by Jill Sanders
“Mmmm,” she groaned as his lips found a tender spot just under her ear. His free hand wrapped around her, holding her where he wanted her, needed her.
“Tell me again,” he whispered against her ear as his movements built.
“I love you.” It was a sigh in the night, sending him over the edge.
Chapter 17
Nothing went right for Dylan the following morning. First, her trusty blow dryer, which she’d had since sixth grade, died on her, which left her heading out to work with damp, curly, out-of-control hair. Then she hadn’t been able to find the boots she’d wanted to wear, so she’d pulled on a pair of flat closed-toe shoes that didn’t have a chance of keeping her feet warm all day.
Trey had an early morning meeting on a site and had disappeared almost an hour before she went, so she’d eaten breakfast alone.
When she pulled into the parking lot at the old brick building downtown, her brother was standing there, looking haggard and pissed.
“What the hell?” Brent said as soon as she climbed out of the car. Her brother loomed over her, and she straightened her shoulders so she stood at her full five-foot-seven height. Anything to make herself feel less small around him.
“Oh, good, you did find your own ride.” She smiled and reached for her purse.
Her brother’s hand circled her arm as he pulled her back.
“Dylan, why the hell did you leave me there?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t know, Brent. Why the hell did you allow two of your idiot friends to break in and scare me to death? Why didn’t you give a damn about me when someone broke into the office and knocked me unconscious? You didn’t even stop by the clinic to see if I was okay!” She hadn’t realized she’d been screaming in his face until her last words echoed off the bricks. Lowering her voice, she took a step back and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’ve been less like a brother to me every year since the accident. I’m tired of playing parent to you. I need to focus on my own life. I don’t have the strength anymore to raise you.” She rubbed her fingers over her forehead. “I can’t keep caring about someone who doesn’t care about me.” She turned to go, but once again, Brent’s hand on her shoulder stopped her. She turned, prepared to yell some more, but what she saw in her brother’s eyes shocked her. Tears filled the brown eyes that matched hers perfectly.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I… didn’t know…” He shook his head. “I fucked up.” He sighed. “No one asked me if I was prepared to take on such big responsibilities at such a young age.” He closed his eyes. “I’ve been pissed at our folks.” His eyes opened, and she could see something behind them that she had either been too blind to see or hadn’t noticed before. Pain. “They should have made better choices. They should have planned for something like this. Instead, they continued living like…”
“Children?” She sighed.
“I was thrust into adulthood when I was only twenty-one. I didn’t know what to do to make house payments. Hell, they didn’t either. They were months behind on the house payment when they died.” He ran his hands through his hair.
“What?” She blinked. It was the first she’d been told about it.
“One of the cars had already been repossessed before we took the trip.” He leaned against her car. “My truck was next. Thankfully, they had enough life insurance policies to pay it off.”
“Brent.” She reached up and touched his shoulder.
“I wanted you to go to college.” He closed his eyes. “Hell, everyone knew I wasn’t smart, but you.” He smiled down at her. “Wile E. Coyote.” The use of his old nickname made her smile. “Supergenius,” he finished. “I had always expected that you’d go to Harvard or Yale. Then… they left us with a mess and nothing mattered anymore.” His shoulders slumped. “I fucked everything up. Just like they did.”
“Hey.” She stepped closer. “You’ve gotten us this far.” She wrapped her arms around him and held him close for the first time in years. “You can go the rest of the way. I’ll help you.”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t want to drag you down with me. You’ve got a fresh start here.” He glanced around. “You’ll be better off if I leave.”
She remained silent, her heart sinking slightly. “What about your job?”
He glanced around. “I have a chance to transfer to a job site in North Dakota for the McGowans. I think I’ll take it. Jake is heading there after Seth’s wedding. I’ve told him I’ll drive. I’ve already packed.”
It was a blow but seeing the excitement in her brother’s eyes as he talked about going to North Dakota eased the pain a little.
“When do you leave?” she asked.
“Monday. I’ve already told Tyler I’ll take the job.” He looked back down at her. “I just didn’t have enough courage to tell you, until now.” He ran his hand over her shoulder. “I’m sorry,”
She nodded, then realized she’d been crying and wiped the tears away. “You’ll be back?”
He nodded. “It’s just a temporary transfer. I need to…” He looked around. “Take a break.”
“Did she break your heart?” she asked suddenly.
“Who?” He laughed. “Darla?” She nodded. “No, I broke it off with her. I found her poking holes in my condoms.”
“What?” Instantly she was pissed.
“Yeah, seems like she’s desperate to have kids.” He shrugged.
“I’m sorry.” She hugged him. “If you need anything…”
“No. I’m sorry about leaving you high and dry with the rent, but Tyler assured me that they would work something out.”
“Don’t worry, Trey’s been covering it.”
He nodded. “You serious about this guy?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered quickly. “Very,”
Brent nodded. “Good, he’s… Hell, a lot better than I am to you.”
She smiled. “You’re my brother.”
