“Yes. Before you found out where he left her.”
From what he had gotten out of the man, he thought the john had killed Rose—until Zarah contacted Tony. “I finally got her back, and I’m keeping her alive to show the other girls what can happen if they defy me. They can run, but I’ll always find them.”
“My contact in San Antonio needs four young girls—fresh, preferably.”
“By when?”
“End of the month.”
“Okay.” He instantly thought of Maddie and her friend. He might have to call his nephew back.
“No more mess-ups. I want you to take care of Tony. They’re getting close to him. They know he was driving the car that crashed with Zarah. They found his fingerprints in it.”
“Do you believe Zarah had anything on the operation written down somewhere?” A pair of headlights came toward him in the other lane. He noticed darkness was quickly descending. Night, his favorite time of day.
“She told Tony she had and demanded that money. I’m working on finding out if she was bluffing.”
“How?”
“I have my connections. But even if she did, Tony was her handler, and once he’s gone any tie to us is broken. Remember to take care of him.” The line went dead. As dead as Tony would be by this time tomorrow. Although the air conditioner blasted him with a steady stream of cold, King shuddered. Suddenly the darkness he loved didn’t comfort him. His partner didn’t tolerate too many mistakes in anyone, even him.
Now that he was calmer, Wyatt intended to talk with Maddie about why he hated tattoos. He knocked on Maddie’s door, loud so she could hear him over the music. Nothing. He tried the handle, but she’d locked the door. “Open up, Maddie.” He waited another half minute. “Now!”
She might be upset with him, but she didn’t ignore him like this. She knew better. He went to his room and dug around in his top dresser drawer for the skeleton key he had. Then he walked back and opened the door, only to find the window cracked a few inches and his daughter gone.
15
Fear bolted Wyatt to the floor for a few seconds. He spun on his heel and quickly searched the rest of the house, calling out Maddie’s name. When he came back to the foyer both Kate and his mother stood there. Their expression reflected their confusion and worry.
“What’s wrong?” his mom asked.
“Where’s Maddie? She isn’t in her room. Or the house.” In two strides, he cut the space between them. “Did you let her go somewhere?”
His mother paled and shook her head. “I don’t know where she is.”
“What have you been doing all day? Spending time with Jack rather than knowing where your granddaughter is?”
His mom gasped. “I realize you’re upset and don’t know what you’re saying, but Jack had only been here a half an hour before you came home.”
He swung around and passed Kate who looked at him with a mixture of worry and disbelief. Going straight to the kitchen, where he kept a list of Maddie’s friends’ numbers on the cork board, all he could see was Lillian buried in a shallow grave. That could be Maddie if she did something stupid. He called Kelly first. The girl’s mother answered.
“Wyatt, Kelly should be home about now. She went riding. She said something about meeting Maddie.”
“Thanks. When she comes in, please have her call me on my cell.” After Wyatt gave the woman the number, he slammed the phone down. What she said should have eased his worry, but he couldn’t shake Lillian’s image from his mind.
He stormed out of the back door and across the yard toward the barn. Please, Lord, let her be in there.
When he entered it, its emptiness mocked him. Walking through it, he noted Maddie’s saddle was gone. He opened the back doors and stepped out into the rosy orange glow of the sunset. He checked the back pasture where Star Champion was kept. The gelding wasn’t there.
For a moment, he debated whether to go out looking for her or wait in the barn or house for Maddie to return. He closed his eyes and tried to draw in a decent breath. He couldn’t. What if something happened to her? She knows never to ride after dark, and while it wasn’t night yet, it was close enough that her horse could stumble or—
“Wyatt?”
The lilting sound of Kate’s voice sliced through his haze of anger and fear.
“Is her horse gone?”
He slowly turned to Kate who could make him forget the pain of his past, the mistakes he’d made. “Yes. Kelly went out riding to meet Maddie. They usually ride together in the morning.”
“Maybe Maddie needed to get out of the house after staying in her room all day.”
“She’s grounded.”
“To the house?”
“Well, I didn’t exactly say that.”
“Then she probably thought she had to stay on the ranch. I found with kids you have to be specific, or they’ll find the loopholes.”
“She met Kelly. Grounded means no friends over. That much she knows.”
Kate came up to him, her smile easing the tight knot in his gut. “Why don’t we wait for her at the house? The lasagna is baking and should be ready in half an hour. We can wait out on the porch.” Kate held out her hand for him.
He took it and relished the warmth in her touch. He saw so much evil in this world that sometimes he forgot that there was good too. This case was wreaking havoc with him. His daughter was just a year younger than Lillian. If he lost his daughter, he didn’t know what he would do.
Maddie hurried through taking care of her gelding and letting him out into the pasture. Darkness surrounded her as she headed toward the house. She was late. Being with Tyler had been wonderful. He understood the problems she was having with her dad. She could talk to him. He’d had the same kind of trouble with his father.
Then she remembered him giving her a leg up although she didn’t need the help. She’d been mounting Star Champion by herself for years. But Tyler’s touch on her thigh as she settled into the saddle sent a tingling through her. The only thing she regretted was he hadn’t kissed her. Maybe next time she saw him. She’d never been kissed unless she counted the one Johnny snuck back in fifth grade.
