Last Second Chance (A Thomas Family Novel Book 2)

by Kristi Cramer

  As the silence stretched out, she started to feel embarrassed by her forward actions. Just as she was about to withdraw her hand and apologize, they both saw a shooting star arc across the sky to the northern horizon.

  “Whoa,” he said, giving her hand a brief squeeze before letting go to point at the flaming tail as it disappeared. “Did you see that?”

  Glad for reprieve from an awkward moment, Janie turned her attention to the horizon. “I did. That was pretty bright!”

  “My first shooting star,” he said, reverently.

  “It was a fantastic one,” she told him, vowing to let him make the next move.

  ⋘⋆⋙

  Tim stared at the northern horizon a little longer, his feelings mixed about the interruption of the sweet moment between them. When Janie reached for his hand, it took everything in him not to move, but he didn’t know which direction he would have taken. Part of him wanted to lean forward and kiss her; the rest of him wanted to run.

  But the moment had definitely passed. Janie gestured for him to resume their walk, and he clicked his tongue at Roo to start him walking again. They returned to the barn in silence and she closed the big door after them, following behind as he brought the horse back to his stall.

  Without any further words, she rummaged in her bag and came up with a syringe, which she filled with fluid from a vial. He waited to unclip the lead rope until she told him to. Roo sidled away a step as she approached with the syringe, and Tim instinctively reached up to rub under his chin, trying to distract the beast. In a few moments, Janie stepped away, back out into the aisle.

  “You can take his lead off and come out,” she said over her shoulder.

  Tim did as he was told, giving Roo a pat before stepping out and closing the stall door. He hung the lead rope on its nail and turned to look at Janie.

  When she studiously avoided his gaze, he silently cursed. She had obviously wanted something from him out there in the night, but the atmosphere between them was awkward now. His hands twitched at his sides while he debated what, if anything, he should do.

  “Give me a hand?” she said at last, heading out the door.

  Puzzled, he could do nothing but follow. By the time they got out to her truck, she had deliberately returned to her more gregarious self, which told him she was going to put any awkwardness she felt aside. The least he could do was the same.

  “I brought some bedding so I’ll be more comfortable,” she explained as she handed him a sleeping bag and pillow. “Strictly speaking, Roo is doing well enough that I probably don’t need to stay, but....” She gave him a smile. “What can I say? Sometimes I miss sleeping in the barn with my ponies.”

  He helped her carry her gear into the barn and watched her set everything up, helping her move some hay bales into a makeshift bed. It didn’t look comfortable to him, but she seemed pleased with the setup.

  “You don’t have to stay,” she said at length, sitting on the edge of the “bed” and pulling off her boots before wiggling her way into the sleeping bag.

  Unsure of his next move, Tim stood in the aisle before making his decision. “Deke told me I needed to be available to you,” he said at last, although he wasn’t sure the foreman meant he needed to stay out here the whole night. He couldn’t bring himself to leave her out there alone, though. Maybe it was knowing how Kenny, and probably some of the other hands, talked about her. Or, more likely, it was a desire to inflict a kind of self-torture upon himself.

  “Okay then,” she said noncommittally. “But make yourself useful and turn the lights down. There’s a switch over by the archway. Left side.”

  He looked and found a switch. When he flipped it, the lights didn’t go out completely; instead, every third bulb was left burning, reducing the light considerably. Before he turned away, he noticed some letters carved in the wooden wall near the switch. The corner of his mouth lifted as he ran his fingers over a bold rendition spelling out J A N I E, her name standing out among those of her brothers, parents, and possibly her grandparents. Tim could see dozens of names in the circle of light cast by the bulb hanging nearby.

  “There are clean horse blankets in the tack room,” she said, her voice sounding hushed in the quiet barn.

  Stepping inside the alcove where the tack was kept, he spotted the blankets. He grabbed a couple of them and settled on a hay bale across the aisle from her, spreading one blanket below him and covering up with the other. He didn’t lay down, just propped himself against the wall.

