Chapter 4 #2
asked. How did you meet the boy?”
“I didn’t,” John said. “She—” he indicated Josie “—was talking to him in the stands when his father went down. She never left
him, all the way to the hospital.”
“If I hadn’t, somebody else would have,” she said quietly.
“Maybe, but probably with less interest in his future,” Cole said. He smiled. “I’m glad you found him.”
She smiled. “So am I. He’ll have a good home here. No more worrying about having a roof over his head. Although he’ll miss
his dad. It was just the two of them.”
“How did you lose your parents?” Cole asked. “If you don’t mind telling me.”
“My mother died of cancer,” she said softly. “My dad . . .” She sighed. “He was out with another woman at the time.” Her eyes
averted.
“That would never have happened in my family,” John murmured.
“Damned straight,” Cole agreed. “But I’m sad that it was that way for you,” he told Josie. “You’ve got a big heart.”
She started to speak but John, irritated, cut her off. “I’ll drive you back to Percell. I’ve got to meet with a member of
the cattlemen’s association about some legislation they’re trying to get through.”
“Trying to drive out ranchers and farmers,” Cole added heavily. “So the big combines can own it all.”
“Richard King had one golden maxim. Buy land and never sell,” she added. “My family ranch has been in our family for over
a hundred and twenty years.”
Cole whistled. “Like ours. I’ll never sell this place, either. And if anyone tries to take it . . . well, I know a few good
congressmen and a couple of friendly billionaires.”
Josie smiled. “Nice to have friends.”
“Very. You take care,” Cole said. “Come back to check on JJ occasionally. He was sad that you were leaving.”
He had been. He and Josie had hugged and hugged. She didn’t like leaving him behind. Odd, to form such an attachment so quickly.
But then, JJ was a special child. Very special.
“I was sad to leave him,” she replied. “Thanks for letting me stay overnight.”
“Anytime. I mean that,” Cole added.
She smiled. “Thanks.”
“Let’s go.” John climbed in behind the wheel, ignoring Cole’s flash of anger at his lack of courtesy as Josie opened the passenger
door and jumped up into the cab beside him.
John ignored his dad’s glare. He’d catch hell later, he was sure. Another irritation to lay at Josie’s feet.
He started to back up. “Seat belt,” he said tersely, and waited until she fastened it before he turned the truck around.
She sighed, her eyes lingering on the beautiful landscape around Big Spur. It seemed to be all white fences and cattle except for the mechanical grasshoppers pumping oil right in the pastures with the cattle.
“What’s with all the sighing?” John asked tersely.
“Those beautiful Santa Gerts,” she said without thinking. “We ran mostly Herefords.”
“In Wyoming? I thought most of the herds up that way were black Angus.”
“The breed goes back a long way in our family.”
“Is it a purebred operation?”
She laughed. “Not really. We didn’t have that kind of money. Strictly cow-calf. We had mixed breed herds. Black baldies and
such.”
They still did, but she wasn’t opening that can of worms.
“Will your friends be worried that you didn’t show up last night?” he asked curtly.
They had been. She’d made up a story about going along with the boy to pump the Everetts for information about their trucking
schedules.
“Not really,” she said, feigning boredom. “They don’t own me.”
He glanced at her. It irritated him that he was bothered by her association with the roughnecks he’d seen at the rodeo.
“The boy didn’t mention any relatives?”
No,” she replied. “He said it was just him and his dad.” Her eyes were sad as they scanned the wide fields. “It must be rough
on a child so young, a tragedy like that,” she murmured. “He’s a sensitive boy, too, which will only make it harder.”
Her perception surprised him. She seemed to really care about the child.
But he reminded himself that criminals were just like normal people, except for making their living in illegal ways.
He’d gotten sort of used to Tony Garza, who was nobody’s idea of the law-abiding citizen in his younger days.
Not that Tony wasn’t accepted with affection by all the Everetts since he’d become like a guardian to Stasia and given her a big job in New York at his art gallery.
“How many of you are there?” she asked suddenly.
“Us kids, you mean?”
She nodded.
“Three. Tanner’s the eldest. He’s married to a girl we’ve known all her life. She paints. She’s the most talented artist I’ve
ever seen.” He bit down hard on the comment. It still hurt him badly that he’d never been able to win Stasia’s heart. It was
worse that she was married to the brother he loved.
Josie glanced at him. He probably didn’t realize how much he was giving away, not just by the words but by the tone of his
voice when he spoke of her. She felt a twinge in her heart. Must be heartburn, she told herself stubbornly.
“Misplaced longing, I take it,” she said with biting sarcasm.
He glanced at her with black fury in his pale eyes.
“Sorry,” she murmured, averting her eyes. “Didn’t mean to step on broken bones.”
“What would you know about that?” he asked curtly.
“I was crazy about a boy in my class at school when I was a senior. He took me to movies and brought me flowers and told everybody
he was crazy about me.” She shifted. “It turned out that he just wanted to make his girlfriend jealous and was using me to
do it. He married her. She invited me to be a bridesmaid and thanked me for helping him get to her.”
He relented. “Sorry.”
“I was young and stupid. I trusted people.”
“We all start out that way.”
