by B. J Daniels
“Sarah, is there anything you need? I had the house cleaned and stocked with groceries, but if there is—”
“I’m fine, Buck,” she said, stepping to him and putting a hand on his arm. “All I need is you.”
He flinched, her touch like an electrical shock. He quickly took her hand in his and pulled her closer. “We’re going to be together. Somehow—”
“I don’t mean to interrupt.”
They both turned to find a man in a Silverbow County sheriff’s uniform standing in the doorway, holding a cup of vending-machine coffee.
Buck knew at once that the sheriff had been standing there for some time, listening to their conversation.
“Can I help you?” he demanded as he stepped away from Sarah.
“I certainly hope so, Senator. I need to ask you a few questions about your wife. Your deceased wife, Angelina Hamilton.” He said the last as if to remind Buck. As if he needed more reminding.
“This is Sarah Hamilton, my former wife,” he said to the sheriff, hating that he felt he needed to try to explain what the man had seen. “We have just become the proud grandparents of our first grandchild.”
“Congratulations,” the sheriff said and tipped his hat to Sarah. “If I could have a few minutes of your time, Senator?”
“We really have to do this now?” Buck asked, unable to hide his irritation. He’d hoped to spend a little time with Sarah away from prying eyes.
“I’m afraid so. I would have called, but under the circumstances, I drove down to do it in person.”
“Under what circumstances?” Buck asked, feeling his mouth go dry.
The sheriff looked pointedly at Sarah, who quickly excused herself.
Buck swore under his breath as the sheriff closed the waiting room door and took a long drink of his coffee before he spoke. “Care to sit down?”
“No, I’d like to get back to my daughters and my new grandbaby.”
The sheriff nodded. “We found that private investigator your wife hired.”
“Then she told you why Angelina hired her.”
“Nope. She wasn’t doing much talking. She was murdered.”
Buck changed his mind and sat down.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
WIND KICKED UP fallen dried leaves and whirled them through the cemetery. Clouds scudded past in a watercolor-washed blue sky. Kat breathed in the scent of the autumn day as they climbed from the funeral home’s limousine.
Max had come along, although her father hadn’t been happy about it.
“He’s a reporter,” he’d complained. “Do we really need one with us? They’ll be all around the cemetery as it is.”
“He isn’t here to report on the funeral. He’s here for me.”
Her father had studied her as if it was the first time he’d actually seen her for a while. He’d taken in her clothing and then shaken his head as if he was confused. She’d worn a black dress she’d found in her sister Ainsley’s closet at the condos, along with black pumps and a scarf. Her hair was up as it had been on her date with Max last night. Silver hoops hung from each ear. She’d dabbed on just a little makeup.
“I see,” her father had said and smiled. “Then I’m happy he’s here for you.”
She and Max walked with the others over to the open grave where the pastor was waiting for them. Max took her hand as the graveside service started.
Only a few of her relatives from the Broadwater family had come to pay their last respects. Music had played and her father had said a few words about Angelina. What a dedicated wife she’d been. How strong and determined she was. How she’d worked tirelessly at his side.
Earlier at the church, the pastor had talked about Angelina’s service to the community. Now the pastor said a prayer over the casket. Kat was glad it was almost over. None of them other than her father had been close to Angelina. The Ice Queen had been a cold woman who had never wanted anything to do with Kat or her sisters. The only thing she’d ever wanted was to live in the White House, and now she wouldn’t.
That thought made Kat sad. Angelina had died before her dream had come true. She watched her father drop a handful of dirt on the casket, and they all walked away to leave the groundskeepers to it.
Her father would look sad in the shots the photographers along the edge of the cemetery would take with their telephoto lenses. To her, he looked both sad and guilty. He’d loved Angelina, but probably not enough.
“Are you okay?” Max asked. He was still holding her hand as they neared the limousine.
A gust of wind whipped a lock of his hair over one blue eye. Instinctively, she reached over to brush it aside. “Thank you for being here.”
“Whatever you need.”
“You know what I need,” she said, meeting his gaze.
“Then you’ve got it.”
“But first,” Kat said, “there’s something we have to do.”
* * *
AFTER THE FUNERAL all Buckmaster had wanted was to get back to the ranch. He’d gotten a call before that from Sarah. She remembered a back way into the ranch and would meet him at the house. They had to talk, she said.
“Harper, Cassidy and Ainsley and I are going to lunch,” Bo had told him as they were leaving the funeral home. “Come along.”
He’d declined. “I didn’t sleep much last night. I really just want to go home. But you girls have a nice lunch. The worst is over now.” But even as he thought it, he worried that wasn’t true. What did Sarah want to talk to him about that she needed to be waiting at the main house?
