by B. J Daniels
He didn’t speak for a moment, couldn’t. “For almost getting me killed or for letting Lola get away with the baby?”
She raised her head again. While pleas for forgiveness had streamed from her mouth, there was no sign of regret in her eyes.
“You stupid, foolish woman,” he said with disgust, and pushed her away.
She fell back, landing hard. He watched as she slowly got to her feet. Her dark eyes were hard, her smile brittle. Defiance burned behind her gaze, a blaze that he saw had been burning for some time. Why hadn’t he seen it? Because he’d been so consumed with Lola for so long.
“I have done whatever you’ve asked of me for years,” she said, anger making her words sharp as knives hurled at him.
“As you should, as one of my followers,” he snapped.
She let out a humorous laugh that sent a chill up his spine. “I wasn’t just one of your followers.”
He felt for his phone and realized he’d left it over on the table, out of his reach. Zack had said he would be right outside the door. But would he be able to get in quickly enough if Rebecca attacked? Jonas knew he wasn’t strong enough to fight her off. Rebecca probably knew it, too.
“Many times you were wrong, but still I did what you asked without question,” she continued as she moved closer and closer until she was standing over him. “All these years, I’ve followed you, looked up to you, trusted that you were doing what was best for our community, best for me.”
He swallowed, afraid he’d created a monster. If he was being honest, and now seemed like a good time for it, he’d let her think that one day the two of them would run SLS. He’d trusted her above all others, even Zack.
“You didn’t sound the alarm when you found the crib empty,” he said, trying to regain control and get the conversation back on safer ground.
She shook her head. “No, when I found Sister Amelia standing next to the empty crib, I told her to go back to bed and let me handle it. I thought about sounding the alarm, but then I didn’t. In truth? I was overjoyed to see the brat gone, along with her mother.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make.”
She smiled at that. “You would destroy everything for that woman? You would take her bastard and raise it as your own? I thought of you as a god, but now I see that you are nothing but a man with a man’s weaknesses.”
The truth pierced his heart and he instantly recoiled. “You will not speak to me like this or there will be serious consequences.”
A chuckle seemed to rise deep in her, coming out on a ragged breath. “Will you have the sisters chant more over me? You’ve already locked me up. Or...” Her gaze was hard as the stone Lola had used to try to bash his head in. “Will you have me killed? It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve had a follower killed, would it?”
The threat was clear in her gaze, in her words. Rebecca knew too much. She could never leave this compound alive, and they both knew it.
He grabbed for his phone, but she reached it first. She held the phone away from him, stepping back, daring him to try to take it from her.
“This is ridiculous, Sister Rebecca. You would throw away everything we have worked so hard for out of simple jealousy?”
She raised a brow, but when she spoke her voice betrayed how close she was to tears again. This was breaking her heart as much as his own. “I know you. After all these years, I know you better than you know yourself. You’ll go after her and that baby. You’ll have her one way or another even if it means destroying everything.”
He stared at her, hearing the truth in her words and realizing that he’d let her get too close. She did know him.
She looked down at the phone in her hand, then up at him. She pushed the alarm. The air on the mountaintop filled with the scream of the siren.
When Zack burst through the door, she threw Jonas his phone and, with one final look, turned and let Zack take her roughly by the arm and lead her back to her prison.
She wouldn’t be locked up there long, Jonas thought. He owed her that at least, he thought as he sounded the all clear signal. But things weren’t all right at all and he feared they never would be again.
Chapter Sixteen
Colt had been worried that the sheriff was right, that Jonas wasn’t going to take what had happened lying down. Hearing that Jonas had been released from the hospital, he’d almost been expecting a visit from the SLS leader.
He’d been ready, a shotgun beside the door. But the day had passed without incident and so had the next and the next.
The days seemed to fly by since he’d signed the ranch papers and deposited a partial down payment from the buyer. He’d kept busy selling off the cattle and planning the auction for the farm equipment. He tried not to think about the liquidation of his father’s legacy, telling himself his old man knew how much he hated ranching. It was his own fault for leaving Colt the ranch.
He was in the barn when he heard footfalls behind him and turned to see Lola. “So the buyer doesn’t want any of this?” she asked.
“No, I believe he plans to subdivide the property. It won’t be a ranch at all anymore.”
“And the house?”
“Demo it and put in a rental probably.”
Lola said nothing, but when he saw her looking out the barn door toward the mountains, there was a wistfulness to her he couldn’t ignore.
“I’m not leaving Montana. This will always be my home. I’m just not ranching. With what I got from the sale, I can do anything I want.” But that was it. He didn’t know what he wanted. His heart pulled him one way, then another.
“How long has your family owned this property?” she asked.
“My great-grandfather homesteaded it,” he said. “I know it must sound disrespectful of me to sell it.”
She shook her head. “It’s yours to do with whatever you want, right?”
