by Susan Stoker
Suddenly, shots rang out in the barn.
Kara jumped. A squeal of surprise tore from her.
Both wranglers tensed as well, crouching near the cruiser, their gazes locked on the barn in front of them. The deputy standing guard tensed, rifle aimed at the door.
Oh God! Never had Kara prayed as hard as she did right now. Don’t let Cade get hurt. Please God, protect him! I love him so much! Let us have a life together! The litany spun around and around inside her head as she stared at the barn.
More shots rang out.
Kara squelched her cry. It sounded like a war was going on inside the barn!
She wanted to get out and run in there, but she knew better. The wranglers had moved to either side of the cruiser, like guardians protecting her, telling her to get down on the floorboards and cover her head, which she instantly did. They remained at each main door of the cruiser, hunkering down as bullets flew around the area.
Then, there was complete silence. Kara cautiously lifted her head, her eyes huge. Both the wranglers slowly straightened, intently watching the now quiet barn. Cautiously, Kara dragged herself off the floorboards, eyes trained on the barn. Was someone hurt? What was going on? She swallowed hard, her throat dry, her heart beating so hard she could barely hear because of it.
It was a long ten minutes after the last gunfire had erupted before she saw Cade emerge from the barn with an angry-looking Fuentes in handcuffs. Cade had his game face on and she anxiously scanned it as he pushed the thug toward the other four cruisers behind his own, his gun drawn.
A moment later, a second man in handcuffs was pushed out of the entrance by Burt. The rest of the deputies joined them and they marched the men toward two different cruisers, making them get into the rear of each one.
Kara pushed the door open, seeing Cade coming her way as he holstered his weapon after handing Fuentes off to a deputy at one of the cruisers. He was breathing hard, sweat gleaming on his face. The moment their eyes met and locked, she called his name, wanting to run to him, but forcing herself to walk instead. He met her and although they couldn’t show any affection for one another under the circumstances, his game face dissolved.
“I’m okay,” he rasped, keeping his voice low as they stood a few feet apart. “I love you, Kara. Everything’s going to be all right.”
“I was so scared,” she said, choking back the rest. His slacks were dusty, some straw on them here and there. The armpits of his khaki shirt were stained dark with sweat. His hair was mussed, but he looked fine. He was alive!
Cade gestured to the cruiser. “The dispatcher has called a wrecker to come and pick up your car alongside the highway. They’ll take it to the garage in Clayton. You and I need to go back to HQ. I have to fill out a report on what happened and you have to give a statement. Are you up to it?” He gave her a long, intent look.
“Yes, that’s fine. Has someone from your side called my parents yet? I have my father’s cellphone number if you need it. One of the wrangler’s who protected me at your cruiser had a call from the foreman. He’s already called my father in Chicago to report what’s going on here.”
Cade pulled out his cellphone. “Give it to me. I’ll have the dispatcher get hold of them and let them know what happened. He needs to hear it from us, not from his foreman.”
“What will you do after you write up the report on their truck striking my car?”
“We’ll take the two perps back to headquarters. We’ve already got two FBI agents from Houston there because of another case, and they’ll interrogate them. I’m the officer on record for this arrest and I don’t know how long I’ll be there. Sometimes, these interrogations can go on for hours. Long hours. Unless they both lawyer up.”
“Do you think they’re American citizens?”
“Hell no,” he snorted. “We have U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, coming to pay them a visit as well. My guess is that they’re here illegally. Never mind that they tried to kill you, there’s going to be a boat load of felonies thrown at them.” He walked to the cruiser and opened the door for her. Already, the two men were being driven back to Sarita for interrogation. As he climbed into the cruiser, his cellphone rang and he answered it.
Kara heard him talking to the dispatcher. It was a short conversation. Afterward, he turned to Kara. “Dispatch just contacted your father. Your parents are flying back home on the first available flight. They’ll let us know when they land in Houston.”
Nodding, she said, “Okay. My father will have his helicopter pilot meet them in Houston and fly them back here to the ranch.”
“Are you going to meet them?”
“No. I hardly ever come back to this ranch, Cade. This shootout doesn’t change how I feel. I’m just glad neither of them were here to witness it.”
He reached out, squeezing her hands that were gripped tightly in her lap. “Well, depending upon how the interrogation goes and what we find out, your father and mother may get pulled into this whether they want to or not.”
Her eyes widened. “Why? They were gone. How could they be involved?”
He took a deep breath and said quietly, “When I went into barn three, I found thousands of pounds of marijuana in huge bales, covered in plastic awaiting shipment. Burt found at least five hundred pounds of cocaine in another place on the third floor. It was wrapped in one kilo black plastic bags and stored in a corner. There are a lot of drugs being kept in that barn, Kara. I’m sorry,” he said, searching her stricken looking face.
“Oh, no…”
“Do you think that’s why your father made barn three off limits to you?”
“I-I don’t know. Oh, this is shocking!”
“What about your mother? Do you think she knew about your father’s drug activities?”
