by Barb Han
“Are you ready to show some respect?” Dalton asked loud enough for the women to hear.
Her brother-in-law’s head was still turned to the side but he nodded almost imperceptibly.
“Okay. Nice and easy. And you apologize.” Dalton must’ve eased some of the pressure because Gary gasped.
Leanne should have wiped the smirk off her face, but Gary had had this coming far too long for her not to enjoy it at least a little bit. And if he’d done anything to hurt her niece, Dalton pinning him to the wall for a few uncomfortable seconds would be the least of the man’s problems. She’d have him arrested and throw the book at him herself.
“Sorry,” came out on a rasp. Gary’s hand came up to his throat where a red mark already streaked his neck. He carried the disposition of a child who’d been reprimanded. Bullies backed down the second they met their match. She’d seen it time and time again when the seemingly toughest men on the outside broke down, cried and begged to be released after a few days in prison.
Dalton pressed his hand to the small of Leanne’s back and then guided her out the door. The move felt protective. Even though Leanne could hold her own in a confrontation, she liked the thought of letting someone else be in control for a change. It was nice for someone else to have her back when she’d felt so alone for most of her life.
Leanne barely closed the door of the sport utility when words exploded from her mouth. “He’s hiding something and I don’t like it. Where the hell’s he been all this time?”
Dalton, the ever-cool cowboy, started the ignition and compressed his lips as he backed the vehicle off the parking pad and onto the street. “What was Gary’s relationship like with Clara?”
“You’ve heard some of the stuff he pulled with her,” she said, and a feeling deep in the pit of her stomach stirred. Call it intuition, but something was off.
“I don’t mean any disrespect to her, but is there any chance there could be more to it than that?” He was talking slowly, choosing his words carefully and that sent up so many warning flares.
“Like what? A relationship beyond...” Leanne couldn’t bring herself to say the rest. Acrid bile scorched her windpipe. She was shaking her head, praying there couldn’t be any truth to his idea. “Not if she had anything to say about it.”
“Hear me out for the sake of argument.” His voice was a study in calm.
“Okay.” Leanne took in a deep breath, meant to fortify her, but all it did was cause more acid to rise.
“He convinces her, possibly even threatens her, into entering into a relationship with him.” He paused as though allowing her to take in what he was saying, like if he went too fast her head might explode. “Maybe she doesn’t even like it, but she thinks he’ll hurt her or her mother if she doesn’t do what he says.”
Leanne’s chest tightened and it was getting difficult to take in air. Her mind couldn’t even go there hypothetically. Her brain screamed no.
She listened for something to blow a hole in the story because it sounded like other horrific stories she’d known about.
“Maybe this goes on for a few days, weeks—” he paused another beat “—maybe longer. One day she freaks out. Says she can’t keep doing this to her mother behind her back and threatens to come clean. He can’t have that, so he kills her.”
Chapter Seven
Leanne stared out the windshield. She brought her fingers up to the bridge of her nose as though trying to stem a headache. Dalton didn’t like saying the words any more than she liked hearing them. But they had to discuss the situation.
“There are so many possibilities at play here. Aside from the fact that I think Clara would’ve told me something like that, I don’t think it could’ve gone down that way. Let’s just go down that road for a minute.” Her mind seemed to be reeling at the thought of it happening right under her nose. “Say the two were in a...relationship. I know it would’ve been forced, because my niece couldn’t stand Gary and I can’t blame her. For argument’s sake, what if he had threatened her mother and she gave in but she feels guilty about it. Eventually, the guilt eats her inside out and she tells him she can’t do it anymore. He tries to convince her to keep quiet but she says she has to tell her mother. In the heat of the moment, he decides to silence her. A passion killing. He’s hotheaded, so he’d use the first thing available. We already know he has guns but even if they were locked up, he’d grab the first thing available, a rock, a knife. Those heat-of-the-moment murders tend be ugly crime scenes.”
Dalton wouldn’t know from personal experience, but her points sounded solid. There were gun magazines and signs of hunting everywhere. In fact, Gary was supposed to have been out at the deer lease when Bethany couldn’t reach him.
“Okay. How about this? Could he have seen the news coverage and decided to copycat?” he asked.
“He honestly doesn’t strike me as someone who’s bright enough to execute a plan as complicated as that,” she admitted.
“I guess that theory doesn’t quite match up with his quick temper,” Dalton said, relief washing over him. He wouldn’t rule Gary out, but he didn’t want to believe the man in Clara’s life who was supposed to protect her would hurt her. He turned the wheel onto the farm road 254. “We won’t get anything else out of your sister now that he’ll have a chance to work on her.”
“You’re right about that.”
Leanne’s cell buzzed. She fished it out of her purse and then checked the screen. “It’s her.” Her voice broke. “He better not have done anything to her.”
Dalton pulled off the road and into the parking lot of a grocery store as Leanne took the call.
