The Next Mrs. Blackthorne (Bitter Creek Book 6) Read online

“This isn’t a game you’re playing, Kate. This is a matter of life and death.”

  “My parents’ future together is a matter of life and death to me,” Kate said. “Please don’t talk to Daddy. I’ll be careful. I promise.”

  “You’ll stay away from Donnie Brown?”

  “What if he’s in court the same time as I am?”

  “Stay away from your father’s court.”

  “If it’s so dangerous, why doesn’t everyone have to stay away? I mean, if it’s so dangerous, why is the trial still open to the public?” Kate demanded.

  For a moment, she didn’t think Jack would answer. Finally, he said, “I suppose because nobody actually has found proof—yet—that Bomber Brown didn’t act alone.”

  “Why are you so sure he did have help?” Kate asked.

  “My gut tells me I’m right.”

  “And my gut tells me that Donnie’s okay,” Kate said.

  “Dammit, Kate, I—”

  “I’ve got to go,” she said. “I’m going to be late for class.” Kate turned and started jogging.

  “Kate!” Jack called after her.

  She turned and jogged backward, so she could face him. “What?” she called back.

  “Be careful.”

  13

  Late Friday morning, Kate glanced surreptitiously around her father’s courtroom. She’d managed to slip away from her bodyguard, but she felt surprisingly uneasy. Unsafe. Which was all Jack’s fault, filling her head with all that talk of conspiracy and accomplices. But there was definitely something to be said for having a very large man with a very big gun following you around.

  Kate felt a little safer knowing everyone in the courthouse had to go through tight security to get inside. Surely Bomber Brown’s accomplice, if he existed, wasn’t going to set off a bomb while Mr. Brown was sitting here.

  And there were armed deputy marshals to guard Mr. Brown when he came to and from the courtroom. So what were the chances a terrorist would turn up in their midst?

  Zero to none, Kate decided. So there was no reason for her to be feeling so antsy. While she waited for Donnie to arrive, Kate thought about her encounter with her father in his chambers earlier that morning.

  The challenge had been to convince her dad to spend the weekend with her mom, even though Kate and Jack weren’t going to be there. Because really, Kate had decided, what was the point of her going to Bitter Creek, if Jack wasn’t?

  She’d seen her father’s surprise, followed quickly by pleasure, when he’d noticed her from behind his desk.

  He’d risen and crossed to meet her in the middle of the burnt orange carpet and given her a hard hug. “Hello, Kitten,” he’d said. “What brings you here?”

  “I just wanted to see you, Daddy,” she’d said. “After all the years when I couldn’t drop in like this, it seems so wonderful to be able to walk right in and say good morning.”

  He smiled and said, “Good morning. Now, what can I do for you?”

  She laughed and looked up at him shyly from beneath dark lashes. “Well, there is something.”

  He chuckled and said, “Cough it up, Kitten.”

  As though she had a hairball or something! How could she connive to get her parents together, when her father was so watchful of her motives in coming to see him?

  “Actually, Daddy, I have a confession to make.”

  This time he laughed and made a gesture with his hands to encourage her to speak.

  “Jack and I aren’t going this weekend. It’ll be just you and Mom.”

  Once upon a time, Kate might have been cowed by the frown that appeared on her father’s face and the way his arms crossed over his body in his judicial robes, to make him a more prepossessing figure. But she’d learned that where she was concerned, her father was far more bark than bite. She crossed to him and put her hands on his crossed arms and peered up into his gray eyes with her most plaintive look.

  “Jack has to work, Daddy.” Which was the truth, so far as it went. “And I could use the time to study.”

  Her father snorted, because he’d seen how many Bs she’d gotten the previous semester and knew that if she’d studied at all they would have been As.

  Kate debated whether to warn her father about the reception he and her mother were likely to get from the Blackthornes—and how agitated her mother had been about having to confront his family. But she realized her parents would probably discuss the whole thing on the flight to Bitter Creek. Besides, no matter how bad things got, her father would be able to handle it.

