Proof of Guilt

by Lisa Jackson

  “Look, I know you two have plenty to work out,” Jameson went on, “but you need to leave it here for now. Gabriel wants to take everyone to the sheriff’s office. The medics will need to take a look at that, too.”

  It took Theo a moment to realize Jameson meant the cut on Theo’s cheek. “I don’t want a medic,” Theo insisted. “But someone should check on Jodi and Nathan.”

  It wasn’t the first time he’d said his son’s name aloud, but for some reason, it hit him like a punch to the gut. Theo actually had to take a moment just to regather his breath.

  “Yeah,” Jameson mumbled. Whatever the heck that meant. “You both stay here, pull yourselves together, and I’ll go in and talk to Nathan and Jodi. Be ready to leave as soon as Gabriel has the cruisers in place.”

  Jameson stepped into the bathroom, shutting the door and leaving Ivy and him alone. Since Theo didn’t want to keep glaring at her, he turned his attention back to the window so he could watch for the cruisers.

  “Why would Gabriel want us to go to the sheriff’s office?” she asked, her voice shaky. “Wouldn’t it be safer to stay here rather than risk going outside?”

  “No. There could be other gunmen in the area. Plus, he probably wants to set up some security measures here.” He glanced at her and saw that didn’t do anything to ease the tension on her face. “Gabriel knows what he’s doing.”

  Theo hoped that was true, anyway. There was no love lost between Gabriel and him, but Ivy’s brother had been sheriff for nearly a decade now. Maybe that meant he knew how to handle an attempted murder investigation along with keeping Ivy and the others safe. Theo had no intentions, though, of just backing off and letting Gabriel run with this. Not when his son’s safety was at stake.

  “When I first saw Nathan, he asked who I was,” Theo reminded her. “He thinks your late husband is his dad?”

  She paused a long time, and it was so quiet that Theo could hear Jameson talking in the bathroom. He couldn’t hear what the Ranger was saying. Which was a good thing. Because it meant Nathan wouldn’t be able to hear what Theo and Ivy were talking about.

  “No. Nathan knows the truth,” Ivy finally answered. “Chad was a widower and a lot older than me. He had a college-age daughter, Lacey, when we got married. Lacey told Nathan when he was about six.” Her mouth tightened enough to let him know that was a sore subject. “My stepdaughter and I don’t get along that well,” she added.

  Theo made a mental note of the woman’s name. Right now, he needed to look at all the angles to figure out who was behind this, and a riled stepdaughter could definitely have motive for putting this together.

  Of course, so could Uncle August.

  Theo would be contacting him very, very soon.

  August had been a thorn in nearly everyone’s side since his brother’s arrest for the Beckett murders. For whatever reason, August had become Travis’s champion of so-called justice even though Travis had never asked him to do that. In fact, from everything Theo had heard, his father had accepted his fate and was willing to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

  His phone buzzed, and Theo answered it when he saw Wesley’s name on the screen. “I heard about the shooting at the ranch,” Wesley greeted. “I’m still in Blue River, so you want me to head out there?”

  “No need. The danger seems to be contained. For now, anyway.” Theo didn’t mention they’d all soon be going to the sheriff’s office since this wasn’t a whispered phone conversation. If there truly was a bug in the house, he didn’t want to tip off the gunmen’s boss about them leaving, since that would mean they’d be out in the open, at least for a little while.

  “The deputy here got an update from Gabriel,” Wesley went on. “The gunmen didn’t ID the person who hired them.”

  “No. But I’ve got a lead. I’ll tell you about it when I see you.”

  “A lead?” Wesley practically snapped. “Who?”

  “The house might be bugged,” Theo reminded him. “The info I got might not amount to anything, but it’s a start.”

  “Text me what you have,” Wesley added a moment later.

  Theo hadn’t thought it possible, but Wesley seemed even more on edge than Theo did. “I will.” Theo ended the call so he could do that, but the bathroom door opened before he could even get started on the text.

  And Nathan came out.

