by Mary Burton
Carefully, she cracked open the back door and snuck through the polished kitchen down the back hallway to her room. She gently opened her dresser drawers and pulled out a pair of jeans, T-shirts, and extra underwear. She also grabbed the hundred bucks she’d hidden under her mattress. As she moved back through the house she could hear her stepfather’s steady snoring coming from the living room.
She returned to the kitchen and opened the stainless steel fridge. It was all but empty except for a six-pack of beer, a jar of mayonnaise, stale Chinese food from three nights ago, and a jar of peanut butter. She snagged the peanut butter and turned to a breadbasket, knowing the bread was only days old. She took the softest pieces from the center of the loaf, dug a knife out of a drawer, and smeared peanut butter on the bread. Her stomach grumbled at the smell of the peanut butter. She was about to take a bite when she heard footsteps in the living room.
“Shit.” She tossed the sandwich and grabbed her knapsack. Her hand was on the back door when she heard her stepfather.
“Where the hell were you last night?” Roger Hail wasn’t a tall man, but what he lacked in height he made up from girth. He had wide shoulders, muscled, tattooed arms and legs that looked like tree trunks. His white, sleeveless T-shirt was stained with hot sauce and his jeans hovered below a beer belly on narrow hips.
Her spine stiffened as she turned to face him. “I was out.”
“Your mother and I were worried.” Bloodshot eyes glared.
“You two were fighting.” Her hatred for the guy goaded her to snipe, “It didn’t seem like you missed me.”
He hiked up his pants. “Maybe we was arguing over your bony ass and all the trouble you cause us.”
Her mother and stepfather’s lives were in the shitter not because they were hopeless drunks, but because they’d been saddled with a teenager. She’d heard this from both of them before, knew it was bullshit, and still it stung.
“I guess as long as my real daddy keeps sending the child support payments, which pay for your beer, you’re gonna have to deal with me. Wouldn’t look good to the social workers or courts if they found out you were pissing away my money.”
“Don’t you get smart with me, girl.” He moved toward her, raising his hand as he did.
She’d been hit by that hand before and remembered the bone-rattling smack that had knocked her to the floor. But as strong as he was, she was smaller and quicker. When he lunged for her she ducked out the back door and ran down the steps toward her car.
He stumbled and stubbed his toe on the threshold. “You worthless little bitch. Get back in this house.”
She shot him the bird as she ran. The momentary sense of accomplishment quickly faded as her trembling fingers fumbled with the door lock. She tossed her clothes in the car, dug in her pocket for her keys, and hit the auto door lock just as her stepfather pounded a meaty fist into the car window.
“Open this fucking door, bitch.”
Hands trembling, she shoved her key in the ignition and turned the starter. As the car engine turned over and fired, Roger reached down and picked up a large landscaping rock and hauled it over his head, ready to toss it through the windshield.
She gripped the wheel, her heart ramming against her chest as she put the car in reverse. She knew he was a mean drunk, but she’d never figured him for a psychopathic killer. “Shit.”
In that instant another car screeched up the driveway. The driver’s quick jerk of the steering wheel and sudden brake landed the car beside hers. Her stepfather’s attention shifted and his angry glare hardened.
To her surprise, Raines got out of the car. Without a glance toward her, Raines moved toward her stepfather, gun drawn, with deliberate slowness that suggested trouble.
“Raines, what are you doing?” she shouted.
He didn’t break stride or turn. “Stay in your car, Danni. We’ll talk after I’ve had a chat with this gentleman.”
Her stepfather clung to the rock but lowered it a fraction. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, pal?”
“I’m here to tell you to leave that kid alone.”
A smile curled the edge of his lips. “Or what? You’ll call the cops. I ain’t left a mark on her.”
“Looks like you were about to.”
“About to don’t hold shit in a court of law.”
Raines pointed his .45 at her stepfather’s head. “Didn’t catch that.”
Her stepfather’s grin vanished. “Wait a minute.”
“Raines,” Danni said. “You cannot just shoot the guy in his backyard.”
Raines grinned. “Why not? It’s easy enough to do.”
The look on her stepfather’s face was priceless. Fear. Hysteria. Anger. All blinked in an instant. “You can’t just kill me.”
Raines shook his head. “I sure can. And I promise you if you come near Danni again I will kill you.”
The old man’s gaze narrowed. “What is she to you?”
“She’s a friend.”
The old man spit. “You mean she’s your whore.”
Danni had heard the word from her stepfather often enough so it only made her flinch a little.
Raines, however, moved several steps forward, the tip of the gun moving closer to her stepfather. “Apologize to Danni.”
“I ain’t fucking apologizing.”
When Raines spoke, his tone was calm and chilling. “I don’t have to kill you with the first shot. I can start with your kneecaps.”
The old man paled. “Why do you care about her? She’s just a damn kid.”
“I have not heard that apology yet.”
Her stepfather looked as if he were chewing on barbed wire when he said, “Sorry, Danni.”
