The Deputy's Redemption

by Delores Fossen

  Risky for Elise to be there, too, so Colt made yet another call so he could get an update about the safe house. The Ranger in charge didn’t answer, and Colt left him a message. However, he’d no sooner done that when a text message popped onto his screen.

  Colt cursed.

  That definitely wasn’t what he wanted to hear from Reed—that there was no sign of Buddy by the time the deputy had made it out to the road where the man had been spotted by a neighbor.

  “Buddy got away,” Elise concluded, and groaning, she dropped down on the sofa next to him.

  “Yes,” Colt confirmed. “For now, anyway. There are a lot of people looking for him, and the Appaloosa Pass Sheriff’s Office has helped us set up a roadblock to help catch him. Buddy can’t hide forever.” He hoped. “Don’t worry. The safe house should be ready soon.”

  But, of course, she’d worry. So would he. Every second felt like a time bomb clicking down to explosion.

  And that wasn’t just about the danger.

  It was about all this heat sizzling and crackling between them. The timing for it sucked, not just because of her testimony, but also because attraction equaled a distraction, and something like that could get them killed. His family killed, too.

  Another text message popped up, this one from Rosalie. “My sister scheduled you an appointment tomorrow morning with Suzanne Dawkins, the hypnotist.”

  Elise nodded. “Is it safe for me to go and see her?”

  At this point Colt wasn’t sure what was safe, but at least the appointment might give them some answers. Hopefully, one of those answers would help clear his father’s name.

  Colt went over Rosalie’s text again. “According to what Rosalie’s saying, the hypnotist will come to you, but since you’ll be in the safe house by then, it’s probably best if we go to the sheriff’s office for the session. I want as few people as possible to know the location of the safe house.”

  She nodded again, stared at her hands. “You won’t be staying there with me, will you?”

  It was something Colt had gone over more than a dozen times in his mind, and he still didn’t have an answer. He shouldn’t stay with her, especially since he had a mountain of deputy work he should be doing. Also, he had obviously lost objectivity when it came to Elise, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to turn her over to the Rangers.

  Of course, the lost objectivity was coloring that last concern, too.

  Another lawman could protect her, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to give up that duty to someone else.

  So, the argument inside him continued.

  “We’ll see,” he settled for saying.

  And he hated how unsure that sounded, but his final decision would come after he had a better idea of the arrangements the Rangers were making for her. If he felt that the safe house was truly the safest place to be, then he’d back off. No matter how hard it would be for him to do that.

  “I’d like to go by my place and pick up some things before I go to the safe house,” she said.

  He shook his head. “I can have someone do that for you.”

  “I’d like to do it myself.” And the color rose on her cheeks enough to get his full attention. His attention was enough to cause her to huff, though. “I don’t want strangers going through my underwear drawer.” She paused. “Plus, I need to get my meds.”

  Again, she got his attention. “Are you in pain?” he asked, glancing at the stitches still on her head. Now that she’d taken off the bandage, they were easy to see.

  Another huff. “I need to get my birth control pills, all right?”

  Oh. That. Colt kicked himself for not picking up on the fact she might need personal items that she didn’t want to discuss with him. Then he kicked himself again for feeling that tug of jealousy that she’d need such a thing.

  Hell.

  What was wrong with him? Elise and he were on totally separate paths, and those paths would get significantly further apart if her testimony put his father behind bars. Plus, it was reasonable that an attractive woman like her would have a man in her life. A man who would require her to be on the pill.

  Yet another pang of jealousy hit him before Colt could shove it away.

  “There hasn’t been anyone in a while,” Elise said, no doubt reading his expression. “But I stay on them. Habit, I guess.”

  Colt didn’t want to be relieved by that, but he was. He quickly assured himself that it was because adding someone else—anyone else—into this mix would complicate things even more. It had nothing to do with those two scalding-hot kisses Elise and he had shared.

  Okay, it did.

  But Colt didn’t intend to let those kisses play into this.

  “I’d rather not ask someone to pick up my personal things,” she added. “I’d like to go by my place for just a couple of minutes. Unless you think there might be other booby traps?”

  “No. A couple of the deputies from Appaloosa Pass went over every inch of your place. If there were other trip wires or such, they would have found them.”

  “So we can go,” she concluded.

  His first instinct was still to say no, but the truth was, whoever was behind all this was just as likely to attack at the ranch as Elise’s house. In fact, he probably should get her away from Rosalie and his niece—especially since Rosalie’s fiancé was away on business and couldn’t help protect her. It sickened him to think that this idiot might put a baby in danger to get to Elise.

  Colt nodded, got to his feet. “I’ll call Reed and have him meet us at your house, and one of the hands can follow us over there. Plus, the CSI team is still out there going through the barn rubble.”

  Maybe all that law enforcement around meant it was the last place Buddy or their attacker would show up. Ever. Because Colt was tired of Elise having to go through one nightmare after another.

  “I can also have the Rangers meet us at your place so it cuts down on time you’re out on the road,” he added. “That way, they can take you straight from there to the safe house.”

