by Rita Herron
He shook his head. “No, my director wants me to talk to Geoff’s cell mate at the prison. Maybe he has information about Jones’s plans, where he’s hiding out or going next.”
Mia nodded and managed to eat a few bites, although she looked shaken, the earlier pleasure dissipating from her eyes.
She carried her dish to the sink, rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher. “Then let’s go.”
Alex stepped up behind her and rubbed her arms. “You don’t need to go. I’m going to have a guard watch you while I’m gone.”
Mia’s shoulders straightened. “That’s not necessary. I’ll go to the hospital. I want to see Joy and Henry this morning.”
Alex considered her suggestion. He could alert security guards. If she stayed with Henry and Joy until he returned, she’d be safe.
“All right. But you have to promise not to leave the hospital.” Alex turned her around to face him. “Promise me, Mia?”
Her expression softened. “I promise, Alex. Just find Geoff and let’s end this nightmare.”
“I’m going to do my damnedest.” He grabbed his own plate from the table and stacked it in the dishwasher.
Five minutes later, they were on their way to hospital. When they arrived and parked, he walked her inside, then they rode the elevator to the second floor and Joy’s room.
The older woman looked more rested and perky than she had the night before, although Henry looked rumpled and tired, as if he hadn’t slept for worrying about his wife.
He was so devoted to Joy that it touched something inside Alex. His own parents had divorced when he was small. His father died in a helicopter crash, his mother in a car accident a few months later. At six, he’d gone into the system in an endless sea of foster homes. None of them had worked out. He’d been bitter, angry and had shut down. One foster mother said he was hard to love…
The last home had scarred him forever. The old man had been abusive, had beaten the thirteen-year-old girl in the home until she’d bled to death. Alex had hated himself. If he’d been bigger, stronger, had shown more courage, he could have saved her.
Her death had haunted him and driven him to police work.
What would it be like to have a woman love him the way Joy loved Henry?
The way he loved Mia…
Mia rushed to Joy and hugged her, relief spilling across her features. “Joy, how are you feeling?”
“Like I’m ready to blow this joint,” Joy said with a small laugh.
Alex pulled Henry into the hallway. “Are they releasing her today?”
Henry scratched his chin and headed down the hall to the vending machine to get coffee. “Doc said maybe early afternoon. They want to do an EKG first, just to make sure her heart’s okay after the strain.”
Alex explained that he needed to visit the prison. “Mia promised she’d stay here with you and Joy,” he said. “Will you make sure she keeps that promise?”
Worry flickered in Henry’s eyes. “I sure will.”
Alex thanked him, then went to speak to the security guard. Once he informed the head of security about the threat to Mia, the guard agreed to watch Joy’s room.
Relieved, Alex hurried down the elevator and out to his car. A half hour later, he was sitting in a visitor’s room with Jones’s cellmate Cyril Tyson.
“All right, Tyson,” Alex said, his patience thin. “You wanted to talk to me?”
The beefy man gave a clipped nod. “I want a deal first.”
Alex drummed his fingers on the table. “What kind of deal?”
“Move me to another facility and out of the general population.”
Alex arched a brow. “Why would I do that?”
“Because I have information you want.”
“Then spill it.”
Tyson shook his head, the whites of his eyes bulging. “Not until you get me my deal.”
Rage shot through Alex, and he leaned forward and hit the table with his fist. “I’m not playing games with you, Tyson. After you tell me what you know, we’ll talk about a deal.”
Tyson’s handcuffs clanged as he folded his chunky arms across his chest. He seemed to be studying Alex, trying to decide whether to trust him.
“If you want out of the general population, that means you pissed off one of the gang members. That also means you’re a dead man if you stay.”
Tyson cursed. “Yeah, I did piss off somebody. But it wasn’t a gang member.”
Tension vibrated between them. “Then who was it?”
“Jones. That man’s one crazy son of a bitch.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
The man started to stand and Alex tensed. The guard moved forward, hand on his weapon.
Tyson gestured for them to wait. “It’s a piece of paper,” he said. “The reason I asked to see you.”
Alex exchanged a look with the guard, yet he remained alert as Tyson slid his hand in his pocket. Just as he said though, he removed a scrap of paper that was folded into a small square. He dropped it onto the table and sank back in to his chair.
Alex unfolded the paper, his stomach churning as he studied the vicious words and sketches Jones had made. Jones’s version of the punishments he planned for Mia.
Lewd sex acts, the knife, the blood…Sadistic bastard.
“I know he’s after his ex-wife,” Alex said as if this drawing was old news. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Tyson’s black eyes bore holes into Alex. “He has funds set up in Brazil. That’s where he plans to go once he gets his wife back.”
Alex stared at him, waiting for more, but that was it. They’d suspected all along that Jones had made arrangements to skip the country. “Do you know what name he’s going to use?”
Tyson nodded. “He has a passport and fake ID under the name Alex Townsend,” Tyson said. “He plans to get away by posing as you.”
“Listen to me, son,” Geoff’s father told him. “The cops are everywhere. Maybe you should forget about Mia and leave the country now.”
