B.J. Daniels the Cardwell Ranch Collection (42 page)

“Do you?” She met his gaze with a fiery one of her own. She was good and mad, and she’d never looked more beautiful. He’d only glimpsed this kind of passion in her before tonight. “Or are you just trying to get into my pants?”

He laughed. “As tempting as that offer is, I like to think I have a shot without being forced to lie to you. I believe you, Hilde. It’s too much of a coincidence that he should overdose when you’re on the way to his motel room. She got to him. I’m not sure how, but she got to him.”

Tears filled her eyes. “Why can’t Hud see that?”

“Because Dee’s good at hiding her true self and Hud operates on proof.”

“Colt, I don’t even think she
is
Dee Anna Justice.”

He raised a brow.

“It’s the way Rick called her ‘Dee.’ I heard him do it on the horseback ride up to the lake. Is there any way to find out if she’s even the woman she says she is?”

Colt gave that some thought. He wasn’t sure he believed Dee was pretending to be Dana’s cousin. He wasn’t sure how she could have pulled that off, but he was willing to put Hilde’s mind at rest and his own.

“I’ll see if I can get her fingerprints. I might need your help.”

“You know you have it,” she said. “Would you like something to drink? I have some wine.”

“You’re tired. I should go.”

“I could use the company. Just one drink.”

He smiled. “If you had a beer...”

“I do.”

He followed her through the house to the kitchen. Her house was neat as a pin and nicely furnished. But not overdone. He realized they had that in common: a minimalistic view of the world.

She handed him a beer, poured herself a glass of wine and led him into the living room.

“Dee already told Dana that Rick had been depressed and she was worried about him, since she told him it was over after the horseback ride,” Hilde said. “I swear she must have been planning to drug him right from the moment he showed up.”

“It’s proving it that’s the problem,” he said. Sitting here in Hilde’s house seemed the most natural thing in the world. “I want you to stay away from her unless I am there to make sure she doesn’t try to kill you again.”

Hilde looked up in surprise. “You can’t believe she would try again. She couldn’t get away with
another
murder.”

“Rick’s death will probably be ruled an accidental overdose,” he reminded her. “Consider how it would look if something happened to you now. You’ve been having a streak of bad luck. Plus you’ve been...overwrought.” She started to object, but he held up his hand. “I’m just saying how Dee would spin it. You got careless, you haven’t been yourself. You get the idea. That’s why I want you to give the woman a wide berth until she leaves.”

“She’s not leaving.”

“Well, she can’t stay forever.”

“She can if she finds a way to get Hud all to herself,” Hilde said. “I told Hud that Dee was after him.”

Colt groaned. “I can imagine how he took that.”

“He needed to be warned.”

Colt couldn’t argue that. He just hoped it wouldn’t have the opposite effect and make Hud more sympathetic to Dee.

“She knows we’re onto her.” Hilde drained her wineglass. “What scares me is what she’ll do next. I’m afraid for Dana and her family. If she makes a play for Hud... I have a feeling Dee doesn’t take rejection well.”

Colt agreed that the whole family could be in danger. “I wish there was some way to get her out of that house.”

“I doubt dynamite would work, even if Dana would let you blast her out. Dee has completely snowed Dana.”

He could hear her disappointment. “I know it’s frustrating seeing Dana and even Hud taken in like this. But you have to admit, Dee is good.”

“She’s playing this perfectly, too perfectly,” Hilde said. “Which makes me think this isn’t her first time she’s done this.”

“Whatever
this
is,” Colt said. “I’ll see what I can find out about her. Meanwhile, I’ll see what we can do about getting her fingerprints.” He’d have to be careful. He couldn’t let Hud find out that he was investigating his wife’s cousin. If Dana wasn’t so happy having found a cousin she never knew she had, then Colt was sure Hud would be suspicious of Dee by now.

“I want to help.”

“You are going to stay clear of the ranch unless I’m with you. Promise me.”

She promised, but he could tell her concern for her friend was weighing heavily on her. What worried him was that if Dee decided to make a move against her, she would use that concern and Hilde would fall right into the trap.

