A Threat to His Family

by Delores Fossen

  It was those questions and more that had raced through his mind half the night.

  The other half he’d spent worrying if he’d done the right thing by bringing Laney here to his grandparents’ old house. He needed to talk to Kellan about other options, but he figured his brother was getting some much-needed sleep right now. Owen hoped he was anyway, since Kellan had opted to stay the night at the sheriff’s office.

  Owen got out of the bed he’d positioned right next to Addie’s crib—one they had borrowed from Francine’s friend. Addie was still sacked out, thank goodness, and since it was only 5:00 a.m., she should stay that way for a while. Just in case she woke up, though, he took the baby monitor with him into the adjoining bathroom. Francine had a monitor, too, and she was right across the hall, bunking with Laney in the master bedroom. Gemma was in the only other bedroom upstairs.

  Owen grabbed a quick shower, dressed and headed downstairs to make coffee, but someone had already beat him to it. Someone had obviously beat him to getting up, too, because Eli and Jack were at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. They looked as if they’d been at it for a while.

  “Get your beauty sleep?” Eli asked. His voice was like a grumbling drawl, and Owen figured the comment was just his way of showing brotherly “affection.” Eli showed it a lot.

  Owen had never been able to tell if Eli was truly just a badass or if he’d just been in a sour mood for the past decade. Either way, he appreciated him being here. The nice thing was, he didn’t even have to say it. This was the sort of thing that family did for each other.

  “The question should be—did our little brother get his beauty sleep alone?” Jack smiled as he gulped down more coffee.

  Owen shot him a scowl, not completely made up of brotherly affection because he didn’t like even joking about this. “I’m not having sex with Laney.”

  Both Eli and Jack raised eyebrows, causing Owen to curse and repeat the denial.

  “Maybe you didn’t last night...” Jack took his life into his own hands by continuing to smile.

  “Never,” Owen insisted, pouring himself some coffee as if he’d gone to battle with it. “Laney works for me—worked for me,” he corrected. “And I shouldn’t have to remind you that she lied to me about who she was.”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t know about the lie until last night.” Jack again. “There were plenty of nights before that when sex could have happened. Laney’s a looker.”

  She was, and before he could rein it in, Owen got a flash of that look she’d had on her face when she’d seen him in the barn. There’d been a whole lot of lust in the air in that moment.

  “Hard to believe you wouldn’t go after her,” Jack commented.

  Owen’s scowl got a whole lot worse. “Are you looking to get your butt busted before the sun even comes up?”

  Of course, Jack smiled.

  Eli shrugged and kept his attention on his coffee. “Well, then, if you’re not interested in Laney, then maybe I’ll ask her out.”

  Owen hadn’t thought his scowl could get worse, but he’d been wrong. “Laney lied to me,” Owen emphasized in case they’d both gone stupid and had forgotten. “And because she lied, I didn’t know there was a possibility that thugs could come to my house.”

  Eli lifted his shoulder again. “Bet she didn’t know it, either. Plus, she lied because she wants justice for her sister. A good cause even if she didn’t go about it the right way.” He paused. “She’s taken some hard hits, and she’s still standing. Sounds like my kind of woman.” He gave a satisfied nod. “Yeah, I’ll ask her out.”

  Owen felt the snap of anger as he caught Eli’s arm, ready to drag him out of the chair. The fact that Jack kept smiling and Eli didn’t punch him for the grab clued Owen into the fact that this had been some kind of test. A bad one.

  “Told you Owen was attracted to her,” Jack said with a smirk.

  Yeah, a test, all right.

  Eli shook off Owen’s grip the same easy way he shrugged, took out his wallet and handed Jack a twenty. So, not just a test but also a bet. One involving his sex life.

  Owen was about to return verbal fire, but the sound of footsteps stopped him, and a moment later Laney appeared in the doorway. She immediately froze, her gaze sliding over his brothers before it settled on him.

