Jack blamed his sons for his wife’s death and would have killed Eliza for it. But there was more to it than that.
“What about the cards?” Zimmerman finally asked.
“What about them?”
“Are you suggesting Jack Reed sent them? That his wanting to kill you is somehow related to the triple homicide?”
“What if they are?”
“I need more evidence to support the theory.”
He was so aggravating! “They support the fact that someone has a motive to kill me.”
“What motive?”
Eliza let her frustration out with a long sigh. “I didn’t write the damn notes!”
“I’m not saying you killed your husband, Mrs. Reed.”
He wasn’t saying she didn’t, either. “Whoever wrote the notes has a lot of animosity toward me. You can’t disagree with that. What if I’m telling the truth?”
“I haven’t discounted that. But if someone is trying to kill you, then who murdered your husband?”
He didn’t believe the same person had committed the triple homicide. He didn’t believe Jack Reed was the killer.
“My father could have killed David,” Brandon said. “If the senator and the sheriff were in the way, he’d have killed them, too. Jack Reed is a man full of hate. There is no reason to his hatred. He acts on it. He drove away from an accident that killed someone. He’s capable of murder.”
Zimmerman contemplated him with a margin of sympathy. “You said Jack tried to kill Eliza. Why would he want to kill David and not you?”
“Maybe he thought I’d suffer more if he killed Eliza.”
Eliza stared at him. Did he mean that?
“All right.” Zimmerman turned to Eliza. “You said someone followed you to the ranch.”
“Yes.”
“How do you know they were following you and not your husband?”
“David is dead, and I’m still being followed.”
She couldn’t tell what the detective was thinking about that.
“I received the first note before he was killed,” she continued. “And now someone is trying to kill me.” Didn’t that convince him the same person could be behind this? Brandon’s father could have sent her the note referencing her mistake before killing David and then proceeded to go after her...to make Brandon suffer. Her mistake could be loving Brandon.
She looked up at him. He was watching her, deep in thought like her. Loving him was a mistake.
With his elbow still on the armrest, Zimmerman lifted his hand and rubbed his chin between his index finger and thumb. “One of the notes threatened you, said to go back to Hollywood.”
“Yes.”
“If Brandon’s father intends to kill you, why would he send you threats to leave town?”
Yet again, his logic for not believing Jack was David’s killer or had written the notes rang true.
“Are you sure you have no enemies here in Vengeance?” This question came from the marshal. Eliza had forgotten he was there. He was so silent. Observant.
“None that I’m aware.” Her brother, but she couldn’t believe he’d do something so violent.
“Reed meant to kill you because you’re someone Brandon cares about,” the agent went on. “That explains the attempts with the stable fire and the shooting. The cards may or may not be related.”
“David’s murder may not be related,” Zimmerman corrected, again revealing his disconnect. Eliza had a motive to kill her husband. He cheated and lost money buying drugs and on gambling. She knew the senator and sheriff. Jack Reed’s escape from prison may just be pure coincidence.
Like Melinda Grayson’s kidnapping? Eliza wasn’t buying it. All of this had to be linked somehow. Jack Reed had tried to kill her. Jack Reed had written the notes.
“The second note said go back to Hollywood before it’s too late. That could be construed as a threat to my life,” she said.
Zimmerman, for once, couldn’t argue.
“It’s possible that Jack wrote them, and it’s possible he knew the sheriff and the senator,” she continued.
“Possible but not likely that he killed all three.”
“You mean just like me?” She had no motive to kill the sheriff or the senator.
Zimmerman angled his head in acquiescence. “I’ll concede whoever wrote the notes could be your husband’s murderer. But I need proof.”
Naturally. He wouldn’t be a detective if he didn’t wait for proof. “What about Jillian? If you don’t believe Jack could have done it, then what if she did?”
“This is murder, Eliza,” Brandon said. “My brother was killed and now you were almost killed. This is more than a jealous woman who might be bipolar. And what connection does she have to the triple homicide?”
Maybe he was right. Killing someone required coldness that even Jillian may not possess. Her only crime was loving Brandon. And didn’t Eliza know all about that?
“Then it has to be Jack.” He was the killer.
“I agree,” Brandon said. “He’s capable of murder, no matter who it is. And as long as he’s free, Eliza is in danger. You can’t ignore that.”
“I’ll find your father,” the marshal said to Brandon. “You can count on that.”
Brandon nodded once, willing the marshal to do exactly that.
Zimmerman stood. “Let me know if you get any more notes.”
He said it sarcastically.
“Let me know if you find a motive for Jack to kill the senator and sheriff.”
“I always keep an open mind.”
Begrudgingly, she had to agree. He was working with a team of highly trained people, from local law enforcement to the FBI. Eliza had every faith that they’d find David’s killer. She just hoped she wasn’t wrongfully accused along the way.
