* * *
Tory hurried into her bedroom, grabbed a suitcase in her closet and swung it up onto her bed. That was when her gaze locked on her pillow. Her photo was gone, but she desperately wanted to see it. Try to pinpoint when it was taken, especially if it was a few hours ago.
Keeping her attention trained on the task at hand, she quickly packed clothes for a few days as well as anything else she might also need during that time. Her hands trembled as she snatched her items. When she shut the suitcase, she lifted the bag from the bed and tightened her grip around the handle to still the shaking. She had to be strong for Michelle.
“Are you ready?” Cade asked from the doorway, his gun and badge no longer hidden. His large, imposing body, from his boots to his cowboy hat, eased some of her anxiety.
“Yes, can we stop and get something to eat before going to your ranch?”
“Sure.” Cade sidestepped to allow her to leave the room. “Michelle is in the entry hall.”
“How was she packing?”
“She didn’t say one word even when Detective Alexander took her fingerprint to rule out hers from the ones that he lifted.”
“Does he need mine?” Tory asked.
“I told him I would take care of it and give it to him tomorrow. Michelle needs to get out of here.” He studied her for a long moment. “You do too.”
“I agree. Let’s go.” This house had been her home ever since she married Derek over fifteen years ago. She’d always thought of it as her safe haven from her work. Now she didn’t know if she could live here again.
When Tory turned the corner in the L-shaped hallway, Michelle stood in the entrance into the bathroom as if she were frozen in place. Her duffle bag lay at her feet. “Michelle.” She rushed to her daughter and wrapped her arms around her. “You shouldn’t have opened the door.”
The white cast to Michelle’s face and her stare fixed on the counter covered in blood underscored how grave the invasion of her home was. Whoever did this set out to frighten her.
“Mom, who would do this?” Michelle threw her arms around Tory.
Shudder after shudder rippled through her daughter’s body. “Honey, I don’t know, but the police will find the person. I don’t want you worrying about it. You’ll be safe.”
Cade approached them. “I won’t let anything happen to either one of you. Let’s get out of here.”
Tory began walking Michelle toward the entry hall. “Ranger Morgan has offered to drive us to get something to eat. How about Juicy Burger Hut? You love their hamburgers and fries.”
“First, please call me Cade. My uncle and I don’t stand on formality at the ranch.” He opened the front door and allowed them to leave first. “Do they still have the best fries in town?”
Michelle remained quiet, but Tory said, “According to my daughter they do. I avoid fried food if possible.”
As her daughter slid into the black SUV backseat, shutting the car door, Cade caught Tory before she rounded the hood of the Jeep. “Are you all right? This is a lot to take in.”
“I’m not concerned about myself. I didn’t want Michelle seeing that bathroom. Did Detective Alexander test it to see if it was blood for sure?”
“Yes, it was, but not human blood. That’s all he can tell. The lab will narrow it down.”
“I was hoping it was all a prank. Seeing the damage again only makes it crystal clear that it isn’t.”
Tory paused, rounding the hood of the SUV. “We’ll never be safe unless we can find the culprits.” She finally said what she was trying to deny since she opened Michelle’s door and saw the trashed room. “Look how hard it has been even getting Mederos to trial.”
“I promise you I’ll find the people responsible for all this.”
“That’s a promise you might not be able to keep, Cade. We talked about a lot of things when we were young, and they didn’t come true.”
“That was then. This is now. I’m good at my job.” He moved closer and lowered his voice even more. “And that’s my daughter in harm’s way.”
Tension vibrated between them. She had a right to be angry. He hadn’t ever wanted to be a father. He’d had his chance and didn’t even get in touch with her to tell her it didn’t make any difference if she was pregnant, that he wasn’t going to marry her or be part of his child’s life. The only thing she’d heard from him was through Derek, who had contacted him. Cade had sent his congratulations. When her husband told her that, something inside her died that day. She at least thought he would want to be a part of his daughter’s life even if he hadn’t wanted to marry her. That was when she decided Derek would be Michelle’s father in every sense of the word.
She climbed into the passenger side of the front seat. Too much was happening at once. Mederos had sent a terrifying message today. Michelle met Cade for the first time. They were going to his ranch to stay. Even she felt shell-shocked so she could only imagine how her daughter was doing.
Cade started the engine and backed out of the driveway.
“When can we go back home? I still don’t understand why I can’t stay at my grandparents’.”
At a stop sign, Cade fixed his gaze on her daughter through the rearview mirror. “When this is all settled.”
The lights from the street lamps lit the interior of Cade’s Jeep enough so that Tory could see Michelle’s confusion in her knitted forehead and her teeth digging into her bottom lip.
Seeing Cade and Michelle together highlighted their similarities—height, both taller than most, the shape and color of their eyes, a crystalline blue that drew a person in, and a birthmark on their lower back. Thankfully that was where the resemblances ended, especially his black hair and angular jawline. Her daughter took after her with her long curly blond hair.
Tory started to say something, but Cade cut her off. “Y’all are staying at my ranch. I grew up there and know the lay of the land. Not a lot has changed since I was a boy.” He drove through the intersection. “I’ll be able to protect you both better there.”
