The Ranger

by Julia Justiss

  Brice felt a pang of disappointment. He hated that he’d missed her. He’d been looking forward to seeing her again today or tomorrow. Now he would have to wait.

  Irritation over that fact made him even more determined to catch the slimeball who was bilking banks.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Three days later, Mary drove back toward Whiskey River. After calling the specialist’s office and finding that due to a cancellation, there was an appointment available the following day, she’d asked Shirley for time off, which was granted without her needing to provide any explanation. Shirley said if she needed time, she was welcome to it, so she snapped up the vacant slot.

  She’d planned to tell Brice at their lunch why she was going out of town, but when he had to cancel, decided she didn’t want to convey that news in a text or phone call. Better to see him face-to-face since, for better or worse, he was the one whose advice had spurred her to finally take this step.

  She’d overnighted in a hotel near the medical center, spent a full day doing routine testing and then having the consultation, another night in the hotel, and driven back today.

  Although the specialist had advised her they would need to schedule more specific tests, she’d also provided a ray of hope that there might now be treatments that would allow her, if she could get pregnant, to carry the child to term.

  Such brilliant, wonderful, exciting news also needed to be delivered in person. As soon as she got back home, she’d text Brice and see when he’d be in town next.

  She was pretty sure she’d be ready to have that serious talk about their future.

  It was midafternoon when she pulled into her driveway, the sight of her little cottage always raising her spirits. Maybe she’d ask Brice to come for dinner, use some of the tomato sauce she’d frozen and make fresh spaghetti noodles for him, accompanied by one of the Super Texan wines she’d bought on their Oktoberfest trip. Make it a special evening worthy of a new beginning.

  Humming, she pulled her overnight bag out of the car and walked to the door, mentally going over a grocery shopping list in her mind as she unlocked it and backed in, pulling the bag behind her. Then turned around and stopped cold.

  “Joey!” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”

  The intruder gave her the charming smile that had gotten him out of trouble so many times. “Hey, sis, aren’t you going to give your baby brother a hug?”

  Conflicting emotions pulled at her. He was her brother, and despite what had happened, she still loved him, even if she didn’t want to be around him anymore. Reluctantly, she walked over to give him the hug he requested.

  “Okay, we’ve hugged,” she said, stepping away. “I won’t bother asking how you got in, since you’ve been able to pick any lock ever made since you were twelve.” Suddenly concerned about who might have seen him, she said, “When did you get here?”

  “This afternoon. Don’t worry, nobody saw me come in. I’m not stupid, right?”

  Mary refrained from answering that question. “So what are you doing here? No, wait—don’t tell me. You’re in some kind of trouble, aren’t you?”

  “Now, why do you always think that? Couldn’t I just want to catch up with my big sister? I’ve missed you since you moved away. You know how sorry I was about . . . everything.”

  “Sorry you lent us your car after messing up a deal that had Brokavich’s hoods out looking to teach Sal Giordano’s nephew a lesson?” she said bitterly. “Sorry I lost the man I loved and my child?”

  “Jeez, sis, you know I am. And you know Uncle Sal promised he’d find the punks and take care of them.”

  “That won’t bring back Ian. Okay, enough old history. Tell me why you’re really here.”

  He continued grinning at her, and immediately suspicious, she leaned closer. Her heart sank. Sure enough, his pupils were dilated. He was using again.

  “You can’t stay here, Joey. Whatever you’re running from, if you knew where to find me, they will too. In fact, the house of an out-of-town relative is the first place someone would look. Couldn’t Uncle Sal take care of whatever made you run?”

  “Well, there was a little problem with Uncle Sal over some . . . you know, merchandise.”

  “Don’t tell me you were snitching some of his supply. Joey!”

  He waved a hand. “Don’t worry, we’ll be cool again soon. I just needed to blow town for a while until he simmers down. And there are a few people I’d rather not meet right now.”

