Lay Down the Law

by Carsen Taite

  The words “chop shop” burst through her concentration. She caught Dale’s eye, detected a slight wink, and was impressed Dale hadn’t brought up the subject of drugs. If these guys, or anyone at Gantry was involved with the Vargases, better to let them think the feds were chasing their tail rather than hot on their trail. Dale kept them talking for a minute, and Peyton took advantage of the moment to edge over to the desk. She scanned the first page on the clipboard. The Gantry logo was at the top of the sheet, but everything below was a jumbled mass of dates and numbers. She slid a finger between the papers and looked at a couple more pages to find more of the same.

  “All done.”

  Peyton looked up to see Bob, pushing the dolly back into the trailer and pulling the door shut. The big guy, on the other hand, was staring straight at her hand that was no longer touching, but still within inches of the clipboard. She attempted to deflect his attention by saying, “You guys looking for help? I have a brother who’s about to be out of a job.”

  “Might look easy, but not everyone has the skills it takes,” Bob said with a smug look. Big guy shot piercing dagger eyes his way and the smirk disappeared. “We’re shutting down for the night,” he said as he walked over, swept up the clipboard, and then strode back to the trailer.

  Peyton looked at Dale who shrugged. They both walked outside and watched while Bob shut the warehouse door while big guy started the truck. Within seconds, they were driving down the back road toward the highway.

  Dale turned to Peyton. “You see anything?”

  “Plenty, but I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s what I didn’t see that bothered me the most.”

  “Tell me about it. Looked more like an abandoned storage shed than any business I’ve ever seen.”

  Peyton looked back at the building. “I’d love to get a look into one of those boxes.”

  “Money or drugs. Probably both. Good one about your brother looking for a job.”

  “Thanks.” Peyton sighed at the foreshadowing. When Neil found out she planned to take over management of the ranch, he probably would be job-hunting. When had she decided to take that step? Didn’t matter. Now that she’d made the decision, she just wanted to get home and talk to her mom about how they would make it work while she kept her current job. “Let’s go. Do you need to let the cops know we’re headed out?”

  Dale looked down the way. “I don’t see the second car. Let’s go around front and those two can spread the word.” She turned and took two steps before shots rang out. She hit the ground yelling, “Down! Down!”

  It only took Peyton a second to wrap her mind around the fact they were being fired on. She pulled out her gun and fired toward the muzzle flash before grabbing Dale and shoving her around the corner of the warehouse. Dale leaned against the wall, a spray of red flowering along her shoulder. Peyton patted her down. “You hit anywhere else?”

  “No. You?”

  “No. We can’t stay here. There’s no cover.”

  “We can’t go back through there. One of the jackasses firing at us has an automatic and it’s coming from the roof, over there.” Dale pointed at a building behind the warehouse. “Our best bet is to keep going this way and try and make it to my truck.”

  Peyton looked at Dale’s pale face. She was losing blood fast. “Can you make it?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Seems like our backup should be showing up about now.” Peyton glanced around, but there was no sign of help.

  “I think we’re on our own.” Dale winced as she reached into her jacket and pulled out an extra clip. She handed it to Peyton. “Here, you might need this.”

  Peyton shoved the clip in her pocket. Then she picked up a rock and held it over her shoulder. “Get ready. One, two, three.” She hurled the rock toward the back of the warehouse, waiting until it hit pavement to shoulder into Dale and half carry her on a mad dash toward the front of the building. The rapid sound of automatic gunfire exploded in their wake.

  Seconds later, Peyton shoved Dale into the passenger side of the truck and grabbed her keys. She spun out of the parking lot and sped toward the highway. As she pulled onto the entrance ramp, she pulled out her phone.

  “What are you doing?” Dale asked, her voice thin and reedy.

  “Calling in a shooting.”

  “You drive. I’ll do it.”

  “Who’re you going to call, 911? Mesquite PD? We were just set up. You know that right?”

