Chapter 12

Ace

The next morning, we got up and quickly dressed. I had to put clothes on myself and my girl before I was tempted to repeat what had happened before we fell asleep. A guy can only take so much. I didn’t want and wouldn’t allow myself to hurt Jaelyn, so we needed to dress. I know you can’t close the barn door after the horses had escaped, so I knew insisting that we go back to sleeping clothed wouldn’t happen. But anything more than the touches and kisses we’d shared last night would have to wait until Linda gave us the all-clear.

We went down to breakfast, and everyone was at the table. Mom had it piled high with pancakes, bacon and sausage, and buttermilk biscuits. We both dug in and everyone looked at us. I knew what they all wanted. They wanted to know what I’d learned last night.

“Casper isn’t here, and he isn’t coming here. The congressman will probably refuse to take my advice and go home, but I tried. He has no clue who I am, I don’t think, but it wouldn’t matter if he did.

“I think it’s safe to say, except for Edward possibly getting out of jail on bail Monday, we are in the clear. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens then.”

Nate cleared his throat. “Maybe not. Hannah never showed up here, but she called. It seems Spidey there sent her copies of everything he’d found and so Hannah and her buddy drove to Missoula, where she called a federal judge friend. He sent her a federal search warrant for the congressman’s house here, in DC, and his offices. She sent copies to some colleagues in DC and she and Christine are taking some deputy marshals from the Missoula field office to enact the warrant on the Skyview house. If they find anything, then the judge said he would issue arrest warrants for both Edward and his father.”

I thought about that for a minute. Maybe for the first time in almost a year, the Wilders could catch a break. Jaelyn might end up on Monday having her ordeal over too. I might not even have to pay the congressman another visit. Maybe that God I thought wasn’t listening had been. It was possible that I was about to get everything my heart desired. The only downside to it all was that Boomer wasn’t here to make Jaelyn’s happiness complete.

“Let’s take a day off, Dad. Just do the essentials today. Us and the ranch hands. Let’s plan a light chore day with a huge picnic for everyone tonight. Put some steaks on the grill and throw a ranch picnic. Let’s relax because hell week starts on Monday. What do you think?”

Dad rubbed his chin like he was thinking, but I knew him he’d go for it. “Sounds like a plan, Ace.”

“Great. Jaelyn and I are going back to our place for a while. I want her to settle in and we both have medicine there that we need to take.”

I looked at the men I brought. “I would appreciate it if you all would hang around until Edward’s arraignment on Monday. Until I know for sure that Jaelyn is safe from him. But if she is then I’ll shake hands with each of you and let you get back to your lives. I know the Ryders have three ranches to get back to for their own round-ups and their versions of hell week. I’m also sure Spidey and Eagle would love to get back to the east coast and the jobs they normally do. Wildcat, Gear Box, I hope you two will stick around and actually set up shop in town. It would be cool to have a brother in arms or two near and I still need to meet the rest of your people.”

Everyone agrees to wait to decide until Monday and Nate asks Taylor and GrayWolf to show him our herds. So I know he’s going to do research into alternative herds, either for switches to the Ryder stock or just as an investment opportunity.

I just want to take Jaelyn to our house and get her to settle in. I want to give her permission to change things to suit her, but I’d like to do it in private.

We eat and help mom clean up. Skylar and Amber grab aprons and I know that, along with Melody, they’re going to help Mom get sides ready for supper tonight. I look at Jaelyn and ask if she wants to stay with Mom and the girls or come back home with me. She beams when I call our house home. “I’ll come back and help later, Ace. Let’s go home.”

“Alright sweetheart. Let’s go home to our house.”

Her smile can’t get any bigger, neither can my Mom’s. As she passes me, heading for the kitchen, she squeezes my shoulder and nods. Letting me know she’s happy and approves, as if last night’s scene hadn’t made that obvious.

I carry my girl out to my rig, and we head for our house. As we enter, my earbud has Sam in my ear. “Turn on your TV, Ace. The congressman is going to be on Wake Up Missoula. Maybe this is him doing what you asked him to.”

“Yep.”

I grab the remote and click on the channel from Missoula. Sure enough, there he is setting behind a desk next to the two hosts of Wake Up Missoula.

“Wake up, Missoula. We’re here with our own homegrown Congressman Paul Robinson. We all know our representative in Congress. Today, he says he has a statement for the people of Montana. I can’t wait to hear what he wants to share with us.”

The host looks at the congressman and smiles. “Well, Congressman. You contacted our producer and said you wanted to address our audience with very important news. What is it you want to share with us?”

“Thank you, Mike. And you’re right, I wanted to talk to the people of Missoula and really everyone in Montana. I appreciate you didn’t jump right into the elephant in the room. My son Edward and the allegations of wrongful imprisonment, assault, and sexual assault.”

“Well, Congressman, I was wondering if you were going to bring that situation up. I mean, I understand why you might not want to talk about something like that.”

“I wish I didn’t have to talk about it and, to be honest, it’s difficult to talk about. Let me say this. I have always believed that America has the best justice system in the world, and I still do. So, yes, my son has been arrested.

“However, let me say that in our country, a person is innocent until proven guilty and rightly so. I heard they had arrested my son yesterday. As you can see, I flew right in to support my son. I mean, I’m not here in Montana a lot because I’m working for our state in Washington. I’m a father first and my son called me. So I came home.

“But I’m also a congressman and I needed to see this so-called evidence for myself. To see if the boy I raised could commit these horrendous crimes against a woman. I didn’t raise him to hold a woman against her will or to attack her physically and certainly I, as a firm supporter of the Me Too movement, wouldn’t have allowed my son to take advantage of any woman sexually.

“I came home expecting to find out that this was a witch hunt. That my son was being wrongly accused, or that they made some mistake.”

Mike nodded and the female co-host spoke up. “And was Edward being wrongly accused, Congressman?”

The congressman shook his head. “Again, Shelly, he is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. So I will just say that I asked to see the evidence because part of the allegations made by this young woman was that he was using my position in congress to influence local law enforcement. Unfortunately, that evidence doesn’t look good. While I was in DC working for the good people of Montana, it seemed my son has been using my position to influence law enforcement officers in our hometown of Skyview. Three of them have been suspended while the state’s attorney completes his investigation, and they should have been. I want to assure Montana citizens that I encourage the states attorn...

Shelly interrupted him. “I’m sorry, Congressman. I was just informed that we have breaking news related to you son’s case and that we are going to our local correspondent in Skyview, Traci Bonney. Traci?”