by Nico Rosso
“Tire tracks.” He called her over. Black streaks marked the ground where the car had peeled off after collecting the bald man. Hope drained out of him. Any definition in the tracks, which could lead to a make and model of the car, was lost underneath a parked car’s tire. “Son of a...”
She ran her hands through her hair. “I couldn’t find anything.”
“Someone better get fired over this.” Small-town inexperience with this level of crime was no excuse.
An ironic laugh huffed from Mariana. “Doubt it.”
He couldn’t tell if she was mistrustful of the police in general or Pete, the one she’d identified as her ex. “As long as they stay out of my way.”
She kicked a pebble across the ground, a dark look on her face. “What do we do now?”
“The most important part of an investigation.” She steeled herself and he continued, “Lunch.” He strode back toward her store. “You pick. I pay.”
They locked up the shop and Mariana led Ty up the street to a small restaurant next door to the bookstore. As soon as they walked in, all eyes were on Mariana. A white man and Vietnamese woman, both in their late forties and wearing T-shirts with the restaurant’s stylized sun logo, walked to her with concern on their faces.
The woman reached her first. “¿Estás bien, Mariana? Estábamos tan preocupados.”
“Gracias, Lam.” Mariana clutched the woman’s hand to reassure her. “Todavía estoy de pie.”
The man shook his head. “We couldn’t believe what we heard.”
Mariana nodded gravely. “Can I catch you guys up later? It’s still kind of a whirlwind.”
“Por supuesto.” Lam waved her and Ty to a small table against one wall. Ty took the seat facing the door.
Mariana sat, a grim look on her face. “Thanks.” She busied herself with the slim menu.
“You all right?” Ty focused on her, rather than the dining options.
“I’m fine.” The same thing she’d told him in the parking lot after the attack, said with equal venom. Her features softened when she looked at him. “I just... I’m just tired of being the victim. Everyone’s staring at me.”
“They care about you.” He did, too, as much as he tried to tell himself this was just a mission for Frontier Justice. Her response was to move her attention back to the menu. He looked over the farm-to-table vegetarian selections, as well. In an attempt to redirect the mood, he asked, “Do you speak any other languages?” Hearing her ease with Spanish revealed a new facet of Mariana.
“Just Spanish. The Italian side of the family was fully Californian by the time I came around.” She set her menu down. “I’ve never even been to Italy.”
“Would you ever want to go?” That sounded too much like an invitation. His imagination took him to a sunlit hotel room with billowing white curtains brushing against Mariana as she stood at a window and sipped white wine. He bore his attention back into the menu.
“I haven’t taken a vacation in...forever.” Her wistful smile was impossible to ignore. “I’d like to see some old orchards out there.”
Suddenly the imaginary window she stood at was in a villa overlooking rows of apple trees. “Sounds nice.”
The return of the man to take their orders thankfully broke Ty out of his reverie before he had the urge to check airfare prices to Italy. He and Mariana made their selections, then were left with silence between them. Her darkness continued. She looked at several black-and-white photos of Rodrigo’s main street on the wall. “My folks died before I was ready to listen to all the stories.”
“I bet we could piece a lot together with the people out here.” From what he’d seen of the town, there was a strong sense of history.
Her gaze locked onto him. “Always the detective.” Her darkness seemed to lift, replaced by a warm depth in her eyes. But then her brow came together with concern as she looked at his face. “What is it?”
Pete, the police officer and Mariana’s ex, had swung into the restaurant and was making a beeline for them. Mariana turned to see him, the thick clouds returning around her. She brought her worried gaze back to Ty. “What do we tell him?”
“Some truth.” Ty hoped his quick wink to her was reassuring. “We’ll see what shakes down.”
Without asking, Pete brought an empty chair over to their table and sat. “You doing okay, Mariana?”
“Fine, thanks,” she answered coolly.
Now that Pete had shown the bare minimum of care for her well-being, he shifted his attention to Ty. “We haven’t met.”
