by Rachel Lee
He nodded slowly. “I get it.”
She put the kit away and nibbled on a cracker.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have struck out at you like that”
“Why not? I deserved it. And appearances to the contrary, I’m not that fragile.”
“Yes, you are, Angela. You’re very fragile.”
She didn’t know if she liked that, but when she looked at him, there was something in his gaze that made her feel warm all over, so she didn’t argue with him. Uneasy, she looked down at the cracker she was holding. “It’s embarrassing,” she said finally.
“Why? People sometimes have illnesses. I don’t see what’s embarrassing about it.”
“You’ve never had to be carried out of work on a stretcher because you passed out at your desk.”
“Ah.”
“That happened to me three times in the last couple months I was there. You don’t have doctors who look at you and say, ‘You’ve got to pay more attention to yourself. You’ve got to be better about your schedule. You ought to know better than this.’”
“No, but I’ve got bosses who say pretty much the same thing sometimes.” One corner of his mouth lifted. “But I will admit I don’t get carried out on a stretcher unless I get shot.”
“Have you been shot?” The thought gave her a pang.
He shook his head. “Not yet. I’ve been attacked with a knife a few times, but nothing that needed more than a few stitches.”
“That’s awful.”
“No more awful than what’s happening to you.”
“What’s happening to me is caused by my own carelessness.”
“Same here. I only get hurt when I slip up. But you...Angela, you can’t predict everything that’s going to happen in your life. I can see how it gets out of control every now and then.”
“I just need to be more careful.”
“Ditto.” His half smile blossomed into a full smile. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Life has a way of taking us by surprise.”
Gage arrived then, coming in the back door. “Hey, gang,” he said as he stepped in. “So the bad guy is in town?”
“I saw him when I was at the pharmacy. My car’s still down there.”
“Want me to get it for you?”
Rafe shook his head. “I don’t know if Manny knows my car. I suspect he does. Besides, the Florida plates will stick out.”
“Then we’ll leave it.” Gage pulled out a chair and straddled it. “Nate’s got an unmarked car parked out front.”
“I saw.” He hesitated. “It’s just a little obvious, Gage.”
“The car’s going to move every half hour or so, and we’ve got a couple of guys who’ll switch off.”
“You don’t know the Molinas. They can smell a cop at a hundred yards.”
A grin flickered over Gage’s face. “All right, I’ll ask Nate to pull him.”
“I just don’t want to put a neon sign out front. It would probably be better if I left.”
An instinctive protest rose to Angela’s lips. She might not like the idea of some criminal stalking Rafe and the baby, but even less did she like the idea of Rafe and Peanut wandering from town to town like some ghastly version of the Flying Dutchman. “No,” she said.
“I agree with Angela,” Gage said. “You can’t go on the run for the rest of your days because of some jerk.”
“I don’t want to put anyone here at risk.”
Gage dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “How on earth is this guy gonna know where you are? You lie low here with the baby. If there’s any need to take the child out, Emma and I can do it, or Angela. Regardless, Emma and I are agreed that you’re not going to leave for our sakes. If it becomes apparent it’s necessary for the child’s safety, we’ll figure out something. But for right now, let’s just watch this guy.”
“Is someone tailing him?”
“Not yet. But in this town a stranger sticks out like a sore thumb. Especially one who’s asking questions. People won’t tell him a thing, but they’ll mention him to Nate, you can be sure. Just relax. There’s no way he can hide around here, and sooner or later he’s going to have to find a place to sleep. There aren’t too many of those around.”
“One, as I recall.”
“That’s the only motel. There are a few people who have rooms to let, but we’re not exactly a major convention center. We’ll know where he is by midnight tonight.”
Rafe nodded. “Okay. I’ll he low and see what develops.”
“And if he tries anything, he’s going to have to deal with the Conard County Sheriff’s Department. Nate takes a dim view of people like Manny Molina.”
One corner of Rafe’s mouth quirked upward. “A little frontier justice, hmm?”
“Let’s just say that anybody who wants to mess with Nate Tate’s brother is apt to find life getting extremely difficult.”
“Well,” said Angela brightly, “I don’t know about you two, but that makes me feel a whole lot better.”
Gage laughed, and after a moment, a reluctant chuckle escaped Rafe.
“Messing with Nate,” Gage said, “is a risky proposition, Angela. The man’s a lion when someone he cares about is threatened.”
“But,” said Rafe, “Nate doesn’t know me from Adam.”
“He knows enough. So relax and enjoy an enforced vacation. Let the local law deal with this guy.”
Rafe looked at Angela. “So I guess I get to play a lot of solitaire.”
“We’ll find a way to pass the time,” she said impulsively, even as she wondered why she was including herself.
Rafe stood and walked over to the kitchen window, looking out. “I’m not used to spending so much time on my duff. In a couple of days I’ll have a king-size case of cabin fever if this keeps up.”
Gage spoke. “You can get out of here, if you want. Angela can drive you and the baby out of town. You’ll just have to keep down until you get safely away. Or I can take you. Take a long walk in the mountains. Go fishing up on Spirit Lake. I don’t think Molina will be looking for you there.”
