Grayson

by Delores Fossen

  Good. Soon, he might have a name to go with that face.

  Eve continued to dump pictures onto his desk, but with each one she mumbled a no. She huffed. “That’s it. The only one I have of her.”

  “Then I’ll have to get what I can from it.”

  He made several more copies of the picture, one that he pinned on to the corkboard with the other photos. The others, he put in his in-basket so he’d have them for other law enforcement agencies. Then, he sat at his desk, placing the original picture right next to him, and he fired off that request message to the Ranger crime lab.

  While he did that, Eve took herself back to that photo session. It had been routine, something she’d done dozens of times.

  “Four days ago,” she said softly. “That’s when my hang-up calls started.”

  That got Grayson’s attention. He stood and stared at her, and Eve knew what he was thinking. Was there something in the photo that had caused the hang-up calls, the fire at the cottage and the shooting?

  Was the killer in the photo?

  Eve rifled through her equipment bag and came up with a small magnifying glass. She handed it to Grayson, and he used it to zoom in. She hurried beside him so she could take a look, as well.

  Unlike the rest of the spectators, the woman wasn’t looking at the bull rider. She had her attention on the man wearing a baseball cap on her left. Her face was tight, as if she was angry. Very angry. And the man had his hand gripped on to her arm.

  “I’m pretty sure that’s the guy who shot at us today,” Grayson mumbled, tapping his finger to the guy in the baseball cap.

  Eve sucked in her breath. She hadn’t gotten a good look at him, but the build was right. So was that baseball cap.

  Grayson turned back to his keyboard. “I’ll ask the lab to put the entire picture into the facial recognition program. It’s the fastest way for us to get an ID.”

  Good. Eve wanted that. But she also wanted to get out of there and on the road. It was already past noon, and time was running out. She took out her cell to call for a car rental, but before she could make the call, Grayson’s phone rang.

  “Sheriff Ryland,” he answered, and she knew from his expression that whoever was on the other end of the line was telling him something important. Was it possible the Rangers had already managed to ID the dead woman? Eve prayed they had. Because the sooner that happened, the sooner Grayson could proceed with the investigation.

  “Yeah. I’ll let Eve know,” Grayson mumbled several seconds later. “What about the search? Any sign of the gunman?” He paused. “Keep looking.”

  “What happened?” she asked the moment he hung up.

  “That was the fire chief.” Grayson pulled in a long breath. “He said he’s positive someone tampered with both your brakes and the gas line that led to the cottage. Plus, there was a tracking device on your car.”

  Eve had tried to brace herself for bad news. After all, it was a logical conclusion about the brakes and gas line, but it still sent an icy chill through her. So did the fact that someone had tracked her out to the cottage.

  God, did someone really want her dead because she’d taken a photo?

  “Do you park your car in a garage in San Antonio?” Grayson asked.

  “No. I use the lot adjacent to my condo.”

  In other words, her vehicle had been out in the open. Not just there but at her downtown office, as well. Obviously, someone could have planted that tracking device at any time in the past four days. And during those four days, the person had no doubt watched her, plotting the best way to get the picture and eliminate her.

  She held on to Grayson’s desk to steady herself.

  Grayson cursed, moved out of his chair, grabbed her arm and forced her to sit down. “I hope now you realize that going back to San Antonio is a bad idea.”

  Yes. She did. But that wouldn’t stop her. “Then I’ll go to Austin. I’m sure they have fertility clinics there.”

  Grayson didn’t curse again, but the look he gave her showed the profanity he was choking back.

  “I don’t expect you to understand.” She got to her feet and squared her shoulders. She looked him straight in the eye. “You’re burned out with the whole idea of fatherhood so how could you understand that for me having a baby, my baby, is the most important thing in my life?”

  Grayson looked her straight in the eyes, too. “Eve, what I understand is this killer knows you took his picture, and he’ll do anything to get it back. I can keep you safe here in Silver Creek until we can get the picture printed in tomorrow’s paper. That way, the killer won’t have a reason to come after you because thousands of people will have seen his face, along with the woman he probably murdered.”

