Ask No Tomorrows

by Hestand, Rita

  Ask No Tomorrows

  Dreamcatcher series: Book 3

  Rita Hestand

  Smashwords Edition

  Ask No Tomorrows

  Copyright © 2012 by: Rita Hestand

  Edited by: Joshua R. Shinn

  Cover Design by: Laura Shinn

  Formatted by: Laura Shinn

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be copied or reproduced in any manner without express written permission of the author. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy or copies. If you did not purchase this book or it was not purchased for your use, please go to Smashwords.com to purchase your personal copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Ask No Tomorrows is a work of fiction. Though some of the cities and towns actually exist they are used in a fictitious manner for purposes of this work. All characters are works of fiction and any names or characteristics similar to any person past, present or future are coincidental.

  Other books available by this author:

  Love Rules

  Beyond the Dream Catcher

  Better Off Without Her

  Always Remember

  Strictly Business

  Wandering Heart

  Jodi’s Journey

  *Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

  *Hannah’s Man

  *Courting Abby

  *Along Came Love

  Suspicions of the Heart

  Pretend Mom

  Runaway Bride

  Nick’s Baby

  Heart of the Wild

  Sweeter Than Wine

  The Far Side of Lonesome

  Fast Forward Love

  Halloween Witness

  Just One Kiss

  *Series

  {Also available by this author are children’s books at Smashwords.com}

  Dedication:

  True love comes in many sizes, shapes and colors. Ask No Tomorrows is dedicated to all those who have sought love in different places and found it. Stand strong, stand true as love is the most powerful emotion of all. And remember true love is worth fighting for.

  ~ Rita Hestand

  To view more of Rita Hestand’s work,

  visit: http://www.ritaphestand.com

  Chapter One

  The bullet whizzed by Riley Morgan’s right ear and she clamped her mouth to keep from screaming aloud, as her heartbeat quickened. Her last breath hung in the excessive heat as the smoke began to clear. She didn’t lower her arm until she was sure there would be no more shooting. Any movement would be noticeable, she was sure. Had she turned her head in the slightest she’d be dead now!

  “She can’t go far, she’s on foot. Ride out and see if you can spot her.”

  “Want her alive or dead?” Jarvis McKnight asked, holstering his gun, as he threw a dishtowel over his shoulder.

  “Dead. As far as I’m concerned she’s not pretty enough to bed, smart enough to use, so I put no value on her, and if she’s dead, less trouble for us,” Harry announced boldly.

  “I ain’t sweet on her or nothin’ but she ain’t a bad cook, she outdone herself with breakfast, and at least I didn’t have to cook this mornin’. But…I guess I was wrong, ‘cause I thought you was a little sweet on her when you first come.”

  “Sweet on her? Don’t you think I got better taste than that? Why, I bet she ain’t even been kissed, nor knows how.”

  “You’re probably right about that. Who’d want her?” The cook and all-around handyman of the ranch nodded and headed for the barn. She heard him picking out a horse and mounting in the creaking saddle. Then the stir of horse hoofs as he rode out of the barn toward the dusty road, sending straw and dust flying and had Riley scrunching down into the weeds again.

  My God, Harry just asked me to marry him, and now he aims to kill me!

  She peeked through the tall grasses and bushes. She didn’t see anyone now. She peered about the place, only lonely scrubs stretching for the sky and cattails standing majestically against a glaring sun, like burned-out corn stalks. She stared at the monotonous winding road swept by the wind itself, uncluttered by humans or animals.

  Sweat dripped, stinging her eyes like a bee gone loco. She used her shirttail to wipe her eyes.

  A chill ran through Riley as she curled herself about the tall weeds and cumbersome bristles of a fir tree planted too close to the barn. She’d asked the hands to hoe down the weeds around it a month ago, but no one had attended to the task. Now she was grateful.

  Her dark hair fell into her eyes, as she absently pushed it away from her face and took the ribbon she had wrapped around her wrist to tie it back with. She glanced down at herself and grimaced. No one would know she was one of the richest women this side of the Red River by the looks of her now. Dressed in pants and broadcloth shirt, she looked like a homeless waif, and her sweat-rimmed working hat added to her tramp-like appearance.

  How could this be happening? She’d woken up in the best of moods this morning, everything had been fine, she’d gotten up early to feed the stock and make breakfast for the ranch hands. She’d outdone herself cooking a feast for the hands; pancakes, bacon, eggs and sausage, with no thank you’s for the task well done. As usual for the first of the month, she then busied herself figuring her monthly budget and her deposit for the bank, now she was dodging bullets from her foreman of three years, a man she had once trusted. Thank God, she had slipped the money into her small purse to take to the bank this morning, a sizable sum since the selling of her cattle, otherwise she wouldn’t have a penny to her name. Somehow she had to get to town, get to the bank and escape her foreman without being killed in the process.

  She bit her lip. Maybe escape should be foremost on her mind at the moment. The bank trip could wait for a better day. The insult that she hadn’t once suspected Harry bothered her greatly. Usually she was a good judge of character. However, the last hours made her wonder.

