The Maverick Cowboy

by Kate Pearce

  They started down the stairs hand in hand and went into the kitchen, where everyone still congregated. Maria went straight to Billy, who gathered her into a hug.

  “So I understand I have a new granddaughter. Any idea who that is?”

  Maria buried her face in his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him. “Me?”

  Billy met Blue’s gaze over Maria’s head and smiled. “You sure?”

  “Blue said so.”

  “And he’s quite correct. We have the science to prove it.” He drew Maria onto his lap. “Now all we have to decide is what you’re going to call me instead of Billy. How about Gramps?”

  Blue turned away and went outside, gulping in the clean mountain air. He’d thought about Maria being his daughter, but the actual reality of it—the science, as Billy had put it—was overwhelming. He’d missed out on so much, and he wanted to give her everything—fight for her, die for her, kill anyone who so much as made her cry . . .

  His hands clenched into fists and he stared out over the ranch. He’d never felt like this about anything before in his life, so out of control and so vulnerable. He didn’t like it one bit.

  “Are you all right, Blue?”

  He looked down onto the driveway where Jenna was standing, looking up at him. He’d been so distracted he hadn’t even heard her truck pull up. She took a step forward.

  “Is Jake okay? Is Maria—?”

  He walked down the steps to her. “She’s my daughter.”

  She searched his face. “And you’re okay with that?”

  “It just hit me hard.”

  “In a good way or a bad way?”

  “In a ‘what the hell am I supposed to do now? I know nothing about being a parent’ way.”

  She patted his arm. “You’ll work it out.”

  “You think so?” He groaned. “I just want to wrap her up in cotton wool and keep her safe.”

  “That’s good.”

  “I bet she won’t think so.”

  She smiled. “Maybe you’re overreacting just a tad, but that’s to be expected. Finding out you have a ten-year-old daughter can’t be easy.”

  He groaned. “Don’t keep saying that.”

  She cupped his chin. “Blue, you will be a great dad. I know it in my bones. Trust me on this, I’ve had plenty of experience.”

  “Okay.” He took a deep breath. One of the things he loved most about Jenna was her ability to keep her head and to share that calm optimism with him. “I think I’m ready to go back in now.”

  She kissed his mouth. “Good man.”

  * * *

  Reflecting back on his moment of sheer panic the next day as he parked his rental near the correctional facility, Blue couldn’t help but be glad Jenna had turned up when she did. He hoped he would’ve gotten his shit together and gone back inside, but he wasn’t 100 percent certain. She just made things right for him. She added the parts he missed and made him whole.

  “Sir? You need to go through our security systems.”

  He looked up to see the walls of the prison rising above him and hastily found his ID. “Good morning, I have an appointment.”

  Almost an hour later he was inside the prison and sitting in a stark interview room at a table bisected by a bulletproof screen that stretched the entire length of the room and up to the ceiling. After a long wait, a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit was escorted into the other side of the room and maneuvered into the chair opposite.

  Red Williams still looked like the sweetest man alive with dimples, bright brown eyes, and a friendly smile. But that probably explained his unfortunate success rate with women and the scattering of irate exes and babies he’d left behind him.

  Blue picked up the phone, and the other man did as well.

  “Is that you, BB Morgan? You sure grew a bit.”

  “Hi, Red. Yeah, I suppose I did.” He wanted to ask how Red was doing, but it seemed a stupid thing to say when the guy was stuck in prison for the next five years.

  “Your brother said you wanted to talk to me about your mother and baby sister.”

  “That’s right.” Blue collected his thoughts. “We’re trying to find out what happened to her the night my father was arrested. Do you remember anything from back then?”

  “Son, the older you get, the more clear the past becomes. I do remember that night. That’s why I agreed to speak with you.” Red settled into his chair, his expression focused inward, softening the harsher lines of his face.

  “I remember coming out of the bunkhouse and seeing your mama getting into Big Mike’s truck. I only noticed because she climbed in the driver’s seat, and Big Mike, who’d been fired by Roy earlier that day and had just come to get his belongings, was slumped in the passenger seat. I suspect he was drunk as usual, which was why he got fired in the first place.”

  Blue nodded. “That’s Big Mike’s take on that night as well. He claims he didn’t know who drove him away and that he woke up in a motel all alone.”

  “It’s possible. He was a horrible drunk.”

  “The thing is, we don’t know what happened to my mother after that.”

  Red scratched his ear. “Well, maybe I can help you with that. A couple of years after I left your place I happened to stop at a diner near Eureka, and guess who was working there?” He smiled. “Yeah, your mom. She wasn’t real happy to see me, and she tried to pretend she didn’t know who I was, but I soon calmed her down.”

  He winked at Blue. “I was always good with the ladies—which is why I ended up with three wives, seven kids, and in jail. She’d changed her name to Betty or something like that according to her name tag, and she begged me not to tell anyone I’d seen her. Now, I was able to do that because I had no intention of going back to Morgantown, seeing as one of those embarrassing situations concerning paternity rights and stealing had come up right there.”

  “Did she ask about us?”

  “No, she was more concerned about me not ratting her out. Poor woman.”