  “If someone is after you, you definitely can’t stay here. I love you, but I told you long ago if you wouldn’t give up being a bag handler for Uncle Sal, I couldn’t continue to see you. You chose that life, Joey. Papa and I chose to walk away. Whatever your situation is, you’ll have to resolve it on your own. I’ve already been collateral damage to your problems once, and I refuse to do that again.”

  Besides which, Bunny might come over at any time. She’d not allow her wayward brother to put that precious child in danger. Realizing that it was getting dark and she’d need to turn on lights soon, she hurried to the windows facing the yard—windows the Edgertons might be able to see through—and lowered all the blinds.

  “Okay, okay. So I can spend the night, right? Maybe I’ll move on tomorrow, go see the old man in Florida.”

  “You will absolutely not go see Papa,” she said furiously. “What happened devastated him too. He’s made a new life for himself, even found a lovely lady who’s helped him through his grief over losing Mama. I promise you, if I find out you’ve left here and gone to Papa’s, I’ll call the cops on you myself.”

  “Jeez, you’re such a straight arrow now for someone who used to be Uncle Sal’s little darling.”

  “Not after I got old enough to realize what was going on. You were the one fascinated by his world. I never was.”

  “He let you go, didn’t he? Even though it broke his heart.”

  Mary refused to feel guilty about that. “I’m sure he got over it.”

  “I’m not so sure. Family is family, Maria.”

  “Which is the only reason I don’t throw you out on your ear here and now! But by heaven, if you aren’t gone by tomorrow night, I swear I will. Just in case someone does come looking, I don’t want to know where you go.”

  “Okay, okay, I’ll think about it. Now, why don’t you calm down, pour some wine and make us something to eat? It’s almost dinnertime.”

  Anything she fixed would taste like sawdust until she got rid of her brother, but cooking would take her mind off her anger and panic. But what if Bunny tried to come over?

  She grabbed the handbag she’d dropped on the floor and extracted her phone, quickly typing Elaine a text saying she was feeling under the weather, so it would be better to keep Bunny at home for now and that she’d text again when she felt better. Fingers trembling, she hit “send.”

  Elaine would probably text back, asking if she could bring something over or do anything, but after Mary thanked her and turned down the offer, she wouldn’t intrude.

  Thank heaven Brice was working on his case out of town this week.

  She had to make sure Joey was gone before Brice got back.

  *

  It was fairly late when Brice drove back into Whiskey River, but with the final piece of evidence gathered and the raid to capture the culprit set up, he was in a mood to celebrate. And there wasn’t anyone he’d rather celebrate with than Mary. Plus, he was curious about her sudden trip. As reclusive as she’d been since arriving in Whiskey River, he couldn’t see her volunteering to go out of town on assignment for the library.

  And what would a library need her to go out of town for?

  Maybe he could propose some outrageous possibilities, just to see her laugh, he thought, smiling at the thought.

  He’d intended to drive straight out to the Scott ranch house to spend the night. But the town of Whiskey River was on the way . . . . He could drive past Mary’s cottage, see if the lights were still on. If so, maybe beg a cup of
espresso and one of her delicious cookies to keep him from getting sleepy on his drive out to the ranch.

  And maybe claim a few of her even more delicious kisses.

  Yes, he’d definitely drive by the house.

  Ten minutes later, he eased his truck to a stop near her door. Sure enough, he saw lights on behind the drawn curtains. Hoping he wouldn’t surprise her getting ready for bed in a silky nightgown—a man’s ability to resist temptation only stretched so far—he knocked on the door.

  He waited, but there was no answer. Maybe she was getting ready for bed. Disappointed, he was about to turn to go when he noticed the front door was shut, but not fully closed. Sure enough, when he turned the knob, the door opened easily.

  Concern for her safety immediately ratcheting up, he decided he’d creep in quietly, so as not to disturb her if she was showering or changing into her nightgown, make sure things looked okay, and turn the button knob so the door would at least lock behind him. Then text her from his truck to let her know she needed to turn the dead bolt, and he wasn’t driving away until she’d done so and texted him back.

