Shotgun Bride

She pulled over beside a park in some small town and climbed into the back of the car to sleep, telling herself that she’d put enough miles between her and Earl Ray. There was no way he could find her, especially without a car and without knowing which direction she was headed. She’d never told him about the daughter she’d been forced to give up at sixteen. She’d never told anyone.

And she was sure he hadn’t called the cops. No, Earl Ray would call some of his low-life buddies and probably get drunk. That was his answer to everything.

It was when he sobered up that she would have to worry. Then he’d be hungover and furious. But why come looking for her at all? He could just pick up another down-on-her-luck woman at any bar. Those were the only kind of women who put up with Earl Ray.

Her stomach growled, but with gas being so expensive, she had gone without food. In the morning, though, she’d have to get something to eat. She had to take care of herself if she hoped to get to Montana.

As she curled up to sleep, she thought about her little baby girl. Jerilyn tried to picture what Maddie would look like now and hoped her daughter had blond hair and blue eyes just like her real mama.

Jerilyn wished she could get some new clothes before she met her and maybe even buy her daughter a gift. Flowers, maybe, or chocolates.

Her stomach growled again, and she tried to sleep, but every little sound startled her. Finally sometime before dawn, Jerilyn fell into a deep sleep and dreamed about her reunion with her daughter.

GRAYSON CORBETT stood at the window watching his wife. His wife. He smiled at the thought. Falling in love had come as a surprise.

He’d never thought there would be anyone but Rebecca. In all those years since her death, he never met a woman who stirred his heart or tempted him to remarry.

Until Kate.

She’d come into his life so late. That was his only regret. At fifty-five, he hated that he wouldn’t have an entire lifetime with her. But if Rebecca had taught him anything, it was not to count on more than this moment in time.

He and Rebecca had married young and started a family right away. They’d both wanted lots of kids, but Grayson lost the love of his life right after the twins were born.

He’d never expected to love again.

As he studied Kate’s slim back now, he ached at the sight of the way she hugged herself as she looked out across the land—her family’s land.

He’d hoped getting her family ranch back would take away that haunted look he’d sometimes glimpsed in her eyes.

But there was more to her sadness than the loss of mere land. Something powerful had a hold on her. Whatever it was, Kate kept it to herself.

Grayson hoped he could gain her trust and that she would open up to him. So far that hadn’t happened.

“Dad?”

Grayson turned to find his youngest son standing in the doorway. He motioned Jud in, smiling in spite of himself. Having his sons all under the same roof again, even for a short period of time, brought him more joy than they could imagine.

“I thought you’d want to know we talked and came to a decision,” Jud said.

Grayson held his breath, worried that his foolish plan hadn’t worked. He was torn between guilt and hope.

“We drew straws,” Jud said.

So like his sons. He smiled. “Straws, huh? How did you come out?”

Jud shook his head, grinning. “Wouldn’t you know it? I got the shortest.”

“What do you plan to do?”

“What choice do I have?”

Grayson hated forcing his sons into this, but if he hoped to live long enough to see grandchildren, what choice did he have?

“Think of it as a nudge,” he’d told Kate when he’d revealed his plan to her after finding the letter.

“Oh, Grayson,” she’d said, looking worried. “Are you sure about this?”

Hell, no. But he knew his sons too well. Threats and bribes wouldn’t have worked. All five sons were successful, and telling them they’d lose their inheritance if they didn’t marry wouldn’t work. Making an old-man’s plea to them wouldn’t have worked, either.

He’d raised strong-willed, highly independent men. They were all more like him than Rebecca.

It wasn’t until he found the letters Rebecca had left to be given to each son on his wedding day that Grayson seized on the idea. For years, he hadn’t touched anything of Rebecca’s. Not until the move to Montana. He’d been shocked to find the letters—and grateful. Rebecca, even from the grave, had helped him decide what to do about their wild, incorrigible sons.

Along with a letter to each of the boys, Rebecca had left him a letter, as well. In it, her dying wish had been that the boys marry before the age of thirty-five. She half jokingly had said she hoped that they would marry a Montana cowgirl—just as their father had.

