by Cora Seton
She swallowed hard. She wouldn’t cry. Wouldn’t feel a speck of the emotion battering her from inside. Wouldn’t back down now even when she thought the pain of moving forward might kill her. “I’m through with you. I’m through with men.”
“What—?”
Enough talk. She held out her phone. Showed him the photo Tracy had taken when she kissed him earlier.
“She kissed me—”
“You kissed her back. And it doesn’t look like it’s the first time.” If he thought she was fooled, he was gravely mistaken.
“I was only talking to her because I wanted information—” He tried again.
Another lie. Another brick added to the wall she was building around her heart. Sadie stood up. “I’m going to buy that plane ticket. When your parents’ visit is over, I expect you gone.” She brushed past him, but Connor reached for her. Took hold of her arm.
“You can’t just walk away after a bombshell like that. We have to talk about this—”
Sadie wrenched herself out of his arms. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
But she only made it another step before a scream tore the air. Sadie froze. Connor whipped around. That sounded like—
Jo screamed again, a bloodcurdling shriek that blasted Connor into action. He dashed past Sadie, who raced after him.
They sped toward the carriage house, past the garden, past the cars and trucks parked in the dirt lot. Jo came around the corner as they approached, her face streaked with tears.
“They’re gone! They’re all gone!”
Chapter Thirteen
‡
“Are you hurt? What happened?” Connor asked Jo, almost grateful for the interruption. Sadie was right behind him, her face no longer the cold, hard mask she’d shown him on the porch. She rushed up to Jo and took her in her arms.
“Are you okay?” she echoed.
That was more like it. When he’d approached Sadie moments ago, her calm had unnerved Connor more than anything else—because behind that blank facade, her fury had been palpable. He’d thought he’d lost the battle before he’d stepped foot into the fray. Sadie wanted to leave him so badly she was willing to leave her home.
He couldn’t believe Tracy had photographed that kiss. If she’d wanted to screw up his life, it had worked.
Now he had to focus on the crisis at hand, as much as he wanted to turn to Sadie, take her in his arms and make it clear Tracy had never meant anything to him. “Are you hurt?” he asked Jo again.
She shook her head, but her words came out in gasps between her sobs. “No. I came—I came to check on the dogs and—and—they’re not there. None of them are there!”
“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” Brian raced up from the direction of the barns. Connor’s father and brother rushed out from inside the house.
“Someone stole the dogs,” Connor told them hurriedly. Max—they’d stolen Max, too. Fury welled up inside him. What kind of coward went after a pack of dogs?
“We’ve got to find them. Where are they?” Jo wailed.
“We’ll find them. I promise,” Sadie said. “We’ll get them back.”
“Grant?” Connor said to Brian. “He’s the one who’s been bothering Jo.”
“He wouldn’t steal them.” Jo’s voice rose higher.
“We don’t know that,” Sadie told her.
Jo’s face crumpled again. “What about—that other guy—the one skulking around?” she demanded through her tears. “It has to be him.”
“But no one knows who he is.”
“We’ll find him—we’ll find your dogs,” Connor said. He nodded to Brian. “I think I know where to start.”
“I’m coming, too,” his father rushed to say.
“Me, too,” Dalton said.
Connor thought fast. “Dad, you come with us. Dalton, you stay here with the women.” He put up a hand to stop his brother’s protests. “Keep them safe, okay? Let’s go, before whoever it is gets too far away.”
He spared one last look for Sadie, wishing he’d had more time to talk to her, but knowing she’d never leave as long as Jo needed her. When he got back he’d have to convince her he’d done nothing wrong.
He couldn’t lose Sadie now.
“We’re not going to find dogs at a bar,” Brian told him when Connor pulled up in front of the Dancing Boot a short time later.
“We’re not looking for dogs. We’re looking for Tracy Jones.” Without waiting for an answer, he got out and stalked inside, knowing Brian and his father would be on his heels. Inside, he had to wait a moment for his eyes to adjust to the low light. This early in the afternoon, the clientele was sparse, but just as he’d hoped, Tracy was already working the bar, drying glasses and putting them away.
