3. Too long
Too long
Wade
Pushing out into the hall, I give Paige the quick instructions to deal with the woman. I need to get her into an interrogation room.
It isn’t Maria.
Elena .
She was just a kid the last time I saw them.
God damn.
What happened to her mom?
Pain stabs through my chest. It hurts to breathe.
Do I need to have Dixon check me out? This ache, this knot in my throat.
Fuck.
Striding outside, I gulp in the hot June air, already heavy with the heat of the coming summer.
She’s gone.
The silent wondering, the empty longing, the ever-present question of if I should try to find her…it’s over.
I waited too long.
What an dumb ass to think that “one day” would come, and there’d be a happy reunion.
That she’d come back to me.
She took advantage of the information I gave her and hid herself well.
Too well.
I couldn’t find her when I did try to look.
Fucking fool.
Sliding behind the wheel of my truck, I drop my hat on my seat and lean my forehead against my arms.
Grief shudders through me in waves.
Twelve years is a long damn time. I should have known better.
Maybe I should have moved on. If she had really wanted me, she’d have reached out.
Instead I’ve held to the slender hope to see her again.
I sure screwed the pooch on that one.
But now her daughter is here, caught red handed.
Like a fox caught in a chicken house, with a mouth full of feathers.
How in the hell did it end up being Maria’s daughter that caused all of this?
My fucking noggin is killing me as I trudge into my office.
Between the rolling in my gut and the violent need to hit something, I settle for pulling out a bottle of whiskey from the drawer of my desk.
It ain’t a habit, but today it’s a necessity.
I’m itching to talk to either Blue or Ford about this. They both know the history.
But of course I can’t.
Poor Blue. I hope he’s okay. Dixon seemed pretty confident, yet it’s hard not to worry.
And Ford’s out of town. Shit, outta the country on his wedding trip.
Sometimes I hate being the one in charge. There’s a line of assholes a mile long waiting for me to fuck up.
Slamming doors startles me out of my thoughts. My rough palm runs over my face, and I pause to stroke down the ruffled whiskers of my beard.
Is that girl really responsible for the last few years of chaos? How did Maria let Elena slip so far?
The woman I remember would have never let this happen. Maria was firm, but loving. She wore her heart on her sleeve and loved that little girl more than anything.
It’s the only reason she stood up for herself against that worthless tick she had for a husband.
Paige is likely just about done with getting Elena through booking.
Rolling the bottom of the glass against the worn wood ring next to my keyboard doesn’t make this any easier as I flirt with the idea of another drink.
Nah.
Later.
I might pull one of Ford’s tricks and go drown at Val’s for a few hours. Let the town cops deal with me if I feel like blowing off some steam.
“Putting the cart before the horse,” I grumble to myself.
I punch in Elena’s name into the computer. With the kind of mayhem she’s made the last few weeks.
Months.
Shit, did she have something to do with Mason’s cattle going missing too? Blue connected the dots to all the hassles being tied back to his ranch.
That stokes a blaze of rage.
People have died .
No priors except a couple of small traffic infractions?
Wait, out of the foster system? And she’s…twenty-two?
She would have aged out at eighteen. So Maria passed at least four years ago.
God damn that stings.
A small speeding ticket two years ago, and a failure to yield last winter.
Both of those in Texas. And the dates are near enough to the major events here that it clears her.
Okay, little girl. You didn’t do that shit, but—
“Ready? Or want me to grill her?” Paige pops her head through the door with an eager grin.
“Settle down, Brooks. We gotta take this one slow.” I don’t glance at her, but dismiss her with a wave.
I know that pisses her off, but I have bigger worries.
When I hear the door shut, I lean back and thread my fingers behind my head, staring at the screen.
Paige pops her head into view from behind the monitor, startling the shit out of me.
“What’s up, Wade?” She slides along my desk, then rests her hip against the corner. “Something’s bugging you.”
She has no idea what I’m dealing with. She’s only been working here for a few years.
I’m just a ship in the night for her, there’s no way in hell I’m sharing the pain that’s tearing through me.
“I’m fine. She didn’t do any of the old shit.” I point at the reports on my computer, pushing her focus away from me. “But she still might be able to lead us to who orchestrated that goat and pony show.”
Paige narrows her eyes, then crosses her arms making her leather belt squeak as she shifts. “You think she’s innocent? She’s on tape.”
“I didn’t say that,” I growl, rising quickly enough my chair shoots out behind me. “I just said she’s a small fish in a big ass pond, and she might lead us to the shark.”
Raising one brow, she watches my seat roll to a stop. “There aren’t any sharks in ponds.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, you know what I mean.” Stomping out of my office, I can’t explain just why I’m so damn cranky.
I thought this was going to be the big baddie.
Instead I’m walking in to quiz a pawn…
With the eyes of the woman I used to love.