Code Name: Cowboy Read online

  They rode in silence for a few minutes. Cameron shifted positions, wondering when it had happened that silence had become uncomfortable.

  As he drove, he cast her surreptitious glances, noting how the denim jacket intensified the hue of her eyes, and the pink sweater beneath pulled color into her cheeks.

  Upon their first meeting, the blue of her eyes had reminded him of Ginny, but he’d never felt this intense craving to make love to Ginny, his thoughts had never been muddled by desire where Ginny was concerned.

  “You mentioned something when I first hired you about being estranged from your family.” He grasped for conversation, needing to fill the silence, wanting to still his own thoughts.

  She sighed and nodded. “My mother is an English professor and my father is a history professor. They like books and research and academia. Children have no place in their world. Children are messy and loud, demanding and needy. I was an accident and I learned very early on that I was on my own.”

  “Sounds tough,” he observed.

  She shrugged. “It wasn’t easy or tough, it was just life as I knew it.”

  “So, how did you meet your husband?”

  She smiled, a full smile that softened her features and filled her face with a warmth Cameron felt in the pit of his stomach. “I was working as a waitress in a truck stop and Robert stopped in for a piece of pie.” Her smile faded slightly and her eyes took on the distant haze of memories.

  “Your parents are professors, yet you were working in a truck stop?”

  “I moved out of my parents home and into my own place when I graduated from high school. Their house didn’t feel like my home, I needed to create my own space, so I took the job at the truck stop.”

  “And you met Robert there.”

  She nodded. “Robert wasn’t real handsome, but he had a sweet smile and a caring nature. We dated a couple of months, and he swept me off my feet” Her cheeks took on a heightened hue of color. “I got pregnant and we married soon after. I was so young...and it felt so nice to have somebody who cared about me after all those years of growing up with my parents. I was a good wife to him. I was always supportive, encouraged him in everything he did.”

  “You don’t have to justify anything to me,” he replied, surprised by her vehemence in voicing her attributes as a wife.

  She flushed again and laughed, an uneasy laugh. “I guess I’m trying to justify it to myself.”

  He eyed her curiously. “What do you mean?”

  Again she stared out the window and frowned thoughtfully. “I didn’t know it when I first met him, but Robert was quite wealthy. A lot of his, uh, friends thought I was nothing but a gold digger. They believed I got pregnant on purpose, to trap Robert into marrying me.”

  “Did you?”

  His question caused her eyes to widen. “No!” The single word exploded from her, as if it were an answer she’d had to give a hundred times before.

  She drew a deep breath, as if to steady her emotions. “No, I didn’t get pregnant on purpose. But in the months since Robert’s death, I’ve had to face the realization that part of his charm was the life he offered to me.” She looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. “And if that makes me a gold digger, then maybe I was.”

  “A gold digger usually isn’t somebody who winds up working as a housekeeper on a ranch in Montana,” Cameron said, oddly touched by her obvious guilt.

  She flashed him a grateful smile and again a coil of heat unfurled in the pit of Cameron’s stomach. He pulled into a parking space in front of the grocery store, sorry he’d delved at all into her personal life. Each snippet of information he discovered about her only seemed to heighten his desire for her.

  They got out of the truck and moved to the sidewalk. “I’m going to head on down to the feed store,” Cameron said. “Buy what we need and just tell them to put it on my account.” He sensed her sudden tension as her gaze shot over his shoulder. He turned to see Sheriff Jesse Wilder approaching them.

  As usual, Jesse’s stern features were set in a scowl. It seemed to Cameron that Jesse had been frowning ever since Elena had gotten married. Cameron liked Jesse, knew the man had once thought himself in love with Cameron’s sister. But, what struck him now was the anxiety that seemed to be radiating from Alice as the sheriff advanced.

  “Jesse,” Cameron greeted the man.

  “Morning,” Jesse returned, his features relaxing into a smile as he looked at Alice. “I heard through the grapevine that Mustang had a couple of new residents. Sorry I haven’t gotten out your way to properly introduce myself.” He held out a hand toward Alice. “Sheriff Jesse Wilder, at your service.”

