A Randall Returns

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Mike Davis stood outside the Sheriff’s Office on Main Street in Rawhide. The cold, frosty morning was quite different from those he’d known back in Chicago. Not the temperature, but the clean air, the lack of traffic, the friendly waves from passersby. Yes, he thought, Rawhide, Wyoming, was light-years away from the big city.

A few weeks ago he’d made a momentous change in his life when his uncle had called him. Bill Metzger had been Rawhide’s sheriff for two decades, until sidelined by a sudden heart attack. Though he’d survived, it kick-started his retirement, and he was moving to Arizona, looking for lots of warmth and no stress.

But he wanted to leave the town of Rawhide safe. So he’d called Mike. A former army M.P. and then a Chicago policeman, Mike was Bill’s choice of successor based on ability, not nepotism. Uncle Bill—actually he was Mike’s second cousin—had told him he had a year before the next election. By then, the citizenry would love him and he’d be a shoo-in to win the position.

Mike drew another deep, icy breath and looked
around the town he’d sworn to protect. Compared to Chicago, this little town in the middle of Wyoming was downright peaceful. He walked down Main Street, looking at the two-story structures, many with wooden porches, and greeted the townsfolk who ventured out this early on a December morning.

He noticed an SUV parked at a snug house on the next street. It had Illinois plates.

That house had been pointed out to him specifically. Jake Randall, one of Bill’s old friends, had asked Mike to keep an eye on it. He’d bought the place for his daughter, who was due home soon.

Though Jake hadn’t said where she was living, Mike assumed she was coming home from college—probably from the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Most of the local kids went there. Besides, Mike couldn’t imagine anyone from Wyoming moving to Illinois. And he wouldn’t expect some college girl to drive a big SUV.

With a frown, he stepped off the wooden porch of the sandwich shop and crossed to the back street. He found the door of the house ajar. Drawing his gun, he stepped quietly into the living room. He couldn’t help but notice the house was fully furnished and very attractive. If he hadn’t known the Randalls had money, he’d know it now.

A sound from the next room had him stepping quietly behind the open door. A slim woman with long dark hair and beautiful skin came into view. This was no college coed, Mike thought. In fact, she looked to be around thirty. Not Jake’s daughter, obviously, so why was she in Randall’s house?

“Stop right there and put your hands up!” He waited for her to comply, but she didn’t. Glaring at him, she walked forward calmly and confidently.

“Who are you?”

“Sheriff Davis. Who are you?”

“Where is Sheriff Metzger?”

“Lady, I’m arresting you for breaking and entering. Put your hands behind your back.” Again he waited for her to do as he asked.

“You’ve got to be kidding!”

“Do you have any ID?”

“No, I don’t. Want to frisk me?”

Her flippant response irritated Mike. He took his work seriously, and she was thumbing her nose at him.

He grabbed her arm and whirled her around. Before she knew what was happening, he had her in cuffs. Then, as she’d suggested, he briskly frisked her.

“Don’t touch me!” she shouted.

“Lady, I have to do my job. Let’s take a little walk to the jail. You can make your one phone call there.”

She gave him an icy stare. “Oh, yeah. I can’t wait.”

Mike normally would have questioned her first, but her attitude annoyed him. If she wanted to play hardball, disrespect his badge, she’d have to pay the price.

At the office, only one deputy was in yet. Mike waved at him and took the angry young woman to his office. “Give me the number and I’ll dial it for you.”

She lifted her chin. “For your sake, I’ll call Jon Wilson, but I don’t know his number.”

Mike frowned. “For my sake?”

“Yes. Do you know the number?”

“Yeah, I do.” He dialed it and asked for Dr. Wilson. “Jon? It’s Mike Davis. I arrested a woman in that house Jake Randall owns. She wanted me to call you for her one phone call.

“Here she is,” he said, after Jon agreed to speak to her.

“Hi, Jon,” the woman said softly. “I’m here.”

After a moment, she stepped away from the phone. “He’s coming right over.”

Mike frowned again. “Why would he do that?”

She gave him a superior smile. “You can ask him when he gets here.”

“Fine. Can I trust you to sit quietly until he comes, or do I need to put you in a cell?”

“Suit yourself.” Instead of waiting for him to make a decision, she sank down in the chair beside his desk like a model, showing off her slim legs below a suede skirt.

Mike had a niggling feeling he’d been set up.

