Lone Rider (22 page)

“What ya goin' a do? Shoot me in cold blood? Ya already kilt my son. Might as well kill me, too.”

Ray was dead?

He took another step toward her. “We coulda lived up here just fine, me an my boy. Now look at the mess ya made.”

I made!
Bo thought. She took a step back. She didn't want to shoot this man. And she doubted that one shot would stop him. The thought of emptying the gun into him turned her stomach.

But she could tell by the look on his face that she would have no choice but to kill him. If he reached her, he'd wrench away the gun and—

He took another step. If she didn't fire now... She aimed the pistol at his heart and pulled the trigger.

It clicked.

The safety! She hurriedly flipped the safety off as the man launched himself at her.

* * *

R
AY
HAD
HEARD
the voices. He couldn't believe his ears. His daddy had Bo? He dropped the halter rope of the lead horse he'd been moving back to camp. Grabbing the gun his old man had brought him, he rushed toward the fire as he heard the first shot.

When he cleared the trees, he saw his father knock the gun from Bo's hand and send her sprawling in the snow. He rushed to her, helping her up and shielding her as his father pulled his own weapon and pointed it at Bo.

“Git outta the way!” his father ordered.

“Ya ain't gonna to kill her.” Ray hadn't stood up to his old man since he was twelve. That beating had left scars worse than all the other beatings. “I'm keepin' her.”

“Keepin' her?”
his father crowed. “Yer grabbin' her in the first place is why we're goin' to die up here.”

“We kin get away. Take her to Mexico.”

RayJay shook his head. “Ya've lost yer mind. Ya think she's goin' anywhere with the likes a ya, yer crazy. She don't want ya.”

Ray rubbed a hand over his face. “Tell him it ain't true,” he said without looking at Bo. When she didn't answer, he faced her, praying to see something other than disgust in her green eyes.

* * *

J
ACE
HEARD
THE
GUNSHOT
, then the sound of raised voices. Looking off the mountain, he thought he knew where the voices were coming from. It was too steep and the snow too deep for him to try to walk down there even if he could put weight on his broken leg.

But he recalled something he and his brothers had done as boys. The pain in his leg took his breath away, but he managed to pull himself, the rifle and the sleeping bag to the edge of the rock face. It took some maneuvering, but he got his legs into the sleeping bag and zipped it up. He held the rifle. He hoped to hell this was going to work. The mountain was steep enough. The snow slick enough. If he could use the stock of the rifle to steer, he could ride the sleeping bag like a sled down the mountain. The June snow was wet and would hold him up, although it would also be fast. With luck, he could get close to where the voices were coming from without nailing a tree.

Saying a prayer, he pushed himself off feetfirst and went sledding down the mountainside on the slick fabric of the sleeping bag.

* * *

“I
WILL
GO
with you,” Bo said as Ray turned to look at her. She nodded, meeting his gaze, hoping he believed it. Anything to get him away from Jace. More searchers would be coming, only this time armed. She didn't want to speculate on her odds of getting out of this alive, but she had to try.

“Yer ain't goin' nowhere,” RayJay spat.

“Look out!” Bo cried as, past Ray, she saw his father take a long stride, gun raised.

He struck his son in the side of the head with the butt of the weapon. Ray's gaze locked with Bo's for one heart-stopping moment. Then his eyes rolled back into his head, and he went down hard at her feet in the snow.

RayJay let out a curse as he looked at his son and then lifted the gun in his hand. “I shoulda shot 'im the other day instead of tryin' to scare some sense into 'im. My son's a damned fool,” he said as he took aim. “I ain't so gullible.”

Bo heard the boom of the shot, felt the sound rumble through her and then blinked in surprise when she felt nothing. She hadn't realized that she'd closed her eyes until she opened them to find RayJay standing in front her. He had a surprised look on his face. His free hand had gone to his chest. Blood flowed out over his fingers as he lowered the gun in his hand to look down at his son as if he'd assumed it had been Ray who'd shot him.

Ray hadn't moved. His eyes were wide-open, but blood pooled in the right one, and the snow was dark where blood had leaked from his ear.

