Beneath the Texas Moon

“You sure you don’t want me to take you all the way up to the house?”

“No, thanks.” Jenny patted her friend’s hand and smiled, then she stared out at the night through the windshield of Addie’s old truck. “George will be expecting you home soon. Besides, with the moon so full it’s almost like daylight out here. And I could use a little fresh air after the festival.”

Addie’s face creased in a frown. “I’m gonna have a talk with Art. He had no right to be so rude to you. He knows you and Frank are crazy for each other. Even though he owns the notes on every piece of property in town, he doesn’t have the right to be so rude.”

Jenny sighed. “Don’t worry about it. Go home. That’s where I’m headed.” She climbed down from the truck to stand in the caliche gravel and waved as Addie backed out onto the highway, easing her truck back toward town.

With a deep breath, Jenny inhaled the pungent scent of scrub cedar and dust. Although she enjoyed the clear, dry warmth of the night, she knew if it didn’t rain soon, many of the ranchers would be devastated. Which would play right into Art Nantan’s hands. He’d gone too far threatening her with foreclosure on her husband’s ranch. But to threaten his Indian spirit magic was utterly ridiculous. Just because Art was of Apache descent, didn’t make him any more intimidating in Jenny’s mind. Nor did his magic talk scare her one iota.

As far as she was concerned, a man who threatened a woman wasn’t much of a man. And why couldn’t he understand that she was happy with her family? She was completely in love with Frank and her little boy, Mac. Her feet moved of their own accord, carrying her down the half-mile road to the house that had been part of her husband’s family ranch for over a hundred years. Forward to her husband and son. Mac would be asleep already, but she still wanted to kiss him good-night.

After only a few steps Jenny sensed, more than heard, something in the scrub brush lining the gravel road. The hair on the back of her neck stood at attention and she strained her hearing to pick up even the slightest movement. Perhaps she’d been too quick to dismiss Addie’s offer to drop her at her door.

Hadn’t the ranchers been complaining about missing animals? Speculation had ranged from coyotes to wolves, and even the possibility of a mountain lion.

Her pace quickening, Jenny tried to shake off the uneasy feeling threatening to overwhelm her. She only had a half of a country mile between her and her family. She’d walked this road many times before in the moonlight.

As she rounded a bend on the gravel road, a dark shape leaped from the bushes, blocking her path.

Her heart clogging her throat, Jenny had to gulp in air before she could scream. Then she was running through the scrub cedar, the prickly branches tearing at her skin, slapping her in her face. But she ignored the pain. She had to get away. She’d never seen anything like this creature. And she knew beyond a doubt that if it caught her, she’d never see her family again.

Chapter One

Present

Black, billowing storm clouds churned the western sky, crowding in on the small town of Spirit Canyon. With a sigh, Eve Baxter parked her SUV next to the building with the words General Store etched into the stone facade across the top.

The surrounding shops and homes reassured her that, despite the threatening skies, this town was exactly what she’d hoped for. Clean sidewalks, white limestone structures and window boxes filled with purple and yellow pansies welcomed her. If the pansies were wilting and the paint fading on the store signs, she didn’t care. At least she was away from the coastal storms of Houston and tucked securely in the Texas hill country. Spirit Canyon was a place Eve could feel safe—a place to call home.

When she opened her door and slid to the ground, a blast of wind whipped her hair into her face. She stretched her road-weary muscles and opened the rear door. “Come on, Joey. We’re almost there. I just need to get the key from Miss Addie.”

She wrapped a sweater around her son’s thin shoulders and lifted him out of his booster seat. Once she’d set him on his feet, she tucked his hand in hers and gazed down into his face. She willed him to feel the hope, the chance to start over.

He held tight, his expression guarded—too intense for a four-year-old child.

“This is our new town, Joey. What do you think?” Eve smiled.

Joey crowded closer to her legs and didn’t answer.

With effort, Eve forced herself to keep smiling. She’d give him time. Maybe in this new environment, Joey would snap out of his long silence and she herself could forget the dreams.

