Settling an Old Score - Delores Fossen Page 0,9
had a gun in his hand. A gun now soaked in blood. Eli had hoped he’d been wearing a Kevlar vest and had only had the breath knocked out of him. But this was much more serious than that.
The man was dying.
Eli didn’t feel any sympathy for the man, this clown who’d come to his house with guns blazing, but he wanted him to hang on.
By the time Eli reached the man, he heard the hurried footsteps behind him. Eli automatically pivoted, his heart jumping to his throat with a fresh slam of adrenaline, but it was just Kellan and Gunnar.
“The ambulance is on the way,” Kellan relayed, but then he cursed when he saw the man. And the blood. The guy would be dead before the ambulance could get there.
“Wait on the porch,” Eli told Gunnar. “Ashlyn is inside with her baby.”
Gunnar nodded and ran to the door to stand guard in what Eli hoped would be an unnecessary precaution. Eli and Kellan continued to the man, and the first thing Eli did was take the gun from his hand because a dying man could still be dangerous and pull a trigger.
Kellan had a small flashlight that he aimed at the shooter’s face. Brown hair, nondescript features except for a scar that cut through his right eyebrow. Eli was certain that he’d never seen him before.
“Who are you?” Eli demanded.
The guy managed a sneer. “I got a family,” he said. “And you won’t get an ID off me from my prints. No record.”
Even though it wasn’t an answer to his question, that response told Eli plenty. This was a hired gun, and his family would get a payout whether he lived or died. Or at least that’s what this clown believed.
“Once you’re dead, your face will be plastered on every news station in the state,” Eli warned him. “Someone will recognize you, and once I have an ID, I can and will go after your family as accessories to kidnapping and attempted murder of a Texas Ranger. How do you think that’ll play out for you, for them, huh?”
No sneer this time, but the guy did cough, and there was a rattling sound in his chest while his hands stayed pressed to his wound. “My family had nothing to do with this. You were just the job.”
“Funny, but it felt very personal to me.” Eli knelt down, got right in his face and made sure he looked like the badass Ranger that he was. “You endangered an innocent baby. I won’t forget that, and I’ll go after your family until I put every last one of them in a cage. Now tell me who the hell you are and why you did this.”
The man shook his head, dragged in a ragged breath, but Eli saw the realization in his dying eyes. The realization that Eli wasn’t bluffing. “I’m Abe Franklin,” he finally said, his voice barely audible now. “And if I tell you who hired me, you have to promise to protect my family. Promise me,” he repeated.
Eli would have lied to get the name of the guy’s boss, but in this case, no lie was necessary. If his family was indeed innocent, then they’d be protected. “I promise,” Eli assured him.
Even though the man clearly only had a few seconds left, he still took his time answering. “The woman with the kid, Ashlyn Darrow, was supposed to shoot and kill you once she thought you’d taken the baby. And then the woman would be arrested for your murder.”
Eli had already come up with that theory, but it didn’t give him the info he needed. “Who set that up? Who hired you?”
“She said you and Ashlyn wouldn’t see it coming, that you wouldn’t suspect her at all.”
“She?” Eli demanded.
“The woman who hired me. She said you wouldn’t suspect her because you thought she was dead.” The next breath was much thinner. The cough, more of a death rattle. “Her name is Marta Seaver.”
Chapter Four
Ashlyn eased Cora into the infant seat that Eli had arranged to have in the back seat of the cruiser. The baby remained asleep, thank goodness, and Ashlyn hoped she stayed that way for the next couple of hours. Cora had already had enough interruptions to her routine and sleep.
Even though it would only be a short drive from the hospital where they’d just been examined to the sheriff’s office, Eli had insisted on them riding in the bullet-resistant cruiser. He’d told Ashlyn that he didn’t