One Night Standoff - By Delores Fossen Page 0,41
in Dallas. I figured leaving was the best way to keep you alive.”
There it was. Yet something else she’d withheld from him. “Did you plan on telling me, or would you have just left the way you did the day I was shot?”
Her silence let him know the answer to that. “I trust you, but I thought I’d be doing you a favor.”
He tried not to be angry with her. He succeeded at that, but not at nullifying the frustration.
Clayton walked to her and looked her directly in the eyes. “You can’t leave. I know it’s not fair because you’re the one who has to go through this pregnancy, but that’s my baby, and I want to be part of his or her life. That includes keeping the baby, and you, safe.”
She certainly didn’t jump to agree with him. “But at what cost? You could be killed.”
“Any cost,” he let her know. And it wasn’t lip service. He hadn’t planned on fatherhood, but Clayton realized the baby was one of the most important things in his life.
Family.
“After we find who’s trying to kill us, we’ll sit down and work out, well, whatever we need to work out.”
She stared at him, probably ready to ask if that whatever included sex. Yeah, it likely would. Despite not needing the distraction, Clayton couldn’t see a way around it. Their bodies just lit up like firecrackers when they were around each other, and since he didn’t intend to let her out of his sight for long, that meant a lot of heat.
His phone buzzed, and he saw Harlan’s name on the screen. “Well?” Clayton greeted his brother, and he hoped it was good news for a change.
“I made some calls and found the SOB. Melvin’s at his new place of business in San Antonio. He’s selling souvenir imports from Mexico.”
Yeah, finding him was good news, all right. Maybe it would get even better. “Please tell me Melvin’s business is a front for drugs or something else illegal?”
“SAPD will check it out,” Harlan verified. “Are you up for an interrogation?”
“With Melvin?” Clayton clarified.
“Yep. I have a friend over there at SAPD, Lt. Nate Ryland, and he’s offered to bring the father of the year here to Maverick Springs.”
Clayton’s stomach tightened. He wanted to see Melvin, but he dreaded it, too. “How soon?”
“Soon,” Harlan said. “Lt. Ryland is picking him up now. They’ll be here in about two hours.”
Not long of a wait, and not much time to plan what to do with Lenora. Despite his earlier thought of not letting her out of his sight for long, he might have to do just that to keep her safe.
With help from one of his brothers, that was.
Clayton ended the call and turned to her. “I want you to stay here while I go into town.”
The head shaking started almost immediately. “I want to see Melvin and hear what he has to say.”
“Too risky. Best if you stay here. I’ll call Dallas and have him come out and stay with Stella, Kirby and you while I talk to Melvin. I won’t be long, promise.”
He saw the moment that Lenora surrendered to that idea, but she also wasn’t pleased. Still, he preferred her riled to being in danger. Or in the same room with Melvin. Which might be the same thing.
His phone buzzed again, and for a moment Clayton thought it was Harlan calling with something he’d forgotten to say. But it was Cutter again.
“Please tell me Quentin didn’t give you any trouble leaving the ranch,” Clayton said when he answered.
“No, he left, all right. But we got another kind of trouble.”
Before Clayton could groan or ask what that trouble was, he heard something he didn’t want to hear.
A gunshot.
* * *
THE SOUND OF THE SHOT stopped Lenora cold. She’d been on the verge of asking Clayton who or what had put that troubled look back on his face, but that shot was the answer to her question.
God.
What had gone wrong now?
Clayton pulled her to the floor even though she’d already started in that direction anyway, and he drew his gun from his holster. She’d left her weapon in the guest room, and Lenora cursed her decision to do that. The ranch had felt safe.
Judging from that shot, that was a false sense of security. Now she had no immediate way to defend herself.
If that was indeed what she would have to do.
Lenora held out hope that one of the ranch hands had fired at a snake or