Chapter 32
Dillon leaned against the doorway of her office, looking at the shuttered windows within while listening to the quiet house.
Was this what her days would be like from now on?
Was she to spend them looking over her shoulder, checking under the hood of her truck, and closing the curtains?
Even when she lived in the city, she hadn’t been this scared.
Then again, she had never had someone trying to kill her.
She pushed away from the doorjamb and took a drink of Chambord and club soda as she walked to her desk.
She would rather be relaxing for the night.
But once more, her brain wouldn’t allow her to concentrate.
Maybe sorting through vendor invoices might do the trick.
If nothing else, it could help her fall asleep.
She couldn’t go another night without sleep.
Dillon sat and set aside her drink as her gaze took in the desk. The papers were in organized stacks, mostly in file folders so nothing got lost or misplaced. But the quiet of the house was too much. She called out to the smart speaker and told it to play her feel-good playlist.
She bounced her head to the upbeat music and touched her keyboard to wake up her computer.
Dillon sorted through the mail and put business invoices in one stack and stuff to be shredded in another.
When she’d disposed of the papers, she turned back to the computer.
For the next half hour, she checked each invoice to validate that everything matched the services she’d requested or the items she’d ordered.
Only then did she set them up to be paid.
When she lifted the glass for a drink, she discovered it was empty. Dillon rose to walk to the kitchen to refill her glass. On the way back to the office, she stopped to get a couple of cheese cubes and some beef jerky. It was the only thing that sounded good to eat.
Once she was back in her chair, she went through business emails before personal messages.
Then, she decided to check the cameras. She hadn’t gotten around to setting up those on the fence line that separated her property from Hank’s yet, but she would.
There had been nothing but some deer, a couple of raccoons, and a fox on the other cameras when she’d checked them the previous night.
She found it entertaining to watch the wildlife.
Dillon didn’t expect to find anything when she fast-forwarded through the recordings for earlier in the day.
Until she saw someone approaching the house.
She halted the video and rewound it. Her stomach dropped when she spotted Dusty glancing around furtively before hurrying to the house.
The camera angle didn’t allow her to see where he went, but she knew he wasn’t at the back door or the front.
She kept watching, noting the time so she could figure out how long he had been gone.
To say that she was disappointed was an understatement.
Dusty had always been more concerned about his latest love than putting his all into his job, but she couldn’t blame him.
This was just a job, not his life. Still.
It hurt that he would betray her in such a way.
He came back into the frame. She paused the recording and leaned in closer to see what he held in his hands.
When she saw flowers from the front flowerbed, she busted out laughing.
Why had he snuck to get them? She would’ve let him cut whatever he wanted.
And to think, she had believed he’d betrayed her.
No, it seemed that lay solely on Cal’s shoulders.
“Oh, Dusty,” she said with a shake of her head, still grinning.
Dillon munched on the soft cheese and the jerky as she went through the other recordings.
Nothing was out of the ordinary once Dusty left for his date.
She was about to turn off the video when she saw headlights flash.
Dillon tried to fast-forward to determine if it was Emmett and realized that she was watching a live feed from the camera facing the back of the house and the stables.
It wasn’t until the vehicle passed the camera that she saw the blue and white of Emmett’s truck.
It was disconcerting to know that she was completely alone on the ranch.
She hadn’t told Emmett or Dusty that they couldn’t leave, but now, she wished she had.
Dillon grew uneasy and rubbed her hands on her jean-clad thighs.
With a verbal command, she halted the music.
She then stood and hurried to the gun safe.
Dolly had an extensive collection of firearms, most of which had been handed down through the family.
Dillon reached for her handgun of choice, an RM380.
The double-action Remington handgun was light and compact with an aluminum frame and a six-round magazine.
She checked the clip to make sure it was full before sliding it back into place, and then carried the gun back to the office with her.
Dillon laid it on the desk beside her. She sat back, her gaze going to the monitor.
It was silly that she should be so scared of being by herself.
If Emmett had stayed, he was too far away to even hear her scream, which meant that she was still by herself.
But something about knowing that someone was on the property with her, someone that she could count on, calmed her fears.
Now, she was on her own. Really, she’d been alone for much longer than this, she just hadn’t realized it.
Cal’s arrival and her attraction to him had shown her how she had hidden away on the ranch, focusing every bit of energy she had on it.
Sure, she got out to the annual dance and maybe the local fair in the fall.
But for the most part, she ignored the world and everyone in it.
What had that gotten her? Absolutely nothing.
Her heart had been kept safe, but she had missed out on so much.
Not that she wanted to put herself on the market and let it be known that she wanted to date, but no one had asked.
No one had asked because she’d closed herself off and made sure that everyone knew she wasn’t available.
Cal hadn’t cared. He’d busted right through the wall she’d erected.
She had easily fallen for his heart-stopping smile and smooth words.
When he had claimed that they were dating as a ruse for Hank, she’d actually bought into it.
The two of them must have had a good laugh at how na?ve and gullible she was.
And all the while, she’d thought she was getting one up on Hank.
God, what a fool she’d been.
The anger and resentment that had hovered over her since she’d thrown Cal off the ranch threatened to devour her. She was angry at him for treating her in such a manner, but her rage was focused mainly on herself.
