Dark Side of the River, page 21
“Buttercup?” Oakley shook her head, frowning. “I have no idea.” She sighed. “It’s so frustrating. I’m told someone shot me, you found me and saved me, but I have no idea what I was doing there or why anyone would want to shoot me. I’m sorry.” She took a deep breath. “I did hear that the two of you have been trying to find out what happened. Thanks, since I won’t be getting out of here for a while yet.”
“I know you don’t know why you were on the McKenna Ranch or why you came riding out of that ravine that leads to the old homestead,” Cooper said. “Your sister and I rode back there. Someone had a meth lab in the larger of the buildings.”
Oakley’s eyes widened. “You think that’s what I found and one of them shot me?”
“We think it’s possible, though you were shot with a slug from a 270 rifle. The men who shot at us had AR15s.”
“You got shot at?” Oakley cried, looking to her sister.
“We’re fine. Unfortunately, before the sheriff or the Feds could get to the lab, it burned to the ground, taking any evidence with it,” Tilly said.
“I suppose that could explain what I was doing back in there, if I was looking for the meth lab,” Oakley said, not sounding at all sure about that.
“We also suspect that you’d been going to the meetings of a group called Dirty Business,” Cooper said. “It’s a grassroots organization trying to stop the methane drilling. Pickett Hanson, one of our ranch hands, is a member.”
“You really have been digging into my life.” She didn’t look that comfortable with that revelation. “It’s no secret that I’m an environmentalist, a dirty word around these parts. Don’t get me started on coalbed methane drilling.”
“There is something else. The day you were shot, you weren’t alone,” Cooper said. “There was another rider either chasing you or with you.” Her eyebrows went up. “Have you been seeing someone recently? Someone like Pickett Hanson?”
Oakley grinned and pretended to lock her lips. “I’ve been busy trying to get our new governor to do something about coalbed methane drilling. I don’t think I have to tell you which side he’s on.”
“You haven’t been dating anyone?” Tilly asked.
Oakley shook her head. “I haven’t had the time. It’s why I need to get out of here. I felt like I was making headway with some of the ranchers in the area. Not our mother or CJ.” She sighed. “I swear, they are impossible.”
Tilly moved to her sister’s side. “I’m so glad you’re getting well. I’ve missed you. When you were shot...” Her voice broke.
Oakley took her hand. “I know we haven’t talked much.” She glanced at Cooper, then back to her sister, and smiled. “But we will talk. So much to ask.”
Tilly laughed and leaned down to give Oakley an awkward hug. “You are incorrigible.”
“That’s what Mother says. Hey, the next time you come in, could you do me a favor? I need my passwords.” She gave Tilly a don’t-say-it look. “I have a concussion. Of course I don’t remember them. I wrote them down in my desk drawer at home on a piece of paper. Please?”
Tilly laughed. “I’ll bring them.”
“Don’t look at them. Just bring them.” Oakley smiled. “Thanks, sis.”
Cooper and Tilly left, walking out of the hospital together as the sun hung in a cobalt blue sky. July had come to Powder Crossing. Small American flags on lampposts flapped in the breeze. There was a feeling in the air that anything was possible, Tilly thought. She loved summer, but hoped this year wouldn’t be so hot. They needed more rain; it was all local ranchers had been talking about. They also needed an old-fashioned winter with lots and lots of snow.
It seemed to her it was always something. Grasshoppers, heat, lack of rain, wind, hail that ruined the crops or a winter that the cold killed the calves born too early. She didn’t understand why people ranched, and yet it was all she’d ever known. All she’d ever wanted to do.
She looked over at Cooper, wondering if he felt the same way. He’d left for more than two years. But he’d come back. To stay?
“What?” he asked, as if feeling her probing gaze.
Tilly shook her head, afraid to ask, afraid of his answer. “I talked to Stuart this morning.”
He stopped walking to look at her. “How’d that go?”
“Good, I think. I hope. He’s sad. I’m not sure it has that much to do with us. I think he’s searching for something.” She shrugged.
Cooper nodded. “I know that feeling.”
She swallowed, wishing he could say more and hoping he didn’t. When he looked at her, though, she saw the answer she wanted in his gaze. Maybe he was through searching.
“I’ve got to pick up a few things for the ranch,” he said. “Then do a horseback riding lesson with Holly Jo.”
“I’ve got things to do too,” she said.
“Talk later?”
She nodded. As he walked away, she could tell that he had hoped Oakley might be able to tell them what the word buttercup meant and why it had been so important after she was shot.
Tilly reminded herself that her sister hadn’t just been shot but had a concussion, a bad one. Maybe she had no idea what she was saying when Cooper found her. Feeling as frustrated as she knew Cooper was, she headed back to the ranch.
Before Oakley’s shooting, she’d been working with her mother to learn everything about the financial side of running the ranch. Tilly had grown up calving, rounding up cattle, nursing calves, taking care of the horses and other animals.
But she’d never known about the interworkings of the ranch, something she needed to know if she hoped to one day take over this one. She knew it might mean fighting CJ for not just the ranch, but the heart of the ranch, which she didn’t feel he understood.
