by B. J Daniels
Anne pulled away, hurriedly drying her eyes as she got to her feet. “I’m just overly tired. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Stay out of our business,” Janie said after Anne’s bedroom door closed upstairs. “Don’t go putting ideas in Anne’s head.” She gave Lizzy a hard glare before turning away without another word.
“IT’S PRETTY TENSE IN THERE,” TD whispered to Enid as the dining-room door closed behind him.
Enid gave him a knowing look from the kitchen table, where she was sitting with her feet up. “I told you I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a murder before this was over.”
“Don’t they want the sheriff to marry this game-warden fiancé of hers?” He’d picked up a lot of information about this family thanks to Enid. Too bad he wasn’t any closer to finding out who had called him from here.
“She can marry anyone she wants and her grandmother would be pleased as punch.” Enid shook her head. “It isn’t about the wedding.”
“I don’t understand then, but you aren’t serious about someone getting murdered,” TD said.
She let out a bark of a laugh. “You saw that in there. The old gal is up to her tricks.”
“I saw Mrs. Winchester watching all of them.”
“She’s watching them all right. She believes one of them was in on the murder of her youngest son, Trace, twenty-seven years ago. Killed right over there on that ridge,” Enid said, pointing out the window.
He saw the ridge in the distance. A deep ravine separated the ranch from the murder site. “Why would one of his own siblings—”
“Because he was the youngest, the favorite. Pepper loved him the best and the others hated him and her for it. Still do.”
“Do you think she’s right? That one of them was in on it?”
“I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised and when Pepper figures out which one it was….” She let the rest of her thought hang in the air.
What was Pepper capable of doing if and when she found out? He glanced toward the dining room and wondered if it wasn’t more likely that one of them would do in their mother. He’d seen the size of the ranch. There was money here, and where there was money, there was powerful motive.
Same could be true, though, for getting rid of the favorite younger brother.
“What would make her think that one of them was involved?” he asked out of curiosity.
“Pepper became suspicious after she found five party hats—and a small pair of binoculars—in a third-floor room that her husband used to punish the kids. He’d lock them in there. All except Trace. She wasn’t having her youngest put in that room. Another reason the others hated him.”
“Five party hats?”
“The day of the murder was Trace Winchester’s birthday. Pepper was throwing him a big party. That’s why the family was here—Brand’s two boys, Cyrus and Cordell, and Jack, who turned out to be Angus Winchester’s son with the nanny.”
“But you said there were five—”
“Had to be those McCormick girls,” Enid said with disgust. “I wonder if Pepper’s figured it out. Oh, she is going to be hotter than a pistol when she does.”
The McCormick girls. He glanced toward the window and the far ridge across the ravine where Enid said Trace Winchester had been murdered.
What a tangled web the Winchester family was turning out to be.
After he helped Enid finish up in the kitchen, he walked down to his cabin near the barn. The night was cold, but not as cold as he thought it should have been in this part of Montana so close to Christmas.
He slowed. Ahead, the horses moved restlessly in the corral. One whinnied and was answered by another at the dark edge of the corral.
TD told himself there wasn’t anyone waiting on the dark side of the bunkhouse. Still, he stood listening. He knew it would be hard to start carrying a concealed weapon in the kitchen, but he also knew it wouldn’t be long before Roger Collins sent someone to take care of him.
He didn’t want to be unarmed when that happened. Like tonight.
The horses settled down, and all was quiet again. He took a moment to stare up at the magnificent canopy of stars sparkling in the deep blue of the night sky overhead. Wow, he’d forgotten how incredible a Montana night sky could be away from the lights of town.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” asked a voice from the deep shadows beside his cabin, startling him.
He’d been so sure his first instinct had been wrong. Fortunately, he recognized the voice at once and smiled to himself as he stepped over to the side of the building.
Lizzy stood in the deep shadows leaning against the log wall, clearly waiting for him. Even though she was in shadow, starlight reflected off the snow, and he could see that his first impression of her hadn’t been exaggerated. The woman was a beauty, one of those women who turned a man’s head.
TD knew she was the last thing he needed right now and yet he couldn’t hide his pleasure at seeing her again. He noted that her horse was tied up behind the corral. That was why the horses had been restless just moments earlier. But somehow she had calmed them all down. She seemed to have that effect on horses, but just the opposite effect on him.
This woman stirred up something powerful in him. Few women had ever done that. None had intrigued him the way this one did.
“What a pleasant surprise,” he said. “I wasn’t sure when I would see you again.” There had been no doubt in his mind, though, that he was going to see her again soon, and he suspected she knew that.
“I came to apologize. Earlier—”
“There’s no need. You were just protecting me from being shot for trespassing. I appreciated your concern.”
She smiled at that. “You also rescued my hat.” She touched the brim. “Since it’s my favorite, thank you again.”
TD knew she’d come over here for something other than to apologize or to thank him. “It was the least I could do. It isn’t every day a woman takes you for the ride of your life.”
She looked uneasy.
