Gambling on a Dream

by Sara Walter Ellwood

  “I’ll tell you later.”

  “Hey?” Her brother’s voice came from the doorway.

  She let go of her father and stared as Talon edged through the door. In his arms, he carried a beautiful little girl with hair the color of wheat and big hazel eyes. “Talon?”

  “I have someone I’d like you to meet.” He took a few steps toward her bed. “Jessie Mae, this is your aunt Dawn.”

  The little girl snuggled close to Talon’s shoulder. In her other arm, she held a raggedy stuffed animal that might have been a bear, and sucked on her thumb.

  “Hi, Jessie Mae.” She swallowed and met her brother’s gaze. “That’s why you disappeared?”

  He nodded and looked at Jessie Mae. Dawn wasn’t sure she’d ever seen so much love shining from her brother’s normally cold eyes as she did in that moment.

  “She’s gonna be living with me from now on.”

  * * * *

  He and his brother-in-law stood in the parking lot of the county impound. Staring at the sheriff’s truck, he shook his head and shoved his hands on his hips. “You know we have to get rid of the kid. We can’t have him running off his mouth again.”

  “Did you figure out who else has been talking?” His brother-in-law moved around the front of the Ford, looking over the damage.

  “I have a few ideas. I think it was Ella Larson’s girl, Annie. But according to what I heard, she left with Charli Quinn this morning for Nashville.”

  The peacock stopped looking over the truck. “I’ll take care of the Demello kid.”

  He scowled at his brother-in-law and pointed at the truck. The idiot had one thing he had to do and fucked it up. “Like you took care of the bitch?”

  The idiot stopped in front of him. He thought he was a big deal because he carried a few muscles and was a few inches taller than him. “It’s not my fault she hit the damned mailbox and slowed her momentum. If she’d hit just the tree or landed in the creek, she’d be dead.” The peacock married to his sister puffed up his chest. “It was you who didn’t want me to just put a fuckin’ bullet in her head. Now what?”

  Turning away, he took his hat off and wiped sweat from his brow. He needed another hit soon. His need for coke was coming sooner and sooner. He couldn’t function without it anymore. “We have to scare her enough so she can’t focus on catching us.”

  “And how the hell do we do that?”

  He looked over his shoulder at his partner and smiled as a plan formed. “You’ll see.”

  * * * *

  Wyatt paced the hall outside of Dawn’s room. Seeing her in that hospital bed brought back every bad memory he had of the shooting.

  “So, who do you think has it out for my girl?”

  Wyatt turned at the sound of Tom Madison’s voice. He cleared his throat and shrugged. “Whoever killed those kids.”

  Tom wiped his hand across his mouth and nodded as he sat in a chair along the wall. “Of course, question is what triggered them into hitting Dawn?”

  “I think talking to Demello last night was the trigger.” Wyatt sat beside the former sheriff and his father’s best friend. “The murderer shouldn’t have known he talked, but it seems like he does.” He leaned over his legs and looked down at his hat in his hands. “Thing is how did they find out?”

  Tom steepled his fingers on his lap and peered at them as if deep in thought. “Hard to say. Maybe someone tipped off the killer.”

  “Maybe. But who?” He squinted down the corridor. The only people in the know, as far as he knew, were the police and the DA. “Sure, the kid could’ve said something to someone on the outside, but I doubt it. He’s scared shitless.”

  He looked over his shoulder as Tom stretched his long legs out in front of him, crossing his scuffed cowboy boots at the ankles. “Do you think someone inside the department might be involved?”

  Wyatt sat up. “I doubt it. I’ve known every one of those guys all my life, and I’d trust my life with any one of them.”

  Tom pursed his lips. “Sometimes, the guy least suspected of a crime is the most guilty.”

  The door to Dawn’s room opened and Talon entered the hallway. He glanced at Wyatt and Tom. As he approached them, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. Talk about freaking shockers. Seeing Talon Blackwell with a kid topped the list.

  Talon leaned a shoulder against the wall and tilted his head to look at his boots. “So, am I still on the short list of suspects?”

