AS THEY DROVE back toward Clawson Creek, Tucker seemed lost in his own thoughts. Kate didn’t feel much like talking, either. She regretted not telling him right away about her brother’s journal. She could make all kinds of excuses why she hadn’t. In truth, she hadn’t wanted to share it with anyone. Nor had she. Not even her parents knew about it.
So why had she told Tucker?
Her phone rang, startling her since it had been quiet for so long. Earlier she’d wanted to check something online as they were leaving the cemetery only to find there was no cell phone coverage that far from town.
She saw it was her mother and declined the call. If it was anything important, she’d call her when she got back to the hotel. Knowing her mother, though, she would keep calling. Turning off her phone, she pocketed it and leaned back in the seat to watch the landscape blur past.
Madeline had been a twin? An identical twin? She couldn’t imagine anything worse. Had Misty still been alive, Tucker might have come face-to-face with the woman, thinking she was Madeline.
She glanced over at him. Would he have fallen for the sister in Madeline’s place? No matter what he said, he would always be hung up on the woman. It riled her to no end but she wasn’t about to dredge through her feelings to understand why.
As he started through town, she said impulsively, “Stop at the café.”
Tucker shot her a look.
“Please. I promise to be on my best behavior.”
“I don’t know what that is,” he said but slowed and pulled into the parking lot next to the Busy Bumblebee Café. It was anything but busy.
“I think it would be better if I went in alone,” Kate said and opened her door. She saw Tucker’s worried look but ignored it as she closed the door and hurried toward the ancient-looking diner.
The inside was a lot like most small-town cafés she’d been in. There were four worn booths on one side and three tables on the other with a short counter across the back that looked into the kitchen. An old-grease smell hung in the air.
A male cook looked up from the pass-through but lost interest quickly. A woman who’d been sitting at one of the counter chairs swiveled around but didn’t get up.
Kate headed toward her, but the woman motioned for her to take one of the booths. She started to tell her that she wasn’t going to order anything when the waitress got up, hurried to her and whispered, “You’ll want to order something.”
Taking a few steps back at the woman’s intent expression, Kate slid into the farthest booth from the kitchen. Carly Brookshire would have called and warned this woman that someone was in town asking about Madeline Dunn. She watched the waitress glance nervously toward the cook in the back before she pulled out her order pad and waited.
“So what would you like to order?” the woman asked.
Since she hadn’t even been given a menu, let alone wanted to order anything, she said, “What would you suggest?”
“Maybe something to go like a grilled ham and cheese.”
Kate smiled. “Perfect. I’ll have two to go.”
“Good choice.” The woman took her time writing something on the pad she’d pulled from her apron pocket. With a flurry, she ripped the piece of paper off and placed it facedown on the table. Then she began to write on the next sheet.
Confused, Kate watched the woman go back to the kitchen and in a loud voice order, “Two grilled ham and cheeses to go.”
The cook mumbled something Kate didn’t catch. She waited, thinking the waitress would come back. She’d gotten the impression the order was just to keep the cook busy while they could talk.
But the waitress stayed in the kitchen talking to the cook until she returned with a greasy brown bag and announced that it would be twelve dollars.
Kate handed her a twenty and started to ask a question, but the woman cut her off. “Here.” Picking up the paper from her pad that she’d left on the table earlier, the waitress said, “You’ll want this,” and stuffed it in the sack with the sandwiches. “You have a good day.” Then she turned and went back to the kitchen.
Realizing that the waitress wouldn’t be back with her change, Kate rose, grabbed the sack and walked out.
“What happened?” Tucker asked as she slid in.
“I’m not sure. It was...strange.”
“What did you get?”
She opened the bag as Tucker pulled back out onto the street. The paper from the order pad was already starting to soak up grease. She looked at the writing and realized that the woman had written her a note.
“Maybe not so strange.”
“Do I get one of those sandwiches?” Tucker asked.
She shot him a look. “Seriously?”
“It smells good.”
