“He’s still in the hall. The sheriff will stall him, but eventually he’ll get in here to see you. Is that a problem?”
“Of course.” Colleen didn’t hesitate, either. “I don’t trust any of the agents who helped put Preston behind bars.”
Preston.
Interesting. Colleen certainly didn’t say the man’s name with the venom that Hailey did.
“Preston’s dead,” Colleen went on. “And Minton is one of the people responsible for that.”
“Preston was killed in a prison fight,” Lucas pointed out. “Are you saying that Minton arranged to have him killed?”
Colleen opened her mouth but then closed it just as quickly. “I don’t know. But there was a lawman involved in the dirty stuff Preston was doing, and if I trust the wrong person, I could end up like Preston.”
Yes, she could. So could Hailey, and it might happen even if she withheld that trust.
Hailey went a few more steps toward the bed and looked surprisingly steady. Maybe because she was trying to look strong for what was no doubt about to be a confrontation with her sister.
“Aren’t you even going to ask me if I’m all right?” Colleen asked before Hailey could speak.
Hailey paused a long time. “Are you okay?”
“No,” her sister snapped. “Someone tried to kill me.” And she stared at Hailey as if she were somehow responsible for that.
“Are you going to ask me if I’m all right?” Hailey fired right back. Heck, she sounded stronger, too. “After all, I was in a coma, and not long after coming out of it, someone tried to kill me, too.”
And she waited for Colleen to respond to that.
Lucas watched Colleen’s expression and her body language, but the woman seemed clueless as to what was going on. Again though, she could have been playing dumb like the agent outside the door.
“The hospital surveillance footage,” Lucas finally prompted her. “We saw you on it with the man who tried to kill Hailey.”
Colleen gasped and pressed her fingers to her lips. “That man tried to kill my sister?”
“Not once but twice,” Hailey confirmed.
Colleen gasped again and frantically shook her head. “He said he was a marshal, and he showed me a badge. It looked real.”
“It was fake,” Lucas told her. “And he was a hired gun. Any idea who he was working for?”
More head shaking from Colleen. “I honestly thought he was a marshal and that he was here to protect Hailey.”
Hailey drew in a long, weary breath and sank down onto the foot of the bed. “Start from the beginning. We need to know everything about him, everything that he said to you.”
There were tears shimmering in Colleen’s eyes now, and while Lucas wasn’t immune to those tears, he wasn’t fully buying them just yet. The woman could be crying because she’d just gotten caught and could be arrested.
“The marshal called me yesterday,” Colleen started. “He said his name was Donald Silverman.”
“It was Darrin Sandmire,” Lucas corrected her.
“Was?” Colleen questioned.
“He’s dead. Killed in a shoot-out with one of my cousins while he was attempting to get to Hailey.”
Colleen pressed her fingertips to her mouth for a moment. “I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t,” she added, her attention shifting to Hailey.
Like Lucas, Hailey still didn’t look convinced. “This man asked you to meet him at the hospital?”
She nodded. “He said you were in danger, and that he needed my permission to access your personal things, like your computer.”
So that he could get those files that Hailey had hidden. Files that Lucas needed to know more about as soon as they were finished here with Colleen.
“I told him that I didn’t know where the rest of your personal things were,” Colleen went on. “That the only things I had were what was collected from the car the night of your accident.”
“It wasn’t an accident,” Hailey said. “That man ran me off the road and put both my baby and me in grave danger.”
Colleen blinked back the tears, and her expression changed a little. Not so much alarm on her face but concern. “You’re not suggesting that I was working with this snake?”
Hailey stayed quiet a moment. “I only need to find out the truth. So we can keep Camden safe.”
“Camden?” Colleen asked.
“My son. That’s what Lucas named him, and I will make sure no one, including you, does anything to harm him.”
That didn’t do much to ease Colleen’s alarm. “You think I was together with him on this,” she concluded. “I’m your sister.”
“Yes, but we haven’t always seen eye to eye in the past. You refused to testify against Preston.”
Colleen’s alarm turned to something else, and Lucas was pretty sure that something else was anger. It flashed through her eyes. “Because as you well know, I didn’t witness the crimes you said he did.”
There it was. Not just her words but Colleen’s tone. Yeah, there was bitterness. Maybe because Colleen had been personally involved with the man? Or maybe she’d been doing more than only IT work for him.
“Why would Darrin want you dead?” Colleen came out and asked Hailey.
Lucas hoped she wouldn’t mention those files, and she didn’t. Hailey only shook her head. “Is it possible he was working for Preston and that Preston left orders to have me killed?”
“No,” Colleen answered. Way too fast. She was definitely in the defensive mode when it came to her former boss. “Preston wouldn’t have done that.”
“How do you know that?” Lucas snapped.
Colleen volleyed some annoyed glances between Hailey and him. “Because I visited Preston in jail a few times.”
Lucas rolled his eyes, took out his phone. “If I call the prison, I can find out exactly how many visits you made.”
