Page 15

J ohnny shifted restlessly in his seat in the sheriff’s office. It was a huge honor for a junior private investigator at Lonestar Security to be included in their emergency meeting. However, his gut was telling him it had been too long since he last heard from Ashley. He’d texted her three times during the past several hours, and she hadn’t responded. Not even once.

Luke Hawling’s scarred face was set in grim lines as he gave them a step-by-step update on the growing outbreak in salmonella. He had a map of Central Texas displayed on a big screen against the wall, and he was using a laser pointer to mark the areas of biggest concern.

“Three more small towns reported an uptick in cases today,” he concluded grimly, “one in our own backyard.” He flashed the laser pointer to a farming community located directly south of the Comanche reservation that hugged the lower city line of Heart Lake. It was the biggest reason he’d called an emergency meeting this evening.

Gil Remington, a retired sheriff who now worked for Lonestar Security, leaned forward with his Stetson balanced on his knee. “Even after all their storm-rebuilding efforts, the dairy farmers on the rez are operating at barely above the poverty level. They don’t have the resources to absorb a targeted bio attack like this.” His point was clear. The rez was depending on the men gathered in this room for assistance.

“They don’t have many players in the dairy business to begin with,” Gage Hefner agreed. “Halting the production of even a handful of them could significantly deplete the rez’s milk supply.” He was a former Army Ranger and Johnny’s direct supervisor, a guy who’d been recruited to lead their private investigation department. Because of how small the Heart Lake Police Department was, and their relatively new partnership with the even smaller rez police department, Lonestar Security was often contracted to fill the gap.

Like tonight.

The same night Ashley had chosen to ghost out on her new husband and his many attempts to reach her via text messages. Not wanting to look disrespectful, Johnny stole discreet glances at his cell phone, which he was holding beneath the table.

The hard look Gage was giving him told him he wasn’t fooling anyone. During their first short recess, his supervisor pulled him aside in the hallway outside the sheriff’s office.

“Your head’s not in the game tonight. What’s going on?” They were friends in addition to coworkers, which was probably the only reason Gage was giving him a chance to explain himself.

“Ashley is giving me radio silence.” Johnny knew it sounded lame, but he wasn’t one to stretch the truth to make himself look better.

Gage’s expression relaxed. “Welcome to married life, bro.” He cocked his dark head at Johnny. “Is this your first argument?”

“What? No!”

“So, it’s not your first argument?” Gage chuckled. “Color me not surprised. Anyone with half a brain could’ve predicted being married to you would be one wild ride.”

“Laugh all you want.” Johnny punched the speed dial button for his brother-in-law and raised his phone to his ear. “I don’t think asking for proof of life from a woman who’s eyeballs deep in this mess,” he angled his head toward the office they’d just stepped out of, “is asking too much.”

Clint accepted the call. “Clint’s pizza delivery. What’s your order?”

“Joker,” Johnny snarled. “Have you seen Ashley around?”

“Aw, did you lose your wife?” Clint scoffed.

“Yes,” Johnny barked, refusing to take the bait. “That’s why I’m calling you. I need?—”

“Relax, bro,” Clint cut in, growing serious. “Tucker said he saw her leave with Caro a few hours ago.”

Johnny’s eyebrows drew together. “It’s been over four hours since I heard from her, Clint. Four hours! How about you put Tucker on the phone?”

“If you insist.” There was a bunch of rustling sounds in the background and some muffled voices that ended with a howl of male laughter.

Tucker’s voice sounded across the line seconds later. “Is this some sort of joke?”

Alarm tightened Johnny’s fingers around the phone, making him inadvertently hit the speaker phone button. “What do you mean?” He held the phone away from his ear to locate the speaker phone button.

“Oh, come on, boss man! They left in your truck.” Tucker snickered. “With you behind the wheel!”

Johnny’s finger remained suspended over the speaker phone button. “You sure about that, Tuck? Because I drove my Jeep to work today. Didn’t even bring my truck keys with me.” If they were embroiled in some sort of prank, it wasn’t funny.

Gage, who’d turned away and started walking down the hallway, spun back in his direction.

Over the next several minutes, he and Gage attempted to piece together who’d actually been behind the wheel of his truck.

“That’s all I know.” Tucker’s voice grew distraught. “Guess I just assumed it was you since Ashley was sitting in the center of the seat, and Caro was by the door. Figured y’all were heading to a restaurant or something.”

It sounded like he’d shared everything he knew. “Put Clint back on the line,” Johnny rasped.

“Sure thing, boss.” Tucker couldn’t have sounded more remorseful.

All the humor was gone from Clint’s voice. “Uh, so…your truck is still parked in the garage. I just ran over there and checked.”

