They stopped on a high ridge deep in the Missouri Breaks. She felt as if she was on top of the world, the land running wide-open to the horizons as clouds bobbed in a sea of blue overhead. “It’s amazing up here,” she said, taking an awed breath.
“It’s still lonely country,” he said. “There isn’t anything for miles.”
“Your grandmother doesn’t run cattle or grow any crops?”
“She used to, back when the family all lived on the ranch, but I’m sure she sold off the herd after we all left,” Jack said. “All she had was Enid and Alfred, and you can tell by the shape the place is in that they haven’t been able to keep up with maintaining the house and barns. I’m surprised she kept the horses, but I suspect Alfred must ride. I wouldn’t imagine my grandmother’s been on a horse in years.”
“You used to ride as a boy?” she guessed.
He nodded. “My mother and I rode down here. It was our favorite spot.”
She heard a wistfulness in his voice that she hadn’t heard since they’d been here, a love for this country and a sorrow for the mother he’d loved.
“You miss this,” she said.
He chuckled.
She could almost feel the battle going on inside him. He’d come here to even a score with his grandmother in some way. But a part of him wanted this, not the money, but the land, and not just to own it, but to ranch it.
“What would you do if your grandmother asked you to stay?”
“She won’t.”
“How can you be so sure of that?”
“Because I know her.”
“Maybe she’s changed.”
He chuckled again. “Right. Anyway, it’s too late.”
Was it ever too late? She thought of RJ. Maybe some people were too bitter, too sick, too hateful to ever change. Maybe Jack’s grandmother was one of them.
She listened to the breeze blow through the boughs of the ponderosa pines and wished she and Jack never had to go back to civilization.
“I’d run cattle on it the way this ranch was when I was a kid,” Jack said suddenly. “I’d get wheat growing up on those high benches and alfalfa and hay. I’d make it a working ranch again instead of...” His voice trailed off and he laughed, as if at his own foolishness. “Just talking,” he said. “I came up here to say goodbye.”
They ate the lunch Enid had packed them with a view of the lake where the Missouri River widened into Fort Peck Reservoir. The water looked like a sparkling blue jewel hidden in this untamed, uninhabited country.
“I’m sorry about the way I reacted last night,” Jack said after they’d finished a sandwich and soda on a large flat rock.
She nodded, a lump in her throat. This was the last thing she wanted to talk about.
“I was just so angry at the person who did that to you...” His voice trailed off. “And I took that anger out on you.”
She understood more than he knew.
“Josey, I want to help.”
She shook her head. “You don’t know any more about me than I do you. I think it is best if we leave it that way.”
“That’s not true. You’ve met my family. You know where I was born. Hell, you practically know my whole life history.”
“Just up to the age of six. I don’t even know where you live now.”
“Wyoming. Ten Sleep, Wyoming. How about you?”
She shook her head.
“Look, I know you’re in trouble and it’s because of a dangerous man.” He raised his hand to keep her from interrupting him. Not that she was going to. So far he’d been dead-on. “All I’m saying is that maybe I can help.”
Josey smiled, her eyes burning with tears again. She was touched and hated that she was. “Don’t be so nice to me, okay?”
“I can’t help myself.” His gaze locked with hers.
She felt the heat in those eyes, the blue like a hot flame. Their thighs brushed as he moved, the touch sending a flurry of emotions racing through her.
Jack drew her into his arms before she could protest. His mouth dropped to hers as his strong arms encircled her.
His kiss was filled with passion and heat and, strangely enough, a gentleness like he’d shown with the horses, as if he knew to go easy with her because she would spook easily.
She did more than let him kiss her. She kissed him back, matching his passion and his heat, if not his gentleness, until she came to her senses and drew back.
He was looking at her, his eyes filled with a soft tenderness.
It was as if a dam burst. All the tears she’d repressed for so long broke free. He pulled her back into his arms, holding her as she sobbed, his large hand rubbing her back as he whispered soothing words she could neither hear nor understand.
MCCALL STOOD OUTSIDE the cold, sterile autopsy room waiting for George to come out and give her the results. The crime lab had flown in personnel to do the autopsy. George was assisting.
She’d had only a few hours’ sleep before she’d called down to the Missouri River this morning to check with Luke. They were dragging the river and had been since daylight. So far, nothing.
George didn’t look so hot as he came out of the autopsy room. “I figured you’d be waiting.” He made her sound ghoulish. “The report should be typed up within an hour.”
She shook her head. She didn’t want to wait that long. “Just give me the highlights.”
He sighed, looking exhausted and a little green around the gills. She figured he regretted taking this job and wondered how long he’d last.
“Could we at least sit down for minute?” he asked, and headed for the conference room.
She grabbed them both a cup of coffee from the machine and joined him.
“As you know, she had numerous signs of
