A Lawman's Justice (Sweetwater Ranch Book 8)
Page 20
She’d ridden down the ridge some distance, the sun moving across the sky over her head, before she caught the strong smell of smoke. This morning she’d put her campfire out using the creek water nearby. Too much of Montana burned every summer because of lightning storms and careless people, so she’d made sure her fire was extinguished before she’d left.
Now reining in, she spotted the source of the smoke. A small campfire burned below her in the dense trees of a protected gully. She stared down into the camp as smoke curled up. While it wasn’t that unusual to stumble across a backpacker this deep in the Crazies, it was strange for a camp to be so far off the trail. Also, she didn’t see anyone below her on the mountain near the fire. Had whoever camped there failed to put out the fire before leaving?
Bo hesitated, feeling torn because she didn’t want to take the time to ride all the way down the mountain to the out-of-the-way camp. Nor did she want to ride into anyone’s camp unless necessary.
But if the camper had failed to put out the fire, that was another story.
“Hello?” she called down the mountainside.
A hawk let out a cry overhead, momentarily startling her.
“Hello?” she called again, louder.
No answer. No sign of anyone in the camp.
Bo let out an aggravated sigh and spurred her horse. She had a long ride back and didn’t need a detour. But she still had plenty of time if she hurried. As she made her way down into the ravine, she caught glimpses of the camp and the smoking campfire, but nothing else.
The hidden-away camp finally came into view below her. She could see that whoever had camped there hadn’t made any effort at all to put out the fire. She looked for horseshoe tracks but saw only boot prints in the dust that led down to the camp.
A quiet seemed to fall over the mountainside. No hawk called out again from high above the trees. No squirrels chattered at her from a pine bough. Even the breeze seemed to have gone silent.
Bo felt a sudden chill as if the sun had gone down—an instant before the man appeared so suddenly from out of the dense darkness of the trees. He grabbed her, yanked her down from the saddle and clamped an arm around her as he shoved the dirty blade of a knife in her face.
“Well, look at you,” he said hoarsely against her ear. “Ain’t you a sight for sore eyes? Guess it’s my lucky day.”
* * *
JACE HAD JUST knocked at the door when another truck drove up from the direction of the corrals. As Senator Buckmaster Hamilton himself opened the door, he was looking past Jace’s shoulder. Jace glanced back to see Cooper Barnett climb out of his truck and walk toward them.
Jace turned back around. “I’m Jace Calder,” he said, holding out his hand as the senator’s gaze shifted to him.
The senator frowned but shook his hand. “I know who you are. I’m just wondering what’s got you on my doorstep so early in the morning.”
“I’m here about your daughter Bo.”
Buckmaster looked to Cooper. “Tell me you aren’t here about my daughter Olivia.”
Cooper laughed. “My pregnant bride is just fine, thanks.”
The senator let out an exaggerated breath and turned his attention back to Jace. “What’s this about—?” But before he could finish, a tall, elegant blonde woman appeared at his side. Jace recognized Angelina Broadwater Hamilton, the senator’s second wife. The rumors about her being kicked out of the house to make way for Buckmaster’s first wife weren’t true, it seemed.
She put a hand on Buckmaster’s arm. “It’s the auditor calling from the foundation office. He’s looking for Bo. She didn’t show up for work today, and there seems to be a problem.”
“That’s why I’m here,” Jace said.
“Me, too,” Cooper said, sounding surprised.
“Come in, then,” Buckmaster said, waving both men inside. Once he’d closed the big door behind them, he asked, “Now, what’s this about Bo?”
“I was just talking to one of the wranglers,” Cooper said, jumping in ahead of Jace. “Bo apparently left Saturday afternoon on horseback, saying she’d be back this morning, but she hasn’t returned.”
“That’s what I heard, as well,” Jace said, taking the opening. “I need to know where she might have gone.”
Both Buckmaster and Cooper looked to him. “You sound as if you’re planning to go after her,” the senator said.
“I am.”
“Why would you do that? I didn’t think you two were seeing each other,” Cooper asked like the protective brother-in-law he was.
“We’re not,” Jace said.
