Dodge the Bullet (21 page)

“Mrs. Woodward, call me Ben. I just heard
you’d had some trouble at your ranch. Of course I had to call and
make sure you’re okay, see if you needed anything.”

Sarah rolled her eyes as he spoke, annoyed
that he’d actually think she’d confide in him. “No, no trouble
really.” Who’d told him about her ranch and had encouraged his
calls? Tommy Thornton?

“Well, I’d say a few hundred cows escaping
through a hole in your fence would constitute some trouble. And
before you try to downplay what happened, let me assure you I know
full well how hard it is to run a ranch of your size. My family’s
been ranching for many years and a scare like that can make you
want to throw in the towel and give something else a try.”

Oh, he’d just love that now, wouldn’t he?
“We managed. Where’d you say you heard about our trouble?”

“Oh, here and there. Now, Mrs. Woodward.” He
cleared his throat. “What happened the other night isn’t out of the
norm. I know this may sound a little old fashioned, but ranching is
no business for a woman, especially one as pretty as you. I’m
willing to give you a fair price in cash whenever you’re ready to
sell. A woman like you doesn’t need to concern herself with the
dirty business of ranching.”

“Senator, I appreciate your concern, but I
rather like the ranching business. You needn’t worry.”

In the long pause before he spoke, Sarah
thought she heard him mumble under his breath.

“Just promise me if you change your mind
you’ll call me first. No one can get you out from under that ranch
faster than I can, Sarah. Just think about it.”

Oh, she’d think about it all right. Slick
Benji was up to something and it was past time she figured it
out.

###

Sarah felt guilty calling her friend because
she needed information instead of to catch up, which she’d meant to
do for months now.

“Sarah Woodward,” Senator Jack Carnes said
in his polished southern voice. “How’s it going out in the Wild
West?”

“Good, Jack. Very good. How are Cathy and
the kids?”

“Cathy’s enrolled in grad school at
Georgetown. She said we spend so much time in DC she’d rather go to
school than play the politician’s wife. I think she wanted an
excuse to get out of the parties and fundraisers.” He chuckled and
Sarah could imagine him using that excuse every time he bowed out
of a social event early. “Of course juggling her school work with
Rachel’s gymnastics and Brandt’s football schedules have been
hard.” Sarah heard him shoo away an assistant. “But enough about
us. How are you, Sarah? And I want the truth.”

Jack knew her too well to lie. “You and
Cathy are my oldest friends.”

“Hey, leave my age out of it.”

“We’re doing well, Jack.” She looked out the
window at the stunning view of the mountains. “It’s taken the boys
some time to adjust, but I think they’re coming around.”

“Even Kevin?”

“Yes, even Kevin. He’s got a girl he’s
interested in and that seems to help.”

“Damn, our kids are getting old. It’s great
to hear your voice, Sarah. Cathy and I think of you often. She’ll
be relieved to know you’re alive and kicking.”

“Thanks, Jack. I’ll call soon.” She hated to
end the banter that had characterized their relationship since
college. “Jack, I’m calling to pick your brain. For some reason,
Ben Burwick has taken an interest in my ranch. I was wondering if
you had any idea why.”

“Sweetie, it’s pretty well known monogamy’s
not his strong suit.”

“That’s not the kind of interest I’m
referring to. He’s called several times about buying my land, even
before we moved. Now he won’t leave me alone.”

“Just tell him you’re not interested in
selling.”

“I’ve already done that. As a matter of
fact, I think I’ve made myself clear. He doesn’t seem to want to
take no for an answer.” Sarah’s eyes moved toward the window,
checked for Dodge. “It’s weird, Jack. When he’s not trying to talk
me into selling, he’s offering all kinds of help to keep me afloat.
I don’t trust the man--you know what Todd thought about him. I
guess I just wanted to know if you could think of any reason why
he’s become so insistent?”

“I haven’t seen much of slick Benji for
awhile, to tell you the truth. Rumor on the hill is he’s working
some big development deal with a guy whose reputation is a little
suspect.”

“You aren’t talking about the Cooper
development are you?” Sarah felt her skin prickle in anticipation
of his answer.