  She tried to shrug. Eve wasn’t immune to the fear, but she wasn’t giving in to it, either. “Then print the photo, and tomorrow I can celebrate both my insemination and my safety.”

  He didn’t answer that and just kept glaring as if searching for the right argument to change her mind. There wasn’t an argument that could do that.

  Eve adjusted her cell again, ready to make her call. “I’ll get a car rental, and on the drive to Austin, I’ll phone clinics and start begging. One way or another, I’m getting pregnant today.”

  Now, he cursed and shook his head. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll drive you to Austin myself.”

  Eve hadn’t thought the day could have any more surprises, but that was a big one, and she knew just how massive a concession that was for Grayson.

  “You can’t,” she argued. “You have too much to do to babysit me.”

  “Save your breath,” he growled. He grabbed his coat and put it on as if he taking his anger out on the garment. He also snatched the rodeo photo of the dead woman. “You’re not the only hardheaded person in this room. And if you can make calls on the drive over, then so can I. If I have to, I’ll run this investigation from my truck.”

  He brushed past her and headed for his door, and she heard him tell the dispatcher that he had to leave. Eve didn’t want to think of what kind of complications this might cause for Grayson, but she knew it would. She also knew this was another huge compromise for him. Maybe Dade and Mason could find this gunman today so this would all be over.

  She gathered up the pictures and stuffed them into the equipment bag. Her hand knocked against another photo. The only framed one on Grayson’s desk. It was of his maternal grandfather, Sheriff Chet McLaurin.

  Despite her own horrible circumstances, she smiled when she saw the man’s face. Eve had known him well, and he’d become like her own grandfather. When he’d been murdered twenty years ago, Eve had grieved right along with the Ryland clan.

  She wondered if Grayson and his brothers realized that the man in the photo was the reason they’d all gotten into law enforcement. An unsolved murder could do that. It was a wound that would not heal.

  Eve spotted another wound.

  The silver concho hooked on to the top of the frame. She recognized it, as well. Grayson’s father had given all six of his sons a concho with the double R symbol of their family’s ranch. He’d done that, and then less than a week later, he’d left Silver Creek and abandoned the very family that he claimed to have loved.

  No wonder Grayson didn’t want kids of his own.

  He’d witnessed firsthand that parenthood could cut to the core. Eve swore she would never do that to her child.

  “Ready?” Grayson said from the doorway.

  She’d been so caught up in the picture of his grand father and the concho that she hadn’t noticed Grayson was there. He had also noticed what had caught her attention.

  “Yeah,” he mumbled as if he’d known exactly what she’d been thinking.

  Eve silently cursed the legacy that Grayson’s father had left him, and she stuffed the rest of her things into the equipment bag.

  “You kept the concho he gave you,” she commented as they went to his truck.

  He didn’t answer until they were both inside
the cab of his truck. “Sometimes, it helps to remember how much I hate my father.”

  She stared at him. “How could that possibly help?”

  “It’s a reminder that sometimes the easy way out can hurt a lot of people.”

  He didn’t look at her when he said that, and if Eve hadn’t known him so well she might have thought that was a jab at her decision to go through with this insemination. But since she did know him, she figured he was talking about his family duties. For Grayson, family came first, and that hadn’t always been easy for him.

  “Mason put a bullet in his concho,” Grayson said under his breath. He drove out of the parking lot and onto the road that would take them out of town and to the highway. “Then he nailed it to the wall directly in front of his bed so he could curse it every morning when he woke up.”

  Eve sighed. So much hurt caused by one man. Their father, Boone Ryland. “I remember Dade told me that he threw his away.”

  “Yeah.” And for a moment, Grayson seemed lost in those bad memories. The dark ages. However, his cell rang, and he morphed from the wounded son to steely sheriff.

