by B. J Daniels
LOGAN LET OUT A CURSE AS HE checked the time. They had been snuggled on the cool grass as the sun disappeared behind the Bear Paw Mountains in the distance.
They got up, brushing off their clothes and getting dressed by the edge of the river.
“This might have been a better idea after the family supper,” Logan said, but he was grinning. He picked a leaf out of her hair, laughed and then leaned in to kiss her softly on the mouth.
“Keep that up and we won’t make supper at all,” she said, teasing. She would have been happy to stay here by the river forever.
Once in the pickup, she snuggled against him again as he drove toward the family ranch. Logan seemed less nervous about taking her home to meet his family. That was until they turned and passed under the large Chisholm Cattle Company sign and started up the road to the house.
She felt him tense and realized that she hadn’t been paying any attention as to where they were going. Looking up now, she saw a huge house come into view. She tried to hide her surprise. She couldn’t help but glance over at Logan.
“Nice place,” she said playing down the obvious grandeur. Was this why he didn’t want her to meet the family? He didn’t want her to know that they were obviously well off? The irony didn’t escape her.
As the front door of the house opened, a short, plump redhead in her fifties stepped out onto the porch.
“My stepmother, Emma,” Logan said as he parked and cut the engine. Opening his door, he reached for Blythe’s hand and she slid out after him. He squeezed her hand as they walked toward the house as if he was nervous again. She squeezed back, hoping there wasn’t any reason to be.
“This must be Blythe,” Emma said, pulling her into a warm hug. “Welcome to our home.”
She felt herself swept inside the warm, comfortable living room where she was introduced first to Logan’s father, Hoyt. He was just as she’d pictured the rancher, a large man with blond hair that was turning gray at the temples, a sun-weathered face and a strong handshake.
The brothers came as a surprise. Blond and blue-eyed, Colton resembled Logan and Zane and their father, but the other three had dark hair and eyes and appeared to have some Native American ancestry.
“You really do have five brothers,” she whispered to Logan as they were being lead into the dining room.
“We’re all adopted,” Logan said.
That came as a surprise too, and she realized how little they knew about each other. It was the way she’d wanted it, actually had needed it. But that was before. Now she found herself even more curious about him and his family.
With the fiancées of the brothers Tanner, Colton, Marshall and Dawson, the dining room was almost filled. She was thinking how they would have to get a larger table if this family kept growing and at the same time, she couldn’t help thinking of her own family table—TV trays in front of the sagging couch.
What was it like growing up with such a large family? She felt envious of Logan and wondered if he knew how lucky he was. A thought struck her. How could he ever understand her and the life she’d led? He’d always had all this.
Dinner was a boisterous affair with lots of laughter and stories. She couldn’t remember a more enjoyable evening and told Emma as much.
“I’m new to the family myself,” Emma confided. “Hoyt and I were married a year ago May.”
Blythe could see that the two were head-over-heels in love with each other. On top of that, it was clear that everyone at the table adored Emma, and who wouldn’t?
“This meal is amazing,” Blythe said. “Thank you so much for inviting me.”
Logan had been quiet during supper. She wondered if he was always that way or if he felt uncomfortable under the circumstances. He wouldn’t want to lie to his family, so keeping her secret must be weighing on him.
But when their gazes met, she saw the spark she’d seen earlier by the river and felt her face heat with the memory of their lovemaking.
“So I understand that Logan has taught you to ride,” Hoyt said drawing her attention.
“She was a natural,” Logan said sounding proud.
“I had a wonderful instructor and I loved it,” she gushed. “I love the freedom. All this wide-open country, it’s exciting to see it from the back of a horse.”
“Where are you from that you don’t have wide-open country like this?” Emma asked.
Blythe had known someone was bound to ask where she was from. “Oh, we had wide-open country in southern California. Desert. It’s not the same as rolling hills covered with tall green grass and huge cottonwoods and mountains in the distance dark with pine trees.”
“What do you do for a living?” Hoyt asked. Emma shot him a look. “I don’t mean to be rude,” he added.
“I’ll get dessert,” Emma said, rising from her chair.
Blythe smiled and said, “I don’t mind. I’ve done a lot of different things, but today I got a job in town at the Whitehorse Café. I’ll be waitressing.”
