by Diana Palmer
* * *
JAKE’S CHAUFFEUR WAS waiting for them at the Catelow airport. He drove them back to Ida’s small ranch.
They sat apart in the back seat.
“Thank you so much for lunch,” Ida said as the ranch house came into view. “It was kind of you to ask me along. I’ve never tasted food that was so good.”
“Same here.” He was being pleasant, but there was something different under the surface, like currents under a calm sea.
The limo pulled up in front of her door. The lights were all off. The house looked lonely and cold and somehow foreboding.
Jake came around to help her out of the car and walked her up onto the porch.
She hesitated. She didn’t know why. She felt something, like a shiver going down her spine.
Jake looked down at her with eyes she couldn’t see. His face was in shadow, but she felt anger in him.
“Thanks again,” she began.
He stuck his hands in his pockets. It kept him from doing what he wanted to do. “No problem.”
“Good night,” she said.
He just nodded.
She turned and started to unlock the door. She hesitated. “I know I locked it...”
He moved her back and pushed open the door, searching for the light switch at the same time.
What met his eyes made him furious.
CHAPTER EIGHT
JAKE WAS SO silent that Ida moved up behind him and looked past him at her living room.
“Oh, my God!” She moved forward, but he caught her. “Butler! No,” she sobbed. “No!”
Jake went around her, following the thin blood trail to her big yellow cat. Butler was lying on a throw rug, not moving.
“I wish I knew a hit man!” she sobbed. “I’d send him after Bailey Trent this very minute! He killed my cat! He killed my baby!”
Jake had a hand on the cat. He caught his breath. “He’s still alive. Can you go and have Fred open the back door of the limo? I’ll carry him. We’ll get him to the vet right now!”
“Still...alive?” she choked, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Yes!”
* * *
THEY GOT HIM in the back seat. Ida didn’t bother to lock the door. Whoever had injured her cat hadn’t been stopped by a lock, after all.
Fred, Jake’s driver, was a wild man when he was given the green light to break speed limits. They pulled up in front of the vet’s office in scant minutes, where they were met by the vet himself, who’d come from home after Jake’s phone call from the limo.
“Bring him right in,” the vet said quickly.
Jake took the cat, wrapped up in the throw rug on Ida’s lap, and carried him inside. He put Butler on the examination table and then slid an arm around Ida, who was in anguish.
“He’s all I have,” she sobbed. “Please, Doctor, can you save him? I don’t care what it costs!”
The vet, Donald Mulholland, was still examining the cat. “There are some deep lacerations, not fatal, but concerning, and what feels like a broken rib. Probably a broken tail, as well, here at the tip.” He turned to her and smiled gently. “Not fatal injuries. I’ll need an X-ray... There’s Ashley,” he added with a smile at the young woman coming in the door. “My wife,” he said, introducing them, “and my partner in the practice. She’s smarter than I am,” he added in a loud whisper.
Ashley chuckled. “Liar. What have we got?” she asked, moving to stand beside her husband, while he updated her.
“We’ll get him right back to X-ray. Are you going to stay...?”
“Oh, of course,” Ida said at once, biting back another bout of tears.
The doctor picked up Butler and, followed by his wife, went back to the X-ray room.
“You don’t have to stay,” Ida began, looking up at Jake.
He bent and kissed her eyes shut. “Hush,” he whispered. Which did nothing to stem the tears but induced more of them. Tenderness was still new to Ida.
He held her gently while she wept, and then mopped up her face with a spotless white handkerchief.
“I didn’t think men carried handkerchiefs anymore,” she said, her voice hoarse from crying.
“My mother thought that any decent man should have an ample supply,” he teased.
She smiled. “Thanks. For everything.”
“Someone got into your house, and it didn’t look like a forced entry,” he said quietly.
She drew in a long breath. “Yes, I noticed that.” She looked up at him. “Laredo has a key,” she said hesitantly.
Jake pulled out his cell phone and called Cody Banks.
“But I’m not sure...” she began.
“You can’t afford to hesitate,” he interrupted curtly. “A man who’d do that to a cat would do it to a human. Or a horse,” he added angrily. He recalled that her horses had similar injuries to the cat, which might indicate that one perpetrator was responsible for damage to all three of her animals.
She sighed. She nodded.
“Banks,” came a curt voice from the other end of the line.
“Jake McGuire. Someone got into Ida Merridan’s house and almost killed her cat. The door wasn’t forced. Her so-called bodyguard has a key.”
There was a very bad word from the sheriff. “Where are you, at the house?”
“At the vet, with the cat,” Jake replied.
“Call me when you take her home. I can be there in less than five minutes.”
“I’ll do that. Thanks.”
He hung up the phone.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “I should have known,” she groaned. “I should have suspected that anything I cared about would be in the line of fire. Anything or anyone...” She broke off with a look of horror as she stared up at Jake.
He gave her a sardonic look. “I lived through a tour of duty in one of the worst hellholes in existence, and you think a man who’s cowardly enough to torture animals is a threat to me?”
