by Unknown
“Well, Jonah is happier than he has been in a long time except when he found out about his son. For all of your sakes, I hope you are back together.”
“Thanks, Maggie.”
The topic of conversation changed and in minutes lunch was on the table. Shortly after eating, they left to drive back to the ranch.
That night, after Henry had been put to bed, Jonah and Kate went to their room and closed the door. As soon as it was shut, Jonah pulled her into his arms to kiss her.
The man stood without moving, staring at the ranch house in the distance. Even at this late hour, lights still burned in several rooms. Around him, crickets chirped, and the man could hear the occasional rustling of critters in the underbrush. Somewhere an owl hooted, a forlorn cry in the night.
Frustration made the man grumble softly to himself. “Tonight won’t be for nothing,” he muttered. “I’ll go back to the Long Bar in future. Next time he won’t find the bomb—he’ll never know it’s there. It won’t be in the barn, but in the house. And tonight, here at the Rivas’s place there’ll be no failure.”
Still muttering under his breath, he moved through the darkness. Gone now were the trucks and the rustling of cattle. It was over, and they would never catch him or anyone connected with him. Penny-ante stuff that was a cover for what he really wanted. The rustling had worked, though, and he was certain the sheriff of Piedras County was still searching for a gang of rustlers, still checking feedlots and cattle sales for livestock bearing the stolen brands.
He moved with stealth across a field, keeping to shadows, knowing he had picked a night when there would be little moonlight. He carried a can with him, the contents sloshing as he walked. All he needed was gasoline and a match, and that ranch house would soon be gone. And the rancher with it. Probably asleep in a drunken stupor, the victim would never know about the fire until the place was in flames all around him.
If firemen came to help, they would be too late. It would all be over by the time they arrived, and they’d struggle to keep the fire contained. There was a wind tonight, wind to fan the flames, and maybe more than the ranch house would burn. If he could have carried another can of gasoline, he would have torched the barn, too, but the house was the main target. Get the house and the rancher in it.
He laughed. Now he would have his revenge. No failure tonight, no one to stop the flames or catch him. He fingered the knife in the scabbard he wore on his hip.
He would slip into the house. This one had an old, faulty alarm and he doubted if the rancher even used it. If the wire to it were cut, no one would come. He had been in the house before when no one was home, dismantling the alarm and then putting it back together because it was ancient and simple. He had looked the place over and even taken some money he’d found. No theft had been reported, though, because no one had known that a stranger had been in the house.
Kirk Rivas tonight. In a few weeks, the Long Bar, and finally Duane Talmadge. Then Ashley Brant. He would take her with him when he was through. He had his plans for the future, and no one would ever suspect him of having anything to do with the crimes. But even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to get him.
He had made money off the rustling. Good money that he could put to use. That was the irony of it. He didn’t care about the money.
He slowed as he drew near the house and stood watching it. Was there a girlfriend in the house with Rivas now? He knew the boys no longer lived at home.
The man stood for half an hour, waiting, and didn’t see anyone. Finally he moved to the back of the house and pulled out his knife, cutting the cord to the alarm.
In minutes he was inside through an unlocked window. He raced through the downstairs, pouring gasoline as he went, splashing it on drapes and chairs, carpet and stairs, until every last drop was gone. He walked to the open window and looked back.
“Revenge. Finally,” he said aloud. He took a match from his pocket, lit it and flipped it away, climbing out the window and running to leap off the porch and land on his feet in the yard.
He heard the boom when the gasoline ignited, saw flames shoot up inside the house as the fire raced along the trail of fuel, bursting into flames as it went until the downstairs windows glowed bright orange.
The man ran across the yard, and as he went, he frowned, listening. He heard a car engine growing louder. He ran on, pushing through a gate and running along a drive.
He was caught in the glare of headlights when a car raced up the lane. It stopped and a man got out, swaying and cursing.
“What the hell?” he yelled. “Fire! My house is on fire!”
