by B. J Daniels
“You have no idea what it’s been like knowing how smart and capable you are. I knew you’d get out. I knew you’d come here.” He opened his eyes. Just as he knew, she was hanging on every word. “I’ve been beside myself. Did you know I thought about retiring and moving to Arizona or maybe Florida or another country to get as far away as I could?”
She liked that. A slow smile curved her lips. She really was a beautiful girl, so sweet looking like chocolate candy that looks so delectable only to take a bite and find out it’s full of maggots.
He closed his eyes again, resting his arm on the boot as if for support. She needed to believe that he was too weak to get up. She needed to believe that she’d outsmarted him.
And it was true, he had suffered waiting for this night. He’d been afraid he couldn’t save Lynette. It had been his only fear. That fear had his blood humming right now. He still wasn’t sure he could save her.
But he would die trying. He could see that Tiffany was unraveling. She kept talking to the spot beside her, becoming more agitated as her dead mother nagged at her. Pam had always been relentless. He hated to think what it must be like for Tiffany to have that woman in her head. He knew he couldn’t wait any longer.
He squeezed the pistol inside the boot tighter. He’d always been a good shot. But tonight, he had to be a crack shot or the woman he loved would be dead.
* * *
JACK COULDN’T SLEEP. Getting up, he wandered into the bathroom. He felt stronger, less confused, not so weak. After using the facility, though, he didn’t want to go back to bed. He was hungry, hungrier than he felt he’d ever been.
Opening the door to his room, he stepped out into the empty hallway. Before that moment, he hadn’t given any thought to how large this private hospital was—or how many patients there were.
He saw now that the place appeared to be very private. A dozen rooms ran along the hallway, most of the doors open, the rooms empty. Each was made up to look like a pretty bedroom. No wonder he’d been confused when he’d awakened. He hadn’t realized he was in a hospital.
He could hear faint voices at the end of the hall, the farthest away from the exit at the other end of the hallway.
Moving toward the sound, he was thinking how different this concussion felt from his last one. His last one was why he’d given up bucking broncos and the rodeo circuit. Now he’d had another one? He really had to be more careful. He didn’t want to turn out like one of those football players who’d been hit in the head too many times.
The voices were getting stronger. He was thinking that he must be the only patient they had right now when he saw her.
She was curled up in the bed, her face turned toward him. He recognized her at once. The girl from his dream! He stumbled to a stop and stared, struck dumb. He’d dated his share of women, but there was something about this one that made his heart beat a little faster.
Her big blue eyes were open. He knew she’d seen him when she let out a chuckle at his sudden stop. He smiled, wondering what she was doing here.
She had short dark hair that made her blue eyes look even larger. Unlike him, she didn’t have a bandage on her head. But her face was pale. He hoped whatever was wrong with her wasn’t serious.
He realized he must have seen her before. Why else would he have dreamed about her?
Just as he was about to say something to her, his nurse, a woman named Rene, appeared. “What are you doing up?” she demanded.
“I got hungry.” He was still trying to see the young woman in the bed, but the nurse had stepped in front of him. She took hold of his arm and was turning him back toward his room when another nurse hurriedly closed the young woman patient’s door.
“You should have rung the bell for me,” Rene scolded. “You’re not that steady on your feet yet.”
“I feel...better. The walk did me good. I could eat a bear,” he said.
Rene chuckled. “I’ll see about cooking you up one. If not a bear, maybe some beef?”
Remembering the blue-eyed patient, he asked, “That young woman back there...” He half turned.
She still had hold of his arm. She pulled at him. “We’re very strict here about our patients’ confidentiality.”
“Just tell me. Is she going to be all right?”
Rene looked at him for a long moment as they walked. “She’s going to be fine. As a matter of fact, she’s scheduled to leave tomorrow morning. Now don’t ask me any more. I’ve said too much already.”
He smiled. “I’m glad she’s going to be all right.”
“You act as if you know her,” Rene said.
“No, but...” He grinned. “I liked her smile.”
* * *
CASSIDY COULD SEE that her nurse wasn’t happy with her. “I told you that keeping your door open would disturb your sleep,” Susie chastised Cassidy as she clucked around her like an old mother hen.
“I like hearing voices,” she said. “It’s too quiet in here. I’ve had too much time to think.”
“Thinking isn’t a bad thing, unless something is bothering you,” Susie said, then eyed her closely.
“I just haven’t been home in a long time. The truth is, I was distancing myself from my family. I guess I’m feeling guilty about that.”
“Family is nice to have. Do you have a large one?”
“Five sisters.”
“My heavens! How lucky. I was an only child. Count your blessings.” She straightened the sheets, patted Cassidy on her arm and then said, “Get some sleep. You’re going home in the morning.”
Susie had made arrangements for a taxi to pick her up to take her to the airport. She’d even gotten her a flight to Montana.
“Thank you for your help. For everything.”
The pleasant-looking nurse smiled. “I’m so glad you’re better. You have the whole rest of your life. Make the most of it.”