Ty kept his hands on the table. Pete wasn’t asking socially. He was puffed up, lats flexed and neck tight. He was in full uniform, belt heavy with sidearm, Taser and collapsible baton. “Ty,” he answered.
It obviously wasn’t answer enough for Pete, and his mouth turned down with an authoritative frown. “You’re the one who helped Mariana last night?”
Ty maintained a neutral expression. “I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.”
“But then you left.” Pete shifted in the seat, his duty belt creaking. His arms remained tight.
“Everyone else showed up.” Ty shrugged it off. “There wasn’t anything for me to do then.”
Pete tensed his jaw. Clearly he had no patience for interrogations. “You could’ve stuck around and talked to us.”
“About what?” Ty knew it wasn’t fair to bait this man, but he was already pissed off about how little Pete had helped Mariana.
The police officer spoke through clenched teeth. “About what you saw. Any details that might’ve helped our investigation.”
“I barely saw anything.” Ty leaned back in his chair and moved his attention to Mariana. She sat straight, tense. “It was super dark, right?”
She nodded. “I already told you how little I could see, Pete.”
“But I’m trained in this, Mariana.” Pete also stabbed at Ty with his instructive tone. “So something that might seem insignificant to you could turn out to be important.”
Professional pride made the muscles in Ty’s back tense. He struggled to maintain a calm exterior. “Good point.”
Pete didn’t seem to hear the venom in Ty’s voice. The police officer continued trying to collect evidence. “So Ty here disappears, then reappears at lunch?”
Mariana jumped in. “I saw him on the street this morning when I was cleaning up at my shop. The least I can do is treat him to a meal.”
Pete zeroed in on Ty. “And you spent the night...?”
“Hotel” was all Ty would give him.
His mouth a tight line, Pete took a long breath through his nose before trying a smile. “This might be a lot easier if I just saw an ID.”
Mariana’s eyes went wide. “You don’t have to show him.”
Several other people in the restaurant watched the conversation. They must’ve sensed the tension peak. The restaurant owners stood at the front counter, wary of what was going down. Pete maintained his smile, all part of his easygoing intimidation. Ty remained stony, giving Pete nothing back. Slowly, so as to not set off any alarms for the officer, Ty reached into his coat. He pulled out his wallet, opened it and laid it on the table. With his badge facing up.
Pete unclenched his jaw. He looked from the badge to Ty’s face and back to the ID.
Before Pete could ask, Ty explained sternly, “I’m on vacation.” More questions spun in Pete’s eyes. Ty collected his badge and replaced it in his coat.
Pete finally collected some words into a sentence. “I’m sure Captain Phelps would like to get your insight into what happened last night...Detective.”
Ty fixed him with the kind of stare he used to wither rookies. “Maybe he can explain why no one set up a grid in that parking lot and crawled it centimeter by centimeter.” Pete reddened. Ty had hurt the other cop’s pride, and cut off any excuses. “I’ll come by a
fter lunch.” His tone was final.
Nodding like he had anything to do with the decision, Pete stood. “Sounds good. I’ll let the captain know.” He gave Mariana a small wave before adjusting his duty belt. “See you around, Mariana.”
She smiled weakly, but he was already walking out of the restaurant. The people watched him exit, then turned their curious gazes back to Ty and Mariana. Luckily, Lam came to the table with two glasses of water and diffused the attention. “Everything bueno?” she asked.
“Yeah.” This smile from Mariana was genuine. “Thanks.” Lam left them alone and Mariana leaned across the table to Ty. “Is everything bueno?”
A list of curses uncurled in Ty’s mind, but this was a respectable restaurant. “It’s fine,” he echoed her words back to her. She got it and let out a long breath. He muttered, “So much for flying under the radar.”
She remained close to him, whispering, “You killed that chance when you tackled that bastard in the parking lot.” A thought troubled her and she tilted her head. “What was your plan if those guys hadn’t attacked me?”