For days he’d felt as if he was in a stupor. As if he was sleepwalking through dense fog, wanting out and yet afraid of waking up and seeing what lay beyond. He was still in shock after hearing that the investigator Angelina had hired was dead. Murdered. How long would it take the sheriff to find out that Addison Crenshaw wasn’t the first PI Angelina had hired? Or the first one to die while under her employ?
At the ranch, he called out for Sarah. Her name echoed through the house, giving him a strange chill. The short staff he now kept had the day off. He stepped to the bar in his den and poured himself a drink since Sarah apparently hadn’t arrived yet.
Two dead private investigators. Both had been looking into Sarah’s past.
He wanted to write it off to coincidence, but—
“Dad, are you all right?”
He turned to find his oldest daughter standing in the doorway. “Ainsley, I thought you went to lunch with your sisters.”
“I was worried about you.”
“You shouldn’t worry about me. I’m going to be fine.” He could see that she had something on her mind. “That man who was following you...”
Ainsley shook her head. “I haven’t seen him again.”
“Good,” he said, relieved. So that wasn’t what was bothering her?
“You aren’t going to pull out of the race, are you?” she asked.
He raised his drink, offering her one. When she declined, he moved over to a chair and sat down. “I have a press conference in an hour. I’d rather not talk about it until then.”
“I saw you with mother,” she said as she joined him.
So that was it.
“Angelina said that if you got back with Mother, you wouldn’t be able to win.”
He nodded. “Angelina said a lot of things. But that was before... Truthfully, Ainsley, I don’t know what I’m going to do. My staff is chomping at the bit for me to announce my plans.”
“What part of your decision has to do with Mother?”
He looked over at her, surprised, but he shouldn’t have been. Ainsley was the smart one when it came to people. She didn’t miss much. That’s why she’d always been so good with her sisters. She could settle their feuds, comfort them, cajole
them, chastise them, and they adored her. He’d always depended on her because of that.
“I’m still in love with Sarah,” he said simply and stopped himself from saying that love was blind, that loving her scared him. “But whether we can be together again...” He shook his head. “I will always take care of her.”
“If you drop out of the race, you could marry her. The rest of the world be damned.”
He laughed, since her words sounded so much like his own thoughts. “I could do that. But sometimes you have to look further than your own needs. Last night I held my first grandson in my arms. I’m worried about the world he will find when he grows up. You girls are one reason I got into politics to begin with. I wanted to make a difference in your lives, in your children’s lives.”
“You still want that?”
“More than anything,” he said and seemed to step out of the haze that had blurred everything for days.
“More than my mother?”
At the sound of the front door opening, Buckmaster braced himself. Sarah?
* * *
KAT COULD SEE that she and Max had interrupted whatever her sister Ainsley and their father had been talking about.
“I need to take off and get back to my job scouting movie locations. I’m actually really enjoying it,” Ainsley said, giving her father a hug and then Kat. “It was nice to meet you, Max, despite the circumstances.”
“Same here,” he said.
“I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more of you around here,” Ainsley said, shooting Kat a grin before she left.
“What are you two up to?” Buckmaster asked, not sounding in the least happy to see them.
“I know you don’t believe anything that we told you about Mother,” Kat said, seeing no reason to beat around the bush. “If you can’t stay away from her, then, please, Dad, drop out of the election. Mother says she never wanted to live in the White House anyway. If true, then the two of you can live happily here on the ranch for the rest of your lives.”
Her father looked sad and disappointed. “You’re still that convinced your mother is...dangerous.”
“Yes, I am,” Kat said.
“I spoke to Sarah about all this. I’ll admit there are some things that give me pause. But I appreciate you worrying about me.”
Kat could see that was as good as it was going to get. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I know, sweetheart.” He hugged her and shook Max’s hand. “Don’t worry. I’m going to make the right decision for all of us.”
* * *
SARAH HEARD KAT and Max leave before she came out of where she’d been hiding. As she stepped into Buck’s den, he looked up.
“You heard all of that,” he said, no doubt seeing her expression. “I’m so sorry.”
She shook her head as she closed the door behind her. “My daughter thinks I’m a terrorist. Maybe she’s right. Maybe I am that Red who was part of the Prophecy. You have to admit, it certainly looks that way.”
“Sarah, if the reason you wanted to see me was to tell me you were leaving town...”
She looked at the man she’d loved for as long as she could remember. He still knew her, the person she’d been when they were lovers, when they had their daughters, when she was still that Sarah Hamilton. “I will destroy your life if I stay.”
“No. I don’t believe that, and let me tell you why,” he said as he picked up his drink from where he’d set it earlier.
“You’d better give me a drink, then,” she said.
He put his back down and stepped to the bar. “Wine?”
“No, I’ll have what you’re having.”
He handed her a crystal snifter. The rich brown liquid caught the light as he turned on the gas fireplace and motioned her into a chair opposite his. “I know where you’ve been the past twenty years.”
Her head came up with a start. “What are you talking about?”
