Montana Hearts (21 page)

Nora shook her head. “No, this was filmed in front of Fox Creek Outfitters.”

“Are you sure?” Delaney asked, thinking they must be mistaken.

“See the sign on his building right there in the far corner?” Nadine asked.

Delaney sunk into a chair beside them. “Oh my gosh, you're right.”

Obviously Gavin McKinley
did
run a poaching operation after all. He and Woolly could even be partners, along with the Randalls, like they'd suspected.

“Can I borrow this video?” she asked excitedly.

Both twins scowled and said, “No!”

However, they did allow her to make a ­couple copies on CD. If the poachers were determined to ruin Jace's reputation with their video, then she'd ruin theirs with the one in her hands. At least
some
justice would be served.

Not wasting another moment, Delaney grabbed the keys to her father's truck and drove into town, the poaching proof tucked securely under her arm.

She'd expected Sheriff McKinley to be shocked to learn that Gavin was participating in illegal activity, but from the strange, calm expression on the lawman's face, she had a chilling notion he already knew.

“Is
this
the only copy of the video?” he asked, his hand already taking the CD away from her.

“Yes,” she lied, glancing toward the door. “I trust you'll do what needs to be done?”

He nodded, but she didn't think the sheriff intended to do anything but protect his son.

Which meant she needed to take the second copy of the video to someone higher up in the government. Walking down the block, she pulled out her cell phone and called Jace's mother. If anyone could do something it was her.

“My mother's not here,” Natalie said on the other end of the phone. “She went into the hospital late last night after hearing Jace may be accused of poaching. The stress of what might happen to her son and her campaign was too much for her to handle.”

This situation was becoming more than Delaney could handle. What was she to do?

A loudspeaker broadcasted that the rally for animal rights was about to begin. A fairly large crowd had gathered in front of a stage at the end of the street. Her friends would be at that rally. She could give the video to them and they could place it into the hands of the proper authorities.

She found Carol directing a man to raise the projector they would be using so it would be properly centered on the ten-­foot screen behind her.

“Carol,” she said, tugging on her sleeve. “I need to talk to you.”

“Not now, Delaney,” she said, pulling away from her. “This is not a good time.”

“This is the
perfect
time,” Delaney pleaded, glancing again at the screen. “Please, it's urgent.”

Carol turned on her, her expression livid. “Look,” she said, her hands on her hips. “If you've got something to say, go ahead, be my guest.”

Carol pointed at the stage, and Mary Ann and Ben, who had undoubtedly overheard, stopped adjusting the microphone for a moment and looked up to see what she would do.

Delaney glanced over the crowd and the nauseous dread she'd experienced so many times before filled her stomach and rose higher, tightening her chest. Her heart rate went into overdrive. The back of her throat closed and her tongue grew dry. Suddenly dizzy, she thought she might even faint.

Then she spotted the officials in attendance on the other side of the platform who wore uniforms with the official Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks' yellow patch on the sleeve of their shirts. And in the middle of the patch, staring right at her, was the head of a
bear
.

Her hand flew up to her neck to reach for the bear claw necklace her grandmother had given her, but it wasn't there. She'd lost it, probably in Woolly's field the day Jace had shot the bear behind her and saved her life. Her gaze swung back toward the stage and her grandmother's words floated back to her.
“True courage comes from within.”

Was her grandmother right? The week before she'd found another rabbit by the cabins, except this one was dead. There were no signs of an injury, but sometimes they could die simply from the stress of smelling or hearing a predator nearby. She didn't want to be like that rabbit. She didn't want these poachers to win because she was too afraid to take a stand.

Climbing the stairs, she walked out on stage where scores of eyes fixed upon her. Then taking the microphone in her hand, she said, “Poaching is not a problem we can leave to someone else to solve. The solution starts with us, working together as a team to protect our state's wildlife. It starts with you . . . and
me
.” Handing a CD to Mary Ann to give to the man behind the table with the laptop and computerized projector, she said, “I have something to show you.”

The rally to support stricter disciplinary action against poaching turned out to be a huge success. After viewing the video, the state officials promised they'd take immediate action against Fox Creek Outfitters. Carol, Mary Ann, and Ben apologized, commended her speech, and asked her to come back to their local wildlife rescue clinic. Delaney smiled and told them she'd let them know,
after
she talked to Jace.

She returned home and picked up her phone to call him as she walked through the front door, but hesitated in midstep when she saw the look on her mother's face.

“Grandma's missing!” Ma exclaimed.

Delaney stared at her. “What do you mean ‘missing'?”

“She wasn't here to cook lunch and I was about to call the cook and beg her to come back, but Bree said the woman got a job cooking at Woolly's and now its midafternoon and time to prepare dinner and your grandma still isn't here.”

Sammy Jo and Bree burst through the door behind her and Bree said, “She's not in the stable, the sheds, or any of the cabins. We already searched the entire house. I don't know where she could be.”

“Do you think she walked up to the silver mine?” Sammy Jo asked breathlessly.

Delaney shook her head. “I saw Party Marty standing at the end of the driveway. He follows Grandma wherever she goes, which means he's waiting for her to come home.”

“She left by car?” Ma demanded. “Who could have picked her up?”

“I heard her mention she had a hot date,” Nora said as she and her sister passed through toward the kitchen.

Delaney froze. “A hot date with the sheriff?”

Their worries increased tenfold when she told them about the video and how the sheriff had acted when she'd brought him the CD, then a hundredfold when Delaney went down the driveway to coax Party Marty back to the house and got a call on her cell phone.