Shaking her head, she pocketed the note from the woman until she had time to think about it without Tucker’s input, handed him a sandwich and watched him eat every last bite. She knew what Tucker would say. Pure and simple extortion.
The note had read: Want to know about Madeline Dunn? $500. Under that was a phone number.
Kate’s stomach growled, making Tucker grin over at her. She ate half her sandwich and gave the rest to him. After that, she must have fallen asleep because she woke to find the pickup no longer moving. She sat up, feeling disoriented. For a moment, she’d forgotten where she was, who she was with, until she saw that she was sitting in front of the hotel in his pickup.
“Nice nap?” Tucker asked, not unkindly. “You must be exhausted.”
She nodded, realizing it was true.
“I want to see Clay’s journal.”
“I know. I don’t have it with me. It’s under safekeeping back in Helena.” Did he believe her?
“If you say so.”
“It’s true.” She desperately wanted him to believe her, but she had kept the journal from him and now he was questioning her honesty. “I can’t send for it. No one but you and I know about it. But I promise you can see it.” She thought of him reading it. “Unless you change your mind. I’m afraid a lot of it will upset you.”
He smiled at that. “I won’t change my mind.”
She unhooked her seat belt. “Well, thank you for taking me with you.”
“Yes, it made for an...interesting day.”
Having nothing more to say about that, she opened her door and got out. And now she was keeping the note from the waitress in the café from him. “Talk to you soon?”
“Soon,” he said, making it sound like a promise. Or a threat.
* * *
TUCKER WATCHED KATE until she disappeared into the hotel lobby. All the time, he was wondering if he would ever see Clay’s journal. Maybe Kate was right. Maybe it was better that way. Not that he wouldn’t fight tooth and nail to read it, anyway.
He drove back to the ranch only to find that his ranching brothers were out working. Soon he would have to return to the workforce, too. He’d done all types of work and had become handy at a lot of manual labor. So what did he want to do for the rest of his life?
Tucker knew he couldn’t think about that now. He felt lost. Madeline had been a twin. If Clay had her birth date correct. He thought about calling Flint and seeing what he’d been able to find out about the Dunn family. As he pulled out his phone, he saw that his brother had called him and left a message. He hesitated, remembering that Flint had asked him to come by the sheriff’s department. He wasn’t sure if he was up to it right now.
Tucker knew he was putting off facing whatever Flint had called about. But he also knew it was only a matter of time before his friends heard he was back in town. He’d left so abruptly without even saying goodbye and then he hadn’t kept in touch over the past nineteen years for obvious reasons. He wasn’t even sure any of his old friends would want to see him. But he didn’t want them hearing about his return through the Gilt Edge grapevine, so he put in a call to the friend he’d been the closest to, Jayce Burton.
Jayce had become a lawyer with his own shingle located on the main street in town. There was no home number listed online, so he called the business number hoping to catch him before he left for the day. He expected he’d have to go through a secretary or receptionist but was put right through to his old friend.
“Jayce Burton, attorney at law.”
“Jayce... It’s Tucker.” Silence. “Tucker Cahill.”
“Tucker?”
“I’m back in town and I thought maybe—”
“Hell, yes. You’re buying the first drink at Stacy’s tonight. Forget that. I’ll buy if you can make it in ten minutes. I’ll call the boys.”
Tucker had to laugh. Nineteen years had passed but with Jayce it was as if he’d only seen him yesterday. “Ten minutes and I’m buying.” He hung up, glad he’d called.
Looking around the ranch house where he’d grown up, he felt as if he’d never left. Nothing had changed and yet he knew it had. He’d changed. But it sure felt as if time had stood still in Gilt Edge. The small Western town had grown some, mostly spread out more into the valley.
He couldn’t help but wonder how staying here all these years had changed his once best friends. He was actually excited to see them all again. It felt as if a weight had come off his shoulders, learning the truth about Madeline.
He immediately felt guilty for the thought. Madeline was dead. She’d died that night in an attempt to con him out of money. Not that it made her any less dead. Or him feel any less guilty.