It was him! Rivas! And he must think he was talking to one of the cowboys who worked on the ranch for him. Kirk Rivas, drunk, but realizing something was wrong.
The man glanced over his shoulder. Fire could be seen raging throughout the downstairs now. Flames danced at every window.
“My house is on fire!” Rivas yelled again. “Get the others,” he bellowed. “Don’t just stand there. Do something!”
The man reached for his knife.
Jonah lay holding Kate in his arms, his leg thrown over hers, when the ringing of the phone awakened him. He stretched out his arm and picked it up, speaking softly to try to avoid rousing her.
“Jonah?”
Jonah recognized the voice of Sheriff Dakota Gallen.
Kate stirred and rolled over. Jonah sat on the side of the bed, listening as he swore softly. “Dammit! And you still don’t know who or what? There has to be a connection somewhere.”
She sat up, a chill running down her spine because the rustlers had struck again. Jonah sounded grim and angry.
And they had just brought Henry home. She thought of the ranch as home now. Home was Henry and Jonah, and Jonah’s ranch.
She touched his bare back, running her fingers down it lightly, momentarily forgetting the danger as she caressed his warm, smooth skin.
Then she heard him swear again and knew that whatever had happened, it was bad. She worried about Henry, wondering whether they needed to take him right back to his grandparents’ house. She wanted him safe and out of harm’s way until the rustlers were caught. Only she suspected Jonah’s swearing and anger was not over a bunch of stolen cattle.
In minutes he hung up the phone and twisted around to look at her.
“What’s happened?” she asked.
“It’s bad, darlin’. Really bad this time.”
She realized he didn’t even want to tell her, and she sat up, pulling the sheet to her chin. “What about Henry?”
“I’ll be with Henry. Don’t worry,” he assured her.
“Jonah, what happened?”
“Remember the rancher Kirk Rivas?”
“I remember him. He may have had a little too much to drink at our party.”
“Yeah, well, someone torched his house tonight.”
“No!” she exclaimed, and shivered. “Gabriel Brant and Kirk Rivas have lived here a long time, haven’t they? It has to be someone on this ranch that the hate is aimed at, Jonah. You’re too new in the neighborhood.”
“That isn’t all, Kate.”
She sat quietly waiting, dreading what he was going to tell her. “Was he hurt in the fire?”
“They found Rivas outside his house, and think he drove up and surprised the arsonist. He was stabbed to death.”
“Oh, no!” she cried, remembering the jovial man at their party. “That’s horrible, Jonah.”
“Damn straight it is. The guy is an arsonist, a bomber and now a murderer. The crimes have gotten bigger and worse each time. Dakota wants me to come by his office tomorrow. I’ll get Scott to ride in and stay with Henry while I’m in the sheriff’s office, and then we’ll all go to lunch. Come join us, okay?”
She bit her lip and stared at Jonah. “Why are you going to the sheriff’s office? You don’t know anything about what happened tonight, do you?”
“No, I don’t, but I think Dakota has some leads he wants to run past me. H
e was in the Air Force in Special Ops. He knows I was Special Forces. That gives us a tie.”
She nodded. “All right, I’ll meet you for lunch.”
“Great!”
“Jonah, I’m scared for Henry’s sake. Should we take him back to your folks?”
“We’ll see. Let me talk to Dakota tomorrow and see what he comes up with, and then we’ll decide. Kate, I think you and Henry are safe here. You know no one has a grudge against any of us. It has to be someone else on the ranch being targeted. It would be senseless for the hate to be directed at John Frates, who’s dead.”
“Killing Kirk Rivas was senseless. The killer may not be acting rationally. I can’t keep from worrying about Henry.”
“Well, don’t worry about him. I won’t let him out of my sight unless he’s with Scott. Clementine is the one I worry about, because she’ll be here alone sometimes. I may get one of the guys to stay close to the house. And if you get off work early or come home at some unexpected time, you let me know.”
