Big Sky Dynasty

by B. J Daniels

  “No, but thank you. And thank you for being so understanding about Rory.”

  “No problem. I know how friends are,” Nicci said with a laugh. “See you later.”

  Georgia tried to work. She’d hoped to get it done before the movie tonight with Nicci. But she couldn’t forget what Rory had said about her renter. Nor forget how nice Nicci had been about it. The woman was so gracious.

  It was Rory’s pregnancy and jealousy, that was all. It made her imagine things. Like Agnes’s alleged adverse reaction to Nicci. Why would Agnes of all people dislike Nicci, let alone be afraid of her?

  Georgia knew she wouldn’t be able to get any work done until she talked to Rory.

  “WHY DO I get the feeling there’s more to the story?” Lantry said on the other end of the line.

  “Because you’re my brother. I have to go.” Dalton hung up as he reached the white car and glanced inside. Too clean for this part of Montana where there were more dirt roads than paved. Dust boiled up miles away in the summer, letting residents see if someone was coming long before they arrived.

  If he was right, this was Nicci’s rental car. It wasn’t as if there were a bunch of rental cars in Whitehorse. He hesitated, considering why Nicci hadn’t gone with an expensive one. She’d gone cheap and nondescript. That alone made him suspicious.

  Maybe Lantry was right. Maybe she was broke and that’s what this was about. Or maybe she just hadn’t wanted to stand out. Which in itself was amusing since the woman herself would have a hell of a time blending into a crowd—let alone blending in with the locals in Whitehorse.

  A thought hit him like a brick to the forehead. If Nicci had come here to end things, she hadn’t come alone. She would have brought Ambrose.

  Dalton scanned the nearly empty street as he thought of the name he’d heard Nicci screaming that night on the boat. Kill him, Ambrose, kill him!

  Ambrose was no doubt the same man he’d caught her talking to that day on her cell phone at the hotel before they set sail. He’d definitely been in the large motorboat Dalton had seen following them.

  Dalton still couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been and now he had no doubt that Nicci had brought Ambrose with her to Whitehorse. Unfortunately, Dalton hadn’t gotten a good look at Ambrose that night at sea. But he’d bet money the guy would stand out in Whitehorse—just as Nicci had. So where was she hiding him until she needed him?

  He shuddered at the thought. Ambrose did whatever Nicci told him to do apparently. Even commit murder for her.

  Dalton considered what it would take to bring Ambrose out of hiding. He needed to know what he was up against.

  Glancing around, he pulled out his pocket knife, then bent down and stuck the blade into the rear tire. Then he did the same thing to the front tire before walking back to his pickup to wait.

  The only way to deal with Nicci was to play dirty. The problem was Nicci played till the death.

  “ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?” Rory asked when Georgia called her. “You sound funny.”

  Georgia was hesitant to talk to Rory about Nicci’s personal life, but she really needed her best friend right now. “I want to tell you something but you have to keep it to yourself.”

  “You know I won’t tell anyone.”

  “The reason Nicci is in town is because she’s here to get a divorce from Dalton Corbett.”

  “Dalton Corbett and Nicci? I don’t believe it.”

  “Well, it’s true. That’s how I met Nicci. She was standing in front of the shop looking at the Apartment for Rent sign and must have seen Dalton. She ducked in here and he chased her into the shop and was very upset when he didn’t find her.”

  “You hid her?”

  “No. Not exactly. She dropped down behind some boxes from my yarn delivery that morning,” Georgia said. “But I did fib when he asked me if I knew where she went. You should have seen her. She was shaking she was so frightened of him.”

  “That’s terrible,” Rory said sympathetically.

  “She needed somewhere to stay until she gets the divorce taken care of and she loved the apartment, so I rented it to her. If you think it was impulsive, it was.”

  “I would have done the same thing under the circumstances,” Rory said, making her feel better.

  “Dalton Corbett came into the shop this morning to apologize. He brought me roses. I have to admit, I felt sorry for him. If you had seen how upset he was yesterday. Clearly he’s still in love with her.”