“What is it, Bethany? Are you okay?” There was silence but he could hear screaming through the receiver. “Calm down. I can’t understand what you’re saying.” Leanne’s forehead wrinkled in concentration, another little thing he didn’t want to notice about her. “Start from the beginning and tell me everything that’s happening.”
Dalton drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. Whatever was going down was big and curiosity was getting the best of him.
“Okay. Here’s what I want you to—” She paused and listened as though she’d been cut off midsentence. “No. There’s no need for—” Another stop. “I’m going to break it down for—”
Leanne moved the phone a few inches from her ear. The sounds of her sister working herself into hysterics filled the cab. A kid screamed and wailed in the background.
“Don’t do anything or go anywhere. We’re on our way.” Leanne ended the call and then looked at Dalton.
“We need to go back. I could barely understand what she was saying.” The resignation in her voice had Dalton pulling away from the curb and making a U-turn.
“You didn’t tell your sister to get a lawyer.” He spoke his observation aloud.
“If Gary has nothing to do with this, he won’t need one.” Dalton could’ve guessed her answer. He’d thought the same, and it was the exact reason he wasn’t offering up his family’s attorney, Ed Staples. The man was the best in the state, probably the country, but he worked exclusively for the Butler family.
“The media is going to be all over this story once it breaks,” he said. “Ever handle a high-profile case before?”
“Nothing that will get the kind of coverage this could draw,” she admitted. She didn’t have to say it but he knew—his name wasn’t going to help keep this quiet.
The rest of the ride was spent churning over events. There was no preparing either one of them for the barrage of media already outside her sister’s house, even though Dalton probably should have been used to it by now.
Dalton circled the block.
“This isn’t good.”
“These guys need something to put on the air. Your sister seems...” He didn’t want to insult Bethany.
“Fragile,” Leanne said for him.
> “She has a little boy depending on her, and I don’t like what this could be doing to her mental state,” he stated.
“Agreed. Hampton might be a pistol but he’s just a kid. Clara’s voice always softened when she talked about her little brother. I think she secretly wanted a big family. Lots of kids running around and to be the big sister to them all,” Leanne sighed, and it seemed to catch her off guard that she’d done it.
Was that what she wanted?
Dalton was in no way ready for a wife and kids. Hell, he couldn’t begin to sort out his tangled emotions when it came to his relationship with his father, let alone try to make a family of his own work. The Mav and his mother—who’d abandoned the family when his youngest sister was still in diapers—weren’t exactly the best role models for making a marriage work. All the kids were dealing with the fallout.
“Any chance Bethany might agree to let my family’s housekeeper take care of him until this whole situation settles? She could stay on at the ranch, too. It would give her a chance to grieve her daughter and not have to worry about cooking or taking care of a little one,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of experience with kids but based on what I’ve seen when I’m out in public, those little guys can be a handful.”
“You’d do that?” she asked, sounding a little caught off guard. “You’d offer up your own home to strangers?”
“If you think it’ll help,” he said. “And we’re not exactly strangers anymore.”
Most folks were surprised by the generosity of the Butler family, even though his sister Ella practically dedicated her life to serving the community through volunteer work. Ella fought to expand shelter space for stray animals. She worked tirelessly for the rights of the elders in their town. And yet, their reputation would always be that of their charismatic and unconventional father.
“I do. I just hope Bethany will be smart enough to take the help. When my sister breaks down, she tends to go inside herself and then use pharmaceuticals to equalize her moods. I can be hard on her sometimes, but she had it rough. We couldn’t be more different, and I think that’s part of the reason we ended up on opposite paths.”
“How long do you think Gary will be held?” He circled the block once more before settling down the street where they could keep watch on the activity without being seen by reporters or deputies.
“Not long, if I had to guess. Sawmill must’ve found something on Clara’s cell phone records that gave him enough to search the house. Gary was most likely brought in for routine questioning. The most they can hold him is seventy-two hours before they’ll have to cut him loose,” she said. “I’d call on favors to get more information from the sheriff but with the way this case is going, anyone at my department who’s connected to me could end up hauled into IAD.” She seemed to catch herself that he wouldn’t know what those initials meant. “Internal Affairs Division,” she explained.
Dalton admired the fact that she refused to put her colleagues—friends?—in the line of fire to get at the end she so badly wanted. He admired her sense of loyalty and respected the internal compass she possessed to keep her on the straight and narrow.
Her good qualities were racking up and he didn’t want to notice or like any of them, dammit. And especially since the kiss they’d shared wound through his thoughts more times than he needed to allow. Tight-gripped control on his emotions had gotten him through some dark days during his childhood and in high school. And throughout his adult life.
“She’s a mess. We need to go in before she comes out and does or says something she’ll regret,” Leanne said before taking in the kind of breath meant to fortify. She palmed her cell. “I’ll let her know we’re coming in the back way.”
* * *
REPORTERS TEEMED ON the sidewalk outside. Entering through the back door, Leanne looked at her half sister. Bethany seemed so lost and alone, so small, as she paced from room to room.