  Tom looked at Wyatt, waiting for his response too.

  Twirling his hat in his hands, he took a deep breath. Wyatt didn’t have any evidence exonerating Talon, except what his gut told him. “Are you willing to tell me what you were doing in front of the Longhorn on the morning Chris Larson was killed?”

  Talon shifted his feet and turned around to lean his back on the wall. With a smirk, he shook his head. “I can’t. But I will tell you the reason I was in town had to do with my daughter.”

  “Were you meeting someone?”

  Talon met his gaze with eyes that could freeze carbon dioxide into dry ice. “Yeah, but I’m not telling you who, so stop asking. Like I said, I was in town to meet someone who had information about that little girl in there.” He pointed toward Dawn’s room. “Her mother doesn’t want to be named, and I respect that request even if I hate the reason for it.”

  Tom sighed and stood. “She doesn’t want anyone to know she had your child?”

  Talon looked at the man who had raised him as his own with hard eyes. “Can you blame her? I’m one of the infamous Blackwell bastards. Besides, I’m an ex-con.”

  With a frown, Tom shook his head and tilted it toward the floor. “I’m going back in.”

  After Tom went through Dawn’s door, Wyatt faced Talon. He would never understand what Talon’s beef with his stepfather was, but now wasn’t the time to ask. “So, her mother’s from Colton?”

  Talon only shrugged.

  “I know you went to Las Vegas.”

  That registered a response. Talon scowled and straightened. “Who told you?”

  Wyatt glanced at his hat and sat it on his head. “I’m a Texas Ranger. I have my contacts. But even if I didn’t, your sister has hers. I know you flew out of Dallas last Wednesday night and stayed at a hotel called the Lazy Cactus. Let me see if I can figure out what you were doing while you were there.” Leaning back in his plastic chair, he counted each point he made on his fingers. “The girl's mother is from Colton. You showed up at Black Diamond Casino where Maggie Pratt is a showgirl on Thursday nights. Thanks to the Colton grapevine, I also know Aida Mae Pratt is excited Maggie’s got a job on some cruise ship. Although she makes it sound like she’s a cruise director, we all know Maggie’s an exotic dancer.”

  He smiled and looked at his extended three fingers. “Doesn’t take too much math to add this up. Maggie Pratt is that little girl’s mother. She called you and told you to come get the girl.”

  He tapped the three fingers against his temple. “Or rather, she contacted her sister. You were at Beth’s the night Larson was killed. She didn’t want you parked outside of her place, so you parked your truck down the street and around the block. That’s why you were in front of the Longhorn. Though, I have no idea why you’d be there at four in the morning. Unless she didn’t want to risk anyone seeing you at her daycare center.”

  Talon fisted a hand and chuckled, but it was as humorless as his amber eyes. “Guess that’s why you’re a hot shot Texas Ranger, huh? But I’m not admitting to anything.”

  Wyatt stood and rubbed the scruff on his cheek. He needed a shave. “Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.”

  As he headed down the hall, Talon’s low voice stopped him. “McPherson, if you fuck my sister over again, you won’t like the consequences.”

  He turned and glared at his childhood best friend. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Talon flashed an arctic smile as he passed him. “You’
re a smart guy, figure it out.”

  Chapter 11

  Talon nodded to the nurse seated behind the station in the intensive care unit. “I’m here to see Rachel McPherson.”

  The nurse, whom he vaguely recognized as someone he'd gone to school with, frowned and closed the chart on the counter in front of her. “Only family and close friends are allowed to see her.”

  “Believe it or not Rachel and I are close friends.”

  Before he turned away, she pursed her lips and leveled her gaze on him. “You have five minutes.

  With a single nod of his head, he turned away from the desk and headed toward the room his mother had told him was Rachel’s.

  The nurse didn’t try to stop him as he opened the door. The air in the dim room was heavy with the scent of antiseptic and the incessant beeping of a heart monitor. He swallowed as he took in the machines and IV attached to the woman lying in the bed.