When she spotted him, she threw down the towel. “I don’t need what you’re selling.”
“Well, I need answers.” Connor crossed the room, braced his hands on the bar and leaned over it. “Grant Kimball. Start talking.”
“Complete asshole,” she snapped back, her eyes flashing with fury. Connor wondered if she’d pursued Grant, too. What had she said? She was sick of the men in Chance Creek and wanted someone new? Grant was as new as he was. If Grant had turned her down, too, no wonder she was furious. Especially if she’d heard he was sniffing around Jo. Losing multiple men to the Reed women had to sting.
“I need more than that. Why’s he here?”
“Why should I tell you anything?”
“Because someone stole Jo Reed’s dogs, and I don’t care what you think of me, or Sadie—Jo doesn’t deserve to lose the animals she loves.”
“I don’t know anything about any stupid dogs. And Jo’s as much of a Reed as Sadie is. They can all go rot for all I care.” Tracy picked up the towel. Another patron, an old man with the ruddy complexion of a lifelong alcoholic, was watching their exchange with interest from a nearby bar stool.
Connor ignored him and stifled the urge to reach across the bar to shake Tracy. “McNab. They’re worth a pretty penny. They’re almost weaned, which means Jo’s just about to be paid for them.”
Tracy shrugged. “What’s it to me?”
“McNab breed?” the man on the bar stool said. “John Willett’s got a litter of them up in Silver Falls. Plenty of people breed those dogs.”
“I don’t give a damn about who’s breeding them,” Connor told the man. “What I want to know is—”
His phone buzzed. With a growl of frustration, Connor grabbed it. When he saw Sadie’s name he took the call.
“We just found a ransom note. It had fallen down from where they’d left it,” Sadie said without preamble. Her voice was shaking. “They want two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the dogs. Which is totally ridiculous, of course—but it says… it says it’s what we owe them. This isn’t about dogs. This is about the drugs, isn’t it? About the fact we’re still alive while Bob isn’t.”
Connor’s grip on the phone tightened. “Who is it from?”
“I don’t know—there aren’t any names, but it says ‘we’ and ‘us.’ ‘You owe us money. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Bring it to the Old Town Mart on High Street.’ That’s in Silver Falls. ‘Two a.m. Bring the cops and we’ll skin the puppies alive. We’ll send you the film to watch.’”
Connor’s gut tightened. “Sadie—”
“Jo’s beside herself,” Sadie said. “She’s absolutely hysterical. If they do it—if they film it—”
“They won’t. We won’t let them.” But Connor thought they’d just gotten a clear message about the kind of men they were dealing with. “You’re right; this isn’t about dogs. This is about the drugs you blew up.”
Was Sadie crying? Connor thought she was, which made him all the more determined to find the men responsible and—
He lowered the phone. Turned to Tracy, who flinched at something she saw in his gaze. “Tell me about Grant Kimball. Now. Or I swear to God—”
After a moment, Tracy dropped her tough gir
l act. When she spoke again, she sounded defeated. “Like I said, he’s a complete asshole. Arrives in town and struts around because he thinks he’s hot shit. He’s connected, you know. His family’s into all kinds of stuff back in Tennessee. Bunch of jailbirds. He’s only here because it got too hot for him. Him and his friend.”
“Friend?” Connor leaned closer. “What friend?”
“Ron Cooper.”
“And they’re both staying at the Cooper place?”
“Hell, no.” Tracy laughed, but sobered quickly. “Ron Cooper’s not welcome there. Gotta be a pretty black sheep if you’re the black sheep of the Cooper family, I always say. But that’s what he is. They’re both staying up in Silver Falls. At the Wild Spring.”
Connor looked to Brian.
“Never heard of it.”
“Bunch of cabins up on Heckam Ridge. Near the lake.” Tracy sighed. “I’ll draw you a map.”
“You’re telling the truth?” He wouldn’t put it past her to play another trick.
“I’m telling the truth. Which is more than I can say for you—or Grant.” Her bravado slipped again and something shifted in Connor’s heart. Life was brutal sometimes, and his gut told him Tracy had seen some of that brutality. “Why don’t you put the Willetts’ place on there, too.” He turned to Brian and his father. “I’ve got an idea.”
