Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Wolfe
“Travis, this is Sheriff Rhys Trevino. Rhys, Travis.”
I watched as Rhys and Travis shook hands.
“Nice to meet you, Sheriff.” Travis’s blue-gray gaze was assessing as he glanced from Rhys to me, then back.
“You, too.”
“And this is Amy. Amy, meet my cousin Travis and his husband, Gage.”
Amy offered her hand, but I could see she was hesitant.
“Our wife is back at home with the little ones,” Gage noted. “She wished she could’ve been here.”
Amy’s eyes slammed into me, and I fought the urge to smile. “Now you can’t say you’ve never met anyone like those books you read… Who did you say the author was again?”
Amy’s cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink and I chuckled as I pulled her close.
I had already filled Travis in on the situation on the phone, so I didn’t feel the need to run it down again.
“Would it be possible to grab a bite to eat?” Travis asked, glancing between us. “I was up early and I’m starvin’.”
“The diner’s just around the corner,” Rhys informed him.
“Perfect.” Travis stepped back and waited for Gage to move in front of him before following the man out of the building.
I let Rhys and Amy precede me so I could lock the door behind us.
A few minutes later, we were seated at the diner, coffee in front of us and food ordered.
“We’ve got a couple more comin’,” Travis told Donna. “They’ll have the same thing.”
“Who else is comin’?” I asked, hearing this for the first time.
“Ryan Trexler and Zachariah Tavoularis. RT owns Sniper 1 Security. Z’s his partner slash husband. I wanted to bring them in on this, see if we couldn’t knock this out rather than sit on our thumbs and wait for this bastard to make a move.”
“You think that’s possible?” Rhys inquired, his eyes traveling to Amy briefly. “Without puttin’ her in danger?”
Travis’s gaze remained on Rhys for long seconds.
“She’s my main priority,” he added. “Mine and his.”
When Travis looked my way, I nodded. I hadn’t clarified the relationship because it hadn’t come up, but I didn’t feel any need to hide it. And since Rhys had been the one to mention it…
“Understood,” Travis said firmly. “And the goal is to get him out in the open without putting anyone in the line of fire.”
“Not that it’ll work,” Gage added. “But it’s always the plan.”
“So, I did a little research on Kelly Jackson,” Travis prompted, his gaze sliding to Amy. “Were you aware that he was married before?”
Amy shook her head. “He never mentioned anything.”
Travis leaned back in his chair, his hand resting on the table, finger tapping slowly. “He’s a widower. First wife … they were married for nine months.” Travis met my gaze. “She was twenty-three years old when she drowned in the bathtub.”
Amy gasped and all eyes turned to her.
“You said first wife?” Rhys stated.
“You caught that?” Travis smirked. “His second wife presumably overdosed. She lasted a little longer than the first. Eighteen months they were married. No toxicology report was ever run to confirm; however, it was ruled a suicide. She was twenty-two.”
Holy fuck.
“This guy is bad news,” Gage noted. “He’s gotten away with it all this time. Figure it has something to do with his position. The fact that he’s in law enforcement.” He peered over at Amy. “I think it’s high time we take him down.”
I didn’t think Gage would get any arguments on that one.
The only question remaining seemed to be: How would we go about doing that?
Amy
I had no idea who Travis Walker was aside from being Wolfe’s cousin or what he did for a living, for that matter, but I had to admit, the air of authority he had told me he was someone you didn’t want to mess with.
And his husband... Lord have mercy.
Gage Matthews-Walker was the take-no-shit type who was clearly ready to jump in and wipe out the problem before it went any further.
Not that it could get much worse than it was now.
My stomach churned every time I thought about Detective Joanna Tannenbaum.
The woman had gone out on a limb to notify me, to help me, and she’d died for her efforts.
No doubt Kelly had forced her off the road, causing her to slam into that tree.
According to Rhys, she had to have been going damn fast for that type of impact.
However fast she’d been going, and for whatever reason, it had been enough.
And to find out Kelly had two previous wives. Both of whom died during their marriage to the crazy man… I couldn’t help but consider myself damn lucky.
“Were you able to locate his whereabouts?” Gage asked Rhys. “At the time of the fatality crash last night?”
Rhys frowned. “San Antonio. Or so it appears. I’ve reached out to see if I can get someone to confirm they actually saw him there. He could’ve easily checked into his hotel online so it was assumed he was there.”