“Will I be able to go to school?” Michelle asked, her voice quavering.
“We have two days to figure that out. Maybe one of the fingerprints will lead the detective to who’s responsible for breaking into our house.”
“What am I supposed to do about meeting Emma and Jodie tomorrow afternoon at the church to decorate for the fall festival? I’m running the ring-tossing booth.”
“I’m not sure if that’s a possibility anymore,” Cade said.
“So, I can’t go anywhere? I’m going to a strange house, and I have to stay there? What am I gonna do?”
“Honey, I don’t know what’s going to happen. But whatever we do will be in the best interest of keeping us safe.” Being in a house with Cade wasn’t what she really wanted either. But maybe it was a good thing they would be on a ranch outside of town. Michelle could be headstrong and could do something to put herself in danger.
* * *
Cade pulled into the drive-through lane at Juicy Burger Hut. Within five minutes he left the fast-food restaurant and continued toward his ranch. A thick silence filled the Jeep. As he drove, he kept scanning the vehicles around him. He noted each one that was behind him, making sure he wasn’t being followed.
When he left the lights of El Rio behind, a dark two-lane highway stretched out before him, the only light coming from his SUV headlights and the stars. A sliver of the moon hung in the sky. The hairs on his nape tingled. Just ten more minutes and they would be home. All his senses on alert, he riveted his attention on his surroundings.
“We’re gonna be stuck out in the middle of nowhere.” Michelle broke the silence, her voice a shaky whisper. “What else are you not telling me, Mom?”
“You know everything that I know.”
“My ranch is only ten miles out of t
own.” Cade slowed his speed as he took the S curve not far from his place.
Rounding the last part of the turn in the dark, Cade barely spotted the outline of a black truck in the middle of the road. He swerved to avoid the vehicle, his Jeep heading toward the drop-off on the side of the road. As his SUV bounced down the incline, a tree loomed before them. Cade cut the wheel hard to the right to avoid it. One of his front wheels hit something. The Jeep flipped over and began rolling down the hill.
THREE
At the bottom of the hill, the Jeep ended up on its roof. Tory hung upside down, penned to the seat, her safety belt cutting into her. Silence replaced the sounds of the crash for a few seconds.
As she twisted toward the backseat, a moan penetrated the quiet—it was coming from her daughter. “Michelle, are you okay?” She couldn’t see into the darkness enough to tell anything.
In the dim light from the dashboard, Cade moved. The sound of a click indicated he’d unhooked his seatbelt. As he broke his fall downward, he said in a tight voice, “Michelle?”
Another groan followed by her daughter saying, “My arm hurts. I think—” a long pause “—ouch. I’m bleeding.”
Tory released her strap and braced herself as she collapsed against the roof. “Can you move?”
“Yes, but glass is everywhere.”
“Stay put.” Cade used his feet to dislodge the remaining driver’s side window. “I need to check the area, then I’ll get you two out. How bad is the bleeding?”
“All over my fingers.” Michelle’s pitch rose.
“Keep your hand over the cut if you can, Michelle.” Cade shoved one leg out the gaping hole, glancing at Tory. “Get the flashlight out of the glove box. Use it to see what’s going on with Michelle.”
Tory retrieved it and clicked it on. Light flooded the darkness while Cade wiggled through the opening where the window had been. As he stood, she scrambled between the two bucket seats, inspecting the back area while she crawled toward her daughter. Glass shards glistened in the glow from the flashlight.
Michelle held her hand over her left arm, crimson red oozing between her fingers, reminding Tory of what had been all over her bathroom. The sight nauseated her. She’d always been queasy when she saw blood, but she couldn’t give in to that now. She gritted her teeth and removed her sweater, then used it to swipe away the pieces of glass littering the roof around her daughter, so Tory could get to her.
As she wiggled herself between her daughter and the driver’s seat, she shone the light on the wound in Michelle’s upper arm. “Take your hand away and let me see it how bad it is.”
The second her daughter removed her fingers, more blood flowed and dripped onto the roof. The cut was long and probably deep, but Tory couldn’t tell for sure. She took her sweater and tied it around Michelle’s arm to stop the flow, then she reached up and found the seatbelt release.
In the distance she heard Cade’s voice. Probably calling 911. “I’m going to hold you the best I can as I free you and lower you. You okay with that?”
Michelle, her eyes gleaming with unshed tears, nodded.
While she helped her daughter, Cade appeared at the side window closest to them. “I’ve called the sheriff and Paul. Paramedics are on the way too. I think it’s safer staying here. They know where to look for us.”
He knocked the rest of the glass out of the backseat window, then used his coat to protect them from the shards. He assisted Michelle out of the car before reaching in and giving Tory his hand.
Strong. Capable. Like the man himself. She’d seen the truck in the road only a half a second before Cade swerved the SUV. Her reflexes weren’t nearly that quick. She shuddered, thinking about what would have happened if she’d been driving.
In the distance the sound of sirens echoed through the chilly night air. When Tory emerged from the SUV, her legs refused to hold her weight. Shaking, she collapsed next to her daughter on the cold ground, sending up a silent prayer of thanks to God. Somehow she’d managed to escape two threats on her life in one day.
