Page 60 of Some Cowgirls are Worth Protecting

She sighed. “If this has to do with the sanctuary or Hudson?—”

Athena cleared her throat. “With everything going on, I’d understand if you didn’t want to be my maid of honor.”

Rachel’s head snapped up and she gaped at her sister. She’d completely forgotten that she’d accepted that honor when Athena had announced their engagement. “I’m so sorry. I’ve been so wrapped up?—”

“Oh, I don’t blame you at all. I totally get it. You’ve been dealing with… a lot.” Athena leaned forward. “I told Henry that we might need to postpone the wedding until you figure things out.”

“Don’t do that!” Rachel shot out of her seat and moved beside her sister. “Just tell me what you need, and I’ll figure it out.”

Athena didn’t seem to be convinced.

“Seriously. I’m just doing some research. Since that fire, things have gone quiet. I’m guessing they don’t want to draw even more attention than they already have.” Rachel grimaced, her smile crooked. “Maybe you should consider getting married sooner rather than later.”

She laughed. At least she still had a sense of humor. “It’s fine, Rachel. I didn’t want to put you on the spot. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay, and if you wanted to drop out from being my maid of honor, you know I’d understand.”

“Well, I don’t. It’s the one thing I’ve been looking forward to… since this whole thing started.”

“Okay.” Athena nodded. “I won’t make any changes then.”

Rachel pulled her sister to her feet and gave her a hug. “I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t found you.” They held each other for a few moments before Athena pulled back. “I’m going to take the dogs for a walk, then I’ll be right back.”

“Good luck with that.” Rachel laughed. “Odin isn’t willing to listen to anyone right now. But I’m sure Cookie would love it.”

With Athena gone, Rachel returned to her search through each board of directors and many of the department heads who worked with the charities. One hour in, and she froze. Her heart stuttered as she stared at a familiar face on the screen. From what she could tell, the man’s specialty was finding people who fit with their brand and could help run different chapters of their organization.

Rachel’s breath caught in her throat as she pushed away from the desk. Mr. Grant was involved with the developer. It had to be a coincidence. Her parents were familiar with him. He’d worked with them on other projects. How deep did his influence go? Had he been sent to influence her to walk away from this project?

She lunged forward and started a new search. Her parents should have named her Alice because she couldn’t stop herself from falling down this rabbit hole. Not only was the man involved in that charity, but he was also slated to join the board for an up-and-coming resort.

The developer in question was the owner of that brand of resorts.

Rachel couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. She couldn’t find any definitive proof that Mr. Grant was involved in something illegal, but her gut said otherwise. She had to take this information to the sheriff.

She shot to her feet and grabbed her laptop from the desk. Maybe he’d be able to connect some dots so they could finally put this investigation in motion. The drive to town went by in a blur. She didn’t even remember pulling up to the sheriff’s station.

But as she stood in front of the sheriff and pointed out all the connections between the developer, Mr. Grant, and herself, she realized that she sounded more like a conspiracy theorist than anything else.

The sheriff steepled his fingers, his brows low over his eyes. When she stopped talking, he lifted his gaze to meet hers. “I’ll admit it’s all a little strange, but that’s it. I don’t think it’s enough to get the big guys involved. You’d need something more. Has this Mr. Grant said anything to indicate that he’s involved?”

“No,” she said.

“Unfortunately, I can’t help you on this one. We’re still looking into the break-in. We’ve got some leads on the fire. Hudson gave us a used cigarette butt that we sent to a lab. If we can get a match on the DNA?—”

“Sheriff?” The door behind Rachel opened, and she turned to find the sheriff’s secretary looking worried. “There’s someone here?—”

A man in a familiar cowboy hat dragged another disgruntled man past her. “Sheriff, I’ve got someone you’re going to want to talk to.” Hudson’s eyes swung to Rachel, and he froze. The man jerked his arm free of Hudson’s hand, and he glanced toward Rachel as well.

She had to be seeing things. It hadn’t been long, but Hudson had already started to grow some facial hair. He looked like he hadn’t slept since they’d last seen each other. But it was the way he stared at her like he had been wandering in the desert and she was a tall glass of water.

Her heart fluttered, and her breath caught. “Hudson,” she whispered. “What are you doing here?”

29

Hudson

Seeing Rachel was like coming up for air. Hudson had missed her. He knew that. But something in him had managed to mute the agony he’d felt from being separated from her over the last little while.

But he couldn’t dwell on the elation he felt at that moment. He needed to focus on his reason for coming to the sheriff in the first place.

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