Chapter Fourteen
Blake slapped her hand down on the table with force. She curled her fingers and dragged her nails against the top until she was making a fist.
“That’s Mater Calhoun,” she said through gritted teeth. The cell phone next to her showed the image of the smiling man in work clothes. The same man whom she had shot in the leg in her home earlier.
Liam settled into the chair next to her.
“Unfortunate name,” he observed. He was mindful of the sling on his arm.
Like several hours before, Price was with them again. This time, though, he was in person, sitting opposite them. It was now morning, but the McCoy County Sheriff’s Department paid no mind to the change. The meeting room they were in had one window, and its blinds were drawn tight.
Price shook his head in what seemed to be equal parts anger and disbelief.
That feeling was amplified in Blake.
He could see her fist tightening still. Liam reached out and gently tapped that fist twice.
Blake’s gaze flew to him. She silently released her own hold.
“I know of the family but not Mater specifically,” Liam admitted, hand back on his phone. “Other than the obvious reasons why we should be upset, why are you two this upset?”
Price was in a full snit, but he acquiesced to Blake for her answer.
It almost felt like a hierarchy move, like Blake had seniority, and it was his job to let her take the lead.
A part of Liam couldn’t blame him for the instinct.
Despite being on cold medicine, forced to violence in her own home, and then dealing with the aftermath of getting her scared family together and settled in the sheriff department’s break room, she still was a pillar.
Liam didn’t know if it made him proud or worried. Or both.
She needed to rest; she couldn’t yet.
And apparently, some of that had to do with this Mater Calhoun person.
“Mater Calhoun—” Blake’s voice was undeniably angry, even the pause she forced herself to take after his name felt weighted.
Whatever she had originally been about to say, she looked like she changed her mind about it.
Instead, she was steady with her next words.
“He’s the reason I left Seven Roads all those years ago. ”
Liam couldn’t help but lean a little toward her.
He quirked an eyebrow.
She was quick to wave her hand at the first thought that sprang up at the statement.
“He was only a friend at the time, and, well, even that’s generous,” she continued.
“He lived on the same block my dad did and liked to come over to the house to hang out a lot. Whether it was with me or Beth, he was an easy guy to get along with. Even my dad liked him, which is saying something.” She let out a breath.
It was hot with anger still. “Then one day Mater came to the house all upset—like really upset—saying that he needed my dad’s help.
He’d gone and messed up at his summer job at the steel mill and gotten into a fight with a new hire there, and now everyone wanted a piece of him, including the sheriff’s department. ”
She snorted. There was no humor in it.
“My dad, someone who’d only had daughters but wanted sons, told Mater to stay hidden at our place until he could get things sorted. He told me I was in charge of making sure he was okay. I didn’t mind it at first, but then, well, then I found out what he did.”
Price cut in with a sharper edge than Liam had expected of him.
“The trouble he’d gotten into was because he beat that guy so badly that he ended up losing an eye,” he said. “And the man didn’t even start the fight. He only swung back in defense, and even then, he looked like he was pawing at pillows.”
“The security footage of the fight was spread around pretty decent before Dad could even make it to his lawyer’s office,” Blake tagged back in.
“I tried talking to Mater about it, but he just got more and more tight-lipped. But you could tell he was in the wrong and he knew it. Then he’d come to the only place in town where someone would fight for him. ”
Blake looked like she was about to say one thing again but, instead, switched to something else.
“Then Sheriff Dean showed up on our doorstep,” she said.
“He knew my dad saw Mater as a surrogate son and came at me with the same feeling. He gave me a speech about doing the right thing, about people who did the wrong thing, and he really dug deep into the idea that one bad choice doesn’t necessarily mean a life filled with them.
But it didn’t matter what he said, because I already made up my mind.
I let him in the house and let him take Mater, only stalling long enough to put on my shoes. ”
Blake’s expression grew more solemn. She readjusted in her chair before continuing.
“Dad showed up right as Mater was being driven off by a deputy. He was so spitting mad, face all red and running up like he was about to fight the entire sheriff’s department.