  Jameson was in front of him. Jodi, behind. Both still had their guns in hand. Nathan gave Theo a long look, and Theo wondered if the boy recognized their similar features. If so, he didn’t say anything. He just hurried to his mom, and Ivy looped her arms around him, pulling him close to her.

  “Gabriel wants us in the cruisers,” Jameson mouthed to Ivy and him. “Don’t take anything with you in case it’s bugged.”

  It was a good precaution, and while Theo wasn’t exactly eager to have Ivy or Nathan outside, he understood why they were in a hurry when they followed Jameson out of the room and to the stairs. There wasn’t exactly a peaceful, safe feeling in the house right now.

  Jodi paused long enough for their gazes to connect, and he saw the questions in her eyes. How was he handling this? It was too long of an answer and one that he couldn’t give her with just a mere glance.

  When they made it to the front of the house, Theo spotted the two cruisers that were now parked by the porch steps. There was a deputy behind the wheel of one of them and another deputy next to him, but Gabriel was driving the cruiser in front. “Ride with me so we can talk,” Gabriel insisted. He motioned for them to get in with him, and he threw open both the back door and the passenger’s side.

  “Hurry,” Jameson reminded them. “Jodi and I will ride in front. Theo, Ivy and Nathan in the back seat.”

  Jameson didn’t have to tell them twice to hurry. Jodi and he took off running, and Theo got Ivy and Nathan moving fast. Nathan ended up in the middle between Ivy and him, and the moment they were buckled up, Gabriel got them out of there. The deputies followed right behind them, no doubt as backup in case there was another attack.

  “Is everyone okay?” Gabriel asked.

  Gabriel brushed a kiss on Jodi’s forehead, and when his sister looked at her soon-to-be husband, Theo could practically see the love in her eyes. Not really a surprise, though. He had always suspected that Jodi was in love with Gabriel, and despite their painful pasts, it appeared that Gabriel felt the same way about her.

  Each of them, including Theo, answered or made some kind of sound to indicate they were okay.

  “He’s not all right,” Nathan said, and he motioned toward Theo. “He’s bleeding.”

  Theo didn’t exactly thank him for pointing that out, because Nathan seemed to be alarmed by the blood. Theo hated to add to the boy’s anxiety, but he also didn’t want anyone to make a fuss about a small cut. At least he thought it was small. He hadn’t really had a chance to look at it, but he did know that his cheek was stinging.

  Jameson opened the glove compartment, located a small first-aid kit and passed it not to Theo but to Ivy. “Since Theo said he won’t see a medic, you make sure he doesn’t need stitches.”

  That request seemed to add to Ivy’s anxiety level, but she opened the kit and took out some gauze and antiseptic cream. She reached over Nathan and blotted the gauze against Theo’s cut. It wasn’t a very manly reaction, but he grunted from the pain.

  “When Mom’s fixing up my cuts,” Nathan said, “I just think about a computer game or my horse, Willow. You have a horse?” he asked Theo.

  Theo shook his head, but nearly cursed when that caused Ivy to press harder on his cheek. He decided it was best to keep still. Best not to make direct eye contact with Nathan, either, since it was obvious the boy was curious about him. Soon, Theo would satisfy that curiosity by telling him the truth, that he was his father. But for now, Theo just let Ivy continue to torture him while he kept watch around them.

  Othe
r than the cruiser behind them, there were no other vehicles in sight. Theo wanted to keep it like that. If he’d been alone, however, he would have wanted this SOB to come after him. That way, he could stop him and put an end to this.

  No one in the car talked about the attack, though Theo was certain they wanted to do that. Best to wait until Nathan was out of earshot. The boy had already witnessed enough without having the details spelled out for him.

  Two men dead.

  Countless shots fired.

  And a threat still hanging over their heads because this snake might indeed go after Ivy.

  Once Ivy was finished cleaning and bandaging the cut, Theo took out his phone and texted a fellow DEA agent in the San Antonio office so they could get started on locating this thug named Mack. He didn’t include Wesley on this, but he would fill him in at the sheriff’s office. As soon as Theo was certain there were no bugs in the place. It was bad enough that he had Jodi, Nathan and Ivy on the road, but he didn’t want anyone else knowing they were on their way to Gabriel’s office.

