The Texas Ranger's Reward (Undercover Heroes)

by Winters, Rebecca

  Chaz nodded. “We’d like to help.”

  Travis rubbed his eyes, then stared at both of them. “Melissa suffered trauma in her marriage, and then suffered it again when her cabin was invaded. She doesn’t need to get any more involved with me when we know Valerie’s killer is still out there somewhere, looking for me.”

  “Chances are the Feds will catch up with him and he’ll be locked away soon.”

  “True, Mitch,” Travis replied. “And to Melissa’s credit, she never brought it up after the first time I told her, but it isn’t something you forget. Valerie hated my job as a Ranger. Melissa probably hates the work I do now.”

  “I hear you,” Mitch said in a solemn tone. “When I asked Heidi to marry me, I have to admit I was relieved that the killer who’d tried to take me out back in Florida was finally in custody. But I wouldn’t have let it stop me from being with her. Not unless she’d pulled away from me because of it.”

  Chaz eyed Travis with compassion. “I made a certain promise after I got out of the SEALs, but as we all know, in our business sometimes things go wrong despite our best efforts. I thought I’d lost Lacey because the stalker turned out to be her sister, but after she was arrested, Lacey found me while I was on vacation, and convinced me she was thankful for the work I did. In the end, she said it helped her sister get therapy, and it brought us together.

  “As I see it, you need to go to Melissa. After you’ve told her the thing you’re most worried about, let her decide if she wants to continue the relationship.”

  “If you stay away from her, you could be making the biggest mistake of your life,” Mitch warned.

  They were right.

  Having made up his mind, Travis pushed himself away from the table and got to his feet. “I’ve got to talk to her. Thanks for being here for me.”

  “You’ve been there plenty for us.”

  Within a few minutes Travis was in his truck and on the way to her clinic. He decided not to phone. He couldn’t risk her not calling him back. She’d told him Fridays were her busiest days, but he didn’t care. He’d wait there until her lunch hour if he had to, so they could talk.

  At nine-thirty he walked through the doors and headed straight for her office. To his frustration it was locked. He went to the exercise room, but she wasn’t in there. Without hesitation he approached the secretary at the front desk. They recognized each other and nodded.

  “Hi. I’m looking for Ms. Dalton.”

  “I’m afraid she won’t be coming in today. She called in last evening and said she wasn’t feeling well. But I’m sure she’ll be back on Monday. If you’re here to make an appointment for Casey, I’ll schedule it in her calendar now.”

  “No, this is personal. If by any chance she should phone the clinic, will you ask her to call me pronto? She has my number.”

  “Of course.”

  Travis hurried outside. When he’d driven to the clinic, he’d been so anxious to see her, he hadn’t been looking for her Jeep. Now that he glanced around, he realized it was nowhere in sight. He got back in the truck and took the route she normally drove to her town house. On the way he phoned her, but all he got was her voice mail. He asked her to call him.

  When he drove up in front of the condo, one glance revealed her Jeep wasn’t there, either. Maybe she’d gone to the pharmacy for some medicine. He knew which one and took off. The parking lot was only semifull. There was no Jeep anywhere.

  Maybe she’d gone to her parents’ or her brother’s house. Travis phoned both numbers on the off chance she’d sought them out because she didn’t feel well and wanted their company. Again he was met with voice mails. He left messages for them to contact him if they knew where he could reach Melissa.

  His mind turned over other possibilities. She might have gone to the cabin after work last evening, and started feeling sick there. Since it was her favorite place, she’d probably decided to stay up there the whole weekend. Maybe she’d picked up a bug. Children coming in and out of the clinic carried germs and could have infected her.

  The worrisome thought that she might be really sick and too weak to drive back down the canyon galvanized him into action. He took off for Kamas, breaking the speed limit all the way up. En route, he phoned Deana and asked her to pick up Casey after school. If he couldn’t get back tonight, then she was to take him over to Pat’s house for the night. It was time he and Melissa had a heart-to-heart.

  * * *

  AFTER ANOTHER RESTLESS NIGHT, Melissa got up determined to get some artwork done. But the creative juices weren’t flowing and hadn’t been since she’d said goodbye to Travis. Without bothering to dress, she stayed in her gray sweats and went downstairs in her zip-up slippers with her art supplies.

  The generator was still on from last night. She fixed herself some instant coffee in the microwave, then turned off the switch. Silence reigned once more, the way it was supposed to in the forest. She opened the back door to a beautiful fall morning. Utah truly was a land of sunny skies.

  Once she’d finished her drink, she put her folding chair outside the back door and set up her easel. She’d brought her big art pad down, along with her acrylics. Being up here, instead of at work at the clinic, should have made her feel guilty. But Melissa had been feeling ill all week and knew she couldn’t have made it through today’s heavy schedule.

  She didn’t know how to fix her broken heart.

