Landon

by Delores Fossen

  “The reserves have orders to stay out of sight,” Grayson added. “I’ve also put out the word that most of the deputies are tied up with the two intruders who were killed at the ranch.”

  Tessa approved of that, as well. Their attacker might not come after them if he or she sensed this was a trap. Of course, the person had been pretty darn bold with the other attacks, so maybe that wouldn’t even matter. Whoever was behind this had no trouble hiring thugs to do their dirty work. That was the reason Landon had insisted on having her wear a bulletproof vest, but she’d put it beneath her shirt in case someone had been watching her go into the sheriff’s office.

  “We struck out on the dead guy in Sweetwater Springs,” Dade said, joining the others and Tessa in the center of the squad room. “He was a homeless guy and doesn’t seem to have a connection to any of our suspects.”

  Which meant he’d been killed just to torture and taunt Landon. And it was working. Every muscle in his body was tight to the point of looking painful, and Tessa figured that wouldn’t get better until this was over.

  “What time is the hypnosis session supposed to take place?” she asked.

  Grayson checked the time. “Right about now. Why don’t you go into the interview room and pretend to get started?”

  That room had been chosen because there were no windows to guard, and the only way to get in was through the door. A door that Landon was personally guarding.

  Tessa sank down at the table to wait. She wasn’t certain how long a real hypnosis session would take, but it was possible the killer would try to put a quick end to it. Which meant bullets could start flying at any moment. Or this trap might fail. After all, the killer could just go after her when she finally left the office, but then he or she wouldn’t be able to put an end to those possible memories before she could tell anyone else about them.

  “You can still back out of this,” Landon assured her.

  Yes, but everyone in the building knew that wasn’t going to happen. Tessa only shook her head. “This could all be over this morning. And then your life can get back to normal.”

  Of course, it would never be normal for Landon or the rest of his family, because even if they caught Emmett’s killer, Emmett would still be dead. It wouldn’t even matter why he died, because it would always be such a senseless killing.

  She heard the footsteps coming toward the interview room, and Tessa automatically went on alert. But it was just Josh, and he had a very puzzled look on his face.

  “Something’s going on with the baby’s DNA test,” Josh said. “I just got off the phone with the lab, and they told me the test results have been suppressed.”

  “Suppressed?” Tessa and Landon repeated together.

  Josh shook his head. “Apparently the feds have removed both the DNA sample and the test results from the lab, and they aren’t making them available to anyone else in local law enforcement.”

  Tessa had no idea what that meant. “Why would they do something like that? And what about the other DNA results Courtney gave us?”

  “Those are being released,” Josh explained. “Well, partially, and only to us. According to those tests, Quincy isn’t the father.” He paused. “Emmett is.”

  That brought Grayson and Dade into the hall with them, and the cousins were as stunned as Tessa was. But it was more than just being stunned. This didn’t seem right.

  “Emmett and Annie were in love,” Tessa said. “Before Annie died, they were trying to start a family. They were happy. I can’t believe Emmett would have cheated on his wife, much less gotten Courtney pregnant.”

  All of the lawmen made sounds of agreement, but she could also feel the doubts. They looked at her as if she might have solid information about this. She didn’t. But it did jog something in her head. Something Tessa hadn’t remembered until now.

  “Courtney and Emmett were talking when she came to my house that night he was killed. I didn’t hear what they said, but the conversation was tense. Maybe even an argument.”

  Landon cursed. “Why didn’t you tell us this sooner?” However, he immediately waved that off because he already knew the answer. He’d asked that question only out of frustration. Frustration that Tessa was certainly feeling, too. “Think hard. Did Courtney ever mention Emmett?”

  “No. But Courtney wasn’t exactly volunteering anything about her personal life.” Which was too bad, because details, any details, would have helped now.

  Landon looked at his cousins. “Any idea if Emmett was romantically involved with Courtney?”

  Grayson and Dade shook their heads, but Josh shrugged. “You know how Emmett was—not one to spill much about his job or his personal life.”

  Tessa knew that. It was because as a DEA agent, Emmett often worked undercover assignments that he couldn’t discuss, and it was possible that Emmett had wanted some information from Courtney about Quincy.

  But she kept going back to Annie.

  The one thing Tessa was certain of was that Emmett and Annie had had a good marriage and that he had been torn to pieces when she’d been killed eight months ago in that car crash.

  Except...

  “What else are you remembering?” Landon pressed.

  Landon didn’t appear to be fishing with that question, either. He was studying her expression, and that was when Tessa realized her forehead was bunched up.

  “It’s probably nothing,” she said. And hoped that was true. “Annie and Emmett were going through fertility treatments, and Annie was desperate to have a child. Maybe Emmett wasn’t as desperate as she was.”

  No one disagreed with that, and it put a knot in her stomach.

  Grayson scrubbed his hand over his face. “Emmett was worried about what the treatments were doing to Annie. But that doesn’t mean he would cheat on her. Their marriage was solid.”

  No one disagreed with that, either. So that meant there had to be some other explanation.

  “Maybe the results Courtney gave us are fake,” Dade suggested. “Maybe Courtney thinks we’ll do more to protect the baby if it’s a Ryland.”