“Anybody can get caught off guard,” she began.
His eyes were as tender as his smile. “You worry about me, do you?” he asked.
She flushed scarlet.
The vet came out just in time to spare her more embarrassment.
“Two broken ribs,” he said, “and some nasty cuts. His tail has a break just at the tip.” He shook his head. “Anybody who’d hurt a cat like this...!” he said, angry.
“I think he also hurt two horses,” Ida replied. “They have deep cuts on their flanks...”
“My God, I’d forgotten that!” the vet exclaimed. “I remember now. I treated your horses.” The vet shook his head. “You make very bad enemies, Mrs. Merridan.”
“Her ex-husband,” Jake volunteered curtly. “Fresh out of prison for assault on her.” It was a summary, but it caused a visible reaction in the vet, who was cognizant of Ida’s bad reputation.
“A threat?” the vet wondered.
“I’m afraid so,” Ida said, sighing. “I wish it had been me, instead of my poor horses and Butler.” She bit her lower lip. “I rescued Butler when he was very young... He’ll be all right, you think?” she added, her china-blue eyes wide with emotion.
“I can assure you that he will be.” He studied her. “We have burglar alarms here, because we keep pet medications on hand. If anyone tries to break in, the sheriff can be here in less than five minutes,” he added deliberately.
She let out a breath. “What will you do?”
“Keep him for a few days, just to monitor him and make sure he’s on the mend. Antibiotics, rest, careful diet, loving care,” his wife said, joining them. She smiled. “You can call any time you like to check on him.”
“Thanks,” Ida said huskily.
“We love animals, too,” the vet said gently.
Ida just smiled. She was worn out from worry an
d fear.
* * *
BUT AS THE chauffeur drove them back to Ida’s home, she had another fear, and that was what Bailey might do next. The horses and the cat had underlined the threat.
“Maybe if I just paid him off...” she began worriedly.
“And reward him for almost killing Butler?” Jake asked tersely. “Over my dead body!”
She looked at him with wide eyes.
“I want a word with your bodyguard. I think the sheriff may want more than I do.” He pulled out his cell phone and called Cody Banks.
The sheriff was waiting for them at Ida’s front porch.
“We need to talk to the bodyguard,” Jake said as he helped Ida up the steps.
“And chance would be a fine thing,” Cody returned. “I just talked with one of your part-timers. Ironically, Laredo had a death in the family and had to rush back to Texas just before you got home.”
“How convenient,” Jake said icily.
“Isn’t it?” Cody replied. “My new investigator started today. He’s doing a background check on Laredo with the agency that provided him.”
“At this hour?” Ida asked.
“Oh, he doesn’t mind getting people out of bed to answer questions,” Cody said with an amused grin.
“It might be a legitimate thing,” Ida began.
The sheriff’s phone rang with a dull beep. He answered it. His eyebrows arched under his Stetson. “You don’t say? Thanks, Dirk. Sure. Great work.” He hung up and turned to Ida and Jake. “The agency your attorneys contacted had a bodyguard en route. Someone called, giving your name, and told them not to send him.” He paused. “Apparently, your bodyguard was substituted.”
Ida’s lips fell open. “If I’d just checked...!” she said in anguish.
“If your attorneys had just checked,” Jake broke in, angry.
“He won’t quit, you know,” Ida said sadly. “He’ll just get somebody else.”
“In which case, we’ll both do a background check,” Jake replied.
“It’s all my fault,” Ida said. “My poor horses. My poor cat!”
“We’ll keep an eye out,” Cody promised. He smiled at her. “I’ve got a deputy recovering from a gunshot wound. I can send him over to stay with you...?”
She shivered. “Thank you. No.”
Cody and Jake exchanged a quiet glance.
“Pack a bag,” Jake said. “You’re coming home with me.”
“I will not!”
He noted her scarlet blush and chuckled. “I have an elderly couple living with me. He wrangles horses, and she cooks. I also have a housekeeper who comes daily. I can have one of them live in the house, while you’re in residence,” he added meaningfully.
“Go with him,” Cody said at once. “You’re not safe here. Not until we do some investigating. I need the name of your attorney and his phone number. We’ll arrange something between us.”
“You’re so kind,” she began.
“Crimes have been committed,” Cody replied. “And I’ll tell you again that any man who mistreats animals won’t hesitate to target a woman.”
She looked torn.
“We can explore some more restaurants,” Jake coaxed.
She hesitated.
“Restaurants?” Cody asked.
He nodded, grinning. “We’ve been to Galveston and St. Augustine, but I know lots more all over the country.”
Cody laughed. “Sounds like fun. I like food, too.” He moved toward the steps. “I’ll say good-night. If you hear anything from your ex-husband, I’d like to know,” he told Ida.
She nodded. “I’ll call you if I do. And thanks very much, Sheriff Banks.”
“Just Cody,” he said, and with a warm smile that made the hairs on Jake’s head stand up a little.
“Cody, then,” she agreed, smiling back.
