Chapter Eight
“What happened?” Mona slid into the passenger seat of Reed’s truck.
“Fernando and Rosa got the call on their cell phone as they left a friend’s house in Prairie Rock. All they knew was that the bartender at Leon’s found Catalina unconscious in back of the bar.”
Mona’s stomach roiled. “Do you think it was Dusty?”
“I don’t know. I’m hoping Catalina can tell us once we get there.”
“I hope she’s all right.” Mona slammed her fist against the door panel. “Damn it! She has to be.”
Reed drove the hour it took to get to the hospital in Amarillo, trying not to glance at Mona every five minutes.
She looked so small and vulnerable sitting up straight in the seat next to him. Her eyes were puffy and red-rimmed, as if she’d been crying.
He could have kicked himself for kissing her. Before, they’d maintained a professional distance and she’d been more or less accepting of his help. Now, that was shattered.
She didn’t need more complications added to her life and he certainly wasn’t the right man to complicate it. He took a deep breath and let it out, amazed at how tense he was. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come on to you.”
“Seems I was the one coming on to you.” She sighed. “Let’s forget about it.”
“If you fire me, I’ll understand and leave.” Not that he wanted to leave. On the contrary, with too many unanswered questions and thieves out there preying on one overstressed, pregnant cattle rancher, he’d feel as if he’d failed in his duty if he did go.
She shoved a hand through her hair, her lips lifting in a crooked smile. “I fired you before, you didn’t leave.”
The smile, no matter how weak, gave him hope. “If you want me to leave, this time I’ll respect your wishes.” And find some other way to help.
She sat still, with her gaze pinned to the road, her fingers twisting in her lap. When she spoke, her words were strong, resolute. “You can’t leave. I don’t have anyone else.”
Alone. This brave young woman was pregnant and alone against the world. Despite her condition, she willingly took on the challenge to keep what was hers and what she wanted to share with her child. She had more grit than anyone Reed knew. Mona wouldn’t give up the fight.
Reed’s heart swelled behind his ribs. He completed the remainder of the trip in silence, afraid he’d say something stupid or sentimental if he opened his mouth.
Before he cut off the engine in the parking lot, Mona was on the ground and hurrying toward the emergency-room entrance of the hospital. A quick stop to ask directions and they were on their way up in the elevator, silence stretching between them. They found Fernando and Rosa hovering around one of the two beds in the hospital room. As soon as Mona walked through the door, Rosa fell into her arms, sobbing and speaking Spanish so fast, Reed couldn’t keep up. He understood a little of the language, but not enough to catch what the frightened woman said.
Fernando held out his hand to Reed. “ Muchas gracias, Senor Bryson. Thank you for coming.”
Reed took the older man’s hand and shook it, his gaze going to Catalina. Her bleach-blond hair lay tangled against the sheets. A nasty cut grazed her right cheekbone, a deep purple bruise just beginning to show through her skin. Her bottom lip was swollen and cracked, dried blood clinging to the damage.
“Has she been awake?” he asked.
“No. She’s been unconscious since we got here. She had a blow to the back of her head and a few cuts and bruises to other parts of her body.” Fernando’s fists clenched and unclenched. “Someone beat her.”
Rosa grasped her daughter’s hand and lifted it to her lips, tears streaming down her face. “Catalina, mi corazón. ”
Mona ran her hand down Catalina’s arm. “Who would do this?” Her eyes widened and she looked to Fernando. “Was she…?”
The older man shook his head. “The doctor checked. There weren’t any signs of rape.” He touched a hand to his daughter’s leg, buried beneath the white hospital blanket. “We won’t know who did this until Catalina can tell us.”
“Go home, hija. ” Rosa wiped her tears away and stared across her daughter’s inert form to Mona. “There’s nothing more to do but wait.”
Facing Mona, Reed waited for her decision. Personally, he wanted to be there when Catalina regained consciousness. The sooner they discovered who her attacker was, the better.
“I’m staying here with you.” She looked across at Reed. “Do you think Jesse will be all right at the ranch by himself?”
Reed nodded. “He’s armed to the teeth and by now, sitting out in the pasture singing to the cattle.”
Catalina stirred and mumbled something.
“ Sí, Catalina?” Rosa bent closer.
“Jesse can’t sing,” she said, her voice strong enough for Reed to hear across the room.