  “So who are you calling?”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Peyton looked over at Dale. She was trying to look tough and ready despite her obvious pain. As fast as she was driving, they’d be at Baylor Hospital in just a few minutes, but in the meantime, she wanted to make sure they’d be safe when they got there. “We’re going to need a bigger task force.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Lily waited later than usual to come down to breakfast. She didn’t want to risk her father asking about the trust again, and she definitely didn’t want her mother to know why she had declined to sign the papers. On top of that, she was still stewing about her encounter with Peyton last night. She’d seen her meet up with another woman at the valet stand, get into her truck, and ride away. What kind of work was she up to at that time of night? Was the other woman a colleague? Peyton sure was seeing a lot of women under the guise of business. And what was with the ominous warning to stay away from her father’s business?

  When Lily pushed through the double doors of the dining room, her mother looked up from the lifestyle section of the paper. Damn, her timing had been off. She started to say she was just going to grab a cup of coffee, but her mother insisted she join her. As Lily sat down, her mother scooted a bowl her way. “Joelle found this beautiful grapefruit at the farmer’s market yesterday. She’d be sad if you didn’t have some.”

  Lily obliged and filled a small dish with some of the ruby red fruit. She may have been able to say no to her mother, but Joelle, the long-standing family cook, never took no for an answer. Her mouth was full of citrus when her mother opened the conversation.

  “There’s a tea today at Martha Johnson’s. We have a lot of planning to do for the holiday event. You’ll accompany me, of course.”

  Lily swallowed the fruit and mustered a bright smile while her mind whirred through acceptable excuses for bowing out. She settled on vague. “I’d love to, but I have some things to take care of today.”

  “Work things?” Her mother didn’t try to hide her distaste for the word. Her father must have mentioned the plans she’d shared with him.

  “Yes. Does that bother you? Me working?”

  “Don’t be silly. I suppose what bothers me is that there’s already plenty of work for you to do. A great deal of the Gantry money is spent on charitable causes, but you don’t appear to be at all interested in that aspect of the family business. You’d rather be trudging around in a field somewhere with a bunch of windmills or trying to harness the sun than dressing up and helping me coax donations from Dallas’s other wealthy families. One pursuit is not more worthy than the others.”

  “And I didn’t mean to imply that it was.”

  “Then I don’t understand. Your cousins are happy to accept their share of the family fortune and use their time to help those less fortunate. Darla will be at the tea today. When’s the last time you two saw each other?”

  Her cousins Darla and Lance probably thought keeping a fleet of servants employed was their contribution to helping the poor. The threat of Darla’s presence at the tea sealed the deal. “It’s been a while. I’m sure I’ll run into her over the holidays.”

  Her mother opened her mouth to protest, but miraculously Lily’s cell phone rang. A quick look at the screen told her it was Skye. “Sorry, Mom, I need to take this.” She stood and gave her mother an airy kiss on the cheek before ducking out of the kitchen and answering the call. “Skye, do you have any news?”

  “A little. One of the nuns who assisted with adoptions at Our Lady of Gu
adalupe around the time of your birth has agreed to talk to me. I would normally suggest that I go alone and see if she has any helpful information, but there are some special circumstances, and I think it might help if you join me.”

  Lily’s heart pounded at the prospect of a solid lead. She hadn’t expected to find out anything so soon, but now that she had a glimmer of hope, she didn’t want to wait any longer to learn what she could. “Can we go now?”

  “Actually, yes. I already made an appointment on the chance you were available. She’s in Waxahachie. Let’s meet near downtown and ride together.”

  “Okay. Are you still working on that job at the Adolphus?” Lily asked, telling herself the location was more about convenience than proximity to Peyton’s office.

  “Not today. The area around the courthouse is a security nightmare today after the shooting last night.”

  Lily gasped. “There was a shooting at the courthouse?”

