“Holy cow,” she said.
The river they’d glimpsed all along made a turn in the valley below them. The acreage on the peninsula that the U-shaped bend created looked green and fertile, with fields rolling to the bank and a road extending down to the river. A big old wooden house sat in a protected alcove. It appeared to be surrounded with concrete and rock decks, most of them covered to provide relief from sun or snow. All the work buildings sat off a distance. Some of them looked very old while others gleamed with new paint. Sunlight glinted off the meandering blue water.
“If that’s the Hastings ranch, your chances I can actually repay you for everything you’ve done just went up,” Zane said.
“It’s beautiful here,” she whispered.
“Beautiful enough to make a portrait artist stick around and try painting a landscape?”
She spared him a brief glance. “We’ll see,” she said.
*
KINSEY PULLED UP behind Lily’s car, which was parked next to a vibrant fenced garden bursting with squash, beans and corn. The air smelled of herbs. The sound of running water echoed across the land while the drone of insects and the distant braying of cattle added other dimensions. All and all, it smelled, felt and tasted like summer.
They were immediately beset upon by a trio of dogs who woofed and wagged their greetings nonstop. Two seemed to be shepherds with black-and-white fur, perky ears and mischievous eyes. The third looked like a Lab mix, kind of a rusty brown. All of them paid their respects to Kinsey but focused most of their canine love on Zane.
He knelt and petted each in turn, suffered the occasional tongue washing with a smile and ruffled soft ears all around.
“They like you,” Kinsey said.
“Who doesn’t love a dog?” he replied. He looked up at her with eyes bluer than the vast sky above and added, “Did you have a dog when you were a kid?”
“No,” she said. How did you have a dog when you never owned a house? Not many of the rentals her mother could afford allowed pets and Kinsey had been denied as much as a goldfish.
Zane straightened and they both surveyed the house. Up close it remained the sprawling log structure they’d seen from above, but it loomed even bigger.
“I have work to do,” Lily called as she ushered Charlie up a short flight of stone steps to a small deck complete with a narrow wooden bench. The child yanked open the door and scooted inside the house, but Lily paused before following her son. “Are you guys eating with us tonight or are you going back to your house?”
The question seemed to stump him. He looked at Kinsey, who wasn’t sure what to say, then back at Lily. “Thanks, we’ll eat here if you have enough.”
“Are you coming in now?”
“Uh, no. I want to look around.”
“Gotta say hi to Rose, I bet.”
“Yes, where is she, do you know?”
“The barn,” Lily said. “Where else would she be? Honestly, Gerard.”
He squared his shoulders. “Where is everyone...else?”
Her brow furled as if confused. “Your dad is on his honeymoon and your brothers are out in the east field doing a health inspection on a group of heifers. There’s no one else here except me and Charlie.”
“What about the new ranch hand? Where is he?”
“Probably out with the mowing crew. How would I know? Chance doesn’t exactly discuss work details with me, you know. I’m just the hired help.”
“Will there be a chance for me to talk to my brothers before dinner?”
Lily hitched her hands on her waist and narrowed her eyes. “I know I’m too mouthy for my own good, but wow, you’re sure acting strange. In about three hours, just like always, whoever is here will collapse in the library to look through the mail. You usually join them, lately, anyway, well, since...” Her voice tapered off, she glanced at Kinsey, then away. A second later she turned and walked into the house.
“I wonder what that was all about,” Zane said.
Kinsey shrugged.
“She apparently works here,” Zane said. “She’s obviously not my wife. And apparently, I don’t live at this house.”
“Yes,” Kinsey said and wondered if it meant anything that Lily hadn’t mentioned a wife at home waiting for him. It was impossible to know without asking and it was clear Zane wasn’t going to ask until he saw his brothers.
He shook his head. “It’s all too much. No way do I want to go inside and make small talk for three hours. Let’s go find the barn.”
“What about the possibility of an ambush?”
