The list was endless. Since gaining her freedom just months ago, she counted her blessings on an hourly basis like a litany, wondering if the day would ever dawn when she’d stop thinking about the horror of the past.
Thank God for work. During those precious hours when she was immersed in it, she forgot everything else. It was her salvation.
Reaching for the latest Royal Astrophysics Journal, she turned to her article about the discovery of a brown dwarf. She had submitted it before her imprisonment. With the advent of sophisticated light sensors and adaptive optics at Mt. Palomar, where her father worked as one of the head astronomers, she’d had access to the powerful tools needed to resolve smaller, dimmer objects near stars.
Pleased to see her words in print at last, she settled down to read the piece while she peeled an orange for dessert.
Fresh fruit. Something rare in prison. She couldn’t get enough of it or fresh, crisp lettuce, which she’d piled inside her sandwich and devoured like a rabbit.
But her enjoyment of the juicy fruit was short. She couldn’t help but picture Consuela Juarez, the woman in the next cell, lying on her bunk right now while she sobbed for her daughter, Rosita.
The poor thing cried for her child every day after lunch. Thinking about it tore Dana’s heart out. Even the distance stretching between California and Texas didn’t ease the pain.
Dana stopped reading, unable to concentrate.
Since her release, she’d been to Anaheim, California, a dozen times to spend the day with the five-year-old who was being raised by her aunt Paquita. The impoverished woman had more children than she could handle.
Dana always slipped her money to take care of Rosita’s needs, but there were some problems money couldn’t solve. It wouldn’t be long before an overwhelmed Paquita placed Rosita in foster care.
Yet every time Dana visited Consuela at Fielding Women’s Prison outside San Bernadino, she chose to tell her only the good things about her adorable daughter.
Consuela was a twenty-two-year-old mother in for fifteen years on a manslaughter charge. Dana was convinced the woman had killed her drug-riddled, abusive, maniac ex-husband in self-defense. But she’d had no high-priced lawyer to defend her.
By the time Consuela lived out her prison sentence, her daughter would likely be a troubled young woman. By then it would be too late to help her. Dana knew Consuela would give up on life long before then.
Dana could relate to that state of mind better than anyone else. She’d talked to her best friend Heidi Poletti about Consuela. Heidi in turn had talked to her husband, Gideon, the San Diego homicide detective who’d been responsible for getting Dana freed from prison. It was Heidi who asked her husband to look into Consuela’s case and see what he could do.
So far there’d been no word; however, Dana knew Gideon was working on it. These things took time.
Time was all you had in prison. Time to grieve endlessly for her beloved sister, whose undetected brain tumor had caused such tragedy. Time to think about killing yourself to end the agony. Like Dana, Consuela lived with the additional burden of believing it was a sin to commit suicide. Which meant there was no alternative but to tough it out until you’d done your time.
No one knew what that was like unless they’d been locked up. At the thought, Dana broke out in a cold sweat and felt sick in the pit of her stomach.
She started reading the article again, then heard another knock on the door. It had to be Glen with some other trumped-up excuse to see her. He could stand there till doomsday. She continued to sit there and read.
This time there was a distinct rap on the door. “Ms. Turner?” a deep, unfamiliar male voice called out. “Delivery!”
She shut the journal and hurried over to the door. When she unlocked it, the first thing she saw was a tall, black-haired, rock-solid man in a khaki-brown uniform. He filled her vision.
For a moment she thought he was one of those legendary Texas Rangers. Was that a subpoena in his hand? Had he tricked her into answering the door?
She thought she would be sick in front of him. Too late she read the inscription on his badge and realized he was a driver for IPS, not a police officer!
JACE COULDN’T IMAGINE what he’d done to cause the willowy brunette to react like that. The blood had all but drained from her lovely face. Right off, the woman’s vulnerability disarmed him.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, of course. I just wasn’t expecting anyone.”
He felt a stab of guilt. Tony stood near the other end of the trailer listening, hoping to discover if the woman who answered the door was the one he’d come to see.
“I noticed the Toyota next to your trailer. It’s the first time I’ve seen a car parked here all week, so I assumed you were inside.”
“I came home for lunch today. N-normally I stay at work,” she stammered. “You have a package for me?”
He nodded. “If you’ll sign here.” Jace handed her the clipboard. As she put her signature on the line, her fingers trembled. He wondered what caused her fright.
Though he tried not to be obvious, he couldn’t help but gaze at her classic features. If she ever smiled, she’d be a raving beauty.
Dressed in a pale pink blouse and jeans that she filled out nicely, she had a femininity that appealed strongly to the male in him. He took in her long legs—the kind he admired on a woman.
When she gave the clipboard back to him, he found himself so distracted by her flowery scent he almost forgot to put the package in her hands.
Clutching it against her chest like a shield, she said, “I’m glad you found me at home. From now on, would you please leave any deliveries for me outside my door, even if I’m not here? No one’s going to steal them, and I don’t want Mr. Mason over at the ranch house disturbed because of me.”
