by Stacy Finz
Tawny turned to Cecilia. “You doing okay?” This had to break her heart. It was like ten years ago when Ray had thrown the fake rape allegations in her face.
“We will get through it,” Cecilia said, acting brave. Tawny had to wonder how this would affect Cecilia and Jake’s relationship.
Lucky got to his feet.
“Where are you going?” Tawny asked him.
“First to check on Katie, then to meet Raylene.”
Both Tawny and Cecilia tried to stop him, but what was the point? No matter what that woman did, Lucky always forgave her. Or made up ridiculous excuses for her. She was scared. She’s misunderstood. You don’t know what it was like growing up in that home.
Why would now be any different? Just the thought of Lucky with Raylene made her chest ache and her throat tighten.
“This is between you and my dad, Lucky. I don’t have anything to do with it,” Raylene said.
She’d agreed to meet him at the high school rodeo arena—neutral ground. And a place that held so many memories for Lucky that they all came rushing back, transporting him to a time when just a smile from Raylene had made him giddy.
He used to sit on top of the bull shoot and watch her race her horse around the barrels, her cherry-red cowboy hat blowing off her head and her blond ponytail flying in the wind. Man, she’d been something.
“It’s a load of crap,” he said. “Just like the last time your father accused me of something. This time I thought you’d do better, Raylene. This time I actually thought you’d stand up for me.”
“Why? So you and Thelma Wade and your love child could ride off into the sunset?”
“Ah, for Christ’s sake, is that what this is about? You’re jealous so you go around telling half the town and a journalist that I lured Ray to my ranch and hired someone to kill him?”
“It’s just the truth,” she said, the gleam in her eyes so mean that Lucky hardly recognized her. “I saw the text message you sent.”
“Someone else sent that text because it sure the hell wasn’t me. I hated your father for coming between us and making me leave my home. But if it wasn’t for Ray, I wouldn’t be who I am today. So I’ve got no motive, Raylene.”
“Sure you do. Get rid of my dad, marry me, and get his property.” She smiled so coldly that Lucky got the chills just looking at her.
Had she always been this awful, or had Butch made her bitter? Clearly Raylene’s scenario was the motive Ray had presented to the cops.
“There was a time I wanted nothing more than to marry you.” He’d lain awake at night so full of want for her that his body burned with it. “Now I wouldn’t marry you for every piece of land in Nugget.”
“Poor Thelma and Katie,” she mocked. “What will they do when you fry?”
Lucky had to control his anger and gave her a long look. “What happened to you, Raylene? What the hell happened?” He put his face in hands. “God, how I used to love you.”
“Used to. Past tense.” Her voice hitched. “All I’ve got is my family now.”
She backed away, got in her truck, and Lucky watched her taillights disappear. He walked over to the calf pens and searched the wooden fence. It took some time until he found it. The old corrals were weathered and chipped, but under the green peeling paint was the heart he’d carved into the wood with his penknife more than a decade ago. Inside the heart he’d scrawled “LR and RR Forever.”
He considered using his Swiss Army knife to scratch out the letters. But what would be the point? The wooden fence didn’t have much life left. Soon it would be history—just like him and Raylene.
He got in his own truck and halfway to his mom’s he got a call. No ID. “Hello.”
“Meet me at the Airstream trailer on the hill above your property.”
Lucky hung a U-turn, took the road to his ranch, made a right at the fork, and motored up the hill. It had gotten dark, and with little moonlight to guide the way, he took the bumpy trail slow. He didn’t even know who owned the land or even how many acres it was, only that the hill had been annexed from his ranch years ago. From the looks of the trailer, it had been there since biblical times. One day he planned to look up the property records and make an offer on the place. The private plateau had fantastic views. The perfect spot for a big house.
When he got to the top, he parked near the Airstream. There were no other cars, so he checked his phone for texts. He didn’t like going too long without checking in on Katie. There was only an email from Pete confirming his and the lawyer’s flight.
