The moon shone as full and lucent as a spotlight

The dogs had trotted along and threaded underfoot and the boys were as bad as Granny’s billy goats, leaping around on the jagged rocks in the dark. Seth had to grab at a couple of shirt collars and haul them back from the ledge. Finally they all settled down under the vast night sky for some stargazing.

“Boys, look,” Rainey said. “That’s Arcturus.” She pointed. “And that’s Andromeda. Orion. And those— Granny calls those the seven sisters.”

While she was speaking a shooting star cut through the dark sky low on the horizon.

“Wow! Did you see that?” Dillon poked Seth’s shoulder excitedly. Maddy signed his wonder near Rainey’s face in the dark.

Even Aaron looked enthralled. While Rainey was watching Aaron, Seth was watching her. At one point they exchanged a glance of protective accord over the boys’ heads, and Rainey wondered what it would be like, how it would feel, to raise children with the kind of man who would take them up on a mountain to look at the stars.

Dear Reader,

Seth Whitman and Rainey Chapman form a family with three needy young boys under most unusual circumstances in a most unusual setting.

The Winding Stair Mountains in southeastern Oklahoma have an enduring mystery and beauty that civilization cannot touch. Just hearing the names of the landmarks in that area stirred my imagination: Black Fork Mountain, Talimena Drive, The Runestones.

I had to see this remote corner of my state up close. So with my best friend from high school riding shotgun, I took off on a road trip. As we checked out the towns, the historic sites, the flora and fauna, the dark rivers and hidden waterfalls, we discovered that the real treasures in southeastern Oklahoma are the people. The preachers and the cowboys and the artists who live there today are as fascinating as the outlaws and the Native American chiefs and the Vikings who passed through in the old days.

All this color and beauty and lore became like a kaleidoscope that I twisted and twisted until I came up with Granny’s mountain home and the town of Tenikah…the perfect place for Seth and Rainey to fall in love and find a family.

I’d love to hear from you! Contact me at P.O. Box 720224, Norman, OK 73070 or visit my Web site, www.darlenegraham.com. While you’re there, be sure to take a peek at my upcoming Texas trilogy.

My best,

Darlene Graham

An Accidental Family
Darlene Graham

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For my lifelong friend, Susan Camp.

Thank you for exploring the Winding Stair Mountains

with me. Our adventures seem never to end!

CONTENTS

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

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER ONE

THE FACE OF HIS BROTHER rose up to haunt Seth Whitman as he crouched alone in the dark. For some reason he always envisioned Lane the way he looked in the old black-and-white photo that hung on the wall of the field house, a cocky seventeen-year-old football hero, immortalized along with every other All-State player to graduate from Tenikah High. There was no black-and-white portrait of Seth’s face up on that wall, and he was glad of it. Since the day Coach Hollings had ripped his picture down, Seth had been the outsider and always would be.

The snap of a twig somewhere in the dark rock formations that surrounded him snuffed the memories. Alert to any sound that might be the movement of humans, he listened but heard nothing except the throaty roar of the river below, and from behind, the tinkle of seeping water inside the caves.

He eased back down into the dark niche to resume his vigil.

His sweat-soaked uniform chafed like leather beneath his Kevlar bulletproof vest as the fingers clutching the stock of his shotgun tightened into a choke hold. An old hatred burned suddenly alive again in the pit of his gut.

He sensed the presence of his brother’s murderers as palpably as he sensed the dying traces of summer in the air. Waiting for them was excruciating.

He swiped at a trickle of sweat slithering down his throat. The temperature had spiked above a hundred today, rare in the densely forested mountains of southeastern Oklahoma, even in August. When it got this hot, the trees seemed to wilt and the sandstone cliffs and winding blacktop roads refused to release their heat even after the sun slid behind the ridgelines. He’d bet his pickup that the temperature hadn’t dropped ten degrees since sundown.

Another twig snapped.

He pinpointed the sound to one of the smaller caves up the ledge, and made his way to the entrance with the deadly focus of a mountain cat. He shielded himself behind a rock, leveled his shotgun at his shoulder and yelled, “Freeze!” as he snapped on the halogen light mounted on the gun.

Snared in the cone of light were three boys. Middle school age, maybe ten or twelve. One looked slightly older. They were huddled just inside the mouth of the cave, the one in front wielding a knife in his bloodied hand. The way the big one pressed the other two back with one arm, glaring at Seth, reminded him of the time he and Lane had trapped three baby raccoons when they were kids growing up in these Kiamichi hills. The coons had toddled into the trap in one hungry clump, and when Seth bent down to peer into the cage, the male had herded the two little females behind his back and hissed. Seth and Lane had collapsed laughing.

But this wasn’t funny. The Slaughter brothers were up in these caves somewhere, and now he’d stumbled on a bunch of freaked-out kids.

“Police,” Seth said calmly. “Drop the knife.”

“Police, my ass,” the bigger boy snarled. “You want this knife, buddy? You come and get it.” Seth realized the boy couldn’t see beyond the glare of light.

He switched on his shoulder mike. “Jake, come in.”

When the radio crackled back with Jake’s voice— “Any sign of the Slaughters?”—the boy looked astonished.

“Drop it,” Seth repeated. The kid tossed the knife at his feet.

Seth hit the mike switch again. “No, but I found three kids in a cave. One’s hurt. Come on around.”

The boys looked roughed up—dirty, sweaty, scratched. The big one had bled all over the knife. The smaller two were bound, hands behind their backs, with duct tape.

Seth sheathed the shotgun at his back as he approached them. “Are you kids from the camp?” Big Cedar Camp was for troubled youth, but these guys looked too shell-shocked to be a threat.

“You’re a cop?” The tall one’s voice was deep one second, high-pitched the next. He was a good-looking kid, with even, darkly Hispanic features and well-developed muscles. Right now he was as agitated as the devil. “Then listen! Some creeps tied us up! You got to catch them.”

“First things first,” Seth said as he used the knife to cut the tape off the other two. One was thin as a reed, with messy brown hair and frightened brown eyes. The other was a little chunk—curly red hair, deep-set blue eyes that had a spooked look about them. Neither one said a word, but as soon as their hands were loose they started flashing sign language.

“Yeah.” The bigger kid nodded as he read his friends’ signing. “They’re twins or brothers or somethin’. Look-alikes. Big red beards.” He made a pulling motion at his chin.

There were more hand signals from the other two. “Yeah. Real weirdos,” the Hispanic kid agreed.

Seth knew, without even hearing the description, that the kids were talking about the Slaughters. “What are you guys doing up here?”

The Hispanic kid shot his comrades a guilty look. “We didn’t mean no trouble. We just sneaked out to explore the caves, and next thing we knew, those guys caught us and tied us up. They’re way back in one of those caves up there.” He pointed up the cliff. “Aiming to dig up those bones,” he blurted, before his eyes shifted, and he clammed up.

Seth narrowed his gaze at the kid. He suspected some kind of lie here. How would the boy know what the Slaughters were aiming to do? Seth would get to the truth sooner or later. He usually did. The last seven years had been one long pursuit of the truth. Many times he had searched this endless warren of caves, looking for bones himself. And many times he had come up empty-handed, ending up staring out over the valley, torturing his mind, seeing Lane’s young face on that wall.

If Seth could find those bones, he’d have the evidence he needed to nail the Slaughters for Lane’s death. The famous missing motive. The defense attorney in the Slaughters’ manslaughter trial had argued that the twins had no motive to intentionally kill a cop. And Seth was never allowed to tell the story of his last conversation with his brother to the jury. “Inadmissible hearsay,” the judge had ruled. That’s when Seth had started to give up on the law. Or rather, that’s when he’d begun to use the law like a weapon to punish the Slaughters.

Although the kid’s statement did not surprise him, it sickened him. So Lane was right. And now Lonnie and Nelson Slaughter had returned to this high, rock-embedded cavity in Purney’s Mountain to finish what they’d started. The place was shaped like a giant grotto, with jagged, towering walls of layered sandstone black with age, etched by seeping water and pocked by caves that had hidden the brothers’ dirty secret well—until now.

“They hit Maddy on the head,” the boy said urgently. “He’s hurt bad.”

Sure enough, the skinny kid had a pretty sizable goose egg developing under his tousled brown hair. Seth checked the big one’s cut hands, too. Then he hit the button on his shoulder radio for dispatch.

“Amy, come in. I’ve intercepted some runaways from Big Cedar Camp. One’s got a bad bump on the head and another needs stitches. Send paramedics with transport, bottom of Purney’s Mountain.”

Jake arrived, wheezing and out of breath from the climb. Unfortunately, Seth’s partner didn’t keep himself in shape the way Seth did. There were a lot of guys like Jake in Tenikah, former defensive players on the football team. Encouraged to bulk up as teens, they found their muscle turned to fat they couldn’t shed as they aged.

“Now here’s a fine situation,” Jake drawled as he eyed the three frightened youngsters.

They got the kids’ names. Dillon. Maddy. Aaron. Found out the reason the big kid was doing all the talking. Maddy was deaf and mute. Aaron was just plain mute. “He don’t talk to nobody. Not never,” was how Dillon explained it. So that’s what all the hand signals were about.

They could describe the Slaughters, but they couldn’t tell Seth which cave they were in. “It’s dark back in those caves,” Dillon said, “and they was dragging us around like feed sacks.”

The kids had escaped because Dillon was sporting a contraband knife. “But I couldn’t fight ’em both,” he explained. “So we waited, and when those guys went back to finish digging up the…uh, we put our backs together and Maddy wiggled my knife out of my boot and cut my hands free.” That explained the lacerations. “I cut our feet loose and we ran. We hid in here when we heard a noise. We thought you was some more bad guys.”

“Good thinking,” Seth said. But now they had to get the kids out of here. “Jake, you take them down. I called for an ambulance.”

“You’re not going after Lonnie and Nelson by yourself,” Jake challenged. Seth knew this was coming.

“You have a better plan?” He pulled his shotgun out of the sling. “If somebody gets shot trying to escape, so be it.”

“You know how that’ll look? You bringing the dead bodies of the two guys who killed your brother down off this mountain? Seth, it could cost you your badge—”

“Then they can have my badge.”

