Shelter of the White Raven: Shadows of Fear

By KC Conner

Running from a past that was ingrained in a living nightmare, Cassi had thought that her aunts will was her way out of the hell that life had become while trying to guard her dying mother. Her natural beauty had been just one for the reason that she had lived for so long in disguise: to be as undesirable as possible to be the monster who dominated what was left of her moms life. Now with the promise of a real life and a place of her own to hide and lick her wounds, she was totally unprepared for what her inheritance encompassed. All that she wanted was what she had driven across the country for, a house of her own and about ten years of isolation to heal her broken being. However, she did not know if this life would heal her or destroy her.

She could see that Brent was a beautiful person inside and out, except when he was around her. Having his whole world given to Cassi by the person that he had loved the most, she brought out the worst in him. She had a difficult time enduring his cocky, overpowering attitude from that first ill-fated moment they met.

What had Mandy done to him without a hint or warning, she had left everything in his entire universe to a total stranger who had appeared to them during a blizzard, disguised as a grungy street urchin. No one but Brent could see a problem with her owning the entire estate of Saunders Valleytheir haven, their home. He would not let his world go without a fight. The summer program that they had started for troubled teen boys had been Mandys life. This was just one of the many things at risk under the new ownership. Who was she to judge him when she seemed to be running from her own past? For all they knew, she could be a seasoned criminal coming here to hide out in this gorgeous Montana wilderness. What was she so afraid of? He did not know whether to fight her or protect her. Could they survive together, or would they destroy each other?

Meanwhile, there was a villain in Texas who threatened her existence. He wanted what was hers, and he wanted her dead!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514481202

KC Conner

With a professional background, including extensive travel, this author takes a love for writing to an intense level. Creating real emotions and real characters, the plot thickens with each page. Each character is portrayed with a depth of human emotions along with an action-packed adventure that will leave you wondering what the outcome will be. A brilliant page-turner!

Book preview

Prologue

A deep shudder ran the length of Cassi’s spine. There it was again, the siren and the flashing lights. Was she so cold that she was hallucinating? How the hell had he done it? How could he have possibly gotten here so fast? Too tired and frightened to figure out what was going on, she had a visibility of only a few feet in the ice and snow. The slick tires of the van slid all over the icy surface of the road as her stiff arms fought the steering wheel. Having come too far to back down now, she kept driving mile after treacherous mile. Where was this haven that she had been promised, was it all a sick joke?

Knowing that she was going to hit the embankment, she slowed down and angled the front of the van so that she would not hit it head-on. The jolt threw her head against the windshield, but she remained conscious. Grabbing the gun with icy, trembling fingers, she slid over to the passenger door and grabbed the handle. Her only chance to get away, for the second time, was to take him by surprise . . . Half jumping, half being thrown by impact, she came up shooting. When the gun was empty after only two shots, she threw it at the head of the rapidly approaching assailant . . .

Someone was shaking her—something was very wrong. Who was this man she had been shooting at? Who was this tall dark stranger with a bleeding forehead that she had thrown the gun at? How was she going to explain her way out of this one? Putting so much hope in the possibility of a life without dread or fear, she was not ready to let go of that dream, yet this was not the way she envisioned starting her new life.

Obviously this was not Owen. She was not sure who this ruggedly handsome man in a police uniform was, but she had made a huge mistake of identity. She had assumed that the siren and the lights belonged to the vile scum who had squandered her life, but this was not Houston and this was not her tormentor.

This bold and cocky creature knew just how handsome he was, just as she knew how grungy and ugly she appeared with all of her self-defacing on display. Now she was on the wrong side of the law with no explanation. What was she supposed to say, I’m running from a bad cop? That would not work, her best bet would be to find this Saunders Valley and get her head screwed on straight while there was still hope: if there was still hope.

