Montana Hearts

by Darlene Panzera

  “Aren’t you two supposed to be in school?” he asked the twins.

  Nora suddenly coughed, an obvious fake cough, and Nadine pretended to sneeze, although her acting was ten times worse than Delaney’s.

  “We’re sick,” Nora told him. “But it’s not contagious or anything.”

  “You don’t look sick,” Delaney said, giving them each a frown.

  “Oh, Miss Delaney,” Nora squealed. “We just couldn’t go to school today.”

  “Not when we saw who arrived at the ranch last night,” Nadine added. “A father and his two sons who are—­”

  “Absolutely gorgeous!” Nora finished, and pointed into the side of her cupped hand to indicate their location.

  Jace glanced over at the middle-­aged man and the two younger guys who accompanied him. The boys looked to be only a year or two older than Nora and Nadine. But they weren’t his sons. The older man with them glanced up and caught Jace looking at him. Then smiled.

  “Excuse me,” Jace said, rising from his chair and giving Delaney an apologetic look. “There’s someone I want speak with.”

  Then moving into a seat at the table with Bucky’s father and the other young men, he said, “Welcome to Collins Country Cabins.”

  Eli Knowles let out a chuckle. “I was wondering when you’d notice us. Jace, let me introduce you to Clint and Clay Maier, undercover agents in training.”

  “Like me?”

  Eli gave the boys a nod. “They’re friends of a friend.”

  After they shook hands, Eli said, “With all the reports that have been coming in, we figured we needed to get closer to the action. These poachers may have a hidden agenda other than killing for sport or making a profit.”

  Jace frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Have you considered what might have happened if you had shot the deer, three days before gun season?”

  “You’d arrest me for poaching?” he teased.

  “No,” Eli warned, “think, Jace.”

  “The media twists stories around to say whatever they want,” he said, clenching his fist. “They might not portray it as a mercy killing. The rival outfitters could have framed the Collinses for poaching and put them out of business.”

  “Or,” Eli offered, “they could have framed you, the son of a candidate running for governor. This could have ruined your mother’s campaign.”

  He thought about the second note they’d sent his mother. Drop from the race, or we’ll hurt Jace. The poachers could have set him up to ruin his reputation to keep his mother from taking office. “You think this is all political?”

  Eli shrugged. “We have to look at it from every angle.”

  Bucky’s dad was right. There was more than one possibility. He’d have to keep his eyes and ears open and not make any swift assumptions.

  When he returned to his own table, each of the twins, one on either side of him, grabbed his arm. “Jace, you didn’t tell them we like them, did you?” Nora exclaimed, her face almost as white as Delaney’s had been when she’d seen the newspapers.

  “No,” he assured them. “Your secret is safe with me.”

  The twins released his arms and let out identical sighs of relief.

  “By the way,” he said, amused by all their dramatics. “Their names are Clint and Clay.”

  “Clint and Clay,” Nora repeated. “The names kind of roll off your tongue when you say them, don’t they? Just like Nora and Nadine.”

  “Oh, Jace,” Nadine said, giving him a big smile. “You were helping us get information, weren’t you? How can we ever thank you?”

  Jace glanced at Delaney’s bemused expression, and then looked back at the twins and asked, “Give us some privacy?”

  DELANEY COMBINED THE special powdered formula her wildlife rescue group used for orphaned wild animals with the correct dosage of water. Then she fed the bobcat cubs one at time, holding them in the crook of her arm like a baby. They certainly were adorable. The cub she held wrapped its little paws around the bottle as it drank and looked up at her with those round blue eyes. The cub’s eyes were as blue as Meghan’s and her own. And how could anyone resist that cute little pink nose, and the black tiger-­like stripes on its face?

  Now that the cubs had been exposed to humans, the chances of them being reintroduced into the forest were slim. But they’d had no choice. At this age, the cubs would never have survived on their own. Perhaps when they were older, the cubs could be used to help educate the public during nature talks and special events. For now, she’d enjoy them and do her best to keep them safe.

  She let both the raccoon with the broken leg and the pheasant with the broken wing go free. Both had healed remarkably well and no longer needed her protection. This would make space for any new animals that she found or give the cubs a larger area to play.

  Back at the ranch, she used the green motorized utility gator to carry the hay out to the fields to the horses for their morning feed, and then went into the stable to check on Rio. When she came out again, a ­couple of loud whoops and whistles turned her head toward the open field where Jace had set up the archery targets the week before.

  Except this time he had set up a herd of fake steer. Luke must have helped make them because short logs formed the bodies, and the legs, neck, head, and horns were made from scrap lumber, probably left over from one of Luke’s building projects. Her brother had repaired two cabins, a deck, and built the octagon gazebo at the request of the Hamilton wedding party this past summer, but she’d never seen him build anything like this.

  Jace stood in the midst of them, instructing a crowd of their guests how to lasso a rope around the steer’s neck. When one of the guests asked him about steer wrestling, he took one of the wooden figures, grabbed it by the horns and rolled onto the ground, turning the thing upside down with its legs in the air. Meghan broke into a fit of laughter and then ran over to him and tackled him, telling him that he was a steer.

