- -
- 100%
- +
A man could sure hide out in those snow-capped hills. But a man could also freeze to death out there tonight, too.
“Nice place,” he finally said. He ambled toward the round oak table with the mosaic tile top, his pulse tapping at the sore spot on the back of his head. “You live here alone?”
“Who wants to know?” the older woman standing in the kitchen asked, her eyes going into double question marks.
Adan gave Sophia another direct glance. “I’m one of the good guys, so tell her to let up on being so ornery and suspicious. Or I will reconsider how I’m gonna handle being attacked and held hostage.”
“We are not holding you hostage,” Sophia said, motioning to him to sit down. She gave her partner in crime a warning glare. “We overreacted, but we have to be careful. This mountain is off the beaten path, and it’s isolated.”
“And don’t I know that.” He sat down and sniffed the beef-and-vegetable soup cooling in a chipped blue bowl. “How ’bout we start over while we eat.” He waited for the ladies to sit down.
Bettye giggled and pushed at her gray hair and then pointed a finger toward Adan. “A gentleman.”
She sat down with a prim and proper air. Sophia placed biscuits on the table and found her seat. Adan followed suit, his stomach growling in joy. It had been a long day and he’d skipped a meal or two.
He grinned, then grimaced because it hurt to grin. “I’m Adan Harrison. I live in Austin and I’m a Texas Ranger.”
“They grow them Rangers everywhere down in Texas, don’t they?” Bettye asked, her expression full of wrinkles and curiosity. She grabbed a flaky biscuit then shoved the straw basket toward Adan. “Tough lot, all of you.”
“We are a proud lot,” Adan admitted. How strange to be sitting here having dinner with the two women who’d tried to do him in. But he wasn’t so dumb that he couldn’t twist things around on them. “And we pride ourselves on getting the job done. So I’ll make a deal with you two lovely ladies. I won’t press charges against either of you. But you need to do something in return for me.”
“And what’s that?” Sophia asked, her blue eyes widening as she set the biscuit basket next to her plate. She put down her spoon and waited as if she were afraid to take her next breath. Guilty? Or scared? Or both?
“You need to tell me if you were harboring a wanted felon. And if you were and you let him escape, you need to come clean. Or I won’t be able to help you later.”
* * *
SOPHIA’S APPETITE WENT as cold as a lone snowflake. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Did he think she’d hide a criminal here? Did he know something about her already? What if he’d come here looking for her? He couldn’t possibly know what had brought her to this mountain over four years ago. Or what she’d done after she’d arrived here.
“Me neither,” Bettye said. “I don’t know anything about anybody.”
She passed the biscuits again, her actions twitchy and nervous. Sophia gave her friend another warning stare.
Bettye took the hint and asked the Ranger, “Want some homemade mayhaw jelly with that biscuit?”
“I’m good, thanks.” Adan kept his eyes on Sophia, making it hard for her to breathe, let alone eat. “So I know your name—or at least your first name—Sophia. Want to give me your whole name?”
“Not particularly,” she replied, her bravado a false front. “I don’t like strangers.”
“Again, I get that,” he said in that wry Texas tone that seemed to be his way of getting people to talk. “I can find out, you know. Run your plates—”
“She ain’t got a car,” Bettye said. Then she put her hand over her mouth. Grabbing her spoon, she took a big gulp of soup. “Mmm. So good.”
Adan gave Sophia another too-close stare. “Did you let him take your vehicle?”
Sophia was caught in a vise. She couldn’t tell this man her worst fears because if she did, she’d have to tell him the rest of the story and she wasn’t ready for that. Not even Bettye knew the whole story. No one ever would.
“I don’t know what you’re implying—”
“I’m not implying anything. I’m stating the facts,” he said, his tone getting dangerously low and growling. “If you two let a known felon escape with your vehicle, then that makes you both accessories. Do you want to take the fall for a man who’d as soon kill you than look at you?”
“I don’t want to take the fall for a man like that,” Bettye said, her eyes glued to Sophia in shock. “I don’t know anything about a felon who’s that dangerous.”
Sophia wanted to shout to her friend to stop talking but Bettye wasn’t the most tactful person on earth. Now seventy, Bettye had been through her own horror story, and past events had left her a little dazed and confused.
