Chapter 9 #3
He set her food on the table and then wrapped his arms around her. “You smell good. You feel good in my arms. I may perish for lack of your loving before this investigation ends.”
“We did without each other for a really long time. As long as I know I am attached to you again, I will take whatever time allows. Now kiss me senseless and take yourself home before the storm hits.”
His face was cold, but his lips were warm. The kiss was both a hello and a goodbye, as she melted into his embrace, but it was the wind that ended their reverie.
“Good lord, Ash. That was a blast. Go home with your food. Call me whenever.”
He sighed. “I’m going as soon as I get your food out of the bag.
” He carefully lifted the hot container of beef stew, the cornbread wrapped in foil, and the little box with her apple pie, loosened the seal on the bowl of stew, then wiped his hands.
“I think you can manage from here. Love you, baby. Enjoy.”
“Thank you so much, and I will.”
She followed him to the door, turned on the porch light as he drove away, then locked the door and pulled the shades.
She could still feel his kiss as she sat down to eat.
The food was good, but the love that came with it warmed her heart and her belly.
And as she ate, the day turned to night.
The wind howled, and the tumbleweeds rolled.
* * *
At 5:00 p.m. sharp, a giant of a man named Bill Eldredge showed up at Jacob Kingston’s room armed and in uniform, flashed his identification and introduced himself to Jacob and Dylan.
“Bill Eldrege. Starpoint Security—retired military reporting for duty. My twin brother Phil will be taking the day shift. We’re identical, so don’t assume that’s me doing twenty-four-hour shifts.”
Dylan grinned. He liked the man on sight. He was Reacher-sized and armed. “My brother sent me a photo of you for verification. We can’t be too careful right now.”
Eldredge nodded. “Understood. I know Asher Kingston. Got quite the reputation and all good. I know of Gunner. Homicide hotshot, they call him. Asher is methodical. Gunner is persistent. They’ll get their man. Rest assured that Starpoint Security is here for your father.”
“Much appreciated,” Dylan said, and left the hospital, relieved beyond words that the security aspect had been taken out of his hands.
He was tired, worried about the Brandt connection to the shooting, and hungry as he headed to his hotel. Once he was in the room, he ordered Thai food from DoorDash, took off his boots, stretched out on the bed to wait for it to arrive, and fell asleep.
He woke an hour later to a knock at the door, then rolled off the bed to retrieve his food.
He ate his solitary meal with the TV for company, while missing home and Angie.
He knew she was going to a birthday party for a friend of theirs this evening, and he was waiting for her text to let him know she was home safe before he laid his head down again.
* * *
Sunup came to West Texas, bringing with it another blustery, cold day without the threat of snow.
Nora was puttering around the kitchen while her coffee was brewing, learning how to manage with her bandaged hand. The pain pills were keeping the worst of her misery at bay.
When her phone rang, she knew before she picked it up it was going to be Ash, and it was.
“Hey, you. I’m fine. I love you,” she said.
Ash laughed, and the sound of his voice made her ache for him.
“Love you more, and I have a technical question. Neither Gunner nor I are proficient in tech problems, but I have a question. Right after he logged in on his laptop, the screen froze. He tried to turn it off and on again, but as Coach Teters used to say when I got a wild hair to call a play on my own, ‘Boy, that ain’t happenin’. ’”
Nora burst out laughing. “Is Gunner there?”
“Yes.”
“Then put your phone on Speaker so he can hear me, and I’ll walk him through it. There are a couple of things we can do before you need to panic. Sometimes a simple power surge can cause something like that. Are you ready, Gunner?”
“I’m listening.”
“I’m assuming you’ve already tried to turn it off and nothing is happening.”
“Yes, I did try that,” he said.
“Then we’re going to try Control/Escape. Press down on the Ctrl button and the Esc button at the same time. Hold them down and see if the screen reacts. If it does, release the keys, then tell me what the prompt says.”
“Holding, holding, holding, hold… Oh! Yes, hot damn, girl, you’re the best. It tells me it didn’t shut down properly and is giving me prompts.”
“Can you follow those prompts without confusion?” she asked.
“Yes, yep, doing it now. Oh man, okay… It’s rebooting,” Gunner said.
“Then you should be good to go. If you have any other problems, just give me a call. I’ll come over and check it out more thoroughly,” she said.
“Just think… When you and Ash get married, we’ll have our own tech genius. Can’t beat a deal like that,” he said. “Okay…it’s up and running like normal now. Thank you so much.”
Ash was laughing as he took the phone off Speaker. “Well, now you know where you stand in this family,” he said.
Nora was grinning. “Being indispensable is job protection. Stay warm. Love you.”
“Love you more. I’ll see you sometime today, if that’s okay with you?”
She smiled. “Totally okay, just come prepared.”
“Prepared for what?” he asked.
“For me. You turned on all the want I’d stored away, and now I can’t think of anything else.”
“Lord,” he muttered.
“Don’t ask Him for help. It’s you I want to see walkin’ in my door.”
Ash was still laughing when she disconnected.
* * *
Dylan was dressed for the weather as he got in the SUV, but when he turned the key to start the engine, noticed he was low on fuel.
So instead of the hospital, he headed for the nearest gas station and pulled in at an open pump, pocketed a credit card and the keys as he got out, then started refueling.
He was standing with his back to the wind and waiting for the pump to kick off when he happened to look up and saw two men coming out of a store across the street.
One was a tall, thin redhead. The other a big, stocky blond.
When they headed for the white Mustang parked at the curb, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and immediately grabbed his phone and started taking picture after picture after picture, making sure he got the tag number on the car, as well.
If it hadn’t been for the gas still pumping in his car, he would have given chase.
There was no way to know where they were holed up, but he had proof that the Brandt brothers were in Amarillo.
The moment he screwed the gas cap back on, he got in the car and began sending picture after picture to Asher’s phone.
They’re in Amarillo. I was fueling up when I saw them. They were gone before I could get loose from the pump. But now we know that they’re here.