chapter Six
Jinx came out of a deathlike sleep. She jerked awake and reached for her gun, only to find it gone. It took her a moment to remember where she was—and with whom.
She blinked, her eyes adjusting to the dim light, to find Chisholm standing over her. She felt such a wave of relief. For a moment she’d thought it was Rafe. Not that she would admit it to Chisholm, but Rafe scared her.
“What is it?”
“Time to go.” He was looking at her strangely, giving her the impression that he’d been standing over her for some time watching her sleep. The thought made her heart beat faster.
“You haven’t changed your mind, have you?” she asked as she threw off the sleeping bag and got to her feet.
“If you’re asking if I trust you, the verdict is still out,” he said as he tied up the bedroll and turned to head out of the cave.
“I’m asking if you’re going to let me go once we find the rustlers,” she said to his retreating backside. There was something in the set of his shoulders that told her the verdict was still out on that, as well.
As she started after him, she noticed that their saddles were gone. She’d slept right through him packing up everything and apparently saddling their horses. Exiting the cave into the clear, cold darkness, she spotted their mounts in the starlight below them on the mountain. Without needing to check her watch, she knew it would be daylight in an hour or so. By then they would have reached the first corral.
Glancing over at Chisholm, she wished there was some way to talk him out of going with her. But she could see by his expression it would take nothing short of death.
Jinx gave only a moment’s thought to taking off on her horse and trying to reach the corral before him. That was if she could outrun him. Her horse was fast, but she didn’t like the odds, given what she’d seen of the rancher. After all, he’d caught her before and risked life and limb to stop her.
She didn’t doubt he would do it again.
Warning Rafe and the rest of them would only get Chisholm killed. She was determined to keep that from happening. But he wasn’t making it easy.
She would have to bide her time. All she could hope was that she got lucky and found a way to still get what she desperately needed—the leader of this rustling ring and the man she held responsible for her father’s death. She would bring him down—then the others.
“I’m going to need my gun back,” she said as they reached the horses.
Chisholm swung up into his saddle and she thought for a moment he hadn’t heard her. “You’ll get it back after I get my cattle.”
“That’s a mistake,” she said as she mounted her horse. “You’re going to need all the help you can get once we find the rustlers.”
“Arming you could be an even bigger mistake. There is nothing like a woman bent on revenge.” They were close enough she saw the gleam in his dark eyes. He thought she was dangerous. Determination had hardened the lines of his handsome face. But it was no longer just about his cattle. He was mad at himself for kissing her.
EMMA WOKE TO DARKNESS. She wasn’t sure at first what had startled her awake until she heard movement and rolled over to find Aggie standing over her.
“What is it?” she cried, hurriedly sitting up.
Aggie hadn’t said a word. Nor had she moved. And yet Emma sensed something had happened and was filled with fear at the thought that she might never see Hoyt again. Under the fear was a deep ache that made it hard to breathe. Before Hoyt, she had never known this kind of love.
“What’s happened?” she asked, sliding back to rest against the wall. It felt cold and yet solid, and right now she needed solid.
“Hoyt doesn’t believe you left him,” Aggie said. There was anger and frustration in her voice as she snapped on a flashlight, blinding Emma for a moment. “He seems to think something has happened to you.”
Emma tried to hide the pleasure she felt. She’d prayed that Hoyt would know she would never leave him, that she believed in his innocence and would stand by him no matter what.
“Zane has gone to Colorado to try to find you.”
She felt tears come to her eyes. Her wonderful stepsons—as tough as she’d been on them, now one of them was looking for her. Her heart swelled. Hoyt did know her. He wouldn’t give up until he found her—even from jail.
Aggie looked disgusted in the ambient glow from the flashlight.
“This got you up before daylight?” Emma asked as a thought struck her. Had someone called Aggie to let her know about Zane’s trip to Colorado? No, she thought with a curse. Aggie was probably still listening to everything that happened at the house. The sheriff either hadn’t gotten her letter about the listening devices—or hadn’t believed her.
“You’re going to have to send Hoyt a letter,” Aggie said as if the idea had just come to her. “You’re going to have to convince him to call off his sons. For your safety—and theirs. Otherwise…”
Emma didn’t want to think about the otherwise as Aggie left the room, locking the door behind her. Was she planning on mailing the letter from Denver to make it look as if Emma had gone there? Or somewhere even farther away from Whitehorse, Montana?
