Randee sat on the couch in her blue robe, explaining to Rex and Ceil what had happened. Ceil exclaimed over and over again, “Oh, my poor dear!” Rex just sat stone-sober, staring out the window.
“I’m sure this was another sign from the mining company,” Randee muttered.
Rex turned from the window and yelled, “A sign? That wasn’t a sign. That was a fuckin’ roman candle up your ass! Goddamn it, we’re goin’ to do somethin’ about this right now.”
Chase looked at the three of them and wondered what would happen next. “I called Sheriff White and told him to get his ass over here,” he announced in the very same tone he’d used on the sheriff. “He said he’d be here in thirty minutes. I told him to make it twenty and to bring some help. This is his last chance. Either he does something now or I take matters into my own hands.”
It worked, at least a little. Twenty minutes later Chase was repeating his threats to Sheriff White and a young deputy. The sheriff was listening. The deputy seemed more interested in Randee’s slender leg that had slipped out of her floor-length robe.
Chase was in no mood for that type of behavior. “Sheriff, we’ve sat back and licked our wounds for the last time. I plan to go over your head and bring in state officers if you don’t do something.”
Sheriff White stood twirling his hat nervously in his hand. “I plan on doing everything I can, Mr. Gregory, but I still don’t have any evidence. That truck is over forty years old. Hell, old age could have made those brakes go out.”
“That’s where you’re wrong!” Randee shouted. “I checked that truck out this spring. There wasn’t a damn thing wrong with it. Now, are you going to do something about this or not?”
The lawman sighed and glanced at Rex. “Okay. I’ll set up a patrol around the clock and we’ll see if we can catch anyone sneaking around here. That’s really the best I can do.”
A knock brought everyone’s attention to the kitchen door. When Ceil answered, Miles Grant stood with a black umbrella covering his perfectly styled hair. Ceil moved to let him in.
Miles closed his umbrella, splashing water on the kitchen floor before hastily moving to Randee’s side. “I was headed home from Virginia City and I saw your truck. Who was driving it?”
“Me, Miles. It was me.”
“Lord. Did the brakes really go out? When I got to Ennis it was it all over town. Thank God you’re alive!”
Chase couldn’t see Randee’s face from where he stood. He wondered how she felt about Miles’s arrival, considering how they’d last parted. Still, the douche-bag lawyer had some right to be worried if he truly cared about her.
“Randee,” Miles continued. “I’ve tried to tell you before that you need to retire that old rig. Something was bound to happen sooner or later. Are you sure you’re okay? You look pale to me.” He picked up her hand. “And you’re shaking.”
Randee looked miserable. “Chase tried to talk me into letting him go, but I…I’ve driven that truck on that road a thousand times. Even in the rain I thought—”
Chase wanted to grab Miles by the throat. The man was seriously blaming Randee for this? And her explanation made him even angrier. “Wait a minute here! Why should she explain anything to you? You don’t own this ranch. You don’t even work for Randee anymore. Why don’t you just get your sorry ass the hell out of here, Grant?”
Randee gave Miles a dark look. “Chase is right, Miles. We’re not friends anymore, even if you are my cousin. And you don’t work for me.”
Cousin? Suddenly their early relationship became much clearer to Chase. No wonder Randee had put up with his bullshit. Family meant everything to her. She’d only listened to him as long as she had because he was the only lawyer in town, and because he was her cousin. A rush of pleasure burst through him, a rush that was even more powerful a moment later.
Miles stood to argue. Sweat trickled down the side of his forehead and threatened to drop into his ear, and searching his pocket the lawyer finally pulled a crumpled handkerchief from his raincoat. Miles nervously wiped his brow and shoved the hanky back, but as he began to argue again Chase didn’t hear a word.
Chase spun with a look of triumph on his face. “Sheriff, I think I just discovered what we’ve been looking for.”
The sheriff was instantly alert. “What? What is it?”
“Let me grab something first,” Chase said, rushing to the door. “I’ll be back in two minutes. Don’t let anyone leave.”
Everyone looked puzzled, but the sheriff nodded and Chase raced out the door toward his cabin.