The door to the office flew open and Tori Wilson, a Randall and now Jon’s wife, screamed, “Caroline!” She hugged the woman in handcuffs. “What happened?”

“You’ll have to ask this Mickey Mouse sheriff. What happened to Sheriff Metzger?”

Mike stiffened, gritting his teeth. To respond to her taunts would do no good.

“Caroline! Why are you acting like this? Sheriff Metzger retired because of a heart attack. This is his cousin, Sheriff Davis.”

Anger colored Caroline’s face. “Why do you think I’m acting like this? I’m in cuffs!”

“Didn’t you tell him who you are?” Jon asked from the doorway.

“I didn’t see the need.” She turned and stared at Mike again.

“Sheriff, I’ll clear this up. There’s no need—” Jon began, but a noise outside the office stopped him. “Uh-oh.”

“What’s wrong?” Mike asked, taking a step forward.

When he saw the big man who entered into the office, he didn’t need Jon’s answer. Jake Randall. From the look on Jake’s face as he took in the scene and turned hard eyes on him, Mike knew the woman in cuffs was none other than Jake’s beloved daughter, who was going to live in that house. Mike figured his career as sheriff of Rawhide was going to be short-lived.

“Caroline!” Jake exclaimed, rushing to embrace the young woman. Then he turned to Mike. “Why is she in handcuffs?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Randall. I didn’t know she was your daughter. I saw an out-of-state SUV outside the house, and the door open. I caught her inside.”

“Didn’t she identify herself?”

“No, sir. I asked for ID. She didn’t provide any. Nor did she give me her name.” Mike drew a deep breath and reached for the key to release the cuffs.

Before he could do so, however, Jake stopped him. “She gave you lip, didn’t she?”

Mike gave a small smile. “None that I haven’t heard before. I apologize for—”

“You have nothing to apologize for.” He turned to his daughter. “Caroline, you know better than to act like this. You’re the one who should apologize.”

Mike stared at the man. Someone who stood up for the law instead of his own child? That was rare.

“Okay, so I should’ve told him, but he upset me. He acted as if I was a criminal. Sheriff Metzger would never have—”

“No, he wouldn’t have, because he knew you. All you had to do was identify yourself to Sheriff Davis. Instead, you caused all this commotion. I’m ashamed of you, young lady.”

She turned and, much to Mike’s surprise, apologized. “I’m sorry, Sheriff Davis. I was in a bad mood and I took it out on you.”

“I think you should keep her locked up for twenty-four hours,” Jake told Mike.

“Dad!” Caroline Randall said, obviously startled by her father’s response. “You wouldn’t—”

“
I
wouldn’t keep you overnight, Miss Randall. Our jail is not for childish pranksters.” Mike turned her around and unlocked the cuffs. Then he indicated the door with a nod of his head.

“My apologies, Sheriff,” she said again. “And by the way, it’s
Dr.
Randall. I’ll be partnering with Jon at the clinic.”

Her words were polite, but she clearly hadn’t forgiven him for not bowing down and bringing flowers.

“I’m sure you’ll be very welcome, Dr. Randall.” Mike turned and extended his hand to Jake. “I apologize for misunderstanding the situation.”

“It wasn’t your fault. Don’t think any more about it,” Jake exclaimed.

“Yes, sir.” Mike breathed a sigh of relief. He’d already fallen in love with Rawhide. The thought of going back to Chicago gave him a headache.

C
AROLINE WANTED TO CRY
as she got into her father’s truck. She’d disappointed him. “I really am sorry, Dad.”

“I don’t understand why you acted that way. We taught you to respect the law. What happened?” He looked at her. “Was it living in the big city?”

“No, Dad,” she said with a sigh. “It’s just…transitions are hard.”

After a moment of silence, Jake, with a heavy heart, said, “You didn’t want to come home.” It wasn’t a question.

Caroline sniffed back tears. “Not exactly. I want to see everyone, but…I’m alone. I don’t have a family. I won’t have a lot of time. And I—I don’t know how I’ll fit in!”

“What are you talking about, honey? You’ve got family all over the place!”

“No family of my own, I mean.”

“Who do you think your mother and I are?” Jake roared, clearly getting upset.

The last thing she needed was to have her father angry at her. “Oh, Dad, you know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t!”

She didn’t explain. She couldn’t. She adored her father, so much so that she never wanted to disappoint him. So she hid the truth. And that was why she should’ve stayed in Chicago.

“Well?”

“I can’t explain, Dad. I’ll—I’ll talk to Mom!”

