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real scared,”
Willie added.
    “Don’t know.” The marshal
shook his head. “A week ago her partner was found dead, and there
was no sign of Mark—I mean Mary. We put out wanted posters for Mark
Costner, but there hasn’t been one lead that has turned
up.”
    Brandy grabbed her chest
Thunder steadied her. “You don’t think she is dead,
too?”
    “Don’t know.” The marshal
repeated the same answer, and Brandy realized that seemed to be the
only answer the man had. “If they killed her, why didn’t they leave
her behind with Big Jim?”
    Thunder folded his arms
across his chest “Makes sense. So you think that Mary killed Big
Jim since you didn’t find her there?”
    “Mary wouldn’t do anything
like that,” Scott insisted. “She threatened to kill me a bunch of
times, but she was just fooling around.”
    Forester smiled. “I hope
she didn’t do it. And if she did, why? Was she threatened? But I
can’t find any of those answers until I find the girl. I was hoping
she’d come back home.”
    Brandy turned to Thunder.
“What are we going to do?”
    His silver gaze met
hers. “We are not
going to do anything. But I’m going to pack my gear and return with the marshal
and see what I can find out Mary is probably very scared and not
thinking straight.”
    “Do you want me to go with
you?” Scott asked; at fifteen he was starting to get
tall.
    Brandy smiled at Scott. It
didn’t seem like he was fifteen. Every time she looked at him, she
saw a seven-year-old who never stopped talking.
    “No,” Thunder replied.
“You’re the oldest man here, you need to take care of the place
while I’m gone.”
    Scott beamed with the
praise. But Willie tugged on Thunder’s hand. “What about
me?”
    “You need to help just
like you have with the cows. Scott will have his hands full while
I’m gone. You’re a member of our family,” Thunder said.
    Brandy remembered when the
scared five-year-old had come to live with them. When her brother
Billy told them that Willie had been living on the streets of New
York City by himself, Brandy immediately adopted Willie into the
family.
    “We’ll take care of the
ranch,” Brandy assured Thunder as she gave him a shove toward the
bedroom.
    “Yeah, we’ll be fine as
long as Brandy don’t do no cooking,” Scott said, and started
giggling.
    Brandy cut her eyes at him,
but followed her husband into the bedroom. She was glad Thunder had
been raised by the Cheyenne. If anybody could find Mary, he
could.
    She watched him gather a
few of his things, shoving them into his saddlebags. “What do you
think?”
    “I think Mary is in a lot
of trouble.”
    “I bet she’s frightened,”
Brandy said. “And it’s hard to scare Mary.”
    “I’m sure she is
frightened, but we’re talking about our Mary. She isn’t the typical
helpless woman—kinda like you.”
    Brandy laughed. “I needed
that, thank you. Mary will use her head. I just hope no one hurts
her before we can find out what really happened.”
    Thunder turned to his wife
and put his hands on Brandy’s arms. “Somebody killed Big Jim. Did
Mary do it? I don’t think so, unless she was threatened some way.
But if she didn’t, somebody else did, and that somebody knows Mary
is a witness. Now give me a hug.”
    Brandy hugged her husband
tight “Find her.”
    “I will,” he murmured into
her brandy-colored hair. Then he tipped her face up so he could
kiss her with all the fire and passion they’d always had. Some
things never changed.

 
    Chapter Five
     
     
    A week had passed and Mary
hadn’t gotten any closer to figuring out what had happened to Big
Jim. She could picture bits and pieces of that day, but nothing
that made sense. She just couldn’t have done such a thing, so that
meant someone else had been there, and she needed to figure out who
and why. Then something occurred to her. If she’d actually seen
this person, then she could identify him as soon as she remembered
his face. And that made her very