“True,” Travis noted.
The bells over the door jingled and all eyes turned that direction.
Two men strolled inside, one ridiculously large. In fact, he had to duck so he didn’t hit his head on the doorjamb.
I thought Travis Walker was a giant of a man, but this guy made Travis look small.
The men removed their sunglasses and peered around the room before coming our direction.
“RT and Z, this is my cousin, Wolfe Caine, Sheriff Rhys Trevino, and their girl, Amy Manning.”
Their girl?
Warmth infused me at those words. I hadn’t expected to be introduced that way, but I found I liked it. More so because neither Wolfe nor Rhys seemed bothered by the title.
“Nice to meet you,” RT said, shaking all proffered hands before Z did the same.
The two men then took the extra seats at the table, and Travis proceeded to fill them in while the food was delivered and everyone chowed down. Everyone except me, that was. I picked at my food, my stomach too unsettled to eat.
“Not only was the detective run off the road last night,” Wolfe added when Travis finished speaking, “but someone attempted to break into her house. She currently has a roommate, and my cousin Lynx showed up over there. We think he scared Kelly off.”
“Highly likely,” RT noted. “But no sightings of him?”
Rhys shook his head. “Unfortunately, due to the tourists we see comin’ through to Dead Heat Ranch, people aren’t as vigilant as they could be. We see a lot of strangers, so most people don’t notice them unless they stick around for a while.”
Which meant Kelly could’ve come into this very diner and had breakfast, and no one would’ve been the wiser. The thought made my stomach churn.
The bells over the door jangled again, and once more, all eyes strayed to the door.
I looked up to see Lynx making his way over. He stopped and greeted Travis and Gage, then they went through the introductions once more before Lynx grabbed a chair from a neighboring table and took a seat beside me.
“You okay?” he asked, nudging my knee with his.
I peered over at Wolfe’s cousin. I couldn’t even force a smile. This was all too much.
I wanted to cower into a corner and wait for this all to be over.
Unfortunately, that would never happen. I knew I couldn’t hide anymore.
Part of me wondered if I should hop in my car and take off, find somewhere else to go, another place to hide for a while.
It might’ve sounded tempting if it weren’t for Rhys and Wolfe.
I loved them. No way could I envision my life without them in it.
Sure, if it came down to their safety, that might be one thing, but it wasn’t something I wanted to contemplate right now.
“We’ll take care of it,” Lynx stated, his voice reassuring.
I didn’t believe him. I didn’t believe any of them. I knew their intentions were good by offering the empty platitude, but they didn’t know Kelly. I did. He was the devil in human form.
“Trust me, kiddo,” he stated, leaning closer as though reading my mind.
His arms were covered with tattoos, from his knuckles all the way up to his neck, even behind his ears. It was an interesting mix of designs, some of which I could make out, even possibly understand, but others I knew were personal to him.
“He’s too powerful,” I forced out, my gaze dropping to my lap.
Lynx chuckled. “There’s no such thing.”
“He’s right,” Travis noted. “There’s no such thing.”
Lynx nodded to the four men sitting across the table. “My cousin’s got some serious pull. He knows some pretty powerful people himself.”
I glanced over at Travis Walker. The guy was massive. Not to mention, intimidating.
“And these two…” Travis motioned a thumb toward RT and Z.
My gaze strayed to the two men.
“They’re not gonna let anything happen to you. This is their specialty.”
I didn’t know what this was referring to, but I nodded anyway.
“So, they’re not related?” I asked, glancing between the men.
It seemed everyone was related in some way. I didn’t even know how many cousins Wolfe had, but it seemed there were quite a few of them.
The men at the table laughed, some of the tension easing.
“Not related, no. Z grew up in Coyote Ridge, though,” Travis explained. “His brother works for my family.”
“My aunt Iris married into a really big family,” Wolfe added, “and it only seems to get bigger every time we turn around.”
Travis smiled at me. “I’ve got six brothers. And every damn one of them wanted to be here today. So, if push comes to shove, I’ll bring them in.” His face sobered as he glanced back at Wolfe and Rhys. “But I don’t expect it to come to that.”
The group of men got quiet and Wolfe turned to look at me. A shiver of unease made goose bumps pop out on my arms and legs.
Lynx patted my knee. “It’ll be fine. Ain’t nothin’ gonna happen to you on our watch,” Lynx assured me.
