Before Memories Fade

Book 0: Buckhorn, Montana Novel

by B. J. Daniels

Genres: Western Romance

Synopsis

Who is the mysterious new woman in town?

After years on the run, Gertrude Durham is ready to put down roots somewhere. So when a death in the family leaves a car-repair garage in her possession, Gertrude makes the move to Montana. The small town of Buckhorn is the perfect cover—and with only three days left for the law to arrest her, freedom is finally within reach…until retired FBI agent Ike Shepherd turns up at the shop, still handsome as ever.

Ike can’t believe it’s her—the woman he once knew as Irene—in coveralls and a trucker hat. The woman he loved…and the criminal he’s been chasing all these years. Now that he’s found her, he can’t let her get away again. Because this time, things are different—and he’s not the only one who’s hot on her trail.

Release date: July 1, 2022

Publisher: HQN Books

Print pages: 384

Sample

CHAPTER ONE

“WHAT DO WE even know about her?” Vi Mullen demanded of the women gathered at the Buckhorn Café that bright late summer morning.

“Gertrude?” asked Clarice Barber in an appeasing tone, the one she used when she didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Gertrude Durham had recently taken over the only garage and gas station in town. “She could be nicer to people. She’s a little cranky.” That voice was like fingernails on a blackboard for Vi.

Mabel Aldrich quickly agreed in a whisper even though the only people in the café this early in the morning were the women sitting in this large booth. Local women had been meeting there for decades to play cards, gossip over coffee and pie or knit or crochet while they visited.

Vi usually didn’t join them, saying she was too busy, which she knew had been fine with everyone. She found their senseless chatter annoying and a waste of time. “The point is, we know nothing about her and she’s living here in the same town with us.”

“I’ve never seen her in anything but those awful baggy green overalls and a worn-out flannel shirt,” Lynette Crest said, as if completely missing the point. “And she should do something with her hair. It’s so wiry and wild. That trucker’s cap she’s never without doesn’t help matters. But she is a mechanic who works on cars, so what would you have her wear?”

Exasperated, Vi sighed. “I’m not talking about how she looks or dresses. Who is this woman? What do you know about her?”

“What is there to know?” Mabel said, dismissing Vi’s concerns, but at least getting back to the point. “Gertrude inherited the gas station from her nephew, Fred, rest his soul. What more do we really need to know?”

It was that kind of blind ignorance that drove Vi wild. “We only have her word that she’s even Fred’s aunt.”

“She was at his funeral and his son Tyrell’s,” Clarice said as if that proved anything.

Vi wondered why she’d bothered as Bessie Caulfield came out of the kitchen with a fresh pot of coffee and announced the blueberry muffins would need only a few more minutes in the oven.

After Bessie left, Vi resumed her questioning before the women could start talking about baked goods. “Have any of you heard anything at all about Gertrude’s past?” There was a general shaking of heads around the table. “Well, don’t you think it’s odd that she’s so secretive about it?”

“Some people just don’t like to talk about themselves,” Clarice said in that annoying placating voice. Vi knew for a fact that Gertrude wouldn’t even answer the simplest questions like where she’d been living, ...