She struggled, but he weighed more than she did and he had her arms and legs pinned beneath his.
The muffled sound of a vehicle engine came and went. Though she tried to scream out, she knew she wouldn’t be heard. Even if she was, he might still have his gun on him. What would happen if they stopped? Would he shoot Amelia, Julia or Lily before the men took him down?
Emma wouldn’t be able to live with herself if he did, so she lay quietly, no longer fighting to free herself. Once the vehicle drove by, she’d come up with another plan. If she lived long enough.
Chapter Fifteen
Dante and Tuck stopped at the hotel where the oil speculators were staying. Nicole was on duty, looking as bored as usual. “Ah, the Thunder Horse brothers. Here to see Ryan, again?”
“We’re not here to see Ryan. We’d like to talk with Monty Langley and Theron Price.”
“Sorry, unless you have an appointment, they’ve asked not to be disturbed.”
Tuck pulled out his FBI credentials. “What room are they in?”
Nicole stared at the big
F-B-I
letters and nodded. “Impressive.” She jerked her head toward the hallway. “They have rooms 109 and 110.”
As Tuck and Dante took off in that direction, she called out, “But they aren’t there.”
“Any idea where they are?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I can’t answer that.”
“They just got back from a ride on their snowmobiles.” She snorted. “They usually have dinner at the diner around this time every day, like clockwork. I’d check there.”
“They own snowmobiles?” Dante asked.
“Yeah, they keep them out back in the storage shed.”
“How do we get inside the shed?”
Nicole shrugged. “Open it. We don’t lock it.”
Dante left the hotel and ran around the outside to the back where a weathered storage shed stood in the corner of the lot. He pushed the door open and stepped inside. The light from the doorway splashed across two fairly new snowmobiles.
“So, they own snowmobiles,” Tuck said. “So do most of the people in this area.”
“The one that was out by the canyon had a broken track and was leaking oil.” He studied the one closest to him while Tuck dropped to his haunches beside the other.
After a moment, Tuck straightened. “This one doesn’t have a broken track or an oil leakage.”
The lighting wasn’t the best, so Dante skimmed his hand along the top of the vehicle closest to him, feeling the tracks for any inconsistencies. One of the tracks had a notch chipped out of it. Ducking his head, Dante saw something shiny on the ground beneath the engine. He reached his hand beneath it and felt warm, sticky oil.
“A lot of snowmobiles have chinks out of their tracks and leak oil.”
“Yeah, but I don’t believe in coincidence.” Dante left the storage shed.
“Where to?” Tuck asked.
“The diner, to find us some oil speculators.”
He and Tuck climbed in the truck and drove the block to the diner, parking in front.
Through the windows Dante could see Hank and Florence at the bar counter. At a table on the south side of the diner, two men sat drinking coffee.
Dante was first out of the truck and into the diner. He marched up to the two men. “Monty Langley and Theron Price?”
The younger one with sandy-blond hair raised his eyebrows. “I’m Monty, he’s Theron. What can we do for you?”
“Where were you two yesterday around three o’clock in the afternoon?”
“Why?” Monty asked.
Tuck stepped up beside Dante and flashed his FBI badge. “Just answer the question.”
Monty raised his hands. “We were here in the diner with Mr. Plessinger for most of the afternoon. About have him ready to lease his mineral rights.” He dropped his arms and smiled. “Are you two ready to talk money?”
“Hell no,” Dante responded.
Theron frowned. “Then what’s this all about?”
“Someone tried to kill me and my fiancée yesterday out at the canyon. He used C-4 explosives. The kind people might have access to if connected with an oil drilling operation.”
Monty stood, his hands raised. “Whoa there, cowboy. I’m a lover, not a killer. The closest I get to the oil is when I take my car in for an oil change.”
Florence stepped into the conversation. “I can vouch for the two of them. They worked over poor ol’ Fred Plessinger all afternoon, drank two pots of coffee between them and ate an entire coconut cream pie.”
Tuck’s cell phone buzzed and he stepped away from the group to answer it.
“Where were you two four days ago? Were you anywhere near Grand Forks?”
“We’ve been here in Medora the entire week,” Price said. “We’re not scheduled to head back to Minneapolis until the end of the month.”
“Do you have proof?” Dante asked.
