Redemption (23 page)

“You must have been disappointed,” she said out loud. “And pretty angry that you got away with little more than loose change.”

That’s why he’d be back. Not for her money. He now knew she didn’t keep much in the house. But he would be vindictive—just as he’d been as a boy. He would want to hurt someone. Loralee figured she’d just been lucky those boys hadn’t had a chance to grow up in that hollow up the road, or they would have come back for her before now.

But she didn’t expect him back tonight. He’d done his worst for now.

Exhausted, Loralee wanted only to go to bed and sleep. For the first time in her life, though, she locked both doors before she collapsed into a deep but troubled sleep.

* * *

B
ILLY
W
ESTFALL LOOKED
up to see the sheriff standing in his doorway. He blinked, thinking he was seeing things. He and Frank hadn’t parted ways on the best of terms. Just the thought made him laugh. Frank Curry hadn’t exactly fired the former deputy. He’d just refused to rehire him after Billy had made the bad decision to quit last fall.

“I know you didn’t come to wish me good luck with my new business venture,” Billy said. “If this is about my P.I. license...” He started to motion to the document he’d framed and put on the wall. The only thing on the wall. He hadn’t had time to decorate yet.

The sheriff closed the door.

Billy slipped his hand into the top drawer, where he kept a spare handgun. His fingers closed around the grip as Frank Curry moved toward his desk. It wasn’t that he was afraid of his former boss, but there’d been times when he was a deputy that the sheriff had looked as if he wanted to kill him.

He wasn’t taking any chances, since the sheriff had one hell of a scowl on his face. “That’s close enough,” Billy said.

The sheriff stopped. He looked irritated. “Get your hand out of that drawer. In fact, I’d feel better if you stood up.”

“What is it you want, Sheriff?” he demanded. “You can’t just come in here and start—”

“Pamela Chandler Curry. I believe she’s going by her maiden name again.”

Billy freed his hand and leaned back in his chair.
“Your ex?”

“I need you to find her.”

It took him a minute because this was the last thing on earth he’d expected. Then he began to laugh. “You want to hire
me?
”

Frank made a distasteful face and glanced away as if this was hard on him.

Billy just bet it was. “All the time I was your deputy, you told me how undisciplined I was, how trigger-
happy, basically how worthless I was, and how if it wasn’t for my grandfather Bull you’d have fired me. Isn’t that right?”

The sheriff scowled again. “Do you want the job or not?”

“Why
me?
”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“You think my grandfather knows where she is.” Billy almost laughed as he realized Frank’s real intent. Frank had always thought he had more pull with his grandfather than he did. But Billy wasn’t about to let the sheriff know that.

“So you need
my
help,” he said and smiled. “Why do you want to find her?”

“This was a bad idea.” Frank started to turn to leave.

“I’ll find her. Don’t you want to know what I charge?” He rattled off his rate. The sheriff glanced around the office, his expression making it clear he wasn’t impressed. Billy almost told him to forget it. But in truth he needed the money.

“Fine,” Frank said and scribbled down his cell phone number on the scratch pad on the corner of his desk. “I don’t want you talking to her. Just find her and call me right away. I don’t want anyone else knowing about this.”

“I’m going to need half my fee up front.”

The sheriff looked as if he was thinking better of hiring him.

“I’ll prove to you that you were wrong about me,” Billy said quickly.

“We’ll see.” With that, Frank reached for his wallet, took out several large bills, tossed them on the desk and walked out.

* * *

K
ATE AND
J
ACK
had stolen a few hours to search the hollow since making their pact, but like this late afternoon, she could tell his heart wasn’t in it. He didn’t believe the gold was hidden here on the Ackermann property. And even though there had been no sign of anymore Ackermanns, she could tell he was always on alert. Did he think she hadn’t noticed the pistol he’d started carrying in his pack?

“Why are you doing this?” she asked him after another unsuccessful attempt to find the gold. She knew she should be touched that he wanted to protect her.

“What do you mean?” he asked as they were walking out of the hollow toward her pickup.

“Are you even really looking for the gold or just indulging me?” she demanded, feeling her anger rise.

“We’re partners,” he said calmly, looking at her as if surprised by her outburst.

She scoffed at that. “This is just like that first night we met. You think you’re coming to my rescue. Well, I don’t need your help if it’s just about saving the damsel in distress.”

He had stopped walking to stare at her. They stood in a stand of pines. The warm day had faded to a silver dusk. Deep shadows hunkered under the trees and a cool breeze blew down from the mountain peaks.

“You’re the one who asked for my help,” he reminded her.

She shook her head, hating that it was true. “Only because I thought—”

“Kate, what is this really about?”

“You don’t believe the gold is here.”

“But you do. So what is the problem? Why are you trying to push me away?”

She stared at him, realizing it was true. She’d picked this fight. She didn’t want to need him. Worse, she didn’t want to want him.

Since they’d made the pact, he seemed to be keeping his distance from her. Kate said as much to him now.

Jack laughed. “I thought that’s what you wanted.”

“It was. Is.” Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly and looked back toward the hollow.

“I know you’re scared,” he said quietly.

He had no idea how much he scared her. She liked her life to be an open, straight road. No surprises. Claude had put a huge bend in that road. She hated to think what Jack could do to it.

“I think they’ve been watching us.”

Her gaze swung to his in surprise. She almost laughed. He thought the Ackermanns were her greatest fear?

“They’re waiting for you to find the gold.”

She thought he was probably right about that. “But since you don’t think that it’s going to happen... I need to get back,” she said, and started past him.

He caught hold of her arm and turned her into him. “Why is it so hard for you to accept help?”

She shook her head and pulled free. “You’re right. I was trying to push you away. I wish I hadn’t involved you in this.” She wished that she wasn’t so aware of him on these trips into the hollow.

