She’d certainly held one against Court.
He heard the sound of a vehicle pulling up in front of Rayna’s house and knew it was Egan before he glanced out the still-open door. He also knew Egan wouldn’t be pleased. And he was right. His brother was sporting a scowl when he got out of the cruiser and started for the door.
Egan was only two years older than Court, but he definitely had that “big brother, I’m in charge” air about him. Egan had somehow managed to have that even when he’d still been a deputy. Folks liked to joke that he could kick your butt even before you’d known it was kicked.
“If you think Egan is going to let you walk, think again,” Court warned her.
“I won’t let him railroad me,” she insisted, aiming another scowl at Court. “I won’t let you do it, either. It doesn’t matter that we have a history together. That history gives you no right to pull some stunt like this.”
They had a history all right. Filled with both good and bad memories. They’d been high school sweethearts, but that “young love” was significantly overshadowed by the bad blood that was between them now.
Egan stepped into the house, putting his hands on his hips, and made a sweeping glance around the room before his attention landed on Court. “Please tell me you’re not responsible for any of this.”
“I’m not.” At least Court hoped he wasn’t, but it was possible he’d added some to the damage when he tackled her. “Rayna said someone broke in.”
Court figured his brother was also going to have a hard time believing that. It did seem too much of a coincidence that his father would be shot and Rayna would have a break-in around the same time.
“You shouldn’t have come,” Egan said to him in a rough whisper.
Court was certain he’d hear more of that later, but he had a darn good reason for being here. “I didn’t want her to escape.”
“And I thought he’d come here to kill me,” Rayna countered. “I pulled a gun on him.” She swallowed hard. “Things didn’t go well after that.”
Egan huffed and grumbled something that Court didn’t catch before he took out his phone and texted someone.
“Court didn’t do any of the damage in this room,” Rayna added. “It happened when an intruder attacked me.”
That only tightened Egan’s mouth even more before he shifted his gaze to Rayna. “An ambulance is on the way. How bad are you hurt?” he asked and put his phone back in his pocket.
She waved it off, wincing again while she did that. Yeah, she was hurt. But Court thought Egan was missing what was really important here.
“She shot Dad,” Court reminded Egan. “We have the picture, remember?” Though he knew there was no way his brother could have forgotten that. “It’s proof she was there. Proof that she shot him.”
“No, it’s not.” Egan groaned, scrubbed his hand over his face. “I think someone tried to set Rayna up.”
Court opened his mouth to say that wasn’t true. But then Egan took out his own phone and showed him a picture.
“A few minutes after you stormed out of the hospital,” Egan continued, “Eldon Cooper, the clerk at the hardware store, found this.”
“This” was a blond-haired woman wearing a red dress. An identical dress to the one in the photo the waitress had taken. But this one had one big difference from the first picture.
In this one, the woman was dead.
Chapter Two
Rayna slowly walked toward Egan so she could see the photograph that had caused Court to go stiff. It had caused him to mumble some profanity, too, and Rayna soon knew why.
The woman in the photograph had been shot in the head.
There was blood. Her body was limp, and her lifeless eyes were fixed in a permanent blank stare at the sky.
Rayna dropped back a step, an icy chill going through her. Because Court had been right. The woman did look like her. The one in the first picture did, anyway. The second photo was much clearer, and while it wasn’t a perfect match, the dead woman looked enough like her to be a relative. But Rayna knew she didn’t have any living relatives.
“Someone killed her because of me?” she whispered.
Neither Court nor Egan denied it.
She felt the tears threaten. The panic, too. But Rayna forced herself not to give in to either of them. Not in front of Court, anyway. Later, she could have a cry, tend to her wounds and try to figure out what the heck was going on.
“Who is she?” Rayna asked.
“We don’t have an ID on her yet, but we will soon. After the medical examiner’s had a look at her, then we’ll search for any ID. If there isn’t any on her body or in the car, we’ll run her prints.”
It was so hard for Rayna to think with her head hurting, but she forced herself to try to figure this out. “Why would someone go to all the trouble of having a look-alike and then leave a car behind with bogus plates?”
Egan shrugged again. “It goes back to someone setting you up.” He sounded a little skeptical about that though. “Unless you hired the woman in that photo to pose as you. You could have gotten spooked when something went wrong and left the car.”
Even though she’d braced herself to have more accusations tossed at her, that still stung. It always did. Because this accusation went beyond just hiring an impostor. He was almost certainly implying that she had something to do with the woman’s death, too.
“No. I didn’t hire her,” Rayna managed to say, though her throat had clamped shut. “And I didn’t shoot your father. I haven’t been in town in weeks, and that wasn’t my car parked near the sheriff’s office.”
Egan nodded, glanced at Court. “She’s right about the car. The plates are fake. I had one of the deputies go out and take a look at it. It’s still parked up the street from the office. Someone painted over the numbers so that it matched the plates on Rayna’s vehicle.”
