However, as she looked through the lens at the couples in front of the gazebo, she wasn’t fine. Ryan, dressed in his cowboy best, held a firm, possessive hand around Bree’s waist, and her stylish sister, wearing a slim, flouncy dress she’d designed herself, looked up at him like he was Prince Charming himself. Next to them stood Delaney’s brother, Luke, sporting his new short hairstyle, with his loving gaze on Sammy Jo, who had finally won the heart of the love of her life.
They reminded her of the way Jace held her and looked at her, and how she’d hoped to one day marry someone she could call not only her “husband” but also her “best friend,” like the Hamilton bride had done this summer, in this very gazebo.
She’d never had engagement photos, never had wedding photos, and now that Jace had left and taken her heart with him, she didn’t know if she ever would. She was always talking about giving everyone a chance, but she hadn’t been willing to give Jace a chance. It was her own fault he’d left. The truth was, she was too afraid to stand up to her ex-husband. Too afraid of losing Meghan. Too afraid she might not have “what it takes” to live the life she’d always dreamed about but was too afraid to pursue.
Before the photo shoot, while waiting for the men to arrive, she’d walked down the path and taken a peek into Jace’s cabin, wondering if he’d left anything behind.
He did—across the middle of the bed lay his gun.
After only snapping a few pictures, her eyes flooded with tears so she couldn’t see. “I’m sorry,” she said, pulling the camera away and wiping her face. “A bug must have flown right into my eye.”
“Yeah, I heard Meghan say she wanted a bug catcher,” Luke drawled. “Except a box of tissues might work better on a day like today.”
Sammy Jo frowned. “Don’t tease her like that, Luke. Can’t you see her heart is broken?”
“I am sorry it didn’t work out for you, Del,” Luke said seriously.
By “it” he referred, of course, to her relationship with Jace, whatever that was anyway. They hadn’t gone on a single regular real date like most couples did when trying to get to know each other. No, instead they’d snapped stupid photos, shot wayward arrows, and perched on peaked rooftops together. What kind of couple did that? She should have known it wouldn’t work out.
But they’d also talked . . . and hugged . . . and kissed long into the night. A sob lodged in her chest, choking her. Fresh tears sprang into her eyes.
“Another bug?” Luke teased, and Sammy Jo jabbed him in the ribs.
Brushing her eyes again, Delaney smiled at her brother’s attempt to cheer her up. “Yeah, these bugs seem to be flying at me in droves today.”
“Let’s reschedule,” Bree said, coming over to wrap an arm around her.
Delaney nodded. “Jace left and I don’t even know where he is.”
“He stayed the night at our house,” Ryan said, giving her a sympathetic look. “And if it’s any consolation, I think he had to swat away a bug or two.”
“True cowboys don’t cry,” she said, shaking her head.
Ryan held her gaze. “I think this one did.”
Delaney walked across the yard and opened the door to the ranch office, intending to head straight up to her room, but the two girls sitting behind the desk staring at the computer caught her attention.
“What are you looking at?” she asked, pausing in front of them.
Neither of the twins would look at her. Or speak to her, which was a first.
“I’m sorry about your drone,” Delaney said, coming around the desk to stand beside them. “I’ll buy you a new one.”
How she would manage that, she didn’t know. The drone the twins had used their savings to buy had cost hundreds of dollars. How could she pay for a drone on top of her lawyer fees?
Still the twins didn’t respond, and Delaney dropped her head in closer. “Is that a video you took with the drone?”
This time Nora shrugged. “It’s the only video we were able to upload before you took the drone and managed to get it destroyed.”
The images on the screen featured the two cute young men who had come to the ranch and posed as Eli Knowles’s sons.
“Can you at least help us zoom in on this video so we can get a closer look?” Nadine pleaded.
“Of course,” Delaney said, glad she could appease them in some way. “I’m good at video editing and Photoshop. Wait—” Pointing to the screen, she frowned, then reached over and pushed a few buttons on the keyboard to get the video to rewind.
“What are you doing?” Nora cried.
Nadine gasped. “You aren’t going to ruin this, too?”
Delaney replayed the last section and pointed once again to the background. In the distance, behind Clint and Clay, who were facing the camera and couldn’t see what was going on behind them, there was a hunter who took a shot and killed a deer—a deer who had been nibbling at a salt lick.
“Was this taken on Woolly’s property?” she asked, unable to believe their luck at catching the scene, no matter how gruesome it was.
Nora shook her head. “No, this was filmed in front of Fox Creek Outfitters.”
“Are you sure?” Delaney asked, thinking they must be mistaken.
“See the sign on his building right there in the far corner?” Nadine asked.
Delaney sunk into a chair beside them. “Oh my gosh, you’re right.”
Obviously Gavin McKinley did run a poaching operation after all. He and Woolly could even be partners, along with the Randalls, like they’d suspected.
“Can I borrow this video?” she asked excitedly.
Both twins scowled and said, “No!”
However, they did allow her to make a couple copies on CD. If the poachers were determined to ruin Jace’s reputation with their video, then she’d ruin theirs with the one in her hands. At least some justice would be served.
