Montana Midwife
BIG COUNTRY. BIG SKY. BIG TROUBLE IN MONTANA.
Rushing to the aid of a pregnant woman, midwife Tab Willows arrives at the grisly scene of a murder. Then sexy Aiden Gabriel lands his rescue chopper and Tab comes face-to-face with her secret teenage crush—and he’s gotten only better with age.
Aiden had been unaware that Tab was back in town…and more stunning than ever. The half-Crow beauty has always been a mystery, but she can’t hide her fear upon learning a serial killer is loose in the mountains of Montana. Insisting she move to his ranch while the investigation intensifies, Aiden suddenly finds his home isn’t big enough. He could swear protecting her was why he wanted her by his side. Now imagining a life without her is why he wants her to stay.
Casually Tab leaned against the fence beside Aiden. “It almost sounds like you’re asking me to help.”
“Does it, now?”
“You bet it does. It’s almost like we’re investigating. Both of us. Together.” She covered her smug grin by draining the last of her coffee. “I seem to recall something you said about not wanting my help because it was too... What was it you said? It was too dangerous for a delicate flower like me.”
“I’m real sure I never called you a flower.”
“I added that part,” she said. “You know what you said.”
He shoved away from the fence and stood tall before her. “If you’re done with your I-told-you-so, I’d like to put things into motion.”
“And you want me to help you investigate.” She looked up through her eyelashes.
“I reckon I do.”
USA TODAY
Bestselling Author
Cassie Miles
Montana
Midwife
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Though born in Chicago and raised in L.A.,
USA TODAY
bestselling author Cassie Miles has lived in Colorado long enough to be considered a semi-native. The first home she owned was a log cabin in the mountains overlooking Elk Creek, with a thirty-mile commute to her work at the
Denver Post.
After raising two daughters and cooking tons of macaroni and cheese for her family, Cassie is trying to be more adventurous in her culinary efforts. Ceviche, anyone? She’s discovered that almost anything tastes better with wine. When she’s not plotting Harlequin Intrigue books, Cassie likes to hang out at the Denver Botanical Gardens near her high-rise home.
Books by Cassie Miles
HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE
904—UNDERCOVER COLORADO**
910—MURDER ON THE MOUNTAIN**
948—FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW
978—PROTECTIVE CONFINEMENT*
984—COMPROMISED SECURITY*
999—NAVAJO ECHOES
1025—CHRISTMAS COVER-UP
1048—MYSTERIOUS MILLIONAIRE
1074—IN THE MANOR WITH THE MILLIONAIRE
1102—CHRISTMAS CRIME IN COLORADO
1126—CRIMINALLY HANDSOME
1165—COLORADO ABDUCTION‡
1171—BODYGUARD UNDER THE MISTLETOE‡
1177—SECLUDED WITH THE COWBOY‡
1193—INDESTRUCTIBLE
1223—LOCK, STOCK AND SECRET BABY††
1229—HOOK, LINE AND SHOTGUN BRIDE††
1255—MOUNTAIN MIDWIFE
1279—UNFORGETTABLE
1293—SOVEREIGN SHERIFF
1317—BABY BATTALION
1343—MIDWIFE COVER
1368—MOMMY MIDWIFE
1384—MONTANA MIDWIFE
**Rocky Mountain Safe House
*Safe House: Mesa Verde
‡Christmas at the Carlisles’
††Special Delivery Babies
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Tab (Tabitha) Willows—
The half-Crow midwife can’t escape her past when she returns to the Little Big Horn country where she grew up.
Aiden Gabriel—
The family ranch is his home, but the helicopter rescue service is his dream job.
Misty Gabriel—
Aiden’s pregnant, seventeen-year-old sister needs Tab’s help to deliver her baby and to rescue her from a murder charge.
Clinton Brown—
The father of Misty’s baby is more intelligent than he looks. What else is he hiding?
Sylvia Gabriel—
Aiden and Misty’s mother.
Blake Henry—
The ranch foreman and Sylvia’s longtime lover.
Maria Spotted Bear—
Tab’s grandma lives on the reservation and knows a lot about tribal medicine.
Joseph Lefthand—
The chief of the Crow Reservation police.
Sheriff Steve Fielding—
The sheriff works with the tribal police to catch a possible serial killer.
David Welling—
He loved Misty until the day he was murdered.
Bert Welling—
David’s fastidious uncle owns the gas station in town and employs many of the local kids.
Ellen Jessop—
Misty’s friend/enemy appears to be a victim of the serial killer.
Aspen Jim Sherman—
The troubles started when this flashy con man moved to town.
Wally the Buffalo Man—
The old homeless man has made a life for himself by camping on the reservation.
Chuck Longbeak and Woody Silas—
Like the rest of the people in town, these young men believe Misty is guilty of murder.