Again, Egan was making it sound as if she had something to do with that. Good grief. Why was she always having to defend herself when it came to the McCalls?
Of course, she knew the answer.
She’d made her own bed when it’d come to Bobby Joe. She had stayed with him even after he’d hit her and called her every name in the book. She had let him rob her of her confidence. Her dignity.
And nearly her life.
But Egan and Court—and their father—hadn’t seen things that way. Bobby Joe had kept the abuse hidden. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, and very few people in town had been on her side when Warren McCall had arrested her for Bobby Joe’s murder.
“You’re barking up the wrong tree—again,” Rayna added. “I didn’t have anything to do with this. And why would I? If I were going to shoot anyone, why would I send in a look-alike? Why would I pick a spot like Main Street, which is practically on the doorstep of a building filled with cowboy cops?”
Egan shrugged. “Maybe to make us believe you’re innocent and knew nothing about it.”
“I am innocent,” she practically yelled. Rayna stopped though and peered at the mess in the living room. “But maybe my intruder is behind what happened in town and what happened to that woman, as well. He could have arranged to have your father shot, killed her, and then he could have come out here to attack me. His prints could be on the lamp. It’s what he used to bash me over the head.”
Court looked at her, and for a split second, she thought she saw some sympathy in his intense gray eyes. It was gone as quickly as it’d come, and he stood there, waiting. Maybe for an explanation that would cause all of this to make sense. But she couldn’t give him that.
Rayna huffed. “If I was going to do something to fake an assault, I wouldn’t have hit myself that hard on my head or cracked my ribs. And I wouldn’t have broken my grandmother’s lamp.”
It sickened her to see it shattered like that. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a huge de
al, but it felt like one to her. It was one of the few things she had left of her gran. And now it was gone—much like what little peace of mind she’d managed to regain over the past year.
“Who do you think would have done something like this?” Court asked, tipping his head toward the living room.
“Bobby Joe,” she answered without thinking. She knew it would get huffs and eye rolls from them, and it did. “You think he’s dead, that I killed him. But I know I didn’t. So, that means he could still be out there.”
Court didn’t repeat his huff, but she could tell he wanted to. “So, you think Bobby Joe set you up for my father’s shooting and then came out here and attacked you? If he’s really alive, why would he wait three years to do that?”
Rayna gave it some thought and didn’t have an answer. However, she wouldn’t put it past Bobby Joe. At the end of their relationship, he’d threatened to kill her. Maybe this was his way of doing that. Bobby Joe could be toying with her while also getting back at Warren McCall, who hadn’t managed to get her convicted of murder.
But there was something else. A piece that didn’t seem to fit.
“Tell me about the waitress,” Rayna insisted. “Who was she, and why did she take the picture of the woman in the parking lot?”
“Her name is Janet Bolin,” Court answered. “She said she took the photo because she thought you...or rather the woman...was acting strange.”
Egan groaned. Probably because he was agreeing with her theory of an ill-fitting puzzle piece. “I’ll get a CSI team out here to process the place.” He pressed a button on his phone and went onto the porch to make the call.
“You know this waitress?” Rayna asked Court.
He shook his head. “She’s new, has only been working there a week or so, but I’ve seen her around. We’ll bring her in for questioning.”
Good. Because it meant Rayna was finally making some headway in convincing Court that she hadn’t fired that shot or had anything to do with that woman’s death.
She hesitated before asking her next question. “How’s your father?” Warren was a touchy subject for both of them.
A muscle flickered in Court’s jaw. “He’s out of surgery but still unconscious. We don’t know just how bad the damage is yet.”
He might have added more, might, but a sound outside stopped him. Sirens. They were from the ambulance that was coming up the road. Since her house was the only one out here, they were here for her.
“I don’t want an ambulance,” she insisted. “I’ll go to the hospital on my own.” And it wouldn’t be to the one in McCall Canyon. She would drive into nearby San Antonio.
“That’s not a very smart thing to do.” No pause for Court that time. “We’re not sure what’s going on here. Plus, your ribs could be broken. You don’t need to be driving if they are.”
She couldn’t help it. Rayna gave him a snarky smile before she could stop herself. “Worried about me?”
That earned her another glare, but this one didn’t last. And for a moment she saw something else. Not the sympathy this time, either. But the old attraction. Even now, it tugged at her. Apparently, it tugged at Court because he cursed again and looked away.
“I just wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt you when we fell on the floor,” Court said.
“You didn’t.” That was probably a lie, but Rayna was hurting in so many places that it was hard to tell who was responsible for the bruises and cuts.
Court’s gaze came back to her. “Was there anything...sexual about the assault after you got hit on the head?”
“No.” Thank God. That was something at least. “In fact, I’m not even sure he intended to kill me. I mean, he could have shot me the moment I walked into my house—”
“Maybe he didn’t have a gun. He could have been robbing the place and got spooked when you came in.”
