Atonement

He couldn’t help being skeptical. It came with the job. He met Tessa’s gaze. His brother was alive. But where was he now? And how was Dillon going to find him? Ethan hadn’t used his real name when he’d met Tessa. That must mean someone had been looking for him.

“I’ll see what I can find out through regular channels,” Dillon said. “In the meantime, I don’t want you staying in a motel.” Before she could argue, he quickly added, “Come stay out at the ranch. I have plenty of room. You’ll be more comfortable there.”

“And you can keep an eye on me.”

“And vice versa.”

She pretended surprise. “Did you think I might suspect you’d go after Ethan without me?”

He smiled. “In the meantime, I want you to have this.” He began to fill out a check for five thousand dollars.

“I already told you—”

“It’s just a loan until we find Ethan and he can pay you back what he owes.” He held out the check.

She glanced at him and the check for a moment before taking it. “A loan. Only until we find Ethan.”

Part of him called himself a damned fool. He could be five thousand dollars poorer tomorrow—if she didn’t steal him blind at the house before disappearing as quickly as she’d appeared in his life.

But once he’d felt that tiny foot against his palm, Tessa Winters had had him.

* * *

THE FIRST THING Dillon did was check to see if anyone had disappeared around the time of Ethan’s alleged death in the desert. He found what he was looking for in a short police report about a wrangler who’d been reported missing from a dude ranch near Palm Springs. The man had left behind his truck and some of his belongings.

There was just the one mention of the missing man. No follow-up. The man’s name was Buck Morgan. His former address, though, was Wisdom, Montana.

Dillon had a bad feeling the man was now buried in the local cemetery under Ethan’s headstone. He remembered the day he’d laid his brother to rest. There hadn’t been a funeral. No one in the area knew Ethan, and Dillon wouldn’t have taken his brother’s remains back to western Montana. Too many bad memories there for both brothers.

Had Ethan been watching the day Dillon had placed the ashes in the container at the grave site? That thought made him both angry and incredibly sad—and even more determined to find his brother, if indeed he was still alive.

The last Dillon had heard, his brother was working on a ranch over on the Powder River near Ekalaka, Montana. But that had been two years ago, and Ethan had never stayed in any one place long.

Dillon put in a call to the ranch just in case the owner might have known where Ethan was headed next. Possibly Wisdom, Montana?

When the ranch owner answered, he introduced himself as Undersheriff Dillon Lawson of Big Timber.

“Ethan Lawson, oh, you bet I remember him,” the female ranch owner said, giving Dillon a bad feeling he knew what was coming next. “He left here owing me money. Any chance you’re a relative?”

“Brother. How much does he owe you?”

“Two hundred.”

“I’ll put a check in the mail today,” Dillon said, wondering how much it was going to cost him by the time he was through looking for his twin. “Do you happen to know where he went after he left your ranch?”

“Not likely, since he left in the middle of the night. The two of them absconding in the night like the thieves they were. The other one got me for five hundred. I don’t suppose you want to pick up his tab, as well?”

“The other one?”

“Luke Blackwell. Running with him, your brother was headed for trouble. I hired Luke against my better judgment, since when I checked the ranch he’d worked for I was warned that he’d gotten involved with the rancher’s granddaughter. Luke gave me some song and dance about the girl chasing him. I weakened. Big mistake. Last I heard, Luke did some hard time in Deer Lodge. Not surprised.”

“Do you know what he went to prison for?” Dillon asked.

“Felony theft. He was caught stealing a backhoe. The bum actually tried to get me to give him a recommendation before the parole board hearing, promising to offer him a job when he got out. Like I would ever let him back on my ranch. If you’re looking for your brother, he’ll be wherever Luke went after he got out. The two were thicker than thieves.” She chuckled bitterly.

Dillon asked for her address, thanked her for the information and hung up. He quickly checked to see how Luke Blackwell had fared with the judicial system.

Luke had done only eighteen months in prison before his release. He had gotten a rancher by the name of Halbrook Truman of the Double T-Bar-Diamond to promise him a job when he got out.

The Double T-Bar-Diamond was in Big Hole country over by Wisdom, Montana. Dillon felt his heart beat a little faster. He’d never trusted coincidences. As he started to place a call to the ranch, he changed his mind. He hadn’t been to that part of southwestern Montana in years. It was only a half day’s drive, one he wouldn’t mind taking.

Also, he was curious why Halbrook Truman had hired Luke Blackwell. Felons had a hard time getting jobs. If the rancher had checked into Luke’s past at all, he would have found out just how unreliable the man was—not to mention that he’d gone to prison for theft. But maybe Luke had proved he could change and now still worked at the ranch.

With Sheriff Frank Curry back at work, there was no reason Dillon couldn’t follow up on this. He called the cell phone number Tessa Winters had given him before he’d left her at the ranch. She answered on the second ring, sounding breathless.

“Are you all right?” he asked alarmed.

“Fine, I left my cell phone on the porch. I was down at the corral admiring your horses.”

With relief, he asked, “Did Ethan ever mention working on a ranch called the Double T-Bar-Diamond?” He heard her start to say no just before he quickly added, “For a man named Halbrook Truman?”

“Halbrook,” she said. “I have heard that name. Who is he?”

“A rancher over in western Montana. I think Ethan might have worked for him before he left for Arizona. I’m going over there to talk to him.”

“Not without me.”

He smiled and shook his head, telling himself he should have known she wouldn’t sit tight for long. The woman was resolute. Look how she’d found him. He wondered if he would have ever known there was even a chance Ethan was alive if she hadn’t shown up at his door.

“In that case, how do you feel about a road trip? It will also give us a chance to talk.” There was so much he wanted to know. About Ethan—and whatever trouble his twin had gotten himself into.

But he was also very curious about Tessa Winters.

CHAPTER SIX

DILLON GLANCED AT the young pregnant woman in his passenger seat. Not for the first time, he saw her turn to look behind them.

“Is everything all right?” he asked.

She seemed startled by the question and reticent to answer. “You’ll think I’m silly, but I’ve had the strangest feeling I was being followed.”

“All the way from California?”

“Crazy, huh?”

Maybe. Maybe not. Who knew what kind of people his brother had gotten involved with? It scared him, though, to think that the trouble might have followed her.

“You said on the phone earlier that you recognized the name Halbrook,” he said.