by Cara Carnes
Her heart pattered wildly as she watched the dust trail they left behind from the U-turn. They’d driven all the way over from their ranch outside Resino in case she needed help. Damn. No one had ever had her back like that. Ever.
Dallas added a few more questions to his list after listening to the conversation between Kamren and Dani via the mic she wore. He should’ve had Cord switch it off, but they needed whatever intel they could get. The friend didn’t like the father. No, she hated him. Why?
He started up the vehicle and glanced at Kamren through the rearview mirror. Her lips pursed in a thin line as she met his gaze. The other two trucks were headed back to Resino. The redhead shook her head.
Dallas nodded.
He and Addy had argued the merits of the second part of the plan vehemently the day before, but Dallas was determined they would get Kamren gone from Marville in a way she could stay away a while.
“We’re going to your farm next, Kamren. Until things die down, me and a couple of the guys are going to come over and help Riley tend to things,” he said.
“No. I’ve got it. I’m back, I’ll handle it.”
“Sweetheart, you can come with us when we do, but we’re helping. It’s not safe for you and Riley to go it alone. This isn’t us being alpha assholes; it’s us being smart.”
Her body tightened.
Fuck. He’d said something wrong.
“Tell you what,” he said. “Nolan, Jesse, and I will take turns going out there with Riley and you can help around our ranch. There’s always lots to do, and I know you’ll get it sorted a hell of a lot better than the operatives we assign to it at times. We’re cutting back on the ranching part, but it’ll take time.”
“I know we should shut our little farm down, but Rachelle loves the animals. Mom did, too.” Kamren’s voice was a barely audible whisper as she turned away and shoved the visor back into position. “It’s all we have left of them. It’s a crumbling piece of shit, but it’s our piece of shit.”
Dallas didn’t respond. Addy had warned him the house was in bad shape, but he hadn’t listened. She’d driven Riley over when she’d gathered Rachelle’s stuff.
Kamren’s eyes were squeezed shut. Head back, she’d shut down any further conversation with him about it, no doubt thanking her ears for ringing.
Addy was right.
He was pushing too hard to get answers and a way in so he could help. Why the hell it mattered was an answer he didn’t have. Truth told, he didn’t give a damn.
Addy navigated the vehicle back onto the highway and turned south. The full light of day offered no shadows or masks for the squat farmhouse. Overgrown shrubs and grass engulfed what’d once been a large front yard. The fence line was in disarray around the entire house.
What looked like trash bags and duct tape covered sections of the roof. One half of the porch sat crooked thanks to a crumbled support beam. Disgust filled him as he noted the extensive repairs needed.
The list built in his mind as they parked and Addy turned the vehicle off. Dallas had grown up on a ranch his entire life. He was raised to take a certain amount of pride in your home, and provide adequate care for your stock.
He followed Addy and Kamren through the garden. At least three-quarters of it was untended and weed-riddled. A few tomato plants and onions were planted in a cleaned off patch nearest the stairs.
Kamren bypassed the house and headed toward the back. The barn’s paint was chipped, but he noted the new wood along the top and near the door. Patchwork had been maintained. Some of his disgust lifted as they entered. The stalls were small, but clean and well kept.
Though he suspected he had Riley to thank for most of it, the evident care given to the area proved it’d been the focal point of the small farm for a long time. Chickens flew around in their coop when Kamren entered and tended them.
He stood and watched as she gathered eggs and fed them and checked their water. Then she sat and gathered one after another to make sure they were okay. She repeated the process with the goats, which were penned in a well-kept area to the west of the barn. A few cattle grazed lazily nearby.
He closed the distance when she headed toward bales of hay. He grabbed her by the shoulder and turned until her fiery, blue eyes landed on him like lasers. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I don’t want to push, but it’s important we understand the security needs out here.”
“It’s not your problem.” She sniffed. “I know I’ve failed this place. Every time I hear the floor creak under me or mop water from what was once my bedroom, I know what a screwup I’ve been.”
