Settling an Old Score

by Delores Fossen

  “Is the adoption ironclad?” Eli asked her as they walked up the hall.

  “Yes.” She didn’t hesitate, but she did give him a long look. “Why do you ask?”

  “I just don’t want Dominick to spring any surprises on you. I don’t want him trying to get temporary custody because he could convince a judge that you can’t keep Cora safe.”

  He expected for that to put some alarm in those already emotion-heavy eyes. It didn’t. Ashlyn shook her head. “He has no legal claim.”

  “What if you were out of the picture?” he added.

  Now there was some alarm. “You mean if I were dead.” The breath that she blew out was part huff. “It still wouldn’t happen.” But she didn’t sound exactly convinced of that.

  Eli wasn’t convinced of it, either, and even though Dominick might not have a legal claim to the child, the truth was, the birth mother also wouldn’t have a claim, because she’d signed the papers and was the only surviving birth parent. Custody would be up in the air since Ashlyn didn’t have any close family heirs. That could create the right amount of custody chaos for Dominick to make his move.

  He didn’t spell that out for Ashlyn. Planting that seed was enough to make her even more aware—and skeptical—of anything Dominick said.

  When they made it to the interview room, Kellan was already there waiting for them. “Dominick wants to talk to you first,” he told Ashlyn, “and then you’ll have to leave for the actual interview. You can watch from the observation room though if you like.”

  She nodded, murmured a thanks, and she walked in behind Kellan when he opened the door. Eli had no trouble spotting Dominick because he recognized him from his driver’s license photo that Eli had pulled up during his background search on the man. Dominick was tall with a well-toned build. Despite the thread of gray in his dark brown hair, he looked ten years younger than he actually was.

  There were two guys wearing suits on either side of Dominick, and one of them stood when Dominick did. The lawyers gave Eli the once-over with some stink eye thrown in, but Dominick nailed his gaze to Ashlyn.

  “Where’s Cora?” Dominick immediately asked. “Is she all right?” He went to Ashlyn and reached out for her. The man likely would have grabbed her by the shoulders if Eli hadn’t stepped in front of him.

  Dominick spared him a glance, one laced with annoyance, before he glared at Ashlyn. “Where is she?” Dominick repeated.

  “Cora’s fine,” Ashlyn answered.

  Eli wasn’t sure how she managed it, but her voice stayed cool. As did the stare she gave Dominick. She was likely sizing him up, trying to figure out if there was a trace of guilt.

  “I want to see her.” Dominick made that demand through clenched teeth.

  “She’s in protective custody,” Eli volunteered. “No visitors allowed.”

  This time Dominick gave him more than just a glance, and the annoyance went up a huge notch. “I’m Cora’s grandfather.”

  “Not legally, and if this is why you wanted to talk to Ashlyn, then you’ve wasted her time and yours.” Eli took hold of her hand, turning as if to leave, and it got the exact reaction he wanted.

  “You can’t just go,” Dominick snapped. “You must know I’m worried sick about my granddaughter being put in danger like that. Gunmen,” he spat out like profanity. “It’s obvious someone’s after Ashlyn, and Cora could get hurt. She’ll need more protection than what some local badge can give her.”

  Eli tapped his badge. “I’m a Texas Ranger, and since both Ashlyn and Cora are unharmed and safe, I think I did an okay job. Plus, I don’t have any ulterior motives of trying to get custody of Cora. Unlike you.”

  Dominick pulled back his shoulders. There was the heat from temper in his expression, but it only lasted a few seconds before the ice came. Oh, yeah. He was capable of hiring thugs to come after Ashlyn.

  “Are you suggesting that my client was responsible for the attack?” one of the lawyers snarled.

  Eli lifted his shoulder. “If the overly priced shoe fits...”

  That brought the other lawyer lurching out of his chair, but with his cold stare still on Eli, Dominick waved the man down after only sparing him a glance. Obviously, Dominick was accustomed to having even his unspoken orders followed.

