by Debra Webb
There was no way to win here.
His cell vibrated. He dragged it from his pocket and checked the screen. Not a number he recognized. That could be good or bad. “McCaleb.”
Two seconds into the conversation he understood the news wasn’t good. Lyle pocketed his phone and wondered how to break this to Sadie. She didn’t need any more pain and stress. He ducked under the top rail and joined her in the pasture. This was something he couldn’t protect her from.
She studied his face as he approached and then frowned. “What?”
Apparently he’d completely lost his ability to conceal his feelings. “Gus was in an accident. He’s at the hospital. He’s pretty banged up, Sadie, but he’s stable. They’re going to keep him for a while just to make sure.” He heaved a burdened breath. “He’s asking for you.”
The sun-warmed color had faded from her face as he’d spoken. “Take me to him.”
* * *
HE TRIED TO REASSURE her on the way into town. She said nothing, just stared out at the passing landscape. How much was one woman supposed to take? He hadn’t been able to protect her from the pain of any of this. Every aspect of the situation just kept escalating further and further out of control.
She was opening her door before the truck was in Park. He shut off the engine and rushed to catch up with her. The lobby was deserted except for the woman behind the information desk. Sadie stormed her position.
“Gus Gilmore,” she announced. “Where is he?”
So much for decorum. “We got a call that he’d been in an accident,” Lyle explained.
The woman checked her computer. “Third floor.” She looked up and offered a sympathetic smile. “Room 311.”
Sadie headed for the elevator.
“Thank you.” Lyle gave the woman a nod and rushed to catch up with Sadie. The elevator doors closed as he slid inside. “You need to take a breath before you see him.”
“I know what I need to do.” Her hands were pushed deep into the pockets of her jeans, as if she were a kid about to enter the principal’s office. “I don’t know why you insist on telling me what to do.” The elevator bumped to a stop and the doors slid open. “You’re as bad as Gus.”
Lyle let her remark roll off his back. She was protecting herself from yet another harsh reality that had invaded her life. She couldn’t be soft and sweet right now. If she allowed that vulnerability, she would be shattered.
* * *
SADIE PUSHED THE DOOR inward and walked into the room. What the hell had the old man gotten himself into this time? He lay too still in the bed. His face was battered and swollen, the skin an angry red against the stark white canvas of the bed linens. Her knees betrayed her. Lyle served as her buoy and steadied her.
The heart monitor beeped the same slow, steady tempo as the one she remembered from her mother’s hospital room and then her grandmother’s. The wavy lines that accompanied the sound didn’t seem nearly bright and strong enough, but she had no idea what that meant. An IV line dangled from a bag and attached to his arm. When there was nothing else to distract herself with she looked at him again. He wasn’t the strong, mean man she fought with most every day. He was small and weak, and that scared her to death.
“Where’d you get your driver’s license?” she asked as she moved to his bedside. “A Cracker Jack box?”
His lids fluttered open and he stared up at her, his eyes bloodshot and puffy. He made a grumbling sound meant to be a laugh. “I know for a fact that’s where you got yours.”
The air wouldn’t fill her lungs and that damned stinging was back in her eyes. “What do you expect? Look who I had for a teacher.” At first it had been a tractor, twisting and turning all around the fields. Then that damned old truck of her grandfather’s, the same one she still drove. Gus had sworn she’d never make it through the driver’s test driving that way.
Gus closed his eyes. “I guess you’re right about that.”
She braced her hands on the bed rail. “So what happened, old man? Whatever it was you look like you got the short end of the stick.”
“I don’t know.” He blinked a few times then stared at the ceiling instead of meeting her gaze. “Some fool ran me off the road. Probably texting and driving. You young folks don’t have a lick of sense.”
“You break anything?” She didn’t see any sign of a cast or sling.
“Few cracked ribs,” he said nonchalantly. “Got myself a concussion. They’re keeping an eye on my spleen.” He cleared his throat. “Nothing that won’t heal or that I can’t live without.”