Even though Kate wanted him to, he couldn’t hate Madeline. All he wanted to do now was put her and the past behind him. Seeing his old friends seemed like a good place to start.
* * *
“TUCKER!” JAYCE CAME rushing across the bar, a beer bottle already in hand, to give him a high five. “Damn, I can’t believe it. We heard you were dead. Or in prison.” He grinned to show that he was kidding and then pulled Tucker into a bear hug.
“It’s great to see you. You haven’t changed at all,” he said, meaning it. Jayce was a tall, slim former cowboy turned lawyer. He stil1 wore Western shirts and jeans but he’d traded his white Stetson for a Cubs baseball cap.
“Let’s get you a beer. The others should be here soon,” Jayce was saying as he steered him toward the bar. “When I called them, they thought I was kiddin’.” His friend studied him for a long moment. “The way you left... Well, I was worried.”
Fortunately, just then the front door opened and Cal Bertram and Lonny Pence came through the door. Cal had always been big when they’d played football together, but now he was even larger. He let out a whoop when he saw Tucker.
Tucker couldn’t help but smile as Cal lumbered toward him. While they were the same height, Cal outweighed him by a good hundred pounds. Cal grabbed him around the waist and picked him up off the ground, laughing.
“I can’t believe it,” he kept saying as he set him down and cuffed his shoulder. “Where have you been?”
“Let’s not get into that until we’ve all had a beer,” Jayce cut in, turning to Lonny. “What are you having?”
Lonny said he’d take a beer. While the other two had seemed glad to see him, Lonny held back. Tucker got the feeling Lonny didn’t want to be here and wouldn’t have been unless Jayce had insisted.
“Lonny,” Tucker said and held out his hand. “It’s good to see you.” While Jayce had been the star quarterback and the team captain, Tucker and Lonny had been backup quarterbacks, with Lonny spending much of his time on the bench. Lonny had never seemed to mind. He seemed to idolize Jayce, and since Tucker and Jayce were good friends, they all got along.
“Tuck.” Lonny finally met his gaze. “I thought we’d heard the last of you.”
Lonny was a little shorter than Tucker, slimmer built. At thirty-six, he’d grayed at the temples. While Jayce hadn’t seemed to change at all, Lonny seemed...tired.
“So what are you doing now?” Tucker asked him.
“Just working the ranch and helping out at the body shop with Cal and Rip.” Rip was Lonny’s cousin. “You going to ranch with your brothers? Or are you leaving again?”
“Right now I’m just enjoying my family. I suppose you know Lillie is pregnant.” He shook his head. “It’s still hard to believe. She was only nine when I left. And Darby... He and his wife, Mariah, are also expecting. You have kids?”
“Two girls, but they live with their mother in Spokane, Washington.”
The bitterness in his tone brought Tucker up short. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not like it’s your fault. You have any kids?”
Tucker shook his head. Fortunately, Jayce interrupted to say they should take a booth so they could all visit. Lonny accepted the beer Jayce handed him and took a long drink as the others stepped to the booth.
“You all right?” Jayce whispered to Tucker.
“Lonny seems...down.”
“Been that way for years,” his friend said, keeping his voice down so Lonny couldn’t hear. “He married Annalise, you remember her? Cheerleader, tiny, top-heavy?”
Tucker got a sudden picture of her. “She had a really wide mouth, right?”
“That was her. Lonny was nuts about her. I think he still is,” Jayce whispered as they slid into the booth where Cal was drumming his thick fingers on the table to a beat only he could hear.
But he smiled as Tucker slid in next to him and stopped drumming to ask, “So what happened? You left so quick. You take that girl with you?”
Tucker blinked.
“Cal,” Jayce said. “Give him a chance to enjoy his beer before you begin the inquisition.”
“No, it’s okay,” Tucker said. “What girl?”
Cal shot Jayce a look and began drumming again as Lonny sat down.