Chapter 1

Stretching her arm as far back as she could reach, Cassi was finally able to grasp the corner of a towel from behind the passenger seat. Shivering violently, she finally managed with cold, stiff fingers to pull the towel over her shoulders. The sharp pinging on the windshield alerted her that the rain had become ice. Pounding the thermostat with her fist, she cursed the heater of her battered van and made another futile attempt to raise the stuck window a little higher. After all of her planning, she was entirely unprepared for this.

After two long days of driving, a dull ache was beginning to plague her numb body, but still she dared not stop, not yet. The temperature had plummeted outside of Colorado. She had been in Texas all of her life, and was literally out of her element in this cold weather, much less the slippery road condition with these old tires.

The horrifying events of that last fateful night had left her with only one motivating force: to get as far away as she possibly could from the pit of hell that she had called home for five long years. Although she was two days and many miles out from Houston, she still kept her burning eyes focused on the rearview mirror, as if expecting the devil incarnate to be close behind her. Even after 1,000 miles out of Houston, she was still petrified with fear; her paranoia level excruciatingly high. On and on she drove until the road became a slippery blur and the gas gauge read far passed empty. With a silent thanks to her friend Beth for the good gas mileage and big tank, she had only stopped for gas twice. Hardly dressed for the harsher elements, she had never felt these icy tremors that had her sore body clenched in a tight knot. She was cold, hungry, and exhausted, with only fear and anger to keep her going. Knowing that she was now totally alone in this world, a dark emptiness had engulfed her soul.

Nothing had prepared her for her escape journey. Although she had had months to plan ahead, it had been like preparing for the complete unknown. Every mile of the way, so far, she had wondered what she would be facing in Montana. A great deal of confidence had come with knowing that whatever she faced it would have to be better than what she and her mother had already been through.

Texas was far behind before she began to relax her grip on the steering wheel and look for a gas station. Although she was dead tired and the raw skin on her back felt like sandpaper was rubbing it, the reality of hope finally began to register. Never again would she be subjected to the pain and degradation from which she was finally escaping, which she had endured for what had seemed an eternity. She did not care what she was driving into. It would be her refuge! That would be the price of freedom.

From a deep recess of hopelessness, she had a small glimpse of hope. The hope her mother had instilled in that last promise . . . She would at last be able to stand up for herself; she had nothing to lose but grief and pain. Leaving without making funeral arrangements for her mother would haunt Cassi’s soul forever. She had known that she would miss her mother intensely, but the abyss in her heart was difficult to cope with. Her coping at this stage of grief was to push that emptiness aside to be dealt with later. Some things she could not think about at this point in her escape plan. She could deal with the grief and hate later.

Damn him! Damn him to hell and back! Although she had been following a dying request, she still felt rotten about having to abandon her mother’s frail body at the very end. Knowing that this had been Evelyn’s one wish had given Cassi very little comfort. In the end, all that Evelyn had wanted was to be sure that Cassi would break away from the subhuman existence that they had both been trapped in for so long. Knowing this did not take away the anger and resentment of having to leave her mother the way she did. Her only consolation was that she and her mother, in their own desperate way, had won in the end . . . but oh god, what a price to pay!

With their careful planning, there was no way that Owen would be able to get his evil hands on a dime of her mother’s inheritance, and he would never be able to find Cassi once their plan had been completed. This was the last thing that she had done with her mother. Likewise, she knew that once he realized that she had escaped, he would attempt vengeance. The pathology of his soul would demand a ruthless revenge. Cassi had won in the end; he would not be able to tolerate this.

The call from Tim Mathews had seemed like a hoax. Being rightfully skeptical, Cassi had hung up on him that first day. She had lived in a state of fear, hatred, and resentment for so long that she did not know anything else other than her mother’s love. Learning early in life the advantages of being ugly and unlikable, she had become a master of disguise in avoiding the attention of her mother’s entourage of much less than desirable companions. This had been her only security, her hiding place of fear and rage, because no matter how bad things got she always knew that she could not leave her dying mother.