“We’ll keep our eyes open.”
“Okay, I’m with you.”
The dogs frolicked around their legs as they headed toward the most obvious building. It turned out to be relatively new and set up for horses. There was no one about—even the stalls were empty except one. Within this space resided a swaybacked mare with a graying red mane. The horse looked as if she was getting on in years, and though the outside door of her stall stood open, she contentedly munched hay from a holder. A sign over her stall read Rose and looked as though it had been made a long time ago with a wood-burning kit.
“I don’t think she’s going to have a lot to tell us,” Zane said as the mare ambled up to him. He reached out to touch her and she closed her big brown eyes. Kinsey got the profound feeling that the horse recognized Zane and that there was affection between them. Or would be when Zane finally remembered his past and became Gerard again.
As she took out her phone, Zane ran his head down the old mare’s face. “You’re a sweet thing, aren’t you?” he said gently. She nuzzled his neck and made a deep grumbling sound in her throat. After a few minutes, they exited through the door on the other end of the barn and found a shaded pasture with a dozen horses grazing on grass. “Who are you calling?” Zane asked as Kinsey once again attempted a call.
“Detective Woods. There’s no reception, though.”
“Why Woods?”
“Don’t you think he should know your identity? It will change the way he conducts his investigation.”
“If we wait until tomorrow, I might have actual details to share,” he pointed out. “Like maybe the license number of my truck or travel dates he can check. Maybe one of my brothers knew my plans. Lily intimated that Chance doesn’t always tell everything he knows.”
Several glistening animals had looked up at them and one, a lovely black gelding, trotted to the fence, his mane and tail flying out behind him. The horse came to a stop opposite Zane. Snorting, he stretched his head over the top railing and bumped Zane’s shoulder with his velvety nose. Zane laughed as he leaned against the fence, the horse’s big black head right beside his own. They were joined a moment later by a smaller horse, dappled gray, with a delicate head and huge liquid eyes. She sniffed Kinsey’s hair.
Zane laughed again. Honestly, he might not remember being Gerard Hastings, but it was as if he’d started to come back to life the minute his feet hit Hastings’s earth. “You know, I have to assume these horses are mine to ride whenever I want,” he said. “I know you’re not really dressed for it, but do you know how to ride a horse, Kinsey?”
“Kind of. It’s been a few years, but maybe it’s like a bike, maybe you don’t forget.”
“That’s what I’m banking on. Let’s saddle up these two and take off toward the ridge behind the house. It beats finding someplace to hide until eight o’clock tonight. And if that new wrangler gets word we’re here, I’d just as soon be a little harder to find.”
Kinsey looked down at the white pants she’d washed out in the sink the night before, and the black shirt she’d bought the day before that. The sandals weren’t great for riding, but she should be okay if the horse didn’t step on her. “After you,” she said with a sweeping gesture of her arm.
*
THEY FOUND ALL the equipment easily, as the barn was a model of organization. Though the dogs settled in to watch the saddling process, they didn’t follow when Zane and Kinsey led the
rides from the barn.
Knowing the horse had a far better chance of finding the right trails, Zane provided gentle pressure to go in a general direction but left most of the decisions to the animal. In that way, they entered a wooded area where the air was noticeably cooler. They soon came across a small tributary stream that fed to the river. Once they’d waded across, the land began to rise. Eventually, the woods thinned out.
Zane felt no sense of fear out here. He began to rethink the whole bridge incident. Had they jumped to a false conclusion? Had there been just too much going on to think clearly or was his thinking slow because of his compromised physical condition?
One thing that wasn’t slow was his heartbeat when he turned in the saddle and looked back at Kinsey riding the little Arabian mare. When she looked up and met his gaze, her ruby lips curved. Now that he was home, even if it turned out he wasn’t attached to another woman, would she go back to New Orleans and her mother and her job and her life? She had to have friends and connections in Louisiana, while she had none here. Why would she stay? To get to know him? To be with him, to be his lover? Would that be enough for her?
