by Unknown
“Kate, dammit—”
She laughed and turned to enter the building, leaving him sweating and tied in knots on the sidewalk behind her. He turned and headed back to the car, glad to devote the next few hours to Henry.
That night, after long hours of loving Kate, Jonah got up and crossed the room, pulling on his jeans. He went to his desk to pick up the envelope Dakota Gallen had given him.
He headed downstairs to his office, switching on a light and sitting at his desk to read. An hour later, he knew the histories of most of the ranching families in Piedras and two neighboring counties.
He had three names on a sheet of paper: Aldo Hill, Martin Talmadge, Wilford Nelson. Three men who were disgruntled with their lives and their families. Aldo Hill was thirty-three, years younger than John Frates or Kirk Rivas but the same age as Gabe Brant.
Martin Talmadge was the brother of a local rancher, Duane Talmadge. He was the same age as Kirk Rivas and the age John Frates would have been had he lived.
Wilford Nelson was that age, as well, and had been involved in various schemes that kept him on the fringe of the law. He could have known Rivas and John Frates. Jonah put a question mark beside Nelson’s name.
Jonah read the histories of the three men and crossed Aldo Hill off the list. He just couldn’t see any reasonable connection. The man might be unhappy with his lot in life, and grumpy with his neighbors, but a murderer? Jonah didn’t think so.
He looked again at Martin Talmadge. The man had grown up with John Frates and Kirk Rivas as close friends. He came from a successful old ranching family. Because of his irresponsible and profligate ways, he had been cut out of his inheritance, which had all gone to his older brother, Duane. From all reports Martin Talmadge hated his brother, left home years ago and had gone to California. When he was young he had done odd jobs while trying to get into the movies. One of his jobs had been a three-year stint with an alarm company where he could have learned how to build and dismantle alarms.
Jonah circled Martin Talmadge’s name, figuring he had motivation for at least some of the crimes. But what would the tie to Gabe Brant be? Jonah remembered Brant and his wife at the party. Ashley Brant was a beautiful woman.
He circled Martin Talmadge’s name again, crossed off Wilford Nelson and picked up the phone to call Dakota.
A sleepy voice came over the phone. “Sheriff Gallen.”
“Sorry to wake you.”
“It’s okay,” he said, sounding more alert. “You must have found something, Jonah.”
Jonah was surprised Dakota even recognized his voice that quickly. “You interviewed Gabe Brant. Did you interview his wife, Ashley?”
“No, I didn’t. Think I should? Never mind. You wouldn’t have asked if you didn’t have a reason.”
“Maybe the connection there isn’t Gabe Brant. Maybe it’s Ashley.”
“Oh, hell, I should have thought of that and talked to her. I will first thing in the morning and let you know. Which one is it you’re looking at?”
“I think you already know. He worked at an alarm company when he was young. Do you know where he is now?”
“I called and his maid said he was out of the country. She wouldn’t be any more specific than that. He’s done well in California.”
“I saw. He’s into porn movies.”
“I’ll talk to Ashley Brant in a few hours. If he’s our man, then his brother, Duane, may be in a lot of danger.”
“Have you warned him?”
“I’ve talked to him about it, but he doesn’t think he’s at risk and he doesn’t think his brother is capable of crimes like this. He hasn’t seen him in years, though, and he said they wouldn’t speak if they did encounter one another. He didn’t speak kindly of his brother.”
“I’d say you have your man, but I’ll keep reading and you go see what Ashley has to say.”
“Thanks, Jonah.”
They broke the connection, and Jonah straightened the papers in front of him. Before starting to read again, he opened the desk drawer and picked up the badge Dakota had given him. Someday when the case was solved, he would show the badge to Henry, who would think it cool that his father was a deputy. In the meantime, he meant to keep it in the drawer and tell Kate when the time seemed appropriate.
He read again all the information, going over it bit by bit and still coming out with the same conclusion. On paper, a lot of details indicated Martin Talmadge could be the man. And if it was him, his brother Duane was in danger.