  “Not at the courthouse, somewhere in Mesquite. It was all over the papers this morning. A federal prosecutor was involved and the whole federal building is on high alert, which makes it hard to park anywhere near that block. I figured…”

  Skye was still talking, but Lily was no longer listening, her ability to concentrate obliterated by the words “a federal prosecutor was involved.” It could have been anyone. There were probably dozens of federal prosecutors in Dallas. But she only knew one, and the idea of Peyton being shot was unbearable. But Skye hadn’t said anyone was actually injured. Her fear was probably unwarranted, irrational even. She took a deep breath and asked for confirmation that there were injuries.

  “Yes, but the papers didn’t give any names. I only know a prosecutor was involved because Morgan mentioned it. She had a hearing at the courthouse this morning that was canceled because of this. Word is the U.S. attorney’s office is huddled up, preparing a response.”

  Lily pictured her mother at the dining room table, reading the paper. She wanted to hang up, run in, snatch the paper out of her hands, and scour it for every last detail on the shooting. Talk about irrational. She had her own chaos to deal with. She didn’t need to borrow someone else’s, someone who wasn’t interested in her.

  But Peyton was interested. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t have joined her at the bar last night. She wouldn’t have counted their dates. She wouldn’t have been so adamant about warning her from doing business with her father, a warning that had left Lily unable to sleep the night before. Damn you, Peyton. How did I let you get so close when you obviously don’t want to be?

  She knew how to get answers, and she wasn’t going to rest until she had them. “Skye, I need about forty-five minutes to get ready. In the meantime, I need a favor. Is there any way you could find out the name of the person who was shot last night?”

  “Probably. Mind if I ask why you want to know?”

  She didn’t want to get into it on the phone and prayed Skye wouldn’t push her to. “I’ll tell you when I see you.”

  They settled on a time to meet at Morgan’s office and Lily hung up, excited about meeting someone who might know something about her birth family, but anxious about whether Peyton was okay. Hopefully, Skye could find out something before their meeting. If she didn’t, Lily was going to march down to the federal building and ask for some answers. Come hell or high water, by the time this day was over she’d know if Peyton was okay and what the hell the mysterious warnings Peyton had delivered the night before meant.

  *

  Peyton set the file on the nightstand and stood up, careful not to wake Dale. If the hospital bed was as uncomfortable as this chair, she expected Dale would want a discharge the minute she came to.

  “You can quit tiptoeing around.” Dale’s voice was low and scratchy.

  “Sorry. I was trying to be quiet.”

  “I’m not great with quiet. Makes me edgy.”

  “Noted. Next time I’ll bring a drum set.”

  Dale struggled to sit up. “I’m good with there not being a next time, if it’s just the same to you.”

  Peyton grinned. “I guess getting shot didn’t make you any less of a grouch.”

  “Oh, you think just because we were in a shootout together, you can make jokes?”

  “It was really more of a getting shot at than a shootout. We were mostly running away, if I recall.”

  “That’s what smart people do when they’re outgunned and outnumbered.” Dale paused and looked at the ceiling. “If they get the chance.”

  She closed her eyes, and Peyton looked away, not wanting to intrude on the private moment of reflection. Maria Escobar had had no such chance. Witnesses said she’d taken a couple of steps out the front door of the house she shared with Dale when two cars rolled up and the occupants opened fire, riddling Maria’s body with bullets. Dale was out of town or she might have met the same fate. There were probably days she wished she had.

  “She was braver than me.” Dale’s voice shook as she spoke. “She got threats on a daily basis, but she wouldn’t let it change how she operated. Said any deviation on her part from her normal routine was a win for the other side. It was the only thing she was ever wrong about.”

  “She died a hero.”

  “Doesn’t change the fact she died.” Dale fell silent, and for the next few minutes, Peyton stood in place, waiting until Dale was ready to say more.

