“Yes, Mom.” Tyler totally ignored the lawyer. Some of that attitude was a good thing after all.
Dawn let out a breath. He wanted to talk, and she wasn’t wasting a minute of it before Meyer reeled him in. She opened the folder and removed a photo.
Before she had a chance to show the picture to Tyler, Wyatt pulled out the chair beside her and slid into it. His scent filled her nose, and she flashed back to the salty sweetness of his skin as they had sex only a few hours ago.
“What do you know about Christopher Larson and Justin Vaughn?” Wyatt asked, his tone low and hard.
Tyler glanced at his tattooed hands. “I know they were also dealers.”
“Are you, or were they part of a gang?” Dawn studied the dark marks over his knuckles. She didn’t recognize them as any gang symbols she was aware of, but she’d also been out of the loop on what went on in the inner cities for several years now.
He shook his head and looked up at her, his dark eyes guarded, but not completely hidden behind his mask of defiance. His black hair fell over his forehead, making him look younger than his seventeen years. How did a rich kid like him end up so messed up?
“Don’t you dare say anything else, Tyler. I won’t have any son of mine going to prison. I won’t be the laughing stock of the Junior League again.” His mother glanced over at the lawyer. “This meeting is over.”
Tyler’s dark eyes hardened as he glared at his mother.
Ah… And there was Dawn’s answer.
Before Raines could get out of her seat, Pete stepped forward from the quiet place he’d taken up against the map of Texas to watch the questioning. “Mrs. Raines, just for the charges your son’s already incurred, he’s facing at least five years in prison. And I’m not talking some cushy juvie boarding school. I’m talking the state pen. This is at least his second offence. I’m prepared to go after him as an adult.”
Tyler’s face paled. “Those other charges were tossed out.”
Pete nodded and leaned over his hands beside Dawn. “My mistake. However, you are a dealer. Chris Larson was a dealer. Justin Vaughn was a dealer. I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot of drugs for a county that has ten times more cows than people.”
“Mr. Grant, what are you getting at?” Meyer leaned forward.
Dawn all but smiled. She knew exactly where Pete was going. “Would you mind telling us where you were Monday morning around four AM? Because I have a witness who says you weren’t home.”
Tyler’s eyes got big, and his mother gasped. “Are you suggesting my son killed those two thugs?”
Wyatt stood and leaned over the table. “That’s exactly what we’re suggesting, Mrs. Raines.”
“No!” Tyler shook his head so fast he sent his punk hairdo flying around his face. “No. I didn’t kill Chris or Justin. We were all dealing for the same man.”
Meyer rested his hand on his shoulder to stop the flow of words. He gave Pete a hard stare. “Okay, Grant. I see where this is going. What can you offer my client if he cooperates and tells you what you want to know?”
Pete straightened and seemed to be calculating his options in the way he rubbed his jaw. “A plea bargain. Tyler tells us whatever he knows, and I’ll reduce the charge to possession.”
“No, not good enough.” Meyer leaned back in his seat. “We want all the charges dropped.”
“I’ll reduce the charges, but I can’t drop them.” With a brow raised, Pete sat in the chair next to Dawn. “Take it or leave it.”
The other lawyer started gathering his notes and glanced at Raines. “I believe we are finished here. We’ll see you at the arraignment.”
“Then we go after your client as our prime suspect in the murders of Larson and Vaughn,” Wyatt said from behind Dawn.
She glanced at him. His jaw twitched and the hardness in his features surprised her. In all the years she’d worked with him, she’d never seen him this cold.
Was it directed at her? Or at the drug dealer?
* * * *
Wyatt didn’t believe for a second Demello killed anyone, but the accusation got the desired effect. The bigwig lawyer sat back and agreed to Pete’s plea bargain. He hated it. Punks like this one had cost him so much, but he’d learned a long time ago that to catch a big fish the little ones sometimes had to be let go.