“What about Rainey?” the Dillon kid interrupted.

“Rainey?” The two cops turned on him.

“Our counselor from camp. Rainey Chapman. She might be out looking for us right now. She’s done it before. What if those guys find her, too?”

“That settles it. I’m going up.” Seth turned the volume down on the mike. “I’ll stay in touch by radio.”

Jake gave him a grudging nod. Then he and the boys went one way—down—and Seth went the other—up.

Rainey Chapman. As Seth crept along the ledge, he tried to imagine what kind of woman would go tearing through these woods alone in search of three runaway boys. Whoever she was, he would have to get to the Slaughter brothers before they got to her.

He turned to peer upward over one shoulder, toward the edge of the high cliff that surrounded him in a dark horseshoe. A late August moon rose high above the ridge, and against its white spotlight, Seth couldn’t make out any movement under the black cowl of trees. But if the Slaughters were in one of these caves, they could only get out by coming down this ledge, or by using ropes to scale back up the cliff. If the woman came looking for the boys in the caves, she’d have to skirt this ledge, as well. He positioned himself strategically for either occurrence and waited again.

It seemed as if he’d spent half his life waiting, trying to assemble the pieces of a puzzle that refused to fit. He’d waited for Lonnie and Nelson Slaughter to get out of prison. Waited for them to come back here and make a move. Waited for the day—or the night—when they’d lead him to the last piece. This day. This night.

He ran a sweaty palm over his thigh again. His quad muscles were knotting up like bundles of barbed wire. He’d pulled them good scrambling up over the boulders at the base of the cliff in the dark. But years of ignoring rodeo injuries had disciplined his body well. If only he could ignore the memories churning through his mind.

His decision to avenge his brother’s death had seemed so cold, so clean at the time. But now that it had come down to this—hiding in these rocks, ready to kill or be killed—the weight of it all closed in. He glanced at the badge that gleamed dully in the moonlight like a shiny lie.

Despite certain well-honed skills, Seth didn’t feel like a lawman. He knew that in truth he was nothing more than a predator, seeking one thing and one thing only—now going on seven years past. Sometimes he could actually feel his fingers closing around the Slaughter brothers’ beefy necks.

A stealthy sound from above made his spine tense.

Slowly, he eased up, clutching the shotgun, and stepped out of his cave, listening.

The skin on the back of his neck prickled as he heard labored breathing, then a harsh curse, then excited shouting. “Lonnie! The kids got away!”

A second guttural voice hissed a foul curse. A ray of light flared over the edge of the cliff and Seth flattened himself against the rock. “We’ll have to catch ’em later. We gotta get the stuff up first.”

Rustling. Grunting. The strained voice calling, “More rope!”

Seth saw a rappelling rope bouncing out over the side of the cliff not twenty feet to his left. By damn, the fools were right above him.

As he listened to the crunch of boots on the wall of rock above, a new sound demanded his attention. Someone down the slope, gasping for breath. He spotted the flare of another flashlight ricocheting off the rocks below, as a female voice—high-pitched, hysterical—called out, “Dillon! Is that you up there? Dillon! I see your flashlight! Answer me!”

Great. Now the little counselor, or social worker, or whatever she was, shows up. Seth focused on the flare of the light as it grew brighter, closer. She was on the ledge now.

He eased himself around a boulder and in the next instant she “turned into his hand,” as bull riders liked to say. Before she could lurch away, he’d clamped her firmly in the vise of his arms. With one hand clasped across her mouth, he dragged her backward into the small hole in the wall.

She flailed wildly, skinny arms and legs and the flashlight dangling from its wrist strap all whacking him in the arm, in the head and certain other places that made a man grit his teeth. When he removed the hand from her mouth long enough to wrest the flashlight out of her grip, she screamed, “Boys! Help!”

He flicked off the light, tossed it on the ground.

“Let me go!” she howled.

“Shh,” he hissed as he clamped the hand back over her mouth. With the shotgun pressed across her middle like a crowbar, he forced her to be still against him. She was so small that he could have broken her in half if he had a mind to, which only galvanized his urge to protect her.

“It’s okay,” he whispered in her ear. “I’m a cop.” He folded his arms tighter around her and was relieved when her struggling ceased. He held her backside pressed against his trunk in that fetal embrace for a few endless, tense seconds while he listened to Lonnie and Nelson above, yelling curses and scrambling away, back up the cliff. Then came the sound of a rattletrap engine firing to life, tires spinning away on a gravel road.

When at last there were no more sounds, Seth maneuvered his foot to scrape her flashlight within reach. He bent to snatch it up, switched it on and twisted the ray around so he could get a good look at her.

He raked the beam up and down her slender form. She was fully clothed—jean shorts, baggy white T-shirt, running shoes. No visible blood. But she was covered in dirt, and every inch of her was trembling. Her long blond hair was a tangled mess. She wasn’t wearing any makeup or jewelry, as far as he could see. Except for some scrapes and the dirt, she looked like a woman who’d just climbed out of bed. Even with terror contorting her features, he could see she was a genuine beauty.

And she was strong, too. She managed to wrench one hand free, tearing at his fingers on the shotgun.

“Woman!” He thrust the gun up high, out of her reach. “This thing’s loaded.” He flicked the safety on. “Listen to me,” he demanded, but held his voice to a harsh whisper. “I said I’m the law. And those weren’t your boys up there. Those are dangerous men who’ll likely kill us if they find us in here.” He turned her jaw toward the glint of his badge in the oblique light. “I am not gonna hurt you.”

“Mmmfp!” Her eyes bugged at the badge. She twisted her face against his hand and looked into his eyes, trying to speak.

“Okay. But keep your voice down. They could circle back.”

She nodded and he slid his hand away.

“A c-cop?” she coughed out. Her face was flushed and her full lips looked parched from thirst.

“Yes.”

“Well, you scared the hell out of me!” For a second Seth thought she might hit him, but instead she whirled to face him, and clutched the bulletproof vest in both fists. He reared back. He wasn’t used to people messing with his person, at least while he was on duty. “Lady—”

But she only yanked him harder. “You have got to help me…the boys… I can’t find them!”

She started babbling ninety miles a minute about the three boys, how she’d found their beds empty again, how they couldn’t be far. About pennies on the railroad track. About getting lost in the caves. The woman was near hysteria. For one irrational second a shot of adrenaline hit Seth as he wondered if the Slaughter brothers had harmed her. Harmed her the way they’d harmed KayAnn Rawls.

“Did they hurt you?” He shone the light up and down her body again. No welts. No cuts and bruises from a beating.

“Who?” She winced as he shoved her hair back to get a better look at a scrape on her forehead.

“Those men.”

“No!” She batted his hand away, seeming annoyed by his examination. “No one’s hurt me. You’re not listening!” Her voice rose. “Some little boys are missing!”

He lowered the flashlight. “Keep your voice down. The boys are fine.”

Her jaw dropped. “The boys—”

Seth pressed the switch on his shoulder mike. “Jake. Come in.”

Instantly, his partner’s voice crackled in response. “Where are you, buddy?”

“In a cave. I’ve got the counselor. I’m bringing her down. But the Slaughters got away. Call for some backup to intercept them. Probably coming down Purney’s Road.”

“Got it. I haven’t gotten much out of the kids. The talkative one clammed up. And I don’t know sign language.”

Rainey Chapman seemed to be still recovering from her shock. “The boys are…? You’re…? You mean you found them already?”

“Yes. They’re in an ambulance, at the base of this mountain.”

“Oh, thank God!” She pressed a palm over her heart, wilting with relief. He steadied her with a light hand to her back. She was shaking worse than his aunt Junie’s nervous poodle. The counselor looked up at him and her eyes grew wide as something hit her with such impact that he could see, even in the oblique light, their unique green shade. “Did you say they’re in an ambulance?”

“One of the boys got a bump on the head. Nothing serious. One’s got some cuts on his hands. They’re more scared than hurt. They’ll be okay.”

Her lips trembled as if she were struggling not to cry. “No, they won’t. You don’t know these children. They shouldn’t have been running around in these woods. I should have called—” Her eyes grew wide. “Who called the police?”

“Nobody. We were up here on a manhunt and came upon the boys by accident.”

“A manhunt? After those men?”

“I was hoping to apprehend them. Unfortunately, I didn’t get them before they tied up your boys.”

She gasped. “Tied them up?”

“With duct tape. Luckily, the kids escaped. Like I told you, those men are dangerous.”

“But why would they tie up the boys?” She stared at him with a look of wild-eyed horror.

“Because the kids saw some things they shouldn’t have seen, some things those men have been hiding for a very long time, I’m afraid.”

“Hiding something? What?”

“I’ll explain once we’re safely out of here.” Once he decided how much she needed to know. He pulled on her arm.

But she resisted, pressing a shaky hand to her temple. “Oh, this is all my fault. Those kids have suffered enough trauma without this.”

Seth frowned. A little on the dramatic side, wasn’t she? She was the boys’ counselor, not some savior, and certainly not the one who’d caused the trauma that had put the boys in her care in the first place. “Aren’t you being a little hard on yourself?”

“No. I should never have tried to find them by myself.” She started to tremble so hard he feared she’d collapse.

He slid an arm around her shoulders. Not the most professional thing to do, maybe, but he wasn’t inclined to let the poor little thing shake her teeth out without offering some support. His days as a cop were about done, anyway.

“I’m sorry.” She yielded in his arms as she reflexively turned to his chest.

He reached around and pressed the arm that held the shotgun to her back. He could feel her pliant softness even through his bulletproof vest. The rest of her felt as delicate as a bird. Suddenly the air inside the small cave felt too close. Suddenly Seth’s skin grew prickly with sweat.

“Come on.” He flicked the flashlight off and guided her to the fresher air outside the cave.

She had started to cry.

“It’s okay.” He held her firmly, feeling out of his depth. Crying females always made Seth want to hightail it to the barn, but he had to deal with this one. He had to find out exactly what this Rainey Chapman knew, what she’d seen. And he had to protect her. “Don’t you think the kids had some responsibility in this deal?” His voice was gentle as he ducked his head to look her in the face. “Nobody forced them to run away from the camp. They’re not exactly little.”

