by Elle James
“Okay, Mom. I will.” Reluctant to leave her mother, Bree knew that if she didn’t check on Ray, her mother would be distraught until she did. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.” Don’t die.
Bree backed out of the room. Now that she was reunited with her mother, she didn’t want to leave her. She hurried to the nurse’s station. “Do you have a Ray Rausch registered in the hospital? Could you tell me where I can find him?”
The nurse at the counter looked up from her computer. “Are you a family member?”
“No, but he’s an employee at my ranch,” she lied. He was an employee at her mother’s ranch. But the details didn’t matter. “Please, I need to know if he’s okay.”
The woman clicked her fingers across the keyboard in an efficient manner and looked up seconds later, smiling. “Mister Rausch is in a room down the hall.” She gave her the room number and went back to work reviewing charts.
Bree hurried down the hall and turned left onto another corridor, stopping in front of the room number the nurse had given her. The door stood slightly ajar and voices sounded from within.
She peeked through the gap and noticed a man wearing a white coat, with a stethoscope looped around his neck. “Mr. Rausch, your bloodwork came back from the lab positive for an excess of anticoagulant.”
“Anti-what?” a weak voice said from just out of Bree’s sight. She assumed it was Ray.
“Anticoagulant rodenticide,” the doctor repeated. “It’s a poison used to kill rats. Basically it’s a high concentration blood thinner.”
“Rat poison?” the other man said. “Holy crap. How the hell— How is Karen? Mrs. Hemming? Is she okay?”
“I’m sorry. I’m not at liberty to say unless you are a member of the family.”
“Damn it, she’s my boss,” Ray said, his voice a little stronger this time. “Is she going to be okay? That’s all I need to know.”
“Yes, Mr. Rausch, Mrs. Hemming is going to be okay. Like you, she’ll be in the hospital for a few days for observation and while the poison clears her system.”
“I can’t stay here. There are animals that need to be cared for. What if they were poisoned, too?”
“We notified the state health department. They should be out within the next day or so to determine the source of the poison. If they deem it necessary, they might call for help from the CDC. In the meantime, until your blood levels improve, we recommend you remain in the hospital.”
“You don’t understand. There’s no one else at the ranch to take care of the animals. I can’t…”
Bree tapped lightly on the door. “Pardon me, is it okay if I come in?” She didn’t wait for a response but entered anyway and held out her hand to the doctor. “I’m Mrs. Hemming’s daughter, and this man is her employee.” She smiled at the doctor and turned to Ray. “Mr. Rausch, you don’t need to worry about the animals at the ranch. I’ll make sure they’re taken care of in your absence. You and my mother only need to worry about getting well.”
“Good. If you two have things settled, I have more patients to see.” The doctor left the room and an awkward silence in his wake.
Ray Rausch was a wiry man with a shock of white hair and tanned, leathery skin that had seen years of living and working outside. He frowned at Bree. “You’re Bree?”
She nodded. “I am. And I’ve come to help.”
The older man’s frown deepened. “About damned time you showed up.”
A knot of guilt twisted in her belly. “I know.”
“Do you know how long your mother has been waiting for her only daughter return home?”
“Thirteen years,” Bree whispered.
“Thirteen damned years,” Ray repeated, his eyes blazing. “That woman loves you like nobody’s business. Why, I don’t know. What child abandons her mother for thirteen years?”
Tears welled in Bree’s eyes. “The worst kind,” she admitted. “But I’m here now. I’ll take care of the animals while you and my mother are recovering.” As bad as she felt about being gone for so long, Bree couldn’t help being a little reassured at the intensity of Ray’s loyalty to her mother. “Thank you for being there for her.”
Ray laid back against the pillow and closed his eyes. “If I’d been paying attention, she wouldn’t be in the hospital.” He lifted his head, his frown reappearing. “Whatever you do, don’t drink the water or eat anything from the pantry or refrigerator until they figure out how we were poisoned. I couldn’t live with myself if she lost you now.” This time, the foreman collapsed against the pillow and lay very still.