“Yes.” He didn’t bother to tell her that the three-month stipulation his father had put on it was over. “You were right. I’m not a rancher. I have no interest.”
“But you’re a cowboy.”
He laughed. “That I will always be. I’m as at home on a horse as I am behind the controls of a helicopter. Ranching is a different animal altogether. Most ranchers now lease their land and let someone else worry about the critters, the drought, the price of hay. Few of them move cattle on horseback. They ride four-wheelers. Everyone seems to think ranching is romantic.” He laughed at that. “It’s the most boring job I’ve ever done in my life.”
“That’s why you’re selling,” she said with a smile. “It’s the right thing.”
He hadn’t needed her permission, but he was thankful for it. As much as he denied it, there was guilt over selling something his father had fought for years to keep.
Nor had he contacted the Army about his next assignment, putting that off, as well. He still had plenty of leave, so there was time.
He’d also put off his Realtor about when the new owners could take possession. It sounded as if they hoped to raze the house as soon as he moved out.
He knew he couldn’t keep avoiding giving a firm date and time, but once that happened Lola and Grace would be gone.
“Where will you go?” he asked Lola.
“Probably back to California. At least for a while.” The car she’d ordered had come, and she’d been able to get to her funds and make sure Jonas couldn’t access them. She’d had to get a new driver’s license since Jonas had taken her purse with hers inside, along with her passport and checkbook and credit cards.
Colt had heard her on the phone taking care of all that. No wonder he could feel the days slipping away until not only this ranch and the house he’d grown up in were gone, but also Lola and the baby. He worried that once he went back to the Army, this would feel like nothing more than a dream.
Yet, he knew that he would ache
for Lola and Grace the rest of his life—if he let them get away. He’d always see their faces and yearn for them.
He’d never felt so confused in his life. What would he do if not go back to the Army? He was almost thirty-three. He couldn’t retire even if he wanted to, which he didn’t. He wanted to fly. But he couldn’t ask Lola and Grace to wait for him for the next two to five years. He couldn’t bear the thought of her worrying about him, or the worst happening and him never making it back.
His cell phone rang. Margaret again. “I’d better take this,” he said to Lola. As she walked back toward the house, he picked up. “Margaret, I might have changed my mind.”
Silence. “It’s too late for that and you know it. Colt, what is this about?”
A woman and a child. The rest of my life. Regrets.
“If you’re having second thoughts about selling the ranch—”
“I’m not. I just need a little more time to get off the property.”
More silence. “I’ll see what I can do but, Colt, they are getting very impatient. I need to tell these buyers something concrete. I can’t keep putting them off or they are going to change their minds or fine you, which they can under the contract you signed.” She sounded angry. He couldn’t blame her.
As he looked out at the land, he had a thought. “I’ll be in first thing in the morning.”
“What does that mean?” she asked after a moment.
“I have an idea.”
She groaned. “Could you be a touch more specific?”
“I’m selling the ranch, but there’s something I need.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “Why don’t we sit down with them in the morning, if you’re sure you won’t change your mind.”
He pocketed his phone and watched Lola as she slipped in the back door of the house. Taking off his Stetson, he wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve. “Do something,” he said to himself. “Do something before it’s too late.”
* * *
“SHE’S STAYING ON the ranch with Colt McCloud,” Zack told Jonas later that afternoon.
“Is the baby with them?”
“I’ve had the place watched as you ordered. They took the baby into town the next morning, bought baby clothes and supplies, and returned to the ranch.”
So they were settling in. They thought it was over. “What kind of security?”
“No security system on the house. But I would imagine he has guns and knows how to use them since he’s a major in the Army.”
“I’m sure he does.” That’s why they would strike when the cowboy least expected it. He looked past Zack toward the main building below him on the hill. “You led church this morning?”
He nodded.
“What is the mood?”
Zack seemed to consider that. “Quite a few of them are upset over Sister Rebecca.”
He’d suspected as much. “I’ll lead the service tonight.” Zack didn’t appear to think that was going to make a difference. Jonas thought about the things that Rebecca had said and ground his teeth. He still had a headache, and while his wound was healing, it was a constant reminder of what Lola had done to him. Worse, she’d bewitched him, put a spell on him as if sent by the devil to bring him down.
Did he really want her back, or did he just want to retaliate? Did it matter in the long run? His memory was getting worse. The pills didn’t seem to be working. He couldn’t be sure how long he had until he was a blubbering old fool locked up in some rest home.
He shook his head. He wasn’t going out that way. “I don’t want Lola or the baby injured.”
“What about McCloud?”
“Kill him and dispose of his body. I know the perfect place. If possible, leave no evidence that we were there.”
* * *
COLT LEFT THE barn headed for the house, suddenly excited that his idea just might be the perfect plan. “Lola?” he cried as he burst through the back door.
