Chapter 20
Lucy
One mile out of Jackson, despite the glare of the bright morning sun, Wes falls asleep in the passenger seat of Madeline’s
Lexus. Why anyone needs a luxury car while living on a working ranch is beyond Lucy, but she’s not going to complain. She
has to admit it’s a nice ride.
When Trent found Lucy in the stable’s office, she was trying to figure out what to do with the information she just discovered.
Luckily she had returned the envelope to its hiding place, but still, he seemed suspicious. And as much as she was looking
forward to more time alone with Wes, she had been hoping to snoop around the ranch more, see what other dirty little secrets
she could dig up before Madeline came home. It would have to wait.
Abruptly, Lucy pulls off Highway 191 in hopes that the sharp motion will wake Wes, but he’s out cold, snoring softly, his
head lolling against the passenger-side window. She pulls into a gas station, parks, and goes inside. It’s one of those filling
stations with an all-night café to feed all the truckers who come through. Lucy orders a chocolate shake for Wes and a sausage
biscuit for herself. By the time she returns to the car, food in hand, Wes is awake.
He looks like crap, and Lucy tells him so. “Yeah, you get hit in the head with a crowbar and see how you look,” Wes says, poking the straw through the lid and taking a long drink. “God, this tastes good. Thanks.”
“No problem,” Lucy says, clicking her seat belt into place. She and Wes have always had a good rapport. Back when they first
met, Lucy thought that maybe the two of them could have been good together, but the timing was never quite right—they were
too different, or maybe too much alike. Then Lucy introduced Wes to Madeline and the decision was made, for better or worse.
“So, your brother?” Lucy says, pulling the truck back onto the highway.
“Yeah, it’s unbelievable. How does a man just disappear? Especially Dix—he’s pretty unforgettable.”
“Yeah?” Lucy says. “I remember him from your wedding. He was trying to get people to drink shots out of his cowboy boot.”
“Yeah, Dix is a good guy, but he’s a character,” Wes says. “Madeline gets a kick out of him. I swear sometimes she thinks
she married the wrong Drake brother.”
Lucy raises her eyebrows and gives Wes a wry look. “You know Madeline is crazy about you. Always has been, always will be.”
Wes shakes his head. “She’s been different lately. You sure she hasn’t told you what’s been going on with her?”
“Me? Nooo,” Lucy laughs. “I think you might have forgotten that my dad made Madeline my fucking banker. We don’t talk much
anymore, and I’m not thrilled about it, okay. But how would you feel if your brother was in charge of your finances?”
“I’d hate it,” Wes admits. “Dix and I have had our fair share of knockdowns over money.”
“It sucks,” Lucy says. “Dad’s funeral was hard, but it was good he wasn’t suffering anymore. Before we read the will, Madeline
and I genuinely had a nice time, laughing over memories, going out with some old friends.”
“What old friends?” Wes asks. Lucy knows he’s trying to keep his voice nonchalant, casual, but there’s a sharpness that he can’t hide.
“Just some old classmates. Lydia Dunne, Angela Walker, Marc Lee,” Lucy says, ticking the names off on her fingers. “A few
others. It was nice, kind of like a mini-reunion.” Lucy sees Wes’s face darken at the mention of Marc Lee, Madeline’s high
school boyfriend. Madeline and Marc fell hard for one another, were inseparable, and almost immediately started planning their
life together: get married, have kids, raise horses. It lasted through the summer after graduation, but that’s when Madeline
got more serious about equestrian competitions and began winning on the international circuit. The romance fizzled, and a
few years later, Lucy introduced Madeline to Wes. Still, Wes didn’t like hearing about Madeline’s first love.
“Everyone had a little too much to drink, I said a few things, Madeline said a few things.” Lucy shrugs. “It got ugly.”
“Madeline wouldn’t have been drinking,” Wes says, setting his shake in the cupholder. “She’s pregnant.”
