Cowboy Protector

by Margaret Daley

  He tweaked her nose and stepped away. “If that’s the case, I’ll know where to find you. In the kitchen warming some milk. I may be joining you. It isn’t every day I shoot a man.”

  She studied the almost neutral expression on his face—except she glimpsed the regret and remorse in his eyes. She wouldn’t expect anything less from Austin. He wouldn’t be a man who could take a life easily, even when it was justified. “You didn’t have much of a choice, and this woman is very happy you did. I’m just glad you had a rifle with you.”

  “I always do when I go too far from the main house. Every once in a while I’ve encountered a bear on my property. Sometimes wolves or a mountain lion. A shot in the air will scare them off and that will be the end of it. The lake area has always been safe, but it’s a habit to take my gun more now than a necessity.”

  “I hope they find that man’s partner. I’d feel better if they do.”

  “So will I. I gave Gil a pretty good description of the truck I saw parked off the road not too far from the Triple T turnoff. He sent that information out immediately. Maybe something will come of that.”

  Tears threatened when she thought again of what could have happened today if Austin hadn’t come to her rescue or if he’d been killed trying to help her. She didn’t understand the thugs coming after her even with the information she read about Eloise Hill. She didn’t even know if that woman was the same one they had been after.

  She did realize she could never put Austin in danger and needed to leave sooner rather than later. She had some thinking to do in the next day or so. It wouldn’t be easy for her to leave with no means of transportation and an ongoing investigation being conducted with her at the center.

  “Good night, Austin. I’m so sorry this happened today.”

  As she turned to go into her bedroom, he stopped her, moving close, his hands clasping her upper arms. “Why are you apologizing? You had no control over what went down today. If I hadn’t come in time, do you realize what I would have felt like, finding you shot on my property?”

  Through a blurry mist, she took in the anguish in his expression. A pressure in her chest expanded outward. No, she didn’t have anything to do with what was going on with Eloise Hill, but she had been in the Witness Protection Program, probably the same as the woman the thugs were after today. The earlier incident made her realize she needed to leave, not put people she loved in danger. She could and had lived with the constant fear, but she couldn’t live with herself if something happened to Austin, Misty or Caroline.

  “Hannah, please tell me you aren’t blaming yourself for what happened.” Austin framed her face with his large, work-toughened hands, his thumbs smoothing away the tears leaking from her eyes.

  “I wish I could. But I do.”

  “You have no control of what those men thought. I can see from a distance you look like this Eloise, but up close they would have seen you’re too young. I think the one I shot had figured that out when he finally got a good look at you, but the other was at least a hundred yards or more away.”

  “And he’s still out there. I should leave here.” I’m used to running and hiding. The only thing different is that it will be two I will be running from.

  “And do what? Go where?”

  “You don’t need to worry about that.”

  Anger flared into his eyes. “I don’t!” His voice lowered, a hard edge to it. “What kind of man do you think I am that I would let you go off by yourself and try to deal with this on your own?”

  “One who is alive. That’s what!”

  “Do you not realize I’m in this as deep as you are? I was just as involved as you were out there in the woods. There are two deputies in this house. I know the ranch and I can defend it. If you were somewhere new, you might not know what is normal, who to trust. Here you do. You can trust me.”

  His fury blasted her in her face. She blinked the last of her tears from her eyes and lifted her chin. “What about Misty?”

  “I’m taking her and Granny to my sister’s in Missoula tomorrow. They’ll stay there for a few days. By then we’ll know what we’re dealing with. My grandmother and, for that matter, Misty would never forgive me if I turned you out to fend for yourself.”

  Hannah sank back against the doorjamb, so tired her brain felt like mush. “I don’t know what to think anymore.

  I…” She couldn’t even finish the thought, all words flying from her mind.

  “Are we clear about what we’re going to do for the next few days?”

  She nodded. For the time being she would see what the sheriff could do and what he heard back from the U.S. Marshal’s office.