Tucker saw Lonny look from Cal to Jayce. A silent message passed between them and his stomach dropped. The girl. These guys were with him that day in Denton when he’d met Madeline. He’d thought they hadn’t seen her, hadn’t known why he’d stayed behind. He’d thought they’d bought his story about running into an old friend. He’d told them he’d catch a ride back to Gilt Edge and that they should go on without him. Of course they’d seen through his ruse.
“You saw her that day,” Tucker said.
“So we’re finally going to be honest?” Lonny asked.
“Knock it off, Cal,” Jayce snapped. Cal quit drumming and mugged a face.
“I didn’t think it was still a secret,” Cal said and picked up his beer. Clearly he was nervous and upset.
Jayce groaned and shook his head. “Tucker just got back.”
Like that made a difference. “Okay,” Tucker said, feeling like a fool. They all knew about Madeline. “So you all saw her. You all knew she was why I was staying behind that day. Why didn’t you say something?”
Cal looked to Jayce, who was taking a drink of his beer.
“We all figured she was why you skipped town when you did,” Cal said. “Ya knock her up?”
Jayce swore and put down his beer a little too hard on the table.
“Hey, we used to be best friends,” Cal pointed out. “I can’t ask him that?” he said to Jayce.
Tucker could feel the tension around the table. He felt as if he’d been left out of a private joke. “What’s going on? Jayce?”
Another look went around the table. Lonny chuckled and took a long draw on his beer. He appeared to be enjoying this.
Tucker swore. “Tell me what the hell is going on.”
Jayce glanced away for a moment. “Look, we knew you hadn’t ever...so we—”
It was all he could do not to smack himself in the forehead. “You set me up?” He couldn’t believe this.
“We’d heard about Madeline and figured...” Cal shrugged. “You were our friend. We were just trying to help you out.”
“Thanks a lot.” Tucker rubbed a hand over his face before picking up his beer and draining half of it. “How did you hear about her?”
Jayce looked to Lonny. “Didn’t you say you knew someone who’d met her?”
“It was almost twenty years ago,” Lonny said. “I can’t remember. I thought Cal suggested her.”
“No, I thought you said you got the name from your cousin,” Jayce said to Lonny.
“Rip?” Tucker thought this couldn’t get any worse. “It would have been nice if you’d given me a heads-up.”
Cal picked at the label on his bottle of beer. “We figured you’d be embarrassed. What we didn’t expect was that you’d fall for her. We wanted to warn you but then we’d have to admit what we did. So what happened to her?”
“She died in the creek next to the ranch nineteen years ago,” he said.
All three men stared at him, openmouthed.
“The skeleton that was found? That was her?” Cal said. He huffed out a humorless laugh. “I heard she liked to swim naked. You think she was naked?”
Jayce swore. “Damn it, Cal. Could you be any more inappropriate?”
“We didn’t all become uptight lawyers,” Cal said and took a drink of his beer.
“I’m sorry, Tuck.” Jayce shook his head. “We had no idea.”
“But right by your house,” Lonny said. “If that’s why you left like you did, why did it take them so long to find her bones?”
Tucker finished his beer and got to his feet.
“Come on, don’t go away mad,” Lonny said, looking much happier than he’d been earlier when he’d come into the bar.
“I’m not mad,” Tucker said.
Jayce got up and walked him to the door. “I don’t know what to say. When you pulled away from all of us and someone said they saw you and her together...”
“You should have told me.”
“I wanted to, but I was afraid it would ruin our friendship. As it was, I guess it did. When you came to me, asking if I would buy some of your stuff...”
“She was a con woman, Jayce. She turned me every way but loose and ultimately made me believe that it was my fault that she died that night.”
“I had no idea. I just thought she was...you know, easy. I should never have gone along with it that day. I’ve regretted it for years.”
“It’s all water under the bridge, so to speak,” Tucker said. “Thanks for the beer.” He pushed open the door, just needing fresh air. All these years he’d believed he and Madeline had been fated as well as a secret lovers. He let out a bark of a laugh as he started toward his pickup. Could he have been any more a fool?
