B.J. Daniels the Cardwell Ranch Collection

by B. J Daniels

“Dad. He had a heart attack.” Her voice broke. “But the doctor says he’s stable now.” She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. “I have to talk to you.”

  “Okay.” He couldn’t help but sound tentative. She hadn’t wanted to lay eyes on him—let alone talk to him. “Did you want to talk at the office or—”

  She glanced around, making him wonder where her brothers were. And Stacy. “Could we go back to your place?”

  His place? “Sure.” Whatever she wanted to talk to him about was serious. “You want to follow me?”

  She shook her head. “I need to stop by Stacy’s. You go on. I’ll meet you there.”

  Whatever that was about he didn’t want to know. But at the same time, he didn’t like the idea of her going alone.

  “I could go with you,” he said.

  She shook her head again. “I’ll meet you at the cabin you’re renting.” She knew where he lived?

  “I’ll see you soon,” he said.

  She nodded distractedly. “Soon.”

  As he got into his patrol car, he tried not to even guess what this was about. But he had a bad feeling it could have something to do with her father’s gun now locked in his evidence cabinet at the office.

  The night was clear, stars bright dots in the crystalline cold blue of the sky overhead. Snow covered everything. It sat in puffy white clumps in the branches of the trees and gleamed in the starlight like zillions of diamonds on the open field across the road.

  The drive home was interminable. He kept looking in his rearview mirror, hoping to see the headlights of Dana’s pickup. She’d said she needed to make a stop by Stacy’s. He wished he’d asked how long she might be.

  He parked in front of the cabin, the night darker than the inside of a gunny sack. In the cabin, he straightened up, built a fire and put on some coffee.

  A wind had come up. It whirled the light fresh snow in a blizzard of white outside the window. He should have insisted she ride with him as upset as she was. But he’d had no desire to go to Stacy’s, and Dana hadn’t wanted him along.

  The sky over the tops of the pines darkened as another storm moved in. He’d forgotten how dark it could be in the dead of winter.

  He watched the road—what little of it he could see through the swirling snow. Surprisingly he really had missed winters while in Los Angeles. Missed the seasons that were so dramatic in Montana. Especially winter. Two feet of snow could fall overnight. It wasn’t unusual to wake up to the silence and the cold and know that something had changed during the night.

  Dana should be here by now. He began to worry, thinking about what he’d heard in her voice. She’d been upset about her father. But that hadn’t been all of it. Something had happened. Something she needed to talk to him about. But first she had to see Stacy.

  Hud was to the point where he was ready to go looking for her when he spotted headlights through the drifting snow.

  She pulled in beside his patrol car and got out, seeming to hesitate. She was wearing a red fleece jacket, her dark hair tucked up under a navy stocking cap. A few strands whipped around her face as she stared at the cabin.

  He opened the front door and stood looking at her. A small drift had formed just outside the door and now ran across the porch. The steps down had disappeared, the snow smooth and deep.

  He met her gaze through dancing snowflakes, then reached for the shovel. But before he could clean off the steps, she was coming up them, all hesitation gone.

  To his utter shock, she rushed to him. He took her in his arms, now truly afraid.

  “I’m sorry.” Her words were barely audible over the howl of the wind across the roof. “I’m so sorry.”

  He held her, his heart in his throat. He hugged her to him, breathing in the smell of her. God, how he’d missed that scent. But what could she possibly be sorry about?

  Holding her felt so good, he hated it when she stepped from his arms and went inside the cabin. He followed, closing the door to the wind and snow.

  She had walked to the fireplace. When she turned, he saw the tears. Dana crying. He could count on one hand the times he’d seen that. His fear escalated.

  “Whatever it is, I’ll help you,” he said, wanting to hold her again but afraid to step toward her.

  She let out a laugh at his words and shook her head. Her face was flushed, her eyes bright. “I haven’t killed anyone. Although it did cross my mind.” She sobered, her gaze locked on his. “I talked to my sister.”