  “Alice. Alice Burwell. It’s nice to meet you,” Alice replied, looking as skittish as a rabbit caught in the crosshairs of a rifle. “Uh, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I’d better attend to the shopping.” She whirled around and disappeared through the grocery store doors.

  Jesse turned to Cameron with a grin. “Whew, she’s quite a looker,” be said.

  “And she’s quite taker.” The words fell from his lips without volition.

  Jesse’s eyes widened in surprise. “You sly dog, you. No wonder you’ve kept her isolated out at your place. Hell, it’s about time you showed a little interest in something other than those horses of yours.”

  “When are you gonna find a little woman and settle down?” Cameron returned.

  Jesse sighed and raked a hand through his dark hair. “I don’t know. Mustang seems to be lacking the kind of woman I’m looking for.” He smiled wistfully. “The good one got away from me.”

  “She’s happy, Jesse. Happier than I’ve ever seen her,” Cameron said of his sister.

  Jesse nodded, his features once again forming a frown. “I know, and I’m glad for her. I hope someday to find the same happiness for myself.”

  Cameron smiled darkly. “I quit looking for happiness a long time ago.” He clapped Jesse on the back. “I’ve got to get down to the feed store. I’ll see you later.”

  As the two men parted ways, Cameron’s mind spun with questions. There were so many inconsistencies in Alice’s story.

  She’d married a wealthy man, a man she said had no family, and yet upon his death she was left destitute? It didn’t make sense. What had happened to her husband’s wealth?

  Something else that didn’t make sense was why she had looked so damned frightened when she’d first seen Jesse coming toward them? Did she have a problem with law enforcement figures? Or was it possible the secrets he sensed she guarded were far more serious than he’d initially thought?

  Most confusing of all was his own snap reply to Jesse. What in the hell had possessed him to tell Jesse that Alice was taken?

  Chapter 6

  Alicia had her grocery cart half-full before her nerves finally settled down and her pulse rate returned to normal. She stared at the packages of frozen vegetables, remembering that moment when the sheriff had walked toward them.

  In an instant she’d believed that she’d lost the battle, that somehow Broderick and Ruth had not only found her, but they’d managed to get a warrant for her arrest as well.

  Once again she was struck by how fragile her position was. It was a battle with one side weighed heavy with money and power. She had neither. All she had was a driving need to protect Rebecca.

  She picked up several packages of frozen corn and threw them into her cart. The scare had reminded her that she and Rebecca could call no place home for too long. The only way to stay safe was to keep moving. They would remain at Cameron’s ranch through the winter, but come spring they would need to find another small town in another state in which to get lost.

  The constant moving, the interminable worry wasn’t the kind of life she wanted for Rebecca, but the alternative was infinitely more dreadful.

  Leaving would be hard. Rebecca loved it at the ranch and Alicia had to admit she’d been happy the past couple of weeks. Cameron’s ranch hands were friendly and she found the vast open sp
ace surrounding Cameron’s home soothing and peaceful. But, she would be a fool to allow them to get so comfortable that one of Broderick’s minions found them.

  She left the frozen section and headed for the canned goods, her thoughts turning to Cameron. She felt as if an explosion was imminent between them. Tension simmered in the air, barely contained whenever they were together.

  He’d managed to garner pieces of her past from her, yet gave nothing of himself away. He never spoke of anything personal, never hinted at what caused the dark shadows in his eyes, the latent emotions that only shone there in unguarded moments.

  Elena had mentioned something about his selfimposed cocoon of isolation. What had caused him to cut himself off from everything and everyone? He didn’t appear to have many friends, at least none who had come to the ranch to see him. He was a good-looking man but no women called the house and as far as she knew he wasn’t seeing anyone at all.

  She sensed a tragedy in his past...something that had made him close himself off. The only time he seemed truly at ease was with Rebecca. Alicia often stood at the window in the kitchen and watched her daughter and Cameron as they worked together on Sugar. His smile came readily for Rebecca and once or twice she’d heard the robust sound of his laughter.