  “Did something else happen? Is something wrong?” The words rushed out and alarm went through her eyes.

  “No,” Owen assured her. Nothing wrong other than him wanting to throttle his brothers.

  Laney released the breath she’d obviously been holding and put the laptop she’d tucked beneath her arm on the table. “Good. That’s good.” She fluttered her fingers to the stairs. “Addie’s still asleep, but Francine and Gemma are in there. Gemma wants to hold her when she wakes up.”

  Owen had suspected as much. His little girl would get lots of attention today. Too bad it was because of the attack. Addie had been in danger, and it was going to be a very long time before he or anyone else in his family got past that.

  Laney looked at his brothers again, probably thinking she’d interrupted a sensitive conversation about the investigation. She hadn’t, and there was no way in hell he’d tell her about the bet. But it was time for him to get his focus back where it belonged. Better to deal with the investigation than to notice the fit of the jeans Laney had borrowed from Gemma.

  “The Ranger lab has the eavesdropping device,” Owen said, turning to get her a mug from the cupboard. “They might be able to find where the info was being sent.”

  That eased some the alarm on her face, and she poured herself some coffee. “The audio was being sent to a receiver or computer?”

  “It looks that way.” And since he’d started this briefing, Owen added, “Terrance is coming in this morning.”

  “Terrance,” she repeated, her voice strained. “I want to be there when you question him.”

  Owen shook his head. “I can’t allow you in the interview room—”

  “I can watch from the observation room.” She paused, met his gaze. “I just want to hear what he has to say.”

  He didn’t have to think too hard on this. Owen had to take Laney in to make a statement, so she’d already be in the building when Terrance arrived. Since there was no harm in her observing, he nodded and then tipped his head to the laptop. It, too, was a loaner from Gemma.

  “Have you been able to access copies of the info you had stored on your computer?” he asked.

  “Not yet. But I will. I’ve been going through Joe’s files on our storage cloud.”

  Owen immediately saw the shimmer in her eyes. Not alarm this time. She was fighting back tears.

  “I need to find Joe’s killer.” Her voice was just above a whisper. “I need to put an end to this so your life can get back to normal.”

  He nearly laughed. It’d been so long since he’d had normal, Owen wasn’t sure that he’d recognize it. First, losing Naomi and becoming a single dad, and then losing his father. Yes, it had been a while.

  “I emailed both Kellan and you the link and password to the files,” Laney said a moment later. “Joe was more tech savvy than I am, so I’m hoping he has hidden files. It’s a long shot, but something might turn up.”

  “Gemma could maybe help you with that,” Jack said. “Or I know someone else who might be willing to take a look. She’s in WITSEC, but she’s got good computer skills.”

  “Caroline Moser,” Laney provided.

  Owen hadn’t been sure that Laney would know who Jack was talking about, but Longview Ridge was a small town with lots of gossip. Plenty of people knew that Caroline and Jack had been lovers. In love, Owen mentally corrected. But Caroline had been injured in an attack and couldn’t remember any of that. Ditto for not remembering the crime she’d witnessed.

  His father’s murder.

  When Caroline got her memory back,
they’d know the truth. Well, maybe. It was possible that she hadn’t even seen the killer. Obviously she had recalled how to work a computer, so that was a good sign. What they needed, though, were a lot of good signs, not just for his dad’s killer but also for the attack at his place.

  “Don’t involve Caroline in this just yet,” Owen advised Jack. He wanted Caroline to concentrate on recovering so they could get those answers about his father even sooner.

  Jack nodded in a suit-yourself gesture. “What about the gunman you have in custody? Rohan Gilley. He couldn’t have killed Laney’s assistant because he was in jail at the time, but maybe we can use the murder to twist him up a little? Maybe let him believe his boss is tying up loose ends and he could be next?”

  It was a good angle, and Owen would definitely try it and others. It riled him that he might have to offer Gilley some kind of plea deal, but that might be the fastest way to put an end to whatever this was.