  “Mom really wants to see the Castle, and I thought you guys might enjoy the time alone together. So I wanted to ask you not to cancel, even though Jack and I aren’t going.”

  Her father looked away, so she couldn’t see what he was thinking. He often did the same thing in the courtroom before a ruling. Her heart made a heavier thump when he met her gaze again.

  “You know your mom’s planning to return to Wyoming after your wedding,” he said.

  Kate nodded. “She told me.”

  “So there isn’t going to be any ‘happily ever after’ between her and me.”

  “And why is that, Daddy? I’ve got eyes. I saw how you looked at Mom when she was in here yesterday. Why are you letting her walk away?”

  “I have a responsibility to Jocelyn that—”

  “Listen to yourself! Responsibility? Daddy, you and Mom were inseparable for an entire summer. You must have felt something for her. Why are you so afraid to follow your heart? At least use the weekend together to find out how you really feel.”

  When she was finished speaking, Kate waited with bated breath to hear her father’s verdict.

  At last he said, “Does your mom know you and Jack aren’t going?”

  “I haven’t told her. And I wasn’t going to tell her.”

  “Why not?” her father asked.

  “Because I think she might not go if I did,” Kate admitted.

  “I think you’re right,” her father said quietly. The corner of his mouth lifted before he said, “So maybe we better not tell her.”

  Kate wasn’t sure she’d heard her father right. “You’re not going to tell her?”

  He smiled and said, “I could use the vacation before I give jury instructions next week. And your mom’s good company.”

  “Thanks, Daddy,” Kate said, throwing her arms around him and giving him an excited hug. “Just remember what I said.”

  “So what are you really going to be doing this weekend?” he asked, as he tugged her arms from around his neck.

  She gave him an indignant look. “Studying!”

  He laughed and swiped a finger down her nose. “Thanks, Kitten.”

  “For what?” she said.

  “You know for what.”

  Against all odds, her father suddenly seemed excited about spending the weekend with her mom. She studied his face and said, “Did you love her, Daddy? I mean, when you made me, did you—”

  “Yes,” he said. “More than life.”

  Kate was embarrassed by the ferocity of his answer. He seemed to be, too, because he hustled her out of his chambers.

  Kate had spent the rest of the morning sitting in the back of the courtroom beside Donnie Brown. She glanced at him and saw he was chewing a fingernail. Again.

  She could understand why. Kate thought the prosecuting attorney had done a masterful, surprisingly brief, job of summing up the case against Donnie’s father. So far, the defense attorney hadn’t been nearly so effective. Of course, he had less helpful evidence to make his argument for acquittal.

  As sure as God made little green apples, Kate thought, Donnie’s dad was going to be convicted.

  She turned to Donnie and whispered, “How are you doing?”

  “It’s looking pretty bad,” he mumbled. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “You don’t want to wait until your dad’s lawyer is finished?”

  “Naw,” he said. “I’ve heard enough.”

  Kate tried
to catch her father’s eye before she left, but his gaze was focused intently on the attorney speaking to the jury. “Ugh. It’s hot,” she said as she stepped outside with Donnie. She was wearing a white T-shirt with a black tailored jacket, jeans, and boots, which had been fine inside but was too warm on the street.

  “Let’s go get something cold to drink,” Donnie said.

  Kate glanced at Bomber Brown’s son, whose forehead was already dotted with sweat, and realized he must have been perspiring even before they’d left the courtroom. Probably due to worry over his father’s dire situation, she decided. “Something cold sounds wonderful.” And thanks to Jack, she didn’t have anywhere else to be.

  “I’ve got my car around the corner,” Donnie said.

  Kate followed Donnie to his car, which turned out to be a brand-new Cadillac Escalade. “Wow,” she said, running her hand along the silver pearlized finish. “Pretty fancy.”

  “It’s my dad’s,” he said.

