The Heiress and the Sheriff

by Stella Bagwell

  “I can be coarse because I’m a sheriff,” he told her.

  “I’m paid to be that way. If I looked at everything and everyone with a soft heart, things around here would be in a hell of a mess.”

  “Looks to me like they are anyway,” she couldn’t help retorting.

  If Wyatt had an ego, her words would have sliced it down to nothing. As it was, he didn’t care if she thought him inept. She’d probably already been wondering how a sorry half-breed had gotten elected to the office in the first place.

  “I’m just a sheriff, Gabrielle. Not a superhero.”

  Her head turned back to him and she struggled to see his face. “You called me Gabrielle. Does that mean I’m your friend?”

  He lifted a lock of her hair that was lying loose on the pillow and studied its rich brown color. “Do you want to be my friend?”

  Gabrielle figured being Wyatt’s friend was akin to a shot at the doctor’s office. It would probably hurt a little, but the end result might be positive.

  “It’s always better to make friends than enemies. But I don’t want to be accused of trying to sweeten you up.”

  One corner of his mouth curled upward. “I think we both know I’m too smart for that.”

  A soft knock sounded on the door. Matthew entered the room carrying a black medical bag. As he approached the bed, Wyatt stood and moved out of his way. Matthew examined Gabrielle and asked her several questions about how she was feeling.

  After concluding his examination, he asked, “Have you taken any more painkillers?”

  “No. I don’t much like the idea of putting drugs in my system.”

  He released the blood-pressure cuff from around her arm. “Well, in this case, I think you should take them. Your blood pressure is a little elevated. That could be from the pain.” He glanced at Wyatt. “Have you been harassing her with questions?”

  Wyatt’s frown was full of resentment. “Matthew, what do you think I am?”

  “You’re my friend. That’s how I know you can be…unrelenting at times.”

  “He hasn’t been harassing me,” Gabrielle spoke up, surprising both men. “Wyatt has discovered where I live. So how soon do you think I can go home?”

  She didn’t know what home was. But whatever it was, she had to go back. She couldn’t prey on the Fortunes’ hospitality. They already had enough troubles without trying to care for her too.

  Matthew lifted her wrist and counted her pulse. “I wouldn’t advise you to be traveling for a while, Gabrielle. Remember, you do have a concussion, and sometimes complications from such an injury can linger for several days. Even weeks.”

  “You mean like this blurry vision?”

  “Exactly. And your headaches. As a doctor, I say you need to stay put and let the injury to your brain totally heal. Besides, if you have no recollection of your home, it might be jarring to try to step right back into things.” Matthew glanced at Wyatt. “Were you able to contact any family?”

  Wyatt grimaced. “No. Nothing but an address. But believe me, I’ll keep working on it.”

  Matthew shook out two capsules from the medicine bottle sitting by the telephone. “Take these—and if your vision doesn’t get better before bedtime, let me know. You might have to go back into the hospital for another brain scan.”

  Wyatt fetched Gabrielle’s coffee mug, and she obediently swallowed the capsules.

  “Thank you, Matthew. I’m sorry to have interrupted your evening.”

  His smile was rueful. “It was no interruption, Gabrielle. I was just reading some medical reports.”

  “Where’s Claudia and the baby?” Wyatt asked him.

  Matthew collected his things and snapped the black bag shut. “Having supper with a friend. But don’t worry, one of the bodyguards has gone with them.”

  Wyatt was thinking that it would have been better if Matthew had escorted his wife, but he kept the idea to himself. Matthew and Claudia would have to work out their problems in their own way. Besides, he didn’t know anything about marriage—except that most never worked out for the long haul.

  Once Matthew said his good-nights and left the room, Gabrielle looked at Wyatt. “What did he mean, the bodyguard went with her? Do the Fortunes have bodyguards?”

  Did she really not know? he wondered. “After Bryan was kidnapped, Ryan thought it best to post bodyguards on the ranch. Especially since there’s no way of knowing if the kidnappers will try to strike again.”

