Chapter 11
“L incoln—wait up,” Carter called out as Lincoln crossed the Circle toward the town hall later that day. It was nearly dinnertime, and Charlotte hadn’t arrived home yet. Lincoln assumed she and Craig had been kept late at an appointment, but he was wondering if this was how life would be from now on, both of them always busy with work and responsibilities, with little time to spend together. He and his brothers had left the mill an hour early to wrestle the old washer and dryer out of number37, because they’d decided to replace the linoleum while they were doing the floors. He’d managed to do the upstairs but still needed to run the sander over the downstairs rooms tonight. At least he’d get to sleep with Charlotte later, if nothing else.
“What’s going on?” he asked when his brother caught up.
“Landed a contract today—a big one. You’re going to have to hire more men.” Carter launched into a description of the lumber they’d need to produce, while Lincoln listened with growing excitement. This was a big deal.
There was a problem, though.
“I got a call last night. That edger I wanted to buy isn’t available anymore. We’re going to have to find another one, and it’ll probably cost more money. I doubt I can find another bargain like that.”
“We need logs coming in, too,” Carter said as Gage, Nate and Hudson joined them. “Hudson, what’s the hold up on that?”
“I told you I need help,” Hudson said.
“I’ve forwarded you a dozen applications so far,” Lincoln said. “Have you talked to any of those people?”
“They’re no good. You need to find some better ones.”
“Are you kidding me?” Lincoln drew up short, his frustration flaring. “One of them was a guy with twenty years of experience as a climber. How much better can you get?”
“He’s too old.”
“He’s forty,” Lincoln contradicted. “In his prime.”
Hudson shrugged. “He didn’t fit the bill. None of them did. Try again.”
Lincoln stared at him. “There has to be one qualified candidate in that pile. You’re stonewalling.”
“Why the hell would I do that?” Hudson faced off with him.
“I don’t know. You tell me.” Lincoln didn’t back down.
“You know what? I don’t need this shit.” Hudson walked away, muttering to himself. The others watched him go.
“I’m forwarding those candidates to you,” Lincoln told Gage. He’d had enough. Hudson had been putting them off for weeks now and obviously wasn’t going to do the job he was supposed to do. “You can hire the crew.”
“What about Hudson?” Gage asked.
“I’m not wasting any more of my time on him. The job’s yours now,” Lincoln said. “Pick the crew you need and get started.”
“We’ll need more climbers, then. I’m not taking that on.”
“I got another application this morning. Looks solid. I’ll forward it to you. And that forty-year-old was perfectly acceptable.”
Gage’s attention snapped to something behind Lincoln, however. “Here comes trouble,” he said. Lincoln and the others turned to see what he meant.
A sheriff’s department cruiser was coming up Elliott Way. It traversed the Circle and came to a stop near the town hall.
“Here we go again,” Carter muttered as the four of them went to meet it. When they’d first come back to the Ridge, some of the temporary mill workers had made it a habit to get into trouble in town on their days off. The sheriff had visited far more often than was comfortable.
“Sheriff. What can I do for you?” Carter asked as a large man in a uniform got out of the vehicle.
“Looking for something,” the sheriff said. Cab Johnson was a bear of a man with a barrel chest, and judging by his expression, he’d had a rough day. “Man came in this morning and said he lost his horse. Know anything about that?”
“Lost his horse?” Lincoln repeated. It was the last thing he’d expected Cab to say.
“We have three horses in our corral, and they all belong to us,” Carter said.
“What about the rest of you? Seen anything suspicious?” Cab asked the others.
Gage and Nate both shook their heads.
“What kind of horse are you looking for?” Nate asked.
“A thoroughbred, if you can believe it.” A vein pulsed at Cab’s temple, and Lincoln wondered what had happened before he got here.
“I think someone would have noticed one of those.” Nate grinned at the thought of it. “Was there a race nearby?”