  But as he slipped in, he saw her emerge from the hallway to the bedrooms—followed by a dark-haired man who had his hand on her shoulder.

  He froze, confused, his mind racing. When she’d told him about the death of her fiancé and child, a very understandable reason for wanting to start life over somewhere else, he’d stopped worrying that she might be hiding from an abusive ex. So who was this man? Someone else from her past who menaced her?

  Or was he seeing something entirely different?

  Unbidden, the memory of the misdirected text from Ashley, setting up a rendezvous with another man while he was away, flashed back into his head.

  Before he could decide what to say or do, the man saw him and halted, muttering an expletive that made Mary’s gaze swivel in his direction.

  “Brice?” she whispered, putting a hand to her throat as her eyes widened in surprise. “I . . . I didn’t think you’d be back until later this week.”

  His gaze went from her to the visitor and back. “So I can see.”

  He waited for an explanation, but none was forthcoming. Mary looked—upset, but he didn’t get any sense that she felt threatened, or was being held against her will.

  Maybe it was the other possibility. Feeling like he’d just been punched in the gut, he said, “I’ll just go on back out.”

  But as he spoke, the tall, dark-haired man walked toward him, a menacing expression on his face. “Who are you to come busting into my sister’s house?”

  Mary gave him a weak smile. “Brice, meet my little brother, Joey.”

  With a swagger, her brother walked toward him, a smirk on his face as he looked Brice up and down. His gaze stopped dead when it met the Ranger’s star on Brice’s chest. “A Texas Ranger? You gotta be kidding me!” he said, laughing.

  “Maybe Uncle Sal will toss me out of the family,” she said dryly. “Joey . . . is paying me an unexpected visit. He’ll probably be leaving tomorrow. I expected he would be gone before you got back.”

  Brice nodded slowly, his brain scrambling to recover from the shock of seeing another man in her house, relief that he was a brother rather than an abusive ex or a secret boyfriend, and trying to process the unspoken dynamics at work.

  The brother appeared a little slack-limbed, his eyes blinking rapidly. Brice thought he might be on some sort of drugs. And Mary was clearly unhappy with her brother’s presence in her house.

  Druggies could be unpredictable. No way was he leaving Mary alone with someone who might hurt her. “Are you okay with him staying here?”

  “Just a short visit, Ranger. Family matters,” her brother answered.

  “I asked your sister. Mary?”

  The brother laughed again. “Mary? Is that what they call you here? You really did want to leave all of us behind, didn’t you, Maria Giordano?”

  Maria Giordano? Another shock went through him. So she had changed her name.

  “I’ll be okay, Brice. Joey’s no danger to me.”

  “She’s probably more in danger from you,” her brother said. “I don’t take to lawmen harassing my sister, see? Or creeping into her house uninvited. I think you need to scram, or she might need to call the cops. Oh—whoops. You are the cops, aren’t you?” he said, laughing again.

  The guy really was loopy. “Can I talk with you for a minute?” Brice asked her urgently. “Out in my truck.”

  Mary glanced from Brice to her brother and back, looking upset and conflicted. All his instincts told him she wasn’t comfortable with her brother’s visit, yet she couldn’t bring herself to send him away.

  “Sure, go have a little chat with your boyfriend,” Joey said. “I can spare you for a few minutes. Just remember who’s family and who’s not.”

  “As if I could ever forget,” she said bitterly.

  Silently, she followed Brice out to his truck. Once she’d climbed in, he said, “Now that you can speak freely—is your brother a danger to you?”

  “No. I don’t think so.”

  “Is he using something?”

  She sighed. “Probably.”

  “Is he in trouble?”

  She nodded. “I told him he could stay the night. And I texted Elaine saying I was sick and for Bunny to stay home until I texted her I was better, so there’s no chance of her popping over. I’ll . . . I’ll try to get him out of the house tomorrow.”

  “He’s part of the past you wanted to get away from.” Then something of what she’d told him clicked, and he said, “The car. The one your fiancé was driving when the hit men shot you. It was his car, right? They were gunning for him.”