  “Sheriff Ryland,” he answered. He put the phone on speaker and slipped it into a stand that was mounted to the dashboard. He also kept watch around them as they passed the last of the town shops.

  “It’s me, Dade. I just got off the phone with the Ranger lab. They got a match on the photo.”

  “Already?” Grayson questioned.

  “It wasn’t that hard. Her name is Nina Manning, age twenty-two, from Houston, and she had a record for drug possession and prostitution. There’s also a year-old missing person’s report complete with pictures.”

  “Nina Manning,” Eve repeated. It didn’t ring any bells.

  “Is Eve still with you?” Dade asked.

  Eve looked at Grayson and waited for him to answer. “Yeah. I have to drive her, uh, somewhere. But I want to know everything that’s happening with the case. Any sign of the gunman?”

  “No. But Mason’s out here. If the guy’s still in the area, Mason will find him.”

  Eve doubted the gunman was still around. Heck, he’d probably parked his car on one of the ranch trails and was now probably long gone. Or maybe he was looking for her. Despite the importance of Dade’s call, that caused her to look in the rearview mirror. No one was following them. The rural road behind them was empty.

  “Were the Rangers able to identify the other man in the picture who had hold of Nina’s arm?” Grayson asked.

  “There was no immediate match.”

  Grayson shook his head. “I think he’s the guy who tried to kill us today so we need an ID.”

  “The Rangers are still trying,” Dade assured him. “But they did get a match on the man to the woman’s right. His name is Sebastian Collier.”

  Now, that rang some bells. Eve had seen the surname many times in the newspaper, mainly in the business and society sections. “He’s related to Claude Collier, the San Antonio real estate tycoon?” Eve asked.

  “Sebastian is his son,” Dade answered. “And sonny-boy has a record, too, for a DWI and resisting arrest. Guess his millionaire daddy didn’t teach him to call the family chauffeur when he’s had too much to drink.”

  Eve picked up the photo that Grayson had brought along, and she zoomed in on the man to Nina Manning’s right. Sebastian Collier looked like a preppy college student in his collared cream-colored shirt and dark pants. It certainly didn’t seem as if he was with the woman with multicolored hair.

  But then Eve looked closer.

  Sebastian’s attention was certainly on Nina. His eyes were angled in her direction, or rather in the direction of the grip the other man had on Nina’s arm. Sebastian looked uncomfortable with the encounter.

  “Keep pushing the Rangers,” she heard Grayson tell his brother. “I want that other man identified. I also want someone out to question this Sebastian Collier.” He looked at his watch, mumbled something in disgust. “I’ll try to get to San Antonio myself as soon as I’m sure Eve will be safe.”

  Dade assured Grayson he would do everything to get a name to go with that face in the photo, and he ended the call.

  Eve hadn’t missed Grayson’s mumble of disgust, and she was positive she was the cause. He wanted to be in the heat of this investigation, but here he was driving her to Austin instead. She turned to face him, to tell him that he could just drop her off in Austin and leave. Not that it would do any good—he would insist on staying. But she had to try. This investigation was important to both of them.

  However, before she could launch into another argument, she heard the sound.

  It was a thick, hard blast.

  At first she thought maybe they’d had a blowout. But the second sound was identical.

  “Get down!” Grayson shouted.

  Just as a third blast ripped through the truck window.

  Chapter Seven

  Grayson slammed his foot onto the accelerator to get Eve and him out of there, but it was already too late.

  He heard the fourth shot, and he also heard Eve repeat his shouted command of get down. But he couldn’t duck out of sight. He had to fight to keep them alive. He pushed Eve down onto the seat so that she wouldn’t be hit with the bullet or the broken glass.

  But the bullet didn’t crash through the glass.

  It hit the tire.

  Grayson’s stomach knotted, and he felt his truck jerk to the right. He fought with the steering wheel and tried to stay on the road, but it was impossible. The now-flat tire and metal rim scraped against the gravel shoulder.

  “Hang on,” he warned Eve.

