by Cassie Miles
“I should have told you.” Sarah turned to face them. “But Michelle swore me to secrecy.”
Gabby nodded. “She did that a lot.”
“In any case, I think Daniel and I have come up with an equitable solution for the inheritance. We sell the Roost, the estate passes to me and I make a side agreement with you to divide up the proceeds three ways.”
Their plan benefitted Sarah and Daniel with an immediate cash return, but Gabby was deeply unsatisfied. “I don’t want to give up ownership of the Roost.”
Zach backed her up. “And I don’t want Fox to get his commission for the sale.”
“If we present him a united front,” Sarah said, “we can negotiate him down. He’s going to be here in about fifteen minutes.”
A shock went through her. The last thing she wanted was to have Fox and Zach in the same room together. She didn’t want him hearing about her loan from the lawyer. After he’d shared the darkest secrets of his life with her, she couldn’t repay him with deception.
“I have a better idea,” Zach said. “I’ll buy the Roost and sell it back to Gabby.”
His generous offer stunned her. “It’s a lot of money. I can’t ask you to do that.”
“I can handle it.”
She believed him. Zach could handle anything, but she didn’t want to start their relationship in his debt. Taking his arm, she pulled him toward the front door. To Sarah and Daniel she said, “Excuse us for a moment.”
Outside the bed-and-breakfast, she hurried toward a path leading into the surrounding forest. Their escape came none too soon. As they went into the trees, she glimpsed Kevin Fox’s black SUV turning into Sarah’s parking lot.
Her timing was all wrong. Earlier, when she and Zach were standing on the ridge overlooking Sarah’s place, Gabby had been ready to spill her own secret about Fox. Zach had trusted her and told her everything, and she owed him the same trust. But then, she’d seen the view, and they’d rushed here.
When they were far enough away from the house that they couldn’t be seen, she stopped and gazed up at him. His expression was open and caring. She didn’t want to lose him. “I’ve been keeping a secret, and it’s driving me crazy.”
He took a few paces away from her, leaned his hip against a boulder and folded his arms over his chest. “I meant what I said about buying the Roost. I can afford it.”
“I don’t want to take money from you. I want us to go into this relationship as equals.”
“I don’t measure worth in dollars and cents.”
“Do you have to be so wise? So understanding?” She batted at the low-hanging branch of a pine tree. Her decisions seemed petty and foolish. “I did a really dumb thing. At the time, it seemed smart. I was scared that Daniel would die if he didn’t get proper medical aid. He doesn’t have insurance. And I didn’t have enough ready cash to pay for his treatment.”
“What did you do?”
“I borrowed the hospital money. From Fox.”
She was almost afraid to look at him, but she couldn’t hide from what she’d done. She watched the light fade from his blue eyes. His jaw tensed. “You went to Fox.”
“I had to take care of my brother.”
He pushed away from the boulder he’d been resting against and turned his back as though he intended to walk away from her without another word.
She pleaded, “Say something.”
“All your talk about families and relationships doesn’t mean a thing if you can’t turn to each other when things go wrong. That’s why families are different from friends or lovers. When you need help, a family is there for you.”
“That’s why I did it. For Daniel.”
“You’d do anything for him because he’s your brother. But not for me.” He shot a glare over his shoulder. “You don’t trust me.”
“Forgive me.” Her heart ached. “Don’t hate me.”
“I don’t,” he said quickly. “We can be friends, maybe even lovers. But we aren’t family, and we sure as hell don’t have a relationship.”
As he walked away, she sank to the ground and buried her face in her hands. Too devastated to cry, she rocked back and forth. The Universe wasn’t going to save her from this sadness. She’d made her own mistake. Somehow, she’d have to find a way to live with it.
She heard a rustling in the trees. Was Zach coming back? Was he going to forgive her? She was afraid to look.
She heard one word. “Bitch.”
Her head jerked up. She was staring into the watery blue eyes of Kevin Fox. “It was you, stalking me in the old house.”
He gestured with a handgun. “On your feet, Gabby. I’d rather not shoot you, but I will.”
“You’re the intruder, the person who kept breaking into the house. You almost killed my brother.”
“Yeah, yeah, and I let out that bull to trample you. Except for that first burglary, it’s been all me. And I’m really sick and tired of driving back and forth to your cruddy side of the mountain.” He held the barrel of the gun only an inch away from her nose. “Get on your feet. We’re going to take a walk.”
“And if I don’t?”
With a flick of his wrist, he slapped the gun against the side of her head. Pain exploded inside her skull. She fell but got back up.
“Move it,” he said.
She stumbled to her feet. When she touched her temple, her fingers were wet with blood. It would have been better if she’d passed out. She started walking.
The groomed pathways around the bed-and-breakfast were all neatly marked. Sarah probably had maps of them. This one was called the Cascade Trail.
She walked in front, her head throbbing with each movement. When she slowed down, he prodded her with the gun. She asked, “Why did you do it?”
“It was a little scheme my uncle and I cooked up. Taking the money from Michelle’s paintings and not entering it into her accounts.”