  “What are you doing here anyway?” Dale asked. “Shouldn’t you be getting a warrant for that warehouse so we can hunt down whoever did this?”

  Peyton didn’t think Dale wanted to hear that she’d stuck around to make sure she didn’t wake up alone, so she shifted to her second reason. “If you’re up for it, I wanted to bring in a few folks so we can come up with a new game plan.”

  Dale looked around. “Here?”

  “Yes, here. Doctor says you can’t leave until tomorrow at the earliest and we don’t have time to wait. You up for it?”

  “Sure.”

  Peyton walked to the door and whispered instructions to the guard outside. She closed the door and said, “They’ll be here in about thirty minutes.”

  She hoped they’d have enough room. She’d called Gellar the night before and insisted on a meeting, threatening to quit if her demands weren’t met. He’d come down to the hospital since she refused to leave, and she’d outlined what she needed. He’d grumbled about the money, the resources. Said he didn’t understand what was taking so long to bring down the Zetas and implicate Gantry. Peyton was prepared with a letter of resignation, handwritten on the back of a blank hospital insurance form. She waved it in his face and told him if he didn’t double the size of the task force and let her and Dale handpick the members, she would get the next flight back to D.C.

  He’d succumbed, and she was almost sorry he had. If she’d been forced to quit, she wasn’t entirely certain she would’ve gone back to Washington, especially since she had a place here in Texas, at the ranch. But running the ranch wouldn’t bring whoever was responsible for last night’s events to justice, and she needed justice. She’d have to do this job and deal with the ranch too and find a way to make it work.

  Within the hour, Dale’s hospital room looked more like a war room than a place of healing. Peyton counted heads. Everyone on the current task force was there, and Bianca Cruz had brought the big white board she’d asked for. She looked over at Dale and waited for her to nod that she was ready before speaking. “You’re probably all wondering why I’ve asked you here.”

  Their expressions were curious, but no one said a word. “Last night, Agent Nelson and I were cornered in a gunfight, and there was overwhelming force on the other side. We’re lucky to be alive. It’s time to meet overwhelming force with some overwhelming force of our own, so we’re adding some folks to this team. We’re going to meet daily to review strategy, and we’ll work as a team.”

  She looked around the room and saw heads nodding and murmurs of “that’s right.” She held up a marker to the whiteboard. “Let’s have som
e names. Who should we get to help us?”

  *

  “I don’t have any information yet,” Skye said, “but I have someone working on it.”

  “Okay.” Lily felt the tension that had been building in her shoulders all morning jump up a few notches. They’d just pulled onto the highway, headed toward Waxahachie, and instead of being able to concentrate on the meeting ahead, she was worried about Peyton.

  “Is there something you want to tell me?”

  Oh yeah, she’d promised to give Skye a reason for her request. She cast about for something reasonable, but finally decided the truth was easier than a hastily thought up falsehood. “You remember the woman who stopped by our table the other day?”

  “Yes.”

  “She’s an assistant U.S. attorney. When you said a federal prosecutor was involved, my mind went right to her. I’m worried.”

  “What was her name again?”

  “Peyton Davis.”

  “You should call her.”

  “I was hoping you would have answers so I wouldn’t have to resort to that.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Look, we dated. It was only a couple of times, and I thought she was interested, but it appears that she’s not. There’s nothing more to it. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

  “So, call her now. What’s the worst thing that can happen?”

  Lily knew Skye was right. She pulled out her phone and dialed Peyton’s number. The call went directly to voice mail, and she clicked off without leaving a message. “Either she’s in the hospital or she just doesn’t want to talk to me.”

  “If she’s ducking your call, it’s her loss.”

  “Thanks. You’re sweet. I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

  “You know this after two dates? Wow.”

  Lily couldn’t miss Skye’s teasing tone. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I think you know exactly what it means. When my wife and I met, I was in a very dark place. If she hadn’t been so persistent, we would have never gotten together. She saved my life in more ways than one.”