  “Tim?” she said. He looked over to see her gazing up at him, her face shadowed.

  “Yes?”

  “Why have you come to Kansas?”

  He thought about how he should answer that question. “Because Mitzi is here,” he said at last, opting to be vague.

  Thankfully, she accepted that answer and didn’t ask any more. Moments later, Deke came into the barn to check on them.

  “All good?” the foreman asked, glancing between the two, nodding at Tim in approval.

  “Yep,” said Janie, smiling up at the older man. “I’m all tucked in, and Tim is being a gentleman and standing watch. Aren’t you, Tim?”

  Tim nodded, pulling a corner of his blanket up over his shoulder again. It really wasn’t big enough to cover him properly, but it would do. He was pretty sure he wasn’t going to sleep tonight anyway.

  Deke nodded back. “Well, goodnight. As you know, I’m only a shout away.” He didn’t wait for a response, just turned and left. Silence returned after the man door shut behind him, broken only by occasional shuffling noises from the stalls around them.

  Chapter Eleven

  The birds—Jax had told him they were starlings—acted as Mother Nature’s alarm clock again, stirring Tim awake as they raised their cacophonous tumult. Blinking, he reached to rub his neck, realizing he had slept in a horribly uncomfortable position. The hay poking him through his jeans and the dust in the air reminded him he was in the barn, and he squinted in the dim light, looking for Janie.

  The bales across the aisle had been upended and pushed against the wall. No trace of her sleeping bag, no trace of her.

  He sighed, letting his head fall back against the wall. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep.

  “’Bout time you woke up, sleepyhead.” He turned to find Janie looking over the wall of Roo’s stall. “Get a move on, mister. We need to walk Roo, then I need to get back to town for my day job.”

  “Um…,” he managed, standing up with the blanket clutched in his hand. He folded both blankets quickly, then took them back to the tack room. By the time he returned, Janie had Roo in the aisle, heading for the door.

  “Can you get the doors?” she asked. “Go ahead and open them both for the day.”

  Tim hurried around her, keeping his distance from Roo’s hindquarters as he’d been warned to do, and pushed open one side, then the other of the big doors to let in the early dawn light.

  Janie paused near him, holding out the lead rope. “C’mon, cowboy,” she said, more cheerful than anyone had a right to be that early in the morning, especially before coffee. If he didn’t know better, he wouldn’t have been able to tell she’d slept in her blue jeans and faded yellow sweatshirt.

  “The corral?” he asked.

  “No. Let’s head over toward the quarantine pen. It can’t hurt for me to take a peek at the new arrivals while I’m here.”

  “Lead on,” he said, following behind her as she turned left out of the doors.

  They walked in silence for a few minutes, heading for an area of the compound he hadn’t been to yet.

  “He’s doing much better this morning, isn’t he?” he ventured at last.

  “Yes, he is. He’s not out of the woods yet, but he’s showing great improvement. I put some hay to soak for him, so once we get back, you can feed him before you head to the chow hall for breakfast.”

  “Sure thing.”

  They walked in silence a little longer, walking along the fence line of an area where a
bunch of cattle stood around. Several of the black-colored animals turned to watch their progress, and Janie seemed to be counting, or maybe running through some kind of mental checklist as she watched them.

  “These the ones from the other day?” he asked, attempting more small talk.

  “Yep. We keep them quarantined from the rest of the herd for about a month to make sure none of them are sick. The last thing we want to do is infect the whole herd through one sick cow.”

  “Hmm,” he said, just to make some kind of acknowledgment of the information. He decided it was too early for small talk.

  Chuckling, she shook her head. “You sure don’t talk much, do you?”

  “I’m going for the strong, silent type.” The words were out before he could censor his humor. “Trying to make like a sponge and soak up all the information you so thoughtfully provide,” he amended, glancing over at her.

  “Oh, you’ll do,” she said with another laugh. He didn’t know what that meant, so he held his tongue as she continued to tell him various details about the farm. By the time they turned back to the barn, they had gone twice as far as a trip out to the corral and back, and Roo happily kept up with them.

