Lone Rider Read Free Page A

she wanted answered, as well. “Why don’t you leak it to the press where she is and get it over with?”
    â€œBecause I don’t know where she is,” he snapped, and saw her satisfied look.
    It galled him that Sarah was staying with the rancher who’d found her the day she’d reappeared in nearby Beartooth. Russell Murdock had been driving along one of the narrow dirt roads just past the cemetery in the middle of nowhere when Sarah had apparently stepped out of the trees. She’d been scraped up and disoriented with no idea how she’d gotten there or where she’d been.
    At least, that was her story. Angelina didn’t buy it for a minute. She argued that Sarah was faking it and had only returned to ruin his chances of becoming president. He didn’t know what he believed. Sarah had been the love of his life. He’d had six beautiful daughters with her. It had almost killed him when he thought she’d taken her life that night in the river. Then she’d come back from the dead, proving that she could break his heart all over again.
    â€œI’m sure that once they find out where Sarah is staying, they
will
talk to her,” Angelina said. “Maybe she’ll start saying something that makes sense.” She didn’t sound the least bit sympathetic. She didn’t seem to understand that Sarah’s return had made him question everything about his life, maybe especially his marriage to Angelina and his run for president.
    For him, a whole lot of things had changed. What was strange was that he’d sensed it coming. Worse, the darkness he’d felt on the horizon hadn’t dissipated with Sarah’s return from the grave. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something even darker loomed over them all.
    â€œNow more than ever, we need a show of solidarity,” he said, not for the first time. Angelina’s jealousy had brought out a nasty side of her personality that he’d never known existed.
    â€œWhere does Sarah fit in all that harmony?” she asked snidely.
    He wished he knew.
    As he started to close the drapes so he didn’t have to see the reporters hanging around out by the gate, he noticed a pickup pulling a horse trailer up the road toward the house. He had hired armed guards at the gate to keep the reporters out, but someone was now roaring toward the house in a truck he didn’t recognize.
    â€œNow what?” he asked under his breath.
    * * *
    J ACE HAD JUST knocked at the door when another truck drove up from the direction of the corrals. As Senator Buckmaster Hamilton himself opened the door, he was looking past Jace’s shoulder. Jace glanced back to see Cooper Barnett climb out of his truck and walk toward them.
    Jace turned back around. “I’m Jace Calder,” he said, holding out his hand as the senator’s gaze shifted to him.
    The senator frowned but shook his hand. “I know who you are. I’m just wondering what’s got you on my doorstep so early in the morning.”
    â€œI’m here about your daughter Bo.”
    Buckmaster looked to Cooper. “Tell me you aren’t here about my daughter Olivia.”
    Cooper laughed. “My pregnant bride is just fine, thanks.”
    The senator let out an exaggerated breath and turned his attention back to Jace. “What’s this about—” But before he could finish, a tall, elegant blonde woman appeared at his side. Jace recognized Angelina Broadwater Hamilton, the senator’s second wife. The rumors about her being kicked out of the house to make way for Buckmaster’s first wife weren’t true, it seemed.
    She put a hand on Buckmaster’s arm. “It’s the auditor calling from the foundation office. He’s looking for Bo. She didn’t show up for work today, and there seems to be a problem.”
    â€œThat’s why I’m here,” Jace said.
    â€œMe, too,” Cooper said, sounding