So, they might not have much time.
“I’d like to be there when you interrogate Charles,” Kayla insisted. “Maybe I can rile him enough that he’ll admit to something wrong.”
Nate shook his head and moved back into the hall. “Can’t do that. For one thing, Darcy Burkhart won’t allow it.” He said the attorney’s name like the worst of profanity.
Dade stepped out, as well, and when Kayla looked into the hall, she saw why.
Charles was there.
“We have to follow the rules to a tee,” Nate said to her, his voice a whisper now. “I don’t want to give Brennan a chance at a free pass.” But then Nate stepped aside. “However, there is no law against you speaking to your former father-in-law if you happened to run into him. Like now, for instance.”
Kayla nodded. “Thank you.” It was a concession that Nate didn’t have to allow her. Now, she only hoped she could do something with it.
She maneuvered around Dade and Nate and started up the hall. There was a Texas Ranger on Charles’s right side, and he stopped when Charles did. Charles had the gall to smile at her.
“Kayla, pretty as a picture,” he purred.
“I was nearly a dead picture. Someone tried to kill me again.” She didn’t wait for him to deny it. Kayla got closer and leaned in. “You might think you hold the cards, but you don’t. If you ever want to see your grandson again, then the hired guns stop now.”
Of course, she never intended for Robbie to be in the same vicinity as his grandfather, but her son was the only leverage she had.
His smile faded. “I would never endanger my grandson. And I will see him, one way or another.”
“Not if you’re behind bars,” she fired back. “Your hired gun rolled on you, Charles. Danny Flynn said you sent him to kill me.”
The anger flashed across his face. Then, quickly left as the smile had done. “Flynn’s a lunatic and a liar. I fired him, you know. Weeks ago. And this is all to get back at me.”
She hated that the lies came so easily to him. And hated the sound of the woman’s footsteps behind her. Kayla knew it was the attorney, and the woman would soon put an end to this.
“Who helped you put these attacks together?” Kayla demanded. And she prayed he didn’t say her sister’s name. “Was it Winston Calhoun?”
“This conversation is over,” Ms. Burkhart said before she even reached them.
But Kayla didn’t give up. “Who was it?” She latched hard onto Charles’s arm. “Carrie Collins?”
Still no reaction, so Kayla tried again. “Alan Bowers?”
Now, there was a reaction.
Charles’s smile returned.
“Alan,” he mumbled. “Now, there’s a man with secrets.” He leaned in, put his mouth to her ear. “Ask him if he’s had anything to drink lately. I think he prefers scotch on the rocks.”
Kayla pulled back, shook her head. “What the heck does that mean?”
But Charles didn’t get a chance to answer. His attorney wrenched him out of Kayla’s grip and marched him down the hall toward the interrogation room. Nate and the Ranger were right behind them.
“What was that about?” Dade asked her.
Kayla had to shake her head again. “I’m not sure. Charles could be trying to put the blame on Alan.”
Or maybe that’s where the blame should be.
“I’ll talk to Alan again,” Dade assured her. And he phoned the other deputy, Melissa Garza. Mel, as Dade called her. He asked her to round up the available suspects for another interrogation.
Good, Kayla wanted them questioned again, but this could all be part of the game. No accomplice. Just Charles and his two gunmen: Flynn and Salvetti. One of them dead, and the other was in custody. She wanted to believe that meant things were looking up, but they were dealing with Charles here.
Dade started down the hall, but first he grabbed the picture of his grandfather from his desk. “I’d like to try a little experiment,” he explained.
He caught up with the others and ducked into the interrogation room where Mason and Nate were with Charles and his attorney. He handed the picture to Nate and then whispered something that Kayla couldn’t hear.
“Let’s watch.” Dade caught onto her and led her into the room with the two-way mirror.
She watched as Nate set the photo in front of Charles. Nate didn’t say a word, even when both Charles and Ms. Burkhart gave him questioning glances.
“What am I supposed to do with this?” Charles asked.
