Honor Bound

by B. J Daniels

  “Sarah?”

  “Yes?” she said and held her breath.

  “I kept you out of it.”

  “Thank you, Frank.”

  “Don’t make me sorry I did.”

  Disconnecting, she went downstairs to join her husband and found a few of their daughters had stopped by.

  “What did you do to your hair?” Kat demanded, sounding less surprised than horrified.

  Sarah touched her usually pale blond hair as she glanced toward the mirror on the far wall. She liked the color. It suited her. “It was starting to get gray. Can’t have the future president’s wife with gray hair,” she said with a laugh. “Anyway, I needed a change. You girls change your hair color all the time.”

  “A change?” Kat repeated.

  Her other daughters stepped in quickly to tell her it looked wonderful.

  “It becomes you,” Olivia said. Harper and Cassidy agreed. Ainsley said it was attractive on her.

  “It’s...red,” Kat said, her gaze intent on her mother.

  “Just a little,” Sarah said. “Now I’m a strawberry blonde,” she said, meeting Kat’s eyes. “Don’t make more of it than it is. Anyway, your father likes it.”

  * * *

  NETTIE DID HER best not to think about tonight. She had the day off from the general store, but she still drove into Beartooth to the Branding Iron.

  Kate was surprised to see her. “The usual?”

  “Make sure it is a big one and center cut,” Nettie said of the homemade cinnamon rolls. She’d always eaten when she was nervous. She’d never been more nervous than she was now.

  Kate joined her at the table, bringing the cinnamon roll, two forks and butter. Her waitress, Callie, appeared with two cups and a carafe of hot coffee.

  “How are you holding up?” Kate whispered as Callie left them. There were a few tables of residents scattered around the small café. The air smelled of bacon, coffee and cinnamon rolls.

  Nettie breathed it in, enjoying the scents, as well as the rattle of dishes and the murmur of voices. She felt at home here and loved her visits with Kate, even though there were several generations between them.

  “I’m trying not to think about it, but Frank seems confident that there won’t be any trouble,” Nettie whispered back. She leaned toward Kate. “But he asked me to stay home.”

  “That just means he’s being cautious.”

  Nettie nodded as she lathered butter on her side of the roll and cut off a piece with her fork. She took a bite, closing her eyes and enjoying the wonderful flavors. Kate made the best cinnamon rolls of any place Nettie had ever been.

  “There is something that gives me hope,” she said after a few moments. “He’s retiring after the election.”

  “I thought you were worried that he’d go crazy with nothing to do?”

  “I was until he told me that he wants to open Curry Investigations, and—” she met her friend’s gaze “—he wants me to be his partner. He took me to see the building he’s buying. It’s perfect.”

  Kate laughed joyously. “That is the best news I’ve heard. You were made to be an investigator.”

  Nettie had to smile. When Kate had first come to town, she and Nettie had gotten off on the wrong foot. Mostly because Nettie had known that Kate was hiding something about her past and had been determined to find out what.

  Of course, she’d been right. Amazingly, Kate had still become her friend.

  “You really don’t know what’s going to happen tonight?” Kate asked.

  Nettie knew she was asking about the pendulum. She’d first heard about pendulums after the doctor’s wife had told someone about the tattoo she’d seen on Sarah Johnson Hamilton’s posterior. The wife had helped her doctor husband access Sarah’s injuries the day Sarah had turned up after twenty-two years. Sarah had stumbled out of the trees right in front Russell Murdock’s pickup. He’d rushed her to the closest doctor, a retired physician who lived up the road.

  Nettie had been curious about pendulums afterward and ordered one. While it only answered yes and no questions, she’d instantly gotten hooked.

  She’d gotten so dependent on it that she’d forced herself to throw it away. “Believe me, I’ve regretted getting rid of the stupid thing, and yet...it scared me. I decided it was better not to know what was going to happen—if anything. How are the kids?” she asked, changing the subject.

  “Good. Jack is great with them, even the twins. I like getting to spend some time down here at the café. I have the best of both worlds since I get to see you. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have a cinnamon roll.” She laughed as she cut herself a piece with her fork.

  They both ate and drank to the comforting sounds of the café.

  “I’m happy for you, Nettie, though with your new job, you may be too busy to stop by in the mornings,” Kate said.

  “I will never be that busy.” She reached across the table and took Kate’s hand. “No matter what happens, we will always be friends.”

  Nettie glanced at her watch. “I’d better get to work. I’m putting in a few hours at the store.” It was just across the street. “It will probably be busy with everyone out voting today.”

  Kate nodded. “The café, too. That’s why I came in. That and to have coffee and a cinnamon roll with you.” She smiled, but it quickly faded. “Do me a favor. Do as your husband asks. Stay away from the fairgrounds tonight. It will be televised. You’ll be much warmer at home. Promise.”

  * * *

  SHERIFF FRANK CURRY sent two deputies and the coroner out to find the house Sarah had described to him. He didn’t doubt they would discover exactly what she’d said they would. She’d been right about what was on the laptop.