“They’re not adults, either,” she sniffed. “He looks mature, but Dillon’s only thirteen. And Maddy and Aaron are only eleven. They are children.”

“They look like pretty good-sized boys to me,” he said.

She straightened away from his embrace and her voice took on a note of fierce protectiveness. “These are damaged children who need special care.”

“Like some boundaries, maybe? They’re plenty old enough to know not to sneak out of the camp.” Seth was thinking about how he and Lane had both held down odd jobs by that age.

“Age has nothing to do with it. You can’t expect children to accept boundaries until they feel loved.”

Seth didn’t agree. He believed in accountability, even for kids. But this was hardly the place for a philosophical debate.

She mistook his silence for disapproval. “You can think whatever you like, but I am the one who’s responsible for these children. And it was I who handled this all wrong.”

Seth could understand how she was blaming herself for running off in a panic and searching for the children in the dark woods on her own, without notifying anyone. That was definitely a stupid thing to do. What he couldn’t understand was why she’d done it. But there would be time to sort out all the details when they got to the bottom of the hill.

“We’ve got to get you out of here.” He stuffed the flashlight in his vest and took hold of her arm, leading her forward on the ledge, craning his neck to look down the slope. “The moonlight’s too bright. They might see us on the footpath. We’ll have to stay under cover of trees. Think you can climb back down between those rocks?”

“I came up that way, didn’t I?”

He turned, and in the moonlight he could see her eyes. Again it struck him that they were very pretty.

“Just get me to that ambulance.” She met his gaze dead-on, even though there was quite a difference in their heights. “I need to see the boys right away.”

He was thinking how climbing up the open footpath with a flashlight and going down between the huge boulders in the dark were two different things, but all he said was, “Stay close then.”

As they climbed over the first of the large boulders he heard her suppress a little yelp. Instinctively, he reached back to her. “You okay?”

“I just slipped.”

“Here.” He bracketed her waist with his hands and helped her down. She felt like a tiny doll in his grasp. Her hot breath brushed against his temple as he lowered her to the ground, and he was startled by a surge of attraction.

He set her a respectable distance from him and decided keeping her engaged in talk would calm her—and him—down. “Ms. Chapman—”

“How do you know my name?” she asked.

“The boys. They figured you’d come looking for them.” He glanced back up the dark wall of rock that rose above them. “What made you come all the way up here, anyway?”

“I’ve found them here before. Twice, actually.”

“Doing what?”

“Exploring the caves.” She sighed and swiped at her sweaty brow.

“Did you see anyone else on either of those nights?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“And what about tonight?”

“Nothing except the lights. I should have realized the boys’ flashlights wouldn’t be that bright. But all I could think about was finding them so I could get them back to camp before Lyle realized they were missing.”

“Lyle Hicks?” Seth had dealt with the officious jerk, who made a big deal out of the fact that he was in charge at Big Cedar Camp. The guy’s body language always screamed “hostile.” He crossed his arms like an umpire, issued demands, didn’t like to be inconvenienced. Seth could imagine the effect a guy like Lyle had on wayward boys. He decided that for Lyle Hicks, the embarrassment of having three kids picked up by the cops would undoubtedly be more of an issue than the kids themselves.

“Lyle.” Rainey lowered her head. “Lyle and I aren’t exactly singing on the same page of the songbook. I guess you know that most of the boys who end up at Big Cedar are wards of the state. All have behavioral problems. Many have physical problems, as well. I try to help them, but Lyle, he only wants to warehouse them. He’ll never let me live this down.”

“The guy’s a prick.”

Rainey’s head snapped up, the expression in her green eyes keen now. “Yeah. He is, actually. But how’d you know?”

“We’ve been called about incidents at the camp before. Lyle seems to be more worried about damage control than the kids. Once he asked me if the media monitored our police radios.” Seth took her hand and led her on. “Is Lyle the reason you didn’t report it when the boys ran off?”

“Partly. I thought it would be enough to chastise them.”

Chastise them? If it were up to Seth, he’d chastise their backsides. Coach Hollings and his famous paddle flashed to mind.

“You have to understand how harsh the system can be,” she added. “I didn’t want them to end up… I thought I was keeping them safe with me.”

“Right.” Seth’s tone was sarcastic. “Safe.”

He had pulled her along until they reached a dropoff. He lowered himself over the edge and put the shotgun on the ground to help her down off the rock. When she had her footing, he picked up the gun and pulled her into a narrow cleft between two giant boulders. “Stay close,” he said. “It gets a little rougher now.”

The claustrophobic passage was pitch-black and so treacherously steep that they were forced to half scramble, half slide down.

Rainey used her free hand to steady herself against Seth’s back, and her touch communicated tremors of fear.

“Can’t we turn on the flashlight yet?”

“No. Even between the rocks a beam might be seen. I know where I’m going.”

Seth could find his way through these passages with his eyes closed. From the time he was old enough to ride a bike, he and Lane had explored every nook and cranny of this part of the Kiamichi Range. And he had made many trips up and down this exact passage in the years since Lane’s death, sensing that the answer he sought— KayAnn Rawls’s bones—lay up at the top of these cliffs.

KayAnn Rawls. Her name filtered through the dark passageway like an echo that he couldn’t silence. KayAnn Rawls. The trouble had started with KayAnn Rawls. For years, Seth had made it his mission to find out what had happened to Lane’s girlfriend on the night she’d disappeared. He told himself he did it for Lane’s sake. But lately he wondered if he’d carried this obsession around for so long he couldn’t let go of it even if he wanted to.

And now these boys were involved in this mess. And this woman.

“We’re okay,” he reassured her. But in his mind he had to add, for now. Because navigating down this treacherous path was sure to be the least of their problems.

CHAPTER TWO

AS MUCH AS RAINEY LOATHED confined spaces, she had bigger worries. Inching her way between giant rocks that felt tighter than a tomb, she clung to the back of the cop’s vest and hoped she wasn’t making another stupid mistake.

This guy was a cop, wasn’t he? With her imagination conjuring up thoughts about serial killers pretending to be cops so they could lure their victims into remote, dark places like this one, she forced herself to review the facts.

Badge. Bulletproof vest. Shotgun. But anyone could get their hands on such items, couldn’t they? The voice on the radio. He couldn’t fake that, could he? And he’d known her name…and Lyle’s.

Breathe, she told herself, trying to calm down. But that was hard to do when she was practically plastered against his back. His hands had been all over her from the minute she’d slammed into him, but if he hadn’t kept a firm grip on her, she would have fallen off these rocks ten times by now.

What alternative did she have but to trust this guy, at least for now? Running off into the woods like a crazy woman again?

Finally they emerged onto a level moonlit patch in the path, and she relaxed a fraction.

He resumed his questions. “What drew the boys up here?”

“Those caves. Dillon’s idea, I’m sure.”

Seth nodded. “He’s obviously the leader.”

“Some leader. He’s always getting the other two to sneak out of their cabin, steal things, vandalize property, whatever he can dream up. These aren’t normal boys, Sheriff. I suppose you figured out that Maddy is deaf.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And Aaron…well Aaron’s hard to explain. His problems are complex. Basically he’s a psychological mute. But don’t let his silence fool you, Officer— I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”

“Whitman. Seth Whitman.”

“Officer Whitman—”

“Just Seth.” Seth had never been comfortable with that “Officer” bit. His motives for becoming a cop were far from pure.

“Okay. Seth. Aaron takes in everything around him like a sponge. Maddy’s been hurt time and again because of his disability. And Dillon’s one angry boy. He can explode for no reason.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m familiar with that kind.” He’d been that kind himself once upon a time, before Coach had taken ahold of him.

“Honestly, that child.”

“He’s no child.” Seth reminded her, and felt a jerk on his hand for the mumbled remark.

He glanced back to see Rainey Chapman’s pretty mouth tight with disapproval. “Yes, he is. And even if I’m the only one who understands that, I still intend to see that he gets the same loving care that any child deserves.”

In Seth’s opinion what boys Dillon’s age needed was a little more discipline and a little less TLC. The “child” was nearly as tall as Seth, though lanky, and Seth had even noticed the beginnings of a mustache on Dillon’s upper lip. “But I take it he’s a real handful.”

She finally favored Seth with a smile. That flash of pretty teeth in the moonlight sent another surprising ripple of sensation through him. He was definitely becoming captivated by this sprite of a woman.

“More like a budding sociopath. Dillon is creative and charming and athletic. He’s everything a boy that age should be. Except he’s also a manipulative little liar.”

Not entirely, Seth suspected, although parts of his story hadn’t added up.

The terrain was not as steep now, and they were hidden from view of the cliffs by the thick canopy of trees, so he flicked on the flashlight and aimed it at the trail. She came up beside him, and he released her hand, missing her delicate clasp immediately. “So, you last saw the boys in their cabin?”

She nodded. “Around midnight.”

It was now well past two in the morning.

“When I got up to go to the bathroom. I’ve gotten in the habit of doing a bed check every few hours since the last…incident.”

“When was that?”

“Two weeks ago.”

Maybe night after night of bed checks for the last two weeks explained Rainey Chapman’s impulsive behavior. Maybe the woman was too sleep-deprived to think straight.

“What happened that time?”

“They went skinny-dipping. I happened to look in on them once, but they had made up dummies in their beds. I would never have caught them if Maddy hadn’t slipped up. He was signing to Dillon at breakfast the next morning. Aaron and Dillon learned ASL so they could talk to Maddy—”

“ASL?”

“American Sign Language. Maddy prefers it to Signing Exact English. The boys are quite clever with it. They do it so fast, it’s almost like a secret language, you know? Anyway, Dillon slapped at Maddy’s hands, but not before I saw that he was saying something about swimming at the old train bridge—that’s where they’d gone that time.”

“So you can read sign language— ASL—as well?” That would be useful.

“That’s part of the reason I got this job. But boy, was I wrong about helping these kids. I was living in la-la land. Reliving my own childhood.”

“You had a troubled childhood?” Seth frowned at her. He could identify with that.