If she wasn’t being intimidated by criminals. If he wasn’t there on Frontier Justice business. If he could’ve just wandered into her shop while really being on vacation. “I was going to ask you out to coffee.”
Her face grew very serious and she leaned away from him. “Not if I asked you first.” It could’ve been flirtatious, and he wanted so desperately for it to be. Instead it was the truth. They’d had a chance. When he’d first walked into her store, it hadn’t been about Frontier Justice or the Hanley Group. It could’ve just been the two of them, following the electric possibility of their connection. But the attack changed that. Now the police knew who he was. The complications wove out into a web. Coffee dates, slow flirtations and the first blossom of a romance were way too fragile for the hostile environment they were in. His appetite left him and his chest felt tight. He and Mariana had lost their chance.
Chapter Six
All eyes were on Mariana. Throughout her lunch with Ty, she felt the glances. Any local who walked into the restaurant would fix her with a curious gaze. Sometimes sympathetic, or even acknowledging her with a wave, other times just staring. This was what the Hanley Group wanted. Mariana set apart from her community. Targeted.
But not alone. Ty hadn’t wavered in his commitment to helping her. Even after they’d acknowledged the missed opportunity of their connection. The mood had remained cloudy, her food tasteless. She chalked it up to yet another thing the Hanley Group took away from her. Ty’s determination must’ve been rubbing off on her, because instead of feeling defeated, she was fired up to finally take the fight back to them.
It would have to wait, though. After lunch Ty split off to visit the police station and she walked to Sydney’s shop. She could see people on the street checking out the boards on the front of her place. Even if she could rebuild her life, it would never really be the same. There were scars on her body from when she’d been learning to run the orchard on her own. A fall from a ladder onto a pruning saw left a long line across the back of her left arm. Last night’s attack scarred her history.
“Does Toro like him?” Sydney organized a display of honey sticks next to her register.
Mariana hovered near the table with her wares, as if she could protect these vestiges of her store. “Seems to tolerate him fine. Can’t say that Pete took a liking to Ty.” And yet Ty was voluntarily at the police station right then. Her gut clenched. He’d handled himself coolly at lunch with Pete, but the pressure could really be on now. And what if he got in trouble with his own captain? That could abruptly end his ability to help her now.
“Pete’s opinion doesn’t carry much weight around here.” Sydney’s voice remained light, despite her dig.
Mariana tore her gaze from her ruined storefront and walked back to her friend. “Your family’s been here for a long time. Did they ever talk to you about a group called Frontier Justice? Nineteenth century. After the Civil War.”
“Yeah.” Sydney stared at the ceiling, collecting memories. “There was always this story about not long after my people got here, someone was trying to run them off. Bloody times.” She looked out her window, eyes unfocused. “And there was some group of gunfighters or outlaws or something, called Frontier Justice, who stepped into the fight. They finished it.” A small, private smile crossed her lips. “I don’t know if it’s true, but my grandfather would tell me that as a kid, he’d still find brass shell casings on the property from those old shootouts.” She moved her attention to Mariana. “What do you know?”
“Just heard the name thrown around a little bit.” It didn’t seem right to connect Ty to Frontier Justice without letting him know. “My parents didn’t really talk about it.” If they had, she hadn’t been paying attention then.
“I’ll talk to my folks and see what other stories they can think of.” Sydney raised her eyebrows with irony. “Thinking of calling them in for this one?”
Mariana dropped her voice. “I think they showed up on their own.”
That drained all the jokes out of Sydney. “What?”
Mariana had already said too much and tried to figure out how to explain without betraying any of Ty’s trust. “They went away for a while, but they’re coming back—” Thank God her phone rang to bail her out from stammering anything else. She imagined it was Ty, but it was listed on the screen as a private caller, even though she’d added him to the contacts. But he was a crafty guy and probably had a couple of phones for different purposes. “Hello?”