  Lord, as today, it’s in Your hands.

  “Good, because I’ve come to care about you a lot and don’t want anything to happen to you. Just remember you had nothing to do with causing this. We’ll get through this together.”

  Tell him.

  She would have to soon when she wasn’t so wiped out. She trusted him with her life; she would trust him with the truth about who she really was.

  He drew her to him and encircled her in his embrace. “You saved my daughter’s life in the barn. Let me protect you. I owe you.”

  She pressed herself against him, wishing she never had to let him go. But there would come a time when she would. Soon.

  Light leaked into Hannah’s bedroom from the slit in the curtains. She groaned and rolled over, seeing the time. Eight-thirty and yet she felt like she’d wrestled with a grizzly all night long.

  Throwing the covers back, she dragged herself from the bed and padded to the window, pushing the drapes back to allow more light into the room. A snowy white landscape greeted her. The storm had finally arrived, and big flakes fell as she looked out onto the pristine scene. In the distance she glimpsed the new barn. It had been Austin’s priority to have it finished before the snow came that the forecasters had been predicting all week, so he could stable as many of the horses as possible.

  Quickly she dressed, feeling guilty that she’d slept in a couple of extra hours even if Austin had told her to. If Misty and Caroline were going to Missoula, she wanted to ride with them and say goodbye because there was a good chance she wouldn’t be here when they returned.

  She found the family in the kitchen, all sitting at the table finishing up breakfast. “Good morning.” Hannah poured herself a big mug of black coffee and hoped the caffeine would sweep the cobwebs from her mind.

  “You’re up. Daddy is taking us to Missoula to see Aunt Kim. We’re gonna stay a few days.” Misty drank the last of her milk.

  “You sound pretty excited.” Hannah sat in the empty chair across from Austin.

  “I have two cousins I can play with. Of course, they’re boys.” She arranged her features into a look of tolerance.

  Hannah chuckled. “How old are they?”

  “One is four and the other is eight.” Austin lifted his drink and took a sip. “I talked with my sister, and she was happy to have a couple of visitors. Granny and you will have fun.” He directed his last statement to his daughter.

  “Hannah isn’t coming, too?” Misty asked, popping into her mouth the last of her strawberry jam covered toast.

  “Not enough room at Aunt Kim’s.” Austin finished the last of his scrambled eggs.

  “She can share a bed with me.”

  “That’ll make it a bit crowded. You and I are sharing a guest bedroom and there’s only twin beds.” Caroline stood and took her empty plate, utensils and glass to the sink. “I’m going to pack my bag then yours. Want to come help, Misty?”

  Misty maneuvered her wheelchair toward the door, stopped at the entrance and glanced back. “You are gonna ride with us to Aunt Kim’s?”

  “I wouldn’t miss the trip,” Hannah said around the lump lodged in her throat. She was going to miss the child.

  Misty beamed. “Great!”

  When the child left, Hannah looked at Austin. “Will Kim be okay taking care of Misty?”

 
; “Yes. She’s looking forward to it. You can show her what you do and the exercises the doctor sent home for Misty to do with her arm.”

  “Does she know what happened here?”

  “Yes.” Austin scraped back his chair and stood. “More coffee?”

  “In a bit. What about the weather?”

  “We’ll be ahead of the worst of the storm. What fell last night wasn’t much. As soon as Granny has packed we’ll leave, and on the way back from Missoula Gil wants us to stop by the station. They have a lead on the second man, and hopefully he’ll be in custody by then. You need to ID him. I didn’t get a good look at him like you did.”

  “That’s great. If they get him, Misty might not be gone long at all.”

  “That’ll depend partially on the storm. The reports I’ve heard this morning aren’t good. By night it is supposed to increase a lot. They’re even talking about blizzard conditions.”

  Hannah glanced out the window at the light snow still falling. “I’ll go help Misty with her things. We should get on the road.”