I wished that were true. I wished it could all just go away. I was tired of watching over my shoulder. Especially now, when it seemed my life was coming together. I had a great job, I had friends, and I had two men…
Everyone started talking, and there were too many people for me to keep up, so I continued to move my food around my plate until finally Travis cleared his throat.
“We do need to get back,” Travis said, his tone deep, authoritative. “Our wife’s holdin’ down the fort.”
I glanced over at Rhys, then at Wolfe. I still found it hard to believe that Travis had a husband and a wife. And two children, I thought I remembered them saying. It was surreal. But in the same sense, it gave me hope.
“We’ll be plantin’ a few agents in the area,” RT explained. “Just to keep an eye out.”
Agents? What was this?
“Keep your eyes open, Amy,” Gage told me. “It’ll be over soon.”
Another thing I didn’t believe, but I nodded because I knew that was what they expected from me.
“Walk us out?” Travis said to Lynx. “We’ll be in touch.”
And with that, most of the testosterone vacated the building.
Rhys
When the five men cleared out, I changed seats, moving to Amy’s other side so that she was between Wolfe and me.
Oddly enough, now that Travis Walker and Sniper 1 Security were involved, I felt a little better.
Not great, no, but at least I felt as though there would be eyes on the situation. The biggest issue was that I couldn’t even alert my deputies to keep an eye out for Chief Jackson. It would raise suspicion, and until Amy decided to go forward and speak up, I knew it would only cause problems.
Which left me with my hands tied.
Unless, of course, Kelly Jackson showed up again. Then all bets were off.
According to Travis, this situation wasn’t going to simply go away and talking to Kelly Jackson wasn’t going to be an option.
Good news was, the bastard wasn’t going to get away with what he’d done.
Bad news was, he wasn’t going to go away anytime soon if we couldn’t pin him down.
“Not hungry?” Wolfe asked Amy, nodding toward the food she had hardly touched.
“No.”
Obviously that meant her food was fair game because Wolfe reached over and snatched her bacon. Amy smiled and for the first time that morning, I didn’t think it was forced.
We sat silently for a few minutes after I signaled for the check. Wolfe beat me to it, though, only to find out that Travis had picked up the tab anyway.
“I’ve come to a decision,” Amy said suddenly, her eyes fixed on her hands, which were clasped tightly in her lap.
“About?” I glanced at Wolfe, who shrugged.
Those dark eyes lifted to meet mine, and I saw something in them that told me Amy was about to show just how steely her backbone was. I had never thought of her as weak. Not for a single second. Sure, on the outside, she was sweet and innocent. However, deep down, there was a tough woman.
“Jo came here to help me,” Amy stated, her eyes darting back and forth between the two of us. “She died because she thought there was something off about Kelly.”
Wolfe nodded.
“I’m done sitting back and waiting for him to kill me.”
I cringed at her choice of words.
“And I can’t sit back and let Jo’s death be in vain.”
I leaned forward and took her hand, linking our fingers.
Yes, we were in public. In the diner, for crying out loud.
Probably no more of a public place right in the heart of the gossip grapevine than right here, but I didn’t care.
I could still hear Calvin’s words ringing in my ears.
Family. That was what was most important.
Which meant I would deal with the fallout when it came, and I knew Wolfe and Amy would be right there beside me.
“You are the strongest woman I have ever met,” I told her, my voice rough, my chest aching from the churn of emotion that built whenever I thought about all she’d been through.
Amy shook her head, but I silenced her by pulling her closer. I pressed my mouth to hers. “It wasn’t a question,” I told her. “It’s the truth. And whatever you wanna do, we’re right here. At your side.”
Wolfe leaned in and took her other hand.
Of course, I happened to do so at the exact moment that Donna walked up to refill our coffee.
“Sheesh,” the older woman said, chuckling. “I shoulda known.” Donna peered down at Amy. “Girl, if anyone can keep these ol’ boys straight, I think it’ll be you.” She topped off two of the cups, then patted Amy on the shoulder. “Good luck, hon.”
A smile formed on Amy’s lips, and it grew wider as she stared back at us.
“I’m not sure anyone can keep you boys in line.” She leaned in closer. “But I’m damn sure willing to try.”
Wolfe lifted an eyebrow and glanced over at me.
“Amen.”