Last Chance Reunion: Texas Cold CaseTexas Lost and Found

by Linda Conrad

  Biting down hard, he gritted his teeth and forced his feet to take him to a standing position. Damn, that hurt. Sweat ran out of every pore as he leaned over and put his head between his knees.

  Once his stomach calmed, he held his arm immobile with the other and checked the room. No weapons of any sort. The .38 he’d stuck in his waistband before the wreck was long gone. But in a dark corner he found some things that might actually help—cleaning supplies.

  A greasy rag was the first object he grabbed. It took him far too long, every second sapping his energy, to turn the rag into a sling and completely immobilize his arm. Once that was done, he sat on a stack of storage boxes for a few minutes to fight the pain and light-headedness. He even used a few minutes to try self-hypnosis, an alternative treatment for pain he’d learned in residency.

  When the pain was at least manageable, his brain began picking up pieces of the very real trouble he faced. If he was the bait to bring Nina, then what would happen to her if she showed up?

  Would she show up? Not since he’d had to trust a team of doctors to keep him alive and give him a new heart had he been forced to trust someone implicitly. But despite her running off without telling him, in his gut he trusted Nina to look for him. It amazed him to feel absolute trust for her.

  Now all he had to do was find a way to keep her alive.

  Clearly the men would have to kill her if she saw them—kill both of them probably. Maybe her stalkers had some other kind of plan for her at first, but now they had gone too far and would have no choice.

  Could he do anything to stop them? If he stayed quiet, they might not know he’d come back to consciousness. Surprise was always a good defense. And not a bad offense.

  He couldn’t sit quietly and wait for Nina to be killed. It simply wasn’t in him. He had to know what was going on so maybe he could stop the worst from taking place whenever it was necessary.

  Easing the door open a crack, Josh peeked out to see where he was. The adjacent room was dark, but it looked in the ambient light from the windows to be a tiny front room with the heavy door to the outside in the center of the far wall. He could hear the voices much more clearly, apparently coming from a kitchen off to the left. A dim glow illuminated that space.

  He snuck into the darkening front room, leaving the door to the storage room ajar, and crossed it as far as he dared. The conversation taking place was finally clear enough to understand.

  “I don’t like this,” said one of the voices. A male with a deep Texas accent. “It’s already getting dark. Trusting Buddy to bring the girl here might not have been the best move.”

  “You don’t get to decide,” said another male with a much more authoritative voice. “I’m in charge here and we do things my way. My friend is already unhappy about you forcing that RV wreck and causing the man’s injuries. No one was supposed to get hurt. Those were my orders, Curly.”

  “I know, Sheriff Hunt. Believe me, I kept trying to tell that to Buddy, but he never listens. That’s why trusting him to deliver the girl seems iffy to me.”

  “Shut up. You’re the one who hired him. It’s your responsibility. I’m here to fix things.”

  Silence settled between the men for a few seconds and Josh had a moment to let the truth settle. The man in charge here was Sheriff Hunt? One of the people he and Nina considered going to for help? Ah, hell.

  The sheriff began speaking again. “If only that idiot woman had come to me like she should have instead of going off to that danged woman sheriff in the next county, everything would’ve been fine. I would’ve taken her witness statement and made sure she was on the next flight out of the state. No bother. No fuss.”

  So… As fuzzy as his head felt, Josh was building a picture of the situation in his mind. Sheriff Hunt was not the murderer, otherwise he would worry about Nina identifying him. And he wasn’t. But apparently he was working for the murderer and knew who he was. Things were looking worse for Nina by the minute. Had she really gone to Sheriff Chance without him?

  Josh had to hold his head up past the guilt and depression dragging him down. If only he’d swept her up and headed for California when she’d first asked, they wouldn’t be in this situation now.

  “Maybe you can still save things, boss.” That hopeful note came from Curly. “When she gets here, you drive her to the urgent care center up north—real slow. I’ll stuff that broken dude in the other room in my truck and beat you there. She’ll never know the difference.”

  Another moment of silence.

