The Sheriff And The Impostor Bride

Just like her mother, she thought before she could stop herself.

As quickly as the realization erupted in her head, Rachel shoved it back down deep inside again. Instead, she reminded herself that it was Sabrina, not Rachel, who had found herself single and in a family way. Sabrina, not Rachel, who was on the run from some shadowy threat. It was Sabrina who’d landed in trouble this time. Now if Rachel could figure out where her sister was, then maybe, just maybe, the two of them could put their identical heads together and come up with a solution.

As had become an incessant habit over the last thirty-six hours, Rachel stared at the telephone affixed to the kitchen wall and mentally willed it to ring. Then, when mental willpower wasn’t enough, she closed her eyes and started in on the customary verbal mantra that always followed.

“Ring, you stupid telephone,” she whispered through gritted teeth. “Ring.”

She had repeated the command four times when the telephone rang and scared the bejeebers out of her. “Hello!” she shouted into the receiver as she snatched it up, her entire body shaking.

“Rachel? Is that you?”

Rachel felt as if someone had come up behind her and hit her hard enough to drive the air right out of her lungs. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak. Then she gave her brain a good mental shove and cried, “Sabrina! Honey...where are you?”

“Thank goodness you’re there,” her sister began. Her voice sounded so distant, so faint and so scared that Rachel wanted to cry. “I tried you at your apartment first,” Sabrina added, “and when you didn’t answer, I hoped I could catch you at the trailer. And I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you where I am.”

“Of course you can tell me where you are,” Rachel countered, knowing it was pointless. Although Sabrina had called her from time to time over the last few months, she’d never told Rachel where she was. Not until the other night, anyway. “I’m your sister for gosh sakes,” she reminded her twin. “I’ve been worried out of my mind about you, and I don’t know how much longer I can put off telling Daddy that you’re in trouble.”

“I can’t tell you where I am,” Sabrina repeated. “Because I’m only going to be here long enough to make this call. Then I have another bus to catch.”

“Another bus?” Rachel echoed. “Sabrina...” For a moment, she let herself be overcome by the worry, the concern, the fear that had plagued her for months. “Sabrina, what on earth have you gotten yourself into?” she demanded. “All this secretiveness is making me crazy. When are you going to come home? Max said you used his address for mail for a bit, but that you never stayed there. So where have you been?”

There was a brief hesitation on the other end of the line, then Sabrina said, “I was in Mason’s Grove for a little while, but I couldn’t stay there.”

“Where’s Mason’s Grove?”

“Between Tulsa and Stillwater. It’s a real nice place, Rachel. You oughta visit there sometime. You’d like it.”

They always did this. Started a conversation one way, branched it off to something else, then wound around to something else again. And somehow, they always kept track. Today, however, Rachel didn’t feel like branching. Today, she wanted to stay on the topic at hand.

“Why didn’t you call me or Daddy to tell us you were there?”

“I couldn’t.”

“Why?” Rachel repeated before expelling an exasperated sound. “Sabrina...honey, you’ve got to tell me what’s going on. I mean it now.”

“I wish I could tell you more,” she replied, sounding as anxious as Rachel felt, “but it’s just so complicated, and I’m not sure I know all the details myself, and I don’t want to pull you into it, because it might be dangerous, and there’s just not enough time, and...” She expelled an exasperated sound of her own. “Look, I just wanted to see if you were still at the trailer, and if you were, to tell you I’m not coming back, and you should leave. Do you hear me, Rachel? Leave. I don’t think it’s safe there.”

“Oh, please,” Rachel said. “What are you talking about? Not safe? This town is the most boring place I’ve ever been in my life. What could possibly be not safe here?”

She heard her sister sigh on the other end of the line. Then, in the background, a faint, disembodied voice dispassionately announced the departure of a bus to Lincoln, Nebraska.

“Is that yours?” Rachel asked. “Are you headed for Nebraska?”

“No. I’m going—” Whatever Sabrina had been about to say, she seemed to think better of it. “I can’t tell you,” she repeated.

“Why not? I’ll meet you there. I’ll call Daddy, and we can both meet you there. We can help you.”

“Rachel, honey, there’s something you need to know.”

“Well, no doody, Sabrina.” Momentarily, Rachel gave in to her frustration. “I think there’s more than one thing I need to know. Like what exactly are you running from? Who the heck is the baby’s father and why isn’t he with you? Are you seeing a doctor? Are you eating right? Have you been taking your prenatal vitamins? Have I left anything out?”

Sabrina ignored her sarcasm. “All I can tell you is that I’m fine, and yes, I’ve seen a doctor—more than one, in fact—and everything is going perfectly according to schedule.” After a clear hesitation, and with obvious reluctance, she added, “All I can tell you about the baby’s father is that he comes from a very prominent Oklahoma family with a lot of money, a lot of power and a lot of influence, and...” There was another sigh, this one long and melancholy, followed by a softly uttered, “And...oh, Rachel. I think his family wants to take the baby away from me.”

