Page 39 of Dead Man's Hand

The gun was in reach, but she could feel the blonde’s sights on her back. It was clear that this wasn’t the first time Keira had held a gun. There was no reason to believe that she wouldn’t use it, Sadie thought as she turned to look at the woman. Sadie had talked herself out of tough spots before, but her instincts told her that trying to reason with this woman would be a waste of breath. There was something in Keira’s eyes, something dark, something soulless. She’d seen the look before in some of the men she and DJ had played poker with. It was a terrifying pit to look into, seeing raw greed and hate, knowing there was violence there.

“Sit down,” Keira ordered. “In that chair there.” She pointed with the gun as she moved closer. “We’ll just sit here and wait, although I don’t believe he went to the outhouse.”

Sadie shrugged as she took the chair as Keira had instructed while her would-be killer stood next to the fireplace wall so she could see both the back as well as the front door. DJ would have heard the snowmobile. He wouldn’t just come walking in unaware of what might be waiting for him.

But he would come back to the cabin. He would know it was Keira. He had thought he could leave without facing her. But now that she was here... He wouldn’t be able to help himself. He’d want to hear it from her.

Sadie just hoped that this woman didn’t kill DJ as he came in the door. Her instincts told her that Keira wouldn’t. She would want him to realize what she’d done, for whatever reason. She would want to make him suffer first.

Counting on that, Sadie considered what she could do to stop Keira. Unfortunately, it would be hard to disarm the woman from this chair in front of the fire. Sadie felt tense, waiting for the sound of DJ’s boots outside on one of the wooden porch boards. He would be armed, but she really doubted he would fire a weapon before he would ask questions. Keira would know that. Maybe that’s what she was counting on.

Sadie caught sight of the Christmas tree DJ had cut for her and they’d had so much fun decorating. They’d laughed so hard as they tried to outdo each other, finding the wildest things to put on that puny tree’s limbs. Yet when they’d finished, it looked wonderful to Sadie.

“This is the best real Christmas tree I’ve ever had,” she told DJ.

He’d hugged her and said, “And I thought my childhood was bad.”

A sob rose in her throat. She pushed it back down. Now more than ever she needed that poker face that DJ said she was famous for. She couldn’t let Keira see what she was feeling. It would make her and DJ more vulnerable.

“He probably went looking for you,” Sadie said, wishing it were true. He could have taken off on foot. Or he could still be down digging out the SUV. Now she wished she’d let him take the keys so he could have left in search of his sister. But she doubted he would have. Things had changed between them. She knew DJ was somewhere outside this cabin. He would soon be opening one of the doors and walking into a trap—just as Sadie had feared and Keira had no doubt planned.

BYTHETIMEDJ neared the cabin, he could no longer hear the snowmobile’s engine. Heart lodged in his throat, he slowed as climbed up to the back door. Sounds in the mountains were often amplified and hard to pinpoint exactly where they were coming from. But there had been no doubt about this earlier sound, he thought as he caught sight of a snowmobile sitting in the pines above the cabin.

He stayed to the trees, keeping the cabin in sight as he approached. He told himself that Sadie was all right. It wasn’t like he’d heard anything coming from the cabin. Anything like a scream. Or a gunshot. Yet he knew she was no longer safe, as if his heart now beat in time with hers.

As he reached the side of the cabin, he saw the footprints from the snowmobile sitting in the nearby pines to the back door. He looked around for other tracks. Only one person had gotten off the machine and entered the cabin. Could be PI Crawford.

All his instincts told him it wasn’t. Just as he knew it wasn’t one of the Grandville men either. The tracks in the snow were too small.

It was Keira.

DJ stood for only a moment considering his best play. He knew the odds. They weren’t to his liking. Sadie was in there. He told himself that she was still safe. He would have heard a gunshot. He would have heard a scream. All he heard even now was silence.

Even if Sadie hadn’t been inside with Keira, there was no walking away from this. There hadn’t been since getting the call drawing him back to Montana. Keira was either here to tell him goodbye before she left for Alaska or she’d come here to earn whatever Grandville had paid her.

He thought about her as a little girl. She’d been so skinny, so pale. He remembered her eyes that first day. He’d had trouble meeting them, afraid of what horrors she’d already been through. Like him, she had no one. Whoever had dropped her off wouldn’t be coming back for her and he thought she’d known it.

He’d thought he could protect her, erase whatever had happened to her before Charley’s ranch. He’d been a fool. Sometimes you can’t save a person. That was a lesson Sadie had never learned.

Tucking the gun into the back of his jeans, he walked to the back of the cabin, hesitated only a moment and opened the door.

Chapter Seventeen

DJ stepped into the cabin. His gaze went to Sadie first. She was sitting in the chair in front of the fire. She gave him a look that said she was all right. He shifted his gaze to Keira, the woman he’d called his little sister since the day she’d arrived at the Diamond Deluxe Ranch.

She stood over Sadie, holding a gun on her. He remembered her wanting to learn to shoot when she was about nine. She’d been so determined that he’d taught her. She’d been a natural, knocking off the cans he’d put on the fence one after another. He remembered the joy in her expression now and felt sick.

When he spoke, his voice was much calmer than he felt. “Keira, want to tell me what’s going on?”

“Seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it?” she said.

“Sorry, you’re going to have to spell it out for me. Talk slowly, you know I never was as quick at catching onto things as you were. Bet you excelled at college.”

She shook her head, anger flaring in her eyes. He feared he’d taken it one step too far. “Right, you worked, you paid for my college. Subtle reminder, big brother. You think that made up for what you did?”

“I’m sorry, what exactly was it that I did, Keira, that you would betray me?” he demanded. “Why would you do this to me? I’ve always been there for you.”

“Not always,” she snapped. “You let Charley put me in foster care. You and Charley just left me.”

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