“That’s no excuse.” He glanced around as a truck drove up. “I’ve got to get to work. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Brent,” she called after him. “I love you.”
Her brother smiled. “Right back at ya, kiddo.”
It was a statement he’d made all his life and love flooded her heart. As bad as her morning had been, her day was looking up and she knew that evening, it was only going to get better.
Just remembering the tenderness that Trey had shown her the night before kept a warm glow spreading throughout her the rest of her workday.
Trent and Tyler came and went. Trey had called and canceled their standard lunch date, so he could play catch-up for missing the day before.
Since she was on top of all her work and her next classes weren’t open up to her yet, she decided to finish cleaning up some of Rea’s old files on the computer.
She’d started organizing the old files and emails the week after getting hired and every time she had downtime, she would work on them.
There were a few new emails she questioned, several from a lawyer named Steven Rice. She forwarded them on to Tyler, knowing he would take care of them, then got back to work archiving the rest.
Today, she figured she could get through all of Rea’s old emails. She was going through the oldest emails when she had to stop and read a few several times.
It was a grouping of emails between Carl and Rea. Carl used to work for McGowan Enterprises, and there had been hundreds of such emails, which she had either filed or deleted due to lack of official business in them, and nothing stood out about these emails at first. After glancing through the rest, she’d gathered that Rea wasn’t too fond of Carl. But then she got to this email.
I know we agreed never to talk about that night, but I found a letter from a clinic in Helena. Gavin went there and was tested. They say that he’s sterile. I don’t know if I should give it to him or not. What am I going to do? -R
The reply was short.
Throw it away.
There was another one from Rea, marked
two days later.
The clinic keeps calling. I’m scared. -R
Again, Carl had only a few words in reply.
I’ll handle it.
The last one from Rea was short.
Gavin knows that Brian isn’t his.
She got to the end of the emails and sat there rereading them until her phone rang, jolting her out of the trance.
“Hey.” Hearing Trey’s voice made her wonder if they knew.
“Hey,” she said, unsure what to do with the emails and the knowledge.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I… found something out.” She closed the emails down. “I…” She opened them again and hit print. “We can talk later.” She tucked the prints into her purse.
“Is it bad?” he asked.
“Um, I don’t know.” She remembered that Rea’s ex-husband had killed himself years ago and wondered if the dates were close to when the emails had been written. “It has the potential to be.”
“I’m heading to the office. I’m done for the—” His phone buzzed, interrupting his words. “Got another call. I’ll call you right back.”
“Okay.” She hung up and did a quick search on the local newspaper’s website to see if she could find Gavin Laster’s obituary announcement.
The emails were dated days before the man was found hanging from the bridge on Interstate 41.
Dylan’s heart skipped. When her phone rang, she knew she had to tell the McGowans.
“Hey, there’s an emergency up at the Meier Ranch site. I’ll be about an hour.”
“Should I call your brothers?” she asked, tucking the emails back in her purse.
“No, I’ve got this. I’ll see you when I get there. It should be shortly after five.” He took a deep breath. “I can’t wait to hear your answer tonight.”
She smiled and nodded. “I’ll see you then.”
When they hung up, she turned back to the computer. She decided to not move the string of emails, but just to continue through the remaining ones.
There were several she’d printed out from Carl to Trey’s father, Thurston. In the beginning, the brothers had gotten along, even joked with one another. Sometime shortly after the emails between Rea and Carl, things had changed. A pattern of Carl going downhill had emerged. She immediately wondered if it was due to Gavin Laster’s death.
Over the next hour, she built a chart of events. She searched the newspaper archives for any information on Carl and Rea, and even on Trey’s father.
She was surprised when an article with a massive image popped up on her screen. The image was of a six-year-old Thurston Noah McGowan the third, who was standing in front of the baseball fields holding a large trophy. His long blonde hair was curling down in front of his blue eyes as he smiled widely, showing a large gap where his front teeth should have been.
She couldn’t help but smile at the kid he’d been. Then, without warning, a daydream filled her mind of how their son would look just like that. Her entire body tensed as the imagination took flight. A son who looked like Trey, and also a look-alike daughter.
When the phone rang, she shook the daydream off and answered the call as she glanced at the clock, Trey should be there any time now.
“The McGowans have been warned.” The voice was low, and she had to pinch her other ear closed to hear. “His blood is on their hands.” The line went dead.
Her heart jumped a beat and she fumbled as she punched the button to call Trey’s line. When he didn’t answer, she called Tyler, who picked up on the second ring.
“I can’t get a hold of Trey. Someone called. They said his blood is on your hands.” She knew she sounded hysterical, but she couldn’t control herself.
“What?” Tyler asked.
She repeated herself and she could hear as Tyler turned to someone. “Call Trey.” He came back to her. “I’m with Trent. Where was he last?”
“Um, he was heading to the Meier Ranch. He received a call saying there was an emergency up there.”
“We’re turning around and heading there now.” She heard tires squeal. At the same moment, Dylan felt the earth rattle. Everything in the office shook and pictures fell off the walls. She held onto her desk as the entire building jumped.