  Disciplined by a strict unyielding father, she gathered her wits about her now. At the moment, survival was the most important thing. She needed to remember everything her dad had taught her about surviving. Just then, a baby polecat sauntered slowly in front of her. She held her breath, thankful it was on its way to join its mother just past the corral.

  Since her father’s untimely death, Riley had taken over the ranch smoothly without a problem. Now, suddenly, she wasn’t sure who she could trust, if she could trust anyone. Harry had hired most of the men. Only Old Gordy had been on the ranch for the past twenty years and she knew without a doubt she could trust him, if he was still alive. She hadn’t seen him at breakfast.

  The irony was this morning she’d thought about giving her foreman a raise for saving her money with the selling of the herd. Yet, only an hour ago he proposed, and almost in the same breath threatened to kill her. The most ironic thing about this morning was his proposal. When she nearly laughed in his face, he quickly turned violent.

  Shocked by his flirtation, she scoffed at his lame attempt. How could he possibly think she would take him seriously? He’d never given any indication that she was of the least interest to him. No man on the ranch had.

  Riley refused to go back east to school, and so she became her father’s top ranch hand. She could have been invisible as far as most of the men were concerned, as her father had been swift to issue a hands-off. So to pretend an interest was a novel idea for Riley.

  Living in a realistic world most of the time, Riley accepted herself as plain and unappealing to men. Her father reminded her many times. That’s why Harry’s unexpected flirting this morning shocked her.

  Riley bit her lip again, this time so hard the blood ran. Determined not to think on it this morning, she had other worries b
earing down on her.

  With Harry Stevens breathing down her neck, wanting to kill her and take her ranch, she couldn’t allow herself the luxury of feeling sorry for herself. Besides, she’d gotten past that point. Survival took first place now.

  Had Harry planned this take-over all along? Had he merely been biding his time until he was ready to spring it on her? Yes, that figured. How had it escaped her? She was no fool.

  Her father raised the accusation that most of the young men about would be more interested in the land and the money than her. Harry never showed a moment’s interest in her ‘til her father died and she should have seen the change coming. Although, the way he spoke to the deputy that occasionally rode out from Waco, she would never expect Harry to propose.

  Funny, when she thought of it, no one had questioned her authority three months ago when her father first died. The usual sympathies had been offered. The entire event had run so smoothly even she questioned it. She’d taken over the controls of the ranch without the slightest problem. Naturally her father’s will was recorded by his lawyer, but no one seemed to have any objection, even though she had inherited one of the biggest spreads in Texas. Obviously some had bided their time. Her foreman, the cook, and several of the hands had taken up the gun when Harry had hollered for them. Obviously they had planned the take-over of her ranch, and figured they could kill her as easy as anything. After all, who would notice? She had few friends in the community, and only one close friend who lived several miles on the other side of her property which she rarely had time to visit.

  She’d barely escaped to her room when Harry pulled his gun, but she’d rushed into her room and locked the door. She then hurriedly changed clothes and disguised herself as one of the hands as he banged on the door and demanded she come out. Finally, the banging stopped, but Riley soon realized Harry was waiting for her by the door. She escaped out the window, falling to the ground with a heavy thud. She knew she was bruised by the soreness when she moved about. She couldn’t give in to that.

  However, escaping hadn’t helped much; the cook fired on her as soon as she hit the ground, and one of the younger hands chased her until she nearly keeled over from exhaustion. She ran in circles for almost an hour trying to escape them all. She tried to calm her racing heart. What was she going to do? For the first time in her life, she had to think, she had to act, and fast.

  Harry was a good shot and he aimed to kill her.

  Riley weighed her options. Options? What options? She had to get away and fast or she’d be history. These men weren’t playing around and now they’d acted on their plans they couldn’t turn back from.

  She only had one chance; she had to catch the noon stage out of Abilene. If she could cross the road, without being seen, she might escape and wait out the stage. She’d wait ‘til dark, then try for the road.

  She glanced down at herself, in her old working clothes she didn’t look much like a lady.

  A spider crawled across her arm and she thumped it away, her pulse accelerating.

  In her hurry to escape, she stuffed all she could carry into her small knapsack and strung it across her chest and back. She’d never been an adventurer, she knew little about survival in the wilds, but there was always a first time for everything. Her father had wanted her to be a genteel lady. He’d even talked about sending her to one of those all-female schools for the genteel. But Riley had easily persuaded him that she was more suited for ranch work than most his hands. By the time she was fifteen she could out shoot most of the men on the ranch, including her father. She could swim, hunt, fish, and ride as well as any man, but the art of being a lady had escaped her attention. There wasn’t much call for being a lady on a working ranch. And once she decided she was no beauty she began to work harder to help her father with the ranch.

  Her father became frustrated with trying to marry her off. It wasn’t as though she was ugly; she had a straight nose, a lot of hair and her smile was most generous, but she knew up against the other ladies about she stood no chance of getting the best wrangler. So she satisfied herself with knowing she was probably the best ranch hand her father had. And he agreed finally.

