The Cowgirl in Question Part 2

"You know how he is," J.T. continued. "Says things when he's mad that he doesn't mean."

"Yeah, well, I just saw him and I didn't get the impression he'd changed his mind."

"He also can't say he's sorry any better than you can," J.T. said.

Rourke had been compared to his father all his life. He hated to think he might really be like Asa McCall. As if he didn't have enough problems.

"I a.s.sume you heard he had a heart attack," J.T. said. "He can't work the ranch like he used to. I'm doing the best I can with Buck's help, hiring hands for branding, calving and moving cattle to and from summer range. But Dad's going to kill himself if his sons don't start helping him."

Buck Brannigan was a fixture of the ranch. Once the ranch foreman, he was getting up in age and probably didn't do any more than give orders.

Rourke looked out the barn door, squinting into the sunlight. "Dad would rather die working than rocking on the porch. Anyway, he's got other sons."

J.T. swore. "I'd hoped you might settle down, move back here and help out."

Rourke shook his head. "Even if the old man would let me, I'm not ready right now."

"You're determined to stir it all back up, aren't you?"

"Someone owes me eleven years," Rourke said.

"Well, even if you do prove that you were framed, those years are gone," J.T. said. "So how many more years are you going to waste?"

"I didn't kill Forrest."

"Don't you think Cash tried to find evidence that would have freed you?" J.T. demanded. "h.e.l.l, Rourke, a team of experts from the state marshal's office were down here for weeks investigating this case, but you think that, after eleven years, you're going to come home and find the killer on your own?" J.T. shook his head in disgust, turned and walked off.

Not on his own. He was going to have help, he thought as he rubbed the mare's muzzle and thought of Ca.s.sidy Miller. He'd kissed her right here in this barn when she was thirteen.

Another memory quickly replaced it. Ca.s.sidy on the witness stand testifying at his trial.

"SO THE DEFENDANT READ the note that had been left on his pickup winds.h.i.+eld and then what did he do?" the prosecutor, Reece Corwin, had asked her.

Ca.s.sidy hesitated.

"Remember you are under oath. Just tell the truth."

Rourke could see that she was nervous, close to tears. Her gaze came to his, then skittered away.

"He dropped the note, opened his pickup door, got in and drove away," she said.

"Oh, come on, Miss Miller, didn't the defendant ball up the note, throw it down, jerk open his pickup door so hard it wouldn't close properly the next day and didn't he drive out of the bar parking lot spitting gravel? Didn't he almost hit several people coming out of the bar?"

"Objection!" Rourke's lawyer, Hal Rafferty, had cried, getting to his feet. "He's telling her what to say."

"Overruled. We've heard this from other witnesses. Answer the question," the judge instructed Ca.s.sidy. "And Mr. Corwin, please move on."

"Yes," Ca.s.sidy said, voice barely audible.

"And what did you hear him say before he left?" the prosecutor asked. This part was new. This part would put the nail in Rourke's coffin.

Ca.s.sidy licked her lips, her eyes welling with tears as she looked at Rourke. "He said, 'I'll kill you, Forrest.'"

"Speak up, Miss Miller."

"He said, 'I'll kill you, Forrest.' But he didn't mean it. He was just-"

"Thank you. No more questions."

Ca.s.sidy had left out one important point his lawyer had been forced to remind her of on cross-examination.

"Who wrote the note that was left on my client's pickup winds.h.i.+eld, Miss Miller?" Hal Rafferty had asked.

Again tears. "I did."

"And what did that note say?"

Ca.s.sidy twisted her hands in her lap, eyes down. "Blaze is meeting Forrest up Wild Horse Gulch."

"You sent sent my client to the murder scene?" Rafferty demanded. my client to the murder scene?" Rafferty demanded.

"Objection. There was no murder scene until your client got there."

"Sustained."

"Why did you write that note, Miss Miller?" the attorney demanded.

She stared down at her hands, crying now, shaking her head.

"What did you hope to gain by doing that?" Rafferty asked.

Again a head shake.

"Answer the question, Miss Miller," the judge instructed.

"I don't know why I did it."

"Did someone instruct you to do it?" the attorney asked.

Her head came up. Rourke saw her startled expression. "No. I...just did it on impulse. I thought he should know what Blaze was...doing."

"You a friend of Rourke McCall's?"

She looked at Rourke, then the attorney, and shook her head.

"You were just trying to do him a favor?" the attorney asked. "Or were you trying to set him up for a murder?"

"No." Ca.s.sidy had burst into tears. She'd been just a girl, sixteen going on seventeen, shy and gangly. The jury hadn't believed that anyone like Ca.s.sidy Miller could have set him up.

"Who put you up to it?" the attorney demanded. "Who?"

"No one did."

But Rourke knew better. Ca.s.sidy had left the note. He would never have gone up to Wild Horse Gulch if she hadn't. He wouldn't have been framed for murder.

What he didn't know was why. Or who'd put her up to it.

But he was finally out of prison, finally back, and he was finally going to get the truth out of Ca.s.sidy Miller.

AS THE AFTERNOON DRAGGED ON, Blaze Logan found herself pacing in front of the Antelope Development Corporation window or ADC as it was known around the county.

