by Angi Morgan
“I need to move you to the middle bedroom. It’s smaller, but easier to defend.”
“Okay. Do you have a cot or something? I didn’t see another bed.”
“I’ll put this mattress on the floor.”
“That isn’t necessary.”
“Of course it is, Kylie. Don’t worry about it.”
She picked up the pillows and he lifted the mattress, bedding and all onto its side. She stepped out of the way and he pushed it down the hall to the smaller room.
“Keep the lights off. If someone’s watching the house we might fool them as to which room you’re in.”
She sat on the mattress and leaned against the inside wall, pulling the sheet up to her chin. “I could really use a good soak, but I assume that’s out of the question.”
He nodded.
“And I don’t suppose I’ll be left alone?”
He shook his head. “I’ll stay right here.”
“All right.” She plumped the pillows and twisted awkwardly to put her head down. “Is there something else, Bryce?”
“I need to see what you have inside the bag.”
“Take it. There’s nothing inside. You know all my secrets already.” She covered her head with the covers.
He picked up the green bag, slid his back down the wall to the floor and reached for his phone, remembering Fred still had it. A couple of four-letter words went through his mind at the thought of getting back up. Then the smell of coffee got stronger. Fred sauntered his long frame down the hall.
“You know there are chairs in the other room a lot more comfortable than that floor.” He handed over one cup and slurped at the other.
“I’m good. Thanks for this.”
“Here’s your phone and glasses. I’ll be right back. My bones are too old to sit without support.”
Bryce placed his frames on his face and gawked into the black brew like an old gypsy telling futures with tea leaves. He wanted a plan. Something solid. Or a reason for Tenoreno to have made a move on Kylie today.
“Why now?” he whispered as the legs of a dining chair scraped the floor. “He couldn’t have known she was here. Not that fast. I just made the confirmation today.”
“And by confirmation you mean?” Fred sat in the chair at the end of the hall.
“I told Kylie that she was in danger.”
“How did you find her? Can I ask that?” Fred tipped the chair to two feet balancing against the wall.
“Yeah, can we both ask that?” Kylie’s voice from the bedroom didn’t sound interested in sleeping.
Three years of my spare time. “Facial recognition from a picture that appeared with an internet magazine feature. It was about the teen and senior program you volunteer with.”
“Runs and created.” Fred slurped loudly. “Does a damn fine job.”
“The article said it was a community effort. It’s impressive, I like what I experienced today. I take it you’ve been keeping Kylie behind the camera instead of in front of it?”
“I volunteered. I thought I’d convinced everyone it was more about them than me. I can’t believe everyone knew.”
“Everyone didn’t. You’ve got the two other names besides myself. One’s the owner of the Koffee Cup and the other is the woman who runs the Billy the Kid Museum. They were watching the morning news together when I brought a disheveled young woman who didn’t weigh as much as a toothpick into the shop. Praise be that those two old women don’t gossip.”
“Why didn’t you turn me over to the police, Fred?”
“It wasn’t like you’d broken any law by walking away from everything.” He shrugged. “We all thought you’d been through enough. If you needed some peace and quiet, why shouldn’t it be here where we could watch out for you?”
“I can’t ever tell you how much these years have meant to me. They changed my life.”
Bryce could hear the emotional catch in her tone. Kylie was about to cry. He did admire what the people of Hico had done, and everything that she’d done to make her life meaningful. It was much better than the fast lane she’d been in as a teen model.
None of it mattered.
Kylie’s location had been discovered and it wasn’t because of him. He hadn’t had much time to think things through since the firefight. But now that he could...he’d called only the major to inform him. He hadn’t informed anyone else. The one call he’d received at Kylie’s that morning was from the Austin PD telling him they’d lost Tenoreno.
“Fred, have y’all noticed anyone new in town? Any strangers here longer than they should be?”
“You mean besides you? Nope.”
“This doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t?” Kylie asked.
“How did they find you? Not only that. How did they find you today? It’s illogical.” Bryce’s brain was at home with computers and patterns and logic.
“Did you do anything different today, girlie? Besides trying to lose this fellow across the fields?”
Bryce heard the sheets rustle behind him, then Kylie was at the opposite side of the doorway. Hair tussled as if she’d just awakened and had tossed and turned all night. The house wasn’t an icebox. It was more like an old unit that barely put out cold air, yet she still wore her long sleeves and covered up.
“Nothing different. I mowed the lawn, started trimming a couple of dead limbs, talked to Bryce.” She finger-combed her hair while she explained, smoothing it back into place. “When he left me alone, I came up with the idea of walking away. I’ve had plans in place for years. But with him watching the place like a stalker, I had to improvise.”
“Looks like the only thing different in this equation is you, son.”
They both looked at him. Eyebrows raised. Eyes opened wide. Expecting something that resembled an answer. It wasn’t against the rules for him to share what he knew. And they knew most of it anyway.
“The Austin PD has been tailing Tenoreno since Thomas Rosco’s death. He shook the car following him today. I told you that this morning,” he said to Kylie.