True. But that didn’t feel right. Neither did the spot on her ribs, and Rayna had another look. Too bad that meant pulling up her top again, and this time Court examined it, too. He leaned in, so close that she could feel his breath hitting her skin.
“It looks like a needle mark,” he said. “And you mentioned something about passing out?”
She nodded. “But the man was gone by the time that happened.” Of course, he could have come back. Heck, he could still come back.
That made her stomach tighten, and she gave an uneasy glance around the front and side yards. There were plenty of places on her land for someone to hide.
“You’re sure it was a man?” Court asked. He was using his lawman’s tone again. Good. That was easier to deal with than the old attraction. “You said you didn’t get a look at the person, so how do you know it was a man?”
“I’ve had a man’s hands on me before, so yes, I’m sure he was male.” She immediately hated that she’d blurted that out, even if it was true. But Rayna didn’t like reminding anyone, especially Court, of just how wrong she’d been about Bobby Joe. After all, she’d let Court go to be with him.
“After he clubbed me with the lamp,” Rayna added, “he hooked his arm around my throat. My back landed against his chest, so I know it was a man.”
Court took a moment, obviously processing that, and he looked at the lock on the front door. “There’s no sign of forced entry. Was it locked, and did you have on your security system?”
Everything inside her went still. With all the chaos that had gone on, it hadn’t occurred to Rayna to ask herself those questions. “Yes, it would have been locked, and the security system was on. I never leave the house without doing that.”
“Even if you were just going to the barn?” Court immediately asked.
“Even then.” She gathered her breath, which had suddenly gone thin again. It always did when she thought of the woman she’d become. “I honestly believe Bobby Joe is alive and that he could come after me.”
Court looked ready to grumble out some profanity, but Rayna wasn’t sure if that was because he felt sorry for her or because he thought she was crazy for being so wary about a man he believed was dead.
“The front door was unlocked when I got here,” Court continued several moments later. “Is it possible your intruder had a key?”
“No. And I don’t keep a spare one lying around, either.” She kept her attention on the ambulance that stopped behind the cruiser. “Plus, he would have had to disarm the security system. It’s tamperproof, so he couldn’t have simply cut a wire or something. He would have had to know the code.”
With each word, that knot in her stomach got tighter and tighter. She had taken all the necessary precautions, and it hadn’t been enough. That hurt. Because she might never feel safe here again in this house that she loved. Her gran’s house. That didn’t mean she would leave. No. She wouldn’t give Bobby Joe the satisfaction of seeing her run, but Rayna figured there’d be a lot more sleepless nights in her future.
Egan was still on the phone when the medics got out of the ambulance and started for the porch. Rayna went out to tell them they could leave, but she spotted another vehicle. A familiar one.
Whitney’s red Mustang.
“You called her?” Court asked.
Rayna shook her head, but it didn’t surprise her that Whitney had heard about what happened and then had driven out to see her. They’d been friends since third grade, and even though that friendship had cooled a little after Rayna had gotten involved with Bobby Joe, Whitney had usually been there for her. Whitney was also one of the few people who’d stood by her when Rayna had been on trial.
Her friend bolted from the car and ran past the medics to get to Rayna. Whitney immediately pulled her into her arms for a hug. An uncomfortable one because Rayna felt the pain from her ribs, and she backed away.
“I came as fast as I could get someone to cover for me at work.” Whitney’s words rushed together. “My God, you’re hurt.”
She reached out as if to touch the wound on Rayna’s hand, but she stopped. “It must be bad if the ambulance came.”
“No. They were just leaving.” Rayna made sure she said that loud enough for the medics to hear.
“They’re not leaving,” Court snapped, and he motioned for them to wait. No doubt so he could try to talk Rayna into going with them.
Whitney volleyed puzzled looks between Court and her. “Is, uh, anything going on between you two? I mean, you’re not back together, are you?”
“No,” Court and Rayna answered in unison, but it did make Rayna wonder what Whitney had picked up on to make her think that.
Whitney released her breath as if relieved. Maybe because she knew Rayna wasn’t ready for a relationship. Especially one with Court McCall.
“What happened here?” Whitney asked, glancing inside.
“Someone broke in,” Rayna settled for saying. She planned to give Whitney more information later, but her friend filled in the blanks.
“And you think it was Bobby Joe,” Whitney concluded. But she immediately shook her head after saying that. “It seems to be more than that going on. I mean, what with Warren being shot.”
Court made a sound of agreement. “Do you have a key to Rayna’s house? And no, I’m not accusing her of anything,” Court quickly added to Rayna. “I’m just trying to figure out how the intruder got in.”
“No key,” Whitney answered. “Bobby Joe wouldn’t have one, either. Rayna changed all the locks after she was acquitted. She had the windows and doors wired for security, too. Did she tell you that she has guns stashed all around the house?”
Rayna gave Whitney a sharp look to get her to hush. But it was too late. After hearing that, Court was probably even more convinced that she was about to go off the deep end.
“So, are you coming with us?” one of the medics called out. He sounded, and looked, impatient.
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