  Travis…

  Tears rolled down her cheeks. Without realizing it, she began doing a sketch of his well-shaped head. He was a man in his prime, with lines of experience and character etched into his face. A beyond-gorgeous jaw, a wide mouth that could harden or soften, depending on his mood…

  His deep-set blue eyes gleamed with intelligence. His ears and nose were in perfect proportion to his other features. His hair was a dark, rich chestnut. And the way he was put together left every other man she’d known out of the competition.

  Her love for him poured out on the paper. She didn’t need to see him in person; he was inscribed on her mind and heart for all time. Anything he wore suited him, but she had to admit she loved the hunter-green shirt he’d worn to the clinic with Casey, a button-down with a collar. She drew it in.

  After studying the finished product for a minute, she signed and dated it. Beneath her signature she wrote “My Superhero.” This portrait and the one she’d done of Casey were her most prized possessions.

  It felt good to spill her emotions onto paper. Once she went back in the cabin and got dressed, she would take a hike with some of her supplies and see if she could find that elk. So noble and majestic. She saw Travis’s spirit like that.

  She closed her art pad. As she started to gather everything up, someone shoved her to the ground and covered her mouth and nose from behind, cutting off her air. She felt a hard chest as a man slammed down on top of her. In shock, she fought and twisted, managing to bite the grubby hand mashing her face. Blood spurted everywhere.

  She heard a string of invectives, but he never let go. There was a ripping sound before he started wrapping her mouth with duct tape. After he got off her and set her on her feet, he turned her around. She made a huge scratch down the side of his acne-pocked cheek before he tied her hands in front of her with a rope.

  Melissa’s captor was no taller than she was, but he was heavyset and strong as a bull. He put one of his legs between hers so she couldn’t move. Blood was now dripping from his face and spattering everywhere.

  She’d hea
rd nothing before he’d sneaked up behind her. Her legs shook at the possibility of him having spent the night in the cabin with her, waiting for this opportunity. He had to be one of the illegals who’d escaped the sting operation. She could moan all she wanted for help, but the tape had silenced her, and she was feeling claustrophobic.

  “Cooperate with me,” he said at last, “and you might live long enough to watch me shoot your boyfriend between the eyes. But I won’t do that until he sees you’re with me. We’ll wait for him to come. After he’s dead, I plan to have some fun with you before I finish you off.”

  This lowlife wasn’t a Colombian. In fact, he had a Southern drawl. This monster was a white guy covered in tattoos. About her height, he had stringy brown hair that hung in his face. Each time he tossed his head back, it fell over his brows again.

  The second she divined the truth of his origins, he said, “Didn’t he tell you about me? I’m sure he did. I’m Danny, the only survivor of the McClusky brothers. We were famous down in Texas. I’m not including Fred, of course. He died a long time ago, when we went swimming and he accidentally drowned. That left Donny and Davey.”

  Her soul screamed in terror. This lunatic is Valerie’s killer! Somehow he’d tracked Travis down. Much as Melissa wanted this to be a nightmare, it wasn’t.

  “We were doing great on our own until some rats squealed on us and we had to kill them. From then on, everything went wrong, and that damn Texas Ranger came after us.”

  Her captor started leading her into the forest by the rope binding her hands. There was no possibility of getting away from him. He was out of shape and was forced to stop every few steps to take deep breaths, but he continued to pull her through the undergrowth to the top of the ridge behind the cabin.

  Where his plaid shirt separated from his pants, she saw another repulsive tattoo. Wanting to take advantage of the early morning light, she hadn’t eaten breakfast. That was good, because she would have thrown up.

  To her horror, he found two trees growing close together at the edge of a clearing, and spread-eagled her upright between them. Using more rope, he fastened her wrists and ankles so tightly they burned. He groped her on and off. When she tried to elude him, the ropes twisted into her skin. The pain was unbearable. She couldn’t sit, bend or lie down.

  “I wasn’t going to let him put us in prison. But during our escape, Donny and Davey got mowed down by him without them knowing what hit them.” While he was stringing her up, the man babbled and bawled like a baby. Then he suddenly turned around with a murderous gleam in his eyes.

  “I couldn’t let that go, now could I? Not Danny McClusky. So I took my time before I picked off your Ranger’s wife so he’d get the message. Then I figured that still wasn’t good enough. No siree. The Bible says ‘an eye for an eye.’ He took two of my family, so I decided to take two of his to make things fair. Don’t you see?”

  Yes. Melissa saw it only too clearly. But his plan was faulty. When Travis didn’t show up, this madman would eventually get tired of waiting, and come up with another plan. At that point, she would probably be dead. But if by some miracle she was still breathing, she might be able to get away from him.

  She had to pray that, with a week having gone by already, Travis had decided not to try to see her again. Surely after this long he’d come to the conclusion that a permanent parting was best for all of them.