When Cass took over Jo’s care, wrapping her up in a light blanket despite the day’s heat and curling up next to her on the couch in the living room, Sadie joined a white-faced Keira in the kitchen. She’d already brewed an herbal tea for Jo with a strong sedative power. There was nothing more she could do at the moment. Outside, Dalton paced like a caged animal and she knew he was frustrated. He wanted to be where the action was.
“Is this what’s it’s always like here? Shoot-outs? Dognappings?” Kiera traced a finger over one of the grooves in the kitchen table. She kept looking out the window, as if the men might return any moment.
Sadie shook her head. “Chance Creek has its problems; all small towns do. But it’s hard to hide in a place this small. Someone will see something. It will all turn out okay.” She hoped. If Connor couldn’t find those puppies, Jo’s heart would break.
“Of course, Two Willows is a magic place,” Keira said, almost to herself. She caught Sadie’s eye and elaborated. “I can feel it. It’s like my home; it’s more than just a piece of land.”
Sadie didn’t want to think about that. “It’s going to be hard to leave it,” she agreed, then bit her lip, wishing she could take the words back.
“Connor said you two would make your home here. Have you changed your minds?” Keira frowned. “Has something happened between you?”
Sadie thought about lying. Decided she couldn’t. She was too tired to keep up a charade—too burnt out from everything that had happened these past few months. “There’s someone else.”
“Someone you love?”
Sadie shook her head. “Someone Connor wants. I don’t think he’s ready for a commitment like marriage. I don’t know why he even proposed.” She knew she shouldn’t say any of this to Connor’s mother. Unfortunately, her own mother wasn’t here to spill it to, and Keira was so easy to talk to.
“Because he loves you. Anyone can see that.”
“Then why did he kiss another woman this morning?” Suddenly angry, Sadie pulled out her phone and pulled up the photo again, her eye catching a text from Caitlyn that began with the words, URGENT—PLEASE READ. After Keira gasped at the image of her son kissing Tracy, Sadie opened Caitlyn’s text. Had she heard about the dogs and—?
What she read stopped her heart in its tracks.
Tracy kissed Connor, not the other way around. She asked him out. When he said no, she kissed him. When he told her he was getting married, she got furious. I think she already knew and set him up. She’s a bitch—don’t let her ruin everything.
Sadie scanned the text again, and the sinking feeling in her gut grew stronger.
Boy-crazy—that’s what they’d called Tracy back in high school. The kind of girl who’d ditch her friends last minute, tell lies about another girl, create drama—whatever it took to get a boy’s attention.
Or a man’s.
Tracy had slept with Mark knowing all the while he was dating Sadie. She wouldn’t put it past the woman to kiss Connor, then put the blame on him.
Keira had obviously seen the text, too. “I can’t tell you what to do,” she told Sadie. “I have no idea if my son is guilty or innocent in this. Maybe he’s turned into a right old bastard. How would I know?” She looked out the window again. “All I can say is don’t rush to judgement. Don’t rush to leave. Coming back is so hard. You can waste so much time in stubbornness.”
Sadie supposed Keira would know. She wondered where Connor and the others were now. Had they gotten any leads? They were putting themselves in danger to save Jo’s dogs. She hugged her arms across her chest, wishing she’d listened to Connor instead of believing Tracy.
Keira turned to study her. “Lass, it’s not enough to sit and wait and see. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. You need to fight for love.”
“How do I do that?”
“Call her. That woman. Find out right from the horse’s mouth what happened.”
“You think she’ll tell me?” Sadie wasn’t so sure. Tracy had crossed a lot of lines.
“It’s hard not to answer a direct question. Especially when you aren’t expecting it. Even when you’re a true reprobate.”
Why not give it a try? Keira was right; maybe she’d find out something. At any rate, it would give her something to do while they waited to hear from the men.
She dialed the number of the Dancing Boot and was relieved when Tracy herself answered.
“Tracy, it’s Sadie Reed. Are you sleeping with my fiancé?”
She held her breath through the long pause that followed her demand.