“That’s good to hear.” He was in a lot of pain, she could tell. That crazy shaking started deep in her bones.
He reached out to the railing, covered her hand with his. It felt cold and rough, but familiar and comforting. Those damned tears wouldn’t stay back.
“I told them not to bring me here, that I’d be fine, but you know how they can be.” He grunted another pained laugh. “They just want my money. I’ve got their number.”
Sadie produced a smile and nodded. “Most people do.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so.”
No crying. She didn’t dare say anything else. Her entire powers of concentration were necessary to keep her emotions beat back and to stay vertical.
“Get around here where I can see you, McCaleb.”
Lyle did as he asked, standing beside Sadie. She was so damned glad he was here. There were so many questions to which she wanted to demand answers. How could she do that with Gus in this condition?
Gus fixed his attention on Lyle. “I know why you came here.”
“We don’t have to talk about that now, Mr. Gilmore. You need to save your strength. Focus on recovering.”
“To hell you say. I’ve ignored the situation too long already.”
A new wave of anticipation charged through Sadie. She wanted him to make her understand how all this happened—if it was true even though she knew it was. She held her tongue for fear of stopping him. She wanted him to make it all right, as he did when she skinned her knee as a little girl, long before her mother died.
“That woman, Clare Barker, called me the night she was released. Crazy bitch.”
The impact of his announcement shook Sadie hard. It was true. Dear God. She had known. She had. But hearing it from her father somehow made it more real. She hadn’t wanted it to be true.
“Said she was coming for her baby girl. I told her to go to hell. I had my men watching Sadie before you got here, McCaleb, so don’t think you got the jump on me.”
“Course not, Mr. Gilmore. I’m very much aware of how much you love your daughter. You made that very clear a long time ago.”
“Yeah, well, that’s another story for another time.”
Sadie’s brain couldn’t keep up with the dozens of thoughts and memories and theories spiraling there. She didn’t want to hear this. She had thought she did, but she had been wrong. Gus Gilmore taught her how to ride a horse and then a bike. How to drive…how to run a ranch. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t the man who contributed to her DNA, he was her father. Nothing would ever change that. Those hot, salty tears she’d been trying to hold back streamed down her cheeks, and she silently cursed herself for the weakness.
“It was your momma.” Gus’s full attention settled on Sadie then. “She got cancer a few years after we married and they had to take everything to save her.” He made a face that said that loss was irrelevant to him. “I didn’t care, as long as she was okay. I just didn’t want to lose her. But the idea that she couldn’t have children ate at her just like that damned cancer they cut out of her. There was nothing I could do to make her happy. She was just plain miserable. I wasn’t always the perfect husband. I made mistakes. But I knew if I could just find a way to fix things for her, she would be happy. Nothing else in this world mattered to me.”
“She never told me about the first cancer.” Sadie hated the wobble in her voice. She wanted to be strong. This was all so confu
sing.
“It was a hard time for us both.” Gus found that place on the ceiling again, avoiding eye contact. “We kept to ourselves, too broken to be social. The ranch became our refuge. We didn’t have to see anybody, didn’t have to talk about it. But I knew that wouldn’t last forever. Eventually we’d have to deal with the issue.”
Sadie tried her best to prepare for what came next. Lyle placed his hand at the small of her back. It was all she could do to keep from throwing herself against his chest and sobbing like a child.
“I talked to a friend of mine up in Austin. He was one of those fancy lawyers you know would do most anything for money.” Gus fiddled with the sheet with his free hand and kept the other one clasped tightly over Sadie’s. “I didn’t care. I just wanted him to fix this for us. I told him what I needed and how much I’d pay. Six months later he called me and said he had a little girl who needed a home. He took care of all the paperwork and I gave him the cash.”
“Mr. Gilmore,” Lyle said quietly, “do you have any idea who was on the other side of that deal.”