* * *
Eight hours later, dawn broke on the eastern horizon as Cade neared the accident site in a rented car. The truck had been moved to the side of the road. There was a group of law enforcement personnel hanging around the vehicle. A couple of deputies managed what traffic there was since the scene was in the middle of an S curve.
He hadn’t talked to Paul in a few hours and wanted to know the latest. He pulled behind a patrol car and parked, then glanced at Tory. Her head, cushioned with his jacket, rested against the passenger’s window, her eyes closed. When he peeked at Michelle in the backseat, she was lying down. With her cuts and a couple of bruises starting to appear, she looked as though she’d gone into battle, hammering home she and Tory were both in danger.
They were all exhausted after spending a good part of the night at the El Rio Medical Center that served the area. At least they didn’t have to go to San Antonio. The injury that had concerned him the most was the slash down Michelle’s arm. It required twelve stitches, but she kept it together the whole time. In fact, she had been unusually quiet, her earlier anger before the wreck gone.
Thank you, Lord. It could’ve been much worse.
Tory rallied when he opened the driver’s side door. “Why are we here?”
“I need to talk to Sheriff Dawson and Paul about what they’ve discovered so far, then I’ll drive y’all to the ranch. Uncle Ben has readied the house and will have breakfast for us.”
“I’m glad it’s Saturday. I don’t know how I would’ve made it to the courthouse.”
“We’ll talk about all that later. Rest. I won’t be long.”
She settled against the passenger side door, and her eyes closed immediately. He’d pulled all-nighters before, but he hoped to grab a couple of hours of rest later today. He needed to be at his sharpest if he was going to protect Tory and Michelle.
Cade shook hands with the sheriff. He’d just started working with him and hadn’t known him previously, not like Paul who he’d gone to school with. “Have y’all found anything that leads to the person who left the truck on the road?”
“Now that it’s daylight, we wanted to search the surrounding area more thoroughly. As you know from last night, we found human blood in the back of the pickup that hadn’t been there long. The marks in the truck bed indicated something was dragged from the back still bleeding. We have latent prints in the cab and on the handle of the tailgate as well as fibers. Not sure from what but I sent it to the lab in San Antonio.”
“Any test result back yet? Blood type?”
“Not yet, other than it was human. Should hear soon on that. We did find out that the blood in Tory’s house was from a pig.” The sheriff glanced at where Cade’s wrecked Jeep had been. “I know you said last night you didn’t see anyone in the truck because you were too busy trying to avoid crashing into it. But when you got out to check around your SUV, did you glance up at the road and see anything?”
“No, it was too dark. The more I think about the moment I first saw the vehicle, I don’t believe there was anyone in the cab. Whoever left it was gone or hiding on the side of the road. If I hadn’t had my bright lights on, I might not have been able to avoid the black truck. As you saw, it was parked on the road at just the right place to hinder the chance to stop in time. Who owns it?”
“It was reported stolen in San Antonio last night before the accident. Mark Summers owns it, and the police there have checked into his alibi. Part of the time he was with an officer filling out a stolen vehicle report. The rest of the time he was with his family and neighbors discussing the theft and how to beef up security. San Antonio Police will follow up and interview people in the area where the truck was when it was stolen.”
After talking with a couple of his officers, Paul joined them. “I’m going to fo
cus on some of the traffic cams and see if I can catch the truck on any of them last night. Maybe we’ll be able to get a picture of the driver that way.”
“Who else is involved in the trial of Diego Mederos?” Finding blood in the back of the pickup made Cade wonder if more people than just Tory had been targeted yesterday. Even if they knew it was Mederos who was responsible, without evidence he would get away with a crime yet again.
“Judge Parks is presiding over the trial. But he’s on a hunting weekend right now and isn’t answering his cell phone. Lieutenant Sanders ran the investigation in my department,” Paul said. “I contacted him, and he’s fine. Deputy Collins helped from the sheriff’s office. I haven’t been able to reach him yet either. Also, we received help from Ranger Eastman before he retired. But he lives in Arizona. We left a message on his answering machine.”
Cade would call the Texas Ranger he replaced and get his thoughts on what was going on. “I’ll contact Eastman. He’s an old friend of my uncle’s.” He looked at his rented car. “I know Sanders, but I haven’t met your deputy, Sheriff Dawson. I’d like to work with them since they’re familiar with the Mederos case.”
“Deputy Collins is my second-in-command and just returned from a well-deserved vacation. A good officer. I’ll have him gather up his notes and come by to talk to you. How about this afternoon around four?”
“Sounds good. Call me anytime you have a lead. We could have all died last night. I intend to find who’s behind this.” Cade looked toward the deputies and police officers spreading out from where the truck had been in the middle of the road. They combed the ground and brush, part of them taking the right side of the highway while the other investigated the left. “Are you bringing in a dog to see if he’ll pick up a scent leading away from the vehicle?”
The sheriff removed his cowboy hat, ran his fingers through his gray hair, then plopped his Stetson back on his head. “Yep. Billy still has the best bloodhound around these parts. He’s on his way.”
High-Risk Reunion Page 3