CHRISTMAS AT THE CARDWELL RANCH (11 page)

“The Happy Trails Motel down the highway,” Gerald said.

Tag headed for the door at a run, praying he was wrong and that
there was an explanation other than the one that had him terrified.

“I’ll drive up to her house and check there,” Gerald said to
his retreating back. “You better not get her killed, Texas cowboy.”

Tag didn’t have time to go back and slug the suit or he would
have.

The drive to the motel, although only half a mile, seemed to
take forever.

He was in sight of it when he heard the news report on the
radio. He hadn’t even realized the radio was on, droning in the background,
until he heard the announcement come on.

“A woman’s body has been found along the Gallatin River two
miles south of Big Sky. The name of the victim is being withheld pending
notification of family. If anyone has any information, please call the marshal’s
office....”

An eighties song came on the radio.

Not Lily. No, it couldn’t be Lily.

Ahead, he saw Lily’s SUV parked off by itself. His stomach
dropped. As he jumped out, he could see where another vehicle had pulled in next
to it. And in the snow that the plow had left, he could see that there’d been a
struggle.

Lily’s boot-heel prints had made a short trail from her SUV
driver’s-side door to whatever had been parked next to it.

Chapter Eleven

As Tag drove straight to the marshal’s office, he kept remembering the marshal and his father, heads together, arguing about something before his father gave Hud an envelope. Money? A bribe? A payoff?

Whatever it was, it had something to do with Mia Duncan—and if he wasn’t wrong, the damned thumb drive in his pocket and the names on it.

He didn’t know his cousin Dana’s husband. This trip to Montana had been the first time they’d met. Was it possible Hud was crooked?

Tag hoped not for his cousin’s sake. But look how she’d turned a blind eye to whatever Harlan and Angus did when they left the canyon. Would she be the same way if her husband were on the take?

All Tag knew was that he didn’t trust the marshal. But right now he needed to know who had been found near the river. He glanced at the list again, surprised by the one name that seemed to be missing. Teresa Evans. How did she fit into all this? Or did she? He’d heard that she was missing. Was it her body that was found by the river?

He had to know.

Just as he had to know why both his father’s and Hud’s names were on the list. He had no idea what to make of that. Or how this list from the thumb drive could have anything to do with what was going on. Why would anyone be ransacking residences at Big Sky, let alone killing people for it?

All he could assume was that the names were important.
Why else had Mia put the thumb drive in his pocket?
he wondered as he stormed into the marshal’s department and demanded to see Marshal Hud Savage. How important? He was about to find out since Hud Savage’s name was on one of the lists.

“He’s gone to a funeral,” a pretty, redheaded young woman told him.

That threw him. “Whose funeral?”

“Officer Paul Brown.”

The name was like a lightbulb coming on in his face. Paul Brown. He was also on the list.

“I just heard on the radio about a woman’s body being found by the river.” He held his breath. “Tell me it isn’t Lily McCabe.”

The woman dispatcher frowned. “Lily? No. But I can’t give you—”

Not Lily. He felt his heart rate drop some. Not Lily. Not yet. “Where is the funeral?”

The dispatcher hesitated.

“I wouldn’t ask but it’s urgent,” Tag said. “Another woman has disappeared.”

“By now they would be heading for the graveside. Sunset. It’s between Bozeman and Belgrade on the old highway. If you hurry—”

But Tag was already out the door.

* * *

L
ILY
WOKE
TO
darkness, dying of thirst. Her mouth felt as if it had been stuffed with cotton balls. She tried to swallow as she sat up and blinked at the blackness around her.

At first she’d thought she was in the bedroom and Tag was beside her. But in a flash, the earlier events came back with the terror of her abduction.

Panic overtook her like a blizzard. Where was she? Her hand touched something cold and she recoiled. As her eyes became more adjusted to the dark, though, she saw that it was only a water bottle.

She snatched it up and drank half of it before a thought surfaced that made her quickly pull it away from her lips.

What if it was drugged? Or poisoned? Or all the water she had for however long she was going to be trapped here?

She didn’t kid herself that she could climb off this mattress and walk out of here. The edges of the room began to take shape as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Knotty-pine walls, dark with age, a linoleum floor. No apparent windows. One door. She could make out a tiny strip of light around its frame.

A basement, she thought, in some older house or cabin. Probably a cabin, which might mean she was still in Big Sky.

She considered yelling for help only an instant before she heard heavy footfalls coming down what sounded like stairs above her.