  They were going to crash.

  He couldn’t avoid that. However, the crash was the least of Grayson’s worries. Someone had shot out the tire, and that someone was no doubt waiting for them. That meant Eve was in danger all over again, and Grayson cursed the bastard responsible for that.

  There were no trees near the road, thank God, but there were clusters about a hundred yards off the road. That’s probably where the gunman was hiding. And then there was the creek directly in front of them. He didn’t want to go there because there were some deep spots in the water that could swallow them up.

  “We have to jump,” Grayson told her, and he pumped the brakes to slow the truck as much as he could. However, he didn’t have much control of the vehicle.

  Jumping was a risk, but the greater risk would be to remain inside so the gunman would have an easier chance of killing them. Besides, there was that potential for drowning.

  Eve didn’t answer, but she nodded and caught on to the door handle.

  “When you jump out, run toward the trees to the right,” he added. “And grab my cell phone.”

  Grayson took out his gun. Eve grabbed the phone.

  “Now!” He barreled out at the same time as Eve, and he hit the soggy ground ready to fire. The truck gave Eve some cover for just a few seconds, until it plunged nose-first into the creek.

  The gunman fired, the shot kicking up mud and a clump of grass several yards in front of Grayson. Grayson returned fire, a single shot, praying it would buy Eve enough time. He could hear her running, but he had to do everything to keep the gunman’s attention on him.

  Grayson spotted the gunman, or rather the sleeve of his jacket. He spotted Eve, too. She had ducked behind an oak and had taken out her own gun from her coat pocket. She leaned out and took aim at the gunman.

  What the hell was she doing?

  That knot in his stomach twisted even harder. She had purposely left cover, the very thing he didn’t want her to do. Grayson frantically motioned for her to get back. But she didn’t. She fired. Her shot slammed into the tree where the gunman was hiding. The bullet didn’t hit him, but it caused the man to jump back.

  Even though Eve’s diversion could have been deadly, it was exactly what Grayson needed because he scrambled toward Eve and dove behind the tree. He also caught on to her and pulled her deeper into the woods. He damn sure didn�
��t want her to get hurt trying to protect him.

  “Stay back,” Grayson warned her in a rough whisper. But he soon realized that staying back might be just as dangerous as staying put. That’s because the gunman was on the move. He dropped back into the thick patch of trees. The SOB was trying to circle behind them.

  Grayson had faced danger alone and had even faced it with other lawmen, but being under fire with a civilian was a first. And to make matters worse, that civilian was Eve. He wished he could go back in time and save her from this.

  He repositioned Eve behind him and went deeper into the woods as well, but not toward the gunman. They needed to get into a better position, so with Eve in tow, he started moving, going at a right angle. He tried to keep his steps light so that it wouldn’t give them away, but that wasn’t easy with the dead limbs and leaves littering the grounds.

  Eve and he ran, until he lost sight of the road and truck, and he didn’t stop until he reached a small clearing.

  Another shot came at them.

  It wasn’t close, at least twenty feet away, but the gunman had sent it in their direction. However, Grayson now knew the gunman’s direction, too.

  He moved Eve to the right, and they followed the thick woods until they reached the other side of the clearing. Grayson glanced back at Eve to make sure she was okay.

  Her breath was gusting now, she was pale, but she didn’t appear to be on the verge of panicking. There was some fear there in her eyes, but there was also determination to get out of this alive.

  Eve motioned across the clearing, and Grayson saw the gunman duck behind another tree. He caught just a glimpse of the man’s face, but Grayson was more convinced than ever that this was the same person in the photo with the dead woman. Grayson hadn’t had many doubts left that this was connected to the photograph Eve had taken, and he certainly didn’t doubt it now.

  The gunman continued to work his way to his right, and Grayson did the same. It was a risk taking Eve deeper and deeper into the woods, but he had to figure out a way to stop this guy. Preferably alive. But he was more than willing to take him out if it meant Eve and he could get out of there.