“I don’t know what it’s called, but the
guy’s name is Fred Saxton.”

Sarah almost let the phone slip out of her
hand as Jack implicated the man and the development that threatened
the valley she’d come to love. “That’s the Cooper development.
People here are all up in arms about it, but I didn’t know Benji
was involved. I don’t think anybody does.”

“Well, I don’t know for sure, but the rumor
mill’s pretty accurate. Sarah, you be careful.” Jack sounded like a
protective brother. “Benji’s an idiot, but Saxton’s not. I’ve heard
him described as ruthless.”

###

Dodge sat at a booth in the diner finishing
the last of his food when Sarah found him. She slid into the booth
across from him.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m not going to
attack you.”

Dodge let out a snort. The waitress appeared
at the table and asked Sarah if she wanted anything to eat or
drink. Her service certainly improved when he had company.

“Coffee, please.”

“Me too,” Dodge said as she grabbed his
empty plate and turned to leave. “What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you.” She tucked her
purse against the wall of the booth and looked up into his
eyes.

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Ben Burwick called me this morning. He’d
heard about your cows escaping the other night and wanted to know
if I’d changed my mind about selling.” Sarah rubbed her hands
together anxiously as she talked. “He wouldn’t tell me how he’d
heard, but I guess it could have been anyone. Anyway, I got to
thinking and called my friend Jack Carnes. He’s a Senator from
Georgia and one of Todd’s best friends. He told me word was Benji’d
hooked up with a shady land developer named Fred Saxton.”

He connected the dots in his mind and
slumped against the seat. “Damn. The Cooper deal. He wants your
place for water.” Dodge rubbed the back of his neck. “Damn, I
should have figured this out sooner.”

The waitress brought their coffee, placed a
small container of milk on the table and walked away again without
a word.

“What do you think this means?” Sarah
asked.

Dodge took a deep breath, let it out. “It
probably means he’s getting desperate. I’ll bet he was the one who
cut the wire at your place, or arranged to have it cut.”

“Why now? And why would he be desperate for
my place and not another?”

“Saxton’s been trying to get Cooper off the
ground for years. My guess is he’s run out of patience.” And Dodge
knew enough about Saxton to know that he didn’t want to be around
when the man ran out of patience. “There aren’t any other river
tracts like yours for sale in the valley, none big enough to
support what he’d need. The ones that are,” he shrugged. “They’re
expensive. Really expensive”

“So you think he’d rather strong arm me into
selling than fork over the cash for the other places?”

Dodge remembered what he’d thought about
Sarah when they’d first met. Small, pampered, weak. “I’m sure he
underestimated your determination and your stubbornness.” He wasn’t
the only one.

“You think he’ll do something else, try
something drastic to convince me to sell the land?”

Dodge looked into his coffee, then up into
her eyes, wide with an innocence he couldn’t stand to shatter. He
wouldn’t lie to her. “Yes, I do.”

Sarah eased back into her seat and started
chewing on her bottom lip. A woman’s voice lifted from a nearby
table. Sarah’s eyes narrowed and then flew open wide when she
realized what she’d overheard. “That…that woman just said you…she
called you a…a murderer.”

Dodge gave the woman a seething glance
before looking back at Sarah. “You don’t have to repeat it, Sarah.
I heard what she said.”

“Aren’t you going to say something?”

Dodge just looked at Sarah with his brows
lifted.

She tried to leave the booth. “Well, I’m not
going to let her get away with tha--”

Dodge grabbed her leg and held it like a
vise under the table.

“What are you doing?”

“You’re not going to say a word to that
woman. I thought we talked about this.”

“Why do you perpetuate the idea that you’re
responsible for what happened to that girl?”

“I’m not perpetuating anything. I just don’t
feel like trying to convince people I’m not a monster. If they
can’t figure it out themselves, then screw ’um.”

Sarah sighed. “Oh, that’s mature. You don’t
let people get close enough to you to make up their own minds. You
make yourself look guilty by not defending yourself.”

“How many times do I have to explain this to
you?”

“I know, I know, you don’t care what people
think.” Sarah paused, considered. “What about the girl?”