  Delaney couldn’t stop herself from laughing either. Walking toward the group, she noticed all the guests were wearing new brown felt Stetsons. Meghan wore one, too.

  “Where did all the hats come from?” she asked, joining Bree and her father, who stood off to the side watching.

  “Jace bought them and handed them out to everyone,” Bree told her. “He said everyone at a dude ranch needs a proper cowboy hat.”

  “The guests love him,” her father said, and let out a chuckle. “Maybe we should hire him full-­time to be our head director of activities.”

  Delaney shook her head. “We can’t afford him. Jace would only stay on for big bucks.”

  “I can take him hunting again,” her father offered.

  “I meant money,” Delaney amended, and then saw the glint in her father’s eye and realized he’d been teasing. Her father had been in a good mood ever since Jace gave them the endorsement.

  Bree laughed and nodded toward the rodeo hero. “I think he’d stay on for you, Del.”

  Would he? His time was up in two days, but Jace had not mentioned leaving or staying. She assumed he’d pack his things, load Rio back into the trailer, and head out. But later that day, when she and Jace were alone, she found her sister was right.

  “I’ve decided to buy a house here in the area,” Jace announced. “My mother’s running for governor and claims it would look better for her campaign if I settle in up here instead of Arizona. But I think the reason she really wants me to stay is because she and my sister like seeing me on a regular basis. They hate it when I just check in one weekend each month.”

  “Is there any other reason you might want to stay in Montana?” Delaney asked, arching her brow.

  “Well, I did promise my friend’s dad I’d look into the poaching and see if I can discover who might be behind it,” he added, then he grinned, and pushed her against the six-­foot-­high round hay bale th
at stood in the field, blocking them from everyone else’s view, and kissed her for several long minutes.

  “Anything else?” she whispered, trying not to get her hopes up.

  “Actually, there are two other reasons I’m staying,” he said, his voice dropping into that smooth baritone level she loved. “The two most important reasons are you and Meghan. I am just getting to know you, Del, and I don’t want to go. I want to know everything about you, everything you’ve been through, everything you hate, everything you love. I want to know it all.”

  She laughed and rolled her eyes. “That would take an awful long time.”

  “I’ve got time,” he said, and held her gaze, his face serious. “But I guess I forgot to ask you a question. Probably because you sidetracked me again, as you have a habit of doing.”

  Smiling, she wrapped her hands around him and said, “Ask me.”

  “Do you want me to stay?”

  Her heart leaped in her chest and she’d never been more sure of an answer. “Yes, Jace, I do.”

  He pretended to let out a deep sigh. “That’s good,” he teased. “Because I already paid Bree for another month in advance. I figured that might help her recover some of the money she had to pay those three women who were angry about the deer in their cabin.”

  “You knew about that?” Delaney asked, surprised.

  “I was next door to the ranch office throwing in a load of laundry in the washroom and couldn’t help but overhear.”

  “Are you always this nice?” she asked, thinking of all the ways he’d helped her family since he’d arrived.

  He brushed the side of her face with his finger and grinned. “I guess you’ll just have to stick around to find out.”

  JACE WOKE UP before dawn the next morning, dressed, and peeked out his cabin door. There they went again, Jed, Luke, and four other men carrying bows and wearing orange hunting hats and vests, but each day they came back by noon with nothing. Sometimes, like the day before, Jed was back for breakfast, and the other guys would come back later. But Jace had been here almost two full weeks and still the men brought back no game? They were either exceptionally bad hunters, or they were up to something else. And today he was determined to find out what it was.

  Quietly closing his cabin door, he followed behind them at a safe distance, ducking behind a bush, tree, or hay bale whenever one of them turned around. He couldn’t follow them across the open field until they’d disappeared into the next grove of trees. But he didn’t worry about them getting too far ahead. Tracking animals had always been one of his strengths, and tracking humans was even easier.

  Their path led to a corner of the ranch property Jace had never been to before. It was a good distance from the main trail that led toward the other land owners and was hidden by a small grove of trees by the edge of the river. Lucky for him there were also a few big boulders nearby to hide behind. If he could just sprint over to them without being seen . . .

  On his way across he realized where they were going. There, in front of him, was a cabin in the woods. It looked like most of the other guest cabins, except this one was slightly larger and constructed from fresh wood. One of the men picked up a hammer and nailed a two-­by-­four across what looked to be the framework for the front porch. Another took a saw and cut several other pieces of lumber into varying lengths. Obviously the men were not hunters; they were carpenters. But why would they need to hide a cabin all the way out here?

  One possibility he did not think of before now crossed his mind and made him shudder. What if the Collinses did want him to shoot that deer in the cabin? Delaney would have been furious, ending their relationship, and he could have been framed for poaching. All of the other carcasses had been found on their property. Was there a chance that Jed and Luke and maybe even these friends of theirs were the poachers all along? The ones threatening his mother? Had they invited him here in order to frame him so it would ruin her career like Bucky’s dad had said?