When she pushed open the rusty screen door, a bell jangled, the cheerful sound echoing through the building. Eve ushered Joey across the threshold into the store, standing for a moment to gain her bearings.

She inhaled the musty smell of ancient timbers and the dust of a century. She felt as if she’d stepped into another time.

The hardwood floors were worn with age, and rows of shelves held everything from canned goods to bolts of cloth and fencing nails. Against the back wall stretched a long counter with an old cash register, three old bar stools and candy jars filled with jelly beans, gumdrops and licorice sticks.

She’d been right about Spirit Canyon. Her chest swelled with optimism.

“Don’t just stand there, come on in.” A white-haired woman, whose face was etched with a road map of wrinkles, counted change into the hands of a teenage girl. With a friendly flap of her hand, the older woman waved Eve and Joey toward the back where she stood.

A dark-haired, burly young man dressed in black, with silver chains draped from his pockets, stepped out from an aisle, grabbed the girl by the elbow and jerked her toward the door. “Let’s go.” He pushed past Eve and Joey, dragging the girl behind him, without a word of greeting or acknowledgment.

The girl smiled weakly and hurried to keep up.

Okay, so maybe her quaint new town had a dark side.

“I don’t know what she sees in that boy. He’s always up to no good.” The older woman’s frown followed the pair out the door. Then she looked up and smiled at Eve.

“Addie Shultz?” Eve asked as she tugged Joey past rows of dry goods.

“Yes, ma’am. You must be Eve Baxter.” The older woman looked at Joey and her gaze softened.

Eve cringed. She hoped Miss Addie wouldn’t mention the jagged, red scar slashed across her son’s face from his eyebrow up into his hairline.

Addie’s short perusal shifted into a broad grin and she planted her fists on her narrow hips, staring down at the little boy. “And you must be Joey.” She leaned over the counter and swept her hand in front of the treasure trove of sweets contained in old-fashioned jars. “Would you like some candy?”

Joey’s eyes widened. He looked to Eve in mute appeal, his expression nervous but questioning.

Eve smiled and patted his hair. “Go ahead, baby.”

“What will it be? Licorice, gumdrops, jelly beans…” Addie stopped listing candies when Joey pointed at the jellybean jar. “Good choice. Can’t go wrong with a pocketful of jellybeans.”

With a small metal scoop, she measured a generous portion of candy into a paper bag, twisted the top and handed it to Joey. “There you go, young man.” She waved her hand to the left. “Why don’t you sit by the game board while your mamma and I talk?”

Joey clutched his candy to his chest and shook his head violently, reaching up to grab Eve’s hand.

“It’s okay, sweetie. I’m not going anywhere without you.” Eve led him to the table. “I’ll be right over there. Sit and eat your candy while I talk with Miss Addie.”

Eve stood next to Joey until he opened his bag and selected a bright red candy to pop into his mouth. While her son fished for another jelly bean, Eve slipped over to the counter.

“What a sweet little guy.” Addie clucked her tongue. “Why does he look so sad and scared?”

Eve stared at her son, her thoughts on another day, not so long ago. The day the police had shown up on her doorstep. Even now the memory made goose bumps rise across her skin. Almost scarier than the police were the images she’d seen prior to the accident. The mauling had happened in her nightmares, and yet she had scoffed at them, thinking they were nothing more than aberrations.

“I’m sorry, it’s none of my business.” Addie ran a rag across the wooden counter.

With a shake of her head, Eve dragged her gaze back to Addie, her lips curving upward slightly. In a hushed voice she hoped Joey couldn’t hear she said, “No, don’t be sorry. The images are so vivid, sometimes I feel as if I’m still standing at my front door when they told me Joey and his father were at the hospital.”

“Goodness.” The hand pushing the old rag across the counter paused and Addie glanced up. “What happened?”

“A dog mauled them.” Eve glanced back at her son’s scarred forehead. “Joey only had superficial wounds and a few stitches.”

Addie’s eyes widened. “Dear God.”

Her voice dropping even lower, Eve continued. “Joey saw his father mauled to death by the dog.”

“You lost your husband? Bless your soul.”