Read Online Lone Rider by B.J. Daniels - Free Book Online

felt the same way for some time now. “Like what?”
    Angelina shook her head. “I just have this feeling...”
    He wished he could alleviate her fears and his own.
    She stepped away from him, finished off her cocktail and straightened. “You are still in a position where you can have everything you’ve dreamed of.”
    Not everything, he thought as he took a sip of his drink. The liquor burned all the way down. The only way he could have the presidency now was if he stayed with Angelina, and she knew that. He couldn’t win without her. He especially couldn’t win if he left Angelina for Sarah.
    He felt as if he had made a deal with the devil.
    * * *
    â€œT HE FBI DOESN ’ T seem to think there’s a problem with Sarah Hamilton,” Undersheriff Dillon Lawson said as he came into his boss’s office and closed the door.
    Sheriff Frank Curry waved him into a chair. “So that’s it?”
    Dillon shrugged. “They seem to agree with the media that she had an unfortunate accident and may have some mental issues, and they don’t really feel it’s necessary to put any manpower into finding out where she’s been for the past twenty-two years. The general feeling is that she might have had postpartum depression, and that’s what drove her attempted suicide. Her failure to end it all made her take off, possibly with help, and start her life over.”
    â€œAnd how was she supposed to start her life over without any money or a place to stay?” Frank demanded. “She couldn’t even get a job without a Social Security number.”
    â€œShe could have gotten a false identity. You know it isn’t that hard. Maybe whoever helped her leave Beartooth also helped her obtain the documents,” Dillon said. “As for money...she must have had some help there, too. She doesn’t appear to have been cleaning motel toilets all these years.”
    Frank knew he had a point. There were ways to get by, especially for a woman. “So why come back now? And why drop in the way she did?” When he’d investigated the spot where Russell Murdock had found Sarah, he’d walked back into the woods. The area was isolated—only one road, no houses, not even a nearby ranch or farm. What he discovered was a paratrooper-type parachute caught in the trees. Sarah’s DNA had been on the chute’s harness.
    â€œWhy now? That’s the million-dollar question and the one that has you worried, I suspect,” his undersheriff agreed.
    Frank shook his head. “Not just anyone gets dropped out of a plane in the middle of nowhere without any memory of the past twenty-two years.”
    â€œI’m sure you’ve considered that she might be lying about her...amnesia.”
    Frank let out a laugh. “The press definitely has. As you said, they consider her an unhappy wife with mental issues. Women especially have turned against her because she left six young children behind, including two almost newborns. But Sarah Hamilton isn’t just
anyone
. She’s the first wife of Senator Buckmaster Hamilton, the man who, according to the polls, is going to be our next president.”
    Dillon shrugged. “But if the FBI doesn’t think she’s a threat...”
    â€œThen I shouldn’t, either.” Frank wished he could quell his concerns as easily. “Did they run an extensive background check on her?”
    His undersheriff nodded. “Just like us, they couldn’t find anything. No arrests, not even a speeding ticket. They have no idea where she’s been.”
    Frank considered what Dillon had said. He hadn’t been able to find any trace of Sarah in the past twenty-two years. She hadn’t had a job—at least, not one that didn’t pay under the table. Nor had she gotten another driver’s license in another state. And she hadn’t been arrested or had any reason that her fingerprints would