Johnny’s chest grew cold. “Whoever did this made it look like it was me so you guys wouldn’t stop him.”

“Looks like. Man, Johnny,” his brother-in-law groaned. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

Johnny shot Gage an agonized look and switched over to the tracker feature on his phone. “I can’t locate a signal on Ashley’s phone.”

Gage lurched into motion. “I’ll have the sheriff put out an APB for a truck that looks identical to yours.”

“No need!” Clint’s voice broke excitedly across the line. “The truck in question just pulled into the driveway and—whoa!” He abruptly stopped speaking.

Johnny stood riveted as he heard the sound of gunfire. Though he shouted Clint’s name into the phone again and again, there was no answer.

He sprinted down the hallway.

“Johnny!” He heard Gage shout his name, but he didn’t look back. His supervisor knew what needed to be done, and there wasn’t a second to be wasted.

Ignoring a startled outburst from Fran Beecher, the sheriff’s office manager, he yanked open the front door and flew across the parking lot. He leaped inside his Jeep and started rolling forward before he finished shutting the door.

A scream of police sirens sounded behind him, but he ignored them. Chase me home. It was the best they could do for him right now.

“You shot him!” Ashley twisted around in the truck cab, trying to locate Clint Rhodes through the back window. There was no sign of him in the shadowy high grasses where he’d fallen.

“It’s okay. They’ll never trace the bullet back to me.” Martin gripped the steering wheel with both hands, kicking up a cloud of dust as he gunned the motor. They skidded ever closer to the dairy barn.

That’s not what I meant. Fearing her ex was losing his grasp on his senses, she sank deeper into the seat, feeling numb. We’re at the mercy of a mad man! She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing the nightmare she was trapped inside was one she could wake up from.

Caro’s fingers curled around hers, gripping them in the darkness, reminding her that she was not alone.

Martin slammed on the brakes, throwing all three of them forward against their seatbelts. Hard.

Ashley struggled to catch her breath, feeling bruised from the waist up.

“There!” Martin pointed angrily at his cell phone. He’d propped it against the dashboard so he could follow the tiny green flashing arrow on it. “The tracker I installed in the zip drive says it’s in the barn. Maybe one of your husband’s infernal cows swallowed it. If that’s the case, we’ll drop them one by one until we locate it.”

“Martin,” Ashley pleaded, unable to bear the thought of any harm coming to the innocent herd of cattle. “Don’t do this. I’m begging you!” She watched Caro from her peripheral vision, wondering if she’d fallen asleep or something. Despite how well-armed she was, she hadn’t so much as flinched when Martin had shot her boyfriend point blank.

“You aren’t leaving me with much choice,” he snarled, motioning for them to get out of the truck.

“We need to check on Clint.” As Ashley climbed to the ground, her knees started to shake. “He might be seriously hurt!”

“Keep moving.” Martin’s features were set in stony lines. “There’s no time.”

During their short trek to the barn, Caro stumbled into her. “He’s fine,” she hissed against her earlobe.

How? Ashley scrambled to make sense of her friend’s hasty assurance. What am I missing? She mentally replayed Martin reaching inside the flap of his shirt to withdraw a pistol —one of the two he’d confiscated from Caro. He’d shot her pistol, not his own, to ensure the bullet would be traced back to her instead of him, after which she was confident Clint remained unharmed. The only way she could possibly know he hadn’t been injured by the bullet was if…

The truth finally sank home. Caro’s pistol must have been loaded with blanks! The key to our survival is making sure he still believes he’s in charge, she’d said.

Is that what she was doing now? Merely giving their captor the appearance of being in charge, while slowly eroding his hold over them? Ashley fervently hoped that was the case. And if Clint was indeed still alive, he was now aware that she and Caro were in trouble. Serious trouble.

The first thing he’d do would be to reach out to Johnny. Or the police. Or both. Meaning all that she and Caro really needed to do was hang on for a little longer.

New plan. We need to stall for time.

Martin pushed open the side door to the dairy barn and beckoned them inside with the barrel of his gun.

As Ashley stepped across the threshold, she didn’t dare glance up at the rafters, not wanting to draw attention to a certain pair of glowing eyes.

Caro stepped into the center aisle between the two lines of milking stations, turning in one big circle. “If the zip drive is in here, we’ll find it,” she announced in a much louder voice than Ashley deemed necessary. Had she caught sight of Tucker? Was this her way of warning him to stay hidden? “As you can see, we have the place to ourselves. Tucker must be on break. As long as we work quickly, we’ll be in and out of here in two snaps.”

“Shut up!” Martin brandished the same pistol at her that he’d shot Clint with.