The Ranger zoomed in on Bettye’s declaration. “Well, do you know any criminals? Maybe one who pretended to be the victim and talked y’all into harboring him for a while?”
Bettye glanced over at Sophia, and Adan’s sharp gaze moved between them like a roaming flashlight. “I don’t think I know anybody like that, but—”
“We haven’t been hiding anyone in this cabin,” Sophia interjected, trying to salvage the situation. She could not be hauled off this mountain. This was the one place she felt safe and secure. Or at least she had until he’d shown up.
She stared him down, but it was nearly impossible to intimidate a man who was six feet tall and solid muscle. A man she and Bettye had huffed and puffed and dragged up onto her porch and inside her house.
He didn’t break the staring match but his eyes, so golden brown and burning, seemed to soften and shift. “Look, I understand you were scared when I got here, but I can help you. If you’re in trouble, tell me the truth and I’ll do what I can.”
She jumped up and put her forgotten soup in the sink. “I’m fine. Or at least I was until you arrived here. How’d you even get up the mountain anyway, and why were you on foot?”
“I’m on foot,” he said on a slow, let-me-explain-so-you’ll-understand note, “because my truck slid on some black ice and rammed into a snowdrift and got stuck and I wanted to find either some help to get it out or a shelter to provide me with some warmth until morning.”
“That does make a lot of sense,” Bettye said in a pragmatic tone. “I mean, it ain’t a fit night out there for anybody.”
“Of course it makes sense,” he said, his voice rising with each word. “You have my badge and my gun, so why don’t you just tell me the truth?”
“The truth? You want the truth?” Sophia took in a breath and willed her next lie to sparkle into sounding real. “The truth is that I was visiting my friend here in her cabin. We were making Christmas cookies and didn’t realize how bad the weather had turned. I was on my way home and looking forward to getting all settled in with my soup and a good book and I heard a rustling on my porch. So I got my shotgun and I came around the back way to see who was out there.”
“Were you expecting someone else?”
“No.” Frustration coursed through her like a mountain spring. “I was expecting some peace and quiet and a nice long sleep while the storm passed outside.”
“She likes her private time,” Bettye explained. “Took me a while to understand that.”
“I think she does at that,” Adan said. Then he shoved a spoonful of soup into his mouth and chewed the beef, his eyes still on Sophia. “But tonight, she won’t get any, because I can’t leave here in that storm. And I won’t leave y’all, since this man could show up here or return back here. If that happens, y’all will have more than me to worry about.”
Sophia’s pulse skidded and slid with each snowflake that fell outside her door. What if he did get snowed in and she had to deal with him for a week or so? She’d go mad. The man stared through her with those captivating eyes and made her think he could see all of her secrets. She’d get cabin fever and spill her worst sins to him. Then she might truly go to jail.
* * *
ADAN WAITED, GIVING them every opportunity to chime right in. But neither said a word. Sophia busied herself with offering more soup, but something about her demeanor worried him.
“Have you seen any strangers around here recently?”
“Just you, Mr. RangerMan,” Bettye blurted out.
His gut told him that one wasn’t lying about this, but they both had secrets about something. He could give them a description of the criminal to see how they’d react but he didn’t want to give away too much too soon. If they’d been involved with Joe Pritchard, they’d let something slip sooner or later.
“Y’all are sure making this harder than it needs to be.”
Bettye snorted a retort. “I thought Rangers could handle just about any situation.”
“I can,” he said, his frustration mounting with each breath. He watched Sophia for signs of stress or any sign that she might be willing to talk to him. “I would. I’m not worried about the storm. I’m worried about what y’all might be trying to hide.”
“We ain’t got nothing to hide,” Bettye replied. “Not from you, that is.”
He leaned his elbows against the table and gave Sophia a measured look. “Then who are you hiding from?”
Sophia’s head snapped up. “We’re living here, trying to mind our own business. And that’s the truth.”
She got up and started clearing the dishes. Adan took that as a sign dinner—and the conversation—was over.
Adan had never had anything like this happen before. He was going to have to walk a line on this one. He couldn’t deal with having these two hauled in because the man he’d tracked to Crescent Mountain was still out there on the loose. And while they’d tried to do bodily injury to Adan, he figured it was more out of fear than any criminal intent.