Bree’s breath caught in her throat, and she leaned forward, searching the man’s chest for any sign of life.
“I’m not dead.” He opened one eye. “I need you to call Meredith Smalls and tell her to get Evan to a doctor for treatment. He’s been out sick for a couple days, so he might not have been affected as much. He won’t need to show up for work for the next week, or until I get back with her.” He closed his eye and weakly waved a hand. “Tell her what’s going on.”
Bree nodded. “Evan still works for Wolf Creek?”
Ray snorted. “You’d know, if you’d kept in touch with your mother.”
Bree’s chin dipped. “True.”
“Now, get out of here.” He opened both bloodshot eyes. “And Bree…stay alive and healthy for your mother’s sake.”
Bree pressed a hand to her chest. “Yes, sir.” And she ran from the room, back down the hall to her mother’s room.
“Bree?” a weak voice called out from the bed. “Is he…?”
Bree smiled and took her mother’s hand. “Ray’s alive and cantankerous.”
Her mother heaved a sigh. “Thank God.” She held onto Bree’s hand. “Now, help me out of this bed. I have to get home to take care of the animals before dark.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Bree said, her voice firm. “Has the doctor been by to see you?”
She nodded. “He was just here.” Her brow wrinkled. “He said we were poisoned.” She pressed a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. “How could that have happened?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
Her mother grabbed her hand. “Oh, Bree, don’t. I couldn’t stand it if you were hurt. Please, don’t go out there.” She struggled to get up. “Help me up. I’ll take care of the animals.” Her eyes widened. “The cattle are in the south valley. What if they were poisoned too? Dear God. Who could be so cruel?”
Bree patted her mother’s hand. “Don’t you worry about anything. I’ll check on the barnyard animals and take them fresh feed to make sure their feed isn’t contaminated.”
“What about water?” Her mother held tight to her hand. “The water could be contaminated.”
“I’ll take care of the animals. If I have to, I’ll get them to a pasture with clean water. I promise to get to the bottom of it.”
“Please, Bree, don’t put yourself in danger. I can’t lose you again.”
“Mama, I’m not going anywhere.” She couldn’t leave her mother and the family ranch. Not when they needed her most. She’d run away from her responsibilities once. She wouldn’t do it again. She was done running. When her mother and Ray were well, and the ranch was running smoothly, she’d turn herself into the authorities for the murder of her stepfather. Until then, she had a job to do.
She didn’t linger at the hospital. With animals to check on and the source of the poison to determine, she had to get a move on before dark.
As she left the hospital and drove northwest toward Eagle Rock, her thoughts returned to the man she’d seen in the airport and her heart ached.
Somehow, she’d have to keep her distance from Angus McKinnon. When she pulled the plug on her crime, she didn’t want him anywhere near her. He didn’t deserve the taint of her offense tarnishing his stellar military career.
* * *
Angus and his brothers ditched their belongings in their old rooms at the sprawling ranch house and beat it ou
t to the barn where they saddled up horses. Molly insisted on riding along with them, as did the ranch foreman, Parker Bailey.
When Angus started to protest, Molly gave him the same look his mother had used all those years ago when she’d been displeased with him. “Don’t you go pulling your big-brother-knows-best bullshit on me,” Molly said. “I’ve been here helping our father with the ranch while you boys have been off playing soldier for the past eight to thirteen years.”
Parker Bailey’s lips twisted, and his eyes danced. “Look out. In roars the lioness.”
Angus held up his hands. “I wasn’t going to say don’t come. I just wanted to say someone should stay with Mom to make sure she’s all right.”
“Then you stay,” Molly said. “I’m going out to look for Dad. This is the first day it’s been clear enough to get out there. I’m not wasting another minute.” She slung a saddle bag onto the back of her gray mare. “I’m carrying the first aid kit and a blanket.” She disappeared into the tack room and emerged with several hand-held radios and handed one to each of the men. “If you see or hear anything, let everyone know what and where.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Colin saluted. “When did you get so bossy?”
