SEPTEMBER
Tucker McBride fed coins into an ancient soft drink machine, heard the clink clink clink as they fell into the box, opened the door, and pulled out a frosty glass bottle. After positioning it beneath the opener, he yanked, and the metal cap clattered into the box. Seated on a stool behind the gas station’s counter, an old man with a tobacco chaw in his cheek watched him intently.
Tucker lifted the bottle to his lips and sipped. Sweet, syrupy, black cherry flavor exploded on his tongue, and instantly took him back to childhood. “Dublin Dr Pepper. Man, I haven’t had one of these in twenty years.”
The ingredient that made the particular variety of Dr Pepper bottled in the small town of Dublin so special was Texas’s own Imperial Pure Cane Sugar. It made the soft drink sweeter, to be sure, but a Texan would tell you Dublin Dr Pepper just tasted different. Better.
“Well, you ain’t having one today either.” The gas station owner turned his head and spat a stream of tobacco juice into a spittoon. “You must not be from around here if you don’t know that the corporate suits out of Dallas put nails in the coffin of Dublin Dr Pepper a few years back. Sued the little guy, they did. Not allowed to make Dr Pepper anymore. What you’re drinking is a Dublin Original. Twenty-four flavors instead of twenty-three.”
No, he hadn’t known. That wasn’t the sort of news a man usually picked up in the desert of Iraq, the mountains of Afghanistan, or the swamp of Washington, DC. “A knockoff, then. Damned good one.”
His second sip took him back to summer days spent with his cousins, Jackson and Boone, at their grandparents’ lake house at Possum Kingdom. Nothing tasted better on a hot summer day than Dublin Dr Pepper. They’d consumed the soft drinks by the caseload until they’d grown old enough to switch to Shiner beer.
The man behind the counter shifted his tobacco chaw from his right cheek to his left, then said, “Yeah. Can’t get Original anymore either. Big city reporter stirred up trouble by writing about the situation, so the family pulled the plug on the flavor. Couldn’t afford another lawsuit from Goliath. I hauled two truckloads of Original back here. Worked our way through about half of it.” He gestured toward the bottle in Tucker’s hand and said, “You be careful who you share my location with, you hear? I don’t believe in wasting the good stuff on folks who can’t appreciate what they got.”
“You have my word. I appreciate you offering me access.”
“I always offer to the military. I’m a vet myself. Vietnam.”
Tucker gave him a look of surprise. “I’m not in uniform.” Not anymore.
The man shrugged. “You got the look, son. So, where you headed? Fort Hood?”
Tucker took another long sip of his drink. “No. Not this time.”
He’d left the huge, Central Texas army base for the final time earlier today on his H-D Road King without a firm destination in mind. Now, he turned his head and looked through the store’s ancient screened doors toward the motorcycle parked at the gas pump. “I’m possibly on the road to Redemption. Or maybe Ruin. The jury’s still out on that one.”
“Huh.” The gas station owner rubbed his grizzled chin stubble. “Well, I reckon most of us stand at that crossroads sometime in our lives. You want some jerky to go with your Coke? It’s made locally. You won’t find better.”
In Texas, all soft drinks were Cokes, not sodas or pops or even Dr Peppers. Glad to be home, Tucker paid for his gas, his Original, and three different flavors of beef jerky, thanked the man behind the counter, and headed outside. He leaned against his motorcycle, sipping the drink and chewing on a piece of jerky as he scrutinized the intersection before him. Wonder how many farm-to-market road intersections existed in Texas? He knew the two-lane farm roads numbered over three thousand and made up over half of the state’s road system. Bet Boone would know the answer to the question. He knew useless facts like that.
Tucker blew an airstream over his bottle to make it whoo just like he’d done when he was a kid, in no real hurry to move along. He was on no time clock. Nobody knew he’d come home to Texas. This was the first time in a long time he’d had the luxury to lollygag while traveling.