“Then life kicks us in the teeth a few times and we realize that you can’t trust anybody, really. Even the people you trust
the most will betray you. Everybody’s got an agenda. The trick is to realize it in time.”
“And I thought I was paranoid,” he mused.
“I’m not paranoid. I’m cured.”
He glanced at her. No wonder she worked outside the law. She’d probably had more hard knocks than she could admit to. A hard
woman with a hard past. Someone to steer clear of, he reminded himself.
He pulled up in front of her motel in Percell. The establishment looked seedy, which it was. She saw that one of her contacts’
cars was parked nearby. A shadowy figure was sitting in it.
“Looks like you’re expected,” John said pleasantly.
“Sure.”
“Funny how you turned up at a rodeo the one night I signed up for an event there,” he remarked.
She turned her head and studied him. “I’m sure that I knew you were going to be there,” she said in a voice dripping with
sarcasm. “I must be psychic.”
“My grandmother was,” he said out of the blue. “Dad’s mother. She knew she was dying. She had her will done just a few days
before she died in her sleep. She even left a letter for my dad.”
“Goodness.” She studied him. “Do you have it? That perception?”
He shook his head. “My sister does.”
“Wow.”
His eyes narrowed. “If I did have it, I’d never have gone near that rodeo.”
She gave him a droll look. “And you’d never have met JJ or taken him home to your parents.”
He scowled. That was true.
“Everybody here has a purpose,” she said quietly. “We’re where we’re supposed to be.”
“Damn. Well, it’s too early in the day for philosophy. Out you go.”
“I hope you won’t mind if I call your mother once in a great while to check on JJ.”
“As long as you don’t entertain any ideas about grifting them.”
She gave him a hot glare. As if she’d ever do something like that. Then she remembered the part she was playing. His windows
were open and his voice carried. And her cultivated partner in crime was hearing every word.
“There’s nothing wrong with people helping other people in need,” she said sweetly. “And I won’t turn down anything that’s
offered,” she added haughtily.
“I make a bad enemy.” He said it softly, but the words stung.
She cocked her head and smiled at him through the open window as she slammed the door. “Oooh, look at me, I’m shaking!” she
drawled.
He bit off a nasty word in Spanish.
She threw a nastier word in Spanish right back at him and stomped off to her door.
He left tire marks getting out of the parking lot.
As she put her key into the lock, her partner and his partner joined her at the door. John was just pulling out onto the highway,
and they were in plain sight. He saw them. He let out a torrent of other words as he sped down the highway toward home.
Josie let the other two into the room.
“How’d it go?” the taller one asked. “What did you learn?”
“A lot,” she said. “Sit down and I’ll fill you in.”
It was all going to be careful lies, of course, with just enough truth to make them sure she was telling them the truth. She
had a couple of phone numbers that belonged to colleagues who would back her to the hilt if she had to give them to the two
lawbreakers sitting at the table with her.
John Everett would think badly of her. She hated that. In some other world, things might have worked out very differently.
But she had a job to do and he was going to be part of it. Whether she liked it or not.
JJ was having the time of his life on the Big Spur.
Cole had arranged a hearing so that he and Heather could get custody of the boy.
They’d also arranged for a memorial service for JJ’s dad.
The boy was still sad at losing the father he’d loved, but he was grateful for having people in his life who would take care of him, until he could take care of himself.
Tanner and Stasia came over for supper to be introduced to the newest member of the family. JJ was fascinated by the life
Tanner had lived, which he’d gleaned from some of the cowboys he palled around with doing chores. He sat and listened, spellbound,
to tales of espionage.
He was truly fascinated when they began to talk about Stasia’s boss, Tony Garza, who’d been a real mob boss. JJ was looking
forward to meeting him. There were holidays coming up so the whole family would gather at Big Spur; there was some expectation
that Tony might show up as well. Or so Stasia said.
Heather laughed, ruffling JJ’s thick hair. She glanced at John. “I don’t guess your friend Josie would like to spend Christmas
with us . . . ?”
John said a bad word in Spanish.
Heather caught her breath.
JJ stared up at John, who’d embarrassed himself and felt bad about it. “You shouldn’t say words like that,” he said softly
to the big man. “My dad used to say that we should never cuss around ladies on account of we should treat them with respect.”
John grimaced. He sighed and picked up the boy, who was slight for his age. “You’re absolutely right, and I apologize,” he
told his mother.
Heather just stared at him worriedly.
“I won’t do it again.” He smiled at her. “I promise.”
She shook her head. “I should have used that peach tree switch more often,” she said firmly.
“Yes. Or maybe a baseball hat, to get through his thick skull,” Tanner teased.
“And there’s a man who has no room to talk,” Stasia said with twinkling eyes as she smiled at her husband. She was noticeably
pregnant now, but still a few months away from the birth of their child. “Tanner can say bad words in six languages, one of
which is impossible to learn. Well, for me, at least.”
“Farsi,” Tanner replied, grinning.
“I can speak Farsi,” John chuckled. “I spent some months in Afghanistan, too.”
“Can you teach me?” JJ asked John, all eyes.
“Why would you want to learn Farsi?” he asked the boy.
“I can only speak English and Spanish,” he said simply. “I want to know a lot of languages on account of they say the CIA
will hire you if you do.”
“CIA?” John and Tanner spoke together.