Cardwell Ranch Trespasser(31)

“Then where is Dee Anna Justice?”

“I have no idea, but right now we have to get the kids.” For all Hilde knew, the woman calling herself Dee had killed Dana’s cousin and taken over her life.

“You can’t really believe she’d hurt my—”

“She wants Hud, Dana. She’s been after your life since the moment she saw Hud. Do you really think she wants the kids as well?”

Dana seemed to come out of the trance Dee’d had her in since arriving in Montana. Surely she’d seen the way Dee fawned over her husband.

“Hud told me she has a crush on him, but... You have to be wrong about her,” Dana cried. But she grabbed the shotgun she kept high on the wall by the back door.

As they ran outside, Hilde prayed the babies were all right. She told herself that if Dee stood any chance of getting away with this, then she couldn’t have hurt them. But the woman had apparently already gotten away with murdering her own parents—and her brother. Possibly Dana’s cousin as well. Who knew what she’d do to get what she wanted.

Dee and the kids were nowhere in sight.

“She must have gone up the road,” Dana said.

“There!” Hilde cried as she spotted the stroller lying on its side in front of the barn. Dana rushed into the barn first, Hilde right behind her. They both stopped, both breathing hard.

“Mary! Hank!” Dana called, her voice breaking. Silence. She called again, her voice more frantic.

A faint cry came from one of the stalls.

Rushing toward it, they found Mary and Hank holding the twins in the back of the stall. Hilde heard the relief rush from Dana as she dropped to the straw.

“What are you two doing?” Hilde asked, fear making her voice tight.

“We’re playing a game,” Hank said.

“Auntie Dee told us to stay here and not make a sound,” Mary said in a conspiratorial whisper.

“But Mary made a sound when she heard you calling for her,” Hank said. “Now Auntie Dee is going to be mad, and when she’s mad she’s kind of scary.”

“Where is Auntie Dee?” Hilde asked.

Hank shook his head and seemed to see the shotgun his mother had rushed in with. “Are you and Auntie Hilde going hunting?”

“We are,” Hilde said. “That’s why we need you and your sister to stay here and keep playing the game for just a little longer. Can you do that?”

Dana shot her friend a look, then picked up the shotgun. “Be very quiet. We’ll be back in just a minute, okay?” Both children nodded and touched fingers to their lips.

Hilde stepped out of the stall and looked down the line of stalls. The light was dim and cool in the huge barn. Dee could be anywhere.

As they moved away from the stall with the children inside, Dana whispered, “Maybe it is just a game.”

Hilde bit back a curse. Dana was determined to see the best in everyone—especially this cousin who’d ingratiated herself into their lives. But Hilde had to admit whatever game Camilla Northland was playing, it didn’t make any sense.

They both jumped when they heard the barn door they’d come through slam shut. An instant later, they heard the board that locked it closed come down with a heart-stopping thud.

“She just locked us in,” Hilde said, her voice breaking.

Dana had already turned and was racing toward the back door of the barn. Hilde knew before she saw Dana reach it that she would find it locked.

Only moments later did she smell the smoke.





Chapter Fifteen

“I’m about ten minutes outside of Big Sky,” Colt said when he’d called Hilde’s phone and gotten voice mail. “I don’t know where you are or why you aren’t picking up.” He didn’t know what else to say so he disconnected and tried to call her at the shop.

His anxiety grew when the recording came on giving the shop’s hours. He glanced at his watch. Hilde was a stickler for punctuality. If she’d gone to the shop, there was no way she would be thirty minutes late for work unless something was wrong.

When his phone rang, he thought it was Hilde. Prayed it was. He didn’t even look to see who was calling and was surprised when he heard Hud’s voice.

“I can’t get into all of it right now,” he told Hud, “but I have proof the woman at the ranch isn’t Dee Anna Justice, and I can’t reach Hilde at the shop or on her cell. I can’t reach the ranch, either.”