  “I have an alibi for last night,” Dominick said, tossing some of that chilly shade on Ashlyn. “Of course, you could say that doesn’t matter, that I could have hired those men. But I didn’t.”

  “Can you prove that?” Ashlyn asked, taking the question right out of Eli’s mouth. He tried not to beam with pride, but that was some backbone Ashlyn was showing under very difficult circumstances.

  Eli hadn’t thought the frost in Dominick’s eyes could go up any, but he was wrong. It did. “Give the Texas Ranger access to my bank account,” Dominick snapped, speaking to the lawyers, though this time there wasn’t even a glance involved. “That’ll prove I didn’t hire anyone.”

  “Thanks for that,” Eli said. “But actually it only proves that you didn’t use money from the one account that you’ll let us examine. It’s my guess that a man who wears a suit like yours probably has more than one account.”

  Eli added a grin that he knew was prime fuel for a hissy fit, which he hoped Dominick would have. Heck, maybe the man would even take a swing at him, and Eli could use the assault to get a warrant to dig even deeper into financials. Goading a possible suspect was a cheap trick, but Eli wasn’t above using it to get this man behind bars.

  With the pulse throbbing on his throat and his eyes narrowed to slits, Dominick certainly looked as if he wanted to throw a punch, but he finally took a step back. His attention slashed from Eli to Ashlyn.

  “You know I wouldn’t do anything to harm Cora,” Dominick insisted. “I love her.”

  The love part certainly sounded sincere, but Eli had seen people do all sorts of stupid things in the name of love.

  “Do I need to go through a judge to get an order to force you to allow me to see my granddaughter?” Dominick added when Ashlyn didn’t say anything.

  Ashlyn stared at him for a long moment. “If you truly love her, you won’t insist on visiting her when hired guns could follow you to her location. You could put her in danger, and I think any judge will agree with me about that.”

  “I’d be careful,” Dominick blurted out, but then he waved that off. He turned away from them, and Eli didn’t think it was his imagination that the man was grappling with that temper of his that was simmering just beneath the surface.

  When Dominick turned back around, he fastened his gaze to Eli. “I don’t know if you’re good at your job or not, but I am aware that you have a history with Ashlyn.”

  It didn’t surprise Eli that this man had had him investigated, and it only proved what Eli had said to Ashlyn earlier. Dominick could have used their past to put together an attack, one that would be harder to trace back to him.

  “I don’t think you’ve looked at all the possible angles about the attack at your house,” Dominick added.

  “Are you about to tell me that I should be investigating Remy Sager?” Eli came out and asked.

  Dominick’s glare turned to a frown. Apparently, he wasn’t happy that Eli had spoiled his big reveal.

  “That’s a good start,” Dominick grumbled. Now there was some sarcasm in his voice, proving to Eli that the check Dominick had done on Ashlyn and him had gone deep. Of course, Eli hadn’t expected anything less. “But you need to look at others, because I believe what happened to Ashlyn and Cora is connected to Marta Seaver’s murder.”

  “Oh?” Eli was pretty sure his sarcasm was better than Dominick’s. A small victory, but he didn’t like this jerk’s attitude.

  “Oh,” Dominick repeated like profanity. “I know that Leon Taggart is in jail for his part in setting up her murder, but he might have a reach beyond prison bars. You might
want to look at Leon’s old friend Oscar Cronin.”

  The name was familiar to Eli. Very familiar. Oscar owned a pawnshop, and he had an extremely shady past. That past and his friendship with Leon were the reasons Eli had kept tabs on the man. However, Eli hadn’t considered that Oscar would play into this.

  “You believe Oscar hired those gunmen on Leon’s behalf?” Eli asked.

  Dominick shrugged. “I believe that’s something you should find out since Oscar’s paying regular visits to Leon at the prison.”

  “I will find out,” Eli assured him. “And maybe while I’m checking, I’ll ask myself why you just handed me Oscar Cronin on a silver platter. I have a suspicious nature about things like that.” He turned to Ashlyn. “Are you ready to go?”

  “She can’t just leave,” Dominick howled. “Not until she’s told me where Cora is.”