  As they approached the barn, her talk returned to the horse. “So, same thing as yesterday. Soak his food, walk him as far as you think he’ll go. Don’t overdo it by waiting until he shows signs of being in pain. Use the last walk as a scale. If he does well for twenty minutes, try walking him for twenty-five. I’ll be back tonight, hopefully before dark, and maybe I’ll walk Carmelita with you. That’s my horse. She’s Nokota, too, but she’s been here longer. Can’t hurt to get Roo used to walking with humans and another horse.”

  ⋘⋆⋙

  “Deputy Thomas,” Mitzi said into the phone, tucking the receiver between her ear and shoulder as she continued to sort through the reports on her desk.

  “Hello, Deputy. This is Franco Vincenzi. Can I have a word?”

  Mitzi stilled her hands. A call from Tim’s PO was probably not a positive thing. She mentally ran through their agreement, but she wasn’t due to report to him for another few days. “What can I do for you?”

  “I wanted to give you a heads-up,” he said, and the funny tone to his voice caught Mitzi’s full attention. He cleared his throat and went on. “This is a bit embarrassing, but I think she was banking on me not telling you about it.”

  Mitzi waited, sure Vincenzi would eventually make sense.

  “Okay, the other day, I get off work and I’m heading to LoDo to grab a brew with some of the guys. On the way there, a car stalls in front of me. When I get out to ask them to move, someone puts a gun to the back of my head, and the guys in the stalled car get out with masks and shotguns.”

  Mitzi swore softly, afraid to wonder what any of this had to do with her.

  “I know, right? So, the one behind me wants to know where your brother is. And get this. It’s a woman.” Vincenzi fell silent, as if that was the only information he had called to report.

  “Well, what did you tell her?”

  He cleared his throat again, but didn’t speak.

  She closed her eyes. “You told her he was here.”

  “Just that he went to Hamilton County to work on a ranch. I think she would have shot me if I hadn’t given her something, and I didn’t know how much she already knew. I figured that wouldn’t give away too much. I mean, there’s got to be a ton of ranches out there, right?”

  “Not really,” Mitzi growled. “We mostly have farms out here, not ranches. The county isn’t all that big.” Vincenzi didn’t say anything, but she could hear him breathing. “Well, at least tell me you know who she is.”

  “I spent all day trying to figure it out,” he said. “But I think I narrowed it down.”

  “To...?”

  “You’re not going to like this, but I’m pretty sure it was Angelisa Salgado.”

  “You’re right. I don’t like it.” Mitzi sat back in her chair as she considered what it meant to have Denver’s most elusive female criminal, who was very high on the most wanted list for her crimes, asking how to find her brother.

  “You don’t think he’s been in contact with her, do you?” Vincenzi asked.

  “Tim doesn’t even have a phone,” Mitzi said, shaking her head to emphasize what she thought of that possibility. “If she was in contact with him, why would Salgado risk confronting you? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “True enough,” Vincenzi allowed. “Well, I gotta go, Deputy. I just thought you should know. I seriously doubt she’d actually go to Kansas, but rumor has it that she had Tom killed while he was still inside.” Vincenzi continued without giving her any time to digest the news about the circumstances around her brother’s death. “I reckon if she has a big enough beef against Tim, her reach could get pretty long.”

  Mitzi heard a voice in the background, then she heard Vincenzi say, “Be right there. You take care, Deputy.”

  Mitzi slowly lowered the phone to its cradle as she thought about the conversation. Tim had given her the brief version of how Tom had died with less than a month to go before his release. He had been involved in an altercation in the yard and someone with a shiv made out of a toothbrush handle buried it in his throat. He had bled out before the guards could get to him. Tim, housed in another unit, hadn’t heard about the incident until the day of his release. She didn’t know much about prison crime, but it sure seemed like it could have been a hit.