Nearing the back of the house, she headed for her window and the crate she’d put there to use. She groped around in the dark, but she couldn’t find it.
“Missing this?”
Heartbeat racing, she whirled toward her father, his face hard to see in the light from the house and the shadows of night, but she noticed the tic in his cheek twitching.
“I saw you leave the barn.”
Surprisingly, his voice sounded calm, which concerned Maddie more than if he had yelled at her. “I needed to exercise Star Champion.”
“You were out alone after dark.” He spoke with an even tone, but the rigid set to his shoulders was at odds with his composed voice.
“Yes. I had some thinking to do, and before I knew it, I realized it was dark.”
“So you didn’t meet Kelly tonight?” He moved closer, his eyes hard, piercing, his jaw clamped down so hard the cords of his neck tensed.
Oh, no. He knows. He probably called Kelly’s house when he found I wasn’t home. She stared down at the small space separating them and tried to come up with a reason she lied. “I needed to talk with Kelly. She’s my best friend.”
“So you ignored that you were grounded. I see.”
She lifted her gaze. “Do you? I have no one to talk to around here. Kelly understands me. You don’t.”
“Do you understand? I was worried about you when you weren’t where you were supposed to be. Not until I called Kelly’s and her mom told me she went out riding to meet you, did I have any idea where you were. You could have been kidnapped or hurt somewhere. I didn’t know.” His voice rose with each sentence, his hands opening and closing.
“I didn’t leave the ranch.”
He took a deep breath and released it slowly. “True. But you met with Kelly and you were grounded, which means no friends over either. You don
’t go anywhere or see anyone when you’re grounded. I didn’t think I had to explain the conditions of being grounded. I was wrong. Do you understand what it means to be grounded now?”
She started to reply, “I’m not a baby. I understand,” but swallowed those defiant words. She remembered what Nana said about a smile getting her more than a frown. She wiped all anger from her expression and tilted her head down. “I’m sorry. I understand. No friends over and I can’t leave here without your permission.”
“Good. I’m tacking on another week to your grounding. Nana and I can’t be worried about what you’re gonna do all the time. That’s something you can think about while you’re here. If you want to leave the house, you must tell us, even to go tend to your horse.”
“But the first big party of the school year is that weekend.”
“Actions have consequences. You should have thought about that when you were meeting Kelly to talk. A phone might have been a better way to talk to your friend.” He turned to leave.
She remained rooted to the spot, fighting down the anger that would only get her into more trouble. But words begged to be said. It isn’t fair. All this because of a tattoo. There’s nothing wrong with one. I can do what I want with my own body.
He peered over his shoulder and in his calm voice asked, “Are you coming inside? Nana saved you some dinner.”
Frustration churned her stomach. He can do what he wants, but I can’t. It isn’t fair. “I’m not hungry.” She charged around him and stomped into the house.
She stopped when she saw Kate sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a glass of iced tea. At the place next to her set a plate full of delicious smelling food. Lasagna, my favorite. Her stomach rumbled its hunger.
“I nuked it while your dad was talking to you. I figured you would be hungry after a ride.” Kate smiled and gestured toward the dinner.
“I didn’t know you were here.”
“Your dad invited me. I told him I would come only if I could make dinner. I hope you’ll try it. A lot of the girls at Beacon of Hope like this recipe. Occasionally I relieve our cook to make dinner.”
Maddie opened her mouth to tell her she wasn’t hungry, but before she could say it, Kate stood and moved to the oven to withdraw some French bread. “Your dad told me you love lasagna. I don’t get to cook for others as much as I would like.”
The pangs of hunger cramped her stomach. “I’m not very . . .” Kate’s openness appealed to Maddie. “Okay.” After washing her hands, she slumped into the chair, the aroma from the dish assaulting her senses, stirring her appetite. She was starving, but being mad at her dad wasn’t a good reason not to eat. Why should she suffer any more?
Maddie picked up her fork and dug into the lasagna. As she ate, her father came into the kitchen through the back door. She tensed, but ignored him, all the while savoring the wonderful taste of the meal, trying not to appear too enthralled with its delicious flavor.
“I have some calls I need to make before I take you back to town,” her dad said to Kate, then strode from the room.
Maddie’s tenseness relaxed the second he left, and her shoulders sagged forward.
“Are you all right?” Kate asked.
She wasn’t going to say anything, but she looked into Kate’s face and saw understanding there. She took another bite and said, “I don’t see what the big deal is about having a tattoo. Dad is making such a BIG deal out of this. He won’t even see it.”
“My mother wouldn’t let me pierce my ears in more than one place. I wanted to wear studs in the top of my earlobes. I didn’t even mention I also wanted one in my bellybutton.”
“Did you get your ears pierced?”
“Yes, behind her back, and she was furious at me. I had a friend pierce them. One of my ears got infected, and I felt like I had done something terribly wrong even though she never said anything to me about it. I could never wear my studs when she was around until I left home. But you know something, the whole incident took the pleasure out of wearing them.”
