Texas Target (An O'Connor Family Mystery)

by Barb Han

  Looking down at her hand, she realized she was gripping the necklace so tightly there were deep indentations in her left palm. She loosened her grip on the necklace and placed it on top of the small box of her sister’s possessions.

  “Water okay?” he asked.

  “Perfect.”

  “I figure we can have coffee after we eat while you tell me what you know up to this point and we move on from there.”

  More of that dangerous hope blossomed. Summer wasn’t kidding herself that her sister was out there somewhere still alive despite the fact her heart wanted it to be true. Scrappy and Thick Guy had made it abundantly clear about that. They seemed to have firsthand knowledge that Autumn was gone. It had been a long couple of weeks and more than anything else, she needed answers. Justice had been too much to hope for. Now? There was hope.

  Since she’d learned early in life just how slippery a slope hope could be, she wouldn’t get too comfortable.

  Dawson set a plate down in front of her along with silverware and a glass of water. It was foreign allowing someone to do something for her. Even something so simple as serving food had been off-limits with anyone else.

  Summer tried to convince herself that she was too tired to protest. A tiny voice in the back of her mind called her out. There was something easygoing and honest about Dawson that made her relax a little bit around him.

  The food was beyond amazing. Before she knew it, she’d cleared her plate. “Did you make this?”

  That ghost of a smile returned to his lips—lips she had no business staring at. She refocused.

  “Not me. I’m not the best in the kitchen. Laurel cooks up a few meals so it’s easy for me to heat something up after work. Other times, I eat at the main house with whoever shows,” he said.

  Summer wanted to know more about Dawson. She tried to convince herself it had to do with understanding the man who’d made her sister happy, even if it had been for the briefest amount of time.

  Again, that voice called her out. She was curious about him for selfish reasons. Reasons she couldn’t allow herself to go into now or ever.

  “Does your family own this whole ranch?” she asked.

  “We’re fourth generation cattle ranchers,” he said with a nod. She could’ve sworn his chest expanded with what looked a lot like pride. He finished the last bite of food and took a drink of water. He’d said those words like they were common knowledge. Maybe growing up here in Katy Gulch, it was. She was an outsider despite Dawson making her feel right at home.

  It was easy to see why Autumn had fallen for him.

  “A dynasty?” The question was meant to be a joke. One look at him stopped her from laughing.

  “Something like that.” He was serious.

  “Okay, what does that even mean?”

  “That we’re comfortable.” So basically, rich.

  “Can I ask a question?” Trying to word this without being offensive proved tricky.

  “Yeah.” It didn’t help matters that even when he spoke one word his masculine voice traveled all over her.

  “If you own all this land and your family has all this money...why become a US marshal?” Her question caused a low rumble of laughter to escape his serious mouth.

  “You said it.”

  She cocked her head to the side and her eyebrows pinched together.

  “My family is wealthy. That gives me a roof over my head that I don’t have to pay for and privileges that make life a whole lot easier, like Laurel. But it stops there. I may inherit money, but I have my own life. I live off my own paycheck and invest the money I would’ve spent on a mortgage. I know how fortunate I am, and I don’t take it for granted. If my parents never left me a dime, I’d do just fine on my own. Better than fine.”

  “Your attitude is impressive. Most people would just ride their legacy out.” Summer had even more respect for Dawson now. Even though she’d barely met him didn’t mean she didn’t know him. He was one of the most down-to-earth people she’d ever met, despite growing up with all this and standing to inherit what must be one of the biggest fortunes in Texas.

  He had honor beyond any man she’d ever known. The fact that he would bother to drive to Austin to bail out a woman who’d coldly left him, and to return a box of her prized possessions, struck her heart. He was showing incredible kindness to Summer, despite everything he’d been through. He was concerned about her having a decent meal when he could just try to pin her for answers—answers he deserved.

  “Yeah? Seems like a waste of a life to me,” he said, like his outlook toward life was no big deal.

  “How many siblings do you have?” Getting to know him wasn’t helping with her attraction.

  “There are seven of us in total but my only sister was kidnapped when she was six months old. She was the firstborn and I doubt Mom would’ve survived the ordeal if she hadn’t found out she was pregnant with my oldest brother a few weeks after.”

  Summer was stunned. “I can’t even imagine what that would do to a mother, let alone being new parents.” She studied him. He hadn’t even been born at the time of the kidnapping and yet she picked up on something in his voice—a palpable sadness—when he mentioned his sister. “What happened? Did they find her?”

  “The case was never solved.” He shook his head before picking up the plates. “My father recently died.”

  “I’m so sorry.” She stopped him with her hand on his arm. The sheer amount of electricity that pulsed through her fingertips startled her. She pulled her hand back and flexed her fingers.

  She cleared her throat that had suddenly gone dry. “I can do those.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” His voice was trying to come off as casual but there was enough tension for her to realize he’d had the same reaction to physical contact.

  “At least let me help.”