“Look at it,” Nate explained. “See if you recognize anyone.”
Nate suddenly looked calm and in control. Mason, on the other hand, looked like…himself. As if he preferred to beat a confession out of Charles. Kayla was in Mason’s camp right now and wished that could happen.
Charles did pick up the picture, and a thin smile moved over his mouth. “Your grandfather,” he said without hesitation. “A complex man.”
Because her arm was next to Dade’s, she felt him stiffen. Inside the interrogation room, Mason and Nate had similar reactions.
“You knew Chet McLaurin?” Nate asked.
“What does this have to do with my client’s current situation?” Ms. Burkhart interrupted.
“Nothing,” Charles assured her, and he pushed the photo away.
Dade cursed. “You said those files from his office were missing?”
Kayla nodded. “But I doubt he destroyed them. He probably has storage facilities somewhere.”
“When things settle down here, I’ll look and see what I can find.”
That left Kayla with a sickening feeling. Everything Charles touched turned bad, and she hoped he hadn’t had any kind of connection with Dade’s grandfather. It was obvious Dade loved Chet McLaurin, and Charles shouldn’t be able to hurt the few good childhood memories that Dade and his brothers had about the man.
She remembered the silver concho in her pocket and eased her hand over it. It was silly, but just having that piece of Dade so close to her made her feel better. But it was more than that. She was starting to feel protective of his family. As if she had some right to protect. Some need.
And she couldn’t feel that way.
That was a sure path to a broken heart.
Charles’s lawyer started the session with some legalese about the validity of Flynn’s confession. Nate countered with some legalese of his own, and only then did Kayla remember that Nate had a law degree, as well. Kayla was trying to sort through what they were saying when Deputy Mel appeared in the doorway. She held out the phone for Dade.
“It’s SAPD calling about that search warrant,” the deputy explained. “I figured you’d want to talk to them.”
Dade practically snatched the phone from her hand. “Deputy Dade Ryland.”
Kayla moved closer, trying to hear the conversation, but the discussion being piped in from the interrogation room blocked out whatever was being said. Plus, Dade wasn’t giving anything away. He was just listening.
“Do that ASAP,” Dade instructed, and he ended the call.
“Did they find anything in the safe?” Kayla immediately asked.
“Yeah.” Dade turned for the door. “Now, let’s see if it’s important to this investigation.”
That’s all Dade said before he turned the camera on and darted out and into the interrogation room next door. His entrance grabbed everyone’s attention, and the lawyer was no doubt on the verge of objecting when Dade bracketed his hands on the interrogation table and got right in Charles’s face.
“SAPD just executed the search warrant of Danny Flynn’s safe.” And he waited, the seconds crawling by.
“So?” the lawyer and Charles said in unison.
Dade glanced at his brothers first. “They found a gun. A .38 and a spent bullet.”
Kayla couldn’t believe it. Flynn had told the truth. Well, about that anyway.
“What do you know about the gun?” Dade demanded.
Charles pulled back his shoulders. His
only reaction before he shrugged. “I know nothing about it. And when you test it, as I’m sure you will, you still won’t be able to link it to me. Because I didn’t have anything to do with that gun or anything else in Flynn’s safe.”
Dade didn’t pull back. “That’s because you’re a coward. You hire people to do your killing.”
The lawyer objected of course. Nate countered that objection, and while they were engaged in verbal banter, Dade and Charles just stared at each other. Except Charles’s expression was more of a glare now.
Good.
Dade had managed to hit a nerve and that wasn’t easy to do.
Kayla went closer to the tiny speaker mounted on the wall so she wouldn’t miss any of the conversation.
“If the gun’s not connected to you,” Dade said to him, “then why would your disgruntled former employee lead us right to it?”
Charles’s glare softened, and the cockiness returned. “Do you want me to guess why a nutjob would keep a gun and a shell casing in his safe?”
“Sure. Guess.” Dade had some cockiness. too.
