Saving Hope: Men of the Texas Rangers Book 1

by Margaret Daley

  I can’t let Rose down.

  When she looked one more time over her shoulder as her pace slowed even more, the man in the police uniform lifted his gun and squeezed off another shot. It struck the ground a foot from her.

  Only a little way to the fence.

  Rose scrambled over the fence and jumped to the ground on the other side. Kate faced the obstacle in her path to freedom and didn’t know if she could get over it. The pain intensifying with each jarring step she took.

  Kate reached the barrier and gripped hold of a wooden slat with one hand. The other throbbed from shoulder to fingertips. Placing her foot on the bottom board, she tried to hoist herself up. If she could get to the top . . . Her mind swirled. Blood ran down her arm. Her grasp slipped.

  Wyatt reached Rose and grabbed her. “Get down.”

  Rose yanked back.

  “I’m a Texas Ranger. I’m here to help.”

  Her arm still taut, Rose ceased pulling away. “Kate’s been shot. King and the cop are after her.”

  Jack is King/Duke Littleton. “I know. Stay down. I’ll get her.” Wyatt kept low running toward the fence.

  Police Chief Jeffers lifted his weapon again and aimed toward Kate. Wyatt stood, braced his feet, and pointed his Wilson Combat pistol at the man. “State Police. Drop the gun.”

  Armed men running from the bunkhouse and the back of the house invaded the yard. All carrying guns.

  The sound of Wyatt’s voice gave Kate a boost. With all the energy she had left, she pulled herself up with one arm. In the moonlight, against the darkness of the pasture, she made out Wyatt’s outline, and she trained her gaze on him. If she could get to him, she would be all right.

  But behind her, she heard more shouts and doors slamming close. She glanced back. Men poured out of the buildings. The sight of them shot a surge of adrenaline through her. The top of the fence pressed into her stomach. With effort, she pushed forward and tumbled down to the ground, her good shoulder taking most of the impact. But still, pain flashed to every part of her, her mind wavering then going blank.

  “It’s too late. Duke Littleton and Chief Jeffers, we know what’s going on here.” Wyatt hoped to bluff enough to spook the men.

  Another man, younger, rushed out of the house. The light from the porch illuminated him but not enough for Wyatt to tell who he was.

  “Wyatt, I’m coming up behind you,” Daniel said and appeared at his side.

  “You called it in?”

  “More help is on the way. The first group from the sheriff is probably five minutes out.”

  “Can we trust the sheriff?”

  “We have to, but the state police and FBI are right behind them. The sheriff and his deputies are coming in the front. I figured you might need some help down here. We’re outnumbered.”

  “Yeah, about ten to one.”

  The man he knew as Jack Reagan laughed, holding up his arm as though to stop the chief from shooting. “If you’re wise, you’ll drop your guns. It’s not looking good for y’all.”

  The sound of sirens in the distance echoed through the night.

  King swiveled his attention toward the road that led to the main gate. He took a step back, then another. “Take them out,” he shouted to his men.

  Wyatt dropped to the ground and belly crawled toward Kate while some of King’s men opened fire. Daniel got off a few rounds.

  Jack ran toward the nearest car, about ten yards behind. Jeffers spun around and followed suit. The sirens grew louder. The sound of a helicopter in the distance scattered the men.

  Wyatt reached Kate and turned her over to face up. In the dark, he couldn’t see much. Please, Lord, let her be alive. He felt for a pulse, his breath caught in his lungs.

  20

  Kate’s pulse beat beneath Wyatt’s fingertips.

  He saw bright lights slicing through the darkness. Three sheriff cars sped down the road and screeched to a halt while a helicopter with a spotlight came in from another direction.

  Rose and Daniel came up to Wyatt.

  “Is Kate alive?” Rose asked, kneeling next to her.

  “Yes.”

  “We need to stop Littleton and Jeffers. They are fleeing in the sports car. There must be another way out of here.” Daniel pointed in the direction Littleton’s vehicle was heading— toward the back part of the ranch.

