by B. J Daniels
But none of that mattered in an instant as she watched McCall motion for her to keep silent as he dismounted and, raising the rifle, disappeared into the pines.
J.T. HAD BEEN following a trail through the snow for the last quarter mile. Now he caught a whiff of campfire smoke on the breeze. A moment later, he heard a horse whinny ahead of him.
He moved silently through the fallen snow with the rifle ready, stopping behind one of the pine trees to listen. A horse whinnied just beyond a small clearing.
The moment he stepped around the wide branches of the pine tree, he saw a figure crouched over a small fire in a heavy coat with a hood, a coat he didn’t recognize.
J.T. edged silently up behind the man. Snowflakes danced in the air drifting restlessly on a slight breeze. The ground around the fire was dark with footprints but beyond it everything was covered in a blanket of icy white.
He pressed the barrel of the rifle to the back of the man’s head. “Move and I will kill you.”
The man froze.
Slowly, J.T. stepped to the side until he could see the man’s face.
“Take it easy,” Will Jarvis said. “This isn’t what you think.”
“You know what I’m thinking?” J.T. asked, shifting the rifle barrel to aim it at Will’s chest, his finger on the trigger.
“I’m FBI,” Will said his voice sounding a little strained. “You probably don’t remember me but I was on the case nine years ago.”
J.T. couldn’t hide his surprise. Something about the man had been familiar, something that reminded him of the horror of that unforgettable cattle roundup. He couldn’t remember any of the FBI agents, who’d been called in because of a federal warrant on one of the men, Leroy Johnson.
He didn’t remember Will Jarvis, but that didn’t really mean anything given the condition he’d been in after what had happened nine years ago. “You have some sort of ID?” He kept the rifle on him.
“If you’ll let me reach into my coat pocket,” Will said.
“I can pull the trigger on this rifle before you can pull a gun,” J.T. warned.
“I’m no fool.” He reached slowly into his coat pocket and brought out his identification. He flipped it open. FBI. William Robert Jarvis. Special agent.
“So it was your gun I found hidden in the tent.”
Jarvis smiled. “We all know agents don’t carry a 9 mm, but yes, it was one of several I had hidden around the camp. I like to have back ups, plus this.” He pulled out a knife and met J.T.’s gaze. “As I recall, this was Claude Ryan’s weapon of choice.”
J.T. shuddered at the memory and lowered the rifle as Jarvis slid the knife back into a sheath under his pant leg. “What the hell is going on?” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Reggie waiting in the darkness of the pines, watching. She had the pistol in her hands, her gaze on Jarvis’s back.
“I think you know what’s going on,” Will said. “Someone’s been killing off your cowhands, getting rid of them one by one. I would imagine your cattle are gone as well.” He nodded, seeing that none of that was news to J.T. “I can tell you don’t want to believe who’s behind it. You don’t even like saying his name, do you?”
“Claude Ryan is dead.”
“Is he?” Will said and chuckled.
J.T. stared at Jarvis, surprised how much he wanted it to be true. “Are you telling me he’s not?”
The FBI agent shrugged. “Someone from that cattle roundup is alive. He’s left a trail of dead plastic surgeons across Mexico. I followed that trail to your cow camp.”
J.T. was shaking his head. “A grizzly got Claude.”
“Something got him all right,” Will said. “I would imagine it was one of his gang.”
“The other two were dead inside the cabin.”
Jarvis smiled. “You think it was just the three of them in it together?” He shook his head. “There were five of them, maybe more. The ones I know about are Claude Ryan, Leroy Johnson, Billy Joe Brady, Slim Walker and Luke Adams.”
J.T. had known the last two names were coming as sure as sunrise. “You’re telling me that Claude killed Luke and Slim.”
“I didn’t know they were dead for sure, but I figured he’d get them,” Will said. “Even though Slim risked his life to save Claude—got his hands burned—Claude considered them both traitors because they didn’t kill you when they had the chance.”
J.T. looked to the pines where he’d left Reggie. “How do you know all this?”
“Some of it I’ve figured out over the past nine years. That first night in camp I heard Luke leave the tent. Him and Slim. I followed them, overheard them talking about Claude, both scared.”
J.T. studied Will, having trouble believing what he was hearing and not sure why. “Why would Slim and Luke agree to work for me after what happened up here?”
“I suspect Claude was behind it somehow. I heard Luke say he knew they shouldn’t have come back up into the Bighorns. Said it wasn’t worth what they were being paid. Don’t think they were talking about cowhand wages, do you?”
“No,” J.T. said and looked over at Reggie.
“Why don’t you invite her over to the fire?” Will suggested and smiled. He hadn’t turned around but he’d known she was back there.
“We’re not staying,” J.T. said. Reggie was safer in the shadow of the pines with the horses. “If Claude is alive, why wait so long to come back?”
Will picked up a stick and stirred the dying embers of the fire. “He was badly burned, horribly disfigured. Took years of surgeries, most of them unsuccessful.”
“Are you telling me the last one was successful?”
Will looked up at him. “You didn’t recognize him, did you.”
J.T. felt something stir inside him as he thought of the six men who’d been in camp.