“Why her and not me?” He sounded hurt, which made her feel doubly guilty.

“She’s a woman. It’s hard to explain to a man.”

Jake didn’t look happy, but he said nothing.

“Where is Mom, by the way? She didn’t want to come with you?”

“She’s on a call out at the Johnson ranch. Sick cattle, I hear. She only works part-time now, but she traded days to be here tomorrow when you were supposed to arrive. Red was baking a chocolate cake, and Mildred was making a big chicken spaghetti casserole. You know, the kind you love.”

“Oh, dear. I’ve ruined everything, haven’t I?”

He didn’t spare her. “Pretty much.” Then he added, “By the way, your mom and all your aunts worked hard to make the house nice. If you don’t like it, lie.”

“Oh no, Dad. I love it. It’s…it’s wonderful, especially the office.”

“Good. They only had a couple of months, you know. As soon as they finished the wedding, they started in on the house.”

“How are Jim and Patience?” She remembered how happy her uncle Chad’s son Jim had sounded when he’d told her about Patience. Though glad for him, she couldn’t help but feel sorry that she hadn’t found someone herself. And never would.

“Good,” her dad replied. “They’re living in Red and Mildred’s old house.”

“That’s what Mom said.”

“How long you been feeling this way?”

At his abrupt change of topic Caroline gave her father a sharp look before averting her eyes. “What way?”

“Like you didn’t want to come home. I’m figuring four years. Am I right?”

With a sigh, she said, “Yes, Dad. Four years.”

“Right after that accident you were in?”

She nodded.

Her father didn’t say anything else as he drove the truck up to the house. She sat up straight, cleared her throat and said, “I’ll be sure to apologize to everyone for surprising them a day early.”

Again he didn’t reply.

With relief, Caroline recognized her mother’s vehicle. “Mom’s back!”

Within seconds, B.J. Randall came bounding out of the house. She was in such a hurry she didn’t even put on a coat.

Caroline threw herself from the truck into her mother’s arms. Tears flowed as they held each other close. When B.J. finally released her, Jake put his arm around his wife.

“You’re not wearing a coat, honey. Come on in the house before you get sick.”

B.J. laughed at him but she willingly turned toward the house, one arm around her husband’s waist and the other around Caroline.

Inside, Red and Mildred hugged her, as did her younger brother, Josh, and her half brother, Toby, who held his toddler daughter. Caroline raved to the aunts
about her new house, letting them all know she appreciated their efforts. Noticing her new cousin-in-law, Patience, standing off to the side, she greeted her, too. She’d known Jim’s wife, Patience, before but they hadn’t been good friends because Patience was much younger.

But Caroline did remember her sister, Faith, and expressed sorrow about Patience’s loss. And she welcomed her to the family.

“Okay, okay, you’ve greeted everyone. Now come upstairs with me,” her mother insisted.

Caroline readily agreed, but she felt her father’s gaze on her. She faced him and nodded slightly. Yes, she would tell her mom why she’d been reluctant to come home. And her mother would tell Jake. They never kept secrets from each other.

Caroline followed her upstairs to her parents’ sitting room. “Oh, Mom, you look good. How’s everything?”

“Everything’s fine, dear, especially since you’ve come home.”

Caroline sighed. “Dad’s already talked to you, hasn’t he?”

Her mother nodded. “While you were greeting everyone else. He said you wouldn’t tell him why you didn’t want to come home. Are we too…provincial, too much in the sticks, for you?”

“Never, Mom. I love all of you, I love the ranch and I love Rawhide.”

“Then why have you refused to come home for the past four years?” She steadily gazed at her daughter, waiting.

Caroline shrugged. “My schedule was so hectic and—”

She stopped because her mother was shaking her head.

“The truth, please, Caro.”

Caroline sighed. “You always could tell if I tried to slip one by you,” she said with a small smile. “The problem has nothing to do with the family, or with Rawhide. Well, not really. It’s me, Mom.” Tears welled in her eyes, but she fought them.

“Darling, what are you talking about? There’s nothing wrong with you!”

“Yes, there is.” Caroline bowed her head, gathering strength for what she had to say. “Mom, when I was in that wreck, I sustained permanent injury.” Gooseflesh rose on her skin merely from thinking about the crash that had demolished her car and put her in the hospital for a week. A couple had run a red light and blindsided her. It had happened so fast she hadn’t known what had hit her, until she was told in the hospital.