Page 30 of Dead Man's Hand

He pushed the thought away as he finished the dishes, dried them and put them away. Returning to the fire, he found Sadie sound asleep. He stared down at her, feeling a wave of affection for her that threatened to drop him to his knees. When had he fallen in love with her?

He felt blindsided. All that time when he’d been flirting and joking with her knowing she only saw him as an arrogant fool, she’d somehow sneaked into his heart and made a home there. She was right. He was a fool.

Leaning down, he kissed her forehead, then carefully, he picked her up and carried her the few feet to the double bed. He took off her boots and covered her with several of the extra quilts on a rack by the bed. She stirred a little but went right back to sleep. It had been a long, exhausting day, after a long, uncomfortable night in the back of the SUV.

For a moment, he watched her sleep. She looked so peaceful, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. He realized that he didn’t know if she had a man in her life. He knew she lived in a penthouse condo next to the ocean, that she drove a nice car that she’d bought with money she’d earned herself, that she had Sunday dinner with her godfather each week and that she didn’t like the mustache DJ had grown shortly after they’d first met. He’d shaved it off before the next time he saw her. But that’s about all he knew about her.

Turning away, he went back to the fire. He was exhausted but knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep. His heart ached for so many reasons. Now he felt as if he’d come to a crossroads in his life. He could keep looking back at the paths he’d taken or he could look to the future—a far different future than he had ever imagined.

Was it possible that he had a twin sister? Ansley Brookshire. A blood relative. And he had a mother who’d believed that both he and Ansley had died at birth. And family, half siblings.

For so long he’d wondered who he was and why no one had wanted him, thankful that Charley had taken him in when he had no one else. If true that Ansley was his twin, it brought up a lot of questions. Like what had happened to separate them? Where was their mother? Why hadn’t someone come looking for him sooner?

He realized he wasn’t all that sure he wanted to know the answers. Maybe it would be better not to know the truth.

He glanced over at Sadie sleeping on the bed. Partners. More than partners. Did she feel the same way about him that he felt about her?

His beating heart assured him she had to. Why else was she here risking her life to help him?

He thought about Keira and questioned why he had to know the truth. Why he had to face her. He would be facing his past. If she’d betrayed him, then nothing had been as he’d thought.

Once the storm stopped, he would know the truth. If Keira had betrayed him, she might not even come to the cabin. Instead the Grandvilles’ thugs, Butch Lamar and Rafe Westfall, would. He told himself that right now they would have the same problem he did, so he didn’t expect them until the storm blew through. According to the weatherman the last they’d heard on the radio, the storm wasn’t supposed to let up until the day after tomorrow.

So they had time, he told himself. He had time to decide what to do.

He’d always had a different idea about what made up family. Not blood. Not love. Not even loyalty. Family had been Charley and Keira. At best, he’d hoped they would have his back. Now, he feared both would have sold him out to save their own skins. And that could be exactly what Keira had done.

Either way, he couldn’t worry about it now, he thought as he rose and stepped out on the porch. He listened as the snow blew past. Absolute silence. No sound of a vehicle. Nothing but the whisper of wind blowing the falling snow. He could feel the temperature dropping as he went around the side of the cabin to get more firewood. It would be a long night.

He was just glad he’d found this cabin. He didn’t think they would have survived in the pickup even with the engine running and the heater going. They would have run out of gas, run out of hope, fairly soon. He told himself he could relax a little as he went back inside. Sadie was safe.

Now all he had to do was keep her that way.

Chapter Fourteen

Buck had been sure he could beat DJ and Sadie up to the cabin. He and the Colts had the shorter drive if they were anywhere around Butte, but DJ had also gotten a head start. But as they had just started up in the mountains a tire blew on the snowmobile trailer. They had to take the machines off to fix it. They’d lost any chance they had at getting to the cabin before DJ, and now it was getting dark.

The conditions had been worse than even he and Tommy and James had thought they would be—especially in the dark, but no one suggested turning back. It became apparent quickly that once they reached the mountains, they wouldn’t make it all the way to Charley’s cabin.

“Don’t Francis and Bob Reiner have a cabin up here?” James had asked.

Buck tried to calculate where they were. “Not far ahead.” His pickup was bucking snowdrifts. It wouldn’t be that long before they couldn’t go any farther by truck. They’d have to take the snowmobiles, but not in this storm in the dark. In his headlights, he could barely make out the narrow road through the pines.

“Watch for the sign,” he said. “We can spend the night there and try again in the morning. DJ is going to be having the same problem on the other side.”

They’d gone a few miles when Tommy said, “There’s the sign.”

Buck turned and drove up the road toward the cabin, but he didn’t get far before the truck high-centered on a huge drift. The wind whipped snow around them as he shut off the engine.

“That’s as far as we’re going,” he said, afraid this had been a mistake. He hadn’t been surprised when James and Tommy had insisted on coming along. Sheriff Willie Colt was standing by, offering a helicopter when the storm stopped, if needed. So far no crime had been committed. Buck was hoping to end this without gunplay, but that would depend on what they found up here on this mountain.

They grabbed their gear and started up through the whirling snow, breaking through drifts, until they reached the front door of the cabin. The Reiners never locked the front door, saying they’d rather not have anyone break in. They didn’t keep guns or liquor, and nothing worth carting out of the mountains to pawn. They’d never had a break-in or anything stolen.

James opened the door as Buck grabbed a load of firewood from the overhang on the porch. Within minutes they had a fire going in the woodstove.

“I can tell you’re having second thoughts,” James said after they’d eaten one of the sandwiches Lori had sent.

“I should have come alone,” Buck said.

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