  It took Colt a few minutes to make the arrangements for what he hoped would be a short, safe trip, and then with Elise in tow, he went looking through the house for his father. He found him and Rosalie in the kitchen. His sister had a sleeping baby on her lap, so Colt made the goodbyes quiet and quick.

  Elise certainly didn’t object.

  Despite the welcome that she’d gotten from Rosalie and Roy, it was clear she wasn’t comfortable there.

  Colt took Elise onto the porch, but he didn’t move her to his truck until the ranch hand, Darnell Tate, had driven around the side of the house so he was in place to follow them.

  “Stay low in the seat,” Colt reminded her when they got in.

  She did, but she kept her head just high enough so she could look around. The same thing Colt was doing. Even though Elise’s place was only about fifteen minutes away, it would feel like a long drive.

  Colt had barely made it off McKinnon land when his phone buzzed, and he saw Cooper’s name on the caller ID.

  “Did you find Buddy?” Colt asked his brother the moment he answered the call.

  “Not yet. But one of those private investigators that Joplin hired did find something out at the creek near the Braddock cabin.”

  Colt certainly hadn’t forgotten about the PIs, but he’d put that way on the back burner. “What?” he asked, but judging from his brother’s hesitation, this was about to be yet another dose of bad news.

  “A bone fragment,” Cooper said. “It was only about twenty yards from the cabin.”

  Elise obviously heard that, and since she was trying to move closer to the phone, Colt put it on speaker.

  “And?” Colt pressed when Cooper didn’t continue.

  “They’re pretty sure it doesn’t belong to an animal. It seems to be human.”

  Colt let that sink in a moment. “They think it belongs to Whitt Braddock?”

  “Yeah. But it’ll have to be tested, of course.”

  Of course
. And if it did turn out to belong to Whitt, it was yet more proof of murder. Not that the prosecution needed more. There’d been enough blood found at the scene to indicate Whitt was dead, but without a body, there was always a question that somehow he’d managed to survive.

  A bone fragment shot that question to Hades and back.

  “Why did it take so long to find it?” Colt asked. “We’ve had CSIs out there, and the county sheriff’s team went over it just a couple of months ago.”

  Heck, over the years he and his brothers had looked for anything that would prove their mother had murdered Whitt.

  “It’s a small piece,” Cooper explained. “Easy to miss because of all the rocks.”

  Yeah, but the timing was suspicious for it to turn up now. Of course, maybe he felt that way because of all the other stuff happening. Colt couldn’t see, though, how any of their suspects could use this to their advantage.

  “I’ll keep you posted,” Cooper said, and he ended the call.

  Colt dropped the phone on the seat between Elise and him, and in the process got a glimpse of her expression. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  So was he. And he groaned. “This could go against my dad.”

  She made a small sound of agreement. “Because a jury might think he helped Jewell move the body.”

  It wouldn’t matter if Roy hadn’t been the one to kill Whitt, but an accessory carried the same penalty as murder. Death.

  “Has your mother ever talked about what happened that day?” Elise asked.

  Colt automatically started to clam up. Something he usually did when anyone mentioned his mother and the murder. But Elise had just as much of a stake in this as he did. And his softened feelings toward her didn’t help, either. Hard to play mute with someone he’d kissed like crazy.

  “She’s never talked to me about it,” Colt answered. “And the only thing my dad has said was that he was drunk and doesn’t remember much. Still, I think he’d remember dragging a body from the cabin to the creek.”

  Another sound of agreement. “And I certainly don’t remember seeing anything like that.” She paused. “What I do remember is that Whitt was a big man. So how does the DA think Jewell got his body out of the cabin?”

  Colt lifted his shoulder. “There were drag marks leading out to where Whitt parked his truck when he used the cabin. People fueled with adrenaline can lift things they wouldn’t be able to under normal circumstances.”

  But now there was a problem with that theory. If Jewell had managed somehow to get Whitt into the truck, then why hadn’t she driven the body miles away? Why had she dumped him so close to the cabin that all these years later, a bone fragment would be found?

  “Don’t borrow trouble,” Elise reminded him. “The bone isn’t necessarily a game changer.”

  No, but Colt didn’t like the fact that it could make this situation turn even uglier for his father. Still, he couldn’t see Joplin planting something like that, either, because it would still hurt Jewell in the long run.

  His phone buzzed again. Not Cooper this time. Instead, he saw a message from the Texas Ranger on the screen.

  Safe house is ready. On my way to Ms. Nichols’s place now to pick her up.

  He handed the phone to Elise so she could read it for herself. They’d both known this was coming, but it suddenly seemed as if it was happening way too fast for Colt. Judging from the way Elise pulled in her breath, it did to her, too.

  “We’ll find Buddy or whoever’s behind this,” Colt reminded her. “After that, you won’t need a safe house.”

  Or him.

  But that was a good thing, he reminded himself. Elise and he both needed to get on with their lives. And if they got together again for another kissing session, it sure as heck wouldn’t be fueled by fear and adrenaline.

  “You’ll be at the sheriff’s office for the hypnosis tomorrow?” she asked.

  “Sure.” However, Joplin might find some way to block him and his brothers from being with Elise during the actual session. Still, Joplin couldn’t stop him from being in the building.