The trees continued thinning as the land stopped climbing, and now they could see through the branches to a broad field dotted with the huge umbrella shapes of oak trees. This was the top of the ridge, he figured, and more than anything he’d seen yet, it struck a chord with him.
Something drew him west and he went with his gut. The horse was a smooth ride, full of energy and strong. He could hear the hooves of Kinsey’s steed behind him and glanced over his shoulder to make sure she was still in the saddle. Not only was she there, she was smiling, apparently enjoying herself as much as he was.
Within a few hundred feet, an odd sense of familiarity slowly turned to one of dread. A minute later, gut clenching, he realized what it was.
The dream he’d had in the hospital: the rolling gold grass, the chase, the looming tree with the gnarled claws as roots. The choking, gasping...
Here it was, the tree, not bare and black, but leafy and vibrant and yet menacing. Branches thick as rum barrels ran parallel to the ground like suspended bridges, more animal than plant. The towering tree made his skin crawl and he didn’t know why. The horse had come to a halt and now he slid out of the saddle, boots hitting the ground, careful not to stand in the shade it cast, uneasy and nervous.
Was someone else here? Was this response really to a tree or to the sense they were being watched, followed? He turned suddenly. Where was Kinsey?
Right behind him. He’d lost track of her for a few moments, hadn’t noticed the sound of her horse approaching or felt her presence as she dismounted.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. Her dark eyes reflected his confusion.
He shook his head as he allowed his gaze to take in a 360-degree view. There was no one else around and very few hiding spots. “Nothing.” How could he tell her he’d been spooked by a tree? “Let’s see what’s over there,” he added, and pointed farther west, willing to go almost anywhere as long as it took him away from here. He climbed back on the black horse, waited for Kinsey to mount the Arabian, and together they took off toward the distant mountains.
Within a couple of miles, his breathing returned to normal and he began to question the reaction that had taken him by surprise. The land once again changed character, and evidence of human occupation started to appear. At first it was the fact the trails turned into roads with rutted grooves that wagon wheels must have dug in the past. Then it was old wooden fences rotting on their rock-pile posts, abandoned roads leading into the distance and signs that a railroad had once existed although the tracks were now overgrown. They reined in the horses when they saw several structures up ahead and heard the sound of a river. Crossing a rickety bridge, they found themselves in a cluster of buildings lining either side of a street.
“It’s an old ghost town,” Kinsey murmured as they slowly rode between the decrepit wooden structures. Here and there a bit of paint remained, the BAN of a bank, for instance. Cracked glass in the dark windows and decaying wooden sidewalks were decorated with what appeared to be new no-trespassing signs. They rode silently to the end of the town and stopped before reaching an array of rusting mining equipment.
Kinsey cleared her throat and he looked at her. Her fine dark hair had come loose from her ponytail and swept across her forehead and cheeks. Her lips, as always, resembled heart-shaped candies, her eyes burned with curiosity and her skin had attained a slight blush from the sun. For a second, he thought of what he knew of her childhood and what he’d seen and heard of her mother and he wondered how she’d managed to come out of it so whole.
“I’d like to investigate this place but it’s getting late,” she said.
“I know.” It was a relief to Zane to leave the old town, though he was uncertain why. Avoiding the tree that had so impacted him, they found the path they’d traveled through the woods.
It was almost eight o’clock.
Time to find out who and what he was.
Chapter Nine
After unsaddling the horses and calming down the dogs, Zane raised his hand to knock on the door Lily and Charlie had used to enter the house. Kinsey caught his fist before it connected. “This is your family home, remember?” she said.
He looked down at her and smiled. “No, as a matter of fact, I don’t.”
“Very funny.” She grabbed the knob and turned it. The dogs stayed on the porch as though they’d been trained to.
