“Thanks.” Since Laura was focused on Brody—rather blatantly—Rebecca coughed and decided to appease her law clerk’s curiosity. “Laura Melton, this is Texas Ranger Brody Calhoun, an old friend.”
“It’s so good to meet you finally,” Laura said, pumping his arm up and down in a handshake. “I’ve heard Judge Morgan mention you.”
One of his dark eyebrows rose. “She’s talked about you, too. Maybe we should get together and compare notes.” He winked at her.
Laura grinned and ducked her head, her cheeks flaming. “Do you want me to meet you at your church on Sunday?”
“Yes, how about ten forty-five? Service is at eleven,” Rebecca answered.
“I’ll be there. If your plans change, just let me know and I can go another time. It was nice meeting you, Ranger Calhoun. I’m heading home for an evening of old movies and popcorn.”
When Rebecca and Brody were alone in the office, she said, “I’ll get my things, then we need to go to the hospital. You just came from there. Do you know what Tory wants? Did something else go wrong that Detective Nelson didn’t know about?”
“I hope not. When I left, Tory was sitting in Thomas’s room, huddled on the couch with a blanket. I asked the nurse to check on her when she looked in on Thomas. Tory seemed exhausted. About how you look.”
“Thanks. I’m glad to know I look the way I feel.” She made her way to the closet to grab her purse and umbrella. The weather forecast had predicted rain, but it hadn’t come. Dry, as usual. Not even the weather was cooperating lately. The area needed the rain.
Brody opened the door for her. “After we go to the hospital, do you mind if I stop by my house and see about bringing Dad to the ranch?”
“No. Maybe we can take him something to eat. Hattie will have fed the girls by the time we get to the ranch. They might even be in bed by then. They had been sleeping a lot lately, but Kim is starting to have nightmares. She was up twice last night. I didn’t get much sleep either.”
“Up with her?”
“Yes. In fact, the second time she got up I had her come in and sleep in my room with me.”
“I’m glad your nieces have you.”
“Thomas and the girls are my only family, other than distant relatives I don’t see much.”
“It seems like the governor is on top of your situation.”
“Since he became governor, we haven’t stayed in touch as much. Foster is destined for a great future. He has what it takes to go all the way.”
“President of the United States?”
“I think so.” At the elevator, Rebecca punched the down button while Brody and Deputy U. S. Marshal Wentworth followed her into the elevator, which took them to the lower level.
The marshal escorted her to Brody’s SUV, then said, “I’ll see you, Judge Morgan.”
As per a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the agencies, Brody handled the protection detail during the night while the U.S. Marshals took the detail during the day.
Inside Brody’s car, Rebecca laid her head against the cushion and closed her eyes. The throbbing ache behind her eyes still pulsated through her skull. She sighed.
“A bad day with the trial?” Brody switched on the engine and pulled out of the parking space.
“What do you think?”
“I think when this trial is over you should take a month-long vacation on some beach, where the only thing you have to do is turn over to tan the other side.”
“Sounds wonderful. I haven’t had a real vacation in years. Since before Garrett was killed. He always insisted on going somewhere away from here once a year.”
“Why haven’t you taken a vacation?”
“Work. The court docket is overcrowded as it is.”
“As a judge you don’t get vacation time?”
“Well, yes. I have taken long weekends to spend time at the ranch. But there was no reason to go away by myself.” She couldn’t bring herself to do that. She found work kept the demons at bay, but lately her work pace had been catching up with her. She should consider Brody’s suggestion once the Petrov trial was over.
“How about with a friend?”
“Maybe I’ll see if Laura would like to go somewhere after the trial. She’s been putting in extra-long hours lately. But a lot of it will depend on Thomas.”
“I have no concrete evidence pointing to Thomas’s accident being anything but that, but I’m treating it as though it could have been intentional, especially in light of your near-miss and the flowers delivered to him today.”
“I hope my being the judge on the Petrov trial isn’t the reason Thomas is lying in a coma in the hospital. I—I . . .” Her words stumbled to a halt. The very thought dragged her down into a dark abyss she might not be able to claw her way out of.