He looked into her translucent gray eyes fringed by dark lashes and realized he was staring.
“I’ll be happy to do that.”
“Thank you.”
As she started to shut the door on him, a voice called out, “Hello, Dana.”
Jace had all but forgotten about his passenger. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d lost his focus simply by looking at a woman. It shouldn’t have happened.
“What are you doing here, Tony?”
She sounded…outraged, yet she’d spoken in a controlled voice. Jace watched her eyes darken as the other man approached from the side of the trailer where the van was parked.
“What do you think?” He flashed her his vacuous smile.
She didn’t show fear, but judging from her wintry reception, the guy was persona non grata. That came as no surprise to Jace. What did surprise him was to hear her invite Tony inside the trailer.
Having no excuse to linger, Jace disappeared around the front end of the trailer, then stood close by, hoping to hear more conversation. But if they were talking, he couldn’t hear them.
He let another minute pass before he climbed in the van and did some paperwork while he listened through the open window. There was no sound coming from the interior of the trailer. That bothered him a lot. Anything could be going on in there.
It might not have to do with the case he was working on, but he sensed trouble. After hanging around as long as he dared, Jace started the engine and headed back toward town.
He didn’t like Tony Roberts. Worse, he couldn’t abide the thought of the two of them together, shut away in such an isolated spot.
The street ended just beyond the Mason house. There weren’t any other neighbors, just dense clusters of junipers and pines.
Jace had about an hour’s worth of deliveries to make in Cloud Rim. When he’d finished the last of them, he’d drive back to the trailer. He could always use the pretext that he needed her to fill out a form allowing their company to leave packages without getting a signature. That way he could check things out.
DANA PUT the overnight package from her father on the table. She was still trying to recover fr
om the shock of thinking the IPS driver was a police officer. She wondered how long it would take her to control her fear every time someone in law enforcement crossed her path.
The only reason Dana had let Tony inside the trailer was to avoid a confrontation with him in front of the stranger. Now that she’d heard the van drive away, she could concentrate on getting rid of her unwanted visitor as fast as possible.
He’d set his bag on the floor and was looking around as if he intended to stay for a while.
To think there’d ever been a time when she’d dated him, let alone kissed him. It had been a short, stormy month that had ended when she discovered he’d only been using her to get in good with her dad. Looking at him now, he was as pitiful as Glen, only for different reasons.
“Months ago my father informed me you were told to get your Ph.D. somewhere other than Cal-Tech. You have your gall showing your face here,” she said coldly.
“I came to patch things up between us. It was all a misunderstanding.”
“You committed a crime!” Her anger rose quickly.
“I know that’s what your father believes,” he said in exasperation. “But he would never listen to my side of it.”
“You didn’t have a side, Tony. While I was in prison, Dad figured out what you’d been up to. It was your insatiable ambition that did you in—using the material off my disks to pass off as your own work. How sad. You were a graduate student with a lot of promise.”
“I know that’s what it looked like, but I was only trying to advance your theories while you couldn’t work on them yourself. Don’t you see? I put my name on a few projects you’d shared with me because you couldn’t.”
Dana moved closer. “You should have visited me at least one time if you expected me to fall for that fairy tale now.”
“How could I do that? After the fight we had before you were arrested, I was afraid you’d refuse to see me.”
She shook her head. “That bald-faced lie isn’t even worthy of you. I can see it in your eyes. Despite my innocence, you still haven’t made up your mind if I murdered my sister or not. What’s worse, you don’t give a damn, because all you’ve ever cared about is you.”
“That’s not true. If I felt guilty, do you think I would have come to this backwater in the hope of becoming your assistant? I thought we could start over again. We made a great team.”
“You’re delusional. You’d do anything to get back in my father’s good graces. You’d be the last person I would ever hire for any reason. Please leave. The door’s right behind you.”
He flashed her the phony smile that had gotten her into trouble the first time. “I can’t go anywhere. My car’s broken down in Fort Davis. I got a ride with the IPS driver, and now he’s gone.”
It was just like Tony to use someone else rather than pay for a rental car. He was insufferable.
“That’s tough. I guess you’re going to have to hoof it back to town and take your chances that the motel isn’t full.”
“Come on, Dana,” he pleaded. “I was hoping to sleep on your couch tonight. For old times’ sake.” He closed the distance and pulled her into his arms before kissing her.
Revolted, she pushed him away. “‘For old times’ sake’ implies there were some good ones.”
With that comment, the mask fell away, revealing the depths of his anger. It must have been humiliating to have been given the boot by her famous father.
“You’ve changed.”
“Betrayal does that to a person.”
“You’re as hard as your old man.”
Tony was nothing more than a spoiled brat who’d never learned the meaning of the word no. Clearly, he thought this was some kind of game he could win.
“He could have brought you up on criminal charges. Be thankful you got off lightly. Now get out!”
A strange glitter entered his eyes. “Not yet.”
What happened next came as a total surprise. One second she was standing there. In the next, he’d grasped her shoulders and pinned her down on the couch. His hands were everywhere.