“Nope. Just an out-of-towner who thinks his expensive racehorse is stashed on your ranch but won’t say how or why it might have gotten here.”
“A racehorse?” Gage turned to Lincoln, who knew where his thoughts had gone. Charlotte used to work with racehorses. Did this have something to do with her?
Lincoln swiftly signed, Don’t talk , knowing his brothers would get the gist of what he meant. No need to bring up Charlotte until the sheriff asked directly about her. Besides, she was at work, and there were no racehorses on the Ridge.
“Mind if I look around?” Cab asked tiredly.
“Not at all,” Lincoln said. His stomach growled. So much for dinner.
“I’ll be as quick as I can,” Cab assured him. “I know I’m keeping you from your evening meal. Believe me, it’s been a hell of a day at the department, or I’d have come a lot sooner, and we’d all be home by now. That guy came in first thing this morning, before most people are even out of their beds, but it wasn’t early enough. We’d already had a pileup on the highway outside town. Had to attend to that first. Four people went to the hospital, one of them in critical condition. A child.” The muscles around Cab’s jaw tightened, and Lincoln saw what a toll that had taken on the sheriff, who had children of his own. “Soon as we got that cleared up, we got a call about a domestic dispute at one of the ranches on the edge of the county. Man threatening to shoot his cheating girlfriend. Took hours to talk him into surrendering, but we managed it. Meanwhile our new friend camped out at the department, bothering my staff and demanding his case take precedence over everything else. I about had him taken to the hospital for a psych evaluation.”
“Sounds like a real pain in the ass,” Lincoln said.
“Got that right.” Cab tipped his hat back and wiped his forehead. “Hot today, too.”
“Go ahead and look around,” Gage said. “Don’t think you’ll find any thoroughbreds tucked away here, though.”
“I don’t expect I will, either.” He walked away, looked in the stables and barn and made a cursory lap around the community. Lincoln and his brothers waited for him near the town hall. Eventually Hudson wandered out again to see what they were up to, and Carter filled him in on what he’d missed.
“Missing thoroughbred, huh?” Hudson asked, then broke off and raised his chin. “What’s Charlotte doing with that trailer?”
Lincoln looked to see her truck trundling up the road with a horse trailer hitched to it.
“Maybe she found the thoroughbred,” Nate said with a laugh. “What do you think, Sheriff?” he added as Cab appeared again. “Maybe that horse you were looking for is being delivered right now.”
Lincoln’s stomach sank. There was no reason for Charlotte to be driving a trailer—not even if she had found a horse running around loose. “If she found a missing horse, Bella and Craig would have picked it up and taken it to the shelter. They wouldn’t have made Charlotte bring it here.”
Nate shrugged. “Just a theory,” he said as they all drifted toward the Circle.
Charlotte parked behind the sheriff’s cruiser and got out, eyeing the vehicle askance. “What’s happening?” she asked cautiously, coming to join them. “Is someone hurt?”
“Sheriff’s out here looking for a lost thoroughbred,” Hudson answered. “Have you seen one? ”
“A thoroughbred?” she repeated faintly. When a faint flush swept up her cheeks, Lincoln’s concerns turned into full-fledged worry.
“One was reported missing this morning. The owner thinks it might be here,” Cab said. “You wouldn’t happen to have one tucked away in your trailer, would you?” He jabbed a thumb at it. “Mind if I take a look?”
“Oh. I…” She looked at the trailer and bit her lip. “It’s just…”
“Just a quick look,” Cab assured Charlotte. “That’s all right, isn’t it?”
“Of course… but I should explain…”
Lincoln’s heart beat hard. She didn’t have a thoroughbred in that trailer, did she? Had she made up that whole sob story about her ex-boyfriend the other night? Was she the shady one?
He remembered Dennis’s reaction when she arrived at the Ridge.
Trouble.
Was Dennis right?
Cab ambled to the back of the rig. “Come open this door, would you?” he called.