  “Okay,” came the hesitant response from the sheriff. “I suppose it won’t hurt to try.”

  At that moment, light from a set of headlights broke the darkness in the front room. Josh carefully rushed back to the storage room, but left the door ajar again.

  “I hear ’em, boss.”

  Josh watched the two men go to the open front window facing a lighted yard and look out.

  “All right,” the sheriff said. “Let’s make sure Buddy got her here in one piece first. Then you sneak into the back room and wait for us to leave before taking that man in there to the truck. I’ll go meet her outside. We won’t even have to come back inside.”

  “Yessir.”

  “But you’d better get to the urgent care place in a hurry or I’ll…” The sheriff suddenly stepped away from the window.

  “Damnation.” He pointed out the front window. “That ain’t the girl. Your pal is dead meat. He brought the Chance County sheriff here instead of the murder witness. Don’t he know his head from a hole in the ground? I may kill him myself.”

  “No. No. Wait, boss.” Curly took a step toward the storeroom and Josh. “We can fix this yet. I’ll go make sure that dude in the next room is good and dead. One bash in the head is the same as the next. We’ll say he died in the wreck. You go on out and talk to the sheriff like nothing is odd. Say you were just trying not to tell the girl the worst until it was absolutely necessary.”

  “That don’t fix nothing. My friend will still be vulnerable for the murder. But…but…” The sheriff twisted his head to stare at the storage room door but he didn’t wait long. “All right. This idea may just postpone the worst until I can get away. Okay. I’ll go outside now. You hurry up and do the deed. Hell. It’s worth a shot.”

  Josh closed the door and looked around for a weapon to protect himself. Nothing. Nothing. Then his gaze landed on the cleaning supplies again. Maybe it would give him enough time to make a break for it. He stepped to the corner and chose his weapons. As the sheriff had just said, Hell. It’s worth a shot.

  Wishing he had the full use of both arms, Josh steeled himself against the pain and picked up a broom, bracing it under his injured arm, then he opened a bottle and left it on the floor where he could get to it in a hurry. He crouched back against the wall right next to the door and waited.

  Curly slowly pushed the door open a little and stuck his head inside. Josh didn’t even breathe. When nothing seemed amiss, Curly rushed into the room.

  Josh stuck the broom out low and tripped him up. Curly went sprawling on the floor, sputtering and yelling. Still holding his breath, Josh splashed ammonia across the other man’s face and stood back.

  The ferocious yowl Curly let out nearly stopped Josh in his tracks. His first impulse was to tend to a fellow human being in pain. But he caught himself in time and dashed around the man’s failing body and slipped through the door.

  *

  Nina was bouncing in her seat. “Let me out. I don’t see Josh. Let me out of here!”

  She’d been locked in the backseat of the SUV, parked in the brush near the old shack where the car had stopped. Most of the men who’d ridden with them had quickly piled out and hidden themselves in the bush to watch over Lacie. Only the driver, the Chance brother named Sam, remained sitting behind the wheel to guard her.

  “Easy, little girl,” he said as he turned her way. “Be patient while we listen in. You don’t want to make any moves that might cause Lacie trouble, rig
ht?”

  Nina slammed back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. She could hear Lacie and Sheriff Hunt greeting each other, but she still wanted to run into the shack to find Josh.

  However, the real pulsating urge to go to him was not what kept running through her mind at all.

  Easy, little girl. She’d heard those same words so many times. She’d dreamed of someone saying them for most of her lifetime—as long as she could remember. Easy, little girl. And they’d been coming from a voice exactly like Sam Chance’s. Why did he sound so familiar?

  Just then the radio on the dash came to life with shouting and she sat at the edge of her seat to listen.

  “What do you mean by calling this here girl by the name of Sheriff Chance, boss?” That voice was a whiny male sound. “That ain’t right. This here’s the girl we been following. What’s going on?”

  Lacie’s voice was the next thing Nina overheard. “Put the shotgun down, Bud. Don’t be foolish.”

  “You tricked me?” the man she’d called Bud asked in a screech. “You made me look stupid in front of my boss?”

