No white gowns for them that morning. Someone had dressed them in pink and blue. Cute as bugs. They were cuddled against each other, sleeping side by side.
“Sorry about that,” Rosalie said, her gaze going briefly to her sister, who was storming toward the guesthouse. Too bad Rayanne wouldn’t stay there. “Rayanne wasn’t always like she is now.”
“Hard to believe,” Tucker mumbled. Rosalie and Rayanne had barely been six years old when Jewell left with them. “She had a stubborn streak even as a kid.”
That streak was now a mile wide.
“Well, she was always tough,” Rosalie amended. “Always trying not to show how much it hurt that she didn’t have a dad. Sorry,” she immediately added. “Didn’t mean to bring up any bad memories.”
“She had a dad,” Tucker pointed out. “A stepdad.”
She nodded. “And he was good to us, but Rayanne could never let go of the anger of having our father toss our mother out of her home.” Rosalie winced. “Sorry, again. I keep putting my foot in my mouth this morning.”
Laine gave her a pat on the arm. “We all had our lives turned upside down twenty-three years ago.”
“Yeah, and they just keep on turning, don’t they?” Tucker grumbled. “Like a curse or something.”
There’d been nothing but trouble and danger since Jewell had come back into their lives, but since he didn’t want to hurt Rosalie’s feelings, Tucker kept that little revelation to himself.
Besides, he had something better to occupy his attention.
The babies.
It was strange, he’d never considered baby-watching to be very interesting, but it sure was now. Maybe because he thought of himself as their protector.
Temporarily, anyway.
Tucker reached down and touched his finger to Jack’s cheek. The corner of his little mouth lifted. A baby smile that Laine and Rosalie had already assured him was just gas. Tucker figured they were wrong.
Hey, a kid who could pee with that kind of accuracy certainly could manage a smile, couldn’t he?
“There is something you should know about Rayanne,” Rosalie said in a whisper, like she was telling a secret. A secret she obviously wasn’t so sure she should share. “I wouldn’t bring it up, but Rayanne won’t say anything, and it could cause some problems if she’s called out to help with another arrest. Or an attack.”
Tucker had to shake his head. “What are you talking about?”
Rosalie swallowed hard. “Shortly before we came here, Rayanne got involved with a guy who basically slept with her and then dumped her.”
Well, that explained her surly mood. A little bit of the brother inside him kicked in. He had to rein in his protective instincts, though, because Rayanne wouldn’t want him to even think about protecting her.
“Anyway,” Rosalie went on, “this morning, Rayanne finally got around to taking a pregnancy test. It was positive. She thinks she’s about three and a half months along.”
Oh, man. That would be a hard blow for any woman, even one with Rayanne’s alligator-thick skin.
“Where’s the baby’s father?” Tucker asked.
“He’s dead. He was killed somewhere in Mexico.”
Laine made a soft sound of sympathy. “She’s had a lot come at her at once. Is there anything I can do to help?”
The shrink in her was coming out. It was like Tucker’s brotherly tug, which he was ignoring.
Rosalie shook her head. “Anything any of us could say or do would just make it worse. Rayanne’s never had dreams of being a mother, unlike me. I’ve always wanted children. So this has hit her pretty hard. The only reason I wanted you to know—”
“Was so I wouldn’t call her into the middle of a gunfight,” Tucker finished. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that again.”
His phone rang, startling the babies and causing them to squirm, and Tucker stepped into the adjoining family room to take the call. Laine followed him, and once Tucker saw it was Colt on the other end of the line, he put it on speaker, since this was something she probably needed to hear.
“Still no sign of our missing shooter,” Colt started.
“And the other two?” Laine asked.
“Other than us getting Gene Buford’s name, they’re not talking, and their lawyers are making sure they stay quiet.”
That wasn’t good, but maybe there was a way around the mute act from the two they had in custody. Tucker could look at the lawyers themselves and see if they had any connections to those being investigated for the baby farms.
“I made some calls about the social worker, Martin Hague,” he told Colt. “Nothing back on him so far, other than he really is a social worker.”
“Let me guess—Hague’s getting that court order to take the babies?” Tucker asked.
“He’s trying,” Colt answered. “That’s why I’ve been trying to learn as much about the babies as possible. Both of them have the same blood type as Dawn Cowen, but there’s nothing back on the DNA yet to determine if she was really their mother. She doesn’t have a next of kin on file so I had Reed chat with some of the other CIs we use in San Antonio. Several of them said she has an aunt somewhere in the state.”
“Maybe the Rangers can help track her down?” Tucker suggested.
“I’ll ask, but I did find out something else from the CIs. You’re not going to believe this, but Dawn was involved with Darren Carty.”
Tucker groaned. Not Laine, though. She just stood there looking poleaxed, and her breathing suddenly didn’t sound too level.
“My ex-fiancé,” she finally mumbled.
She didn’t offer more. Not that Tucker needed it. He was plenty familiar with Darren. Same age. Raised just one county apart, they’d competed against each other in high school football and then again on the rodeo circuit.