He finished his beer, saw how late it was and got up to leave. Hilde walked him to the door. As he opened it, a cool breeze blew in, ruffling her hair. He reached to tuck an errant golden strand behind her ear like he’d seen her do the few times she’d worn her hair down.

But the moment he did, his hand slid around to the back of her slim neck. His eyes locked with hers. Her skin felt cool to his touch as he drew her to him.

* * *

T
HE
KISS
WAS
gentle and sweet and so unexpected. Just the touch of his lips sent a jolt through her. Colt must have felt her tremble because he pulled her closer. She could feel his heart hammering under the hard muscles of his chest.

Her lips parted and she felt a rush of heat as he enclosed her in his arms and deepened the kiss.

She felt light-headed. No one had ever kissed her like this. She leaned into him, into the kiss. For the first time in days, Dee Anna Justice was the last thing on her mind.

Colt pressed her against the wall. She could feel the passion in his kiss, in his body. She wouldn’t have been surprised if they had made love right there.

Headlights washed over them. Dana pulled in behind Hilde’s SUV. They both drew back as if the lights were ice water thrown on them.

“I should go,” Colt said. He touched her hand, his gaze locking with hers for a moment. Then he sauntered out to his patrol pickup and drove off.

“Are you all right?” Dana cried. “Hud told me what happened.” She turned to look after Colt. “Did I interrupt something?”

“No, it...” She waved a hand through the air. “I’m just glad to see you. Did you want to come in?”

“Just for a moment. I know it’s late, but we were out of milk and I couldn’t sleep without making sure you were all right,” Dana said as she stepped inside. “You’ve been through so much lately.”

“Haven’t I,” Hilde said.

“You found his body? That must have been horrible.”

“You have no idea.” She realized she couldn’t confide in her once best friend.

“Dee is a basket case.”

Hilde tried to hide a smile. “I’m sure she is,” she said.

But Dana knew her too well. “Hilde, the man was her
boyfriend.
”

“Was he? Or is that just what she told you? Dana, the only thing you know about her is what she’s told you. How can you be sure any of it is true?”

Dana stood in the middle of the living room, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “I know you don’t like her, but to be this suspicious about everything she says or does—”

“She’s playing you, Dana. You told her about the past six years that you didn’t have your family because of the fight over the ranch, didn’t you?” She saw the answer in her friend’s face. “You are so desperate to have family that you’re blinded by this woman.”

“I don’t understand why you’re acting like this,” Dana said, sounding close to tears.

Hilde tried to stop herself, but she couldn’t. She had to tell Dana everything, had to try to reason with her, to warn her.

“She tried to kill me, Dana. At the falls? She pushed me while you were getting your camera, only grabbing me at the last second before I fell.”

“Why would she—”

“Because she doesn’t want me around you.”

“That’s crazy,” Dana said.

“Yes, it is. And she’s living with you and your husband and your children.”

They stood only inches apart staring at each other, but Hilde felt as if there was a mountain range between them, one neither of them might be able to climb.

“I’m worried about you, Hilde.”

“Really? Because I’m scared to death for you. She killed Rick to keep him from telling me the truth tonight. He’d called me and said he’d tell me Dee’s secrets, but I got there too late.”

Dana was shaking her head and Hilde saw that her friend was never going to believe her. Until it was too late. “I should go.”

Hilde nodded. “Watch her, Dana. I think she’s after Hud.”

Dana gave her a disbelieving look as if Hilde had finally lost her mind, then she turned and left.

Hilde closed the door behind her and leaned against it. She hadn’t even realized she was crying until she tasted the salty tears.

Chapter Eight

“You can’t blame yourself for Rick’s overdose,” Dana said the next morning at breakfast. Hud had left early, called in on some new case. Her “cousin” had been trying to console her. “There are just some people who can’t be helped no matter how hard we try.”

Dee heard something in Dana’s voice. “Like Hilde? I feel responsible for this rift between the two of you as much as I do for what Rick did.”