Tears came to her eyes and Kara forced them back. “No. My mother would never be involved in something like this!” She rubbed her face, trying to control herself. “My father, I’d believe it, Cade. I really would. I told you his history. Maybe he made Mom and I think that he’d quit dealing drugs at eighteen but maybe he didn’t,” she said, holding his grim looking gaze. And then, a realization struck her. “Oh no! Will the FBI think I’m involved in this too, Cade?”
He gave her an apologetic look. “They’re going to look at everything, Kara. But don’t worry. I know you’re not involved. But it does mean they will talk with you too. Just tell the truth and don’t hold anything back from them. It will help them understand the dynamics between you and your family.” His hand tightened over hers. “It will be all right. I’m here. I’ll be with you every step of the way on this.”
Kara managed a wobbly smile and as Cade released her hand, she forced herself to control her rampant feelings. She wondered if her father knew what had happened. How much had the dispatcher told Cade? Her stomach was still clenched from the shoot-out in the barn. She recognized Fuentes, who had crashed into her SUV. Feeling torn, but she knew Cade had duties to attend to and she would be questioned by the FBI at the sheriff’s headquarters.
What had possessed those two men to hole up in barn three in the first place? She couldn’t shake the grim look in Cade’s eyes either. It was as if he were holding back a lot of emotions, a lot of information. But she couldn’t read his mind, as much as she wanted to. Tonight when he finally got home, they would talk. Then she’d find out a lot more about Fuentes and why he was still after her. This was an unraveling nightmare to Kara and she was dizzied by the information Cade had given her. Was her father really into dealing drugs?
Her left arm near her elbow was badly bruised from the auto accident and she cupped it, the heat feeling good on it. That was the only injury she’d sustained from her car being hit and spinning out of control. It was enough. How badly she ached to be at home with Cade. Alone. Only with him.
Chapter Eight
‡
It was six p.m. and Cade was trying to gird himself emotionally with the coming information he had to give to Kara. The FBI had
talked to her and released her by late morning, but they had asked her to remain in Cade’s office in case they wanted to talk with her again later. Her parents had arrived at the sheriff’s office. The FBI would not allow them to meet one another, keeping them separated. Kara was understandably upset but understood. She found out that the FBI, ICE, the DEA, U.S. Border Patrol, and now ATF, were involved. The search by the FBI in barn three revealed a cache of long rifles, among them, AK-47s.
The Kenedy County Sheriff’s Department building wasn’t that large to begin with but now, it was cramped with law enforcement staff, agents, officers, and suspects. Wiping his mouth, he opened his office where Kara was patiently waiting for him. She looked stressed, her eyes dark. She’d been through a hell of a lot today.
“Can I see Mom now?” she asked hopefully, sitting up in the chair behind his desk.
With a shake of his head, he quietly shut the door. “No, not yet. How are you holding up? Would you like another bottle of water?”
“No, I’m okay. You look so tired, Cade.”
He was tired to his soul because of what he was going to have to share with her.
“I need to go over some things with you, Kara.” He came around the desk and pulled up a second chair, taking her hands in his as he faced her. “The good news is that you’re not a suspect in this case.” He saw instant relief in her eyes. “From everything I’m hearing, and this isn’t approved yet but will be shortly, your mother is not a suspect either.”
More relief came to her face. His hands tightened around her damp fingers.
“Fuentes, when the FBI agent started to interrogate him, made a mistake that the agent caught.” Releasing her hand, he pulled up the sleeve, exposing his wrist. “Fuentes demanded to make a call to a lawyer first thing. We have to legally honor that request. The agent nodded and then saw him look at the inside of his left wrist. The man has tattoos from each of his wrists to his shoulders and his neck,” Cade said. “The agent saw the number. He got up and gave Fuentes the phone to make the call. Afterward, the agent ran the number.” His voice lowered.
“Kara, it was your father’s private cellphone number.”
Her brows flew up and she gasped. Pulling her other hand from his, she said, “My father isn’t a lawyer. Why would Fuentes call him?”
“That’s what the FBI agent wanted to know. Fuentes would say nothing except that his attorney would be here shortly.” Wincing inwardly, Cade saw the terrible reality land on Kara.
“Then Fuentes is someone who works for my father? He never got out of the drug business did he, Cade?”
“Doesn’t look like it.” He reached for her hand, holding her grief-stricken gaze. “I’m sorry, Kara. You didn’t deserve this. Neither did your mother. She didn’t have a clue about your father’s covert activities, either.”
“Then,” she wobbled, “did my father send Fuentes to attack me? To what end? I don’t understand.”
“Remember when I was in the hospital with you and your father came to visit you?”
“Yes.”
“He told you that you’d be safer on the ranch, that you should come back and live there with them. He wanted to teach you to be the foreman of it someday. Do you remember that conversation?” Because Cade had never forgotten the bastard’s demeanor toward his only daughter. Even now, it made him angry. Kara’s gaze went from grief stricken to utterly shocked.
“Oh…no, Cade. No, he wouldn’t do that to me! He couldn’t have sent Fuentes after me hoping that it would scare me back to the ranch, back to him.” And then she placed her hand against her lips, staring at him with anguish as the truth sunk in.