Lincoln held his breath as Charlotte slowly followed and stepped up to open the tailgate. She threw Lincoln a pleading look over her shoulder, and his heart stopped.
Hell.
“I was going to tell you… really…”
Tell him what? That he’d fallen in love with a horse thief? That the woman he craved was seconds away from a jail sentence? The thought of losing Charlotte, just when he’d found her—no, the thought that she’d never really been his at all. She’d been playing with him. Or—
“Take your time,” Cab said in a tone that suggested Charlotte had better hurry up.
She nodded helplessly, opened the tailgate and stepped into the trailer. Lincoln could hear her crooning to the horse inside, calming the animal before turning him around, leading him out into the daylight and down the ramp.
All the men sucked in their breath.
“What the hell?” Nate asked.
Hudson let out a laugh, long and loud. “That… is not a thoroughbred.”
“No, it is not,” Cab said. He lifted a hand and rubbed the back of his neck.
“That is the saddest excuse for a horse I have ever seen,” Carter announced. “Charlotte, what are you doing with it?”
“This is Admiral,” Charlotte said defensively. “And I bought him. He’s sensitive, so I’d be grateful if you stopped making fun of him.”
“I am never going to stop making fun of him,” Hudson said.
“I’m sorry to waste your time, folks,” Cab said. “I’ll get out of here and let you all get your dinner.”
“Hope you find that horse,” Lincoln said, still awash in relief. He couldn’t believe he’d doubted her. Why would he think Charlotte—his Charlotte—would steal a thoroughbred ?
Because life had been so good lately, he’d been sure disaster was around the corner?
“You bought Admiral?” he asked her as the sheriff’s cruiser disappeared toward the highway. “I thought you wanted a horse you could ride.”
“I do, but…”
When a shout cut through the rest of what she meant to say, they all turned to see what was going on. A disgruntled, dark-haired man came storming up the road from the direction of the mill.
“It’s a damn good thing I’m leaving next week,” he roared as he crossed the Circle, “because the way things are run around here, I wouldn’t be staying anyhow!”
“Mick? What’s wrong?” Lincoln hurried to meet him, his brothers following. Mick Harney was one of the first temporary workers they’d hired. He’d been a big help during his time at the mill. Normally, he kept calm when others were losing their cool, but today he looked like thunder.
“You know what’s wrong! Stop and start, stop and start, all day long. I’ve unjammed that edger a dozen times since you left. We’re just about done with our goal for the day, and we all stayed late to finish it, but it’s stuck again! How the hell are we supposed to go on like this? You’ve known for weeks it needs to be replaced, yet here we are holding it together with chewing gum and packing tape. I’m sick of it! I told the men you’d either come and fix it for good, or we all better walk away now. The whole lot of us!”
Lincoln exchanged a panicked glance with the others. “You can’t walk!”
“I’m not going back there today, I’ll tell you that much. I’ve had it.” He kept going toward the town hall.
This was bad. They needed to do something—fast. Lincoln looked at Charlotte, but whatever questions he wanted to ask her would have to wait. “Go have dinner,” he told her. “I’ll catch up with you tonight.”
“Of course. Go fix the edger.”
Lincoln hated to leave her. Someday he’d have the time to ask her everything he wanted to know. But first he had to save his family’s business.
Charlotte watched the men leave, relief making her almost dizzy. This was her chance to fetch Rally and get him off the Ridge before Lincoln and the others returned, but she’d have to move swiftly, or they’d catch her in the act.
“Why’d you buy that broken-down horse?”
“Oh!” Charlotte jumped when Sasha spoke up directly behind her. How long had she been standing there? Charlotte turned to find that most of the other influencers had trailed out of their house and were coming to look at Admiral, too. “I… like him, and I want him to have a good home, that’s all. I’m a sucker for horses.”
“Can we ride him?” Edie asked.
“Who would want to? You’d probably get fleas,” Veronica said.