  That could be true, though they were already doing everything humanly possible in that department. “Or maybe Courtney just wanted to make sure Quincy didn’t get the baby, and this was her way of making sure of that.” Tessa paused. “But that doesn’t explain why the feds would suppress the DNA test.”

  Everyone stayed quiet a moment. “Perhaps the feds aren’t suppressing the baby’s DNA but rather Courtney’s,” Landon said.

  “Why would they do that?” Though she’d no sooner thrown out that question than she realized why. “You think Courtney is a federal agent or some kind of informant?”

  Landon lifted his shoulder. “She could be. If she was a deep-cover operative—a Jane, they call them—then her DNA wouldn’t be entered into the system.”

  True. Because it could get her killed if someone she was investigating got access to the database and ID’d her as an agent. But Courtney hadn’t given her any indications that she was in law enforcement.

  And there was something else that didn’t make sense.

  “If Samantha is Emmett’s baby, then why would Quincy believe the child is his?” Of course, Tessa knew the most obvious answer—that Courtney could have been sleeping with both Emmett and Quincy at the same time. No way would she want to tell Quincy that.

  The conversation came to a quick halt when Grayson’s phone buzzed, and a message popped up on the screen.

  “One of the reserve deputies spotted Joel making his way here,” Grayson relayed. “He’s alone and doesn’t appear to be armed.”

  That didn’t mean he wasn’t carrying a concealed weapon.

  Landon snapped in the direction of the front door. “Hell,” he said under his breath.

  She certainly hadn’t forgotten about Joel,
and he was still a prime suspect, but Tessa hadn’t expected him to show up. He was more the sort to send hit men to do his dirty work.

  “We’re busy,” Landon snarled. “You’ll have to come back.”

  “Yes, I heard about the busyness going on. Tessa’s hypnosis. It’s all over town, and I’m guessing you did that to draw out the person trying to kill her.”

  “Is that why you’re here—to try to kill her?” Landon fired back.

  “No.” Joel stretched that out a few syllables. “I don’t want Tessa dead.”

  She couldn’t see his face, but Tessa could almost see the smirk that was surely there. She stood to confront the man herself, but Landon motioned for her to stay put, and he pulled the door nearly shut so there was a crack of only an inch or so. That meant she would still be able to hear the conversation, but Joel wouldn’t be able to see that she wasn’t going through a hypnosis session.

  “Did you miss that part about me saying you’ll have to come back?” Landon snapped to Joel.

  “No, I didn’t, but you’ll want me to stay when you see what I’ve brought you. You wanted proof that Quincy was up to his old tricks. Well, here it is.”

  Tessa hurried to the door and looked out as Joel handed Landon a piece of paper. She was too far away to see what it was, but it certainly got not only Landon’s attention but also his cousins’.

  “Where did you get this?” Landon asked.

  Joel wagged his finger in a no-no gesture. “I can’t reveal my source.”

  “And that means we can’t use this to arrest him.” Landon cursed. “Who gave this to you?”

  “I meant it when I said I can’t reveal my source,” Joel insisted. “Because I don’t know where it came from. Someone sent it to my office in an unmarked envelope.”

  Landon glanced back at her to see if she was watching, and Tessa didn’t duck out of the way in time before Joel spotted her.

  “Did you remember who killed Emmett?” Joel immediately asked her.

  But Tessa didn’t answer. She went back into the interview room and kept listening, though she knew Landon would fill her in on what was on that sheet of paper as soon as Joel left. Which would no doubt be soon. No way would Landon want one of their suspects hanging around.

  “According to this, Quincy is into gunrunning and drugs,” Grayson said, reading through the paper.

  “Complete with dates of the transactions and those involved with Quincy,” Joel bragged. “I’m not sure exactly who Quincy pissed off, but clearly, the person who sent this is out to get him.”

  Yes, and it made her wonder why that person hadn’t just sent it to the police. Of course, all of this could be some kind of ploy on Joel’s part to get the suspicion off him. In fact, Joel could very well be the one behind the gunrunning and drugs, and the names on that paper could be people he wanted to set up to take the fall.

  “Say, do you smell smoke?” Joel asked.

  Tessa immediately lifted her head and sniffed. She couldn’t smell anything, but judging from the way Landon and the others started to scramble around, they did.

  Oh, God.

  Was this the start of another attack?

  Her heart went into overdrive, and even though she’d tried to prepare herself for this, maybe there was no way to prepare for something like that.

  “Get the hell out of here,” Landon ordered, and it took her a moment to realize he was talking to Joel.

  Joel obeyed, and as soon as he was out the front door, Landon hurried to her.

  “Is there really a fire?” she asked, but Tessa soon got the answer, because she smelled the smoke.

  “The reserve deputies didn’t spot anyone other than Joel near the building,” Grayson called out to them. “But there’s definitely a fire in the parking lot.”

  Maybe someone had put some kind of incendiary device on a timer. And maybe it wouldn’t stay just a fire once the flames reached a car engine. They could have another explosion.