“You’re right, though. It’s a bit coincidental that someone tries to kill Kylie after all these years. And on the very day you show your hand.” Fred smirked.
“Here’s the other thing that’s bothering me. Why so public?”
“That was an awful lot of firepower for something that could have been handled with a single blade as a home invasion. No offense, Kylie.” Fred set his empty coffee mug on the floor and brought all his chair legs back to earth.
Bryce hadn’t touched his own coffee. It was cool enough now to just gulp it for the caffeine. Which he did.
“Why would they want the entire town to know I’d been killed?”
“Exactly.” He had to ponder the question awhile.
In fact, every question they asked just led to more questions and no answers.
Bryce unfolded his glasses, put them in place and then checked his phone. No messages from Jesse or Major Parker. He’d missed his Saturday afternoon call with his mom and dad. That was it. He sent the names Fred had typed into his message to headquarters in Austin. Same thing with the car licenses from the hotels.
Ironically, if he hadn’t been on this assignment, he’d be the one sitting in Waco. He’d be utilizing the information available for the Rangers and collecting data. He’d find out if any of these Hico citizens had a connection to Xander or Paul Tenoreno.
Fred was on his phone. When he noticed Bryce looking at him he said, “Calling my daughter. She might actually be a little worried.” He put the phone to his ear and walked toward the back of the house.
“Where’s your cell?”
“I don’t have one. Just the landline and the laptop.” Kylie adjusted her position, sitting cross-legged in the doorway. “The kids instant message me online if they want to talk. Adults call.”
“I don’t think I’ve met anyone over twelve that doesn’t have a cell phone.”
“Believe me. It might have been one o
f the hardest things to give up. After running away and starting completely over with a thousand dollars in my pocket.” She crossed her arms to match her legs and rested her head on the wall. “I used to have two. Cells, that is. One was completely for social media and the press, my agent, my favorite photographers, my publicist. Only my closest friends had my personal number. Even that had to be changed every three or four months when a weird fan would call or post it to the world.”
“Do you miss it or ever want to go back?”
“I can’t go back if I did want to. My skin is definitely...flawed.”
He searched her perfect skin. No freckles, no acne, no discolorations. He reached out to tap the tiny crinkles around her eyes. “Flawed?”
“You’re funny. Didn’t you say you’d seen my file? Doesn’t it have pictures of the gunshots?”
“Oh, yeah. Couldn’t you still model, though?”
“I don’t want to go back. That life was never real. It belonged to Sissy Jorgenson, my stage name and persona. It turned everyone I ever loved into money-starved...” She had been looking around the room, sort of staring at nothing. Then she locked eyes with his. “I couldn’t see what it did to me while I was living it. I was willing to marry Xander because he didn’t need anything from me. At least that’s what I thought. I was just a dumb kid.”
He shook his head, agreeing, letting her assume he knew what she had gone through. But he didn’t.
“I have a scar,” he threw out.
“You might have some from that burn you got today,” she teased.
“It’s not much, but it’s never gone away.” He pulled up his jeans leg and slid off his boot, pushing down his sock. “When I was a kid a rattler got me. See it? Those two white spots.”
“No appendicitis? No shotgun blast to your back?”
“Shotgun? Why would you think—”
“From all those husbands and boyfriends chasing you out windows, silly.”
Again with the teasing. He was glad she could laugh. Her life had been turned upside down five years ago. If it had happened to him and then began repeating itself, he didn’t know how he would have handled it.
“It’s just stuff, you know. Everything over there can be replaced.”
“Except the Cadillac,” Fred said from the corner. “She’s a beaut. Am I right? Did you see her?”
“Except the Cadillac,” Bryce repeated. “That’s our answer. It was the car.”
Chapter Nine
Kylie tried to sleep. Her body told her she should. She was exhausted from the day’s activities and mentally tired of playing the games she’d run away from so long ago. She was also tired of everyone trying to manipulate her. Even Fred while trying to protect her. If she walked away from the people who had stood by her all these years...
Was she betraying them?
Or protecting them as Bryce had pointed out?
Now sleep was impossible because a total stranger was pacing the halls, tapping on his cell, cursing at whoever he was texting to answer back. Jesse Ryder was Bryce’s partner. And yet, he’d walked through the door and Bryce had barreled past him, Fred not far behind.
“They’re checking something out on the Cadillac.” She tried getting his attention from her protected space. Bryce had reminded her to stay put with a graphic description of what the gun had done to her house. So she was close to the hallway door with her back against the closet. Remembering the hole in the wall made her want to sleep inside the bathtub.
“Where?” Jesse stopped as he walked past the door. “What Cadillac?”
“My house. Across the street and two doors down. There’s a flowerpot of marigolds on the front porch—well, there used to be. Come to think about it, I think someone knocked them off. The porch light is on.”
“Every porch light is on after what happened earlier.” He typed more on his cell. “You shouldn’t have made it out of that attack alive. Or was Johnson exaggerating?”
“No, I think he got the details right. The headline will probably read something like Giant Hole in the Wall, Refrigerator Saves Couple. I think there are pictures now.”