She had to admit it felt good to see the bastard squirm. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
Raines lowered the barrel of his gun to her stepfather’s foot. “You heard the lady. She didn’t hear you.”
“I’m sorry!”
“You get that one, Danni?” Raines said.
“I did. Thanks.”
“Now get back in your house,” Raines said to the stepfather. “And if I hear or see anything regarding this kid that makes me worry, I’m not giving you a warning. I’m going to kill you.”
Her stepfather swallowed and ran back in the house. When he was out of sight, Raines holstered his gun at the base of his back.
Danni dragged long fingers through her hair and rolled down her window. “Man, you still got some moves.”
A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth as he glanced one last time in the stepfather’s direction. “I like to think so.”
“He’s going to be pissed.” Exhilaration mingled with fear. “And I bet he calls the cops.”
“No doubt.” Raines looked down at her.
“Where the hell did you come from, by the way? You were like a fricking ninja blowing in like that.”
“I saw your missed call on my phone last night. I came as soon as I could.”
“I didn’t tell you where I lived.”
“Finding people is what I do.” He glowered at the house, with its perfect and neat exterior. “Is there somewhere else you can stay?”
“I’ve got my car. I’ve also got one hundred bucks. That’ll do. Just three days until graduation and my eighteenth birthday. I’ll be coming into some money then.”
“You’re going to spend the next ten days in a car?”
“Sure. I’ve done it before.”
Raines shook his head. “I’m staying at the Foothills Hotel. It’s not fancy, but it’s clean.”
She blinked. “What, stay with you?”
“God, no.” Genuine amusement softened his expression. “We’d drive each other insane. I’ll get you your own room.”
“And then I would be in your debt. Sorry, cowboy, no can do.”
“My business does well, and I don’t have anyone to spend my money on. Might as well be you.”
“And still, I would be in debt to you.”
“Or what?”
His gaze turned serious. “I’ll call social services.”
She shook her head. “I do not like dealing with those people.”
“Then take the room, finish school, and move on with your life.” When she didn’t agree he said, “Look at it this way, I am paying it forward. Somewhere down the road you will get to do a good deed for someone. Do that deed and consider yourself paid back to me.”
“You’re an odd duck, Raines.”
“So I’ve been told.” He rested his hands on his hips. “You taking the room or am I calling in social services?”
“No strings?”
He laughed. “Like what?”
“Oh, come on, you must know.”
“Danni,” he said, laughter still dancing in his eyes. “No strings. Now want to join me for breakfast? I am starving.”
“Not at the River Diner.”
He chuckled. “I’m a creature of habit.”
“I know a diner. It’s good. And you can get your pancakes.”
“They as good as the River Diner’s?”
“Better.”
“I’ll follow you.”
Beck was still at the crime scene when his cell buzzed just after twelve noon. He glanced at the caller ID and when he saw Austin City Hospital he hesitated. His mind tripped through a hundred different scenarios. A colleague shot. His mother. His grandfather. Releasing a deep breath he opened the phone. “Sergeant James Beck.”
“Ranger Beck, this is Adele Knight at Austin City Hospital. We have your grandfather here.”
He sat back in his patrol car, letting his gaze drift beyond the crime scene. “Is it his heart?”
“Yes. He had a mild episode early this morning. He’s resting comfortably now.”
“I’ll be there within the half hour.”
Beck explained his situation to the people at the scene and then drove to the hospital. The old man was tougher than rawhide, and Beck couldn’t remember a time when his grandfather hadn’t been in command of his life. When he’d been diagnosed with heart disease last year it had been a wakeup call for Beck. The old man wouldn’t live forever. “But another decade or two will do.”
When he arrived twenty minutes later at the emergency room, he found the nurse’s station. He recognized the woman at the station, Jessie Parker. She’d worked with his mother at the hospital for at least a decade. Dressed in green scrubs, blond hair pulled up in a topknot and glasses perched on her nose, she smiled at him. “Beck.”
“Jessie. I hear my grandfather is here.”
She tucked a pencil in her topknot. “He is. Been raising a fuss with the nurses.”
“How’s he doing?”
“It was a serious attack, but he’s hanging tough. He’s in room twelve. Down the hall, fifth room on the right.”
A cold knot clenched his gut. “Is Mom with him?”
“She’s been with him for the last hour, but just took a break to get a coffee. She worked the night shift and needed just a few minutes to herself.”
Beck’s mother worked harder than anyone he knew. When Beck, his mother, and his brother had moved in with his grandfather, the boys had settled quickly and Henry had relished being father to his grandsons. His mother, just nineteen, had not been content. She’d dreamed of being a nurse so the old man had told her to stay put with the boys and get her degree. Soon she had enrolled in a nursing program. By the time he was seven she had her two-year degree, and by the time he’d graduated high school she’d completed the full four-year nursing degree.
Though there’d been opportunities for his mother to find a new place for Beck and his brother, she had stayed with his grandfather. His mother had dated men, and his grandfather had a lady friend he’d been seeing for over twenty years, but his mother and grandfather had never remarried, choosing instead to keep a stable home for Beck and his brother.
