Payback (4 page)

My stomach pitched
. I wasn’t sure what I was walking into. My life had been an internal battle between self-doubt and stubborn determination. Most of the time I was able to keep some balance, make myself move forward, but sometimes my insecurity would raise its ugly head.  Years ago, it had been Caden’s encouragement and love that had pulled me through, allowed me to believe in myself, and propel me forward. As I grew older, the self-doubt receded and I was more comfortable in my own shoes. My lack of confidence was replaced with cynicism and reality. It was clear after years of struggling, that talent didn’t always equate with success.

Reaching behind me, I pulled out a copy of the book I had print
ed out for Caden. Taking a deep breath, I opened my door and saw a man approaching me from the redwood deck on the back of the log cabin.  He was wearing a tan, down jacket, jeans, cowboy boots, suede gloves and a tan cowboy hat.  Tall, good looking, and lanky, he had light brown hair and fair features.  His smile was warm and genuine. 

“Howdy, ma’am. Are you lost?”

The snow had slowed, but the wind was still whipping around my body like a small cyclone.  I hadn’t planned on being away from California for three months searching all over Montana, so all I had with me was a light jacket, a few hoodies and thin sweaters. Dressed in my best casual for the trip to Trego, I sported my purple V-neck sweater, Ralph Lauren jeans, my thin, blue, Betsy Johnson jacket and knee-high leather boots with (what would be considered sensible in Hollywood) four-inch heels.

“Um, I was wondering if Caden Kelly was here?” I tried to sound pleasant
, but my teeth started to chatter. I tucked the novel under my arm and slipped my purple hands into my pockets.

He
gave me a non-sexual once over. “I’m sorry, but this Caden guy doesn’t live here.”

My body slumped
, and I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. The man stared for a moment at my Porsche and then finally gave in. “You don’t look like the usual groupies we get up here looking for him…most of them don’t drive Porsches.”

I tried to keep my lip from quivering as I answered, “I know Caden—knew Caden—when he lived in California.  I was a –”

I stopped when I heard the sound of a horse whinnying behind me.  I turned to look and gasped.  Sitting on a beautiful, sable brown horse was the most handsome man I had ever seen.  He was older, with well-defined bone structure, a little scruff on his chin, and the clearest blue eyes. The black cowboy hat sat halfway down his forehead, giving him a sexy, cowboy look. The black jacket with a brown shearling lining was zipped up revealing only the collar of a pearl-button plaid shirt. The horse continued to walk slowly towards us while Caden Kelly stared down into my eyes. I expected some reaction, but I could only read curiosity in his expression.

The cold wind filled my lungs and
, in my excitement, I took two steps towards him.  He stopped and climbed off the horse. Everything and everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion except for my mind which was racing as I tried to remember what I wanted to tell him. The snow picked up again, leaving large flakes on our shoulders. I shuddered.

“Caden!  I…I…I
came because I have this novel. I wrote it with you in mind to play the lead.  I know you’ve been away from Hollywood for some time, but I was hoping you’d read it and—”

He turned and gave the other man a look of
irritation. Turning back to me, he simply said, “I’ll be back.” 

I watched and waited as he walked
up to the deck and through the French doors into the house.  The man next to me tipped his hat. “My name is Jason. Sorry about the fib, but we get people up here on occasion trying to find him…journalists, groupies…you know.” He smiled and nodded at my attire. “You must be freezing in that jacket. It’s not meant for this kind of weather.”

“I am, but hopefully I’ll be on my way to California by tomorrow. I didn’t expect to be up here in the middle of winter or I would have been better prepared.”

We both heard the door close and turned to see Caden running across the wood deck of the house and out to where we both stood.  He had a rifle in his hands and it was aimed at me! There was a sound of the gun being cocked.

“Get the
hell back into your car and leave!” he yelled, his eyes black with rage.

I scrambled backwards
, feeling for the handle on my door before turning around to open it.  He pushed me into the driver’s seat and shouted again.

“Don’t
ever
come back.”

T
eeth clenched, his face was flushed with anger. I couldn’t believe this was the man who had been so deeply in love with me.