Realizing he was out of control, she summoned enough strength to fling her body lengthwise on the couch. She grabbed beneath the cushion at the far end and whipped out her father’s handgun.
At the sight of the weapon pointed at him, he pulled back far enough for her to get to her feet.
She pushed the hair out of her face. “Maybe now you’ll change your mind about leaving.”
Her dad had insisted she keep his Glock nine millimeter in the trailer in case there was an intruder. Until she’d spent time in prison, she hadn’t understood the need for a woman to protect herself.
The bloodcurdling stories she’d heard from her fellow inmates had taught her lessons she wouldn’t have learned elsewhere. She paid attention to her father when he taught her how to shoot.
For the first time since she’d known Tony, Dana saw astonishment on his face. He got up slowly from the couch.
“It’s against the law for an ex-felon to be in possession of a firearm.”
“I was pardoned.”
He darted her a wild-eyed expression. “You even know how to use that thing?”
She stood her ground. “Shall we find out?”
After a moment he must have realized this wasn’t an argument he was likely to win. He picked up his overnight bag. “I’m going.”
“Good. Don’t ever come near me or my father again.”
His menacing expression was a revelation. “The judge made a mistake when he let you out.”
“Tell that to God. Goodbye, Tony.”
CHAPTER TWO
AFTER THE TRAILER DOOR closed behind him, Dana’s legs almost gave way. She put the weapon on the coffee table, then ran over to lock up after him.
Had she really pulled a gun on Tony?
When her strength returned, she ran back to the table for her cell phone. She needed to talk to Heidi. The distance between Texas and California didn’t seem as great when she could call her closest friend at virtually any time.
Once she’d punched in the digits, she paced the small space waiting for her to pick up.
“Hello?”
“Heidi?” she cried.
“Dana—what’s wrong?”
“You’ll never believe what I just did.” Her voice shook. “I don’t believe it.” In a torrent of words, she told her friend everything.
“I bet Tony’s never been so terrified in his life,”
Heidi blurted. “I would have loved to see that! He’s probably halfway to Fort Davis already. Wait till I tell Gideon.”
“No—don’t!”
“Why not? After what Tony tried to do, you would have had every right to shoot him in self-defense.”
“That argument didn’t work for Consuela.”
After a slight hesitation, “Point taken,” Heidi said in a subdued tone. “Let’s just be thankful Tony felt threatened enough to leave.”
“Believe me, I am. Who would have guessed at all that anger?”
“According to Gideon, the guys who walk around with wide smiles and phony handshakes are like ticking bombs on the inside, ready to go off. Something bad must have happened to Tony in his childhood, but he’s no longer your problem. I’m so thankful your dad insisted you keep that gun.”
“Me too.” No telling how far Tony would have gone in his rage if she’d had no protection.
“Is that strange kid next door still pestering you? You know who I mean. The one who looks like General George Custer without the hat.”
Heidi had met Glen when she’d helped Dana move in to the trailer. The description was so perfect, it made Dana laugh at a time when she didn’t think laughing was possible. “Yes. Glen was here earlier trying to get me to eat dinner with him and his grandfather tonight. He refuses to go away.”
“Then I’m doubly glad you’ve got that gun.”
“Heidi!”
“Let’s face it, Dana. You’ve had your share of lowlifes with Glen and
Tony. Where are all those tall, tough, tempting Texan males I’ve always heard about?”
Dana’s gaze darted to the overnight package. She knew of one fitting that description who drove an IPS van. No doubt his wife was waiting for him to get home from work.
How would it be to welcome him into your arms every night? Heidi would never stop teasing her if Dana told her the IPS man looked like a god.
“Dana? Are you still there?”
“Yes.”
“Are you holding out on me?”
Heat crept into her face. “No. Of course not.”
“Yes you are. You always say of course not when you’re telling a blatant lie.”
“I have no interest in men anymore, Heidi.”
“That’s because you’re afraid. But the right man will help you get over that. You’ll see.”
“I have to get going now. Thanks for listening to me.”
“I’ll call you later tonight to make sure you’re all right. Maybe by then you’ll be willing to tell me about this blue-eyed wonder.”
“They’re dark brown,” Dana said before she realized her mistake.
“Mmm, nice. Blond hair or black?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Liar, but I love you anyway.”
Tears filled Dana’s eyes. “I love you too. I owe you and Gideon my life.”
“Aren’t we past that yet?”
“No—I still can’t believe I’m free.” She took a deep breath. “Has Gideon said anything about Consuela?”
“Not yet. I swear I’ll phone you the minute I hear anything. Don’t forget we’re driving out to see you next week. We’ll probably arrive in Cloud Rim next Thursday around noon, but I’ll keep you posted.”
“Can’t wait till you get here.”
“Me too. Talk to you tonight.”
Once they’d said goodbye, Dana put the gun back where she’d hidden it. After grabbing the overnight package, she left for work, anxious to see what her father had sent her.
Beneath A Texas Sky (Harlequin Super Romance) Page 2