“He’d make a good backdrop for content,” Sasha said, tossing her long hair. “Let’s get our cowboy stuff and take some videos.”
“No!” Charlotte bit her lip. She hadn’t meant to say it so sharply. “He’s old and tired, and his owner wasn’t able to care for him for months. He needs to be left alone until he’s recovered.”
“We won’t touch him,” Veronica said. “He’ll just be in the background, that’s all.”
“I really wish you wouldn’t.” She was losing precious time arguing with them. She needed to move Admiral into one of the stalls and leave so she could get Rally.
“You aren’t the boss of us,” Sasha said.
“I’m the boss of Admiral.”
“That’s hardly something to brag about,” Veronica said. “Really, Charlotte, we’re not going to hurt your horse. I promise. You can be in the content, too.”
“She doesn’t want to be in the content,” Sasha reminded her. “She’s too good for that, and now she thinks her horse is, too.”
“I bet Admiral would love to be a star,” Edie said. “We’ll make him go viral. Just wait,” she said to Charlotte.
“I don’t want him to go viral!” Why couldn’t these women take no for an answer?
“I told you,” Sasha said. “She probably doesn’t want us here on the Ridge at all.”
“That’s not true. What I want is for my horse to get his rest tonight so he can get better. Can’t you understand that?” To Charlotte’s horror, tears pricked her eyes. The old horse had already endured a ride in the trailer when by all rights he shouldn’t have had to do that again. Now she was going to leave him, possibly forever, so she could get Rally away from the Ridge. She needed to know Admiral wasn’t going to be harassed to death when she was gone.
Gone. Charlotte’s heart ached at the thought of it. Would she ever be able to come back? She hadn’t even said a proper goodbye to Lincoln.
She didn’t want to say goodbye. Didn’t want to leave.
This was her home.
Not anymore, she told herself firmly. Ivan had followed her. She couldn’t allow him to ruin things for everyone.
Veronica pulled back. “Hey, no worries. We’ll do it another time. No need to get upset.”
“But…” Sasha began.
Veronica shook her head. “It’s dinnertime, anyway. You all go grab us a table before all the good ones are taken. I want to be able to see Cal while he works.”
“On it!” Edie saluted and led the way, the other women following her.
“Thank you,” Charlotte said to Veronica quietly when they had set off.
“Are you okay?” Veronica asked her.
“No,” Charlotte said. “But I will be. First things first. Admiral needs his rest, and I need to get this trailer back to Bella Mortimer. She needs it tomorrow.”
“Drive carefully. You seem upset.”
“I’m not upset,” Charlotte lied. “Just… tired. I will dr ive carefully.” She forced herself to smile and waved as Veronica walked away, then hurried to lead Admiral to his stall, made him as comfortable as she could and climbed back into her truck. She drove slowly out to the highway, hoping Veronica would repeat what she’d told her to anyone who asked where she’d gone. A half mile down the road, she pulled onto the shoulder and parked.
As she hiked up the Ridge through the woods, she remembered what Lincoln had said about the wild animals that frequented the area. She hoped there weren’t any bears around today. Picking up her pace, she figured she was making so much noise she’d probably scare off any within a mile of her, but it seemed to take forever to reach the top of the Ridge and even more time to bushwhack around until she finally stumbled into the clearing near the mine.
Thank God Rally was still where she’d left him. He nickered at her when she approached and let her scratch behind his ears, but soon he was moving his head from side to side, searching to see if she’d brought anything to eat.
Charlotte untied his lead. “I’ve got a full feed bag for you in the trailer. Come on, Rally. It’s time for us to leave.”
“Am I the only one who thinks Charlotte might have stolen a racehorse?” Hudson asked as they jogged to the mill.
“You’re the only one who thinks there is a missing racehorse,” Nate said. “Sounds like Cab’s dealing with a man with a screw loose.”