Bo had assumed the same thing as RayJay. But with a shock, she realized that Ray couldn't have shot his father, because the blow to his head had killed him.

RayJay seemed to come to that conclusion even slower than she had. Like her, he glanced around for a second before he started to raise his gun again, defeat and regret in his expression, none of it for Bo.

Everything had happened within seconds. She'd frozen at RayJay's attack but now forced herself to move. She grabbed for the older man's gun, trying to wrestle it out of his hand. Even with him wounded, he was strong and fierce. He broke her grasp and shoved her away, raising the gun again to fire.

Bo fell into the snow just inches from where RayJay had knocked the gun from her hand earlier. She snatched it up and rolled over, the weapon clutched in both hands as she pulled the trigger.

The air around her exploded with the sound of two shots. She blinked sure she'd only fired once. RayJay had stopped a few feet from her. Now he dropped his gun, his eyes glassy with shock. His legs gave out under him. He slumped to his knees. As he fell face-first into the snow, Bo looked past his body to see Jace propped up against a tree, most of his body cocooned in a sleeping bag, the rifle in his hands.

Tears burned her eyes as he smiled at her. At the sound of more helicopters, she dropped the gun and stepped out in the clearing to wave her arms.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

J
ACE
REMEMBERED
LITTLE
of the helicopter ride to the hospital except for Bo holding his hand. Once he was wheeled into the emergency room, the doctor gave him something for the pain. When he came to, his leg was in a cast and his sister was sitting next to his bed.

She leaped up when she saw that he was awake. “You could have been killed, and it would have been all my fault.”

He laughed. It felt good. “How many times have I said those same words to you? A little different having the shoe on the other foot, huh.”

She nodded and hugged him. “I was so worried about you. I'm just so relieved that you're all right.”

He looked toward the door of his room. “Bo was by earlier. I thought she might have come with you.”

“When I saw her, she was headed for the foundation to meet with the auditor.”

Jace lay back against his pillow. He'd actually forgotten about the auditor and the missing money. “She'll figure it out.”

Emily looked worried. “I sure hope so. I'd hate to see the foundation close.”

“I'm sure it won't,” he said although he wasn't sure of that at all.

“I have a date Friday night,” his sister said and quickly added, “Don't give me that look. I think you'd actually like him. He's nothing like any man I've ever dated. He's really...geeky. He works at a coffee shop.” She laughed. “But he's...nice.”

Jace figured the poor guy wouldn't last past tonight, but he said, “I'm glad you found someone nice.”

* * *

B
O
FELT
AS
if she was facing a firing squad as she stepped through the door of the Sarah Hamilton Foundation. But she'd faced much worse up on the mountain, she told herself. She'd checked to make sure Jace was in good hands before her father had picked her up at the hospital and taken her back to the ranch.

“I know you're anxious to hear all about what happened on the mountain,” she'd said when she saw the worry lines in Buckmaster's face. “Jace Calder saved me. I'm all right. Really. You can stop worrying.”

“Can I?” he had asked as he glanced at her freshly bandaged wrists.

“Yes. I need to get back to town, get ready for my appointment with the auditor at the foundation office. I called from the hospital. He's concluded his investigation of the books.” At her father's raised brow, she shook her head. “He said we would talk about it today.”

“Why don't I come with you?” her father had suggested.

She'd placed a hand on his arm. “I appreciate that, Dad, but I need to do this alone.”

Now she lifted her head, chin up, spine straight, and reminded herself that she was Bo Hamilton, the woman who'd survived a violent criminal. She would survive this, too.

The auditor was waiting for her in the conference room. A stern-looking older man in a black suit, he looked like the perfect executioner.

She apologized for the delay in seeing him, but he waved it off and tapped at the myriad of papers spread across the huge table.

“I found out what happened to your money,” Mr. Alderson said and adjusted his wire-frame glasses to focus dark eyes on her.

Bo silently gulped and dropped into a chair across from him. All the while, she was repeating a mantra in her head:
don't let it be one of my employees.

“The account was hacked in March,” he said without preamble.

“Hacked?” she echoed.

“From what I can tell, it was done from various locations abroad, which was probably why you didn't catch it sooner.”