Her expression clouded for only an instant before she covered up with a light laugh. “No! I’m talking about how I played in the out-of-doors. Out here, in these mountains.”

“You grew up around here?” He’d guess they were about the same age. There was only one high school in the area—the massive one in Tenikah. He would have remembered any girl this beautiful. He was certain he’d never seen Rainey Chapman before tonight.

“Only in the summers. Long story. Anyway, I thought it would be so wonderful to be out here in the country, helping disadvantaged children get in touch with nature. Helping them heal and grow and reach their potential. Turning lives around. Saving the universe, et cetera, et cetera.” She let out another little self-deprecating laugh.

Seth smiled. He liked the way this woman talked, the way she laughed.

“Ouch!” She stumbled on the dark path and clutched his arm.

“You okay?” He pressed a steadying palm to her back.

“Yeah.” Her voice was tense. “Just stubbed my toe.”

Seth took his hand off her back but didn’t release her fingers, justifying the lingering touch to himself—then to her. “Maybe you’d better hold on to me a little bit longer.”

“I guess so.”

As they walked on she sighed heavily. “Anyway, so much for helping the kids. Now it looks like the boys are in worse trouble than they were before I took charge of them.”

Seth ignored her self-recriminations and got back to his point. “So, Dillon reads sign language, as well?”

“Yes. Maddy taught him fairly quickly.”

Seth frowned. So why hadn’t Dillon interpreted for Jake? Trying to control the interview? He was obviously used to manipulating adults.

Seth glanced at Rainey, involuntarily tightening his grip around her slender fingers as he thought about how this impulsive bleeding heart of a woman had spooked the Slaughter boys right out of his grasp. He just hoped the twins hadn’t spotted the commotion at the bottom of the hill. And he hoped they weren’t circling back to get the bones this very minute.

He found himself dragging Rainey along faster as anger and worry drove him. As annoyed as he was at this woman for blowing his stakeout, his fear for her safety and the safety of three young boys was greater.

“Officer? Seth? You’re hurting my hand.”

“Sorry.” He relaxed his grip.

“I’m the one who should be sorry,” she said, as if she’d just read his mind. “I should never have covered for the boys the way I did. I’m afraid I was too soft-hearted. I always gave them one more chance. You see, the rule is if a boy causes trouble at Big Cedar, the next step in the system is the reform school at Werner. I didn’t want boys this young to end up in that awful place, especially with their disabilities. The other inmates there would rip Maddy and Aaron to pieces.” She came up short. “I imagine they won’t let me near children now. And the boys will end up trapped at Werner, anyway.”

Seth frowned, thinking, Not so fast. He was already planning to place the boys under his protection. This woman might have connections that would help accomplish that. “What, exactly, was your job?”

“I work for the DHS—the Department of Human Services.”

“I’m familiar with it.”

“I did casework in the Tulsa office at first. I hated it. It was so bureaucratic. Worse than being an attorney.”

“You’re also an attorney?” Seth had a thing for smart women. He found himself getting more interested in this particular smart woman than he probably ought to be—in more ways than one. It had been a long time since he’d felt this charged up around a female. He glanced back and caught a glimpse of model-trim thighs below the snug jean shorts.

“I was an attorney. In my mother’s law firm.”

“Your mother’s a lawyer?”

“One hell of a one. For a while I followed in her footsteps like a good little girl. It wasn’t exactly a healthy relationship.”

She sounded so disappointed when she said it. He supposed nobody escaped disappointment in this life. He sure as hell hadn’t.

“So somewhere along the way you decided to be a counselor?” When he glanced back her jaw looked stubborn.

“I’m a pretty good one, despite what you may think about this particular mess. I wanted to be closer to the kids, to make a personal difference with them. And I wanted to relocate out here in the Winding Stair, where I was born. Like I said, it’s a long story.”

“Maybe I’ll get a chance to hear it someday.” When he looked back again, the moonlight caught in her eyes and their gazes locked. In that instant, it was as if he knew, and she knew that he knew, that someday he would, indeed, get to hear it all.

She stumbled on a rock and he caught her again. “Thanks,” she said as she wiped the sweat at her temple. “Is it incredibly hot out here tonight or what?” She lifted her pale, tangled hair off her neck, twisted it up, tucked in some stray strands.

“Yeah, it’s hot,” he agreed, studying her. He wondered if she realized how attractive she looked. “The lower the elevation, the worse it gets, but we’re almost there,” he said. “Take a second to catch your breath.” As she propped one hip against a boulder, he was glad it was too dark for her to see him sneaking a glance at her trim little backside. “Mind if I ask how old you are, Ms. Chapman?”

“Call me Rainey, okay? Ms. Chapman reminds me of my days at the firm. Twenty-nine.”

He gave her another once-over, then trained his mind back on the case. “How’d you track the boys up here?”

“I had a pretty strong suspicion that they’d come back. We had taken the children on a field trip to see the Rune Stones. Dillon kept wandering off in the direction of the caves that day. He tried to act jaded, as always, but I could tell he was fascinated by the idea of Viking carvings on the rocks.

“You can see these formations from miles around. It’s like tacking in a sailboat,” she explained, “traveling in one general direction, but in a zigzag pattern.” She chopped her hand in a rising Z. “Eventually you hit your target.”

He nodded. Hunters in these mountains used that strategy.

“And I know this area—somewhat. I spent a lot of summers up in these mountains with my gran.” She stopped, surveying the moonlit valley that opened below. She turned her head to the east, toward Big Cedar Camp. The base of Purney’s Mountain, where they now stood, was well over two miles from the facility. “Dillon claimed the caves were as far as they’d ever gone. But he’s such a colossal liar. It’s hard to say where they’ve been, what they’ve done, what they’ve seen.”

Seth frowned. He hated to tell her what they’d seen. She’d find out soon enough when she helped him question the other two kids.

“Come on.” He took her arm, leading her onto a fork in the path that led down to a clearing. “I need to know what this Maddy kid has to say.”

CHAPTER THREE

WHEN THE AMBULANCE CAME into view, Rainey broke into a run. The sight of the blue-and-red strobe lights smacking against the dark trees brought a fresh lump of fear to her throat. In the passenger seat a paramedic sat, writing calmly on a clipboard.

“The boys?” Rainey breathed as she approached the lowering window.

“Cut those lights!” Seth ordered from behind her.

“Yes, sir.” The paramedic leaned forward to flip a switch. Rainey could hear a man and woman’s muted voices coming from the back.

“She’s the counselor.” Seth’s voice was nearer to her now.

Rainey found his physical presence overwhelming again, as if she were almost preternaturally aware of his every movement. She was dismayed to realize she’d felt off-center ever since he’d first grabbed her in the woods.

She tried to tell herself that she was frightened, but there was more to it than that. She was starting to recognize all the signs in herself. That old jittery euphoria that bubbled up around an attractive man.

And this was one extremely attractive man. She tilted her head to give him a covert look in the light from the ambulance window. Tall, dark and handsome, as they say. He looked like he might have some Indian ancestors. His brows were dark, his skin was bronzed, and what she could see of his hair under the brim of his Stetson looked thick and jet-black. When he caught her looking at him, his dark eyes glinted from the depths created by his high cheekbones.

She quickly looked down.

He was handsome, all right. Possibly the best-looking man she had ever seen. But she couldn’t actually be attracted to this… Dudley Do-Right. It was as if some kind of sick kismet had thrown her together with a good-looking cop. A combo of her best dream and worst nightmare. Because long ago, she’d sworn off cops, and with good cause. No cops. Never a cop.

They made her nervous, these guys who took control of every situation and never admitted even the slightest weakness. Her father’s kind, that’s what Seth Whitman was.

“Oh, the counselor. I see.” The paramedic looked her up and down with a judgmental frown that clearly questioned Rainey’s competence. But when his eyes flicked up to Seth, the guy’s expression became abruptly respectful. “The boys are okay, ma’am.” He jerked his head. “In the back.”

Rainey trotted around and found the double doors at the rear of the ambulance locked. She knocked on the panel.

Seth came up behind her again, reaching above her head to bang on the metal impatiently. “Jake! Open up!” he boomed.

A heavyset, ruddy-faced man peeked around the curtain in the ambulance window, then cracked open the door as he holstered a sidearm. Rainey noted the badge and uniform identical to Seth’s. “Sorry, bud.” The cop looked pointedly at Rainey. “Glad he found you, ma’am. Kath and me were just discussing who to call about these kids.” His gaze slid back to Seth. “Did you come up with anything out there?”

“Not much.” Seth jerked the door open fully. “Let us in.”

The cop flung the other door wide and Rainey felt a wave of blessedly cool air pour out. The ambulance engine was running, with the air conditioner pumping.

“Careful, hon.” The chubby cop offered Rainey a hand up onto the metal step. She looked around, trying to find another place to take hold and then flushed when Seth grabbed her arm.

His grip was strong and warm, and just touching him sent a tight awareness through Rainey’s middle that made her wish she had accepted the chunky cop’s hand instead. Attracted. Definitely attracted.

“Thank you.” She tried to say it with detached dignity, but it came out breathy. Not detached.

As she squeezed past the chubby cop’s potbelly, he emitted an inappropriate hum of approval and she caught him giving Seth a randy little smirk.

“Rainey Chapman. Jake Gifford. My partner.” Seth’s tone was long-suffering.

“So I gathered.” Rainey favored the man with a flat smile and a cool look that caused his leering expression to dry up. She’d been dealing with goatish men all her life.

“Shut the doors,” Seth ordered as he propped a boot on the metal step and hoisted himself inside.

“Think I’ll wait out in the cruiser,” the heavyset cop said. “It’s getting kinda crowded in here.”

With the three boys and a female paramedic, it was actually more than crowded inside the ambulance.

Maddy lay with a cold pack pressed to the side of his head. He looked pathetically thin, with his oversize, white-stockinged feet sticking up at the end of the stretcher.

While Seth had a mumbled exchange with the paramedic, Rainey dropped to her knees beside the child, brushing back his wavy hair to cup one palm on his forehead, signing frantically with her other hand. Maddy signed back.