  He stopped for a second and the left corner of his mouth curled. She wondered if he even realized he’d done it. “How about this...you rinse these off and I’ll make coffee?”

  “Deal.” It would give her something to do besides feel like she was betraying her sister with the strong attraction she felt toward Dawson.

  Dishes done, fresh coffee in hand, Dawson motioned toward the sofa as she bit back a yawn. She caught him staring at her on the walk over, so he seemed to think it was a good idea to speak his mind when he asked, “When was the last time you slept?”

  “It’s been a couple of days.” She suppressed another yawn. Now that she had a full belly, her body craved rest. Or, maybe it was being around Dawson that allowed her to let her guard down enough to think about dozing off. She’d been sleeping in thirty-minute intervals since arriving in Austin seven days ago.

  Seven was the number of days it apparently took to show up in enough places to attract the interest of who she suspected were her sister’s killers.

  “Think you can sleep now?” He watched as she tried to bite back another yawn.

  She took a sip of coffee. “This should help. I want to work on figuring out what happened to Autumn.”

  “First things first, I need to clear time off with my boss. I’ll still have access to law enforcement resources and my guess is we’ll need all the help we can get.”

  Summer didn’t feel alone for the first time since this whole ordeal started. And maybe the first time in her whole life, but she didn’t want to try to analyze that sentiment now. She sat up straighter and took another sip of coffee. The sofa was made to sink into. She blinked her eyes a couple of times. They’d gone dry on her.

  “What do you need me to do?”

  There was a laptop on the coffee table that he grabbed and then balanced on his thighs. “You believe your sister was murdered.”

  He was restating the obvious. “Yes.”

  “But you don’t have proof?”

  “No.” Again, this was
obvious. She wondered where he was going with all this.

  “So, I’m looking for a Jane Doe in Austin.”

  Hearing those words were a hit to Summer’s heart. It took a minute for her to be able to respond. “Yes.”

  A Jane Doe meant an unidentified body.

  “She could be in a hospital somewhere.” He seemed to be able to read her thoughts. Then again, he was a seasoned investigator. “She would be tagged as Jane Doe if she refused to give her name.”

  “Hospitals are a good place to start.” Summer didn’t have it inside her to hope after what the two men chasing her had said.

  “And morgues.” He was staring at the laptop screen when he seemed to realize how hearing that word might affect Summer. He glanced up and locked eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ve learned to distance myself from investigations. It’s how we get through the rough ones. It doesn’t mean that I don’t care what happened to Autumn.”

  “That makes a lot of sense to me actually.” Hadn’t Summer been doing that on some level for most of her life? Tucking away her emotions. Forcing them somewhere down so deep she couldn’t feel anymore. She and Dawson weren’t so different.

  “It can come off as uncaring but it’s really all about focusing every ounce of energy and brain power on finding out the truth.”

  “And then what?”

  “The really bad cases cause you to spend a lot of time at the gym trying to work off the frustration,” he said honestly. It also explained why he was in amazing shape.

  “Does your work cause you to have a lot of intense days?”

  “Yeah,” he said with another half smile. “It does. But there’s a pretty big payoff when you take a criminal off the streets and give justice to a family that has been waiting. Everyone deserves that.”

  She thought about his sister and the fact that her case was never solved. It occurred to her that he brought justice to families when he’d never gotten it for himself or his family.

  If she had to guess, he was in his early thirties, which meant the case was several decades old. That was a long time to go without knowing what had happened to a loved one. Her sister’s lies to him about a pregnancy when he was the kind of person who wouldn’t take that lightly made her angry.

  “I’m sorry about your sister, Dawson.”

  “Thank you.” He paused long enough to look at her, catching her gaze and holding on to it. “Now, let’s find out what happened to yours.”

  Chapter Six

  Dawson checked the last on his list of hospitals and came up empty. He and Summer had divided the names, working side by side and making call after call. In all, there’d been four Jane Does admitted in the last week to three major hospitals in Austin.

  Patient privacy made it tricky to get information but Dawson had a few tricks up his sleeve. He was able to rule out all four Janes, which didn’t mean Autumn wasn’t in a bed somewhere under a false name.

  So, that was a dead-end trail.

  The morgue was easier to navigate. There’d been nine Jane Does this month, none of whom fit Autumn’s description. If she was dead, her body hadn’t shown up anywhere in Austin. There were plenty of places to dump a body in and around Austin. He gave his contact information to the coroner in the event a body showed up that might be a hit.

  By eight o’clock, he’d filed a missing persons report and made sure she’d been entered into the database.

  It was obvious to him that Summer was running on fumes, but she refused to go to bed. So, when he saw her slumped over on the couch with her eyes closed, he put a blanket over her and dimmed the lights.

  Getting into the groove of treating this like any normal investigation helped. He had a rhythm that went along with ticking boxes off a checklist. Routine was good in times like these.

  When he’d made every call on Autumn’s behalf that he could, he decided to do a little digging into her personal life. For instance, their marriage.