  Gabrielle shivered outwardly. “How absolutely awful to have to live under such a strain. I don’t think having money would be worth it. Give me a shack or a tent. I’d rather have peace of mind.”

  His gaze lingered on her face as he stood beside the bed. “Maybe you think that now. But before you lost your memory you might have had different ideas about wealth.” She was coming here for some reason, he thought, and where the Fortunes were concerned, it probably boiled down to money.

  She tried not to let his suggestion rile her. He’d shown her more kindness tonight than she’d ever expected. She was beginning to think he might not be hard through and through, as she’d first believed. Just crusty on the outside.

  “I can’t say you’re wrong, Wyatt. I have no idea what I was before I wrecked my car yesterday. But a person’s moral values come from somewhere deep inside. I don’t think a crack on the head is going to change them.”

  Wyatt wanted to believe her. But then, he’d wanted to believe his mother when she’d promised to take him to a better place. “I guess time will tell us about that. Right now, I’ve got to get back to the Sheriff’s Office. If you have to return to the hospital, tell Matthew to call me.”

  She nodded, and he started toward the door. But just as his hand closed over the knob she called his name, and he glanced over his shoulder at her.

  “You need something else?” he asked.

  She drew in a deep breath and let it out. “No. I wanted to tell you I thought you played a dirty, underhanded trick yesterday at the hospital.”

  His brows shot up with interest. “Really? Which trick was that?”

  “Telling Matthew to keep his identity from me. That was a bad thing to do. I was already confused enough. And you tried to take advantage of the situation.”

  He shrugged, and the grin on his face said he didn’t feel one ounce of remorse. “So I’m dirty and bad. Maybe if you’ll remember that, we’ll both be better off.”

  He opened the door and stepped out, then, on second thought, leaned his head back inside. “By the way, Gabrielle, I forgot to mention there was no criminal record matching your name.”

  Yet he still trusted her as much as he would a Texas sidewinder, she thought. She shouldn’t feel crushed, but the pressure in her chest nearly robbed her of breath. “Obviously that doesn’t let me off the hook where you’re concerned.”

  “We both know you were coming here to the Double Crown for something. When you can tell me the real reason, I’ll decide whether you’re a criminal or not.”

  Gabrielle didn’t bother trying to defend herself with a retort. Instead, she turned her face to the wall and waited to hear the door shut behind him.

  Two days later Gabrielle was feeling stronger although her headaches and blurry vision were still striking her without warning. Most of the time she stuck close to her room and tried to occupy herself with a book or a television program. But that was very hard to do when her mind was roiling with questions.

  This evening she’d wandered outside into the courtyard. As she strolled through the carefully tended plants and groupings of comfortable lawn furniture, she couldn’t help but wonder how much longer her memory was going to remain a blank. She felt as if she’d been dropped out of the sky and left here in this place for some unknown reason. But why?

  “Gabrielle, come here, I want to show you something.”

  Gabrielle turned her head to see that Maggie had entered the courtyard and was taking a seat at a large round glass table shaded with a huge flowered umbrella.


  She hurried over to where the other woman sat. “Hi, Maggie! It’s nice to see you.”

  She smiled warmly at Gabrielle. “I was planning to come by yesterday to check on you. But I got busy with my son, Travis. He wanted to go horseback riding, and I decided it would be a good time for me to get back on a horse and put what happened with your accident behind me.”

  Gabrielle took a seat in the chair directly across from her. “I’m glad you did. I would hate to think it spoiled your pleasure in riding.”

  “It hasn’t,” Maggie assured her, then with a sad frown, she added, “but I can see you still haven’t remembered. Have any sort of memories flashed through your mind?”

  “No. Sometimes it seems like…well, vague impressions come over me. Especially since Wyatt uncovered my address. More and more I’m beginning to think I don’t have a family.”

  Maggie’s brows puckered into a frown. “Surely not. You’re a young woman. I doubt your parents are deceased. What makes you think such a thing, anyway?”