  Ashlyn proved the man wrong when she walked out the door with Eli. Dominick might have followed them, but Kellan stepped inside the room, blocking Dominick’s way. He then closed the door behind him when he went in to start the official interview.

  Eli was about to congratulate Ashlyn for how well she’d held up through that barrage Dominick had doled out to her, but when he felt her shaking, he cursed. Obviously, talking with the idiot had gotten to her after all, because she was pale, too.

  “I can’t lose Cora,” she muttered. “I just can’t.” And he got the feeling she wasn’t just talking about the danger from an attack but also the threat that Dominick could pose.

  She went in the direction of the break room but then stopped and ducked into the observation room instead. “I just need a minute to steady myself,” she said, her voice suddenly as unsteady as the rest of her.

  Eli went in with her. “Don’t let him get to you like that.”

  It was lousy advice, like telling someone not to blink if they heard a loud noise. Ashlyn’s fears and concerns were natural, and there wasn’t anything he could say to her to soothe that. But apparently his stupid body thought there was something he could do in the soothing department, because Eli put his arms around her and eased her to him.

  Eli expected her to push him away. She didn’t. He expected himself to put a quick end to the hug and curse himself for doing it.

  He didn’t.

  There was some cursing himself involved, but his arms stayed firmly planted around her. From the corner of his eye, he saw Kellan start the interview with Dominick, and Eli considered turning on the audio so he could hear. However, he nixed that idea since he figured it would only add to Ashlyn’s shakiness. He’d listen to the recording of the interview once he had Ashlyn and the baby back at the ranch. That way, it would give his own temper a chance to cool down.

  “I’m not usually this shaky.” Her voice was a whisper. A breathy one. It hit against his neck.

  “I’m betting you don’t usually have someone kidnap your baby and then try to kill you.”

  Now he cursed again. And winced. Because obviously someone had tried to kill her in that alley the night Marta had died. Eli braced himself for her to verbally blast him for that, but when she pulled back just enough to meet his gaze, there was no blasting involved.

  Hell.

  There was plenty of heat, though. It was masked a little behind her worried and somewhat confused expression, but it was there. And for one bad moment, he got a flashback. Not the kind that came from being a lawman. This one was of her nearly naked and cuddled up with him on the seat of his truck.

  “Thanks,” she said, her voice still a whisper. Yeah, the breath was there, too, but this time it landed against his mouth. She noticed it, too, because she pulled back even farther. “Sorry. Sometimes I forget why that’s a bad idea. Then I get an old picture of us in my head, and I remember.”

  “In a memory contest, I bet I would win.”

  Of course, the moment the words came out, he wanted to hit himself, but he decided just to own the stupid remark. Eli gave her as much of a smile as he could manage. It wasn’t a good one, but it seemed to be enough to stop her from trembling. It even gave her a little bit of color in her cheeks.

  “Thanks,” she repeated, but this time her tone had something they both wanted. Awkwardness. It was a hell of a lot better than his remembering how she looked naked.

  Or wanting to kiss her.

  Ashlyn dragged in a deep breath, pulled back her shoulders. “So, was Dominick trying to muddy things by bringing up Leon and Oscar?”

  It was a good question, the right one to diffuse this restless energy between them, and it helped Eli get his thoughts back where they belonged. “Maybe. I’ll talk to the warden at the prison and see what I can find out. Unless Leon’s come into some money lately like Remy, then he hasn’t got the funds to hire two guns. I don’t know anything about Oscar—yet.”

  And speaking of Remy, that was Eli’s cue to see if the man had arrived yet. That would also put some distance between Ashlyn and him. “I need to talk to Owen. After that, Gunnar and I can drive Cora and you back to the ranch.”

  She glanced at Dominick, who appeared to be in the same riled mood he was when Ashlyn was in the room with him, and she shook her head. “I’ll listen to Dominick, and then we can go.”

  Eli didn’t think the listening part was a good idea, because it would likely upset her, but he couldn’t blame her. If he were in her shoes, he’d want to know every possible aspect of the investigation. He flicked on the switch for the audio and went in search of Owen. He wouldn’t dawdle, though, because the memory of Ashlyn trembling was still way too fresh in his mind.