  “King has an airstrip back there and a plane he uses sometimes.”

  “Where?” Wyatt asked Rose.

  “The northwest corner. I can stay with Kate and make sure she gets help.”

  Torn between staying with Kate and going after Littleton, Wyatt hesitated, his hand still holding hers. The scent of her blood demanded justice for these men. He turned to Daniel. “Let’s have the chopper land. That’s the only way we’ll get back there in time.”

  Daniel made a call, and a minute later the helicopter swung around and began to land. While the sheriff and his men went after the fleeing hired guns, Wyatt and Daniel headed for the open space where the chopper was setting down. Wyatt held his cowboy hat down so the wind from the blades wouldn’t whip it off.

  He climbed in after Daniel who sat in front and took a seat catty-corner behind the pilot. He put on earphones and said, “An airstrip is in the northwest corner of this ranch. That is probably where the fugitives are heading.”

  The pilot lifted off and swung his helicopter toward that direction. Wyatt scanned the landscape below with his night vision binoculars. He spied the sports car with its lights off, coming to a stop.

  Wyatt gestured toward the area. “That way.”

  The pilot swung down low flying over the treetops. Through the binoculars Wyatt spied two men hop out of the car and race toward a plane sitting on a grassy runaway.

  Maybe four or five football fields away from them. Wyatt didn’t want an air chase.

  Time ticked away. Time they needed to stop Littleton.

  The propellers on the twin-engine plane started. The aircraft was already in position to go down the runway as if it had been readied ahead of time for just such an escape. As it started down the strip’s flat grassy ground, the chopper pilot set his helicopter down halfway. Thirty yards the plane, still picking up speed, came right at the helicopter.

  Wyatt gripped his seat.

  With the plane only ten yards away, the pilot lifted the helicopter off the airstrip, veering to the right. The plane kept going toward the end of the runway while the chopper pilot swung back around to pursue the fleeing craft. It took off, gaining elevation but not fast enough. Its bottom skimmed the top of some tall pines at the end of the airfield. Then plunged down toward the ground.

  At the stand of trees, the chopper pilot put his helicopter on the ground. Wyatt and Daniel leaped from it and rushed toward the crashed aircraft, flashlights and guns out. Wyatt slowed his pace the closer he got to the plane.

  Until he saw a large limb piercing through the windshield. Littleton’s head was smashed into the side window, blood on the glass, the scent of fuel in the hot air.

  In the hospital waiting room, Wyatt stared down at his cold cup of coffee. Exhaustion had replaced the adrenaline he’d needed hours ago to take down Littleton’s operation. Now all he wanted to do was sleep. Days if possible.

  But he wouldn’t until he knew Kate would be all right— until he had seen her and assured himself with his own eyes. She’d gone into surgery and the doctor was now talking to her parents. It had been clear they didn’t want him involved.

  “Daddy!”

  Wyatt lifted his head and saw Maddie in the entrance to the waiting room. She chewed her bottom lip and hesitated. She hadn’t called him that in years. If it weren’t for Kate, his daughter could have been taken and on her way to some place. . . . He swallowed the tightness in his throat.

  Putting his cup on the table next to him, he rose, opening his embrace for her. She rushed into it, pressing her face against him.

  “Daddy, I’m so sorry for everything. I couldn’t wait until you cam
e home to tell you. I begged Nana to bring me down here. I hope it’s all right.” Maddie leaned back and looked up at him through eyes brimming with tears.

  “Where is Nana?”

  “Out in the hall. How’s Kate?” Her last sentence came out on a sob, and she again squeezed herself against him. “Please tell me she’ll be okay.”

  “Hon, she just came out of surgery, but the doc indicated she would be fine in time.” That was all he got before her parents whisked the man out into the corridor.

  “I’ve messed up so bad. I . . .”

  Listening to his daughter’s tears struck down the fragile composure he had been maintaining for the past half a day. All barriers to the emotions he’d been holding inside him since his wife was killed crumbled.