  “Where did you get this information?” That had been the question he’d been asked repeatedly.

  “From an anonymous source, but I have reason to believe that it is accurate.” Given the recent attacks in the world, he hadn’t had to spend much time convincing Homeland Security.

  Then he had sat back and waited, praying Sarah hadn’t duped him and was now on some overseas flight to a foreign country. It hadn’t taken long for the news to start coming in as the busts were made. One after another, all of it had been true, including what they’d found in an old barn farther down in the Sweet Grass Valley—enough explosives to blow Beartooth off the map.

  Still, Frank couldn’t help but question his own judgment in letting Sarah walk away. He felt a chill as he remembered looking into her blue eyes. He’d known exactly what he’d been searching for—Red, the real leader of The Prophecy.

  All the time he’d been gazing into her eyes, he’d been reminding himself what it had been like to be young and foolish. Wasn’t it possible Sarah had gotten involved in something and found herself in over her head? People could change, couldn’t they?

  There was no doubt in his mind that Sarah Johnson Hamilton had been the notorious Red. But yesterday she had saved thousands of people’s lives.

  He’d never really understood what The Prophecy had hoped to accomplish. Why start a revolution if you didn’t know what you were going to do with the country once you overthrew it?

  Frank told himself that Sarah had been young and impressionable. Hadn’t she proven she no longer believed in any of that when she’d turned over the computer?

  When he’d seen her interviewed on television this morning as she and Buck were coming out after voting, she’d looked into the camera and said, “Buck is going to be a great president, and I am going to work hard to be a First Lady that the country can be proud of. Together, we’re going to make our country better. I can promise you that.”

  If the polls were right, she and Buck would be living in the White House soon. Early this morning when she’d called with the directions to the house, he’d wanted to wish her w
ell, but the words had caught in his throat.

  Now he walked over to his polling location and cast his vote. He knew Lynette had voted on her way to work her half day at the Beartooth General Store. The four-block walk did him good. It had cleared his head by the time he returned to his office.

  Opening his drawer, he pulled out his resignation letter. If Homeland Security, the FBI and the National Guard hadn’t missed anything at the Beartooth Fairgrounds, and tonight went off without a hitch, he was done. Either way he was done, he thought with a wry smile.

  He looked around his office, a place he’d grown accustomed to for so many years, and felt a lump form in his throat. His eyes burned for a moment, but he blinked the moisture away as he rose. He focused on the future and his next adventure with Lynette by his side, God willing, after tonight.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  SARAH TRIED TO relax on the ride to the Beartooth Fairgrounds. They’d all piled into the Suburban being led by FBI agents in another vehicle in front of them and more behind them. She told herself that Joe and The Prophecy were both dead, their legacies now for the history books.

  “Am I the only one who is excited?” Cassidy asked as they drove through the dark toward the towering snowcapped Crazies.

  There was a general murmur before everyone fell silent again. This was it. The night Buckmaster Hamilton would become the president of the United States. They’d caught enough of the news to know that he was leading across the country.

  Even Buck was quiet. He’d insisted on driving himself, rather than have an agent drive them. Sarah reached over and gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. He glanced at her and smiled, then turned back to his driving.

  “Bo, are you all right?” Ainsley asked.

  “I wish everyone would quit asking me that,” Bo snapped. “I’ll let you know if I go into labor.”

  “Your water will probably break up on the stage in front of the world,” Kat said.

  “Thanks,” Bo said with a shake of her head. “I really need that right now.”

  “It’s all going to be all right,” Sarah said with more confidence than she felt. Joe had been stopped. The Prophecy had been stopped. And yet, she knew that she wouldn’t relax until this night was over.

  * * *

  THE SHERIFF WATCHED the presidential candidate and his family arrive at the fairgrounds and said a prayer. Secret Service and National Guard escorted them to the huge stage that had been built for the event.

  Frank had personally inspected every square inch of the venue and kept security tight. People had been streaming in for hours through a metal detector, and any bags inspected. It was cold, so everyone was wearing more clothes than he would have liked, but he was assured that if anyone tried to get in with a weapon, they would be caught.

  Just hours before, the whole area had been checked by dogs trained to find bombs. They’d found nothing. He thought of the information that Sarah had turned over to him. Some of the attacks Joe Landon had planned included drones. It was a changing world, one Frank no longer felt safe in. But the National Guard was also prepared for an air strike.

  Frank had covered all the bases he could. Now all that was left to do was pray. He was just glad that Lynette had promised to stay home. He wished most of these people had done the same thing—including the future president’s daughters and their significant others.

  As the family disembarked from the Suburban, he caught a glimpse of Sarah. He tried to tell himself that she wouldn’t have turned in the computer if she was the leader of The Prophecy. But she had definitely been involved. Not that he could prove it. He wanted to trust her and yet he might be resigning as sheriff, but he would always think like a lawman.

  His cell phone rang. “Sheriff Curry.”

  “We finally found the house,” one of his new deputies told him.

  He’d almost forgotten about the house where Sarah had said they would find two bodies, those of Dr. Ralph Venable and a man named Joe Landon, a man believed to have been a co-leader of The Prophecy.