  What bitter irony! All this week she’d been praying he’d call or come to the clinic, because he couldn’t live without her and wanted to convince her of that. She’d lain awake all last night debating whether to call him. Life without him was no life at all. While she’d been finishing her portrait of Travis earlier, she’d made up her mind that when she got back to Salt Lake, she’d phone him and ask him to come to her condo so they could really talk.

  Incredibly, this killer had kidnapped her at the very moment she’d been planning what she would say to Travis. Now there was no second chance to blurt out her love for him. This monster had the upper hand and would be watching for him if he did come up here looking for her. There’d be no way to warn him except to moan loudly enough that he might hear her. But by then it would be too late.

  “I’ve been looking for over a year. He thought he could escape me, but it just goes to show he isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. I have friends who helped me track him down. I found him, all right. And what do you know—he has a kid and a girlfriend.”

  This was a scene right out of a bad movie.

  He was criminally insane and would carry out his plan as surely as the sun went down at night.

  “I’m going to keep you tied up right here until he comes for you. I figure if I take you and him out together, that leaves the kid. I’ll kill him later.”

  Oh, my darling Casey!

  “Ranger boy sure knows how to pick ’em.”

  A cold layer of sweat enveloped her body as Danny McCluskey ran his hands over her. She gathered her strength and head-butted him, the impact causing more blood to trickle down his face and chin. She was bleeding, too, but it had been worth it.

  With such a short fuse at this point, he was angered by everything. He kept looking around like a crazed animal, obviously expecting someone would come.

  She thought again of her last night here at the cabin with Travis. She’d been so afraid he still wanted Valerie that she’d ended it with him. And because she knew her family’s plans, Melissa realized no one would be coming up to Kamas this weekend.

  For the first time in her life, she had a conviction she was going to die. But not without a fight!

  After what seemed like hours of being strung up in this condition, she discovered her eyes staring at the ground cover. Her head drooped, feeling as if it weighed a hundred pounds. If only she could have some water, but there was no way he was going to untape her mouth. Her arms had gone numb and she found it hard to breathe.

  It could be days that he left her out here. Or he might decide to rape and shoot her before he went back to Salt Lake to hunt down Travis and Casey. This maniac would have no qualms about doing something horrible to a boy she loved like her own son. She needed to save them both, but how?

  * * *

  RELIEF SURGED THROUGH Travis when he drove up the road from town and saw her Jeep parked at the cabin. He jumped from the cab and raced to the front door.

  “Melissa?” He started knocking. When she didn’t answer, he knocked again and waited. He rang her phone once more. No answer. With the sun shining overhead, she might be out in back sketching or painting, even if she didn’t feel well.

  “Melissa?” he called as he walked toward the rear of the cabin. The last thing he wanted to do was frighten her. “It’s Travis! If you can hear me, answer me!” The second he rounded the corner his gut twisted, squeezing the breath out of him.

  Not only was the back door open, but there were signs of a struggle. The lawn chair she used had been tipped over and dented. Her acrylic paint tubes were scattered in every direction. He stooped to pick up her art pad, lying on top of an easel that appeared broken.

  His heart jumped in terror when he saw blood spatters on the pad.

  A few feet away he saw her cell phone, open. He checked her last outgoing call. It had been to her parents at five o’clock yesterday evening. Whoever had surprised her had abducted her too fast for her to call for help.

  If she was inside, he had to find out. His training in law enforcement had prepared him for this, but not when the
victim was the woman he was crazy in love with.

  He hadn’t seen Valerie when she was shot. His boss had been the one to tell him. This was different. If he found Melissa lying in there…

  Saying a prayer, he went inside. A thorough search turned up nothing. That meant there was a chance she was still alive.

  He phoned the firm on his own cell. “Roman?” Travis was in such a rage over the fiend who’d done this, he could hardly manage words. “I’m at Melissa’s cabin. Looks like she’s been abducted. One of the Colombians must have escaped the net while we were rounding them up a week ago, and has been hiding out. Maybe she caught him using the cabin while she was painting. There’s evidence she fought him.

  “I’m going after her right now. If this scum thinks he’s being followed, there’s no telling what he’ll do to Melissa. He has plans for her, or he would have killed her on the spot.”

  “What can I do?” Roman asked.

  “Send up Jose and Lon. Tell them to drive to the firebreak road where the marijuana was loaded.” There was no doubt in Travis’s mind the kidnapper had dragged her to the area where he’d been working most of the summer. “They’ll know where to head from there. I’ll phone them in a little while.”

  “I’m on it and will have a helicopter standing by,” Roman said. “Go get him.”

  Travis hurried to his truck. He pulled out his heat-seeking goggles and handgun from his backpack. After putting the weapon in his leg holster, he retrieved his rifle from the locker in the back of the truck. Fully equipped, Travis started through the forest on a run.

  He had to find her—find her in time…

  Forty-five minutes later he got a call from Jose. The guys were rushing to the harvest site and would stay in touch. He hung up and kept moving until his thermal goggles picked up an image he hadn’t expected to see until he reached his destination.