Chapter 11
Ryker waited for Aegina to leave her mother’s house. One of the kids had a doctor’s appointment, and he was hoping she would not only keep it, but would also go without her mother. He checked the neighborhood for anyone who would notice him. He’d rented a car so he wouldn’t be recognized that way. No one stood in windows that he could see. No one was out in their yards. A cyclist passed a few minutes ago, and someone walked a dog. There were no police cars on the street.
Aegina had filed a restraining order against him. While that was awful, he understood why. If he seemed to have gone crazy ever since finding his wife with another man, he probably was. Losing Aegina would destroy him. Was destroying him. She was his wife. His only love. His heart was shattered.
She emerged, his oldest son in tow—his seven-year-old, Evan.
Ryker slid down in the seat. He was far enough down the street not to catch her attention. After waiting for them to get in the car and drive out into the street, Ryker followed. He took a different route to the doctor’s office, saw her car already there and waited.
An agonizing hour later, she and his son approached. He walked to the car and met her there. She stopped short.
“Daddy!” Evan ran to him.
A brief shot of joy penetrated his grief. He crouched and took the boy into his arms, hugging with tears threatening his manhood.
“Why aren’t you at Grandma’s with us?”
How could Aegina do this to them? Through the maelstrom of his sorrow and pain, their children were suffering this split right along with them.
“I have to work.”
“When are we going to come home?”
“I don’t know.”
“I miss my room. Grandma and Grandpa’s house is cold, and she won’t let us touch anything. We can’t play when we want.”
“You can come home.” He looked up at Aegina. “I’ll stay with my mom for a while.”
“Grandma Harvey lives in the backyard,” Evan said.
“That’s right. I’ll camp out with her.”
“Can I camp with you?”
“You sure can.” He gave the boy a mock punch on the arm. “That other boy leaving you alone?
”
Evan’s face fell. “He called Judy another name and I told him he better not do that anymore. He hit me and I fell.”
Ryker searched for signs of harm and saw none.
“He’s okay,” Aegina said.
“Did you talk to the principal?”
“I had to. They called me in. The other boy got detention. It will be worse if he hits Evan again. They’ll suspend him.”
As Aegina talked, Evan grew more and more burdened.
“Why didn’t you tell me this?”
She put her hand on her hip. “And when was I supposed to do that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you could have canceled one of your meetings with my mechanic.”
Her lips pursed together, and she kept quiet. Neither one of them wanted to talk about that in front of the kids.
Ryker turned back to his son. “It’s okay, buddy. That kid’ll leave you alone now.”
“He keeps calling me a girl! And now all his friends are doing it! Everybody thinks I’m a girl!”
He refrained from smiling at the way that sounded. “No, they don’t. You hardly look like a girl.” He wasn’t as big as the bully, but he wasn’t a small boy. He had a dense, athletic body.
“Want me to teach you how to punch him?”
His eyes brightened. “Yeah!”
He chuckled. “Okay. Next time you come over, I’ll show you how to knock him on his butt.”
“Cool! Thanks, Dad!”
“Ryker,” Aegina warned in her annoyed tone. He’d heard that tone so much over the past couple of years, it amazed him that he hadn’t noticed it until now. He hadn’t noticed a lot of things. And now his sweet, beautiful Aegina was a bitch, and he felt responsible for making her that way.
“Get in the car, buddy.” He messed up his son’s thick brown head of hair.
After kissing and hugging his dad, the boy ran to the other side and hopped in.
“What are you doing here?” Aegina asked. “Stalking me?”
“How did the appointment go?” he asked instead of engaging in her sass.
She opened the driver’s door and dropped her purse inside. “That’s not why you’re here.”
“No, you’re right. I came here because I wanted to apologize for the other day.”
“I should call the cops right now. You could be arrested for being this close to me.”
“I’m sorry. I acted badly before. I couldn’t take thoughts of you with another man. I lost control. I said some things I regret. You didn’t deserve that. It won’t happen again.”
That calmed her some. “Ryker, I can’t deal with this.”
“Really, Aegina, I’m sorry I flipped out on you.” She slept with his mechanic, of all men. Who wouldn’t go nuts after discovering that? “Why him, anyway? You could have anyone. Why an auto mechanic? My mechanic?”
She sighed and couldn’t meet his gaze. She looked across the parking lot, out into the street of traffic passing a line of old brick buildings and the bakery on the corner.
Inside the car, his son played a computer game on a portable player.
At last she turned to him. “He showed an interest.”
And her own husband hadn’t.
“A man hadn’t hit on me since before I married you. When he did, it made me feel young again. I felt the way I did when you and I met.”
Ryker lowered his head, the sadness that poisoned him thickening. “Are you still seeing him?”
“Not right now. I told him I needed some time.”
While that eased a margin of his inner unrest, it didn’t erase her infidelity.
A long silence hung between them.
“Do you think we can ever get past this?” he asked.
She looked into his eyes, really looked. “I don’t think so.”
She was that far gone. “What about the kids?” He missed them and it hadn’t even been a week yet.
“We can make arrangements for you to see them.”
“When?”
“You can have them this weekend. I’ll drop the restraining order.”