“Hey.” Dallas cupped her cheek. “Sweetheart, managing a place, even a smaller one like this, is hard work. It takes more than one person.”
“Which is why Brant hates me. I left Rache here to handle it alone, all so I could chase a stupid notion that…” She dragged in a ragged breath.
“A notion that what?” he asked gently.
“That someone killed my father,” she whispered. “No one believes me, but he was the best hunter and tracker there was. He wouldn’t have gone out and gotten lost, Dallas. And he sure as hell didn’t accidentally shoot himself.”
“That’s what’s in the backpack,” he guessed.
“Yes.”
“The women will help sort out everything you’ve got; they’ve got a whole crew. They call themselves The Pentagon.” He laughed when her eyes widened. “Yeah, I know. It sounds nuts, but they are a force to be reckoned with when they’re together. Trust the process. If it’s not working for you, I’ll wade in and call a stop to it, okay?”
“Okay. Now, let’s feed the cows. They get mean when they’re hungry.” Her voice resonated with determination. She needed the mundane task of feeding animals to chase away whatever demons she battled in her head.
He’d thought she was a druggie, but she was hunting her father’s killer. He couldn’t have been more wrong about her.
9
Kamren felt like a twelve-point buck in the sight lines of a hunter. Dallas guided her down a long hallway and into a large room. A large, very white room. The table was taller than normal and lit with a large computer display within the center. Plush leather seating, a cross between recliners and stools, sat around the table.
It was the people in the seats that terrified the living hell out of her. Large white boards and computer displays hugged every surface of the room. She gulped and sat between Dallas and Addy.
“Wow, Addy’s actually sitting down for this one. That’s a little—” the perky blonde gulped, “—terrifying.”
“Everyone, this is Kamren Garrett, Rachelle’s sister,” Dallas supplied. “You already know Addy, Mary, Dylan, and Vi. The other blonde is Bree. And that is Rhea. I think you met them briefly.”
The two women waved. Dallas looked around.
“Where’s Riley?” he asked. “I thought she always participated in these.”
“Something came up,” Rhea explained.
Kamren tightened. This was a terrible, terrible idea. She swallowed the dread drowning her hope and put the backpack on the table. As a sign of good faith, she pushed it across the surface and toward Vi and Mary. They stared at it. She stared at it.
Jesus, this was awkward.
She could practically feel the bullet’s trajectory as it shot straight through the finely woven strands of hope she’d created the past sixteen months. Surely one of them was strong enough to withstand whatever this was. One of them would link to her father’s death.
Answers.
The door swooshed open.
“Oh, great, you both made it.” Mary’s face brightened.
Kamren turned. Tears trekked down Rachelle’s cheeks as she closed the distance and squeezed Kamren so hard her left side screamed in agony. She bit back the pain. She’d endured far, far worse and would again for this moment.
“You’re back,” she cried. “I know I saw you yesterday, but it was so brief, then you were off again and I thought…I didn’t think
you’d be back.”
Kamren barely heard the statement. “I’m not leaving again. Like I said before, I’m here to stay, I swear. I’m sorry, Rachelle. For everything.”
“I’m sorry, too. I know you wanted it to be more than an accident, but I’m glad you’re finally ready to see things how they are. Riley and everyone will make you see. Her brothers are really good at this stuff.”
“Yes, they are,” Bree commented.
Kamren glanced at Riley, whose lips remained thin. To say her sister’s best friend wasn’t thrilled about the reunion was an understatement. Rachelle squeezed her hand.
“Are you okay? Last night?” Rachelle asked.
“Yeah, my ears are a little messed up. I’ll be fine, and the boys are safe. If Dallas and everybody here doesn’t see something credible, I’m done.” Her voice broke at the end. “I’ll leave it be.”
