Trouble in Big Timber Read online

  “I need to wind this investigation up in the next forty-eight hours, and quite frankly, you’ve become a distraction I can’t afford.”

  “Is that what I am to you,” Ford said, grinning.

  “I’m serious. Please go home so I know you’re safe.”

  “I can’t do that.” He held Hitch’s gaze. “I came here to save Rachel if I could. Instead I find myself getting involved with you.”

  “I wouldn’t say we’re involved.”

  “Wouldn’t you?” He cupped her cheek, drawing her face up to his own. “Tell me there is nothing between us and I’ll walk away right now.”

  She parted her lips, but no words came out. He pulled her into his arms. He could feel her heart pounding in her pulse. “Last chance,” he said.

  TROUBLE IN BIG TIMBER

  New York Times Bestselling Author

  B.J. Daniels

  B.J. Daniels is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author. She wrote her first book after a career as an award-winning newspaper journalist and author of thirty-seven published short stories. She lives in Montana with her husband, Parker, and three springer spaniels. When not writing, she quilts, boats and plays tennis. Contact her at bjdaniels.com, on Facebook or on Twitter, @bjdanielsauthor.

  Books by B.J. Daniels

  Harlequin Intrigue

  Cardwell Ranch: Montana Legacy

  Steel Resolve

  Iron Will

  Ambush Before Sunrise

  Double Action Deputy

  Trouble in Big Timber

  Whitehorse, Montana: The Clementine Sisters

  Hard Rustler

  Rogue Gunslinger

  Rugged Defender

  HQN

  Montana Justice

  Restless Hearts

  Heartbreaker

  Heart of Gold

  Sterling’s Montana

  Stroke of Luck

  Luck of the Draw

  Just His Luck

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Ford Cardwell—He’s at rock bottom when he gets the apparently pocket-dialed call from the woman he never forgot. He heard the whole thing—including the gunshot.

  Henrietta “Hitch” Rogers—The state medical examiner suspects something is wrong the moment she’s put on the case.

  Rachel Westlake Collinwood—Why did she keep the abuse a secret until the day she said she was forced to kill her husband?

  Humphrey Collinwood—Was he really abusing his wife? Or did she kill him in cold blood?

  Sheriff Charley Cortland—The first on the scene, he could see that it was an open-and-shut case of domestic abuse gone too far.

  Paul Townsend—He would have done anything for Rachel Collinwood. Had he?

  Deputy Rick Birch—He’d had to come to Rachel Collinwood’s rescue before.

  Shyla Birch—Rachel’s best friend from college knew her better than anyone, didn’t she?

  This book is dedicated to anyone still hung up on an old love.

  If you saw the person again, would it ignite those old sparks?

  Or would the fire have burned out? Or, would you realize that

  they were never quite as amazing as you remembered?

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Excerpt from Spring at Saddle Run by Delores Fossen

  Excerpt from The Bait by Carol Ericson

  Chapter One

  The narrow mountain road ended at the edge of a rock cliff. It wasn’t as if Ford Cardwell had forgotten that. No, when he saw where he was, he knew it was why he’d taken this road and why he was going so fast as he approached the sheer vertical drop to the rocks far below. It would have been so easy to keep going, to put everything behind him, to no longer feel pain.

  Pine trees blurred past as the pickup roared down the dirt road to the nothingness ahead. All he could see were sky and more mountains off in the distance. Welcome back to Montana. He’d thought coming home would help. He’d thought he could forget everything and go back to being the man he’d been.

  His heart thundered as he saw the end of the road coming up quickly. Too quickly. It was now or never.

  The words sounded in his ears, his own when he was young. He saw himself standing in the barn loft looking out at the long drop to the pile of hay below. Jump or not jump. It was now or never.

  He was within yards of the cliff when his cell phone rang. He slammed on his brakes. An impulsive reaction to the ringing in his pocket? Or an instinctive desire to go on living?

  The pickup slid to a dust-boiling stop, his front tires just inches from the end of the road. Heart in his throat, he looked out at the plunging drop in front of him.

  His heart pounded harder. Just a few more moments—a few more inches—and he wouldn’t have been able to stop in time.

  His phone rang again. A sign? Or just a coincidence? He put the pickup in Reverse a little too hard and hit the gas pedal. The front tires were so close to the edge that for a moment he thought the tires wouldn’t have purchase. Fishtailing backward, the truck spun away from the precipice.

  Ford shifted into Park and, hands shaking, pulled out his still-ringing phone. As he did, he had a stray thought. How rare it used to be to get cell phone coverage here in the Gallatin Canyon, of all places. Only a few years ago the call wouldn’t have gone through.

  Without checking to see who was calling, he answered it, his hand shaking as he did. He’d come so close to going over the cliff. Until the call had saved him.

  “Hello?” He could hear noises in the background. “Hello?” He let out a bitter chuckle. A robocall had saved him at the last moment? he thought.