  “Unfortunately, there are no bodies here.”

  “Then you have the wrong house,” Frank said, watching Sarah walk with Buck toward the back area of the stage. He repeated the directions Sarah had given him.

  “That’s where we are. We did find blood that hadn’t been cleaned up in a crack in the floorboards. It looks fresh, but someone has recently washed down this place with gallons of bleach.”

  He gripped the phone, fear turning his bowels to water. “Check the area again and get back to me.” As he disconnected, his mind raced. Sarah hadn’t told him about the two dead men until the day after she’d given him the computer. That left plenty of time to dispose of the bodies—and the evidence.

  Frank mentally kicked himself for letting her walk away that day. But she saved the lives of thousands of people. And covered up the murder of two? It didn’t make any sense, and there was no way he was going to get any answers tonight, he thought, as he watched Buck take Sarah’s hand and they came up the wide stairs.

  She looked radiant. He frowned; she’d changed her hair, but it only made her more beautiful. All these months waiting for the other shoe to drop... She ushered her daughters toward the shelter that had been built for them at the back of the stage like a mother duck rounding up her ducklings.

  This is what the world would see, Frank thought. This all-American family. And maybe that’s exactly what it was now. He desperately wanted to believe it was true. The cop in him had too many questions. And even more suspicions.

  He reminded himself that he wouldn’t be following up on them. Tonight was his last night as sheriff. He had resigned. He wouldn’t be the one worrying about what would happen now. Not as sheriff, anyway.

  Frank told himself he’d done everything he could as he moved to a spot where he could see the growing crowd. Again he cursed Buck for picking this venue. The only good news was that it was cold enough this November night that people wouldn’t want to stay too long after Buck made his acceptance speech. He would win, just as projected. The election results had been coming in all evening.

  Music blared through large speakers set up around the bottom of the stage. A huge American flag moved restlessly in the night breeze. There was an excitement in the air. Buckmaster would be the first Montanan to win a presidential election. It was a big night for the state—just as it was a big night for the Hamiltons.

  Sarah and her daughters were tucked away in a warm room at the back of the stage. In a few moments, the results would be announced, and Buck would come out with Sarah. Frank tried to breathe. Everywhere he looked there were agents or National Guard or deputies.

  But as he was turning to go back around the grandstand for another security check, he spotted something that made him curse.

  Lynette. She’d promised she wouldn’t come here tonight, but he should have known she wouldn’t be able to stop herself. His wife had to be where the action was. Far be it that she miss something—even if it might be dangerous.

  His cell phone chirped. He checked it.

  Election results were in. Buckmaster had won by a landslide. The music stopped as the results were announced. The crowd roared.

  “Here we go.”

  * * *

  AINSLEY WAS FIGHTING tears when she felt a hand on her arm and turned to find Sawyer leaning on his crutches next to her.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked in surprise, her words lost in the roar of the crowd.

  He motioned for her to follow him, and they stepped outside the room where they’d been cloistered into a pocket of semi-quiet behind the stage.

  “Sawyer, you shouldn’t be here. Your leg—”

  “Is fine. I had to come.” He shrugged. “I had to make sure you were all right.”

  She shook her head and looked away for a momen
t. “I appreciate everything you did. You saved my life in more ways than you can imagine. But I don’t need you to save me anymore.”

  “Are you going back to law school?”

  The question caught her flat-footed. “I don’t know yet. I just know I’m not the same woman you met that day in the canyon.”

  “I liked that woman.”

  She laughed, tears springing to her eyes. “You seemed to like every incarnation of Ainsley Hamilton.”

  He smiled. “Yeah, I do.”

  “I have to get back.” But she hesitated. “Maybe when this is over...” She could have kicked herself.

  “I’m going to hold you to that,” he said, his smile shining in his gray eyes.

  It was impulsive. She was merely caught up in the moment with her father about to become president. Why else would she suddenly step to him, take his face in her hands and kiss him?

  He reached for her awkwardly with his crutches under each arm, but she slipped away before he could hold her. Otherwise, she feared she would never want to leave his arms.

  She left him there and didn’t look back until she reached the door to the room where her family was waiting for her. He was still standing there, leaning on his crutches, his gaze locked on her. The look in his eyes was almost her undoing.

  “Where have you been?” Olivia demanded, dragging her into the room. “Come on. Dad is waiting for us.”

  * * *

  BUCK TOOK SARAH’S HAND, glanced at his daughters behind them and began the walk out to meet the public. The crowd’s roar was deafening. The floor of the stage seemed to vibrate. Overhead a midnight-blue canopy glittered with stars in Montana’s big sky. They stood in the shadow of the Crazy Mountains on a November night just miles from Hamilton Ranch. This was home. This would always be home.

  Sarah had never felt like this. The cheering seemed to fill her with helium. She doubted her feet touched the stage. Buck gripped her hand as if he was never going to let her go. She smiled over at him, feeling happier than she knew she’d ever been in her life. Happier than she had a right to.