by Jodi Thomas
“Well,” Lauren murmured, with a smile, “I guess you’ll have to sleep with me.”
A slow smile spread over Lucas’s handsome face. “You think it’s time we stopped hesitating?”
“I think it’s long past.”
She pulled him in and closed the door.
He circled her in his arms and whispered, “You ready to jump, Lauren?”
“I think so. I’d like to try.”
He kissed her forehead as his hands moved over her. “Don’t worry, mi cielo, we’ve got a lifetime to get it right.”
She laughed softly against his shoulder. “Well, I guess we’d better start practicing.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
DAN WOKE TO his phone vibrating on the nightstand. “Five o’clock! Who calls at five o’clock?” He lifted his cell as he rolled back into bed. “This better be important.”
“This is Agent Matthew McMillan with the ATF. We’ll be at your office in less than an hour, Sheriff. We understand you have a search warrant and we’re planning to assist in the raid of the Bar W. We have evidence of a drug operation in progress there.”
“I’ll be waiting for you and you’ll have my full support.” Dan could feel adrenaline popping through his veins. After all the work, the interviews, the worry, what he’d waited for was about to go down. ATF wouldn’t have called if they didn’t have evidence, and apparently they weren’t wasting any time.
He dialed Blade and told him the news. Blade didn’t seem surprised. All he said was, “McMillan doesn’t mess around. I’ll be there in one hour.”
Dan pulled on his trousers before heading to the kitchen to make coffee. By the time he got dressed, the coffee would be ready. Today promised to be the Fourth of July and Christmas all mixed together.
When he flipped on the kitchen light he heard a low groan, like a dying animal was in his study.
Reid! He’d forgotten about the drunk.
“Wake up, Collins. You’re coming with me. We’ve got a date at my office in fifty minutes.”
Reid’s only answer was another groan.
“I’ll uncuff you after I get dressed and the coffee is ready. Don’t worry about cleaning up. I have a feeling I’ll just be moving you to a cell. It’ll be best if you stay out of the way for a while. You can clean up there.”
Ten minutes later, when he returned to the kitchen, Reid was sitting up with the lamp by the couch on. Not surprising, Tim O’Grady was sitting on the other end of the couch, and neither of them looked like they were speaking to the other.
“I got to get that sliding door fixed,” was Dan’s only comment as he got out three cups. “Tim, why are you here?”
“I saw the lights on and Lauren’s car parked out front,” Tim shouted as if Dan were probably hard of hearing by now. “I came over to talk to her.” Tim frowned at Reid. “What’s he doing here? Is he under arrest? Don’t you have a jail you can put drunks in? This is way too much bringing your work home if you ask me, Sheriff.”
“I didn’t bring him home,” Dan said in a low voice. Answering Tim’s questions would be a waste of time; he’d only think of more.
Tim yelled a jumble of cusswords, then shouted, “I think he threw up on the coffee table.”
“Four cups,” Dan said as he reached for another coffee cup. “I’m sure you woke Lauren up, Tim.”
“Five cups.” Lucas stepped from Lauren’s room. He had jeans on but no shirt. “I got to talk to you, Sheriff. You’re not going to believe what we found last night on the Collinses’ back pasture.”
Dan slowly looked around the room. He didn’t know whom to murder first. Part of him simply wanted to go back to bed. The feds were moving in on the Bar W, Tim thought he lived here, Reid was still vomiting, and Lucas may have slept with his daughter.
Dan’s phone rang. He answered in more a growl than a hello. Then hung up without saying a word.
“All of you have to be in my office in fifteen minutes. The highway patrol and the Texas Rangers are showing up at the party early and all hell is about to go knocking on the Bar W door.” He hit 9-1-1. When Pearly answered he said, “Can you be at the office fast? We’ve got company coming in from all over the panhandle.”
Dan didn’t bother to say goodbye.
He looked back at the three men staring at him. Not one moved.
Dan straightened, becoming the general. “Lucas, get dressed and wake Lauren. She’s about to get a big story for her online paper. Tim, uncuff Reid and help him clean up. All of you get to Lauren’s car in five minutes and try to beat me to my office.”
“Me?” Tim shouted. “Why do I have to clean up the drunk? Why do I have to go into the office before dawn? I worked all night on a new story, which by the way isn’t near as strange as whatever’s going on here. I haven’t even been to bed. I’m too sleepy to take orders.”
Before Dan could yell back at Tim, Lauren stepped to her door wearing what looked like Lucas’s Western shirt, and all the snaps were not snapped.
“Morning, Pop,” she said, just as she had every morning since she could talk.
Lucas had the sense to push her gently back into her bedroom. “We’ll be ready in five, Sheriff,” he said as he closed the door.
Maybe he thought Dan was about to say something he’d regret, but in truth, Dan couldn’t think of a single word except maybe how he hated the way the lawyer felt it was his duty to help Lauren with her clothes.
Tim bumped his way around the sheriff as he dragged Reid to the kitchen sink and dunked his head under cold running water. Tim was yelling and Reid was screaming, but Dan simply put on his belt, pulled his service weapon from the safe and looked around for his hat. Maybe when he called Brandi tonight and told her what was going on, she’d make sense of it all.