  It wasn’t that far from the ranch to town, and Gabriel didn’t dawdle. He made it there in probably record time, and he pulled the cruiser to a stop at the back door so they could hurry inside. First through the break room and then into Gabriel’s office. Even though it was a good twenty feet away from the squad room at the front of the building, Wesley must have heard them, because he came hurrying back.

  Ivy automatically stopped, and she pulled Nathan behind her. Jodi rushed to Ivy’s side to shield the boy, as well. Jameson and Gabriel reacted, too, by taking aim at the man.

  “This is DEA agent Wesley Sanford,” Theo explained. “He’s the one who gave me the recording from the CI.”

  That caused Gabriel and Jameson to relax a bit, but Jodi and Ivy still stayed in a defensive posture. Maybe because Wesley didn’t exactly have a welcoming expression. Probably because he’d been in law enforcement most of his adult life, first as a San Antonio cop and then as a DEA agent. The man was tall and lanky with a thin face, and he rarely smiled. He certainly wasn’t smiling now.

  “You said you had a lead,” Wesley reminded him, “and that you’d text me.”

  “Possible lead,” Theo corrected. He motioned toward Gabriel. “This is Sheriff Beckett and his brother, Ranger Jameson Beckett. Are you certain the building isn’t bugged?” he added to Wesley.

  “The deputies and I have gone through the place and didn’t see anything.”

  “I’m having the Rangers bring in equipment to check every inch,” Jameson volunteered. “They should be here any minute. Until then, anything we say should be in one of the interrogation rooms.”

  Good idea. There was minimal furniture, and a person wouldn’t have had easy access to those rooms to plant a listening device. Normally, the other option would have been to discuss this outside, but there was nothing normal about this situation.

  Nathan was a reminder of that.

  “Why don’t you stay with Nathan here in Gabriel’s office?” Theo suggested to Ivy.

  She instantly looked torn, and Theo knew why. Ivy wanted to hear anything about the investigation, but she didn’t want their son to be part of it. Neither did Theo. Jodi must have picked up on their wanting to protect Nathan, because she slipped her arm around the boy’s shoulders and led him deeper into Gabriel’s office.

  “I’ll wait in here with Nathan,” Jodi offered. “I can probably download a movie or book for him.”

  “Is everything gonna be okay?” Nathan asked, volleying glances at his mom, his uncles and Theo.

  “Of course,” Ivy jumped in to say. Jodi, Gabriel and Jameson answered similarly.

  Nathan settled his attention on Theo. Maybe because he didn’t respond to the boy’s question. “Will it be okay?” Nathan pressed.

  Theo wasn’t sure why Nathan wanted to hear his assurance when they’d only met a short while earlier. Maybe Nathan felt the connection? But Theo knew that could be wishful thinking on his part. He certainly felt a connection to his son, and it didn’t matter that he hadn’t shared the same years with the boy that Ivy had.

  “We’re all going to work to put a stop to this,” Theo finally told him.

  Nathan nodded, apparently accepting that as gospel, and he went with Jodi when she led him to Gabriel’s desk. Part of Theo wanted to stay so he could just talk to him and get to know him better, but as long as Ivy was in danger, so was Nathan.

  Gabriel motioned for them to follow him to one of the interview rooms just up the hall, and once they were inside, Gabriel shut the door. Each of them re-holstered their weapons. Except for Ivy. No holster for her, so she tucked the gun in the back waistband of her jeans.

  “One of the gunmen gave us a first name or possibly a nickname of the person who hired him,” Theo told Wesley. “Mack, someone the gunman described as a thug from San Antonio. Ring any bells?”

  Wesley repeated the name, and he nodded. “Maybe. There’s a bar. A seedy bar,” Wesley added. “It’s owned by a guy whose last name is McKenzie. I can’t remember his first name, but he used to work as a bouncer at the place before he bought it.” He took out his phone, stepping slightly away from them. “I’ll see what I can find.”