Finally Jonah switched off the light and went up to bed, moving to the window to look out at the grounds, knowing his men were patrolling the area. He saw one of the dogs moving around below. It was Prince, a shaggy Border collie that was a good watchdog and adored Henry. And that was mutual. Henry adored the animal.
Jonah peeled off his jeans, moved to the bed to look at Kate, and his pulse speeded up. She was on her side, her hair spread on the pillow. Her long legs were stretched out and she had her hands beneath her head. She looked warm, soft and appealing, and he lowered himself carefully to the bed, moving close to her and reaching out to caress her breast, waiting for her to stir so he could make love to her again.
At eight-thirty the next morning, Kate was in the kitchen, lingering over breakfast, when Dakota’s call came for Jonah. It was Friday and she didn’t need to go into work that day.
Jonah answered in his office. Henry was still asleep upstairs.
“Jonah,” Dakota said, sounding wide-awake now, “you were right. Martin Talmadge is a lot older than Ashley Brant, but he tried to date her all through high school and while she was in college.”
“Did she ever date him?”
“No. She thought he was creepy.”
“That ties him to all three victims.”
“Yes, and to an alarm company where he could learn to build alarms. And if he knows how to build them, he knows how to dismantle them. I’m going out to see his brother now. We don’t know where Martin Talmadge is, but I’ve talked to the Orange County sheriff’s office and they’re looking for him.”
“I’d say the brother is in a lot of danger.”
“I’ve tried to make that clear. Just in case, you keep up your guard, okay? You’ve been hit twice by him and you foiled him that second time. He might return. I’d like to try to get a warrant for his arrest, but at this point, I think the judge would say the evidence is nonexistent. I’m waiting to hear from the lab about the fingerprint. I’ll keep you posted, but you keep on alert, okay?”
“I’ll be careful.”
“You’ll be careful about what?” Kate asked from the doorway. “I couldn’t keep from hearing you.”
“Come in and I’ll show you what we’ve got,” he said, making a quick decision to include her in the process.
She crossed the room. She wore cutoffs and a tank top, and he forgot about danger or the task ahead of him.
He pulled two chairs close together and sat down beside her to give her the papers to read. As she studied them, he couldn’t resist and pulled her onto his lap.
“Where did you get this? From Sheriff Gallen?”
“Yep. He wanted to see what I thought about it.”
“Next thing you know, he’ll want you on his staff.”
“What do you think about that list?”
“I see you have one name circled several times. Let me read more.”
As she did so, he lifted her hair and kissed her nape, trailing his tongue lightly over her skin.
“Jonah, how can I concentrate?”
“Go ahead. I’m not doing much.”
She gave him a look and turned back to her reading, and he continued caressing her nape, sliding his hand beneath her shirt to cup her breast.
“Jonah!” Kate caught his wrist and wriggled, pulling his hand from beneath her shirt. “Will you stop that! Henry is still asleep, but he could wake up and come down at any time.”
“I’m watching the door.”
“Oh, sure you are,” s
he said, then looked into his eyes and turned to kiss him soundly. Finally, she straightened. “You adorable, irresistible man,” she whispered. “Now let me read this.”
“Yes’m,” he said, but continued to play with her hair and rub her back.
“You have this Talmadge man’s name circled, Jonah, but what tie does he have with Gabe Brant?”
“He wanted to date Ashley Brant and she would never go out with him.”
“Can the sheriff arrest him?”
“Nope. That’s just speculation and could be all wrong.”
“He worked in a security company so he knows alarms, and he may know bombs.”
“Probably, but Dakota will need more than that to go on.”
“Mommy!” Henry’s call on the intercom was faint.
“He just woke up. I’ll go see about him,” Kate said, sliding off Jonah’s lap and hurrying out of the room. As she went, he looked at her hips and mentally stripped away the cutoffs, wishing he were alone with Kate right now.