  As Kate stepped up into the expensive car and sat in the soft leather seat, she glanced sideways at Donnie. She never thought of terrorists as having a lot of money. “What did your dad do before…before?”

  “Before he got arrested?” Donnie finished for her, as he started the car and headed down the street.

  “Yeah,” Kate said with a shrug.

  “We farmed. That is, before the government decided we couldn’t use the fertilizer we needed to get our crops to grow, and the pesticides we needed to keep the critters from eating everything before the harvest. They said we were polluting the water.”

  “A river runs through your land?” Kate asked, thinking how Bitter Creek was named after a creek tht ran across the ranch and was never dry, even in the driest years.

  “No. No water at all. We had to irrigate.” Donnie turned a look on Kate that made her shiver. His eyes looked strange, lit with some fervent light.

  Kate suddenly heard Jack’s warning voice in her ear. And realized she’d left the courthouse—and the multitude of cops with guns—behind. Then she told herself she was seeing things that weren’t there. Donnie hadn’t said or done a thing that was remotely suspicious. She moved her hand away from the door handle and set it in her lap.

  Donnie’s gaze turned back to the road as he continued, “It seems our land is right on top of some deep cavern or something where groundwater collects. And everything we put on our crops was seeping down, contaminating the water down below. The government said we could keep farming, as long as we didn’t use chemicals of any kind. No fertilizer. No pesticides.”

  “So you became organic farmers?” Kate said.

  Donnie shot her a look that made her want to reach for the door handle. “We went to court to fight the government. But we lost. We had to sell the farm to pay the lawyers. But we got them all back.”

  “Them?” Kate said faintly.

  “The judges, the lawyers, and the government.”

  Kate realized they’d left the downtown area and were on the parkway headed west at too high a speed for her to jump out of the car. Way too late, she realized Jack was right. Which was very cold comfort now. “Where are we going?” she asked in as calm a voice as she could manage. No sense warning Donnie that she was scared to death and was busy planning her escape.

  “There’s a place on the north side of town I like to go to for lunch.”

  “I thought we were just going to get a drink somewhere downtown.”

  “I’m hungry,” Donnie said. “I didn’t think you’d mind.”

  Kate shot him a tremulous smile to cover up the terror she felt and said, “Sure. No problem.”

  Kate wondered if Donnie realized what he’d said. We got them all back. We. She stared at the sandy-haired boy with the innocent-looking freckles. It must be the sight of the skinny boy sitting behind the wheel of a big, powerful car that made him suddenly seem sinister.

  Or the inclusion of himself when he described the vengeance that had been visited on judges, lawyers, and the government.

  Even with everything he’d said, Kate was still having trouble believing that Donnie was some kind of terrorist. Surely the FBI had investigated the entire Brown family thoroughly before they’d finally arrested Donnie’s father. How had Donnie flown so far beneath their radar?

  Or maybe he hadn’t. Maybe Donnie had been suspected all along. And all that was missing was proof.

  Kate felt a shiver run down her spine. Her gut was telling her that she’d made a terrible mistake getting in the car with Donnie Brown. The very next time Donnie slowed the car, she was going to make a run for it. Time enough later to be embarrassed if this was all a horrible misunderstanding.

  When Donnie got off the parkway he kept the car moving above the posted speed, and made a sudden, hair-raising turn down a rural road. He stopped in front of what seemed to be an abandoned house that was virtually hidden by overgrown azaleas and forsythia, which were in wild, beautiful bloom. The house, which had boarded-up windows, looked way too much like something from a bad horror movie. Kate’s stomach was genuinely upset.

  “Donnie, where are we?” she asked.

  “Oh. This is where I live.”

  Kate wondered if Donnie’s mother and brother were in the house—the two family members who’d always sat behind his father in court. “Why did you bring me here?” Kate asked.

  “I’ve got to pick something up before we go to lunch.”

  “I’m not getting out of the car,” Kate said decisively.

