Texas-Sized Trouble

by Barb Han

  “He’ll hurt her, won’t he?” Faith finally said.

  “It’s a possibility we can’t ignore,” Ryder said. The fact that Faith had been strongly warned but not injured pointed toward her father being behind what had happened tonight. As difficult as that was for Ryder to fathom, he figured he’d never understand the actions of Hollister McCabe and it was best not to underestimate the man.

  Her hand came up to cover her stomach and he wondered if she even realized she did that every time she worried about the possibility of something happening to the baby. Faith was going to be a good mother.

  * * *

  RYDER HAD BRIEFED Tommy on the situation on the way to the ranch. Dallas and Austin were on their way. Joshua, Ryder’s twin, was the first to arrive.

  After a bear hug greeting, Ryder motioned toward the kitchen where a fresh pot of coffee had just finished brewing.

  “What’s going on?” Joshua asked.

  “We’ll wait for the others to arrive before we talk,” Ryder started, “but you should know that this involves Faith McCabe.”

  Ryder’s back was turned while he poured two cups of coffee, so he didn’t see his brother’s reaction to the news and that was probably for the best. He wasn’t lying before when he’d said that his brothers would accept anyone he brought through that door. However, it would take some time for them to warm up to a McCabe.

  If Joshua was shocked, he’d recovered by the time Ryder turned around. His brother took the mug he handed to him. “You know me. I’m up for pretty much anything as long as it’s legal.”

  Joshua’s grin was wide. Ryder knew his twin well enough to realize that he had questions—questions he was holding back.

  “I know I have a lot of explaining to do,” he offered.

  “Well, this had better make for a good campfire story someday,” Joshua quipped.

  Ryder couldn’t help but chuckle. “Believe me when I say that people around town will be chewing on this one for a long time when word gets out.”

  “Well, good. Maybe they’ll stop talking about me and Tyler,” Joshua teased, Tyler was one of their older brothers who’d recently had a scrape with criminals. Joshua was in the process of planning his wedding to Alice, a single mother with young twin boys and a teenage daughter they were planning to adopt.

  “We’ve had more than our fair share of excitement on the ranch,” Ryder said.

  “That and a baby boom,” Joshua retorted.

  Ryder let that one go without a reaction.

  Dallas and Austin arrived together before Ryder finished his cup of coffee.

  “We saw Dr. McConnell’s truck parked out front. You all right?” Dallas asked after a bear hug. The doctor was a good friend of the family.

  “I’m good. It’s not me,” Ryder said. He’d convinced Faith to allow their family friend to examine her. Surprisingly, Faith hadn’t put up a fight. The doctor had been in the guest room with Faith for longer than Ryder was comfortable.

  He motioned for his brothers to follow him into the kitchen area.

  “Either of you want a cup of coffee?” he asked as they greeted Joshua.

  “I’ll get it,” Austin said after hugging his brother.

  Ryder pulled Dallas to the side. His brother might not be thrilled that Faith McCabe was involved given that her onetime best friend, Susan, had tried to manipulate him into marriage and then claimed he was the father of her child. All of which turned out to be a ruse because she’d ended up in a relationship with a criminal. And Dallas deserved a chance to back out of this situation gracefully.

  “I just want you to know the players involved and if you need to walk on this one, I’ll understand,” Ryder said to Dallas.

  “If it involves you, I’m in. I don’t need to know any other names,” Dallas said without hesitation.

  “Faith McCabe is in my guest room,” Ryder said.

  “Okay,” Dallas said, unmoved. He started to say something else when Dr. McConnell walked into the room.

  All four brothers stopped to hear what she had to say.

  Dr. McConnell found Ryder. “You want to take this outside?”

  “No. I’d been planning to tell my brothers anyway. Now’s a good a time as any,” he said.

  “The baby looks good. Faith is tired, scared. She needs rest and no more stress. But everything should be fine. I still want to see her in my office tomorrow morning,” Dr. McConnell said. “But I’m not seeing anything of concern.”

  Ryder released the breath he’d been holding.

  “Thank you,” he said to the doctor.

  “If she has any more bleeding or cramping, I want to know right away,” Dr. McConnell said.

  “She’s bled before?” Ryder asked.

  “It can be perfectly normal. I’m ordering bed rest for the next few days.

  “Will do, ma’am,” Ryder said, and then showed her out the door after an exchange of hugs.

  He returned to a silent room.

  “Everyone knows what we’ve been through in the past year, so there’s no need to rehash those tragic events. Faith and I started seeing each other during that time and now we’re going to have a baby,” he said, looking for a reaction from his brothers.

  Calm-faced, they gave away nothing.

  “Let me be the first to congratulate you both,” Dallas said after a thoughtful pause. “Having Jackson is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I know you’ll make a great dad.”

  The other brothers chimed in with similar sentiments.

  “When did you find out?” Joshua asked first.

  Ryder glanced at the date on his watch. “Two days ago.”

  “Is she in trouble with the law?” Dallas asked.