“I think Flynn was hiding a secret,” Charles calmly provided.
“What kind of secret?” Dade demanded over the protest of the attorney.
Charles waved off his lawyer. Then smiled a smile that only he and Satan could have managed.
“Just guessing here, mind you,” Charles said, his voice low and calculated, “but I think it’s a secret that could bring you Ryland boys to your knees.”
Chapter Twelve
Dade felt numb and in shock. Yeah, it was stupid to put faith in anything Brennan said, but Dade couldn’t shake the feeling that in this one instance, Brennan had told the truth.
It’s a secret that could bring you Ryland boys to your knees.
Did that gun have something to do with his grandfather’s murder? Maybe. And if so, Flynn might have handed them the evidence to solve a two-decades-old crime.
Darcy Burkhart cleared her throat. She didn’t groan exactly, but she looked as if that’s what she wanted to do. Dade could understand why. Brennan had just said way more than he should have.
“I need to speak privately with my client.” Ms. Burkhart glanced at the mirror. “Privately,” she emphasized. She stood and motioned for Brennan to do the same. “Is there another room we can use?”
Nate and Mason exchanged glances, and it was Nate who escorted them in the direction of the other interrogation room down the hall.
“I’ve got calls to return,” Mason mumbled and headed out.
Dade took a deep breath so he could go back to the observation room with Kayla, but she came to him. She caught onto him when he stepped in the doorway and hugged him. It seemed natural, and it was far more comforting that it should have been.
“Charles likes to play mind games,” Kayla reminded him.
Dade didn’t doubt that, but maybe this wasn’t a game. “The gun might be connected to my grandfather’s murder. We never found the killer or the murder weapon. But there’s a bullet that was taken from his body. We can do ballistics to see if this gun killed him.”
“When will you know?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I asked that the test be run ASAP. Nate can give them a shove, so we might know something…soon.”
And Dade hoped they could live with the consequences of the truth. Oh, man. This could hurt bad. “In the back of mind, I always wondered if my father had something to do with that murder.”
There. He’d said it aloud. A first. Probably all of his brothers had thought it, but it seemed too sick to put into words.
“I’m so sorry, Dade.” Like her hug, it was the right thing. It soothed him as much as anything could have. It also reminded him how deep the pain was from the loss of his father and grandfather.
It was a pain he didn’t want to feel. But damn, that gun had brought it all back to the surface.
“My father left just days after my grandfather was killed,” he heard himself say. “And he and my grandfather weren’t the best of friends. Both of them could be hard men, and they clashed.”
She eased back. Her eyes met his. “But what motive could your father have had for killing him? And then how would Flynn have gotten the gun?”
“I don’t know.” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “I just know that our grandfather’s death left a big hole in the family.”
Kayla just stood there. Listening. Waiting for him to continue. She was offering him a chance to talk this through, and Dade was surprised, shocked even, that he wanted her to hear it.
“It’ll always hurt,” Dade explained. “It was like being ripped apart, and then Grayson had to put us all back together again.” Dade paused because he had no choice. “Grayson’s the father that our real dad should have been. He raised us all. Mason, too. He helped raise us while he built the ranch into one of the best in the state.”
“You helped with that,” Kayla told him.
Dade shook his head and turned away from her. “I helped with roundups and picking up breed stock. Mason is the reason people respect the ranch. Grayson is the reason they respect the law and the family.”
“You’re a deputy sheriff,” she pointed out.
“Right.” Man, this hurt, too, but he thought he’d buried it deep enough. Apparently not. “Nate’s a cop superstar at SAPD. And Kade, the youngest, he’s made a good name for himself in the FBI. Gage did the same in the CIA before he was killed in the line of duty. Like I said, I’m ordinary, but that’s okay. I’ve learned to live with that.”
Kayla closed the door. Well, actually she slammed it. Then, she caught onto his arm and whirled him around to face her. Dade saw it then. The anger in her eyes.