  “Did she look . . . healthy?”

  “A bit on the scrawny side, but she always was affected by her nerves.”

  “Did she mention my baby sister?”

  Red blinked at him. “No, come to think of it, she didn’t.”

  Blue sat and stared at the man opposite him for way too long before recollecting that his time would soon be up. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

  “I think that’s it.”

  “You’ve been really helpful.”

  Red shrugged his bony shoulders. “Got nothing else to do in here except think about the past and wish I’d done things differently. Glad to help. She was a nice lady.”

  “Is there anything I can do for you to say thank you?”

  Red grinned. “Get me out of here? Nah, I’m just kidding. It was a pleasure seeing what a fine man you’ve grown into, BB. How’s Ruth?”

  “Still alive and bossing us all around.”

  “Figures.” Red glanced around as one of the guards moved purposefully toward him. “Time’s up.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I hope you find your mom. She was a handsome woman.” He winked. “Too faithful to your daddy, unfortunately, but a man could always hope.”

  Red put down the phone and was helped to his feet by the guard. He nodded at Blue and then turned and shuffled away.

  Blue stayed put for a while, processing what he’d heard before getting to his feet and retracing his steps through the slow-moving security and out into the parking lot. He took out his cell and called Chase. He didn’t bother with small talk.

  “Red saw Mom two years after she left the ranch.”

  “What?”

  “In Eureka.”

  “That’s only about eight hours away from the damn ranch.”

  “Yeah, hiding in plain sight, although Red said she was calling herself Betty and working in a diner.”

  “Damn . . .”

  “My feelings exactly. She asked him not to tell anyone, and due
to him having to leave Morgantown under suspicious circumstances, he promised her he would never go back.”

  “Did she ask about us?”

  There was the same hopeful note in Chase’s question as there had been in his.

  “Apparently not.”

  “Did he see Rachel?”

  “She didn’t mention her, either.”

  There was a long silence. “It’s all new information for the investigators. Thanks for doing that, BB.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Chase sighed. “You okay?”

  “I’m feeling about the same as you probably are. She really didn’t want to come home, did she?”

  “She probably had her reasons.”

  Blue had nothing to say to that. “Look, I’m driving back to Sacramento to find Daniel Lester. Do you have any more information about where he works?”

  “I’ll text it to you as soon as I have it.”

  “Okay. Thanks, bro.”

  Blue ended the call and put his cell away. It hurt. The fact that his mother hadn’t asked after them rankled even after all this time. What kind of person forgot their kids like that? His dad had stumbled away in a drunken stupor, but even he had found the guts to come back after twenty years. Why hadn’t his mother?

  He turned the engine on and punched in Dan Lester’s home address. If Chase didn’t come up with another place to find the man, he’d wait him out until he turned up at home.

  * * *

  By the time Chase came through with Daniel Lester’s business address it was almost five, and Blue decided to stay put at the house. There was a car parked in the driveway of the modest ranch house and the drapes were all drawn. Blue wondered whether Daniel had even gotten to work that day. If he was still drinking heavily, he might not have a job anymore. A light came on in the hallway and Blue made his decision, climbing out of his rental car and going up to the front door.

  He was surprised when it opened, and almost recoiled from the blast of stale air, sweat, and alcohol that streamed past the disheveled figure.

  “You’re not the pizza guy?”

  “No, I’m Blue Morgan. I need to talk to you about Maria.”

  Daniel started to close the door, but Blue stuck his foot in the way.

  “We need to talk at some point. I’d rather do it face-to-face and man-to-man than get the lawyers involved. It’s up to you.”

  Daniel sighed and stepped back. “If you’re anything like my brother you’re not going to leave quietly, so you might as well come in.”

  “We Marines are like that.” Blue stepped inside and then halted as he saw a set of framed photographs lining the hallway. “Wow, that’s Angel, right? And Maria when she was a baby?”

  “Meant to take them down. You can have them if you want.” Daniel walked away and Blue followed him, his fascinated gaze fixed on the images of his daughter as she grew from a baby into a toddler and then a little girl.

  The kitchen was a mess, and from the pile of boxes and plastic containers littering the countertops, it appeared that Daniel lived on takeout. His pasty gray complexion confirmed that he wasn’t doing too well, and the slight tremor in his hands as he attempted to clear a space on the table confirmed Blue’s suspicions that he was still drinking. Memories of Billy in a similar state flashed through his head.

  “Take a seat.”

  Blue removed an empty vodka bottle from the chair Daniel indicated and sat opposite him at the grimy table.

  “I wanted you to know that the DNA testing confirmed that Maria is my daughter.”

  Daniel’s shoulders sagged even further. “Yeah, well, that’s a surprise.”

  “I’m willing to take full responsibility for her, but I wanted to get some feedback from you first.”

  “What about? She’s not my kid.”

  “She thought she was for ten years. She misses you, and she doesn’t understand why you kicked her out.”

  “So what? She’ll get over it. I got over her mother cheating on me with you.”

  Blue kept a tight rein on his temper. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t know she was married when I met her. I would never have—”

  Daniel held up his hand. “I’m not interested in your excuses, okay? I’m also not interested in discussing my late wife, or her kid.”

