B.J. Daniels the Cardwell Ranch Collection

by B. J Daniels

  Hilde answered on the second ring as if she’d been waiting by the phone. “Where are you?”

  He told her. “The roads haven’t been bad. I expect they will be worse the closer I get. I should be there by nine or ten in the morning. Get some sleep.”

  “What about you?” she asked.

  “I’m okay. When I first got into law enforcement I had to work some double shifts. I learned how to stay awake. Anyway, I’ll be thinking of you the whole time.”

  He could hear the smile in her voice when she said, “Same here.”

  He stretched his legs and got back into the SUV. He tried Hud again. His call went straight to voice mail. Cussing under his breath, he headed for the interstate.

  His thoughts were with Hilde. What Camilla’s aunt had told him had him scared.

  “Even when she was a little girl, if another child had a toy she wanted, she’d take it from her,” Thelma Peters had said. “If that child got hurt in the process, Camilla was all the more happy for it. I remember one time scolding her for that behavior. She must have been four or five at the time. She and her family had come for a visit. Her father was often out of work. I’ll never forget the way she turned to look at me. I remember my heart lurching in my chest. I was actually frightened.”

  Thelma had taken a moment, as if the memory had been too strong, before she continued. “That child looked at me and said, ‘She should have given the toy to me when I told her to. If she got hurt, it’s her own fault. Next time, she’ll give it to me when I ask for it.’”

  “What about her mother and father? They must have seen this kind of behavior and tried to do something about it.”

  Thelma had shook her head sadly. “I mentioned what I’d seen to my sister. Cynthia wasn’t a strong woman. She said to me, ‘Leave her be. Camilla’s just a child.’ Herbert? He smacked her around, then would hold her on his lap and pet her like she was a dog.” The aunt had wrinkled her mouth in disgust. “That child worked him. Cynthia was too weak to stand up to her husband or her daughter.”

  “And Richard?”

  “He idolized his sister, did whatever she wanted. The two were inseparable. I’m not surprised they were together in Montana when he died.”

  “There’s a chance she killed him,” he’d told her.

  Thelma’s hand had gone to her heart. “It is as if something is missing in her DNA. A caring gene. Camilla has no compassion for anyone but herself. I always wondered what she would do with Richard when she got tired of him.”

  “If she was responsible, why did she want her parents dead?”

  Thelma had looked away. “I have my suspicions, ones I’ve never voiced to anyone.”

  “You think Herbert was abusing her?”

  Her face had filled with shame. “I tried to talk to my sister. I even called Social Services. Herbert swore it wasn’t true. So did Camilla.”

  “You think your sister knew and just turned a blind eye.”

  “That’s why Camilla killed them both,” Thelma had said. “I saw that girl right after the police called and told me about the fire and that my sister and brother-in-law were dead. Richard? He’s crying his eyes out. Camilla? Cool as a cucumber. She waltzes into the house and asks me what I have to eat, that she’s starving. She sat there eating, smiling to herself. I tried to tell myself that we all grieve in our own way. But it was enough to turn my blood to ice.”

  * * *

  AS THE SUN sank lower behind the adjacent mountains, Dee and Hud reached a spot where aspens grew thick and green.

  They reined in and climbed off their horses to walk to the edge of the mountain. This view was even more spectacular than the one she’d seen on the four-wheeler ride into the mountains.

  “It’s so peaceful here,” Dee said, as she breathed in the evening. The air was scented with pine and the smell of spring. She hugged herself against the cool breeze that whispered through the trees. Shadows had puddled under them.

  Unconsciously, she stepped closer to Hud as she thought of the bears and mountain lions that lived in these mountains. Hud seemed so unafraid of anything. She loved his quiet strength and wondered what her life would have been like if she’d had a father like him. Or even a brother like him.

  As she glanced at him, she told herself that life had given her another chance to have such a man to protect her.

  “Hud.” Just saying his name sent a shiver through her.