She had known that her mother’s leukemia was untreatable and death was eminent, so she had hung in with a silent mask of indifference: making a lifestyle of escape tactics, including making herself as repulsive as possible. It had worked until Owen came along; the big city cop. He had slipped his way into their lives and disrupted their existence. Talented, powerful, and ruthless, he knew how to get what he wanted; and when he didn’t, someone had to pay.

His first introduction to Evelyn had been one of an angel of mercy. Through Houston’s most elite hospice organization, how could he have been anything but credible? And a cop to boot, how thrilled Cassi had been initially! Then the diminishing funds began to look suspicious. When Owen started to make sexual overtones toward Evelyn, Cassi had told him that she and her mother were both HIV positive. This had not gone over well; because of all the HIPAA laws, there was no way that he could get her tested or know the results. Cassi had really thought that plan was brilliant until he found other ways to force his dominance. With his legal background, he had known how to play the game.

Even after all the miles between Cheyenne and Houston, Cassi still couldn’t break the habit of looking over her shoulder. Although she and Evelyn had taken every precaution in concealing her inheritance, they had both been frantically afraid that Owen would somehow find out about it and manage to swindle her just as he had done so craftily over the years; at first appearing as a guardian angel, to eventually becoming the soul-sucking nightmare from hell. Cassi shuttered, remembering his cruel treatment of herself and her mother.

After the death of her second husband, Evelyn had given up. Although Frank had made it perfectly clear that Cassi was a nuisance, he had been very therapeutic for a beautiful forty-year-old woman who had grown tired of managing on a meager existence for herself and her daughter. After Frank’s fatal heart attack, Evelyn had been diagnosed with an untreatable form of leukemia. This had made her an easy victim for Owen’s schemes. This and the fact that her husband’s insurance company had deposited six hundred thousand dollars into her bank account.

Chapter 2

Carefully steering the slick tires over the icy pavement to the gasoline pump, Cassi automatically scoped the area for police vehicles. Making a mental inventory of her supplies, she decided to drive on instead of stopping for the night like she had intended to do. Even though she was exhausted, she knew that she would not be able to sleep if she did stop for the night. If she did not find her new home within the next ten hours or so, she knew that she would have to stop. The only thing she had eaten in three days was stale chips and crackers that the kids from the shelter had left in the van.

Her aunt Mandy’s lawyer, as well as her mother lawyer Tim Mathews, had specifically told her to come by his office in Melverne, Montana, before she drove to the address specified in the will. That would be at least twenty extra miles added to the trip, so that automatically cancelled that appointment. She would gas up here in Cheyenne and get a snack and a much-needed cup of coffee, then she would be able to go on to Sheridan and Billings on I-90. From there, she would stay on I-90 through Butte and Anaconda, where she would start looking for the cut-through road to Saunders Valley, which looked to save many miles. After she had rested for a day, then she could drive into Melverne to see the lawyer for details of the will.

On her way out of Houston, she had driven to the shelter run by her friend Beth, where she had switched vehicles with her. Owen had no idea what her get-away chariot looked like. She had known from the beginning that there was no rescue to be found, because Owen was a very respected, or rather a much-feared police officer. Who could stand against this powerful man? He had a thumb in every political pot in town. The one attempt she had made to report the physical abuse from Owen had totally backfired, making her a suspect for abusing her sick mother. This could not be pursued, because she could not tolerate the idea of not being able to see her mother due to being a suspect for abusing her. Cassi had developed a very unhealthy resentment against law enforcement in general, but especially for the one who had moved into her mother’s home in the disguise of a caretaker and turned her world upside down.

As Cassi pushed against the wind to get the van door opened, a blast of cold air hit her in the face. After grabbing the towel from the seat, she wrapped herself as well as possible. The over-sized T-shirt offered very little protection from this icy onslaught. Texas weather had been far removed from this climate. She could barely keep her balance as the rough wind invaded her skimpy attire.