“Seems like a hell of a coincidence he’s missing a racehorse just weeks after a veterinarian who specializes in them shows up in town,” Hudson said.
“So where’s the thoroughbred?” Carter asked. “Have you seen one running around the Ridge? Because I haven’t.”
“I haven’t either,” Lincoln said, although he’d been suppressing similar concerns since he’d left Charlotte behind. It did seem like an improbable coincidence, even if the horse in her trailer had turned out to be Admiral.
“Let’s focus on the real problem,” Carter said, pointing to the mill as they approached it. “We can’t let those men walk.”
“I’ve got this,” Lincoln said. “I’ll fix the edger and order a new one—tonight—no matter what it takes.” He grasped the handle of the mill’s front door and swore. He could feel the hum of the machinery inside from here—a hum that shouldn’t exist. The whole line should be off if there were repairs to be made to the edger. He yanked the door open and dashed inside, followed quickly by his brothers.
He cut through the mill to where the edger stood, a long, low piece of machinery that sucked rough-cut boards in, sawed them into usable planks and spit them out the other side.
The machine had been shut off with one rough board on its way in and a finished plank most of the way out. It must have gotten jammed three-quarters of the way through, because a group of men huddled around the saw. One of the youngest temporary workers—Scott Henshell—stood on top of the machine, a pry bar in his hands. Lincoln swore at the sight of him, then swore again when he noticed the front and rear guards were up.
“What the hell are you doing?” he yelled.
“Just a second. Almost got it, boss!” The young man jabbed the pry bar into the machine to clear debris from the blades.
“Get down!” Lincoln shoved between the men. “Are you crazy? This edger isn’t locked out!” If it turned on, it could pull Scott into those blades in an instant. There were reasons for safety protocols—life or death ones.
“There!” Scott called. “Got it.” He jumped down with a triumphant holler and handed the pry bar to Lincoln. “I should get a promotion for that. Didn’t even have to shut down the line. Let ’er rip!” he shouted to another worker.
“Stop!” Lincoln shouted—too late. Another young man—Dan Yates—flipped the switch. The machine bucked to life with a screech that told Lincoln lumber scraps were caught in its blades. It yanked the rough board into its maw—and simultaneously spat out the edged one.
With the guard up, the board shot straight across the roller belt, over the rail that should have turned it toward the next piece of equipment and into the group of bystanders on the far side. They shouted and dove out of the way but not fast enough. Sid Newport toppled like a felled tree.
“Stop the line!” Lincoln shouted. Someone hit the emergency button, and the whole production line went dead. Lincoln sprinted to the fallen man and bent to see how badly he was hurt.
“Call 911,” he called over his shoulder.
“On it,” Nate said.
“I’ve got the emergency kit.” Hudson appeared by his side.
“Sid? You with us?” Lincoln asked the man, but it was clear he wasn’t. Lincoln pressed his fingers to the side of Sid’s neck and felt a thready pulse. He nodded to Hudson. “He’s alive.” Barely. The bump rising on the side of his head looked bad.
“Everybody out,” he heard Gage shout and was thankful his brothers were here to help. He didn’t know what to do except keep Sid still until the paramedics arrived.
“This is my fault,” he said to Hudson.
“No, it’s not.”
Lincoln didn’t answer him, but he knew it was. Why the hell hadn’t he bought a replacement edger weeks ago, no matter what anyone else in his family had said? He’d known this one couldn’t be fixed. Hell, the thing was forty years old if it was a day, like the rest of the equipment had been before he’d talked his father into that loan.
It seemed like hours passed before they heard the wail of sirens. When the paramedics rushed in, they took Lincoln’s place and got to work stabilizing Sid. Hudson took him by the arm and led him out the back of the building. The broken-down hulks of the equipment graveyard stood nearby, but no one was in sight.
“You okay?” Hudson asked.
Lincoln tried to swallow but found he couldn’t. In fact, he was finding it hard to breathe.
“Lincoln?”
