Cowboy Accomplice

by B. J Daniels

  She nodded. It wasn’t like she had anything to say this time of the day anyway. It was too late to be out on the town, even in L.A., and too early to be getting up. She would have been sleeping in her warm bed, worrying about work, not worrying about dying.

  The dream she’d had earlier in the night came back to her. She could feel it around her, hanging over her like a dense awful shroud. She couldn’t remember a lot of it, just that horrible feeling of being grabbed by the man. She never even saw his face. He’d come at her from behind, covering her mouth, then her eyes, then binding her so she couldn’t move, couldn’t scream.

  She shuddered at the memory and let the horse lull her, drifting in and out of sleep, her mind like thick fog.

  Regina heard the sound first, a noise off to her right. She opened her eyes, startled as she caught movement coming at her from the side.

  The man came out of a thick stand of pines, running low, reaching for her, one bloody hand out-stretched, the other clutching a knife. The blade glistened in the dull light of the day where the blood hadn’t completely dried.

  She screamed and tried to get off the horse, but her boot was stuck in the stirrup. Riding in front of her, McCall spun his horse around and was already leaping down as the man grabbed her calf with his free hand.

  McCall lunged at the man, knocking him to the ground with the butt of the rifle.

  Regina’s horse reared and suddenly she was falling through the air. She landed on the ground hard, all the air knocked from her lungs.

  When she looked up she saw McCall standing over Will Jarvis, the rifle pointed at the man’s head.

  “Are you all right?” McCall cried, moving to her side, while keeping the rifle aimed at Jarvis.

  She could only nod.

  “Can you move?”

  She nodded again. But she didn’t want to move. She wanted to lie here. She promised herself she would never get back on a horse.

  “Help me,” Jarvis whispered.

  She could see the blood across the front of his coat, on his hands and the knife, and realized it was his blood he had all over him.

  He released the knife, dropping it as his fingers opened and his eyes closed.

  She heard another noise. McCall turned to listen. It sounded like a vehicle coming slowly up the mountain. As she turned her head, she thought she saw what looked like a dirt track down the hillside through the trees. A road?

  J.T. motioned her to silence as a truck came around a bend in the road below them.

  She saw the Sundown Ranch logo on the side and began to cry. There was no way the driver would be able to see them up here on the hillside. He would drive right past.

  McCall raised the rifle, the barrel pointed to the sky and fired three shots. They boomed in the morning air.

  The driver of the truck hit his brakes. Dust boiled up. McCall fired another three shots and the driver was out of the car, looking up the hillside.

  Regina closed her eyes, tears spilling down her cheeks. When she opened them, two men with blond hair and blue eyes were looking at her in something close to disbelief. One of the brothers, the one J.T. was calling Cash, had on a sheriff’s uniform.

  Vaguely she remembered McCall lifting her from the ground, touching her forehead, his palm ice-cold and him saying, “My God, she’s burning up.”

  He’d carried her down to the truck. She remembered leaning against him, her face buried in his chest, his arm around her, shivering, trying to say something but her lips felt so dry and her mind so filled with fog…. She thought she recalled McCall’s lips against her hair whispering, “You’re going to be all right, Reggie” as the truck bumped down the mountainside.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Who is this woman, James Thomas?” Shelby McCall demanded of her son as she drew him aside into the empty den and motioned for him to take a seat.

  J.T. was too tired to argue. He sat and scrubbed a hand over his face. He hadn’t slept last night, instead spending the hours beside Reggie’s bed after the doctor had left. “It’s a long story.”

  He was anxious to hear from Cash, to find out if they’d found Claude Ryan. If Claude really was alive.

  After the pickup ride down the mountain with J.T. and Reggie, FBI agent Will Jarvis had been taken to the hospital where he had been flown to Billings for immediate surgery. The last time J.T. had checked, he was still in surgery for knife wounds.

  But before Cash had got him out by helicopter from the ranch, Jarvis had said he’d wounded Claude badly and that they should look for his body on the mountain.

