“He left,” Rosalie said, snapping toward Seth. “Dad got in his truck and sped off.”
Seth cursed. “Stay here with Rayanne and Mom,” he told his sister. “I’ll find him.”
Shelby hoped they could find him in time to stop him.
“Roy has a gun?” Shelby asked the moment they were inside the cruiser they’d borrowed earlier.
“With the way our luck has been running, he’ll have a dozen.” Seth took out his phone and handed it to her. “Call Cooper. Tell him what happened and that we’re on our way back to the sheriff’s office.”
Which was no doubt where Roy would go.
Because like Jewell, he thought Whitt was still there. And perhaps he was, but Shelby was betting he’d already been released.
“Cooper, we have a problem,” Shelby said when he answered, and then filled him in. It didn’t take long to get confirmation of what she’d already feared.
“My father just left the jail,” she relayed to Seth. “If Cooper sees Roy, he’ll restrain him. He’s also having Colt and Tucker go out and look for him in case he goes elsewhere.”
Of course, that put Cooper and his brothers in a bad position since they loved their father. Still, there weren’t a lot of options here. And time was running out.
Thankfully, the sheriff’s office was only a short drive from the county jail, but with each passing moment, Shelby could feel the dread building inside her. Even though Seth was staying quiet, she figured he was feeling the same thing.
Mercy, they both had just had a lot dumped on them, but it still wasn’t anywhere near what Jewell and Roy had to be feeling.
“I’m so sorry for what my father did to Jewell,” Shelby said.
It seemed to take Seth a moment to get his jaw muscles relaxed enough so he could speak. “Thank you for believing her.”
Oh, Shelby believed the woman, all right. There’d been too much emotion and truth in Jewell’s expression and words. Plus, her father’s reputation of chasing women made it even more plausible.
As a child she’d heard gossip about Whitt’s obsession with Jewell. Even Carla had mentioned it, usually when she’d been in a drunken stupor. Of course, in those stupors Carla had always made Jewell out to be the bad guy. The temptress who’d lured Whitt away from his wife and family.
But Shelby definitely saw this in a different light now.
“Jewell shouldn’t have blamed herself for any part of this,” Shelby went on. “But then, she was between a rock and a hard place. All this time she knew my father was alive, knew that he could come back at any time and boast to Roy what’d happened.”
“And Roy would have killed him,” Seth finished for her.
That still might happen.
However, there was a small silver lining to this. “Maybe now that the truth is out it’ll help mend Jewell’s relationship with her other sons. With Roy, too.”
“Maybe.” But it didn’t sound as if Seth was convinced. Maybe because if Roy did end up in jail for murder, then Cooper and the others would be upset that Jewell hadn’t told the truth sooner when Whitt was still missing.
And that brought Shelby back to something that had been troubling her since she’d heard what her father had said.
“Why would my father come back now? As much as he wanted Jewell to suffer because she rejected him, I can’t believe he’d come back to Sweetwater Springs just to save her.”
“No,” Seth agreed. He paused a moment. “Maybe he came back because of the attacks against you.”
That gave Shelby something else to think about. The attacks had been in the news, so it was highly likely that Whitt knew that someone had tried to kill Seth and her. Was that why he’d returned, to save her?
Part of her desperately wanted to believe that because it allowed her to hang on to the image she had of the father she’d lost when she was a child. But there was a flip side to considering something like that.
Did her father know who was trying to kill her?
Shelby didn’t have time to dwell on the question, because Seth brought the cruiser to a stop directly in front of the sheriff’s office. The moment Seth turned off the engine, the front door opened, and Cooper stuck out his head.
“My father’s still not here,” Cooper said immediately. “I think he might have seen Whitt driving away and followed him.”
“Any idea where Whitt was going?” Seth asked.
“Home,” Shelby answered, and Cooper verified that with a nod.
She wanted to kick herself for not thinking of it sooner. Certainly, Whitt would go to the ranch, and Roy would know that.
“I’ll wait here just in case we’re wrong and Roy and Whitt come back,” Cooper said. “Head out to the Braddock ranch, and I’ll call my brothers to get them out there, too.”
Seth didn’t waste even a second getting them headed in that direction.
“Who’ll be at the ranch?” Seth asked her.
“Just the hands, the cook and maybe several housekeepers. My mother will be back at the mental hospital. Aiden and Laine are rarely there these days.”
Of course, the hands and help could be hurt if Roy and her father got into a gunfight. Since she didn’t know exactly where Tucker and Colt were, it could be up to Seth and her to try to stop this nightmare from happening.
Her family’s ranch was just minutes from town and there was little traffic to slow Seth down. He took the farm road toward the property, but they were still a good mile from the main house when Shelby spotted the vehicles.
Three of them.
One she recognized as the black car her father had used to get to the sheriff’s office. Another was Roy’s truck. The third belonged to Annette. Her father’s car and Roy’s truck were still in the middle of the road, but Annette had pulled beneath some trees.
“You have to stop him!” Annette shouted the moment Seth stepped from the cruiser.
Seth didn’t respond to Annette, but he drew his gun. “Stay inside the car,” he warned Shelby.