Tucker pretty much hated the guy, and it had nothing to do with the fact that Laine and Darren had been hot and heavy for a long time before they’d split up about two years before.
“What was Darren doing with someone like Dawn?” Laine asked, her voice a little shaky. “She had a lengthy juvenile record along with some arrests for petty theft and prostitution.”
“Darren’s apparently been involved with several women like her since you two split,” Colt explained. “But according to a couple of Dawn’s friends, it wasn’t just a fling. Not on her part, anyway. She was in love with Darren.”
Something about that didn’t fit. All right, a lot of things didn’t fit, but Tucker went with the obvious one. “Then why didn’t Darren or her friends report her missing?”
“Because Darren said Dawn had pulled disappearing acts before.”
Yeah, Tucker knew that about her, too, but still, someone should have asked her whereabouts.
Including Tucker himself.
“I want to talk to Darren,” Tucker insisted.
“Figured you would. I just got to his place, and I’ll arrange to have him come in for a chat. Not sure how much he’ll cooperate.... Oh, hell—”
“What’s wrong?” Tucker couldn’t ask fast enough.
“Tucker, you need to get out here right now. I think I found Dawn.”
Chapter Eight
Laine looked out at the chaos in front of her, and her stomach tightened even more. Yes, Colt had already told Tucker and her that he’d found Dawn’s body.
At her ex-fiancé’s house, no less.
However, Laine hadn’t realized just how many people would be at Darren’s ranch. She spotted the medical examiner’s van. A CSI one, too. Then Colt’s squad car. Someone from the county sheriff’s office was there, as well. Plus four other civilian vehicles, no doubt belonging to Darren and his ranch hands.
Or maybe to his lawyers.
Darren had to know just how much t
rouble he was in.
Tucker parked behind the ME’s van about twenty yards from the house, but he didn’t get out. Instead, he turned to her. “They haven’t moved the body yet. They’re still processing the scene.”
She understood what he was saying—if she went outside, she would likely see Dawn. While Laine wasn’t anxious to see the dead woman, she did want to hear what Darren had to say.
If he had anything to say.
So far, Darren hadn’t said much to Colt, and in turn Colt hadn’t volunteered anything about their investigation. Since Darren’s ranch straddled two different jurisdictions, both the county and the Sweetwater Springs cops had agreed to turn it over to Tucker and the Texas Rangers.
Something she was positive Darren wouldn’t like.
The two men had never been on friendly terms, and Darren wouldn’t have an easy time answering to a man he disliked.
“Stay close to me,” Tucker warned her.
It wasn’t his first warning of the day. There’d been plenty of them when he had tried to talk her out of coming with him, but Laine had simply reminded him that she would be able to confirm that Dawn was indeed the woman who’d been shot behind her office. That wasn’t a lie. But Laine also wanted to see Darren’s face when Tucker questioned him about his involvement with Dawn.
She wasn’t jealous. Just confused. And more than a little worried that she’d once been engaged to a man who was now somehow involved in a murder.
Just as Tucker reached to open the door, his phone rang, and she saw Reed’s name on the screen. He put the phone on speaker when he answered.
“Didn’t know if you’d made it out to Carty’s place yet, but I just got the background report on that social worker, Martin Hague,” Reed greeted. “You want to hear the gist of it now or is this a bad time?”
“You found something?” Tucker immediately asked.
“Maybe. He appears to be living well beyond his means. He recently paid off some huge student loans and bought a house. Can’t find any sign of an inheritance or anything. But I did find a connection that makes me uneasy. Remember the name Rhonda Wesson?”
“Yes,” Tucker and Laine said in unison. It was Laine who continued. “She was one of the pregnant women rescued from the first baby farm that was closed down.”
“That’s right. And she’s Hague’s cousin.”
Laine tried to pick through what she remembered about Rhonda. The woman had a troubled past that included being on the run from an abusive relationship. Or so everyone believed until she’d been found at the baby farm. She delivered the child shortly after being rescued and then had given up the newborn for adoption.
“You think Hague’s connected to the baby farm?” Laine asked.
“I just think it’s a coincidence that I don’t much like,” Reed answered.
Laine made a sound of agreement. Of course, just because Hague’s cousin had been a victim didn’t mean he had been the one who put Rhonda on that baby farm. Still, it was a possible lead that Tucker and she would need to follow.
Well, Tucker anyway.
Laine wasn’t sure just how much longer he would continue to let her tag along. Once their missing attacker was caught, Tucker would likely be in a hurry to end their association. Despite the way he’d held her in his bedroom. It’d been, well, nice.
Okay, not nice.
It’d been a playing with fire session that she should have never started in the first place.
“You okay?” she heard Tucker ask, and it took her a moment to realize he was talking to her. “You’re breathing funny. If you’re worried about seeing the body or your ex—”
“I’m not.”
He just stared at her, obviously waiting for her to explain what was bothering her. Yes, Dawn’s body was part of this mess going on in her head. The spent adrenaline and lack of sleep, too, along with the shocking news that her ex had a possible connection to everything that was going on.
But no way would she mention hugging and playing with fire while Reed was listening.