Still, he’d have to make it a point to be on his best behavior and ever watchful while he was around them. They were hiding something, all right, only he couldn’t be sure they’d been involved with hiding the man he’d come looking for.
But he couldn’t leave two slightly innocent women alone if that man was out there somewhere. So he stood in front of the fire and listened to the sounds of feminine chatter and a few cryptic whispers coming from the kitchen across the room. They had never actually answered his question. After snapping that curt retort, Sophia had busied herself with the dishes. Bettye had offered him homemade fudge and coffee. The rich chocolate was now stuck in his gut and the coffee had him too warm.
Sophia finally approached him. “Bettye needs to go home, but I’m not sure she’ll be able to find the path. I thought I’d walk with her.”
She left things hanging, so he jumped right in. “I’ll walk with both of you and I’ll check her cabin.”
“And what do you plan to do after that?”
He thought he saw a plea there in her interesting dark water-blue eyes. She pushed at her rich auburn curls and stared up at him, waiting again.
“I plan to stay close by until this storm is over. I’ll figure out the rest in the morning.”
“You mean you want to stay here?”
“Do you have any other suggestions?”
She glanced at the fire, looked out the window, stared over at Bettye waiting by the back door. Then she turned back to him. “No, I don’t have any other ideas. Unless you want to stay at Bettye’s place.”
He looked at her then turned to do a quick glance at her friend. “To be honest, I’d be afraid to fall asleep with her in the next room. My head is still throbbing from that darn frying pan.”
The older woman let out a whooping laugh. “My aim is still good.”
Adan rubbed the back of his sore head. “I agree with that, at least.”
He was rewarded with a pretty smile from Sophia, followed by a firm reminder. “I’m the one with the shotgun, though, remember?”
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget,” he said, mirroring her grin in hopes of gaining her trust. “But I doubt I’ll sleep no matter where I stay.”
“You can sleep on the sofa,” she finally said. “I have a spare room, but it’s full of my art supplies.”
He nodded on that, saving the information to mull over later. “I won’t be a bother, I promise.”
“I know,” she said with a smile. “I always sleep with my shotgun right by the bed.”
He let out a chuckle and shook his head. “I’ve never met anyone like you two.”
Sophia didn’t give anything away with her Mona Lisa smile. “Let me get my coat and hat. Bettye lives right around the curve so it’s not a long walk, but I don’t want her to fall in the snow. It’s brutal out there tonight.”
He checked the windows, wondering what was hiding in those woods. “We’ll get her home. Think she’ll be safe?”
“She’s been living on this mountain alone since her husband died about fifteen years ago. She can take care of herself, but...if there is someone out there lurking around, I’ll be worried about her.”
His mind raced ahead as he did another visual. It was near impossible to see beyond the banks of thick white snow. “Should she stay with you, too?”
“She won’t. Bettye likes her privacy, same as me. Most of the people who live up here keep to themselves unless we plan to have a dinner or get-together. But Bettye has been a good friend to me.”
“I’ll keep watch between the two of you,” he said on a decisive note. And in the meantime, he’d try to decipher who was telling the truth and who wasn’t.
“You two gonna stand by that fire all night or are you gonna walk a feeble old woman home?”
“Coming,” Sophia called.
He watched as she wrapped her bright blue scarf around her neck and tucked it into her coat. “Oh, she also has a dog that usually tags along with her. She won’t let him out too long in this weather, so he didn’t come over here with her tonight.”
“He mighta bit you,” Bettye added. “Only he can’t see and he can’t really hear good. A lot like me, I reckon.”
“But he protects you,” Sophia said on an empathetic breath.
Bettye nodded. “Bandit’s his name. He can still bark warnings.”
“Good.” Adan took that comment as a personal warning to him. Or maybe to anyone in hiding around here.
He mulled it over and then put on his own coat and opened the door. The storm was full-blown now. Fat white flakes danced around under the porch light like bits of lost lace. The soft sound of snow hitting the woods didn’t bring him any peace. It was a bitter, unforgiving night.
