Chapter Twenty-Three
Blakely needed to have a serious conversation with Dalton once this ordeal was over. Right now, all she could think about was keeping everyone safe until law enforcement caught up with the bastard who was determined to kill her.
Her cell buzzed. She checked the screen, and her stomach fell. “It’s my brother-in-law.”
Locking gazes with Dalton, even for a few seconds, gave her a boost of confidence before she answered the call.
“Hey, Greg. Everything okay?” she asked.
“Aunt Blakely,” came Chase’s small voice. She listened for any signs of sadness or panic, decided she was searching for something that wasn’t there. “Can you come pick me up?”
“Where are you?” she asked.
“Home,” Chase said. “I don’t like it here without Mommy.”
“Are you alone?” she asked.
“Gotta go,” Chase whispered. “Daddy’s coming.”
“Chase?” she asked, but he was already gone. She locked gazes with Dalton. “I need to get back to Houston.”
“Is that a good idea?” Dalton asked.
“What choice do I have?”
Dalton seemed at a loss for words.
“Someone bring me up-to-date on what’s going on, please,” Jules said.
“Blakely just got a call from her nephew,” Dalton started.
“Asking me to pick him up,” Blakely finished.
“Where?” Jules asked.
“In Houston,” Blakely responded.
Jules pushed to standing and started pacing again. “We can get there with some planning.”
“I’m sorry to be the one to say this considering I know how much you love your nephew, but you have to consider the possibility you’d be placing him in harm’s way,” said Dalton.
Right. Like Bethany.
Blakely bit out a curse. “What else am I supposed to do?”
“Catch this bastard so you can get your life back,” Dalton said. If only it was that easy.
What if this guy escalated? Then again, he’d tried to blow up her and a US marshal. How much further would this go?
“Chase is safe with his father,” Dalton said.
As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Dalton was making sense, whereas she was being irrational.
Her emotions were at the wheel. Despite the couple hours of sleep last night, she was still bone-tired.
Caffeine helped. Some. But she needed an IV of dark roast if she wanted to be alert and awake for the rest of the day.
“You make a good point,” she finally said to Dalton.
“My apartment might be the safest place for us right now,” he said.
That was true for them and everyone around them.
“I’m coming with you,” Jules said.
“Your plate is full already, taking care of Toby while being here for our grandparents,” Dalton said. “Grandpa Lor is awake now. He’ll need your support even more.”
Jules opened her mouth to speak but then clamped down on her bottom lip instead.
“I’ll have your truck swept before the two of you leave,” Jules said. “Are you sure it’s safe to go to your apartment? Because I can arrange a safe house to get you by until this blows over.”
Going to an unfamiliar place where there would be strangers didn’t exactly feel warm and fuzzy to Blakely.
Not being able to go pick up Chase when she desperately wanted to be there for him was the hardest thing.
Not being there for Bethany made her want to scream.
What choice did she have? “It’s hard to kill someone you can’t find. ”
Jules looked to Dalton, who gave a slight nod.
Okay, then. They were going to a safe house.
“I can get you near Houston,” Jules said as she retrieved her phone from her handbag. “How do you feel about Galveston?”
“Good,” Dalton answered.
“Okay, then I think I have a place for you to hang out that should keep you off the radar,” Jules said.
“While you’re getting a sweep done on my truck, maybe I can take one of the ranch vehicles instead,” Dalton said.
“No one should be expecting it,” Jules said. “Give me half an hour, and I’ll set everything up. In the meantime, dear brother, make sure you get clearance from the doctor to leave. Okay?”
He saluted. “Yes, ma’am.”
The next hour was a blur of activity as Dalton cleaned up and got dressed, nurses scrambled around getting him ready for release, and a doctor was summoned to give the final okay for him to be discharged.
He’d been clear about his intention to walk out with or without the doctor’s permission.
Waiting would get him in the least amount of trouble with his boss.
An apartment at The Waterfront on Bayou Shore Drive was arranged, and a ranch vehicle was parked at the side of the hospital. Jules would oversee the bomb sweep of Dalton’s truck, drawing attention there while he and Blakely slipped out the side door and to the waiting vehicle.
Dalton stared at his cell. “Johnny Spear has been arrested at Lake Texoma, where he was hiding in a fishing cabin with no contact to the outside world.”
“I’d started to move on from him as a suspect anyway,” Blakely admitted. “It’s good to know that I’m on the right track.”
“Have you considered the professor?” Dalton asked before they were interrupted by a thumbs-up from Jules. “Go time.”
Within a matter of minutes, they were racing down a staircase before hitting the side exit. An older gentleman scooted over to the passenger seat before exiting the truck with the engine left running.
“Shiloh Nash has worked the ranch since long before I was a twinkle in my parents’ eyes. Grandpa Lor hired him at fifteen, and he’s been there ever since,” Dalton explained as Blakely crouched low in the seat. “Folks say all he needs to do is put his hands on a horse to hear its thoughts.”