  “Hell,” Grayson added a moment later. “There are two fires. Landon and Josh, go ahead and get Tessa out of here. We can’t wait around here for the killer to show up.”

  She reminded herself they’d planned for this just in case they had to evacuate. Landon had parked a bullet-resistant cruiser directly in front of the sheriff’s office, and he’d already told her if anything went wrong, he’d be taking her to a safe house. Not the one where they were keeping Samantha but another one so they wouldn’t lead the killer straight to the baby.

  “Are the reserve deputies sure there are no gunmen in the area?” Landon asked Grayson.

  “They don’t see anyone.”

  But that didn’t mean someone wasn’t out there. Someone hiding in a place the deputies couldn’t see.

  “You know the drill,” Landon told her. “Stay low and move fast.”

  She did, and Tessa figured she was out in the open only a couple of seconds since she literally stepped right out the sheriff’s office and through the back door of the cruiser that Landon had opened for her.

  Josh and Landon, though, were outside longer—and therefore in danger—since Landon got behind the wheel and Josh got into the front seat with him. Landon took off right away, but that didn’t mean they were safe. In fact, this could be playing right into the killer’s hands.

  “The reserve deputies will follow us,” Josh relayed, and he handed her a gun that he took from the glove compartment. “But they’re using an unmarked car.”

  Good. That meant they’d be close enough to provide backup but without completely scaring off the person responsible for the attacks.

  “Where’s the killer most likely to come after us?” she asked.

  But Landon didn’t answer. That was because his head snapped to the left, and Tessa saw the black SUV a split second later.

  Before it smashed right into them.

  The jolt slammed her against the side of the door so hard that it knocked the breath out of her. Tessa gasped for air all the way, praying that Landon hadn’t been hurt or worse. After all, the SUV had slammed into the driver’s side. But she couldn’t see his arm or shoulder. Couldn’t tell if he was bleeding.

  “Hold on,” Landon shouted, and he gunned the engine.

  At least they were able to move and the collision hadn’t left them sitting ducks. As soon as Landon sped away, Tessa heard the sound of other tires on the asphalt.

  The SUV was in pursuit.

  “There’s not even a dent in the SUV’s bumper,” Josh growled, and he turned in the seat to keep watch. He also kept his gun ready, though it wouldn’t do any good for him to fire, since the windows on the cruiser would stop his bullet.

  That also meant it would stop the bullets of their attackers, but since they must have known that, Tessa figured they had something else in mind.

  And they did. The SUV crashed into them again.

  This time Tessa went flying into the seats in front of her, and she barely managed to hang on to the gun. Though it was too late, she grappled around and managed to get on her seat belt. Just as the third impact came. She looked behind her and saw that Josh was right—the SUV bumper was still in place, which meant it’d been reinforced.

  Landon drove as fast as he could, no doubt trying to get away from Main Street so that no one would be hurt. Plus, they were headed in the direction of one of the reserve deputies though she wasn’t sure what he would be able to do. If the bumper on the SUV had been reinforced, then the windows probably had been, as well.

  “Hell,” Landon growled.

  Tessa looked behind her and saw why he’d cursed. The passenger’s-side window of the SUV had lowered, and she saw someone stick out the barrel of a big gun. Except it wasn’t just a gun. It was some kind of launcher.

  Oh, God.

  Were they shooting a grenade
at them?

  She heard the loud swooshing sound and tried to brace herself for an explosion. But it didn’t happen. Instead, something smacked onto the back of the cruiser. Definitely not a grenade. It looked like a lump of clay.

  “Get down on the seat!” Landon shouted to her.

  Not a second too soon, because they hadn’t avoided an explosion after all. The clay must have been some kind of bomb, because the blast tore through the car, shattering the windows and lifting the rear of the cruiser into the air. It smacked back down onto the pavement, stopping them cold.

  Tessa hadn’t thought her heart could beat any harder, but she was wrong. It felt ready to come out of her chest, but she forced her fear aside because they were about to have to fight for their lives.

  The first shot came at them before she could even lift her gun and get it ready to fire. Thank God that Landon didn’t have that problem, though. He pushed her down on the seat and fired out the gaping hole in what was left of the back window.

  Whoever was attacking them didn’t waste any time, either. More shots came, and even though Josh and Landon were using their seats for cover, she knew that bullets could easily go through those.

  She didn’t dare lift her head, since the SUV was just a few yards from her, but Tessa could see the vehicle in the cruiser’s side mirror. And what she saw sent her heart dropping to her knees.

  The person in the passenger’s seat stuck out that launcher again, and he aimed it right at the cruiser. Sweet heaven. The cruiser wouldn’t be able to withstand another direct hit, and that was probably why both Landon and Josh started firing at the guy. He pulled the launcher back inside the SUV. For only a couple of seconds.

  Then he took aim at them again.

  Tessa prayed this wasn’t it, that the three of them wouldn’t all die right here, right now. But then she heard a welcome sound.

  Shots.

  Not ones coming from Josh or Landon. These shots were coming from up the street. Either the reserve deputies had arrived or this was Grayson and Gage coming to help. She hated they were now all in harm’s way, but without their help, Landon, Josh and she wouldn’t get out of this alive.