  He moved Maddie to the couch behind him and sat. “Honey, I should have told you something to help you understand me. When I lost your mother to a murderer, I was determined I would never lose a loved one again. I’ve seen some ugly things in this world, and I never wanted it to touch you. One of my jobs is and will be to protect you. The decisions I make are often based on that. Sometimes you may think I’m being overprotective, but if I lost you, I don’t know what I would do.” His last words, whispered in a raw voice, brought his daughter’s head up. “I love you.”

  “I know. I love you, Daddy.” She threw her arms around his neck.

  “This doesn’t change that you and I need to deal with you skipping school and defying me.”

  “I know.”

  “What do you think I should do about it?”

  Maddie jerked back and looked at him as if he’d gone crazy. “You’re asking me?”

  “Yep. If you were me, what would you do?”

  “I’d make me face the consequences at school for skipping, and I would ground me for another two weeks.”

  “Done. That sounds fair. But this time no phone, computer, or TV especially since part of your day will be spent at school.”

  “Dad!” Anger flared into her eyes. She stared at him a moment then sagged her shoulders. “You’re right. That’s fair.”

  “We’re going to use some of that time to talk. We’ve gotten out of the habit. I never want you to feel you can’t come to me with something, particularly a boy you’re interested in. You know I was a teenage boy once. I know what’s going on in their heads.”

  Maddie giggled and buried her face into his shoulder. He hugged her and savored this moment because he knew there would be other battles in the future. But for the time being they were communicating.

  “There’s something else I needed to tell you, Maddie. With all that’s been happening lately, I haven’t told you everything about your mom’s death.”

  “That’s okay, Dad. I know that’s got to be hard to talk about.”

  “This concerns my feeling about tattoos.”

  Maddie pulled back, her forehead puckered. “What’s tattoos got to do with Mom’s death?”

  “The man who murdered her had a tattoo on his arm—a snake wrapped around a dagger. There were many nights after her death that I woke up from a nightmare where all I could remember was that tattoo. I just wanted you to know why I have such an aversion to them. I can’t stop you when you become eighteen and it’s legal for you to get one, but you have a right to know why I don’t want my daughter to have one. I should have told you from the beginning, but it really became an issue of you doing something against my wishes.”

  “My tattoo wouldn’t be anything like a dagger and snake. I don’t even like either one of those things.”

  “I know, but—”

  “That’s okay, Dad. I understand.”

  “You do?”

  “It hasn’t been easy for you since Mom died. That’s why I’m glad you’re seeing Kate. She’s a special lady.”

  “Yes.” He remembered seeing her collapsing to the ground after she’d been shot, and a part of him died in that second, thinking he was losing someone he loved all over again.

  “Nana, are you okay?”

  Maddie’s question wrenched him back to the present. He spotted his mother approaching them in the waiting room. Her face drained of all color, she sank in the chair next to him.

  “Jack was the head of a prostitution ring? The same man who had been in our home?” his mother asked in a monotone.

  “Yes, Mom. He was being brought here when he died. I’m sorry . . . ” He didn’t know what else to say to his mother about the man she’d been dating, falling in love with.

  “He was a scumbag. The lowliest of the low. I can’t believe how two-faced he was. That’s it. I’m not dating again.” His mother dusted off her hands. “Done.”

  Maddie leaned around Wyatt to look at her grandmother. “Nana, really?”

  “Well, at least for the time being. I’m thinking instead of going back to school. I dropped out of college when I was a sophomore and met your grandfather. It’s about time I finished what I started all those years ago.”

  Wyatt bit the inside of his cheek. How long would that last? Knowing his mother, maybe a semester. He didn’t care. His family was safe. Kate was safe. That was all that mattered to him.

  Kate took a sip of water from the glass her mother held up to her. “I’m going to be all right. You heard the doctor this morning.” Where’s Wyatt? She knew he had been at the hospital, but she hadn’t been able to talk to him. Her parents had stayed with her most of the day.

  “When you leave here tomorrow, I want you coming home with us.” Her mother stepped back from the bed and stood next to her father who had said little all day.