* * *
COOPER CAME OUT of the hardware store to find CJ Stafford waiting for him. The cowboy stood, arms crossed, leaning against the building, his face a mask of fury.
“Whatever it is,” Cooper said, “I’m really not in the mood for it today.”
CJ shoved off the wall and advanced on him, clearly looking for a fight. “You need to stay away from my sister.”
“Thanks for the advice.” He started to step past him, determined not to get into a brawl on the main drag of Powder Crossing, but CJ had other plans. He slammed a big palm into Cooper’s chest, driving him back a step.
“You think I don’t know what you’re up to?” the cowboy demanded.
“Not doing this.” He tried to step past him again, but CJ caught his arm and swung him around to face him.
Cooper brought the full hardware bag around with him and hit the cowboy in the side of his head. CJ staggered back, reaching for the knife at his hip.
“Don’t do it, CJ,” said a loud male voice behind the cowboy.
CJ’s hand rested on the bowie knife for a moment longer, before he dropped his hand to his side. With a sigh, he said, “Your buddy the sheriff isn’t always going to be around, McKenna. Stay away from my sister.” With that, CJ strode off, leaving Cooper and Stu alone on the street.
“You just have a knack for making friends wherever you go,” Stu said.
“It’s a talent,” he admitted. “Thanks.”
“I just didn’t want blood on the sidewalk. After all, it is Main Street.”
CJ came roaring past in a Stafford Ranch pickup, giving Cooper the finger.
“Classy,” Cooper said.
“But expressive.” With that, Stu turned and walked away.
Cooper watched them both go, wondering what the hell he was doing. Also wondering if Tilly had any idea what an uphill battle it would be for the two of them to be together.
* * *
HOLLY JO HAD been trying to get into the stables all morning. Every time she went near them, Deacon would appear and she’d be forced to pretend she wasn’t planning to saddle up a horse and get out of there.
Now that Deacon was locking the tack room, it made it harder. But she’d just seen Elaine go out to the stables. She was dressed for a ride. If she forgot to lock the tack room door...
Time was running out to make her escape. Earlier she’d heard Holden and Elaine talking about getting her enrolled in school. She would be taking the bus and have to walk to the end of the ranch house road to catch it? They had to be kidding. It was at least a half mile.
“It will be good for her to walk down there every morning,” Holden said. “All my kids did. Didn’t hurt them.”
“She’s going to need some school clothes.” School clothes, ugh. She could just imagine what Holden would buy her, more Western shirts, jeans and boots like he’d purchased for her so far.
She assured herself that she wouldn’t be here when school started in August. This couldn’t be her life. The rest of her life, she thought with a groan. She still didn’t know how she’d ended up here. At supper Holden had said they would talk about it some other time. But every time she tried to talk to him about it, he’d say, “Some other time.”
At the sound of a pickup coming up the drive, she looked out and saw that it was Cooper. She growled under her breath. He’d promised to teach her to ride today. She still hadn’t ridden any farther than around and around the corral.
He pulled up beside her and whirred down his window. “Meet me in the stables. You’re going riding.”
“Outside of the corral?” she asked hopefully.
“Outside of the corral.” His window went back up and she ran toward the house to get anything of her past that she could stuff into her pockets. She was getting out of here.
* * *
HOLDEN LOVED HOLLY JO’S enthusiasm as she focused on saddling her horse. He could feel her excitement and it gave him hope that this might work out, having her here. Raising her, he reminded himself. She was now his responsibility.
He’d picked a good horse for her, an older mare named Honey who had a good disposition. Deacon and Cooper had agreed it was a good choice. Not too large, though she still had to use a stool to get her foot into the stirrup, despite being tall for her age.
“You’ll have to use a stump or a log,” Holden told her. “But that’s only if you dismount or get thrown.”
“Thrown?”
“Horses do buck, you know.”
She looked at him as if he was teasing and went back to her work. She had so much to learn about ranch life, but there was plenty of time, he told himself. She hadn’t been happy to hear that he was going along on the ride with her. He hadn’t taken it personally. He couldn’t keep putting it off, telling her how it was that she came to be here on the ranch. It was something he wasn’t looking forward to telling her or the rest of his family. But it would have to be done, and soon.
“You got her signed up for school?” Cooper said to him as they both watched to make sure Holly Jo was saddling her horse properly.
“Ran into the principal. It’s all set,” Holden said. “Elaine has promised to help with school clothes. Not sure about taking her to Billings, though. Not sure she can be trusted not to take off.”
“Big ears,” Cooper said, pointing in Holly Jo’s direction.
“I do not have big ears.”
“It’s an expression.” She looked skeptical. Cooper sighed. “It means you’re always listening to adult conversations when you should be minding your own business.” She couldn’t argue that, apparently, because she went back to saddling her horse.
“She seems to be doing better, don’t you think?” Holden asked his son.
He made a sound that could have been agreement, but probably wasn’t.
“I’m ready,” Holly Jo announced, all smiles. She started to lead her horse toward the stable door.
“Settle down,” Cooper said. “Dad’s going with you.” Deacon had saddled a horse for him when he came out after Holly Jo and surprised her, saying he was going with her. “Where are you taking her?”