  “No.” Since Tommy had already been updated on the phone, Ryder figured it was okay to tell his brothers what was going on. “Faith has a fifteen-year-old half brother who disappeared five days ago. His mother works as a cocktail waitress a couple of counties over and she thought teenage hormones had gotten the best of him. According to Faith, he’s a good kid. Not like the other McCabe boys. To make a long story short, her father denied paternity after the kid was born and wormed out of child support. His mother has been struggling to make ends meet ever since. Speaking of Nicholas’s mother, I need to send someone from security over to pick her up. She could be in danger.”

  “You got an address?” Joshua asked.

  Ryder pulled it up on his phone and handed the device over to his brother.

  “I’ll send Gideon to pick her up,” Joshua said, referring to their head of security.

  “Thank you,” Ryder said before continuing. He could already see that it was going to make a huge difference to have full O’Brien support moving forward. “Faith confronted her father. He denies being involved but he mentioned being blackmailed.”

  “That doesn’t exactly narrow down the suspect list,” Austin stated. His brother was right.

  “Exactly,” Ryder agreed. “Faith and I have been investigating on our own while staying at the fishing cabin. Earlier, during the storm, someone broke in while I was away and tied her up. Did their level best to scare her away from continuing to poke around.”

  Dallas’s jaw clenched. His brothers had similar reactions. There wasn’t an O’Brien who would take something like that lightly.

  “Whoever did this wrote a note on the bag they put over her head.” Ryder unfolded the small sack that he’d placed on the counter.

  “They could’ve killed her but they didn’t,” Joshua said, rejoining the conversation after making the call to Gideon Fisher.

  “Why warn her to stop?” Dallas said. “They had her right where they wanted her and they could’ve silenced her permanently.”

  “Maybe they don’t want blood on their hands. They’re
small-time,” Joshua reasoned.

  “Which gives me hope that Nicholas, her brother, is still alive,” Ryder said.

  All the men agreed.

  Faith appeared at the entrance to the hallway. She stood there as stiff as if she was in front of a firing squad. It probably didn’t help that all eyes flew to her.

  Her tense posture eased a bit as Ryder moved beside her.

  Dallas spoke first. “On behalf of all the O’Briens, congratulations.”

  The others chimed in, saying essentially the same thing. She smiled timidly. It was one of the few moments that Ryder felt that her guard was coming down.

  “Do you want anything? Water?” he asked quietly.

  “No. Thanks. I’m okay. I’m interested in hearing what’s going on in here,” she said with a small smile.

  Joshua spoke first. “Someone is trying to scare you. This is a message telling you to back off.”

  “Good point.” Dallas had started pacing.

  “All we know so far is that a female is in charge,” she said. “My father hasn’t been faithful to my mother over the years and I’m sure he’s hurt many women.”

  Ryder held a hand up. “We were followed after our first visit to Nicholas’s mother. Two men abducted Faith at a gas station when I was inside the store. I went after them and as soon as Faith told them an O’Brien was involved they stopped in the middle of the road and let her go. Tommy knows about what happened. In fact, he’s on his way over right now. I’m hoping he’ll have some kind of information from the Braxton sheriff.”

  “So, it’s someone who has ties to Bluff. Good luck with Sheriff Bastian. He isn’t known for sharing,” Joshua said. He had been law enforcement in Colorado before returning to Bluff to take his rightful place on the ranch.

  Ryder nodded. “Celeste filed a missing persons report and Tommy said that nothing has come across his desk.”

  “No Amber Alert?” Joshua asked, sounding a little surprised. “Five days is enough time.”

  “Nothing,” Ryder said.

  “Which makes me think that the sheriff isn’t taking this too seriously,” Joshua agreed.

  “So, this leaves us where?” Dallas asked. “We have an attempted abduction that gets nixed when they hear an O’Brien is involved.”

  “Faith had never seen the men before and they obscured their faces with scarves.” Ryder said.

  “All I remember is seeing dark eyes. The driver was wearing sunglasses so I saw even less of him,” Faith supplied.

  Ryder’s cell phone buzzed. He pulled it out and checked the screen. “It’s a text from security. Tommy’s here.”

  A few minutes later, Tommy was knocking on the door.

  “I got this.” Joshua answered the door and then ushered him into the kitchen.

  “Any news out of Braxton?” Ryder asked.

  “I just got off the phone with the sheriff,” Tommy started, looking from Faith to Ryder.

  Ryder put his arm around her without thinking and pulled her closer to him.

  “Three bodies turned up this morning. All I’m being told is that they were found shot to death in a forest green SUV,” Tommy said.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ryder tightened his grip around Faith as he absorbed the news. Even though the men weren’t walking on the right side of the law, they’d done the right thing in letting Faith go. They didn’t deserve to die. And then there was Nicholas to consider. Up until now, Ryder had counted on the fact that no one had been hurt. Faith had been in harm’s way twice and had been released, which had everyone believing this group was into scare tactics.

  This news changed everything. The third body could be Nicholas’s.

  “Did the sheriff in Braxton mention anything about my brother?” Faith asked. Chin up, determination in her eyes.

  “An Amber Alert has now been issued and he’s stepping up his investigation,” Tommy said.

  That was the first good sign that the third body wasn’t male.

