Killer Cowboy (Cowboys of Holiday Ranch) Read online

  “Cassie?”

  Dillon’s voice pulled her out of her dark thoughts. She flushed. “Sorry, I was deep in my own head thinking about which one of my men could be a killer.”

  “I just wanted to tell you that I need to go into the office and check in there and then I’ll go to my house and pack a few things and be back here sometime later this afternoon.” He gazed at her intently. “Will you be okay until I get back here?”

  “I’ll be fine,” she assured him with another forced smile as he rose from the table. “I’ll put on the alarm when you go out and once the men address the wall issue I won’t open the door to anyone else but you.”

  What she really wanted to do was throw her arms around his waist and desperately cling to him. She wanted to beg him not to go and leave her here all alone. The terror she’d experienced last night was once again alive and kicking inside her, but she tried desperately to tamp it down.

  She had to be stronger than her fear. If there was one thing life in Bitterroot had shown her it was that the people here were tough and resilient. Right now she needed to dig deep inside herself to find those very qualities. She got up and followed him to the door.

  He reached out and cupped her chin with his hand. His gray eyes were still dark, but now held a caring that soothed her despite her situation.

  “Lock yourself in, Cassie, and keep everyone else out.” He dropped his hand back to his side. “I’ll see you later.” With that he left her alone.

  She armed the alarm system and then went back upstairs for a quick shower and to dress for the day. So far the morning had held the same kind of surreal quality as the night before.

  She couldn’t believe he was actually going to move in here. For how long? Until he caught the killer? She’d been here six months and he hadn’t caught the killer yet. How long would this danger exist for her? Until the madman met his goal and she was murdered?

  Trying to release all her negative thoughts, she stepped beneath the warm shower spray and raised her face to the water. No matter how hard she tried to empty her brain, it refused to cooperate.

  If she had been killed last night, who would have mourned her? Certainly not her parents, whom she hadn’t heard from in the last five years. Nicolette would have been sad, but she had her own family and would have quickly gotten over any grief.

  Cassie had lived her life completely alone and hadn’t invited in people because she’d been so wrapped up in her need to be somebody.

  Right now she was the somebody that some ax-wielding madman wanted to kill. With this thought, she quickly finished her shower and then pulled on a pair of jeans and a blouse and headed back downstairs.

  The gashes on the wall were a grim reminder that she had to be careful. Somebody wanted her dead.

  She stared out the great room window. Two men were on horseback and another pair was walking toward the stables. She was surrounded by people yet very alone in her ivory tower.

  “Stop feeling sorry for yourself,” she said aloud. Nobody liked a crybaby. She should get busy and get her mind off everything that was taking place.

  She remembered Dillon being a fan of apple pie. She was fairly sure there was a recipe in one of the cookbooks that had belonged to her aunt Cass.

  She’d bake a pie and get a couple of steaks out of the freezer. If Dillon was going to stay here to protect her then the least she could do in return was try to make sure he ate good meals. And maybe...just maybe she’d wind up in his arms again.

  * * *

  Dillon left Cassie’s and went to his house first. He took a shower and then changed into a fresh uniform. He packed a large duffel bag, wondering how in the hell he was going to catch the person who had placed Cassie in his deadly sights.

  He hoped that by spending more time at the ranch he’d get closer to the cowboys, and the guilty would somehow tip his hand. Was it possible Raymond Humes was really behind everything? Had the man paid somebody to terrorize Cassie in hopes she would sell the ranch to him?

  Was one of Cassie’s cowboys secretly working with Humes? That certainly didn’t explain what had happened fifteen years ago with the dead boys in a grave beneath a shed.

  He threw the last of his toiletries into the bag and then carried it out to his car and headed for the police station on Main Street.

  Bitterroot was an anomaly among small-town America in that it was maintaining its existence, unlike so many other small communities that had died slow, painful deaths. Dillon took pride in that. He worked closely with the town council to ensure opportunities for the youth and did everything in his power to keep a pride of community alive.