  Alicia wished those smiles were occasionally directed at her, wished just once she’d be the recipient of or able to share in one of those moments of laughter.

  She wheeled her cart around a corner and smacked into another cart. “Oh...I’m sorry!” she exclaimed, then smiled as she recognized Millicent Creighton as the owner of the cart she’d run into.

  “Hello, dear,” Millicent said with a wide grin. “How nice to see you again. Doing a little shopping I see.” Her gaze swept the contents of Alicia’s cart as if she might write a column on the eating habits of the people at the Gallagher ranch.

  “Yes, and my next stop is at the discount store for a Halloween costume for Rebecca.” Alicia stared at Millicent’s hat, an orange felt with little white ghosts and black-clad witches around the brim.

  “Will you be coming to the Halloween party at the community center this Saturday night?” Millicent asked.

  “Oh, I don’t know. My plans were just to take Rebecca to a couple of houses here in town for trick-or-treating then go back home.”

  “Oh dear, you must come to the party with your little girl. She would have a ball. The children bob for apples and play pass-the-egg while the grown-ups socialize and enjoy Bob Thurman’s hot apple cider.”

  “It sounds like a wonderful time,” Alicia agreed. “And now I’d better get the last of my groceries. I don’t want Mr. Gallagher to have to wait for me.”

  “I hope to see you there,” Millicent said as she moved her cart away from Alicia’s. “Don’t forget ...Saturday night at the community center. The fun begins around seven.” She wiggled two pudgy fingers in parting, then disappeared down an aisle.

  It took Alicia another ten minutes to finish up her shopping. She’d just loaded the grocery bags into the back of the truck when Cameron appeared.

  “All done?” he asked.

  “Actually, I was wondering if you’d mind stopping by the discount store for just a minute. I need to pick up some things for Halloween for Rebecca.”

  “Okay,” he agreed.

  At the discount store, Cameron stayed in the truck while Alicia ran inside to purchase what she needed. For the last several days Rebecca had been talking about Halloween, that she wanted to go trick-or-treating dressed as a cowgirl.

  Thankfully, cowgirl outfits seemed to be popular. Alicia found a little western hat, a pair of gold plastic spurs and a colorful kerchief. These items, added to a white blouse and a denim skirt would transform Rebecca into a little cowgirl extraordinaire.

  “Let me guess,” Cameron said as she got back into the truck. “Rebecca wants to be a cowgirl.”

  Alicia laughed. “You’re absolutely right. She refused to consider anything else.”

  Cameron started the truck and shook his head. “She’s a good kid and I think she’s a natural with horses. By spring I’ll have her riding as if she were born on a horse.”

  Alicia said nothing as she wondered where she and her daughter would be in the spring. Hopefully someplace where Rebecca could indulge her passion for horses and cowboys. Perhaps another dusty little town, this time in Wyoming.

  Depression settled like a mantle across her shoulders and she focused her gaze out the window. The gray skies seemed to reflect her despair. How long would they have to run? How long would they need to hide? Would it never end? The fear? The uncertainty?

  “I saw Millicent Creighton in the grocery store,” she said, trying to pull herself from her melancholy.

  “What did she have on her head? A caldron of bubbling witches’ brew?”

  Alicia laughed. “What is it with those hats of hers? Does she always wear them?”

  “For as long as I’ve lived in Mustang. From what I understand she began wearing them soon after her husband died, around the same time that she got the job writing the social column for the Mustang Monitor .” He grinned wryly. “Just one of many colorful characters Mustang has to offer.”

  “There’re other colorful characters?”

  A small burst of laughter left him, the sound deep and pleasant. “Mustang is full of them. For the most part Mustang is a town of misfits who have found acceptance here.”

  “Are you one of the misfits?”

  He looked at her, his eyes dark and forbidding. “Definitety.”

  She sensed a warning in the single word answer, as if he were cautioning her about himself. “Millicent mentioned something about a Halloween party this Saturday night at the community center,” she said.