“Wait a minute,” the senator said. “You’re the one who stood her up for the senior prom. I’ll never forget it. My baby cried for weeks.”
Jace nodded. “That would be me.”
“But you’ve dated Bo more recently than senior prom,” Buckmaster was saying.
“Five years ago,” he said. “But that doesn’t have anything to do with this. I have my reasons for wanting to see Bo come back. My sister works at the foundation.”
“Why wouldn’t Bo come back?” the senator demanded.
Behind him, Angelina made a disparaging sound. “Because there’s money missing from the foundation, along with your daughter.” She looked at Jace. “You said your sister works down there?”
He smiled, seeing that she was clearly judgmental of the “kind of people” Bo had hired to work at the foundation. “My sister doesn’t have access to any of the money, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He turned to the senator again. “The auditor is down at the foundation office, trying to sort it out. Bo needs to be there. I thought you might have some idea where she might have gone in the mountains. I thought I’d go find her.”
The senator looked to his son-in-law. Cooper shrugged.
“Cooper, you were told she planned to be back Sunday?” her father said. “She probably changed her mind or went too far, not realizing how long it would take her to get back. If she had an appointment today with an auditor, I’m sure she’s on her way as we speak.”
“Or she’s hiding up there and doesn’t want to be found,” Angelina quipped from the couch. “If she took that money, she could be miles from here by now.” She groaned. “It’s always something with your girls, isn’t it?”
“I highly doubt Bo has taken off with any foundation money,” the senator said, and shot his wife a disgruntled look. “Every minor problem isn’t a major scandal,” he said and sighed, clearly irritated with his wife.
When he and Bo had dated, she’d told him that her stepmother was always quick to blame her and her sisters no matter the situation. As far as Jace could tell, there was no love lost on either side.
“Maybe we should call the sheriff,” Cooper said.
Angelina let out a cry. “That’s all we need—more negative publicity. It will be bad enough when this gets out. But if search and rescue is called in and the sheriff has to go up there... For all we know, Bo could be meeting someone in those mountains.”
Jace hadn’t considered she might have an accomplice. “That’s why I’m the best person to go after her.”
“How do you figure that?” Cooper demanded, giving him a hard look.
“She already doesn’t like me, and the feeling is mutual. Maybe you’re right and she’s hightailing it home as we speak,” Jace said. “But whatever’s going on with her, I’m going to find her and make sure she gets back.”
“You sound pretty confident of that,” the senator said sounding almost amused.
“I know these mountains, and I’m not a bad tracker. I’ll find her. But that’s big country. My search would go faster if I have some idea where she was headed when she left.”
“There’s a trail to the west of the ranch that connects with the Sweet Grass Creek trail,” her father
said.
Jace rubbed a hand over his jaw. “That trail forks not far up.”
“She usually goes to the first camping spot before the fork,” the senator said. “It’s only a couple of hours back in. I’m sure she wouldn’t go any farther than that. It’s along Loco Creek.”
“I know that spot,” Jace said.
Cooper looked to his father-in-law. “You want me to get some men together and go search for her? That makes more sense than sending—”
Buckmaster shook his head and turned to Jace. “I remember your father. The two of you were volunteers on a search years ago. I was impressed with both of you. I’m putting my money on you finding her if she doesn’t turn up on her own. I’ll give you till sundown.”
“Make it twenty-four hours. There’s a storm coming, so I plan to be back before it hits. If we’re both not back by then, send in the cavalry,” he said, and with a tip of his hat, headed for the door.
Behind him, he heard Cooper say, “Sending him could be a mistake.”
“The cowboy’s mistake,” Buckmaster said. “I know my daughter. She’s on her way back, and she isn’t going to like that young man tracking her down. Jace Calder is the one she almost married.”
Find out what happens next in
LONE RIDER
by New York Times
bestselling author B.J. Daniels
available August 2015,
wherever HQN Books and ebooks are sold.
www.Harlequin.com
Copyright © 2015 by Barbara Heinlein
ISBN-13: 9781460388099
A Lawman’s Justice
Copyright © 2015 by Delores Fossen
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com