CHARLOTTE LEANED AGAINST the side of the SUV as she watched Holden drive away with a finality that left her feeling pathetic and broken. For so many years, she’d never questioned his love. No matter how awful she’d been, he hadn’t given up on her. Until now?
The thought filled her eyes with tears that quickly ran down her cheeks. She’d done this. She had only herself to blame. She’d kept Brand from him. She’d kept the truth from him. What if he never forgave her? After all these years of pushing him away, what if this was the end?
When he’d married Margie Smith instead of her, Charlotte had been devastated. She’d thought she would die from the pain. She felt that way again now as his pickup disappeared from view.
Opening the door, she crawled behind the wheel. Her hands were shaking. She put the SUV in gear, but didn’t know where to go. Not home. Not back to that empty house. She’d pushed away everyone who loved her—even her own children. Tilly was now married to Cooper McKenna. She’d heard that he was building them a house on the McKenna Ranch. She’d also heard that Tilly might be pregnant.
Charlotte shook her head. Even if she was going to be a grandmother, it would be in name only after the way she’d treated her daughter and Cooper. CJ, the son most like her, would soon be going to trial and probably on to prison. Oakley... She shook her head again. Oakley was the daughter most like her, fiery and stubborn and so independent that she’d never needed her mother and certainly didn’t now that she was married to Pickett Hanson.
All Charlotte had left were Brand and Ryder. The two of them never gave her any trouble, staying clear of her on the ranch, doing what needed to be done and having minimal contact with the rest of the family. That too was her fault.
And now this. How could Brand ever forgive her? He hadn’t come to her after finding out the truth. Instead, he’d reached out to his father.
Realizing just how alone she was and how she’d brought it all on herself, Charlotte couldn’t seem to move. She could drive into town, but there was no one there either. She’d alienated the community as well as her family—and especially Holden and his family—for years.
She’d once had a best friend. But then Margie Smith had betrayed her by marrying Holden. Charlotte knew intellectually that Margie was young. Her father and Holden’s father put her in a position where she had little choice but to marry Holden. Still, Charlotte had never been able to forgive her for stealing her life—even when she’d learned years later that Margie was dying.
And here she was, just as Elaine had predicted, completely alone.
She reached for her cell phone. For a moment, she’d forgotten that she had one friend left in the world, the friendship no one knew about, but someone she could count on and vice versa. The line rang and was immediately picked up.
“Elaine,” she said and burst into tears.
STUART SWORE AS he left Miles City and headed back to Powder Crossing. He cursed himself for letting Lulabelle get to him. She’d enjoyed his shock and discomfort. Psychic powers. Who knew where she got that crap? He tried to forget it, hating that his reaction had been so telling. The whole incident had left him feeling vulnerable.
His father used to say no one could keep a secret in Powder Crossing. That, at least, Stuart believed. Lulabelle dealt with the bottom-feeders, people who enjoyed digging into other people’s trash. Had Lulabelle heard something from one of them? Or had she just been fishing with what she’d said about his mother?
He knew he should put it behind him, but he couldn’t help being upset. Did she pull these same stunts with other people who came to her looking for answers?
Or did she know more than he thought? Either way, he was still shaken, because she’d hit his most vulnerable sore spot. His mother.
His cell phone rang, dragging him out of his black mood at even the mention of his mother. It was Treyton McKenna, Holden’s eldest son. “I need to talk to you,” the sheriff said. Treyton was the next name on Holden’s list. “Where are you?”
He got the surly answer he would expect from Treyton McKenna. “Why?”
“Have you talked to your father?”
“I’ve been busy. I don’t live on the ranch anymore. I bought a place of my own. So I don’t see the old man.”
“A place of your own? I can come to you. What’s the address?” Stuart heard the hesitation in Treyton’s silence.
“I’m on my way into town.”
He would have liked to see Treyton’s place for a number of reasons. He had been suspicious of the man for some time now, especially after there’d been a meth lab in the area. Whoever was running it had burned down the place, destroying the evidence, before Stuart could bust it. CJ Stafford had definitely been involved, but although they were rivals because of their families, the sheriff suspected Treyton might have been involved. It was just a gut feeling since the lab had actually been in an abandoned ranch building on the McKenna Ranch.
Disappointed, he said, “Fine, my office. Twenty minutes?” He’d pay Treyton a visit sometime in the future and check out his new digs.
“Why don’t you just tell me what this is about?”
“When I see you,” Stuart said and disconnected as he turned on his siren and lights and raced toward Powder Crossing.
“CHARLOTTE? CHARLOTTE! Is it Holly Jo?”
The fear Charlotte heard in Elaine’s voice made her choke off her sobs. “No. I’m sorry. I don’t know anything about Holly Jo. I just saw Holden.” Silence. “Oh, please, you aren’t going to turn against me too, are you?”
“Of course not,” Elaine said. “You just scared me. I was trying to catch my breath. I was so afraid... I heard about Brand being picked up by the law. I thought maybe you might know something.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called so upset. You all must be worried sick about Holly Jo.”
“It’s all right, Charlotte. You’re sure Brand didn’t take her?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” She couldn’t help but sound indignant. “They let him go. He had an alibi. He wouldn’t do anything like that anyway.” But she’d never thought he’d have his DNA tested and send Holden the results either. “Is there anything I can do?” She already knew the answer.
“No, but thank you for asking.” Elaine had always been nicer to her than she deserved. Her friend was a better person than she was. Charlotte thought that Elaine should have gotten together with Holden years ago. They would have made a nice couple. Instead, Elaine had spent those years trying to get Charlotte to forgive, Margie first, then Holden.
“Let me know if you hear anything,” Charlotte said. Elaine promised that she would, and they disconnected.
Feeling even worse for thinking only of herself when a child was missing, Charlotte shifted the SUV into gear and went home. She hoped Brand would be there. She wasn’t sure what she would say to him when she did see him, though. There weren’t really any words to explain the poor decisions she’d made in her fifty-three years.
Nor was she looking forward to the reactions of her other adult children when they heard the news. The way gossip traveled in the Powder River Basin, they had probably already heard. So as she walked in through the door of her house, she wasn’t surprised to get a collect call from her son CJ, who was incarcerated in a cell in Billings.
She didn’t take the call, already too aware of what he would have to say. Deserved or not, she couldn’t take any more berating right now. She was sure she’d get enough of that from Brand once he decided to confront her.
Standing in the middle of her living room, the silence thick as fog around her, she knew that she could wallow in her pain like she usually did, or she could do something to help.
TREYTON MCKENNA WAS slouched in a chair in Stuart’s office when the sheriff walked in. He had Holden’s dark hair and blue eyes in a face that could have been considered handsome if not for his bad-tempered disposition. He wore his usual sullen look as Stuart closed the office door, stepped past Treyton’s extended legs and sat down behind his desk.
“When was the last time you saw Holly Jo?” he asked without preamble. He didn’t like Treyton, never had, and wanted to spend as little time as possible in his company.