“It was just a sip. A toast to old friends,” Lucy clarifies. Wes grows quiet and turns to look out his window. Madeline is
going to be pissed when she finds out Lucy told Wes about meeting up with Marc and possibly drinking while pregnant. And Wes
will bring it up. Lucy is counting on it.
“So who is this Mellie person, staying at the house?” Lucy asks, as she slows the car and takes a right turn.
Next to her, Wes shakes his head. “You’ll have to talk to Madeline about that one. There isn’t a stray animal she won’t take
in. I just hope she doesn’t stay long. I can’t wait for things to go back to normal—whatever that means.”
“I don’t trust her,” Lucy says.
“What? Why? Did she do something?” Wes asks.
“Not really,” Lucy admits. “It’s weird, though, right? She just shows up on your doorstep and doesn’t leave?”
“Kind of like you, right?” Wes says, trying not to smile.
She smacks him lightly on the arm. “You were always a smartass. No, really, though. I don’t trust her.”
Wes turns thoughtful. “I’ll try and get rid of her before Madeline gets back home, but in the meantime, will you keep an eye
on her for me?”
“It would be my pleasure,” Lucy says, meaning it, then changes the subject. “You know, I was thinking, the baby will be here
in the next few weeks or so, and I’d love to be able to fix up the nursery. It’s a mess after what happened, and the sooner
it’s cleaned up, the sooner you can put all of this behind you.”
Wes looks skeptical. “Honestly, I don’t know if Madeline will even want that as the baby’s room anymore. I don’t know if I
want the baby to stay where a man died, where she could have died.”
Lucy nods, in understanding. “I get that. But I also think of it as the place where her life was saved too. If you hadn’t
walked in when you did, who knows what he would have done to Madeline? You distracted him so that the sheriff could get a
good shot in and stop him.”
Wes laughs. “I distracted him with my head.”
“You know what I mean,” Lucy says, taking her eyes off the road to look at him. “I mean it could have been so much worse,
and it wasn’t. What do you say? Let me fix up the nursery.”
“You really don’t have to do that, especially with how things are going between you and Madeline. Trent can do it, or we can
hire someone,” Wes says.
“Yeah, but do you want to take Trent away from his other work? And do you really want a stranger in your house?” Lucy asks.
“Some ghoul who will go home and start spreading gossip about you and Madeline?” Lucy knows she has Wes now.
Despite his social nature, he’s also a man who values his privacy.
“Come on, let me do this. It will be my gift to you both. And by gift, I mean I’ll provide the physical labor.
You’re footing the bill for everything else. ”
Wes laughs, but Lucy can tell he’s mulling it over. She needs to be indispensable to Wes and Madeline. For now. “Okay, then.
Sure,” he says, as she maneuvers the car through Lone Tree’s front gate. “But let me talk to Madeline. She might need a little
convincing.”
“Trust me,” Lucy says. “It will be spectacular, and Madeline deserves every bit of it.”
“Thanks for coming to get me, Lucy,” he says, reaching over and squeezing her hand. “I owe you one.”
“My pleasure,” she says, bringing the car to a stop in front of the house. It’s quiet. There’s no sign of Trent or Mellie
or any of the other ranch hands. “Now, you need to go directly to bed,” she orders.
“No,” Wes says, with a shake of his head. “I’m going to go find my brother for myself.”
“Today?” Lucy asks. “You think that’s a good idea?”
“Probably not,” Wes says. “But he’s my brother.”
“I get it,” Lucy says. They sit there in silence for a moment, staring at the spot where the old barn used to be. “So Johanna
Monaghan, huh?” she says, with a sly uptick of her mouth.
“No way,” Wes says, holding up one hand as if in surrender. “Dalton was way off with that. I don’t know who his wife was screwing,
but it wasn’t me.”
“He seemed pretty sure of himself,” Lucy says, snagging the cup from Wes’s hand.
“I’m not cheating on my wife,” Wes says, looking Lucy straight in the eye.
