CHAPTER ONE
THE MOMENT JACE CALDER saw his sister’s face, he feared the worst. His heart sank. Emily, his troubled little sister, had been doing so well since she’d gotten the job at the Sarah Hamilton Foundation in Big Timber, Montana.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as he removed his Stetson, pulled up a chair at the Big Timber Java coffee shop and sat down across from her. Tossing his hat on the seat of an adjacent chair, he braced himself for bad news.
Emily blinked her big blue eyes. Even though she was closing in on twenty-five, he often caught glimpses of the girl she’d been. Her pixie cut, once a dark brown like his own hair, was dyed black. From thirteen on, she’d been piercing anything she could. At sixteen she’d begun getting tattoos and drinking. It wasn’t until she’d turned seventeen that she’d run away, taken up with a thirty-year-old biker drug-dealer thief and ended up in jail for the first time.
But while Emily still had the tattoos and the piercings, she’d changed after the birth of her daughter, and after snagging this job with Bo Hamilton.
“What’s wrong is Bo,” his sister said. Bo had insisted her employees at the foundation call her by her first name. “Pretty cool for a boss, huh?” his sister had said at the time. He’d been surprised. That didn’t sound like the woman he knew.
But who knew what was in Bo’s head lately. Four months ago her mother, Sarah, who everyone believed dead the past twenty-two years, had suddenly shown up out of nowhere. According to what he’d read in the papers, Sarah had no memory of the past twenty-two years.
He’d been worried it would hurt the foundation named for her. Not to mention what a shock it must have been for Bo.
Emily leaned toward him and whispered, “Bo’s... She’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“Before she left Friday, she told me that she would be back by ten this morning. She hasn’t shown up, and no one knows where she is.”
That did sound like the Bo Hamilton he knew. The thought of her kicked up that old ache inside him. He’d been glad when Emily had found a job in town and moved back to town with her baby girl. But he’d often wished her employer had been anyone but Bo Hamilton—the woman he’d once asked to marry him.
He’d spent the past five years avoiding Bo, which wasn’t easy in a county as small as Sweet Grass. Crossing paths with her, even after five years, still hurt. It riled him in a way that only made him mad at himself for letting her get to him after all this time.
“What do you mean, gone?” he asked now.
Emily looked pained. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this—”
“Em,” he said impatiently. She’d been doing so well at this job, and she’d really turned her life around. He couldn’t bear the thought that Bo’s disappearance might derail her second chance. Em’s three-year-old daughter, Jodie, desperately needed her mom to stay on track.
Leaning closer again, she whispered, “Apparently there are funds missing from the foundation. An auditor’s been going over all the records since Friday.”
He sat back in surprise. No matter what he thought of Bo, he’d never imagined this. The woman was already rich. She wouldn’t need to divert funds...
“And that’s not the worst of it,” Emily said. “I was told she’s on a camping trip in the mountains.”
“So, she isn’t really gone.”
Em waved a hand. “She took her camping gear, saddled up and left Saturday afternoon. Apparently she’s the one who called the auditor, so she knew he would be finished and wanting to talk to her this morning!”
Jace considered this news. If Bo really were on the run with the money, wouldn’t she take her passport and her SUV as far as the nearest airport? But why would she run at all? He doubted Bo had ever had a problem that her daddy, the senator, hadn’t fixed for her. She’d always had a safety net. Unlike him.
He’d been on his own since eighteen. He’d been a senior in high school, struggling to pay the bills, hang on to the ranch and raise his wild kid sister after his parents had been killed in a small plane crash. He’d managed to save the ranch, but he hadn’t been equipped to raise Emily and had made his share of mistakes.
A few months ago, his sister had gotten out of jail and gone to work for Bo. He’d been surprised she’d given Emily a chance. He’d had to readjust his opinion of Bo—but only a little. Now this.
“There has to be an explanation,” he said, even though he knew firsthand that Bo often acted impulsively. She did whatever she wanted, damn the world. But now his little sister was part of that world. How could she leave Emily and the rest of the staff at the foundation to face this alone?
“I sure hope everything is all right,” his sister said. “Bo is so sweet.”
Sweet wasn’t a word he would have used to describe her. Sexy in a cowgirl way, yes, since most of the time she dressed in jeans, boots and a Western shirt—all of which accented her very nice curves. Her long, sandy-blond hair was often pulled up in a ponytail or wrestled into a braid that hung over one shoulder. Since her wide green eyes didn’t need makeup to give her that girl-next-door look, she seldom wore it.
“I can’t believe she wouldn’t show up. Something must have happened,” Emily said loyally.
He couldn’t help being skeptical based on Bo’s history. But given Em’s concern, he didn’t want to add his own kindling to the fire.
“Jace, I just have this bad feeling. You’re the best tracker in these parts. I know it’s a lot to ask, but would you go find her?”
He almost laughed. Given the bad blood between him and Bo? “I’m the last person—”
“I’m really worried about her. I know she wouldn’t run off.”
Jace wished he knew that. “Look, if you’re really that concerned, maybe you should call the sheriff. He can get search and rescue—”
“No,” Emily cried. “No one knows what’s going on over at the foundation. We have to keep this quiet. That’s why you have to go.”
He’d never been able to deny his little sister anything, but this was asking too much.
“Please, Jace.”
He swore silently. Maybe he’d get lucky and Bo would return before he even got saddled up. “If you’re that worried...” He got to his feet and reached for his hat, telling himself it shouldn’t take him long to find Bo if she’d gone up into the Crazies, as the Crazy Mountains were known locally. He’d grown up in those mountains. His father had been an avid hunter who’d taught him everything about mountain survival.
If Bo had gone rogue with the foundation’s funds... He hated to think what that would do not only to Emily’s job but also to her recovery. She idolized her boss. So did Jodie, who was allowed the run of the foundation office.
But finding Bo was one thing. Bringing her back to face the music might be another. He started to say as much to Emily, but she cut him off.
“Oh, Jace, thank you so much. If anyone can find her, it’s you.”
He smiled at his sister as he set his Stetson firmly on his head and made her a promise. “I’ll find Bo Hamilton and bring her back.” One way or the other.