  They’d had a small ceremony. She’d insisted on getting married in Austin and he was beginning to see that the city held a special place in her heart. Especially if that’s where she went after she left him. He probably could’ve traced her, considering they were still legally married for a time. He’d been too busy licking his wounds.

  But, now that he thought about it, a few of her actions seemed suspect. Like how she’d insisted on being the one to arrange everything. She’d said that she wanted to be married before they told his family about the pregnancy, insisting that it would lead to less embarrassment in the long run.

  He hadn’t cared one way or the other. He’d been busy with work and the ranch. So, he’d let her take the lead. She’d also insisted the wedding be just the two of them and Laurel. Again, he’d thought it was a little odd at the time but the most important thing to him had been to become a family so they could get ready for their baby.

  The loss Dawson felt when she’d told him she’d lost the baby not long after the wedding still felt real. It had hollowed him out in unexpected ways. For one, he’d known that he wasn’t ready to become a father, or a husband for that matter. He was still far too married to his work and kept way too busy on the ranch.

  So, the devastation he’d felt when he’d learned about the miscarriage had caught him off guard. Don’t get him wrong, he’d been scared as hell after first learning Autumn was pregnant. But he figured no person was ever truly ready for such a life-changing event.

  And from firsthand experience he could tell anyone who asked that no one was ever truly ready for the loss, either. Looking back, Autumn had sure played the part. She’d seemed so broken after the news that he felt the need to protect her even more.

  The fact she’d played him both ways still stung.

  Dawson pulled up the copy of the divorce papers figuring he needed to interview anyone and everyone connected to Autumn. It had been so early in the pregnancy he hadn’t been to a doctor’s appointment yet. She’d said she had someone she trusted in Austin and had taken several daylong trips to tie up loose ends.

  Katy Gulch had an incredible doctor that Dawson’s mother had recommended. Autumn had burst into tears at the suggestion of changing doctors. At the time, Dawson’s mother reassured him that pregnant women had all kinds of hormones and told him not to take it too personally.

  Now he wished he’d asked for the name of her doctor in Austin. Of course, the pregnancy was a sham so she most likely would’ve made something up. He couldn’t exactly count on anything she’d told him.

  Which also made him wonder about the friend of hers, supposedly a minister who she’d insisted marry them. Dawson had asked for the marriage certificate so he could add her to his work benefits and she’d stalled big-time.

  Had she backed herself into a corner?

  The obvious reason someone would want to pin him down for marriage was money. But she hadn’t asked for or taken a dime. Looking back, it was also the reason he’d signed the divorce papers so easily. She’d wanted nothing but her freedom. He’d been too hurt and angry to fight back. His pride had been wounded. He’d scribbled his name on the dotted line after reviewing the document and then mailed it back after making a copy for his records.

  He wouldn’t make the mistake of not fact-checking another relationship.

  There’d been no need to cancel her insurance at work because he’d never officially added her to anything. Considering he’d never been married before, he took her word for everything. Why wouldn’t he? She was his wife. Adding her to his insurance was a simple thing to him. She’d said something about being covered under a different policy that didn’t run out until the end of the year.

  In his personal life, he’d never been betrayed. Had that made him naive?

  Dawson pulled up his divorce file and searched for the name of her attorney. Matt Charley Shank. There was no address on the letterhead, which was odd. He found it in the body of th
e second page.

  Dawson typed in the name to get a phone number. He shouldn’t be surprised at the search results. There was no Matt Charley Shank listed as an attorney in Austin.

  He flexed and released his fingers a couple of times to work out some of the tension. He needed to hit the gym for a good workout but there was no time. He could, however, fire off a few push-ups. He had a set of weights in the garage for those times when he needed a quick workout.

  This seemed like one of those times. But first, he checked the internet for the name of Autumn’s minister friend, Grover Hart, to see what church he belonged to. Not a huge surprise at this point when Dawson learned Grover Hart’s services could be bought and paid for. His big claim to fame? Weddings, no licenses required.

  If the attorney was a sham and the minister was a sham, the marriage had to be a sham.

  * * *

  SUMMER STOOD IN the opened doorway leading into the garage. A heavy metal band played low in the background. It was the middle of the night. A shirtless Dawson pumped weights. Her gaze lingered a little too long on his muscled chest, mesmerized by the tiny beads of sweat.

  She forced her gaze away and cleared her dry throat.

  “Sorry to interrupt, is it okay if I use the restroom to freshen up?” she asked.

  He didn’t seem surprised that she’d been standing there and that made her cheeks burn with embarrassment. Getting caught staring at him didn’t top her list of things to do when she woke up. She was still trying to figure out how she’d fallen asleep in the first place.

  She’d woken to a dimly lit room with a blanket placed over her.

  “Make yourself at home.” He sat up and grabbed a towel.

  Summer forced herself to look away as he toweled off his face. He stood up. He still had on jeans that hung low on lean hips. He had the kind of body she’d expect to see on a billboard somewhere. His abs were cut. His arms strong. His waist lean. Don’t even get her started on how gorgeous he was.