Her mouth tightened. “I saw him every week. And I’m not going to apologize for that.”
“You should,” Lucas argued. “Because even from behind bars, Preston could have arranged for the attacks against Hailey.”
“He didn’t,” Colleen practically yelled. It took her a moment to regain her composure, and then she shifted her gaze back to Hailey. “You always believed the worst about Preston, but I believe it was the dirty agent who set him up. The same agent who’s been trying to get into this room. Probably to kill me. Maybe he’s the one who wants to kill Camden and you.”
That was entirely possible. “You have any proof that Agent Minton is dirty?” Lucas asked her.
“No, but since you’re a lawman, you should be the one getting that proof. Because someone put me in this hospital bed, and the next time, he might succeed in putting me in the grave.”
Because that was possible, too, Lucas decided it was time to have a more thorough chat with Minton. Of course, that meant Hailey spending a little more time in the room with her sister, but Lucas could chat with Minton in the doorway. That way, he could keep an eye on Hailey.
Lucas opened the door, expecting to come face-to-face with the riled agent, but Minton wasn’t there. However, Josh wasn’t alone. There was another man standing in front of him. A man that Lucas recognized from the research he’d done the night before.
Eric DeSalvo.
Like Minton, Eric was wearing a suit. But he sure wasn’t scowling. The man was smiling. A slick kind of smile that reminded Lucas of a snake oil salesman.
“You’re supposed to be at the sheriff’s office for an interview,” Lucas immediately reminded Eric.
“I’m on my way there, but I decided to make a detour.” His smile widened. “Lucas Ryland, Texas Ranger,” Eric greeted him. Obviously the man had done his research as well. “I understand you think I’m guilty of all sorts of
assorted felonies.”
“Are you?” Lucas growled.
“No, but I think I can help you solve this.” He tipped his head to the end of the hall, where Lucas saw Minton walking away. “Arrange a plea deal for me, and I’ll give you what you need to put Agent Minton behind bars.”
Chapter Seven
Hailey hadn’t wanted to make this trip to the Silver Creek Sheriff’s Office. She’d wanted to be back at the ranch with her son. But these interviews could be critical to helping Lucas and her make sure that Camden stayed safe.
Well, there was one official interview anyway—with Eric.
But since Agent Minton had shown up, Grayson would be questioning him, as well. Of course, that didn’t mean Minton would answer anything. Especially anything that could incriminate him, but maybe he would spill something that would be helpful. For that matter, maybe Eric would do the same, and this nightmare would stop right here, right now.
“They’re about ready to start,” Lucas said, joining her by the observation window of the interview room. He handed her a cup of much-needed coffee.
Eric was already seated at the gray metal table, an attorney on each side of him, and even though he couldn’t see Hailey through the one-way glass, he occasionally looked in her direction. And he smiled again.
No doubt to unnerve her.
There was certainly no love lost between them, and after his father had been convicted, Eric had issued plenty of veiled threats to get to her. Not because he’d wanted to defend Preston. He hadn’t.
Eric hadn’t had much love for his father, either, but he hadn’t wanted Hailey to do anything that would include him in the charges against Preston. Father and son still had plenty of business ties. Ties that Preston would have gladly continued because from all accounts, he’d wanted to protect his son.
Hailey now understood the lengths a parent would go to to protect a child. Even when that child—Eric—had done everything to distance himself from his father.
“Where’s Minton?” she asked.
Lucas hitched his thumb to the hall. “In the other interview room, where Dade will question him. Let’s just say he’s not happy about being questioned by a local yokel deputy sheriff, and he’s on his phone to his boss to find out if he can get out of it.”
Maybe his boss would side with Grayson. And even if he didn’t, perhaps they could get the information some other way.
She glanced back at Eric when he smiled at her again. “Any idea what kind of plea deal he wants?”
Lucas shook his head. “After dropping the bombshell at the hospital, he clammed up, claimed he didn’t want to say anything else without his attorneys present.”
That didn’t surprise her. “Eric always hides behind his attorneys. So did his father. Not the same attorneys, of course. Preston would have shared, but Eric never trusted his father enough to mix his personal stuff with the family business.”
Lucas stared at her. “After this, you should be able to access those files. Too bad you can’t do that before Grayson talks to Eric, because there might be something he could use for leverage. Just how much jail time would Eric get with what you have?”
“Not nearly enough. It’s an illegal sale of some land. He paid off some officials one county over and got the land rezoned so he could in turn sell it to one of his puppet companies. There’s also a sale of confiscated weapons.”
That got his attention. He moved even closer. So close that his arm brushed against hers. It was just a slight touch, but she felt it head to toe.
“How many weapons?” he asked.
“Not nearly enough,” she repeated after she gathered the breath to speak. Mercy, she had to figure out how to stop these flutters when she was around Lucas. She also had to focus since this was an important conversation. “It’s a felony, but since he’s got a spotless record, he might not get more than a year.”