  Unfortunately, Claude had also wounded the agent. Will Jarvis was lucky to be alive. If he hadn’t headed for the county road and stumbled across J.T. and Reggie…

  “James Thomas?” His mother had her arms folded in front of her, waiting for his answer as if she had all the time in the world. She did.

  “I’d rather hear about what’s going on with you and the old man,” he said. He’d seen his mother and father with their heads together earlier, then Asa had left, taking Brandon and Dusty with him to try to find the missing cattle.

  Cash had gotten a call from a bow hunter who’d seen a bunch of cattle with the Sundown Ranch brand on national forest land in the Bighorns south of the cow camp.

  “Looks like your killer wasn’t after the cattle,” Cash had said before leaving with the state investigators.

  “You and the old man seemed to be arguing about something,” J.T. said, watching his mother. She had never told any of them why she’d come back here after pretending to be dead for so long.

  She gave him a look that only a mother can pull off even though she hadn’t been in their lives for over thirty years. “Don’t call your father ‘the old man.”’ Were those tears in her eyes? She really did seem to love the old man. “About this woman…”

  J.T. shook his head, raked a hand through his hair and sighed. “I met her on the highway. She had a flat. I fixed it. She works for a blue jeans company and she was in Montana looking for a cowboy to do a commercial.” He glanced at his mother. She was still waiting. “Reggie got the idea that I was that cowboy. I told her I wasn’t interested but as determined and foolhardy as she is, she conned Buck into giving her a job as our camp cook.”

  Shelby lifted a brow.

  J.T. nodded. “You know the rest of it, at least as much as I do.” He’d barely reached the ranch when the call had come in from a neighboring rancher that they’d found Buck and taken him to the hospital. He had a mild concussion and some abrasions, couldn’t remember what had happened to him. He thought he’d been bucked from his horse. But he was doing well and was expected to be released by the end of the week.

  J.T. wanted to go see him, but couldn’t leave Reggie. Nor could he leave the ranch until he heard from Cash.

  “This Reggie sounds like quite the woman,” his mother commented.

  J.T. smiled. “She is something, all right.”

  Shelby was eyeing him intently. He still couldn’t call her mother. “You obviously care about her.”

  “I’m just worried that she’s going to be all right,” he said, wanting this conversation over. The doctor had said Reggie needed bed rest. She was suffering from exhaustion and a low-grade infection from a cut on her leg.

  He’d noticed the cut on her calf last night when they’d made love in the cave. She’d said she didn’t remember when she’d gotten it. The past few days had been so crazy….

  “It’s all my fault,” he said.

  “Oh, stop looking so down in the mouth,” his mother said. “She’s going to be fine. She can stay here as long as she needs to. But what about this commercial?”

  “I refused to do it.”

  Shelby gave him that mother look again, making him think of all the years he’d been spared it.

  He got to his feet. “I need to go check on her.”

  “No, let me.” She rose, daring him to argue. “Get that old wheelchair out of the barn. We don’t want her walking on that
ankle once she’s up and around.”

  He nodded, anxious for Cash to return with news. He hoped that herd in the Bighorns really was the Sundown Ranch’s missing cattle. But this wouldn’t be over until Claude Ryan was found. If it really was Claude who FBI agent Will Jarvis had wounded on the mountain.

  “I think you should do the commercial,” his mother said, her look speaking volumes. She thought he owed Reggie. He thought so, too. But it was more complicated than a simple debt, he thought, remembering their lovemaking in the cave.

  As he headed for the barn, he saw the sheriff’s four-wheel-drive SUV coming up the road. He walked out to meet his brother, afraid to hear what Cash had found up on the mountainside.

  REGINA WOKE to sunshine streaming in the window. She blinked, afraid she was only dreaming. She was lying in a nice soft bed with warm covers over her. Her hair beside her head on the pillow smelled clean and fresh as the sheets.

  She heard a sound at the open doorway and looked up. A beautiful blond woman stood there, her eyes the same color as J.T.’s.

  “You’re awake,” the woman said, coming into the room. “How are you feeling?”