He didn’t have to like it or make it easy on the shithead.
After a few moments of whispered conversation between Demello and Meyer, the lawyer said, “My client does have a concern about his and his family’s safety.”
“My department will keep you and your family safe.” Dawn picked up the photograph she’d removed from the folder and placed it upside down in front of her. She glanced at it and swallowed. “I promise no harm will come to you, Tyler.”
“So, now you wanna share what you know?” Wyatt came around to the side of the table and leaned over it. Getting close to Dawn wasn’t a good thing and sitting beside her again wasn’t doing anything for his mood.
He’d been a weak fool earlier that evening, but he wanted to talk about the sex. Had it meant nothing to her?
Was it nothing more than a mercy fuck?
Dear God.
His skin was too tight over his bones. He physically ached from the stress and heartache of the day. But he had to get his head back on straight and concentrate on what the kid was saying.
The sooner he solved this case the quicker he could get the hell away from Dawn.
As far as the fence they shared between his ranch and hers allowed.
Great.
“I only know that we all worked different parts of the county. I hit up the Heights,” he said, referring to the sub-division built on the Circle M land. “Chris handled the ranch hands and cowboys that came into his father’s bar, and Justin took care of the high school crowd.”
Wyatt folded his arms over his chest. “Nice little arrangement you had there. What happened?”
The kid shrugged and looked down at his folded arms.
Dawn leaned in and slid a photo toward him. “Have you ever seen this man?”
Jesus, it was a photo of her brother.
Demello glanced at it and shook his head.
“Are you sure? A source told me that a man known as Outlaw is your supplier.”
She’d been busy the past few days.
“Yeah, but none of us ever saw him. He only talked with us on the phones he'd sent to us.”
“How did he first make contact?” Wyatt couldn’t believe Dawn was considering Talon. Although a lot of circumstantial evidence pointed to Talon, he knew he wasn’t their dealer.
Tyler shifted in his seat and glanced at his mother. “Through Justin Vaughn. I’m not sure exactly how or when Outlaw contacted Justin. Chris believed it had been when Justin was arrested back in the spring. Anyway, Justin told me a new supplier was looking for some dealers. I’d just moved to this effing hick town and figured what the hell. I needed some cash and had plenty of people willing to pay.
“How’d you get the product?” Dawn slipped the photo back into the folder.
Tyler shrugged as if the answer was obvious. “We’d get a text to pick it up.”
“Where?” Wyatt held his breath. If they knew where and when, they could catch this bastard.
“It varied. Sometimes, it would be the dumpster behind the Longhorn. Sometimes at the mall. We’d get a call and be told to drop off the cash we owed and pick up new product.”
Dawn leaned back in her chair. “That’s showing a considerable amount of trust. Could you contact Outlaw if you had a problem?”
“Yeah, through texting.” Tyler shifted in his seat.
“Where’s this phone now?” Tilly glanced at Wyatt before turning back to the kid. “We’ll need to see it.”
Wyatt step forward when Tyler reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small, thin smart phone. Tyler laid it on the table with a hand that trembled. Good, the kid wa
s terrified, but Wyatt got the impression his fear didn’t come from the police.
Tyler looked from Tilly to Dawn. “This is the phone, but I can’t give it to you. If Outlaw calls and I don’t answer, he’ll know something is up.”
Dawn picked up the phone and handed it to Tilly. “Call the FBI and get someone here who can download the information from the phone and bring it back.” Tilly nodded and left. She folded her arms over the table and leaned in. “Thank you, Tyler. We’ll get the phone back to you, but you have to promise if Outlaw makes contact, you’ll call the police immediately.”
Meyer squared his shoulders. “My client will agree to the terms only if we can discuss ways to lessen the charges brought against him.”
Wyatt shook his head, but it was Peter Grant who answered with a snort. “Your client just admitted to drug dealing, and you expect me to bargain him out of it?”