Cassidy was surprised to see the nurse so serious and almost sad. As Susie started to leave the room, she asked, “That man in the hallway...”
“Another patient and no one to concern yourself about. People come here who want privacy.”
Cassidy recalled how quickly the other nurse had ushered him away and Susie had closed her door. She nodded and closed her eyes as the nurse left.
But she found sleep elusive. There was something about that man. She would have sworn she’d seen him before. Maybe when she’d been brought into the hospital.
* * *
NETTIE SAW WHEN Frank reached inside the boot. It came to her in an instant what he was reaching for. She could feel the sharp cold steel against her neck and feared that if she tried to move to give him a shot, Tiffany would slice her throat just as she’d said she would.
The girl was trembling as if under unbearable stress and talking crazy to her mother as if Pam was in the room. The numbness Nettie had felt earlier left her the moment she saw Frank reach into the boot.
She had to do something. Anything. And she had to do it quickly. Tiffany was losing it.
Nettie said a silent prayer, then in one swift movement, she reached up, grabbed the girl’s arm holding the knife to her throat and kicked back at Tiffany’s legs. The movement threw the girl off balance. But only a little.
Her fingers bit into Tiffany’s arm as hard as she could. The knife slid across her throat, stinging like a paper cut as she stumbled forward. Two gunshots, one after the other exploded in the small bedroom.
Nettie shoved the knife away from her, but Tiffany’s body pushed her to the floor. She sprawled, the breath knocked out of her, as she was bathed in hot red liquid.
Then Frank was shoving Tiffany’s dead body off her and pulling her into his arms, crying, “Are you hurt badly? Lynette, are you hurt?” There was so much blood, Lynette couldn’t be sure what was hers.
&n
bsp; The next thing she remembered was Frank carrying her out to the ambulance and then holding her hand as they raced toward Big Timber and the hospital.
* * *
AFTER CASSIDY’S PHONE CALL, Sarah dropped into a chair, buried her face in her hands and sobbed until she had no more tears to cry. Her daughter was coming home.
“I assume everything is all right?” Doc asked when she finally dried her tears and looked up.
All Sarah could do was nod. “Thank you.”
“I did what had to be done. Now there is nothing standing in the way of your husband winning this election.”
She swallowed, nodding again. “You’re so subtle,” she said, getting to her feet. She’d heard the warning in his words. Nothing else better go wrong.
Sarah thought of the young woman who Sheriff Frank Curry had once thought was his daughter. The news was all over the county. He’d had to kill the girl after she’d escaped from the mental hospital and tried to kill him again. Nettie was in the hospital from a knife wound but expected to live. Frank, according to the nurses at the hospital, had stayed by her side, refusing to leave.
“You spared my daughter,” Sarah said now to Dr. Venable. “Don’t you think I know at what cost?” Joe would make the older man pay for going against his orders and they all knew it.
Doc got to his feet, picking up his bag with the pendulum inside it. “My work here is done, then. For now.” He didn’t need to remind her that he would be back. There was a chunk of her memory missing. The woman she used to be, Red. The Prophecy. And the plan.
That was why Doc was still alive. Joe couldn’t kill him. Not until Doc turned her back into Red. Could he do that? Sarah lived in fear that he could. Just as he had made Cassidy and Jack forget everything that had happened to them.
After Doc left, she looked at her meager belongings packed in suitcases by the door. Buckmaster would be calling soon to find out if she had moved back into the main house.
She forced herself to rise and pick up the suitcases. With a final glance at the house she’d been living in, she headed for the SUV Buck had bought her months ago.
Loading the suitcases was no problem. Doc had offered before he’d left, but she’d said she could manage.
Behind the wheel, she drove toward the main ranch. Buckmaster had built the house for her and their children. She’d never dreamed of living in such a beautiful home.
As she came over a rise and saw it in the distance, she thought of more than twenty-three years ago when she’d left it in the middle of the night. A defeated woman, destroyed by her past, she’d thought the only way out was to kill herself. But she hadn’t even gotten that right.
Now she drove toward the house with a new kind of desperation. She would have to outwit The Prophecy. If she had really been the mastermind behind the anarchist group, then wouldn’t she be able to foil their plan once she remembered everything?
Which meant she had to bide her time. After almost losing Cassidy, she knew she had to do whatever was asked of her until the time came.
She and Buck were married again. It was where she’d always belonged. She was his bride. A second time. Fate, and of course, The Prophecy, had given her this second chance with Buck. Damned if she wasn’t going to make the most of it.
Sitting up a little straighter, she turned into the entrance to the house. The guard nodded at her as she drove in and parked in front of the big house.
For a moment, she sat merely looking at it. Buck had built the girls a separate addition off to the left. Now it was empty since all of them were busy living their lives.
But Cassidy would be here soon. Buck would be flying in tonight. All of them would be together again. Sarah hugged herself at the thought. Buck was determined that once they were a family again, the girls would warm to her. She prayed that was true.
Getting out, she didn’t bother with her suitcases—just as Buck had told her. There was staff to do that. She walked to the house, her hand hesitating only a moment on the door before she turned the knob and stepped in.