Ashley caught her breath, knowing all it would take was one pull of the trigger indoors for Caro’s ruse to be blown to bits. She stepped between the two of them. “She’s right. We don’t have much time, so we need to make every second count.” She was counting on him not discharging his weapon again while she was in the line of fire. “If we split up, we can cover more territory.”

Martin’s eyes glinted with unholy glee. “That won’t be necessary.” He gestured excitedly at his phone screen. “The tracking device is showing?—”

The door at the far end of the barn banged open so hard that it slammed against the wall. Three masked figures entered. All of them were holding semi-automatic rifles.

Panic nearly buckled Ashley’s knees. There was no way Caro could’ve accounted for this scenario. They were officially out-manned and out-gunned. It was over.

One of the masked figures stalked up to Martin and snatched his cell phone from him. “We’ll take it from here.” The other two masked figures flanked Martin with their rifles raised. “On your knees, Hobbs.”

Martin’s face turned red. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Following orders.” The ringleader raised his rifle and aimed it at Martin’s head, forcing him to his knees. “According to one of our internal spooks, the late Mrs. Perkins never copied her research to a backup drive like you’ve been claiming. Nor did she subsequently destroy the only original copy of her life’s work.”

“I don’t know who’s serving as your eyes and ears these days,” Martin sneered, “but they’re way off base.”

“Is she?” the gunman taunted. “Then explain this.” He angled his head at Ashley. “Why did your woman pay a visit home to withdraw a file folder from her late mother’s belongings?”

Martin paled. “Is that why you tried to mow her down on her way back into town?”

The man ignored his question. “Zip drive! That’s all we need to talk about. If it’s real, where is it?”

“It’s real,” Martin returned coldly. “And if you don’t meet my demands, you’re never going to get your hands on it.”

“Then you shouldn’t have gotten greedy.” The gunman jammed the tip of his rifle against his temple. “Giving us one price while trying to find a higher bidder on the black market was a bad move. Like every other petty criminal, your greed was your critical error.”

Martin’s angular features distorted with a mixture of confusion and rage. “I know nothing about a black market sale.”

The gunman’s chuckle was as harsh as rusty metal. “Playing dumb won’t impress anyone. We already linked the sale back to an account in your name.”

A spark of hope lit Ashley from the inside out. It was at that moment she realized Caro was very much still in the game playing out in front of them. Anyone who could set Martin Hobbs up for a fall like this, while at the same time turning the members of XAX’s inner circle against each other, was diabolically brilliant. Ruthless. A woman who, in her own words, was capable of so much more than anyone around her would ever suspect.

A whine of a police siren grew nearer, making the cattle send up a chorus of complaints.

“What in the world?” The gunman’s head jerked toward the sound.

“It’s the police, you moron!” Martin shot to his feet. “It’s time to get the zip drive and get out of here. You can thank me later.” He gestured at the cell phone the man had taken from him. “Where’s the tracker saying it’s at?”

While the sirens blared closer, the two men hunkered over the phone screen together. Then they tipped their heads back, gazing upward.

Can Opener came screeching down from the rafters with his claws extended. At the same time, bales of hay tumbled from the loft toward all three masked figures, blocking the ensuing volley of bullets they sent in Can Opener’s direction.

Men burst into the room from three directions. Clint, Hawk, and Tucker were among them. Johnny was there, too. She nearly swooned at the sight of her favorite broad-shouldered dairy farmer sprinting her way while shouting orders. The police were right on his heels.

Ashley was dimly aware of Caro joining in the fight to help subdue the gunmen. The second they were in handcuffs, Johnny made a beeline for Ashley. “You okay, babe?”

She wilted into his embrace, spilling happy tears all over him. “You came!” She pressed a hand to the warm, pulsing beat of his heart.

“Of course, I came!” He cuddled her close, holding her like he was never going to let her go. “I knew something was wrong when you stopped responding to my messages.”

“He took our phones.” She gave him the highlights of what had happened. “But I’m fine. Caro’s fine. The baby’s fine.”

His arms around her tightened. “Ash! Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

She nodded, leaking more happy tears. “Caro figured it out before I did.” She described the blanks Caro had loaded in the pistols she’d allowed Martin to confiscate. “I suspect she was also behind the black market sale that turned Martin’s associates against him.” Upon reflection, there was no point during their captivity that Caro hadn’t been maneuvering events to their ultimate conclusion.

“Brilliant.” Johnny gave a low whistle. Then he pivoted with her so she could watch the police remove the masks of the three gunmen under arrest.

“You’re a very popular guy,” Sheriff Hawling drawled to their ringleader. “It’s not every day in our small town we get to round up folks on the FBI’s most wanted list.”