Lucas’s forehead bunched up. “Yet it was enough to keep his father from coming after you.”
“Preston loved him. Despite everything.”
“Exactly what is everything?” he asked.
Because he was looking her straight in the eyes and because he was so close to her, it took Hailey a moment to realize they were still talking about Eric. And not this attraction between them.
“I don’t know all the details,” Hailey explained, “but Preston was a widower since Eric was a little boy, and Eric always blamed his father for his mother’s death.”
“Was Preston to blame?”
“I don’t know, but she did die in a car accident. The cops did investigate it. Nothing concrete turned up, though.”
Lucas made a sound, one of skepticism. A sound that Hailey totally understood. “Three car wrecks, and I know mine wasn’t an accident,” she said. “Perhaps the others weren’t, either.”
“You think Colleen’s telling the truth about that? About any of this?” he asked.
Hailey drew in a long breath. “I want to believe her. But things have sometimes been—well—tense between us. She was three when her father married my mother, and I think once I was born a couple of years later, she thought our parents doted on me more than her. And maybe they did when I was little. Then our mother died of breast cancer, and my father ended up abandoning us. Colleen blamed me for that, too.”
She stopped and realized she’d never told anyone that. “Sorry,” Hailey said. “Didn’t mean to dump all of that on you.”
“No. I wanted to hear it because it’s motive. People have certainly killed for a lot less, and coupled with her disapproval over you testifying against Preston, maybe Colleen decided she’d had enough.”
That turned Hailey’s stomach. Because enough nearly cost her Camden.
“What happened to Colleen and you after your father left?” Lucas continued.
“Foster care. That’s when we got closer. I think because we only had each other.”
And now Colleen might be trying to kill her. Of course, her sister wasn’t their main suspect. That person was sitting on the other side of the observation mirror, and Eric smiled again when Grayson finally came into the room.
Lucas reached over to turn on the audio so they could hear the interview, and again his arm brushed against hers. The other time he hadn’t noticed. Or at least, he’d pretended not to notice. But this time their gazes met.
And held.
He mumbled some profanity and looked away. “This isn’t going to happen,” he said, but she wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince her or himself.
No way did he want to get involved with her. She totally understood that, but the attraction was undeniable. The heat was still just as strong as it had been the night she’d gone to his bed. Thankfully she didn’t have to keep remembering it, because Grayson got her attention when he spoke.
“Tell me about this plea deal you want,” Grayson demanded.
Eric looked directly into the mirror. “I’ve heard that Hailey might have something she believes could be incriminating about me. It’ll be all fake, of course, but I need the chance to clear my name.”
“You said you thought that Eric didn’t know about those computer files,” Lucas reminded her.
“I didn’t think he did. The only one I personally told was Preston.”
Lucas stayed quiet a couple of seconds. “Is it possible Preston told Colleen?”
Hailey sighed. Nodded. Yes, it was possible. “But why would Colleen have told Eric?”
Lucas didn’t get a chance to answer because Grayson continued. “What kind of incriminating info?” Grayson pressed. He knew all about the computer files they’d soon be able to access, but he no doubt wanted to hear Eric’s take on this.
“I’m not positive, but I think it’s supposed to be about illegal arms. It could be anything since it’s fake.”
<
br /> Grayson just stared at him. “And you think Hailey manufactured this?”
Eric shrugged. “Probably not her, but my father could have.”
“From everything I’ve heard, your father cared about you. In fact, I heard he’d do pretty much anything to prevent you from going to jail.”
“That’s what he wanted everyone to believe, but as a lawman, you certainly know what he was capable of. It’s not much of a stretch to think he’d come up with something to keep me in line.”
Oh, mercy. Was it false evidence? “It looked real,” she said to Lucas. “And besides, if it were fake, why wouldn’t Preston have sent someone after me? He hated me for testifying against him.”
“Maybe even Preston didn’t have the stomach for murdering a woman in a coma. Still...the latest attacks didn’t happen until after he was dead.”
True. And that led them right back to Eric.
“All right,” Grayson continued. “You want a look at these so-called files. What are you offering in exchange?”
“Some files of my own,” Eric said without hesitation. “They won’t be admissible in court, but they’re recordings that my father made when people visited his office.”
Judging from Eric’s smug look, there was something critical on the recordings. Judging from Grayson’s scowl, he wasn’t pleased about it.
“Any reason you didn’t turn these recordings over to the authorities when the investigation was going on?” Grayson snapped.
Eric’s smug look went up a notch. “Because I only recently found them. Yesterday, in fact.”
Hailey groaned. He was lying. He’d probably had them all along. But why had he held on to them?
“Eric’s up to something,” Hailey mumbled.
Lucas made a sound of agreement, but before he could say anything, the door to the observation room opened, and she saw Dade and Minton standing there.
“I’ve played along with this fiasco long enough,” Minton snarled. “I’m an FBI agent and won’t be treated like this.”
“Let me guess,” Lucas said to his cousin. “The interview went well.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.
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