Monty pulled a pocket-size day planner out of his jacket and handed it to Dante. “Look at my schedule. Any one of these people I’ve had appointments with can vouch for my whereabouts.”
Dante glanced at the names on the man’s minicalendar. He recognized many of them. The men seemed slimy but legit in their alibis. He handed the planner to Monty. “I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
“Sounds like someone is out to get the Thunder Horse clan. What with your brothers’ brakes going out, your helicopter going down and now the explosives. Do you all have good insurance policies?” Monty held out a card. “I have a friend who sells life insurance.”
Dante walked away and joined Tuck near the door.
“Are you sure?” Tuck ran a hand through his hair, his face pale. “Thanks. I’m on it.” As soon as Tuck hung up, he pushed through the door. “Come on, we have to go.”
“What’s wrong?”
Tuck climbed into his truck and started the engine as Dante slid into the passenger seat. “I had my contact at the FBI run a check on flight plans for Grand Forks and Bismarck to see if Ryan Yost’s name or plane came up. They had a couple of hits. He flew into Bismarck two days before your crash and out the next day, landing in Grand Forks the day before your crash. Then he flew out of Grand Forks a couple of days after your crash.”
Dante’s blood ran cold. “It adds up all too well. He could have cut your brakes and left them to bleed out, hopped in his plane to Grand Forks to target me. Now he’s out at the house with the family.”
“Pierce and Sean are there,” Tuck said, pulling out of the diner parking lot onto the highway.
“But they’re not suspecting anything.” Dante hit the speed-dial number for home and pressed his cell phone to his ear. It rang five times before he gave up. “No answer.”
“They could be on their way to town for Cowboy Christmas.” Tuck glanced ahead as they approached the edge of town. “As a matter of fact, isn’t that Pierce’s SUV?”
The SUV pulled up beside them, the window rolled down and Pierce stuck his head out. “You’re headed the wrong way.”
“Where’s Ryan Yost?”
“He left thirty minutes before us. I figure he’s back at his hotel,” Pierce said. “Why?”
“Do you have everyone with you?”
His mother answered, “Yes, we do. Except Emma. She was on her way to meet you at the diner.” She unbuckled her seat belt and leaned over Pierce’s shoulder. “Emma’s not with you? She left ten minutes before we did.”
Dante’s heart fell down around his knees. Emma was missing and Ryan Yost might be the one responsible. Where would he take her? And why?
His cell phone buzzed in his hand and he glanced down. A text message came through with a number he didn’t recognize in the display screen.
If you want to see Emma alive, come to the ranch. Alone.
Dante’s hand shook as he held out the phone to Tuck.
Tuck read the message and glanced over at Pierce. “We have a problem.”
Pierce pulled off the road, climbed out of the SUV and walked over to Tuck’s truck. The three brothers read the message again.
“He’s at the ranch with Emma,” Dante said. “I have to go.”
“Who’s at the ranch with Emma?” Pierce asked.
“Ryan Yost.”
“Where’s Emma?” Dante’s mother pushed her way through her sons. “And why are you concerned about Ryan?”
Dante debated telling her something to pacify her, but the look on her face was enough. “We think Ryan Yost has her. I just got this text.” He showed his mother the cell phone.
“Oh, dear Lord. I knew I should have insisted she ride with us.”
“If she had, you all might be the ones he’s holding hostage.”
Amelia stared up at her sons. “But why?”
“Good question. Only Ryan can answer that. For now, I have to go.” Dante held out his hands to his brother Tuck. “Give me the keys.”
“You’re not going alone.”
“I have to. If I don’t, he might kill Emma.”
“He might kill her anyway. Why not let us come with you? We’re the ones trained for this.”
“You forget I fought in the war.”
“Yeah, but you have no training in hostage negotiation.”
“I can’t risk it.” Dante climbed into the truck and stuck the key in the ignition.
“We’re coming with you.” Pierce opened the back door and got in the crew cab.
Tuck climbed into the passenger seat. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt. We have your back.”
“What about me?” Amelia asked.
“Maddox is supposed to arrive about now. Send him out when he does. And, Mom, I need you to stay in town and keep Lily and Julia safe,” Tuck said. “Promise me.”
Amelia nodded. “And promise me that you three won’t do anything stupid and get yourselves shot.”
“We promise,” they said as one.
“Want me to notify the sheriff’s department?” she asked.