Mona chuckled, dropping a kiss to her friend’s uninjured cheek. “You’re right. But those cows are tone deaf. They actually like to hear him sing.”
“Mamá? Papá?” Catalina blinked up at her mother and father. “I’m sorry.”
She smoothed the hair away from her daughter’s face. “For what, hija ?”
“Everything.” She sighed and closed her eyes.
“Catalina, who did this to you?” Mona asked.
The loving way she spoke touched Reed in a way he didn’t think possible. These people were her family. Blood didn’t matter, the heart did.
For a long moment the battered woman didn’t answer.
Reed assumed she’d fallen asleep or was unconscious again.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I didn’t see their faces.”
“Did you hear them?” Her father lifted her hand. “Did you recognize the voices?”
“I don’t know. I wait on so many at the diner and the bar.” She inhaled and let out the breath in a long slow exhale. “Mona, they weren’t Latino.”
“How do you know that?” Reed asked.
“No accent and their hands were white. I think one had blue eyes.” Her eyelids fluttered open and she stared up at the ceiling. “Yes, I saw blue eyes as I passed out. I can’t remember anything else.”
“Any idea why they attacked you?”
“Oh yes, I know why.” Her lip turned up in a snarl. “The bastards were talking about stealing more cattle. I overheard them talking out behind Leon’s Bar. After dinner with Mamá and Papá I went to work at Leon’s. I entered through the back door, since I didn’t want Leon to know how late I was. It must have been after ten.” She paused for a few shallow breaths, wincing when her rib cage moved. “They were around the other side of the building from where I was. When I heard voices, I moved closer to see who it was. They stood in the shadows, so I couldn’t see their faces. I must have made a noise, because they stopped talking and turned in my direction. I knew I was in trouble, so I ran for the door.” She sighed. “They caught me before I got there. Oh, Mama, I thought they were going to kill me. And they would have if I hadn’t pretended to be dead.”
Mona squeezed Catalina’s hand. “You’re okay now, mi hermana. ” My sister.
“Mona.” Her hand gripped Mona’s and she looked up into her eyes, a glaze of pain dulling the natural deep brown irises. “They were talking about the Rancho Linda. They were planning another hit on your ranch.”
Her lips thinning into a straight line, Mona gripped Catalina’s hand tighter. “Did they say when?”
“I didn’t hear that part.” She pressed a hand to her head. “Could I get something for a headache?”
“ Sí, of course.” Fernando hurried from the room.
Reed pulled Mona aside. “I don’t think she’ll be safe once the rustlers hear she lived. They won’t want her identifying them in a lineup.”
Mona looked to him, her brows furrowing. “What do you suggest we do?”
“I think she’ll be okay here for the night, but then she should come back to the ranch where we can keep an eye on her. I’m sure the doctor will want her to lay low with the bruised ribs for a while. She won’t be going back to work tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
After the nurse gave her something for her headache, Catalina drifted back to sleep.
Mona gave Fernando and Rosa strict instructions to stay with Catalina and bring her out to the ranch as soon as the doctor released her. They insisted Mona leave and take care of her ranch and Jesse.
Reed waited by the door until Mona was ready. At two in the morning, they left the hospital and headed back to the ranch, going straight out to the herd where Jesse sat on a camp stool, singing in his off-pitch, tone-deaf voice to over one thousand head of cattle. When they informed Jesse of the assault on Catalina he left immediately for Amarillo, leaving Reed and Mona in charge of the herd.
Even in the dim starlight, Reed could see that the grass was gone. The cattle would have to be released from this pasture by the next day or they’d be hungry.
He hoped his friend would come through with his request soon. When they let the cattle out, he wanted to be prepared with a little surprise of his own.
* * *
C LOSE TO SUNUP , Mona climbed into bed and fell into a deep sleep. She’d have slept all the way through the day and into the next if not for the baby straining against her bladder. When she got up to relieve herself, the sound of a delivery truck bumping down the gravel driveway kept her from going back to bed. That and the thought of the dozen or so things that needed to be done on the ranch.
She crossed to her bedroom window in time to see Reed sign for a package. Finding it increasingly difficult, she bent to pull on a pair of jeans and tried to zip them. The zipper stopped halfway up, encountering her belly. The loose jeans Rosa had loaned her didn’t even fit anymore. She left the zipper halfway down, pulled one of her father’s cotton shirts on and rolled up the sleeves. Maternity clothes didn’t do her much good on a ranch, the fabric was too flimsy to ride in and too easily stained. These would have to do.