“What’re they saying?” Seth asked Dillon, who was squeezed onto a narrow bench next to the stony, silent Aaron.

Dillon held up palms with pink-tinged dressings taped on them. “Beats me,” he lied.

Rainey heard Seth unzipping his bulletproof vest. “Ms. Chapman told me you can read sign.”

Dillon shrugged. “Okay. He’s telling her about the two big dudes. How we ran from that cave and all.”

Rainey could only peripherally note what was taking place around her. Her focus was on Maddy, the most vulnerable of her charges. Unlike the other two, Maddy didn’t have his anger to shield him. When she heard how one of the men had struck him with a shovel, she pressed shaky fingers to her lips, feeling unbearable guilt.

Seth took off his hat and squatted beside her. Rainey noticed he winced as he arranged his legs, knees spread wide, around the foot of the stretcher. He was a massive man, but he moved with such grace that his bulk didn’t seem overpowering unless he was actually in your space, as he was in Rainey’s now. He tilted his huge shoulders and an involuntary image erupted in her mind: herself clinging to those shoulders. Feeling guilty for even thinking such thoughts at a time like this, she snapped her gaze back to Maddy.

“Maddy’s okay,” Seth reassured her quietly as he touched a warm palm to her shoulder. “The paramedic said the bump’s not a concussion or anything serious. His pupils are reacting normally.”

Rainey nodded and turned to concentrate on Dillon now. “Let me see.” Gingerly, she lifted the dressings on Dillon’s hands to have a look.

Seth eyed the back of Rainey Chapman’s tangled blond hair, wondering what had come over the woman just now. Her lightly freckled cheeks had turned as red as a rodeo clown’s, and as she replaced the dressing, he noticed her fingers were trembling. Maybe the gravity of the situation was sinking in afresh now that she’d seen the boys.

“Did they bleed much?” she asked Dillon.

“Yeah. All over the place.” Dillon seemed proud of that fact.

“Did they give you something for the pain?”

“Nah. It don’t hurt.”

“I offered him some Tylenol.” The paramedic spoke up from where she wrote on her chart.

Seth watched the boy. His body language said he was a little sidewinder. For instance, right now he was unnecessarily swiping at his nose. And why did the kid feel the need to gain more of Rainey’s sympathy? Were the other boys getting too much of her attention or something? No. It was more likely that he was hiding something. Seth eyed the huge pockets of the boy’s baggy shorts. Another knife, maybe?

Rainey turned her attention to Aaron. “And are you okay?” she asked.

Seth studied the third boy in this trio of misfits, trying to figure out what made this kid tick. The redheaded child looked as if he liked his groceries a little too much. His freckled face was about as expressive as a fence post, though he showed some responsiveness to Rainey. When she ruffled his hair, he gave her the barest, most pathetic smile, a mixture of adoration and trust.

“Can he write down his version of things?” Seth asked Rainey.

“He can hear you, Sheriff,” Dillon interjected sarcastically.

“I’m a cop,” Seth clarified. “Not a sheriff.”

“Whatever,” Dillon said. “I already told you what happened. Those two guys was aiming to kill us.”

Seth turned calmly to the boy. “And I won’t let that happen. So now I want you to be quiet unless I ask you a question.”

“You think I’m lying, don’t you? Well, I’m not!” Dillon jumped up, suddenly agitated. “Let us out of here! We ain’t done nothing wrong!”

“Nobody said you lied,” Seth said, though now he was pretty sure the boy had, somewhere along the way. “Sit down.” He kept his tone quiet, but firm. “Now.”

Dillon sat and slouched back against the bench, crossing his arms over his chest in a gesture of defiance.

Rainey leaned around Seth’s shoulder. “Dillon, it’s not that we don’t believe you. Officer Whitman just needs to know the other boys’ version of things. They may have noticed something you didn’t.”

“They didn’t see nothing,” Dillon muttered.

Seth let out a pressured breath and scrubbed a hand over his face. This was going to be, as his uncle Tack would say, like herding squirrels. Seth was suddenly grateful for his experience with kids. Volunteer coaching. Junior Rodeo. Boy Scouts. Only these kids weren’t exactly Boy Scouts. “Okay, Ms. Chapman. Ask Maddy where they were and exactly what happened when they first saw the two men.”

As Rainey’s delicate hands signed the question, Seth couldn’t help but note the absence of rings on her fingers. He was already hoping she was unattached.

Before Maddy answered he shot Dillon a secretive look, then his hands started reluctantly moving. After Maddy had finished gesturing, Rainey said, “They were up on the old railroad bridge again. This time they were planning to tie a rope off of it so they could swing down into the river.”

“And?”

“And…” Rainey watched Maddy’s hands “…they saw lights up in that hollow area of the mountain where the cliffs and caves are. Dillon switched off their own flashlights and led them up.”

“I already told all of this to your partner!” Dillon interjected.

“Quiet,” Seth warned again. “Could they tell what the men were doing?” he asked Rainey.

“I said they were rappelling down the cliffs!” Dillon jumped up, practically shouting in Seth’s ear. “And they took some tools into the cave.”

Seth struggled to keep his patience. “Son, sit down before you make your hands start bleeding again.”

Dillon did so, but with a defiant thrust of his shoulder in Seth’s direction.

“What else does Maddy have to say?” Seth urged.

Rainey spoke as she watched the child’s hands. “They made their way to the opening of the cave and Dillon sneaked inside, but Maddy and Aaron hung back at the entrance.”

“They never went inside,” Dillon claimed. “And I didn’t go very far. I stopped when I saw the men digging back in there.”

Maddy started to sign something else, but Dillon’s hand flashed and the deaf child’s abruptly halted.

“What did Dillon say to him?” Seth’s gaze shot to Rainey.

“I have no idea. I wasn’t watching his hands. Dillon, don’t play games. This is serious.”

“I didn’t say nothing,” Dillon lied.

“Ask Maddy to repeat it.” Seth wanted to stay on point.

But Maddy wouldn’t answer. After looking at Dillon with trepidation, he shook his head. But his darting brown eyes betrayed him.

“See?” Dillon shouted. “They didn’t see nothing.” He leaped up in the confined space of the ambulance again, this time bumping his head against a low cabinet. Rainey jumped up, trying to examine the injury, but the boy jerked away from her and turned his angry countenance on Seth.

“You should be out there going after the bad guys! They was gonna kill us. They was gonna take us back to the bridge and make it look like a accident.” Dillon’s arms flailed like an agitated monkey’s as angry tears spurted to his eyes. “We didn’t do nothin’ wrong and those guys were gonna kill us. You gotta believe me!”

“Calm down.” Seth clamped a hand on Dillon’s shoulder and levered him back to the bench. “Right now I want you to sit down.” He returned his attention to Maddy. “Ask him what happened next.”

Rainey frowned at his sharp tone. Her green eyes glared at him as if he were the bad guy in this deal. “Officer, these children are really very frightened.”

“I’m aware of that. But right now a couple of extremely dangerous men are running around on the loose. Anything the boy knows that might help me catch them has got to come out. Now.”

Rainey turned to face Maddy, and started signing again.

“He said he’s sorry,” she interpreted when the child answered. “He says that if it hadn’t been for him the men wouldn’t have seen them. He said he must have made a noise or something that made them look up.”

She turned her gaze up to Seth. “Maddy can’t hear himself when he makes noises.”

“I understand,” Seth replied. He didn’t have her ask why Maddy might have made a sudden noise. Obviously the boy had seen something. Obviously the boys had all gone into the cave. But Seth was going to have a hard time getting a straight answer out of this bunch. “Then what?”

“The men chased them and grabbed Aaron first.”

Seth glanced at the obese child, who probably couldn’t move all that fast. The one most likely to get nabbed.

“Maddy told me he and Dillon could have gotten away,” Rainey continued as she watched Maddy’s agitated hands and facial expressions, “but Dillon turned around to help Aaron.”

Seth frowned, wondering why the child wouldn’t own up to his heroism.

Rainey was steadily watching Maddy’s hands. “They bound them up with a big roll of duct tape and dragged them to the front of the cave—”

Which was where Dillon claimed the other two had been all along, Seth noted.

“—and he says the men were fighting about something.”

“Ask him what they said.”

Rainey turned to Seth with an impatient frown. He felt briefly captured by the beauty of her huge green eyes again before the meaning of her stare hit him. What an idiot—forgetting that Maddy wasn’t capable of hearing anything. “Never mind,” he muttered.

“They were fightin’ about us.” Dillon jumped up again, spitting the words as he jabbed a finger at his own chest. “About how exactly to waste us. And you ain’t doing anything about it.” Beneath the youth’s blazing anger, Seth read genuine fear, and he sympathized, but a cop couldn’t permit any disrespect. This time it only took a sidelong look to make the boy sit down.

After Dillon quieted, Seth glanced at Aaron. The kid had sat slumped in a trance, except for an occasional flicker of interest over something Dillon said, when it seemed like a kind of silent signal passed among the three boys.

Rainey had said the redhead was a psychological mute. From some sort of trauma, Seth assumed. Uprooting these kids again—even if it was for their own protection—was not going to be easy.

He moved to the front of the ambulance and spoke quietly to the paramedic, who had been busily making notes on a clipboard. “Has that kid talked at all?”

The woman shook her head sadly. “Looks to me like he has no intention of talking anytime soon. Better watch that one, Seth.”

Seth had no experience with such things, and no time to gently pry information by other means from a child who would not, or could not, communicate. He’d have to rely on Dillon’s version of the conversation for now.

“Okay, Dillon.” He turned to the taller boy. “Tell me what they said.”

“They were fighting about how now that we saw them, and how we seen what they was doin’, we’d most likely tell. And one said they would have to give us the business—that means kill us—”

“Dillon,” Rainey interrupted, shooting a look of concern in Aaron’s direction. “Just tell what you heard.”

“Look, Mizz Rainey.” Dillon’s emphasis of the title was not respectful. “They had us all trussed up with duct tape. They wasn’t takin’ us to no picnic.” He threw up his bandaged hand and signed at Maddy. “They was gonna make us part of their bones collection.”