“My friend,” Gus went on as if Lyle hadn’t said a word, “he’d made a reputation for himself in Austin. Folks knew who to go to without having to worry about it making the news or hitting the police’s radar. He said the woman called him with three little girls who needed good homes. He wasn’t a fool any more than I was. It was all over the news, the papers. We both knew where they’d come from, but neither one of us cared.”
“Did you meet this woman?”
Sadie felt Lyle’s tension mounting almost as fast as hers.
“I did not.” He looked directly at Lyle then. “But her name was Janet or Janice, that I know for sure.” He turned to Sadie, his eyes watery with emotion. “I knew you were sisters. I tried to get all three of you, but the lawyer said that was impossible. He wouldn’t accept any offer I made. I figure he was trying to protect you from being discovered. Or maybe himself. The law was looking for three little girls, not one.”
“Can you give me the attorney’s name?” Lyle asked.
“Wouldn’t matter. He died eight or ten years ago. I saw his obit in the newspaper. Fact is, I don’t think he knew any more than I did. This Janet or Janice was smart. She wasn’t about to get caught.”
“You never heard from her or the attorney again?”
“Nope. Not after we picked up Sadie, along with a few baby photos.” He chuckled softly. “She was the prettiest little thing in that fancy dress they stuck on her. She kept pulling at it, trying to get it off. I knew she was going to be a handful.”
Gus turned to Sadie. She tried to smile but she had gone numb about two questions ago. She couldn’t conceive the proper words to say.
“I’m sorry, little girl. I should have told you a long time ago, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. After your mother died I was scared to death of losing you, too.” Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. In her whole life, she had never seen her father cry. “I guess I managed to do that anyway.”
Pride and affection burst inside Sadie. “What’re you talking about, old man? I’m here, aren’t I? You think I don’t have better things to do?” She leaned down and kissed his bruised cheek. “I love you, Daddy,” she whispered. “I always have.”
They cried together for a while. Sadie knew it was time to go. He needed his rest and this emotional exchange had taken a toll. She promised to be back soon. And Gus made Lyle vow that he would keep her safe or die trying. Lyle gave his word without hesitation. Sadie could have sworn his eyes looked a little watery, too.
Outside the room, Sizemore and Radley waited on opposite sides of her father’s door. “Cox is looking for the two of you,” Sizemore said with a sneer.
God, Sadie despised the man. “Good for him.” Sizemore wasn’t worth the energy required to get angry. Cox, either, for that matter.
Lyle kept his arm around her shoulder as they moved through the hospital. Sadie felt some sense of relief. A truckload of sadness. And determination. But relief to understand how this happened. This woman, Clare Barker, was not going to destroy her family. Whatever happened twenty-two years ago was way, way over now. Sadie was a Gilmore, and by God no one was going to change that.
Sadie leaned into Lyle. He and the Colby Agency would find a way to stop this insanity. She was safe with him.
They had reached the parking lot before running into the sheriff. He waited at Lyle’s truck.
“Sadie.” He nodded at her. To Lyle he said, “We have a little problem.”
She rolled her eyes. What now?
“That vehicle that ran your daddy off the road was a truck,” the sheriff informed them.
“Is that why you’ve been inspecting my truck?” Lyle asked pointedly.
Sheriff Cox nodded. “I also sent one of my deputies to take a look at your truck, Sadie.”
All those painful emotions that had been tearing at her since she’d heard that Gus was in the hospital coalesced into one—outrage. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Seeing how you and your daddy have been at odds for a good long while now and you’ve publicly threatened him several times, I would have been remiss not to follow that lead.”
“Are you that inept, Cox,” Lyle blasted him, “or just desperate for a big payoff from whoever put that crazy notion in your head?”
Cox got in Lyle’s face. “I don’t care who you work for, McCaleb, I will arrest you and then you can have all the time you want in jail to think of a way to get back in my good graces.”