  “Better,” Regina managed.

  The woman sat down on the edge of the bed and smoothed the covers as she smiled at Regina. “I’m Shelby McCall, James Thomas’s mother.”

  James Thomas. She’d wondered what the J.T. stood for. “Regina Holland.”

  Shelby’s smile broadened. “Oh, I’ve heard all about you.”

  “Really?” She wondered what J.T. had told her. Her face flushed at the knowing look in the pale blue eyes.

  “You must be starved,” Shelby said.

  Regina’s stomach growled on cue. She laughed. “I guess I am.”

  “Good, there is nothing wrong with a healthy appetite,” J.T.’s mother said, her gaze intent on Regina. “I have Cook making you some breakfast. We can visit while you eat.”

  The phone rang. Shelby McCall picked it up. She was beautiful. Regina could see where J.T. got his looks.

  “It’s for you,” Shelby said, her look saying, It’s a man.

  Regina didn’t reach for the phone. “No one knows I’m here.”

  “He says his name is Anthony Grand?” Shelby said.

  Anthony. Regina had completely forgotten about him, about the jeans company, the commercial, her life in Los Angeles. How was that possible?

  She felt completely off-kilter. After everything that had happened, all the things that had been a matter of life or death in Los Angeles seemed silly. She really had been in a life-and-death situation.

  But she knew that wasn’t what had changed her priorities. It was J.T. McCall.

  She took the phone. “Anthony?” She saw Shelby lift a brow and motion that she would leave. Regina nodded and smiled and waited until she disappeared before saying, “How did you find me?”

  “It wasn’t easy. I heard the most amazing story about you being a cow camp cook and then almost getting killed by some homicidal maniac?”

  “A lot has happened,” she agreed. “I got thrown from a horse.”

  “Oh, darling, what in heaven’s name were you doing on such a beast?”

  “It’s a long story, but I’m fine. I just have to stay off my sprained ankle for a while.” She heard a squeak in the hall.

  “A while? Sweetie, you haven’t got a while. We need to go into production ASAP. You have the contract, right?”

  She took a breath, glancing toward the doorway. J.T. was framed in it. “I’m going to have to get back to you.”

  “I don’t like what I hear in your voice. Your cowboy did sign the contract, right?”

  “I’ll call you later.” She hung up before he could pressure her for more details. “A friend,” she said to McCall.

  He nodded, looking more than skeptical that it was a “girl” friend. He rolled an antique wheelchair into the room. “The doctor said you were not to walk on your ankle. Is everything all right?” McCall asked.

  “Fine.” She gave him a smile but she could see he wasn’t buying it.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Better.”

  He pushed the wheelchair over by her bed. “You want to have breakfast in bed?”

  “Would you mind if I tried the chair?” She wanted to see the house. She felt like an invalid lying in the bed and she had so much she wanted to ask McCall. “So the J.T. stands for James Thomas?” Regina asked, smiling at him after he slipped his arms under her and lifted her effortlessly into the wheelchair.

  “I’m named after my mother’s grandfather.”

  She looked down and saw that she was wearing a beautiful cotton nightgown.

  “My sister Dusty lent you a few clothes until I can go to town for some,” McCall said, seeing her surprise. “The two of you are about the same size fortunately.”

  Regina vaguely remembered being in a bathtub filled with warm water and lots of bubbles and McCall washing her hair. The memory swept over her like the warm water and McCall’s soapy hands. She felt her cheeks heat. “Thank you.”

  He snorted. “For what?”

  She touched her hair and met his gaze. “Everything.”

  He looked away. “I almost got you killed.”

  “You heard something from your brother about what happened back on the mountain,” she said.

  J.T. nodded and told her everything that Cash had told him. “It looks like Claude Ryan is dead. They found another body not far from where FBI agent Will Jarvis said he wounded the man who attacked him, the man he said was Claude Ryan. It was Roy. Roy Shields. He was dead.”

  She looked surprised. “Roy. The quiet cowboy who never said two words. And you’re sure Will Jarvis is an FBI agent?”

