Nadia Nichols - Montana Unbranded

“Tell me about it. I’m the one lying here looking like a piece of Swiss cheese.” The door swung inward. A nurse entered briskly, opened the shades and gave him a brief, professional smile as she lifted the plate cover on his breakfast tray. He hadn’t heard breakfast being delivered. Slept right through it. Jesus, Marconi himself could’ve crept in here and smothered him with a pillow, except for the two badges stationed outside his door.

The nurse frowned at the untouched food before replacing the plate cover.

“What about that pretty red-haired sister of yours?” Rico pressed. “Stay with her.”

The nurse was taking his vital signs, jotting them on the clipboard that hung at the foot of the bed. He waited until she left before responding. “Molly’s busy planning her wedding. She doesn’t need her big brother hanging out.”

“Molly won’t have a big brother and your son won’t have a father if you don’t wise up.”

“Find Marconi.”

“We will. Meantime, go visit your sister.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Time’s up. Dead men don’t make good witnesses. And, Joe? I mean it. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going, not even your mother. Cap’s hand-delivering a new ID for you this morning. He’s making the flight reservations and providing transportation to the airport.”

Rico hung up. The nurse had returned with a syringe in her hand and was preparing to draw blood, something nurses did 24/7 and seemed to enjoy. She put a rubber tourniquet on his arm, swabbed briskly with an alcohol-drenched cotton ball, pinched him with the needle. Blood flowed into the tube, as if he hadn’t lost enough already.

“Rumor has it I’m being discharged today,” he said.

She tucked the syringe and vial of blood into a little tray. “Not if you don’t eat your breakfast,” she said with all the warmth of the military police, though she softened her words with a smile before departing the room. He lifted the plate cover to study the contents. Lowered it. Looked around the drab room he’d come to hate over the past two weeks. Rain streaked the window, blurring his view. It hadn’t stopped raining since the night he was shot. He was sick of the rain. Sick of lying in a hospital bed and counting the holes in the ceiling tiles. Sick of this city.

Maybe Rico was right. A few weeks in Montana with his baby sister might not be such a bad idea. She was always asking him to visit, and he’d always wanted to see just how much wild was left in the West.

CHAPTER ONE

“STOP YOUR FIDGETING, Molly. I promise I’m almost done.”

Dani Jardine deftly inserted three more pins into the cream-colored fabric gathered at her friend’s waistline, then rose to her feet and executed a slow walk-around, studying the drape of the gown. Molly Ferguson was standing with her arms obediently outstretched at shoulder height and had been for the past five minutes, but her patience was wearing thin. She met Dani’s eyes in the mirror, tossed her shoulder-length mane of red hair, blew out an impatient breath and dropped her arms to her sides.

“Well? Can you fix it?”

“There might be just enough fabric for me to make the alterations.”

“Will it look all right?”

“You’re going to be the most beautiful bride ever.”

“You don’t think I look fat?”

“Molly, you couldn’t possibly look fat.”

“I’ve gained five pounds in the past two weeks.”

“So stop eating all that corned beef and cabbage.”

Molly gnawed on a fingernail, turning sideways and eyeing herself in the full-length mirror on her friend’s bedroom door. “I wish it were that easy, but it’s more than just food.”

Dani met her friend’s eyes in the mirror. Molly’s were dark with unspoken pathos and shining with tears. For a few moments Dani wondered what could possibly be wrong, and then it clicked, and a big smile brightened her face. “You’re pregnant! I don’t believe it.” Dani hugged her friend impulsively. “You’re having a baby! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I only found out this morning. All winter we’ve been crazy busy with the fund-raiser for Madison Mountain and I was so afraid we wouldn’t make Condor International’s deadline to raise the money. I was sick to my stomach all the time and I thought it was from the stress of it all. Then we made the deadline, we raised the money, we did it. The mountain was saved from that huge mining operation. I should have felt better but I just kept feeling squeamish. Then this morning, because Steven insisted, I went to see my doctor and...” Molly drew a sharp breath and the three recently inserted pins popped out of the fabric. The tears spilled over and Molly wiped them from her cheeks. “It turns out, I’m very pregnant.”

“That’s wonderful news, Molly! You always wanted kids, and in a few weeks you’re getting married to the man of your dreams. But you’re acting like the doctor just gave you a death sentence. What’s wrong?”

“Steven doesn’t know yet, and when my mother finds out she’ll disown me. She’s very Catholic.”

“Steven’ll be tickled pink and so will your mother. How far along are you?”

“Dr. Phillips thinks almost two months. Eight weeks! And I didn’t even notice missing my monthlies, that’s how stressed out I’ve been.”

“A December baby is perfect.”

“Why?”

“Because a baby has to be the most perfect Christmas gift of all,” Dani said, giving Molly another hug. “I’m so happy for you both.”

“But the timing couldn’t be worse—we don’t have any money, the practice is struggling, we’re living on a shoestring and...”

“You have each other and now you have a baby to celebrate. You’re the two luckiest people in the whole world.”

Molly wiped fresh tears from her cheeks and tried for a smile. “I know you’re right, Dani, but the baby part scares me. I’m not ready to be a mother and I don’t know how I’ll tell Steven. We agreed to wait a few years before starting a family.”

“Unless I missed something in high school biology, Steven had something to do with all this.”

Molly heaved another big sigh and more pins scattered to the floor. “Oh, Dani, I wish we still lived in the same town. I love Steven’s place and it’s close to our office, but I miss our talks over lunch. And right now I really, really miss those big, steady paychecks I got working for Skelton, Taintor and Abbot.”

“You’d hate yourself if you were still working for those heartless corporate sharks. The law firm of Young Bear and Ferguson is going to be a great success, and who knows where I’ll be in a year’s time. I might just have to move south to be nearby when you need a babysitter or a third partner.”

Hope illuminated Molly’s face. “I’d love it if you moved to Bozeman, but what about your house? What about Jack?”

Dani picked the pins up off the floor, avoiding Molly’s eyes. “Jack and I split up,” she said with what she hoped was an offhand shrug. “It was bound to happen, Molly. He was gone ninety percent of the time with his job and surrounded by beautiful stewardesses.”

Molly reached out and clamped on to her, all wild red hair and hazel eyes. “You mean, Jack’s gone? When did this happen? How could he just walk out on you like that? What about the house? The dogs?”

“The house was mine to begin with and he left me his dogs. He walked in one night about two months ago, told me he was in love with another woman, said I could have everything, not that there was anything of his here except for the dogs, and that was that. It was all very civil. Too civil, really. I didn’t cry or beg him to stay. I don’t think we ever really loved each other, not the way you and Steven do.”