Maddy made one of his involuntary noises. “Dillon, hush,” Rainey hissed. “You are scaring Maddy and Aaron, and I won’t—”

Seth put a palm up to silence Rainey. He didn’t want Dillon to hush. “Bones?” This time he questioned it.

The lad blanched. “Did I say bones?”

Seth gave him a sharp look. Earlier the boy had said the Slaughters were aiming to dig up some bones, as if he knew in advance what they were going to do. Then he’d claimed he’d caught them in the act. If he let the boy keep talking, he’d eventually get to the truth. “What else?”

“They was arguing about whether we was town boys or not, meaning from Tenikah, I guess, and how long it would be before somebody noticed we was gone, and all that. And one of them said something about how Howard was really gonna be pissed.”

“Howard?” Seth’s pulse kicked at the name. “Are you sure he said Howard?”

“Yeah. There’s nothin’ wrong with my hearing. They was talking about how he’d know what to do or he’d be mad or something, like, you know, ‘We’re gonna have to tell Howard about this.’ Talk like that.”

“Go on.”

“Then one of them—like I told you, they looked exactly alike, if you ask me—except one was big and one was kinda regular.”

“They’re twins,” Seth stated.

“Twins?” Rainey glanced up at him.

“Afraid so.” That fact had complicated matters in the wonderful world of the law. “The Slaughter brothers have used their identical looks to escape punishment more than once.”

“Punishment? For what?”

He let his gaze slide to Aaron to indicate that this was not something to discuss in front of kids.

Rainey’s freckled cheeks flushed. “And now these two men are just running loose in the countryside?” she accused.

Seth didn’t want to tell her that apprehending Lonnie and Nelson Slaughter wasn’t as easy as walking up, ringing their doorbell and slapping the cuffs on. He didn’t want to tell her that he was looking for crucial evidence, and that the closest he’d come to obtaining that evidence had been when she had crashed through the woods and scared them off. He certainly didn’t want to tell her that finding that evidence now involved these boys. “We’ll discuss this later. What else did you hear, Dillon?”

“Well, then one of them said first they’d have to go back and get the…get the… I don’t remember.” Dillon looked down, picking at the dressing on his hand.

Maddy tried to sit up, his fingers flying like one possessed.

Rainey frowned as she saw what he signed.

“My hands really hurt!” Dillon bellowed.

“Excuse me, Seth.” The paramedic, a robust-looking young woman with a bushy auburn ponytail and melon-size breasts that strained her uniform shirt, stepped forward with a suture kit. “I’d better tend to those cuts now.”

As she squeezed past Seth, she eyed the way he was rubbing his jean-clad thigh. “Something the matter with your leg?”

“Pulled a muscle.”

“How?”

“Jumping off a rock.”

“I see.” She drew the words out in a flat Oklahoma drawl as if stuff like this happened every day. “Want me to take a look at it?”

“No need.”

“Suit yourself.” She rolled her eyes at Rainey. “I guess it’s pointless to waste any sympathy on a bull rider who’s pulled every single muscle in his body at one time or the other.”

Dillon sneered at Seth. “So you’re some kind of cowboy?”

“More boy than cow,” Seth deadpanned.

“More boy than—oh, I get it!” Dillon’s laughter was forced, but Seth gave the boy a wry grin.

“I was a bull rider,” he admitted.

“Cool!” For the first time all night Dillon sounded sincere.

“I’ll tell you about it sometime, but right now, Kathy’s ready to fix your hands.”

“You won’t feel a thing,” the paramedic said to Dillon brightly.

“Let’s step outside.” Seth took Rainey’s elbow. When she hesitated, he said, “Kathy will take good care of the boys, won’t you, Kath?”

“You bet.” The paramedic gave Rainey a reassuring smile. Then she lowered herself beside Dillon. “Let’s get you fixed up.” She removed the blood-soaked dressing.

“Ms. Chapman and I will be back in a minute,” Seth said to Dillon and Aaron as he took Rainey’s elbow. “Then we’re going to see if we can take you guys someplace more comfortable for the night.” He looked down at her. “Would you tell Maddy all of that?”

She nodded, but she seemed distracted again, and Seth realized he was holding her arm maybe a little too tightly. He let it go.

When he took Rainey’s hand again as she hopped down off the metal step, she thanked him politely and withdrew hers quickly. Seth slammed the door. So he wasn’t the only one who was attracted. But why did that bother her so much?

He braced a palm high on the back of the ambulance, shielding her from Jake, who was sitting in the cruiser. “Okay. What did Maddy just sign?”

Rainey gave a visible shudder. Her pretty green eyes rose to meet his, and the fear radiating from them unsettled Seth. She swallowed. “Maddy never signs in exact English, but this time he did. It was like he was trying to finish what Dillon said without Dillon catching on.”

“Maddy can read lips?”

“If he wants to, yes.”

“What did he sign?”

Rainey frowned. “He signed that the men were going to kill them after they dug up the bones.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“WHAT ARE THEY TALKING about?” Rainey shuddered again. “Bones?”

“I think that’s what the Slaughters came back to that cave to get.”

“Human bones?” Rainey hugged her arms to her middle.

“Yes. I’ll explain later.” Seth looked down at Rainey Chapman’s trembling shoulders, and wanted nothing so much as to wrap his arms around her again. But Jake was looking on, he was sure. Instead of touching her again he said, “Wait here.”

After checking with Jake and finding that the roadblock had not stopped the Slaughters, Seth knew what he had to do.

He walked back to Rainey, frowning as he considered how to say this without freaking her out.

She stepped toward him. “We are going to have to move the boys,” he said. “Right away.”

“Move them? Where?”

“I don’t know. I was hoping you could help me with that. Someplace safer than that camp.”

“You mean you don’t intend to take them back to the camp?”

“That’s right.”

“Does Lyle know this?”

“Nobody knows it. Not yet. I’ll decide who gets told what.”

“Officer Whitman— Seth—listen. These boys are wards of the state. You can’t take over and—”

“The state didn’t do a very good job of protecting them. I intend to do whatever it takes to keep them from getting hurt.”

Her cheeks turned so red they glowed in the dark, and Seth realized she’d misunderstood and taken his criticism personally. Her eyes narrowed and he recognized all the signs of a woman going on the defensive.

“I did the best job I could. I’d like to see you handle children like these. You’d be tearing your hair out within twenty-four hours. And for your information, even if I agreed with your plan, I can’t just haul these boys around anywhere I choose. I practically have to have a court order to take them shopping for new shoes. Lyle had a fit because Dillon wandered off when we visited the Rune Stones.”

“The Rune Stones. We need to talk about that, too. You say Dillon went into the caves before?”

“I don’t know where he went, actually. And he’ll never tell you. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dillon isn’t making up ninety percent of what he said in there. He’d do anything to keep from getting in more trouble with Lyle. He’s—”

“I know. A pathological liar.” But because of something Seth’s brother had told him before he died, Seth was convinced Dillon McCoy was telling the absolute truth.

“But he’s not making this up.” He hated to frighten her, but it was critical that she understand the danger to the boys, and that time was not on their side. “I doubt you or the camp supervisor can protect these children from the likes of Lonnie and Nelson Slaughter. You need to understand what we are dealing with here. These are dangerous men. I’ve been tracking them for years. They know these woods like the backs of their hands. They operate well outside the law.”

“You’re talking about those crimes you didn’t want to bring up in front of the boys?” Now she looked worried. “What kind of crimes?”

“Murder.”

She gasped. “Murder?”

How could he tell her? How could he make her see? In small doses, that’s how. “I have reason to believe they killed a lawman years ago.”

“They killed a cop?”

“Yes.”

“Then what in God’s name are they doing running around these hills?” Her anger had exploded like a flare, surprising him. But at the same time he noticed that she shivered again, despite the night heat.

“The death was ruled vehicular homicide. But it was no accident. They’ve just been released from prison.”

“Why do you think it was murder?”

“We really don’t have time to go into all that now. The point is, now the boys are witnesses to the fact that the Slaughter brothers were digging for someone’s bones.”

“The cop’s?” Rainey looked confused.

“No. Look, I’m sorry, but we really have to get going.”

“So you believe Dillon’s story?”

Seth frowned. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Rainey gave him an incredulous stare, as if to say the answer was obvious. She peeked over his shoulder at Jake.

“Jake does, too. Look, Dillon didn’t lie about the duct tape. I peeled the stuff off of them myself.”

Rainey clamped a hand over her mouth as if she might throw up right there in the dirt. “This whole mess is my fault,” she said through whitened knuckles.

“Let’s just concentrate on what we have to do now. My job is to catch the Slaughter twins. They’ve probably already destroyed the…whatever evidence the boys saw, but now that they think the boys can testify about their activities, and to the conversation they heard—”

“You mean what Dillon heard. With his history, do you honestly think a jury would believe his testimony? He’s got a poor record. I can imagine a defense attorney effectively discrediting him.”

“Don’t forget that Aaron heard it, too.”

Rainey shook her head. “I’m not sure he’d make a credible witness, either. The doctors tell me it is unlikely Aaron will ever speak again.”

Their eyes connected briefly in the darkness, then hers glanced away. “He saw his stepfather kill his mother.”

Seth’s jaw tightened. Every time he thought he’d seen it all… “How?”

“With a knife.”

“Nevertheless, Lonnie and Nelson don’t know Aaron is the way he is. They won’t let this go. They will be planning a way to silence these children.”

“To silence them? You mean kill them?” He could tell she was struggling to control her fear. He admired that.

“Yes. The boys are in real danger, Rainey.” He took her elbows lightly. “Listen. I’m sending my partner back up to the caves and then I’d like to take the boys into protective custody, but we’ll have to be careful how we do it. I prefer to take you along with them, since you can communicate with Maddy and since Aaron obviously depends on you. We can clear that with the camp supervisor. He’ll keep his mouth shut. He doesn’t want this made public, anyway. Is there someone else we need to contact about your absence? Husband? Boyfriend?”

“No. No one. Well, there is Loretta—my mother— I guess. She’ll worry if she doesn’t hear from me.” Her eyes came up to meet his. “How long will we be gone?”