She sat back, too relieved to speak. Hacked. By someone in another country. Not one of her employees.

“Did anything unusual happen around that time at the foundation?” he asked.

“
March?
My mother came back.”

“Your
mother
? Sarah Hamilton, the person the foundation is named for. Is she on the board?”

Bo shook her head. “Sorry, I was just thinking out loud. She's not involved in any way. I thought of her because you mentioned March.”

“Has your mother been living abroad?” he asked, studying her over the top of his glasses.

“I... I don't know. But like I said, I'm sure that the hacking of the account has nothing to do with my mother. My father started the foundation in her name after she was believed drowned in the Yellowstone River. As it turns out, she survived.” She waved a hand through the air as if to say
end of story
. “I'm sure this has nothing to do with her.”

The auditor didn't look as convinced. “She isn't involved with the foundation?”

“Not at all. I'm sorry, but I can't think of anything that happened in March that might be relevant to this.”

“No new employee?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.” It was just a coincidence that they'd gotten hacked about the time her mother had returned. Unless her mother had been a computer hacker the past twenty-two years. The thought almost made her laugh.

But she reminded herself that her mother could have lived abroad for the past twenty-two years. Who knew? No one but her mother.

“So how do we catch this hacker and get the money back?” she asked him.

“That will prove difficult as best. The first thing we need to do is try to keep him or her from taking any more funds. We'll change all the passwords and set up more security, but even then it will be hard to keep a really good hacker out.”

“I'm just so glad it wasn't one of my employees.” She was still shaking inside with the remains of her fear as well as her relief.

The auditor looked up at her. “We don't know for a fact it wasn't one of your employees, but our investigators will begin tracking the money and running background checks on your people and anyone else associated with the foundation.” He met her gaze. “You will be included in the investigation. I'm sure you realize that.”

“Of course.”

“Often the trail is long, the job arduous, but we have a very good success rate at catching the culprits. It will take time, though.” He rose and began gathering up the papers and putting them into his briefcase.

“I appreciate you staying until I could get back,” she said, also getting to her feet.

“Not at all. I was so sorry to hear what you went through. It sounds like you are lucky to be alive.”

“Yes. Very lucky.”

“And the man who went looking for you? How is he?”

“Jace Calder. He's recovering from a broken leg and a few contusions.” She hadn't seen him other than to stop by his room at the hospital. “He saved my life.”

The auditor shook his head. “I can't imagine what you went through.”

After he left, Bo walked around the office. Up on the mountain, she'd told herself that she should step down from her position at the foundation. She'd been so sure it was her fault the money was missing. Even if one of her employees had been behind the theft, she'd felt responsible. She was the one who'd hired this ragtag bunch.

Relieved that it didn't appear to be anything any of them had done, she realized how much she loved this job. Her stepmother, Angelina, had always said that the foundation was too much responsibility for her. Truthfully, she hadn't felt qualified for the job. But she'd wanted desperately to prove herself.

For a while up on the mountain, she would have agreed that she had no business running the foundation. But not now. Now she was thankful that this was a part of her life as well as the people she worked with. It appeared even with the loss, they were still in business. They would raise more money.

If what had happened up on the mountain had taught her anything, it was that she was stronger than she realized—just as Jace had said.

The thought of him filled her with warmth. She wanted to call him and tell him how the audit had gone, but hesitated. She would talk to him later, when she went by to take him home from the hospital.

At a tap on her office door, she turned to see Jace's sister. Bo had to laugh at the young woman's concerned expression. Emily must have been waiting for the auditor to leave—or the sheriff to come.

She motioned Emily and her daughter, Jodie, in.

“Is everything all right?” Emily asked, looking scared.

“We were hacked by someone thousands of miles from Montana.”

“Do they know who?”

“Not yet. But the auditor is turning it over to the investigators—and putting in more safeguards to keep the hacker from taking any more of our money. How are you and Jodie doing?” She took in Emily, trying to see what was different about her. “Did you do something to your hair while I was gone?”

She shook her head. “I met someone.”

“It's a boy,” Jodie said before taking off to go dig toys out of the toy box Bo had brought in for visiting children.