“Don’t. Hilde has just been under a lot of strain lately. I didn’t realize how much. Then to find Rick like that...”

“So Hilde was the one who found him?” Dee felt her blood pressure rise like a rocket. That bastard. After their horseback ride, he’d threatened to blow her plans out of the water if she didn’t include him. “Why would she go over to Rick’s?”

Dana looked away to tend to one of the kids. “Apparently he was upset after you broke things off with him again. He called Hilde, wanted ten thousand dollars to tell her things about you.”

If she could have killed him again, she would have made this time much more painful. “Why would he do that?” she wailed. “It must have been the drugs talking.”

“I’m sure it was.”

“So what did he say when she got to his motel room?” Dee asked, trying hard not to let her fear show.

“He was already dead.”

Dee tried not to breathe a sigh of relief. “I’m sure he just wanted a shoulder to cry on.”

“But to ask her for ten thousand dollars for information about you...” Dana said, and looked at her.

Dee saw the doubt beginning to bloom and knew she had to nip it in the bud and quickly. “I told you Rick had turned to pills,” she said, and began to cry again. She’d learned to cry on cue so this was the easy part. “Well, the truth is...Rick had a drug habit. I’m so ashamed.”

“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” Dana said, quickly coming to her side.

“How could I have fallen in love with a man like him? I didn’t know for a long time. Once I realized...I tried to help him. But it was too late. He’d blown all his savings on his habit. It wasn’t love that brought him all the way to Montana or me. I was too ashamed to tell you this, but the real reason was to ask me for money. When I turned him down, both for money and his feeble attempt to get me back, I guess he was desperate. He knew Hilde didn’t like me.... She was probably ready to give him the money for any kind of dirt on me she could dig up. Oh, Dana, I’m sorry. I know she’s your best friend.... See why I feel so badly about all this?”

“But you shouldn’t. You haven’t done anything. We can’t control the way other people react.” Dana sounded sad.

“We need to do something to cheer us both up. I would love to go into Bozeman. We could have lunch, maybe do some shopping. What do you say?” She held her breath. She’d seen Hud go off to work this morning and had a pretty good idea that Dana didn’t have anyone to take care of the kids. Couldn’t really call Hilde, could she? Also, she’d heard Dana promise to make pies with the kids today.

“That sounds wonderful,” Dana said. “But I’m afraid it will have to wait.” Mary and Hank came running into the room, as if on cue.

“We’re making pies with Mommy today,” Mary announced.

Dee smiled, but did her best to look disappointed. “As fun as that sounds, Dana, would you mind if I borrowed your truck and went into Bozeman? You probably could use some time alone, and I need to do some shopping.”

“Of course. The keys are in the truck. Please help yourself. And when you come back, there will be pie!” Dana laughed as the kids began to cheer noisily.

Dee couldn’t wait to leave. “I might take the whole day, then,” she said, as she hurried upstairs to get her purse.

* * *

C
OLT
CALLED
THE
shop the next morning right after Hilde opened. “How are you doing?”

She glanced across the street to the deli, half expecting to see him sitting in his usual place. She was disappointed to see that the table was empty. “I’m okay.”

“Did you get some sleep?”

“Yes. The wine and you stopping by helped,” she admitted.

“Good, I’m glad to hear that. I wanted you to know that I have to go up to West Yellowstone today on a burglary case.”

She could hear the smile in his voice and laughed. “And you thought you’d better remind me that I’m not to go near Dee?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Too subtle?”

“I appreciate you thinking of me.”

He was silent for a moment before he said, “I’ve been thinking of you for a long while.”

She didn’t know what to say, especially since a lump had formed in her throat.

“I wish that kiss hadn’t gotten interrupted.”

“Me, too.”

“How did things go with Dana, or shouldn’t I ask?”

“Not well. I know I should have kept my mouth shut, but Colt, I had to warn her. If I put even a little doubt in her mind...”

“You did what you had to. Listen, I probably shouldn’t be telling you this. Hell, I
know
I shouldn’t. I meant to tell you last night. When we searched Rick, we found three different forms of identification in three different names. We sent his fingerprints to the crime lab in Missoula and we’re waiting to see if we get a hit. Right now, we don’t know who the guy is.”