For the majority of the past decade, he’d operated on a ticking clock while finding his way in and out of jungles, deserts, mountains, urban fortresses, and just about anywhere else someone needed the services of his specialized Army Ranger unit. The work had suited him. He’d excelled at the job, aided by his natural talents and traits—tenacity, endurance, the ability to make quick decisions, and an uncanny sense of direction. It also helped that he’d had more than his fair share of good luck and, according to his late father, a head as hard as the granite dome of Enchanted Rock.
Tucker had been little more than a boy when he’d decided on a military career. Having plotted that course early on, he’d never strayed from the path.
Until now. Now, he’d not only veered from the trail, he’d burned his map, smashed his compass, and shattered his satellite phone on the way into the wilderness.
He’d left the service. He’d quit the military. This was the first time in his life that he’d ever quit anything, and he didn’t have a clue where to go from here.
He was lost.
Figuratively speaking, that is. Tucker knew he stood at a farm-to-market crossroads where the prairies and lakes region of Texas transitioned to the Hill Country. Where he was lost was inside himself. He’d lost his identity, his sense of self. He’d grown up, and he no longer knew what he wanted to be. Helluva thing for a man in his mid-thirties.
“So, which way are you going?” he asked himself. He could turn north, head for the family ranch outside of Fort Worth and do some catching up with kin. His parents were both gone now, and he’d been an only child, but he still had plenty of family.
Family who would pepper him with questions and ask for explanations.
He wasn’t ready for that. He would not take FM 486 north toward Thorndale and weave his way up toward Fort Worth.
Instead, he could head southeast, mosey on down to the coast and Port Aransas, and rent a fishing boat. Or, he could make a real ride of it and go west, way out west toward Big Bend. Hiking and camping and communing with nature sounded appealing to him.
That’s what Tucker liked best of all. He belonged outdoors, where the air was clean and fresh, and the people along the trail were generous and good and forthright and kind.
He did not belong on special assignment behind a desk in the nation’s capital, surrounded by vipers—duty that revealed the political underbelly of institutions he had always revered. Duty that darkened a man’s soul.
Swamp didn’t begin to describe it. Slimy cesspool was more appropriate. They’d made him responsible for one tiny little area of it, no bigger than a broom closet in the grand scheme of things. He’d made a valiant effort to clean up his space, but the vipers and rats had blocked him at every turn. He’d finally admitted he was fighting a losing battle. His only choice was to surrender to the filth or leave.
Tucker had left, but doing so damaged something inside him. He needed to heal. He needed to shed the film of slime he’d acquired. He was counting on clean country air and crystal clear spring water to do the trick.
That crossed the Gulf of Mexico off his list. He wouldn’t take FM 112 south toward Old Dime Box either.
So … what would it be? The Piney Woods? The Davis Mountains? Big Bend National Park?
No. Tucker didn’t truly have a decision to make. He’d known his ultimate destination ever since he’d exited the Fort Hood gate, even if he’d pretended otherwise and followed his nose on the road for a while.
From here, he was going to head southwest toward the Texas Hill Country. Toward Enchanted Canyon, to be exact. The air blew clean and fresh there, and the water ran sweet and crisp and cleansing. The only vipers he’d likely run across slithered on their bellies or coiled and shook their rattles in warning. The people there, well, they didn’t come any better than his cousin Jackson. Tucker could tolerate that much family, at least. Jackson wouldn’t press him with questions he didn’t want to answer.
He drained his soft drink, placed the empty in the wooden bottle crate sitting on the ground beside the pumps, then swung a long leg over the saddle and started his bike.
He’d probably take a ride to Big Bend and another to the coast and do a trek up to the Piney Woods in the coming weeks and months, but today, for now, he’d take the scenic route toward the little tourist town of Redemption. He’d look up Jackson and share the salient pieces of his story. Jackson would give him the space he needed right now. Plus, he could be counted on to smooth Tucker’s way with the rest of the fam-damly.