“If you were handing out the orders to your men, would they call you bossy?” Molly demanded.
When none of her older brothers answered, she nodded. “Right. Don’t patronize me because I’m female. I know as much, if not more, than any of you about this ranch and those mountains out there.”
Parker nodded. “She does.”
She shot an irritated glance his way and continued, “I’ve lived here the longest and learned more from our father than you. If you recall, you all were older when Dad left the service. I was a little kid. Then you all jumped ship and joined the military as soon as you graduated high school.” She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. “Am I right?”
Angus and his brothers all nodded.
“You’re right,” Angus agreed.
She snorted, her chin rising higher. “Which makes me the one who has lived here the longest.”
“She’d got a good point,” Sebastian said.
“And damned if she doesn’t sound like Dad in full drill sergeant mode.” Colin’s lips curled into a cheeky grin.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Molly stared at all of them. “Sheriff Barron said Dad was assigned the canyon with the caves you boys used to camp in when you went hunting. It’s a good hour’s ride from the barn. We’re likely to run into deputies, search and rescue personnel and probably the press out there.”
“And as far as anyone has heard,” Parker added, “they haven’t found William Reed, yet. So be careful out there.”
Molly glanced down at her watch. “We have four hours until sunset.” She clapped her hands. “Don’t just stand there! Grab a firearm and saddle up.”
Minutes later, they rode out of the barnyard and out into the foothills of the Crazy Mountains.
Angus hadn’t been on a horse, except for the few occasions he’d come home on leave. After thirty minutes in the saddle, he knew he’d be sore when he got back to the house. But he powered on, his father’s whereabouts more important than his own sore ass.
The canyon spanned several miles, crossing the Iron Horse Ranch and the neighboring Wolf Creek Ranch. The closer they came to the bordering fence line, the more Angus thought about the woman in the black trench coat.
Or rather, the more he thought about Bree Lansing. His gut told him that woman in the airport had been Bree. He should have confronted her and been certain. The doubt was eating away at his concentration.
His gaze strayed from the path in front of him to the fence on the border of the two ranches. Nothing moved in the distance. Bree didn’t come riding across the pasture to declare her love. He shook himself, angry that he even had such thoughts. Hadn’t he decided to cleanse his thoughts and life of the woman? Why had he mooned after her when she’d broken his heart without so much as a Dear John letter?
The McKinnon siblings arrived at a fork in the trail. One led up one side of the canyon, the other led up the opposite side of the knee-deep creek running down the center.
The thump-thump of rotor blades echoed off the canyon walls.
Angus’s pulse quickened with flashbacks of missions he’d performed in Afghanistan, ferried by Black Hawks into hostile zones.
He looked around at the mountainous terrain and marveled at how similar the situation was, yet how vastly different.
“Parker, Colin and Duncan can take the north side,” Angus said. “Molly, Bastian and I will take the cave side.”
“Wouldn’t Dad have gone to the caves if he was looking for a convict?” Colin asked.
“Yes, but if he was swept away in the avalanche, he could be all the way across the valley on the other side,” Angus said. He didn’t add that if their father had been swept away, and he hadn’t died in the avalanche, after three days in the bitter cold, he’d have succumbed to hypothermia. They’d be lucky to find the body before all the snow melted.
Angus, Bastian and Molly started up the trail leading toward the caves. The path was clear of snow, but muddy and slippery.
“Looks like we’re not the only ones who’ve come out to search,” Parker remarked.
The trail wound around several outcroppings and through a stand of trees clinging to the side of the hill, finally opening up to the sheer rock walls and steep hills of gravel and sparse vegetation.
The helicopter that had been flying overhead now hovered over the canyon ahead, a cable hanging down from the fuselage.