“I’ll think about it.” He sighed and turned around to look at them. “I don’t mean to be a complainer. I just can’t figure out how that guy found me, and it’s making me as uneasy as hell.”
“You want me to call your boss? Ask around about the Manny problem without letting her know where you are? I can call in my official capacity and mention that the guy has turned up in town, and I’d like to know whatever she has on him.”
Rafe shook his head. “Thanks. But I can’t be sure word won’t get into the wrong ear.”
“Ah...” Understanding struck Gage. “I didn’t think of that.”
“You know how secretive the D.E.A. is about its agents, Gage. First the guy found my apartment, and then he found me all the way out here. Somebody is talking.”
Gage nodded. “What about your boss?”
Rafe hesitated. “I think Kate is clean. She was the one who called to warn me Manny was considering legal action. But I don’t know who else at the office might have found out where I was going. The D.E.A. may be secretive when it comes to talking to outsiders, but secrets are general knowledge all over the office. It’s assumed that everyone who works there is trustworthy. You know how that goes.”
“Yeah, I do.” Gage sighed. “Somebody found out where I lived...” He trailed off, his face darkening. Then he shook himself. “Well, we’ll see how Molina feels when he learns his reputation has preceded him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nate is thinking about making the guy seriously uneasy. He may think no one here knows about his drug-running family, but he’s about to find out differently.”
Rafe nodded. “That might work.”
“Nate’s hoping it will. In fact, we’re hoping it might scare him right back to Miami.”
“But what then?” Angela asked. “Rafe can’t go back to Miami at all, can he?”
Both men looked at her, b
ut neither offered a response. The question hung in the air, unanswered and unanswerable.
Chapter 6
Rafe went to sleep easily that night. Near midnight, Gage had reported that Manny had checked in at the Lazy Rest Motel. So the guy wasn’t trying to hide out or escape detection, Rafe thought. That was a good thing...unless he got to wondering too hard about what Manny might be up to. He decided not to. Manny had never been the brightest of the Molina crop.
But then Peanut didn’t wake for his usual 4:00 a.m. feeding. Rafe woke up exactly fifteen minutes past the usual time, panic jarring him out of bed and across the room to the baby’s portable bed even before his eyes opened. Rafe Jr. was sleeping soundly, breathing normally. In short, the kid was okay.
Rafe settled back on his heels, suddenly weak with relief. Minutes ticked by while the baby slept on and the strength came back to his limbs. Finally he decided to go downstairs, get himself a drink and fix a bottle for the peanut just in case. No way was the child going to sleep until seven without a feeding.
On the way to the kitchen, he stopped by the front windows and looked out. The street appeared peaceful. Nothing was moving out there in the moonlight. The unmarked car was still there, but much farther down the street now. If anyone was in it, he couldn’t tell from this distance.
So Manny was probably enjoying whatever dreams he was having at four in the morning. Sighing, Rafe turned for the kitchen, afraid that if he didn’t get that bottle upstairs soon, the baby would wake and rouse the entire household.
The kitchen was dark, but the instant he stepped in, he realized that he wasn’t alone. A shadowy figure stood in the corner by the back door. His heart slammed into high gear. “Who’s there?” he asked hoarsely, prepared to jump back at the slightest indication that something was wrong.
Angela’s voice came out of the darkness. “God, you scared me!” She stepped into the moonlight that poured through the café curtains. “I aged ten years!”
“Sony.” He allowed himself to relax, muscle by muscle. “Why are you standing in the dark?”
“I thought I heard something outside.”
His heart, which had just started to slow down, sped up again. “Where?”
“Out by the garage. I’d just come down to get a glass of ice water when I heard it.”
Emma and Gage had a detached garage. It occurred to him that if Manny was looking for a car with Florida plates, he might well check the garage. In which case, Manny hadn’t noticed Rafe’s car parked on the street in broad daylight.
No, he couldn’t believe that. Florida plates in Wyoming at this time of year were probably as rare as dodo birds. His car would have stuck out like a sore thumb, parked across the street from the courthouse square. In fact, that might have been why Manny was standing there in the square when he saw him.
So maybe someone had innocently told Manny where he was staying? Rafe didn’t have as much confidence in the local closed-mouth policy as Gage did. Why would anyone around here care about protecting a stranger?
“You stay here,” he said to Angela. “Watch from the window and shout for Gage if you see anything. I’m going out to check.”
“No!” The word burst from her, and she crossed the kitchen swiftly, laying her hand on his arm. “No, Rafe! He might have a gun!”
“I don’t think Manny’s that stupid.” But he thought of his own gun up in his bedroom and considered going up to get it. Then he decided against it. If Manny was out there prowling, he wanted to catch him at it, not give him a chance to get away.
“I’ll be okay. He won’t be expecting me.”
“You can’t get out the back door without it creaking, Rafe. You know that.”
“I’ll go out the front.”
He covered her hand briefly with his, then left her, thankful that he hadn’t been able to read her face in the pale moonlight.
