wrong, but I still can’t get her into trouble. I keep telling myself that Grandmama wouldn’t...hurt her own grandchild.”
“In Marietta’s eyes, you are her only grandchild.”
“I’m furious with her, but I can’t throw her under the bus,” Bianca said, making Ester smile.
“I’ve wanted to do just that for years, but I understand what you’re saying. You don’t want her going to prison. I don’t, either. It’s why I called you and told you what was going on.”
“We are only about forty miles away.” Bianca shot her a look as she drove, following the man’s directions from the rental agency. “Roger was the one who hired someone. Maybe she didn’t stop him, but it wasn’t her idea, right?”
Ester looked away. “I doubt the law would see it that way. She saw Walter Justice as a problem.” She shrugged. “Now she sees his daughter as one.”
“But Walter is still alive.”
“Last I heard, but he’s also in prison.”
Bianca shot her a look. “You can’t think she had anything to do with that!”
Ester shrugged. “I wouldn’t put anything past your grandmother. Let’s just hope that phone call she made was...real and that she has stopped all this foolishness.”
Bianca stared at the highway into the canyon and the steep mountains on each side. “Look what she did to my mother. Forcing her to keep Dee Anna a secret from me. I’m not sure if I can forgive her if something has happened to my sister.”
* * *
DJ FELT AS if her life couldn’t get any better. It was a strange feeling. After years of holding back, of being afraid really to live, she’d given herself to Beau Tanner completely. Her heart felt so full she thought it might burst.
“It is really over?” she asked him the next morning on the way to Cardwell Ranch. Dana had called and invited them over for brunch, saying the crime scene tape was gone and the ranch was back to normal.
Beau squeezed her hand. “You’re safe.”
Safe. She realized she’d never felt it before. It was a wonderful feeling, she thought as she looked out on the winter landscape. It had snowed again last night, huge flakes that drifted down in the ranch light outside Beau’s home. She’d felt as if she was in a snow globe, one with a cozy little house inside. Wrapped in Beau’s arms under the down comforter, she’d found paradise.
Last night she hadn’t thought about the future, only the present. But this morning as they neared the turnoff to Cardwell Ranch, she couldn’t help but think about her mother’s family. What now? If it was true that they’d tried to kill her, fearing she wanted their money... The thought made her heart ache.
Beau reached over and took her hand. “It’s going to be all right.”
She couldn’t help but smile at him. Nor could she help but believe him. With Beau in her corner, she felt she could take on the world.
* * *
BIANCA TURNED OFF the highway at Big Sky and stopped a few yards from the Cardwell Ranch sign that hung over the entrance. She glanced at Ester, who quickly took her hand and squeezed it.
“You can do this,” Ester said. “She’s your sister.”
She nodded, smiling in spite of her fear, and drove under the sign and across the bridge spanning the river. She felt as if she’d been waiting for this her whole life. Even with all the lost years, she and DJ still had time to get to know each other. If her sister wanted to.
Bianca felt a stab of fear. What if her grandmother was right and this young woman wanted nothing to do with her family? With her?
A large new barn appeared ahead along with a half-dozen cabins set back in the woods. But it was the rambling old farmhouse that she drove to, with the black Suburban parked in front. She saw a curtain move.
“Tell me I’m not making a mistake,” she said to Ester.
“Letting your sister know she’s not alone in this can’t be a mistake,” the older woman said.
Bianca smiled over at her. “I don’t know what I would have done without you all these years.” She opened her door, Ester following suit.
The steps seemed to go on forever, and then they were on the porch. Bianca was about to knock when the door opened, startling her.
A dark-haired woman in her thirties looked surprised. Was this DJ? Was this her sister?
“I’m Bianca,” she said at the same time the woman said, “I’m sorry, I thought you were...someone else.”
The woman looked from Bianca to Ester and back. “Did you say Bianca?”
She nodded. “I’m looking for Dee Anna Justice,” Bianca said.
“She’s not here right now,” the woman said excitedly. “But I’m her cousin Dana.”
Feeling a surge of relief at the woman’s apparent welcome, she said, “I’m her...sister, Bianca.”
Dana smiled. “Yes, her sister. What a surprise.”
“I hope not too much of a surprise,” she said. “This is Ester, a...a friend of mine. Is my sister here?”
“Please, come in,” Dana said and ushered them into the warm living room. “I’ll call DJ...Dee Anna, and let her know you’re here. Please, have a seat. I was expecting her when you drove up.”
Bianca sat in a chair by the fire, glancing around at the Western decor. Until this moment, she hadn’t felt like she was in Montana. As Ester took a place on the couch next to her, she spotted the Christmas tree.
Dana turned her back, her cell phone at her ear, and said, “You should come home now,” before disconnecting and dialing a
nother number.
When she turned back to them, she saw what they were looking at—and no doubt the expressions on their surprised faces. “That’s my orphan Christmas tree,” Dana said with a laugh. “It’s a long story.” She seemed to be waiting for the call to go through, then said, “You aren’t going to believe who is sitting in my living room. Your sister! Oh, it’s her all right. She looks enough like you that there is no mistake. Okay, I’ll tell her.” Dana disconnected, smiling. “She’s on her way and should be here any minute.”
Bianca had never felt so nervous. Ester reached over and patted her hand. “It’s going to be fine,” the housekeeper whispered.
She nodded, smiling and fighting tears as she heard a vehicle pull up out front. Dana said, “In fact, she’s here now.”
* * *
“ARE YOU SURE you heard right?” Beau asked as he pulled up in front of the house.
Earlier DJ had been sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the fire, stringing popcorn for their Christmas tree. She had been wearing one of his shirts over a pair of jeans. Her face had been flushed, either from the fire or their lovemaking earlier. She’d looked relaxed, content, maybe even happy. He’d lost another piece of his heart at the sight of her.
Now she looked as if she might jump out of her skin. “My sister. That must be her rental car. Why would she be at the ranch?” she asked, turning to meet his gaze.
“Apparently she wants to see you.”
She shook her head, relieved after her call earlier to the hospital that her father was going to make it. “This is crazy. One minute all I have is my father, and now I have cousins and a sister?”
“Who might have hired a hit man to take you out.” He pulled out his cell phone. “I’m calling Hud.”
“No,” she said, reaching for her door. “I want to meet her. I don’t need the law there. She isn’t going to try to kill me.”
He hesitated and finally pocketed the phone. “She’ll have to go through me first.”
“Seriously, I don’t think she’d be here now if she was behind this.”