Home. Tears flooded her eyes. She was finally home.
* * *
“LAST NIGHT I dreamed about this girl I saw in the hospital,” Jack said when his father picked him up that afternoon.
“Oh?” Martin asked.
“I went by her room but she was already gone,” his son said with a shrug. “I was worried about her.”
“Did you know her?” he asked, his heart in his throat.
“Naw, there was just something about her.” He shrugged again, then stopped in the hallway on the way to the door.
“What is it?” Martin asked as he saw Jack look down as if remembering something. He felt his heart take off like a rocket. “Something wrong?”
“This shirt.” His son turned and Martin saw with a shock that Jack was wearing a T-shirt with Montana printed over snowcapped mountains. Why hadn’t anyone noticed what Jack had been wearing before he was brought to the hospital?
“I wonder where I got this,” Jack said, sounding confused.
“I would suspect that whatever you were wearing was covered in blood, maybe even torn. The nurses probably dug up the T-shirt so you’d have something to wear to go home. I hadn’t thought to bring you clothes.”
Jack nodded, frowning. “They really do seem to think of everything at this hospital.”
Martin said nothing as he ushered his son to the car. “This way,” he said when they reached the exit. “I’m parked out back.”
“So you already checked me out of the hospital?”
“All taken care of.” He’d stopped at the desk to pay and also to talk to the nurse who’d been assigned to Jack.
She’d assured him that his son was fine. “The last thing he remembered was visiting his mother’s grave.”
Martin wanted to kiss Doc on the top of his balding head. He’d done it. He’d pulled this off.
“Will be nice to get back out to the ranch, I would imagine,” he said as his driver jumped out to open their door.
His son only nodded and looked toward the Houston skyline.
The nurse had warned him that it would take a few days for the drugs to wear off. “He’ll seem confused, but the symptoms are the same as a concussion. Didn’t you say he had one during a rodeo? Well, then, he won’t have any reason to question what happened to him since he’s been there before.”
Martin tried to keep his eyes on the road ahead as they left the hospital. But he found himself glancing over at Jack. He had an almost sadness to him.
He thought of the girl, Cassidy Hamilton. Had there been something between the two of them besides trying to destroy their parents?
“I was watching the presidential debate on TV last night,” Jack said as they drove through the streets of Houston. “I really like Buckmaster Hamilton. I think he’d make a good president.”
Martin said nothing.
“As a matter of fact, I was thinking this morning that I’d like to get involved in his campaign.”
What had precipitated this? Martin could only wonder. His son seemed excited, though, for the first time in a very long time. His mother’s death had been hard on him. Also, Martin had to admit, his insistence that Jack join him in the business hadn’t helped.
Jack needed to find his own path. After the past few days, he understood his son better. Jack was a lot stronger and more capable than he had imagined. He had a newfound respect for his son.
“If that’s what you want to do, then I give you my blessing.”
Jack looked at him in surprise. “I thought you’d...” He shook his head and smiled as if he was not going to get into what he thought. They had both changed.
“I know you don’t understand. But you’ve always been involved in politics behind the scenes, right?”
&n
bsp; Martin was surprised that Jack had known that. He kept wondering if small memories weren’t surfacing.
“I know you were disappointed when I wasn’t involved in college politics. So you should be glad that I’m finally taking an interest.”
“Does this have something to do with a girl?” Martin asked.
His son laughed. “No, but it’s interesting. That Montana T-shirt I wore home from the hospital? Those mountains on it are the Crazy Mountains. Candidate elect Buckmaster Hamilton lives at the foot of those mountains.”
“And you see that as a sign that you should join the man’s staff?”
“I told you, I heard him speak. I liked what he had to say.”
Martin nodded. He could see that Jack had made up his mind. All the ramifications of that weighed on him. What were the chances that Jack would be there the night Hamilton gave his acceptance speech? Too damned good for comfort.
But the election was still a long way off. A lot of things could happen in the meantime. And if he tried too hard to change his son’s mind, he might alienate him again. Or force him to remember something he shouldn’t.
“Son, I’m proud of you. I’ll miss you, but if this is something you feel you have to do—”
“It is. I haven’t felt this strongly about anything in a long time. I’ve always been interested in politics,” Jack said with a grin. “I’ve just never agreed with yours.”
Martin managed a laugh. “What if I told you I planned to vote for Hamilton?”
Jack looked over at him in surprise. “He’s pretty liberal for you, Dad. I think I’ll give his campaign office a call and see if there is some way I can help.”
Martin watched the city he knew so well blur past the window. He told himself not to worry. But that was like telling himself not to breathe.
* * *
“SWEETIE, DON’T WORRY,” Sarah said when she saw Cassidy staring into the mirror. She’d picked her up at the airport and brought her to the main house and one of the guest rooms. “We can make you a hair appointment in town. Once you’re blonde again and your hair grows back—”
“I don’t want to change it,” Cassidy said, still staring at her image in the mirror. “I like it, though I don’t remember doing it.”