Sid could have been killed. That board had to have been going a hundred miles an hour. He could still die.
“Lincoln. Come on, man. Hell.” Hudson peered at his face. “Shit, you’re white as a ghost. Lincoln, breathe. You gotta breathe.”
He tried to, but the air caught in his lungs and held there. Spots formed in front of his eyes, and the edges of his vision pulsed, then grew dark. It was his fault that damned edger kept breaking down. His fault he hadn’t replaced it. His fault Sid could be dead.
“Sid’s going to be fine. He’s halfway to the hospital by now. Think of something else, Lincoln. Think of Charlotte.”
Lincoln tried to blink back the spots but couldn’t. The air still wouldn’t fill his lungs. He tried to do as Hudson said. Tried to form the word Charlotte , but no sound came out of his mouth. The ground under his feet was tilting.
“Whoa. Come on. Get a grip, Lincoln. You can do this.”
“My fault…” Lincoln ma naged.
“Fuck that. It wasn’t your fault. Blame whoever decided to fix that edger without locking it out. You’ve been right all this time; we need a new one.”
Lincoln still couldn’t catch his breath. The air whistled in his lungs when he tried to fill them. He kept seeing Scott up on that machine. Dan flipping the switch. As bad as it had been, it could have been so much worse.
No. Not worse—Sid could still die of that head wound.
“My… fault,” Lincoln gasped. He should have been there. He’d been worming his way out of work for weeks, spending time with Charlotte, fixing her house, greeting newcomers. Not doing his damn job.
Hudson gripped Lincoln’s shoulders in his fingers. “Listen to me,” he said. “Snap out of it. Sid isn’t dead. You didn’t cause this.” He stared at Lincoln. Must have seen his words weren’t working. “Lincoln, focus. What do you see?”
“See?” he panted.
“What do you see—not in your head. What do you see right here around us. Name three things.” He gave Lincoln a little shake.
“I… You,” Lincoln said, confused. “I… see you. The mill.” The words came out in gasps of air he couldn’t afford to lose.
“Good. One more.”
“Machines.” There were broken-down machines everywhere, but that reminded him of the broken edger and the grind of the mill line, the log going through the sawblades. Shooting out the other side.
“Two things you feel,” Hudson said and shook him again. “What do you feel?”
Was Hudson losing his mind? Lincoln rubbed his damp hands against the rough cotton of his pants. “Fabric. Sweat.”
“One thing you smell.”
Lincoln decided this game wasn’t so odd because everything had gone off the rails today. Nothing was how it was supposed to be. A stolen racehorse. Charlotte buying Admiral. Men working on machinery without following any of the rules. “Sawdust,” Lincoln said.
“You breathing okay?” Hudson asked.
Lincoln took a breath and found that it made it to the bottom of his lungs. He could breathe. He nodded in relief.
“Good.” Hudson let go and stepped back. “Don’t make any sudden moves. Get your balance back.” He watched Lincoln suck in deep gulps of air. “It’s going to be okay.”
Lincoln shook his head. He didn’t believe that. “What the fuck just happened?” He wasn’t sure what he meant by the question, but his brother seemed to understand.
“You glitched out. Your reality became unbearable, so your body stopped working.” When Lincoln didn’t respond, he added, “That was a panic attack.”
Lincoln pulled back. “Panic attack? I’ve never had one of those.” The accusation angered him. He’d been in the Special Forces for twelve years. He’d seen some stuff.
He’d never been overwhelmed by it.
“It’s different when you think it’s your fault, isn’t it?”
Guilt flooded Lincoln all over again. He braced himself for the overwhelming feeling to come back, but his breathing remained steady.
Too bad. If he passed out, he wouldn’t have to live with himself.
“Listen, that ambulance got here fast. Sid’s getting the help he needs, and everything is going to be fine,” Hudson said again.
“Is it?”
