by Linda Conrad
Smiling to himself, he nodded but was sure she didn’t see him. His eyes had adjusted well to the low light coming from just the stars. Hers soon would, too.
In a moment she walked up to stand beside him with her gun drawn. “You lead the way,” she whispered low. “I’ll stay close.”
He was concerned about walking on the caliche gravel due to any noise the soles of their shoes might make. So he led her into the dusty dirt and weeds at the side. They would be able to stay close to this narrow road for several hundred yards, at least until it ran along the top of the dry bed where they could see better.
As they got closer, he began to hear voices.
Lacie must’ve heard them, too. She put her hand on his arm and signaled that she would lead the way from here.
All righty then, Miss Deputy Sheriff. He followed, close enough to feel the heat coming from her body.
When they reached a point where the voices grew louder and he could actually see a faint glow coming from some sort of light down in the wash, Lacie went to her knees. He joined her. It was tough going while keeping hold of the shotgun, but together they crawled to the edge and looked over.
Below them they saw two pickups. The one big dual cab with a tarp partially covering the bed looked familiar. The other truck had a prefab metal cover over the truckbed, making it look more like a van. That truck sported Mexican plates. Between the vehicles, two men were transferring long, narrow boxes from one truck to the next.
Lacie tilted her head in their direction and indicated she would be going into the wash. She obviously wanted him to stay put.
Not likely.
Seconds later she walked into the glow of light made from the trucks’ headlights. “Sheriff’s department. Stop. You are under arrest. Put your hands in the air where I can see them.”
Colt stayed out of the light but racked the shotgun’s pump to announce his presence nearby. The loud, unmistakable sound would be clear to anyone familiar with guns.
But neither of the two men looked terribly concerned. They didn’t raise their hands but turned to Lacie with quizzical looks on their faces.
“Hands up,” she ordered again.
One of the men, the one who wore clothes that looked shabby and dirty even in the low lighting, finally raised his hands to his face. Colt felt sure that man was a Mexican national and might not understand a lot of English.
The other man, well-dressed in his Stetson and lizard boots, remained unmoved and said, “What are you talking about, lady?”
“You are under arrest.” Lacie’s voice grew lower and more forceful.
That man finally began raising his arms. “Okay. But why? We’re only doing what we were told to do.”
She called back over her shoulder. “Colt, keep your weapon trained on these two while I cuff them.”
He moved in closer. “You got it, Lace.”
As she holstered her gun and pulled a pair of cuffs from her utility belt, he made sure she didn’t step between his line of sight and either of the men. “What was that guy saying?”
She cuffed the mouthy man first. “What’s your name? And what’d you mean by ‘doing what you were told’? Told by whom?”
The man frowned but raised his chin in defiance. “Richard Stanton. And I was told by the sheriff. We paid him good money so we wouldn’t be arrested. I even did the bastard a favor or two in the bargain. Just so we’d be safe doing our business here. Why don’t you ask him?”
“Which sheriff?” Lacie shoved the guy up against the truck, made him spread-eagle and then patted him down. “What’s his name?” She didn’t wait for an answer but started cuffing the other man once the mouthy one was secured.
“Oh, you know. That old dude. McCord’s his name. Ain’t he your boss?”
She didn’t bother to answer but finished taking care of the second guy. Lacie impressed the hell out of Colt with her quiet professionalism.
When she seemed satisfied they were both in custody, she turned to him. “Got your SAT phone handy?”
“Sure. But…”
“Call Travis. We need the Texas Rangers. Now.”
“What about your stepfather? And the other deputies working in your department? What are we going to do with these two?”
Lacie jerked the two men to attention and shoved them in front of her. “That’s one of the reasons we need the Rangers. Since we can’t know who to trust in Chance County, we’re going to have to take them to the sheriff in the next county. Make the call while we walk these characters back to your SUV. We need to move off the range to where we can watch our backs.”
Colt wished they could’ve thought of another way. The sheriff in the next county over was supposedly a good friend to Sheriff McCord. And had been for twenty years.
But Colt couldn’t see that they had much of a choice. So he shut up and made the call to his brother.
*
Lacie didn’t like any part of this. While Colt drove, she sat swiveled around in the passenger seat with her weapon trained on the two she’d secured in the backseat. But what choice did she have? The Rangers should only be fifteen minutes behind them.
Still, driving along ranch-to-market roads at night in Chance County without an escort could be a dangerous move. And worse yet, she’d been forced to let Colt help out by being the driver. Involving him in something this risky was exactly what she’d vowed not to do.
How had she ever arrived at this point? When she’d first come back to Chance and taken the job as deputy, she’d hoped her stepfather had changed—become the sheriff his constituents in Chance County assumed him to be. She’d secretly interviewed every preteen girl in the vicinity, without letting on why she was interested in who they might be afraid of.
She’d found nothing and assured herself that he was a changed man. It had never occurred to her to look into his other dealings. That the man might be a common crook in disguise. Knowing that he was for sure now, she couldn’t look away. He would go to jail. But not for anything he’d done in the past. The idea gave her a chill.