She did. Mainly because she didn’t want to do something that would cause Seth to lose focus, but that would change if she could do anything to defuse this. Not that she had any influence with her father, but she’d have to try.
Shelby craned her neck so she could see around Roy’s truck, and she quickly realized that things had already gone from bad to worse.
Roy was standing in the road, her father kneeling at his feet, and Roy had his gun jammed to the back of Whitt’s head.
* * *
OH, MAN. This was not how Seth wanted things to play out.
“Roy, you need to put down that gun,” Seth told him.
As expected, Roy didn’t listen. In fact, he didn’t even look at Seth. He kept his attention—and his gun—nailed to Whitt.
“He’s going to kill Whitt,” Annette cried out.
When Annette started to come closer, Seth motioned for Shelby to pull the woman back. He hated bringing Shelby into this. Hated that she even had to get out of the car, but if Annette physically tried to break up this fight, then someone was going to end up getting killed.
“Let Seth handle this,” Shelby told her, and she wrestled Annette closer to the cruiser.
Seth turned his attention back to Roy. As expected, the rage was visible right there in Roy’s face and muscles. His neck was corded and his mouth was tight, exposing his teeth.
“Roy, you can’t do this.” Seth tried to keep his voice level. With his own gun ready and drawn, he inched closer to the men.
The last thing he wanted to do was shoot Roy, but sadly it might come down to that. Seth silently cursed the badge he wore. It would be justice for Roy to kill the man who’d raped his wife, but Seth couldn’t let Roy take the law into his own hands.
Not even under these circumstan
ces.
“I can do this,” Roy insisted. No level voice for him. Every ounce of his anger came through in those words. “If the law won’t make him pay because of the statute of limitations, then I’ll do what the law can’t.”
Whitt looked up at Seth. “You need to make Roy understand that Jewell just told him a whopper.” Unlike Roy, there was no rage. Whitt didn’t exactly look comfortable with a gun to his head, but he wasn’t sweating, either. Maybe because he believed Roy wouldn’t actually kill him.
Seth wasn’t so sure.
Roy had been pushed to the edge, and men on the edge did all sorts of things they wouldn’t do normally.
“And why would Jewell lie?” Seth asked, moving another step closer.
“To save face, that’s why,” Whitt readily answered. “To salvage her relationship with Roy.”
“Roy and Jewell are divorced. As far as I can tell, she hasn’t tried to salvage anything with him.”
Whitt smiled. Not from humor. Now, here was proof of his own rage. “Then, you don’t know Jewell. Roy managed to cast some kind of spell over her, and she could never see that he was no good for her.”
Roy jammed the gun even harder against Whitt’s head. “You raped my wife, and you’re gonna pay for that.”
“He didn’t rape her!” Annette shouted. “Jewell’s a liar. And worse. She’s probably the one who had Marcel and those other people killed.”
The woman tried to come closer again, but thankfully Shelby held her back. Seth also heard a welcome sound.
Sirens.
That meant one or more of Roy’s sons were on the way. Good. Because they had a much better chance of defusing this than Seth did. That also meant he needed to keep Roy talking until backup arrived.
“Whitt will be arrested,” Seth reminded him. “He obstructed justice, and there could be other charges from his faked death.”
“I won’t spend a day in jail,” Whitt spat out. “Especially not for any lies that Jewell told you. And I have proof she lied. I did nearly die. Someone attacked me, and it was Jewell. She told you all that stuff just to cover her guilt. Well, it won’t work. She’ll be the one who pays.”
That didn’t sound like an idle threat, but since Seth knew Jewell wouldn’t lie about something like that, it might mean Whitt had something else shady up his sleeve.
“What proof?” Seth demanded.
Whitt smiled again. Not really a good idea, because Roy gave a fierce groan, and Seth could see the man fighting with himself over whether or not to pull the trigger. Seth hoped that was a battle that Roy would win.
“I have a letter,” Whitt continued. “I sent it to Jewell twenty-three years ago and told her I wanted to break off our affair and reconcile with Carla. Jewell brought the letter to the cabin that day. She was upset. Crying. Begging me to stay with her. It has her prints on it.”
“There was no affair!” Roy shouted.
The sirens were getting closer, but Seth wasn’t sure they would arrive in time, so he maneuvered himself nearer to the men.
“A letter?” Seth challenged. “How would you have managed to hang on to that? You said someone stabbed and shot you and then you fell in the creek.”
“I hid the letter before I was attacked. And I’m not gonna tell you where it’s hidden because I don’t want to give you the chance to destroy it.”
Seth tried to figure out how this whole letter thing had actually played out. Maybe Whitt had written a letter all those years ago to set up Jewell. Maybe he’d set up his own attack, too, so he could disappear and start a new life. It wouldn’t have been that hard to get Jewell’s prints on some paper, especially since she’d indeed been at the cabin that day.
“What about Shelby?” Seth asked Whitt. This wasn’t exactly the best time to get answers from Whitt, but maybe it would hook Roy’s attention and give him second thoughts about pulling the trigger. “Are the attacks on her connected to you?”