“No!” they said in unison. “If it’s his son, he might take sides. The wrong side.”
“Got it.” Amelia stepped away from the truck and raised her hand.
“Wakan tanan kici un wakina chelee.”
Dante drove toward the ranch, his foot heavy on the accelerator. He appreciated his mother’s prayer to the Great Spirit, but he wasn’t the one who needed it.
Emma was.
Chapter Sixteen
Emma came to and blinked at the lights shining from the lamps on end tables above her. For a moment she was disoriented, her vision blurred and pain throbbed at her temple.
The last thing she remembered was fighting to stand after the SUV full of the Thunder Horse family had passed by. One moment she’d gotten a good kick at his shins, the next moment she was awake in the living room of the Thunder Horse ranch house.
“Looks like you’ll be around for the fireworks after all,” a voice said.
She turned her head, a flash of pain making her close her eyes until it passed. When she opened them again, she could see Ryan Yost standing beside the window, peering through a crack in the blinds.
“Someone’s coming. Let’s hope it’s the people I specifically requested and not any more.” He clapped his hands together. “Today, I finally get my revenge on the people I hate the most.”
Emma struggled to push to a sitting position, realizing that her hands were secured behind her back by something that felt like duct tape. Using her elbow, she pushed up and drew her legs under her, sitting up. Thankfully, he hadn’t tied her feet together. She glanced around for something sharp to rub the tape on. Every edge seemed to be soft or rounded. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’ll tell you why. For years, my father hated me, hated my mother and hated everything about our lives together. When my mother couldn’t take it any longer, she jerked me out of my school here in Medora and hauled me back to the reservation where I would have rotted in hell.”
Emma’s head ached, but she had to keep the man talking. Maybe she could reason with him. “And what does that have to do with the Thunder Horses?”
“On one of her normal drunken binges, she let slip a secret she’d kept from me and from my father. A secret that made everything perfectly clear. William Yost was in love with the woman who married John Thunder Horse, not my mother.”
“So?”
“And my mother was in love with John Thunder Horse and they’d been dating up until John met Amelia and dumped my mother. My pregnant mother.”
Emma’s mind cleared and focused on what the man had just said. “Are you saying John Thunder Horse was your father?”
“Damn right he was. He left my mother when she was pregnant. She was forced to marry Yost and had me eight months later.”
Ryan slapped a hand to his chest. “I should have grown up on the Thunder Horse Ranch, not that hellhole of a reservation. I should have had the best of everything they had.”
“Are you certain? Have you done a DNA test?”
“I look like a Thunder Horse, damn it!” He jerked Emma up by her arm and glared into her face. “I’ve never looked anything like William Yost.”
“Because you look like your mother.” Sheriff Yost stepped into the house, gun drawn, closing the door behind him. “Ryan, what are you doing?”
“Daddy.” Ryan practically spit the word out. “So glad you could come to your
son’s
coming out party. Pull up a seat. We’re waiting for the other main player to arrive.”
Footsteps pounded on the porch outside and a voice shouted, “Emma!”
“Dante, don’t come in!” Emma cried.
Ryan looped his arm around her neck and yanked her up by the throat. “Shut up.”
Dante flung the door open and entered, his eyes blazing. “Leave her out of this, Ryan.”
“Oh, no. I wouldn’t dream of it. I’ve worked too hard setting this all up to end it here.”
“What do you want? The ranch? Money? You name it.” Dante stepped closer.
“Stop right there.” Ryan pointed his gun at Emma’s temple. “Another step closer and I’ll shoot her.”
“Why are you doing this, son?”
“Because I’m not your son.”
“What are you talking about?”
“My mother told me her secret. A secret I suspect you always knew. She had an affair with John Thunder Horse before she married you, and before
he
married Amelia. She was pregnant when you married her. That’s why I was born eight months after your wedding.”
Sheriff Yost raised a hand. “Whoa, son, where did you hear such an idiotic story?”
“From my mother. The woman you kicked out of your house and sent back to live on the reservation. If I had been your son, you wouldn’t have let her take me.” Ryan’s lip curled back, baring his teeth. “It all made sense when she told me I was John Thunder Horse’s son. You hated me, and you hated my mother for what she did.”
Ryan’s arm tightened around Emma’s neck. She struggled, unable to get air past her vocal cords to utter a protest.