“Colt?” She was standing in the kitchen wearing an apron that had belonged to his mother. He hadn’t seen it in years. She must have found it in a drawer he and his father had obviously never bothered to look in.
“What?” she asked, seeing the way he was looking at her.
“You look so cute in that apron, that’s all.” He stepped to her. “I’m selling the ranch.”
“I know.”
“You were right. I’d make a terrible rancher, always did. This was my father’s dream, not mine. I’m a helicopter pilot.”
She nodded. “I thought we already knew this. So you’re going to take the commission the Army is offering you.”
“No.”
She tilted her head. “No?”
“No,” he said, smiling. “For years, my friend Tommy and I have talked about starting our own helicopter service here in the state. We’re good at what we do. With the money from the ranch, I can invest in the birds we’ll need.”
“That sounds right up your alley. But are you sure?”
He nodded. “Come here.” He put his arm around her waist and ushered her over to the window. “Look out there. See that.”
“Yes? That mountainside?”
“Imagine a house in that grove of aspens and pines. The view from there is incredible. Now imagine an office down by the road and a helipad. The office would be just a hop, skip and a jump from the house. We’d have everything we need for Grace and any other children we have.”
* * *
LOLA SMILED AT HIM, caught up in his enthusiasm. “Isn’t that land part of the ranch?”
He grinned. “I’m going to buy it back.”
“Aren’t you being a little impulsive?”
“Not at all. I’ve been thinking about this for years.” He seemed to see what she meant and turned her to face him. “And I’ve been thinking about being with you since that first night. With you and Grace here... Lola, I’ve fallen for you and Grace...” He shook his head. “It was love at first sight even before I knew for certain that Grace was mine. I want you to stay. I want us to be a family.”
“Colt, do you know what you’re saying?” But it was what he wasn’t saying that had her stomach in knots. She knew he wanted her and Grace, but she wouldn’t let herself go into a loveless marriage just to give her daughter a home.
She said as much to him.
He stared at her. “Damn it, Lola, I love you.”
She blinked in surprise. All their lovemaking, their quiet times together, those moments with Grace. She’d waited to hear those words. Well, maybe not the “damn it, Lola” part. But definitely the “I love you” part. Her heart had assured her that he loved her and Grace. And yet, she wouldn’t let herself believe it was true until he finally told her.
“I love you,” he repeated as if they were the most honest words he’d ever spoken. “I’ve only said those words twice to a woman. With Julia, it was over two years before I said them. I don’t think it was a coincidence that I held off. With you... I’ve been wanting to say them for days now.”
“Oh, Colt, I’ve been waiting to hear them. I love you, too.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box.
Lola gave a small gasp.
“This ring was handed down from my great-great-grandmother to my great-grandmother to my grandmother. When my grandmother gave it to me, she made me promise only to give it to a woman who was my equal.” He opened the box.
She looked down at a beautiful thick gold band circled in diamonds. “Oh, Colt.” Her gaze went to his. “I don’t understand. Julia—”
“I didn’t give it to her.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. It didn’t seem...right for her. She picked out one she liked uptown.”
Her heart went out to him. Julia had hurt him badly in so many ways, only proving how wrong
she was for him almost from the start.
“Now I realize that I was saving this ring so I could live up to the promise I made my grandmother,” he said. “I want you to wear it.” He dropped to one knee. “Will you marry me, Lola Dayton, and be my wife and the mother to my children?”
She smiled through the burn of tears. “Yes.”
He slipped the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly. “Now what is the chance of that?” he said to her, only making her cry and laugh at the same time.
Swinging her up into his arms, he spun her around and set her down gently. “For the first time in so long, I am excited about the future.”
She could see that he’d been dragged down by the ranch, Julia and the past, as well as his need to do what he did so well—fly.
Colt kissed her softly on the mouth. She felt heat rush through her and, cupping his face in her hands, kissed him with the passion the man evoked in her.
He swung her up in his arms again, only this time he didn’t put her down until they reached the bedroom.
* * *
THAT EVENING, JONAS held church in the main building. He’d gathered them all together to give them the news. He could feel the tension in the air. There’d been a time when he’d stood up here and felt as if he really was a god sent to this earth to lead desperate people looking for at least peace, if not salvation.
As he looked over his flock, though, all he felt was sad. His father used to say that all good things end. In this case, the preacher was right.
“Brothers and sisters. I have some sad news. As you know, Sister Rebecca has chosen to leave us. It is with a heavy heart that I had to let her go.” He wondered how many of them knew the truth. Too many of them probably. He was glad he’d had Zack bury her far away from the compound.
“But that isn’t the only news. I have decided that it is time to leave Montana.” His words were followed by a murmur of concern that spread through his congregation. “As many of you know, I’m in poor health. My heart... I’m going to have to step down as your leader.”