  One of the young hands came to the back of the barn and raised a hand over his eyes to stare out over the prairie; he was only a hairs breath away. Had he but looked down, she would have been spotted, surely. “She’s got to be out here somewhere. Don’t look like she took a horse, so she’s afoot and we can probably catch her.”

  Riley felt another tear roll down her cheek, for being so gullible about the men; tears of humiliation, tears of lost pride, tears of fear. She couldn’t give way to hysteria. She had no choice in the matter. Today, she took on a new persona, one of survival. The one thing she knew, she could manage almost anything once she set her mind to it. She’d get out of this somehow.

  She sat there in the heat, wishing she’d thought to get a canteen, but she hadn’t much choice, there was no canteen in her room. She looked through the boards of the barn and saw an old canteen hanging on the wall, but how could she get to it? A horse would also be nice, but she was afraid they would make too much noise. No, her only option was to wait until darkness and head for the road.

  She would be thirsty, hungry, tired and hot, but she wouldn’t be dead!

  They hadn’t spotted her yet and until someone did, she was safe here. If she hadn’t insisted on planting that evergreen tree by the barn, she wouldn’t have cover now.

  Being still and quiet when her stomach growled at her and the sweat ran off her forehead and into her eyes was hard to do. She could think of a million things she’d rather be doing right this minute. Things she might never have a chance to do again.

  Even if she managed to get away, the stage wouldn’t be about until noon tomorrow. She’d have to find another place to hide once she got to the road. And then what, her mind screamed. The road was noticeable and someone would quickly spot her, so maybe she’d skirt the road and find a rock or tree to hide behind until the stage came.

  Exactly where was she going? She had no folks to run to, no man to take care of her. What would she do? Thankfully, she had money, but her destiny was uncertain at this point.

  She’d lived on the ranch all her life, rarely went anywhere and now she was forced to leave or die. But she knew her land, every inch of it, and she got her bearings so she could get to the road and on that stage as quickly as possible.

  “I’m a coward,” she mumbled to herself. “If dad saw me running out, he’d roll over in his grave. I should fight them with all my might. I shouldn’t be running.” But Harry was an expert shot and she knew he’d try to kill her first chance.

  Then she shrugged, “He’s got me at a disadvantage; I’ll come back one day.”

  Another cowboy came around the corner. “She’s probably long gone by now…”

  Then she heard Harry’s voice once more. “More than likely she is. I’m sure I scared the daylights out of her. You should have seen the innocent look on her face. She shore wasn’t expecting it. Now all that’s left is to wait. She don’t show up, we’ll just stay here. Since she ain’t here it’ll be easy to make up a story. Ain’t got no money, but we got the place, and if she don’t come back, we can probably sell it before the taxes come due. We can have her declared as missing and loony as a bin. Everyone thinks she’s strange anyway.”

  “That’s for sure. Ain’t you gonna go after her and get that money, though?” the cook asked, coming around.

  “Naw, she might have the money for the cattle, but there’s a whole lot more around here somewhere. All we gotta do is out wait her. She’ll turn up dead, or lost. She don’t know how to take care of herself. She’ll be dead within a month. She’s so gullible someone will do her in for us.” Harry laughed arrogantly. “All we gotta do is play it smooth like, and don’t ruffle no feathers. Her old man even mentioned me in the will. So I don’t reckon this is gonna be hard to pull off. They trust me. Why, I could probably have her committed to one of tho
se institutions if I had to.”

  “Yeah, but this place don’t belong to any of us either…and besides, I heard tell you gotta be a relative to commit somebody. Just ‘cause ole Joel Hagen had his wife committed, don’t mean you could get away with that. You ain’t her husband.”

  “Joe, you are borrowing trouble. The reason I asked her to marry in the first place was so I could have her committed. Look, I know what I’m doin’. After I talk to Yates in Dallas, he can fix this. He can fix anything, legal. Especially if we can declare her missing or dead or crazy even. I might not be able to commit her myself, but I could shore convince someone else to do it. Don’t much matter which way it goes, we win. We don’t have a thing to worry about. I put the fear of God in her, and Yates can fix anything so we can rest easy. I really thought I’d have a bigger battle. We’ll just tell everyone she must have been bereaved more than we all thought and lost her head and ran away. They’ll swallow that. She don’t turn up soon we’ll declare her dead.”

  “You talkin’ about that fancy lawyer from Dallas?”

  “The same.”

  Jarvis rode back into the yard and listened to the conversation before jumping into it.

  “But that’s her lawyer,” Jarvis shouted.

  “Well, it won’t be if she’s gone, now will it? Besides, we cut him in for a share, he’ll work with us. He’s just crooked enough to go for it.” Harry laughed. “How do you think he got so rich in the first place?”

  “Well, that’s the dang truth…” Joe laughed. “He was braggin’ last time he was out here how he foreclosed on that big property down in Houston, that’s a fact.”

  “Did you take care of Gordy?” Harry asked.

  “Easy as pie, put a rattler in his bed last night, and he’s stiff as a board this morning.” The cook laughed.

  Good Lord, a snake! Poor Old Gordy hadn’t stood a chance, the only hand on the ranch she could truly trust.