A few moments later he was back with a few items. “This is the piece of cloth I found blocking the line on the loader.” He turned to the sheriff with a gleam in his eye and said, “Sheriff, why don’t you ask Miles if we can look at his handkerchief for a minute?”
“What handkerchief?” Miles said, a new layer of sweat forming on his forehead.
“The one in your coat pocket.”
Sheriff White took a step toward Randee’s cousin. “If you don’t mind, Miles? I’d like to take a look at that hanky.”
“Well…I do mind! I mind like hell! He’s the one you should be looking at,” Miles said, pointing at Chase. “Did you ever notice that he’s the only one who’s never been hurt? None of this bullshit started happening until he showed up out of nowhere.”
Sheriff White’s voice was low and serious. “I’ll have that hanky now, Miles.”
With shaky hands, Randee’s cousin removed a white handkerchief from his pocket. The sheriff straightened it out on the table, and the corner of dirty fabric Chase handed over fit perfectly. No one spoke. Not even Chase. He suddenly realized what this would do to Randee, and he turned just in time to see her eyes well up. She said nothing. Her own cousin, someone she’d known for a lifetime…
Chase knew this wasn’t enough evidence to convict Miles Grant, but he needn’t have worried. Miles pounded the nails into his own coffin.
“Don’t stand there gawking like a herd of cows! If you hadn’t been so damn selfish with your land this never would have happened. I’ve been working for the mining company for years and you’re the biggest bunch of hard-noses we’ve ever encountered. Why couldn’t you just give in like everyone else?”
Randee stared at him, horrified, misery evident in her face.
“Don’t look at me that way,” Miles sneered. “You’re the one who drove me to it, Randee. If you would have climbed off your high horse and allowed yourself to marry me, I’d have the ranch right now and wouldn’t have had to resort to outside money.”
“That’s enough, Grant,” Chase said, inching closer. “I have a simple question for you, though. How did you really know about Randee’s accident today? It couldn’t have been all over town. She called me, I called the sheriff and he came straight here. Who exactly told you Randee lost her brakes?”
Miles paused then eyed the people in the room like a cornered animal. “I-I…,” he stammered. “I forgot. I meant I have a police scanner and heard about the accident on it.”
Sheriff White shook his head. “Miles, it wasn’t announced on the scanner. No one knows about this except the people in this room.” The sheriff shook his head. “You’ll have to come with me, Miles. Get him to my car,” he said to his deputy.
“Wait.” Randee walked over to where Miles stood, and her voice was like death. “Did you really try to kill me today, Miles?”
“I didn’t mean for it to be you. I thought you would send Gregory to Virginia City. Don’t you see, Randee? He was ruining everything. I always had big plans for us. With my practice and your ranch, no one would have been more powerful. We would have had everything here and—”
“And that’s all that’s ever mattered to you, isn’t it? Having everything.” She looked nauseated. “That’s one thing that doesn’t surprise me. I always knew you were incapable of caring for anyone but yourself.”
Rex hadn’t said a word until now. “Did you burn down that haystack too?”
“I didn’t plan it that way. I was just going to cut the power to the house and give her a scare. Then I saw Gregory go inside and I waited and waited. I knew what that bastard was doing, so I started the stack on fire to get him away from her.”
“And the night you cut the fence?” Rex’s voice held no trace of mercy.
Miles paced back and forth across the room, running his fingers through his slicked-back blond hair. “You don’t know what it’s like to have the Allan Mining Company on your ass all the time. They did a favor for me once and I can’t repay them. They threatened to take my practice away if I didn’t get you to sell.”
“And now you’re going to lose your practice anyway,” Chase said, letting the words sink in. “I hope it was worth it.”
Sheriff White took Miles by the arm. “Come with me, son. I knew your mom and dad, and it’s a damn good thing they’re dead. This would break their hearts. Deputy, cuff this bastard and put him in the back seat of my car.”
Having forgotten it, Chase picked up the painted board he’d retrieved from his possessions. Handing it to the sheriff, he said, “I found this under the loader the morning after Miles tried to kill Rex. I’m sure you’ll find his fingerprints on it—probably in hydraulic fluid.”