  “Cash called. Agent Will Jarvis has been working with the Mexican government on the killings of the plastic surgeons and the possible connection to Claude Ryan,” he said.

  She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “What about the others?”

  He shook his head. “They found the bodies of Slim Walker, Luke Adams and Nevada Black. Cotton’s body was found part way down the mountain. He’d been shot in the back of the head.”

  Her eyes filled with tears.

  He covered her hand, still feeling sick. “It’s over. Claude Ryan is dead. He won’t be hurting anyone else.”

  She nodded and turned his hand, pressing it to her lips. He could feel her breath against his palm, warm and moist, and he thanked God that she was alive and safe. He didn’t know what he would have done if Claude had gotten her.

  She looked up into his eyes and he felt desire spark and begin to burn through him. Desire and something deeper, something that made him ache to take her in his arms.

  “I’ve decided to do your commercial.”

  She looked so surprised, he wanted to laugh.

  She shook her head. “No, you don’t have to do that. I don’t want you doing it because—”

  “I’m not.” He wasn’t sure what she’d been about to say. He didn’t want her thinking he was doing this because of what they’d shared in the cave. “Make the arrangements. The sooner the better.”

  He just wanted to get it over with. He didn’t want to delve into his reasons for agreeing after swearing that nothing could change his mind. He’d been wrong about that, wrong about a lot of things.

  “This isn’t the way I wanted it,” she said, and he thought she might cry.

  “I thought you would take it any way you got it,” he said, unable to hide his surprise. “You said it meant everything to you.”

  She shook her head and said nothing. He wheeled her down the hallway to the kitchen where his mother was waiting. She waved him away, saying she and Regina were going to get acquainted. He hated to think.

  But as he looked out the window, he saw almost six hundred head of cattle coming across the valley toward the ranch. “I’m going to go help bring in the cattle,” he said.

  Neither woman seemed to notice.

  As he left, he told
himself he’d made the right decision about the commercial. A few years of grief over his backside was nothing. He couldn’t let Reggie lose everything. He felt responsible, no matter what he said.

  He tried not to think past that because he knew once the commercial was over and Reggie’s ankle was healed, she’d probably be eager to get back to Los Angeles and her life there.

  And that was just what he wanted too, he told himself as he went out to saddle his horse and go meet the herd.

  SHELBY QUIZZED Regina over a breakfast of steak, eggs, biscuits with butter and honey, fresh fruit and juice.

  Regina was surprised how hungry she was. A woman who’d never eaten breakfast in her life and she was eating like a truck driver.

  “You really need to tell him,” Shelby said when Regina had finished eating.

  Regina looked up in surprise. “Tell who what?”

  “My son James Thomas,” she said. “You need to tell him how you feel about him.”

  Regina opened her mouth, closed it and opened it again. “I…I don’t think that’s a good idea. He already feels guilty enough about everything that’s happened.”

  Shelby just smiled sadly. “He might be a little confused right now. He is a man. They’re easily confused. He’s doing the commercial, isn’t he?”

  Regina nodded, a little confused herself. What was it his mother thought she should tell him?

  Shelby looked thoughtful for a moment. “Maybe it would be better to wait. At least until after the commercial.” She got up. “Let me take you back to your room. You look as if you might fall asleep right there in that chair.”

  After Shelby helped her back into bed, Regina picked up the phone and dialed Anthony’s number at Way Out West Jeans. “It’s me.”

  “You don’t sound good, sweetie.”

  “The commercial is a go. Get everyone up here.”

  “Your cowboy agreed to do it? Oh I knew you could pull this off.” She wanted to tell him not to call McCall her cowboy. “Sweetie, why aren’t you jumping up and down for joy? You did it!”

  Yes, she thought. She’d done it. Unfortunately, it was a hollow victory. Her driving ambitions had changed over the past few days. Changed since she’d met J. T. McCall. But she wasn’t about to tell Anthony that any more than she was McCall himself. She knew how he felt about city girls. Especially this city girl.