  “Hey, Chief,” Annie greeted him as he walked through the police station door. “Brenda told me something bad happened out at the Holiday ranch overnight.”

  “Yeah, somebody went after Cassie with an ax,” he replied.

  Annie’s eyes widened. “Since you’re here I’m assuming she’s okay.”

  “She’s frightened, but okay.”

  “Did she see the person? Could she give you a description?” Annie asked.

  “She didn’t see him. He called out to her and she hid in her closet. She didn’t recognize his voice, either.” Dillon grimaced. “I wish she would have seen him so I could get him arrested.”

  “Do you think this has to do with the other murders that took place there?”

  Dillon frowned. “I can’t help but believe it’s possible, but honest to God, Annie, I can’t seem to get a handle on any of this.”

  “You will, Chief,” Annie said with confidence. “Now, on another note, Leroy called this morning and wants you out at his place.”

  Dillon stifled a groan. “Another alien encounter?”

  “I’m assuming. I tried to tell him I’d send out one of the other men but you know he’ll only talk to you.”

  “I’ll swing by there on my way back to the Holiday ranch this afternoon. Anything else earth-shattering I need to deal with?”

  Annie smiled ruefully. “I’d say an ax murderer and invading aliens are more than enough.”

  “I’ll be in the office until noon and then I’m taking off. I’m going to be staying out at Cassie’s for the next week or so, but the fewer people who know that, the better.”

  Annie made a motion like she was zipping her lips. “Nobody will hear it from me.”

  “Thanks, Annie.” He left the small lobby area and peeked his head into the back room where the deputy desks were located. Nobody was working there at the moment.

  The Bitterroot Police Department was small, consisting of fourteen deputies and one canine unit. There were four men on duty today and most of them spent their days out of the building.

  Dillon went into his office and collapsed into his chair. He closed his eyes for several minutes and drew deep, even breaths in an attempt to find a new burst of energy.

  If truth be told, while the sofa had been comfortable enough last night, sleep had been elusive. Each and every sound in the unfamiliar house had set him on edge. Twice he’d grabbed his gun, only to realize the sound he’d heard was the ice maker dropping ice in the refrigerator in the kitchen.

  If that hadn’t been enough to keep him awake, then knowing Cassie was just up a flight of stairs had tormented him more than just a little bit.

  He swore he could smell the lilac scent of her throughout the long night even though logically he knew it was impossible. He’d even kicked himself more than once for not taking her up on her offer and spending the night in her bed.

  He snapped his eyes open and got to work checking on the reports of activity that had occurred overnight in the town. Petty theft at the mercantile store, two speeding tickets given out on Main Street and a minor accident in the parking lot of the Watering Hole, the most popular bar in town.

  Definitely nothing to rival an ax-swinging maniac chasing a vulnerable woman into the closet of her home. His chest swelled with anger. Who in the hell had been in her house the night before? Who had violated what
she would have believed was her safe space to terrorize her? And what might they have done if Dillon hadn’t shown up when he had?

  For the next hour he took care of office business, filling out the work schedule for the next week and reading over reports.

  It was just a few minutes after noon when he left his office. “I’ll be out until tomorrow morning,” he told Annie. “But you know I’m always available on my cell phone.”

  “And you know I’ll keep things running smoothly around here,” she assured him.

  He smiled at the big, blonde woman. “I know, and I appreciate it.” Annie O’Brien was dispatcher, receptionist and all things required to run the office efficiently. She didn’t gossip about things that went on here and occasionally she tried to mother him. He didn’t know what he’d do without her.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said. “And tell Cassie I said hello.”

  “Will do.” He left the building and walked back outside where autumn was definitely in the chilly air. Winter would soon follow. Damn, he wanted this case solved long before the first snow flew.