  “I hated saying goodbye to Misty.” Hours later, Hannah stared out the SUV’s windshield at the snow continuing to fall. She was glad she wasn’t driving, and that Austin seemed so capable and not frazzled by it.

  He slid a glance toward her. “It’s not goodbye for long.”

  Yes, it was. The thought only made her want to cry. “I’m glad Gil called a few minutes ago to let us know they’ve picked up the other man.” She shifted to stare out the back at the deputy’s car following them. “I imagine they’ll be eager to get home, too.”

  “I didn’t want to tell you, but Gil said he wants to keep them with us for a while longer. He said he’d explain when I got to the station.” Austin sent her a reassuring smile. “He didn’t want me to lose focus on driving.”

  “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “Me losing focus?”

  “No, that he would be worried about it because of what he has to tell us.” What has the sheriff discovered?

  “We don’t have much longer. We’re almost there.”

  Chewing on her lower lip, Hannah turned and watched the snow blowing as it came down. The wind was really picking up.

  Twenty minutes later, he pulled into the almost empty parking lot next to the sheriff’s office. “We can’t stay long. This is getting worse quickly, and it’ll be dark in an hour. I don’t want to be on the road when that happens.”

  “You won’t get an argument from me.” After buttoning her overcoat and putting on her gloves, she pushed open her door and walked into the wind toward the building, ice pellets stinging her face.

  Her boots sank six inches into the snow on the parking lot. Freezing tentacles blasted her. She squinted against the onslaught and tried to see where the entrance was. Austin came up beside her, took her elbow and guided her toward the main door into the station.

  “It’s a good thing I’ve been here several times,” he said as they entered with the two deputies right behind them.

  “It’s hard to see with the wind and snow coming right at your face.”

  “I’ve got a feeling this storm is gonna be a bad one.”

  Gil emerged from an office behind the counter. “I’m glad you got back safely from Missoula. The timing for all this couldn’t be worse. I wouldn’t have asked you to stop if it wasn’t on your way to the ranch. I’m changing out the deputies to give them a break with two new ones.” He stepped out of his office doorway and gestured with a wave of his arm. “Come in here for a moment before you look at the second man.”

  Hannah’s heart thumped against her chest, its beat increasing as she passed the sheriff and went inside.

  Gil shut the door. “I called, as you know, Austin, first thing this morning the U.S. Marshal’s office in Billings. I had to leave a message on a machine. All I asked was for someone to call me concerning an Eloise Hill. Finally an agent called me back an hour ago. I told him about the attempted murder and the two men I had in custody. I explained about how the assailants had indicated they were after this Eloise Hill and they thought you, Hannah, were that woman.”

  “But I’m not.”

  “The agent was quite interested in the incident when I said they had targeted Eloise Hill. Then I quickly told him that you weren’t that woman. I described you to him and he agreed. He told me some things were going on here that he wasn’t at liberty to tell me, but that he would put a message on the desk of the man in charge. He was leaving, but the other agent, a Micah McGraw, was due back in the office.”

  “But you haven’t heard anything.” Good, the sheriff reinforced to the U.S. Marshal’s office she wasn’t Eloise Hill. Just in case there was a leak there.

  “Billings is getting hit, too. I don’t think anyone will be going anywhere, but I’m a cautious person. I’m sending two deputies with you to the ranch to be on the safe side. The second guy was on his own for twenty-four hours. I don’t know who he called or what he arranged. I told the marshal I would guard you and Austin until I hear from them.”

  “What if you don’t hear from them?” Hannah grasped Austin’s hand.

  “That’s not the impression I got from the marshal. I got the feeling the feds are interested in the two assailants I have in my jail. I’ll hear something. It just might not be until the weather gets better.”

  “Let’s go see this second guy. We need to get home.” Austin moved toward the door.