No smile this time. But Whitt’s eyes narrowed. “No. And don’t you dare accuse me of trying to hurt one of my kids.”
“You already did hurt us,” Shelby said. “By walking out and letting us believe you’d been murdered.”
“I know.” Whitt dodged her gaze and shook his head. “It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been attacked and gotten amnesia.”
That didn’t absolve him since he’d confessed that he’d had his memory back for a while now. One glance at Shelby and Seth could see that this was tearing her apart all over again. He needed to get her out of this situation now.
Thankfully, the cruiser pulled to a stop, and Cooper barreled out. He, too, had his gun drawn, but when he spotted his father, he lowered his weapon.
“Dad, this has to stop,” Cooper insisted, not sounding like the sheriff but a very concerned son.
“You don’t know what he did to your mother,” Roy snapped. There were tears in his eyes now, and his hands were shaking.
“I do know what happened. Rosalie and Shelby called me after you ran out of the jail.” Cooper didn’t just lower his gun. He holstered it and walked past Seth to move closer to his father. “Whitt will pay. I swear, he will. But he can’t pay like this, because you’ll pay right along with him.”
Roy made a strangled, hoarse sound. “But he raped her. He took her away from us.”
“I know, but you’ve got to look beyond this moment. Jewell’s already out of jail and is headed...home.”
Seth figured that last word stuck in Cooper’s throat. He wasn’t exactly on good terms with Jewell. Of course, that had been before he’d learned the truth. Maybe now they could all start mending the damage Whitt had caused.
“You really want Jewell’s first day of freedom to be at the jail waiting while I process you for murdering this lying dirtbag?” Cooper asked.
There. Seth finally saw what he’d been waiting for. Roy’s surrender. It started in the man’s eyes. Then his shoulders slumped before he backed away from Whitt.
Cooper moved in fast to take hold of his father’s arm. And his gun. Cooper also maneuvered Roy several yards away from Whitt, and Whitt got to his feet.
“I’m filing charges, of course,” Whitt said. Damn, it was not a good time for him to give Roy a smug look, because Cooper had to hold Roy back again.
Annette hurried to Whitt’s side, but he didn’t even acknowledge her. Instead, Whitt’s attention went to Shelby.
“You’re choosing the McKinnons and Seth Calder over me?” Whitt asked her.
The question alone no doubt hurt her, and coupled with the rest of this nightmarish day, Seth wasn’t surprised that Shelby’s first reaction was a slight hitch in her breath.
“Yes,” Shelby answered.
Whitt looked as if he wanted to lash out at her for that, but he only shook his head. “I expected better from you. From all my kids. But I come back from the dead and find all of you in bed with my enemies.”
“Enemies of your own making,” Seth quickly reminded him.
The glare Whitt gave him was hard and long, but Seth matched it.
“Come on,” Cooper said, ending the glaring match. “Dad, you ride with Seth, and I’ll take in Whitt. I need statements from everyone.” He glanced at Annette. “Including you. Follow us back to my office.”
Annette cursed him, huffed, but she did head toward her car. However, she’d barely made it a step when Seth heard something. Some movement in the line of trees to his left.
A rustling sound.
But the sound was his only warning. A split second later, a shot blasted through the air.
Chapter Twelve
Shelby barely had time to register what was happening. Everything came at her too fast. And too loud.
Seth hooked his arm around her and pulled her to the ground. Again. Just as he’d done at the
jail. It wasn’t a second too soon because the next bullet slammed into the ground where she’d just been standing.
The fear returned, twisting and coiling inside her. But the anger came back, too. The outrage that rippled over her and caused her chest to tighten. So tight she could barely catch her breath. Could barely move. However, that didn’t stop the nightmare from going through her head.
This couldn’t be happening.
But it was.
Here, Seth and she were in danger yet again, and this time they weren’t alone. Cooper, Roy, Annette and even her father were out in the open with bullets flying. Any one of them could be hurt or killed, and while she wasn’t feeling fond of her father just now, she didn’t want anyone else to die. Especially not at the hands of someone who was gunning for her.
Seth soon did something about that being-out-in-the-open part. He caught on to her and pulled her to the side of the cruiser. Again, barely in time because the shooter fired another shot.
At her.
Shelby couldn’t see their attacker, didn’t know exactly where he or she was, but there was no mistaking from the direction the bullets were taking that she was the target.
“Get down!” Cooper shouted. As Seth had done to her, he got Roy off the road and behind the truck that Roy had driven to the Braddock ranch.
Whitt and Annette ran, too, both taking cover at the back of her car.
“This is all your fault!” Annette screamed, and she just kept screaming.
Even though Shelby no longer could see the woman, she was pretty sure that Annette had meant the remark for her. And in a way it was her fault. There’d been one attack right after the other.
The murders.
The attempt to blow Seth and her to smithereens with that bomb.
She was at the center of that, and she should have realized that wherever she went, the danger would just follow.
Even here to her family’s home.
The ranch hands would no doubt hear the shots and come running. Which could turn out to be a fatal mistake. Ditto for either of Cooper’s brothers, who were likely on their way.
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