” Blake paused again. This time, Liam knew there was a lot that she wanted to say but didn’t.
“Sheriff Dean didn’t budge at anything my dad said, and after that, my dad never forgave me.
We got into a yelling match out near the park on the way home from the department and.
.. Well, it was good for everyone that I left town.
Mater, even with a lawyer, ended up in prison later.
His sentence was ten years, last I heard. ”
Blake looked to Price.
He nodded confirmation.
“He got out early for good behavior but stayed out of Seven Roads until a few years ago,” he said.
“He’s been living in the duplex out on Grantham Street.
He married a woman he met after he got out.
Forget her name, but would you believe where she works?
Steel mill. Same place that caused him all the grief.
That’s probably why he’s been doing so many odd jobs through the years, trying to make enough to get her to leave the place. ”
“And tonight he was with Ray,” Liam finally said.
“And tonight he was with Ray,” Blake repeated.
Price shook his head.
“I’m guessing that Ray really could be targeting you, Sheriff,” he said.
“First they go after your dinner companion in the field and now this? Ray might’ve hired Mater to help, and Mater’s been hard up on cash, so he said yes to it.
That’s best I can guess as to why Mater would get involved.
As far as I know, Mater doesn’t have a connection to Missy, her father, or her case.
I wish we could just ask Ray though. At least get him to tell us who Rain Slicker Guy and Baseball Cap Guy are. ”
Liam had been able to leave the hospital within an hour of the ambulance dropping their party off.
The bullet wound in his arm had been only a little more severe than a graze.
He’d needed stitches, sure, but he could manage just fine now.
Ray, on the other hand, was in much worse shape and fighting to stay alive.
The bald man had done a serious number on him.
Which was one more reason why Liam felt the urgency to find him, the savage one who had managed to run off earlier.
The other man with the baseball cap who hadn’t even attempted to understand his surroundings, had buttoned up his mouth with speed.
No one had recognized him, but Detective Williams would make quick work of him, Liam was sure.
Mater wasn’t one to help with this problem either. He was in the hospital post-surgery for his gunshot to the leg. Despite his yelling, he wouldn’t say much of anything with or without a lawyer.
“I still don’t understand why they’re coming after you,” Price said after a moment, turning his gaze to Liam.
“I mean I kind of understood misplaced anger coming in from his dad because you’re looking into Missy’s death, but grabbing three other guys and busting into a family home just to—what?
Scare you? Hurt you? I don’t get it.” Price dragged his hand down his face.
“Darius is talking to Chase McClennan in a few hours, so maybe we can get some kind of answer there if Darius can’t grab anything from Baseball Cap Guy. ”
Chase McClennan’s alibi had been solid. He definitely wasn’t at Blake’s home that night. Still, that didn’t mean he didn’t know the men who had been.
Liam looked sidelong at Blake.
He was angry for many reasons, but the grief that Blake had been put through topped the list. Seeing her worry over the kids and Lola had made him exponentially more so, considering he was the reason they had been traumatized in the first place.
He should have kept his distance from the woman.
That’s why he had kept so quiet during the last week. That’s why he had asked to put the truck in the garage while he was at her home—to sidestep gossip, sure, but to also keep his associations with her as limited as possible in the public’s eye.
He should have actually kept his distance instead, not offer himself up the second she came around.
Now she was going through trouble again because of him.
Liam could feel the anger in his chest boil again. It hadn’t left since the night before.
If he hadn’t been around, they would be enjoying their morning together in peace, not sitting in the department scared.
“But they didn’t know you were there.”
Liam’s eyes widened as Blake spoke. For a split second he wondered if he had spoken his last thought aloud.
“What?” he asked.
Blake was staring at the fist she had made earlier. She brought her gaze slowly up to Liam’s before repeating herself.
“They didn’t know you were there.”
The men stopped. Liam tilted his head a little, thoughtful.
“We didn’t plan on you coming to my house last night,” she explained. “Your truck was locked up in the garage and out of sight, and then we all fell asleep. You stayed late on accident. If we didn’t even know you were going to be there, then how would they?”
“They could have followed you?” Price said.