Reed was out in the kitchen, slicing through packing tape to open the box.
“I don’t remember ordering anything.” Mona strode into the kitchen, brows raised.
“Might be because you didn’t. Remember that phone call I mentioned last night before you got in the shower?”
She nodded.
“A buddy of mine quit the force and went into surveillance and private investigative work for people and animals. He sent twenty-five tracking devices and instructions on how we can locate them through a Web site.” Reed held up small oval objects that looked like large ceramic pills. “Now all we have to do is get the cattle to swallow them.”
“How does it work?”
“The device stays in their stomachs and, like the GPS devices on cars, can be tracked. We just have to log on to the computer and key in the tracking numbers.” He gave her the once-over. “You up for feeding a few cows?”
“Sure am. The herd is due to be wormed in a couple weeks. We can move that operation up. Since we have them close to the corral and cattle chute, we should have no problem getting at least twenty-five to swallow the devices.” For the first time in days, the sun was shining and she could almost see the end to the rustling problem. A smile spread across her face, hope bubbling up inside. She threw her arms around Reed’s neck. “Thank you.”
Reed stood stiff and unbending against her brief display of emotion.
When Mona drew away, her face heated. “Pardon me. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Something you need to know.” He placed all the devices back in the box, one at a time. “Once the cattle rustlers are caught, I’ll be looking for a new job.”
The happy butterflies in Mona’s belly turned to stone and fell one by one, until her stomach felt empty, cold and leaden.
The man who’d stormed into her life, guns ablazin’, would leave as soon as her troubles were over. She should have expected as much. Reed was destined for better things. Better than working a ranch. He had to be missing his work on the Chicago police force. Tracking down criminals and solving murders was much more interesting than trying to snag cattle rustlers on the Texas prairie.
Still, the ranch wouldn’t be the same. The plains would be wider and emptier. Mona had to admit she liked riding with him and would miss him when he was gone.
Mona shook her head to halt her runaway train of thought before it derailed. “Is Jesse back from Amarillo?”
“Yes,” Reed replied.
“Good. We can have the cattle tagged and out in the north pasture before the end of the day.”
With a nod, Reed carried the box out the back door.
She watched through the window until he disappeared into the barn. A resolution was at hand. This solution would reveal who the rustlers were, once and for all. Then she could get back to all her other problems.
* * *
A FTER TREATING fifty head of cattle with worm medication, twenty-five of which had ingested the tracking devices, Reed, Jesse and Mona herded them to the north pasture where they could find fresh grass. The others they moved closer to the homestead. If the rustlers wanted cattle, they’d have to take the ones in the north pasture.
Reed hoped his plan worked. After a quick pass around the fence line, he insisted Mona go back to the house and rest. She looked tired and sore, pressing her hand to her belly on more than one occasion. When he returned to the house, he found her in the barn, feeding horses and mucking out stalls.
“Enough.” He crossed the dirt floor and took the shovel away from her, setting it against the wall. “Go to the house. Now.”
“The work has to be done.” She attempted to reach around him for the tool.
He blocked her path. “I’ll take care of it.” Then he turned her around and gently pushed her toward the house. “Eat and get a shower. I’ll come show you how to use the online locator in just a few minutes.”
She pressed a hand to her lower back. “Okay. I guess I am tired.” As she walked toward the barn door, she picked up a bucket and veered toward the grain bins.
Reed shook his head. The woman didn’t know what it meant to quit. “Drop it, boss.”
“What?” She looked around, a confused expression on her face. When he stared at the bucket in her hand, she blushed. “Oh. Okay.” With a sheepish grin, she set the bucket on top of the feed bin. “Don’t forget to give Topper half a can of sweet feed and a section of hay. He worked hard today. And Sassy still needs to be brushed.”
Reed shot a narrow-eyed glare at her. “Go.”
“Okay, okay.” She scooted toward the door, muttering as she went, “Who’s in charge around here anyway?”
Jesse led his horse into the barn, slipped the bridle off and snapped a lead onto his halter. “Miss Mona is one stubborn boss lady.”
“Yes, indeed.”
“But you won’t find a better woman to work for in all of the panhandle.” The young Latino tied his horse to a post and faced Reed. “She’s fair and she cares about her people and the land.”