  And that brought Owen to the next part of this conversation. A part that neither of his brothers was going to like. Neither did he, but it was something they needed to know.

  “About a week ago, I asked a PI out of Austin to take a look at the file on Dad’s murder,” Owen started. “I just wanted someone with a fresh eye.”

  That definitely got Eli and Jack’s attention. Laney’s, too. “I’m guessing the PI didn’t find anything or you would have told us,” Jack remarked.

  “You’re right. But I have to consider that Dad’s killer might have found out and decided a fresh look wasn’t a good idea, that it would lead us to him or her.”

  Since his brothers didn’t seem the least bit surprised by that, Owen knew they had already considered it.

  “I do new runs on the info all the time,” Eli commented. “Calls, going out to the crime scene, and I’m not quiet about it. It seems to me that if the killer was keeping tabs on us, he would have come after me. I’d be the easiest one to get to.”

  He would be. Unlike Jack, Kellan and him, Eli didn’t have any full-time help on his place, only a couple of part-time hands who checked on his horses when he was working.

  “I do runs, too,” Jack interjected, “and if the killer came after one of us, I figure it’d be me. Because I’m the smartest,” he added, no doubt to lighten the mood.

  It didn’t work, but then nothing could when it came to the hell they’d been through for the past year.

  Owen finished off his coffee and put the cup in the dishwasher. “I’ll go up and check on Addie.” He looked at Laney. “Then I’ll call the reserve deputies to escort us to the sheriff’s office so I can get ready for Terrance’s interview. You can give your statement while we’re waiting for him.”

  Owen headed for the stairs, but he only made it a few steps before his phone rang, and he saw Kellan’s name on the screen. The call got his brothers and Laney’s attention, because they all looked at him. Waiting.

  Since this could be an update on the investigation, he went ahead and put it on speaker.

  “Eli, Jack and Laney are here,” Owen said in greeting to let Kellan know their conversation wouldn’t be private.

  Kellan didn’t hesitate. “The lab just called and they found where the info from the eavesdropping device was being sent.” Kellan paused and cursed softly. “You should come on in so we can discuss how to handle this.”

  Owen silently groaned. If Terrance was behind this, then Kellan would have quickly volunteered that information. “Did Emerson set the bug?” Owen came out and asked.

  “No.” Kellan paused again. “But according to the crime lab, his wife did.”

  * * *

  NETTIE KEATON.

  The woman’s name just kept going through Laney’s head while she drove with Owen and the reserve deputies to the sheriff’s office. And there were questions that kept repeating, too.

  Why had Nettie done something like this? Had the woman also been responsible for the attack?

  Not only was Nettie the DA’s wife, she was also Owen’s sister-in-law. Family. From all accounts, Nettie had been there for Owen after he’d lost his wife and had even taken care of Addie until Owen had been able to find a nanny. It was an understatement that their tight relationship wouldn’t make the interview with her pleasant. But Laney hoped that it would be objective, that Owen would dig hard to get to the truth.

  “The CSIs didn’t find dust on the listening device,” Owen said, reading from the report that Kellan had messaged him just as they were leaving the house. “But since it’d been planted beneath the center drawer of your desk, it’s possible dust wouldn’t have had time to accumulate on it.”

  In other words, there was no way to pinpoint how long it had been there. It turned Laney’s stomach to think that maybe it had possibly been there for weeks. Or maybe even the entire time she’d worked for Owen. Of course, that only led to another question—had Nettie known who she was when she’d come to Longview Ridge?

  Laney had already searched back through her memory to try to figure out if her sister had ever mentioned meeting Nettie. She didn’t think so, but Hadley hadn’t told her everything.

  “The audio feed from the listening device was going to a computer registered to Nettie,” Owen noted.

  Yes, she’d already come to that conclusion from what Kellan had said earlier. “I’m assuming Kellan will get a search warrant for it?” she asked.