Lily thought about getting up, hating to be at such a disadvantage on the bed, but when she tried, she found she was too weak to stand. Sliding on the mattress until her back was against the wall, she stared in the direction of the single door in and out of the room. She told herself that the person wasn’t coming to kill her or he would have already done that, but she knew killers probably weren’t logical.

Whoever was outside the door put down something on the floor. It made a shadow under the door. Then she heard the key being turned in the lock. The door swung open along with blinding light before a large figure filled the doorway.

* * *

S
TANDING
AT
THE
edge of the graveside service, Marshal Hud Savage tightened his grip on his hat held at his side as he saw Tag Cardwell pull up and get out of his father’s old pickup.

Hud was in no mood for trouble and yet one look at the young man’s face and Hud knew that was what was heading for him. He stepped a few feet back from the others. “Not here,” he said under his breath as Tag reached him.

“Here or you come with me now,” Tag said quietly under his breath. “Your choice. Unless you want everyone here to know about you.”

Hud gave him a sidelong glance. “I could have you arrested—”

“I have what you’ve all been looking for. Set up a trade for Lily.
Now.
”

That got Hud’s attention. He turned and headed toward the old pickup Tag had arrived in. Once there, he turned on the man. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Lily McCabe. I know you have her and if you hurt her—”

“Tag, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Is Lily missing?”

“I’m tired of playing games with you and my father and uncle,” Tag said, and swore.

Hud listened as Tag told him about seeing the leather jacket on his father’s couch, catching his father in a lie, seeing Hud and Harlan the day Mia Duncan’s body turned up.

“You’ve got it all wrong,” Hud said when Tag finished.

“Yeah, that’s what my father keeps telling me. Where is he, by the way?”

Behind them, Hud heard the graveside funeral procession breaking up. “We can’t talk about this here. What was that that part about a thumb drive?”

Tag smiled. “So you did hear me. Make the call. As soon as I see Lily—”

“I can see how you might think I’m involved in all this—”

“We don’t have time to—”

“I’m telling you the truth. Show me what you have. Maybe between the two of us we can—”

“So help me, if you have touched a hair on her head—” Tag swore, and grabbed Hud by the throat. A minute later he was being pulled off the marshal by two other law enforcement officers who’d been at the funeral. A minute after that he was in handcuffs in the back of Marshal Hud Savage’s patrol SUV on his way to jail.

* * *

“Y
OU
’
RE
BEING
CHEATED
.”

The raspy words entered Camilla’s right ear, the hoarse whisper sending a chill down her spine. She was standing in the prison chow line, not that she was hungry. She ate because food kept her strong. If she ever had a chance of getting out of here, one way or the other, she needed to keep up her strength.

“Don’t turn around.”

She fought the urge.

“She shouldn’t be charging you.” She could feel the woman’s breath on her neck, hot and damp and putrid.

Camilla waited. Prison was teaching her patience and she’d become an astute student since she hadn’t killed anyone yet.

“Just nod your head if I’m right.” The woman moved closer. Camilla had to steel herself not to shudder. “You’re paying Grams for a hit on a cowboy cop, right?”

Just like in high school, rumors ran rampant. This one just happened to be true.

She gave a short nod and could no longer contain the shudder.

The woman behind gave a snort. “His name was already on the list.”

Camilla turned in her surprise to find Snakebite behind her. Their eyes met, Snakebite’s as hard as obsidian. She turned back around as the line moved and felt sick to her stomach. Not because Grams had planned to charge her
and
someone else for the same hit. But that Marshal Hud Savage was about to be killed and it wouldn’t be her doing.

She wanted to howl out her pain and yet she couldn’t even step out of line. She shuffled forward, the smell of some awful casserole filling her nostrils and making her even more nauseated.

I have to get out of here.

Not just out of the line, but out of the damned prison.

I have to get out of here.

Camilla hadn’t realized she’d said the words aloud. Not until she heard the raspy voice answer.

“I thought you might say that.”

* * *

M
ARSHAL
H
UD
S
AVAGE
pulled off onto a narrow snowy road that ended at the river’s edge.

“You should take off my handcuffs,” Tag said from the back of the patrol SUV. “Might look more believable that I made a run for it when you kill me.”

Hud cut the engine and turned to look at him in surprise. “You think I’m going to kill you?” He let out a curse and shook his head. For months he’d been telling himself he’d lost his edge. That he wasn’t any good at this anymore. He’d never felt more assured of that than at this moment.

