Page 14 of Long Hard Road

With the storm we were facing, I was glad I’d decided to stay closer to town this winter. It was going to be a lot easier to check on the bar tomorrow than it would be if I had to drive the treacherous road from the ranch.

My phone rang just as I walked inside and I pulled it from my pocket while shutting the door behind me. “Brent. What did you find out?”

“Before I get into it, how much do you know about Madison Moore?”

“Too much,” I said with a dry laugh. “Emma is her biggest fan.”

“So you know she’s a famous actor and musician? That’s good. Otherwise, I was about to drop a bombshell on you.”

I had recognized Madison that first day in Amelia’s café. Her hair was different and she hadn’t been wearing any of her usual makeup and exotic clothes, but those green eyes were impossible not to notice. My suspicions about her identity had been confirmed when I’d seen her fancy car and then the registration information I’d found in her glovebox. I only felt a little guilty for snooping since I’d only done that after finding the tracking device.

“You’ve seen a picture of Madison, right? She is the bombshell.” I carefully wiped the snow from my boots on the mat by the door.

“Wait. Nate Sullivan noticed an attractive woman?” Brent gasped. “Quick, look out the window. Any pigs flying past?”

“You are my least favorite brother,” I grumbled.

“I think all of our siblings would agree with that.” His reply was flat and unemotional.

Brent and I were kindred spirits in a way. Neither of us had wanted to return to Crestwood after college. He had moved to Washington D.C. and started a wildly successful risk management and political consulting company that had gotten more than a few senators elected. I had gone into the military and traveled the world. While the other four siblings had always talked about returning to the ranch when it was time to start families, neither Brent nor I had ever intended to do that.

While Brent had followed through on his plan and only came back for Christmas, I had reluctantly moved back two years ago after Dad’s stroke. Evan never would’ve asked me to do that, but I’d known right away that he would need help. Besides, it wasn’t like I had anything great going on in my life anyway.

“What did you find out about Madison?” After seeing her reaction to the tracking device, I knew I couldn’t just ignore what I had discovered. Brent had a great team that could find dirt on almost anyone. I had hit the call button by his number before Madison had even driven away from the café.

“In the past year, fourteen different restraining orders were granted on her behalf. Five different men were arrested for either trespassing onto her property or violating the restraining order. One man even tried to rush onto the stage at her concert but he got tackled by security. His shoulder got dislocated in the process,” Brent added.

“Good.” If that security guard ever walked into my bar, he’d drink for free. “Fourteen in one year. That’s a lot of disturbed men.”

“Those are just the ones who did something egregious enough for a restraining order. It will be almost impossible to figure out the responsible party based solely on who may have had a motive. Any guy obsessed with her would technically have a motive.” Brent was good at delivering bad news quickly. “Do I need to add you to my list?”

“I’m not obsessed with Madison. I’m worried about her.” Okay, yes, maybe I had woken up hard after a dirty dream about the woman, but that was just a physical reaction to a beautiful woman.

“If you could send me the tracking device, that would help. They usually have a serial number that I might be able to trace. Do you still have it?”

I stopped in front of the fridge and swore. “No. She took it.”

“Oof. You need to find that thing and get it as far away from her as possible. Send it to me if you can, but at a minimum you need to destroy it. It might be too late, but no reason to give the stalker more time to track her down.”

“She might’ve already gotten rid of it, but I’ll ask her.” I just had to do it in a way that wouldn’t make her suspicious. She didn’t need to know that I’d involved my older brother. “Thanks for seeing what you could find.”

“No problem. Just make sure I get an invite to the wedding.” He let out a scoff that I knew was Brent’s version of a laugh.

“It’s not like that,” I insisted quietly. “You know that I’m too fucked to even think about getting serious with a woman.”

“It’s been a couple of years, Nate. I know what Fiona did really messed with your head, but you deserve to move on from that and find happiness.” It was unusual for Brent to speak so sincerely. He was the hardass in the family.

“I am happy, bro. Stop worrying about me.” I didn’t bother addressing his comment about Fiona. It was too hard to even hear her name, let alone think about everything that had gone down with her. “I need to go. Call me if you stumble across anything I should know about.”

“Will do.” He hung up without a goodbye.

It was a friendlier conversation than most people had with Brent. He was a serious guy who was focused on his career, but he had also been there for me when the floor was ripped out beneath me and I thought I’d never stop falling. He had also never told the rest of our family anything I’d asked him to keep secret.

I didn’t know whether Madison’s cabin had a pot large enough for the stew, so I grabbed one from my cabinet and then emptied the plastic container into it. It was enough stew for at least four people. Some of it dripped from the container onto the counter and when I reached above the fridge to grab a paper towel, a stack of papers I’d been storing up there came floating down.

“Damn it.” I hurried to wipe up the spill first before it could stain anything and then I bent down and grabbed the first thing I could find. It happened to be the one thing in that cabin that I both never wanted to see again and also couldn’t force myself not to stare at it. The little girl in the picture smiled back at me, tearing off yet another piece of my heart.

Cassidy. The daughter I was supposed to have.

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