  But his laughter died as he heard a bloodcurdling scream coming from his phone. “Hello?” he yelled. “Who is this?” The scream was followed by a woman’s desperate pleas.

  “No, please, don’t hurt me anymore.” Another scream and the sound of breaking glass.

  “Hello?” He was yelling, frantic, having no idea who was on the other end of the call—just that she was in trouble. Had the woman meant to call 9ll? Maybe it was a pocket dial and she hadn’t meant to call anyone—let alone a stranger.

  “Tell me where you are!” he yelled into the phone, but his voice was drowned out by another scream, this one filled with pure terror—and pain. He knew both too well.

  The sound of something hard hitting soft flesh was followed by a choking sound. Choking on blood? The woman was being attacked. By an intruder? Or someone she knew? He’d never felt more helpless as he listened to more breaking glass and the woman’s screams.

  “No! Please, Humphrey, you’re going to kill me! Please
. Stay back. Don’t make me...” The gunshot sounded deafening—even on the phone. Then there was no sound at all coming from his cell.

  Ford stared down at the phone in his hand, shock shuddering through him. The woman on the other end of the line had called the man Humphrey. His already pounding heart thumped against his ribs, making his chest ache. It couldn’t be. He stared at the name that had come up on his phone. No. He tried to call the number back. It went straight to voice mail. Someone must have found the phone and shut it off. Or declined the call.

  His heart was pounding. For a moment, he was too stunned to move, almost to breathe, at what he’d just heard, what he’d been unable to stop. Rachel. The call was from his former college roommate’s wife, Rachel Westlake—now Mrs. Humphrey Collinwood.

  He’d only recently added her number to his contact list after she’d sent him a friend request on social media and they’d exchanged cell phone numbers.

  His pulse pounded so loud that he couldn’t hear himself think. Fumbling in his fear and panic, he hit 911. It couldn’t be true. He knew Humphrey. They’d been roommates most of their time in college. His former friend wouldn’t hurt anyone. Humphrey idolized Rachel. But from what he’d heard on the call...

  Outside the pickup, the wind howled in the pines. A gust blew dirt over the cliff and into the abyss, reminding him how close he’d come to making that same descent. The only thing that had stopped him was the phone call. Or would he have hit the brakes on his own? He would never know.

  The 911 operator came on the line. “What is the nature of your emergency?”

  “I think I just heard someone being attacked and possibly killed on what I suspect was a pocket dial.” His voice broke. “Her name is Rachel Westlake. Sorry, it’s Collinwood now.” He listened as the dispatcher asked him a question. “No, I don’t know where she lives exactly. A ranch north of Big Timber. That’s all I know. We only recently reconnected. That’s how she had my number. Please, you have to find her. She might still be...alive.”

  Chapter Two

  Dana Cardwell Savage looked out her kitchen window at the row of black clouds gathering over the mountains. She’d awakened this morning with one of her “bad” feelings. Her husband, Hud, used to joke about them. He still didn’t necessarily believe in her foreboding “sixth sense.” But over their many years together, he’d learned to acknowledge her premonitions with caution, if not take them seriously. Unfortunately, she never knew what was coming—just that something was.

  At the sound of a vehicle pulling up in front of the main house on Cardwell Ranch, she squinted into the morning sun to see her cousin Jackson climb out. From the worry etched in his handsome face, she knew even before she opened her front door—someone was in trouble. She ushered him into the kitchen, a place where everyone knew they could get a mug of hot coffee and a kind word—if not advice. Good listener that she was, Dana dispensed it all—and usually with some warm homemade cookies fresh from the oven.

  Jackson brushed a lock of hair back from his forehead as he took a seat at her kitchen table. It was large and marred like the floor under it from years of cowboys pulling up a chair and resting their boots under it and their arms on it.

  She noticed her cousin’s salt-and-pepper hair and felt a shock at how much they had all aged. She didn’t feel her age most days. It was only when she looked in the mirror or thought about everything that had happened over the years, the good and the bad.

  As she poured her cousin a mug of coffee, she could tell that something was bothering him. She hadn’t seen him for a while, but knew that her cousin’s barbecue restaurant with his brothers was doing well, so that wasn’t the problem.

  “Ford’s back,” Jackson said as he took the mug from her.

  Dana brightened as she joined him at the table. She remembered the first time she’d seen the boy when he was about five and Jackson had brought him to the ranch. Such a sweet child. She said as much to his father.

  “We’ll have to have a party,” she said, a part of her brain already making plans. She did love getting all the family together here on the ranch. When Jackson didn’t respond, she looked at him closer.

  He was holding the mug in his large hands, staring down at the steaming brew in a way that made her heart drop. “What’s wrong?”

  “Ford’s not the same,” Jackson said after a moment. “The war, losing his men in the plane crash...” He looked up and she saw fear in his eyes. “I’m worried about him.”