  He looked over at her expectantly as if he thought she was about to say something.

  She didn’t think. At that moment, she felt as if she would die if she didn’t kiss him. No matter what happened, it was all she told herself she would ever want.

  The kiss took him by such surprise that he didn’t react at first. She felt his warm lips on hers as she pressed her chest into his hard, strong one.

  One of his arms came around her as if he thought she’d stumbled into him and was about to fall off the edge of the mountain.

  Several seconds passed, no more, before he pushed her away, holding her at arm’s length. “What the—” His eyes darkened with anger. “What was that, Dee?” he demanded.

  “I...I just—” She saw the change in his expression and knew that Hilde had warned him that she was after him. He hadn’t believed her—until this moment.

  Hud shoved her away from him.

  She felt tears burn her eyes and anger begin to boil deep in her belly. She wanted to scream at him, Why not me? What is so wrong with me?

  Instead, she said, “I’m so sorry,” and pretended to be horrified by what she’d done when, in truth, she was furious with him.

  “It was all of this,” she said, motioning to the view. “I just got swept up in it and, standing next to you...” She looked away, hating him for making her feel like this.

  “We should get back,” he said, and turned to walk toward the horses where he’d left them ground tied by the aspens.

  She tried to breathe out her fury, to act chastised, to pretend to be remorseful. It was the hardest role she’d ever played.

  They rode in silence down the mountain through the now dark pines.

  Dee thought about the kiss. She’d been anticipating it for days and now felt deeply disappointed. Hud had cut her to the quick. She could never forgive him.

  Worse, he would now suspect that everything Hilde had said was true. Good thing she’d made that plane reservation for tomorrow. She couldn’t wait to get away from here.

  * * *

  HILDE GOT THE text from Dana the next morning as she was starting to open the shop.

  u r rght abt D Im so—

  She hurriedly tried to call her friend. The phone went straight to voice mail. “Dana, call me the moment you get this.”

  Hilde stood inside the shop for a moment. The apparently interrupted text scared her more than she wanted to admit.

  She called the sheriff’s office. If Hud was home... But she was told that Hud had been called away on a case in West Yellowstone.

  So Dana was alone out at the ranch with the kids...and Dee.

  Colt was on his way, but she couldn’t wait for him. She had to make sure Dana was all right.

  Locking the shop, she headed for her vehicle, thankful Colt had changed her flat and retrieved it for her. Her mind was racing. The text had her terrified that something had happened. She drove as fast as she could to the ranch, jumping out of the SUV and running inside the house without knocking.

  “Dana!” she screamed, realizing belatedly that she should have at least thought to bring a weapon. But she didn’t have a gun, let alone anything close to a weapon at the house or shop other than a pair of scissors. She shuddered at the thought.

  Dana appeared in the kitchen doorway looking startled. She was wearing an apron and had flour all over her hands. “What in the—”


  “Are you all right?” Hilde said, rushing to her.

  “I’m fine. What’s wrong?”

  “I got your text.”

  “My text? I didn’t send you a text. In fact, I haven’t been able to find my cell phone all morning.”

  Belatedly, Hilde remembered who’d answered Dana’s cell just the afternoon before. She looked around the kitchen as that slowly sank in. Dee must still have the cell phone. Dana hadn’t sent the text. But why would Dee send her a text that said she was right unless... “Where are the kids?”

  “Hilde, you’re scaring me. The kids just left with Dee for a walk up the road.”

  Hilde glanced around, didn’t see Angus and Brick. “The twins, too?”

  “She took them in the stroller to give me some time to myself this morning.”

  “No one is with her?” She saw the answer in her friend’s face. “We have to find them. Now.”

  “Hilde, Dee might have her problems but—”

  “Colt called me from Oklahoma.”

  “Oklahoma? I thought he went to Denver?”

  “He went down there to find out what he could about Rick. The woman you thought was Dee is his sister, Dana. When they were teenagers, the two of them were suspected of torching their house and killing their parents, but it could never be proven.”

