The Texas Lawman's Last Stand

by Delores Fossen

  All right. That stole her breath away as only Bo could do. He gave her another of those crushing kisses on the mouth that in no way qualified as a peck, then threw open the door to the interview room.

  Ian smiled when he spotted her, but that smile evaporated when his attention landed on Bo. Or maybe what caused his smile to fade was that he might have sensed the sexual energy between Bo and her. Mattie was certain they looked guilty of something.

  “I didn’t know if you’d come,” Ian told her.

  “I wasn’t sure I would, either.” She tipped her head to the photo on Bo’s phone. “But I really wanted an explanation for that.”

  When Ian looked at the picture, his face dropped, and he gave a weary sigh. “You have this all wrong,” he insisted, thrusting the phone back in Bo’s hand.

  “Really?” Bo challenged. “Why don’t you tell me just how wrong I have it, because you see, you and the marshal look like old friends.”

  “We’re not,” Ian snapped, and he repeated it when he shifted his attention back to Mattie. He stared at her a moment and scrubbed his hand over his face. “Look, I decided to play nice with Tolivar because I want you to be safe. I don’t want you hiding out with the cops. Especially this cop,” he added, tossing a glare at Bo.

  Bo stepped closer, violating Ian’s personal space. “So what did you learn from playing nice?”

  Ian’s glare softened, and he sighed again. “Nothing that I didn’t already know, but I think Tolivar is willing to keep talking to me. He thinks I’m just Kendall’s flunky, so maybe he’ll let something slip when he’s spouting off how much he wants to take Mattie back into custody. I want him to admit that he planted Kendall’s fingerprints on that coffee shop computer. I want him to give me any information that’ll help me put him behind bars.”

  “You really think Tolivar is dirty?” Bo pressed.

  “You bet I do. It makes sense, too. He would have had the expertise to plant Kendall’s fingerprints. He could have sold the info in the Witness Protection files and made it look like a hack job.”

  “Of course, that brings us right back to Kendall. Or you,” Bo added. “You two are the ones who wanted to find Mattie and had the strongest motive for paying someone to give you her whereabouts.”

  “I won’t deny that,” Ian admitted.

  Bo paused, obviously waiting for more, but it didn’t come. “Are you admitting you paid Tolivar to hack into the Witness Protection database?”

  “You know I can’t admit to that.” He looked at Mattie when he spoke. “That would be a felony. But I will say I was desperate to find you, and I knew you’d want to be reunited with your daughter.”

  It was as if all the air went out of the room. Mattie sucked in her breath. “You knew I had a daughter,” she accused. “And you knew where she was.”

  Ian stepped around Bo and reached out to put his hand over her shoulder, but Mattie moved away before that could happen. Ian glanced away, mumbled something and then finally nodded. “Yes.”

  “How did you find out?” Mattie demanded.

  “By having some of my P.I.s follow Larry Tolivar. He’s like a pit bull. He just wouldn’t let go of it, so I had him followed. One of my P.I.s spotted him breaking into Lieutenant Duggan’s SUV, so I figured this might be connected to him.”

  “Wait,” Bo said when Ian was about to continue. “Your man saw the marshal break into my SUV and you didn’t report it?”

  “No reason. The guy didn’t take anything. He just swabbed the infant car seats and taped them down for hair samples.”

  There was only one reason Mattie could think of that someone would want to do that—to get a DNA sample. She wasn’t sure the Justice Department had her DNA on file, but she was betting they did.

  “After the marshal went to Duggan’s house, I put one and one together,” Ian explained. “After all, the lieutenant has two babies who are the exact age that your child would be.”

  Mattie looked at Bo to see if he was buying this. Maybe. Ian was making a good argument.

  “You’re positive you didn’t know about my baby until yesterday?” she asked.

  Ian looked her straight in the eyes. “I swear. Mattie, if I had known where your baby was, I would have tried to get her for you.”

  Bo cursed, and Mattie touched him to stop him from grabbing Ian and putting him up against the wall. She couldn’t stomach the thought of Ian trying to take Holly. Bo was obviously having trouble with that, as well.