  She sighed. “Maybe I better tell you exactly who you were thinking of becoming involved with. You’ll probably think again.”

  “Try me,” Brice said, troubled, wondering if all his instincts about her could have been wrong.

  “My uncle Sal is head of a small criminal operation in the suburbs of L.A. Gambling, money laundering, high-priced call girls. He has several sons but no daughters, so when I was little, I was his princess. I loved going to his restaurant where he’d show me off and feed me my favorite foods.” She laughed without humor. “I’d always noticed the pretty ladies in lovely clothes and perfect makeup who’d come to the restaurant, always leaving with different men, but I was probably ten or eleven before I figured out what was going on. After that, I wanted nothing to do with Uncle Sal. But Joey . . . Joey was always fascinated by the action, the glamour, the money. Papa, who loved his brother, but refused to have anything to do with his activities, tried to dissuade Joey from being drawn in. I did too.”

  “But he didn’t want to hear it,” Brice said.

  “No. After I learned what was going on, I asked Papa why he didn’t move away. He said that family was family, even if he couldn’t approve—or change—what they were involved in. Even though he suffered for it. He was an accountant, and although everyone on the street knew he was clean, the police never stopped believing that somehow he must be involved in Uncle Sal’s operations. After the shooting, he spent hours by my hospital bed. The first thing I remember when I regained consciousness was Papa holding my hand, crying, and begging my forgiveness for not having moved our family away. It was only later that I learned Ian was dead, my baby was dead, and the shock of the ambush caused my mother to suffer a heart attack she didn’t survive. He vowed that day to sever all ties with the family and move away.”

  “A little too late. Did he?”

  She nodded. “He closed his business and moved to Florida. We talk often on the phone, and last year he met a lovely woman to fill the void left by my mother’s death. They’re married now, and I’m happy for them.”

  “You changed your name after the shooting?”

  “Yes. I wanted a clean slate. People still saw me as ‘Uncle Sal’s princess,’ even after I stopped going to see him. I wanted to be someone different.” She blew out a breath. “But I did
n’t keep my new location secret, which is why Joey knew where to find me. I still get cards from my cousins and phone them sometimes. The women in the family, the ones whose men are involved in the organization, look the other way. I love my aunts and cousins and their children, but I simply couldn’t do that anymore.” She looked away, her eyes sad. “Now you know all my ugly little secrets.”

  “We can’t help who our family is. We can only choose who we want to be. It took a lot of courage to make that choice, break away from the familiar, head out on your own.”

  She looked back at him, a mingling of hope and distress. “Does that mean you’ll risk tarnishing your stellar Ranger reputation by associating with the likes of me?”

  “Unless there are more dark secrets you haven’t revealed, I don’t see that you’ve done anything to have less than a stellar reputation yourself. So how could yours tarnish mine?”

  “Do you mean that?”

  “Sweetheart, you know I always say what I mean.” Then, she looked so vulnerable and fragile, he had to pull her into his arms. “It’ll be okay. Are you sure you don’t want me to take your brother and drop him over the state line somewhere?”

  “No. I’ll talk to him. Make sure he leaves sometime tomorrow.”

  “How are you going to convince him of that? If he feels safe laying low here, he’s going to resist having to go somewhere else.”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I’ll think of something. Now, I better get back.”

  He continued to hold her, placing a kiss on her forehead. “It goes against everything in me to let you go back in that house with him. Sure I can’t sleep on your couch? I’d feel a lot better if I were close enough to protect you.”

  “I promise, Brice, Joey is no danger to me. It would just cause problems if you tried to stay over. I don’t want to argue with him. One way or another, I’ll get him to leave tomorrow.”

  “Okay. But I will be checking tomorrow to see that he’s gone. And you can tell him that. Will you go to work as usual?”

  “Yes. I’ll want him to be gone by the time I get home, and I don’t want to see him leave or know where he goes.”