The town gossip mill already had enough fodder without her adding more, and she definitely didn’t want it getting back to her mother that she’d landed not just under Tucker’s roof but also in his arms.
“See if you can find the source of Hague’s money,” Tucker said to Reed. He still didn’t take his attention off her, though. “And set up a meeting with Rhonda. I could be tied up here for a while.”
“Tied up questioning Darren Carty,” Reed supplied. “You arresting him?”
“That depends on how the next few minutes go. Call me if you learn anything else about Hague.”
Tucker ended the call. “All right, what’s wrong? If you’re about to fall apart over seeing your ex, I need to know before you take one step from this truck.”
“I look like I’m going to fall apart?” Laine wasn’t positive that the falling apart wouldn’t happen, but her latest troubled look had sadly been about her situation with Tucker and not about Dawn. “What if I just say this isn’t about Darren, and that it’s something you don’t want to discuss? Would you leave it at that?”
But he didn’t leave anything. Not Tucker. He studied her, his attention going from her eyes to her mouth. She saw the aha/oh, hell moment flash through his eyes.
“I’m sure it’s just nerves,” she added. “Better to think about you than what’s out there.”
“Yeah.” He nodded, paused again. “So, should I know why you and Darren split? If I remember right, you two were just a few weeks away from saying ‘I do.’”
“There’s nothing wrong with your memory.” Though it did surprise her that Tucker would remember that or any other personal thing about her.
Laine decided to say this fast. Like ripping off a Band-Aid. “I can’t have children of my own. I didn’t know that when we got engaged, but when I found out and told him, Darren broke things off.”
Mercy, it hurt to say that. Hurt more to feel it. The ache was always there, eating away at her. Not because of her failed engagement, but because she would never give birth to the baby that she’d always wanted. The failed relationship was just salt on a wound that would never heal.
Tucker’s mouth didn’t exactly drop open, but it came close. “I knew Darren was an ass, but that proves it.”
Laine shrugged. “He wanted a child of his own and didn’t want to adopt. I can’t fault a man for that.”
“Well, I sure as hell can.” He cursed. But then he went still, and Laine knew why. “Hell,” Tucker repeated.
“The babies that Dawn had with her could be Darren’s,” she managed to say. That hurt, too, and it sickened her to think of handing them over to him.
Or to anyone else for that matter.
“Don’t borrow trouble by trying to get the truth out of Darren,” he warned her. “I’ll ask the questions, and if things get too tense, I want you back in the truck.” He waited until she nodded before walking with her toward the house.
And toward Darren.
She instantly spotted him. Looking more like a model on a glossy magazine cover than a real cowboy, he was pacing the porch that wrapped around the house. His gaze snapped in their direction as they approached. His ink-black hair was as fashionably disheveled as his jeans and shirt, and she knew he’d had them custom-made.
Darren wasn’t alone. There were two men in suits milling around him.
“You know them?” Tucker whispered to her.
“No, but they look like lawyers.”
The one on the right did, anyway. He was on the phone having a whispered conversation. The other eased his hand inside his jacket as they approached. He quit easing when Tucker tapped the badge pinned to his shirt and slid his hand over his own weapon.
Laine’s attention went to the ME crew on the left side of that mass
ive porch. There, amid some flame-red rosebushes, she spotted the woman’s arm. It flung out at an unnatural angle.
Laine went closer. And saw the face. Bloodless.
Now.
The rain had washed her clean and left her bone-white. Her eyes were open and fixed in a permanently blank stare. Laine’s thoughts jerked back to those moments in the parking lot. The sound of the bullets being fired. The image of her body being dragged into the car.
“It’s the same woman those men shot,” Laine managed to say to Tucker. “You’re sure it’s Dawn?”
“Yeah.” Tucker drew in a long breath and maneuvered Laine away from the body. He positioned himself partially in front of her when he faced Darren.
Darren stopped pacing. “Tucker,” he greeted. “Laine.”
She kept her own greeting at a nod. Best not to trust her voice right now. She no longer loved Darren, hadn’t in a long time, but any emotion that came through wouldn’t be good.
Mercy, was she looking at a killer?
“I didn’t do this,” Darren volunteered. “I wouldn’t do this,” he amended.
“Then how’d her body get here?” Tucker asked.
“How the hell should I know?” He groaned, scrubbed his hand over his face. “I just know I didn’t put her there.”
“Someone did,” Tucker snapped. “You didn’t hear anyone or see anything?”
“No, and if I had, I would have called the cops.” He cursed and started pacing again. “I’m not stupid. If I’d killed someone, do you really think I’d use my own rose bed as a body dump?”
Tucker glanced around, and Laine followed his gaze. No security cameras were visible, but the private road leading to the place was at least a quarter of a mile long. It would have been awfully brassy of the gunmen to bring her body here, but then they’d already shown a brassy streak by attacking Dawn, and then Tucker and Laine, in broad daylight.
Tucker lifted his shoulder. “You might have dumped her body here if you thought it’d take suspicion off yourself.”
Cowboy Behind the Badge Page 7