B.J. Daniels - Forsaken

“As long as he wants to.” Her hands went to her hips. “What’s with all the questions?”

He blinked before turning his frown on her. “He’s trouble.”

“You haven’t seen him in years. Maybe he’s changed.”

Frank scoffed at that.

It had been weeks since she’d seen Frank. This wasn’t how she’d hoped things would go when he stopped by the store again.

“Well, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt,” she said, feeling her indignation as well as her temper rise.

“Of course you are.”

He was making her mad now. “What does that mean?”

“It means, Lynette, that you have always had a soft spot for J.D.” Frank was the only one who called her by her given name. Normally just the sound of it on his lips would have made her day.

“Frank Curry, that’s not true! That was more than thirty years ago, but you were always the one who—” She caught herself before she said, “—I was soft on.”

“You can bet he’s here for more than a visit.” Frank’s gaze narrowed at her. “What did he want with you?”

She bristled. “Maybe he just stopped in to say hello or buy something.”

Frank shook his head. “He’s a lot cagier than that. Believe me, he wanted something.” He shoved back his Stetson, his gaze on her face. “What did he want?” Clearly he was determined to wait her out. She realized he must have overheard J.D. saying he would be back.

“You’ll find out soon enough anyway, I guess,” she said with a sigh. “He asked about renting my apartment.”

“I hope to hell you didn’t rent it to him.”

“As a matter of fact, I did.”

Frank swore again. “What were you thinking, Lynette?”

“That maybe he deserves a second chance? People change, you know.” She knew this was aimed more at herself and Frank and had little to do with J.D. It was she and Frank who deserved a second chance. Why couldn’t he see that?

He eyed her warily. “What are you getting so mad about?”

“You. I haven’t seen you in weeks, and you suddenly show up and...” She choked on the words, unable to say more for fear she would cry. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been brought to tears, but standing out here on the store porch, the spring air warm and scented with pines, wasn’t going to be one of them.

“I want you to stay clear of him.”

She stared at Frank in disbelief. “If I didn’t know better I’d think you were...jealous.”

“Jealous? Isn’t it possible that I worry about you? That I don’t want to see you make an even bigger mistake?”

“I’m sorry, but what was the first big mistake you’re referring to?”

He pulled his Stetson off and slammed it against his leg as if to knock off invisible dust. He had to know he’d stepped in it this time.

“Well, Frank? Surely it wasn’t me not marrying you.”

He stuffed his hat back on his thick, blond-and-only-slightly-graying hair. If only he wasn’t so good-looking.

“Sometimes, Lynette,” he said and, without another word, turned and strode across the street toward the Branding Iron.

Nettie watched him go, wanting to call him back and start over. She realized she should have asked about Tiffany. She also shouldn’t have gotten mad and said what she had. More than anything she wanted him to have been as happy to see her as she’d been to see him.

It wasn’t like him to let someone like J.D. upset him like that. Frank hadn’t been himself for months now. She worried about him—when she wasn’t furious with him. How long was it going to take for him to come to his senses and ask her out? They’d both be ninety with one foot in the grave by the time he finally got around to it. If he ever did.

“Stubborn damned fool,” she said under her breath, all the time hoping he would look back before he disappeared into the café. He didn’t.

* * *

THE FIRST THING Deputy Jamison noticed after they left the truck and horse trailer behind and rode into the mountains was the quiet. It hung in the dark, dense pines. The sound of the horses climbing the mountain seemed small and isolated as if nothing could truly disrupt the mountains’ eerie silence.

Just when he thought he would give anything to break that quiet, the wind came up. A dust devil spun off to his right, appearing to come out of nowhere, and then it was all around them. The wind blowing off the snowy peaks was icy cold and unforgiving. It quickly became a dull roar that was as grating as the silence had been.

As they rode deeper into the mountains, the gale shrieked. It lay over the tall grass and whipped the pine boughs. He caught glimpses of the terrain ahead, a tableau of sheer rock cliffs and grassy bowls above the tree line.

With a start, he realized he’d never been this far from civilization before. He could feel the temperature dropping as they ascended the mountain. The day wore on with the gentle rocking of the horse and creaking of his saddle.

He didn’t know how far they had ridden, only that the air had gotten colder as the weak spring sun inched its way to the west and finally dissolved behind the farthest peak.

While he’d ridden a horse before, never had he ridden one for this long. He was growing weary of being in the saddle, when Maddie reined in ahead of him. As she dismounted, he glanced at his watch. There was still at least an hour of daylight. “Why are we stopping?”

“This is where we spend the night,” she said without looking at him.

He glanced around. She’d stopped at the edge of a stand of pines under a sheer rock face. Ahead there was nothing but wide-open windswept country and more mountain peaks as far as the eye could see.

“I was hoping we might get far enough that we could see the sheepherder’s camp before dark,” he said.

“In the first place, we don’t know where that is,” she said, still not looking at him as she began to untie her saddlebag. “Second, this is where we make camp for the night.”

He couldn’t help himself. “There isn’t a better place to camp?”

Maddie finally turned to look at him. “This is where we make camp,” she repeated. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and scare up some wood for the fire.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said and slid down from his horse. The ground felt good beneath his feet. His posterior ached from the hours in the saddle, but he wasn’t about to mention that to the woman. Nor did he let himself limp in her presence until he could stretch out his legs again.

“Don’t go too far,” she said, reaching for his reins. “There are grizzlies up here with heads the size of semi steering wheels.”

“Are you trying to scare me, Mrs. Conner?”

She chuckled as she led the horses down a small slope that ended in a spot below the rock cliff. Looking closer, he made out what appeared to be a lean-to deep in the pines out of the wind. Closer, the pines at the edge of the stand had been twisted from years of wind and bad weather into grotesque forms.

Jamison set about gathering firewood. By the time he joined her down by the lean-to, she had unpacked their gear and the food she’d brought.

This close to the cliff, the wind was no longer buffeting him. It felt good to get out of it for a while, even though he could hear it in the tops of the pines overhead. The boughs moaned and swayed back and forth in a sky that was losing light fast.

He felt the cold chill of the upcoming night and looked to the mountains ahead, wondering where the sheepherder would be spending it. Or if he was in any shape to care.

CHAPTER FIVE

“I SUPPOSE YOU don’t know how to make a fire,” Maddie said as the deputy dropped his load of firewood next to the ring of charred rocks. The ground inside the ring was blackened from other fires. Jamison wondered how many times she’d made camp here, how many fires had burned to ashes to the sound of the wind overhead.