Mesmerized by those eyes, he shook his head slowly. “I honestly don’t know.” No boyfriend. No husband. How was it that a woman this beautiful was unattached?

“Doesn’t matter.” She looked away. “My job’s my whole life.”

“Okay.” Seth willed himself to focus back on the urgent business. “So all we need is a place to hide. Is there someplace safe where you can take the boys and hold them for a few days? A hospital, a school, a group home—someplace where no one but you and I will know their whereabouts?”

Rainey looked at him as if he had just asked her to sprout wings and fly. “A safe place? No. There is not some handy safe place where I can just disappear with three boys.”

Their gazes locked, and the look in Seth’s steady blue eyes reminded Rainey of the unflinching one her father had always used on her. “I’m taking them into protective custody, and that’s final.”

That’s final? That’s final? Rainey felt her Irish temper simmering up like lava from a volcano. She was the one who was responsible for these children, and no overbearing cop was going to order her around. “Well, I’m responsible for their welfare. And that’s final.”

As quickly as it had hardened, his gaze grew conciliatory. “Look. I don’t like this situation any better than you do. But this is no ordinary set of circumstances.” He wrapped gentle fingers around her upper arm. “Please. You’re going to have to trust me.”

Rainey flicked a glance at Seth Whitman’s hand gripping her flesh, and she swallowed. The night was hot, but his touch felt hotter.

When she tensed, he released her arm.

Something in her had wanted to resist that touch, the way she’d rebelled against her father that last time she’d seen him. Something in her wanted to turn her back on Seth Whitman and say that she didn’t need him or his bossy ways. But something else in her wanted to melt into his arms right then and there and admit that she did need him. And the boys surely did, too. But was this…this abduction the answer? To just spirit the boys away in the middle of the night? There had to be a better way. “Why can’t we go to the authorities with all of this?”

“I’m a cop, Rainey. I am the authorities. And something Dillon said—”

“Oh great. Something Dillon said.”

“Yes. It was significant. You recall he heard them talking about a guy called Howard.”

“Howard? You know who that is?”

His expression became veiled. “Yes. But it’s a very long story. Let’s just say it makes me realize I can’t trust anyone, not now. Right now we need a hiding place.” He steered her back on track. “Tonight. Can you think of any place at all?” he urged her softly.

“No, I can’t. Unless…oh, man.” She considered the idea that had begun to worm its way up a moment ago when she’d started thinking about being banished to Gran’s farm every summer when she was a kid. But then she shook her head. “No. We couldn’t possibly take them up there. They’d go nuts.”

“Where? The sooner we act, the better off the boys will be.”

“This is too crazy!” Rainey raked a hand through her tangled hair. “But what does it matter if I do something crazy now?” she said in a rush, seeming to be arguing more with herself than with Seth. “My job is history. I won’t be able to get any kind of DHS job, not in the entire state, not after this fiasco. No one is going to trust a caseworker that lets her kids wander miles away from camp in the middle of the night, lets them get abducted, no less. I’ll have to start my whole life over in a whole new field, or worse, go back to practicing law.” She released a visible shudder. “And what about the boys?”

“Yes, ma’am. That’s what we have to keep in mind. What about the boys?”

“We can’t just hide with them up there—won’t it mean we’ll be breaking the law?”

“I think I can arrange to make it legal. The local judge is one of my buddies from high school. I can pull some strings, get a piece of paper.”

“You mean make me the boys’ guardian ad litum?”

He quirked an eyebrow at her use of the legal term. “I forgot. You know the law.”

“You can accomplish this tonight?”

“With one phone call.” He was already digging a cell phone out of his pocket. “So, where are we taking them?” He was punching in a number.

“My gran’s house. She lives way back up in the Winding Stair Mountains. Way, way back. Gran’s farm is about as remote as they come. One road in, same road out. A great view in all directions.”

“Perfect.” She heard Seth leave some guy named Max a message, then he held the cell phone out for Rainey. “Call your gran and see if we can hide the boys there, at least for a few days until I can figure out the Slaughters’ next move.”

Rainey shook her head. “Gran doesn’t have a phone.”

His deep-set eyes widened a fraction. “No phone?”

“And no electricity, either.”

“You gotta be kiddin’ me.”

“Nope. But it’s not totally primitive. She has a propane tank out back. A gas-powered generator to run a few lights, a tiny refrigerator, an even tinier TV. But nobody ever goes up there, not even the mailman. She picks up her mail at a post office box down in Wister. The only way to talk to Gran is to drive right up to the door of her cabin. I doubt that thing will even work up there.” She nodded at his cell phone.

Seth made an annoyed face and flipped the phone shut. “Won’t it freak your grandmother out if you show up at her door in the middle of the night with a strange cop and three delinquent boys in tow?”

“Gran? Nah. She raised four sons up on that mountain.”

Rainey paused and looked up at him, sizing him up fully for the first time. She couldn’t figure this guy out. He was all male and undeniably handsome, that was for sure. But he needed an attitude adjustment in the worst way. That or a boot to the behind, as her gran used to say. Was he just another macho, overbearing cop with the guarded emotions and the love ’em and leave ’em attitude that Rainey had detested all her life, or was he some kind of white knight?

And there was something else. She had sensed it when she had told him about Aaron’s past. It was something that put a look so secretive and deep in Seth Whitman’s eyes it was hard to look there for long.

Didn’t matter. Whatever he was and whatever was eating him, Gran could handle it. Rainey had never seen any man her gran couldn’t put in his place. “Nothing could shake up Granny Grace,” she said with a note of challenge. “Not three delinquent little boys. And certainly not a strange cop like you, Seth Whitman.”

CHAPTER FIVE

THE “ROAD” THAT CLIMBED to Rainey Chapman’s Gran’s house was hardly worthy of such a name. Seth had made it his business to become familiar with every dark, twisting backwoods track in Le Flore County, but he’d never been near the rocky rutted lane that Rainey directed him to, rising to the south off the highway out of Wister. This road was buried deeper in the Winding Stair than even the roughest logging trail.

Despite the light of a full moon and the fact that Rainey assured him she had been here many times, they missed the turn. Seth was forced to switch on the deer lights mounted high on the cab of his Silverado pickup. He’d been driving with only the fog lights out on the highway, and for good reason. Anyone sitting up on a ridge with a set of high-powered binoculars could spot headlights after they left the main road. When Rainey found the turnout on the second pass, Seth slammed on his brakes, turned, and they bumped onto a narrow gravel path that veered sharply upward in the dense underbrush.

“I warned you, it’s bad,” Rainey said.

“Cool!” Dillon shouted from the rear seat of Seth’s double cab pickup.

The boys were crammed shoulder to shoulder, with Aaron and Maddy, predictably silent, looking increasingly anxious. But Dillon was acting loud and boastful enough to make up for the other two.

“I wish I could drive this road,” he shouted in Seth’s ear. Seth knew the boy was masking some serious anxiety.

“I wish you could, too,” he replied dryly as the pickup bucked up the steep, rocky path. He switched off the high beams.

“Are you crazy?” Rainey clutched the darkened dash as if she could hold them onto the side of the mountain that way. “This trail skirts a hundred-foot dropoff!”

Even by moonlight, Seth could make out the grim downturn of her delicate mouth.

“Unfortunately, the Slaughters know every high point for miles. They could be watching for us right now. You can spot headlights from quite a distance out here. It wouldn’t take them long to pin down our location. They know the roads out here as well as I do.”

“Well, you didn’t know about this particular road,” Rainey challenged.

“This doesn’t exactly qualify as a—”

“Road.” Dillon finished Seth’s sentence as the truck jostled over a sizable slab of buried sandstone. “This is more like a roller coaster!” The boy leaned forward in the seat like a kid on a carnival ride.

“It would be stupid to lead the Slaughters right to us.” Seth glanced at Rainey and downshifted. “No headlights.”

“I hope you know—ugh!—” Rainey clutched the dash tighter as the pickup bounced down off the slab of rock “—what you’re doing.”

He hoped so, too. He hoped he was doing the right thing by these vulnerable boys and this delicate woman. He flicked a glance at her, then concentrated on his driving. Rainey Chapman was way, way different from the women he was used to.

The pickup jolted over another mound of rock. “Yee-haw!” Dillon yelled. “Ride ’em, cowboy!”

“Dillon,” Rainey snapped. “Be quiet. Officer Whitman is driving.”

The boy sat back in a pout, but when the truck bucked again, his cracking young voice erupted, high with excitement. “I’m tellin’ ya, Sheriff! I could handle this dude!”

Seth glanced in the rearview mirror and could see that the boy’s bravado was phony as a three-dollar bill. The other two looked plainly terrified.

Dillon’s expression became defiant when he caught Seth studying him in the mirror. “I can handle a stick shift good as anybody.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Seth downshifted as the tires skidded and ground in the rocky ruts. “But right at the moment—” he shifted one more time “— I’d appreciate it if you’d settle down, pardner.” Dillon answered with a resentful squint.

Seth turned his attention back to the treacherous road. “How long does this go on?” he asked Rainey.

“Eight miles.”

The place was beyond remote. When they started to climb the narrow track of Granny Grace’s rocky drive, Seth spotted the profile of a tiny log cottage tucked high up in the trees. Perched on stilts at the peak of a sheer rocky incline that looked out over a valley, the structure appeared to list to one side, looking like some long-forgotten fairy cottage punctuated by several sagging, steep-pitched gables. All of the tall windows were dark.

“We aren’t gonna stay here, are we?” Dillon grumbled. “This place looks creepy.”

“’Fraid so,” Seth said dryly. “For now this is home sweet home.”

“Home sweet home,” Dillon echoed sarcastically, as he signed something presumably derogatory to Maddy.

A cacophony of barking broke out as they pulled into the gravel clearing and up to a rickety-looking wooden staircase that rose to the dark house. Before Seth had even braked to a stop a couple of mixed mutts came barreling out from under the stilts.

A light winked on inside the house, followed by a weak bulb flicking awake next to the door on the screened-in front porch.

Seth leaned forward to peer up through the windshield. “So. You want to go up alone and explain things first?”