He’d only had one beer, but he decided a walk would do him good. He needed to clear his head. Everything he’d believed nineteen years ago had been wrong. Being young was one thing, but being trusting and blind...
The town was so quiet. He used to joke that Gilt Edge sidewalks rolled up at eight o’clock every night. It wasn’t far past eight and the streets were deserted. Right now, though, he couldn’t get over what he’d learned. It had been a setup. His friends just helping the virgin among them.
He felt his face heat, and yet, at the same time, he couldn’t be angry with them. He knew their hearts had been in the right place. It was their heads he wanted to slam together.
If Rip had told them about Madeline... It surprised him that Lonny would be the one who had heard about her. That didn’t seem likely, but who knew how his friends had come up with Madeline. He was the fool who’d fallen for the woman, who apparently anyone could have had for the right price.
As he walked, he thought about what Kate had said last night at the restaurant as they were leaving. “Maybe she did love you.” He’d known she’d said it to take the edge off some of the other things she’d said after dinner. But at the time, he’d thought maybe it was true.
He scoffed at that now. With Madeline it was just one lie after another. As a car pulled up next to him and slowed, he didn’t look over, figuring it was probably Jayce or Cal or maybe even Lonny, wanting to rub more salt into the wound.
“Tucker!”
He stopped and turned to see Kate behind the wheel of her pearl-white SUV. She had the passenger-side window down and was leaning toward him.
“I need to walk,” he said, not up to talking any more about Madeline tonight.
“Mind if I walk with you?”
He counted to ten. “I’m not really up for talking.”
“Fine with me.” She pulled over and parked. When she got out he saw that she was dressed as she’d been earlier. She seemed like a woman who changed clothes at least a couple of times a day. Maybe not. He wondered if she’d had as bad a day as he had.
She fell in beside him as they continued down the empty main street. A few cars passed in the darkness, but no one stopped. After a couple of blocks of not a word out of her, he pointed to a park just off the street.
The grass was damp already as they walked through it. He headed for the swings, remembering being a kid in this town and playing late into the night, so long that his father would have to drive around and find him and chastise him all the way home for worrying his mother.
He sat down on the first swing. Kate took the one next to him and pushed off with her feet as she began to swing back and forth. She smiled as she went higher and higher.
He pulled his swing back out of the way so he could watch her. Her smile broadened each time she managed to pump to a great elevation. He heard a giggle escape her, her head falling back, her long hair like a dark cloak behind her.
He couldn’t help but smile, too, as he watched her lose herself in the simplest of childhood pleasures.
“My friends set me up with Madeline,” he said when Kate returned to the present and, having quit pumping, slowed.
“What?” She dragged her feet to come to an abrupt stop to stare at him.
“They wanted to get me laid. Apparently I was the only virgin of our little group.” It was hard to admit, but the darkness and the park helped. He breathed in the cold night air. “They didn’t expect me to fall for her.”
He was glad that Kate said nothing for a few minutes. She was sitting on the swing, making designs in the dust at her feet with the toe of her boot, when she said, “I didn’t tell you what happened in the café. The waitress wants to meet with me. It seems she has information about the Dunn family.”
When he said nothing, she looked over at him. “I called her. She knew Madeline. She’ll tell me everything she knows as long as I’m willing to pay for the information and not use her name if I write about this.”
“You’re going to write about this?”
She shrugged.
He stood, letting go of the swing. “Do what you want, but I’m done. I don’t want to know any more about Madeline or any of it.”
“You don’t want to go with me to meet the woman?” Kate asked as she caught up with him.
“No.” He kept walking.
She grabbed his arm and spun him around to face her. “What do you want, then, Tucker Cahill? If not revenge, justice, closure? Tell me.”
His gaze locked with hers in the starlight canopy over their heads. Her eyes widened as if she saw what he was feeling. “What I want?” He grabbed her shoulders and dragged her to him. He could see that she’d thought he was going to kiss her.
Instead, he pushed her long hair aside and pressed his lips to a warm, sweet spot just below her ear, then began to work his way down her slim throat.