It had never crossed her mind that Aggie might have someone helping her. She’d thought the woman had been acting alone. But now she feared Aggie had resources no one knew about, including perhaps someone as fanatical as she was.
THE HUGE MONTANA SKY was getting lighter by the time they neared the abandoned corral. With it just over a rise, Dawson reined in his horse, aware of Jinx beside him. He glanced up at the last of the stars glittering overhead and said a silent prayer, knowing they might need it, since they had no idea what was awaiting them just over this hill.
Dawson could hear the cattle lowing in the pre-dawn. The sound he had grown up with and loved now felt lonely.
He looked over at Jinx and wished to hell he’d left her tied up in the cave. But he knew that might have put her in even more danger if the rustlers went looking for her after he took back his cattle and before he could get help.
As Dawson studied her in the faint light of the new day, he wished he could change a lot of things. He was about to jeopardize both of their lives. The thought almost made him laugh. Even if he’d left Jinx in the cave, it wouldn’t stop her from going after the rustlers and their leader. There was nothing like a woman set on revenge—or justice.
He turned his attention from Jinx to the best way to take the rustlers by surprise. The sky was lightening to the east. It wouldn’t be long before dawn. He figured with Jinx missing, the rustlers would be up early—and expecting trouble.
They’d ridden through silvery darkness and now the old Mill Creek place was just over the rise.
“We strike fast,” Dawson whispered now as he reached over and tied her hands with the hank of rope again—this time, putting her hands in front of her.
She looked up in surprise.
“I’m just trying to keep them from killing you,” he said. “If they think I took you prisoner, they might believe you. I wouldn’t bet on it, though.” He pulled out his bandanna. His gaze met hers as she leaned toward him so he could tie the gag.
“Last chance to change your mind,” he said.
She shook her head. He swore and gagged her.
He knew there was nothing else he could say, and daylight was burning its way up the mountain to the east. If they were going to do this, it had to be now.
“Good luck.” He felt his heart pounding in his chest painfully. “I’d tell you to be careful, but…”
She nodded, a smile in her eyes. Then she spurred her horse and took off, as if like him, she feared what he might say. He was hot on her heels as they came up over the rise.
SHERIFF MCCALL CRAWFORD pulled up in front of the main house at Chisholm Cattle Company. It was early, the sun was just coming up off the prairie floor to the east, but she wanted to catch the Chisholms before they went off to do their chores.
As she stepped from her patrol SUV, Marshall Chisholm came out onto the porch. He looked wary. Like all the Chisholm men, he was handsome and exuded confidence. Three of the Chisholm brothers had the coal-black hair and eyes that reflected their Native American ancestry. The other three were blond with blue eyes.
“I’m here about Emma.”
“You found her?” Marshall had the mocha coloring, the dark hair and eyes and high cheekbones. There was a gentleness about him that belied his powerful size.
“No, I’m sorry. I take it you haven’t heard from her?” McCall said.
He shook his head.
“She sent me a letter. Would you mind if I came inside?”
“You might as well,” Marshall said. “My brothers are going to want to hear this.”
Three of his brothers were sitting around the kitchen table when she walked in but they rose at the sight of her, all looking wary and worried. Colton and Logan were two of the fraternal triplets, both blond and blue-eyed and just as handsome as the others.
“Is this about Dad?” Colton asked. He’d recently become engaged to one of McCall’s deputies, Halley Robinson.
“It’s sheriff department business.” McCall put a finger to her lips and stepped around the table to look up. The small smoke alarm was right where Emma had said it would be. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to speak with all of you outside. I have something in my patrol car I need to show you.”
They looked surprised but followed her out of the house. Once they were standing next to her SUV, McCall said, “Where’s Zane and Dawson?” Zane was the third of the triplets.
“Dawson’s up checking the cattle on summer range,” Marshall said. Dawson was the older brother of Marshall and Tanner.
“Zane’s gone to find Emma,” Logan said. Unlike his brothers, he wore his blond hair long and was the rebel of the family, spending his off time not on horseback but on a motorcycle. “What’s going on?”
“Emma left me a message at my office yesterday. She said that your house is bugged with listening devices.”