  She remembered the day she arrested her brothers and how they had refused to cooperate, but evidence in their possession had led to the seizure of two drug houses. It was Tom’s inability to remember things that had caused him to write the addresses down. Mitzi suspected he was supposed to have eaten the scrap of paper if they got caught, but because she had surprised them, he hadn’t had the chance.

  One of the houses had a significant store of money; the other had a kitchen, a sizeable amount of meth, and baggies with angel’s wings imprinted on them. That was the only indication they’d had as to who the houses belonged to. They had never had enough to go on to even locate Angelisa, much less arrest her.

  Apparently Angelisa Salgado was very patient about tying up loose ends.

  Lifting her cell phone, Mitzi dialed a number from her favorites list. It only rang twice before a voice on the other end said, “Hey, cowgirl. Got a watermelon caper going down?”

  “I should never have told you that story, Mack,” she said with a laugh.

  “Ah, but you did.” She could picture the grin on Mack’s face. “What’s up?”

  She was glad he didn’t want to chat. “You got a sec, Mack? I need a favor.”

  “Anything, Mitz. You know that. Preferably not something that will get me shot at again, but you know I’m here for you.”

  “I do know it, Mack. I need your detective skills.” Mack had made detective off the arrests that had ultimately made Mitzi leave Denver.

  “And you shall have them. What do you need?”

  “I need everything you can get me on Angelisa Salgado....”

  ⋘⋆⋙

  Approaching the barn in the dusk of early evening, Tim nearly ran into a man who stepped from the shadows near the open barn door. Janie had left word that she wouldn’t be back that evening, and he had just returned from taking Roo on the last walk of the day.

  Somehow, he managed not to curse. “Oh, wow! You scared the juice out of me, sir.”

  The man said nothing, just eyed him with cool calculation. It was a little creepy. Tim hadn’t seen anything on his approach to tip him off that there was someone waiting for him. The man was older, probably in his middle sixties, yet he was lean and wiry. There was strength in his bearing, and a solid presence that reminded Tim of the guards at the prison, the ones who had been in the military.

  Tim realized he must be the patriarch of the Thomas family. Janie had said her dad had been in the army and was a Vietnam veteran. The man’s sudden appearance left little doubt that he had been—an
d still was—a force to be reckoned with. Tim already knew he never wanted to be on the man’s bad side.

  He waited, holding Roo’s reins while the horse tossed his head, either in greeting or in an effort to move Tim along so he could get back to his stall. The man reached out to lay a calming hand on Roo’s nose and the horse instantly quieted, blowing softly.

  “Reardon, isn’t it?” the man finally said, holding out a hand for Tim. Tim took it and they shook. His grip was firm and steady, nothing challenging, but if a handshake said anything about men, this man expected respect. Demanded respect. And he would treat you with respect only if he felt you deserved it.

  “Yessir, Mr. Thomas,” he said, remembering Mitzi’s comment about country manners.

  “Wanted to see why the barn was still open. How’s Roo?”

  “Better, sir. Ms. Thomas said it wasn’t as bad as she’d first thought.”

  “Good,” he grunted. “Hate to see an animal in pain.”

  “Me, too, sir. I don’t know much about horses, but I’m already seeing what amazing creatures they are. I’m blessed to have this opportunity to work with them.” Tim stopped. Brown-noser, he chided himself.

  Mr. Thomas grunted again, then the clatter of horses hooves sounded from across the compound. Tim looked up to see a horseman approaching from the house, leading another horse. When he arrived in the circle of light by the barn, Tim saw a man who resembled both Blue and Mr. Thomas sitting atop a powerful-looking light brown horse.

  “Everything good here, Daddy?” the younger man asked. Tim realized he must be Trip, Janie’s oldest brother. They exchanged brief nods.

  “Just checking in with Reardon.”

  “Sun will be setting,” Trip said cryptically. Tim glanced at the western rim of the hollow, realizing that although it was dusk down here, there would still be some sun up on the prairie.

  Mr. Thomas mounted the other horse, a black, and turned back to Tim, looking down at him. “Make sure you close up the barn.”