The other two gunmen ended up not being men at all. Darla and Blaire were soon herded into the back of separate police cruisers, their faces flushed with anger. Before the door slammed shut behind Darla, she shouted something about Ashley’s father being an idiot for assuming she’d ever been in love with a lowly electrician.

“Poor Dad,” Ashley sighed as the police drove away.

“On the upside,” Johnny pressed a trail of kisses down the side of her face, “their marriage probably wasn’t real, so he’s a free man.”

There’s that. “I’m still not looking forward to breaking the news to him.” She couldn’t stand the thought of him being heartbroken all over again.

“I’ll drive you to Dallas,” Johnny offered. “We’ve got a heaping spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.” He rested a hand protectively on her still-flat belly.

He was right. She covered his hand with both of hers, hanging on to that thought. Her father was going to go bananas when he found out he was about to become a grandfather.

“I’m not going to the hospital.” Caro was sitting on the floor of the barn with her face bent toward her legs. It had been years since she’d last been this close to passing out. “All I need is water. I’m a little dehydrated.”

Clint stormed off and returned to press a bottle of cold water into her hand.

She gratefully curled her fingers around it without looking up. “Thanks. You can go now.” Everyone had their breaking point, even her, and Clint happened to be her breaking point. The sooner she put some distance between them, the better.

“I can, but I won’t.” He dropped his lanky frame on the floor behind her, stretching his legs out on either side of her.

The dust and hay clinging to his jeans brought tears to her eyes. He was so sweet and genuine. Everything he said or did could be taken at face value. His callused hands settled on her shoulders with infinite gentleness, pulling her upright and cradling her against his chest.

“I don’t think I can do this,” she gasped, fighting emotions she hadn’t felt in a very long time. Emotions she didn’t think she’d ever feel again. Emotions she wasn’t even sure she was capable of feeling again.

“You don’t have to do it alone,” he assured huskily. “I’ve got you, darling.” He lifted the bottle of water higher and tipped it against her lips, forcing her to take a sip.

“This isn’t fair to you.” The cold water felt like Heaven against her parched tongue. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

His chuckle made her heart do a thousand backflips in a row. “I’m starting to get an idea.” He kept tipping the bottle against her lips, having her take slow, measured sips until the lightheadedness eased.

Only when she pushed the bottle away did he palm her cheek and angle her face so he could hover his mouth over hers. “Last chance for any final objections against being loved by Clint Rhodes.”

You love me? She gave up the fight and allowed his mouth to cover hers. The way he made her feel every time they were together was complete insanity — so weak yet so strong. He was both her final straw and her Rock of Gibraltar. Her greatest temptation and even greater ally. The man who’d wormed his way into her heart and somehow become her dearest friend.

“I care for you, too, Clint. So much that it scares me.” She couldn’t get enough of his kisses — dust, hay, and all. “That’s why I need you to think really hard about what I say next. I have a past.” An ugly one that had left some very deep scars on her soul.

“Don’t we all?” He dragged his fingers through her hair, shaking the pins loose and making it tumble around her shoulders.

“Because of my undercover work, it’s a past that includes stuff that could eventually catch up with me. Stuff that could send me on the run,” she warned. She’d already told him about her disastrous first marriage to an older man, but there were still things about her career he didn’t know — things he could never know for security reasons. Things that were buried under too many gag orders to count.

“If that happens, we’ll run together.” He didn’t sound too worried about it. “Until then, I’ve got an idea for your new cover story.”

“If it involves milking cows, forget it.” Her voice was flat.

He chuckled against her temple. “It involves marrying a dairy farmer. I’ll milk the cows for us.”

“Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?” She was so shaken that a tear slid down her cheek. “There’s still so much you don’t know about me. This isn’t even my real hair color.”

“Darling, whatever color you decide to go with will become my new favorite color,” he assured her in a triumphant voice.

“It’s brunette, in case you’re wondering.”

“I’ve suddenly got a thing for brunettes. One brunette, anyway.” He brushed away her tear.

She longed to believe him, but she was craving more reassurance. “We still don’t have anything in common.”

“Won’t that keep things interesting?” he drawled.

“Clint!” She felt the last of her reservations crumbling.

“Caro!” He dragged his mouth down her cheek. “We both know you love my farm-fresh stench. Just admit it already.”

It was time to tell him the truth about that. He’d certainly earned it. “I love everything about you, Clint Rhodes.”

“Now we’re talking.”

“You’re kind of missing the point,” she protested. “I’m trying to warn you.”

“And I’m trying to shut you up.” He claimed her mouth again, kissing her again and again. He kissed her until she couldn’t come up with any more reasons why they shouldn’t be together.