“You okay?” As he concentrated on the road, Colt’s voice was tender, loving. Without him having to say it, she could tell he cared for her. She’d never experienced anything like that before and wasn’t sure how it made her feel.
One thing for sure—he shouldn’t be here. Her stepfather was her problem. But she couldn’t figure another way to keep these men in custody.
“I’m fine.” Suddenly tall headlights appeared in the back window and the truck they belonged to was coming up fast. “Are we running into traffic?”
“Some. There’s a car or two ahead of us and one about to pass.”
Uh-oh. “Colt…”
Before she could issue the warning, he tapped his brakes several times and swerved the SUV toward the side of the road. “What the hell? Hang on!”
The taller vehicle behind them bore down and she waited for the inevitable crash. “Brace!” she shouted at the men in custody in the backseat.
Their eyes were wide as they grappled for a way to stabilize and hold on. But they were shackled and cuffed and had nowhere to turn.
Flipping around under her seat belt, Lacie froze at the sight of two cars blocking the road ahead. Colt expertly guided their SUV to the side of the road and drove on the shoulder, kicking up rocks and dirt in a rooster spray behind them as they went.
“Colt, don’t stop.” They were being ambushed and had no way out. “Keep going. Try to get around them.”
Just as she’d said it, the truck that had been following roared up directly behind them, driving on the shoulder, too. Before Colt could do anything about it, the crazy driver closed in too tight and tapped their bumper. The jarring noise as the two bumpers collided sounded exactly like the ruthless crack of rifle fire.
These crazy bastards were not trying to stop them. They were trying to kill them.
Colt pulled hard right at the wheel again. But this time, with one more push from behind, he lost control and ever
ything broke loose. The whole world turned upside down and then without warning went to black.
*
Colt came to slowly, unable to figure out where he was or what had happened. Nothing seemed in focus and he felt numb and strange, as though gravity had been revoked.
“Colt!” Lacie’s voice cut through the fog in his brain.
Where was she? Just as he began to understand that their SUV had rolled and was sitting on its roof, and the only thing keeping him in place was his seat belt, the sudden sound of breaking glass captured his full attention. Rough voices began demanding that he do something he couldn’t understand. At the same time strong arms wrenched him free of the belts and out the windshield before he could even object to the pain.
“Lacie?” He tried to get his bearings as someone dragged him to his feet.
“Shut up, Chance. She can’t help you.” The voice behind those words sounded familiar.
Sure enough, when his eyes cleared, he found himself staring at the bastard Sheriff McCord. “Where is she?” he heard himself demand. “What have you done to her?”
“I’m here.” Lacie’s voice came from only a few feet away, though he couldn’t see her through the dust that still floated in the air from their accident. “But I don’t think either one of us was meant to live through that crash.”
Unable to move due to someone holding him back, he couldn’t go to her. “Are you injured?” He would kill McCord if anything happened to her.
“Stop talking. Both of you.” The sheriff appeared in the light coming from several sets of headlights illuminating the area. “I don’t give a crap about either of you. I’m trying to think of a way out of this mess you’ve made.”
Mess? “This was a terrible accident. I suspect we both need a hospital, Sheriff. Call my brother.”
“Shut up, I told you.” The sheriff came in close and sneered, a look of contempt clear on his face. “You’re a better driver than I would’ve guessed. Too bad. Now I have to think of another way. And fast.”
“You’ve stopped traffic in both directions.” Not a question, Lacie’s voice seemed steadier though her tone cut through the night like pure ice.
But Colt still couldn’t see her as she added, “It won’t matter. Texas Rangers are in Chance County and they’re coming this way.”
“Too bad—for you. There’s been a couple of terrible traffic accidents on this main road tonight,” the sheriff told her smugly. “No one, not even Rangers, are getting through. But the Chance County Sheriff’s Department is on the job. We’re handling it.”
“We didn’t die.” Lacie finally came into his view as she spat out the words. “No matter how you kill us now, it will clearly be murder.”
She had blood on her face and was holding her arm at an odd angle. A deputy he didn’t recognize stood behind her and kept her upright with a hand under her other shoulder. She’d been injured.
He tugged at his captor’s arms, but the man behind him had him firmly in his grasp. “The sheriff wouldn’t dare kill us now. He’d be forced to cover up too much and too many people would know about it.”
The sheriff’s hand moved quick and struck him sharply across the face, nearly knocking him to his knees. “I told you to shut the hell up, Chance. This won’t be the first time I’ve covered up a murder. But I’m good. No problem there.”
Colt couldn’t believe what he’d heard. The sheriff was so convinced they were about to die that he was willing to confess?
“Are you saying you covered up killing my mother by making my father look guilty?”
Instead of another slap, the sheriff slowly grinned. “I figured that’s what you and your little girly friend here were doing. Trying to uncover something I buried long ago. I said I was good. You’d never have found anything concrete.”
“We had some good leads.” Colt couldn’t help himself. The man was so smug. “So you really killed her in a rage?”
“I didn’t say that.” The sheriff pulled his revolver. “As a matter of fact, it won’t matter what you know now.”
He turned the gun on Lacie. “Your mother was the one who killed Ellen Chance, girly. She got it in her head I was cheating on her with the woman and just wouldn’t let it rest.”