Hilde felt her heart take off at a gallop. “So there is more to the story. Just like there has got to be with Dee.”

“It sure looks that way.”

“We have to get her fingerprints.”

“Hilde, promise me you won’t do anything while I’m in West. You know how dangerous she is. Also...”

She heard him hesitate. “What?”

“She’s gone into Bozeman today to do some shopping. She stopped by the office to ask Hud where there was a good place to have lunch. When she heard he’s going to be testifying in a trial down there this afternoon, she talked him into having lunch with her.”

Hilde never swore so she was as shocked as anyone when a cuss word escaped her mouth. “Even after I told Hud she was after him?”

“You had to be there,” Colt said. “She’s playing Rick’s death to the hilt. She said she needs someone to talk to and has questions that only Hud can answer.... You get the idea.”

Unfortunately she did. “We have to get her fingerprints soon.”

“I promise you we will. Just be patient. I’ll be back tonight. I was wondering if we could have dinner?”

Was he asking her on a date? Or was he just worried about her? “I’d like that.”

He sounded relieved. “Good. I could pick you up by seven. I thought we’d go up to Mountain Village, get away for a while.”

She felt a shiver of excitement race through her. “I look forward to it.” She hung up feeling like a schoolgirl. It was all she could do not to dance around the shop.

Hilde might have let herself go and danced, but the bell over the door jangled and she turned to see Dana’s cousin step inside. As Dee entered, she flipped the sign from Open to Closed and locked the door before turning to face Hilde.

* * *

“D
ON
’
T
MAKE
A
fool of yourself,” Dee snapped, as she saw Hilde fumble for her cell phone. Hilde looked so much like a deer in the headlights that Dee had to laugh. “What are you going to tell the marshal? That I came into your shop to try to kill you again? Really, Hilde. You must realize how tiresome you’ve become.”

“Don’t come any closer,” Hilde said, holding up the phone.

“You’re wasting your time. Hud is in Bozeman, Colt is on his way to West Yellowstone—and what’s that other deputy’s name?”

“Liza.”

“Right. She just got a call and is headed up the mountain. By the time any of them get here, I will have unlocked the door and left you safe and as sound as you can be under the circumstances and you’ll only look all the more foolish.”

“What do you want?” Hilde demanded. But she lowered the cell phone as she stepped behind the counter.

Dee couldn’t help being amused as Hilde snatched up a pair of deadly-looking scissors from behind the counter. “You aren’t going to use those. Even if you had it in you, everyone would just assume you went off the deep end. You’ve been teetering on the brink for several days now.”

“What. Do. You. Want?” Hilde repeated.

Dee had to hand it to the woman. She was tougher than she looked. “I want you to leave me alone.”

“Don’t you mean you want me to leave Dana alone?”

“Just let me enjoy this vacation with my family.”

“Are they really your family? Rick didn’t seem to think so.”

Finally. She’d known Rick had shot off his mouth on the phone with Hilde. She’d just needed to know what he’d told her, and apparently Hilde was more than ready to tell anyone who’d listen.

“Rick was on drugs.”

“How convenient,” Hilde snapped. “He was going to tell me all about you and I have a feeling he knew plenty.”

“But ten thousand dollars’ worth?” Dee shook her head as she moved closer to the counter and Hilde.

“Dana told you about that?” Hilde didn’t sound so sure of herself suddenly.

“She told me everything—how you were convinced that I’d killed Rick—and right before you were finally going to learn all my deep, dark secrets. How frustrating that must have been for you.”

Hilde brandished the scissors. “You really don’t want to come any closer.”

Dee smiled, but stopped moving. “So if I’m not Dee Anna Justice, then who did Rick say I was?” She saw the answer at once on Hilde’s face. The woman wasn’t good at hiding her emotions. She would never survive in Dee’s world. “So he didn’t say. You just got the
feeling
I wasn’t Dee?” She shook her head. “Yep, you’re teetering on the brink. One little push and I’m afraid you’re going over the edge. It’s going to break Dana’s heart. She really does care for you, her
best
friend.”

