The Cowgirl in Question

by B. J Daniels

  “I’ll go down the street and get a warrant from Judge McGowan,” Cash said. “You think you can keep Blaze and Easton from leaving until I get back?”

  Rourke just laughed and headed for the front door of ADC. He tipped his hat to the receptionist, not bothering to stop, going straight to Blaze and Easton’s office. He wasn’t in the mood to wait for anything. Cash had told him that Cecil Danvers had made bail. The good news was that there was a decent print on the casing they’d found up Wild Horse Gulch.

  Rourke still couldn’t believe either Blaze or Easton had taken a potshot at him and Cassidy. He knew the reason he was so angry was because of what the shooter had interrupted. He was kicking himself for taking Cassidy up there and yet, at the same time, he couldn’t remember a morning ride he’d enjoyed more. He knew it was probably for the best that he and Cassidy hadn’t made love up there. But it didn’t help his mood any.

  He’d followed Cassidy to the café, making sure she was safe before going by the sheriff’s office. Cassidy hadn’t said much on the way to her place to change her clothing or on the trip into town. He couldn’t wait to see her again. He had to know what she was thinking, what she was feeling.

  Easton and Blaze both turned in surprise as the door opened and he walked in.

  “Rourke,” Blaze said. She’d obviously been crying. She shot a glance at Easton.

  He had stepped forward as if to protect her. It surprised Rourke. He’d just assumed Easton didn’t care that much about Blaze since he hadn’t married her.

  “Which one of you just got back from Wild Horse Gulch?” Rourke asked, unable to miss the look Easton shot Blaze.

  “I did,” he said, and Blaze couldn’t seem to hide her surprise. “What’s the problem?”

  “Someone driving a green ADC Suburban just took a couple potshots at Cassidy and me.”

  Easton was shaking his head. “Can you prove that?” He stole a glance at Blaze, obvious worry on his face. “I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding.”

  Rourke smiled. “Just like Forrest’s murder?”

  “I didn’t have anything to do with that,” Easton said. “Look, Rourke, could we talk about this?” He shot a glance at Blaze, who’d sat back down behind her desk. She looked scared.

  “Why don’t we step outside,” Rourke said.

  Easton raised a brow. “Okay.”

  As they left the office, Rourke told the receptionist to make sure Blaze didn’t leave.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t make an effort to come see you in prison,” Easton said. “I feel bad about that.”

  Rourke nodded. “But you started dating Blaze the second I left town, so that probably would have made it awkward during your visit.”

  “Well, you’re here now. There’s nothing keeping you from taking Blaze back.”

  Rourke smiled at that. “Actually there is, but it’s not you. I’m interested in someone else.” The admission surprised him. “Blaze and I were never serious about each other any way. At least Blaze wasn’t.”

  Easton raised a brow and glanced toward the office as if things were clearer now. “Blaze and I are going to be getting married.”

  Rourke couldn’t hide his surprise. “Why now? It’s been eleven years.”

  “I guess I wanted to be sure she was over you. She loves me and I love her.” He seemed to challenge Rourke to say otherwise.

  Something passed between them, a remnant of the friendship they’d once shared.

  “Congratulations,” Rourke said, and meant it. “Too bad one of you will be behind bars. I know Blaze took the shots at us, not you. You’re willing to go to prison for her?”

  Easton let out a soft, amused chuckle. It reminded Rourke of all the good times they’d shared. Gone, just like the past eleven years. But not forgotten. “I think we both know that I’m headed in that direction already and, like I said, we love each other. We’re two of a kind, as it turns out.”

  Cash came up the street with the warrant. Easton took it and nodded, watching while Cash searched the Suburban and found the rifle.

  “I’m the person you’re looking for,” Easton lied. “I did it.”

  “Why?” Cash asked. He could have meant why did you do it. But Rourke suspected, like him, Cash knew Easton was covering for Blaze.

  Easton directed his answer at Rourke, “Sometimes we do stupid things to protect the people we love.” He turned back to Cash. “Before I say anything else I’d like to speak to my lawyer.”