“Jesus!” Tyler screamed in her ear. “Oh Jesus, no!”
* * *
As Trey drove up to the Meier Ranch, he thought about the perfect night he had planned.
Dinner was being delivered to his property sharply at six o’clock by Basia, a local chef who owned a catering business in town. She made some of the most sought-after meals in town and had catered both Tyler and Trent’s weddings.
He’d ordered her specialty meal with pierogi, a dumpling stuffed with meat, cheese, and potatoes, along with a salad, hors-d'oeuvres, and the champagne that she had suggested. The evening would be perfect.
He’d asked his brothers to set up the scene after they got off work. They were hanging lights and putting their mother’s good tablecloth on the picnic table, along with setting up candles and the portable fire pit so they could enjoy the evening without getting too cold.
If all went well, everything would be perfect and in place by the time they arrived at six-thirty. The only thing left for him to do was come up with the right words. This had been his problem all day long.
Words weren’t his strong suit. Hell, he’d flunked eighth grade English class. Okay, it was mainly Susie Grimes’s fault. She’d sat in front of him all year long with her pretty blonde hair and her freshly grown boobs. He’d blamed the new hormones pulsing through his fifteen-year-old body for his grades that year.
Now the only eyes he thought of were a pair of honey brown ones that looked up at him with love and lust mixed together.
Dylan was his ideal woman, the one he’d never imagined he’d find. Even though they’d been rough, his words to her last night had been from the heart.
He’d never imagined he’d find someone like her. He’d been jealous watching his brothers find and fall in love with their new wives. There had been bumps in the road, but it had always been clear that the two older McGowans would get their happy ever after. Not that he thought he wasn’t worthy of getting his, but he’d always imagined something getting in the way of it.
Trey parked his truck alongside the oil pump. The Meier’s site had been set up last year. There were six pumps on their ranch and, so far, it had given the couple enough profit that they’d retired and purchased a house in Florida.
Why was it that everyone always retired to Florida? he wondered as he got out of his truck. The sound of the pump was deafening. Something was off. Normally, they made a low humming noise or a squeaking noise from the rusted metal. This one, however, was making a terrible grinding noise and wasn’t turning at all.
He must have taken no more than two steps towards the machine when he heard a clicking noise. As if in slow motion, he watched a spark fly from the pump’s drive area. He took a step backward and watched in horror as the small explosion grew. When the blast hit him, he knew he was screwed.
He’d hardly had time to jump behind the wheel well of the truck before the second, bigger blast shook the ground. The wheel well shielded him from most of the flames shooting his way. Still, he felt his clothing and skin heat as the fire circled him.
He was fully surrounded within a matter of seconds as the pump shook once more. He knew he only had minutes before the fire would reach the valve that led to the main pipeline. If he couldn’t get to the switch to shut the valve off, the entire damn field could blow. He crawled army style, under his truck and glanced around as the green grass surrounding him charred with flames.
The switch was across the road and surrounded by some of the bigger flames. It was too far away for him to get to in time. His only hope was to find shelter from the blast that he knew was coming.
Glancing around, he noticed the long ditch that the Meier’s had used to bring fresh river water to their crops and animals in the far field.
From this angle, he couldn’t see if it was full of water, but with the snow thawing the last few days, he prayed it was.
He was halfway across the space when he heard a change in the sound coming from the pump. Instead of the high-pitched hiss, there was now a low rumbling sound coming from somewhere underground. He was too late.
He dove for the ditch, praying that he’d survive to see Dylan one more time.
Chapter 18
Dylan sat in the front seat of her brother’s truck, biting her nails, as he drove up the hill.
At this point, the entire hillside a few miles from Haven was engulfed in fire. The newly green trees were all burning, sending smoke up to fill the darkened night sky. It had been less than fifteen minutes since the earth had shaken with an explosion could have been felt across all of Montana.
She tapped the fingers of her free hand on the phone in her lap. She kept looking down at the screen, waiting for Tyler to call her back.
Looking at the growing glow they were driving towards, all she could think of was that Trey was in there somewhere.
When her phone did ring, she fumbled and almost dropped it.
“Hello?”
“Hey, we’re blocked. We can’t get up the hill the rest of the way. The fire is too bad up this way. We’ll have to go around or wait for the fire crew. Mike’s warned us not to go in, but…”
“He’s your brother,” she answered. “Be safe. We’re heading up there now.”
“No. Do me a favor and head on down to my mom’s place. Everyone’s gathering there. When we find Trey, he’ll kick our ass if we let you anywhere near this mess.”
She looked over at her brother. He’d shown up a few minutes after the explosion to check on her, a new step she had been thankful he’d taken since she didn’t think she could have driven herself anywhere. She’d convinced him to drive her towards the fire instead of away.
“Tyler, I can’t… I need to…”
“Dylan.” Tyler’s voice lowered. “Please, don’t make me beg. Go make sure my family’s okay and take care of my mom. She’s probably a mess.”