Jonah thought about their future. When this problem was settled, did he want to ask Kate to marry him again?
He raked his fingers through his hair. Love and trust should go hand in hand, but they didn’t. He could love and still be scared to trust. If he told her he was a deputy, would she walk out again?
He suspected she would, but he hoped this would all be over within hours and he wouldn’t have to tell her.
At noon Dakota called him again.
“We didn’t get anywhere with the print. They can’t identify it.”
“Bummer. Sorry,” Jonah said, feeling his hopes plummet that this would be quick or simple.
“We’ve warned Duane Talmadge, and he’s beginning to take me seriously. He’s worried, because he said his brother does have an uncontrollable temper. I’m going to stake out the Talmadge house and watch it 24–7 for the coming week. These incidents have come closer together, and I think Martin wants to get his revenge.”
“What about the rustling?”
“I don’t know if it was tied together or not. May have been a gang of rustlers and Martin Talmadge acting on his own, and the two were just coincidental.”
“My guess is that they weren’t. I think it’s him and I think he’s the one who rustled my cattle and tried to blow up my barn.”
“All that past history of his indicates that he’s the one. We’re staking out his brother’s house, as I said. Want to join us?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Then you don’t have to. I’ll keep you posted, and if we’re desperate for more help, I’ll let you know.”
Jonah replaced the receiver and hoped he never got that call from Dakota. And he hoped they caught their man quickly.
The weekend passed, and on Monday Kate went to work while Jonah spent the day with Henry. That night Jonah and Kate both played games with Henry and finally put him to bed.
Far into the night Jonah lay awake, with Kate sleeping in his arms. Warm and soft, she snuggled against him and wrapped her arm more tightly around him. He stroked her hair from her face and kissed her temple lightly. How he loved her!
When the phone rang, he wriggled away from her and grabbed the receiver, speaking softly.
“Jonah, I wanted to warn you,” Dakota said, his voice filled with urgency. “Martin Talmadge is our man. He tried to kill Duane tonight.”
“The hell you say! Tried? He failed?”
“Right. Duane is still alive and he’s being flown by chopper to Marcus Whiffle Memorial Hospital in San Antonio. Talmadge got away and I’m warning ranchers. We have an APB out for Talmadge and roadblocks set up, but warn your men.”
“Thanks, Dakota,” Jonah said tersely, already yanking on his jeans. He crossed the room to the closet to get down his pistol, and turned to find Kate sitting up in bed, watching him.
“What are you doing, Jonah?” she asked.
He related the contents of Dakota’s phone call. “I need to phone Scott and warn the men, and we have to get this ranch secured.” He left the room, rushing downstairs to begin making calls. In minutes lights were on all through the house. Jonah had pulled on a T-shirt and boots.
Kate found him in his office.
“I’m going to meet Scott and we’ll assign men patrols and put guards on the house. No one will get in here, Kate.”
Pulling her robe together under her chin, she nodded solemnly, looking at the gun tucked into his waistband. “Jonah, why did Dakota give you all that information and why did he just call you? Isn’t that information that would only go to lawmen? Do you have any official capacity?”
Jonah’s head came up, and when he looked at her, she knew that he did. Her heart dropped. She clenched her fists and stared at him.
“What did you do?” she whispered. “Are you a deputy?”
“Kate, I did it to protect you and Henry. It just gives me official status. If the killer comes on our property, I can arrest him—”
“Jonah, stop!” she cried. “I don’t want to hear all the excuses. I already know them. You haven’t changed one degree and you never will. You’ll always rush into danger. Go on. Just go!” She turned and ran blindly for the stairs. She heard him call her name, but she didn’t stop. She didn’t want to talk to him.
Jonah followed her into the hall. “Kate, wait a minute!”
She stormed up the stairs without looking back at him.
