Into Dust

by B. J Daniels

  He nodded, disappointed that the girls hadn’t made much of an effort to get reacquainted with their mother. That would change once he and Sarah were married. A lot of things would change.

  That nagging feeling he’d had earlier surfaced. “I tried to call Cassidy. Is she still in New York?”

  “I have no idea. I haven’t heard from her. Why? Are you worried about her?”

  He was, but he shook it off. “I’m sure it’s nothing. I’d just like to talk to her, make sure she’s okay. I’ll try again tomorrow. She’s still my baby girl.”

  Sarah was looking at her ring again, touching it, turning it. He’d heard somewhere that people who toyed with their wedding bands were questioning their marriage. He doubted that applied to engagement rings—especially when it was new.

  “I’m thinking a wedding at the ranch... Really do it up since we eloped the first time,” Buckmaster said and saw her expression. “Not right away. If you want we can wait until after the election.”

  Sarah nodded and smiled, but the smile never reached her eyes.

  “I hope you know I would do anything for you. So you need to be honest with me,” he said. “If you want me to drop out of the race, you need to tell me now.”

  * * *

  CASSIDY STARED AT the photo of her mother, her heart pounding. What was going on? None of this made any sense.

  “You’re sure that’s your mother?” Jack whispered as the waitress approached with their breakfasts. “Didn’t she leave right after you were born?”

  “A few months after. The last time I saw her was at Bo’s wedding, where she fainted at the reception,” Cassidy said as she studied the photo, still having a hard time believing it herself. “But in the wedding pictures that Bo sent me, my mother was standing like this, toying with whatever dangled from the chain on her necklace—exactly like she’s doing in this shot. There isn’t any doubt, that’s her.”

  Cassidy moved the photos to one side as the waitress brought their breakfasts. Jack quickly put everything back into the metal box except the key he’d pocketed earlier and the photos.

  She picked up the stack of snapshots, looking more closely now that she had recognized her mother. Thumbing through them again, she realized that she might have not recognized her mother if she had only seen the other snapshots. The woman in them resembled Sarah Johnson Hamilton, but not enough for her to think much about it since her mother was a blonde—not a redhead. And the woman in the photos was much younger.

  But in the one shot, her mother was looking straight at the camera, fiddling with whatever hung from the chain on her necklace. The look in her blue eyes was so intent... Cassidy shuddered.

  Jack reached for the photos and she handed them over reluctantly. As he put them into the metal box, she asked about the key he’d found.

  He hesitated. “Looks like a safe-deposit key.”

  She could tell that he hadn’t wanted to mention it to her. If she hadn’t noticed him furtively putting it into his pocket, she doubted he would have told her about it. “Does any of this make sense to you?”

  Again he hesitated. “Let’s eat and then we’ll talk.”

  “That sounds ominous.”

  He bit at the inside of his cheek for a moment before he looked around the diner. Several more people had come in, but had taken seats at the counter. “Come on,” he said, trying to act cheerful. “You have to be hungry. It’s been hours since we ate. I don’t know about you, but all that adrenaline, I feel like I’ve run a marathon tonight.”

  She nodded and pulled her plate closer, telling herself something had changed. The moment he’d opened the box, he’d seen something in there that had upset him. She was sure of it.

  Now he knew that her mother had been part of some anarchist group called The Prophecy. Was that why she felt he had pulled away from her? Not that she blamed him. She was horrified as well. Would he insist they go to the police now?

  The aroma from her food reached her nostrils and her stomach growled. Jack chuckled as he took a bite. She could tell that his mind was anywhere but on biscuits and gravy. She took a bite and tried to concentrate on eating, but she could have been eating cardboard for all she tasted.

  She ate, though, telling herself that whatever was going on, she was going to need her strength.

  * * *

  JACK REALIZED THAT if he told Cassidy that his father was one of the men in the photographs, he had to tell her everything. She wouldn’t buy that it had been a coincidence that he’d saved her—and their parents just happened to be former members of the same anarchist group. They were former members, right?

  He’d never heard of The Prophecy, but from the newspaper clippings, the group was responsible for numerous bombings. People had died. Two of the members had gone to prison. Apparently, Cassidy’s mother and his father hadn’t been implicated.

  But that could explain why his father had changed his name.

  So why was Tom Durand, aka Martin Wagner, now trying to kidnap the daughter of one of his former compatriots? It had to have something to do with the fact that Cassidy’s father was running for president.

  They ate in silence, both eating apparently as much as they could before pushing away their plates.

  “I’ll pay and then we’re out of here,” he said, getting up and taking the metal box with him.

  “I need to go to the restroom,” Cassidy said. “You’ll wait for me, won’t you?”

  “Of course.” Did she really think he might take off and leave her while she was in the ladies’ room? Earlier there had been a closeness between them that he told himself he hadn’t imagined. Whatever that feeling had been, it was gone. She didn’t trust him. Smart woman, he thought.

  At the counter, he paid their bill as Cassidy came out. She looked a little surprised to see him, as if even after his response, she’d expected him to be gone. Probably because she’d seen him pocket the key. She knew he had hoped she hadn’t seen it.