“Yes.” Hudson took a deep breath. “Look, there’s something else I’ve been meaning to say since we got home. About Winona. What happened in senior year.”
Senior year? Lincoln waved that off. “Ancient history.” There was enough going on right now.
“I have to say it.” Hudson stood his ground. “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have done that to you. I told myself I was saving you from making a big mistake—I knew Winona was sleeping around, and I saw you going into Thayer’s. I knew you were going to propose to her at prom. That didn’t give me the right to do what I did.”
“You saved me from making an ass out of myself,” Lincoln said. “From ruining my life.” His mind was still on the accident, but Hudson’s apology was distracting him. He could barely take in what his brother was saying, it was so out of character for him to talk this way.
“But that’s not why I really did it. Or why I stole any of your girls.” Remorse twisted Hudson’s features. “You were such a fucking saint back then. Always doing the right thing. The steady one—the one everyone depended on. Remember what Mom said whenever we left the house? ‘Be careful, Lincoln. Make sure Hudson gets home okay,’” he parroted in a singsong voice. “She never told me to make sure you got home. She knew who the responsible one was—and who was bound to screw up.”
Lincoln stared at his brother. He’d had no idea Hudson felt that way. “You’re the one everyone wanted to hang out with.”
“Sure—kids our age. Grown-ups thought I was dumb as a stump.”
“That’s not true.”
“I know it’s not.” Hudson paced away and came back. “But it was mostly true. I could fell trees like a pro. That’s all I was good at—and we were losing the mill.” His voice cracked, and suddenly Lincoln understood. By the time they’d left the Ridge, Hudson must have wondered if he’d ever shine at anything again.
“But it turned out you were an ace fighter pilot, too,” he pointed out.
“Yeah.” Hudson blew out a breath. “Yeah,” he said again. He shook his head. “None of that makes what I did right. I’m… sorry.”
Lincoln found it hard to answer him in a steady voice. “Thanks.” They stood there awkwardly until Hudson cleared his throat.
“Tonight you’ll call around and find a new edger. It’s all going to get easier from here on out, you’ll see.”
“Lincoln! Hudson!” a woman screamed. They both turned to see Veronica racing toward them. “Your parents’ house! It’s on fire!”
It had been hard enough to get up this damn ridge on her own without a path. Getting Rally back down it was a whole different matter. He was miffed that Charlotte hadn’t brought any food and not at all impressed by the terrain she was trying to get him to traverse. Rally was used to groomed tracks and flat paddocks, not steep, forested hillsides covered with brambles wherever there was a break in the trees. Worse, his limp was growing more pronounced.
At least the loamy forest floor muffled the sound of Rally’s hooves. Charlotte decided slow and steady was a lot better than trying to go fast and then having Rally balk altogether. The last thing she wanted was to lame him by rushing him out of here.
“Charlotte. There you are.”
Charlotte shrieked when Ivan stepped out from behind a tree and pointed a gun at her with a very steady hand.
“Ivan!”
“Missed me?” He moved closer. “How thoughtful of you to bring me my horse.”
She blinked, trying to understand how he could be here. Ivan in the woods of a small Montana ghost town didn’t compute.
“How did you find me?” she asked faintly, keeping her gaze on that weapon. Would he really shoot her if she kept going?
She had a feeling he was capable of it.
“You didn’t make it easy, I’ll give you that,” he said, taking a step closer. “Disappeared right off the face of the earth, didn’t you? But you slipped up once, and that’s all it took. I know the best people, Charlotte. Your face couldn’t appear in any online photo without me finding out. I couldn’t believe you were spending time with a bunch of silly women in a ghost town. Then I discovered the Elliotts owned this place, with four unmarried sons about to inherit the whole thing. Suddenly it made sense. My Charlotte likes a wealthy man.”