***
Randee didn’t watch the sheriff handcuff Miles. Neither did Rex or Ceil. Chase did, but he came back inside after Randee saw the police car speed down the road and become a tiny speck on the highway.
“I told the sheriff I would get the hay unloaded and sent to Mr. Vonn,” she was telling Ceil and her uncle. “He told me he would make sure the truck was delivered to the impound lot.” Then, without another word, she announced that she was going to bed.
It was only four o’clock in the afternoon, but she felt mentally and physically exhausted. She looked up the staircase with a deep sigh. She didn’t know if she could even make the climb. She was amazed that the shock could affect her so dramatically. To nearly lose her life had been bad enough, but to find out that the person responsible was family seemed more than she could bear. True, he hadn’t been a close friend, and she’d always known his ethics weren’t too straight, but she never thought he’d end up a criminal. She’d only half considered the possibility of his involvement with the burning haystack, as her uncle was right: Miles was a talker, not a doer. But Miles’s plan to marry her? His attempted murders? How could her cousin have done those terrible things and still have the nerve to look her square in the eye?
She removed her robe and fell into a heap on the bed. Once during the evening Ceil woke her to ask if she wanted something to eat. Randee shook her head. She couldn’t stand the thought of food. Ceil made her take a few sips of water and a pill to help her relax. Randee willingly took the sedative, hoping that it would keep the nightmares away.
It must have worked, for Randee didn’t wake until ten the next morning. She felt rested and less depressed. And over breakfast Rex told her the sheriff called late last night.
“He said Miles is in the county jail and his arraignment will be in a week or so. The way Owen tells it, good ol’ Miles spilled his guts about the mining company and their blackmailin’ schemes, trying to save his ass. Seems those bastards scared almost every one of those ranchers into sellin’. As of today, the company is closed.”
Chase filled in the rest. “It seems Miles wasn’t quite as dumb as we thought. He covered his own ass with documentation that proves the mining company is corrupt and bullied those people into selling. Miles will still see some jail time for two counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault, multiple counts of conspiracy and a bunch of minor other charges, but he worked a deal. Still, he’ll never practice law again—which is a boon to everyone he ever thought to advise.”
Randee took another long sip of coffee, trying to clear her mind. The threats were finally over. She hadn’t given in, and her strength paid off. Not only had she saved her ranch, she had also helped bring down the mining company, but at what cost? Rex was still laid up and would probably never be as strong again. And what about herself? Would she ever be able to put the fear of that mountain drive behind her? Would she ever be able to trust anyone again?
“Are you feeling better this morning?” Chase asked gently from across the table.
“I think so.” Glancing up and seeing him made her smile. He always made her feel that way. She loved him. And she trusted him. No matter what he hadn’t told her, she trusted him.
“I’d like to go for a horseback ride after chores,” she said, smiling. “Will you come with me?” Rides helped her clear her mind. She wanted to clear her mind with him.
Chase nodded. “Sure. Why don’t you get dressed and I’ll saddle the horses? The chores are already done.”
The day looked bright and promising, so Randee chose a lightweight mint-green T-shirt that clung to her curves. She’d been feeling very sexy since the dance, and she wanted to keep the style she knew Chase liked so much. Her steps were lighter than they had been, and she felt better with each passing minute.
Chase gave her an approving nod from under the shadow of his Stetson and mounted Inferno as she entered the barn. Sunburst walked over to Randee and put a nose in her hand. It was the horse’s way of saying she needed a ride as well. As if Randee needed any other encouragement.
The two of them rode through the brilliant sunlight along the Madison River. For several miles they traveled in relative silence, the only sounds the buzzing of insects, the chirping of birds, and the clopping of the horse’s hooves as they hit the hard dirt.
“I can’t believe how hard the ground is already,” Chase said. “You’d think with the rain we had yesterday it would at least be a little muddy.”
Chase’s innocent mention of yesterday made Randee shiver. Now she had one more reason to hate storms.