  “I need to check on my own contacts,” Jameson said, taking out his phone, as well. “I also need to keep tabs on anything the ME might find on our dead guys. Anything the CSIs might find, too.”

  Yes, because those gunmen had gotten to the ranch somehow, and that meant they’d maybe left a vehicle in the area. A vehicle that could contain possible clues as to who had hired them and why.

  “I’ll get to work on ID’ing the guys,” Gabriel said. “Once we have that, then we might be able to find a money trail.”

  Again, it was a good idea, and Gabriel moved as if he might step to the other side of the room to start on that, but he stopped and looked at his sister. Then at Theo. “I don’t want any yelling,” Gabriel warned Theo.

  That didn’t sit right with Theo. Of course, nothing much would at this point unless they found the clown who’d orchestrated all of this. But Gabriel wasn’t talking about the danger. He was talking about Nathan.

  “You don’t think I have a right to yell?” Theo asked him.

  Gabriel’s eyes narrowed for just a moment. “Maybe. But it won’t happen here. Anything you and my sister have to hash out can wait.”

  With that “advice” doled out, Gabriel moved away from them and made a call. Of course, that left Ivy and Theo standing there, staring at each other. Theo knew he had his own calls to make. And he wanted to check on this situation with Ivy’s stepdaughter to make sure she didn’t hate Ivy enough to do something like that. And Theo did pull his phone from his pocket, but Ivy spoke before he could make a call.

  “Don’t tell Nathan that you’re his father,” she said. “Let me do it, please.”

  Theo thought about that for a few moments. “What will you say to him?”

  “The truth. More or less,” she added. “I don’t want to get into specifics. I’ll just tell him that it didn’t work out between us.”

  He gave that more thought, too. “I don’t want him to think I knew about him and then left. I’m not the bad guy in all of this.”

  Something flashed through her eyes. Not anger. But hurt. Theo wished he’d phrased that better, but it was the truth. There was only one person who knew Ivy was carrying Theo’s child, and that was Ivy herself.

  Ivy nodded, finally. “I’ll tell him I screwed up,” she said, dodging his gaze. But she didn’t do the dodging before he saw something else in her eyes.

  Tears.

  Hell. It was too bad Gabriel hadn’t added “no crying” along with the “no yelling.” Theo wasn’t an ice man—not every day, anyway—and those tears cut away at him. They also brought memories back to the surface. Ivy had been crying the night she’d ended things with him. He ha
dn’t wanted to hold her and comfort her then. Too much anger had been bubbling up inside him. But for some stupid reason he wanted to try to comfort her now.

  He resisted.

  In part because it truly would be stupid to have her back in his arms and also because her brothers were watching her. Jameson and Gabriel were both on their phones, but they had their attention nailed to their kid sister.

  Gabriel finished his call first and came back to them, and judging from his expression he looked ready to blast Theo for making Ivy cry. But Ivy gave a little shake of her head, a gesture for her brother to back off. Gabriel did—eventually.

  “They got an immediate match on one of the gunmen’s prints,” Gabriel explained several long moments later. “Ted Mintor. He has a long record, and they’re looking for a match on the second one.”

  Good. A name could lead them to possible bank records. From what Theo could hear of Jameson’s conversation, he was already working on that.

  “I’m having the hands beef up security at the ranch,” Gabriel went on. He was looking at his sister now. “I’m debating whether to go back there or move Nathan, Jodi and you to a safe house.”

  “Jodi won’t go,” Theo quickly said.

  Gabriel didn’t argue with that. Probably because he knew Jodi well. Jodi was a well-trained security specialist and would consider it an insult if she was tucked away while others were in danger. But maybe Theo could put a different spin on this to get her to go.

  “What if Jodi realizes she’d be protecting Ivy and Nathan if she went?” Theo asked.

  Gabriel nodded. “That could work. It’d also work if you went with them. That way, I wouldn’t have to tie up a deputy.”

  Theo felt as if Gabriel had just turned the tables on him. He did want to be with Ivy and Nathan. He wanted to protect them. But it would be hard to find the person behind this if he was shut away in a safe house.