While Tucker had been waging war in Washington, Jackson had taken point in dealing with a family windfall, the inheritance of Enchanted Canyon from a distant relative. He’d overseen the remodeling of the nineteenth-century brothel and dance hall that stood at the halfway point between Redemption and the ghost town and former outlaw conclave of Ruin, snuggled at the back of the canyon. The cathouse had been converted to a bed-and-breakfast, and the Fallen Angel Inn had recently opened to great success. Many of the guests it welcomed came to hear music at the Last Chance Hall, which was Jackson’s pet project.
Jackson was the perfect person to run interference for Tucker. No stranger to turmoil after a contentious divorce and child custody fight, he would be a sympathetic ear for whatever parts of Tucker’s story he wanted to share. And maybe, just maybe, Jackson could help Tucker find his way to … somewhere.
So Tucker headed for the Hill Country and took pleasure in the ride through a fertile stretch of rolling plains along the way. The afternoon was overcast, but the temperature hovered in the mid-seventies. A mild breeze carried the lingering scent of morning rain. The cotton harvest was underway, some of the fields stripped bare, others white as snow. Fat Angus, Herefords, and Holsteins populated the pastures. Seeing them made him hungry for a good steak. A short time later, as he rode through a bottomland pecan orchard, he added pecan pie to the menu.
He would need to decide where he wanted to stay overnight before long. He could step up his pace and make it into Redemption tonight, but camping held greater appeal. Today’s weather forecast called for a cold front to blow through around sunset, taking the clouds with it. It had been way too long since he’d camped beneath Texas’s starry sky.
As was his custom, Tucker carried essential gear with him. He simply needed to find a place to build his fire and a shelter. In his mind’s eye, he pictured the map he’d studied before heading out from Fort Hood this morning and reviewed the landmarks he’d noted along his meandering today. Bastrop State Park wasn’t too far away. He could alter his direction a skosh and go there. Finding a vacant campsite this time of year shouldn’t be a problem. Tomorrow, he could take a morning hike through the park, then circle around Austin and arrive in Redemption midafternoon.
Decision made, he took the next southeast turn, and a few minutes later, zoomed past a figure before he registered what he’d seen.
A woman.
A vision with mile-long legs and glossy waves of hair the color of rich mahogany that fell almost to her waist. She had finely drawn features: her face heart-shaped, her nose straight, her lips lush and full. A sleeveless red dress hugged her voluptuous curves, its narrow tab shoulders revealing the strap of a red bra underneath. Her full hips enticingly swayed as she walked on the shoulder of the road in a pair of red high heels.
No car was in sight. No house was in sight. No other human being was in sight.
Former Army Ranger Tucker McBride had just spied a long-legged damsel in distress.
Gillian Thacker was having a wretched day.
She’d had a fight with Jeremy, the worst they’d ever had. It had started out over a relatively little thing—wedding details—and escalated quickly. Before she knew it, they’d had the row of their relationship.
The trip to Bastrop for an arts festival and two nights at a historic B&B was supposed to have been a romantic getaway for the two of them, a surprise he’d popped on her earlier this week. She’d been thrilled. She’d needed both a break from work and to spend some quality time with her fiancé. The entire month of August had been ridiculously busy at Bliss Bridal Salon, the wedding gown shop in Redemption, Texas, that she owned in partnership with her mother. Due to her workload, in the past three weeks Gillian had had to cancel two dates with Jeremy in addition to her plans to accompany him to Houston last weekend for a banking industry symposium at which he was a speaker.
They’d no sooner arrived in Bastrop this afternoon and begun unpacking when the bickering began. Really, why did Jeremy have an opinion about the reception china Mom wanted to use, anyway?
Gillian threw the small stone as hard as she could off into the cotton field, then continued to brood as she walked down the narrow two-lane road. In three-inch heels. Thinking about the wedding and the argument, so that she wasn’t dwelling on her current predicament.