“Caden, please!  I’ve driven all the way up here to talk to you. I risked everything to come up here. All I ask—”

There was a sharp report near my ear. Confused, I just stared at him, dumbfounded and then it hit me—he had fired the rifle just over the roof of my car; it was the rifle’s explosion ringing in my ear. Jason jumped forward and tried to wrestle the gun out of Caden’s hands, but Caden pulled back and aimed directly at my car.  He cocked the rifle again, and I finally got the message.  I was never so grateful in all my life that the engine turned over on the first try. I didn’t stop to buckle my seat belt, I sped out and was just making my way around the first curve in the drive when I heard a shot and saw a rock splinter on the hill a few yards to the right, pieces flying up. Caden was an excellent marksman and could have easily hit me or my car; still, this was another warning that I was not welcome. Gunning the gas, the Porsche was flying down the winding, gravel road as hot tears were spilling down my cheeks.  I took a curve doing fifty and felt my back end fishtail.  Releasing the gas, I turned into the skid, but it was too late. My car had already left the road, and I was headed over the grade on the downslope. There was a sturdy pine tree with a deep pile of snow at the base of it in my path.  My car landed mostly in the snow, but enough of it connected with the tree to trigger the air bag.  I was smashed back by the bag, and then, with the car tilting to the right, my body flew up against the passenger door jamb and window. I hit my head and felt blood slipping down my forehead before I blacked out.

Chapter 4

An Understanding

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Jason
shouted, as he yanked the rifle out of Caden’s hands.

“Nothing!” Caden hissed, his whole body tense from the confrontation. He turned towards his horse.

“Nothing? You almost shot that poor woman!”

“
If I wanted to shoot her, I would have. But do not let that woman fool you. She’s a snake…no, lower than a snake,
a cockroach
.”

“She looked
really happy to see you. Who is she?”

He gave Jason a scathing look and growled, “
The last person on earth I want to see.”

“Well, she’s gone.
” Jason shook his head in disbelief. “ I better get the rest of the horses in the stable. This storm is only supposed to get worse.”

Caden nodded. “You better call Chris and let her know you won’t be home anytime soon. We’re going to be late getting the cattle down from Candle Peak.”

Jason nodded and pulled out his cell phone. There was a little sigh of relief when he saw the two bars crop up. Reception on the ranch was always a mystery.  Some days they’d have great reception, but more often than not they were lucky to get a bar.  His sister, Chris, wasn’t happy, but by the end of the conversation, she had been mollified with a promise to take her and her friends dancing over the weekend. Jason snapped the phone shut and followed Caden into the barn where he saddled a horse, and the two rode off to bring the cattle down into the meadow where they’d be warmer.

Tired and freezing, Jason stepped into the modern log cabin to grab a cup of coffee before going home. It was already six
-thirty and it would be at least seven-thirty before he made it back to his place.  He thought about staying over but decided it would be best if he went home rather than face Chris’s wrath. She had warned him that she had made him dinner and expected him to eat it.

Caden hadn’t talked since the afternoon
, and Jason knew that he wasn’t going to talk until he was good and ready.  Jason had worked for Caden the last five years and couldn’t ask for a better boss.  He paid Jason well to help run his cattle ranch. The two had become close friends, even though Jason was five years younger than Caden. The actor was also friends with Chris, the three frequently spending their free time together in town or on the ranch. Caden was a popular guy around Whitefish. He’d earned the respect of the other ranchers and cowhands by working hard and making a success of the ranch. As a result, the surrounding townspeople were very protective of his privacy and fame, refusing to help the inquisitive journalist or fan that had come in search of the elusive Caden Kelly.

They were
now standing in the U-shaped kitchen. Caden was heating a frozen dinner in the microwave and drinking a cup of coffee. After gulping down the hot brew, Jason said his good byes and crawled into his Dodge Ram pickup and took off down the road. The snow had stopped a few hours ago but was picking up again.  He could barely see the tracks of the Porsche as he made his way down off the mountain towards Loon Lake Ranch Way, but then he noticed that the Porsche’s tracks disappeared about halfway down the one-mile gravel drive.