“Don’t look so guilty,” Kate said when he’d told her he’d called the boys to Montana for a family meeting. “You only want the best for your sons.”

Grayson hadn’t been so sure. He’d felt as if he was being selfish by using Rebecca’s dying wish.

“Honey,” Kate had said. “Your boys are like you, strong—stubborn and independent to a fault.”

He knew she was right. The boys had grown up without a mother and in a house without a woman’s touch. They’d seen him live for years without the love of a good woman and with everything on his own terms.

But since he’d fallen for Kate, he’d come to realize how important love and marriage were for a man. He wanted the same for his sons, and he wanted his sons to settle in Montana, close enough that they could be a family again.

“How are they taking all of this?” Grayson asked his son.

Jud laughed. “As expected.”

He laughed, as well. “I can just imagine.” Russell would take command as the oldest. Lantry would look for a loophole. Shane would rebel. Dalton would try to charm his way out of it. And Jud…

Grayson studied his youngest son. The wildest one. What would Jud do?

A TRAIL OF DUST rose on the horizon. Kate Wade Corbett watched the three riders cut across the wide prairie.

The Corbett brothers were racing each other to the corrals. Competition was in their blood.

All five brothers were so much like Grayson. No wonder none of them wanted to settle down. She hoped that her husband’s plan worked, but she couldn’t help being doubtful.

“Hello.”

Kate smiled as he felt Grayson’s warm breath on her neck. As he put his arms around her, she leaned back into him and breathed in his masculine scent.

“The boys drew straws to see who would get married first,” Grayson whispered.

Boys. He still thought of them as boys, but they were grown men. Too bad they often didn’t act like it, she thought as dust billowed up, and the breeze carried their shouts and laughter.

“Jud got the shortest straw,” he said. “He says he’s met someone he thinks we’ll like.”

She sighed and chuckled softly. “And you believe him?”

“Still skeptical, huh?”

Kate turned in his arms to cup his smooth-shaven jaw and look into those incredible blue eyes. “Wouldn’t it have been easier just to tell them the truth?”

He shook his head, smiling down at her before gently giving her a kiss. “I just want them to be as happy as I am,” he said as they turned to watch the finish of the race.

In a cloud of dust and cheers and curses, Dalton reached the corrals first. Lantry and Russell finished neck and neck. As the dust settled, Kate spotted Shane sitting in the shade of the bunkhouse. She hadn’t noticed him before, but she now had the distinct feeling that he’d been watching her and his father.

Shane, she feared, saw more than the others. Of the five, he worried her the most.

Chapter Three

Jud Corbett wasn’t about to tell his brothers, but he’d known this was coming. He was working on a film just to the north in Canada and had overheard Kate and his father discussing the family meeting on one of his visits.

At first he’d told himself that his brothers wouldn’t go along with any crazy marriage pact, but that was before he heard about the letters from their mother. While none of the brothers would want to disappoint the old man, ignoring wishes of the mother they’d heard about their whole lives would be impossible.

Jud had known that this whole situation would be a train wreck. That was why he had immediately started looking for the perfect girl-next-door to bring home. He knew his father and Kate would only approve of a woman unlike the kind he normally dated.

He’d found her on a local online dating service’s Web site. The moment he’d seen Maddie Cavanaugh’s face, he’d known she was perfect.

Imagine his disappointment when he’d found out that the woman’s photo and personal profile had been put up on the site by accident. According to Arlene Evans, who ran the service, Maddie Cavanaugh wasn’t even in the area anymore.

But a few days ago, Jud had seen Maddie coming out of the Whitehorse Drugstore. Her photo on the Web site hadn’t done her justice.

Her long blond hair was pulled up in a ponytail. A pair of silver loops dangled from each earlobe. She wore no makeup. Freckles were sprinkled across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose like tiny stars in a Montana night sky.

Her slim figure was clad in a Western shirt, jeans and boots, which looked at home on her. She had pushed her sunglasses up into her hair to glance down at the book she was holding. When she raised her head, she’d looked right at him with a pair of wondrous big blue eyes, which held an innocence that took his breath away.