“But you’ll be there to pick up the pieces, right?”

“That’s what I came here today to tell you,” Dee said. “I’m not going anywhere. Accept it. If you don’t, I’m afraid of what it will do to you mentally. You seem so fragile as it is.”

“You’re wrong,” Hilde said. “I’m a lot stronger than I look.”

Dee didn’t expect Hilde to lunge at her with the scissors. It wasn’t much of a lunge. Her reaction was to grab Hilde’s arm and twist it. The scissors clattered to the floor to the sound of Hilde crying out in pain.

As the shop owner stumbled back, rubbing her wrist and looking scared, Dee bent down and picked up the scissors from the floor by the blades.

“If you’re going to try to kill someone, it works better if they don’t see you coming at them,” Dee said in disgust. As she placed the scissors on the counter, she studied Hilde, realizing she was much closer to the edge of insanity than she’d thought. It wouldn’t take hardly anything to push her over.

“I need to get to Bozeman,” Dee said. “I have a lunch date with Hud. I suggest you close up shop and get some rest. You might want to see someone about that wrist. I hope it’s not sprained. How will you ever explain what happened?” She laughed as she turned toward the door. She almost wished that Hilde would grab up the scissors and come for her again.

At the door, she flipped the sign to Open, unlocked the door and let herself out. When she looked back, Hilde was still standing with her back against the wall, rubbing her wrist. The look in her eyes, though, wasn’t one of fear. It was...triumph.

Dee stopped to look again, surprised and worried by what she’d glimpsed in Hilde’s eyes just then. Was it just a trick of the light through the window? She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something she was missing. Hilde kept throwing her off balance. The woman was impossible. Anyone else would have taken the hint long before now.

But when she glanced into the shop again, she saw Hilde rush to the door to lock it and put up the Closed sign. Apparently the woman
had
taken her advice and was going to get some rest.

* * *

H
ILDE
WAITED
UNTIL
she saw Dee drive away before she carefully slid the scissors into a clean plastic bag. She was positive she’d gotten the woman’s fingerprints because Dee had picked up the scissors by the blades, holding them out as if she wanted to seem nonthreatening.

What a joke. Everything about Dee was threatening.

Once she had the scissors put away, it was all she could do not to call Colt and tell him, but he was working. She would have to wait until dinner tonight since in order for him to run Dee’s prints, he would have to do it under Hud’s radar. Hilde realized what a chance he would be taking.

Just the thought of Colt made her heart beat a little harder.

He would have a fit when she told him how she’d managed to get Dee’s prints. She’d been pretty sure that Dee would take the scissors away from her. She had hoped that Dee wouldn’t use them on her, had bet that Dee wasn’t ready to kill again. Not yet, anyway. Even if Dee would have claimed self-defense, few people would have believed it.

Well, they wouldn’t have believed it before the past few days. Now Hilde wasn’t sure what her friends thought of her. That she was mentally unbalanced? That like Dee said, she was teetering on the edge?

Wait until Dee’s prints came back. She’d see what they thought then.

What if she
is
Dee Anna Justice?
Hilde tried to remember what Dana had told her about Dee Anna and her family. Maybe Dana’s grandparents had had a good reason for disinheriting Walter Justice and demanding that his name never be spoken again.

The thought gave her a chill. If there had been something wrong with Walter, wasn’t it possible Dee Anna had inherited it?

“No, she’s not Dee Ana Justice,” she said to herself now. “And I’m going to prove it.” If she had a good set of Dee’s prints on the scissors. Now she was worried that she might not have.

Hilde started to open her shop when a thought struck her. Dee had gone into Bozeman to have lunch with Hud. That meant Dana would be at the house alone with the kids.

“You promised Colt you wouldn’t go near the ranch,” she reminded herself, as she went into the back to stuff several plastic bags into her purse. “Colt meant don’t go near Dee, not the ranch, and I might not have this opportunity again.”