“Waitressing’s a good profession,” Emma said, and shot her husband a warning look.
Blythe excused herself and went into the kitchen to help Emma get the dessert. The rest of the meal passed quickly and quite pleasantly.
It wasn’t long until she was saying how nice it was to meet everyone, how wonderful the meal was and promising to come back.
“Oh, Logan, it slipped my mind earlier,” Emma said as she pressed a bag full of leftovers and some freshly baked gingersnaps into his arms as they were leaving. “You had a call earlier from a Sheriff Buford Olson from Flathead County. He needs you to call him. I put the number on a slip of paper in the bag with the food. He said it was important.”
LOGAN HAD SEEN BLYTHE’S panicked expression when Emma mentioned the call from the sheriff in Flathead County. He drove out of the ranch and turned onto the county road wondering why the sheriff was calling him, and realized the guard at the Grizzly Club had probably taken down the plate number on his motorcycle.
He glanced over at her, saw she was looking out at the night and chewing at her lower lip. “The sheriff knows. Or at least suspects I know where you are.”
Blythe nodded. “I’ll call him.”
What if she was right and someone really was trying to kill her? She was safe here.
“It’s too late now. Let’s call him in the morning,” he said.
They made love again the moment they reached the house, both of them racing up the stairs to fall into his double bed.
Lying staring up at the cracked ceiling, Logan smiled to himself. His body was damp with sweat and still tingling from her touch.
Blythe was lying beside him. She sighed, then let out a chuckle.
Logan glanced over at her and grinned. “What’s so funny?”
“Us,” she said. “We both lied about who we are. You were afraid I was after your money. I was afraid you would only be interested in JJ.”
“Pretty funny, huh,” he said.
She nodded.
He studied her for a moment, then pulled her over to spoon against her backside. His breath tickled her ear, but she giggled, then snuggled closer.
“I love the feel of you. I can’t remember a time I’ve felt happier.”
Logan felt the same way. He breathed in her warm scent, languishing in her warmth and the feel of her flesh against his, and tried not to worry.
But if she was right and someone wanted her dead, then as soon as everyone knew she was alive, Blythe wouldn’t be safe. He couldn’t bear the thought of any harm coming to her.
She would be safe here with him.
That was if she didn’t go back to her old life.
The thought was like an arrow through his heart.
Of course she would go back.
He felt his heart break. He’d fallen for this woman from the moment he’d seen her on that dance floor only days ago.
“WE CAN’T KEEP LIVING LIKE THIS,” Emma Chisholm said after everyone had left. She’d said this before, but this
time she saw that Hoyt knew she meant it.
“The house is armed to the teeth with weapons,” she continued. “You never leave my side or have one or two of my stepsons here watching me.”
She wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know, but she couldn’t seem to stop. “You have done everything but build a dungeon and lock me in it. I can’t leave here without an armed guard. You’re killing me, Hoyt, and worse, I see what it is doing to you.”
He nodded as if he knew she not only meant it, but that he could see the strain this had put on their family.
“I know you’re sick to death of me hanging around,” he said.
“It’s not you. It’s knowing that you should be working this ranch and not babysitting me. Your sons are going crazy, as well. They need to be on the back of a horse in wild country, not cooped up here in this kitchen. And I need to do something besides bake!”
He smiled then as if he’d noticed the extra weight she was carrying. “I like your curves.”
“Hoyt—”
“I have some news,” he said quickly. “I was going to tell you tonight. I found a woman through that service in Great Falls. She sounds perfect, older, with experience cooking for a large family. The service explained how isolated we are out here and that it would be a live-in position and she was fine with that.”
Emma didn’t necessarily like the idea of someone living in the house with them. But the house was large. The woman would have her own wing and entrance and they would all have plenty of privacy. Anyway, what choice did Emma have?
She knew Hoyt flat out refused to leave her alone. It was nonnegotiable, as he’d said many times. If this was the only way she could have some freedom, she would take it. It was at least a step in the right direction.
“Wonderful. I could use the help,” she said agreeably.
Hoyt eyed her suspiciously. “She comes highly recommended. She will be doing the housework and helping with the cooking, if you let her. She’ll accompany you wherever you need to go.”