Jud was within a few feet of her when she glanced at her watch and then took off toward her pickup, which was parked across the street. He watched her go, chuckling to himself.

He knew he was considered the wildest of the Corbett brothers. Earning his reputation had taken hard work since his four older brothers had sown more than their share of wild oats.

But as he stared after Maddie Cavanaugh, Jud knew he had found the perfect bride.

AT A GAS STATION on her way north, Jerilyn was in the process of digging in her large shoulder bag, looking for what was left of Earl Ray’s money when she found it.

“What’s this?” Frowning, she pulled out a small black notebook. The leather was worn, and she gingerly peeked between the covers, wondering how it had gotten into her bag.

Inside were names, numbers and dates. Her stomach roiled as she recognized some of the names, names from the news. She dropped the book onto the car seat as if the pages had scorched her fingers and covered her mouth to keep from screaming.

For a few minutes, Jerilyn couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but panic. While she had no idea what exactly the names and numbers meant, she had to get this book back to Earl Ray.

Otherwise…

She swallowed and looked down the long highway she’d just driven and reassured herself that Earl Ray didn’t have a clue where she was going.

She knew, now more than ever, that he wouldn’t go to the cops because they were the last people he wanted seeing this little notebook. No, the book was worth much more to those members of organized crime who’d been in the news. This book would put them behind bars for life. No wonder she and Earl Ray had been living in dumpy motels under assumed names for weeks.

She hadn’t believed him when he kept saying his ship was about to come in and that they’d be eating lobster tail and living in penthouses.

But now that she’d found this book, she realized Earl Ray had just been waiting around for the right buyer. How had he gotten his hands on this?

Jerilyn felt herself growing calmer as she realized that she not only had something that Earl Ray wanted—she had something worth a bunch of money. This book could be her backup plan. If things didn’t work out with Maddie’s family, she could always make a deal with Earl Ray.

Of course, any negotiations with Earl Ray would be dangerous—much more dangerous than meeting her daughter’s family and convincing them to help her financially.

Jerilyn tucked the book back into her bag. Once she got to Montana, she’d have to find a safe place to hide it until she decided what to do.

MADDIE WAS LATE. It wasn’t the first time and wouldn’t be the last. She’d picked up a novel in the drugstore, started reading and couldn’t put it down. The next thing she knew she’d lost track of time.

As she sped down the street toward the restaurant, she hoped her cousin Laci wouldn’t be angry with her. Maddie felt terrible about being late to her own welcome-home party. She’d stopped by the drugstore to buy a nice card to thank Laci for throwing her the party and ended up in the fiction section. She should have known better.

When she pulled up across the street from Northern Lights, the restaurant co-owned by Laci and her husband, Bridger Duvall, she saw all the cars.

She felt a wave of panic. All of her friends and neighbors and family from around Whitehorse were here. These people all knew about her broken engagement to Bo Evans, and for a moment Maddie thought about driving on past. How could she face everyone?

For years now, she’d been away at college and had avoided coming back. But she’d missed her cousins Laci and Laney, along with this part of Montana. Not to mention her horse, which her cousins had been boarding for her.

Maddie wished she’d never agreed to this party, though. But Laci was very persuasive; she loved cooking and throwing parties. As Maddie pulled into a parking spot, she tried to talk herself out of running away.

Just then Laney appeared at her side window. One look in her cousin’s eyes and Maddie saw that she understood her fears.

Maddie cut the engine and rolled down the window. “I’m such a coward.”

“No, you’re not,” Laney said, giving her a sympathetic smile. “All those people in there have missed you. They love you, Maddie, and are so excited to have you home.”

Maddie’s eyes brimmed with tears as her cousin opened the pickup door.

“Laci and I will be right there with you. I promise you will have a good time.”

Maddie nodded and bolstered her courage by reminding herself that Bo Evans had left town. She knew, though, that he wasn’t the only reason she hadn’t returned for so long. No, the real reason she’d fled Old Town Whitehorse was a secret she prayed would never come out.