  Although he would have liked to head straight back to Cassie’s place, he headed his car in the opposite direction so he could talk to Leroy about his aliens. If he didn’t, Leroy would be fit to be tied by nightfall.

  At least he knew exactly what to expect at Leroy’s, and a half an hour of sitting on the old man’s porch and talking to him should solve his problem.

  Leroy’s issue with aliens had begun six months after his wife’s death from cancer. They had no children and no family that Dillon knew about. He suspected the man was lonely, and a visit from an old friend broke up the ache of that loneliness.

  The Atkinson place was on the east side of town. It was a relatively small spread, where Leroy raised a few cattle for personal consumption and boasted one of the best vegetable gardens in the county.

  Dillon’s parents had owned the ranch next door to Leroy’s, and the couples had been close friends. Dillon had known Leroy all his life. He and his wife had been like a favorite aunt and uncle, and on many nights Dillon played in their living room while the adults had played cards at the kitchen table.

  He pulled up in front of the small ranch-style home with the covered front porch. The white-painted house was beginning to show the signs of weathering and the garden had gone to weeds.

  Despite the slightly abandoned air of the place, the minute Dillon stepped out of his car the front door opened. Boomer, Leroy’s old hound dog, came out first, followed quickly by Leroy.

  Leroy’s bald head gleamed in the sun as he stepped off the porch to greet Dillon with Boomer at his side. “I’ve got a fresh pot of coffee. Are you up for a cup?”

  “Coffee sounds good,” Dillon replied. “I’ll just sit right here on the porch with Boomer.”

  It was their routine that they sat in the deck chairs on the porch when weather allowed. Sitting inside Leroy’s aluminum-foil-wrapped living room tended to make Dillon just a little bit crazy.

  Dillon eased down in one of the chairs with Boomer at his feet. He scrubbed his fingers behind the old dog’s ears and Boomer groaned with pleasure.

  “Here we are,” Leroy said as he returned to the porch and handed Dillon a steaming cup of coffee.

  “Thanks.” Dillon took a small sip and then eyed the man in the other chair. “So, what’s going on today, Leroy?”

  “I’m afraid I got you out here on a false alarm. I suppose I should have called and told Annie not to bother you, but I plumb forgot.” He paused to take a drink from his cup and then continued, “I got up this morning and saw another one of them depressions in the grass. It wasn’t too big, but I got a little worried that they’d visited my land again.”

  Dillon knew the “they” Leroy spoke of were aliens. “So, why did you decide it was a false alarm?”

  “I went out there an hour later and saw that fat bossy cow laying down right there in the same spot. That’s the laziest damned cow I’ve ever owned.” Leroy sighed and looked out in the distance. “I just wish those aliens could manage to bring back my Loretta.”

  “I know you miss her, Leroy. How long has it been since she passed?” Dillon knew, but he also knew that Leroy wanted to talk about it.

  “Four long years. We’d just celebrated our forty-ninth anniversary and were planning a big to-do for our fiftieth, and then that damned cancer took her life.” His faded blue eyes radiated his sorrow.

  “I’ll bet there are times you wished you’d never loved her, and then her absence wouldn’t hurt so badly,” Dillon said.

  Leroy looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “I wouldn’t give back one day with her to ease my pain. I’ve got forty-nine years of memories with that woman...years of loving and knowing I was loved. No, sir, I wouldn’t do a thing differently. Now, speaking of matters of the heart, I heard that you and Cassie Peterson had dinner together at the café.”

  “We did, but it was just a casual thing,” Dillon replied.

  Leroy grinned, displaying the empty space where an eye tooth had been. “That’s what I thought the first time I took Loretta out to eat.” He leaned forward. “You got to watch those cute, sassy women. Just when you think you’re in control of everything they go and pull the rug right out from beneath you and you’re helpless to their charm.”

  Dillon laughed. “I’m not too worried about that with Cassie. I’m not even sure she’ll be around these parts come winter.”