Despite his age, the man looked strong. He still had a full head of white hair.
“Sounds like he has a gift,” she said, checking the side mirror to see if anyone was paying attention to them or if a vehicle was following them. So far, so good. Did she dare hope they would make it to Galveston?
“He’s quite the character too,” Dalton supplied. It was nice to talk about something so normal for a change.
“I wish we could stay here so you could have more time with your grandparents,” she said.
Dalton tightened his grip on the steering wheel and kept his eyes on the patch of road in front of them. “They have Jules. Grandpa Lor is awake. Now we just need miracle number two.”
Blakely could use one of those miracles about now.
* * *
The drive to Galveston was quiet. They only made a lunch stop, eating fast food in the truck while parked across the street from the taco place.
Apartment 4D of The Waterfront luxury apartments afforded a view of the Gulf of Mexico that Dalton might have appreciated more if he was on vacation.
As it was, he checked the one-bedroom along with the perimeter with a wary eye.
Once he deemed it safe, he joined Blakely inside, where she was rummaging around in the fridge.
“I meant to ask more about your relationship with the professor,” he said to her.
“What relationship?” she asked.
“He shows up in your courtroom. Keeps track of your schedule. Surely you don’t think it’s for professional reasons only.”
“He has a reputation for liking busty blondes, which I am not,” she said, a little too quickly to dismiss his concerns.
The guy did exhibit a stalker quality. “I admit he’s made me uncomfortable on a couple of occasions, but I choose not to read too much into our interactions.
” She pulled out ingredients to make sandwiches.
“I can also admit that seeing him in my courtroom yesterday was uncomfortable. Though, it wasn’t the first time he’s brought students.
” She closed the fridge door. “Do you see him as a threat?”
“I don’t like his fixation on you,” he admitted. “Has he ever made an advance?”
“I’ve been very clear where I stand with the professor,” she said as she assembled dinner. Didn’t mean the professor was on board or that he didn’t resent her for refusing him. Would he resent her enough to come for her?
Dalton sent a message to Jules to see if she could pull up any dirt on the professor, like sexual harassment claims by current or former students. Any indications of escalation of stalking behavior.
He received an immediate response that Jules was on it.
After a quiet dinner, Blakely excused herself to take a shower.
Dalton sat at the table and stared out the window.
Now that Johnny Spear had been eliminated as a possibility, they were back to square one.
The professor bugged Dalton. The man’s actions raised red flags.
Did it mean he was a murderer? Was he trying to scare Blakely?
Get her to run to him in some twisted scenario in the man’s mind?
Would he hire someone to hurt her? Abduct her?
It didn’t add up.
Blakely’s cell buzzed. Dalton resisted the temptation to check the screen. She would be out of the shower in a few minutes and could see for herself.
The darn thing barely stopped buzzing before kicking off a new round. An emergency?
He got to his feet and moved to the counter to check the screen. If he was going to read the messages, he needed her facial ID.
Since this seemed important, he picked up the phone and took it to the bathroom with him. Standing in the hallway, he knocked on the door as the cell went off again. “Sorry to interrupt, but your cell isn’t letting up. Someone must want to get a hold of you desperately.”
The water turned off.
A few seconds later, the door cracked enough for him to slip her phone through.
“Everything okay?”
“It’s my sister,” Blakely said. “She wants me to pick her up. Says she is being discharged first thing in the morning but doesn’t want to go home and doesn’t want anyone to realize she left the hospital in the middle of the night.”
A minute later, she emerged from the bathroom dressed and still dripping wet.
“What should I do, Dalton?”
* * *
Hiding was going to drive Blakely out of her mind. Doing nothing was the absolute worst. “Tell me what to do because I can’t leave my family hanging like this. There has never been a time when I wasn’t there for them.”
Dalton raked his fingers through his hair. “How tired are you?”
“I’m wide awake now,” she admitted.
“Let’s go get Bethany.”
“How?” Did she dare hope he had a plan? Could they grab Bethany and bring her back to Galveston with them to hide out for a few days? What would that do to Chase? Chase.
“We’ll figure it out on the drive over,” he said.
“I’ll grab clothes for her,” Blakely said before throwing another jogging suit in her handbag along with the only other shoes she could find, ballet flats she’d packed.
Within a matter of minutes, they were back on the road.
The drive didn’t take long at night with no traffic.
“You’re authorized to go in the room, so maybe we arrange a swap while the nurses aren’t looking?” Dalton asked after parking in the lot.
It could work. “I can change clothes with Bethany, and then she can walk out with you.”
“We’ll pretend to be a couple so I can hide her face,” he added. It was cover, so the idea shouldn’t bother her as much as it did.
“And then, I’ll come out and say goodbye,” she said. “Make a show of them seeing my face so they won’t suspect anything.”
“As busy as the nursing staff is, we have a good chance a different one will be at the station if we hold off for a few minutes,” he reasoned. Someone was always at the station, but the nurses moved in and out of rooms.
“Let’s do this.”