  His heart dislodged from his throat and dropped to his stomach.

  She jerked her cap from her head, shaking off the snow as her hair fell around her shoulders. “She told me everything.”

  He didn’t move—didn’t breathe. He’d told himself that he’d come back here to learn everything that had happened that night but now he wasn’t so sure he wanted to know.

  “You were right. She lied. She was sent to the bar to drug you, get you out of there before the drug completely knocked you out and take you to her place. It was just as you suspected—” her voice broke, eyes shimmering with tears “—nothing happened. You were set up.” A tear trailed down her cheek. “We were set up.”

  It took him a moment. So it had been just as he’d believed in his heart. No matter how drunk he might have been, he wouldn’t have bedded Dana’s sister or any other woman for that matter. He’d known it. And yet he’d feared that for that night, he’d lost his mind and his way.

  “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you. That I didn’t even give you a chance to explain.”

  He found himself shaking with relief and anger as he stepped to Dana and pulled her into his arms again. “I couldn’t have explained it. That’s why I left. I thought it would be easier on you if you never had to see me again.”

  “But you came back.”

  “Thanks to your sister.”

  Dana raised her head to look into his face. “Stacy sent you the note?”

  He nodded. “I found the birthday card she mailed you, the one you’d thrown away. It was under the box of chocolates. I recognized the handwriting.”

  “So she was responsible for you coming back.” She leaned into him again.

  He rested his chin on the top of her head. Her hair felt like silk. Her body softened against his. He could feel his heart pounding. Nothing had happened that night. He closed his eyes and pulled Dana even closer, wishing he could turn back the clock. These wasted years apart felt like a chasm between them.

  “I SHOULD HAVE trusted you.” Dana hadn’t believed that he’d been set up, that nothing had happened. She hadn’t loved him enough. If she’d trusted him, if she’d even let him tell her his side of the story…

  “Hey, there were times I didn’t believe in my innocence myself,” he said, holding her at arm’s length to look into her face. “I thought maybe I’d lost my mind. Or worse, that I was about to become my father.”

  The blaze in the fireplace popped and cracked, the flames throwing shadows on the walls. She could hear the wind howling outside. Snow hit the windows, sticking, then melting down. Inside, the fire burned. Outside, the storm raged, the snow piling deeper and deeper.

  She looked up into Hud’s eyes and saw nothing but love. All her anger at herself and her sister melted like the snow at the windows.

  She covered one of his hands with her own, turning the palm up to kiss the warm center. She heard him let out a breath. Their eyes locked, the heat of his look warming her to her core.

  “Oh, Hud,” she breathed. She heard his breath catch, saw the spark of desire catch fire in his eyes. “I’ve never stopped wanting you.”

  He groaned and took her with a kiss, his mouth capturing hers as he tugged her even closer to him. She could feel the pounding of his heart, felt her body melt into his.

  “I didn’t want to live without you,” he said as he pulled back. “The only way I was able to get through the past five years was to believe that you still loved me.”

  She touched his cheek, then cupped his face i
n her hands and kissed him, teasing the tip of his tongue with her own.

  He moaned against her lips, then swept her up into his arms, carrying her to the rug in front of the fire.

  She pulled him down to her. His kiss was gentle and slow, as if they had all night to make love. They did.

  “You are so beautiful,” he whispered, his hand trailing down the length of her neck. He leaned in to kiss her, his hand cupping her breast, and she groaned with the exquisite pleasure of his touch.

  The fire warmed her skin as he slowly unbuttoned her blouse and pressed his lips to the hard nipple of one breast, then the other. She arched against him, her fingers working at the buttons of his shirt.

  Their clothes began to pile up in the corner as the fire popped and crackled, the heat shimmering over their naked bodies, damp with perspiration and wet warm kisses.

  Their lovemaking was all heat and fire, a frenzied rush of passion that left them both breathless.

  Hud held her, smoothing her hair under his hand, his eyes locked with hers as their bodies cooled.