  “I won’t be pressing charges,” Rourke said.

  “What?” Cash demanded.

  “Consider it a wedding present,” Rourke said to Easton. “I hope the two of you will be happy.”

  Easton nodded, eyes shiny. “I’m glad you’re back, Rourke. You’ll have to give me some tips on staying alive in the Big House.”

  “For a white-collar crime like cooking your own books?” Rourke said. “A good lawyer can get you off. Now that you’re marrying his daughter, I’m sure John Logan knows of a good attorney or two.”

  Easton smiled and held out his hand. Rourke looked at it for a moment, then shook it.

  Cash started to say something but the two-way radio in his patrol car squawked. “Don’t move. I’m not finished with you,” he said to Rourke and went to answer it.

  Through the window, Rourke watched Easton go back inside the office. Blaze looked up, her expression filled with fear. Rourke couldn’t hear what was being said but he could guess. Blaze’s expression turned to one of disbelief, then shock, then she was crying and Easton was on his knees proposing. Blaze must have said yes, because the next moment, she was in his arms.

  “Get in!” Cash called from the patrol car and flipped on his siren.

  The car was already rolling as Rourke closed the door.

  “It’s Cassidy. She got a call from Yvonne. She’s gone out there. The dispatcher said Cassidy heard a sound on the line, then the phone was dropped.”

  Rourke swore and watched the highway as it blurred past. For the first time in years, he prayed for someone other than himself.

  AS CASSIDY PUSHED ON THE bathroom door she saw the sink, the mirror over it fogged with condensation. Had Yvonne dropped the phone because she’d forgotten she’d left the water running in the tub?

  But then where was she now?

  Cassidy caught an acrid wet scent as the door creaked all the way open.

  The red shower curtain was drawn across the tub. No water on the floor, but the room was humid as if someone had just taken a bath. Odd. Odd, too, that smell. Like burnt electrical wiring.

  She glanced at the red shower curtain, her imagination creeping her out. Don’t. Don’t even consider it.

  She’d seen too many horror movies as a teenager. She reached for the curtain to pull it back. That’s when she heard it. A siren in the distance. Cash. She breathed a sigh of relief and thought about going downstairs to wait for him.

  But her fingers were already on the shower curtain. She drew it back, telling herself later she’d laugh about how scared she was because the tub would be empty, a faint ring around the edge from where the sudsy water had been earlier.

  She heard something behind her. A sound like a soft jingle. But her gaze was on the tub.

  It wasn’t empty.

  Cassidy screamed, the sound ricocheting off the walls as the sight branded itself on her brain. Yvonne fully clothed lying in the tub of water. Her face blue and floating just under the surface, legs splayed, knees up. The still-plugged-in hair dryer resting on her chest.

  Cassidy swung around, half falling, half lurching back through the bathroom door onto the landing. She heard a sound, a door creaking open. She turned her head.

  At first she thought it was Cash, that somehow he’d gotten there quicker than she’d expected. But she could still hear the siren drawing closer and the dark figure came from a now partially opened doorway that had been closed earlier.

  She couldn’t make out the features in the shadowy darkness of the landing un
til the figure was almost on top of her. And then it was too late. She didn’t have time to react. Didn’t even have time to get her arm up.

  The blow caught her in the temple, the force knocking her backward. She felt the air rush from her lungs as she fell, then saw nothing but darkness.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Cassidy!” Rourke took the stairs three at a time with Cash yelling for him to wait as he ran through the ransacked house.

  She was slumped against the wall on the landing, her head tilted to one side. His heart caught in his throat. No! Oh, God no.

  But the moment he touched her, he knew she was alive. She stirred and let out a soft moan, her hand going to the bump on her head. Her eyes came open. She focused on him, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth.

  “Rourke.”

  He thought his heart would burst from his chest as he drew her to him. “Are you all right?” he whispered against her hair.

  She nodded and rubbed her temple. “He hit me.”

  “Who?” Cash asked as he reached the landing, his weapon drawn.