She was starting to get a little scared. “But I won’t think about that.”
She couldn’t believe this all started over china, the lovely mismatched service for two hundred that her mother had been collecting for years in anticipation of using for her only daughter’s wedding reception. Although, to be precise, the china had only been a part of today’s explosion. What really set Jeremy off was the fact that Gillian had asked for her mother’s opinion rather than his about what flatware to use with the china. Never mind that the man neither knew nor cared anything about table settings, and her mother loved nothing better than setting pretty tables.
It was a control thing with Jeremy.
Gillian and her mom enjoyed a very close relationship. In addition to being parent and child, they were partners in a business and friends. Gillian was beginning to suspect that Jeremy was threatened by it. He needed to assert power, which was silly because he wasn’t in competition with her mother. Gillian loved them both, she needed them both, but in totally different ways. Why couldn’t he see that?
He’d gotten his feathers ruffled rather often of late. She had always tried her best to soothe them, but today, when he’d wanted to veto the flatware selection, she reached her limit.
He’d been mean about it.
The ensuing argument had spiraled from china to flowers to sparklers to signature drinks to photo booth props—and then it got out of control. By the time she’d stormed from the B&B in Bastrop where they had planned to spend the weekend, she and Jeremy had fought over some idiotic things, and some very serious ones.
Did he honestly believe she was too devoted to her work? She was a small business owner. If she wasn’t devoted, the salon wouldn’t be successful!
And the new event-coordinating business they were planning to start after their wedding was something for the two of them to do together. As partners. Her mother wouldn’t be involved at all in Blissful Events beyond making referrals.
Jeremy had always said he’d liked the fact that Gillian was ambitious. Why was that all of a sudden a problem?
Then he’d leveled some truly hurtful claims. Gillian could admit that she could be too stubborn and single-minded on occasion. Maybe sometimes she was blind to what Jeremy needed from her and their relationship. But where in the world had he come up with the whole “too friendly with his friends” accusation? She’d never—never once—acted in any inappropriate manner with any other man, much less one of his friends. That he’d accuse her of that had taken her breath away and blown the lid off her temper.
At the time, she had been thankful she’d had the means to leave the B&B. She needed to be in Dallas for a meeting early Monday morning, so in order to save her some travel time, she and Jeremy had driven to Bastrop in separate cars. On Sunday afternoon when he headed west to return to Redemption, she’d planned to go north.
Now, she wasn’t so glad she’d had a getaway car.
She glanced up at the sky. Still heavy clouds. Was it supposed to rain today? She hoped it wouldn’t rain today. That was all she needed.
“It’ll be okay,” she told herself. Everything would be okay. The sun would come out, and then she would at least be able to determine in which direction she walked.
She was lost. Completely, thoroughly, totally lost.
She couldn’t believe she’d acted so foolishly. It wasn’t like her. Not at all. She was organized and attentive and intelligent—but not too friendly. She didn’t do things like run away from an argument, jump into her car, and drive blindly away. She was a careful driver. She didn’t speed, and she paid attention to the road. She hadn’t received a traffic ticket since college, and that hadn’t been for speeding or reckless driving. She’d forgotten to renew her registration!
But this afternoon, she’d left her mind behind in the Katherine Suite at Lost Pines Inn. By the time she’d pulled over and plugged her destination into her car’s GPS system—something she seldom used so wasn’t all that familiar with—the route it had plotted took her on a series of farm roads. Rather than go the fifteen miles to the interstate highway, she’d followed the GPS woman’s voice like an automaton. She’d driven east and west and north and even south, through tiny towns she’d never heard of before. And she’d grown up in Texas, little more than one hundred miles from where she’d started in Bastrop!
She hadn’t seen another vehicle in well over an hour. Two hours, probably. She couldn’t know for sure because her phone had died, and she couldn’t recharge it because she’d loaned Jeremy the charging cord she kept in her car. She didn’t wear a watch. The only jewelry she regularly wore were earrings and the diamond solitaire that Jeremy had given to her last New Year’s Eve.