“Stop!” Tyler banged his fist against the table. He scowled at the lawyer. “Shut the hell up, will you? I’m willing to help them. As long as they keep me and my family safe.”
Dawn’s shoulders lifted up, then went down on an exhale. “We’ll do everything we can.” She glanced at her notes, rubbing the side of her neck as if the muscle ached under the smooth tan skin, she asked, “Did you ever think of cheating him?”
Wyatt watched the motion and wished he could massage away her tension as he’d done so many times in the past. He turned away and took a deep breath. She didn’t wear perfume, but he was close enough to smell the honeysuckle-scented soap she’d always used.
“Sure. But he assured us if we tried, we’d be dead.”
“Is this what happened to Chris and Justin?” Dawn asked.
Tyler shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. I know they wanted more money.”
“How long has this been going on?” Wyatt paced. He couldn’t stand still. Not when all he wanted to do was take Dawn out of the room and away from all this crap.
“About three months.”
Dawn glanced at notes she’d taken in a small notebook. “My source related that this new supplier wanted a lot of your profits.”
Who had Dawn talked to?
Tyler narrowed his eyes as if he wondered the same thing, then nodded. “Yeah, I guess. He wanted ninety-five percent of what we made.”
Wyatt let out a low whistle and stopped pacing. “Not much for you, considering the risks.”
The kid shrugged and uncrossed his arms. “Nope, not really. I was cooler with it than Justin and Chris. But they needed the money more than me.” He glanced at his mother, who sat staring at her son with wide eyes and a mask of complete horror on her pale, painted doll face. “I also knew how to cut the coke so that I had more of it to sell on the side.” Tyler looked down at his hands. “We thought getting involved would keep us safe. Outlaw promised the cops wouldn’t bother us as long as we played by his rules. Chris and Justin didn’t like it. And now they’re dead.”
Chapter 9
The sun was coming up by the time they were finished questioning Tyler Demello. Dawn had Doug Grant escort him and his mother home, and stay there until she could send a day shift deputy. The DA and Tilly had left to head home.
Wyatt stood from the chair before Dawn’s desk and paced the length of Dawn’s office, sipping strong coffee. He was too tired to stand and too wound up to sit.
Dawn set her cup on the edge of her desk. “Wyatt, get out of here. Go to your family. We can go over Tyler’s interview later.”
He turned to her and shook his head. “No. We need to figure this out. When I left the hospital after… before I came here last night, the doc assured us Rachel would be okay.”
Had she forgotten the raw emotions that they’d shared last night? What had it meant? He wasn’t sure if he was asking the silent question to her or to himself.
She looked down at her desk. “Then at least call someone to make sure that’s still the case.”
“Audrey said she’d call me if anything changed.” He set his mug on the edge of her desk.
Dawn pursed her kissable lips. “Call your sister. I’d like to know how my friend is, even if you think she’s fine.”
He smiled and nodded. “Okay.” He unclipped his phone from his belt and hit the button to call his twin sister.
Audrey answered on the first ring, but her “Hello?” came out sounding tired.
Wyatt glanced at Dawn as she sipped coffee from the bright green mug he’d given her all those years ago. She met his gaze, and the concern in her deep brown eyes pulled at his heart. Running his free hand through his hair, he turned away. “Hey, sis, it’s me. Sorry if I woke you. How’s Rachel?”
“Wy, hi. No, I’m up. She’s still sleeping, but the doctor said she’s improving and doesn’t suspect there will be any problems when she wakes up.”
He closed his eyes as relief washed over him, weakening his knees. “Thank God. Are you home?”
There was a rustling sound in the background and a murmured conversation he couldn’t make out. “No. Lance and I stayed over at Mom and Dad’s, but we’re all at the hospital now. I didn’t want to leave them alone last night. Especially if…” She cleared her throat. “Well, I thought it best to be here since you had to work.”