Emma mugged a face, but was smart enough not to argue.
He smiled and moved to embrace her. “I’m so sorry about all of this.”
“Stop that. None of this is your fault.”
His expression said he would never believe that. “If Laura is alive, if she’s what Aggie believed she was, then it has to be my fault. I failed her. Failed all of us, especially you.”
Emma was surprised to hear him even entertain the idea that his first wife might be alive. He’d sworn he didn’t believe it. Apparently she wasn’t the only one living with ghosts.
She shook her head and took her husband’s face in her hands. “Listen to me. We can’t know what’s in another person’s heart let alone their mind, even those closest to us. You said yourself that Laura was like a bottomless well when it came to her need. No human can fill that kind of hole in another person.”
He leaned down to kiss her.
“So when do I meet my new guard?” she asked.
“She’s coming at the end of the week.”
Emma hated the idea, but at least Hoyt and his sons could get back to running the ranch. She would deal with the housekeeper and find a way to get some time away from the ranch—alone.
She couldn’t live her life being afraid, thinking every person she met wanted to kill her. Emma had lost some of her old self and she intended to get it back.
Not that she was going to take the gun out of her purse that was always within reach. She was no fool.
AGGIE WELLS HAD BEEN DOZING in her chair. She jumped now at the sudden tap on her door. Holding her breath, she waited. Another light tap.
Aggie realized it was probably her doctor friend coming back to check on her. He’d wanted to put her in the hospital but she’d refused, knowing that would alert the authorities and be the end of her freedom.
With effort, she pushed herself up out of the chair and moved to the window. Parting the curtain, she peered out, surprised that it was dark outside.
Even in the dim light, she could see that it wasn’t the doctor. It was the elderly woman who lived in the unit at the end of the building. The old woman was horribly stooped, could barely get around even with the gnarled cane she used. She wore a shawl around her shoulders, a faded scarf covering most of her gray hair.
Aggie had seen her hobbling by, headed for the small store a few blocks away. She’d thought about helping the woman but everyone who lived in the old motel units kept to themselves, which was fine with her.
The old woman tapped again, so bent with age and arthritis that she probably saw more of her shoes than she did where she was going. For a moment she leaned into the door as if barely able to stand, then tapped again, swaying a little on her cane, and Aggie realized she must need help or she wouldn’t be out there.
Aggie quickly opened the door. “Is something wrong?” she inquired, reaching for the elderly woman’s arm, afraid the woman was about to drop onto the concrete step.
But the moment she grabbed the arm she realized it wasn’t frail and thin but wiry and strong.
Aggie had always been a stickler for details. Too late she noticed that while everything else was like the old woman’s who lived a few doors down, the shoes were all wrong.
Chapter Ten
The woman Aggie Wells had opened the door to brought the cane up, caught her in the stomach and drove her back into the room. She quickly followed her in, closing and locking the door behind them.
As the formerly stooped woman rose to her full height, she shrugged off the shawl and faded scarf. Aggie saw why she’d been fooled. The shawl and faded scarf were exactly like the old woman’s who lived in the last unit.
She let out a cry of regret, knowing that the old woman wouldn’t be in need of either again.
Aggie had stumbled when she’d been pushed and fallen, landing on the edge of the recliner. Weak and gasping for breath, she now let herself slide into the seat while she stared at the old woman’s transformation into a woman nearer her own age. It was a marvel the way Laura Chisholm shed the old woman’s character.
“We finally meet,” she said to Laura, realizing the woman must have known where she was for some time. Laura had been watching and waiting for just such an opportunity.
Only the shoes would have given her away, had Aggie noticed them before she opened the door. Laura Chisholm’s feet were too large for the old woman’s shoes. When she’d disposed of the poor old woman, taken the shawl and scarf and cane, she’d had to use her own shoes.
There was a time when Aggie wouldn’t have been fooled. She would have noticed the small differences and would never have opened the door. But that time had passed, and a part of her was thankful that she had finally gotten to meet a woman she’d unknowingly been chasing for years.
“Aggie Wells,” Laura said, as if just as delighted to meet her.
How strange this feeling of mutual respect, two professionals admiring the other’s work.
“Just tell me this,” Aggie said, not kidding herself how this would end. “Why?”