Not wasting another moment, Delaney grabbed the keys to her father’s truck and drove into town, the poaching proof tucked securely under her arm.
She’d expected Sheriff McKinley to be shocked to learn that Gavin was participating in illegal activity, but from the strange, calm expression on the lawman’s face, she had a chilling notion he already knew.
“Is this the only copy of the video?” he asked, his hand already taking the CD away from her.
“Yes,” she lied, glancing toward the door. “I trust you’ll do what needs to be done?”
He nodded, but she didn’t think the sheriff intended to do anything but protect his son.
Which meant she needed to take the second copy of the video to someone higher up in the government. Walking down the block, she pulled out her cell phone and called Jace’s mother. If anyone could do something it was her.
“My mother’s not here,” Natalie said on the other end of the phone. “She went into the hospital late last night after hearing Jace may be accused of poaching. The stress of what might happen to her son and her campaign was too much for her to handle.”
This situation was becoming more than Delaney could handle. What was she to do?
A loudspeaker broadcasted that the rally for animal rights was about to begin. A fairly large crowd had gathered in front of a stage at the end of the street. Her friends would be at that rally. She could give the video to them and they could place it into the hands of the proper authorities.
She found Carol directing a man to raise the projector they would be using so it would be properly centered on the ten-foot screen behind her.
“Carol,” she said, tugging on her sleeve. “I need to talk to you.”
“Not now, Delaney,” she said, pulling away from her. “This is not a good time.”
“This is the perfect time,” Delaney pleaded, glancing again at the screen. “Please, it’s urgent.”
Carol turned on her, her ex
pression livid. “Look,” she said, her hands on her hips. “If you’ve got something to say, go ahead, be my guest.”
Carol pointed at the stage, and Mary Ann and Ben, who had undoubtedly overheard, stopped adjusting the microphone for a moment and looked up to see what she would do.
Delaney glanced over the crowd and the nauseous dread she’d experienced so many times before filled her stomach and rose higher, tightening her chest. Her heart rate went into overdrive. The back of her throat closed and her tongue grew dry. Suddenly dizzy, she thought she might even faint.
Then she spotted the officials in attendance on the other side of the platform who wore uniforms with the official Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks’ yellow patch on the sleeve of their shirts. And in the middle of the patch, staring right at her, was the head of a bear.
Her hand flew up to her neck to reach for the bear claw necklace her grandmother had given her, but it wasn’t there. She’d lost it, probably in Woolly’s field the day Jace had shot the bear behind her and saved her life. Her gaze swung back toward the stage and her grandmother’s words floated back to her. “True courage comes from within.”
Was her grandmother right? The week before she’d found another rabbit by the cabins, except this one was dead. There were no signs of an injury, but sometimes they could die simply from the stress of smelling or hearing a predator nearby. She didn’t want to be like that rabbit. She didn’t want these poachers to win because she was too afraid to take a stand.
Climbing the stairs, she walked out on stage where scores of eyes fixed upon her. Then taking the microphone in her hand, she said, “Poaching is not a problem we can leave to someone else to solve. The solution starts with us, working together as a team to protect our state’s wildlife. It starts with you . . . and me.” Handing a CD to Mary Ann to give to the man behind the table with the laptop and computerized projector, she said, “I have something to show you.”
The rally to support stricter disciplinary action against poaching turned out to be a huge success. After viewing the video, the state officials promised they’d take immediate action against Fox Creek Outfitters. Carol, Mary Ann, and Ben apologized, commended her speech, and asked her to come back to their local wildlife rescue clinic. Delaney smiled and told them she’d let them know, after she talked to Jace.
She returned home and picked up her phone to call him as she walked through the front door, but hesitated in midstep when she saw the look on her mother’s face.
“Grandma’s missing!” Ma exclaimed.
Delaney stared at her. “What do you mean ‘missing’?”
“She wasn’t here to cook lunch and I was about to call the cook and beg her to come back, but Bree said the woman got a job cooking at Woolly’s and now its midafternoon and time to prepare dinner and your grandma still isn’t here.”
Sammy Jo and Bree burst through the door behind her and Bree said, “She’s not in the stable, the sheds, or any of the cabins. We already searched the entire house. I don’t know where she could be.”
“Do you think she walked up to the silver mine?” Sammy Jo asked breathlessly.
Delaney shook her head. “I saw Party Marty standing at the end of the driveway. He follows Grandma wherever she goes, which means he’s waiting for her to come home.”
“She left by car?” Ma demanded. “Who could have picked her up?”
“I heard her mention she had a hot date,” Nora said as she and her sister passed through toward the kitchen.
Delaney froze. “A hot date with the sheriff?”
Their worries increased tenfold when she told them about the video and how the sheriff had acted when she’d brought him the CD, then a hundredfold when Delaney went down the driveway to coax Party Marty back to the house and got a call on her cell phone.
“We have your grandma,” said a muffled male voice Delaney didn’t recognize. “She says the deed to the ranch is in the top drawer of her bedroom dresser. Bring it up to the silver mine by four p.m. if you don’t want to see her get hurt. No police. And, Delaney? We want you to come alone.”