  Dana looked into his eyes, still stunned by the powerful chemistry that arced between them. Nothing had killed it. Not the pain, not the years.

  She curled into his strong arms and slept. On this night, no wind woke her with a premonition. She had no warning what the day would bring. If only for one night, she felt safe. She felt loved.

  Chapter Twelve

  Dana drove to Bozeman to the hospital before daylight the next morning. Her father was still in stable condition, sedated and sleeping. She peeked in on him and then drove back to Big Sky and the shop.

  She spent the quiet early morning before the shop opened unloading the latest shipment of fabric and pricing it. Unfortunately the task wasn’t difficult enough that it kept her from thinking about last night with Hud.

  She wasn’t surprised when she heard a knock at the back door and saw him.

  “Good morning,” he said, but his look said there was nothing good about it.

  “Good morning.” She couldn’t believe how glad she was to see him. She’d never stopped being in love with him and even when she hadn’t known the truth, he’d been much harder to hate in the flesh than he’d been in her memory.

  He pulled off his hat to rake his fingers through his thick sandy-blond hair. It was a nervous habit. She felt a jolt, wondering what he had to be nervous about.

  “You left before I woke up this morning,” he said.

  She nodded sheepishly. “I needed to think about some things and go see my father.”

  “Think about some things?”

  She sighed, picking up a bolt of fabric and carrying it over to its spot on the wall. “About last night.”

  “You’re afraid I’m going to hurt you again?” he asked behind her.

  She turned and looked up into his wonderful face. “Do you blame me? You left me for five years.”

  “But if you believe that Stacy was finally telling the truth—”

  “I do, but…”

  “You still can’t forget,” he said softly.

  She reached up to cup his rough jaw. He hadn’t taken the time to shave. Instead he’d rushed right over here. “Last night made me feel all those old wonderful feelings again that we shared.”

  “You know I came back here because of you. Because I still love you. I’m sorry I didn’t come back sooner. I should never have left.”

  “You thought you’d lost everything, your career—”

  “Losing you is what devastated my life, Dana. It took a while to get my head on straight.”

  She nodded. “I just need to take it slow.” She dropped her hand and turned her back to him. Otherwise, she would be in his arms and Hilde would find them between racks of fabric making love on the hardwood floor when she came in.

  “We can take it as slow as you need,” he said. “Just don’t push me away again.” He pulled her around to face him and into his arms, kissing her until she was breathless.

  She leaned into his strong, hard body and rested her cheek against his chest, his jacket open, his cotton shirt warm and soft. She could hear his heart beating fast and realized she’d scared him with her disappearing act this morning.

  “I’m sorry I took off this morning,” she said against his chest.

  He hugged her tighter. “I know you’re worried about your dad. And Stacy.” He sighed. “Dana, I found out that your brother Jordan got into town the day of your birthday.”

  She pulled back a little to look at him. “He lied about that, too?”

  Hud nodded. “I’m sorry, but I think he’s responsible for what happened at the well the night before last, and if he is, I’m going to have to arrest him.”

  She made a sound deep down in her throat as she realized that most of her family could end up in jail the way things were going. “Hud, you and I both know that if Jordan had found those bones in the well he’d have covered them with fifteen feet of dirt and never given them another thought.”

  Blood was thicker than water. But this was Hud and the truth was the truth.

  “And don’t try to make me sound so noble,” she said. “I didn’t tell you everything.” She told him about going to see her father about his .38, then about finding Jordan searching the ranch house and finally that Jordan and her father had been arguing just before Angus Cardwell’s collapse. “Is Dad’s .38 the murder weapon?” she asked, her heart in her throat.

  “We don’t know yet. But I’m worried. I’d like you to drive out with me to talk to Stacy.”

  “When I stopped by her place last night on the way to your cabin,” Dana said, “she wasn’t there.”