  “Put that gun down now!” That voice seemed to come from someone else in charge. Maybe Sheriff Hunt?

  “Where’s Nina?” Another voice, this one coming from farther away, was one she would recognize in an instant.

  “Josh!”

  Surprising sounds came from the radio just then. Gunshots. Several of them.

  “Oh, God. Josh! Let me out of here. Now!”

  Silence descended in the next moment and then Lacie’s voice came spiking through the radio. “All clear. I have Sheriff Hunt in custody and the driver is down. Someone call for an ambulance.”

  Nina grabbed Sam by the arm. “Please. Help me. I have to get to him.”

  For a moment Sam gave her a strange look, then said, “I never could deny you anything.” Unlocking the child-safety doors, he quickly stepped outside with a huge shotgun in his hand and stood waiting for her to jump out. “Stay behind me until we check the area. Make sure the shooting’s really over.”

  The two of them made their way toward the shack. Nina’s natural inclination was to run. But Sam Chance, a lot taller than she was, walked fast enough that she practically had to jog to keep up.

  “Nina!” Josh’s call reached her before she spotted him.

  He was straightening up from a kneeling position beside a man’s body. Meanwhile Lacie and the other sheriff, who was already disarmed and handcuffed, stood close by.

  Josh turned to them. “This one is definitely dead. I’d say killed by Sheriff Hunt’s bullet. But you’ll need a forensic autopsy to be sure.”

  Nina jerked around Sam and ran for Josh. When she got close, she realized his arm was in a funny-looking sling. But that didn’t stop him from grabbing her around the waist with the other arm and pulling her to his chest.

  “Thank God you’re all right.” He breathed deep and placed a kiss on her forehead.

  She buried her nose in his neck and soaked up his warmth, so relieved he was alive that she could barely stay upright. “I’m sorry I left you, Josh. I never should have….” Her throat closed with the emotion.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay,” he murmured over and over. “As long as you’re safe.”

  “You’re hurt.” She leaned back and studied his face, not his arm. “Did they call the ambulance for you?”

  “Mostly the ambulance is coming for another one of your stalkers. I’m afraid I did a number on that guy. But I’ll have to see a doctor, too. I need someone who knows how to return this shoulder back to its place.”

  Before she could say oww in sympathy, another Chance brother came up to Josh.

  “Josh, isn’t it?” Gage Chance seemed to look only at her as he talked to Josh. “My brother Travis is setting the helicopter down in a wide space farther along the road.” Gage was the other brother who’d ridden out with them in the SUV. “He’ll transport you and the other injured to urgent care. Can you walk that far? If not we can rig up a kind of backboard to carry you.”

  “Thanks, but no. I’ll make it.”

  Nina clung to Josh, not wanting to let him loose. “Wait. You can’t go yet. I haven’t said… That is, I haven’t told you I love you. Please don’t leave me.”

  Gage stepped closer and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I think there’ll be room for you in Travis’s helicopter. The rest of us will drive up there to bring you home.”

  Nina thought that was another odd thing for a stranger to say. Man, these Chance brothers were a weird bunch. But weird in a good way. She felt easy around them.

  “Let’s go.” Josh leaned against her side and the two of them followed the crowd of men carrying the injured stalker named Curly to where the helicopter waited.

  “Nina,” he whispered as they slowly made their way, “I heard what you said and I have something important to tell you, too. Something life changing. We need to talk before you talk to anyone else. Promise?”

  “Of course, Josh. I’m not leaving you for any reason.”

  As slow as they walked, Nina felt as though she was walking on air. He was alive. And he loved her. That must be what he’d wanted to say.

  And wasn’t that what she’d longed to hear?

  Chapter 11

  Josh’s frustration level was through the roof by the time they’d relocated his shoulder and filled a pain prescription at the tiny urgent care facility. But Nina never left his side during the ordeal. He’d had a chance to clean up and put on borrowed scrubs. Still, he would’ve rather had the extra twenty minutes to tell Nina the truth.