“I will,” she said, rubbing her arms, feeling chilled in the warm night.
“Dakota is calling all the ranchers in the area. He’s warning every one of us.”
“Why would rustlers resort to bombs and murder?”
“I don’t know what the tie is, but I think this is the work of one person and so does Dakota. The placing of the bomb in our barn was done by just one man.”
“How do you know that and how do you know it was a man?”
“A bomb is rarely a woman’s weapon. And a gang putting a bomb in a barn? I don’t think so. That’s someone acting alone. How that ties in with the rustling, I don’t know.”
She reached for her robe and slipped into it. “I want to go look at Henry.”
“I’ll go with you,” Jonah said.
She turned and smiled. “Then put on some clothes. You can’t go running around naked.”
He grinned and picked up his jeans, stepping into them and fastening them partially. “Now am I presentable enough to go look at a kid who can sleep through a bomb going off?”
“Yes, you are.” He walked over to put his arm around her and pull her close against his side. She slipped her arm around his waist and held him tightly, glad to have him hold her.
Together they looked in on Henry, who slept with a teddy bear in his arms.
“All’s quiet and peaceful here. I want to call Scott and let him know,” Jonah murmured.
They returned to the bedroom and he sat on the side of the bed to pick up the phone and call his foreman.
While Jonah talked, Kate slipped out of her robe and scooted across the bed to hug him from behind, pressing against him, feeling the hard, solid plane of his back against her breasts. She rubbed his thighs and kissed his ear while he talked, and he turned around to look at her.
His voice thickened as he spoke. As soon as he replaced the receiver, she tried to scoot away, but he caught her. “You asked for it,” he whispered, coming down on top of her to kiss her hard and long, while his hand slid down the length of her.
At ten o’clock the next morning Jonah walked into Sheriff Gallen’s office again. Dakota came around the desk, which was still covered with papers. A coffee cup and a half-empty pop bottle were on the cluttered surface, along with a half-eaten sandwich.
Dakota held out his hand to shake Jonah’s. “Sit down,” he said, moving papers from a chair. “It’s been a busy morning.”
“Even without seeing you, I’d guess that you were up all night.”
“Yes, I was,” Dakota said, rubbing his unshaved chin. His uniform was rumpled and stained, his brown hair tangled and his gray eyes filled with concern.
“No one was in Rivas’s house?” Jonah asked, stretching out his long legs.
“No, they weren’t. His boys are away in summer jobs and the latest girlfriend wasn’t home last night. Rivas had been to a bar—we’ve tracked that down. From what I figure, he came home, surprised the arsonist and was attacked.”
“Now the same old question—any leads?”
“Not much, but we may have a print off Rivas’s clothes. We’ve sent it to the lab. I’ve been trying to tie all these crimes together. They don’t make sense. Rustling is for money and takes several men, at least on the scale it’s been done around here.”
“I agree,” Jonah said.
“The bomb, the fires, the murder—that looks like one man, not a gang.”
“I agree with that, too.”
“I’ve made a list of the victims in this area. There’s Gabe Brant, you and-or John Frates, Kirk Rivas. Rivas and Frates were friends. Brant has lived here forever, but he was younger than those other two so doesn’t fit that way. He wasn’t a friend of either Frates or Rivas. I’ve listed every family in three counties—Piedras, Lago and Denville. I don’t want to get into Bexar County because that’s got the city, where it’s impossible to tie people together. But in Piedras, Lago and Denville, there are five people I can come up with who might be disgruntled. None of them seems the killer type.” He pulled out a manilla envelope. “I’ve put all the information together here. Would you like to look at it and see what you come up with?”
Jonah stared at the envelope Dakota was holding out to him as if it were a snake. Jonah thought of Kate and how she would want him to stay out of this. Then he thought of the bomb in his barn and now a murder. He wanted to protect Henry and Kate at all costs. If he took the envelope, he might be able to do something to guard his family.