Lucky jerked his head up when someone rapped on his window, and he opened the door. “You scared the shit out of me. Where’s your truck?”
“I didn’t want anyone to see me, so I parked a borrowed car behind a couple of trees at the bottom of the hill and hiked up.”
Lucky had a feeling he knew whose car. He got out of the truck.
“You got a lawyer coming tomorrow?”
“Yep,” Lucky said.
“Good.”
“Why? You planning to arrest me, Jake?”
“I’m planning to arrest the person who sent that text.” He looked at Lucky hard, as if he wanted to make sure he understood. Lucky nodded.
“Let’s go through it together.” Jake sat on the ground with his back against the Airstream and Lucky joined him. “The time stamp on the text was 6:12. The 911 call at 6:50.”
Lucky had already done this over and over in his head. For the life of him all he could remember was having his phone on him when he’d left Jake at the Ponderosa. He’d used it, after all, to call 911 after the shooting. “Yeah?”
“That leaves you thirty-eight minutes to account for,” Jake said. “All we need to figure out is who had access to your phone at 6:12. You do that by counting backwards.”
“Believe you me, Jake, I’ve tried over and over again.”
“Okay, then we’ll work forward. What time did you leave me at the Ponderosa?”
“I wasn’t looking at a clock.” Lucky wanted to bang his head against the Airstream.
“Was it still light outside?”
“Yeah,” Lucky said, sitting up straighter. “But just barely. I remember Owen and the rest of the Mafia sitting outside and thinking to myself that they were taking advantage of the light before the days got shorter.”
“Good. Was it light when you got back to your ranch?”
Lucky thought about it. “Enough so that I could make out Raylene sitting on the hood of her truck. But dim enough so that I wondered why the motion lights I’d recently installed on the single-wide hadn’t gone on. I was worried about Raylene sitting there because of the drug dealing.”
Jake got out his phone and Lucky asked what he was doing.
“Searching to see what time it started getting dark that day.” Jake tinkered on his phone awhile. “Around 5:53, according to the sunrise and sunset calendar, which means you were already home when the text went out. What did you do after you saw Raylene?”
“I went to check on the livestock,” Lucky said.
“Do you remember having your phone with you?”
“Yeah, I must’ve, because otherwise I couldn’t have called 911.”
“Where were you when you heard the shots?”
Lucky tried to play it back in his head, but that whole evening had become a blur. All he could remember was walking around the corrals, doing a head count. “Bernice.”
“Who’s Bernice?” Jake got excited.
“My sheep. She got in the pen with Crème Bullee. I remember that because I decided that I’d let her stay with the bull. That’s when I heard the shots.”
“What did you do next?”
Lucky raised his arms. “I guess I must’ve called 911.”
“From Crème Bullee’s pen?”
“I remember running back to the trailer, worried about Raylene. I don’t know if I called before I started running or while I was running.” He thought about it for a while. “Then again, I drove to the corrals
, so that doesn’t make sense.”
“Do you remember if your phone was in your truck?” Jake’s frustration was palpable.
Lucky pinched the bridge of his nose. “Wait a minute.” He got to his feet and started to pace. “I remember wanting to call Tawny to check on Katie when I was at the corrals and couldn’t find my phone. So yeah, I must’ve left it in the truck. But I don’t remember calling 911 from the truck. Truthfully, I feel like I ran the whole way back to the single-wide. And then at some point I went over to where the guys were bunking and found Gus.”
“Did you have your phone with you then?” Jake asked.
“Yes. I distinctly remember having my phone because I called Connie to see what the hell was taking the ambulance so long.” Lucky started searching his call history. “Here it is. See?”
Jake noted the time stamp. “That was 7:10. Your truck wasn’t at the bunkhouse where we found Gus. Otherwise we would’ve processed it. So either you drove home from the corrals and walked to Gus’s, or you left your truck at the corrals and did everything on foot, which doesn’t explain how you got your phone back. Let me ask you this: Could you see your truck at all times?”