  Cassidy drew back a little from Rourke’s embrace, her eyes widening. “Yvonne.” The word came out on a sob as she motioned toward the open bathroom door.

  Rourke exchanged a look with Cash, then Cash stepped into the bathroom, his weapon still drawn. Rourke heard a curse, then Cash checked the other rooms and called for the coroner and forensics crew out of Billings.

  “Yvonne’s dead,” he said, then knelt down close to Cassidy and checked her pupils. “Who hit you, Cassidy?”

  “A man. I think I saw his face….” She frowned, then held her head.

  “I don’t think you have a concussion,” Cash said. “How do you feel?”

  Rourke was still holding her, never wanting to let her go.

  “Woozy but all right. Yvonne said she was at Wild Horse Gulch the night Forrest was killed. She said she went up there to meet him. She saw the murderer leaving on horseback, but didn’t recognize him. She was scared because she thought he’d found out about her.” Cassidy let out a sob. “Forrest was still alive when she found him that night. He had a medal in his hand, a Saint Christopher medal, the chain broken. He gave it to her.”

  “The killer’s?” Rourke said on a breath.

  Cassidy nodded. “That’s why she was so afraid. She feared the killer would get her before you found out who he was if he knew she had the medal and had been the woman Forrest was meeting that night.”

  “Yvonne has been sitting on this for eleven years?” Rourke couldn’t believe it.

  “She was scared he’d come after her.”

  “It seems that’s exactly what he did,” Cash said. “Is anything coming back? Something you might have seen or heard or smelled….”

  She shook her head.

  “Do you think you can stand?” Rourke asked her. He couldn’t remember ever being that frightened. He held Cassidy tightly to him as he helped her up.

  “Wait a minute, there was something. I heard a jingle, like change in a pocket or a lot of keys on a ring.” She shook her head. “That’s all I can remember and I can’t even be sure about that. I thought I saw his face, but it’s gone now.”

  “You were hit pretty hard from the size of the knot on your head,” Cash said.

  “Gavin,” she said suddenly. “I thought I heard Gavin’s voice when Yvonne left the line before I came out to check on her.”

  Cash looked startled. “I passed Holt’s car as I was coming out. It looked like Gavin behind the wheel. You take Cassidy back to the cabin. I’m going to have a talk with Gavin.” Cash took off.

  He glanced back at the bathroom. “If only Yvonne had come forward eleven years ago.”

  A set of dual sirens grew louder and louder as the state boys arrived.

  Rourke told them where the sheriff had gone and left word for Cash to call him when he heard something.

  Cassidy was quiet on the drive to the cabin. He turned up the heater and wrapped his coat around her, but he could see that she was still shaking.

  He drew her to him and she snuggled into him.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” she whispered against his chest. “I can’t believe this.”

  He wished he couldn’t, but he’d known for eleven years that the killer was still out there.

  At the cabin, Rourke dug out his father’s stash of good bourbon from where Asa kept it hidden for his fishing trips with Cash.

  He poured Cassidy a little in a glass. “Here, drink this.”

  She downed it, coughed and looked up at him. “What was that?” she said on a single breath.

  “The best bourbon money can buy. Asa’s good stuff. He swears it will put hair on your chest.”

  “I hope not.”

  CASSIDY DIDN’T REALIZE how tense she was until Rourke’s cell phone rang and she practically jumped out of her skin. She watched as he answered it, listening to his side of the conversation.

  “Yeah? Thanks, Cash. Yeah, I’ll tell her. No, she’s fine. I will. Okay.” He clicked off.

  She watched her face. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

  “Gavin was driving Holt’s car. Cash tried to pull him over. Gavin made a run for it and missed that corner down by the coal mine. He’s dead.”

  Cassidy took a breath and let it out as Rourke sat down beside her.

  “Gavin had a nasty scratch on his face. The forensics tech found skin and blood under Yvonne’s fingernails. Cash is waiting for the results but it looks like Gavin killed Yvonne.” He hesitated. “There’s more. The forensics tech found a Saint Christopher medal in Gavin’s car. The chain had been broken and the silver was tarnished.”