“Thanks, Audrey. I’m not sure Ma understood that I had to go when the captain called.” After he’d left Dawn’s place, he’d run home to shower and change. Getting Dawn’s scent off his skin had been a priority. On his arrival at the hospital, he’d learned about Demello when his commander at the Rangers had ordered him to the sheriff’s station. He could have told the captain about his sister’s attempted suicide, but since his vacation had been rejected, he’d figured it was best to get back to work and find the killer. The sooner they found the creep, the sooner he’d get away from Dawn. That reason was what kept him here now.
“Mom’ll be okay, Wy. She’s scared, that’s all. Lord knows we all are. I wish I knew how to help Rachel, but sometimes, I wonder if my being around only makes things worse. Especially now with the pregnancy.” She sighed over the phone. “But I do know, whatever happened to cause Rachel to do this, we won’t let it happen again.”
He smiled. Audrey had always been a glass half-full kind of person. “Hey, I gotta go, but call me if you hear anything.”
“I will. Love you.”
“Love you too, sis.” He disconnected the call and faced Dawn. Clipping his phone on his belt, he sat in the chair in front of her desk and met her expectant gaze. “Audrey said she’ll be okay. The worst is over.”
Dawn breathed out a relieved sigh. “That is the best thing I’ve heard in a long time. Now, she just needs to find her way out of this depression.”
“Yeah, but that’ll be the hard part.”
She smiled and flipped open the folder. “But she also has you. You’ll help her through it. If there’s one thing I’ve always lo--eh--liked about you, it is your dedication to your sisters.” Dawn’s near slip not only set her cheeks flaming, but his heart to pounding.
Had she almost said love?
She cleared her throat and shuffled the papers in the file. Pausing, she smiled and looked up at him. “Remember George Fink?”
Wyatt narrowed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. “The bully who tormented you and Rachel during second grade?”
She nodded and picked up her cup, hugging it in her hands. “He picked on Rachel more than me. He was scared to death of Talon. But he never expected you to come to her rescue.”
He laughed. “All the little turd needed was a talking to. After that, he left my baby sister alone, and you too, if I remember correctly, and then he moved away. The only bully who never seemed to get the memo not to mess with my friends was Chet.”
She set her cup down with a scowl. “Yeah, Chet. He’s not a bully anymore, but he is one big pain in my ass.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t send Hendricks to babysit Demello.” He sipped his cooling coffee.
She shook her head and pinched her fingers together. “I’m this close to suspending him.”
He grinned around his mug. “I wonder how long he’ll last before he hangs himself.”
She shook her head. Fatigue showed in the redness of her eyes and the frown lines of her forehead. “Hopefully, it’s soon. And preferably before the election.”
They were both avoiding the big red elephant doing cartwheels in the room. He chuckled and retrieved the coffee pot to refill their cups. As he poured the dark brew into hers, she met his gaze and held it. Her breath caught, and the pulse at her neck fluttered. He affected her as much as her nearness did him, but they had no future together.
He swallowed and backed away to return the pot to the burner. “I’ve been thinking about where the drugs are coming from and think I’ll call a friend I know in Border Patrol.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” She pulled a printout of a map of southern Texas from a folder. “If we could get a handle on where the drugs are coming from, we might be able to follow the trail into town.”
“What do you think?”
She turned the map upside down so that he could see it from his seat. Using a pen, she pointed to Highway Six at the dot that indicated Colton. She traced down the map to Interstate Thirty-five where the roads intersected on the south side of Waco. “I think the drugs are coming from the south.” She continued down the blue line, indicating the major connector between Austin, San Antonio, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Tapping the pen on the border town, she looked at him. “Remember the Blood Dragons?”
“How could I possibly forget?” The Dallas gang was supported by one of the biggest drug cartels in northern Mexico. He and Dawn brought down five of the gang’s members after a six-month investigation in drug trafficking. “You’re thinking Outlaw is getting drugs from the Cotreras Cartel?”
Gambling on a Dream Page 11