  She looked small and frail, something Rachel had never been. The sight of her broke his heart. As he stopped next to her bed and sat on the chair, she turned to meet his gaze. He had no idea what to say to her, but he couldn’t leave the hospital without seeing her.

  “Talon?” Her voice was weak and hoarse.

  He nodded and averted his eyes to his hat, which he held with a death grip. “You know there was a time I wanted to die. I had a plan, and even thought about doing it. But in the end, I couldn’t go through with it.”

  She turned away.

  Swallowing the dredged up pain of the memories, he went on. “When I was sent to prison for something I didn’t do, I was done. Done with being the bastard son of Jock Blackwell. Done with constantly fighting for everything I’ve ever had. Done with life.”

  “I’m so tired of the pain, but I hate the pity in everyone’s faces more. Why didn’t God just take me too?” The sorrow cracking through her weak voice shot through his heart.

  He reached over and brushed strands of red hair from her cheek and forehead. “I know it seems like the only way out, but death isn’t the answer.”

  “My mother bathes me.” She stared up at him with beautiful blue eyes so full of pain and self-disgust it soured his stomach. “Did you know that? She doesn’t trust that I can do it myself. Wyatt moved in with our parents because of me. He hasn’t lived at home since his sophomore year of college. What the hell do I have to live for?”

  He wiped the tear from her cheek. “They love you. They do these things to take care of you, to help you heal. You have a lot to live for, Rachel.”

  Huffing, she looked at the ceiling. “I have nothing. My fiance is dead, and I will never be able to have a child. Did you know that was all I ever wanted?” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

  “You still have your family. And you still have your friends. Let us know what you need us to do for you and what you don’t. Rachel, we are all here for you. You just have to let us in.”

  But Rachel McPherson never let anyone too close, including the people who loved her. He’d bet that was the real reason she never brought her fiance home, no matter how much she loved him.

  She turned away and he stood. He’d left Jessie Mae with his mother long enough. “The next time you get that low, call me.”

  Meeting his gaze again, she reached for his hand. “You’ve always been there for me, Talon. Thank you for being such a great friend.”

  He smiled and squeezed her cool fingers. They reminded him of twigs of straw that would break with the gentlest of pressure. “I’ll always be here.”

  The door opened and a nurse came in. His five minutes were up. He let go of her hand. “I’ll see you later.”

  As he passed the nurse, he nodded and then headed out the door. Damn it, was he going to let himself get caught in Rachel McPherson’s web again?

  * * * *

  Tilly unlocked the door to Dawn’s office.

  Wyatt entered and turned on the lights. “Thanks. I won’t be long.”

  Dawn’s lieutenant shrugged. “She told me to let you, and only you in.”

  He nodded and glanced around the familiar office. Before she’d taken over the job of sheriff, Zack Cartwright had sat in here. Wyatt and Zack had spent a lot of time here mulling over clues while looking for the cattle and horse thieves a few months ago. Now, he and Dawn were looking for a murderer and drug dealer.

  Tilly left him alone. Wyatt sat in Dawn’s chair and looked over her desk with a smile. She’d always been a neat freak, and her desk reflected it. He pulled out the center drawer to reveal her pens, pencils, and all the other stuff, like a stapler and roll of tape. He closed it and looked to the stacked bins on the left side of her desk containing all of her active files. The only things sitting on top of the desk were a calendar, laptop, phone, and her coffee cup.

  He picked up the bright green oversized mug and turned it upside down. A smudged Happy Birthday, Babe was written in black Sharpie on the bottom. He’d been surprised when he’d seen her still using the mug. With a smile, he remembered the day he’d given it to her two months after they’d moved in together.

  “Happy birthday.” He carried a tray of breakfast food into their bedroom.

  She moaned and turned over. “Yeah, right.”

  He laughed and sat down beside her on the bed. “Oh, c’mon. You’re only thirty, not ninety.”

  Dawn glared at him, but when she looked at the tray of pancakes covered with whipped cream and a big birthday candle stuck in the middle, her face softened. She picked up the green mug of coffee and took a sip. “This is new.”

  “Yep. It’s one of your birthday gifts.”