  “You would have tried to get her,” Mattie repeated.

  “Ian, I don’t want you involved in this. And I especially don’t want you trying to take my child.”

  He tried to touch her again, but this time Bo batted the man’s hand out of the way, using far more force than necessary.

  “Am I interrupting anything?” someone asked. The door was ajar, and someone pushed it fully open. It was Cicely Carr. “I asked at your office,” she said to Bo. “And they told me you were here.”

  Cicely volleyed glances at all of them, and her forehead bunched up. However, Mattie figured she’d heard at least the last part of the conversation and knew what had prompted the uncomfortable silence.

  “Why are you here?” Cicely asked Ian. She didn’t seem pleased that her fiancé’s attorney was at the police station again.

  “Mattie and I had some things to clear up,” Ian snarled. He grabbed his briefcase from the table. “But it’s useless. She doesn’t trust us, Cicely. She only trusts this cop here.”

  Cicely smiled, and Mattie wondered if anyone could be that sappy sweet and still be genuine. “Of course she trusts us. We’re practically family. Mattie just needs some time, right?”

  Mattie huffed. “What I need is proof of who’s trying to kill me.”

  “Well, you can cross Kendall and me off that list. And Ian,” the woman added after a long pause. “That’s why I wanted to see you again. To tell you that all of this digging into my family’s records isn’t necessary. I’ll tell you anything you want to know, because Kendall and I have nothing to hide.”

  Bo took the woman up on that offer. “Did you give Kendall the money for his part in the illegal arms deal?”

  “Cicely,” Ian said as a warning. “You don’t have to answer that.”

  “But I will. If it’ll make Mattie realize we’re on her side now.” Cicely squared her shoulders and turned to Bo. “Yes, I gave Kendall the money, but neither of us had any idea it was for illegal arms. And no, my parents weren’t involved. I gave Kendall money from my trust fund. So there, you can stop digging and stop asking questions. We’re all on the same side now.”

  “So you keep saying,” Mattie mumbled. “But the bottom line is someone killed Brody.” Her voice cracked a little when she said her late fiancé’s name. “Someone tried to kill Bo and me just this morning.”

  Cicely gave a long sigh and kept her gaze on Mattie. “What will it take to convince you that Kendall wasn’t behind any of that?”

  “What will convince me? Finding proof that someone else did it.”

  Cicely paused a moment and then gave a crisp nod. “All right. Let me see what I can find out.”

  “Don’t,” Bo warned. “If you’re truly innocent in this, then your questions could get you killed. Someone wants to silence Mattie permanently, and this person might not like you trying to finger him.”

  Cicely paused again. “That’s a chance I have to take. For Kendall. He wants Mattie back in his life. Other than me and our unborn child, she’s the only family he has left. Family’s important to him now.”

  Mattie folded her arms over her chest. “Why now? Kendall’s never shown once ounce of family concern for me. What happened to make him change?”

  “I happened,” Cicely said, hiking up her chin. “Kendall fell in love with me, and love changed him. Love, and our baby.” She slid her hand over her stomach.

  Ian cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention back to him. The attorney just stared at Cicely. “You might as wel
l tell them the rest.”

  “The rest?” Bo demanded when Cicely didn’t answer.

  “Kendall is dying,” Ian announced.

  Well, Mattie hadn’t seen that bombshell coming. Apparently neither had Bo, because he looked surprised, suspicious even, but not especially concerned.

  “Kendall’s not dying,” Cicely corrected. “But he does have aplastic anemia. It’s a blood disorder where the body doesn’t make enough red blood cells. He’s on medication, and we’re searching for a bone marrow donor. Once he has the bone marrow transplant, he’ll be fine.”

  “But so far, there’s been no donor match,” Ian explained.

  “Is that what this is all about?” Mattie snapped. “Kendall wants me to be a donor?”

  “You’re not a match.” Ian, again. Cicely was just standing there sniffing back tears. “You were already in the National Bone Marrow Registry, so we checked.”

