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“I have to call the sheriff. I know why CJ tried to kill me. I know what he is hiding. I know why those men are afraid he is going to talk.” She started to hit 911, but Tilly took the phone from her hand.
“Don’t call 911. I have Stuart’s home phone number, but are you sure this can’t wait until morning?” Tilly asked.
“It can’t wait. The sheriff has to know why CJ has been so afraid I would remember what I saw the day he shot me. I know now. They had women working in the meth lab. Not employed there. I think CJ and the other men were dealing in human trafficking, working them in the meth lab and then taking them somewhere else in the back of a stock trailer. There was a plane, but the men wouldn’t let the women board. When someone spotted me, the women all ran.” She took a breath. “CJ was there. When he saw me...” She swallowed, hugging herself against the cold hatred she’d seen in his eyes too many times. “He came after me. He meant to kill me so I could never tell.”
“You’re sure about this?”
“My memory has been coming back, but only in bits and pieces, but tonight I... I saw it. I remembered. I remember CJ chasing me. I knew he was going to kill me if he caught up to me.”
“Okay, but is this going to be enough for the sheriff to arrest CJ?” Tilly asked. “Otherwise, what do you expect Stuart to do? Just question CJ? You know what our brother is going to say and since you haven’t been able to remember for months...”
Oakley froze, realizing what her sister was saying was true. “My memory will be questionable. The sheriff needs solid evidence before he can arrest CJ.” Tilly handed back the phone and sat down on the edge of the bed, her face pale. “If what you saw is true... It’s much worse than we thought. I put Stu’s cell phone number in your phone, but I wouldn’t call until you’re sure. You’ve been saying for months that you knew there was more to the shooting.”
Nodding, she told Tilly about the two men who had come to the ranch and threatened CJ. “I don’t know if they triggered the memory or if it was my fight with CJ yesterday when he tried to strangle me and would have if not for Mother.”
“CJ tried to strangle you? How is that even possible unless... He can walk?”
“I don’t know if he can or not. He lunged at me from the wheelchair, knocked me down and... I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t get him off me. I thought for sure...” She shook her head. “I know now why he hasn’t wanted me to remember. It had to be more than the meth lab although I think we all knew that he had to be involved with it. But it’s so much more.”
“You realize what this means,” Tilly said after a moment. “You can’t tell anyone that you remember. Not the sheriff, not CJ, especially not Mother. She’s depending on you keeping CJ out of jail. This could send him to prison for a very long time.”
Oakley caught her breath. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. So like Tilly to think things through first. “I don’t care what Mother does and it’s not my fault what happens to CJ. The truth needs to come out.”
“She’ll kick you off the ranch like she did me or worse.”
“It was going to happen anyway,” Oakley said as she pulled the blanket up around her, the room suddenly feeling colder. “But first, I plan to stop her from drilling on our land.”
“It won’t be our land anymore, Oakley,” her sister said quietly. “They’re going to be able to do whatever they want once we’re completely gone from the ranch.”
She stared at Tilly, stubbornness digging its heels in until she finally said, “You’re right. The sheriff can’t do anything without proof. This is why the Lees brothers were threatening CJ. They’re afraid he’ll try to make a deal by throwing them under the bus.”
“What is this about someone threatening CJ?”
She quickly told Tilly everything that she missed.
“This is serious. Maybe you should go to the sheriff.”
“But what if he talks to CJ? CJ will know that I remembered. There’s no way Stuart will ever be able to get proof then.”
Tilly agreed reluctantly.
“From the conversation I overheard, CJ plans to get back into business with the Lees brothers. We need that to happen so the sheriff can get proof to put them all away. Maybe especially our brother.”
“I’m so sorry,” her sister said and hugged her. “But now I’m afraid for you. Oakley, please don’t go back out to the ranch. I really wanted to believe that CJ shot you accidentally. He’s so much more dangerous than I thought.”
“I’ll be all right.” She sighed. “At least now I know the truth. I have to go back. How else will I know that he and the Lees brothers are back in business—and where? I’ll just make sure I’m not alone with CJ again.”
But if she was right and he could walk, how could she be sure that he would stay away from her? She would start by installing a dead bolt on her bedroom door at the ranch.
CHARLOTTEFOUNDHERson waiting for her the moment she came downstairs for breakfast. “What’s wrong?” She’d always been able to tell when CJ was upset, even when he tried to hide it from her.
“Oakley,” he said.
This again already this morning? “You can’t keep fighting with her,” she said, instantly irritated with him. “You know how important it is that she keep her story straight with the lawyer. You want to go to prison?”
She hadn’t meant to get angry with him, but her horseback ride this morning hadn’t calmed her like it usually did. There was too much going on, things she couldn’t manage that now felt out of control. She worried that her whole world could come crashing down around her because of past mistakes.
This morning as she went out riding, she’d seen her ranch manager watching from the shadow of the barn. She could see Boyle smirking as if he knew something she didn’t before he turned away. Her stomach had begun to roil. He was always watching her, his interest in her nerve-racking as well as creepy. If he didn’t know so much about this family, she would send him packing.