“That’s crazy,” Marshall said.
“Maybe not,” the sheriff said. “She told me what to look for. Did any of you put up that small smoke alarm hidden on the other side of your kitchen light?”
They all looked at one another. Logan spoke first. “I’ve never even noticed it before I saw you looking at it. Why would we put it there when Dad installed new smoke alarms last year all through the house in plain sight?”
“Emma believed that Aggie Wells isn’t just alive, but that she’s been in your house,” McCall said. “That she’s been eavesdropping on everything that is being said there.”
“Are you telling us you agree with Dad, that Aggie Wells might have done something to Emma?” Colton asked as if seeing where this was going.
“I don’t know what to believe at this point. But if Emma is right and Aggie Wells is alive and those smoke alarms in there are really listening devices… I know that’s a lot of ifs, but that smoke alarm looks like one of the new high-tech listening devices any fool can buy off the internet.”
“Well, we’re about to find out,” Marshall said, turning back toward the house.
McCall caught his arm to stop him. “Wait, if Aggie is listening in on your conversations, what has she heard? Did you mention that Zane had gone to look for Emma?”
Marshall swore.
“We’ve been staying here at the house, so I would imagine she’s heard everything that was said,” Colton said. “Including that Zane has gone to Denver to try to find out anything he can about Emma.”
The brothers looked as worried as McCall felt.
“These listening devices,” Colton said. “Doesn’t she have to be nearby with some sort of transmitter?”
McCall shook her head. “The new ones can be accessed through a cell phone or computer. Aggie doesn’t even have to be in the area. But I do have an idea. There might be a way to make sure Emma was right about this. We need to disable the one in the kitchen, but we have to make it look like an accident.”
“Are you suggesting a little roughhousing between brothers?” Marshall asked.
“Or a knock-down, drag-out fight,” McCall said. “Think you can do that?”
They laughed at that. “Not that any of us ever fight. Then what?” Colton asked.
“If you all do most of your talking in the kitchen in the morning, if it is a listening device and if Aggie is alive and listening, then she’s going to want to come and fix it. You’ll just have to make sure she knows when all of you will be out of the house for a length of time. Emma said she found several other small smoke alarms in the house.” She told them the locations.
“So she can still hear us if we’re in the house,” Colton said with a nod.
“Do you think she’s hurt Emma?” Logan asked, sounding upset.
McCall hoped not. “If Aggie staged her own disappearance hoping to make Hoyt look guilty of her murder, then with Hoyt in jail, I believe she won’t hurt Emma. Once he’s out…”
“If she wants to frame him for Emma’s murder, he has to be out of jail,” Logan agreed.
“But Dad is trying to make bail. He’s desperate to find Emma,” Marshall said. “His new lawyer thinks he might be able to get him out by the weekend. He’s pulling every string possible, including going to the governor.”
“I doubt telling our father what’s going on would make him slow down that process,” Marshall said. “If anything, he will try to get out sooner.”
“So we don’t tell him,” Logan said.
“If you’re right, then Aggie is going to be curious about what you showed us in your patrol car,” Colton said. “Is it anything we might want to argue about?”
The sheriff smiled. “More evidence against your father and a warning for you Chisholms not to interfere in my investigation. Is that sufficient?”
“Hell, we’ve never needed a reason to fight,” Logan said. “You have to find Emma. If something happens to her…”
“Let’s see if we can’t draw out whoever installed these smoke alarms and start from there,” McCall said. “That’s if the smoke alarm is a high-tech listening device. I don’t need to tell you that looking for Emma if Aggie has her in this part of Montana would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. My deputies are already looking for Aggie. Once you have the smoke alarm disabled, bring it to me. If it is a listening device, then we’ll set the trap and see what falls into it.”
EARLY-MORNING MIST HUNG in the air as Dawson rode over the rise after Jinx. The minute he topped the hill, he saw the corral below bathed in the faint light of dawn and heard the bawling cattle and knew what the rustlers had done.
The rustlers had felt pressured and had been forced to leave some of the calves behind that couldn’t go any farther.
Dawson had his rifle drawn, ready for the rustlers to show. But nothing but the calves in the corral moved in the abandoned ranch yard. No guard. The rustlers had been expecting trouble. Only the corrals still stood, the house nothing more than a decaying foundation of charred small stones and mortar after an apparent fire.