  The assailant with the rifle sat in the interview room, drumming his fingers against the table. Hannah stood at the two-way mirror and waited for the thin man to turn his head toward her. When he did, his ice-cold eyes bored right through the glass and into her heart. His pockmarked face would remain branded in her mind for a long time.

  “That’s him.”

  “Are you sure?” the sheriff asked to the left of her.

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  Austin draped his arm along her shoulders and cradled her against him. “Can we go now?”

  “Yes. If I have any more questions, I’ll call.”

  After a labored trek to the SUV, Austin turned the ignition on and let the car run for a couple of minutes before slowly pulling onto the road that led toward his ranch.

  “Are you all right?” Austin’s attention remained glued to the windshield.

  “I’d feel a lot better if this was all over with. But at least both shooters are in jail.” Noting the swirling snow, like a blowing white sheet enclosing the SUV, she added, “And no one in their right mind would be out in this kind of weather.”

  “Are you saying I’m nuts?” His laugh took the edge of chill off her.

  “I guess we both are. We’re both here.” Hannah patted the leather seat.

  “I’ve been living and driving in Montana all my life. We’ll be okay. We just need to take it slow and easy.”

  “At least Caroline and Misty are safe and warm.”

  For a few seconds he shared a glance with her. “You really care about them.”

  “Yes. You’ve been blessed with a wonderful family.” I had one once. Now I’m as good as dead to them.

  “I know. I thank God every day for them.”

  “Yesterday in the woods the Lord answered my prayers. You came and then later we were rescued by your men.”

  “You sound like it was a surprise that He answered your prayers.”

  “I just never thought I was important enough for Him to care what happened to me. I’m a tiny fish in a big ocean.”

  “And now?”

  “Maybe He does.”

  “I can tell you one hundred percent He cares and knows everything about you.”

  “If He answered my prayers before, I wished I’d understood what His answers were.” So much heartache and tears could have been avoided.

  “Maybe you didn’t want the answer He gave you. It’s hard for us to understand we don’t always know what’s best for us.”

  She so wanted to shout at Austin: But I’ve suffered for five years.
That isn’t any kind of answer. She clamped her teeth together and held the words inside. As she thought about them, she began to see that, yes, her life had been hard, but she hadn’t really suffered. She had her health. She’d met some interesting people, like Saul Peterson, in her constant moving. She’d helped some in her job.

  All those thoughts only added fuel to the confusion she felt over the past few days being mistaken for an Eloise Hill, probably a woman who had been in the Witness Protection Program at least for a while if not still now. The irony of hers and Eloise’s lives didn’t escape Hannah.

  The blanket of white outside the window blurred as the exhaustion from the past couple of days finally crashed down on her. Her eyes drifted closed….

  “Hannah, we’re home. Wake up.”

  She heard the words through a long tunnel. She didn’t want to wake up. But then the cold glass pressed against her cheek and the pain in her neck dragged her from the depths of sleep. She blinked her eyes open and peered outside the car. All she saw was white.

  Unable to make out even the outline of the house, she angled toward Austin. “Are you sure? Where is it?”

  He gestured toward the windshield. “I parked as close to the back door as possible. You stay where you are. I’ll come around and we’ll go together.”

  “Are the deputies here?”

  “Yes, they made it. We drove, especially the last part, almost bumper to bumper.”

  Again she scanned the area around the SUV and really couldn’t see much. “I’ll take your word for it. Nothing makes a person feel more isolated than a blizzard.”

  “Nope. And you know not to leave the house once we get inside. You can get turned around in a blizzard and end up lost.”

  “I am now, but you didn’t have to worry about me going out in this. What about the animals?”

  “The horses have been brought into the two barns. The pregnant cows, too. The rest will have to fend for themselves. As soon as we can, we’ll check on them and get feed to them. It’s buckle-down time for everyone and everything.”

  “What if we lose power?”

  “I have generators. You can quit worrying. I’ve been through this before. It might not last too long.” He reached out and brushed his gloved finger along her jawline. “Okay, ready?”