  And then something occurred to him. Something bad.

  “Do you think you could have blocked out...something more than what you saw?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure.” She answered so quickly that it was obvious she’d given it some thought. “I have wondered why it took me so long to remember seeing Roy. Twenty-three years,” she mumbled. “I didn’t remember any of it until I read about Jewell’s arrest.”

  Yeah, and that bothered him, too. A lot. Not because he thought she was lying about the memory but because she could remember so much more. After all, people blocked out bad stuff all the time. Especially bad stuff.

  “Why were you even by the creek that day?” Colt asked.

  She glanced at him. “Because of you. Remember?”

  No. He didn’t.

  Wait.

  He did.

  “You’d come to the ranch earlier with your grandmother. She was picking up a calf that she’d bought from Dad. I was talking to you, and my brothers started teasing me about liking you.”

  “And you got mad and said I was the last girl in Texas that you’d ever like,” she finished for him.

  Yes, he had said that, along with a few other not so nice things. “I’m sorry.”

  “You were nine years old,” Elise reminded him. “Like killing spiders, being mean to girls came with the territory.”

  “But I clearly upset you. You went to the creek to blow off some steam?”

  She smiled softly. “I went there to cry, and then I tried to think up some curse that I could put on you. Hey, I was nine, too,” she added when he gave her a hard look. “I wanted a little payback.”

  Her smile vanished as quickly as it’d come. “But I didn’t think payback would mean your family being torn apart.”

  He was about to tell her that she’d in no way been responsible for that. Nope, that was solely on his mother’s shoulders because even if his father had been an accessory, Whitt wouldn’t have died if Jewell hadn’t gotten involved with him in the first place. However, before Colt could say anything, his phone buzzed again, and it was another call from his brother.

  Maybe this time, it’d be good news.

  “The CSI out at Elise’s place just called,” Cooper said.

  “Please tell me they found prints to ID the person who rigged that booby trap,” Colt grumbled.

  “No. It’s worse than that. They found a body.”

  Chapter Ten

  Elise was back to pacing across the room again. This time it wasn’t at the McKinnon ranch but in the kitchen of her own home. She was afraid to ask herself what else could go wrong because it was obvious that plenty could.

  A body. On her land.

  Yes, that was plenty bad.

  She glanced out at the yellow crime-scene tape that now surrounded the very spot where she’d planned on building the new barn and stables. A fresh start for her return to Sweetwater Springs.

  But it didn’t feel so much like a fresh start now.

  Along with Cooper, there was Reed and a trio of CSIs. All of them were focused on the small area where the forensic investigator was carefully digging. Both Cooper and Reed were on their phones, no doubt coordinating what would turn out to be yet another investigation—depending on what they were about to uncover.

  And according to the CSIs, what they were about to uncover was a body.

  “There’s no need for you to watch that,” Colt said to her.

  He’d just finished his latest call—this one to tell the Ranger to delay picking her up for the safe house. Something that Elise had demanded that Colt do. She wasn’t leaving until she’d learned whose body they were digging up.

  He walked to her, gently taking hold of her arm and trying to urge her into the living room. But Elise stayed put.

  “What if it’s Whitt Braddock?” she said, repeating what had been going through her mind since she’d first heard the news. “What i
f my gran had some part in this? After all, she and Jewell were friends. She could have helped her.”

  “Don’t,” Colt insisted. “Remember when you told me not to borrow trouble? Well, now, I’m telling you the same thing. There’s no immediate way of knowing how long that body’s been out there. There are even some Indian burial grounds around here.”

  Elise wanted to believe that. Mercy, did she, but she kept going back to that bone fragment that’d just been found by the creek. Maybe Jewell had dumped the body and then moved it later.

  But when would she have done that?

  Colt’s mother left town just days after Whitt’s disappearance. Not much time to do something like this, and it didn’t make sense that Jewell would move the body from the woods near the creek to a place on her gran’s ranch where it could have been dug up at any time. Heck, it was only about twenty yards from the house, and in the very spot where her gran’s rose garden had once been. Elise had played there too many times to count.

  It sickened her to think that she might have been playing on top of a dead body that whole time.

  “You’re trembling,” Colt pointed out. “And if you don’t come and sit down, I’ll have to do something to distract you.”

  His gaze dropped to her mouth.

  That surprised her. “Are you threatening me with a kiss?” she asked.

  He lifted his shoulder. “Whatever works. The one thing that isn’t going to work is you pacing and driving yourself nuts. Come on. Sit down.”

  His grip on her stayed gentle. Barely a touch. But it was enough to get her moving to the sofa. Part of her hated that Colt could so easily persuade her to do something, but she was thankful he was there.

  Even if he’d used the kiss threat.

  Something that wasn’t actually a threat when she knew it would be a nice distraction that her body would appreciate.

  Colt sat next to her, pulling her into the curve of his arm. All in all, a comforting place to be. Well, it was until her thoughts went back to what was going on just yards away.

  “I wish they’d just hurry and dig it up,” she mumbled. Not that it would help with the wild scenarios going through her head. Even if it didn’t turn out to be Whitt, there was still someone’s dead body out there.