  When Eli made it to the bullpen, he glanced around and soon spotted Owen. “Any sign of Remy?”

  “Not yet. He called to say he was delayed because he’s waiting on his lawyer. He’ll be here in about an hour.”

  An hour was going to feel like an eternity with Cora in the break room and Dominick just up the hall. Eli knew it was stupid for him to feel as if he had such high emotional stakes when it came to the baby. But he did.

  “I’ll call Remy and tell him to get his butt in here ASAP,” Eli grumbled. And if not, he’d see about getting a warrant for his arrest. Remy ticked all the boxes when it came to suspects, and Eli didn’t want the man dodging them while he came up with an alibi or a way to escape justice.

  “Hold off on that call,” Owen said, his attention on the screen of his desk computer. “I just got a report from SAPD.” Owen looked up at him. “They sent an officer out to talk to the mortician who works at the funeral home that handled Marta’s remains.”

  “Terrell Wilburn,” Eli supplied. He didn’t like that suddenly tight look on his brother’s face. “And what did he have to say?”

  “He’s dead.” Owen’s tense look only got worse. “Someone murdered him yesterday afternoon. A gunshot wound to the head.”

  Eli felt the shock of that ram straight into him. He doubted it was a coincidence that the mortician had died just hours before the kidnapping and the attack.

  “Who killed him?” Eli asked.

  “SAPD doesn’t know yet. There’s more,” Owen quickly added. “The killer apparently stole Wilburn’s laptop, but Wilburn had some hard copy files in his office. There was a folder with Marta’s name on it.”

  “And?” Eli prompted when Owen paused.

  “It was empty,” Owen said. “It looks as if the killer took whatever was in it.”

  Chapter Seven

  Ashlyn listened to every word of Dominick’s interview. Of course, he claimed he was innocent of hiring the gunmen. And maybe he was. But she had no intention of letting him see Cora until they had the person responsible for the attack behind bars.

  Whenever that would be.

  It sickened her to think that the search could go on for days, weeks or even longer, but she had to hold on to the hope that maybe there wouldn’t be another attack. That whoever was behind t
his was done. But she had to be sure. For the sake of her baby, she needed to be certain that no one else would come after them.

  After Dominick and his lawyers were gone, Ashlyn went into the break room to check on Cora. She was asleep in Gloria’s arms, and Owen was still standing guard. Seeing both steadied her nerves a little so she went in search of Eli so she could find out when they’d be going back to Jack’s place. Not that Ashlyn especially wanted to go there, but she didn’t like the alternative of staying in the sheriff’s office where Dominick could return.

  She coiled her way around the hall and spotted Eli in Kellan’s office. The two were huddled over a computer, and judging from their stern expressions, something hadn’t gone the way they wanted. When she stepped in, both men looked at her, but then Kellan gave Eli a nod. Obviously, that was a cue for Eli to fill her in. The fact that he had to take a deep breath first told her that she wasn’t going to like this much, either.

  “Someone murdered the mortician who handled Marta’s remains. They stole his file on her and his computer.” Eli said it quickly and continued before she could do anything more than gasp. “We’re starting the paperwork to have Marta’s remains exhumed.”

  Ashlyn still didn’t manage more than a gasp, but she did make her way to the chair to sit. Her legs suddenly didn’t feel very steady. Someone was dead. Someone connected to all of this.

  “There’s no concrete proof that Marta didn’t die the night of her attack,” Kellan added, “but we need to be sure.”

  Yes, they did. And a few minutes ago, Ashlyn would have insisted that she needed no such proof as seeing her friend’s body. But now with the mortician’s murder, it was something that had to be investigated.

  The memories of Marta’s murder came, of course, and like always they were smeared together with the pain of her own shooting. With the anger and betrayal she felt about Eli. But that had changed, too, she realized.

  Everything had changed.

  “Why would Marta have faked her death?” Ashlyn asked when some of the numbing shock finally wore off.