“I love my tattoo. I wish I could get a permanent one. I don’t understand why there’s a law against that. I’m old enough to make that kind of decision.” Maddie lifted her chin and sat up straighter. No one was gonna make her feel bad about doing something she should have been able to do in the first place.
Kate curled her hair behind her ears. “I love wearing all my earrings now. But at the time, I think what bothered me was that I purposely went against my mother. In the end that didn’t set well with me. It hurt my relationship with her. She didn’t trust me for a long time after that, and trust is important to me. Working with teens now, I understand the importance of trust.”
Maddie finished the last bit of her lasagna. “Did you get your bellybutton pierced?”
“Nope. It took me three months for my ear to heal.”
“Well, I went to a professional place so that shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Have you talked with your dad about why he doesn’t like them? Why you want one?”
“All my friends are getting one.”
“That’s not enough. Why do you want one? Some of the girls at Beacon of Hope aren’t always happy with my decisions, but they know at any time they can come talk to me about it.”
“Do they?” Tearing off some French bread, Maddie popped it into her mouth.
“All the time.”
“You don’t get angry at them for challenging your authority?”
“I don’t see it that way. I see it as an opportunity to have a dialog with them and share what I’m thinking and for me to understand what they’re thinking.”
“Do you change your mind?”
“Sometimes.”
Maddie plopped back against her chair. “Dad doesn’t.”
“Never?”
Maddie thought back to last year when he did and let her go on a mission trip to New Mexico. “Not often.”
“Have you ever been responsible for something like a pet?”
“My horse and the dog we had until recently.”
“Did you ever have to do things for them that they didn’t like but were good for them?”
Maddie thought of the shots that Chester, her dog, used to hate or the fact that if Star Champion was allow to, he would eat until he got sick. “One time Star got into some feed, and I had to call the vet. He ate so much he got sick. So now I am extra careful and aware of his ability to open a gate if I don’t put the chain up to keep him inside. Simply latching it doesn’t work.”
“Ah, I bet he wasn’t happy about that.”
“You should have seen him at first. He pawed the ground, snorted, and tried to get out anyway. No, he wasn’t too happy with me.”
“But you did it because you thought it was best for him?”
Maddie gathered up her dishes and rose. She didn’t like where this conversation was going. “It was obvious it was best for Star. He got sick. I’m fine. Nothing is wrong with me because I got a tattoo.”
“That’s good. Some people have allergic reactions to henna. I knew someone whose tattoo got infected. It can happen just like it did with my earlobe. A caretaker, whether a pet owner or a parent, makes decisions on what they think is best. Most of the time they are right, but sometimes they aren’t. Talk to your dad when you both aren’t so upset.”
“If my dad wasn’t a police officer, he probably wouldn’t be so uptight about everything. He always thinks the worse. Real life isn’t like that.” Maddie crossed the kitchen toward the hallway. At the doorway, she paused and said, “You can fix lasagna anytime for me. It was great. Much better than Nana’s.”
“I’m glad you liked it.”
Maddie made her way to her bedroom without seeing her dad. She heard him on his phone in the den but was glad he didn’t see her. He would never understand about Tyler. She wasn’t going to say anything to him, but she hoped Tyler called her soon like he said he would.
“Ready to go home?” Wyatt asked a few minutes after Mad
die left the kitchen.
Kate rinsed off Maddie’s dish and placed it in the dishwasher. “Yes, it’s been a long day. I seem to be saying that a lot lately.” Drying her hands on a towel, she shifted toward Wyatt.
“A lot is going on.” He took the dishtowel from her and tossed it on the counter, then caged her against the cabinet, leaning in. “I appreciate the lasagna, and the companionship while I waited for Maddie to return, but most of all you caring enough to try and talk to her. I have a feeling she had a few choice words to say about me. I grounded her for another week. She wasn’t happy with me.”
“No, she wasn’t. I suggested she talk to you when you both aren’t so upset.”
“I’m not changing my mind.”
“You don’t have to, but if you let her feel her opinion means something to you even if you don’t change your mind, she is more likely to come to you when she has a problem. My dad always listened to me, but rarely went against Mother. But she never would listen to me. She told me something and that was it. No discussion. No listening to me. Communication is key to a good relationship. There is none in my relationship with my mother. It’s her way or the highway, even now that I’m an adult.”
Wyatt smiled. “Duly noted. I’m always ready to look for the worst in a situation. It might not always be the best way.” Inching closer, he wound his arms around her and tugged her against him. “How did ya get so smart?”
She leaned back and looked up at him. “I’m not so sure about being smart. Look at my relationship with my mother. But when dealing with twenty plus students who have seen more of life than a lot of people, I’ve had a crash course. And I’ve made my share of mistakes. I should have anticipated Cynthia’s reaction to Rose’s disappearance. She should never have cut herself so badly if I had been there more for her.”
“How’s she doing?”
“I think Audrey and her rooming together is a good match. Which reminds me. I want to check in with them before they go to bed. I’ve been doing that, and I think it helps.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “I get the hint. Time to go.”
Saving Hope: Men of the Texas Rangers Book 1 Page 20