Hero's Return. B.J. Daniels
skeletal remains found in the creek near your ranch.”
“So you sent the package to me.”
“I’d hoped you were in contact with your family and that the package would get you home. I wasn’t sure the remains were Madeline’s let alone that you would return.”
He looked shocked.
“I figured if you were the other man my brother had written about, then the doll might resonate with you.”
Tucker let out a bark of laugh. “Oh, it resonated, all right. I’ve believed for nineteen years that I was the reason she killed herself and our son.”
She shook her head. “How could you let her fool you like that?”
“I wish I knew. So you’ve known about me and Madeline for—”
“Years. That’s how long I’ve been looking for you. You did a good job of hiding. Does your brother the sheriff know that you haven’t been going by Tucker Cahill all this time?”
Tucker was staring at her again. “I see what you meant about the two of us having a lot in common. And what exactly were you going to do when you found me?”
She shook her head, unable to speak for a moment around the lump in her throat. “It was Madeline I wanted. If you were with her... But when the bones were found, I had a feeling you’d be coming back alone.”
They both fell silent for a few minutes.
“I’m sorry about your brother,” he said. “I had no idea there were...others.”
“Yes, except with my brother Madeline obviously survived her leap into the river to be saved by whoever she was working with and continued to blackmail Clay until he couldn’t take the guilt anymore.”
“It wasn’t just the guilt. I would imagine he thought he loved her.”
Kate ground her teeth. “That makes it even worse.” She’d never understood how her brother could have taken his own life. “She was that good?”
“When you’re seventeen... But yes, she was good at making an inexperienced teenager fall for her.”
She felt all the anger leak from her like a pinprick to a tire. It left her simply tired and, again, close to tears. Not even her parents knew everything about Madeline. It felt good to finally say what had been bottled up inside her to someone who’d known the woman.
“There’s another reason I wanted to find you,” Kate said. “I need to know everything about Madeline so I can find her accomplice.”
The waiter tentatively came back to the table. “I don’t want to rush you.”
“No, it’s fine. Are you ready to order?” Tucker asked her.
She nodded. For the first time since her brother had died, she didn’t feel that hard knot in her chest. Finally, she would avenge his death. Tucker Cahill didn’t know it yet, but he was going to help her.
BILLIE DEE COULDN’T quit thinking about Henry’s proposal. She was deep in thought when Darby came into the kitchen the next morning.
“Can I make you some breakfast?” she asked, happy to see him. She was dreading the day when Mariah gave birth and the two of them moved out of the upstairs apartment. While she knew it was selfish, she liked knowing they were up there when she came in early in the morning to start the day’s cooking.
“Thanks, but no breakfast today. I have some waitstaff interviews this morning. With summer and the busiest time of the year coming up, I need more help. Mariah is going to be busy nesting, same with Lillie. You thought any more about the apartment upstairs? No,” he said with a laugh. “Of course you wouldn’t want to move in up there, not with—”
Just then Mariah came down the stairs, her huge belly leading the way. Billie Dee put a finger to her lips. Mariah and Darby’s twin sister, Lillie, were best friends and told each other everything.
He nodded and went to help his wife down the last few steps before the two went to the front of the saloon to get ready to interview candidates before opening for the day.
Billie Dee turned back to her cooking. She liked to cook what she knew. And what she knew was Tex-Mex with a side of Cajun. Which in this part of the country seemed exotic—and often too spicy. Since she’d gone to work here, she’d introduced this part of Montana to her brand of cooking and this morning she was making up a batch of her famous chili.
When she heard more voices at the front of the old stage stop, she peered down the hall to see the candidates for the job.
Her breath caught. She had to grab the back of one of the chairs at the kitchen table for support. That face. She’d been looking for it in every young woman she passed for the past twenty-six years—terrified she’d see it and terrified she wouldn’t.
The young woman looked up, her eyes a startling blue that rivaled even the Montana sky. And that face... But there was no recognition in the young woman’s gaze.
The woman looked away and Billie Dee felt as if someone had just stomped on her heart.
* * *
TUCKER WAS HAULED out of his dream by his cell phone chime. Without opening his eyes, he reached over to shut off the phone, surprised it was morning. He didn’t want to wake up. He could still feel the night on his bare skin as he clung to the erotic dream he’d been having.
Almost midnight, the Montana sky ablaze with stars. Hot water bubbled up from deep in the earth to pool in the middle of the large boulders as a small waterfall washed over the rocks like a lullaby.
He lay naked in the water waiting for her. He knew she could come to him in this isolated place. The natural hot spring was surrounded by mountain ranges, deep purple against the skyline. It was their special place. He could hear the faint tinkling of her silver anklet as it dangled from her ankle. Other than the anklet, the only other thing she wore was a large straw hat that hid her face. Strange, since there was only moonlight.
Her hair was tucked up under the hat as she padded barefoot toward him and the tantalizing pool. She had just reached the edge, stuck in one perfectly pedicured toe and reached to take off her hat...
His cell phone rang again. Cursing, he opened his eyes and picked up the phone to see who was calling at this hour. When he saw it was Flint, he answered, “What?”
“I guess I don’t have to ask how your date was last night.”
He could feel the dream slipping away. Worse, he’d glimpsed the face under the hat and... It hadn’t been Madeline’s. It was Kate’s. The dream dissolved into a feeling of frustration. Kate?
“There a reason you called?”
“I forgot you’ve never been a morning person,” Flint said. “If you get a chance, stop by my office.”
He sat up a little. “Has something happened?”
“No, I just wanted to ask you more questions about Madeline.”
“Madeline?” He swung his legs over the side of the bed as he tried to clear his head. “I told you everything I know about her.”
“I talked to the sheriff up in Judith Basin County. He says the Dunns cleared out about twenty years ago and, as far as he knows, haven’t been seen since. It was before his time, but he said they were an odd family. Said there were an older brother and some sisters. Stayed to themselves in some big old house outside town. As far as he knew, there wasn’t anyone living there anymore. Could take time to track them down, if any of them are still around.”
A dead end. Clawson Creek? It wasn’t that far from Denton where