“I noticed.”
“She misses her father very much. With so much heartache, I’d hate to see her hurt more.”
“Who would hurt her?” Reed scooped up a shovel of manure and tossed it into the wheelbarrow beside the stall.
Jesse lifted the saddle off his horse and slung it onto a saddletree. “The father of her child must have hurt her for her to keep him a secret. But I’m more concerned about you.” He faced Reed. “Don’t break her heart, Senor Bryson. She’s a good woman.”
After a couple more shovelsful of manure, he set the shovel to the side and lifted the handles of the wheelbarrow, heading toward the barn door. “I’ve no intention of breaking her heart. I’m only here to help bring in the rustlers. After that, I’ll be on my way.” He stepped out into the barnyard, away from the lecturing ranch hand, but not before he heard Jesse’s parting comment.
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
Once the chores were complete, Reed entered the ranch house.
“I’ll have something semi-edible on the table for you as soon as you’ve showered,” Mona called out from the kitchen.
The scent of grilled onion drifted through the house, reminding Reed how hungry he was. He hurried through the shower and slipped into clean jeans and a black T-shirt. When he padded into the kitchen in bare feet, he wasn’t prepared for the sight of Mona wearing a white dress. Tied just beneath her breasts, the soft fabric effectively hid the gentle swell of her belly. The flowing material draped down to just below her knees, displaying the tight lines of her calves and her bare feet. The stark white gave her dark skin a healthy glow.
With her hair piled high on her head in a loose ponytail, she looked young and fresh and…beautiful.
Reed’s breath caught in his throat with a sense of longing so strong it made him take a step back, hitting his bare heel against the doorjamb. “Ouch!”
Mona turned, a smile on her face. “There you are. Just in time.” Her smile turned lopsided. “I’m not a cook, so you’ll have to bear with me. I’m only good for breakfast. We’re having migas .” She scraped the contents of the skillet into a serving bowl and handed it to him. “If you’ll set that on the table, I’ll grab the orange juice.”
While Reed lived in Chicago, he’d missed the Tex-Mex food he could only find in Texas. After seating Mona, Reed pulled up a chair at the small kitchen table and scooped fluffy yellow eggs, mixed with bell pepper, onion, tomatoes and tortilla chips onto his plate.
Mona tucked into the food, loading her plate as full as his. When she was halfway through the meal, she sat back and sighed. “I guess my eyes were much bigger than my stomach.” She ran her hand over her belly. “I’ll clean up. Why don’t you bring up the Web site so we can check on the cattle.”
“Let me help and we can get to it faster.”
Mona washed and Reed dried the dishes. The entire process felt as intimate as the kiss he’d shared with Mona the previous night. With her by his side, he had to stop from reaching out and pulling her into his arms and stealing another kiss. He couldn’t lead her on. She deserved a better man than him. One with a better understanding of fathering than he’d been brought up on.
Reed didn’t linger. As soon as the dishes were dried and put away, he sat at the computer and followed the directions that came with the tracking devices. Soon he had the first cattle number loaded into the program and a satellite view came up with a red dot indicating where the animal was. Pretty much where they’d left them.
Mona stood behind him, bent over his shoulder staring at the screen.
He plugged in several more numbers, each indicating the cattle were still exactly where they were expected to be. “Think you can handle it?”
“No problem.” She gave him a narrowed glance. “Why?”
“I want to go back to Leon’s and see if I can find our man with the cut on his head.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, her lips forming that stubborn line Reed recognized as her pigheaded look. “I’m going with you.”
“What about the herd?” He stood, towering over her five-foot-three-inch frame. “You need to stay.”
“We can leave Jesse here to monitor the GPS tracking system. If anything moves, he can call us.”
“You don’t need to be out so late. What about the baby?”
“I can do anything I did before I was pregnant.” Her lips twisted a little. “Only a bit slower.”
“Exactly. You should be resting. You put in a long day.” He reached out, brushing his thumb beneath her eyes. “You have circles under your eyes.”
“I’ll be fine.” Those whiskey-colored eyes stared back at him, knocking the breath out of his lungs. She squared her shoulders and looked toward the doorway. “Now, are we leaving or are you going to argue some more?”
“Are you sure you weren’t a drill sergeant in your former life?” Reed returned to his room for socks and boots and met her outside by her pickup.