  Gabrielle shrugged. “I can’t explain myself. It’s just a feeling I get especially when I see you Fortunes together. I don’t think I had the connection of a family the way you all do. Maybe I have a family but we’re estranged. I just can’t remember. And the harder I try, the more my head hurts.” She shook her head and sighed. “The Double Crown Ranch is at least fifteen-hundred miles from my address in California. That’s a long distance. Especially for a young woman to be traveling alone. What was I doing coming here? And Maggie, Wyatt told me something else that bothers me even more.”

  Concern in her dark eyes, Maggie leaned forward. “What?”

  “What he told me is personal and—well, frankly, it’s hard for me to accept.”

  “What is it?” Maggie prompted.

  Gabrielle glanced around to make sure the two of them were alone. “I’m a virgin.”

  Maggie’s mouth fell open. “How does he know?”

  Seeing where the other woman’s thoughts were leading, Gabrielle quickly waved away her assumption. “Not by intimate investigation!”

  “Then how—”

  “How he found out doesn’t matter. What it implies is what bothers me,” Gabrielle confessed. “Maybe I actually am a religious zealot. The virginity certainly goes along with the Bible Wyatt found in my car. Or maybe I’m just abnormal.”

  “Gabrielle,” Maggie gently scolded, “you’re not abnormal! Why would you think something like that?”

  Color flooded Gabrielle’s cheeks. “Well, I’m a little old not to…have known a man, don’t you think?”

  “You don’t know how old you are,” Maggie argued.

  “Anyway, being a virgin is something you should be proud of. I know my life would have been a lot less complicated if I had waited to give myself to a man. As it was, I ended up pregnant and married to a man I didn’t love.”

  “I take it you’re not talking about your husband now?”

  With a dreamy smile, Maggie shook her head. “No. Dallas is wonderful to me and my son. I’m happily in love.”

  Gabrielle sighed. “Well, it’s a cinch there’s no man out there for me. If there was, I wasn’t that close to him.”

  Maggie reached over and patted the back of Gabrielle’s hand. “You’re worrying far too much. Things are going to fall in place for you. Just wait and see.” She leaned back in the chair and snapped her fingers. “Oh, I almost forgot.”

  She leaned over for something on the floor by her chair. Gabrielle watched her lift another huge sack filled with packages onto the table. “I went into San Antonio today to run some errands, and while I was there I picked up a few more things I thought you might need.”

  “Maggie!” Gabrielle gasped. “You’ve already given me so much. This really isn’t necessary. You’re spending far too much—”

  “Gabrielle,” she interrupted, “my husband isn’t lacking for money.”

  “It doesn’t matter if he is rich. I don’t want to take advantage.” She could already imagine the sardonic look on Wyatt’s face when he found out Maggie had spent more money on her.

  A lump suddenly filled Gabrielle’s throat. She was a stranger to these people, yet they continued to treat her with warmth and caring kindness. Dear God, she couldn’t have been coming here to hurt them! The idea was too horrible to contemplate.

  “You already gave me everything I needed the day I was released from the hospital. And anyway, I promised Wyatt I’d leave the things here whenever I left to go home.”

  Maggie stared at her in comical disbelief. “Whatever for? They’re yours.”

  An odd sort of pain crawled its way beneath Gabrielle’s chest. Damn the man, even when he wasn’t around he had the power to affect her.

  “To prove to him that I’m—I’m not a gold digger.”

  Maggie laughed freely. “Honey, leaving your clothes and things behind isn’t going to prove anything to Wyatt, believe me. No woman could prove her worth to that man, so don’t bother to try.”

  Unable to hide her curiosity, Gabrielle asked, “Why do you say that? Is he one of those men who hate women?”

  Even as she asked the question, Gabrielle couldn’t imagine such a thing. The other night when Wyatt had carried her to bed, she hadn’t felt any hatred in him. When he’d stroked her hair, it had been with a gentle hand.

  “No. I don’t think he actually hates women,” Maggie told her. “In fact, from what I hear he was pretty serious about a girl some years back. But something happened. I don’t know what. Anyway, they parted company, and he’s been a loner ever since. I guess he lost his trust in women and doesn’t think they’re worth the effort.”