“What girl?”

“Wendy…what’s her name.” She brushed her
hand in front of her face as if her name didn’t matter. “What if
she’s up in heaven, or not quite in heaven yet--”

Dodge cut her off by slamming his fist on
the table and fixing her with a lethal stare. She ignored him.

“From what you said,” Sarah continued, “she
was a decent person who probably got scared and tried to keep the
truth from getting out. Maybe she never expected you to marry her.
Maybe she was just trying to keep everyone from thinking she was a
slut.” She opened two sugar packets and added them to her coffee,
clinked the spoon against the edges of the cup and placed it back
on the table. “What if she’s up there, trapped between earth and
heaven and she can’t get into heaven because of all the stuff
you’re still going through down here because of what she did all
those years ago?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Have
you totally lost your mind?”

“Look, I know I sound like a loon, but…when
Todd first died, I could feel him around us. I felt him everywhere,
watching out for me and the kids. I haven’t felt him lately and I
think it’s because we’re moving on with our lives without him.”
Sarah dropped her voice to a whisper. “For the first year or so I
was so angry at him for leaving us.” Her eyes flicked to his face
and back down again. “Believe me, I know this sounds like I’ve got
a screw loose, but I feel like he’s okay now because I’m not angry
and sad all the time.” She looked up at him. “Maybe Wendy can’t
move on either. Maybe you even feel her around you, haunting you
almost, because you won’t set people straight. You keep the rumors
alive by not telling the truth.”

Dodge sat perfectly still, stared at her
through narrowed eyes, his hands clenched into fists. It was as
though she’d described his nightmare and he needed to make her stop
talking. “I don’t need you psychoanalyzing me. I never should have
told you about this in the first place.”

“I’m sorry, Dodge.” Sarah reached for his
arm as he moved to free himself of the booth. “I didn’t mean to
make you so upset.”

He didn’t look back as he thundered out of
the diner.

###

The afternoon sun stretched across the
mountains, peeked through the patchwork clouds and created shadows
that emphasized the power and magnitude of the surrounding crests.
On her drive into town, Sarah took a deep breath of fresh Colorado
air and marveled at the view. If only it could lift her spirits.
She’d seen signs of Dodge around the ranch, but she hadn’t heard
from him since she’d made that awful scene in the diner the day
before and he’d left so angry. While she wasn’t sorry about wanting
to defend him, she felt like she needed to apologize. Again.

At least things at the ranch were going
well, despite her constant worry about Benji’s next move. She’d
thought telling Dodge about Benji and Fred Sarah would prod him
into working with her to keep the ranch safe, or at the very least
force them together so they could work out the feelings she
couldn’t manage to shake since he’d touched her. She missed him.
Even when they fought with each other it was better than not
talking to him at all.

She pulled into the parking lot of the
hardware store, gathered her purse and wondered if an apology would
help Dodge move beyond their stalemate. She had to find him first,
which had proved no small feat despite the small town and close
knit community. Dodge spent so much time at her ranch where he kept
two steps ahead of her that she didn’t know what he did or where he
went when he wasn’t there. Maybe she’d get the courage to go to his
dad’s house and corner him. As she stepped onto the sidewalk, she
noticed his truck across the street in the parking lot. She looked
at her watch. Lunchtime; of course he’d be at the diner.

Sarah jogged across the street and then
hesitated before opening the door to the place where everybody knew
everybody and nobody’s business was sacred. She didn’t want to
confront him in a public place and on his turf. Hailey had never
felt as much like his turf as it did today when they hadn’t come to
town together and she knew he’d be less than thrilled to see
her.

Her stomach felt tight with anticipation and
nerves, but she couldn’t back away. Better to apologize and let him
deal. She pulled on the door and heard the familiar jingle of the
bells that hung from the hinges.

Most times the sound of the jingle had
everyone in the restaurant looking to see who’d come. But today,
the bells didn’t attract any attention because there seemed to be
some kind of commotion by the register. Without even realizing
she’d moved, Sarah stepped inside and stood gaping at Dodge, his
shoulders back, his face flushed, his voice a loud boom of
disputation.