“But why did they seem so surprised when Liam started fighting?” she ventured. “Surely they would have expected him to do so. Instead, Ray and Mater waited before coming in. They—”
“They didn’t plan on me,” Liam interrupted. “Ray seemed genuinely surprised when I appeared. I thought maybe because it was late and they expected us to be asleep, but the sight of me made him hesitate.”
Blake nodded, unclenched her fist and used her index finger to tap out another point on the tabletop.
“They followed me last week. Maybe they really had no idea you were driving behind me. You weren’t ever in their plan.”
Price was shaking his head.
“So—what?—you’re saying that they came just to break in? To what? To rob you when they knew you and the kids would be home? There’s got to be easier places to get a nicer score, no offense.”
She shook her head.
“Even if I had a house full of valuables, why would you bring that much manpower? Why bring four men, armed, to a home when everyone’s supposed to be sleeping?
” She met Liam’s eye again. “And why, even if that’s your plan to break in and steal, do you send only one out when you know resistance is probably going to happen? ”
Liam was sure of it now.
“They had no idea I was there,” he agreed. “They expected only you to be a threat.”
Blake tapped her finger against the table again.
“Which brings us to another question we might have an answer to,” she said.
“Why not wait until we weren’t home? We have a set routine taking the kids to daycare and doing errands when none of us would be home.
When there wouldn’t even be a chance of resistance.
But instead, it’s like they came prepared for battle.
..a battle they didn’t think you would be there for. ”
Price’s eyebrow rose.
“What are you thinking?” Price said.
But Liam had already followed her thought process.
He wasn’t a fan of where it led.
“They came for you.”
APART FROM SOME THEORIES, they didn’t have a strand of evidence to make sense of the men or their actions. Sitting there talking about it wasn’t helping either. Try as she might to appear the epitome of composure, Blake was finally starting to openly struggle.
Not only had she missed sleep and gone through a traumatic experience in which she’d had to shoot someone, there was the simple and annoying fact that she had a cold tugging at her.
Her head hurt, her nose was starting to stuff up again, and although she didn’t feel as if a fever was hanging around, there were a few body aches that were nagging her.
When Liam said it was time for her to go, however, she was split between agreement and a stubborn need to stay. She pushed; he didn’t budge. He told her no once more to her suggesting she go in to talk to Mater or the man who’d worn the baseball cap with absolute resolution.
“Running yourself ragged isn’t going to help anyone,” he said, standing tall in front of her in his office. “Not you, your family, or solving whatever is going on here. So let’s go.”
Even though the sheriff had been a lot more social with her in the last twenty-four hours or so, Blake found that it was her turn to hesitate at the sight of him.
It wasn’t the first time she had wondered how she and her family would have fared if he hadn’t been there to help.
She eyed his bandaged bicep and the sling keeping his arm steady.
Her mind wandered to perhaps the real reason she wasn’t ready to leave.
If she hadn’t already been preoccupied, she would have avoided his next movement.
Liam stroked a warm thumb down between her eyebrows, smoothing out the crinkle there.
“Go ahead and tell me what you’re thinking,” he said. “That way I can join the conversation.”
The touch might have unsettled her before, but now she sighed as it withdrew.
“Let’s say that I really am a target. Is it because of you? Because of me? Because of Missy’s case? Or what if it’s belated revenge from me turning on Mater back when we were young with an added bonus of Ray helping?”
“There’s no way we can know yet,” Liam pointed out.
“Exactly. Which means, how can we know if Rain Slicker Guy isn’t out there waiting to try again? Whether it’s against me or you.” She put her hand to her chest. “I’m good with me being in a bull’s-eye, but what about the kids? Lola? Won’t me being with them put them in danger again?”
Liam did something so unexpected, all Blake could do was stare.
He laughed.
“What did you think I was about to do?” he asked when done. “Send you off alone?”
Blake didn’t respond. That’s exactly what she thought.
He shook his head. His voice thrummed low and strong as he explained.
“Until we have this whole thing figured out and settled, I’m not leaving your side. Sorry to say, you’re stuck with me now, Sheriff Trouble. And that’s that.”