“It seems all these years he’s been planning to come back here and steal your cattle—only make it work this time,” Will said.
“You think that’s all he wants?”
Will Jarvis shook his head. “I think not. The man obviously has a hell of a lot of patience. Nine years. That’s a long time to hold a grudge.”
“Not for Claude. It’s an obsession with him,” J.T. said. “He’s sick. He’s wasted his life hating me. He’s a pathetic coward. Look how many people he’s killed and for what?”
Will said nothing, just stared into the flames.
Something about Will Jarvis made him uneasy, had from the beginning. “I would think if you hoped to catch him, you’d be following the herd.”
Will smiled at that. “Then you don’t know Claude very well. He’s not interested in the herd.” He looked up then, meeting J.T.’s eyes. Claude had gray eyes. None of the six cowhands had gray eyes, including Will Jarvis, but with today’s colored contact lenses…
“He’ll be following you,” Will Jarvis said. “But first he’ll come for me. I’ve been dogging him for years. He knows he has to kill me or I won’t stop.”
“So Claude will come down this way?” This was the shortest route to the ranch. Claude would know that, too. He knew these mountains maybe better than J.T. did because Claude was often unemployed, camping out all summer, living off the land and some of the Sundown Ranch herd, while J.T. was working.
“I followed a set of tracks down here yesterday,” Will said. “Obviously he knows you, figured you would come down this way. He thinks he knows what you’re going to do before you do it. If I wait right here, I’ll see him.”
J.T. shook his head. “You’re a sitting duck.”
Will smiled. “I’ve been waiting for this day for more years than I want to count. You and the woman had better get moving. You can still make the ranch before dark if you hurry.”
J.T. studied Will Jarvis in the firelight. “Don’t underestimate Claude Ryan. It will get you killed.”
Will grunted and stirred the fire with the stick for a moment before throwing it into the flames. “You just worry about your own neck and your girlfriend’s.” H
e reached down to touch the knife in the sheath at his ankle. “And hope that Claude finds me before he does you.”
Chapter Thirteen
J.T. turned and walked back to where Reggie waited in the trees. He should have been relieved that there was an FBI agent here.
“I don’t trust him,” Reggie said after they’d gotten out of earshot.
“Neither do I,” J.T. said quietly. If Jarvis was right, Claude had ridden the shortcut the day before. For what reason? Looking for a place to attack? And when had Will Jarvis gotten away to follow him?
They could reach the ranch before dark if they continued down the mountain the way they were headed. But with the storm and the low clouds, they were losing light fast. They would be easy pickings. And if Will Jarvis was right, Claude had already anticipated that this was the way they would come.
Not to mention that Jarvis could be behind them right now, following them, tracking them.
Not too far down the mountain, they ran out of snow. In good light, J.T. knew they could still be tracked even without the snow. He was counting on it getting dark before anyone would find them. He couldn’t risk going for the ranch as badly as he wanted to.
He rode along the side of the mountain, weaving through the trees, keeping just below the snow line to hide their tracks before he turned toward the rock rim high above them.
REGINA LOOKED UP at the band of red rock and realized that was where they were headed. Not the ranch. She’d been turned around since she got to Montana. Without an ocean nearby or any distinguishing buildings, she couldn’t tell east from west.
But she was smart enough to know they weren’t headed for the ranch. The ranch was down the mountain and they were headed up.
As J.T. dismounted at the foot of the wall of rock, she lost all hope of a hot bath and a real bed.
“We aren’t going to the ranch,” Reggie said as he lifted her down.
“Sorry. Too dangerous. We’ll leave before it gets light. Don’t worry, by tomorrow morning you’ll see civilization again.”
She nodded. She ached all over and realized she could sleep anywhere. As long as she didn’t have to ride a horse anymore today.
“Come on.” He led her and the horses along the edge of the rock face.
The boots were too large and she stumbled several times and almost fell. Her ankle ached and she was limping badly.
“Here, take my hand,” he said, removing her glove and enclosing her hand in his large one. His hand was warm and strong and she wished he would do the same with her entire body. She felt cold and so tired that picking up her feet took every ounce of her energy.
Finally, he stopped. In the last of the light, she could see that they were high above the valley. Lights glittered in the far distance. Her chest ached from the climb and sudden longing to be down there away from the cold and horses and killers.
“This way,” McCall said, as if sensing her yearning for the city and everything she’d left behind. He led her and the horses through a narrow slit in the rocks. The space opened, a tree towering over their heads. J.T. shoved one of the branches aside, and leaving the horses, pulled her into what she realized was a cave.
Once through the small opening, he snapped on a flashlight and she saw that she could stand up. It was cold and dark in here but the floor was dirt and soft.
“Here,” he said handing her the flashlight. “I’ll tend to the horses and be right back.”
He was good to his word. He returned with firewood and built a small fire in a corner near a crack in the rock. The smoke rose and disappeared out through the crack.
“Still cold?” he asked as she curled around the fire, unable to keep her eyes open.
“A little.” The side of her body exposed to the fire was warm but her other side was cold. She kept turning like a chicken on a rotisserie but still couldn’t get everything warmed.
“Here, lie down,” he said.
