Gunfire on the Ranch

by Delores Fossen

  Yes, there’d been plenty of good times, and most of those moments had centered on him.

  “I would ask you to go to the break room...” he said, arching his eyebrow as if that were a question rather than an attempt at a joke.

  Despite everything going on, Ivy had to fight back a smile. “Probably not a good idea.”

  Theo kept his eyes on her as if waiting for something more. Conversation, maybe? An assurance that she was okay?

  Another kiss?

  If it was the kiss, then Ivy imagined it would be the kiss that people gave each other when they were used to kissing. When that kiss would suddenly make all the bad things go away. Something that it couldn’t do. But it could cause the old heat to slide right through her. In fact, just the thought of kissing him did that to her. It also helped that Theo was so close to her that she caught his scent.

  More of that heat came.

  “I’ve seen that look before.” He brushed his fingers over the center of her forehead, which was bunched up.

  Now she waited, because she wasn’t sure where he was going with this. Maybe he had noticed the need in her expression. Or perhaps he was picking up on all the other things—the worry, the fatigue and, yes, the fear.

  He didn’t take his fingers from her face. Instead, Theo slipped them lower, to her cheek, and his touch—warm and soothing—lingered a moment there. Even though he didn’t say anything, they had an entire conversation. About this mutual attraction that was messing with their minds. About what had torn them apart in the past. Even what might bring them back together in the future.

  Nathan.

  Theo must have realized this wasn’t going to be something they could hash out now. Nor should they be doing this. Not with the danger still out there. And that’s probably why he stepped back. Not far enough, though. Of course, several rooms over might not have been far enough to get her body to cool down.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, the frown returning.

  Those two words certainly started the cooling-down process. “For what?”

  “For not being able to keep you safe.”

  That’s where she thought this was leading, and she didn’t like it one bit. “I could be the reason you’re in danger,” she reminded him. Ivy was about to repeat his apology to him, but then she stopped when an idea went through her head. “Has anyone checked to see if my father was maybe investigating Wesley?”

  She expected Theo to look surprised at the abrupt change in conversation, but he merely nodded. “I did last night. All your father’s cases aren’t digitized, but Gabriel did a summary of each of them and put the info in a master file and shared it with me.”

  Now Ivy was the one who was surprised, and she felt her eyes widen. She hadn’t known about the master file or the sharing part, and Gabriel must have been able to get over the rocky past with Theo for him to give him that info.

  “And?” she asked.

  “Your father didn’t specifically mention Wesley’s name, but he was working on a case that involved SAPD. Sherman had busted some guys for drugs, and he found some guns on them that had been confiscated in a raid in San Antonio. The weapons had been reported as destroyed, but clearly they weren’t.”

  Ivy took a moment to think that through. “So a San Antonio cop sold or gave them the gun?”

  Theo lifted his shoulder. “Or it could have been a paperwork error. It happens,” he added. “I’ll keep digging, but so far I haven’t found anything that connects Wesley to the chain of custody of those guns.”

  And without that, it would be almost impossible to tie Wesley to it—and to her father’s murder.

  Ivy shook her head. “Maybe I’m overthinking this. Your father was convicted of the murders, and he has never denied doing it.” Of course, that was mainly because Travis had been drunk and couldn’t remember. “Anyway, maybe Wesley isn’t dirty at all. Maybe that drug bust my father made is just muddying already muddy waters.”

  Theo certainly didn’t argue with that. Which meant they were back to Lacey and August. And speaking of August, Ivy heard the man’s voice in the squad room. A very unhappy voice. It wasn’t a shock that he was riled about being brought back in again for questioning.

  “There’d better be a damn good reason you dragged me back here,” August shouted. And yes, it was a shout. “Because I’m sick and tired of being accused of things I didn’t do.”

  Gabriel had been at one of the deputies’ desks, but he got to his feet and motioned for August to follow him. Her brother didn’t shout, but he was scowling.

  Both Theo and she stepped to the side so that Gabriel could lead August into his office. The watch, envelope and report were no longer there. They’d been couriered to the crime lab.

  “First things first,” Gabriel said to August. “Tell me about Belinda Travers.”

  “Who?” August made a face. “Never heard of her.”

  “Well, she’s heard of you. She says you were supposed to meet her in a bar in San Antonio, but then someone kidnapped her.”

  “What?” August howled. “She’s lying.”

  Gabriel and Theo exchanged glances, both of them clearly not happy with that denial. Maybe when the woman was able to talk to them, she could prove that August was the liar.

  Gabriel dragged in a long breath and turned his computer monitor in August’s direction. “Tell me about this,” Gabriel ordered him. It was a picture of her father’s watch.

  Before August’s attention actually landed on the screen, he’d already opened his mouth. No doubt to shout something again about how innocent he was. But he not only closed his mouth, he also moved in closer for a better look.

  “Where did you get that?” August demanded.

  “I asked you a question first,” Gabriel fired back. He didn’t add more, maybe because he wanted to see where August would go with this.

  It didn’t take long for August to respond. He cursed. It wasn’t exactly angry cursing, though. His shoulders dropped, and while he shook his head, August sank down on the edge of Gabriel’s desk.