“That’s what we all think, although your father isn’t saying a word. Fuentes however, is going to turn evidence on your father over to the FBI and tell them everything he knows. He’s going for a plea deal. He said your father hired him to scare you,” Cade told her quietly, seeing tears form in her eyes. How badly he wanted to protect her but this time, he couldn’t. It made Cade feel helpless in a way he never wanted to feel.
Kara was the innocent in all of this. And never had she looked as devastated as she did right now.
“I-I don’t want to believe it, Cade. He never lifted a hand to me while I was growing up.”
“He didn’t have to, sweetheart. He abused you in other ways to keep you under his control.” She closed her eyes, the corners of her mouth pulling inward for a moment. “I wish…I wish I could make this go away, Kara, but this is a nightmare for you and your mom.”
Opening her eyes, she stared at him. “My poor mother. What must she be going through? To be deceived like that, Cade. And lied to? Our whole life was a complete sham.”
“We’re just at the tip of this investigation. Your father has lawyered up. It’s going to be on law enforcement’s shoulders to prove he’s a major drug running player. Remember those illegal immigrants you saw that night when you were ten-years-old? And that little boy who got his arm broken for running away because he was scared?”
“Yes?”
“The FBI thinks your father was a regional hub for illegal immigrants coming across the border, a coyote of sorts. He probably got paid by the head.”
Kara eased to her feet and walked slowly around the office, her arms around her waist, holding herself.
Cade stood and took her into his arms, wanting to give her something…anything, to ease her pain. To his great relief, she sighed, slid her arms around his waist and snuggled against his chest. He could feel her weariness and worse, her shame over her father’s secret, double life.
“He blindsided us,” she mumbled against his shirt. “Mom and I didn’t have a clue.”
“Yeah, he blindsided the people he supposedly loved,” Cade agreed hoarsely, kissing her temple, sliding his hand through her hair, needing to give her some kind of comfort. Knowing that in the coming months, maybe even years, her family’s name was going to be dragged through the mud in the national news. It was just another heavy burden Kara had to carry. But she wouldn’t have to do it alone. He would be at her side, carrying it with her every step of the way.
*
The cool November evening made Kara put on a sweater as she sat outside on the porch swing at Cade’s home. The sun was setting, the sky torn with clouds heralding the late-season hurricane that had entered the Gulf a day ago. Rain and wind were in the forecast. She sat there using the toe of her shoe to push the large wooden swing slowly back and forth. The last three months of her life had been the worst and the best she’d ever experienced.
Cade nudged the door open with the toe of his cowboy boot, balancing two cups of hot chocolate with whipped cream in his hands.
Kara smiled, taking one cup, thanking him. He came and sat next to her, placing his arm around her shoulders, drawing her against him. “You’re my dessert,” she murmured, lifting her chin, meeting and holding the warmth in his light brown gaze. “Thank you.”
“Every day with you is a gift to me, Kara” he said. Looking down at the engagement ring on her left hand, he added, “I don’t know how I lived without you in my life. I really don’t.”
Her body glowed with the memory of them making love an hour earlier. She took a sip of the chocolate, setting it on a nearby table. Then, she nestled against him. “Me either,” she murmured, pressing a kiss into the black polo shirt he wore. “I’m so happy with you, Cade,” she said, melting beneath the burning look of love that he gave her. “Despite everything, I’ve never been happier.”
“Good, because it’s gotten pretty bad of late,” he mumbled, taking a sip of the hot chocolate, licking his lips free of the whipped cream.
She smiled, lifting her finger, removing a bit from his upper lip. “Mmmm…you make everything we do sensual and erotic, you know that?” She opened her lips, licking the cream off her finger, watching his eyes narrow on her, feeling his alpha male response.
“Because we have how many years of yearning stored up for one another? Now, for the first time in our li
ves, we’re really getting to share how we felt about one another all those years,” Cade teased, giving her a swift, hot kiss on the mouth. He felt her smile beneath his mouth as he slowly parted from her lips, seeing the joy dancing in her eyes.
“Maybe,” she agreed equitably, content to take another sip of her hot chocolate.
“How’s your mom doing adjusting to being boss of the ranch?”
“Surprisingly well. At first, after Father was indicted, I didn’t know if she was going to make it. But she turned a corner and she’s doing fine now. She asked us to join her for Thanksgiving. Are you up for that? She invited your mom too.”
“How do you feel about it? I know when you go to the ranch the bad memories come back.”
Shrugging, she said, “Mom had an important ‘aha’ moment for me the other day on the phone, Cade. She said that she’d fallen out of love with my father after I was born. He wanted only her, not her child. She stayed in that loveless marriage because of me and I found that sad, but I didn’t say that to her. It was confounding her that he wanted me back on the ranch when he’d never wanted me at all. When she found out from the FBI that he’d hired Fuentes to ‘scare’ me into coming back to the ranch, she filed for a divorce. Now, he’s a stranger to her—someone she no longer knows. He’s in jail in Houston awaiting trial, with no bond set. The more we both found out about his deep drug roots, the easier it was for me to completely release myself from him. Mom said I was not guilty in any of this. That I took from the best of his genes, not the worst. She saw how important Delos was to me, and how happy I was. She wanted me to know that she fully supported all my choices in life.”