JUD KNEW he had to act quickly. His brothers could stand around arguing about their mother’s motives for forcing marriage on them, but it seemed pretty transparent to Jud that the old man wanted his sons to settle in Montana or he would have never told them about the letters.

If there were even any letters left from their mother to be read on each of their wedding days. Maybe her dying wish really hadn’t been that her sons find wives.

None of that really mattered to Jud.

He was doing this for his father. Come hell or high water, Jud intended to give the old man what he wanted—a wedding. Just not the wedding everyone was expecting.

In a town the size of Whitehorse, it didn’t take Jud but a matter of minutes to find out where Maddie Cavanaugh had gone. Crashing the welcome-home party had been child’s play, since most everyone in town had been invited.

Seeing her again reinforced his belief that she was exactly what he was looking for, and yet he hesitated. Unlike the other women he’d been with, Maddie didn’t have obvious sexual appeal. She was understated. That’s what she was. Sweet-looking. Real.

She was also completely wrong for him, and he suspected she would know it soon enough.

He’d known even before he reached her that she would turn him down for a date. He would have been disappointed if she hadn’t.

“Maybe some other time,” he’d said, looking regretful as he backed off. But as he left, he saw out of the corner of his eye that she was watching him leave. Her cousins were at her side, whispering something to her. No doubt encouraging her.

Smiling to himself, he left, betting himself he’d have a date with her before the day was out.

Maddie Cavanaugh wasn’t getting away. Too much was at stake here.

“SO TELL US about this Maddie Cavanaugh,” Lantry said at breakfast several mornings later.

Jud grinned. He was going out for lunch with Maddie and planned to take her to the theatre in town tonight. But while he had to return to his film in Canada tomorrow, he had another date with her to the rodeo the day after. “You’ll see for yourself when you meet her.”

“We’ve been waiting to meet her,” Lantry said. “Come on, fess up, there isn’t any Maddie Cavanaugh. You made her up, thinking it would buy you time.”

“I couldn’t make up a woman like Maddie,” Jud said in all seriousness, then concentrated on his breakfast. Juanita had served huevos rancheros with homemade tortillas and beans, his favorite.

“So when are you going to bring her out to meet Dad and Kate?” Dalton asked from the end of the table. “Or isn’t that Hollywood charm of yours working?”

“All in good time,” Jud said. “When you’re serious about a woman you need to take things slow. You’ll learn that if you ever date a woman more than once.”

Lantry cocked his head at his brother and narrowed his eyes. “You’ve never been secretive about any of the women you were dating. Quite the contrary. You’re up to something.”

“Just true love,” Jud said with a grin.

TWO DAYS LATER, Shane had his feet propped up on the porch railing and his hat pulled down low against the afternoon sun. He appeared to be asleep, but Grayson knew better.

“You still planning to go back to the Texas Rangers?”

he asked quietly.

Shane didn’t stir. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Grayson suspected his son’s wounds ran much deeper than the gunshot wound he’d suffered a month ago. “Montana could use a good lawman.”

Shane chuckled and pushed back his Stetson to look at his father. “Subtle.”

“Kate says I need to be more direct.”

“You’re plenty direct the way you are,” he said, sitting up.

Grayson smiled. “I get the feeling you’re ticked off at me.”

“You think?”

“What’s wrong with wanting my family close by?”

“You’re the one who moved to Montana.”

“You goin’ to hold that against me?”

Shane sighed. “What’s going on, Dad? It isn’t like you to sell lock, stock and barrel and leave Texas the way you did.”

Grayson shook his head. “Love changes everything, son. I hope you find that out for yourself one day.”

“No, thanks. Not if it makes me change everything about myself.”

“Is that what you think happened to me?”

“You’ve got to admit this letter thing is beneath you.”

Grayson leaned back his chair and stared out across the summer-green prairie. This land, with its rolling grassland that ran to coulees filled with juniper and scrub pine and rocky outcroppings before dropping into the Missouri River gorge, had drawn him the first time he’d seen it.

He loved the sweet summer scents, loved the way the place was steeped in history, loved riding across the great expanse of country, the grasses, tall and green, undulating in the breeze.