Rachelle looked around, disbelief evident in her wide eyes. Riley leaned forward. “What do you mean you’re done? Sixteen months and you’re finally ready to see reason and accept it’s time to move the hell on? Just like that?”
“Riles,” Dallas warned.
“No, you don’t know what she’s been like, what Rachelle has dealt with. She’s been a maniac.” Riley crossed her arms. “Rachelle finally filled me in last night. This entire thing is total lunacy.”
“Maybe we should dial it back a couple notches, sis, and go over what she’s gathered,” Dylan suggested. “You’re not here as a friend. Remember that or you’re gone.”
Riley glared at her brother, who was seated near Mary and Vi. Kamren shifted in her seat, suddenly wishing she was in Tibet, wherever the heck that was. Or maybe the North Pole. She could track Rudolph. Maybe become an elf and work for the big jolly dude in the red suit. Excellent plan.
“So, what are we doing here exactly? I’m afraid I missed a memo or a conversation or…something.” Rhea looked around.
Kamren reached toward the backpack, then put her hands into her lap, fisting them. Today was her moving forward by giving voice to what she’d clung to too long. “My father went missing one weekend just over eighteen months ago after guiding a hunting-slash-camping expedition on a lease not too far from our property. He’d been through the area hundreds of times. He was found dead on our property. The sheriff ruled it an accident.”
“She thinks he was killed,” Riley finished. Arms crossed, she motioned toward the backpack. “She’s been stalking all the hunters, lease owners, and anyone else she thinks might have answers. Rachelle finally explained it last night.”
Stalking.
She’d hoped her sister understood why she had to get answers, closure. After everything they’d been through, she needed to know what happened. Why.
“My father managed leases and hunting trips. He guided them, provided supplies, helped determine the best locations, cleaned the kills—whatever was necessary to make it optimal for the elite hunters,” Kamren said. “I wasn’t the only one who thought it suspicious that he suddenly got lost so close to home and then accidentally shot himself. I’m just the only one willing to say it publicly.”
When no one spoke, she continued.
“I went looking when he didn’t show up on time. He was like clockwork. I couldn’t find a lead, a track to follow. Then, four days later he was there, in a field I’d searched at least six times. Sheriff Haskell said it was an accidental shooting and refused to investigate.”
“And the coroner?” Bree asked softly. “What did the report say?”
“Inconclusive.” She motioned toward the bag. “Everything I’ve found is in there. I keep thinking I’m close, but I can’t make heads or tails of what I’m finding.”
Vi took the bag and unzipped it. Dallas had told Kamren more about the women on the way into the compound. He’d meant to reassure her, but he had no idea how much it increased her anxiety. Vi and Mary had graduated from MIT before they were eighteen. They had gotten their doctorates by the time they were twenty. Who did that? Bree and Rhea were freaking science geniuses. One had created some wicked cool energy system and the other was a biochemical weapons specialist.
Buzzards picked at her insides as Vi and Mary worked together to pull out the haphazardly organized papers. The two thumbed through the stuff she’d gathered.
“Kamren, out of curiosity, why did you organize them in this pattern?” Mary asked.
She tightened beneath the inquiry. How could she justify a hunch? An uneducated hunch wouldn’t hold weight against the level of intelligence brimming within the room. She was about to be boiled alive, gutted like that twelve-point buck she’d thought about earlier.
Dallas took her chin and turned it so she looked at him. “It wasn’t a judgment, sweetheart. They’re going to have to ask questions.”
Her eyes burned. She fisted her hands and nodded. “Sorry, this is the first time I’ve shared the information with anyone after…” She swallowed the rest, unwilling to risk the fledgling bond forming between her and her sister.
“I didn’t believe her,” Rachelle said. “She showed me when she first started, and all I saw was a bunch of pictures and nonsense. But she kept going, and I was so angry I didn’t want to listen to what she was saying. That’s on me. That’s why she hasn’t shown anyone else.”
