Chapter 3
She was still smiling about her chance meeting as she began bringing her groceries into her town house and putting them up. She was on her way to the bedroom to change clothes when her phone rang.
She looked down, saw her dad’s name on Caller ID instead of her mom’s, and frowned. “Hey, Dad, what’s up?”
She heard the panic in her dad’s voice, but he was so choked up and rambling that she couldn’t understand him.
“Dad! Dad! What’s wrong? I can’t understand what you’re saying!”
Then suddenly her younger brother, Travis, was on the phone. His voice was shaking. She could hear her dad sobbing in the background and felt the ground falling out from under her.
“Sis, it’s me. Mom is dead. She was a quarter of a mile from home when a truck came over the hill in the middle of the road and hit her head on. Please come home. Dad’s coming undone, and I don’t know what to do.” And then he broke down in sobs.
“Oh my God, oh my God,” Holly mumbled. She wanted to scream, but she could tell from the sounds in the background how bad it was.
“Travis! Listen to me! I just got home. It’ll take me about thirty minutes to pack some clothes and notify my boss. Just know that I’m on the way. Who hit her? What happened to that driver?”
Travis’s voice was still shaking. “It was Lee Peters, my best friend. We’d gone to Amarillo this morning, and he’d just dropped me back off at the ranch. He was on his way home. He’s dead, too.”
Holly’s legs went out from under her. She dropped into the nearest chair to keep from falling.
“Oh, dear Lord. Travis! I can hear it in your voice, but none of this is your fault. Call Granny Dillon. She’s just across the border in New Mexico. She’ll get there before I will, but I’m coming, honey. I’m coming home. Tell Dad I’m on the way. We’ll get through this together. I love you.”
“Love you, too, Sis,” Travis said and hung up.
Holly was shaking so hard it was all she could do to make the call to her boss, Gene Morris. Even as they were talking, she knew she was sounding like her father, rambling, shattered, not making a lot of sense as she began to explain to him what had happened, and that she had to go home.
After extending his sympathies, Gene reassured her that her job would be waiting, and to take as long as she needed.
The moment they disconnected, she began dragging out suitcases, then dragging them up the stairs to her bedroom, tossing clothes at random, sobbing between every breath as she dragged them back down and loaded up her car.
She set the security alarm at her home and headed northwest out of Dallas.
It was a long drive to the panhandle of West Texas.
A long, sad way to go, knowing her mother would not be there to welcome her home.
* * *
Gunner was still thinking about Holly Dillon long after he got home, and was stretched out on his bed, scanning through texts and updates from Cliff.
The TV was on in the background when he heard the word “lottery” and remembered tonight was the night for the Mega Millions draw.
The amount was over seven hundred and eighty million dollars, so he turned up the volume just in time to hear the announcer.
“.…winning lottery ticket was sold at a Gas and Dash just off the bypass. Somewhere within this city, there is a man or woman carrying around a seven-hundred-and-eighty-million-dollar lottery ticket. Check your pockets, folks. Someone’s life is about to change.
The winning numbers are posted at the bottom of the screen, and also on the Texas Lottery website. ”
A shiver ran up Gunner’s spine as he rolled out of bed and reached for his wallet. He pulled out the ticket he’d bought at a Gas and Dash, read the numbers posted on the screen, then looked at the numbers on his ticket.
“No way,” he muttered, then took a picture of the numbers on the screen and reread the numbers on his ticket again, and felt the blood draining from his face. “Sweet lord,” he whispered and put his head down to keep from passing out from the shock.
His head was still spinning when reality hit.
Until he got this ticket to the Texas Lottery Commission, it meant nothing, but for his future, it meant everything.
He put the ticket back in his wallet. He put the wallet under his pillow, got his gun from the lockbox and put it beside his pillow, too, and then got up and walked through the house to recheck the windows and doors, making sure his security system was armed.
It was a knee-jerk reaction to the amount of money, because in reality, there wasn’t a soul on earth who could know who was holding the winning ticket.
Still, his heart was hammering as he went back to bed, but he couldn’t sleep.
Everything about his life was in sudden free fall. He sat back up and sent a text to Lieutenant Samuels, telling him he was taking a personal day tomorrow, then called his lawyer.
The phone rang four times, and then Gunner heard the call pick up.