Everyone had assumed that when the Beck boys moved out of the house Elaina and Henry would part ways. But Henry had suffered his first heart attack shortly after the boys had moved out, and so his mother had stayed with the father-in-law who had become just as much a father to her as he had to his grandsons.
Beck removed his hat and stepped into his grandfather’s room. The old man lay on his bed, his face as pale as his sheets. Time had not thinned his white hair and thick mustache. Sun-etched lines burrowed deep around his eyes and forehead. The mechanic resembled Wild Bill Hickok.
He was attached to a half dozen wires and IVs, and for the first time in Beck’s memory, Henry looked fragile. Beck pulled up a chair by the old man’s bed, not sure if he should take his hand, say something, or just sit.
“I’m not dead,” his grandfather said without opening his eyes.
Beck loosened his tie. “I hear you’re making life tough for the nurses.”
“I don’t appreciate their fussing.” He opened his eyes and looked at Beck. “What the hell are you doing here?”
With effort, Beck kept his voice steady and light. “I heard you were sick, but I can see they were wrong.”
The old man nodded. “Damn straight. I don’t know what the fuss is about.”
“You had a heart attack,” said Beck’s mother from the doorway. Dressed in nurse’s scrubs, Elaina Beck’s dark hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail. She was a petite woman who’d kept her figure trim and at fifty-one could have passed for a woman at least a decade younger. A gold cross dangled around her neck. “And it was more serious than the last.”
“You worry too much,” Henry said. “Don’t listen to your mother. She’s a woman and women worry.”
Elaina arched a brow. “I am the most sensible woman you have ever known, Henry Beck, so watch your tone with me.”
They’d grumbled at each other like this for as long as Beck could remember. “Has anyone spoken to Steve?”
“I called your brother,” his mother said, “But he did not pick up. I left him a message and told him to find his way back to Austin as fast as his fanny could carry him.”
“Leave the boy alone,” the grandfather said. “He’s most likely working.”
“Working,” Elaina said. “His obligation now is to family.”
Steve Beck worked for the FBI. He rarely discussed his work, which required him to travel a great deal. Right now he could be anywhere in the world.
“I’ll track him down,” Beck said.
“No,” the grandfather said. “Leave the boy be. I’m fine, and I’ll be out of here by sunset.”
Elaina shook her head. “I know my boy. He’ll be here for a few days.”
Beck held his comment regarding Steve. He’d give his brother a little more time and then he would track his ass down. In the meantime, he looked at his grandfather’s pale, drawn face. The doctors and nurses, including his mother, were treating him like an old man. Their intentions were good, but Henry Beck wasn’t used to being babied.
“Old man,” Beck said as he stood. “You need to stop bellyaching and do what the doctors say. You don’t have to like a job to do it well.”
Henry grunted, frowning at words he’d tossed out to his grandsons often enough. “I got enough gas in my engine to kick your ass for being disrespectful.”
“I’d let you try, but I’m in the middle of a case right now. Once it’s solved and you’re on your feet we’ll mix it up.”
“Punk.” Henry closed his eyes, but this time there was a grin on his lips.
Beck clamped his hand over the old man’s and for the briefest second the old man’s fingers curled around his. “See you soon.”
Beck and his mother left the room.
“The way you two talk to each other,” Elaina said.
He cleared his throat. “I know you love him, Mom, but he’s not a child.”
Elaina’s eyes reflected her pain and worry. “He’s a sick old man.”
“Maybe, but don’t talk to him like he is. Give him shi
t just like you used to when Steve and I were kids.”
She clutched her cross and slid it back and forth on its chain. “Your language, Beck.”
“I’m serious, Mom. Don’t treat him like he’s old.”
“I got it. I got it.”
Beck softened his tone. “So how bad is it?”
“Bad. He coded in the ambulance.”
“He called nine-one-one?”
Her intent gaze glistened with unshed tears. “He was on the phone with me when he complained of chest pains. I sent the ambulance.”
His own chest tightened with frustration. It was his job to fix the broken, and he had no remedy for the pain in his mother’s eyes or his own heart. “Is he going to be all right?”
“They need to do more tests and see what damage has been done.”
“He’s tough.” The words were meant to allay his fears as much as his mother’s.
“Not so much right now. Which is why you need to track down Steve. I know your brother loves Henry and would want to see him.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Last I heard he was working a case by the Mexican border.”
She removed her glasses and cleaned the lenses with the edge of her scrub top. “Just find him.”
Beck leaned down and kissed his mother on her cheek. “I will find him.”
Her gaze narrowed as she studied his face. “You’re not sleeping.”
“Like I told Henry, I have a case.”
“I read about the women who were strangled. Is that the case?”
“It is.”
She fingered the cross dangling over her collarbone. “Who would do such a thing to a woman?”
“I don’t know, but I plan to find out.”
She frowned. “Be careful. If this crazy man can kill a woman, he won’t think twice about taking a shot at you.”
“I will.” He’d compromise his own safety in a heartbeat for the opportunity to drop this killer.
