Montana Sky

mountains, the land around here, could hide out for months, go pretty much wherever the hell he pleased. And be damn hard to find.”
    “We appreciate your easing our minds.” She flicked a glance at Lily as she set steaming bowls on the table. “Don’t we, Lily?”
    “I’d rather know.” Lily sat on the edge of the bench next to Tess and folded her hands again. “You can take precautions better if you know.”
    “That’s exactly right. I’d say a good precaution would be for neither of you to wander far from the house here alone, for the time being.”
    “I’m not much of a wanderer.” Though her stomach suddenly felt uneasy, Tess spooned up soup. “And Lily sticks pretty close to Adam.” She looked at Ben. “Is he a suspect?”
    “I don’t know what the police think, but I can tell you that Adam Wolfchild would no more gut and scalp a man than he’d sprout wings and fly to Idaho.” He glanced over when Tess’s spoon crashed onto the table. He’d have cursed himself if it would have done any good. “I’m sorry. I thought you knew the details.”
    “No.” Tess went for the wine rather than the soup. “We didn’t.”
    “She saw that?” Lily twisted her hands in her lap. “She found that?”
    “And she’ll live with that.” They both would, Ben thought, for it was an image he knew would never completely fade from his memory. “I don’t want to scare you, I just want you to be careful.”
    “You can count on it,” Tess promised him. “But what about her?” She jerked a thumb toward the ceiling. “You’re not going to keep her close to the house without shackles.”
    “Adam will keep an eye on her. And so will I.” Hoping to ease the tension, he spooned up more soup. “Andhanging around here isn’t going to be much of a hardship if this is the kind of cooking I’m in for.”
    Both women jumped when the outside door opened. Adam came in, along with the night chill. “They’re done with me for now.”
    “Join the party,” Tess invited. “Soup and wine is our menu tonight.”
    He gave her a solemn look before studying Lily. “I think I’d go for coffee. No, sit,” he added when Lily started to get up. “I can get it myself. I just came by to check on Willa.”
    “Ben made her go up and lie down.” Nerves and relief had words bubbling out before Lily could stop them. “She needed to rest. I can fix you some soup. You should eat something, and there’s plenty.”
    “I can get it. Sit down.”
    “There’s bread. I forgot to put the bread out. I should—”
    “You should sit.” He spoke very quietly as he ladled up soup. “And try to relax.” He filled a second bowl, brought both to the table. “And you should eat. I’ll get the bread.”
    She stared at him, baffled, while he moved competently around the kitchen. None of the men in her life had so much as picked up a dish unless it was to ask for seconds. She flicked a glance at Ben, looking for the sneer, but he continued to eat as though there was nothing unusual at all about having a man serve food.
    “Do you want me to stay over, Adam, give you a hand with things for a day or two?”
    “No. Thanks anyway. We’ll have to take it a step at a time.” He sat down across from Lily and looked her in the eye. “Are you all right?”
    She nodded, picked up her spoon, and tried to eat.
    “Pickles didn’t have any family,” Adam continued. “I think there was a sister maybe, down in Wyoming. I guess we’ll try to find her, if she’s still around, but I’d say we’ll handle the arrangements once they release the body.”
    “You ought to have Nate do that.” Ben broke off a hunk of bread. “Willa will pass that to him if you suggest it.”
    “All right, I’ll do that. I don’t think she’d have gottenthrough this without you. I want you to know that.”
    “I just happened to be there.” It still unnerved him, the way she’d all but crawled into his arms. And the way she’d fit when she had. “Once she’s over the shock, she’ll likely be sorry it was me who was.”
    “You’re wrong. She’ll be grateful, and so am I.” He turned his hand over, palm up, where there was a long, thin scar between the lines of heart and head. “Brother.”
    Ben’s lips twitched as he looked at the similar mark on his own hand. And he remembered when two young boys had stood on the banks of a river in the half-light of a canyon and solemnly mixed their blood in brotherhood.
    “Uh-oh, male ritual time.”