A team of rescue workers and men in sheriff’s deputy uniforms clung to the side of the hill near the mouth of a cave.
Someone in a neon orange jumpsuit hooked the cable to a litter basket.
Between them and the entrance to the cave, was a flow of snow, rock and debris, blocking the horses’ path to the cave.
Angus reined in at a widening spot in the narrow trail and stared at the operation from a distance.
Molly and Parker moved in beside him. “What’s happening?” Molly squinted, staring at the group gathered on the other side.
“They have a body in the stretcher,” Angus said, his heart going to this throat. “We can’t take the horses across.” He dropped to the ground and tied his horse to a nearby scrubby bush. Without waiting for the others, he scrambled across the snow and debris, hurrying to get to the other side and find out who they were evacuating out of the canyon.
The litter rose into the air, but not before Angus could see that the body it contained was completely covered in a neon orange tarp. Completely.
His pulse thundering against his eardrums, Angus leaped to the ground on the other side of the mass of snow and rock and hurried toward the first man in uniform he came to.
He touched the man’s arm.
The man turned and frowned. “Angus McKinnon? Is that you?” Sheriff Barron held out a hand. “Good to see you.”
Angus took the hand automatically and stared at the litter rising up the cable to the helicopter. “Who’s in the basket?” he asked, his heart stopping along with his breath as he waited for the sheriff’s answer.
Molly and Parker arrived next to him and waited for the sheriff’s response.
Sheriff Barron’s lips twisted. “It’s not your father.”
All the air Angus had been holding rushed from his lungs in a sigh of relief.
“We still haven’t found James,” the sheriff said.
“Then who was in the litter?” Molly demanded.
The sheriff’s lips thinned. “William Reed. And he wasn’t killed in the avalanche. He died of a knife wound to the chest.”
“A knife wound?” Angus shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
“Someone killed him.” The sheriff held up a plastic baggy containing the murder weapon. “Recognize this?”
Angus didn’t. He turned to Molly.
She shook her head and t
urned to Parker. “Dad carried a knife with him all the time, but that’s not it.”
Parker nodded. “His was a Ka-Bar like the Navy SEALs carry.”
“He’s had the Ka-Bar since his time on Delta Force. A Navy SEAL friend of his gave it to him on one of their missions. He would never be parted from it.” Her voice caught, and she looked around the cave, up at the helicopter and down at the still river of snow, ice, rock and debris that flowed to the base of the canyon. “My father?” she asked, her voice no longer firm and confident.
The sheriff shook his head. “Not here.”
Angus nodded. “Not here, we can live with.” It meant they still had a chance of finding him alive.
“Do you mind if we look around?” Parker asked.
“I’m sorry, but it’s a crime scene,” the sheriff said. “We were lucky the state crime lab was very interested in Reed’s case and came out yesterday. They’ve been waiting for us to find something, anything, they could use to capture the man. Fortunately, someone else got to him before he could get away.”
“Which begs the question of who?” Angus looked around at the men combing through the cave with spotlights shining at the floor, walls and ceiling.
One squatted and scooped what might have been a bullet casing into an evidence bag.
“Search and Rescue teams have started down the flow to the base,” Sheriff Barron was saying. “They have a dog with them. If your father is down there, the dog gives us a better chance of finding him.”
Angus’s gut twisted. What the sheriff didn’t say was in what condition they should expect to find James McKinnon. He could only imagine.
He spent the next hour searching the surrounding area for any sign of James McKinnon. The SAR team assured him they would continue their search until dark.
“We’re handling the avalanche area. You might consider following the canyon toward the Iron Horse Ranch. If your father survived the avalanche, he could be on foot, working his way through the canyon back to familiar territory.”
Angus nodded. The SAR team and members of the Montana National Guard were combing over the avalanche’s pass, looking for their father. Military and rescue helicopters crisscrossed the sky. Some areas of the canyon floor were cloaked in trees and rock overhangs. It would be difficult for the helicopters to see beneath the canopies.