  He crept over to the cabin wall closest to him and intended to peer around the corner to see what the others were doing, but as soon as he stuck his head out, Luke grabbed him and pulled him out into the open. Quite a feat, since the guy used a cane to assist him when he walked, but Jace had been caught unaware.

  Luke let out a deep breath. “Jace! I didn’t know it was you. I heard someone sneaking around and thought it might be Sammy Jo.”

  Jace glanced across the faces of all six men, and realized he hadn’t been very smart about this. He should have brought Eli Knowles and his two young men with him. What if these men were the poachers and he’d discovered their lair? Even though he wrestled bulls for a living, and would take them on if he had to, there was no denying he was outnumbered.

  “Why would you think it might be Sammy Jo?” he asked, trying to keep calm.

  “She’s been getting suspicious this last week,” Luke told him.

  Jace hesitated. “Suspicious of what?”

  “We’re building Sammy Jo and Luke their own cabin,” Jed informed him. “So when they get married in a ­couple months, they have their own place on the property.”

  “With privacy,” Luke added with a grin. “But it’s a surprise. Sammy Jo and none of the other women know.”

  “And we’d like to keep it that way,” Jed warned.

  Jace wanted with all his heart and soul to believe them, not only for Delaney’s sake but for his own. It wouldn’t do him any good to be at odds with Delaney’s family if he wanted to continue to spend time with her. “Can I take a look inside the cabin?”

  He didn’t wait for an answer but headed over to the front door and walked right in. The foul smell that greeted his nose confirmed his suspicions before he saw the body of the dead antelope on the floor, its horns removed, of course.

  “Care to explain this?” Jace demanded as Luke and his father jumped back, with similar wide-­eyed looks of both shock and anger.

  Luke shook his head. “We’re innocent!”

  “Try telling that to my friend here,” Jace said, nodding toward Eli Knowles and his “sons” Clint and Clay, who stepped through the door behind them.

  Looked like he had backup after all.

  Chapter Eleven

  “DELANEY COLLINS!” HER father barked, marching up the aisle of the stable. “You’ve been hiding something from us. Did you think we wouldn’t find out?”

  She dropped the bucket of horse brushes in her hand and they fell to the dirt floor with a thunk. Had he seen her kissing Jace? Would he scream that she was crazy for getting involved with someone again so soon after her divorce? She didn’t think nine months was too soon, but she and her father often had differing opinions.

  “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, young lady,” her father continued, his voice stern as his narrowed gaze bore down on her. “The animals in the toolshed?”

  She gasped, and then held her breath, unable to breathe from fear over the fate of her young cubs. “You—­you didn’t hurt them or set them free, did you?”

  “Nah, they’re exactly where you left them,” he assured her with a grimace. “But they have to go, Del.”

  “I’ve kept them out of the way,” she protested. “And I promise you, they won’t pose any threat to the guests.”

  “Do you know where I just was?” he demanded.

  She realized something other than her cubs must have roused his temper, and shook her head, afraid to answer.

  “Luke and I were out at the far left border by the big rocks building a surprise honeymoon cabin for your brother and Sammy Jo, and we were nearly arrested for poaching!”

  “What?” She shook her head, not understanding how that could be possible.

  “Jace followed us,” he said with a grunt.

  Her Jace?

  “And he brought his friends, who are undercover agents for the Department of F
ish and Wildlife. They’re posing as guests right here at our ranch!”

  She thought back to the three men he’d gone over to speak to at the other table during breakfast. “But how can they think that we are poachers?”

  “Because of all the carcasses found along the edge of our property and the antelope we just found inside Luke’s new cabin.”

  What a tragic loss of life. She cringed, the sorrow registering deep in her gut. “An antelope? Inside?”

  “It was dead. With its horns cut off. They sell for big money these days. And believe me, it was more of a surprise to us than to Jace and his friends.”

  “We aren’t in trouble, are we?” she said, her fear turning to dread. “You told them you didn’t kill it?”

  “Luke and I spent the last four hours telling them,” he complained. “Now it’s put us another day behind with the building and the forecast is predicting it won’t be long before we get snow. Don’t tell Sammy Jo about this or Luke will have your head.”

  “I won’t,” she promised. Seeing the surprise on Sammy Jo’s face after listening to her say she thought Luke might be getting cold feet would be worth the wait. “But what does this have to do with my animal shelter?”

  “The last thing I need is for the game wardens to think we’re raising bobcats for our guests to come and shoot,” her father said, furrowing his brows. “Now that Bree has posted Jace’s endorsement for our ranch online, the phone’s been ringing off the hook and our cabins our booked. We’ve got dozens of hunters coming in the day after tomorrow.”

  “More hunters?” Delaney exclaimed.

  She had to admit that this time her father was right. With more hunters in the area it would be harder to conceal her animal shelter, and if one of the hunters happened to poke his head inside and saw what was inside, well, she’d hate think about what could happen.

  She also hated having to take the cubs back to the wildlife rescue clinic and having to face Carol, Mary Ann, and Ben.