“That’s certainly an interesting prospect,” Sam said, looking down at the flyer she still had in her hands.“Nate, why don’t you call Mr.Vanderbilt?Have your meeting at the diner.I’ll figure this out.”
The lawyer.Right.Still, Nate hesitated.
Something about this guy and his appearance was unsettling.Hadn’t they learned that long-lost family showing up out of nowhere couldn’t lead anywhere good when Aly’s biological mom had done that this summer?
But this guy wasn’t claiming any familial relationships.He was claiming to be some kind of… John Doe as a kid.
Farfetched at best.Enough that Nate didn’t particularly want Sam here alone with this guy.
But he didn’t want the lawyer asking any questions either if he showed up, and Nate would need to move quickly to change the meeting place.
When he glanced at Sam, both she and the guy were looking at him expectantly.
It was probably just paranoia that the guy’s eyes felt like his own.That there were Benjamin Bennet features stamped all over his face.
“I’ve got it,” Sam repeated firmly.
He gave her a nod.Sam could take care of herself.
She always did.
Chapter Two
The Bennet Ranch
Cal Bennet walkedaround the perimeter of the big ranch house he’d grown up in.It was part of his recovery from the gunshot wound he’d received in August.Physical therapy and lots of walking.
He was almost back to normal, physically anyway.He’d always have a scar—but what was a physical scar to go along with all the emotional ones?
It was a strange thing to feel more himself, more in charge of things, while his body recovered from an injury worse than anything he’d ever been through.Physically.
It was stranger still to feel settled here on the Bennet Ranch, where terrible things had happened.Where not that long ago those mountains in the distance had felt like horrible weights pressing down on his chest.
But right now, in the pearly light of a frozen morning, he felt more himself, morewith it, than he had in a hell of a long time.And the sight of mountains on a cold, silent winter morning felt like salvation.
A feeling that wouldn’t last.
That wasn’t even a pessimistic thought, just reality.Recovery—both from the gunshot wound and whatever the hell else was wrong with him—seemed to come in fits and starts.And about five steps back for every one forward.
The gunshot had done one good thing—staved off the inevitable.His boss back in Austin could hardly fire him if he was laid up in a hospital bed.
But even that reprieve was coming to an end, and Cal was coming to the surprising conclusion that he didn’t want to go back to Texas, or his job, or much of anything.
No, he wanted to stay right here.In Montana.With his family.Maybe on the ranch, maybe not, buthere.
Not that he knew what a future here would entail.Going through the complicated process of opening his own practice in a new state?Giving up the law entirely?Then what?
It felt like questions he couldn’t answer until his father’s trial was over.Because the trial had the chance to throw everything into flux once again.
So much rested on his testimony, and a jury believing in something calledtraumatic dissociative amnesia.Sure, there was physical evidence too.There was alotof evidence, really, and if he were in charge of his father’s defense, he’d be nervous as hell.It was by no means an easy case to wriggle Benjamin Bennet out of true punishment.
Cal didn’t happen to think Dad’s lawyer was as good ashewas, which was another plus.It meant even less chance.
Cal wanted to have that optimism.He wanted to believe that it was all over—even if he had to relive it all again on the stand.But he was too much of a lawyer to trust a sure thing.And he was too aware of Benjamin Bennet’s ability to manipulate and skew a truth to think it couldn’t work again.
But most of all, he was too used to the feeling in the back of his brain, that there were still things hehadn’tremembered, still hauntings ready to crop up once they felt like it.
“You’re out early.”