  Cassidy felt tears burn her eyes. “The one Yvonne told me about.”

  “Looks that way. It’s over, Cassidy. You’re safe. And I’m…I’m free.”

  “Oh, Rourke,” she whispered, and began to cry, so filled with emotion. She had prayed for this day. She looked into his wonderful pale blue eyes and felt her heart soar.

  He kissed her softly on the lips, then pulled back. “No hiccups?” he asked, smiling at her.

  She shook her head, waiting for a moment, then smiled. “Not a one.”

  He slipped his hand around her waist and drew her to him. His mouth dropped to hers and her lips parted not in surprise but in response to his ardor. Her arms came around his neck, she sighed against his mouth, a satisfied sigh as he wrapped her in his arms.

  Cassidy felt as if she’d come home. It was the oddest feeling. Especially given her response to the first kiss. Actually their second. The barn kiss had been quick, a brush of dry lips, but it had jump-started her heart.

  Their second kiss had been better, no doubt about that. Her racing heart and her hiccups could attest to that.

  But this kiss. Oh, this latest kiss…it was all that she’d dreamed of. Just like being wrapped in Rourke’s arms.

  She told herself she was dreaming as she listened to the thump-thump of his heart. This couldn’t be happening. Dreams like this didn’t come true.

  He drew back and she thought, well that was that. He would apologize, promise never to do that again and she would hang on to the memory of the kiss for another fifteen years.

  But when he looked into her eyes, she felt her heart jackhammer in her chest.

  “Cassidy?” he asked in a whisper.

  She nodded, not sure what the question was but darn sure of her answer.

  He seemed to hesitate, but only for a moment before his mouth lowered to hers again, the kiss slow and sensual. His tongue parted her lips and, as he entered her, she couldn’t stop the moan that escaped.

  He drew her to him, pressing his body to hers as the kiss deepened. This kiss she could live on the rest of her life.

  “Cassidy,” he whispered against her mouth as if her name were a prayer.

  She locked her arms around his waist as his mouth devoured hers. Her knees seemed to melt and the next thing she knew, he was sweeping her into his arms.


  He kicked open the bedroom door and strode in with her. And then they were on the bed and he was kissing her senseless again.

  His fingers worked the buttons of her uniform top. She felt the cool breeze caress her skin, then his warm palm. She sucked in a breath as his fingers skimmed over the hard tip of one nipple then the other.

  She’d squeezed her eyes closed tight but didn’t realize it until he stopped touching her and she opened her eyes, startled to find him above her, looking intently down at her.

  “Are you sure about this?” he asked.

  Just as sure as she was about taking her next breath. She nodded, wanting to plead with him not to stop. Not now. Not after she’d dreamed of nothing else for years.

  His gaze held hers for a long, long moment, then his mouth dropped to her left breast. She groaned, arching against the warm wetness. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.

  He didn’t. It was everything she had ever dreamed—and so, so much more.

  IT RAINED THAT NIGHT. A soft tap, tap, tap on the metal roof that lulled them both to sleep in each other’s arms.

  It was the first night Rourke had slept in a real bedroom since he’d gotten out of prison or without waking with a start in the middle of the night and feeling disoriented, scared and alone.

  He awoke to find Cassidy’s face inches from his own, her brown eyes open. Clearly she had been watching him sleep. Something about that seemed more intimate than even their lovemaking the night before.

  She smiled at him shyly, tentatively. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning.” He returned her smile. She looked dewy-eyed fresh, uninhibited. He remembered how Blaze had gotten up before him in the mornings, rushing to refresh her makeup as if afraid for him to see her without it.

  Cassidy wore no makeup. She always looked fresh and clean, smelling of soap.

  This morning she looked as delectable as she had last night, maybe even more so given their new intimacy.

  He leaned nearer to gently kiss her. His cell phone rang. He groaned and fished through the pocket of his jacket tossed carelessly on the floor the night before.