  “Hell,” August mumbled. That definitely wasn’t a denial, and neither was his body language. “I need to know where you got the watch,” August said, and this time it wasn’t a demand. Even though he didn’t add a please, it was there, unspoken.

  “I figured it’d come from you,” Gabriel answered.

  Since August was a hothead, his normal response would have been to verbally blast Gabriel for suggesting that. He didn’t. Mercy, did that mean it’d actually come from August? If so, how had he gotten it, and why had he used it to try to set up Lacey?

  “Start talking,” Theo ordered him. He stepped closer to his uncle, violating his personal space, and August spared him a glance before his gaze darted away.

  “I found the watch shortly after Travis’s trial,” August explained after a long pause. “It was in the barn at Travis’s ranch.” He looked up at Theo. “You know that corner where your daddy used to store sacks of feed? Well, there were some loose boards on the wall,” he said when Theo nodded. “I looked behind them and saw the watch.”

  Theo tilted his head, his mouth tightening. Gabriel had a similar expression—one of skepticism.

  “SAPD went through that barn,” Theo reminded him. “So did Gabriel and Jameson.”

  August nodded. “So did I, and I didn’t see it. Someone had tucked it up behind the boards. I think the only reason I found it was that some of the nails had given way and caused the board to come loose.”

  Ivy supposed it was possible that Travis had taken the watch and then hidden it there. Well, it was believable if you discounted the fact that Travis had been drunk the night of the murders. Apparently, he’d been so drunk that he’d passed out shortly thereafter.

  “How do you think my dad’s watch got there?” Ivy came out and asked.

  “I have no id
ea.” Now August shifted his attention to her. “But this still doesn’t make my brother guilty. The killer could have easily planted it there hours and even days after the crime. Like I said, I didn’t find it until after the trial, and that was months later.”

  “You found it and yet you didn’t turn it over to Gabriel?” Theo’s mouth was in a flat line now.

  “I couldn’t see the point of it,” August answered without hesitation. “Travis had just gotten a life sentence. I didn’t think it would do much good if folks knew a dead man’s watch had been found in his alleged killer’s barn.”

  “It wasn’t alleged,” Gabriel said. “He was convicted. And you should have given the watch to me instead of trying to use it as some kind of ploy to set up Lacey Vogel.”

  “What?” August jumped to his feet, and she saw that flash of temper that’d been missing the last couple of minutes. “Is that what she said I did? Because I sure as hell didn’t.”

  Theo and Gabriel exchanged more glances. Confused ones. Ivy was right there with them.

  “Someone put the watch on Lacey’s vehicle,” Theo explained. “She tossed the watch aside, and that person then took it and sent it to a lab. It has both Sherman Beckett’s blood and Lacey’s prints. Not your prints, though. Why is that if you’re the one who found it?”

  August’s gaze slashed between the two lawmen, and his eyes widened before he cursed again. “My prints weren’t on it because I used a paper towel to pick it up. I then wrapped it in that towel and put it in Travis’s house. In plain view on the coffee table in the living room. I figured if Jodi and Theo came back, they’d see it and turn it in.”

  Theo huffed. “Why the hell would you do that?”

  Ivy wanted to know the same thing. To the best of her knowledge, Theo and Jodi had never gone back to the house. Like her own parents’ house, Travis’s place had been empty. Abandoned.

  “I didn’t want the watch at my house,” August said as if that explained everything. “I just figured it’d be better if I left it at Travis’s.”

  “Better because it would seem as if someone had put it there to taunt the police,” Theo snapped. “You did that to try to make my father look innocent. Or at least that’s why you did if you’re telling us the truth.”

  “I am,” August insisted.

  Maybe he was, but if so, he didn’t deny Theo’s accusation about leaving the watch to make Travis appear innocent.

  “Someone must have taken the watch from Travis’s house,” August went on. “But why would that person then want to set up Ivy’s stepdaughter?”

  Ivy didn’t know, but she had a theory. “Lacey hates me and would do anything to get back at me. It wouldn’t surprise me if she had had someone go through both my parents’ and Travis’s places. Maybe so she could find something she could use against me. Something to help her win a lawsuit to get her hands on her dad’s money.”

  All three men were staring at her now. Maybe waiting for her to come up with more, but Ivy didn’t have more. She didn’t have a clue how Lacey would hope to connect the watch to her.

  But Theo apparently did.

  Still, there was something about all of this that didn’t make sense. Ivy gave that some more thought but had to shake her head. “That seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to cast some doubt on my name.”

  Theo lifted his shoulder. “Maybe it’s all she could find and figured she’d use it. By having her own prints on it, too, she might think it takes suspicion off her. It doesn’t.” Theo shifted his gaze to August. “Nor you. Gabriel could file charges against you for withholding evidence.”

  August’s mouth practically dropped open, and he snapped to Gabriel. “By the time I found the watch, the investigation and the trial were over.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Gabriel answered. “Anything connected to the case should have been given to me.”

  “What the hell would you have to gain by bringing charges against me?” August’s temper was not only back, but it had also risen a couple of notches.