“Fraud,” she said. “Osborne was doing the same thing.”
“Michelle was old and rich, an easy mark.”
“Were you all working together?”
“Osborne is an idiot. He took the computer that turned out to be worthless. He’ll take the fall, and my uncle will get him off with a minimum sentence.”
“You were looking for the accounting books, the information that Rhoda kept.”
“At first,” he said, “then we figured that the real problem was you. We needed to get you out of the picture. That way, my uncle could stay in control. With some fancy juggling, he could keep everything covered up. But you wouldn’t budge.”
She realized that Sarah and Daniel’s plan to sell the house would play right into their hands. “Was Sarah involved?”
“She knows Uncle Jason, but she’s too high-minded to get her hands dirty.”
She heard a rumbling noise. A sign on the trail said: Cascade Falls. After a sharp turn, she saw the waterfall. The trail went up to the ledge behind the gushing water. She guessed the height was about four stories, enough to kill her if she plummeted to the rocks below.
She wiped at the blood on her forehead. “You’re not going to get away with this.”
“Sure I will. Nobody would believe that Sarah would take a fall like this. But you?” He laughed. “You don’t know your way around the mountains. And accidents happen.”
She could dig in her heels and refuse to cooperate, but he’d just knock her on the head and carry her unconscious body up the hill. If she was going to die anyway, she wanted people to know she’d been murdered. She had to make him use his gun.
When he prodded, she pivoted. The swift motion sent a renewed burst of pain into her skull. She grabbed for his weapon, but Kevin was fast.
He jumped back. Using the handle on the gun, he whacked her shoulder and knocked her to the ground.
She didn’t hear Zach approach, but she saw him leap from the path above and knock Kevin off his feet. Through blurred vision, she saw him disarm Kevin. The redheaded man went down after one punch. The fight
was over before it had started.
Zach stood over Kevin with his gun pointed at the other man’s midsection.
“I hate bullies,” Zach said.
“Don’t hurt me.”
“I’m a real good shot,” Zach said. “I could shoot your ear off. Or put a hole in your kneecap. That would end your snowboarding career.”
“I’ll cooperate.”
“What do you think, Gabby? Should I shoot this bully in the leg just to watch him cry?”
She was immediately aware of two things: she wasn’t going to die, and Zach had changed his mind. He hadn’t gone into the bed-and-breakfast. “You were coming back to me.”
“If you have your cell phone, this would be a handy time to call Sarah and the sheriff. I want to get these Foxes into jail where they belong.”
There was only one thing she wanted to know. “Do you forgive me?”
“Gabby? The phone?”
She staggered to her feet, ignoring the pain. “Don’t get me wrong, Zach. I’m truly grateful that you saved me from certain death.”
“And I love you.”
“I love you, too. Oh, my God, I love you. But I still want to know. Will you, please, forgive me?”
He smiled. “Yep.”
* * *
JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS, Gabby sat at the cutting table where she and Zach had made love and signed the final papers to settle the estate of Michelle Rousseau. Their final solution, worked out with Zach’s attorney, satisfied everybody. Daniel received a hefty cash settlement, as did Sarah’s Forest Preservation Society. Zach had purchased the Roost, which made sense because his ranch bordered the property, and he deeded the house back to Gabby.
She gazed up at him and smiled. “Ownership really doesn’t matter, does it?”
“Not really,” he said. “After we’re married, it’s all family property.”
“Still, it seems right and proper for a Rousseau to own this place.”
Charlotte dashed up to her with a piece of fabric in her hand. “Would you call this color teal or peacock-blue?”
“Teal.”
Her custom embroidered shirts were doing well with internet sales, a phenomenon that she entirely attributed to the sexy photo of Zach in the black-and-white shirt. Charlotte worked for her full-time, and they’d hired two other part-time seamstresses.
Zach leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “I want to talk to you about having a Rousseau own the Roost. After we get married, your name is going to change.”
“I’ll hyphenate.”
“Rousseau-Sheffield is a lot to write.”
She patted the bump on her abdomen where the next addition to their family was growing. “This kid will be smart enough to figure it out.”
* * * * *
Mountain Midwife
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Rachel Devon—After a devastating career as an EMT and relationships gone wrong, the thirty-one-year-old nurse-midwife moves to the mountains, looking for solitude and serenity.
Cole McClure—An undercover FBI agent from L.A., he hates the mountains. Betrayed by his superiors and pursued by a master criminal, he fights through a blizzard to protect a newborn.
Penny Richards—Nine months pregnant, she’s given up every bad habit that would threaten her baby, except for robbing a casino.
Goldie Richards—In the first twenty-four hours of the baby’s life, she’s been shot at, pursued and threatened.
Ruby Richards—Penny’s mother and Goldie’s grandmother, she is more deeply involved in crime than she knows.
Jim Loughlin—The Grand County deputy sheriff will do anything to help the midwife who helped deliver his baby.
Frank Loeb—A sadistic thug, he won’t let a bullet stop him from finding his share of the loot.
Wayne Prescott—The field agent in charge of the Colorado FBI office does his best to find his undercover agent.