  Stupid on his part. Had he really thought he was protecting her? Or himself? That she thought he would abandon her made him even more angry with himself as they left the diner.

  It was almost four in the morning. The sky had begun to lighten to the east through the Spanish moss hanging from the huge old oak trees. He opened the pickup with the remote a half-dozen yards from it and realized Cassidy had stopped some distance behind him.

  “Tell me,” she said, standing in the middle of the small parking lot as if glued to the pavement. “What are you going to do?”

  He shook his head. He didn’t know what she was talking about and said as much.

  “Now that you know about my mother.” She sounded close to tears. “I can tell that you’re upset. You took the key. You didn’t want me to know.”

  Jack groaned inwardly. She looked so vulnerable standing there, her voice tight with unshed tears. “Get in the car and I’ll—”

  “No,” she said, hugging herself. He could see her expression in the dawn. She wasn’t moving until he told her. “Tell me why you’re acting the way you are. I know something’s wrong.”

  Everything was wrong. But right now, he was more concerned that he would drive Cassidy away—and right into the trap his father had set for her.

  “You can trust me,” he said.

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Cassidy...” He stepped to the pickup, opened the door and tossed the metal box behind the seat. Turning, he took a few steps back to her as he searched for the right words. All of this would have been for nothing if he let her get into his father’s hands.

  It made him nervous that they were standing out here in the open. He told himself that the chances were few that Ed would drive by and see them. But still, he felt exposed. Or maybe it was because of what he was about to tell her.

 
“When I come to Houston, I always stop by my mother’s grave,” he said as he continued to move toward her. “I wasn’t planning to come into town today. It was last minute. I went by her grave even though it was going to make me late for a meeting.”

  She took a step back, looking wary. “What does any of that have to do—”

  He stopped a few feet away from her. “I saw my father standing next to my mother’s grave. Shouldn’t have been strange, right? But it was because as far as I know it’s the first time since the funeral that he’s been there. He wasn’t alone. Within a few minutes a man joined him. I was so surprised that I stayed back to watch them.” Jack could see that he had her attention now. “I saw my father hand the man a thick envelope full of money. I watched the man count it and then the two parted. Not once did my father look down at my mother’s grave.”

  “What are you trying to tell me?” she asked in a hoarse whisper.

  “I recognized the man as one of my father’s associates, Ed Urdahl. Ed works on the docks. The encounter was odd enough that I decided to follow him.”

  In the glow of the neon, Jack saw her eyes widen as she connected the name with the man who’d tried to abduct her. When Ed had answered the phone earlier at his father’s office he’d said, “Urdahl.”

  “So you didn’t just happen along earlier.” She looked scared now as she glanced around. He hoped she didn’t take off running because if she did, he would have to chase her down. He couldn’t let her loose in Houston knowing what he did.

  “That’s not all,” he said quickly. “Those photographs of that anarchist group called The Prophecy? The man standing next to your mother in the shot you recognized her in? He’s my father.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  CASSIDY WAS TOO stunned to speak. She took a step back as Jack reached for her. All her instincts told her to run. She took another step, turning, but before she could get away, he grabbed her arm and pulled her around to face him.

  “Listen to me,” Jack said urgently. “I don’t know what’s going on. I just know that we’re in trouble. It has something to do with our parents and that anarchist group that apparently they were part of. Maybe are still a part of. And your father’s run for the presidency. I’d stake my life on it. Hell, I think I already am.”

  She tried to free herself of his grasp, but he only tightened it.

  “I can’t let you take off by yourself,” he said, sounding as scared as she felt. “We have to find out what’s going on. Because I have to tell you right now, my father knows that I have this box, that I know the truth. For some reason, he wants you abducted. I hate to think what he plans to do. Our only hope is to stay together and find a way to stop them.”

  “Stop them from what?” Cassidy demanded. Her head was spinning. None of this made sense. Except for the part about how Jack had come to her rescue. “How do I know that you only saved me to turn me over to your father?”

  “Seriously? Wouldn’t I have done that at my father’s office when Ed Urdahl showed up?”

  This was all too much for her. “You’ve been lying to me this whole time and you expect me to believe anything you say now?”

  “I couldn’t tell you the truth until I knew for certain that my father was behind your abduction. My father is a lot of things, but I never expected this. So, of course, I had to be sure first.”

  Cassidy hated that what he was saying sounded reasonable enough. Still... “The key in your pocket. You didn’t want me to see you take it.”

  “At the time, I was so blown away by the rest of the papers in the box that I didn’t even want to think what might be in the safe-deposit box. I was thinking I might spare you that.”

  “Don’t do that again. If we really are in this together...”

  He nodded, looking sheepish. “I won’t.” His gaze locked with hers. She looked into his eyes. She saw pain in them and recalled the hours they’d spent together. She had trusted him. She had felt safe. “My mother...your father...” She couldn’t finish. “Who were they?”

  He shook his head. “Who are they still?”