He kept driving, but something didn’t sit right.  He could tell from the tracks that she had been fishtailing around the curves, probably scared shitless and traveling too fast for the conditions.    He stopped and did a four
-point turn to go back, finding the tracks had abruptly ended as if the car disappeared or flew off the road.  Grabbing his flashlight, Jason jumped out of the truck and ran to the side of the road but couldn’t see anything. He climbed over the embankment and slid down a few feet before stopping, then the flashlight caught the glint of metal and he knew.

“Jesus Christ!” he blurted out.  With his flashlight
, he traced the path of the car and saw that he could easily transverse the snow down to the car.  Within five minutes, he was at the driver’s door, the passenger door being on the downside of the grade and too dangerous to open. When he shown the light inside the car, he was hoping that she had managed to escape and had grabbed a ride down the road, but he knew that was wishful thinking. There were no signs of footsteps in the snow. The windows were slightly fogged which was a good sign, it meant she was still breathing.

The wind was bitingly cold
, and when he opened the door the interior was no warmer than the outside.  Her legs were still on the driver’s side pinned under the airbag, but her head was smashed against the passenger’s

door.
The window right above her head was smashed and smeared with blood. He reached over and grabbed her hand, slapping it and trying to get her to respond, but she didn’t move. Her face and hands were blue, either from her injuries or the cold. He knew that trying to get an ambulance up from Whitefish in a snowstorm was going to take a long time, so he had to risk moving her to warm her up.  It took Jason at least fifteen minutes, but he managed to carry her to his pickup. Wrapping her in the blanket he always carried for emergencies, Jason drove back to the ranch. 

As he climbed out of the truck, he saw the light in the kitchen come on. Jason carried Marie up the steps of the deck and was at the French doors when Caden turned on the outside light and opened the French door.

Caden heart exploded with adrenalin. Something was very wrong; Marie’s head was bloodied and the scalp below her matted hair was tinged gray. Her lips were blue. “What the fuck? Is she alive?”

Jason saw something in Caden’s face, a pain that only came from seeing someone you loved hurting.  This woman meant something to Caden
, even if he refused to acknowledge it. “Yeah, barely. Call 911.” Jason carried Marie over to the couch in the living room.

Caden ran to the landline and made the call.  When he hung up and returned, he shook his head. “They already have two ambulances going to West Glacier for an auto accident. The closest ambulance is down in Polson.  It’s going to be an hour and a half before they can get here. We’ve got to take her.”

Jason nodded and then turned to Marie.  “Have you got another blanket?”

Caden retrieved another blanket
, which they wrapped over the first blanket. It was Caden who gingerly picked Marie up into his arms and followed Jason out to the truck.  He held her in his arms the entire way as he looked at her face for some sign of hope.

“Her head is bleeding more profusely now,” Caden noted.

“It must be that she’s warming up.  The blood is starting to flow again.”

Caden nodded
, as he stared down into her face.

“Caden, who is she?” Jason tri
ed to ask as gently as possible. He could see that Caden was an emotional basket case, even though anyone else would think he was emotionless. Jason knew that the quieter Caden became, the more he was trying to control himself.

“Marie, Marie Morrigan.”

“Did you love her?”

At first
, Caden’s eyes flashed with anger, but as he held her closer to his chest, they turned sad. “Yeah, but that was a long time ago in a land far away. I haven’t thought about her for the last few years. It took a lot to get to that point. Now the only feelings I feel for her are anger and resentment.” But even as Caden said it, he knew it wasn’t true. There was a part of him, buried deep under the rage and pain, that still loved the woman he was holding.

But Jason
wasn’t fooled. It was clear that at this moment in time, with the possibility of losing her staring him in the face, there was more to what Caden was feeling. Frightened and worried, Caden could only be feeling that way because somewhere inside of him he couldn’t imagine a world without her in it.  Jason wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but he knew that Caden’s world had been turned upside down. And, because Caden’s world had been turned upside down, so had his.

By the time they arrived at the hospital, Marie was moaning. They weren’t sure if that was a good sign but decided
it must be good because it meant she wasn’t dead. Neither of them offered to sign her into the hospital since it meant accepting financial responsibility.  Caden did offer a few details for the woman admitting Marie.

“She’s thirty-one and from Los Angeles.  Her mother lives in Philadelphia.”

“Do you have a name for her mother?”