  “Justice,” Gabriel answered without hesitation. “Plus, if you’d given me the watch, we’d wouldn’t be in this situation now of wondering who’s trying to use it and why.”

  August would have no doubt responded to that with a fury-laced tirade, but Theo’s phone rang, the sound knifing through the room. The moment Theo glanced at the screen, Ivy knew from his suddenly tight expression that there was a problem.

  “It’s Jameson,” Theo told her, and he answered the call.

  Ivy moved even closer to Theo so she could hear what her brother was saying, but it was a very short conversation. One that ended with Theo cursing and taking hold of her arm.

  “We need to leave now,” Theo said. “Jameson said there’s an armed intruder on the grounds of the safe house.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Theo had been on plenty of assignments where he’d faced down killers, but that suddenly felt like a drop in the bucket compared to what he was facing now.

  His son could be in grave danger.

  That in itself was bad enough, but in the back of his mind he also had to wonder if this was a trap to draw Ivy and him out for yet another attack. Hell, even that wasn’t worse than an intruder going after Nathan.

  “Just stay calm,” Jodi said from the other end of the line.

  She was whispering, something she’d done since she had taken over the call from Jameson. His sister was in the bathroom with Nathan while Jameson was at the front of the house to make sure the intruder they’d seen didn’t get inside. She was keeping her voice low so that anyone outside the house wouldn’t be able to hear her and pinpoint her location.

  “Any idea where the intruder is now?” Gabriel asked from the front seat of the cruiser. He was driving—something he’d insisted on doing—not just so they’d have more backup but also because he’d been concerned that Theo and Ivy were too upset to be speeding down the rural road.

  Gabriel was right. Theo was upset. But Ivy was to the point of being panicked. That was no doubt why Jodi kept reminding them to stay calm.

  “Jameson just said he spotted the guy again,” Jodi relayed. “He’s in the ditch near the front of the road.”

  That probably meant the guy had tripped the motion sensor and that’s how Jameson had known he was there in the first place. Maybe now that Jameson knew his location, he could just shoot him or keep him pinned down until they got there. Theo would have liked to have the guy alive, but he didn’t want that to happen at the expense of Nathan, Jodi and Jameson.

  “The ditch doesn’t lead to the house,” Jodi added. “Even if the man crawls toward us, the nearest he can get is about twenty yards.”

  That was still close. Too close. The goon could fire into the house, and the shots could make it through the walls and into the bathroom. Of course, if the gunman lifted his head to fire, Jameson should be able to take him out.

  Provided the goon didn’t shoot Jameson first, that is. But since that made Theo’s own panic soar, he reminded himself that Jameson was a capable lawman. A lawman who was protecting his nephew and his brother’s fiancée.

  “How did this person find the safe house?” Ivy asked. Her voice was hoarse, no doubt because her throat was tight. Her knuckles were turning white from the grip she had on the seat. “Did he follow us the first time we went there?”

  Not likely. Theo was almost certain they hadn’t been followed, and it would have been fairly easy to spot someone doing that on this road.

  “The listening device,” Theo guessed. “Even though we whispered when we were inside, someone still could have heard us. Plus, all three of our suspects were in the sheriff’s office and could have overheard something.”

  Ivy whispered the profanity that Theo was thinking. They’d known about those possible bugs, but they’d gotten so caught up in the danger and investigation that
they might not have been as careful as they could have been. Not just with the bug, either. Because it was also possible that someone had sneaked into the parking lot of the sheriff’s building and planted tracking devices on the cruisers.

  “Is Jameson sure there’s just one intruder?” Ivy asked several moments later.

  “He thinks just the one,” Jodi answered.

  His sister could be saying that to calm Ivy’s nerves. But Theo figured the only thing that would calm her was for Ivy to see Nathan and make sure all was well. That might not happen for a while. For one thing, they were still a good ten minutes out. For another, the thug might start shooting at them the moment they got there. If he wasn’t alone, then Gabriel could be driving right into a trap. That’s the reason Theo took out his backup weapon and handed it to Ivy.

  “It’s just a precaution,” he said when her eyes widened.

  “Keep watch around us,” Gabriel reminded them, and then added to Ivy, “That’s a precaution, too.”

  A huge one. Because this stretch of road had plenty of trees. Ditches, too. More thugs could be lying in wait for them.

  Those last few miles seemed to take an eternity, though Theo was certain Gabriel was going as fast as he could safely go. When Gabriel finally reached the turn to the house, he slowed and glanced around.

  “Jodi, I’m going to hang up and text Jameson,” Gabriel told her. “I’ve got a visual on the house and the ditch, but I can’t see the gunman.” Gabriel did text his brother, and it only took a few seconds for Jameson to reply.

  The guy is near the mailbox, Jameson responded, and Gabriel read the text to them.

  “Get down on the seat,” Theo instructed Ivy, and he lowered his window just a fraction. “If you drive up closer, I’ll see if I can get this idiot to surrender,” he added to Gabriel.

  Gabriel did begin to inch the cruiser closer just as his phone buzzed with a call. “It’s not Jameson,” he said. “It’s the hospital, but I’ll call them back.” Instead, he kept his attention on the ditch.