  It was late by the time everything at the health center had been handled. So the Chances invited them to stay overnight at their ranch. Josh had a gut feeling that some of the Chance family must have recognized their sister, but none of them had said anything to her yet.

  Travis Chance flew them in his helo to the old Chance family homestead where Sam Chance and his wife and kids were living. Lacie along with her husband, Colt, had taken Sheriff Hunt back to the Chance County sheriff’s office to question him and to put in a call to the Texas Rangers, who would come ask their own questions and issue any charges later tonight.

  Josh looked down at Nina as she helped him out of the helo and dreaded telling her the truth of her background, knowing she might not take the news well. She’d spent so many years running from the idea of a family that finding them at this time in her life might not be easy for her to accept.

  Still, she had to know. If nothing else, the Chances were sure to want a relationship with the sister they’d been searching for. How would she react to them?

  He wanted to be the one to tell her. It was his duty. He hadn’t been able to save her from her stalkers, her family had done that. And worse, he’d been the one who’d talked her into staying in the danger area. She should have left Texas long ago—murder witness or not.

  The dull ache in his shoulder reminded him that she’d said she loved him. A day ago he would’ve given his right arm and shoulder to hear that from her. Though, truthfully, he doubted she’d known what she was saying at the time. Things had been a little intense just then. Now, as their time of truth loomed, he felt sure she wouldn’t want anything to do with him afterward.

  Sam picked them up in a Jeep and drove them to his homestead, where his young family had already gone to bed. As they tiptoed their way into the darkened house, Nina seemed too quiet beside him. Gripping his hand as though she never wanted to let go, he would swear she was holding her breath in terror. But nothing seemed the least bit threatening about the house. Far from it.

  “Watch out for the kids’ toys,” Sam whispered as he showed them through the dimly lit living space to the base of the stairs. “We have a couple extra bedrooms upstairs. That okay? Or do you want to stay together?”

  Suddenly Nina let go of his hand and Josh had to drop back to see what was the matter. How they spent the night meant nothing to him; his shoulder would be pretty touchy for a day
or two anyway. If that wasn’t what she wanted—

  When he looked, Nina had already bent to one knee and was totally focused on a small rocking horse. The old-school plaything looked ancient enough to be an antique, but maybe it was just a too-well-loved child’s toy. She laid a hand on its head, petting the mane as though the little wooden horse was a real pony.

  After a second or two spent in silence, she turned her face and looked up at the man standing on the first step and gazing down at the scene. “Sam?”

  “Yeah, little girl, it’s me. Big brother Sam.”

  “And this is Snookie.” Nina said the name as though it were fact and not a question.

  “Yeah,” Sam said hesitantly. “She’s a bit the worse for wear after years of Grandpa Chance, then Dad, then you and now my son Mikey playing with her. But, yeah, that’s your old friend Snookie.”

  “I…” Nina blinked a couple of times and looked around the space with a confused gaze. “And this is our house. I dreamed about this house.”

  She returned her gaze to Josh, whose chest was so tight he thought his heart must’ve stopped. “Do you know?” she asked with a raspy tone.

  When he didn’t answer right away, her voice cracked. “How could you? How could you keep this from me?”

  He knelt beside her. “Yes, I know, my love. But I only found out yesterday on the internet.”

  “How?”

  “Your family has been searching for you. They put a sketch of what you would look like now on a lost-relative page and asked for any word of you. Apparently they’ve been trying to find you since right after you were taken.”

  “Taken?” Nina looked to Sam, who’d bent on one knee, too.

  “Aw, Cami,” Sam croaked, sounding as if a frog had taken up residence in his throat. “There’s so much to tell. So much to catch up on. I wasn’t sure you’d ever remember us. But give us a chance to talk it out. We’ve missed you so much.”

  She put a fist to her heart. “I didn’t want to remember. It hurts too badly to remember.”

  Sam knelt beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Little sister,” he began as he wiped a tear from her cheek, “we don’t want you to hurt. We only want you to be a part of our family again. We’ve never stopped loving you.”