  “What can we do to help?” Dallas asked.

  “Right now? Something none of you are good at. Hold off and let law enforcement do our jobs,” Tommy said.

  The comment netted a few grumbles.

  “It’s my job to advise you of that,” he clarified. “As your friend I have to tell you to be careful not to get in the way of the investigation.”

  “We have an issue that needs to be dealt with,” Joshua said. “Faith is pregnant, and if word gets out—and let’s face it, it always does—then we’re going to have trouble on our hands.”

  “I’m not planning to tell anyone. We’re cooperating fully with the Braxton County Sheriff’s office and that means looking at everyone here locally who could be involved,” Tommy said. He wouldn’t be able to share much more than that.

  “Any ideas who the shooter was?” Joshua asked.

  “None. They’re processing the scene now, hoping for fingerprints, but you of all people know how that goes.” Tommy referenced the fact that Ryder’s twin was former law enforcement.

  Joshua nodded.

  “We know as much as you do so far. A random girl by the name of Hannah shows up to Nicholas Bowden’s occasional hangout spot. The two get together and then Nicholas goes missing. Hollister McCabe is then contacted with a demand for money or the relationship will be exposed. The question I can’t answer is what does your father have to lose?” Tommy asked. He shot an apologetic look toward Faith. “He already has a bad reputation, so he can’t be worried about that. Your mother could leave him.”

  “I highly doubt that. She hasn’t left yet no matter what toll his antics take on her. This person might’ve made the mistake of thinking that my father cared about Nicholas,” Faith said with so much sadness in her voice.

  “Taking him might’ve been a warning,” Tommy said. “Given that the description of the vehicle matches the one you gave me for your attempted kidnapping, I’m working off the assumption these are the same guys. Which gives me the feeling this whole situation is escalating.”

  “And what about the men at the cabin?” she asked. “They were stronger.”

  “The men from the SUV refused to take you based on an O’Brien being involved. They might’ve gotten scared and threatened to go to law enforcement,” Tommy stated.

  “Which could be why they were killed,” Joshua added. “Whoever is behind this might be doing cleanup work.”

  “Could other McCabes be in danger?” Faith asked.

  “Seems like the men from the cabin would’ve taken you,” Tommy said.

  Dallas, who had been listening patiently, said, “My gut is telling me these kidnappers are right under our noses. This is personal. They know us, or of us.”

  Tommy agreed.

  “Which would also lead me to believe whatever your father did had to be recent,” Ryder said. “Can you think of anyone he’s had conflict with recently?”

  “Like business affairs?” Faith asked.

  “Could be. It would have to be fairly significant to net this kind of response,” Tommy said. “The person behind this might believe they’re owed.”

  “The largest deal my father was involved in was about two years ago and that was the Hattie ranch,” she said. “It was bad. My father forced them off their land and I remember him being a little unsettled after. I knew then that he wasn’t struggling with a bout of conscience. I think the sons threatened him.”

  “Two years would be enough time for people to forget. They might’ve been biding their time, waiting for an opportunity for revenge,” Ryder said.

  “They would also be inexperienced at blackmail,” Joshua added. “Thus, all the warnings.”

  “I remember when news of that deal broke. Your father bought out the interests from the bank, and then he foreclosed on them
,” Dallas said in a neutral tone. “The family left town and disappeared after that. I think Dad even reached out to them to help. Mr. Hattie was proud and said they’d be okay. They’d been through hard times before.”

  “Weren’t there two sons?” Tommy asked.

  “I believe so,” Dallas stated.

  “Anyone have any idea where they went?” Tommy asked.

  “I didn’t know the family, but then I tend to keep to myself,” Faith said. “And it has been a long time. Surely they wouldn’t still be carrying a grudge.”

  “You never know,” Dallas said.

  “Let’s play this scenario out for a minute,” Tommy said. “McCabe takes over the Hattie ranch and they disappear. What then? They wait for how long...”

  “Almost two years,” Faith supplied.

  “Two years is a long time to wait for revenge,” Tommy said. The small burst of hope they could be onto something fizzled.

  “Unless something else happened to trigger a need, right?” Ryder asked. “Or they start working with someone else. A woman who has been scorned by McCabe could’ve known what happened and recruited them.”

  “I’ll have Deputy Garcia do some digging to find out where they moved and what they’ve been up to. If there’s a catalyst, he might be able to find it,” Tommy said. He excused himself and then stepped outside to make the call to his deputy.

  He returned a few minutes later. “Garcia is on it, seeing if he can find out anything about the Hatties.”

  “If the Hattie family is behind this they clearly didn’t know my father very well,” Faith said. “Or they would’ve taken one of my brothers. He cares more about those boys than anything else. It’s twisted, don’t get me wrong. But he’d be heartbroken if anything happened to one of them.”

  “Whoever did this didn’t want to get caught and they might’ve wanted someone younger, someone who couldn’t fight them off as easily,” Tommy said after a thoughtful pause. “They tried to make Celeste Bowden believe that her son was disappearing for a few days to punish her. They probably expected to blackmail your father, get whatever they wanted and then return him safely home.”