Jenna Cambridge—Penny’s best friend, she’s a high school economics teacher in Granby with a good head for numbers.
Xavier Romero—A former snitch who owns the Stampede casino in Black Hawk.
Baron—The mysterious criminal mastermind uses gangs of underlings to rob banks and casinos.
Here’s to my buddy, Cheryl.
And, as always, to Rick.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue
Chapter One
Some babies are yanked into the world, kicking and screaming. Others gasp. Others fling open their little arms and grab. Every infant is unique. Every birth, a miracle.
Rachel Devon loved being a midwife.
She smiled down at the newborn swaddled in her arms. The baby girl—only two hours old—stared at the winter sunlight outside the cabin window. What would she be when she grew up? Where would she travel? Would she find love? Good luck with that, sweet girl. I’m still looking.
Returning to the brass bed where the mom lay in a state of euphoric exhaustion, Rachel announced, “She’s seven pounds, six ounces.”
“Totally healthy? Nothing to worry about?”
“A nine-point-five on the Apgar scale. You did good, Sarah.”
“We did. You and me and Jim and...” Sarah frowned. “We still haven’t decided on the baby’s name.”
Voices rose from the downstairs of the two-story log house near Shadow Mountain Lake. Moments ago, someone else had arrived, and Rachel hoped the visitor hadn’t blocked her van in the circular driveway. After guiding Sarah through five hours of labor, aiding in the actual birth and taking another two hours with cleanup and postpartum instruction, Rachel was anxious to get home. “It’s time for me to go. Should I invite whoever is downstairs to come up here?”
“Jim’s mother.” Sarah pushed her hair—still damp from the shower—off her forehead. “I’d like a bit more time alone. Would you mind introducing the baby to her grandma?”
“My pleasure. If you need anything over the next few days, call the Rocky Mountain Women’s Clinic. I’ll be on vacation, but somebody can help you. And if you really need to talk to me, I can be reached.”
Sarah offered a tired smile. “I apologize in advance for anything Jim’s mother might say.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“Let’s just say there was a reason we didn’t want Katherine here during labor.”
Rachel descended the staircase and handed the baby girl to her grandmother, who had positioned herself in a rocking chair beside the moss rock fireplace. With her bright red hair and sleek figure, Katherine seemed too young to be a granny.
After a moment of nuzzling the baby, she shot Rachel a glare. “I wasn’t in favor of this, you know. In my day, this wasn’t the way we had babies.”
Really? In your day, were babies delivered by stork?
Katherine continued, “Sarah should have been in a hospital. What if there had been complications?”
“Everything was perfect.” Jim Loughlin reached down and fondly stroked his baby’s rosy cheek. His hands were huge. A big muscular guy, Jim was a deputy with the Grand County sheriff’s department. “We wanted a home birth, and Rachel had everything under control.”
Skeptically, Katherine looked her up and down. “I’m sorry, dear, but you’re so young.”
“Thirty-one,” Rachel said.
“Oh, my, I would have guessed eight years younger. The p
ixie hairdo is very flattering with your dark hair.”
Her age and her hairstyle had nothing to do with her qualifications, and Rachel was too tired to be tactful. “If there had been complications, I would have been prepared. My training as a certified nurse-midwife is the equivalent of a master’s degree in nursing. Plus, I was an EMT and ambulance driver. I’m a real good person to have around in any sort of medical emergency.”
Katherine didn’t give up. “Have you ever lost a patient?”
“Not as a midwife.” A familiar ache tightened her gut. Rescuing accident victims was a whole other story—one she avoided thinking about.
“Leave Rachel alone,” Jim said. “We have something else to worry about. The baby’s name. Which do you like? Caitlyn, Chloe or Cameron?”
His mother sat up straight. “Katherine is a nice name. Maybe she’ll have red hair like me.”
Rachel eased her way toward the door. Her work here was done. “I’m going to grab my coat and head out.”
Jim rushed over and enveloped her in a bear hug. “We love you, Rachel.”
“Back at you.”
This had been a satisfying home birth—one she would remember with pleasure. Midwifery was so much happier than emergency medicine. She remembered Katherine’s question. Have you ever lost a patient? Though she knew that not everyone was meant to survive, her memories of victims she couldn’t save haunted her.
As she stepped outside onto the porch, she turned up the fur-lined collar of her subzero parka. Vagrant snowflakes melted as they hit her cheeks. She’d already brushed the snow off the windshield and repacked her equipment in the back of the panel van with the Rocky Mountain Women’s Clinic logo on the side. Ready to roll, Rachel got behind the steering wheel and turned on the windshield wipers.
Heavy snow clouds had begun to blot out the sun. The weatherman was predicting a blizzard starting tonight or tomorrow morning. She wanted to hurry home to her condo in Granby, about forty-five minutes away. Skirting around Katherine’s SUV, she drove carefully down the steep driveway to a two-lane road that hadn’t been plowed since early this morning. There were other tire tracks in the snow, but not many.
After a sharp left, she drove a couple hundred yards to a stop sign and feathered the brakes until she came to a complete stop.