“I’m on my way home from West Yellowstone,” Hud said. “I haven’t been able to reach Dana, either. I was hoping you had heard something.”

“I’m five minutes out,” Colt said. “I’m going straight to the ranch.”

“I’m twenty minutes out. Call me as soon as you know something.”

He hung up and called the office, asked if there was any backup, but Deputy Liza Turner Cardwell was in Bozeman testifying in a court case and Deputy Jake Thorton was up in the mountains fishing on his day off.

“Liza should be back soon,” Annie had told him.

Not soon enough, he feared. He tried Dana’s brother Jordan. No answer. No surprise. Jordan was busy building his house and probably out peeling logs.

He disconnected as he came up behind a semi, laid on his horn and swore. The driver slowed, but couldn’t find a place to pull over and the road had too many blind curves to pass.

Colt felt a growing sense of urgency. He needed to get to Cardwell Ranch. Now. All his instincts told him that Hilde was there and in trouble. Which meant so were Dana and the kids.

Mentally, he kicked himself as the vehicles in both lanes finally pulled over enough to let him through. He shouldn’t have told Hilde what he found out in Oklahoma. She must have gone out to the ranch to warn Dana. He wouldn’t let himself imagine what the woman calling herself Dee Anna Justice would do if cornered.

* * *

ALONG WITH THE smell of smoke, Hilde caught the sharp scent of fuel oil. She could hear the crackling of flames. The barn was old, the wood dry. Past the sound of fire they heard an engine start up.

For just an instant Hilde thought Dee might be planning to save them—the way she had her at the falls and possibly the way she had tried on the river.

But they heard the pickup leave, the sound dying off as the flames grew louder.

They rushed back to the children. Hilde dug in her pocket for her cell phone, belatedly realizing she’d left it in the SUV when she’d jumped out. She looked up at Dana. “You said you haven’t been able to find your cell phone?”

Dana shook her head. The smoke was getting thicker inside the barn. Hilde could see flames blackening the kindling dry wood on all sides. It wouldn’t be long before the whole barn was ablaze.

“Let’s try to break through the side of the barn,” Hilde said, grabbing up a shovel. She began to pound at the old wood. It splintered but the boards held.

Dana joined her with another shovel.

Hilde couldn’t believe Dee thought she could get away with this. But at the back of her mind, she feared Dee would. Somehow, she would slip out of this, the same way she had as a kid. The same way she had killed her brother and gone free. And it would be too late for Hilde and Dana and the kids.

“I can’t believe she would hurt innocent children,” Dana said, tears in her eyes.

“What’s wrong, Mommy?” Mary asked.

“Is the barn on fire?” Hank asked.

Hilde and Dana kept pounding at the wood at the back of the stall. If she could just make a hole large enough for the kids to climb out.

The wood finally gave way. She and Dana grabbed hold of the board and were able to break it off to form a small hole. Not large enough for them, but definitely large enough to get the children out.

What would happen to them if Dee saw them, though? They’d heard the sound of the pickup engine, but what if she hadn’t really left? The question passed silently between the two friends.

“We’re going to play another game,” Dana said, crouching down next to Mary and Hank. “You and your sister are going to crawl out. I am going to hand you Angus and Brick. Then you’re going to go hide in that outbuilding where we keep the old tractor. You can’t let Dee see you, okay?”

Hank nodded. “We’ll sneak along the haystack. No one will see us.”

“Good boy,” Dana said, her voice breaking with emotion. “Take care of the babies until either me or Daddy calls you. Don’t make a sound if Dee calls you, okay? Now hurry.”

Hilde looked out through the hole. No sign of Dee. She helped Hank out and Dana handed him Angus. Mary crawled out next and took Brick. They quickly disappeared from sight.

The smoke was thick now, the flames licking closer and closer as the whole barn went up in flames.

“Oh, Hilde, I’m so sorry for not trusting you,” Dana cried, and hugged her.

“Right now, we have to find a way out of here.”