  She glanced at him. “One?”

  He settled the tray over her lap and leaned back against the pillows. “I also weaseled us a long weekend off together. I thought we’d ride the Harleys up to Chickasaw National Park in Oklahoma. I rented a cabin.”

  “Oh, I like that idea.” She covered her finger with whipped cream and smeared it over his lips. “A lot.” Then she kissed him.

  He couldn’t remember if she ever ate the pancakes he’d slaved over cooking. But he vividly remembered her licking whipped cream off more interesting body parts than his lips, and the amazing weekend they’d shared in the intimate little cabin.

  Swallowing hard, he shook the memory away and set the cup in its place. He was here to see her files on the case, not go through her personal items.

  He found the files for the case and glanced at his watch. Dawn would be leaving the hospital in a few minutes.

  “You look good there. Maybe you should consider running for sheriff.”

  Wyatt looked up to Chet, standing in the open doorway. He stood and picked up the files. “Nope. I know who I’m voting for.” He had to bite his tongue to keep from adding, and it’s not you.

  Chet sat in the chair in front of Dawn’s desk. “Can’t believe someone would cut the brakes on Dawn’s truck. Any idea who it could’ve been?”

  “You know we don’t.”

  With a nod, Chet looked at his hand. “I heard through the grapevine Talon Blackwell was back in town. Maybe he doesn’t want his sister snooping around. Is he being brought in for questioning?”

  “Talon’s not our killer.” He had to leave soon if he planned to meet Dawn at her house. He didn’t understand his need to make sure she was okay, but something drove him to take care of her.

  “How do you know that for sure?”

  Wyatt rounded the desk. “He’d left town to pick up his daughter from her mother.”

  The way Chet’s eyes bugged out of his narrow face would have been funny if Wyatt cared what the deputy thought. “Blackwell has a kid?”

  “Yeah. Cute as a button too.” Wyatt motioned toward the door. “I’m headed out. I know Tilly wants to lock up.”

  Chet stood and followed him out the door. He gestured toward the files. “What you got there?”

  “Case files.” Wyatt waited for Tilly to lock up, then headed for the b
ack door to the parking lot. He glanced at Tilly and set his hat on his head. “I’ll be back.”

  Tilly waved with a smile. “Tell Dawn I’ll talk to her later.”

  He caught the puzzled twist on Chet’s lips as he opened the door. “Will do.”

  * * * *

  “Hold up, and I’ll help you out.” Dawn’s father turned off the engine of his Explorer as he looked over his shoulder at her. He knew her too well.

  Sighing, Dawn let go of the back door handle and waited for him to get out from the driver’s seat and open her door. She’d won one battle already. Her parents had relented to bringing her home after leaving the hospital and not their house.

  Her mother exited the passenger side and came around from behind the rig as Dawn climbed out of the back seat. She hoped her parents missed her wince as she stepped out on her left foot. She’d sprained her knee when it hit the dashboard, and it hurt like a son-of-a-gun.

  The last thing she wanted was to stay with them. Talon and his daughter were camping there since his shack wasn’t any place for a kid. What a shock she’d had when he dropped the oh-this-is-my-daughter bomb. She didn’t want to subject the little girl to all of the tension surrounding her and Talon. Jessie was trying to adjust to her new family. Besides, Hunter and Chief still called the place home. But she hadn’t presented the real reason in her argument to Dad and Mom: She’d been on her own too long to move back in with her parents, even if it was temporary.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come over to the house for tonight?” Mom grabbed the plastic bag holding the clothes Dawn had worn to the hospital and closed the door. A worried frown furrowed Mom’s forehead and played on her lips.

  “No, Momma. I’m fine. I just want a hot bath and to watch some TV.” Which was a complete lie. She’d call the station and asked Tilly to bring the case files to her. Dawn glanced toward the front porch. A flowerpot containing a chrysanthemum had been shattered. Damn, with Taco at her parents’ for the past two nights, the raccoon visiting the barn must have gotten a little braver and come onto her porch. “Just keep Taco for one more night.”