“Not far,” he said. “Don’t look so worried. I can handle this.”
Cooper nodded but didn’t appear convinced. Holden had to admit that he didn’t ride enough anymore. He hoped to change that now that Holly Jo was here and so enthusiastic about learning to ride.
The girl stopped by the stool just inside the door and mounted the mare. Cooper grabbed the reins and gave her a warning look. “There’s something you should know about my father. He’s a lot tougher than he looks. You mess up today, and he’ll tan your hide and I won’t let you ride again until he says you can.”
“Tan my hide?” She laughed.
“I used to tan Cooper’s hide. He knows of what he speaks,” Holden said as he joined them.
Holly Jo didn’t look convinced. “Are we going riding or not?” she asked impatiently.
Holden swung up in the saddle, telling himself he wasn’t too old to raise another child, even this one. “We’re going to take it slow and easy, got that?”
He waited. “Got that?”
“Got it.”
He appreciated the fact that she wasn’t afraid. Just the opposite. But she didn’t realize the dangers, and no matter how many times she had to be warned, she wouldn’t until something happened to her. That was what worried him as they rode slowly out of the yard, headed for the hills in the distance.
“How’s it feel?” he asked as they wound their way through a grove of cottonwoods.
“Too slow.”
“Ever heard the expression ‘You have to learn to walk before you run’?” He looked around, loving the familiar gait of the horse, the smell of the grass and saddle leather, the sun on his back. “Enjoy the view from up here.”
Holly Jo said nothing. When he glanced at her, he saw her looking toward the river and the county road beyond the trees. The next thing he knew, she’d dug her heels into her horse, giving it free rein. The mare took off toward the river with her holding on for dear life.
“Pull in the reins,” he called after her. But she wasn’t paying any attention. He could see the barbed-wire fence between her and the river. Holly Jo and her horse were headed right for it.
He swore and raced after her.
* * *
AS HIS FATHER and Holly Jo had ridden off, Cooper started back to the house. He felt as if he’d been beating his head against a brick wall since he’d been home. What had started as simply trying to find out why Oakley had wanted him to know the name Buttercup had turned into so much more. It had taken him to Tilly, and one thing had led to another, as if it had been inevitable.
Only that path had so many pitfalls in it that he’d been dragging his feet. He feared that if he and Tilly went any further, it would only lead to heartbreak. As much as he wanted her—more than his next breath—he wasn’t sure it was possible.
Pushing that painful thought away, he tried to focus on what they’d uncovered. So much. Yet none of it seemed to fit together. They still didn’t know who’d shot Oakley or what Buttercup meant or why it had been so important that she tell him the day she was shot.
Finding the pilot of the plane that had flown over that day led them to Howie Gunderson and Tick Whitaker and the CH4 gas company. CH4 kept coming up. First with his brother’s name indented on the note that Howie had given him. The same notepaper Leann had used to write her goodbye notes to him, then later on, the notepad Stu had in his desk. It was on the latter one that he’d seen the name Leann indented on the paper.
Everything they’d found kept leading them back to CH4 and coalbed methane drilling, including the Dirty Business group Oakley had been involved in—until they’d found the meth lab on the other side of the ravine Oakley had come riding out of the day she was shot.
While Cooper didn’t trust any of them, he and Tilly hadn’t found a link to Oakley’s shooting. He felt at loose ends. His father and Holly Jo weren’t back from their ride, but Deacon said he’d go look for them if necessary.
Unable to sit still, he drove into town thinking he might go to the bar, have some nachos and beer, and try to make sense out of everything that had happened since he’d returned home.
But a block away from the bar, he saw a uniformed figure come stumbling out, then weave his way across the street. Cooper sighed, all his instincts telling him to leave the sheriff be as he drove on by pretending not to see him. But as drunk as Stu was, he realized he couldn’t let him drive home and he was headed for his patrol SUV.
He swore and made a U-turn in the middle of the street, tires screaming, to go back. He pulled in behind the sheriff’s rig and got out.
“I should arrest you for that,” Stu said, having apparently stopped to watch him make the turn.
“A U-turn to come back and keep you from driving drunk?” He held out his wrists. “You got your cuffs on you?”
Stu staggered back, bumping into his patrol SUV, then pinging off it to stumble into the pines and sit down hard on the ground.
“You called the Feds,” he accused drunkenly.
“You didn’t act like you were going to do anything.”
“I told you. I didn’t get the messages.”
Did he believe that? Not really. “Had it been from anyone but me, you would have been out there at first light.”
The sheriff merely looked up at him from under hooded eyes. “I wasn’t in town. I’d just gotten back, barely making it into the office on time.”
Cooper ground his teeth and said nothing.
“Why don’t you sit down? You’re giving me a pain in my neck,” Stu said.
He hesitated, then sat down on the ground, both of them facing the street and the bar across from it.
“We found one of the four-wheelers smashed in the rocks,” Stuart said. “There was blood, but no body. We’re running DNA on the blood. If we get a match... Thought you’d want to know that I’m actually doing my thankless job. The Feds are taking it from here. I’m sure they’ll be a lot more thorough than me.”