“I’ll drive.” She climbed into the driver’s seat, giving him no option but to slide into the passenger side.
* * *
A T EIGHT-THIRTY on Saturday night, Leon’s wasn’t hopping yet. Only the locals had drifted in to gather around the bar. Reed seated Mona on an empty bar stool and stood behind her.
“How ya doin’, Oscar?” Mona smiled at the bartender when he came to take their orders.
“Been a while since I’ve seen you in here.” He chuckled. “Although I heard you were outside last night breakin’ up a fight. Wished I’d seen that.”
She shrugged. “Wasn’t much to it. How’s your wife? Did her surgery come out all right?”
“Sure did.” He grinned. “She’s a lot happier without those danged gallstones.”
“I’ll bet. Give her my regards, will you?”
“Sure will. Stop by sometime. I’m sure she’d love to see you.” He wiped the counter in front of her. “What can I get you?”
“I’ll have a straight ginger ale and we have a few questions to ask.”
The bartender stared up at Reed and back to Mona as if he was sizing up the man. “Shoot.”
Reed leaned over Mona’s shoulder. “Were you working the night before last?”
“Yes,” Oscar replied.
“Do you remember the five Hispanic men sitting in that corner?”
“Sure do. They’re regulars on Friday and Saturday nights. They come in, sit in that exact corner and leave. They pretty much keep to themselves.”
“Know any by name?”
“No.”
The man sitting beside Mona turned to her. “If it’s the guys I’m thinking of, they live in the trailer court down by the old silos.”
Mona turned the full force of her smile on the man. “Thanks, Bobby. How’s your little boy? Did he make the all-stars baseball league this year?”
Bobby’s chest puffed out and he grinned. “Sure did. Kenny’s the starting pitcher when they go to state.”
“That’s wonderful. Congratulations.” Mona rested a hand on his arm. “You wouldn’t happen to know exactly which trailer I could find them in, would you?”
The man shook his head. “No, but ask Les or Wayne. I’ve seen them talking on occasion.”
“Les Newton and Wayne Fennel?” For a moment, Mona’s smile slipped.
“Not much of a recommendation, is it? Those two have been in trouble since they were kids back in high school.”
“Yeah.” She stared across the room as if looking for them. Then she sipped from her glass and set it on the counter. When Mona pulled a bill from her purse, Oscar waved her money away.
“It’s on me. Come see us more often.”
“I will. You take care and be sure to say hello to Dottie for me.”
“Will do.”
Mona got off the stool and looked up at Reed. “Ready?” Without waiting for a response, she led the way out of the bar, the pretty white dress a ray of sunshine in the dark and dirty establishment. The men present didn’t wolf call or make rude comments, perhaps recognizing her for the lady she was.
Reed’s mouth turned upward on the corners. The woman must know everyone in town and she had a way of getting them to open up. Not by flirting and coming on to them. Her genuine concern for their welfare and that of their families made the difference. Mona Grainger was the real thing.
He held the door for her as she climbed into the driver’s seat of the ranch truck.
“This is as far as you go. Besides, you’re not dressed to go chasing cattle rustlers.”
“Who said we would chase them?” Her brows rose high on her forehead. “I just want to check on Rosa’s cousin who lives in the neighborhood. What harm could come of that?” She barely waited for Reed to climb in before she shifted into reverse and left Leon’s parking lot.
“I should have known Les and Wayne might have something to do with the rustling. They’ve always been trouble. I’m surprised the sheriff hasn’t checked them out already.”
“Who are they?”
“Les and Wayne were buddies back in high school. They set fires, tore up mailboxes and stole cars. They’ve been in and out of jail so many times, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were involved.” She shook her head. “Thing is, this cattle rustlin’ takes someone with a few more brain cells than Les and Wayne put together. They might be involved, along with the guy you saw last night, but I’m betting someone else is supplying the cattle trucks and four-wheelers.”
“If these guys are in the trailer court, you have no business being there.”
“Like I said, I’m just going to visit Rosa’s cousin. Maybe she can answer a few questions for us.”
Reed agreed reluctantly because he wasn’t the one driving. Had he been, he’d have turned the truck around and headed straight back to the Rancho Linda.
The trailer court was set back from the road, with the giant towers of the granary silos casting shadows over them. A few lights shone through tattered blinds on some of the trailers.