“I hope not either. But you’ve got a reputation for being tough on crime. Must be your prosecutor’s background. There are judges Petrov could have on his case who would make it easier for him to walk away without a conviction.”
Brody wasn’t telling her something she hadn’t already thought of. She had been eager to prove the system worked—that people like Petrov wouldn’t get away with murder. Putting herself in danger was one thing, but at the cost of harm to a loved one? A tremor rippled through her.
“When I found out that you would preside over the trial, I applauded your selection at the same time I dreaded it for you. These kinds of trials are hard on everyone.”
“I know. As a prosecutor, I wanted cases like Petrov’s, but when I was through, I was totally drained for weeks. Poor Garrett. He had to put up with me and my moods.”
“I’m sure he didn’t mind. It comes with the territory when you marry a dedicated prosecutor or judge.”
“No, he didn’t mind. He saw what I did as completing his job as a police officer. Nothing is worse than seeing someone guilty go free to prey on others.”
She remembered Garrett’s frustration when that happened, and she had pledged that when she was a judge she would do her best to put the guilty away as a tribute to her husband. Sometimes her hands were tied—when there wasn’t enough evidence to convict, for example—but she never wanted to see a criminal go free because of a technicality.
Ten minutes later, Rebecca stepped off the elevator and walked toward Thomas’s private room, complete with a police officer standing guard. The sight both comforted her and upset her. He had done nothing wrong but be her brother. She hoped the person who sent her flowers only did the same with her brother to mess with her mind—not because he had a vendetta against him, too.
When Rebecca went in to see Thomas and find out what Tory needed, her heart ached and her throat felt parched. The idea she might be responsible for this tore a hole through her stomach.
Guilt riddled, she stared at her brother for a long moment, repeating all the prayers she’d uttered today. His battered face—mostly on each side as though it had been tossed back and forth across the ground—would haunt her and was now added to the picture of Garrett’s last minutes before he slipped away from her.
“Rebecca, where have you been?” Tory rose, the blanket around her falling to the floor. “Did you hear what happened here? Some maniac was in Thomas’s room.” Her voice was pitched high, which only reinforced Rebecca’s assessment of how fragile her sister-in-law was at the moment.
She made her way to Tory and gathered her close. “Yes, but he’s got a police officer outside the door and an order for restricted visitors. Only the immediate family.”
Tory pushed away. “But is that enough?”
Brody moved toward them. “The officer knows which staff has access to this room. All others will not be allowed in without my approval.”
“How could this happen here? Why to Thomas? I thought his injuries were an accident.” Tory stepped back farther from Rebecca, waving her arm wildly toward her husband. “Did someone try to kill him?”
“We don’t know. There is no evidence that points to anything but an acc
ident.” Rebecca consciously lowered her voice to a calm level, repeating almost in a rote tone what she was trying to convince herself was the truth.
“Who would have done this? Everybody likes him.” Her shoulders hunched, Tory folded her arms across her chest and stuck her hands under her armpits.
“We don’t know.”
“You don’t know anything,” Tory retorted in such a savage voice that Rebecca backed away.
Anger highlighted the dark shadows under Tory’s eyes, then suddenly her expression dissolved into a pain-filled one. “I’m sorry. You aren’t to blame for what’s happened to Thomas.” She pulled her fingers through the long strands of her hair, almost as if she were going to tear it out. “I need rest.”
Rebecca tried to ignore what her sister-in-law had said. She tried to tell herself that no one knew for certain what was going on with Thomas. “I agree, Tory. You need to come home with us. I don’t want you to drive as tired as you are.”
“What about my car?”
“I’ll bring you back tomorrow when the girls come to see their father.”
“No, I’ll bring you both back here tomorrow. No driving by yourself until we figure out what’s going on.” Brody moved to Rebecca’s side, a look of sympathy on his face as though he knew what she was feeling—guilt.