  “Suit yourself. I’ll just be a minute.” To Kate’s dismay, Donnie turned off the ignition and took the Escalade key ring, which he shook in Kate’s face, several keys jangling against each other. “Need them for the front door.”

  Kate stared at the door to the ramshackle house, which was lucky to still be on its hinges, let alone locked. More likely, Donnie suspected she was on to him and didn’t want her to be able to drive away in his car.

  She unbuckled her seat belt as soon as Donnie was far enough away from the car to not be able to see what she was doing. The instant he stepped inside the house, Kate shoved open the car door and ran like a bat out of hell.

  She followed the road they’d come in on, thinking that was the fastest way back to civilization and help. She’d almost made it back to the highway when she saw another car coming. Since there were other houses along the road, she took a chance and flagged it down.

  The middle-aged man with short-cropped gray hair who stepped out of the Chevy pickup looked wonderfully normal.

  “I need your help!” she said, panting and holding her side, which ached. “There’s someone after me!”

  “Slow down,” the man said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “Who’s after you?”

  Kate heard Donnie shouting her name. She looked down the road and saw he was heading her way. “Help me, please! I have to get away.” Kate jerked to free herself.

  But the man held on.

  “Not so fast,” he said, grabbing both her arms.

  Kate kicked him hard in the shin and jerked her shoulders to free herself, but he was surprisingly strong. She glanced over her shoulder and could see Donnie running hard toward her.

  “Let-me-go!” she said, digging her fingernails into the man’s shirt, and kicking with her feet.

  “Cut that out, you silly bitch,” the gray-haired man said.

  Kate was so shocked, she hesitated for a single instant, staring at him.

  At that moment, Donnie pressed a rag against her face so hard he cut off her air. Kate automatically inhaled—and realized she couldn’t breathe. Donnie had put something on the rag. Kate fought hard, scratching and kicking, but not for long. She had to take another breath, and she got another dose of whatever drug Donnie had poured on the cloth.

  As she began to lose consciousness, she heard the middle-aged man say, “I decoded your Letter to the Editor. I’m glad to see your father was right. You are the Chosen One.”

  Kate couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid. She thoug
ht of her parents—and Jack—as the blackness closed in around her. And realized that not one of them had any reason to come looking for her before Monday.

  14

  Ever since she was sixteen, pregnant and alone, Libby had wondered—and imagined—what it would be like to step across the threshold of the Castle. Today, that long-ago dream was going to become reality.

  She’d seen pictures of the Castle in Southern Living, and Architectural Digest, which had featured the elegant two-story mansion, with its uppper and lower gallery porches and its circular driveway lined with towering magnolias. Libby had always smiled at the inevitable comment made by the author of each article touting the Castle’s magnificence, that Bitter Creek was comprised of 745,000 acres of prime ranchland, and there were ten miles of pavement maintained by the Blackthornes between the nearest Texas state road and the Castle.

  The mansion contained priceless Tiffany lamps and original Chippendale furniture and too many first editions in the Blackthorne library to count. But Libby had always loved the sturdy ranch furniture made of wood and horn and hide that had survived a hundred and fifty years of Blackthornes in residence.

  Clay had landed his Citation jet on a Bitter Creek airstrip near the cabin where President Eisenhower had once slept. Libby was surprised that, although an SUV had been left for them at the airstrip, no one from the Blackthorne family had been there to greet them personally.

  “I have to confess, I’m a little anxious about spending this weekend with your family,” she said to Clay once they were headed for the Castle.

  Clay reached over and put a hand on her knee, smiled and said, “I won’t let the dragons eat you.”

  Libby arched a brow and replied, “You’re expecting dragons?”

  “Everybody’s been on edge since North bought that controlling interest in Bitter Creek stock,” Clay said. “You might find one or two folks breathing fire. But I’ll be there to protect you.”

  As he hadn’t been twenty years before.

  When they reached the circular drive lined with magnolias, Clay stopped to give Libby her first up-close and personal look at the Castle.