  “No, I’m going back to Beacon of Hope, to my apartment.”

  “No, you can’t! You need to be taken care of. You were shot. Do you not realize that?”

  “Mother, if anyone realizes that, it’s me. I feel it every time I move.”

  “Do we need to increase your pain meds?” She moved toward the call button.

  “Don’t, Mother. I’m okay. I can take care of it.”

  Her mother settled into the crook of her father’s arm. “We’ve been talking. We think this is a great time for you to come on board with the Winslow Foundation. You can even use some of the money from the foundation to help these—these girls you insist on helping.”

  “No, I’m staying with Beacon of Hope. I have plans in the future to expand. I know now I will get the funding somehow. God will provide. This is what He wants me to do. The whole time I was held captive, He was with me.”

  “Fine. Expand the program. Just don’t be involved in the day-to-day running of it. Live in a nicer part of town. Have others do the everyday things that are needed,” her father finally said, his voice inflexible, his expression set in a frown.

  “No. I won’t compromise on this. These girls need me. I’m not giving up on them as so many others have. If you all want to be in my life, it has to be on my terms. It’s my life. Not yours.”

  Her mother opened her mouth, made a strangled sound, and shut her mouth, her lips forming a thin, hard line.

  Wyatt stuck his head through the door opening in the hospital room. He spied her parents and started to back out.

  “Don’t go, Wyatt,” Kate called out to him, desperation in each word.

  He paused, looked at her then her parents, and moved further into the room. “I had to go in and file my report. It took longer than I thought it would.”

  “Oh, good, you can stay.” Kate shifted her attention toward her parents. “Thank you all for being here. I need to talk to Wyatt privately.”

  Her mother swung around to leave. “This is not over, Katherine.”

  “Yes, it is.” Kate didn’t take a decent breath until her parents left. “The past few hours have been intense, but at least they came.”

  “What happened to you shook them up. Your mother had to leave the waiting room once because I believe she was losing her control and was going to cry.”

  “Mother? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her cry.”

  “I
didn’t witness it, but her eyes were red when she came back into the room with your father.”

  “That’s not going to change my mind. I’m not going to live the way they want. I’m not going to stop doing what I’m doing.”

  Wyatt averted his gaze for a few seconds. “You could have been killed last night.”

  “You could have.”

  “It’s my job.”

  “Beacon of Hope is my job. The doctor assures me I’ll be well enough to still have the open house next week. There’s so much to do.”

  “And you have plenty of people to help you, including me, if it’ll help you to rest.”

  She smiled. “I’ll take you up on that offer. I saw Rose this morning. Susan came and picked her up to take her back to Beacon of Hope once the hospital released her. She was dehydrated, but much better by the time she left.”

  “Yes. Right now she’s giving the police her statement. Susan is there with her.”

  “Where is Jack Reagan?”

  “Also known as King and Duke Littleton. He died on the way to the hospital. Chief Jeffers was in the plane with him when it crashed, but other than a broken arm and leg he will make a full recovery to stand trial. We found Officer Bowen being held at the ranch in the back building with some girls Littleton used. Bowen is going to help with the cleanup of Silverton’s Police Department.”

  “So the prostitution ring has been rounded up.”

  “We’re working on it. There was a lot of information in Littleton’s house, and we’re wading through it. We’ll be busy for a while. We rounded up most of the men working for him. Quite a few are talking for lesser sentences. I feel we’ll get everyone before it’s over. Your Rose has been a big help. One remarkable girl.”

  “Yeah, she is. She held it together when most would have fallen apart. I’m so proud of her. How’s Maddie? Tell me nothing happened to her.”

  Wyatt pulled a chair to the bed and settled into it. Taking her hand in his, he sighed. “She’s at school, facing her principal because she skipped yesterday. She came earlier to make sure you were all right. I had to take her to the police station to make her statement before taking her to school. She had to ID Tyler, whose real name is Gregory Littleton. The sheriff caught him trying to escape the ranch.”