“Why do I need a guard? What is going on here?”
“It’s possible someone is targeting my family because I’m the judge on the Petrov trial.”
Tory’s eyes widened until that was all Rebecca could focus on. “You are the reason?”
“I don’t know, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.” The words she uttered to her sister-in-law did nothing to appease the guilt she was feeling. “You shouldn’t stay here all the time. When Thomas wakes up, he’s going to need you to be there for him.” Rebecca took Brody’s hand, needing the connection at the moment.
The color leached from Tory’s face. She opened her mouth, then snapped it closed. A half a minute later she finally said, “I need to be here. I want to be here when he does wake up.”
“The staff will let us know.”
Tory shook her head over and over. “No, I’ll be fine. I know you need to be at the ranch so you can be there for the girls.” She lowered her gaze to the floor between them. “I’m sorry I made it sound like you brought all this on Thomas, on us.”
The apology only reinforced Rebecca’s fear about what she might have caused. “How about we talk it over tomorrow? Let’s go home.”
Tory stared vacantly at the foot of the bed, chewing on her bottom lip. “Okay. I do need some sleep. The doctor gave me something to help.” Her glistening gaze swept to Brody. “But if someone did do this to Thomas, I want you to find him.”
“I will. That’s a promise.”
While Tory gathered her sweater and purse, Rebecca paused at Thomas’s side and kissed the small patch of his cheek that was not scraped or bandaged. “I love you, Tommy. I’m so sorry you’re lying here. Please wake up. I pray every day for you.” Please, Lord, take this guilt away.
As they left through the main entrance of the hospital, Rebecca spotted Rob entering through the sliding glass doors. Smiling, she caught the young man’s attention. “What are you doing here? Visiting someone?”
His gaze skimmed over Brody and Tory before it settled on Rebecca. “A friend. An accident with a bull. The rodeo can be brutal on a person’s body.”
“Rob, this is my sister-in-law, Tory Sinclair.”
Touching the brim of his cowboy hat, he nodded at Tory, then said, “What are y’all doing here?”
“My brother was in an accident.”
“Rob is the one who pushed me out of the way of the pickup Monday,” Rebecca said to Tory.
“Kim told me all about it. You’re her hero. I don’t know what I would have done if either Kim or Rebecca had been hurt, too. If you stay long in San Antonio, you should come out to the ranch. I know Kim would love to see you again.”
“Mrs. Sinclair, that’s right neighborly, but I’ll probably not be around much longer. Have a nice evening, folks.” Rob sauntered into the lobby.
“He seems like a nice young man,” Tory said as she went outside.
“He’s one of those guys who plays down what he did. But I’m sure grateful.” If he hadn’t acted, Rebecca might have been in the hospital, like her brother, or worse.
“Thanks, Aunt Becky, for letting me sleep in here.” Kim threw her arms around Rebecca’s neck and kissed her cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you, honey.” She tucked her niece in and smoothed her hair away from her face. “I’m going to check to make sure everyone has what they need, but I’ll be back later. Are you okay with that?”
Kim hugged her ratty stuffed polar bear against her chest and curled up. “Yep.”
“If you need me, I’ll be downstairs making sure Brody and his dad get settled in.”
“I like them being here. Mr. Calhoun’s dad is funny.”
“Did you say your prayers before I came in?”
She nodded. “I asked God to watch over Dad, you, Aubrey, Hattie, Tory, and Mr. Clark.”
“Mr. Clark? We saw him tonight at the hospital.”
“You did? I wish I could have been there to thank him. Something bad could have happened to you.”
“It didn’t. You don’t need to worry about me. Good night, honey.”
As Rebecca reached the door, Kim called out, “It’s a good thing that Dad is in his own room, isn’t it?”
With her hand on the overhead light switch, Rebecca glanced back at her niece and said, “Yes, very good. Before we know it, he’ll be home.” Then she flipped the light off and left.