“Let go of Emma,” Dante pleaded. Emma’s face was beet-red and starting to turn blue. “She had nothing to do with what happened between your father and mother.”
“No way. While you and your brothers lived the life
I
should have, I wallowed in a broken-down trailer while my mother drank herself into oblivion every night. When she wasn’t slapping me around, she was telling me what a failure I was compared to the four of you.”
“Ryan, I don’t know what your mother told you, but it was a pack of lies. I tried to get you back, but the court didn’t want to go up against the tribal council. Your mother told them she wanted you to grow up knowing the way of your ancestors. They wouldn’t listen to me. I loved you. I wanted you to live with me.”
“Then why did you kick us out?”
“I didn’t.” Yost stepped closer. “You have to believe me. Your mother had problems. She was delusional. I think her breakup with John was the last straw. I didn’t see it until we’d already married. And with you on the way, I couldn’t divorce her.”
“Lies!” Ryan dragged Emma back toward the hallway. “You threw us out.”
“She told you that, didn’t she?” William said quietly. “The truth was that she left me and took you with her to punish me.”
“No. That’s not how it was. You hated me and ruined my life. Now I’m going to ruin yours.” Ryan’s hand shook as he held it to Emma’s head. “If you don’t shoot Dante right now, I’ll put a bullet through Emma’s head.”
“What will shooting Dante gain for you?”
“It’ll be one Thunder Horse down and you will have killed him. Amelia will never love you after you’ve killed her precious son.” Ryan’s face turned red, his eyes bulging. “Shoot him now or I swear the woman dies!”
Dante turned to the sheriff. “Do it. Shoot me if that’s what it’ll take to free Emma. She’ll die anyway if he doesn’t loosen his hold soon.”
“I can’t shoot you.” The sheriff held his gun to the side. “I won’t.”
“I’ve never trusted you. Never thought you were man enough to fill my father’s shoes or deserve to be with my mother. If ever there’s a time to prove me wrong, now is it. Shoot me.” Dante held his arms out to his sides, glancing over at Emma’s face turning purple. “Now!” He prayed Yost would do it, but that he’d graze him, not hit him in a place that would be fatal. If Ryan thought him dead, he might let go of Emma long enough for her to breathe, buying time.
Sheriff Yost raised his 9 mm pistol and aimed. “God have mercy on my soul.” He pulled the trigger.
The bullet’s impact jerked Dante’s arm back and he was flung to the side, angling toward Ryan Yost.
As Dante crashed to the floor, Ryan loosened his hold on Emma’s neck.
Her knees buckled and she slipped to the floor.
Ryan raised his gun, pointing it at Sheriff Yost. “Now I’ll be the hero for shooting the man who killed Amelia’s son, and you will be blamed for setting off the explosives I have positioned around the house.” Before he could pull the trigger, Dante swung his leg, sweeping Ryan’s feet out from under him. His shot hit the ceiling and he landed hard on his back, his gun skidding across the hardwood floor out of his reach.
Emma, having caught her breath, spun around on her hip and kicked the gun farther away from him.
“No! You’ll ruin everything.” Ryan grabbed her hair and yanked hard.
Dante, his arm bleeding and his vision getting gray and fuzzy around the edges, flung himself on top of Ryan, pinning him down with his good hand, keeping him from digging the detonator out of his pocket.
Then everything seemed to happen at once. Tuck and Pierce stormed into the house, followed by Maddox and the rest of the family.
Tuck pulled Dante off Ryan.
“Don’t let him get his hands in his pockets. He has a detonator in it and he says he has the house rigged to explode.”
Tuck rolled Ryan onto his belly and slapped a zip tie around his wrists, then carefully dug the detonation device from his pocket and set it aside for the bomb squad. “You have the right to remain silent...”
As Tuck read Ryan his Miranda rights, Dante crawled over to where Emma was struggling to get up with her wrists still bound behind her back with duct tape.
Maddox leaned over Dante. “Let me get her.” He pulled a pocketknife out of his pocket and sliced through the tape, freeing her wrists.
As soon as she was free, Emma flung her arms around Dante’s shoulders. “I thought you were dead. Why the hell did you tell the sheriff to shoot you?”
“Sweetheart, you were turning a pretty shade of blueberry. Another minute and you wouldn’t have made it.” He winced, pain slicing through him where she hugged his injured arm. “I’m getting blood on your clothes.”