Now that he’d calmed down, and she had seen for herself that he had, she felt comfortable doing so. He didn’t know how long it would take to drop the restraining order, but she’d let him see his kids. Ryker took that as a step in the right direction. “Why don’t you move back home? I’ll stay with my mother.”
“There isn’t enough room in the carriage house.”
“It has two bedrooms.”
“It’s your mother’s space. We’re fine at my parents’.”
“Aegina—”
“I can’t live with you that close, Ryker.”
The question he needed to ask but dreaded worked its way into his dry mouth. “Do you want a divorce?”
She looked away again. “Right now...yes.”
Right now? “I love you, Aegina. I don’t want to lose you. I didn’t see what I was doing, but I do now.”
That brought her head back to him. Had she heard the truth in the way he’d said it?
“I’ve been a fool. I was happy living in Vengeance because I was living here with you.”
Tears moistened her eyes. “Don’t do that, Ryker.”
“Don’t do what? Tell you what I’ve learned about myself? What I was too ignorant to see?”
“Why now?” she sobbed. “Why do you have to do this when it’s too late?”
“Is it too late?” He wished she’d tell him. He didn’t want a divorce, but he wasn’t sure their marriage was salvageable.
Aegina didn’t answer. She was as confused as him.
“You still love me.”
“I love what we once were. There’s no going back to that.”
There was no going back to before she had slept with another man. There was no going back to them as a young couple, devoting their lives to each other, pledging to be faithful. New, exciting love. Gone. His Aegina. Gone. And he was gone for her. She didn’t have to say it. They’d done a lot of their communicating this way. Without words.
In a weird way, they were still connecting. Even when they were contemplating divorce, their connection was still there.
“What if we start over?” he asked.
A flicker of hope crossed her eyes before it died. “Is that what you want?”
He was too raw from her affair. They were both in the same place in that regard. He loved her and she loved him, but the mistakes of their past might overrule.
There was nothing else to say.
She opened her car door; their oldest son was still fixated on his game.
Before lowering herself into the vehicle, she paused. “I had breakfast with Detective Zimmerman’s wife this morning. He responded to a call from your sister and Brandon last night. Is she all right?”
What had happened to Eliza? “I haven’t heard from her.”
“Brandon’s dad escaped from prison and apparently went to his ranch.”
“To do what?”
She shrugged. “I was hoping you could tell me.”
He couldn’t. He rarely spoke to his sister. He’d gone to her at one of his lowest moments in life and regretted it.
“She’s been getting threatening letters, too.”
Worry crept into him. “She didn’t tell me.”
“So far the cops don’t think it has anything to do with the murders.”
“Who do they think is sending the letters?”
“They don’t know. Zimmerman thinks Eliza wrote them.”
“Why would she write them?”
“To take suspicion off herself.”
“Eliza wouldn’t do that.”
“How do you know? You never talk to her.”
Ryker felt the well-placed barb and sent his wife an admonishing look.
“You two should really make amends,” she said in response.
“I don’t need to amend anything with her.” She was the selfish one.
Her mouth curved with disappointment. “That’s exactly w
hat brought you and me to this point, Ryker. You always assume it’s someone else who’s causing your unhappiness when the cause has always been right inside of you.”
“Eliza has nothing to do with us.”
With a sigh of frustration, she shook her head. “Goodbye, Ryker.”
Damn it. As soon as he took one step forward, she sent him backward again. What confused him most was how she thought Eliza had anything to do with their marital problems.
Women...
* * *
Eliza’s mother called. Ryker had gone after Aegina again. He’d told her where he was going and she tried to stop him, and now she was beside herself with worry. Eliza told Brandon, and he insisted on going with her to Ryker’s house. When they arrived, his car was in the driveway and her mother opened the front door, her round frame accentuated by jeans and a tucked-in white T-shirt.
“I’m so sorry to make you drive all the way over here. He pulled up just a few minutes ago,” she said, raking her fingers through her messy short gray hair.
Eliza and Brandon stepped inside. When she bumped into him, he put his hand on her back as though to steady her. Just that small contact triggered an array of sparks. She looked over and up at him and saw he’d noticed. He lowered his hand.
“How is he?” Eliza asked her mother, who’d seen the exchange.
“Better than I expected.” She led them through the home. “He said Aegina used to ask him to clean the hot tub so they could start using it again and he was always too busy with the shop. He took some time off to take care of things like that. Has one of his managers in charge.”
Outside, Ryker was bent over the hot tub. Hearing them, he straightened and faced them.
“Eliza.” He sounded surprised to see her. “Hey, Brandon.”
“Ryker,” Brandon greeted, his deep voice keeping the sparks at a hot simmer.
“What are you two doing here?”
“I called them when you went to intercept Aegina at the doctor’s office,” their mother said.
Ryker scowled at her and then Eliza.
“If you aren’t going to care that you’re arrested again, then somebody has to care for you,” their mother scolded in response.
“What happens between me and Aegina is our business.”
“Oh, then maybe we’ll leave you in jail next time.”
A Rancher's Dangerous Affair Page 16