Kamren reeled from the confession. Gut-wrenching regret and guilt filled her, but she didn’t respond. She deserved the blow, the angered admission and accusation-laden words.
“Dad wasn’t a good man,” she admitted. “I shouldn’t have cared, but I did. I do.”
She took a deep breath and powered through the emotional roller coaster. Eyes averted, she continued. “At first I had them organized by person, then I realized some people shared the same leases. I never determined who hired him for that trip, so I had to investigate anyone he’d worked with. I went back three years.”
“So this was by lease then?” Vi asked.
Kamren nodded. “Some people share leases since they’re pricey. It really depends on the land owner and what they’re willing to do. Dad only worked with the large leases.”
She spent the next few minutes going over how hunting leases worked. The women asked pointed questions, but Kamren found herself relaxing with each question. They didn’t speak down to her or make her feel ignorant. They didn’t use big fancy words she couldn’t understand.
They were normal.
Nice.
“Wow, you’ve been busy.” Rhea thumbed through the surveillance. “And thorough. Where are these pictures?”
“Austin.” She swallowed. Now came the part where she admitted how determined she’d become. “Three people I’ve marked as the most viable leads work out of an office in downtown Austin. I spent the last few months tracking their meetings and movements.”
“How? With what money? Rachelle’s been eating ramen noodles the past three months, and you’ve been in downtown Austin? Where did the money for hotels come from?” Riley demanded.
“I took the bus from Nomad to San Antonio, then to Austin. I got a barhop gig to cover food and investigative costs like printing pictures and the like,” she said. “That made sure I could send money back home.”
“And the hotel?” Rachelle asked.
“I rented a storage unit on the east side of town. It was small but a good base of operations.” Heat rose in her cheeks. She’d definitely entered trailer trash country now. Who would ever consider renting a storage unit to live in for three months?
Addy laughed. “That’s pretty clever. I was on a four-month surveillance once and didn’t think of that.”
“Well, you weren’t in Austin. I don’t think they had storage units in Bolivia,” Mary replied. “I’m adding that to our list, though. It is ingenious.”
“Wait, you sent money back home?” Riley asked, gaze narrowed.
“Back off, sis. This isn’t the Spanish Inquisition,” Dallas said.
“It should be,” the woman argued.
“She sent money, Riles,�
�� Rachelle replied. “Four or five hundred every month, like clockwork.”
“Then why the heck were you eating ramen?”
“Because it’s good and the money needed to be used on feed for the animals and supplies for the farm and the electric bill. Or shoes. I ate at the Sip and Spin. Dani fed me lots, too. I know you want to blame Kamren for everything, but she’s been helping how she could.” Rachelle shrugged as she looked down at her feet.
Kamren suspected most of the money had gone to shoes, especially since she’d just cleaned out what little money she’d had last week catching the electric bill up.
“She killed people last night, Rache. I’m sorry, but I’m not ready to believe she’s changed at all, and you shouldn’t either,” Riley said. Kamren shifted beneath the accusation within the woman’s words, but a part of her warmed. Her sister had a very protective friend in her corner.
Kamren couldn’t help but wonder what that was like, then she realized she kind of did. Dallas and Addy and the other women gathered around were taking their time to look at what she’d gathered. That was more than anyone had ever done for her, and she couldn’t help but wish there was some way to repay their kindness.
Vi slapped a fist down on the table. “And this is where I take control of this meeting. We’re running off into the weeds and chasing some weird-ass squirrel.”
Kamren’s gut soured. It’d been going decently at first. She dared a peek over at Dallas. Concern flashed in his gaze when their eyes met. He reached over and took her hand.
“Okay, we’re going back to the topic at hand, but we’re going to do a cone-of-silence question-and-answer real quick so the air is fully cleared here,” Vi said as she glanced over at Riley. “If you don’t like the results, you might want to leave. I love you, but you’re destructive to this process and I can’t have that.”
Riley didn’t comment. Arms crossed, she glared at everyone in the room.