“Ah jeez, Jake, I can’t remember. I was paying attention to my animals.”
“Lucky, I’m just gonna put it out there: Could Raylene have had your phone?” Jake watched him, and it occurred to Lucky that the detective had been set on this theory for some time. He confirmed it when he said, “She certainly had opportunity and . . . well, this wouldn’t be the first time she let you be the fall guy, would it?”
Clearly he was referencing what had happened ten years ago. It surprised Lucky that his mother had told Jake. Except for Lucky telling Tawny, he and his mother had kept what happened at the Rock and River that night under wraps. Once Lucky left town, Ray had never said another word about the incident.
“No way,” he said. “She was a scared kid back then. This is completely different.”
“Okay.” Jake held his hands up in surrender and got to his feet. “Let’s walk through it again. As soon as you got back to the ranch, you went to check on the animals?”
“Right after I talked to Raylene.”
“Did she come with you? Because you said you went back to the trailer after you heard the gunshots to make sure she was okay.”
“Right,” Lucky said. “She waited for me in the trailer. I remember that because she complained about me leaving.”
“So you went inside the trailer before you checked on the animals?”
Lucky shut his eyes, trying hard to recall whether he had. “Yeah, yeah. Like I said, I was concerned about Raylene being alone. I’m the one who unlocked the door—so I must’ve gone in.”
“How long do you estimate you were in the trailer before checking the animals?”
“Not long. Probably just a few minutes. I vaguely remember putting my stuff on the kitchen counter and—”
“What stuff?”
“Crap from my pockets. My keys, my . . . phone.” He jerked his head up to look at Jake. “I called 911 from the trailer. The phone was on the counter where I left it.”
“Alone with Raylene.”
“Ah, Jake, no way.” Lucky leaned his head back. “Jesus. Why?”
Lucky kicked a rock and headed for his truck.
“Where are you going?” Jake called to him.
“Where do you think I’m going?”
Jake ran after him and grabbed him by the back of his jacket. “No, Lucky. The last time you went to the Rock and River for a confrontation, you riled Ray, you embarrassed him, and he wanted to make you pay.” Jake tilted his head at Lucky’s phone. “What do you think that text was about? Not only did Ray build himself quite a nice self-defense case, but he dragged you into taking the fall. I want you to confront Raylene, but I want you to do it wearing a wire.”
“I just want to talk to her, Jake. I just want to know why.”
Jake shook his head. “Not without a wire, son. This is your life on the line.”
“All right.” Lucky still couldn’t believe Raylene would do this to him—she was spoiled, self-centered, narcissistic, even vindictive, but this was pure evil. “We’ll do it your way. I have to call to check on Katie.”
“Don’t say anything about Raylene,” Jake said, and began punching in numbers on his cell phone. “Not until we wrap this up.”
“Yeah, all right.”
Lucky sat in his truck while he called his mother’s house. After about the fifth ring, Tawny answered.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“We’re fine. You with Raylene?” Her voice sounded accusatory . . . and hurt.
“Not at the moment. I’ll be a while and wanted to make sure Katie was all right.”
“She ate dinner, which is a good sign. Are you . . . Never mind.”
“Good night, Tawny.” He ended the call. If he’d stayed on any longer he would’ve told her.
“Let’s go,” Jake said, and hopped into Lucky’s passenger seat so he could fetch Cecilia’s car from the bottom of the hill.
Two hours later Lucky sat in his truck at Nugget High’s rodeo arena again and waited for Raylene. He’d told her that he wanted a reconciliation. That he loved her. It’s what Jake and Rhys had told him to say after they’d hooked him up to a recording device.
Raylene apparently bought it, because she’d agreed to meet him. He felt like a first-class sleazebag. First off, he didn’t like lying. And there was no way in hell he’d love someone like Raylene ever again.