There was a chill in the air, a dampness from the morning dew that glistened on the grass. The calves bawled loudly as he and Jinx rode in. Dawson cursed the rustlers as he reined in.
Jinx had stopped a few yards from the corral and now sat looking despondent. Like him, she had to realize that her boyfriend Rafe was more than a little suspicious of her. The rustlers must have moved the cattle farther east, closer to where the semitrailers would be picking them up for quick sale to some crooked cattle buyer.
He swung down off his horse and walked over to untie her hands. As she took off the bandanna gag, even in the dim light, he saw her defeat.
“How far is it to the next corral they planned to use?” he asked. “I’ll herd these cattle down to it today.” It would be slower going, but he didn’t want to leave them here.
As he started over to open the gate, she said, “They’ll be expecting you to do that.”
“I know,” he said without turning around. “But I can’t leave these calves here like this.”
Dawson turned to look at her. She wanted to go after the rustlers, catch up with them. She didn’t want to herd a bunch of calves down to the next corral.
“I can’t stop you from leaving,” he said, meeting her gaze. “It would probably be better that way. If they catch you riding with me…”
He could see from her expression that his offer had taken her by surprise. She actually looked at a loss for words. He wasn’t just offering to let her go. He’d just told her he trusted her.
You’re a damned fool.
Probably, he admitted. She could ride out, warn the rustlers and they would get away with as many cattle as they could herd to the truck. But if she had any chance of survival, given her determination to bring down this rustling ring, then she had to get as far away from him as possible.
He waited for her to overcome her initial surprise and take off like a shot.
But she surprised him.
“I’ll ride with you as far as the next corral,” Jinx said as she swung down from her horse and, taking off her straw hat, slipped through the corral fence to wave it in the air. The calves began to move toward the open gate.
She was going to help him move the calves down to their mothers? Didn’t she realize how dangerous that was going to be if the rustlers were waiting in ambush?
He felt a hitch in his chest. As much as she wanted justice, she couldn’t chance that Rafe would send a couple of his men back up this way to check out whatever story she came up with. She was worried about saving him.
The last thing Dawson wanted was that. The woman was neck deep in a rustling ring. Whatever her good intentions, he suspected she’d been the one to target his ranch. Jinx was far from an innocent in all this and it aggravated him that he’d let her get to him.
“You sure about this?” he said as she turned away from him.
She let out a laugh as she swung up into her saddle and began to move the cattle east toward the rising sun. “I’m sure I’m a damned fool.”
He knew the feeling. As he spurred his horse and they began to move the calves down the mountain in search of their mothers, he reminded himself that he hadn’t changed Jinx’s mind about going after the leader of the rustlers. He’d only postponed the inevitable.
He supposed he should be glad of that. Did he really think it possible to get her to come to her senses?
As they began to move the calves toward the next abandoned corral and hopefully their anxious mothers, he couldn’t help watching Jinx. She was as good in the saddle rounding up cows as any cattleman he’d known.
He reminded himself that once they reached the next corral she’d be riding off into the sunset and not even looking back. She was a woman on a quest and a man didn’t want to get in the way of a woman like that.
Keep your distance from this woman.
But the warning fell on deaf ears.
As they topped a rise, he looked out across the wild country. He knew the next corral wasn’t far, from what Jinx had told him. Up here in this part of Montana there were a lot of abandoned old ranch places. It was big country, inhospitable a large part of the year with blizzards, howling wind that brought in dangerous storms and below-zero temperatures in the winter, and blazing heat, mosquitoes the size of bats and stunning sunsets all the other months.
The hardest part for some was the loneliness. Ranches were few and far between, the sky up here vast, the land seeming to go on forever without another living soul for miles. It took a special kind of person to appreciate it.
Dawson thought of Emma and his dad and felt a heart-wrenching ache. He’d actually thought his father had finally found the perfect wife for him.
As he looked over at Jinx, he saw that she had reined in and was looking out across the country with a kind of awe. She had removed her straw hat to catch some of the breeze that ruffled her blond hair. Her face was lightly tanned, her eyes the same blue as the big sky that spread out before them.
As hard as he tried not to, he lost a little piece of his heart.