He looked up at the fluorescent light and thought about it. “Josephine Morrigan…I think.  It’s been a long time, but I think that’s right.”

After a couple of hours, they were told they could go home since there was nothing more that they needed from them.  Caden hesitated but then nodded. Jason grabbed his upper arm and asked, “Don’t you want to know if she’ll be okay?”

Caden shook his head. “She’s not my problem.”

Jason winced at the callousness of Caden’s voice.  “Caden, we don’t know if she’s going to live or die.”

Clenching his jaw, Caden finally said, “I don’t need to know. I haven’t known for six years; I don’t need to know now.”

Jason was about to protest but realized very quickly from the flash in Caden’s eyes that this was not something he should discuss.  Shrugging his shoulders, he followed Caden out to the truck.  He’d already told Chris what had happened and that he was going to have to drive Caden back to the ranch.  They both agreed it would be wiser for him to stay overnight rather than try to drive back in the storm.               

Back
at the ranch, they both walked up the deck and in through the back French doors.  Jason couldn’t remember the last time that he had gone through the front doors into the massive foyer with the double staircase.  The house wasn’t massive, but it had several amenities that you’d only find in the house of the rich. The double staircase and enormous antler chandelier in the foyer were both reminders that Caden was wealthy.

There
were bloody towels and some blood on the wide-planked pine floor.  Caden went to work cleaning it up.  Jason joined him.  After all the evidence of Marie’s existence was gone from the cabin, they made sandwiches and sat down to watch some television. The great room faced the back deck and the expansive meadow beyond it.  The meadow was flanked by pine trees and in the summer the cattle often grazed there, but it was too dark and stormy to see the meadow now. Caden pressed a button and the flat screened rose up from a cabinet near one of the French doors.

At ten o’clock, Caden went up to bed
, leaving Jason downstairs.  As soon as Jason was alone, he dialed the hospital on the landline. Upstairs, Caden carefully lifted the receiver so that Jason would not know that he was listening.

“North Valley Hospital. Maryanne Coates, how may I help you?”

“I’m inquiring about a friend of mine, Marie Morrigan.”

There was a pause.  “Yes, I see that she’s in C ward. Dr. Hattersfield is her doctor.  I’ll transfer you.”

A woman with a crisp tone answered, “Ward C.”

“Hello, I’m checking up on my friend, Marie Morrigan
. Can you tell me how she is?”

“I’m sorry
, sir, but we can’t give that information out to friends. If you know her family, they can call in.”

Disappointed, Jason hung up and hea
ded towards one of the bedrooms.  After using the restroom and the toothbrush he kept for these occasions, he went back out to get a bottle of water and decided to try once again, only this time he was going to pretend that he was family. When he picked up the receiver he was surprised to hear voices.

“So, Jeanette, what’s going on with
Marie Morrigan?”

“Just a sec, Caden, I have to go into the other room so no one sees me looking at her record.  Okay…uh…ooh.   She suffered a bad concussion and had some swelling from blood on her brain, but they’ve given her drugs to correct that. She’s
covered with contusions, but it looks to me that the doctors believe she’s going to make a full recovery.  They’re waking her every hour just to make sure she’s okay.” There was a quick change in the tone of her voice.  It was coquettish as she asked, “Are you going to Casey’s for the dance?”

“I might.  It depends on the roads. I have to go, but thanks
, Jeanette.”

“If things take a turn for the worse
, I’ll give you a call.  The only thing they seem to be worried about is the head injury.”

“Why?”

“She could continue to bleed and the brain start swelling again. It can be fatal, but I wouldn’t worry.  Her vitals look good. Sorry, but I have to go.”

“Thanks again.”

“Anything for you, Caden.  See you later.”

Jason waited for the click and then hung up himself. 
Confused over Caden’s need to hide his concern from Jason, he wondered what this all meant. Throwing his hands up, Jason turned to the bedroom and went to bed.

When he woke
the next morning, he found Caden already outside feeding the cattle. He grabbed a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee before joining him.  As he stepped outside, a tow truck pulled up.

Caden crossed the
snow-packed yard between the barn and the tow truck.  He took off one of his gloves and reached out to shake hands with Devil Samuels, the tow truck driver. “Hey, Devil, how’s business?”