  “Where is Nicci now?”

  “She said she had to run a few errands. I’m worried that she might have gone out to the ranch. She says she just wants to work out an amicable divorce.”

  “When I met her, I felt like she was hiding something,” Rory said. “Now I feel bad about what I said about her. If the offer is still open, I would like to go to the movie with you and Nicci.”

  “Of course it is,” Georgia said, glad she’d told Rory the truth and relieved since she trusted Rory’s judgment. Rory’s misgivings about Nicci had worried her. Agnes’s reaction to Nicci still worried her and she said as much to Rory.

  “Agnes seems pretty perceptive when it comes to people,” Rory said. “I swear she looked scared when she met Nicci. But maybe I was wrong.”

  Georgia shivered as a bad feeling washed over her. “What if Agnes’s fear wasn’t for herself but for Nicci? You don’t think Dalton would harm her, do you?”

  DALTON HAD PARKED his pickup under the limbs of a large poplar tree where he had a clear view of the rental car. He called Lantry back.

  “You are aware, I assume, that it’s against the law to slash someone’s tires?” Lantry asked sarcastically. “This woman does bring out the worst in you, doesn’t she?”

  “You have no idea.”

  Dalton had gotten into more trouble in his younger years than any of his brothers. Not even Lantry knew how much trouble. Only their father and his high-priced lawyers who had saved Dalton’s neck more times than he could count knew the extent of it.

  That’s why he’d kept the mess with Nicci to himself. He had been bound and determined to get himself out of it. One way or the other.

  He felt the same way now. Older and wiser, he hoped he wasn’t playing right into Nicci’s hands. Look where it had gotten him last time.

  He watched the rental car, ready if it turned out not to be Nicci’s. He’d make it up to the stranger—and then some. But if there was a chance of drawing Ambrose out…

  Dalton was starting to think this might have been a fool’s errand when Nicci came around the corner and started down the street toward the rental car—and him.

  He hunkered down in the pickup seat as Nicci glanced around as she neared the car. She was looking for him. Expecting to see him. He couldn’t see her expression from this distance, but he would bet she was smiling.

  She slowed, then stopped abruptly, no doubt spotting the two flat tires.

  Her gaze shot up, aimed down the street, her body language rigid with anger. He didn’t move. Where he was parked under the poplar trees, the shadows from the overhanging limbs making patterns on the pickup’s windshield, he was sure she couldn’t see him.

  But she would know who’d done the damage. Would she also know that he’d stick around to see her reaction?

  Nicci glanced once more at the tires, then hands on her hips and head up, she looked down the street again, her stance challenging. Oh, she knew, all right.

  He almost got out to confront her. But if there was a chance of drawing out Ambrose, he had to take it. Turning, she walked back up the block. His question as to whether or not she would call Ambrose for help was quickly answered when Nicci returned a few minutes before a tow truck showed up.

  But this time, his attention was on the woman with her. Georgia Michaels. Unlike Nicci, who was dressed as if going to the beach, Georgia wore jeans, boots and a Western shirt. The two couldn’t have looked more different.

  Even from this distance he could see that Georgia was upset—just as Nic
ci had wanted him to see. Nicci put a comforting arm around her new ally as the tow truck took the car down to the tire shop and the two women walked back down the street.

  Dalton swore. He’d failed to flush out Ambrose, but worse, Nicci had used the incident to garner even more of Georgia’s sympathy and make him look even more dangerous, he thought as he saw Georgia give Nicci a set of keys.

  Nicci glanced back. Without even seeing her expression, he knew there was a look of triumph on her face.

  WHEN SOMETHING was worrying Agnes, she headed for her garden. The hailstorm had played havoc with her crop. Testing the ground between her rows of tomato plants and finding it dried by the morning sun, she knelt, hoping to find her usual sense of peace out here.