  “Maybe she’s come back. Or maybe she left something behind that will give us an idea of where she’s gone. If what she told you is true, then someone was behind setting me up. I need to know who it was. And why. If she was being threatened with jail, then, Dana, I have a pretty good idea who was behind it. I just have to prove it. I need your help. Your sister might open up if we’re there together.”

  As if on cue, Hilde came in the back door on a gust of wind. She looked surprised to see Dana at work so early and even more surprised to see Hud. She looked from one to the other, her gaze finally settling on Dana. She smiled, obviously seeing what Dana had hoped to keep a secret.

  “Hello, Hud,” Hilde said.

  “Nice to see you again, Hilde,” he said. “I just came by to steal your partner for a little while.”

  “Be my guest,” Hilde said, giving Dana a meaningful look.

  “We’re just going to look for Stacy,” Dana said. “It’s a long story.”

  “I’m sure it is,” Hilde said, still smiling.

  Dana groaned inwardly. Her friend knew her too well. Hilde had seen the glow in her cheeks this morning, the sparkle in her eye. Hud had always been able to put it there. “Let me get my coat.”

  SNOW WAS PILED HIGH on each side of the highway. Beside it, the river gurgled blue-green under a thick skin of transparent ice.

  “You’re sure she said ‘jail’?”

  Dana nodded. “She looked scared, Hud. I guess that’s why I believed her. She seemed to think she was in danger.”

  “I think she set me up to keep me away from Judge Randolph’s house that night,” Hud said. “It’s the only thing that makes any sense.”

  “You think Stacy had something to do with the judge’s murder?”

  “Look at the evidence, Dana. The judge was murdered the same night Stacy drugged me at the bar and made sure I wasn’t the one who responded to the call about shots fired at the Randolph house. Instead, my father took the call. Or at least that’s the story.”

  “What are you saying, Hud? You can’t seriously think your own father was behind it.”

  “Stacy was being threatened with jail, isn’t that what she said? Now she seems to be running scared.” Hud glanced over at Dana. “I think she’s afraid because she knows the truth about that night.”

  “You can’t believe your fa
ther killed the judge.”

  He sighed. “I don’t know what I believe. The judge had Alzheimer’s. He was about to be asked to step down from the bench. Unless he had hard evidence against Brick, then the judge wasn’t really a threat.”

  “So then your father had no motive.”

  “So it would seem,” Hud said as he turned off Jack-rabbit Road onto Cameron Bridge Road.

  “Maybe the fact that the judge was killed that night was just a coincidence,” Dana said.

  He wished he could believe that.

  Stacy was in between husbands right now and living in the house she was awarded in the divorce settlement from Emery Chambers. The divorce that, according to Lanny, Hud had helped her get.

  “It has to be about more than just splitting us up. Who would care enough to go to all that trouble?” Hud said.

  “Stacy for one.”

  “What about Lanny?” He saw Dana shiver. “What?”

  “When he heard you were back in town he was very angry.”

  Hud rubbed his still sore jaw. “I noticed.”

  He drove a few miles down the river before turning into a graveled yard in front of a large older house. There were no fresh tracks in the snow. No one had been in or out since Dana had stopped by last night.

  Through the windows in the garage, Dana could see that Stacy’s car was still gone.

  “Let’s give it a try anyway,” Hud said, and opened his door.

  Dana followed him up the unshoveled walk and waited while he knocked. Through the trees, he could see an open hole in the ice on the Gallatin River, the water a deep, clear green. The air smelled of fresh snow and cottonwoods.

  He knocked again, then turned to see Dana bend to pick up something from the snow beside the front step. A black glove.

  “It’s one of the cashmere gloves my sister was wearing yesterday when she came to the house.”

  His mouth went dry. Stacy had come back here after the family meeting, then left again?

  He reached for the doorknob. It turned in his hand, the door swinging into the empty living room. He signaled Dana to wait as he moved quickly through the house, weapon drawn. Something about the empty feel of the house made him fear he wasn’t going to find Stacy. At least not alive.