On the other hand, he might be doing something that would send Kate packing forever.
Yet the safety of his son was paramount and there was no choice about it. Jonah reached for the envelope.
“Want to be a deputy now?” Dakota asked.
Chapter 13
O nce again, Jonah hesitated, because he knew what the cost might be. But he came right back to the same reasoning. He wanted to protect Henry and Kate above all else.
He nodded his head, and Dakota smiled. “Thanks. That means a hell of a lot, because I know about your training. Some of my deputies are green as grass, and the last murder around here was under another sheriff and different deputies. I want to swear you in. Raise your right hand.”
Jonah repeated the oath of office solemnly and accepted the copper star that declared he was a deputy. He turned it in his hand and wondered if he had just ruined his future.
“Do you have time to join us for lunch? I brought my foreman and son into town with me,” he told Dakota.
“Sorry, no, I can’t spare the time. I’ll take a rain check. As soon as you’ve looked that stuff over, if you have any conclusions about it, I’d appreciate if you’d give me a call.”
“I will.”
“Thanks, Jonah, for serving as a deputy.”
“Sure.” Jonah left, walking through century-old marble halls with vaulted ceilings and a musty smell in spite of the offices being used daily. He stepped out into the shade of oaks and headed toward his car. Scott and Henry were waiting on one of the benches and they joined him.
“I’ll call Kate, because she said she’d meet us for lunch.” In the car he slid the envelope beneath the driver’s seat.
When he drove up, Kate was standing outside her office. He climbed out of the car and went to meet her, his gaze raking over her and his heart thumping faster. Her hair was fastened up on her head, but tendrils had fallen loose around her face. She wore a white silk blouse and a full red silk skirt that swirled around her legs as she walked. Bracelets jingled on her arms, and earrings dangled from her ears, and he wished he had her alone, heading home or to a hotel.
“You look gorgeous enough to eat,” he said when she walked up to him.
She smiled. “Thank you, but you’re being ridiculous. Although you look rather gorgeous yourself.”
“That I can’t relate to,” he remarked dryly. “I wish I could get you off to myself for the next hour.”
“But you can’t, so you’d better stop drooling,” she teased.
<
br /> “Do you have to wear something that sexy to work? Are there any single guys where you work?”
“Yes, there are, and there is nothing about this plain white blouse that is sexy.”
“Darlin’, are you wrong there! What fills it is what’s sexy. And you do fill it nicely.”
“Jonah, behave now. You’ve got Scott and Henry in the car.”
“Yes’m,” he said, but as he held the door for her, he patted her bottom when she slid past him into the car. She turned to glare at him and he smiled, closing the door and going around to the driver’s side.
Conversation centered around Henry over lunch. The three adults listened to him talk about what he had done at his grandparents’, and what he wanted to do when he got back to the ranch that afternoon. Finally Jonah drove Kate back to work and got out to escort her into the building.
“You don’t need to walk me to the door here at work,” she said with amusement. “And I’m going to get you tonight, Jonah Whitewolf, for that pat on the fanny.”
“They couldn’t see you.”
“I’ll bet someone looking out the window of my office building could, however.”
“So what? Do you care if they know I’m a man in love?”
She turned to look at him. “Are you, Jonah?” she asked, gazing up at him solemnly.
“Yes, Kate,” he admitted. “I am in love.”
She closed her eyes. “Jonah, you would tell me now, when we’re out in public.”
He brushed a kiss on her cheek. “There. I’ve kissed you in front of Henry. That should make him happy. And he knows you’ve moved in with me.”
“Now how does he know that?”
“I told him, and he nodded as if he gave us his approval.”
“You better get back to the car. It’s too hot for him and Scott, sitting there with the engine off.”
“Sure. See you tonight, darlin’. And then I will have you all to myself.”
She caught his chin in her hand. “And I’ll kiss you all over from head to toe, Jonah Whitewolf,” she said in that sultry voice she used upon occasion.