  “I can’t believe that.”

  “Believe it, sonny. Angel’s dead and Maria’s . . .” He hesitated. “Not my problem. If you want her stuff? Take it, or leave me your address, and I’ll send the whole damn lot in the mail.”

  Blue sat back and studied Daniel’s resolute expression. “Then you don’t intend to contest my taking full responsibility for her?”

  “Nope. I’m done. In fact, maybe you should be paying me for her upkeep for the last ten years.”

  “I suspect you have some legal rights to see her if you wish, and I’m more than willing to work with you—”

  Daniel stood up. “I don’t want to see her! Don’t you get that? Now get out of my house and don’t come back.”

  Blue rose too, more slowly. “You’re making a terrible mistake, you know? That little girl loves you.”

  Daniel pushed away from the table so hard his chair fell over and he lurched toward the refrigerator. He retrieved a half-empty bottle of vodka and started for the door.

  “Get out.”

  The doorbell rang and he disappeared, staggering down the hallway. Blue took a moment to write out the address of the ranch and stuck it on the refrigerator under a magnet with Angel and Maria’s smiling faces on it.

  When he reached the front door, Daniel was searching haphazardly through his pockets, and the teenager holding the pizza box was looking terminally embarrassed.

  “Wait a sec, I have it right here,” Daniel mumbled.

  Blue reached over his shoulder and handed the delivery guy forty bucks. “Here you go. Have a nice day.”

  He eased past Daniel, took the pizza, and placed it in his hands. “Enjoy. I’ll be in touch through my lawyers.”

  He stomped back to his car, the pizza guy’s thanks ringing in his ears, and just sat in the driver’s seat trying to calm down. What a fool. How could Daniel not want to be part of Maria’s life? Blue shook his head and started the engine. He had to return the car to the airport and get home. Concentrating on those necessary tasks would prevent him from going back into that house and shaking some sense into Daniel Lester.

  But he’d done his best to be honest and up front. If the man was too stupid to deal with him face-to-face, he’d get Chase’s team of crack lawyers on the case and make sure that Daniel could never take his daughter away from him again.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Okay, you can do this.”

  “Is it a long way?” Maria still looked anxious.

  Blue made sure her boot was positioned correctly in the stirrup before mounting up himself.

  “Not really. We’re just going to ride down to the boundary near the county road and check the fence line, okay? You got sunscreen on?”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Yes.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  He set off slow, watching her out of the corner of his eye. She was turning into a good little rider. It was true that the younger you started, the better you were. Her confidence and lack of fear constantly amazed him. Billy had done a fine job with her over the summer.

  He’d spoken to Chase about the legal issues attached to Maria being his daughter and the possibility of Daniel making things difficult. He was fairly confident it would all work out. He checked his cell again, but there was nothing from Jenna. He’d hardly seen her in the week he’d been back, and he was beginning to think she was avoiding him.

  Which was a pity as there were things he wanted to say to her—life-changing things that had ripped up his previous orderly plans and made him as nervous as hell. But he needed some sign from her that she was on board, and so far she’d not given him one. It was killing him not acting on his feelings, but this was too big
an issue to mess up.

  “Look! It’s the mailman.”

  Maria pointed down to the lower gate, where a white-and-blue vehicle had just pulled off on the side of the road.

  “Why don’t you go on down and get the mail?” Blue suggested. “It’ll save Brian a trip up to the house. Shout if there’s anything big, okay?”

  He checked his phone again, squinting against the sun, and saw he had a message. Putting the phone to his ear, he allowed Messi to amble down the side of the hill behind Maria as he listened to Daniel’s quiet voice.

  “I’m sending Maria’s stuff to you. You should get it in a week or so. I . . . guess I should apologize for my behavior last time. I was a complete dick. I just miss Angel so much, and I just can’t get my head around loving her, and hating her and—God, Maria—the thought of her. I can’t deal with it, you know? I just can’t.”

  There was a long silence and a stifled sob.

  “So, yeah, I apologize, and maybe you’re right and I should try and see Maria or something. I’ll call you again, okay?”

  Blue sat up in the saddle and looked down the slope to where Maria was chatting to the mailman and smiling. Crap, he didn’t want that drunken idiot within a hundred miles of Maria. What the hell had he been thinking?

  He’d call Chase, insist that Daniel only dealt with them through the lawyers, keep him tied up in legalese until . . .

  “I got the mail!”

  Blue waved to Brian as he got back in his vehicle. “Need any help?”

  “No, I put it all in my saddlebag.”

  “Smart girl. We’ll take it up to Ruth, and she can sort it out. You ready to ride the fence line?” He forced himself to smile at her. “It’s about time you started earning your keep around here.”

  She made a face at him, and this time he smiled for real. Whatever it took to keep her safe? He was 100 percent committed to doing it.

  * * *

  Dinner at the ranch was noisier than usual, as everyone was present including Roy, and there was some major discussion going on about a party to celebrate Maria’s upcoming eleventh birthday and her becoming part of the family. Blue was only half paying attention, his mind stuck in a loop about what Daniel intended to do and what he would have to do to protect Maria.