In memory of Rosemary Heiser. She will be missed.
Contents
Chapter One
On a high ridge overlooking the Little Big Horn River, Tab Willows sat up straight in the saddle and lifted her arm above her head. Finally, she had a signal for her cell phone. There was no way she could find Misty and her boyfriend unless they gave her better directions to their location. This horse didn’t come equipped with GPS.
She hit the redial.
Misty Gabriel answered immediately. “Tab, where are you? I need you.”
Panic trembled in her voice, which was understandable for a woman in labor with her first baby. For some unexplainable reason, Misty and Clinton had decided to go off-roading and had gotten their vehicle stuck in a creek bed that was damp with melt from a recent snow. The early November weather wasn’t bad right now, but night was coming. With the darkness came an icy chill.
Tab hadn’t been working with Misty as a regular client in her midwife practice, but she felt an obligation and a connection to this young woman she used to babysit, even though, as adults, they didn’t appear to have much in common. Misty was the spoiled seventeen-year-old daughter of a wealthy ranching family. Bubbly and blonde, she giggled with every other breath. In contrast, Tab seldom laughed out loud. Her overall appearance—dusky-colored skin and straight black hair worn in a single braid down to her waist—favored her mother’s Crow heritage. Her blue eyes came from her dad.
“I’m looking down at the area you described,” Tab said, “but I don’t see your Jeep. Give me directions.”
“Like what?” She giggled nervously. “It’s not like there are street signs or anything.”
Focus, Misty.
“Any unusual rock formations?”
“Oh, yeah. On the other side of the river and up a slope, there’s a big cave we used to play in when we were kids.”
“Half-Moon Cave.”
That landmark told Tab the approximate whereabouts. When Misty had first called, she’d said there were no passable roads, which was why Tab was on horseback. She wished she’d taken her van; there was a decent route that ran fairly close to Misty’s location.
“Half-Moon Cave, that’s right.” Her giggle broke into a sob. “You’ve got to hurry. Clinton hit his head.”
Of course, he did.
This situation just got worse and worse. “Is he conscious?”
“Kind of. He was trying to push the Jeep out of the mud and he slipped and conked his forehead on the bumper.”
On horseback, there was no way to evacuate a man with a concussion and a woman in labor. “Let’s talk about you. How far apart are your pains?”
“I don’t know. It just hurts.”
“And how many months along are you?”
“Eight-ish. The doctor said I could have the baby any time now.”
In the best-case scenario, Misty was experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions that wouldn’t lead to childbirth. Or she could be going into early labor. “I want you to stay calm. Take slow, steady breaths, okay?”
“Whatever you say, Tab.”
“One thing I don’t understand,” she said. “Why didn’t you call your brother to come for you?”
Her brother, Aiden Gabriel, provided a private rescue-helicopter service for the local hospitals, the sheriff and national park rescue teams. Because he also worked on the family ranch, he wasn’t always available, but Tab knew that Aiden would drop everything to rescue his baby sister.
“Aiden is a big old jerk,” Misty said. “And he doesn’t like Clinton.”
An opinion Tab could easily comprehend. Clinton had taken his very pregnant girlfriend on an off-road adventure, gotten them stuck and then knocked himself unconscious. Clearly, he wasn’t the sharpest arrow in the quiver. “Brace yourself, Misty. I’m calling your brother. You need his help.”
“Maybe not. I think I see somebody coming.”
“Stay where you are,” Tab said sharply. “I can’t find you if you go wandering off.”
“Okay. See you later, elevator.”
“Real soon, harvest moon.”
Tab smiled as she remembered the rhyming games she and Misty played ten years ago. Tab had been sixteen. Her life had been split between living with her dad in Billings and with her grandma, Maria Spotted Bear, on the Crow reservation. When her dad had been hired to do contracting work at the Gabriel ranch near Henley, she’d tagged along and had gotten recruited as a live-in babysitter for seven-year-old Misty.
That summer had been a rough time for the Gabriel family. Misty’s dad had been killed in a car accident. Tab felt like she could understand Misty’s grief because she’d lost her mom and knew what it was like to have a parent die too young. She and Misty had bonded but their friendship wasn’t the main thing that happened that summer. That summer, Tab had fallen in love for the first time.
Looking down at her cell phone, she remembered the tall, lean, handsome Aiden Gabriel with his thick brown hair and his dreamy gray eyes. He’d been twenty-one when he came home from college and shouldered the responsibilities of a ranch owner, helping his mom to cope when her husband died. Though Tab never told anyone, she’d dreamed of Aiden every night, imagining his kiss and what it would feel like to be held in his strong arms. Once, he’d given her a necklace with a shiny four-leaf clover pendant, which she’d worn for years before tucking it away in her jewelry box.