  He nodded. “About four times a year they throw a shindig. You should go, take Rebecca. The Halloween gathering is as much for the kids as the adults.”

  “Maybe I will,” she replied. “Will you be going?”

  “No.” He frowned, as if the entire idea was distasteful. “I’m not into the social scene. I went to the Summerfest gathering several months ago and that was the first and last time for me.”

  “You don’t like parties?” she asked.

  His gaze was dark as he looked at her. “I don’t like people.”

  Again Alicia had the feeling that he suffered a deep hurt, a heartache so intense it had made him pull into himself and refuse to consider allowing anyone into his private space.

  They rode the rest of the way to the ranch in silence. When they got home Cameron helped her carry in the groceries then he disappeared in the direction of the corral.

  As Alicia put away the groceries, she found herself constantly drawn to the window, where she had a view of Cameron in the corral with the horse he’d been attempting to gentle.

  He stood in the center of the wooden enclosure, a hand stretched out toward the horse, who pawed the ground and pranced nervously before him.

  It was amazing to Alicia that a man who displayed little patience in general, would exhibit so much patience with his horses and with Rebecca.

  “I don’t like people.” His words rang in her ears as she remembered the deep shadows that had darkened his eyes. A suggestion of hurt, a whisper of pain, she wondered what exactly had put those shadows in his eyes.

  “Go to him,” she whispered aloud, urging the horse to trust him, to reward his patience.

  Go to him. How she wished she could do just that, somehow hold him in her arms, kiss away the pain she sensed he carried deep within his soul.

  She whirled away from the window. Foolish thoughts. What good would it do to somehow manage to heal his wounds if she eventually intended to leave? There was no future here for her. Her life here was based on half-truths and protective lies and eventually she and Rebecca would have to pick up and find another place to live a life of lies.

  At the moment, she saw no future, no stability, no happily-ever-after for either her daughter or herself. As long as Broderick an
d Ruth had breath in their bodies, Rebecca and Alicia would continue to run.

  “Mommy, do I look like a real cowgirl?” Rebecca spun around, displaying her Halloween outfit for Alicia’s approval.

  “You look exactly like a real cowgirl,” Alicia replied with an indulgent smile.

  Rebecca walked across the bedroom, plastic spurs whirling. “And I sound like a real cowgirl, too. Don’t I?”

  Alicia laughed. “You do, indeed,” she agreed, even though the spurs were attached to plain white tennis shoes.

  “Come on, Mommy. Let’s go!”

  “Just a minute. I’m almost ready,” Alicia replied as she gave her appearance a final check in her dresser mirror. She gave her hair a final flick with the brush, pleased that in the last month it had grown enough to finally take on a more natural shape. She’d had to color it again to hide the pale roots, but she was finally getting used to the dark color.

  “Now can we go?” Rebecca asked with scarcely hidden impatience.

  Alicia set the brush down and nodded. “Now we can go,” she agreed. She had decided to take Rebecca and go to the Halloween party at the community center. Rebecca had insisted that all her friends from school would be there and she’d promised her friends she would be there as well.

  Rebecca scurried down the stairs ahead of Alicia, chattering like a magpie about the party. “Jessica said they have lots of candy and all the kids play fun games,” she exclaimed. “Hi, Mr. Lallagher,” she said as Cameron appeared at the foot of the stairs.

  He frowned. “Excuse me...I don’t believe I know you, little Ms. Cowgirl. Have you seen my friend Rebecca?” he asked. “I have a surprise for her.”

  Rebecca giggled. “Mr. Lallagher, it’s me! I’m Rebecca.”

  Cameron’s features emitted surprise and Rebecca’s giggles increased. “Why, Rebecca, I didn’t recognize you,” he said. He held out a box to her.

  Alicia smiled at him, loving the sound of her daughter’s childish merriment. He looked handsome as sin, clad in a tight pair of worn jeans and a white shirt that emphasized his sun-bronzed features. She felt a familiar heat sweep through her and quickly averted her gaze from him and to her daughter.