  “That would be a damned shame. From everything I’ve heard about her she’s a fine woman. Cass would be proud of her. In the short time she’s been here she’s taken in a lot of people in trouble, just like Cass did when she hired on all her young cowboys.”

  Dillon tensed. “What do you remember about them when Cass first hired them?”

  “Not a lot. Loretta and I were close to Cass and Hank. We all used to get together about once a week to play cards like we did with your folks. Then Hank got sick and died and we didn’t see as much of Cass. She was struggling to keep that ranch going. When she told us she was hiring runaway boys brought to her by some social worker, Loretta and I told her she was plumb crazy, but in the end they all worked out for her.”

  Leroy leaned back in his chair and took a drink, his gaze speculative as it rested on Dillon. “You think one of those men is responsible for the boys in the grave?” he asked.

  “I think it’s more than likely,” Dillon replied and then told him about what had occurred the night before. He figured that was the talk of the town this morning and the only reason Leroy hadn’t heard about it yet was because he hadn’t gone to town.

  “The world has gone crazy.” Leroy shook his head. “Aliens sneaking around on farmland, the young folk living with their parents until they’re thirty and the price of groceries enough to break a man. And if that’s not enough we’ve got a blood moon forecasted for tonight.”

  Old prophecies warned that the blood moon was the beginning of the end times. Dillon wasn’t worried about myths and prophecies.

  Fifteen years ago a heinous crime had taken place and all indications were that the killer was active once again. If what he believed was true, poor Sam Kelly was the eighth victim. With this thought a new urgency swept through him to get back to the Holiday ranch and Cassie.

  “I should probably get on my way, Leroy,” he said as he stood.

  Boomer released a short howl as if protesting Dillon’s parting. “Dumb dog,” Leroy said affectionately.

  “Thanks for the coffee, Leroy.” Dillon handed him his cup and then leaned down and gave Boomer a final pat on the head.

  “When are your folks coming back to town for a visit?” Leroy asked as he walked Dillon to the car.

  “I’m not sure...maybe Christmas if the weather isn’t too bad.”

  “I miss having them around.” Leroy grinned. “We all used to have good times together when you were nothing but a little snot-nosed kid. You remember how you’d always wanted me to whistle ‘Yankee Doodle’
?”

  “You’re still the best whistler in the county,” Dillon replied with a grin. “And now I’d better get back to work.”

  With goodbyes said, Dillon got back into his car and headed toward the Holiday ranch. Loneliness was a terrible thing. A hundred times Dillon had tried to convince Leroy that no aliens were visiting his land and it would be okay to take down all that aluminum foil.

  But he suspected Leroy was afraid that if there were no aliens then Dillon wouldn’t come to visit anymore. The old man didn’t seem to understand that Dillon would always drop in to visit with the man who had spoiled him rotten as a child and who had been a close friend to his parents.

  Thoughts of Leroy fell aside. He hoped Cassie had taken his advice and had her alarm system on. He definitely hoped like hell she didn’t allow any one cowboy into her house. There was safety in numbers and that was never more true than now in her situation.

  And that was why he was going to stay with her. He didn’t want her alone in that house at night. A security system could be breached, but as long as he had breath in his body he’d do whatever he could to make sure she wasn’t the ninth victim of a vicious predator.

  Chapter 8

  Cassie watched the men working on the wall in the stairway. Sawyer carried out the bad Sheetrock while Brody and Flint McCay fitted the new pieces in.

  She’d remained isolated in the house for the morning, other than Will, who had shown up and within half an hour had replaced the pane of glass in the window that had been broken. Right now the house smelled of the apple pie she’d just taken out of the oven, and she was more than happy to say goodbye to the slashes in the wall.

  Just knowing the wounded walls would no longer be in the house made her feel stronger and more in control. Was one of these men the one who had chased her into her closet? She didn’t know. Certainly any one of them was strong enough to swing an ax without even breaking a sweat.