Rachel actually removed the receiver from her ear long enough to gape at it. Then she replaced it and exclaimed, “They want to what?”

“There’s some guy following me,” Sabrina continued in a rush. “I don’t know who he is or what he wants, but he’s giving me the creeps. I think he might be working for Ja...for the baby’s father’s family, but whatever he’s up to, it’s no good.”

“How do you know? Maybe he wants to help you.”

“Trust me, honey. This guy isn’t the helpful kind. He makes my skin crawl.” After a brief hesitation, she added, “Someone broke into my apartment, Rachel, and tried to run me off the road. I think it’s a safe bet that he was responsible for both. He’s dangerous. And I won’t risk having you and Daddy exposed to him.”

“What?”

“Oh, I shouldn’t have told you that,” Sabrina said. “Look, I’m fine now. I’m safe. But I think I should keep moving.”

“And I think you need to be with your family,” Rachel countered. Shoot, Sabrina was going to give her a heart attack with all this woman-in-jeopardy stuff. “Sabrina, just tell me where you are, where you’re going,” Rachel pleaded. “I can meet you somewhere. It’ll be okay with two of us. Even better, if I call Daddy, too. For heaven’s sake, you’re seven months pregnant! You need somebody with you!”

“No.” Sabrina’s tone of voice punctuated her adamant stance. “I’m fine. I knew the minute I hung up the phone the other night that it was wrong for me to call you in Oklahoma City. I was just feeling scared and alone, but I’m over it now. There’s no reason to pull you into this, too. I’m on my own now. It’ll be better that way. Go home, Rachel. Where it’s safe. I’ll call you when I can.”

“But, Sabrina—” She stopped when another tinny-sounding departure announcement rang out in the background on the other end of the line. But the sound was muffled before Rachel could hear what it was, and she knew Sabrina had deliberately covered the mouthpiece of the phone.

When her sister came back on the line, it was to say quickly, “I have to go. Listen, just promise me you’ll get out of there. And that you’ll be careful.”

“I’ll be careful?” she repeated. “I’m not the one who’s pregnant and on the run here—you are. You be careful. I can take care of myself.”

Sabrina actually laughed at that. “Oh, yeah. Right. That’s a good one, Rachel.”

Rachel made a face at the phone. “Just tell me one last—”

“I have to go,” Sabrina repeated. “I love you, Rachel. Tell Daddy I love him, too. I’ll call you at your apartment when I can.”

And then the buzz of a disconnected line hummed in Rachel’s ear.

She stood there for a long time with the phone still pressed urgently to the side of her head, somehow feeling a little closer to her sister by doing so. Then an electronic female voice told her very politely that if she wished to make another call, to please hang up and try again. With a sigh, Rachel dropped the receiver back into its cradle, feeling worse now than she had when she’d first arrived at the rented mobile home in Wallace Canyon.

“Well, shoot,” she muttered out loud. For good measure, she kicked the side of the kitchen counter with the toe of her heavy hiking boot.

There was no reason for her to stay here any longer. Sabrina had made it clear that she wasn’t coming back, and whoever was following her was doubtless long gone from here, too. Rachel might as well just do as her sister had told her and go back home to Oklahoma City, where she could wait for Sabrina’s next call. If there was a next call.

But something about going home rankled. Rachel didn’t like feeling helpless, especially where her sister was concerned. There had been a time in the twins’ lives when they’d been inseparable. Where one had gone, the other had followed, as if they’d been joined physically, as well as spiritually and emotionally. And although the leader had always been Sabrina—except, of course, for when the trail had led to trouble—Rachel had followed not out of obligation, but out of trust, out of love.

Sabrina had bailed her out of more tricky situations than Rachel could shake a stick at, and she’d never had the opportunity to return the favor. She owed her sister—big time. Now that Sabrina was the one in need of bailing out, the least Rachel could do was try to figure out some way to help. And sitting in her apartment back in Oklahoma City waiting for the phone to ring just wasn’t going to cut it.

She leaned back against the wall, crossed her arms over the big, baggy, forest green sweater that hung nearly down to her denim-clad knees, cupped her chin resolutely in her palm, and wondered how on earth she was going to help Sabrina out when she didn’t even know where her sister was headed. For long moments, she pondered her dilemma, until a brisk rap of a fist on the front door roused her from her thoughts.

Rachel snapped her head up at the intrusive sound, and riveted her gaze on the frosted glass of the aluminum door barely ten feet opposite her. Beyond it, she saw the silhouette of a big cowboy hat and little else. Something drew tight in her belly, and all her senses went on alert. She straightened, inhaled a few deep, fortifying breaths, and crossed to greet her—or rather, Sabrina’s—visitor.

She gripped the doorknob carefully, inhaled again, then twisted and pushed slowly. But a gust of brutal winter wind snatched the door from her hand and sent it crashing outward, giving neither Rachel, nor her guest, a chance to ease slowly into things.