  The idea of Wyatt loving and losing a woman was hard for Gabrielle to take in. He seemed too strong and sure of himself to ever be besotted or brokenhearted over a woman.

  “One bad romance shouldn’t have that much effect on a person,” Gabrielle pointed out.

  “Well, I don’t expect losing his mother the way he did helped matters,” Maggie said, her expression thoughtful.

  “His mother died?”

  Maggie shook her head. “She left when Wyatt was very young. I’ve heard my parents talk about it. She just up and walked away, and no one ever heard from her again. I suppose it’s a possibility she could be dead now.”

  Gabrielle stared at her in dismay. “Wyatt doesn’t know what happened to her?”

  “I don’t know. You’d have to ask him that. And I wouldn’t if I were you. He can get downright mean if you touch his sore spots.”

  Gabrielle had already learned that to some degree. Still, she wanted to know about him. Why was he so hard and suspicious? Especially of her.

  “What about his father? Do you know anything about him?”

  “My father, Ruben, says Leonard Grayhawk was a mean man who had drinking bouts. I guess Wyatt was lucky—or determined—to survive his childhood.” She gathered up the large department store bag. “Enough about that dismal stuff. Let’s take these things to your room. And Gabrielle, no matter what Wyatt says, you’re not leaving any of these things behind. You’re going to look absolutely too pretty in them.”

  Gabrielle followed Maggie into the house. But as she opened the packages of expensive clothing and expressed her pleasure over them, thoughts of Wyatt lingered like a haunting shadow in the back of her mind.

  His mother had left, never to contact her son again. And his father had been anything but loving. It was little wonder Wyatt had turned into a hard man. No doubt he’d had to be tough to survive and climb to the life he had now. But surely growing up without love would only make him want to seek it more.

  I think he’s lost all trust in women.

  Wyatt hadn’t tried to hide the fact that he doubted Gabrielle. But she’d believed his attitude was because of all the things that had been happening to the Fortunes, not because she was a woman.

  So what could she possibly do to gain his trust? Nothing, she told herself grimly. Without her memory, she wa
s helpless. She was at the mercy of Red Rock’s sheriff.

  And worst of all, he knew it.

  Six

  Back at the Sheriff’s Office, Gonzolez stood in front of his boss’s desk and waited until Wyatt finished his telephone conversation before he spoke.

  “You wanted to tell me something?” the older man asked as Wyatt hung up and glanced at him.

  “Yes. You might as well forget that number out in California for now. I don’t think it’s going to produce anything.”

  “The young lady hasn’t remembered anything?”

  Wyatt leaned back in the leather chair and raked fingers from both hands through his short hair. He was more exhausted than he could ever remember being, but there was so much he needed to do on the Fortune case. And over the past two days there’d been a rash of local brawls that had filled the jail with drunks and assault cases. He still hadn’t finished the paperwork on all the arrests.

  “If she has, no one has bothered to tell me about it.”

  “What about those last two women you were trying to locate? The ones who’d requested Matthew’s sperm?”

  Wyatt heaved out a heavy breath. “Both of them had moved around like gypsies. I had to track them through a long list of old addresses before I had any success locating them. I finally reached one this morning. She told me she was never able to get pregnant and has given up on the idea. The last one I contacted this evening. No luck there either; she had second thoughts and never went through with the artificial insemination.”

  “So now what, Wyatt? It’s a damn cinch some woman out there gave birth to that child. You think Matthew had a few rolls in the hay and just doesn’t want to own up to his wife about it?”

  Wyatt shook his head. “No. He’s adamant about being faithful to his wife, and I know Matthew. He’s not a man who would lie. For any reason. There has to be some other explanation. And it’s come down to the woman who registered under the name Brown at the fertility clinic. If we could find her, we might be getting somewhere.”

  Gonzolez shook his head. “Well, that whole thing about another baby being delivered for the kidnap ransom is downright weird. If this Brown woman is the mother of Taylor, why would she give her own son away—and keep Bryan?”