Ten minutes later they all piled into Lauren’s car and Dan followed them to the station. As they were getting out, Dan put his arm around his daughter and said what he’d said a thousand times over the years, “Are you all right, baby?”
“I’m fine, Pop. I love Lucas. I always have.”
Dan looked at Tim cussing as he tried to unlock the office door and Reid leaning against a pole with his hair still dripping.
Dan whispered low to his only child, “I’m glad, honey. He seems to be the pick of the crop.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
BLADE DROVE HIS rented truck as fast as he could from Indigo Lake, but he was the last to join the party. The sleepy little town’s sheriff’s office was busier than a New York precinct.
He moved through the crowd of Department of Public Safety agents in suits and Texas Highway Patrol officers in uniform. Mixed in were a few Texas Rangers in their white shirts and tan hats.
Pearly, who obviously hadn’t bothered to comb her hair before she rushed to work, was standing on her chair yelling orders. No one listened to the lady who looked like she was dressed as an extra from the Star Wars cantina scene.
Dice tapped his way down the stairs in his cowboy boots. His wide smile sent wrinkles all the way to his ears as he twirled the cell keys on one long, thin finger.
Blade decided to talk to him first. “What are you doing here, Dice? Up a little early, aren’t you?”
“I didn’t want to miss this day. It’s been heading toward us on a slow train for months. I was with Pearly when she got the sheriff’s call and I knew he’d need extra deputies, so I deputized myself and came on in.”
Blade nodded and asked, very officially, “What’s your assignment?”
“Don’t know. Had to make one up for myself. I just finished locking Reid Collins up for being stinking drunk. Put Tim in the cell with him for no reason at all. Thought Tim might talk him to death. Save the state a trial if Collins turns out to be mixed up in this mess.”
Blade wasn’t sure, but h
e thought Dice had just committed at least a half-dozen illegal acts. “You riding with the posse to round up the bad guys?”
Dice shook his head. “Someone’s got to stay here and hold down the fort, protect the womenfolk, answer the phones, eat the doughnuts.”
“I’ll keep you informed,” Blade said. “I think I’d like to be part of this roundup. Have any idea what we’re facing?”
Dice never let the fact he didn’t know anything keep him from talking. “I heard one of the highway patrolmen say they stopped a Bar W cattle truck just over the line into New Mexico a few hours ago. Truck had a false floor. When they pried up a few boards they discovered the whole bottom of the trailer layered in five inches of drugs. Everything from crack cocaine to heroin, packed in neat and tight.” The old cowboy smiled. “Heard they got a tip. Anonymous person, of course.”
Brigman’s voice suddenly carried over the crowd. “Hamilton. I need you in my office.”
Blade wove through the uniforms and stepped into an office almost as crowded as the lobby. He nodded once to the sheriff.
Dan introduced him to Sheriff Fifth Weathers from one county over and a rancher named Staten Kirkland. Both men were well over six feet. They shook hands with Blade as Dan rolled out a map. “We’re each taking a side of the ranch. Kirkland, you take the side that borders your land and part of Hamilton Acres. Fifth, you take the side closest to town. I’m going in on the west side with plenty of men to handle any trouble, so, Blade, you’ll guard the east road.”
All three men nodded, but Blade was the only one who looked at the map.
Dan continued, “We’ve got some miles to cover but you’ll each have three highway partrol cars. One rule: anyone leaving the Bar W is to be stopped and detained. I don’t care if he’s driving a truck or riding a horse or walking out. No one leaves.”
Blade had driven the east border of the ranch with Dan yesterday. He remembered seeing three gates and a few other places where a man could drive out across pasture. The east side would not be hard to watch.
Jerry Cline sliced his way in between Blade and the sheriff. “I’ve rounded up several men who used to work at the Bar W. We’re hauling horses that are already saddled. We’ll go in with you and be ready to ride whenever you say the word, Sheriff.”
Dan nodded. “When this is over, I want to talk to you, Jerry. You’re a good man and I figure it’s about time you started wearing a badge.”
Jerry smiled. “I’ll think about it.”
Jerry disappeared back into the crowd, and Blade decided the sheriff was right—Cline could handle the job.
As the others started rounding up their men, Blade asked, “What about Lucas? He knows that ranch better than anyone here, except maybe Dice.”
“He and Charley Collins are riding with me. The paperwork came in a few hours ago. Lucas’s office is sending it over. D.R. Collins filed all the legal papers we need to have his full cooperation. But he didn’t give Lucas the power of attorney he asked for. He gave it to his oldest son, Charley.” Dan nodded to a young rancher standing next to Lucas. “Charley didn’t want it, but he agreed to stay with us until we get this mess cleaned up. He’ll give us permission to search wherever we need to and with the help of the cowboys I don’t plan to miss a spot on the ranch.”
Suddenly, like a stirred up ant bed, everyone was moving at once. Picking up orders, climbing into cars, heading out as the rest of the town still slept.
To Blade’s surprise, one more person climbed into the sheriff’s car. Dan Brigman’s daughter.
The press. She had a camera around her neck and looked very official.