  They stood like that for a few moments, just looking at each other, before Jack said, “Beany, we really have to get out of the open. We can go anywhere you want to go. But I can’t let you take off on your own. I can’t bear the thought of Ed finding you.”

  As he loosened his grip on her arm, she sighed. Earlier, she’d been ready to run, not so much away from Jack, but definitely wanting to run away from her near abduction and what she’d learned about her mother. Her world as she’d known it had shattered. “What do we do?”

  He released her. “Once the bank opens, we see what this key opens. You with me?”

  She was. What choice did she have? She glanced around the parking lot as the bright sun’s rays fingered their way through the oaks. It was already so hot she felt as if she couldn’t breathe. She thought about Montana and the cool breezes that came out of the Crazy Mountains even in the dead of summer. She wanted to go home. She needed to go home.

  Pushing her hand into the pocket of her skirt, she protectively touched the photo of her mother that she had surreptitiously kept back. Jack wasn’t the only one trying to keep secrets.

  “I’m with you,” she said, telling herself that once she knew what was in that safe-deposit box, she was headed for Montana—and her mother. One way or another she would find out the truth about Sarah Johnson Hamilton.

  * * *

  SARAH CLIMBED NAKED from the bed. She could hear Buck in the bathroom off the bedroom. She reached for her robe, her head aching as she looked down at the engagement ring on her finger.

  Her heart dropped at the sight. She couldn’t go through with this, not knowing who she’d been, what she’d done, what The Prophecy still had planned for her—and Buck. Her mind whirled. She’d thought the nightmares had been bad. Now the memories haunted her during her waking hours as well.

  She had to find out what her plan had been all those years ago. If Senator JD Hamilton had been her first target, what had she and The Prophecy intended to do?

  She felt sick to her stomach. At her encouragement, her father-in-law had announced he would run for president. Like Buck, the general feeling at that time was that JD was a shoo-in. He would have won.

  Was that when the plan would have gone into effect? She would have been the daughter-in-law of the president of the United States. She would have had access to him.

  Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she put her head in her hands. Dr. Venable had unlocked part of her past and now the memories swept in, no longer letting her believe the lies she’d lived with for so long.

  She’d gone after Buck. It hadn’t been fate that she’d seen him that first day in the corral in Yellowstone Park. She’d planned the whole thing, even going so far as to learn everything she could about him—and his horses. She’d set him up.

  Pieces of the past began to form a pattern that made her cringe. It had been her idea for them to elope. She had feared that he might change his mind about her. Or more closer to the truth, that his parents wouldn’t approve of her and that he wouldn’t go through with a wedding.

  They hadn’t approved. She’d managed to win JD over, but Buck’s mother had hated her right up to the last few seconds of her miserable life. Sarah shuddered at that memory. Grace had seen through the facade straight into her dark soul. No wonder, her mother-in-law had done everything possible to end Sarah and Buck’s marriage. Had she lived longer...

  Sarah shivered and quickly turned her thoughts away from the image of Grace reaching for her in those seconds before the woman tumbled down the stairs to her death.

  What would have happened if JD had become president? If he hadn’t fallen in love with the young neighbor girl, if his wife hadn’t died, if he hadn’t pulled out of the race?

  No one knew how or wh
y he’d lost control of his car that night and crashed into the river. Grace had been dead and buried by then, but Sarah thought that if it had been possible, the woman would have reached up and dragged JD to hell with her from the grave. Or maybe The Prophecy had been responsible.

  She wrapped her arms around herself, fearing that Doc was telling the truth. Surely, this plan, whatever it was, wouldn’t go into action until Buck was elected president. She’d encourage JD to run. But she’d had to be “programmed” to encourage Buck to run when she’d returned to Montana. Now that she knew the truth everything would progress as planned as long as Buck stayed in the race.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked from the bedroom doorway. “Another one of your headaches?” Buck stepped into the room to sit next to her on the edge of the bed.

  She looked up at him, tears instantly filling her eyes. “I love you so much.”

  He seemed startled. “Sarah?”

  Shaking her head, she quickly wiped her eyes and said, “I was thinking about the past.”

  “Russell?” She heard the jealousy in his voice.

  “No,” she said almost irritably. Buck’s jealousy was so unwarranted. “I was thinking about the first time I saw you.” Not exactly true in the sense she knew he would take it.

  But Buck seemed to relax. “In the corral in Yellowstone Park.”

  She nodded and reached for his hand. “I didn’t expect to fall in love with you. But I did.”

  His eyes shone with emotion. “I love you and I’m going to remarry you and make you my wife. I’ve been thinking about it for some time. I also know what’s been bothering you. A life as the First Lady isn’t what you want. That’s why I’ve decided to drop out of the election. Don’t try to talk me out of it. I’ve made up my mind.”

  * * *

  SARAH STARED AT BUCK. Weren’t these the words she had desperately wanted to hear? Unlike Buck’s second wife, she had no desire to live in the White House. And now that Dr. Venable was back and she knew about The Prophecy and the part she might have played, she couldn’t let Buck become president.