“No,” Tracy said finally. “I should have. If he’d seen me first, he would have wanted me; you know that.”
“But you didn’t sleep with him.”
“Fuck it.” Tracy sounded fed up. Spent. “We talked, all right? All he wanted was to know about Grant. I kissed him—to show him what he was missing. That’s all there was to it. So you can have him, but I’m warning you. Stop it. Stop taking all the men.”
“All the men? Who else have I taken?” Sadie couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Mark—”
“Mark? The man who tried to kill my sisters? To steal my home? You’re actually angry I dated him?”
“Who the hell am I supposed to date?” Tracy exploded. “I’ve known everyone in town since I was four!”
And hit on most of them by now, Sadie didn’t say out loud. She didn’t need to.
“I’m not a… whore,” Tracy said bitterly.
“I know.” Sadie softened; she did know. Tracy was a woman who wanted to be wanted. Who couldn’t seem to fill the hole that encompassed her need no matter how many men she was with. “I didn’t take Connor on purpose—”
“Whatever. Just stop.” Tracy hung up on her. Sadie turned to Keira, but found she couldn’t speak. Tears of relief slipped down her cheeks, and when the older woman opened her arms, Sadie fell into her embrace.
“There, there, lass,” she said, stroking Sadie’s hair as she cried. Sadie hadn’t realized how wound up the past weeks’ events had left her and she couldn’t seem to stop. Keira let her cry, murmuring nonsense words of comfort, and something shifted deep inside Sadie. Some old wound she hadn’t even known she still bore.
Her tears changed from ones of relief to ones of a long-held sorrow.
“Cry it out,” Keira murmured. “She’s with you still, you know.”
Sadie stiffened. How had Keira known—?
“Your mother’s here. Watching over you.”
Sadie’s breath hitched and a new outpouring of grief welled up in her. When she’d finally cried herself dry, she pulled back and wiped her eyes with
the hem of her T-shirt. “How did you know I was thinking of her?”
“Doesn’t take a gift to know a lass needs her mother in times like this. Or that a mother would never truly leave such wonderful daughters.”
Sadie smiled and scrubbed a hand across her cheeks. “That’s kind.”
“I can’t fill her shoes, but I hope I can be a friend,” Keira said. “And I hope one day soon I’ll be able to call you daughter.”
Sadie couldn’t find an answer, but the possibility didn’t seem as far-fetched as it had just minutes ago. Nothing had happened between Connor and Tracy, even though Tracy had wanted it to. Maybe she could trust Connor.
Maybe she could marry him.
But first they had to bring Jo’s puppies home.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket and Sadie pulled it out. It was Lena.
“Damn fence is down. I’ve got cattle going every which way. I need help.”
“Jo can’t do it.”
“You can.”
Sadie made a face. She was as good a horsewoman as any of her sisters, but she wasn’t that big on herding cattle.
“What is it?” Keira asked.
Sadie relayed Lena’s message and was relieved when Keira brightened. “Leave it to Dalton and me. We’ve got this.”
It was mid-afternoon by the time Connor and the others reached Silver Falls. The stop at the Willetts’ place had taken longer than Connor would have liked.
“You lose my dogs, you’ll owe me full price for them,” Willett said, but he’d heard about all the trouble at Two Willows over the past couple of months, and he was a man who knew right from wrong. “If you ask me, there’s too much of those drugs coming through the area these days. I know it’ll never go away for good, but it didn’t used to be like this. Can’t say I’m surprised there’s a Cooper behind it.”
With Willett’s dogs in the back of the truck, and Brian back there to keep them calm, Connor continued on up into the hills to the Wild Spring, driving past the entrance to the resort, as it was labeled on the sign, and parking some way down the road. From here it looked like nothing more than a dozen ramshackle summer cottages that at some point had been converted to year-round use. He could tell they’d be cold in winter. Damp, too, most likely. He’d bet anything there was mold in the walls, and when he noticed the chimneys, he doubted the woodstoves attached to them would be anywhere near up to code. He sent his father in to scout the place and locate #11, where Ron Cooper was supposed to be staying. Connor was growing impatient by the time his father returned.