  Dana paled. “Dee is Rick’s sister?”

  “Her name isn’t Dee Anna Justice. It’s Camilla Northland. Or at least it was.”

  “Then where is Dee Anna Justice?”

  “I have no idea, but right now we have to get the kids.” For all Hilde knew, the woman calling herself Dee had killed Dana’s cousin and taken over her life.

  “You can’t really believe she’d hurt my—”

  “She wants Hud, Dana. She’s been after your life since the moment she saw Hud. Do you really think she wants the kids as well?”

  Dana seemed to come out of the trance Dee’d had her in since arriving in Montana. Surely she’d seen the way Dee fawned over her husband.

  “Hud told me she has a crush on him, but... You have to be wrong about her,” Dana cried. But she grabbed the shotgun she kept high on the wall by the back door.

  As they ran outside, Hilde prayed the babies were all right. She told herself that if Dee stood any chance of getting away with this, then she couldn’t have hurt them. But the woman had apparently already gotten away with murdering her own parents—and her brother. Possibly Dana’s cousin as well. Who knew what she’d do to get what she wanted.

  Dee and the kids were nowhere in sight.

  “She must have gone up the road,” Dana said.

  “There!” Hilde cried as she spotted the stroller lying on its side in front of the barn. Dana rushed into the barn first, Hilde right behind her. They both stopped, both breathing hard.

  “Mary! Hank!” Dana called, her voice breaking. Silence. She called again, her voice more frantic.

  A faint cry came from one of the stalls.

  Rushing toward it, they found Mary and Hank holding the twins in the back of the stall. Hilde heard the relief rush from Dana as she dropped to the straw.

  “What are you two doing?” Hilde asked, fear making her voice tight.

  “We’re playing a game,” Hank said.

  “Auntie Dee told us to stay here and not make a sound,” Mary said in a conspiratorial whisper.

  “But Mary made a sound when she heard you calling for her,” Hank said. “Now Auntie Dee is going to be mad, and when she’s mad she’s kind of scary.”

  “Where is Auntie Dee?” Hilde asked.

  Hank shook his head and seemed to see the shotgun his mother had rushed in with. “Are you and Auntie Hilde going hunting?”

  “We are,” Hilde said. “That’s why we need you and your sister to stay here and keep playing the game for just a little longer. Can you do that?”

  Dana shot her friend a look, then picked up the shotgun. “Be very quiet. We’ll be back in just a minute, okay?” Both children nodded and touched fingers to their lips.

  Hilde stepped out of the stall and looked down the line of stalls. The light was dim and cool in the huge barn. Dee could be anywhere.

  As they moved away from the stall with the children inside, Dana whispered, “Maybe it is just a game.”

  Hilde bit back a curse. Dana was determined to see the best in everyone—especially this cousin who’d ingratiated herself into their lives. But Hilde had to admit whatever game Camilla Northland was playing, it didn’t make any sense.

  They both jumped when they heard the barn door they’d come through slam shut. An instant later, they heard the board that locked it closed come down with a heart-stopping thud.

  “She just locked us in,” Hilde said, her voice breaking.

  Dana had already turned and was racing toward the back door of the barn. Hilde knew before she saw Dana reach it that she would find it locked.

  Only moments later did she smell the smoke.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “I’m about ten minutes outside of Big Sky,” Colt said when he’d called Hilde’s phone and gotten voice mail. “I don’t know where you are or why you aren’t picking up.” He didn’t know what else to say so he disconnected and tried to call her at the shop.

  His anxiety grew when the recording came on giving the shop’s hours. He glanced at his watch. Hilde was a stickler for punctuality. If she’d gone to the shop, there was no way she would be thirty minutes late for work unless something was wrong.

  When his phone rang, he thought it was Hilde. Prayed it was. He didn’t even look to see who was calling and was surprised when he heard Hud’s voice.