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll get caught over here?” he asked, glancing back toward the lodge. Lights blazed in the main windows but no sound moved on the night breeze.
“I’ve been sneaking over here since I was a girl.”
He laughed softly. “You still like the thrill that you might get caught.”
“You’re on to me.”
He eyed her, suspecting he was nowhere near understanding this woman. “Would you like to come in?” he asked, motioning toward the door of the cabin. “It’s a bit austere but it’s warm inside.”
She shook her head as she pushed herself off the wall. “I need to get back, but thanks.”
“You sure you’ll be all right riding back alone? If you need company…”
She flashed him a grin. “I like riding alone. With the snow on the ground and the stars out, it’s almost as bright as daylight.”
He wanted to ask her why she’d really come over as she untied her mount and swung up into the saddle. But whatever little game they were playing, he was more than happy to play along.
“Good night, Mr. Waters.” She tipped her hat and rode off.
He watched her go, his smile fading. He felt a chill that could have been the night air or the uneasy feeling that settled in him as she disappeared over the rise. Whatever was bothering him, it was more than Lizzy Calder’s unexpected visit.
He started to open his cabin door when he saw a dark figure standing under the overhang at the front of the main lodge. How long had Worth Winchester been there? His head was turned toward the horizon—the same one Lizzy Calder had just dropped over. Even from this distance, TD could see the anger in the man’s stance before Worth stepped back inside the lodge.
Would he report what he’d seen to his mother?
This feud between the McCormicks and Winchesters was more than bad blood, TD thought as he slipped inside his dark cabin and closed the door against the December night.
It wasn’t un
til he turned on a light that he saw the envelope that had been pushed under his door.
WHEN LIZZY RETURNED, it was late. The night had gotten colder, not that she’d noticed. Being around Waters had her plenty heated. She could feel her cheeks still flaming. It was the way he looked at her. She swore it was as if he could see her not just naked—but exposed clear to her soul.
She put her horse away and tried to put away thoughts of Waters with the mare. She was reminded of the late-night rides she and Anne used to go on and sneaking back into the house so they didn’t get caught.
Fortunately, there was no one downstairs when she came into the house this time. Before her ride, she’d made herself a sandwich but had been too restless to eat it in the kitchen. She had wandered down to the barn, eating her sandwich and worrying about Anne.
She’d realized that what she should have been worrying about was her next move with rogue agent TD Waters. That was when she’d decided to pay him a little visit.
Surprising him had been a good idea, she thought now. He hadn’t expected to see her. She liked that she’d put such a confident man a little off balance. She guessed it was something TD Waters wasn’t used to.
She smiled to herself as she tiptoed upstairs and slipped into the guest room, remembering the way his dark eyes had shone when he saw her—and his even bigger surprise when she didn’t take him up on his invitation to come inside his cabin.
With his reputation, she liked being the woman who’d turned him down. Not that she didn’t understand how a woman could find herself under his spell. The man wasn’t just drop-dead gorgeous; he had the powerful magnetism of a man who knew exactly who he was and what he wanted out of life. No woman alive could resist that—and TD Waters knew it.
As Lizzy turned on the light, she saw the stack of framed photographs sitting on the desk in her room. She hadn’t really had a chance to go through them.
Now, still restless and needing to think of anything but her assignment and TD Waters, she moved to the desk and, turning on the light, began to go through the old photographs, slowly this time.
Tears welled in her eyes as she touched her father’s face in one of the photographs. He looked so handsome, so happy. His Western hat was pushed back; he was smiling at the camera from atop of a large black horse.
Hunt was beside him on one side and another man sat to his left, both also on horseback.
Lizzy squinted at the photograph of the other man. He looked almost…familiar. She adjusted the lamp, dusting off the glass in the frame.
Her heart began to beat harder. For a moment she couldn’t catch her breath. The man in the photograph next to her father… No, it couldn’t be. He was much younger, had more hair, looked so different, and yet there was no doubt.
It was Roger Collins, the director of the agency.
How was that possible? Her father had known Collins?
Turning the frame over, she worked the photograph out. The date and the names of the people in the photo were written on the back.
There was no getting around it. Roger Collins had been on the ranch back when he was still an agent like herself. Roger Collins had known her father. She checked the date again. She’d been eleven that summer, too young to remember him since a lot of people came and went at the ranch, and she and Anne had been too busy to notice or care.
But Roger should have remembered her and her father.
Lizzy had to sit down. She was trembling all over. Wouldn’t her boss have mentioned that he’d been to the McCormick Ranch, that he’d known her father, when he’d recruited her?
He’d recruited her after her father had died. Had her father known he was going to do that? Her father must have known what Roger Collins did for a living. Was it possible the two had planned her future?
Or had Collins purposely waited until her father was gone?
Lizzy shook off the rush of suspicions. She was jumping to conclusions based on nothing more than an old photograph. So what if the two had known each other? That didn’t prove anything.
Still she couldn’t help the unsettling feeling she got when she looked at the photo. She remembered one of the last times she and her dad had talked. It had been right before her college graduation. He’d offered to send her to Europe, said he’d even meet her over there.