She curled around the fire and felt him lie down behind her, curling his warm body around hers.
“Better?”
“Hmmm,” she said and closed her eyes, the fire flickering on her face, the crackling of the flames lulling her.
“You did really well today,” he whispered. “You’re okay, Regina Holland.”
She opened her eyes and smiled to herself before closing them again and falling into a deep sleep. She didn’t hear the scream that awakened J.T.
J.T. GOT UP, careful not to wake Reggie and, picking up the rifle, went out of the cave to the edge of the cliff.
The night was cold and clear. He wished to hell he was at the ranch and that Reggie was upstairs asleep in the guest bedroom, safe. But he knew he’d made the right decision to wait.
He let his gaze travel down the mountainside to where Will Jarvis had camped, not sure what he thought he might be able to see. Maybe the trees around the clearing on fire.
There was nothing but darkness. Nor did he hear another sound. He told himself that the scream he’d heard could have been a mountain lion. Men didn’t usually scream like that. Unless they were in a lot of pain.
He shivered, thinking of Claude Ryan. If Will Jarvis was right, Claude would kill as many people as it took to get to him.
Back inside the cave, the fire had burned down to coals. He covered Reggie with his coat, then went to sit in the shadows at the cave entrance to wait. They would ride out at first light, going down a way that Claude would least expect—straight down to the county road.
A DARK SHADOW moved over her. Startled, Regina jerked back.
“It’s just me,” McCall whispered. “Sorry to scare you.”
She blinked, trying to wake up, the dream still with her, a dark weight that pulled at her. “I was having this horrible dream….”
“It was just a dream,” he said and sat down across from her, the fire between them.
She sat up, letting herself drift as she stared into the flames of the fire and soaked up the heat. She could tell it was the middle of the night, still dark outside.
“Wishing you had just gone with a model?”
She looked up at him over the top of the fire and shook her head.
He chuckled softly. “You still haven’t given up.”
“Have you given up getting back to the ranch, getting away from this madman?”
He shook his head, licked his thumb and reached across the fire to wipe a smudge of dirt from her cheek.
She froze, her gaze locking with his. He seemed to hold his breath. The fire popped softly. He drew back his hand to rest it on his thigh.
She reached out to touch his fingers. Her hand was cool on his but it sent a shaft of heat through him.
He shook his head. “You don’t want to do this, Reggie.”
She smiled a little at that. “I’m a big girl, McCall. I know what I want.” Tears shone in her eyes. “Hold me?”
He moved around the fire to her. She melted into his arms. The flames flared, sparks rising into the darkness of the cave.
She felt soft and warm and he wanted to envelop himself in her, to feel the pounding of her pulse, to hear the drum of her heart, to assure himself that she was alive. That he was alive as well.
He tried to think of tomorrow, how they would both feel if he did the one thing he wanted, make love to her. But right now it didn’t feel as if there would be a tomorrow. There was only now. The two of them in this cave. A crazy homicidal maniac or two out in the darkness.
Her kiss was soft, a gentle kiss, tentative, questioning.
His answering kiss was fire and heat, all consuming. She had known that it would be all or nothing with him. Like the first kiss, McCall didn’t do anything halfway. He wrapped her in his arms, in his kiss.
Her pulse jumped at his gentle touch, his big hands stroking her body until she was the fire, burning hot inside the cave. His mouth moved over her, warm and wet, sparking fissures of pleasure, stripping her bare beneath her clothing until he possessed every inch of her body.
Wrapp
ed in his arms, he took her as she cried out in pleasure and release, her body pressed hot against his damp flesh, his mouth stealing her cries as the fire flamed, shadows flickering on the cave walls.
“IT’S TIME.”
Regina opened her eyes. He still held her, his face inches from her own, their bodies melded together, clothes pushed aside, sleeping bare skin to bare skin.
She didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to leave this cave. Or his arms. But she feared they couldn’t stay here for long. Just as she feared what waited for them outside.
He moved away from her, getting up to dress. Cold air skittered over her exposed flesh. She could feel his eyes on her as she sat up and covered herself.
When she read his expression, she saw that he wanted to make love to her again almost as badly as she wanted him to. But faint light bled into the cave. They had to leave, had to try to get to the ranch. She tried not to think about all the miles. Or the darkness of the trees. The shadows that could be death.
She rose and stumbled ahead of him to the cave entrance, her ankle aching along with the rest of her muscles. She clung to their lovemaking, to the memory of McCall’s gentle hands, and tried not to look into the shadows as she stepped outside.
A slice of moon still hung in the dark sky high over the valley, a few stars, a shimmer of light low on the horizon the only hint of the coming day.
Regina shivered in spite of herself. The horses were saddled. McCall must have slipped away to do that, then returned to lie next to her. She couldn’t remember ever being this tired. Her whole body ached and she felt cold all the way to her bones.
Just the thought of getting back in the saddle made her want to cry. He helped her up onto the horse as if sensing her resistance.
He walked the horses down the mountainside. She had to lean way back to keep from going over the horse’s head, the terrain was so steep. Finally they reached flatter ground and he stepped into his saddle, motioning for her to keep quiet.