She glanced down at her ringless left hand. Had she really taken it off and flung it at Jeremy while shouting they were done, before storming out of the B&B? She wasn’t a drama queen. She didn’t do scenes like that.
She had today.
She hadn’t meant it. Well, maybe she’d meant it at the time, but that was in the heat of the moment. Her feet were killing her. Tears stung her eyes. Again. She wasn’t ordinarily a crier. She’d cried more today than in the past ten years put together.
She needed to get a grip. Every couple fought. This was not a big deal. So what that Jeremy had hurt her feelings? She’d surely hurt his too. She should have stayed and talked it out, not let herself get angry and scared, and leave. Leaving never solved problems.
Although, she’d had a right to be angry. Jeremy had been in a mood, himself. Words were weapons, and he had certainly wielded his words like a sword. He could be an actor on Game of Thrones or Outlander. Sir Jeremy of Lost Pines Inn. He’d wounded her, left her bleeding from a thousand cuts, so she’d probably been right to walk away. Not that she’d walked. She’d run down the stairs and dashed to her car and spun her tires upon pulling away from the inn.
Gillian never spun her tires.
“If only—” She broke off, halting her steps to work another pebble from her shoe. Maybe she should try going barefoot for a bit. At least the farm road was clean. She probably wouldn’t step on broken glass. Or a rusty nail. When had she last had a tetanus shot? How soon did one die from tetanus, anyway? Did tetanus kill people? She wasn’t sure. If only she’d grabbed her bag before leaving the B&B, she’d have had a change of shoes, the cute sandals with the rhinestones. If only—
Stop it!
If and only were the two most useless words to use together in a sentence. If only Gillian had paid attention to where she was going. If only that stupid feral hog hadn’t run across the road right in front of her. If only she hadn’t swerved to miss it and hit a pecan tree instead.
It was a beautiful tree. Probably a hundred years old. Gillian hoped her little crossover SUV hadn’t hurt it.
She sniffled. Whimpered. Whined aloud. She was lost. She couldn’t believe she was lost!
Then, she heard something. She straightened and turned an ear toward the sound, listening intently. Help? Finally?
An engine. Not a car engine. Not a pickup driven by a kind, gentle, friendly cotton farmer.
Gillian heard a motorcycle headed her way. Coming fast.
A motorcycle. Roaring down a two-lane road.
She pictured the driver. He’d be a big man covered in tats, wearing a black leather vest over a wife-beater shirt, with a chaw of tobacco stuck in his cheek. Huntsville prison wasn’t too far from here. He probably just got out of the pen where he’d done twenty years. For murder. And he hadn’t had a woman in twenty years.
She really needed to stop listening to those true-crime podcasts.
What to do? What to do?
She couldn’t very well hide. She was wearing red and surrounded by cotton fields. If she tried to hide, she’d look like a dead body lying in a field, and she didn’t want to give him any ideas.
She needed help. She was lost, had no water, no shelter, and she really needed to pee.
He was coming fast. He’d be here in moments. Should she attempt to wave him down? He didn’t have to be a convict fresh out of Huntsville. He could be a doctor or a lawyer from Austin who rode Harleys as a hobby.
She hated this. She couldn’t believe she’d put herself in this position. How could I have been so stupid? It was embarrassing. She hated being embarrassed. And, she was frightened too. Scared down to the Big Apple Red polish on her toes. This was definitely the second most horrid day in her life, headed toward first.
What to do? What to do?
In the end, she did nothing but wear her best deer-in-headlights look. The man was dressed all in black, a full-face helmet obscuring his features. Darth Vader on a Harley. He blew past her like a proton torpedo.
Gillian released the breath she’d been holding. “Okay. Okay. I’m lost, but at least I’m alive.”
For now.
Up ahead, the motorcycle had slowed. The driver started turning around.