But by then Roger had already recruited her.
Now, as she sat holding the photograph, she knew it hadn’t been a coincidence that she’d been given this particular assignment—Collins had known about her connection to the McCormick Ranch for years.
TD INSPECTED THE PLAIN white envelope before carefully opening it. He told himself it could be a note from Lizzy Calder—and the real reason she’d stopped by.
But it didn’t look like a love letter.
It wasn’t.
He read what was typed on the single sheet of paper:
I’m pleased to see you are as capable as I thought you were. You’ve made it to Montana. You should be rewarded for that so I’m going to give you a little something. Don’t worry, I still want my money, but now that I’ve met you, I can see that you might need a little persuading. So here it is: Whitehorse Sewing Circle.
TD stared at the note, his mind racing. The person who’d called him had purposely led him to Montana and the Winchester Ranch and he’d come like a dog on a leash. He stared at the note. Was it possible Lizzy Calder had something to do with this?
Glancing around the cabin, he didn’t see anything amiss. He knew he was being paranoid. Lizzy couldn’t have been the one who called him from the Winchester Ranch. She didn’t have access to a phone here on the ranch. At least he didn’t think she did.
No, she’d just come over tonight to apologize. Or maybe she’d had more on her mind, but had chickened out at the last minute or was just toying with him.
He shook his head. She wasn’t the type to chicken out. He’d seen the way she rode a horse. That woman wasn’t afraid of anything. Nor did he get the feeling she’d been toying with him. When she wanted something, he suspected she went after it and didn’t let anything get in her way.
The more likely suspect was Worth Winchester.
But TD couldn’t shake the feeling that Lizzy had ridden over for more than an apology. He hoped to hell she wasn’t involved. He liked her and it had been a long time since he’d really liked a woman he found that attractive. This one he didn’t just want to get into bed. But that would definitely be a place to start, he thought, smiling to himself as he read the note again.
What the hell was the Whitehorse Sewing Circle? And what did that have to do with his past, if anything?
Someone was pulling his strings. TD couldn’t wait to find out who and cut the cord permanently.
Chapter Seven
Lizzy woke early after a restless night. The first thing she saw was the photograph of her father and Roger Collins. She quickly got out of bed and buried it deep in one of her suitcases.
She didn’t know what it meant—if anything. She hadn’t talked to her boss since her call yesterday saying Waters was in Montana at the Winchester Ranch, but that hadn’t come as a surprise to Roger Collins. He had told her he’d suspected that was where Waters was headed when he’d sent her to Montana.
He just hadn’t told her why he’d suspected it or why Waters was on the ranch. She tried not to worry about either, but she couldn’t help being even more curious about what had made Waters go rogue. He didn’t seem like a man on the run. Far from it.
She thought about watching him come across the yard in the starlight last night, the cold December night exhilarating—just as sneaking over to see him had been. She remembered the way he’d pushed back his Western hat, the lazy way he’d leaned against the corner of the cabin as he’d looked at her with his dark, hooded eyes.
Lizzy felt a tremor at the memory. Her heart had taken off at a gallop with the sudden knowledge that he’d thought she’d come there last night to seduce him. It could have been a hot summer night the way her body had w
armed under his black gaze. Had she gone inside the cabin with him, he would have been the one to seduce her.
She shook herself from the thought. Not that she would have fallen for it. But the point was, Waters definitely wasn’t acting like a man running from his past or the agency. If he’d gone rogue, he certainly wasn’t worried about anyone coming after him.
Unless he somehow knew Collins had sent her and wasn’t in the least bit worried about her taking him in—or out, for that matter.
Lizzy headed for the shower, telling herself that TD Waters didn’t know who he was dealing with. She definitely was not a woman who could easily be seduced. But as she stripped off her clothing and stepped under the spray, she felt her skin tingle at even the thought of being seduced by TD Waters.
Angry with herself, Lizzy showered quickly. Why was she feeling unsure about everything? It was that blasted photograph of Roger Collins. She just wished she could get the photograph of her boss on the McCormick Ranch astride a horse next to her father out her mind. It didn’t mean anything. So why couldn’t she free herself of the thought that nothing was as she once thought it?
She was letting the photo change her feelings about her boss—and her job. More to the point, this assignment. She was questioning everything. It was none of her business what Waters had come here for. He’d lulled her into thinking he was just this charming cowboy who was safe and innocent even though she knew better.
She reminded herself that she was a good agent on her way up. Roger Collins had done her a favor getting her in the agency. He was counting on her to come through.
So she’d do the job she’d been sent to do—no matter what Roger Collins asked her to do. No matter how much charm Waters turned on. No matter how many doubts she had about this assignment—or her boss.
After her shower, Lizzy felt a little better. It was still early in the morning, too early. She wondered what she was doing up at this hour. She’d just finished dressing when she saw someone ride past outside. Stepping to the window, she watched Janie ride out, headed toward the northwest.