Lucy holds his gaze and slides the straw between her lips, taking a drink of the melted shake before speaking. “I believe
you,” she finally says. “But would you?” she whispers, leaning in close.
“Would I what? Cheat on Madeline? No way,” Wes says, snatching at the cup, but Lucy pulls it out of reach. “Did you cheat on your husband? Is that why you got divorced?”
“Nah, it was nothing like that,” Lucy says. “But that’s not to say I wouldn’t have, if the right man came along.”
“Oh?” Wes says. “And who would the right man be?”
Lucy shrugs. “I think the bigger question right now is who is the right woman?” She slides the cup between Wes’s legs, letting
her fingers rest on his thigh.
Lucy watches as Mellie comes out of one of the bunkhouses and stops short when she sees who’s in the car. Lucy leans in close
to Wes and whispers in his ear. “She’s staring at us. I wonder if she likes to watch.”
“Lucy,” Wes groans, lifting her hand from his leg but not releasing it. “What are you doing? I’m married. To your sister.”
“True,” Lucy says. “She is my sister, but you have to admit, she is kind of a bitch. And if you ask me, so is that one.” She
tips her head toward Mellie, who has bent down to busy herself with tying her shoe.
Wes shakes his head with a laugh, releases her hand, and pushes open the car door and heads to the stables while Lucy lets
herself into the house. She brews coffee using Madeline’s fancy espresso maker and pours some into Wes’s stainless-steel travel
mug, when he comes in from outside.
“They found Dix,” he says, excitedly. “I’m going to grab a few things and head out.”
“Oh wow!” Lucy says. “Is he okay? Where is he?”
“At a hospital in Salt Lake City,” he responds. “The ambulance took him to Idaho Falls first, but he was in too bad shape,
so they airlifted him there. He had to have emergency surgery. They removed his spleen.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” Lucy asks. “I can drive.” She hopes Wes says no. She really wants to be here in the house,
but offering seems like the right thing to do.
“No,” Wes says. “I’m going to stop and talk to the ATF agent first, but if you can stay and work on the nursery and keep an eye on things here, that would be great.”
“I’m sure he’ll be okay,” Lucy says, laying a hand on Wes’s arm, and he pulls her into a tight hug.
“Thanks for everything, Lucy,” Wes says. “And I’m having Madeline’s new phone delivered to the house today. Will you keep
an eye out for it? And here’s a card to buy the things you need to fix up the nursery.” He slides the credit card into the
front pocket of her jeans.
This could be fun, she thinks.
Lucy watches at the window as Wes walks to his truck. Mellie exits her cabin, and he tries to move past her, but she steps
in his path. Lucy can’t see their faces but can tell by their body language that there’s tension between them. After a brief
exchange, Wes skirts past Mellie who looks after him with a scowl on her face. “Now, what’s that all about?” Lucy murmurs
to herself as Wes speeds away in Madeline’s car.
She waits thirty minutes to make sure Trent and Mellie are nowhere to be seen. She returns to the guest room, retrieves her
backpack, and reaches into the inner pocket for the seven tiny surveillance cameras hidden inside. Each camera lens is only
three-and-a-half millimeters wide, the entire device only as big as the top of her thumb. She would have brought more but
thought she would be pushing it. She’s put a lot of thought into where to place the cameras and finally settles on the kitchen,
the living room, the home office, Wes and Madeline’s bedroom, the stables, and the guest room where she’ll be staying—she
wants to make sure she knows if someone is snooping around her things, sparse as they are. Deciding where the seventh and
final camera will go is trickier. She’d like to find a way to get it into Trent’s bunkhouse so she can keep tabs on him, but
doing so unnoticed will be tough. Instead, she’ll hide it in Mellie’s room.
Lucy is casual about it, keeping the cameras hidden in her pocket and nonchalantly situating them in spots where they won’t be noticed. There’s always the chance that Wes and Madeline have their own security devices hidden within the house, but Lucy doubts it. Because behind closed doors and all.