  That was true. She’d become a registered donor years ago when a friend had needed a marrow transplant.

  Mattie got a really bad feeling about this. “But my child could be a match.”

  Cicely didn’t say anything. She just kept sniffling. However, Ian finally nodded.

  Mattie cursed, and she turned so quickly that Bo had to catch her or she would have fallen.

  “Get out of here,” Mattie demanded.

  “We don’t want to hurt the child,” Cicely insisted. “We just want her tested to see if she’s a match.”

  “And you thought the best way to do that was to kill or kidnap me?”

  “We didn’t do those things,” Cicely practically yelled. “We only want the baby.”

  “Well, you’re not going to get her.” Bo kept his voice calm, though Mattie didn’t know how he managed it. Since he already had hold of her, he got her out of the room.

  “You can’t let Kendall die!” Cicely shouted. “I love him, and I won’t let you do this to him.”

  Mattie ignored Cicely’s ranting, but she heard every word. And every word was motive for why someone had tried to blow up Bo’s home. That perhaps hadn’t been a murder attempt but a kidnapping. If Cicely or Kendall had her, then that would get them one step closer to her baby and the bone marrow that Kendall apparently needed to live.

  “We need to get back to Holly,” Mattie mumbled.

  Bo obviously understood that, and that’s why he was hurrying down the hall with her. “We need to be careful, though. They could have told us about the bone marrow so that we’d rush back to the safe house. I can’t do that. I have to make sure they aren’t following us.”

  “Of course. I wouldn’t put it past them.”

  He led her out of the building, but he didn’t go to the unmarked car that he’d left in the parking lot. “We have to switch cars,” he let her know. “If Cicely Carr or Kaplan had someone watching the parking lot, they could have seen us drive up, and then they could have planted a tracking device on the vehicle. It wouldn’t have been easy to do, but it might have worked if their hired help was wearing a fake cop’s uniform.”

  That caused her breath to race. “And a tracking device would have led them straight to Holly.”

  “That’s not going to happen.” He took her to the motor pool garage and checked out another vehicle.

  “Do you think your uncle’s in love with Cicely?” Bo asked as they got in the new vehicle.

  “I doubt it.” She lifted her shoulder. “I could be wrong, though.”

  “And she could have gotten pregnant to give him a chance at getting another bone marrow donor.”

  She nodded. “True. Plus, there’s the fact that they can’t be forced to testify against each other if they’re married.”

  And it would probably work. Of course, if there was no new evidence against Kendall, there likely wouldn’t be another trial anyway, especially with the arms dealer already dead.

  Mattie didn’t say a word until they were out of the parking lot and on their way. “Maybe this means Kendall no longer wants me dead.”

  “Maybe.”

  He kept watch in the side and rearview mirrors. So did Mattie. No one pulled out of the parking lot with them, but there were plenty of people in the area. Some in parked cars on the streets. Some milling around. One of them could have been hired to watch for them.

  “Maybe?” she questioned.

  He hesitated a moment. “If you’re dead, then as your next of kin, Kendall could petition to get custody of Holly.”

  “Oh, God.” She rammed her fingers through her hair and repeated it. “I have to draw up a will naming you as her guardian. And I have to let Kendall know that killing me won’t get him Holly.”

  “You could also let him think you’ll cooperate with the bone marrow test.”

  Her gaze flew to his. “What do you mean?”

  “If you tell Kendall that you’ll have Holly tested, then that buys us some time. We’re close to figuring all of this out, Mattie, and we just need to give Kendall a little something so that he backs off.”

  She gave that some thought. “But what if it’s not Kendall who’s after me? What if it’s really Marshal Tolivar?”

  Then he and Mattie could have even bigger problems. Tolivar could come after Mattie, maybe to silence her, maybe to kill her, and Kendall and his cronies could try to take Holly.

  “Oh, God,” Mattie mumbled again.

  Obviously, Bo knew what they were up against. And right now, Mattie just wanted to get back to the safe house so they could protect Holly.