In the upstairs hallway, she savored the quiet now that Kim and Aubrey were in bed. If only she could feel the peace she so desired. But since Thomas’s accident—or whatever it was—even when praying she hadn’t experienced the peace she usually did when spending time with the Lord. She was losing her focus, her thoughts always going to the trial and to her brother.
And she still had to see Jake tonight. She’d had little time this week to find out what was happening concerning the cattle rustling. Glancing at her watch, she couldn’t believe it was only nine. It felt like midnight. Between the trial, spending time at the hospital, and being with the girls, time crawled by.
Trudging toward the staircase, she breathed deeply, over and over, but the tension that knotted her shoulders and neck wouldn’t release her. By the time she came into the den, Jake had joined Brody and his dad. Their voices went silent when she appeared.
She put her hand on her waist. “Okay, what has happened?”
Jake dropped his gaze, rubbing his forefingers against his thumbs.
“There’s been another incident of cattle rustling. At the Double T Ranch.” Brody sat forward, elbows on his thighs, hands clasped.
Rebecca collapsed onto the couch next to him. “How many? When?”
His jaw clenched, Jake stared into her eyes. “Probably sometime last night. They didn’t have a chance to check all their herds until late this afternoon. Sheriff Overstreet called me a while ago. Around a hundred cattle. Two semis. It looks like the same outfit that stole ours.”
“But we haven’t lost any more cattle?”
“No, I’ve added some men on to keep an eye out, especially at night.”
“What’s the sheriff doing?”
“Doubling the patrol cars on the roads around here. They’ll be stopping any semis they don’t recognize and checking for cattle.”
“The rustlers would be stupid to stay now,” Sean said.
“The only good thing about this is that it means it isn’t connected to the Petrov trial. They wouldn’t bother stealing from another ranch. They would want me to know it was them making my life difficult.” Like the flowers.
Jake swung his attention from Rebecca to Brody. “You think what has been happening is connected to the Russian Mafia?”
Brody lifted his sho
ulder. “It’s a possibility we have to consider. The task force I’m on is looking into the situation.” Touching Rebecca’s arm, he locked gazes with her. “That means keeping you safe so we can put this Petrov away for a long time.”
“If the witnesses aren’t scared away. They made it through one trial, but the longer it takes, the more opportunities someone will have to get to them. Already one has gone missing.”
Sean pushed to his feet. “I think the girls have it right. Time for bed for me, too. Jake, if you need any help with the rustling situation, I’d be glad to give you any I can, especially with security issues.”
“Thanks, Sean. We’ll talk tomorrow.” Jake waited until the sound of Sean’s footsteps had faded before he continued. “Is it okay if your dad helps? I’d like him to look over what I’ve done. See if he sees any flaws in my security measures.”
“If I said no, he’d try anyway. The worst part of his heart attack is the recovery period, where he’s had to curtail his activities. After his retirement, he was doing some consulting work to tighten security at several businesses. So all I ask is to keep him from overextending himself as much as you can. I realize he can be a stubborn man.”
“So you came by that honestly,” Rebecca said with a laugh.
Brody covered her hand on the couch between them. “Stubbornness can be a good thing. I don’t give up when there’s something that has to be done. I think of my stubbornness as perseverance.”
“Like a dog guarding his bone?” The warmth of his palm against the back of her hand spread up her arm and throughout her body.
Jake chuckled. “I think I’ll leave you two to argue which is it, stubbornness or perseverance. I’ll keep an eye on your dad, Brody. See y’all tomorrow.”
When her foreman left the den, silence descended. The sound of the Big Ben clock on the mantle resonated through the room. She relaxed back against the cushion, the long day felt in every taut muscle. “I’m glad you’re here. I feel safe with you.” As she said those unexpected words, she realized she did feel safe whenever Brody was around, and lately that was a nice feeling to have. Even the Deputy U.S. Marshal protecting her didn’t give her that sense of safety. Although she was sure he was good at his job, she didn’t really know that deep down. She did with Brody.
Scorned Justice: The Men of Texas Rangers Series #3 (Men of the Texas Rangers) Page 9