Jonah clamped his jaw shut. He had to go talk to Scott and the men who worked for him, to let them know about Martin Talmadge being the killer and on the loose. It was urgent to get the ranch secured, and now wasn’t the time to argue with Kate.
He knew the hopelessness in that, so he headed for the kitchen and jammed his hat on his head, pulling out his cell phone to call Scott again as he left the house.
Upstairs, Kate shook with fury. She loved Jonah hopelessly, completely, but she wouldn’t live with him or subject Henry to a father who was a lawman.
Jonah had accepted being a deputy behind her back, while at the same time he was making love to her and telling her that he could change.
She went to her old room and slammed the door, then took a deep breath. “All right, Jonah Whitewolf, you made your choice this time, just as you did five years ago. I’ll make my choice. I’m not going to love you and sit by and become a widow, and watch Henry become fatherless, because you have to save the world!”
She crossed the room to get what she wanted to wear and then headed for the shower. In another half hour she was dressed in jeans and a red T-shirt, and had called her office to leave a message that she would not be in for work today.
Hurriedly, she began flinging clothes into a suitcase—just enough to get through the rest of the week. She could come back and collect all her and Henry’s belongings later.
She should have known it would never work for her to live in Jonah’s house. How could he agree to become deputized when he professed to love her and knew how she felt about it?
When she finished packing and closed her suitcase, she went to Henry’s room to pack for him, knowing he would sleep through her bustling around the room.
At seven o’clock the phone rang, and she picked it up to hear Jonah’s voice. “Kate, I told Clementine to go into town. She won’t be coming in today. None of the help will. The men will be outside the house, so it’s covered.”
“Fine,” she answered.
“Kate, I want to talk to you. Will you please just—”
She replaced the receiver. She didn’t want to talk to him at all. It was an old and useless argument.
She fed Henry breakfast as she loaded their things into the car. As she was helping him get his boots on, she said, “Henry, there’s a bad man loose in this area, and I think we’ll be safer away from the ranch, so we’re leaving.”
“Is Daddy going with us?”
“No, he’s not, because he has to stay to guard the ranch.”
“Can’t we stay? If Daddy guards the ranch, it’ll be safe.”
“No, we can’t stay. Not today. We might go to Grandma and Grandpa Whitewolf’s tonight. All right?”
He brightened at that and nodded. “Then Daddy will come be with us?”
“I don’t know what Daddy is going to do,” she said stiffly, hurting. “I’ve packed a bag for you, and you can take some things with you in the car.”
She gathered toys Henry liked and fought back tears, because at every turn she was reminded of Jonah. She gave her son a sack to hold items he wanted to take along, and finally she had the car packed.
She buckled Henry into his seat and climbed behind the wheel, driving away without looking back, yet aware of every square foot of ranch she passed because, once she picked up all her belongings, she’d be leaving it forever.
She glanced at the gas gauge and saw the tank was low, so at Mayville, the first small town, she stopped at the only gas station to fill up. She paid at the pump, and was just climbing back into the car when a man yanked open the other door and slid into the car beside her.
He caught her wrist and pointed a gun at her.
“Get in,” he snapped.
Chapter 14
K ate panicked, wanting to scream, terrified for Henry, yet she could feel the gun poking in her ribs hard enough to hurt.
“Just drive and you’ll be all right, and so will the kid. Get in and drive, Mrs. Whitewolf.”
She had carried her purse on the side away from the man. As she climbed into the car, she let go of her bag and let it fall to the ground. She prayed that someone would notice it and contact Jonah, because of the Whitewolf name on her credit card and driver’s license.
She turned the ignition, glancing at the man who sat beside her. His pale blue, watery eyes were filled with fury. Splotches of color made his cheeks red. His blond hair was a tangle and he needed a shave. He was dressed in a black, long-sleeved T-shirt that was spattered with stains, and she shuddered to think what they might be from. His rumpled black pants held more stains.
“Where are you going?” she asked, her mind racing. She had to think of some way to get rid of him and protect Henry.