“Hello?”
“Bradley, it’s me, Gunner. I need legal help in the morning. Are you free?”
“I can be. Are you in trouble?” Wes Bradley asked.
“It’s not bad, but it’s way out of my wheelhouse, and I have to do it ASAP.”
“Where do I meet you?” Wes asked.
“I’ll pick you up at your office at 9:00 a.m.”
“Works for me. Just give me a call when you arrive, and I’ll come out to meet you. Save you the trouble of trying to find a place to park.”
“I really appreciate this,” Gunner said and disconnected, then sat up in bed with the gun in his lap, waiting for daybreak.
* * *
It was just shy of 4:00 a.m. when Holly Dillon drove through Crossroads, Texas.
A couple of miles farther, she took a right off the highway, and the moment her tires hit the blacktop, she was already home.
Everything from as far as the eye could see, in any direction—west, north, and east—was Dillon property.
The house was still a quarter of a mile north.
She was coming up over the rise when the bits of scattered debris across the road suddenly caught light in the moonlight.
She slowed down, hesitant to drive through it for fear of damaging her tires, then she saw more of the same debris glittering from both sides of the ditch, and that’s when it hit her!
This is the wreck site!
This is where her mother and Lee died.
“Oh my God, oh my God,” Holly moaned and sped through it like she was driving through fire, then pulled over and stopped, sobbing uncontrollably.
The whole time she was trying to unbuckle her seat belt, she knew she was going to be sick.
When it finally came loose, she all but fell out of the car, staggered into the headlights, and threw up until there was nothing left inside her to reject but the grief, and it was going nowhere.
She stumbled back to her car, grabbed a half-filled bottle of water from the console, and rinsed her mouth, then sloshed the rest of it in her hands and scrubbed her face.
The last thing her family needed was for her to arrive in a state of hysterics.
She got back in the car, took a deep breath, and buckled up.
Within minutes, the security lights on either side of the entrance gate to the homestead came into view.
The lights of the long, rambling ranch house were visible now as she drove over the cattle guard.
As she neared the house, she saw her granny Dillon’s car parked beside Garrett and Travis’s trucks.
The only vehicle missing was her mom’s blue Toyota.
She parked beside her grandmother’s car, popped the trunk, and killed the engine. Her legs were shaking as she circled the car to get her bags, but then the front door opened and Garrett and Travis were coming toward her in long, hurried strides.
“Baby girl,” Garrett said and wrapped his arms around her.
“Oh, Daddy, wake me up now. This is a nightmare,” she said and broke into sobs.
Garrett’s voice was thick with tears. “I know, honey, but I keep reminding myself that we’re not the only family grieving. Lee was Travis’s age, and he’s gone, too. It was a freaking tragedy, but we’re gonna get through it together.”
Travis gave Holly’s shoulder a quick squeeze. “I’ll get your bags.”
Holly was exhausted and so sad it was hard to breathe, but she was home.
Garrett was at a loss for words as he walked Holly into the house. Every time he took a breath it was like a knife to the heart.
Travis came in behind them with Holly’s suitcases. “I’ll take these to your old room,” he said.
“Dad… Travis… You both must be exhausted, waiting up for me, but I’m here now. I assume Granny is asleep, and I can get myself to bed. Both of you are officially relieved of duty. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Whispered words and one group hug later, Holly was alone.
She knew no one was going to be able to sleep, but rest was needed.
She slipped out of the room and went up the hall to the kitchen, looked for a can of anything cold to take away the bad taste in her mouth, and took it back to her room, sipping it now and then as she began to unpack.
Finally, she stretched out on the bed just before daybreak and closed her eyes, drifting in and out of sleep for a couple of hours before she was awakened by the sound of a calf bawling and, before she opened her eyes, wondered where the hell she was at.
Then her eyes flew open, and she remembered.
Fresh tears rolled as she threw back the covers and got out of bed, tied up her hair, and took a quick shower.
A short while later, she was in the kitchen frying bacon and listening to the burp and bubble at the coffee station as fresh coffee dripped into an oversize carafe.
Garrett appeared a few minutes later, with Travis on his heels. “Holly, you didn’t have to cook.”
“We all need food. Where’s Granny?” she asked.
“Mom’s up,” Garrett said. “She’ll be along later.”