“No. You guys can come on, but stay behind me. Those stairs can be tricky in spots.”

“I hate dogs,” Dillon shouted above the barking. “If one of ’em comes near me, I’ll kick his teeth in, I swear.”

“You will do no such thing. The dogs know me,” Rainey explained. “They’ll be fine as long as you behave yourself.”

The animals had charged the pickup, scratching at Seth’s shiny door handles. “Whoa, now,” he said.

Rainey rolled down the window and shouted, “Quiet!” When the dogs quieted and touched paws to the ground, she turned to the boys. “These dogs aren’t vicious.” She got out and threw the passenger seat forward and signaled for the two mute boys to get out of the back seat. “You, Dillon, will be nice to my gran and to her dogs.”

“Or what?” The boy slumped in the seat defiantly.

“Or you’ll answer to me.” Seth had come around the rear of the truck. “Come on now.”

“Who’s out there?” a reedy female voice called.

Rainey turned, leaving the door ajar. She stepped into the ray of the fog beams. “It’s me, Gran.”

“Rainey? Honey? Is that really you?”

“Yes, Gran. It’s really me.”

“Lord Almighty, child. I sure wasn’t expecting you in the middle of the night.”

“I know, Gran. I’m sorry for just showing up this way. It’s sort of an emergency.”

The screen door creaked and a woman appeared under the faint globe of light. In its glow, Seth could make out a tiny stick figure in a pale robe, with a long gray braid trailing over one shoulder. “An emergency?” she said. “Well, come on up, then. All of you.”

As the crew climbed rickety, rotting steps to the screened-in porch, the dogs took up a fresh round of barking.

“Killer! Butch!” the tiny woman hollered. “Hush up!” The dogs trotted up the steps to her side and she said “Stay,” pointing one finger at the ground. She braced her feet wide and waited…clutching a shotgun across her middle.

As Seth’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, he was gratified to see that the old house had a high upstairs addition that jutted out well above the treetops. He could see the glass of a large window winking in the moonlight, but it was facing east. He would need a place with a clear view of the road at night.

He followed Rainey and the boys up several flights of crude steps that twisted and turned toward the porch, while the little old woman held the shotgun like Moses’s staff. Several times Rainey pointed out rotting places in the steps, warning, “Careful. Be careful.”

When he got to the landing at the top, Seth found himself staring at the business end of the shotgun. “Who’s this strappin’ fella?” Gran said with a jerk of the barrel.

“Gran—” Rainey began with a note of exasperation.

“Ma’am,” Seth interrupted. “You can put the gun down. I’m with the Tenikah police.” He stepped around the boys so she could see the reflection of his badge in the weak light.

The old woman flicked on the safety and the shotgun disappeared into the folds of her robe. “Cain’t be too cautious these days. Grace Chapman.” She thrust out a knobby hand and Seth gently clasped it.

“Seth Whitman,” he said.

“Whitman? A cop? You related to that cop that was killed out near the Rune Stones some years back?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He kept his eyes off Rainey, who stood hovering near the boys in the porch shadows. He didn’t want to see the look on her face if she added two and two. He didn’t want anybody’s pity over Lane’s death. It was long past. There was nothing he could do about it now except avenge it. And that was exactly what he intended to do.

Gran turned on Rainey. “You look awful, girl. Is everything all right?”

“Not exactly.” Rainey sighed.

“What are you doing here with the law at this ungodly hour? And who are these youngsters?”

While Rainey introduced the boys and explained that they were her charges from Big Cedar Camp, and what had happened, Seth took stock of Rainey’s Granny Grace.

The old lady was pretty much what he had expected. In his police work, he had often encountered elderly women exactly like her, tucked back into these hills. They tended gardens they’d scratched out in their beloved rocky soil, they babied paltry livestock, they fashioned stunning quilts from the scraps of their lives, and they basically preferred to be left alone.

The ones he’d seen in Tenikah rolled their decrepit cars into town once or twice a week to attend church, visit the post office or buy provisions. They reported trouble to the police like faithful little tattletales, appearing at the station to shout into the microphone in the glass security window. So-and-so was burning leaves despite the burn ban, or a newspaper stand lay facedown in the creek with the cash box pried open, or one of old man Goodner’s cows was loose out on the highway again. As the junior officer on the force, Seth often had to follow up on all this nonsense.

“Land sakes! That’s awful!” Gran said when Rainey reached a stopping place. “Come inside then, all of you.”

“Ma’am?” Seth halted their progress. “What’s behind your place?”

Granny turned. “The house sits at the top of the ridge. The backside drops off into the river.”

The place might actually work. When he got everybody settled, Seth decided he’d walk the perimeter, check for a lookout.

The two women continued to talk nonstop as Seth and the boys followed the tiny lady inside the house. She lit an antique oil lantern and set it in the middle of a round kitchen table with a red-checked oilcloth spread on it.

Seth felt as if he’d stepped back in time. The boys, he could see, were stunned by these unusual surroundings, or maybe they were just too tired to care. Likely none of them had ever seen a place like this, except in the movies. Even Dillon seemed subdued, taking in the cluttered room with wide-eyed fascination.

But Seth had been in houses like Grace’s plenty of times, though never one quite this solidly frozen in time. The kitchen where the six of them stood in an awkward ring, softly lit by the glow of the lantern, was little more than a box lined with crooked white cabinets yellowing with age. Clean but dented pans were stacked on an actual wood-burning, cast-iron cook-stove. A home-sewn feedsack curtain concealed the guts of a huge enamel sink where bunches of enormous carrots with the green tops still attached lay at an angle. All manner of dried herbs lined the narrow windowsill, tied in neat bundles or propped up in tiny colored-glass medicine bottles.

Covering every inch of wall space were animal skins and American flags, crosses and family photos, postcards from trips to far-flung places like Eureka Springs, Arkansas. A small refrigerator, run off the gas-powered generator, Seth assumed, was plastered with all manner of cheap magnets. Some were frames with tiny pictures of a little girl in them. Rainey? A bowl of fresh peaches ripened in the corner of the counter next to a large bin that was stamped Bread.

It looked like the kind of place that had produced meal after hearty meal for decades and didn’t know how to stop. In fact, Seth imagined there were cookies resting under the embroidered dish towel that covered a plate in the corner.

“So, we have to have a place to hide the boys,” Rainey said, finishing up her story, “We have to keep them safe until Seth can catch those men. I hate to put you in a fix, Gran, but I couldn’t think of anyplace else to go. I hope you can help us.”

“You know you can always come to me if you’ve got trouble, honey,” Gran said. “I bet you boys are hungry as horses.”

She reached for the towel-covered plate and folded back the corner. Sure enough. Cookies.

“Sit down, then, and eat.” Gran encouraged them with a sweeping gesture and the boys tumbled into the dinette chairs. “You should eat, too, Rainey,” she said, eyeing her granddaughter’s slender frame. “Looks like you’re still not eating enough to amount to a hill of beans. You look plumb peaked, matter of fact.”

“I’m just tired, Gran. It’s been a long night.”

Rainey leaned her hips against the counter edge and Seth positioned himself at a distance, one shoulder propped against the doorjamb.

“You’re welcome,” Gran chirped as she passed the boys the cookies, “you’re very welcome,” even though none the three had uttered a word of thanks.

When Granny held the platter out to Seth he said, “None for me, thanks.” He was impatient to get everybody settled in so he could check over the place and begin his watch.

While the boys ate greedily, Grace poured milk into cut-glass tumblers, then seated herself in the last chair. She and Rainey resumed a carefully worded interchange, back and forth, about the boys, about their various histories, their various problems, about what had happened out there in the woods to land them all up here.

While the women talked, Seth laid his plans. He’d go into town tomorrow, before the sun was up, so there’d be no chance of Lonnie and Nelson tracing his departure from here. There were questions to ask, discrepancies to clear up. The name Howard gnawed at him.

Even as he mulled over the situation, his thoughts, and his eyes, kept straying back to Rainey Chapman. The woman was a surprise. Not because of her stunning good looks. The surprise was how he felt in her presence.

In his days as a rodeo champion he’d grown accustomed to women hanging around. And cops, he’d quickly discovered, had to practically beat ’em off with a stick. Women from as far away as Muskogee and Tulsa seemed to gravitate to him. Nice woman with pretty hair and soft voices. Interesting, smart, independent women. Reporters. Politicians. Teachers. Nurses. Other cops. All of them were, as far as Seth was concerned, attractive. As he and Lane used to say, “pretty little things.” But none of them had that spark, that something unique enough to hold his heart. He supposed that was because none of them knew the real Seth. He’d never told a single one of them the truth about what tortured him, what kept him awake nights. And he wasn’t of a mind to share.

Deep down inside, he harbored the conviction that getting all tangled up with a woman, telling her the truth about what drove him, might even require him to change. What woman would want a man who was driven by vengeance? But Seth had no intention of giving up his quest. Certainly not now, when he was within striking distance.

But even so, as he watched Rainey’s movements in the cozy glow of the lantern, he felt the kind of keyed-up fascination that he thought he had left behind with his youth. Not since KayAnn, in fact, had Seth seen a woman this gorgeous. But KayAnn was trouble. Unlike his brother, Seth had had the sense to resist KayAnn’s blatantly female charms. And every time he tried to talk sense to Lane, they’d ended up fighting about it, until finally the subject of KayAnn Rawls became sorely off-limits. Only when he’d read the diary he found in Lane’s things after his death did Seth begin to understand his brother’s obsessive protectiveness of KayAnn. And only now, looking at Rainey Chapman, could he imagine feeling the same way himself.

He refocused his mind on the problem. Before this woman had “turned into his hand” up on Purney’s Mountain, he reminded himself ruefully, he had been within inches of realizing a seven-year-old goal—eradicating the Slaughters from the face of the earth.

And it had been a very long seven years.

When his uncle Tack had stopped Seth in the midst of settling atop a big Brahma in the loading chute at Bullnanza, Seth had been a reckless and cocky twenty-two-year-old bull rider, and nothing like his brother. Back then, he had lived a life that was as wild and selfish as the devil. That very night he had been about to take the big prize.

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