By the time the town came awake, Blade had a feeling news reports would be coming in and the raid would be over.
Two Texas Rangers signaled that they’d be following Blade. Another climbed in the passenger seat as though Blade had invited him. Like race cars lining up, four convoys headed out. When they reached the county road, Blade veered off to the east with several cars following him.
He saw the lights of one of the other lines of cars, moving silently to the north. Climbing up to the breaks where the land was rough. Kirkland’s caravan. They’d be close to Hamilton Acres.
His land, Blade thought.
If he’d expected it to be exciting, Blade would have been disappointed. Not one shot was fired. All they did was stand around watching, talking low, waiting.
One of the officers in Dan’s party was texting facts, keeping everyone informed. The Texas Ranger read each report aloud with a raspy voice that sounded like he should have been announcing rodeo events.
Sheriff Dan Brigman and his team met the men left at the Bar W at the headquarters’ door. Most weren’t even dressed for work, and only one had taken the time to strap on a weapon. When he saw twenty lawmen looking at him, he quickly raised his hands.
While the sheriff and his crew arrested them and read them their rights, Lucas was in one of the cars, heading to the far pasture along with several cowboys on horseback.
Surprisingly, the men on guard at the box canyon hadn’t tried to block the entrance. It stood wide-open and the two men assigned to guard the trucks inside were asleep.
When they were tapped awake with the barrel of a rifle, they complained that they’d worked all night trying to fix the trucks so they could all roll out at dawn.
Lucas called his information in and all the lawmen listened as he rattled off the facts. Two more trucks with fake floors were loaded and ready to leave the ranch.
Dan and Lucas also texted back and forth as Blade waited on the east side with nothing to report. The highway patrolmen and Texas Rangers had spread out along the east side. Too far apart to see each other in the dark, but each knew a blink of headlights would signal if they needed help.
The Texas Ranger who’d ridden shotgun in Blade’s truck finally stepped out to watch the sunrise. He was a man in his late fifties who looked solid as a rock. He’d be called an old-timer in the ATF, but not here.
“You know what we’re doing, Hamilton?”
“Guarding the road?” Blade guessed.
“We’re standing the gap. You probably wish you were with Brigman, riding in like the posse, but in the overall picture what we’re doing is just as important.”
“I’m happy here. I got enough holes in me, sir.”
The Ranger laughed. “You must be the deputy who was shot a few nights ago. You in any pain?”
“No,” Blade answered honestly. “But it bothers me that I have no idea who shot me.”
“I have a feeling we’ll know that by noon. As soon as we round up all the drug dealers, and drivers, and lowlifes who cook the meth up, they’ll start talking, telling on each other like first-grade boys on the playground.”
Blade smiled. “You think so?”
“I do. I’ve seen it before. They all watch too many cop shows and think if they talk they’ll get a deal, but we’re not in the habit of playing that game.”
An hour passed before the sheriff’s last text came in.
All men accounted for. All teams report to the headquarters for further assignments.
Blade was fascinated at how smoothly it had worked as he pulled up to the headquarters. A dozen men were in handcuffs. One by one the highway patrol picked them up to be transported to Lubbock. Since the truck the ATF found last night had crossed the state line, the feds were moving in to handle the questioning.
Blade felt like an outsider among all the officers and agents. These weren’t the lawmen he usually worked with. He finally wandered into the huge house and found Lucas and Charley at a long table going over stacks of paperwork.
“This place is really something,” Blade whispered. “Swimming pool and tennis courts. A regular country club.”
Charley looked up. “I always hated living here. Still hate even wal
king in the door. If D.R. gets back, this will be his problem. I’m going home to Lone Heart Pass.”
Blade smiled. “You know, I understand completely. It’s something, all right, but it doesn’t feel like home. Why do you think your dad named you to take over?”
Charley shrugged. “I guess he ran out of sons he could disown. But I’m not interested in running a spread like this. If he doesn’t come back, I’m hiring Lucas’s father back to run the place. He has been for years.”
The cleanup lasted all day. Blade had no idea it would take so long. Without Lucas’s midnight ride, they might not have found the operation’s headquarters, or it would have seemed like a small operation. But thanks to the tents in the box canyon, and records found at the house, the men in this operation were going away for a long time. The friends Reid had met that night in Las Vegas turned out to have several drug operations across half a dozen states. The feds said this break was helping with several other investigations.
It was almost sunset when Blade drove Lucas back to the office. For a while both were silent, trying to take it all in.
Lucas finally said, “I should say I’m sorry about you being shot. It was my fault.”
“How do you figure that?”
“I knew too much. I guess they’d assumed my dad was passing information. I wanted him safe and then I thought if I stayed in jail, they’d think I knew more than I did and they’d make a move. They’d come after me, but I’d be just out of reach. I had to give my parents time to disappear. I never thought they’d try to kill me. I thought I might be offered a bribe, or at worst, threatened.”
Blade grinned. “No one ever kills the lawyer, right?”
“Right, but I was talking up how I was going to get in touch with D.R. and get him to come home to find out what was going on at the family ranch. I guess they must have panicked and just decided to get rid of me.”