* * *
THEY WATCHED THE sheriff drive away. Jake went inside with Ida and paced while she got a bag packed. The blood trail was still on the floor. He frowned, bending down to look. There were two trails, one smaller than the other and thicker. It was, he decided, a smear, as if whoever injured the cat might have gotten clawed in the process and left the smear when dropping the cat.
He pulled out his phone and called Cody again, informing him about the blood.
“I’m turning around right now,” Cody said. “I’ll bring my investigator with me. If you’re right, we can pull DNA from the blood smear.”
“It might supply some interesting information about the bearer,” Jake noted.
“Yes, it might.”
* * *
CODY DROVE UP just as Ida was coming out of her bedroom. “I’m packing, but I needed to know how much to bring.”
“Enough for a few days. Sit down,” he told her gently, because she was limping again. There was a loud knock at the front door. “I’ll get it,” Jake told her.
She tensed. “What if it’s one of Bailey’s thugs?” she worried.
“It’s the sheriff. I just phoned him.”
“Why?”
“Wait and see.” He opened the door.
Cody Banks came in with a tall, broad-shouldered man with silver-blond hair and cold gray eyes.
“This is Dirk Coleman.” He introduced the other man. “I stole him from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office down in San Antonio, Texas. Jake McGuire and Ida Merridan.”
Dirk nodded. His eyes went to the blood trail. He moved forward and went on one knee, intent on the evidence. He pulled out a blood collection kit.
While the investigator went about his task, Cody asked more questions, some he hadn’t thought to ask before. One was about the other cowboys who worked for her.
“Just two part-timers,” she said. “I only have a handful of horses, and they take good care of Silver and Gold and Rory and the other four. They’re almost like family. They’ve been here since my first husband bought the family ranch back and renovated it. He thought I’d like to spend some of my holidays here, and I did.”
“The palominos have been here for a while?” Cody asked.
She nodded. “About two years.” She grimaced. “Gold’s much better.” Her eyes sought Cody’s. “You don’t think Bailey might send somebody over to Mr. Colter’s to hurt her and Silver...?”
“If they did, and they ran into J.C. Calhoun, they’d be running for the border in no time,” Cody said flatly.
“I know J.C.,” Jake said. “We were in separate units in Iraq. He was a hell of a soldier.”
“Not a bad merc, either,” Dirk Coleman said without looking up.
“You know him?” Cody asked.
He nodded.
“And you’d know this, how?” Cody asked with faint suspicion.
“Oh, gossip.”
Cody didn’t add anything to that. His new investigator was very closemouthed. A good detective, but with a mysterious background. He never spoke of it, and his records only went back a good seven years. Before that it was difficult to find even a trace of him. It had puzzled Cody, but he was so desperate for help that he hadn’t paid much attention to the omission. After all, if the sheriff in Bexar County had recommended the man, and he was working for them, they’d have done an exhaustive background check on him.
“Did you talk to Ida’s lawyer?” Jake asked Cody.
“Yes.” He sighed. “Ida, he’s a really nice guy, and he has your best interests at heart, but he’s a civil attorney. He’s not really up on mob contacts and what they can mean in a situation like this.”
“Damned straight,” Dirk muttered as he finished collecting trace evidence. He bagged it and put his cell phone away—he’d been using it to collect visual evidence of the blood smear and the blood trail. He stood up. “I’d like to come back in the morning and talk to your part-timers,” he said. “Just to cover all the
bases,” he added when she looked worried.
“You won’t, well, make them feel as if they’re under suspicion or anything?” she asked. “They’re such good men.”
Dirk cocked his head and looked down at her. Even with red eyes, she was beautiful. “I won’t make waves. But we need to know if there’s any connection. One of them might have a relative or a friend who’d do something for your ex-husband.”
“Oh, I see,” she returned, nodding.
He smiled. His gray eyes sparkled. He was very good-looking. “If your ex-husband was behind this, we’ll find out. And he’ll be very sorry that we did.”
She relaxed and smiled back. “Okay. Thanks.”
Jake moved closer and took her hand gently in his. “Yes. Thanks very much,” he added pleasantly, but his pale gray eyes, just a shade lighter than the investigator’s, were throwing off sparks.
Dirk laughed inwardly, wished them both a good night and went back out to the car with the evidence.
“He’ll get the blood to the state crime lab office,” Cody told them. “I’m almost certain there’s enough to get DNA from. I’ll let you both know when we get the results.”
“Thanks so much,” Ida said.
Cody smiled. “No problem. Good night.”
* * *
JAKE GLARED AFTER THEM. He turned back to Ida and the frown was quickly erased. “Finish packing and we’ll be off,” he said softly.
“Okay.” She smiled. “Thanks, Jake. I’m not comfortable staying here by myself, but I’d never have asked you...”
“I know that,” he interrupted.
“But what about the rest of my horses?” she worried. “The part-timers go home at night.”
“I’ll take care of that. You just pack, okay?” he asked gently.
She smiled. “Okay.”
He took out his cell phone and called his foreman, who said he’d have a man out at Ida’s place within the hour, armed and ready.