“A
boy
?” Bo asked with a laugh.

“A man I met.” Emily changed the subject. “I just saw Jace. He'll be off his feet for a while.” She met Bo's gaze. “How did it go up there on the mountain, the two of you?”

Bo raised a brow and laughed. “Don't tell me you were worried we wouldn't get along?”

Earlier at the hospital, Jace had said that now that they were back to civilization, they might both change their minds about what they'd restarted in the mountains. She'd told him unless he changed his mind, she would be picking him up to take him to his ranch later when the doctor released him.

“You and my brother have never had much luck getting together,” Emily said with obvious regret. “I still feel so bad about the two of you missing the senior prom because of me.”

“Because of
you
?”

“He never told you what happened that night?” Emily looked as if she might cry. “Oh, Bo, I'm so sorry. Jace was so excited about his date. He got a second job after school so he could rent a tuxedo.”

“He did?”
Even when they'd gotten back together before, they had agreed not to discuss prom night. All Jace had told her was that something important had come up. More important than her, Bo had thought.

“He was so handsome in his tux.” Now Emily did cry. “It was all my fault. I did something really stupid. I snuck out and was hitchhiking into town when this older man stopped for me. He gave me some beer and...”

“Oh, Emily, you were only, what? Twelve?”

She looked ashamed. “I was so stupid, so sure I could handle myself, so sick of Jace telling me what to do. He was just trying to keep the ranch after our parents died. I was such a brat.”

Bo stepped to her to give her a hug. “You were just a kid.”

She nodded, tears in her eyes. “When the man tried something, I jumped out of the car and ran. I called Jace from a pay phone, but the man came back... Oh, Bo, I'm so sorry. But if he hadn't shown up when he did... We had to go to the sheriff's department after that. I ruined his date like I ruined a lot of other nights for him. I don't know why he's put up with me.”

Bo shook her head. “He loves you. He's your brother. Now you have your own little girl to raise.”

“She'll probably pay me back for how terrible I was, huh.” She wiped at her eyes. “I can't believe Jace didn't tell you what happened.”

“He tried,” Bo said with a sigh, remembering how awful she was to him. “But, Emily, that was years ago. In the grand scheme of things...your brother just saved my life.”

“I know, but if he'd made it for his date with you to the prom... Don't you ever wonder if you two might have stayed together? You could be married by now with a couple of kids.”

Bo laughed and shook her head. “I certainly wasn't ready for that. Things happen in their own time. Surely you have realized that.”

“I'm starting to,” Emily said as she turned at the sound of a tap on the front window. Alex Ross passed and waved.

“Alex Ross is the perfect example of why we have to keep the foundation going,” Bo said. “You probably don't know this because you're involved only in the media part of the foundation, but Alex applied for one of the first small business loans I approved. He started with one coffee shop and now has six across the state. He is still one of my favorite success stories. She noticed that Emily had gone pale. “Is something wrong?”

The younger woman shook her head. “I thought he worked part-time at this one. I'm so embarrassed.”

Bo was studying her. “Alex? You and Alex?” She laughed. “Is it...serious?”

Emily shrugged. “I think it could be.”

“Good for you. I hope it works out. I like Alex a lot.”

“Alex makes Mommy smile,” Jodie said, joining them.

* * *

I
T
WAS
LATE
AFTERNOON
before the sheriff returned to his office. Bo Hamilton was safe, and Jace Calder's leg would heal. The helicopter pilot and crew member had managed to get out of the chopper before it exploded, and were both expected to pull through. The Spencers' bodies had been brought down out of the mountains. Frank suspected one of their rifles was the murder weapon used on John Cole, and ballistics would prove it. He had statements from both Bo and Jace. His work was done for the moment.

Relieved everything had turned out so well, he sat down at his desk and picked up the reading materials Russell Murdock had left behind.

Brain wiping.
He'd never heard of such a thing—let alone a Dr. Ralph Venable.

He didn't know what to make of this information. At first it had sounded like something out of a sci-fi movie, but the more he looked at the articles, the more he understood why Russell believed it.

If possible, it could certainly explain Sarah's missing twenty-two years—if she had crossed paths with this Dr. Venable.