“My mother?” Lacie’s eyes were wide. “But how?”
“Turns out she was a lot stronger than she looked,” he answered with a chuckle. “But you can thank me for cleaning up that mess up for her. This one won’t be any trouble either.”
“You’re going to have to shoot us.” Lacie’s voice sounded weaker and Colt wondered how much blood she’d lost.
“Me? Naw. Them two gunrunners you captured are going to do it. And then they’re going to die in the resulting shoot-out with the Chance County Sheriff’s Department.”
Colt looked around for the two men who’d been in the backseat before the crash. He spotted them lying flat out on the ground next to the wrecked SUV. If he had to guess, they weren’t dead yet. But they weren’t in stellar condition either.
He hoped to buy a little more time. “Any decent autopsy on those two will prove they couldn’t have shot anyone. Look at them.”
The sheriff shrugged but kept his gun trained on Lacie. “Guess who will be conducting the autopsy, boy? I told you I was good.”
His gun hand came up. “Step away from her, Deputy Lopez.”
Everyone’s attention turned to Lacie. Colt didn’t take time to think it through. He couldn’t watch her die.
Jerking out of his captor’s grip, he closed the distance to where she was standing in an instant and crashed into her with enough force to take them both to the ground. From somewhere in the distance behind him, he heard a gun go off and braced for a hit. When it didn’t come, he rolled her under him as more shots rang out.
He figured they were both dead.
But he was still breathing a few minutes later when he heard the rumble of pickups starting up. Keeping his head down, he was surprised to hear men nearby yelling and running. Curious, but with little choice, he held tight to Lacie. He could tell she was still breathing, but didn’t know if she was conscious.
It seemed like forever, but probably was only ten minutes later, when the commotion around them ended and he finally lifted his head.
“Colt!” Travis’s voice cut through the darkness. “Are you all right?”
Appearing through the dust at his side, his brother bent down and held out a hand as though to help him up. “It’s over. The sheriff didn’t make it. He’s dead. But the Rangers have the rest of his men in custody.”
Lacie. Ignoring his brother’s offer of help, he lifted her in his arms as she blinked open her eyes and looked up at him.
She was alive. Thank the Lord. Nothing else mattered.
Chapter 10
Lacie figured out a way to slip into her boots without needing to use her absolutely useless left arm. The sling had only been on that arm for a few hours, but she was learning to deal with it.
As she sat fully dressed on the side of her hospital bed, she thought about Colt. She wanted out of this hospital today, and he said he would come by to pick her up. She intended to be ready.
Spending twenty-four hours in this place, a hundred miles from Chance, while they’d set her arm and stitched her forehead would’ve been bad enough. But then waiting a few more hours for them to cast her arm had seemed outrageous. Chance needed its own urgent-care facility in the worst way.
“Hey.” Travis stuck his head in the door. “Can I come in? You sure look a lot better than the last time I saw you.”
“Come in.” She rolled her eyes at his comment, just imagining the frightful state of her hair and the pale, washed-out color of her face. “Colt should be here soon.” And she hadn’t had the energy to spruce herself up for him.
“Yeah. I spoke to him. He asked me to come by and talk to you both. I have a little more info about the sheriff and then a question or two for you.”
She wasn’t ready to talk and when she d
id, she would have a few questions of her own. But not yet. She needed to go back to work first. Too many things she should be doing.
“What’s happening at the sheriff’s department?” That was the one question she couldn’t wait to ask.
“The governor issued an order putting the Rangers in charge temporarily.” Travis leaned against the wall next to the door and crossed his arms over his chest. “My brothers, Sam and Gage, are helping out there, too. They both have law enforcement backgrounds. Sam as an MP before joining the U.S. Marshals Service. And Gage in college and as a detective before he became a P.I. Actually, I was…”
Colt interrupted his brother’s thought by striding through the door and going to her side. “Hello, beautiful. You almost ready to blow this place?”
He leaned down and swept a kiss across her lips. “Are you in a lot of pain?”
The tender look he gave her made her heart beat faster. She was madly in love with this man who had saved her life. Fatally in love. It was going to kill her when he left. And she knew that time was coming soon. She could feel it in her bones like a blue norther, the wind that blew in a nasty storm. He’d be packing up and ready to go before long and she’d never get the chance to just be in love with him.
“I’m okay,” she answered with a sigh. “Now that the arm is in a cast the pain is minimal.”
“Good.” Colt turned to Travis. “So what else do you have to tell us?”
Travis straightened and took a step closer. “For one thing, we found out how McCord knew you two were conducting a private investigation involving him. Seems Aunt June told her good friend Eva Lopez, Deputy Robert Lopez’s wife. But June had no way of seeing that the information would get back to the sheriff. She’d known Robert Lopez all of her life and had never imagined he’d been in on McCord’s conspiracy to convict our dad from the very beginning.”
Lacie was secretly relieved to know that the leak had nothing to do with her friend and landlady Macy. “I haven’t heard how your Ranger friends knew to go past the roadblocks the other night, Travis. You made it just in time to keep us alive. I’m grateful.”