After filling up with gas, she slowly made her way over the slick surface toward the convenience store at the gas station. Her shoes were slippery and every step was treacherous to maneuver. Warm air and the aroma of hot coffee greeted her as she scurried inside, homing straight to the coffee. Seeing the back of a uniformed officer blocking her way to the self-serve area, Cassi froze in her wet sneakers. With her heart pounding in her throat, she was backing away when the officer turned with a friendly smile and held a cup of steaming coffee toward Cassi. His voice was as warm and smooth as his smile as he continued his friendly approach. You look like you could use a good cup of coffee; I guarantee this will do the trick!

She was still backing away when she realized that she had not paid for her gas. As she stood frozen in her tracks, she forced herself to meet his warm hazel eyes as the officer gently extended the cup of coffee for Cassi to accept. The gentle manner and pleasant demeanor won out over the instant anxiety that had clutched her gut at the first glimpse of the uniform. The warmth felt wonderful as she closed her frigid fingers around the cup. Realizing that her panic had been completely inappropriate, she wondered if she would ever be able to let her guard down enough to have any semblance of a normal existence. Managing a sickly smile and a weak thank you, she paid for her gas with trembling hands and backed out the door like a frightened rabbit.

Back in the shelter of her van, Cassi tried to get a weather report over the static on the radio. She felt like a fool for not asking someone in the store about this icy front, because something was definitely happening with the dark sky and the high wind. This was one of the things that she definitely had not prepared for. She found more clothes from her bag and went for a more layered look with a long-sleeved T-shirt and big cargo pants. Through the frosty windshield, she could easily see that the ice and snow were beginning to accumulate. Never had she anticipated snow; it was still September! She felt sure that she still had a long way to drive.

Remembering that someone in the station had mentioned some roads closing by nightfall, she scolded herself again for not getting specific information about the roads in western Montana, where her new world would be. Although she did not know the specifics of the road conditions out of Melverne, it really didn’t matter. If all the roads were blocked, she would get through, there was no choice here. Once she got where she was supposed to be, then she could relax and sleep for three days if she needed to.

The dream of having a home of her own had kept Cassi going for a long time. Before and after Evelyn had been diagnosed with leukemia, Cassi had perfected escape mechanisms to keep from thinking about her mother’s wasted life. For a long time, she had used school to escape painful reality. First she got a nursing degree while she worked at the shelter house that her widowed friend had opened in her huge home after her husband had died. After nursing, she got a master’s degree in psychology, then she started writing. This also became a great escape for her.

Cassi still felt guilty for spending time away from her mother while working at the shelter and not attending her more closely. She knew that she did make a difference at the shelter where she had known the disappointment and felt the pain of all the drifters. She and Beth had not had an organized program because of their clientele, but they had put most of their effort into the youth that wandered the streets of Houston. Most of their drop-ins were pretty desperate, but they did have a few returns who had some hope of getting better. She had known the results of living an abused existence and these were the people that she was most qualified to help. She knew where they were coming from and she had suffered with them. Maybe it was because she was also searching for something that had not been easy to find. She had yet to have an opportunity to just relax and concentrate on what she wanted. Believing that her day would come, she had put her life on hold.

Although she could not change things for her own mother, she knew how to help these lost souls. The shelter had somehow become her home, or as close to a home as she was going to get under the circumstance that she had tolerated for so long. More and more she had to avoid Owen as he got increasingly more violent with her as Evelyn lay dying. Memories she had to push aside, but she had sworn to her dying mother that she would never be victimized again.

The pounding precipitation brought her back to her real world. What once had been rain had rapidly turned to lateral sheets of ice and snow, which were accumulating rapidly. Emotionally and physically exhausted, Cassi fought for control of the worn tires as they slipped over the slick ice cover on the roads she could not she. For miles and miles, she continued in treacherous conditions as she allowed herself to dream of a little cabin all alone in the woods, maybe in the foothills of the Flint Mountains outside of Melverne. She squinted her burning eyes as the sun-baked windshield wiper scraped over the frosty glass.