  Owen looked up from the report and his eyes narrowed for just a moment. Then he glanced away as if frustrated. “Kellan and I aren’t wearing blinders when it comes to Nettie. If she’s done something wrong, we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

  After just seeing his reaction, Laney didn’t doubt that part, but there was another layer there. Some more fallout. Because this could add another family scar on top of plenty of other wounds.

  “Emerson knew who you were,” Owen said a moment later. “If Nettie did, too, then this could have been her way of keeping tabs on you. It doesn’t make it right,” he quickly added. “But if she was worried about you coming after Emerson, that could be her justification for doing it.”

  True, and Nettie wouldn’t have had trouble getting into the guesthouse. Heck, she probably had a key. There’d been plenty of times when Laney had been in the pasture working with a horse and wouldn’t have been near the guesthouse. Nettie could have easily gotten in without anyone noticing.

  Owen’s gaze came back to her. “Of course, you know I don’t believe Nettie would put me or Addie in danger by sending those thugs to the ranch. And I just can’t see her hiring a hitman to go after your assistant.”

  Laney gave that some thought and considered something else that Owen wasn’t going to like. “Maybe she didn’t think things would go that far. You were still at work, and she might have thought Francine would take Addie with her to the nursing home. She might have justified what she did by believing her niece wouldn’t be in harm’s way.”

  A muscle flickered in his jaw, but his eyes didn’t narrow again. Nor did he dismiss what she was saying. That meant he’d likely already considered it. Was considering it, she amended. It wouldn’t be easy for him, but he would do what was right. So would she. And maybe what they found wouldn’t hurt him even more than he already had been.

  The reserve deputy pulled to a stop in front of the sheriff’s office. When they went inside, Laney steeled herself to face Nettie and Emerson, who would almost certainly be there with his wife. But they weren’t in the waiting area.

  However, Terrance was.

  When he looked at her and smiled, Laney forced herself not to take a step back and kept her shoulders squared. That was hard to do. Even though she hated feeling it, Laney remembered the way he’d attacked her, that look in his eyes clearly letting her know he’d wanted to kill her.

  Terrance was masking that look today. Maybe because he no longer hated her, or perhaps he’d just managed to rein it in. If so,
Laney needed to do some restraining of her own. It was best not to show any signs of fear or weakness around a man like Terrance.

  It was the first time she’d seen Terrance since she’d testified against him at his trial for assaulting her. That’d been six months ago and his short stint in jail hadn’t changed him much. With his acne-scarred face and beaked nose, he was still a very unattractive man in an expensive suit.

  Next to Terrance was another suit and someone else she recognized. The bald guy reading something on his phone was Terrance’s lawyer. He, too, had been at the trial and had tried every dirty trick in the book to have his client declared not guilty. It hadn’t worked, which was probably why the man gave her an unmistakable sneer.

  “Laney,” Terrance greeted her, getting to his feet. “Did I scare you?” That oily smile still bent his mouth a little.

  “No.” Laney made sure she looked him straight in the eyes. “Why should I be afraid of you? We both know if you touch me again, you’ll spend a lot longer than six months in a cage.”

  Terrance’s washed-out blue eyes dismissed her with a glance before he turned to Owen. “I’m guessing you must be Deputy Slater, the local yokel who ordered me here for an interview?”

  “Deputy Slater,” Owen confirmed, ignoring the insult as Terrance had ignored Laney’s comment. Instead he looked at Kellan, who was stepping into the doorway of his office. “I was about to send our guests to an interview room where they can wait until you’re ready to talk to them.”

  “We’ve already waited long enough,” Terrance snapped.

  “And you’ll wait some more. Interview room.” Owen pointed up the hall, his voice and body language an order for them to go there. “Since you’re on probation, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for you not to cooperate with the cops. Even when they’re local yokels,” he added a heartbeat later.