“You are not ordinary,” she insisted. “You saved my life. My son’s life. You’ve bucked up against your family to protect me.”
The anger faded, and there was a moment. One scalding moment where Dade thought he was going to kiss her again. Kayla must have felt it, too. That pull deep within her. Because she shook her head and gave a reluctant smile.
“Besides, you’re too hot to be ordinary,” she said. “Want to hear a schoolgirl-like confession? You’re hands-down the hottest guy I’ve ever kissed. When you walk into a room, Dade, I have to remind myself to breathe.”
Dade had to mentally replay that three times before it sank in. He waited for the punch line, waited for Kayla to say she was just kidding. But she didn’t. She leaned in and brushed her mouth against his.
When her eyelids fluttered up, and he saw those baby blues, he knew this was no joke. Kayla thought he was hot. So, he kissed her, hard, just the way he’d dreamed of kissing her.
The rap on the door got rid of the cocky smile that Dade was sure was on his face.
The door flew open, and he spotted his brothers. Nate looked hurt and confused. Mason looked ready to rip off their heads, especially Dade’s.
“Before you have another, uh, private conversation, you might want to check the recording system. It’s on.” Nate pointed to the camera and microphone mounted just behind the two-way mirror. The very camera that Dade himself had turned back on before the picture confrontation.
Hell.
Kayla’s face turned flame red, and she shifted her position so that her back was to his brothers.
Dade wished he could dig a hole for both of them, but he knew that groveling and looking embarrassed wasn’t the way to go.
“Yeah, I kissed her,” Dade admitted. “Either of you got a problem with that?”
Nate dodged his gaze, shook his head and walked away. Which meant he did have a problem with it, but he respected Dade too much to say anything.
Mason’s mouth tightened as he pushed himself away from the doorjamb he was leaning against. “When you screw up, you don’t do it half-assed, do you, little brother?”
No, he tended to go full-blown with it. And in this case, it was a screw-up that he knew he couldn’t avoid. Kayla was under his skin, and Dade thought maybe that’s exactl
y what he wanted.
“By the way, three of our suspects were just brought in,” Mason let him know. “Winston, Alan and Carrie. Let’s just say, they aren’t so happy to be here, and because Grayson’s not back to ask the questions, that means one of us draws the short straw.”
“I’ll do it,” Dade volunteered. He wanted to do it because each question, and answer, could help get Kayla and Robbie out of danger.
“When is Grayson expected back?” Kayla asked, her voice wavering a little. Yeah, Mason could be intimidating as hell, but Grayson’s return meant she could see Robbie.
“Not for a while,” Mason told her. “Once the Rangers are in place, Grayson said he still needs to pick up some supplies. Plus, it’s getting late, and it won’t be a direct drive out to the safe house. That’s a long-winded way of saying it might be morning before we can get you out there.”
Kayla sighed, obviously disappointed. She was beyond anxious to see her baby, and once Dade finished the interrogations, he needed to call Grayson and see if he could hurry things along. Besides, Dade wanted Kayla at the safe house, too, so she wouldn’t be under the same roof with Brennan and the other suspects.
“I’ll bring the three in here,” Dade told her. “So you can watch and listen. We already know the sound system is working,” he grumbled. But he added a smile to that and landed a kiss on her cheek.
“It’s SAPD again,” Mel said, coming up the hall. She handed Dade the phone. “He says it’s important.”
Dade took the phone and also took a deep breath. Important could be code-speak for bad news. “Deputy Dade Ryland,” he answered.
“This is Captain Shaw Tolbert, SAPD. I’m Nate’s boss. We got an immediate match on that spent shell casing retrieved from Flynn’s safe.”
Oh, man. He was right, code-speak for bad news. “That means the casing must have already been in the system.” Which meant it had been used in a crime.
“Yes.” And that’s all the captain said for several moments. “And your informant, Flynn, was right. Salvetti’s prints were on the weapon. I figured it’d be best if I told you, and then you could break the news to Nate.”
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