“We have your grandma,” said a muffled male voice Delaney didn't recognize. “She says the deed to the ranch is in the top drawer of her bedroom dresser. Bring it up to the silver mine by four p.m. if you don't want to see her get hurt. No police. And, Delaney? We want you to come alone.”

Racing back to the house, she shouted, “Grandma's been
kidnapped
!”

With her voice shaking almost as much as her legs, Delaney told them what the caller had said. Her ma's face went white. Bree's mouth fell open. Sammy Jo clutched Luke's arm and his eyes narrowed as he clenched his fist. But her father's reaction was the most alarming.

The blood vessels in his face and neck stood out as his tan complexion turned first to red, then into a shade of deep purple. The vein in his neck pulsated with what Delaney could only assume was rage, and he bellowed, “They took my
ma
?”

“Whoever kidnapped her will never get away with it,” Bree assured him. “The moment they take Grandma into the courthouse to make the transfer of the deed legal, we can have them arrested.”

“It's got to be the Randalls,” her father stormed. “They've wanted to steal our ranch away from us since the very beginning. They probably tricked your grandma into
thinking
she was being picked up by the sheriff.”

“Unless the sheriff is in on it,” Delaney warned.

“He's been a lawman for over thirty years,” Ma argued. “He'll be retiring soon. He'd never do anything to jeopardize his pension or—­or put himself in
prison
.”

“Poachers make more money than he could ever hope to get from his pension,” Delaney informed her. “And Gavin is his son, who might be working with Woolly and the Randalls.”

“Well, we can't call him,” Luke warned, “or trust anyone in his department.”

Bree looked at Delaney, and said, “Can we call Jace's mom? Maybe she could help us notify the FBI or other authorities?”

“I'll try,” she promised, punching in the number on her phone. “But earlier this afternoon, she was in the hospital.” A few minutes later, she shook her head. “The hospital says Grace was released and I can't get through to her or Natalie on their cell phones.”

All of the sudden the lights went out and the room darkened. “The landline is dead,” Sammy Jo reported, returning from the other room. “And we have no power. The snow is starting to fall pretty heavy and communication is going to be sketchy all across the county.”

“One of us will have to drive the truck into town to contact the authorities,” Luke said, and glanced at Sammy Jo. “Think you can make it through?”

She took the keys from his hand and nodded. “I'll get help,” Sammy Jo promised.

“They won't kill her,” Bree said, her voice hard, as if trying to make herself believe what she was saying were true. “If they did, the ranch would go straight to us.”

“She doesn't have a will on file,” her father choked out. “She wanted to transfer the title of the ranch into all our names and take care of all her legal business at the same time but didn't have a chance. If something were to happen to her, anyone could stake a claim on the property and the courts would decide who takes control.”

“Do you think the Randalls have ­people working for them in the court system?” Ma asked.

“Anything's possible,” Delaney's father growled. “But we aren't going to let it get that far. We're going up there.”

“Jed!” Ma exclaimed. “Don't you think we should wait and let the authorities handle this?”

“The ­people holding my mother are ­people we
know
,” he said, his expression resolute. “We live off this land and fix what needs fixing day after day, year after year, all without outside help. So—­no. I am
not
going to sit back and twiddle my thumbs hoping the authorities make it in time.”

Bree agreed. “It's going to take at least an hour for any outside officers or the FBI to get to the mine, even if they take a chopper. We have to go up there and keep watch until they arrive.”

“The caller said he wanted
me
to bring the deed to the silver mine,” Delaney reminded them. “Why me?”

Luke arched his brow and gave her a sympathetic look. “You're the only one in this family who they know will not shoot.”

I'm the weakest link. The least threat.
“
They want me to come alone.”

“Well, there's no chance of that happening,” her father said, grabbing the rifles from the gun cabinet in the living room. He tossed one to Bree and another to Luke. “There's no way we're going to waste another minute standing around talking about it either—­it's almost four o'clock.”

T
H
E
M
I
N
U
T
E
J
A
C
E
opened the door, Delaney shoved his gun into his hands. “We need your help,” she pleaded. “Grandma's been kidnapped.”

She quickly filled him and the rest of the Tanner household in on the details, then added, “Ma's back at the house watching Meghan. Bree, Luke, and my dad are gathering the hunters. Sammy Jo drove into town to alert the authorities, but it's snowing and the roads are bad. We're—­we're not sure they're going to make it in time.”

“They might not,” Jace said, taking her arm. “But we
will
.”

Grabbing their own rifles, the Tanner brothers and Jace's uncle, Bo, promised to help and together they followed Delaney up the rest of the trail toward the old abandoned silver mine. The snow fell heavy and thick and Jace had to grab hold of Delaney's arm more than once to keep her from slipping even though she wore heavy boots. She might have had more balance if she weren't carrying her bow and a quiver of arrows over her shoulder.

“What made you decide to bring the bow?” he asked, steadying her once again. “Are you planning to shoot the kidnappers with an
arrow
?”

“No,” she assured him. “I have a different plan.”

“Be careful. You said that the state officials from Fish and Wildlife are going to shut Gavin's outfitting business down, but he might not know it yet,” Jace warned. “I'm sure he and the others think they can get away with this and have his father cover for him, which makes Gavin dangerous.”

Delaney cast him a sidelong look. “I didn't see any newspaper stories about
you
yet either.”

“Doesn't mean it's not going to happen.” He didn't want to get either of their hopes up. “It's only been a day.”

Jed Collins waved them to a stop in the last cluster of trees before the mine. “Luke is leading the hunters over the rise and around the other side. The Tanners, Bree, and I are spreading out on this side and creeping up as close as we can to see if we can spot your grandma.”

“We won't go in and confront them unless they threaten her, right?” Jace asked.

Jed let out a low grunt. “That's the plan.”