That damn photograph. She’d been right to be angry when Sasha posted it, but how dare Ivan imply she’d picked this place because she thought she could trick a man into paying her way? She opened her mouth to explain that the Elliotts were in debt, then changed her mind. He was baiting her, like usual. Ivan wanted her off balance and on the defensive so he could use his tricks to manipulate her.
She was done with that.
“So you sent someone to spy on me that very day?” Had it been one of his cronies in the woods filming the influencers and programmers skinny-dipping in Elliott Lake?
He chuckled. “I’m good, but I’m not that good. It took a little time to set up this trap.”
So it had been Dennis, after all. Or a random hiker.
“How did you get Rally into the corral? He doesn’t even like you—and I didn’t hear a thing.” Maybe if she kept talking, he wouldn’t put a bullet in her head.
Ivan frowned. “Rally likes me. All animals like me. But no—I wasn’t the one who slipped him into your corral. I have people for that. Felt pads and hoof boots,” he added, answering her question. “Muffles the sound considerably.”
“None of that explains how you found me today.” No animals liked Ivan. They saw right through his act, even if she hadn’t. Was the man really that oblivious to his own character?
Maybe he was.
“You’re right; it doesn’t. I should have been here first thing this morning with the sheriff to arrest your ass and have you locked away for years, but the sheriff didn’t seem to think your crimes were sufficient to take priority. He may find it difficult to get re-elected when his term expires.”
“Leave the sheriff alone. He was doing his job.”
“Not very well. You slipped through my fingers, and you might have gotten away with it if I didn’t have all your movements under surveillance. As soon as we saw you with that trailer, I knew we had you.”
She cursed herself for not having made a better plan. “Why do any of this? You don’t love me. You can have any woman you want in Saratoga. You don’t think much of my skill as a veterinarian, either—you never listened to me about your horses’ care.”
“No one leaves me,” Ivan said succinctly. “Not until I tell them to go.”
“Then tell me to go,” Charlotte said. “And then walk away yourself—before all this gets out of hand.”
For one moment she thought she’d reached him, but then a strange smile stretched the corners of his mouth. “No. I don’t think I’ll make it that easy. I saw you, you know.”
“Saw me… what?”
“Saw you with him. With Lincoln Elliott. Going to bed with him last night. Getting up with him this morning.”
“Saw me going to bed…” She trailed off. “How? Were you watching us through our windows?” Anger rushed through her veins, but so did disgust. He’d spied on her… when she was with Lincoln? They’d slept on the second floor.
“If you don’t want people watching, get some curtains.” Ivan’s voice flattened, like he’d lost interest in all of it. “Time to call the sheriff again. Maybe this time he’ll be interested to learn that not only are you a horse thief, but you’re an arsonist, too. Setting your boyfriend’s parents’ house on fire. What kind of a reprobate does that?”
Charlotte’s heart squeezed as the breath whooshed out of her lungs.
“What are you talking about?”
“It hasn’t rained much in these parts this summer. Everything is so dry. I wonder if the blaze will spread?”
“You set fire to house number1?” He couldn’t have picked a better way to get back at Lincoln if it was true.
And if people believed she’d done it… Charlotte couldn’t bear to follow the thought to its conclusion. The Elliotts would hate her. Lincoln would turn his back and leave her behind.
“You sent the sheriff here earlier—everyone will know it was you,” she stuttered through chattering teeth.
“But you left so much evidence at the scene,” Ivan said and tsked at her. “So careless, Charlotte. Should have stayed with me. I would have taken care of you.”
“You’re a bastard.”
“That’s right, let it out, but don’t go too far,” he warned her. “I’m the only one who’s going to give a damn about you after this. You’ll be dying to see me after a year or two in prison. Begging me to take you home.”
She gaped at him. Is that what he thought? He could frame her for a crime she didn’t commit, threaten to kill her, have her put in jail—and then she’d beg to come back to him?
Was he insane?
She took in the triumphant glint in his eyes and the satisfied set of his jaw.
Yes. He was insane.
And he was pointing that gun at her head.