“I’m not a dirty cop,” he said, feeling himself hit bottom. “Why would you think—”

Tag snorted. “I saw my father give you an envelope the morning Mia Duncan was found murdered. Tell me that envelope wasn’t filled with money.”

“It wasn’t.” He thought of the paperwork Harlan had finally turned over to him. The agency was always holding out on him. With a shock, he had just been told that he had a dead agent on his hands and Harlan had still wanted to keep secrets. They’d argued until Harlan had finally given him some information.

“Look, I don’t care, all right?” Tag said. “I just want to find Lily.”

“So do I. That’s why you have to help me with what you know.”

“You expect me to trust you after all the lies you’ve told me? I know my father was seeing Mia Duncan.”

“You have it all wrong.”

“So you all keep telling me,” Tag snapped.

Hud took off his Stetson and raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t know how you managed to get so deep in all this.” He met Tag’s gaze. “I pleaded with Harlan to tell you the truth, but he didn’t want you involved.” With a sigh, he said, “Mia was an agent. Your father was working with her.”

“An agent?” Tag let out a laugh. “And my father was working with her? What would Harlan—”

“Harlan and Angus are retired, but they often help when needed.”

Tag shook his head in obvious disbelief. “You’re telling me my father and uncle are...agents?”

Hud nodded. “They’ve always worked undercover operations because they had such perfect covers with their band. Apparently Mia was getting close to busting a murder ring.”

“Murder ring?”
he said, sounding disbelieving.

“We’re wasting time. You want to find Lily, you have to tell me about these names you said she had.” He could tell that Tag didn’t believe him. “You have to trust me if want to find Lily.”

“Take off my handcuffs. If I can trust you, then trust me.”

He hesitated. Tag was a loose cannon. He’d gotten involved and now Lily McCabe was missing. Hud already had two dead women. He hoped he wasn’t making another mistake.

“I know you don’t trust me, but I have reason not to trust you, either,” Hud said as he got out of the patrol SUV and opened the back door. “You show up just before Mia is killed and we only have your word that she left with some Montana cowboy in a pickup.”

“You can’t be serious. Take off my handcuffs. I think I have what everyone is looking for.”

Hud lifted an eyebrow, then unlocked the cuffs and watched Tag rub his wrists. He’d taken a chance with one of Dana’s so-called cousins and almost gotten his family killed. And here he was again, taking another chance, one that could get him killed, as well.

* * *

T
AG
’
S
HEAD
WAS
whirling. He still wasn’t sure he believed Hud, let alone trusted him. But right now he needed all the help he could get finding Lily.

“I have a partial list of some names that came off a thumb drive that I now believe Mia Duncan put in my coat pocket the night she was murdered.” He dug out the scrap of paper with only a few of the names and handed it to the marshal.

Hud stared down at it, his eyes widening.

“You recognize the names?”

“Two of them are men who were recently released from prison,” the marshal said as he turned the scrap of paper over, no doubt looking for more names. “One of them is dead. The other one, Ray Emery, is from around here. I don’t recognize the others. Where is the rest of this sheet?”

Tag felt his heart hammering in his chest. He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake that would get Lily killed—not to mention himself. He reached in his pocket and handed Hud the complete list from the thumb drive that Gerald had provided.

KYLE FOSTER

GEORGE MOORE

FRANK MOONEY

LOU WAYNE

CLETE RAND

RAY EMERY

PAUL BROWN

MIA DUNCAN

CAL FRANKLIN

LARS LANDERS

HARLAN CARDWELL

HUD SAVAGE

He heard the air rush from the marshal’s lips and watched him swallow.

“This is the murder list,” he said. “You say Mia put this in your coat pocket at the bar that night? Those names.” He pointed to the ones on the top. “Those are the killers.”

“And the names on the bottom?” Tag asked, his heart in his throat.

“Those are the hits.”

“My father’s name is on that list.”

Hud nodded. “So is mine.”

“How many of them are already dead?”

“Two that I know of. Paul and Mia. But Cal and Lars could already be dead by now.”

“Then my father might be next.” He met the marshal’s gaze and let out a curse as he had a terrible thought. “You don’t think they took Lily, not for the list, but...”

“As bait to flush out your father. Harlan said if you hadn’t come by his cabin when you did, he would be dead. They wanted the thumb drive, but they didn’t want him dead until they had the list that incriminated every prisoner who’d been released.”