Cardwell Ranch Trespasser - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,54

two of them to take care of me. I finally ran them off.” Still clutching the photo, she sat down in a chair across from him and patted her shotgun. “I’ve always felt guilty about that.” Her gaze came up to meet his. “But I couldn’t have killed them even knowing what I was releasing on the world.”

He felt a chill at her words as she looked from him to the photograph and seemed startled by what she saw.

“I grabbed the wrong photograph. This isn’t Camilla. This is that awful girlfriend of Richard’s.” She pushed to her feet, padded out of the room and returned a moment later.

This time she handed him a photo of Richard and a girl standing on the porch outside. The girl’s face was in shadow, but there was no doubt it was the woman who called herself Dee Anna Justice.

At sixteen, she already had those dark, soulless eyes.

* * *

DEE HAD BEEN WAITING, so she wasn’t surprised when Dana finally asked.

“I know nothing about your father,” Dana said, as she was making dinner. “Do you have any idea why our families separated all those years ago?”

Mary and Hank were making a huge mess building a fort in the living room. The twins were in dual high chairs spreading some awful-looking food all over themselves and anything else within reach.

Dee moved so she wasn’t in their line of fire. Dana had put her to work chopping vegetables for the salad. Now she stopped to look at the small paring knife in her hand. She tried to remember exactly what she’d told Stacy.

“I really have no idea,” she said, thinking that if she had to cut up one more cucumber she might start screaming. Hud hadn’t been around all day. Spending “free” time with Dana and the kids was mind-numbing.

“Can you tell me what your father was like?” Dana asked as she fried chicken in a huge cast-iron skillet on the stove. The hot kitchen smelled of grease. It turned Dee’s stomach.

“He was secretive,” Dee said, thinking of his daughter. The real Dee Anna had never talked about her family, her father in particular, which had been fine with her because she wasn’t really interested. She liked her roommates to keep to themselves, just share an apartment, not their life stories.

“Secretive?” Dana said with interest. “And your mother?”

Dee gave her the same story she’d given Stacy. She had actually met Marietta Justice, so that made it easy.

“That surprises me. I can’t imagine why my family wouldn’t have been delighted to have Walter marry so well,” Dana said.

“Maybe they didn’t want him leaving here and they knew that was exactly what was going to happen,” Dee said, as she chopped the last cucumber and dumped it into the salad. The entire topic of Dee Anna’s family bored her. If Dana wanted to hear about an interesting family, Dee could tell her about hers.

“Tell me more about your side of the family,” Dee said, knowing Dana would jump at the chance. She tuned her out as she ripped up the lettuce the way Dana had showed her and thought about her plan. She felt rushed, but she had no choice. In order to make this happen, she had to move fast.

Hilde had done a lot of damage, but Dee was sure that after Dana and the kids were gone, Hud would lean on her. Eventually.

She thought of the man she’d met on the airplane. He was still over on the Yellowstone River for a few more days. All she had to do was pick up the phone and call him. She could walk away from here and never look back. All her instincts told her that was the thing to do.

Dee heard the kids start screaming in the other room, then the front door slam. A moment later Hud Savage came into the kitchen with Mary and Hank hanging off him like monkeys. All three were laughing.

“What smells so good?” he asked. Even the two babies got excited to see him and joined in the melee.

Dee watched him give Dana a kiss. She felt her heart swell. She’d never wanted anything more in her life than what Dana had. No matter how long it took, she would have this with Hud Savage. Only he would love her more than he’d ever loved Dana.

* * *

“SO CAMILLA IS the woman you mentioned back in Montana,” Thelma Peters said, and added under her breath, “God help you all.”

Colt’s heart was pounding.