And it didn’t help that a man who’d long ago given up on any decency might be somewhere out in those woods. If he was, he probably wouldn’t survive for long. And like a dangerous animal, he’d turn on anyone who encountered him or tried to stop him.
They all stood on the porch while Bettye got her bearings.
“I shoulda marked the way,” she said, squinting into the night, her flashlight beam hitting dark tree trunks and thick hedges. “I guess we’ll find our way if we hold on to each other. That’s what my Walter used to say to me. Too bad it didn’t work out for us.”
“We’ll make sure we get you home,” Sophia replied. She leaned close to Adan. “She says that no matter the weather.”
Adan took Bettye’s flashlight, pain throbbing in his temples. “Let me lead and y’all hold to each other and follow.” He waited for them to huddle behind and then turned to search them with the light. “Just shout the directions to me as we go.”
“What are you doing?” Sophia asked with a frown.
“Looking for frying pans and shotguns,” he replied.
Bettye let out a hoot of laughter. “It’s gonna be a good Christmas this year. I just know it.”
CHAPTER THREE
SOPHIA HUGGED BETTYE and petted her big hound dog. “Bandit, take good care of Bettye for me, okay?”
The chocolate-colored hunting dog whimpered a reply and then pushed his nose against Bettye’s worn overcoat.
Bettye nodded and kissed Sophia on the cheek. “You’ll be all right, sugar pie.” She sent Adan a stern glance. “I don’t know a thing about a criminal on the loose around here, Mr. Ranger-Man. But this girl means the world to me and she’s been a friend to me since she moved up here a few years ago. Be kind to her.”
“We’d better get back inside,” Sophia said before Adan could form a reply.
Bettye meant well, but she could take care of herself. This man showing up had confused and surprised Sophia even though she should have known someone would find her sooner or later.
“I’ll check on you in the morning,” she told Bettye.
The older woman stood silent and waved, a knowing smile beaming on her withered face. “I’ll be right here, honey.”
Adan said good-night to Bettye, then followed Sophia, his hand on her elbow making her too aware of the fact that he would be in her tiny cabin all night. And making her all too aware that his presence did make her feel safe in spite of her fears.
She didn’t need him or anyone else taking care of her, though. She’d been on her own for so long she wouldn’t know what being taken care of might mean...and she wasn’t even sure she deserved anyone’s attention or concern. She turned and hurried off the porch before Bettye could add any more information.
“Keep your porch light on,” Adan called to Bettye. “Just in case.”
Bettye chuckled and nodded. “I’ll do that, Mr. Ranger-Man.”
Then she shut the door and turned off the light.
As they shuffled through the ankle-deep snow, he turned to Sophia. “So who else lives on this mountain besides two stubborn women?”
Sophia didn’t want to trust this man, but even though he hadn’t charged in on a white horse, she could tell he was one of the good guys. She wished she could ask him who he was looking for, but if she showed too much interest he’d see the truth in her eyes. But she could be honest with him about Crescent Mountain.
“This spot was named by a trapper who traveled the summit of the hills and decided he’d walked in a curve that made him think of a crescent moon. That somehow stuck and so this curved hillside became Crescent Mountain.”
Adan had studied several maps of the area. “It circles west of the lower White River. I can see how it got that name.”
“Yes, and it also has a reputation for being a kind of retreat since it’s so near a big national forest. Few people know about our little community. We’re pretty self-sufficient. We take turns going down the mountain to town for supplies and groceries and if someone is in need, we either take care of them or get them help at the regional medical center about forty miles from here.”
Adan didn’t respond. Maybe he thought she was issuing him a warning. Good. He needed to back off and leave her alone. She’d only give him as much information as she thought he needed.
They followed the beam of his flashlight and stayed on the path, retracing their earlier footsteps. When they reached Sophia’s yard, he moved the light over the path and out into the nearby woods. The eerie yellow glow shined brightly against the stark ghostly white curling around the trees, making Sophia feel as if shrouded fingers were reaching for her.
Sophia shuddered, the cold wet wind piercing her skin. How could anyone survive out here tonight? The temperatures had dipped well below freezing.
“We don’t normally get snow this heavy,” she said, glad to have a warm place to stay. “A rare winter storm right here before Christmas.”