The new guy barely cracked a smile. He looked like he was in an old spaghetti western, one boot propped against the wall, head down rolling a ciggy. Only instead of a cigarette, he was focused on a cell phone.
“At least you’re not trending yet. But you’re right. There are definitely pictures.” Ever vigilant of his surroundings, he stood straight at the slightest sound. His hand would go to his holster on his hip, then he’d relax against the wall again. “I heard you tried to walk cross-country to get away from him.”
“It was the only thing I could think of at the time.”
“I can think of a much easier solution...just come back with us. Do you know why they had to look at this car?” Jesse asked.
“It’s stolen. I know that much.”
“You said it was your house. Did you steal it?” He left her to walk to the front room again.
“The official story is that I borrowed it.” She spoke a little louder so he could hear her around the corner.
He nodded his head. He wasn’t as tall as Bryce, not quite as built through the shoulders. She drew her knees to her chest, trying to stretch her back and get comfortable. It didn’t feel right lying on the mattress with the new guy watching. Even if she had all her clothes on, including her shoes.
“I have a question.” She waited for him to nod that he’d answer. “Do they really teach how to calculate walking speeds or something like that in Ranger school?”
His confused expression was all she needed to know that Bryce had been full of it earlier. She silently laughed at herself for halfway believing him.
“So what’s so important about the car? I’m guessing that you didn’t steal it today.”
“Five years ago.”
“That’s when you— Is it Tenoreno’s?”
She nodded. “I told Bryce about it just before they attacked. He had some revelation about fifteen minutes before you got here. Fred argued with him that it wasn’t possible. Don’t ask me what it is, because they wouldn’t tell me. Bryce said he wanted to confirm his suspicions.”
“I guess we both wait then.” Phone in his pocket, he began his patrol again.
Resting her head and eyes, she could hear his boots walk up and down the hall, pause at the front window, circle through the kitchen and repeat. Silently, she debated the pros and cons of going to Waco with Bryce.
No matter how hurt Fred’s feelings might be, leaving with Bryce was her only logical option. What if the gunmen had opened fire on the event earlier today? With that thought, she knew leaving was her only choice. They were under orders to keep an eye on her so they wouldn’t let her leave alone. One way or another it had to be with them.
Drifting off, she was yanked back when Bryce and Fred burst into the house, arguing loud enough to wake the block. Well, if anyone had actually gone back to bed.
“I tell you it’s not possible. That GPS locator has a short range. They wouldn’t be able to pick it up in Austin.” Fred yelled.
“Don’t you get it? They could have followed her that first night. If it’s short range, they just drive until they find it.” Bryce yelled back. “Someone’s probably known where she was this entire time. It’s not a coincidence that I show up and all hell breaks loose.”
There was a loud piercing whistle that got the men to shut up. Kylie left the protection of the bedroom, stopping at the edge of the hall. She didn’t want to draw eyes back to herself and be sent to her room like a child.
“It can’t be right,” Fred repeated.
“Can you explain what we’re talking about?” Jesse bent the window blinds looking outside.
“It’s not good. There’s a GPS locater on Tenoreno’s Cadillac.” Bryce answered him, keeping his back to everyone.
“A tracking system? How strong? Wait. Why didn’t we locate her when she stole the car and disappeared five years ago?” Jesse was at
attention. Did he realize his fingers had drifted to the gun at his side?
“GPS. Either law enforcement wasn’t looking or it wasn’t reported stolen.”
Kylie could see the tension in the way he was standing. And the way he was looking out the back windows. Did he expect to see another targeting laser pointed at the house?
“You’ve been driving a stolen car for five years and no one’s caught on?” Jesse looked straight at her. The other two men’s heads turned, too.
“Don’t look at me. I don’t drive the blasted thing. It never leaves my garage. I avoid it as much as possible. The engine can’t even crank.” An eerie feeling was creeping up the back of her neck. There was something terribly wrong with what they were saying. Maybe she was too tired to read between the lines, but even then...
The men’s reactions were beginning to scare her.
“I’m the one who charged the battery last week when you got here and made certain it would run. Just in case, you know, she needed it one day soon,” Fred said.
“Like tonight?” Bryce said strongly again.
“What if—what if he didn’t know about it?” she whispered and searched their faces getting their attention. “Xander hadn’t had the car very long. He’d been bragging about winning it. That’s why I took the convertible, because he seemed so excited about it. But he was out of the country when I left.”
“By the time he got back, I’d disconnected the battery.” Fred scratched his scruffy chin.
Why did it all matter, though? How they found her wasn’t as important as the fact that they had found her. Right?
“I don’t understand why this is so important. I’ll come up with a new plan after the state attorneys hear my pathetic cry of ‘I don’t know anything’ a thousand more times.”
“If the locator drew someone’s attention, they found you pretty easily after it was reconnected.” Jesse was oh so matter-of-fact with his explanation. “If it didn’t, someone’s following Bryce.”
“Someone? You mean Xander.”
“Or the guy he won the car from. Either way, someone out there wants you dead. They just aren’t very good at it.” Jesse crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.