Page 33 of Deputies Under Fire (Renegade Canyon #2)

“I didn’t mean for Mellie to die,” Frank finally said.

“That was an accident. She’d seen Ike and me fighting at my wife’s grave, and she came to my ranch to check on me.

I didn’t hear her when she drove up, and she walked right in to my workshop.

She saw me making one of these.” He lowered his gaze to the IED.

“She knew what it was, and she turned to run. I caught her, and, I, uh, had a knife in my hand that I was using to strip some wires…” His voice trailed off.

“And you murdered her,” Eden said, finishing his sentence. “You murdered her!”

Rory could only imagine the firestorm of emotions that she was feeling right now. Frank had killed her foster mother, and it didn’t matter that he’d just called it an accident. Mellie was dead. So were Lou Garcia, Brenda and Carter. Garrison had nearly been killed, too.

And Frank had clearly tried to cover his tracks.

Clearly taken steps to prevent him from being ID’ed as the killer. The CSIs had found no IED-making equipment during their search, so that meant Frank had cleaned up that area and had obviously moved his IED factory elsewhere.

“No,” Diedre sobbed. “No, please say this isn’t true.”

Everyone, including Frank, ignored her, and from the corner of his eye, he could see Judson easing back a few steps. Rory doubted the deputy was trying to distance himself from the blast, though. No. He was likely trying to get to Ike to see what he could do about saving him.

“Did Brenda walk in on you, too?” Eden snapped. “Did you kill her by accident as well?”

Frank didn’t react to the anger. “No,” he said with an eerie calmness, “but Mellie had apparently called her to tell her what had happened at the cemetery with Ike, and she told Brenda that she was coming to see me.”

So there was the motive for two murders. Heck, for framing Ike as well, since it was obvious now that the altercation at the cemetery had been what set Frank off. That had caused him to snap, and this was the result.

But there was something about this that didn’t make sense.

“There was five months between Mellie’s and Brenda’s murders,” Eden pointed out. “That’s a long time to wait to tie up any loose ends.”

Frank nodded. “Brenda kept asking me about Mellie, kept bringing up the visit that Mellie told her she was going to make to see me. I think Brenda was looking for evidence to prove that I’d been the one to kill her. Playing detective,” he grumbled under his breath.

“Brenda never said anything to the cops about Mellie’s plans to visit you,” Rory informed Frank.

“Because I told her that Mellie hadn’t come,” Frank admitted, “and I turned the tables on her by saying that Mellie had told me that she was going to see her, to see Brenda. So it was sort of an impasse. I wouldn’t tell on Brenda, and she wouldn’t tell on me.

But I couldn’t risk Brenda staying quiet forever.

So I asked her if I could meet her at her house to discuss it. She agreed.”

Frank stopped again. Rory didn’t know how much of those ten minutes were gone now, but each second counted.

“I drugged Brenda, planted those burner phones, took her to the barn. And I killed her,” Frank admitted. “At least I thought I had. When I left her, I believed she was dead.”

“But you set an IED just in case,” Eden snapped. “An IED that killed a CSI.”

“I’m sorry about that. He wasn’t meant to die.

But I wanted to bring down the whole damn barn because I thought it was over.

I thought Ike would be blamed for Brenda’s death, and that he’d end up rotting in jail.

But you didn’t arrest him,” he practically shouted.

“He was a free man, walking around, continuing to spread his hatred. Not paying for the misery he brought to my life.”

Rory didn’t voice the reason for that misery. It wasn’t just the incident in the cemetery, but the fact that Ike had had an affair with Frank’s wife. A wife he had obviously loved.

“It was supposed to be over,” Frank continued, his voice lower now. And he was too composed, considering what he had done. Considering what he was about to do. “But Carter had taken some pictures of me going into Brenda’s house that night, and he tried to blackmail me with them.”

“And you killed him, too,” Rory concluded. “Three. That’s makes you a serial killer.”

Frank didn’t have time to react to that because Diedre spoke before he could say anything.

“But I saw blood on your porch,” the woman said, like some kind of plea to help her make sense of this. “I saw it and thought you’d been hurt or killed.”

Frank shook his head and tipped his head to his arm. “I cut myself when I was moving some of the IEDs.”

So no one had harmed him. Not physically, anyway.

“You son of a bitch,” Helen yelled. She was conscious now, and she had her narrowed eyes pinned on Frank. “I trusted you. I was in love with you. And this is how you repay me? You asked me to meet you so you could give me proof that Diedre had murdered Mellie and Brenda.”

“What?” Diedre howled.

A surge of anger must have gone through Diedre because she tried to get up. No doubt to charge at Frank so she could try to have a go at him. Bennie, thankfully, shut that down by wrapping his arms around the woman and holding on tight.

“I wasn’t going to pin the murders on you,” Frank insisted, sparing Diedre a dismissive glance. “In fact, you weren’t even supposed to be here. You were supposed to…live,” he muttered.

“But I was supposed to die?” Helen snapped.

She was struggling to get out of the tape restraints, and she was succeeding.

Rory only hoped the gun wasn’t loaded, because if she tried to shoot Frank, he’d set off the IED.

“Why did you lump me with Mellie, Brenda and Carter? I wasn’t blackmailing you. I didn’t know you were a killer.”

“You’re insurance,” Frank said. “Ike’s fingerprints are on the tape and gun.

After this is over, the CSIs would have found that.

They would have found his prints on some of the IEDs, too.

And the equipment to make the IEDs is in the cargo bed of his truck.

There’s a note back at my house, saying that I learned that Ike was going to kill you and that I came here to try to stop him. ”

Rory cursed. “But Ike would have been dead.”

He nodded. “Dead, but always remembered as a cold-blooded killer. That’s the legacy I want for him. The legacy he deserves.”

“And what legacy do you deserve?” Rory snapped to get his attention. “You’re killing innocent people.”

Much to Rory’s surprise, Frank seemed to consider that, and he looked at Diedre. “There’s a big hole from the old mineral springs right in front of Helen. Get in it now. You, too,” he added, spearing Eden with his intense gaze. “And Bennie. It might protect the three of you from the blast.”

Rory didn’t even have to think about this. “Go,” he ordered Diedre, Bennie and Eden.

Bennie and Diedre quickly moved toward the hole. So did Helen, who had managed to get out of the tape. Eden didn’t. Damn it. She stayed put.

“I’m not leaving you to die,” she said, and then she added something that perhaps stunned them both. “I’m in love with you.”

Despite everything, Rory managed a brief smile. Those were words he’d waited a long time to hear. And to say.

“I’m in love with you, too,” he told her. Now, he had to play dirty. He had to say or do whatever it took to save her. “I need you to stay alive for Tyler. He can’t lose both of his parents. Our son needs you.”

She shook her head. “He needs you, too. I need you,” Eden added.

“This ends now,” Frank repeated in a mutter.

Rory knew the man meant it, and moving as fast as he could, he hooked his arm around Eden, diving toward that hole with her in tow.

Behind them, the blast ripped through the air.