Sadie put her hand on Lyle’s arm. “The sheriff’s right. He’s only doing his job.”
Lyle didn’t want to let it go so easily, but he backed off when Sadie sent another silent plea his way with her eyes. She had had enough and so had he.
“Your truck,” Cox said to her, “has damage on the driver’s side consistent with the kind of ramming strategy that sent your daddy practically to his death.”
“I haven’t driven my truck in the last twenty-four hours, Sheriff Cox. If someone else did, then you’ll just have to haul her in and find their fingerprints. But it wasn’t me.” She was proud of herself for remaining calm enough to make the statement in a reasonable tone.
“What time did the accident occur?” Lyle asked.
“’Bout two o’clock as best we can assess.”
“Today?” Lyle persisted. “As in p.m.?”
Sadie stared at him in confusion. Why would he ask that? They had followed Gus in his truck to the Carroll place this morning before noon. The sheriff had been there, too, as a matter of fact. He knew it had to be p.m., probably while they were making love in the barn.
“You know that’s what I mean,” Cox fired back.
“That’s what I thought.” Lyle braced his hands on his hips. “And you’re fully aware that Sadie’s house burned down last night. You were there.”
“That’s right,” Cox agreed. “If she thinks Gus had anything to do with that, the fire is just additional motive, not an alibi.”
Sadie’s cool started seeping from her grasp. How dare this knucklehead make such an accusation! Yes, she and Gus didn’t get along the better part of the time, but that didn’t mean she wanted to hurt him.
“Then why don’t you tell me how she drove her truck when the keys went up in flames along with the rest of her stuff?”
Cox was dumbfounded for about three seconds. Long enough for Lyle to toss in, “If you’ll read your deputy’s report, I stated that when I was ambushed I was inspecting damage to the front driver’s side of Sadie’s truck. What’re you going to call that? Premeditation?”
Cox hitched up his trousers. “I’ll be looking into that.”
“Good,” Lyle groused.
Leaving the sheriff standing there staring after them, Sadie and Lyle loaded into his truck.
“That’s what’s wrong with this town,” he growled as he started the engine, then backed out of the parking slot.
Sadie looked from him to Cox a
nd back. His frustration planted a tiny seed of hope in her heart. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.” He drove away from the frustration. “You need a decent sheriff.”
Her biological mother was out there somewhere trying to get to her daughters. The man who had been her father her whole life had almost been killed in an accident with which the sheriff thought she was involved. Even with all that going down, she leaned back in the seat and felt a sense of optimism for the first time in days. “I guess we do.”
As foolish as hanging on to the idea that he might actually stay was, she needed something to cling to if she was going to get through this.
Chapter Fourteen
Polunsky Prison, 6:00 p.m.
Victoria waited as patiently as possible. Warden Prentice was not happy that she asked for this meeting. He asserted, and rightly so, that each time she was logged in as a visitor he ran the risk of a leak to the media. The press was already sniffing around with regard to the coming execution of the Princess Killer.
But this would not wait. Clare Barker had vanished. There had to be some aspect of her past that would provide a clue to where she would go or to the identity of this one-armed man who had facilitated her vanishing act.
There was no one else to ask. She had no other family and no friends that they were aware of. Whatever Barker could offer might prove useful. He was all they had.
The door opened and Barker was escorted inside by two guards. The usual precautions were taken once he was seated. This time he made eye contact with Victoria the instant he was settled at the interview table.
When the door had closed behind the guards, he asked, “You found my daughters?”
Any sympathy the man had garnered from her on that first visit was gone now. She had concrete reasons not to trust anything he told her. “Janet Tolliver is dead.”
He nodded, his expression one of sadness. “I was told.”
Anger stirred. Was that all he could say? Victoria restrained the urge to demand answers. “How did she know we were coming?”
The hint of anger that surfaced in her voice had Barker searching her face and eyes. “She would never have entrusted you with the information she had if I hadn’t sent word to her.”