  “I can’t get into all of it right now,” he told Hud, “but I have proof the woman at the ranch isn’t Dee Anna Justice, and I can’t reach Hilde at the shop or on her cell. I can’t reach the ranch, either.”

  “I’m on my way home from West Yellowstone,” Hud said. “I haven’t been able to reach Dana, either. I was hoping you had heard something.”

  “I’m five minutes out,” Colt said. “I’m going straight to the ranch.”

  “I’m twenty minutes out. Call me as soon as you know something.”

  He hung up and called the office, asked if there was any backup, but Deputy Liza Turner Cardwell was in Bozeman testifying in a court case and Deputy Jake Thorton was up in the mountains fishing on his day off.

  “Liza should be back soon,” Annie had told him.

  Not soon enough, he feared. He tried Dana’s brother Jordan. No answer. No surprise. Jordan was busy building his house and probably out peeling logs.

  He disconnected as he came up behind a semi, laid on his horn and swore. The driver slowed, but couldn’t find a place to pull over and the road had too many blind curves to pass.

  Colt felt a growing sense of urgency. He needed to get to Cardwell Ranch. Now. All his instincts told him that Hilde was there and in trouble. Which meant so were Dana and the kids.

  Mentally, he kicked himself as the vehicles in both lanes finally pulled over enough to let him through. He shouldn’t have told Hilde what he found out in Oklahoma. She must have gone out to the ranch to warn Dana. He wouldn’t let himself imagine what the woman calling herself Dee Anna Justice would do if cornered.

  * * *

  ALONG WITH THE smell of smoke, Hilde caught the sharp scent of fuel oil. She could hear the crackling of flames. The barn was old, the wood dry. Past the sound of fire they heard an engine start up.

  For just an instant Hilde thought Dee might be planning to save them—the way she had her at the falls and possibly the way she had tried on the river.

  But they heard the pickup leave, the sound dying off as the flames grew louder.

  They rushed back to the children. Hilde dug i
n her pocket for her cell phone, belatedly realizing she’d left it in the SUV when she’d jumped out. She looked up at Dana. “You said you haven’t been able to find your cell phone?”

  Dana shook her head. The smoke was getting thicker inside the barn. Hilde could see flames blackening the kindling dry wood on all sides. It wouldn’t be long before the whole barn was ablaze.

  “Let’s try to break through the side of the barn,” Hilde said, grabbing up a shovel. She began to pound at the old wood. It splintered but the boards held.

  Dana joined her with another shovel.

  Hilde couldn’t believe Dee thought she could get away with this. But at the back of her mind, she feared Dee would. Somehow, she would slip out of this, the same way she had as a kid. The same way she had killed her brother and gone free. And it would be too late for Hilde and Dana and the kids.

  “I can’t believe she would hurt innocent children,” Dana said, tears in her eyes.

  “What’s wrong, Mommy?” Mary asked.

  “Is the barn on fire?” Hank asked.

  Hilde and Dana kept pounding at the wood at the back of the stall. If she could just make a hole large enough for the kids to climb out.

  The wood finally gave way. She and Dana grabbed hold of the board and were able to break it off to form a small hole. Not large enough for them, but definitely large enough to get the children out.

  What would happen to them if Dee saw them, though? They’d heard the sound of the pickup engine, but what if she hadn’t really left? The question passed silently between the two friends.

  “We’re going to play another game,” Dana said, crouching down next to Mary and Hank. “You and your sister are going to crawl out. I am going to hand you Angus and Brick. Then you’re going to go hide in that outbuilding where we keep the old tractor. You can’t let Dee see you, okay?”

  Hank nodded. “We’ll sneak along the haystack. No one will see us.”

  “Good boy,” Dana said, her voice breaking with emotion. “Take care of the babies until either me or Daddy calls you. Don’t make a sound if Dee calls you, okay? Now hurry.”

  Hilde looked out through the hole. No sign of Dee. She helped Hank out and Dana handed him Angus. Mary crawled out next and took Brick. They quickly disappeared from sight.