  She’d heard that Ford had gotten a Purple Heart for his bravery and that he’d saved most of his crew when his plane had crashed. “He wasn’t injured, I heard.”

  “Not physically. But a lot of his crew died. He can’t seem to get past it. Why did he survive and not so many others? It’s his mental attitude that worries me. He seems...lost. He has a degree in engineering, but doesn’t seem interested in pursuing anything. I told him we can find a place for him in the barbecue business...”

  “You know he’s welcome here on the ranch,” Dana said quickly. “In fact, we could really use him. Please tell him that.”

  Jackson nodded. “As much as he loves the ranch and working here in the past, I doubt even that would help right now.”

  “Is it PTSD?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “Probably. He’s been getting help. I just think being over there in that war took the life out of him. He saw too much death, too much pain, just too much.” His voice broke and he took a sip of coffee. “I just got a call from him. He’s on his way to Big Timber. Seems this woman he knew in college...” He looked up at her. “I shouldn’t bother you with this.”

  “You know I’m here in any way I can help. Ford’s family. Why are you worried about this woman?”

  “Ford was in love with her. She married his best friend. It wasn’t anything he told me, but I have a feeling that this woman did a number on him years ago,” Jackson said. “Her coming back into his life right now...”

  “She called him for help?”

  Her cousin scoffed. “It’s much worse than that. She was in a domestic dispute with her husband apparently. For all Ford knows, she might even be dead.”

  * * *

  AFTER CALLING 911 and relating what he’d heard, Ford had called his father. He’d given him the abbreviated version of what had happened as he’d driven out of the mountains. He left out the dumbass thing he’d almost done. Just hearing his father’s voice was a reminder of the pain he would have caused if he hadn’t stopped. He felt embarrassed and guilty.

  “I’m on my way to Big Timber now. All I know is that she lives north of town on a ranch. I’ll call you when I know something more.”

  Now he concentrated on the highway in front of him. He was down the east side of the Bozeman Pass when he got a call from the Sweet Grass County sheriff, Charley Cortland.

  “You the one who placed the 911 call?” the sheriff asked. His voice was gruff and he sounded like an older man.

  Ford explained what had happened—and what he’d heard. “Did you find her? Is she...?” He couldn’t bring himself to ask what had happened, fearing she may be dead.

  “She’s alive. Your call got us to her in time.” The sheriff said he’d gone out to her ranch himself and gotten her to the hospital.

  He breathed a sigh of relief. On the drive he’d kept remembering a young Rachel in a yellow sundress, her head tilted back, laughing at him and Humphrey. She’d been so beautiful. In his memory, she and Humphrey had looked so happy and so much in love. So what had happened over the past fifteen years to change that?

  “How do you know Mrs. Collinwood?” the sheriff asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

  “We were friends back in college. Her husband was my roommate all four years. I was best man at their wedding.”

  “I see,” the sheriff said. “You said you’re on your way here? I’m going to need a statement from you. I’m at t
he scene, but will be returning to my office soon. One question. Why did she call you instead of 911?”

  Ford explained what he suspected had been a pocket dial and how he’d only recently gotten her number and vice versa. “Can you tell me if Humphrey...? Is he...?”

  “I’m afraid that’s all the information I can give you now. We’ll talk at my office. How soon did you say you would be arriving in town?” the sheriff asked.

  Ford explained that he was driving from Big Sky, but was now only about an hour away, then disconnected.

  Rachel was alive. But how badly injured? As far as he knew, there was only one hospital in Big Timber. Unless she’d been flown to Billings. But that would mean that her injuries were too critical to be taken care of at the local hospital. He knew he had to see for himself that she was all right—and that what he’d heard on the phone had really happened. It felt surreal. He knew Humphrey. They’d been like brothers. And Rachel... He shook his head, not wanting to admit even now the crush he’d had on his best friend’s girl.

  He passed Livingston, the Crazy Mountains growing closer and closer as he drove. With the speed limit being eighty, he was making good time. The thought of seeing Rachel had him both anxious and excited. He’d hated the way they’d left things for the past fifteen years.

  The truth was, he’d never expected to hear from her again after her wedding to Humphrey. After what had happened, the three of them had gone their separate ways. Humphrey had reached out a few times, but Ford hadn’t responded. Now he felt sick about that. If Humphrey was gone, he’d never get to make amends.

  Then there was Rachel, the woman he’d compared other women to for all these years. Strange how fate worked, he thought now as a chill moved through him. If Rachel hadn’t pocket dialed him when she did...she might not have gotten help in time. And Ford...well, he might be at the bottom of a cliff right now.

  Chapter Three

  “I know who you are,” the sheriff said after the medical examiner introduced herself at the crime scene. He hoisted up his tan uniform pants over his protruding belly and rocked back on his boot heels. “I’ve heard stories about you. You go by Hitch, right? Well, we don’t really need your help. George here can handle it just fine.”