“Oh, my God. Lie down. Someone call an ambulance.”
Pierce handed her a towel. “Apply pressure to the wound to slow the bleeding.”
Tuck placed a call to 9-1-1, requesting an ambulance and bomb-sniffing dogs.
While Maddox helped Dante out of his jacket, Emma folded the hand towel into a wad. Once Dante was out of the jacket, the wound bled freely. Emma eased Dante onto his back and applied pressure to the wound.
“Emma.” Dante grasped the wrist holding the towel in place.
“Am I hurting you?”
“More than you’ll ever know.”
“I’m sorry, but if I let up, you’ll start bleeding again.”
He chuckled. “Not the arm.” He laid his other hand over her chest. “Here. You’re hurting my heart.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You made me feel again.” He lifted her empty hand and pressed it to his chest. “You made me ache so bad I thought I was going to die.”
Her eyes misted. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to cause you any pain. I know how much you loved Sam. I was leaving to go back to Grand Forks so that I wouldn’t make you feel like you had to choose.”
“That’s the point. I didn’t want to love anyone else. I didn’t want to choose between you and her. But then you ran your snowmobile into a man who tried to kill me not once but three times.
“I’d have done it for anyone.”
“I know. That’s what I love about you. You’re selfless, endearing and beautiful in so many ways.”
“No, I’m just me. A college professor with very few social skills.”
“You have all the skills I need, and you’re the most beautiful woman I know. Because you’re beautiful inside and out. You showed me that I didn’t have to choose. That I could love you both.”
Emma laughed, the sound catching on a sob. “You’ve been talking to your mother, haven’t you?”
“She’s smarter than I ever gave her credit for.” Dante pressed her hand to his lips kissing her knuckles. “I’ll never underestimate her again. Nor you.”
As Tuck dragged Ryan to his feet and shoved him toward the door, the rest of the Thunder Horse family arrived with the ambulance, a state policeman and the only other deputy on duty in Billings County. Rather than risk anyone else being hurt, the party was moved out of the house.
Ryan was bundled into the state police car and carted off to Bismarck where he would face a multitude of charges.
Sheriff Yost hung around to make sure no one went inside the house his son had rigged with explosives.
Dante let the medics bandage his wound but refused to go with them to the hospital in Dickinson. “I want to make sure my fiancée doesn’t run out on me.” He held on to Emma’s hand as he sat on the gurney, his legs dangling over the side.
Emma smiled sadly. “But don’t you see? It’s over. You don’t have to protect me anymore. I can go back to Grand Forks.”
“Is that what you want?” he asked.
Her head dipped and she stared at her feet, which were up to her ankles in snow. “You said no guarantees.”
“Yeah, well, I was wrong.”
His mother walked up to him where he sat and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Dante.”
“Just a minute, Mother.”
“No, really, if you want to do this right, take this.” She removed the glove from his hand and one of hers. Then she slipped the diamond engagement ring off her finger. The ring his father had given her when he’d asked her to marry him over thirty years ago. She pressed it into his bare palm. “Now do it right.”
Dante glanced down at the ring, a flood of emotions rising up his throat. When he turned to Emma, he knew what he had to do.
Emma stared at the ring in his hand, her eyes wet with tears, her head shaking back and forth. “Don’t. I don’t need your pity.”
“Pity? You think I’d get down on my knees in the snow because I pity you?” Dante slid off the gurney and dropped to one knee. “Emma Jennings, in the short time we’ve been together, we’ve been through a lot. You’ve saved my life more than once and you’ve shown me that I have so much more life to look forward to and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend it with. Will you marry me?”
Emma’s knees buckled and she dropped to the ground beside him. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
“I’ve never been more sure.” He took her hand in his and removed her glove. “Marry me.”
Tears slipped down her cheek even as snowflakes clung to her eyelashes and she nodded. He slipped the ring on her finger, feeling happiness bubble up inside him. He rose to his feet and lifted her up in his arms. “Mom, Pierce, Tuck, Maddox, meet my fiancée, the beautiful Emma Jennings. We’re getting married.”
“I thought you were already engaged,” Pierce said.
Dante grinned and hugged Emma close. “Brother, in case you didn’t know it already, it’s all about the ring.”