It was cold outside. The night air struck him like an icy slap as he slipped out the front door. He was wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, and his Florida-thinned blood was shocked by the unaccustomed chill.
He ignored it. Moving silently on bare feet, he crept down the porch stairs and slipped around the side of the house toward the garage. The moonlight was brighter outside, bright enough that he could see every detail. What he couldn’t see was inside the garage.
Creeping toward it, his every sense on red alert, he scanned the surrounding bushes and the shadows beneath the trees. Nothing.
He stepped on a piece of gravel, bruising the arch of his foot, and paused as a wave of pain shot through him. But he’d long since learned to keep quiet even when something hurt, and no sound escaped him. He was uneasily aware of how visible he must be, standing frozen in a puddle of moonlight between the trees.
But nothing happened. No one suddenly leaped out of the shadows; no gunshot ripped the night silence. There was no sound except the rustling of the wind in the trees.
He reached the garage door in another couple of steps. Checking the lock, he found that it was tight. No sign of tampering. The only other way to get in was through the side window.
Moving carefully, he crept alongside the building until he reached the garage window. Here the moonlight aided him, pouring through the window, illuminating the interior.
The window was tightly closed, and nothing was out of place inside the garage. Emma’s car was tucked in there, leaving little room for anything else. Someone could be hiding behind the car, he supposed, but he would have to wake Gage up to get the key to check.
He tried the window; it didn’t budge. Examining the frame, he couldn’t see any sign that it had been tampered with.
Turning, he leaned back against the side of the garage, away from the window, and listened for any sound of movement from within.
A minute passed. Then another.
Then, without warning, a brilliant light blinded him.
“This is the police,” said a voice over a loudspeaker. “Put your hands up and don’t move.”
Rafe didn’t know whether to laugh or swear. He was pinned by the spotlight beam from a police car on the street, mistaken for a prowler. Lifting his hands, he faced the car and waited.
Angela came flying out the back door of the house, robe flapping around her, giving the whole world a view of long, graceful legs. Rafe no longer wondered if he should swear or laugh. He started laughing.
“It’s all right,” Angela called to the police officer who was climbing out of his car. “We heard a noise. He was just investigating!”
Lights were beginning to turn on in the houses next door and across the street. Any minute now this was going to turn into a circus, Rafe thought, laughing again.
“I don’t see what’s so funny,” Angela said, standing on the sidewalk beside the house, hugging herself against the cold. The deputy didn’t turn off the spotlight, though. He approached them, his hand on his nightstick.
He was a huge man, Rafe realized as the cop came closer At least six-five, with long inky hair and an exotically chiseled face.
“Hi, Micah,” Angela said, shivering. “It’s okay. This man is a houseguest of the Daltons.”
The deputy paused, looking him over from eyes so dark that the spotlight didn’t even seem to reflect in them. Then he looked at Angela.
“Angela Jaynes?”
“That’s right. We met at Nate’s house a few years ago.”
The deputy nodded, then scanned Rafe from head to foot one more time. “You must be Ortiz.”
“That’s me.” Rafe put his hands down. “Angela heard a noise from the garage. I was checking it out.”
“Seems like you’ve got more important things to be protecting,” the deputy said levelly. “Next time, pick up the phone and call us.”
Then, without another word, he walked over to the garage and shone his flashlight in through the window. “Better get Gage,” he said to Angela. “We need to look inside.”
But almost before he finished speaking, Gage emerged from the house w
earing nothing but jeans and his boots.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “Howdy, Micah.”
“Gage.” The big man nodded. “Noise from the garage. Got a key?”
“Just a second.”
Micah’s gaze drifted back to Rafe. “This department doesn’t have anything more important to do right now than make sure you, your kid and the Daltons stay safe. You follow?”
Rafe nodded. “Sorry. I didn’t want him to get away.”
Angela stepped closer to Rafe, wanting to defend him but not knowing how. “It’s my fault. I should have called. I just wasn’t sure what I heard, and I didn’t want to raise an unnecessary hullabaloo.”
Micah’s granite face cracked just a little bit. “Really.” He waved toward the neighborhood where a crowd was collecting. “Seems like we raised more than we would have if you’d just called.”
Rafe started laughing. “Sorry,” he said. “It’s...ridiculous.”
At that, even Micah smiled. Gage appeared with the key in one hand and his pistol in the other. He’d donned his bulletproof vest.
“Let’s check it out,” he said.
He was just unlocking the garage door when Emma stuck her head out. “Rafe? The baby’s crying. Want me to get him?”
“If you wouldn’t mind, Emma. He probably needs a change and a bottle.”
“I think I can handle that.” She disappeared back inside, and Rafe looked at Angela.
“Next time,” he said, “I will pick up the phone.”
A laugh escaped her. “But this isn’t funny. There might be someone in the garage.”
“I seriously doubt it. Go inside, Angela. You’re shivering.”
She shook her head. “I started this. I’ll finish it.”
It took Micah and Gage only a minute to check out the garage. They found no one in there. Gage locked up again, and he and Micah rejoined Rafe and Angela.