She was about to go inside when she thought she saw a moving shadow just past Adan’s beaming light. He must have seen it, too. He stopped, held up the light again. Then he walked toward the encroaching woods and held the light up and out.
Nothing but trees and snow. The blanketed woods held no sounds except that of the occasional dripping of snow off drooping branches.
Sophia didn’t want to think about who might be out in those dark woods. She’d escaped death once and this isolated mountain community had taken her in, no questions asked. The Crescent, as the locals called the mountain, was known for accepting quirky characters who wanted to get away from the world. She wasn’t all that quirky, but she did want to stay hidden. She had no other choice.
Now a mountain of a man had come pushing into her quiet, safe world. And he was a man of the law. Which could only mean trouble was sure to follow. If Adan Harrison found out the real story about her, he’d haul her off in handcuffs without another word.
“What did you see out there?” she asked, trying to sound brave. But her teeth chattered from the cold. And from that deep fear she’d tried to hide for so long.
“I don’t know. Probably nothing.” Adan stomped the snow and mud off his boots. “Just the wind pushing at a tree.”
Sophia cast one last look out into the darkness. The hills and valleys beyond the level lane glistened in an eerie shimmer against the dark night. The woods were hushed and still and the snow fell in soft lacy threads that covered the ground like an icy white blanket.
How could anything evil be in such a beautiful setting?
“Let’s get inside,” Adan said, his hand on her arm.
Sophia normally didn’t allow strangers to touch her, but she didn’t push his hand away. They’d reached a tentative unspoken truce and she intended to keep it that way until this storm was over and she could decide what to do with this cowboy who’d invaded her space.
They shook off the snow then went inside to take off their coats and scarves. Sophia took Adan’s big still-warm coat and hung it on a peg by the door, her actions making her think of the kind of life she might not ever have. A life that included a husband and a family. A real Christmas.
“Want some more coffee?” she asked, tongue-tied now that she was alone with Adan Harrison.
“Yes.”
He did a quick visual of her cabin, his gaze sweeping and serious. Whoever he was after, he seemed intent on getting the job done. And intent on finding out her secrets, too.
“Can you talk about this man, the one you’re tracking?” she asked after she brought over two cups of fresh coffee.
They settled by the fire, him on the sofa and Sophia in her favorite old leather chair between the Christmas tree and the fireplace.
“That depends,” he responded. “Can you tell me if you’ve seen anyone suspicious around here?”
She shook her head, her fears about her past at bay now that things had quieted down. “Like Bettye said earlier, you’re the first stranger we’ve had all winter. We usually get lost hikers or vacationers thinking they can rent a cabin for the night, but most of us live here year-round except for one or two couples. The Burtons—one of those couples—are here now, at least through Christmas.”
“How many people?” he asked, his expression serious now.
“Bettye and me,” she said. “Jacob Miller—he’s got a bad crush on Bettye and she doesn’t even realize it. David and Karen Harper. Mostly retired people or...people who’re single. It’s a mixed bag. I’m an artist and Bettye is a collector—mostly junk, as you saw if you looked in her cabin—and Jacob builds stuff and helps us keep up the cabins. The Harpers fish and go for long walks, and the Burtons—Maggie and Arnie—they go on more rigorous hikes all over the mountain. We have a few more who rent part of the year, but they usually only show up in the summer. We come together for meals and picnics and holidays and we leave each other alone other times.”
“No odd person lurking about?”
Sophia got that uneasy feeling in her gut again, a stabbing, sick feeling. “No. We’d notice that, trust me. We’re all accounted for and we watch out for each other.”
Something snapped outside.
“The tree limbs are starting to crash,” she said, hoping that was all they’d heard. Her stomach clenched in a jittery snap of its own.
When another snap echoed against the porch, Adan got up. “Limbs, maybe, but I’d better check.” He set his coffee cup down and put a finger to his lips. “Don’t move.”
Sophia’s heart hit her chest and caught against her ribs. Was someone out there? She didn’t want to have a panic attack, but between this rugged Ranger and whomever he’d been tracking, she couldn’t help but fear the worst. And if her fears overtook her, she’d get that racing heart feeling and lose her breath. Taking a deep, calming gulp of air, Sophia willed herself to go into a silent strength.