They entered a mudroom full of outerwear hanging on hooks. Racks below were stacked with boots, while a ledge above held a variety of hats. It appeared as orderly as the barn had. Judging from the size of the shoes and clothing, the space was used mainly by men.
Kinsey opened the connecting door, when once again Zane paused. Though his confidence had impressed her from the very first glance she’d had of him and had seemed to double once they got to the ranch, things had subtly shifted. Sometime earlier, back when they broke out of the woods and came across that beautiful old tree, he’d grown thoughtful and then hesitant. Even the ghost town, which she’d found fascinating, had seemed to creep him out, and if it wasn’t from conscious associations, then what was the explanation? Something subconscious?
They entered what turned out to be the kitchen, a large room with two gorgeous rock walls and a wide wooden island. Lily looked up from her task at a granite drain board. The tray beside her held a dozen hollowed-out potatoes. She paused from dicing chives. “Hey, where did you guys disappear to?”
“We went riding,” Zane said.
“Really? Where did you go?”
“Around.”
Lily’s brow furrowed and Kinsey leaped into the ensuing silence. “We rode up through the woods to a plateau and from there to a neat old ghost town.”
Lily stopped what she was doing as her gaze swiveled to Zane. “You took her there?”
“Yes,” he said. “Why?”
“No reason,” Lily said, dropping her gaze. She picked up a chunk of cheese and a grater. “Chance and Pike are in the library waiting for you. Frankie drove into town, some kind of emergency or other. You know him.”
“Where’s your son?” Kinsey asked.
“Charlie fell asleep right after his dinner. I feed him early in the summer.”
They left the kitchen without further comment. The next room was a dining room with a very long table running down the middle, set with plates and silverware at one end. Framed photographs above a sideboard caught both of their attention and they paused to look.
“That’s you,” Kinsey said, pointing at a dark-haired boy of about fifteen sitting astride a red horse. “And I bet that’s Rose back in the day. She has to be twenty-some-odd years old.”
“These other kids must be my brothers,” Zane said. He pointed at a lineup of boys that ended in a man of about forty. “That must be our father,” he added. “But where is our mother? There are no women on this wall.”
“Or si
gns of one living in the house, aside from Lily, that is,” Kinsey said. “Maybe your mother died some time ago and your dad just remarried.”
Lily came through the door and seemed surprised to find them lingering in the dining room. She set a bowl filled with greens on the table. “If you want to talk to your brothers about something, you’d better get to it. Dinner will be ready in about a half hour. The roast is in the oven, so I have some time. Would you mind if I listened in?”
“Of course not. You seem to be an integral part of the household.”
She gave him the look Kinsey was beginning to know followed almost every conversation she had with Zane. The woman knew something was wrong.
They followed her out of the dining room into a spacious entry. A broad staircase rose on the left side complete with polished banister it wasn’t hard to picture Zane and his brothers sliding down when they were kids. Lily quickly led them into the library, which, appropriately enough, held shelves of books.
The only other home library Kinsey had ever seen was Bill Dodge’s, with its mass of volumes that reflected his eclectic reading taste. This selection was not nearly as huge and, judging from the few titles that jumped out in a quick glance, not as varied. However, the books were not what really caught her attention.
Two tanned, weathered-looking men occupied the room. One was standing by the window with a glass of amber liquid in his hand and he turned to face them, though his gaze quickly shifted to Lily as she crossed to a bar located in the corner. He turned back to Zane and raised his glass before draining it in one swallow. There was an unmistakable devil-may-care aura about him, an edge of recklessness impossible to miss. He was easily as tall as Zane and just as good-looking in his own way.
The seated man was younger by a few years. A pair of dark-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, while longer, lighter brown hair drifted down over his eyebrows. He didn’t give off Zane’s steadfast earnestness or the other man’s rakish quality; instead, he seemed more intense and private. Maybe it was a combination of the bookish glasses coupled with the stack of half-opened mail scattered across a table in front of him that reminded Kinsey more of a college professor than a cowboy.
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