But mostly he loved this place because it had once been Kate’s and was now hers again. He’d given her the ranch, but it was so little compared to what she’d given him. His heart swelled at the mere thought of his wife.

But his marriage and this move had put more than miles between him and his sons. He couldn’t bear the thought that he might lose them because of it.

“It’s selfish of me,” he said to Shane. “To want to uproot you boys to make an old man happy.”

Shane laughed. “Blackmail first, now guilt?” He shook his head. “Hell, why don’t you pull out all the stops and tell us you’re—” Shane stopped as if the word dying had caught in his throat. Swallowing, he said, “Does this really mean that much to you?”

“Yes,” Grayson said, meeting his son’s gaze and holding it. “It means that much to me.”

Shane looked into his father’s eyes, his pulse drumming in his ears. His next breath came hard as he realized he might have stumbled onto the truth. “You aren’t…sick, are you?”

He couldn’t bring himself to say the D word. He’d come too close to saying it only moments before. Grayson looked as healthy as a horse, but there was no denying he’d aged. His hair had grayed and there were deep lines furrowing his brow.

“I’m fine,” Grayson said and looked away. “I don’t want you to feel…”

“Trapped?”

“No.” His father’s gaze came back to him, his eyes shiny. “I raised you boys to be your own men. I would never want to do anything to change that.”

Shane swore under his breath. He’d told himself his father wasn’t going to make him feel guilty about not going along with this stupid marriage pact, and yet he felt guilty as hell right now.

The phone rang inside the house. Neither man moved. After the second ring, Juanita picked up. Shane could hear her and knew even before she stepped to the porch doorway that the call was for him.

“It’s Jud,” she said, handing him the phone. “He says it’s urgent.”

KATE HAD been into the town of Whitehorse as few times as possible since her return to Montana. She’d let Juanita take care of the shopping and was happy to stay out at the ranch, venturing out only to ride the property and marvel at how fortunate she was to have a man like Grayson Corbett in love with her.

But she couldn’t keep making excuses for avoiding town without someone getting suspicious. So she’d started venturing in a few times, making the trips short.

She knew that she’d eventually come face-to-face with her past.

Today she’d gone into the hardware store to pick up an extension cord, and as she came out she practically ran into a tall, slim, older cowboy waiting on the sidewalk.

Even after all these years, Chester Bailey hadn’t changed much. He was still a good-looking man. His blond hair was graying at the temples and there were lines around his blue eyes, but she had no problem recognizing him.

“Kate?” He sounded incredulous. “Kate Wade?”

“It’s Corbett now,” she said. “Hello, Chester.”

He stared at her, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. “I heard someone had bought your folks’ ranch…Corbett.” He smiled. “So that’s you.”

She nodded. “How have you been?”

“Good. I suppose you heard. Lila and I are divorced.”

She hadn’t heard because until recently she’d made a point of putting Whitehorse behind her. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You were married a long time.”

He nodded, head dipping. “Over thirty years.”

Kate felt all those old emotions stir inside her and wished she’d never come to town. Never come back here. As she stood there, she was afraid of what she would say next and terrified of what Chester might reply.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry. A middle-aged woman came out of the local clothing store, laughing with a friend. She and the friend parted company, and the woman headed toward Chester.

Kate saw at once that this was who Chester had been waiting for. The blonde was younger than Chester, her hair short and curly, her smile coming easily.

“Hi,” Kate said, as the woman took Chester’s arm. She noted that the woman wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. A girlfriend?

“Susie, this is Kate…Corbett.”

Susie’s face brightened. “Corbett? You bought the old Trails West Ranch. I’ve always admired that place. I’m so glad someone is living there again.”

Kate waited for Chester to tell his girlfriend that the ranch used to belong to Kate’s family, that she’d grown up here, that the two of them had known each other.

When Chester told his girlfriend none of that, Kate said, “Thank you.”

“Well, welcome to Whitehorse,” Susie said. “You’re going to love it here. Everyone is so friendly. Stop by the Hi-Line Café. Chester and I own the place.”