“Do you want to die?” It definitely wasn’t Ty’s voice. “We don’t care how much help you’ve got.” Ice chilled her bones and froze her breath in her chest. “You think you get out of one little fight and you’ve won?”
Sydney must’ve read Mariana’s body language because she hurried to her, whispering, “Who is that?”
“We’re going to keep coming,” the rough masculine voice continued. “And your best move is to get out of the way.”
Blazing fury thawed her. Frontier Justice had helped Sydney’s family, and Ty had brought it back with him now. “If you get too close,” Mariana hissed into the phone, “you will feel my hands around your throat.”
The man chuckled. Her anger hardened and sharpened to a cutting edge. He sneered, “Your boyfriend’s back.”
Ty appeared on the sidewalk at the front window. Mariana hurried out to him. “They’re somewhere here.” She scanned the street but no one there caught her eye. “They’re on the phone.” The man had hung up. Ty put a hand on her shoulder and gently moved her back against the facade of the shop, then shifted his body between her and the street. His gaze swept low and high, and his hand hovered near where she knew he wore his pistol.
He spoke quietly, his attention on the street. “What did he say?”
“More threats.” She fought to maintain her balance as hot and cold swirled through her. Ty radiated calm danger. “Then he said you were coming back just before I saw you.”
“Rooftops.” He searched again, then turned to her. “You all right?”
“I can’t wait until I can stop answering that question.” She held up the phone. “Private caller, no number.”
“Wouldn’t expect anything else.” He cursed under his breath.
Sydney tentatively cracked open the door next to them. “Trouble?”
“They did what they wanted to and bailed.” Ty huffed out a breath. “And the local police are a little too interested in me. Even called my captain.” He straightened his jacket, composing himself. “I have to lie low for a minute. We’ll have that conversation with the Hanley Group tomorrow.” The word conversation was punctuated by a clenched fist.
Sydney came outside and looked over the area, just as Mariana and Ty had. “You have to stay safe.”
“We will,” Mariana reassured her.
“Same to you,” Ty told Sydney. “You’re our eyes here, but any bad news and you bail.” Sydney nodded. He turned to Mariana. “Do you have any more business at the store?”
“We salvaged what we could. Insurance is coordinating the cleaning crew.”
“Too many hiding places in town.” Ty remained edgy. “I need to walk your land.”
The buildings crowded together on the grid of streets created sinister corners. Someone could be watching from behind the brick structure to the right. Or the concrete-edged roof down the block. The open space of her land would allow her to breathe. “Let’s get out of here.” She and Ty said their goodbyes with Sydney and went to do a final sweep of Mariana’s shop.
He retrieved the comic book he’d been carrying when he’d arrived that morning. “So...” He scratched at the back of his head. “Officer Pete?”
She was through blaming herself and waved it off. “He worked a lot. I worked a lot. It was fine when we barely saw each other. Then it sucked when he wanted me to move closer to town for his kind of life.”
Ty considered for a moment. “Understood.”
She found nothing else to collect and locked up the shop, and they stood on the sidewalk at the front for a moment. Ty continually scanned the town around them. Whenever his assessment swept over her, a blush rose in her body. Their connection continued, even though they’d seemed to admit that chance had passed. But part of her longed to have that gaze on only her. So she could let him learn her, and discover how hidden she’d become in her isolation.
He agreed to follow her to her place in his car, and they parted. She knew all the trees and paths and contours of the family orchard. It would be safe. And it was unsettling. She would be alone with Ty again.
* * *
HE’D BEEN SITTING in the Rodrigo PD office of Captain Phelps, not learning anything new as the clock ticked away, and meanwhile those bastards had struck out at Mariana on the phone. Ty’s blood boiled. Now his own captain had been informed that he’d run into local trouble during his “vacation.” Helping Mariana was going to be difficult enough if he’d remained completely invisible. He had to take each step knowing he was tracked.