  A breeze teased the leaves of the tree where she’d put her tubs of tomatoes just yesterday. Determined not to think about anything negative, Agnes sat counting her blessings. She had so much to be thankful for, she thought, as she breathed in the familiar scents of her garden.

  After a few moments she went to work, pulling weeds, picking blossoms from the tomatoes that didn’t stand a chance of bearing fruit and checking her other plants to see how much damage was done by the storm.

  As hard as she tried to keep her thoughts from circling back to Georgia and that woman renting her spare apartment, Agnes failed. Her run-in with Nicci had taken a lot out of her. She thought about quitting knitting class.

  “No,” Agnes said out loud with a shake of her head. She couldn’t abandon Georgia. Georgia was going to need her. “Now how do I know that?” she asked herself, frowning. Ever since yesterday, she’d been getting the strangest notions in her head.

  Agnes turned at the sound of a vehicle coming up the road. Being slight in stature, she could barely see over the top of the tomato plant where she knelt. She peered through the plants and saw Georgia’s pickup turn into the yard and park next to her car.

  Alarms went off as Agnes realized that Georgia had never been out to the house before. Something must be wrong.

  Starting to rise, she quickly dropped back down when the truck door opened and she saw who stepped out. Not Georgia.

  She ducked her snow-white, curly head behind one of her taller tomato plants. Her heart pounded fiercely in her chest and her hands trembled as she watched Georgia’s renter walk toward the front of the house.

  Nicci glanced around as she mounted the steps to the porch. She had something in her hand, a small white box like those from the local bakery.

  Agnes stayed put, listening to Nicci knock on the front door. Silence, then another knock, this one harder. Peeking out, she saw Nicci glance toward Agnes’s car parked out front, then knock again.

  Anticipating Nicci’s next move, Agnes crawled deeper into the garden until she’d put the wide trunk of the oak tree between her and the house.

  Nicci’s sandal heels tapped across the porch to the garden side. Agnes could imagine her leaning over the railing looking in this direction. She held her breath and silently wished the woman away.

  Tap. Tap. Tap. The porch steps creaked. If Nicci came out into the garden…Moments passed. The pickup door opened, then closed. The engine revved, gravel crunched under the tires.

  Agnes stayed hidden, heart pounding with fear, as she listened to the sound of the pickup engine die off in the distance.

  She stayed hidden until the dust had settled on the road. Only then did she rise and make her way back to the house.

  The small white bakery box sat on the front step where Nicci had left it.

  Agnes picked it up, opening it carefully. The words Have a Nice Day! were printed in icing on an oversize cupcake.

  A dozen thoughts raced through her mind as she stared down at the gift. How had Nicci found her house out here in the country? Why, all she had to do was ask someone in town. Still it seemed odd that Nicci would go to the trouble.

  And why come all this way out here to deliver a cupcake when there was no doubt that Nicci knew how Agnes felt about her? Had Nicci singled her out or given cupcakes to everyone from the class she’d met that morning?

  It irritated Agnes.

  Worse, it made her feel terrible because she still had such negative thoughts about the woman. Maybe that had been the point of the cupcake.

  Feeling guilty, she carried the small box around the house and tossed it into the fifty-five-gallon barrel she used to burn her refuse. As she started to step away, shocked at herself for such ungrateful behavior, she heard a noise and turned to see three of those pesky trash birds had landed on the rim of the barrel. Others were already sweeping down to attack the cupcake with relish.

  At least the cupcake hadn’t gone to waste, Agnes thought as she went back into the house to make herself some lunch. She was washing up the few dishes she’d dirtied when she looked out in the backyard and saw one of the birds from earlier. It lay on its side in the dirt next to the trash barrel.

  Drying her hands, she stepped out the back door. The afternoon felt too quiet. The hair on her neck stood on end as she neared the barrel. Where were the other birds?

  She peered into the barrel. “Oh, my heavens!” she cried with a gasp as she stumbled back.

  A dozen scavenger birds lay dead in the bottom of the barrel next to the empty cupcake box.

  Chapter Five

  Georgia was closing up the shop for the day when she heard Nicci return in tears.