The creepy feeling that they were driving into a trap crawled across Reed’s skin. He found himself reaching for a gun at his belt. A gun that went along with wearing a law enforcement badge, both of which he didn’t have on him tonight. “I have a bad feeling about this. We’re not staying.”
“I’m going to talk to Maria. You stay out here and be my lookout. Maybe you’ll see something.” She dropped down out of the truck and climbed the rickety steps to the first trailer in the lot, clutching the hem of her dress to keep the wind from blowing it upward. At least the little bit of a yard and the windows were clean. An older Hispanic woman with similar features to Rosa’s opened the door and hurried Mona through. She stared around at the truck before closing the door behind her.
Reed waited in the shadows, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. About the time he could make heads or tails of the dark shapes, a vehicle slowed on the highway and headlight beams turned into the trailer park.
Closing one eye to maintain his night vision, Reed ducked behind Maria’s trailer and watched as a battered truck sped down the gravel road to the last trailer. Five men piled out.
One of the men banged his head on the roof of the truck and cursed, the dome light shining down on a nasty cut. The same five men from the bar the night before.
Reed was torn between waiting for Mona and going after the men. The decision was taken from him when Maria’s trailer door opened and Mona emerged.
Damn. She couldn’t have had worse timing.
The men at the end of the road scattered like vermin.
“Go back inside,” Reed called out in a loud whisper.
“No, I’m going with you.”
“Like hell. Get inside or I’ll throw you in the truck and take you straight home.”
“You can’t talk to me that way.”
“The more you talk, the farther away they’ll run. Now go inside and stay until I come back for you.”
“There are five of them and one of you. How do you propose to stop all five?”
“Leave it to me and lock the door behind you.”
Mona snorted, but thankfully walked back into the trailer. When the lock clicked, Reed took off at a run down the backside of the trailers in the direction the man with the cut had run.
A shadow disappeared between the first and second grain silos.
Reed raced after it, keeping close to the tree line until he reached the open area in front of the granary towers.
Unarmed, he’d be foolish to chase after a man into the country equivalent of a dark alley. He ran out into the open, headed for the corner of the silo, when a shot rang out, kicking up the gravel in front of him. Someone shouted in the dark, words Reed couldn’t understand.
Dodging first to the right and then to the left, Reed created an erratic zigzag pattern. Another shot rang out, the ground erupting behind him. Then he was at the corner of the tower. He slid around behind the structure into the shadows, straining to hear over the sound of his own breathing and the wail of the wind streaming between the silos.
He’d made a mistake. He shouldn’t have left Mona at the trailer. What if the shooter circled back and took her hostage or shot her?
Feet shuffled in the gravel in front of the silos and another shot rang out, followed by a loud groan and a heavy thump.
From the direction of the trailer court, another shot popped off.
Reed hoped like hell Mona was lying on the floor of Maria’s trailer, staying out of trouble.
A car engine revved, peeling out of the gravel parking lot onto the highway.
Careful so as not to create too big a target, Reed peered around the silo. Car taillights disappeared past the houses farther down the street.
On the gravel lay a man-size lump. It stirred and moaned.
Keeping low to the ground, Reed ran out to the figure sprawled in the shadows.
Flat on his back, with a gaping hole in his gut lay the man with the cut on his forehead. He reached out to Reed and grasped his arm. “Traidor.”
“Qué?” Reed asked.
“Traid—” His eyes closed and his grip loosened on Reed’s arm.
Reed felt for a pulse in his neck, but there wasn’t one to find. The man was dead.
“He said traitor.” Mona’s voice startled Reed and he leaped to his feet. She stood with her hair being whipped around her face, her dress billowing around her body and a rifle in her hands.
“What the hell are you doing out here?”
“I heard gunshots. I tried to wait like you said, but I couldn’t. You might have been hurt.” She stared out at the road. “Lot of good it did, I missed the shooter. Heck, I didn’t even hit the car.”
“You and the baby could have been killed.”
“I stayed in the shadows of the trailer as much as possible. I wouldn’t put my baby at risk.”
He grabbed her arm. As he turned her toward Maria’s trailer, sirens wailed across the small town.
“Great.” Before he could get Mona away from the dead man, a sheriff’s SUV swung off the road and skidded to a stop in the gravel. Toby Braxton jumped from the car and pointed his pistol at Reed and Mona. “Drop the gun!”