"Sit down, Blaze," Easton Wells finally snapped. "You're making me nervous as h.e.l.l."

She turned from the window to look at her boss. Easton Wells was thirty-nine, a little old for her in more ways than the nine years between them. He had dark hair and eyes, not bad-looking but nothing like Rourke McCall. Nothing at all. And that was part of Easton's charm. He had a good future, was divorced-no alimony or children, his ex-wife on another continent and not coming back, and Easton thought Blaze was the hottest thing going.

What could she say? She loved it.

But he didn't want to marry her. Not yet, anyway.

"What if Rourke doesn't come back to town?" she lamented out loud.

"I wouldn't blame him," Easton said, not looking up from the papers on his desk. ADC was small, a reception area and the larger office that she and Easton shared.

Blaze s.h.i.+fted her focus from across the street to her own reflection in the large front window. She turned to get a side view, liking what she saw, but she wasn't getting any younger. She was thirty. Almost thirty-one! She needed to think about marriage. And soon. And Rourke's getting out of prison had given her the answer.

"Rourke will bring a little life to this town," she said, trying to get a rise out of Easton. "I, for one, think the diversion will be good. I know I'm getting tired of the status quo."

Easton looked up and shook his head. "I know what you're trying to do and it isn't going to work."

"What?" she asked innocently. She'd been dating Easton for years now off and on. Believing a woman should always keep her options open, she'd also seen Sheriff Cash McCall a few times. She'd had to initiate the impromptu dates with Cash. Like all the McCalls, he was stubborn and dense as a post. She'd had to practically throw herself at him to even get him to notice her.

Easton wasn't dense. He just didn't want to get married again. But she intended to change that. And Rourke was going to help her. He just didn't know it yet.

"You're trying to make me jealous," Easton said.

She smiled and stepped over to his desk, placed both palms down on the solid oak surface and leaned toward him, making sure her silk blouse opened at the top so he got a tempting view of the cleavage bursting from her push-up bra.

"East, we both know there isn't a jealous bone in your body," she said in her most seductive voice.

He looked up, halting on the view in the V of her blouse appreciatively before looking up into her face.

"It would be a mistake to fool with Rourke," he said, looking way too serious. That was another problem with Easton. He took everything too seriously, like work. He often got mad at her because she was late in the mornings or took too long at lunch or didn't finish some job he'd given her or spent too much time on the phone.

"If I were you, I'd steer clear of Rourke," Easton said.

"Would you?" she asked, lifting a brow as she studied him. "Why, East, you and Rourke used to be best friends."

He nodded. "A long time ago. I'm sure Rourke has changed. I know I have."

Not for the better necessarily, Blaze thought.

"I think you're just mad at Asa. You wouldn't even be in business if he'd gotten his way." Asa had campaigned with all his power and money against coal-bed methane drilling in his part of Montana. "But you beat him."

Easton shook his head. "Asa McCall is never beaten. All I did was make an enemy of him, which is a very dangerous thing to do."

"And just think how much money you've made because of it," she purred.

"Like I said, I wouldn't mess with any of the McCalls if I were you. You don't want that kind of wrath brought down on you."

She studied him, a little surprised. Easton didn't scare easily. "You make it sound as if the McCalls have done something to you."

"I just wouldn't want any of them to have a reason to come gunning for me," Easton said.

Blaze straightened, a frown furrowing her brows. "Is there any reason Rourke would come after you?"

He looked up at her. "Don't you have work to do?"

"If anyone should fear Rourke it's my cousin Ca.s.sidy," she said, going over to the window to look out at the Longhorn Cafe again.

"You aren't on that kick again." He groaned. "You can't believe that Ca.s.sidy set him up for murder."

"Does it matter if she did or didn't as long as Rourke thinks thinks she did?" she did?"

"It might to Rourke," Easton said behind her. "You're counting on him being that hothead who left here. But it's been eleven years, Blaze. He isn't going to come back the same man who left. He just might surprise you. Instead of going off half-c.o.c.ked, he might have had time to figure out some things about the night Forrest was murdered."

"You think Rourke is going to blame me? me?" She let out a laugh and turned to look at him. "Rourke was crazy in love with me."

"Was being the key word here," Easton said without looking up at her. being the key word here," Easton said without looking up at her.

She glared daggers at him. "I take it back. I think you are are jealous. Or afraid that Rourke might find out something about you. Let's not forget that you're sleeping with me now. Are you worried that Rourke won't like that?" jealous. Or afraid that Rourke might find out something about you. Let's not forget that you're sleeping with me now. Are you worried that Rourke won't like that?"

Easton laughed without bothering to look up. "I think Rourke probably learned his lesson with Forrest."

"What does that that mean?" she demanded. mean?" she demanded.

"It means Rourke won't be killing any more men who you've slept with. Anyway, where would he start?" Easton laughed.

She continued to glare at him, but he didn't look up. "Let's not forget that you were at the Mello Dee too the night Forrest was murdered."

Easton finally looked up at her, his eyes dark. "Yes, I witnessed the way you work men, Blaze. I saw how you got Forrest to dance with you to make Rourke jealous. I know how you operate."