“I
am
involved.” His gaze met hers and she felt a slow fire burn in her belly. Goose bumps rippled over her bare skin. She shivered, hugging herself against the growing desire she felt for him.

“You’re just frustrated because we haven’t found the gold,” he said.

Yep, that was it, she thought as she dug a boot toe in the dirt.

Jack reached over and lifted her chin with his finger until they were eye to eye again. “Maybe one day you’ll trust me enough to tell me about your scar.”

She nodded, though she had her doubts. As she walked back to where they’d left her truck parked in the trees, she thought of Claude and the promise she’d made him.

How could she explain to Jack the tangled knot of emotions that came with this hollow? Or that even the sight of the hurriedly drawn map on a piece of used freezer paper brought her to tears? What did he know about loss? Or promises she feared she couldn’t keep?

* * *

“
I
OWE YOU
THE TRUTH,”
Claude said a few weeks after the surgery. It would be a year before he recovered, but the doctor said everything had gone well. His body hadn’t rejected the portion of liver she’d given him. Her recovery would be much shorter, just a few months, according to the doctor.

“You owe me more than that,” she joked, “But that’s a start anyway.”

“I’m sorry I have to be the one to tell you this.”

“Shouldn’t you have told me sooner that I have three violent, psychopathic, somewhat stepbrothers who are going to come looking for me?”

He met her gaze. “You were safe as long as Cullen Ackermann was alive. He’s dying of cancer. He hasn’t told his sons where the gold is buried yet or they would have already returned to Beartooth.”

“You’re that certain that three of the sons survived?”

He nodded.

“You told me my mother died soon after you got me out of there when I was eighteen months old. Why didn’t she leave with me?” She swallowed. “Did he kill her?”

“Not in the way you’re thinking, but he was responsible. She was killed by one of the booby traps he’d set up around his property to keep trespassers out. He went to prison for it. For that and what he did to his first wife, his legal wife.”

“His first wife?” Kate wasn’t sure she wanted to hear this.

“When the sheriff and his deputies stormed the place, they found Cullen’s wife, the one he’d never divorced. He had her locked up in a hole in the side of the mountain. No one knows how long she’d been there, but I know your mother didn’t know. The woman was in terrible shape and died shortly after she was rescued.”

“Oh, my word,” Kate said, feeling sick to her stomach.

“You see why I don’t want this man or his whelps to get what was your mother’s? They took enough from her.”

She walked to the window, her back to him. “Let me get this straight. They think I know where this gold is?” She turned to look at him. “If I was eighteen months old when all this hit the fan, why would they...” Her words died off as he picked up a manila envelope and held it out to her. “What is that?”

He didn’t answer.

She didn’t want to know what was in that envelope and yet she stepped to him and took it, fingering the envelope for a moment before carefully opening it. It hadn’t been sealed, the flap merely turned under. She suspected Claude had put whatever it was into the envelope for safekeeping—not her mother.

As she pulled out the faded, crinkled sheet of paper, she frowned. “It looks like a child’s treasure map.”

“I suspect it was the best your mother could do with what she had at her disposal. But you’re right. It is a map.”

She glanced up at him to make sure he wasn’t kidding. “You can’t be serious. This is a map to the gold hidden at the end of the rainbow?” She laughed. “You can’t expect me to believe any of this. Why wouldn’t your brother tell his sons where he buried this gold—if it exists?”

“Your mother’s family had money. She’d just inherited it when her path crossed Cullen’s. The money he turned into gold bullion is your inheritance. It doesn’t belong to Cullen’s boys. I promised your mother I would see that you got it.”

“You didn’t exactly beat a path to my door to get it to me, did you?”

“It wasn’t safe.”

“Safe. Like it is safe now?”

He looked away. “None of this is my doing, believe me.”

“Why wouldn’t they have found this gold by now? Surely they would have looked for it?”

“Ackermann Hollow, as it is now known, covers a lot of rough terrain. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack without a map.”

“Or with this map,” she said, tossing it on the table. “If their father didn’t give them the location, then why would they think I have it?” She saw Claude’s expression. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Cullen. I saw him before he died in prison. He knows your mother made a map.”

She felt a cold chill wind its way up her spine. “He told his sons?”

“He feels she betrayed him and wants revenge.”

“She betrayed him?”

“It’s his vengeance against her through you,” Claude said.

She studied him for a long moment. “And against you. He knew I wasn’t his, didn’t he?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to.

“I want nothing to do with any of this,” she said, crossing her arms.

“I’m afraid you have no choice. Whether you decide to find the gold or not, they will come looking for you.”

“I’ll give them the map and good riddance.”

“If that’s what you want to do.” He got to his feet, but she could see it was an effort. He still looked pale and sickly. “Cullen took your mother’s money, kept her a prisoner and ultimately killed her. Now he is sending his rabid boys after you and the gold. Can you really just give it to them?”

She’d always been a fighter, but this was more than she could handle. “I’d be a sitting duck in Beartooth, Montana.”

“If I could find you, then they can, too. At least in Beartooth it would be on your own terms. At least there, they’ll probably wait until you find it for them before they...”

“Kill me?” she asked, astonishment in her voice. “Do you realize what you’re asking me to do?”

“I’m just doing what I promised your mother.”

She swore and stepped to the table to pick up the map again. It couldn’t have been more crudely drawn as if her mother had been in a terrible hurry. She felt her stomach roil at the thought of what her mother had gone through to not only save her daughter, but to try to get her this.

* * *

L
ORALEE WAS AT HER
kitchen sink and just happened to look up from the single plate and cup she was rinsing after her breakfast, and there he was.

Used to seeing deer and elk and even an occasional bear or two, she wasn’t even startled at first.