Out of Sheridan, Wyoming, she followed I-90 for mile after mile out from Billings, picking up the last paved road south of Dillon. Cassi trudged on mile after weary mile. Although it was only 3:00 p.m. by Cassi’s Texas time, already the dark ominous clouds had obscured the last hints of sunlight, leaving dark shadows with an occasional stream of pale yellow outlining the pristine countryside. As the landscape kept drastically changing, becoming more and more hills and valleys, even in her debilitated condition this rugged, sparsely inhabited land deeply appealed to Cassi.

As the rolling hills became rocky bluffs, the increasing elevation became scattered with areas of massive stately trees that were beginning to sport the white crispness of their winter coat. In the distance, the tops of the mountains were beginning to blend with the white and gray fluffs of snow clouds. Dark waves of deep blue sky were rapidly rolling in and being buffeted by a merciless northern wind. The threatening darkness cast deep shadows over the rough landscape. The larger trees gradually were replaced by small scruffy trees and dwarfed vegetation. The majestic eloquence soothed Cassi’s frayed nerves, promising that she also could endure and had a chance at life.

Chapter 3

Zipping the jacket of his police uniform, Brent Neilson cursed the shopping cart as it slid over the icy pavement of the grocery store parking lot. Everyone knew that it was just a matter of time before many of their roads would be impassable for many months. Fighting the supermarket crowd, he cursed the stupidity of waiting for bad weather before stocking up for the season. One would think that this was something new and different to Melverne citizens, but it was the same crowd, the same store year after year. Before this cursed year, he and Mandy always had the chore done before the first snowfall. Now that he was an elite property manager, his new esteemed role that Mandy had managed to dump on him from the grave, he had vacillated in a very bad state of mind between grief and extreme anger.

Somewhere in the back of Brent’s mind he knew that he would continue to fight for Saunders Cottage and the youth program that he and Mandy had put together from scratch with the help of the forever faithful Hank, Mahandi, and Martha. They had become a team, a tried and true team. He also knew that they were hurting just as he was. Not one of Mandy’s personal salvage department followers had had a chance to say thanks to her for saving each of them from a sure road of self-destruction. Each of them had been personally rescued by Mandy, who had sincerely felt that everyone deserved a second and third chance to get things right. Brent, as well as the others, had desperately needed her input to their lives. Each of them had flourished under her gentle but strong guidance. Now they were all whole and strong, thanks to the one person who had not given up on them. She had also taught them to extend this caring hope to other lost youths.

Supposedly, the new owner was to be Mandy’s baby sister, Evelyn Saunders, from Houston. Maybe she would be as wonderful as Mandy, although this was very unlikely; it would be difficult to walk in her worn shoes. Admittedly, she would be quite a character to live up to.

The uncertainty of not knowing what the future held was extremely disturbing to Brent. Although Mandy spoke fondly of her sister, none of the team had actually met her. Mandy’s fatal stroke and then her will that Tim Mathews had presented to them the day of her funeral had been one shock followed by the other. He was not looking forward to sharing his world with a total stranger, even if it was someone who Mandy had loved dearly. Brent could not understand how Martha and Hank had not questioned Martha’s crazy will. Were they not concerned with the possibility that this person might screw up their home and everything they had worked so hard for?

Just thinking about this possibility had dragged Brent into a deep depression. He had started working double shifts whenever possible, but his boss had tried to get him to take time off as a recovery period. Although Brent was an excellent police officer and trained by the best, Mac did not want him to mess up now because he had come so far from where he had once been.

As chief of police for Melverne, Mac had tried to play the role of the father that Brent had rightfully rejected, refusing to forgive some really hurtful actions from his father. It broke Mac’s heart to see the pain that Brent and his father carried for each other. Brent knew that Mac would stand by for both the dad and his son—he had proven this over time.

Over the years, Brent had become a well-respected member of Melverne as well as a respected member of the police force, with Mac overseeing him. Melverne’s population of approximately five thousand and was mostly law-abiding citizens, but like any other small town, they did have their share of a variety of crime. Brent had always been ready to help a neighbor or get a kid get out of trouble. This seemed to be his specialty. His dark good looks and his playful personality