Racing back to the house, she shouted, “Grandma’s been kidnapped!”
With her voice shaking almost as much as her legs, Delaney told them what the caller had said. Her ma’s face went white. Bree’s mouth fell open. Sammy Jo clutched Luke’s arm and his eyes narrowed as he clenched his fist. But her father’s reaction was the most alarming.
The blood vessels in his face and neck stood out as his tan complexion turned first to red, then into a shade of deep purple. The vein in his neck pulsated with what Delaney could only assume was rage, and he bellowed, “They took my ma?”
“Whoever kidnapped her will never get away with it,” Bree assured him. “The moment they take Grandma into the courthouse to make the transfer of the deed legal, we can have them arrested.”
“It’s got to be the Randalls,” her father stormed. “They’ve wanted to steal our ranch away from us since the very beginning. They probably tricked your grandma into thinking she was being picked up by the sheriff.”
“Unless the sheriff is in on it,” Delaney warned.
“He’s been a lawman for over thirty years,” Ma argued. “He’ll be retiring soon. He’d never do anything to jeopardize his pension or—or put himself in prison.”
“Poachers make more money than he could ever hope to get from his pension,” Delaney informed her. “And Gavin is his son, who might be working with Woolly and the Randalls.”
“Well, we can’t call him,” Luke warned, “or trust anyone in his department.”
Bree looked at Delaney, and said, “Can we call Jace’s mom? Maybe she could help us notify the FBI or other authorities?”
“I’ll try,” she promised, punching in the number on her phone. “But earlier this afternoon, she was in the hospital.” A few minutes later, she shook her head. “The hospital says Grace was released and I can’t get through to her or Natalie on their cell phones.”
All of the sudden the lights went out and the room darkened. “The landline is dead,” Sammy Jo reported, returning from the other room. “And we have no power. The snow is starting to fall pretty heavy and communication is going to be sketchy all across the county.”
“One of us will have to drive the truck into town to contact the authorities,” Luke said, and glanced at Sammy Jo. “Think you can make it through?”
She took the keys from his hand and nodded. “I’ll get help,” Sammy Jo promised.
“They won’t kill her,” Bree said, her voice hard, as if trying to make herself believe what she was saying were true. “If they did, the ranch would go straight to us.”
“She doesn’t have a will on file,” her father choked out. “She wanted to transfer the title of the ranch into all our names and take care of all her legal business at the same time but didn’t have a chance. If something were to happen to her, anyone could stake a claim on the property and the courts would decide who takes control.”
“Do you think the Randalls have people working for them in the court system?” Ma asked.
“Anything’s possible,” Delaney’s father growled. “But we aren’t going to let it get that far. We’re going up there.”
“Jed!” Ma exclaimed. “Don’t you think we should wait and let the authorities handle this?”
“The people holding my mother are people we know,” he said, his expression resolute. “We live off this land and fix what needs fixing day after day, year after year, all without outside help. So—no. I am not going to sit back and twiddle my thumbs hoping the authorities make it in time.”
Bree agreed. “It’s going to take at least an hour for any outside officers or the FBI to get to the mine, even if they take a chopper. We have to go up there and keep watch until they arrive.”
“The caller said he wanted me to bring the deed to the silver m
ine,” Delaney reminded them. “Why me?”
Luke arched his brow and gave her a sympathetic look. “You’re the only one in this family who they know will not shoot.”
I’m the weakest link. The least threat. “They want me to come alone.”
“Well, there’s no chance of that happening,” her father said, grabbing the rifles from the gun cabinet in the living room. He tossed one to Bree and another to Luke. “There’s no way we’re going to waste another minute standing around talking about it either—it’s almost four o’clock.”
THE MINUTE JACE opened the door, Delaney shoved his gun into his hands. “We need your help,” she pleaded. “Grandma’s been kidnapped.”
She quickly filled him and the rest of the Tanner household in on the details, then added, “Ma’s back at the house watching Meghan. Bree, Luke, and my dad are gathering the hunters. Sammy Jo drove into town to alert the authorities, but it’s snowing and the roads are bad. We’re—we’re not sure they’re going to make it in time.”
“They might not,” Jace said, taking her arm. “But we will.”
Grabbing their own rifles, the Tanner brothers and Jace’s uncle, Bo, promised to help and together they followed Delaney up the rest of the trail toward the old abandoned silver mine. The snow fell heavy and thick and Jace had to grab hold of Delaney’s arm more than once to keep her from slipping even though she wore heavy boots. She might have had more balance if she weren’t carrying her bow and a quiver of arrows over her shoulder.
“What made you decide to bring the bow?” he asked, steadying her once again. “Are you planning to shoot the kidnappers with an arrow?”
“No,” she assured him. “I have a different plan.”
“Be careful. You said that the state officials from Fish and Wildlife are going to shut Gavin’s outfitting business down, but he might not know it yet,” Jace warned. “I’m sure he and the others think they can get away with this and have his father cover for him, which makes Gavin dangerous.”
Delaney cast him a sidelong look. “I didn’t see any newspaper stories about you yet either.”
Montana Hearts Page 21