“Sheriff Curry tracked down your past. You spent at least the past twenty working as an assistant to a doctor in Brazil.”
Sarah shook her head. “How is that possible?”
“I saw a photograph of you and a man named Dr. Ralph Venable.”
She felt a small jolt inside her as if her heart shifted a little. “Venable?” she repeated.
“Does the name mean anything to you?” he asked.
Slowly, she shook her head. “Who is he?”
Buck took a sip of his drink and then locked eyes with her. “Probably the man who stole your memories.”
Sarah listened as he told her what Sheriff Curry had found out about the doctor. “But they don’t know who took me to see this doctor at the clinic in White Sulphur Springs after I tried to kill myself?”
“No. But it wasn’t me, Sarah, if that’s what you might be thinking.”
“Russell was so sure that you...”
He shook his head. “You called someone. You apparently knew the doctor.”
She got up to pace the room. “I don’t understand any of this. If I knew him, then...”
“You might have asked him to erase your memory.”
Turning to look at him, she asked, “Why would I do that? Did something happen between us that I wanted to forget?”
“I swear to you, nothing happened. Your attempted suicide came out of left field. Unless you had postpartum depression and I didn’t have any idea...”
She shook her head as she sat back down.
“I keep thinking about the way you returned to us. Parachuted in? Then there is the tattoo. The loss of memory. The fact that you look so much like this Red, who is rumored to be the brains of the Prophecy. Someone wants me to believe that you are her.”
“To keep us apart?”
“I think it’s more than that. They want me to pull out of the presidential race. They’re using you to manipulate me. They want me to believe I can’t trust you.” She listened as he told her about Angelina’s quest to find out the truth about Sarah Johnson’s past. “Two private investigators are dead. Now the sheriff from Silverbow County seems to think I had something to do with Angelina’s death and maybe the PI’s, as well.”
“That’s ridiculous. Doesn’t it seem more likely that someone doesn’t want my past revealed?”
“No. If that were true, you wouldn’t have returned by parachute. You would have had that tattoo removed. Don’t you see? They keep adding more doubt. They’re trying to push me into a corner.”
“But I overheard Kat. She is convinced that I’m going to try to harm you if you are elected.”
“That’s because they talked to two of the Prophecy members who alluded to something big they have planned. Why tell them that? Why warn them? No,” he said with a shake of his head. “I won’t be pushed into a corner. Nor will I let you go.”
Sarah studied his handsome face and felt tears rush her eyes. “I hope you’re not making the biggest mistake of your life by trusting me.”
He pulled her into his arms. “I love you, Sarah. You could never hurt me. And if the members of the Prophecy knew me, they’d know that when pushed into a corner, I come out fighting.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“I HOPE DAD heard what I said and pulls out of the race,” Kat said as they climbed into Max’s truck and left the ranch. “I know he will be disappointed, but in the long run...”
“He said he’s thinking about it. So that’s good. Once he adds up all the coincidences, he’ll see that it’s too dangerous to stay in the race.”
“I hope so. But even if he withdraws, I wonder if he can stay away from my mother.”
“She and the Prophecy won’t be able to use him if he’s out of the race. I wouldn’t be surprised if she disappeared again.”
“What if their plan
was to get him to not run?” Kat said suddenly. “What if all this was to control him, so a candidate they want in office can win?”
Max hadn’t thought about it that way. “Or make him all the more determined to run and win. I guess we’ll find out, once your father makes up his mind. In the meantime, there is nothing more we can do.”
Kat nodded and leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes. She hadn’t slept well last night, too worried about her father. He was angry at her, and that, too, made her feel awful. She felt so helpless and right now wasn’t even sure that she and Max hadn’t been used to either force her father to withdraw from the election or run and win as Max had said.
She must have dozed off because when she opened her eyes she realized she didn’t know where they were. Max was driving up a narrow dirt road into the Crazies.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked as she sat up and looked around.
“Camping.”
“Camping? You didn’t want our first time to be in the back of a car, but you’re fine with a tent?”
He grinned over at her. “You’re a Montana girl. I thought all of you loved the great outdoors, fresh air, a nice campfire, a bedroll tossed out on the ground.”
Before Kat could comment, they came over a rise and she saw a yurt in the trees. The circular tentlike dwelling glowed from the inside as if a light was on. Looking over at Max, she smiled and shook her head. “You really are the devil.”
“You just wait,” he said, laughing as he parked.
“It’s beautiful up here,” Kat said as she got out of the truck and turned to look back at the valley. The air was scented with pine and just cold enough that it was clear winter wasn’t far behind. She breathed it in, telling herself that she was ready for this. She was glad they’d stopped to change into warmer clothes after the funeral. “The view is amazing.”
“Almost as good as your old make-out spot?” he said.
“I had no idea this was up here.” She looked over at him. The man continued to surprise her.