Anger and frustration flared inside Leanne. She’d put away dozens of killers and predators in her time on the job, vowing to bring justice for those who couldn’t speak for themselves. Why couldn’t she make things right for her own family?
Locking away that unproductive thought, she squared off with Bethany, who was wearing a path in the linoleum floor, covering the kitchen with her pacing. Hampton was on her hip and already more than half the size of his tiny mother. Bethany’s hair was disheveled and her cheeks streaked with tears. She was still in her pajamas and there was an opened beer on the counter.
The woman looked to be on the edge of a meltdown and none of this was good for the child on her hip, who was sniffling and rubbing his eyes.
“Can I hold him?” Leanne asked. She wasn’t sure if her nephew would even come to her. She’d been so tied up with Mila and her job that she hadn’t been out to see him in the past year. At his age, he’d most likely forgotten her.
Bethany looked to be holding on to the toddler for dear life as she shot a panicked look at Leanne. At least she wasn’t yelling like she had been over the phone.
If Leanne had to guess, all the commotion coupled with his mother’s over-the-top emotions had thrown him into quite a crying fit. Clara had said her little brother could throw a temper tantrum like a pro.
“I could take him to play in the living room. He won’t be out of your sight,” Leanne added. She’d read something about kids being able to pick up on their caretaker’s energy and how, as such, their emotions could be impacted later in life if they experienced too much trauma. She could only pray that her daughter didn’t feel the absence of her father. Dating her partner had been stupid, but she and Keith had been together almost all the time. If the department had found out, they would’ve been out of jobs. The one time she went against her better judgment and gave into emotion she let herself fall down that rabbit hole. Both had seemed to gain their senses quickly, breaking off the affair. Being partners became awkward after.
A few weeks later, the sickness came and she started throwing up every morning. Part of her must’ve known what was going on, even though she wouldn’t—couldn’t!—allow herself to consider pregnancy as a possibility. Their working relationship would be ruined. One of them would need to transfer, and she could’ve handled all that if Keith hadn’t moved on and started dating a desk jockey. Then he was shot. Killed. And time had run out to tell him he was going to be a father.
Chin up, she was forced to pretend she had been in a relationship that had gone sour before it had gotten off its feet in order to save face for both of them.
Leanne refocused on her sister. Bethany’s body was strung as tight as her emotions. Talking to her sister would require a balancing act and as long as Leanne could keep her own emotions out of it, she should be fine. She’d done this countless of times in interviews. Now shouldn’t be an issue, she reminded herself. She rolled her head side to side, trying to diffuse some of the tension in her neck.
“You want to go with your auntie?” Bethany finally asked.
Hampton shook his head in a definite no.
The confident cowboy seemed to know the perfect time to step in. The big guy moved with athletic grace as he swooped down to pick up the nearest toy, some kind of cartoon character airplane, and then swirled it through the air. Seeing him be so charming with the tyke put a chink in the armor around her heart. She reasoned the reaction came from wishing Mila’s father was around, not for Leanne’s sake, but for her daughter’s. Leanne hated that history was repeating itself given that her own father had never been around growing up. As much as she believed, preached, that people made their own destiny, she sure as heck hadn’t seen that one coming when she’d started dating Keith. Granted, it wasn’t his fault that her heart had broken after losing him, but the result was the same. All Mila had was her mother.
Hampton laughed despite huge tears welling in his eyes when Dalton dropped the plane low until it almost crashed against the floor. He
made up a commentary about how the pilot saved the day and then popped back up, making the plane nearly collide with the ceiling in the small ranch-style house.
The little guy ate it up like spaghetti on his plate. He belly-laughed and Leanne marveled at kids’ ability to be so in the moment they forgot everything—from tragedy to anger—in a manner of minutes.
She wished there was a toy shiny enough or that possessed enough magic to make her do that, too. She’d love to be able to shift gears and leave the past in the dust. Adults were so much more complicated.
And seeing Dalton Butler entertain her nephew was one of the most attractive sights she’d seen, even though she didn’t want to see the handsome cowboy in that light. Or any light, her mind argued.
“Mr. Butler offered his family’s ranch as a safe house for you and Hampton until all this attention dies down.” Keeping her out of sight was one reason he’d made the offer. She kept to herself the part about wanting to separate her sister from Gary so he wouldn’t influence her decision. And about needing Bethany to get off whatever pills she was taking to ease the pain of Clara’s death.
Based on how hard Bethany was shaking her head this was going to be an uphill battle. “Gary won’t like it when he comes home if we’re not here.”
This wasn’t the time to try to talk some sense into her sister about the man she’d married. Leanne thought about Clara and about how much her niece had loved Hampton. For his sake, she needed to convince Bethany and not lose her cool.
“I understand,” she started saying but Bethany cut her off.
“Do you?” Bethany drew her thin shaky hand to her forehead. “Because when all this blows over and it’s just me and him, do you know what that’ll be like for me? For us?”
“There are organizations that can help if you want to leave,” Leanne said in as calm a voice as she could muster.