  Mattie huffed when they caught the red light just one block up from headquarters, and she checked around them again. Nothing seemed suspicious or worth mentioning to Bo.

  “If I let Kendall think I’m going to cooperate and have Holly tested, what next?” Mattie asked. “Do I actually go through with the test?”

  Bo didn’t answer. Mattie followed his gaze and saw that Bo had zoomed in on a man who was about twenty feet away and walking toward them. The guy was wearing a baseball cap slung low over his face and a raincoat. While there was indeed rain in the forecast, the garment, and the man, gave Mattie an uneasy feeling.

  “You think he could be a problem?” Mattie asked, just as the light turned green.

  Mattie held her breath, waiting for the car in front of them to move. But that didn’t happen. The vehicle still didn’t budge when the cars behind them started to honk their horns.

  That’s when Mattie knew they were in trouble.

  Bo grabbed Mattie and pushed her lower into the seat. Good thing, too. Because the man whipped out a gun from beneath his raincoat.

  And he fired right at them.

  Chapter Twelve

  Mattie heard the blast. Thick and loud, it echoed through the busy street. Despite the fact that it sounded exactly like a car backfiring, she knew that wasn’t the case.

  The sound was a gunshot.

  “Stay down!” Bo shouted, drawing his gun from his shoulder holster.

  Mattie wanted to remind him to stay down, as well, but the next shot drowned out her voice. The windshield shattered, cracking and webbing, except for the gaping hole in the center.

  A hole caused by a bullet.

  That put her heart in her throat. Mercy, they were literally out in the open and right in the shooter’s line of fire. The next bullet proved that. It ripped through what was left of the windshield and dropped a chunk of safety glass right onto her.

  Bo tossed her his phone. “Press the first number and tell them we need help.”

  Mattie had no idea how she managed to press the button to make the call. Her hands were shaking violently.

  “O’Malley,” the officer answered.

  “Someone’s shooting at us.” She looked up at the street signs. “We’re on St. Mary’s.” Though she couldn’t see the cross street.

  “I’m on the way,” O’Malley assured.

  “Get down!” Bo called out, and it took her a moment to realize he wasn’t talking to her but to the half dozen or so pedestrians on the
sidewalk. Most were already ducking for cover or running.

  All except the tall man wearing a raincoat. Although she couldn’t see his face, something about him was familiar.

  “I can’t return fire,” Bo said. With his gun still at the ready, he ducked down. “Too many people.”

  That didn’t stop the gunman, though. He fired another shot into the car, and Mattie heard it slice through the door right next to her.

  Bo cursed and jammed his foot onto the accelerator, plowing their vehicle right into the car ahead of them. There was no driver inside. Maybe he’d run the moment the bullets started firing as the other drivers had done. Or maybe it was more sinister than that. This guy could have been in on this attack. Either way, since there were vehicles on three sides and the gunman on the remaining side, it meant they were trapped.

  An image of Holly flashed through Mattie’s mind. Mattie and her baby might never get to know each other, and that broke her heart. But what broke it even more was that both Jacob and Holly could become orphans if Bo and she couldn’t get out of there.

  She cursed because she didn’t have her gun with her. She could grab Bo and try to run for cover, but the gunman was better positioned. Even though the car wasn’t much protection, it was better than being out in the open where they could be gunned down.

  “Enough of this,” Bo mumbled, and he took aim and fired. Not at the man but into the air so that it wouldn’t hit any innocent bystanders.

  Through the side window, Mattie saw the gunman dive to the sidewalk, joining the others already there.

  She wanted to cheer. The danger wasn’t over, not by a long shot, but at least Bo’s shot had caused the gunman to stop shooting. Mattie doubted the lull would last long.

  Bo didn’t waste any time. He gunned the engine again, his front bumper grinding against the much larger car in front of them. Finally, it moved, but not enough to give Bo room to maneuver them out of there.

  Mattie kept her attention focused on the gunman, and she nearly screamed when she saw him lift his head from the sidewalk.