  “What is it?” she asked, locking the front door behind her. She’d been worried all afternoon about her, suspecting she’d been planning to go out to the Trails West Ranch. “Dalton didn’t try to hurt you, did he?”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t want to burden you with my problems. You’ve already been so kind to me,” Nicci said between tears.

  “Let’s go up to my apartment,” Georgia said, seeing how upset Nicci was. “I could make us some tea or I have some wine.”

  “Wine,” Nicci said, between sniffs as they started up the stairs. “Definitely wine.”

  Once inside the apartment, Georgia poured them each a glass, then took a seat across from Nicci in the small living room.

  “I love what you did with your apartment,” Nicci said, wiping her tears.

  “Thank you. Now tell me what’s wrong.”

  Nicci took a sip of her wine and closed her eyes. “Oh, I needed this.” She put down her glass and sighed as if making up her mind. “I promised myself I wouldn’t involve you in this,” she said resolutely, and dried an errant tear before plastering on a smile.

  “We’re friends. You can talk to me. I know you’re going through a hard time now.”

  Nicci’s eyes filled. “You are so kind and caring. I’m not used to that. The truth is I’ve never had any really close girlfriends.”

  “Did you see Dalton?” Georgia asked.

  Nicci shook her head. “I couldn’t even get near the ranch. I thought that if I could get the divorce papers into his hands…”

  Georgia wished she’d known. She could have given the papers to Dalton when he was in the shop earlier that morning. She hadn’t mentioned his visit to Nicci, not wanting to upset her. It was also the reason she’d brought the bouquet of roses he’d given her up to her apartment rather than put them in a vase in the shop.

  Dalton had said he would do anything for Georgia if she’d accept his apology. Wouldn’t he have been surprised if she had handed him divorce papers?

  “Now I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Nicci said. “I foolishly thought that he might just sign them and give them back and it would be over.”

  “He must still love you,” Georgia said. “Are you sure there is no chance for your marriage?”

  “None. He might have loved me, but he doesn’t now.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  Nicci smiled. “I know.” She took another sip of her wine. “I guess I’ll be forced to have him served, which will make him angry, then he’ll drag this whole thing out much longer than I hoped.”

  “I could give them to
him,” Georgia heard herself say.

  Nicci looked up. “No. That would mean you’d have to drive out to his ranch. I wouldn’t ask you to do that.”

  “I wouldn’t mind. I know how important this is to you.” Georgia couldn’t help herself. She wanted to help even though it would mean that Nicci would be leaving town sooner.

  Nicci leaned over to give Georgia a hug. “Dalton wants this divorce as badly as I do. He’s just being difficult because of his huge ego. Maybe he’ll even sign the papers while you’re there.”

  “I can take them out there now and be back in time for the movie. I’ll just give Rory a call and let her know what the plan is.”

  “Rory’s going to the movie with us?” Nicci asked, sounding surprised.

  Georgia nodded, smiling. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Of course not. I’m glad she changed her mind.” Nicci downed her wine and went next door to her apartment. She returned a few moments later with a large manila envelope and a small white box tied with a red ribbon.

  “Just give him this,” she said, handing Georgia the manila envelope. “You don’t even have to talk to him. Knowing Dalton, he won’t open the envelope while you’re there so don’t worry about trying to get him to sign them. That was just wishful thinking on my part.”

  “Okay. Don’t worry. It will be fine.”

  Nicci smiled broadly. “I know. That’s why this is for you.” She thrust the small white box at her.

  Georgia was already shaking her head.

  “It’s just a small token of my gratitude,” Nicci said. “Please. I feel badly about all this as it is. You have to take the present.”

  She had no choice. She took the small box. Nicci watched with obvious excited anticipation as Georgia untied the ribbon and opened the lid and let out a surprised breath. She lifted out the silver hoops.

  “They’re beautiful, but—”

  “They reminded me of you,” Nicci said. “Put them on. They’ll go great with your haircut.”