“If you’re trying to change my mind about going north to meet this woman tomorrow...”
He continued down slowly, planting kisses with small licks of his tongue. He deftly slipped loose the top button of her blouse with his fingers to trace the swell of her breasts above the lacy bra.
She shivered, but she didn’t try to stop him. Was she waiting to see how far he would go? The idea intrigued him. If she wanted to see who blinked first, she was about to end up naked and—
“Tucker.” Her voice sounded choked with emotion. When she stopped his hand from releasing the second button on her blouse, he felt her trembling.
His own heart was pounding. He knew exactly what he wanted. His lips and tongue on her warm smooth skin. His face buried in the generous swell of her breasts. The hard pink nub of her nipple in his mouth. Just the thought of what he wanted to do to her drove him insane.
She pulled back and cast her gaze down as she rebuttoned her blouse. “I’m going north in the morning with or without you.”
As if he hadn’t known that. He said as much.
“Whatever this was...” She waved her hand through the air. She sounded as shaken as he felt. “You can’t use your...charm to change my mind.”
“That wasn’t my charm,” he said, aware of the ache low in his belly. “Anyway, I thought you could tell the difference between a man trying to seduce you and one who is trying to manipulate you.”
She raised her gaze. Their eyes locked. “You think there is a difference?”
“Damn straight.”
He saw her shiver before she said, “We might have to investigate that at some point.”
“Promise?” he asked, only half teasing.
She tried to look away but he caught her chin and kept her gaze on his.
“There is a whole lot I want to investigate when it comes to you,” he said. “I was only getting started a few minutes ago. Being around you—”
“I thought Madeline made you gun-shy?”
He let go of her chin. He knew she’d only brought up Madeline as a way of keeping him at arm’s length. Apparently she was more afraid of whatever this was between them than even he was. Because of Madeline? Or had some man done a number on her?
“I’m still a man, Kate. Never doubt that.” He turned and started down the street, the growing, aching need almost painful.
“I know you say you’re done with all this, but don’t you want to know the truth?” she asked when she caught up to him.
“I already know the truth.” He slowed some, making it easier for her to keep up, hoping she’d just drop this but knowing she wouldn’t.
“I’m meeting her at some rest area between here and Clawson Creek.”
He shook his head as he looked over at her. “You can’t be serious.”
“Five hundred dollars’ worth of serious.”
Tucker sighed. “You’re just throwing your money away.”
“Probably.” She walked without looking at him. “But I will find Madeline’s accomplice. If you don’t care about justice—”
He let out an oath. “I’ll go.” He’d stopped walking so abruptly that she had to turn to look back at him.
“You’re sure?”
“I can’t let you go alone to some rest area in the middle of nowhere to meet some...more than likely flake who will just take your money, if not your life.”
“Well, when you put it like that, I’m glad you’ve changed your mind and want to go with me.” She smiled at him and got a sad smile from him. He could tell that she felt at least a little guilty for dragging him back into this.
He didn’t know why he’d put up a fight against going with her. Had he really thought he could just walk away? As if he could walk away from this woman and not regret it.
Still, he cursed himself for getting in deeper with her. He didn’t give a damn about Madeline or her accomplice. But Kate...
“I should get back to my hotel,” she said. “I’ll pick you up in the morning. Nine?”
“I’m walking you back to your car.” She mugged a face at him and started to argue, but he quickly cut her off. “My pickup’s back that way.”
“Well, in that case...”
They walked a few yards. He could tell something was bothering her even before she came to a stop and turned in front of him to confront him.
“Tucker, I feel as if I’ve forced you to go with me tomorrow.”
He let out a laugh. “You’re good, Kate. But I’m a big boy. I don’t do anything I don’t want to.” Their gazes held for a moment before she turned and started walking again. “And we’ve already established what I want.”
She swallowed and continued to walk.
Tucker fell in beside her, the night feeling too intimate as they moved through the quiet town. This woman would be the death of him.