Truthfully, it had been over between them ever since Tawny had reentered his life. An image of Tawny hugging Katie suddenly filtered through his memory and shook him like a bucking bull. Tawny in her studio, making those beautiful boots. In the Four Seasons hot tub, afraid to get all the way in. Setting the table with his mother on the night of their early Thanksgiving celebration. All he could see was Tawny.
He heard a car drive up and without moving his lips said, “She’s here.”
Raylene got out of her truck and Lucky noted that she’d definitely dressed for making up. Black leather dress and red cowboy boots. There was a time when the outfit would’ve turned him on.
He leaned over his console, opened his passenger door, and waved her in.
“It’s cold.” She shivered, and he nearly said just like your heart.
“I know you sent the text, Raylene.”
“Is this why you called me out here in the middle of the night?” She started to get out, but he stopped her.
“Why’d you do it, Raylene? Why’d you set me up?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She refused to look at him, but she wasn’t trying to leave.
“The phone was in the kitchen when the text was sent. It’s time stamped. I have an alibi at that time. One of my ranch hands was out by the corrals when I got there. I didn’t have my phone on me, so I asked to borrow his . . . to check on Katie. He’s ready to go to the police. So cut the shit, Raylene, and tell me why you did it.”
“You’re crazy, you know that?” Raylene spat out the words, but Lucky could tell she was nervous.
“Get out of my truck.” He reached over and pushed open the door. “You heard me, get out. I’m going to the police. Planting evidence . . . you’ll go to prison, Raylene.”
“He made me do it,” she blurted, and started to cry big crocodile tears.
“Who?” Jake wanted as much on the recording as possible.
“My dad. He said you wouldn’t get in trouble. That Gus was a cattle rustler and that Clay McCreedy would back you and my dad. He wanted to show the police the text right away to help him with his defense, but I threatened to tell the truth. Then, later . . . I told him he could.”
“Why?” Lucky asked.
“Because you didn’t love me anymore.” She started sobbing. For real this time, and Lucky found a stack of napkins in the glove box and shoved them at her. “You picked Tawny over me.”
“Rayle
ne, do you hear what you’re saying? Murder-for-hire is a capital crime. You’d see me executed for something I didn’t do because I’m with someone else?”
“No.” She blew her nose. “I wouldn’t have let it get that far. I just wanted you to feel the pain I was feeling.”
“Jesus.” Lucky hit his hands on the steering wheel. “When you married Butch, I went on a month-long bender. I was getting up on bulls when I couldn’t even see straight. But I never would’ve hurt you. Ever.”
“I know,” she said and choked on a sob. “That’s why it hurt so bad. Because no one ever loved me like you did. Not my mother. Not my father. Not Butch. No one.” Her face was covered in mascara and snot. Lucky pushed some more napkins at her. “I’ll go to the police, Lucky. I’ll tell them the truth.”
That wouldn’t be necessary. “You shouldn’t have let it get this far. What? Did Ray panic after he shot Gus and call you to tell you to steal my phone and send the text?”
She started blubbering all over again. “He sent me over to your house to do it.” He could barely understand her, she cried so hard.
“Huh?”
“He sent me to you. He was angry at you for calling him an abusive father and husband. And livid about Gus taking his cattle. All day he paced and shouted how no one messed with Ray Rosser, yelling, ‘Not Gus. And not that bastard, Lucky Rodriguez.’ Then you made it easy by leaving me and your phone alone in the kitchen.”
Lucky took a while to process that, then very softly said, “You were a vision sitting there on the hood of your truck that night. Looking as beautiful as I’d ever seen you. I knew we were over—we had nothing to say to each other anymore—but even then I loved you.” Lucky tilted his head against the backrest and shut his eyes. “Get out of my truck.”
“Lucky, please—”
“If you’re not out of my truck in two seconds, I’ll physically remove you.”
She opened the door and put one foot on the running board. “I’ll go to the police right now and tell them the truth. I swear.”