Geoff barely controlled his rage at his father’s ridiculous suggestion. But he
had to because he needed his old man on his side.
Needed the money his parents had stashed for him so he could escape the country.
Then he and Mia could live the life he planned for them.
And she would never get away from him again.
“I will soon, Father,” he said. “But I’m not leaving without Mia.”
“She’s not worth it,” his father snapped. “The little bitch has already destroyed your life.”
That was true, but there was no fucking way he’d let her go.
“I appreciate the concern, but everything’s going to be fine,” he said, injecting a calm into his voice that he didn’t feel.
Hell, he should already have Mia by now.
Damn that Texas Ranger for interfering.
He would pay big time for that.
A siren sounded in the distance, and Geoff slid lower in the front seat of the pick-up. He had to keep moving. Stay under the police radar. “I have to go, Dad.”
“When you get settled, we’ll come for a visit,” his father promised.
“Of course, but we’ll need to allow sufficient time to pass for the police to stop watching you,” Geoff said. Because they would hound his parents to death.
His father agreed and hung up. Geoff removed his new passport and studied it with a smile. Going away as Sgt. Townsend was a brilliant plan.
But first he had to kill the real Ranger and get rid of his body.
Then no one would suspect that Geoff had assumed his identity. Yes, it was the perfect plan.
Sgt. Townsend’s letter of resignation had already been typed. All he had to do was press send and everyone would simply think that he’d fallen in love with Mia and whisked her out of the country to keep her safe.
Then Geoff would never have to worry about the asshole again.
And he would have his wife back und
er his thumb as he should’ve had all along.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Mia struggled to tame her nerves as she visited with Joy and Henry. Henry’s phone buzzed, and he stepped out into the hallway to answer it. Joy had dozed off again, and Mia went to stand by the window.
A minute later, he came in, looking agitated. “That was Sheriff Leonard. Bo Coolidge called him and said he wanted to come in, that he had something to tell him.”
“Bo, the trainer?”
Henry nodded. “I’m going to meet him at the sheriff’s office. Will you stay with Joy till I return?’
“Of course, Henry. You know how sorry I am about all this.”
“Just take care of my lady,” Henry said in a sheepish voice. “I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
Mia didn’t know what she was going to do without Alex when he left her either. And he would leave.
She was simply a job to him. Nothing more.
But she was terribly afraid she’d given him her heart and that it would be shattered when he walked away.
Alex phoned his chief the moment he left the prison. “Alert all the airports, train stations, bus stations and the border patrol that Geoff Jones is going to try to flee the country using my name.”
“What?” Chief Dunn bellowed.
“That’s the information Jones’s cell mate gave me. Jones already has a passport and fake ID.” The grisly drawings of the file sex acts Jones wanted to perform with Mia haunted him.
“I’ll get right on it,” Chief Dunn said. “But he’d have to know that using your name would be risky and draw suspicion.”
“I’m just relaying what Tyson told me.” Alex paused. “Besides, if you think about it, it might work. He’ll pretend to be me and say he’s Mia’s bodyguard. That he’s taking her away for her own safety.”
Chief Dunn made a clicking sound with his teeth. “All right, I’m on it.”
They disconnected, and Alex strode to his SUV. His cell phone buzzed again, and he saw it was Sheriff Leonard so he connected the call. “Sgt. Townsend.”
“Sergeant, one of Henry’s hands just came in and claims that Jones didn’t kill Joleen Perry. He said that Truitt Wilson worked for another rancher before McCauley, a man by the name of Frank Sutter. Sutter thinks he owns half the county and has been trying to get McCauley to sell.”
“He hired Wilson to kill Joleen to shake Henry up enough to sell?” Alex asked.
“No, Wilson claims he’s innocent, but that after he talked to you, he started thinking about conversations he overheard at Sutton’s ranch, ones that sounded suspicious. There’s been a series of minor mishaps at the Crossties in the past few months, broken fences, cattle getting sick, equipment failure. I’m on my way to Sutter’s to question him now.”
“I’m leaving the prison now. I can meet you at his place.”
“That’s not necessary. My deputy and I can handle it.”
“All right. Keep me posted.” Alex passed through one guard’s station, then made it to his car. He started the engine, then drove toward the guard’s post at the far end of the parking lot. But when he approached he didn’t see the guard.
He slowed, the hair on the back of his neck prickling. Before he could climb out to check the station though, Geoff Jones stepped from the small building.
Alex reached for his Sig, but he was too late.
Jones must have gotten the guard’s gun because he fired. Alex threw himself sideways in the seat to dodge the bullet, but it pierced his shoulder and pain ripped down his arm. He scrambled for his weapon and raised it to fire at Jones. But before he could retaliate, Jones jerked open the driver’s door, aimed the gun at his leg and fired another shot.
Alex choked for a breath as pain suffused him. He swung his weapon up, but Jones knocked it from his hand with a karate chop. Blood poured from his shoulder and leg and the world started spinning.
Jesus, he was going to pass out. He had to fight.
But Jones slammed the butt of his gun into Alex’s skull, and darkness engulfed Alex.
Henry returned an hour later. Mia’s nerves jangled as he explained about his talk with the sheriff.
