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Chapter
One
Jacqueline Oliver, Jacey to the blessed individuals close enough to earn use of the nickname, ran along a glorious Montana mountain trail. Pine and aspen trees lined the mountain above and below her, and the sharp drop-off granted her a view of a picturesque mountain valley complete with a creek running down the opposite mountainside into a cerulean lake. Cows pastured in lush green fields bordering the water.
A two-story, new-looking log cabin and a large barn were sheltered by the opposite mountainside. She squinted and could see an actual cowboy working next to a corral full of cows. Who could possibly live in such a paradise? She adored the parts of Montana she’d seen over the past year on the Colevilles’ ranch. This valley took Montana bliss to the next level.
If only her mother would stay in prison forever and Jacey could stay in Montana. Growing up on Long Island and being a prisoner in her parents’ ostentatious mansion most of her life, except the six years she’d attended the university with guards constantly by her side, she couldn’t have imagined the wild, vast beauty of the Montana mountains, valleys, and Big Sky as the locals labeled their view of the heavens.
Tilting her head up to the sky, Jacey let the early-morning June sun wash over her. Freedom and sunshine. Heavenly gifts.
Thank you, she prayed.
She prayed every day to forget the horrors of every year of her life, the atrocities done to her brother Quaid and so many others.
Her phone rang in the pocket of her running pants, startling her. She’d only been given a phone by Mama Millie a couple days ago. Millie’s husband, Jared Coleville, hadn’t wanted to give her the phone or let her run in the mountains by herself. The Coleville men lived to protect others. Lieutenant Miles Coleville originally brought her to the Coleville Ranch as a favor to her brother Quaid, to hide her from her sadistic mother. She appreciated their protection and loved them like the family she’d never had, but she longed for freedom and the ability to choose.
‘Our beauty needs some freedom.’ Millie had stood by Jacey’s side. ‘She can run up the mountainside by herself and have the phone if she runs into trouble. She deserves at least a taste of running free in our gorgeous mountains.’
Being on the expansive Coleville Ranch, helping with chores, cooking, or cleaning was the most freedom Jacey had ever had. She loved it here. Her only purpose before coming to Montana had been to protect her older brother Quaid Raven, Thomas Oliver by birth. Now Quaid was safe and happily married to the darling Anna Marley. Their mother, Catherine Oliver, the devil reincarnated, was in prison, and she and Quaid were free.
Jacey wondered what the sheep—their dad and oldest sister Elizabeth—were doing with themselves without her mom’s instructions. Each moment of their day and each word spoken had been scripted by Catherine Oliver. Her dad loved her and she appreciated him standing up for her and preventing the physical abuse she knew her older siblings had experienced, she couldn’t help but wonder if he could’ve done more for his older children. Elizabeth had been her ‘Lizzy’ when Jacey was a young girl and Lizzy was a teenager. During Jacey’s teenage years, that all changed. Elizabeth grew cold and distant, only softening with her occasionally and when no one else was around. Was Elizabeth truly as evil as her mother like Quaid thought or was there hope with Catherine in prison that Elizabeth could find her soul again and their family could be reunited?
Jacey prayed for them, but Papa Jared Coleville, Lieutenant Miles Coleville, and especially Sheriff Clint Coleville would never approve of any contact, any risk of her location being exposed. She completely agreed, but not for the same reason. She wanted to keep this family, this mountainous haven, safe from her mother. If Catherine’s men somehow found where she was, they’d kill anyone and everyone to get to her and she had no doubt Catherine was still pulling strings from prison.
Trepidation filled her. Someday soon, her mother and her cohorts would engineer an early release, a pardon, or a traditional escape.
She pushed that horrifying thought away and focused on the Coleville family. The overprotective cowboys were unreal—handsome, fun, and hard-working. She suspected the twins Easton and Walker had crushes on her and fist fights about it, but she wasn’t ready for a relationship, or the target she would put on a man’s head if she fell in love with him. She teased, laughed, was kind, and kept an emotional distance.
She’d never been in a relationship of her own choosing, always forced to date whoever her mother deemed would further her control and influence. The foul Richard Napoleon sprang to mind—almost twice her age, slimy, and his kisses had made her gag.
Jacey shuddered. Those days were behind her. She was safe. Quaid loved her and had given her an entire family of tough cowboys to watch over her.
If she ever chose someone to date, it would unquestionably be a cowboy. She was enthralled by them. The one real gift her father had given her and somehow her mother had allowed was a love of horses and the ability to ride when she spent time at their Virginia estate. Horses and cowboys—more enchanting than any wealthy businessman, celebrity, athlete, or even a prince.
A romantic relationship was uncharted territory and not in her future. She doubted she’d ever have that opportunity or choice and she wouldn’t dare expose someone she loved to her mother’s machinations. It was enough right now to relish freedom, sunshine, and …
The phone had stopped ringing, then began anew. She had to answer it and not lose her solo running privileges on day one. Obedience had never come naturally to her; she had the mental scars to prove it.
Pushing the green button, she stopped walking. “Hello?”
“Jacey.” Her brother Quaid’s voice came through the speakers. She adored her big brother. He’d protected and loved her their entire lives. He’d escaped at eighteen, with her help and blessing. Those nine years without him were the darkest she had ever known. He’d come back for her, rescued her a year ago. Quaid was the only solid family she had, besides their nanny Maria who’d been murdered by her mother for trying to rescue them.
“Quaid! How are you? How is Anna? How are the little ones?” Anna ran daycare centers and had loads of nieces and nephews. If only Jacey could meet some of them, but she had to stay in hiding for now. Maybe forever. If she could stay in Montana and find a cowboy to love and keep hidden from her mother, she wouldn’t complain.
“Jace!” Quaid’s voice was sharp.
“Good morning to you too, Lieutenant Raven,” she teased back.
“Catherine has escaped.”
Quaid didn’t call her ‘mother,’ and Jacey didn’t blame him.
She sank onto the dirt trail and put her head between her knees, clinging to the phone with trembling fingers. Escaped? The ‘witch’ as they’d bravely called Mother behind her back had escaped?
Please no.
Bile rose in her throat, worse than kissing Richard.