Ceil had packed them a picnic, and they chose a shady spot under an ancient cottonwood. Chase spread out a blanket in the tall grass next to the river, and as he worked Randee stood on the bank and breathed deeply of the freshness. She was still having a hard time grasping all the things that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.
“I still can’t believe that Miles was capable of such deceit,” she murmured at last.
Chase looked grim. “He said he owed them from years ago. And they probably offered him a lot of money.”
“Money?” Randee almost spat. “So what! I never could understand someone who would put money above human life.”
Chase rose and began to fidget with Inferno’s harness. “Money does strange things to the best of us.”
Randee grimaced. “It’s okay to want money, but when the desire for it takes over everything…?” She shuddered. Then a thought struck her. “Since when did you stick up for Miles Grant? You hate his guts.”
“I’m just saying that money probably made him forget who he was and what he stood for. He was a dumb bastard, and now he’s going to pay the price. He’s no different than thousands of other people that find themselves in the same situation.”
Randee shrugged and walked to the blanket. “Fine. Let’s talk about something else. I’m sick of thinking about Miles and his kind, they all make me sick and I could never understand them if you gave me a thousand lifetimes. Now come and eat, my beautiful man.”
He didn’t respond. Instead, Chase stood with his back to her for several seconds, his posture stiff and unyielding.
“Chase, aren’t you hungry?”
“No.”
“Then come here and I’ll rub your neck. You look tense.”
She’d made her voice soft and seductive, but when Chase turned, his blue eyes were full of concern. Despite the warm wind blowing in the trees, Randee shuddered.
“Chase, what is it?”
“I need some time for myself, Randee.”
She could tell just saying those words was hard for him, but that didn’t matter. A shiver of terror went through her. Time for himself? She wanted to throw up.
“There are some things I need to do. I’m going to be gone for a few days. There’s just something I need to shake out.”
Randee sat in stunned silence. What had just happened? How could he do this to her? Hadn’t she been through enough? “Chase, please…”
He turned back to Inferno, stepped up into the stirrup and lifted himself easily across the horse’s back. Staring straight ahead at the mountain, he spoke. “Randee, I’ll be back, and when I am there are some things we need to discuss.”
Then, with a click of his tongue, Chase goaded Inferno back toward the ranch.
***
Randee.
Chase prayed she wouldn’t follow him. He didn’t think he was strong enough to let her go if she came riding up to his side, but he had to leave; that was all there was to it. The time had come, just as he’d known it would. He’d convinced himself that he could tell her the truth, had wanted to believe she might somehow understand and love him anyway. But her words ran through his head like a stampede of cattle. I could never understand someone who could put money above human life.
Why was he so staggered? He’d known from the first day she had extremely high ethics and unquestionable morals. His past could have a fatal impact on their relationship because of who she was.
Miles and his kind. She had categorized Chase with Miles and hadn’t even known it. It’s true they were both attorneys, but that’s where the similarities ended. And it would now be up to Chase to explain the difference.
He swallowed the lump in his throat and spurred Inferno toward the ranch; he had to be long gone before Randee got back to the house. He didn’t want to see anybody. He would come back in a few days. And then he would explain his situation to Rex and Ceil; he owed them that much. Even the McBride boys deserved an explanation.
Chase didn’t know where to go. He tied Inferno to the door of his cabin and slid a bucket of water out in front of the horse. In less than five minutes he had gathered up clothes, a little food and a sleeping bag. As he did, a plan came to Chase. He remembered the story he’d been told about Rex going to the high country when his wife left him. Chase would do the same. He’d go to Margaret’s Place.
“Sorry to do this to you, old friend,” he said to Inferno as he tied the pack on the beast’s back. “But you’ve got to take me away from here. As soon as we get a few miles up the canyon, I’ll let you rest.”
The horse didn’t seem too concerned.
Chase turned toward the mountains, and his eyes blurred as he realized how much he had come to intensely love this place and the people. The thought that the next time he rode into the yard could possibly be his last, nearly ripped him apart. As he passed by the house, he thought he caught a glimpse of Ceil’s round face peering through a curtain.
“I’m sorry, Ceil,” he whispered to the wind. “I’m sorry to have to do this to all of you.”