Joy brushed her hair back with one hand. “I can’t believe Frank Sutter would have someone killed just to get our property.”
“He’s a greedy man,” Henry said. “I just hate that Joleen suffered because of that greed.”
“Are you certain he had her murdered?” Mia asked. “Not my ex-husband?”
“It looks that way,” Henry said. “Coolidge said Wilson had confided in him. We’ll know more after the sheriff interrogates Wilson and Sutter.”
Mia bit her lip. So Geoff still could have killed the cook.
Either way, Joleen had been an innocent victim. Grief nearly overwhelmed her again. Joleen’s death was so senseless.
Mia’s cell phone buzzed. Anxious to speak to Alex, she stepped into the hallway and connected the call.
“Hello, Mia. I’ve missed you.”
It wasn’t Alex’s voice on the other end of the line. It was Geoff’s.
Mia’s fingers tightened around the phone. “You have to stop this insanity,” Mia said. “Turn yourself in before you get killed, Geoff.” And before you hurt anyone else.
“You know I can’t do that, Mia. I have grand plans for our future.”
“You’re a fugitive,” Mia said tersely.
“Not for long.” His tone went from flirty and taunting to menacing. “I’m your husband and you betrayed me.”
“I’m not your wife anymore,” Mia said. “The divorce was final months ago. I know you received the papers.”
Of course he had. That was probably what triggered him to plan an escape.
“Our vows said till death do us part, Mia. Have you forgotten?”
“They also said to love, honor and cherish. You didn’t keep those promises, Geoff.”
“Yes, I did, and you’re going to keep yours.”
“You can’t make me love you, Geoff.”
“No? Why not? Are you fucking that Texas Ranger? Do you love him?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Actually it is,” he said darkly. “In fact, he and I are having a nice little visit.”
Mia froze, her blood running cold. “What are you talking about? Are you with Alex?”
“Alex? Not Sgt. Townsend?”
Panic seized Mia. ‘Where is he? Let me speak to him.”
A sinister chuckle reverberated over the line. A low moan followed.
Alex?
“I’m afraid he’s all tied up at the moment, Mia.”
Mia closed her eyes, every muscle in her body tensing. “What have you done to him?”
“He’s losing blood fast,” Geoff said in a low tone. “Do you want to save him?”
“Yes,” Mia said, knowing she’d do anything to keep Alex alive. “Just tell me what you want.”
“You know what I want, Mia.”
“Yes, I do, you bastard.” She sucked in a sharp breath. “Just release him and tell me where to meet you.”
“Meet me then I’ll let him go,” Geoff said.
Mia didn’t trust Geoff for a second. He was setting up a trap and might kill them both. But she had to do something. She couldn’t just stand by and let Alex die.
So she struck a deal with the devil. She’d do anything to keep Alex alive.
Alex slowly roused from the depths of hell to consciousness. His memory was foggy, but pain throbbed in his shoulder and leg.
He’d been shot. Twice.
By Geoff Jones. At the damn prison, the last place he’d have expected the man to be.
Where was the son of a bitch?
He blinked rapidly and tried to move but realized he was bound to a stake in some dark building, arms tied behind him, feet bound to the wooden post which held him hostage.
Sweat dripped down his hair and into his eyes, and he squinted, searching for the man who’d ambushed him.
But shadows plagued the corners, and the building was so dark he couldn’t see a damn thing,
Was Jones hiding in the corner? Taking pleasure in watching him struggle to free himself while he bled to death?
Because the bullets hadn’t struck any major arteries. They’d only pierced muscle, flesh and tissue, deep enough to cause a good deal of bleeding.
Enough that eventually the blood loss would kill him.
Was that Jones’s plan – to make him suffer a long slow death?
Panic stole the air from his lungs. He didn’t care if he died, but with him out of the way, Jones would probably get Mia. Did he have her now?
God, please no. He’d promised to protect her …
He couldn’t allow his mind to go there. He had to think. Come up with a plan.
Figure out how to escape.
Because there was no way he’d let Jones kill the woman he loved.
Footsteps crunched. The smell of gasoline wafted toward him.
A board creaked, the hiss of a breath whispered through the air, and Alex knew he wasn’t alone.
“You coward, untie me and fight me like a real man,” Alex said through clenched teeth.
Something hard slammed against his jaw, then another blow came. He spit out blood as Jones began to beat him until the world turned gray, then black and slipped away again.
Mia debated whether to ask the sheriff to go with her. She wasn’t a fool. She knew she was walking into an ambush.
But before he’d hung up, Geoff had warned her she’d better come alone. That the moment he spotted a second person, he’d kill Alex.
She couldn’t take the chance.
Besides, what did her life matter if Alex died because of her? She’d never be able to live with the guilt.
Because she loved him.
Dammit. She hadn’t wanted to. She’d fought her attraction to the sexy Ranger, and knew loving him was insane.
But her rational side had avoided the warning, and she’d fallen for him anyway.
Mentally reviewing tips from her self-defense class, she tugged on a jacket, and stashed a canister of mace in her pocket. She tucked her revolver into her bra, then strapped a small switchblade to her ankle beneath her jeans.