She was the one who had let him into her life, even when she knew she shouldn’t.
She was the one who had fallen for him instead of seeing through his disguise.
She was the one who had handed her heart to him.
Only one person was to blame for her predicament—herself.
If she had been smarter, wiser, if she had looked past his good looks, she would’ve seen beyond the pretty mask he wore to the deceitful liar beneath.
Her throat clogged with emotion as tears welled in her eyes. She refused to shed them. She had already cried enough over the bastard.
“Looking for me his entire life, my ass,” she mumbled to herself. She threw her hands up, rolling her eyes. “And what did I do? I fell harder for him because he said it. Ugh.”
She thought about calling him and giving him a piece of her mind, but she stopped herself at the last minute. The only thing that could make matters worse would be allowing Cal, Hank, and Isaac Gomez to believe they had broken her.
“I’ve been through worse,” she stated. “I’ll survive this.”
She looked at the large wooden hanging that had Dolly’s favorite quote. Strength is what we gain from the madness we survive.
Dillon had always liked the quote, but now she understood why Dolly loved it so. All the shit Dillon was going through could aptly be described as madness. And she would survive it.
She took three long, deep breaths to center and ground herself.
Gradually, her fury receded so she could think clearly once more.
Dillon slowly turned and looked around the office.
She thought about all the times her aunt had been in the chair she now sat in while Dillon sat on the other side of the desk.
They’d shared many meaningful talks—most while Dillon filed papers since that was one chore Dolly hated above all things.
Dillon stopped suddenly, her mind centered on her aunt, and her gaze locked on the filing cabinet.
She sat up straight as she remembered filing papers from a doctor in Dolly’s personal file.
Dillon jumped up and hurried to the cabinet, yanking the drawer open and running her fingers along the files’ tabs as she read each one.
When she found her aunt’s personal file, she pulled it out and returned to the desk.
She sat with one leg tucked under her as she opened the file and sorted through the various documents.
Most were receipts from doctors’ offices.
However, included in them were printouts from the doctor about what had been discussed during the visit, any tests that had been run or ordered, and medications prescribed.
Dolly had had a penchant for sweets, which had led to some excess weight, but she always appeared in good health. She had smoked when she was younger but had given that up. Her only other vise had been her nightly beer. She got all the exercise she needed by working on the ranch.
Dillon came across a visit where a Dr. T.
M. Maxwell, a primary care physician, had Dolly’s blood screened for troponin T three months before her death.
Curious as to what that was, Dillon searched the internet and was shocked to discover that troponin T was a protein found in the heart muscle.
By measuring the protein with a high-sensitivity test, it helped doctors diagnose heart attacks and heart disease.
In an attached document, Dillon found the results of Dolly’s test, along with a handwritten note that said Normal next to the findings.
Yet Dolly had died of a heart attack. If nothing in the tests showed there was an issue, how did she die? After the attempts on her life, Dillon’s mind immediately went to the idea that someone had killed her aunt. But, surely, the coroner would’ve discovered that.
Wouldn’t he?
Dillon rubbed her head as she digested that news. She stared at the screen, wondering if she saw traitors and murderers everywhere now because of what had happened to her.
But what if she wasn’t imagining this? What if it had happened?
She bit her lip and quickly researched if it was possible to kill someone and make it look like a heart attack.
Just as she feared, she got results. The top one was an injection of potassium chloride.
The more Dillon dug, the more repulsed she was at how many people went into detail about all the different ways to murder someone so it looked like an accident.
And the more she read, the more she couldn’t shake her fear that Dolly had been killed.
Dillon sat back. If her aunt had been murdered, and it had been made to look like an accident, why had someone tried the opposite approach with her? As close as Cal had gotten to her, he could’ve easily injected her with any number of things. Which meant that something didn’t add up.
She returned her attention to the notes from the doctor and found the address and a phone number. It was well past business hours, but Dillon still called to leave a message on the machine so they could return her call first thing in the morning.
The line connected, but she didn’t hear an office recording. Instead, she got a loud, abrasive voice that stated the line had been disconnected. Undeterred, Dillon looked up the doctor and discovered that T. M. Maxwell had retired.
“Shit,” she said as she slumped back in the chair.
Her leg was going to sleep, so she stood and paced the office as she contemplated everything she’d learned. Then she reached for her phone and called Les.
“Dillon?” he answered breathlessly. “Is everything okay?”
“I know it’s late, and there’s a real possibility that I’ve gone off the deep end, but I need someone to talk this through with.”
He grunted and whispered, his mouth away from the phone, “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
Dillon grimaced as she glanced at the clock to see that it was nearly midnight. “Shit. Les, I’m sorry to disturb your night.”
“It’s fine. We weren’t sleeping anyway.”
“Eww. I don’t need to know that.”
He chuckled. “You call in the middle of the night, you get the details of my sex life.”
Dillon laughed, the action bringing much needed clarity. “Fair enough.”
“Now. Let’s have it.”
“As I said, I might be seeing things that aren’t there.”
“Dillon,” he said calmly. “Tell me everything.”
She cleared her throat and resumed her seat at the desk. Then, with a deep breath, she began.