A Lawman's Justice (Sweetwater Ranch Book 8) (8 page)

Chapter Eight

Shelby got just a glimpse of the latest murder photos before Sheriff Cooper McKinnon hit the button on his computer to hide them.

But a mere glimpse was more than enough.

It was definitely the work of this sick killer. A dead woman wearing a mask of Shelby’s face. This time, though, it felt even more personal since the woman had been murdered in Shelby’s bed. It was also personal since this latest victim was one of their suspects in the attacks.

Meredith Bellows.

Mercy, when was this going to end?

Seth slipped his arm around her waist and eased her away from Cooper’s computer. As he’d done during their last visit to the sheriff’s office, he had her sit in a chair next to a deputy’s desk while he finished yet another round of calls. This time it was to have someone bring in Hance, and maybe unlike the other visit, they’d actually get a murder confession from him.

All those people were dead because someone apparently wanted to get back at her. She couldn’t be responsible for another death. She just couldn’t be. She already felt ready to shatter into a million little pieces, and anything else would cause her to go right over the edge.

Seth finally finished his call and came closer to her. His black suit was covered with dust and dirt, probably a result of when he’d pulled her to the ground in the parking lot after the truck exploded. However, unlike her, he didn’t appear ready to lose it. He just looked focused and angry.

Good.

Maybe that anger and focus would help them find this killer.

“Deputy Hawks is at the hospital with Strand while he’s getting stitched up,” Seth explained. “Strand’s still claiming that Hance is the one who hired him.”

“You don’t believe him?” Shelby asked.

“I want to believe him, but Strand isn’t exactly trustworthy.” Seth groaned, scrubbed his hand over his face. “The CSI just confirmed the timer on the firebomb malfunctioned. That’s why it went off when it did.”

Even though her thoughts were a tangled mess, Shelby still had no trouble working that out. If the timer hadn’t malfunctioned, Seth and she would have been inside the truck when it burst into flames.

“Strand intended to kill us,” she concluded.

Seth made a sound of agreement, and even though Shelby didn’t need proof of just how on edge they were, she got it when someone opened the front door of the sheriff’s office. Seth stepped in front of her, and in the same motion, he put his hand over his gun. Ready to draw. But it wasn’t the threat his body was clearly prepared for. However, it was someone that Shelby wasn’t up to seeing.

Her mother.

Carla hurried in, her arms open, and she headed straight for Shelby. Her mother’s cheeks were flushed, maybe because of the heat. Maybe because she’d been in a rush to get there. Too bad it was a waste of time. And more. This might make her mother’s mental state even worse. Thankfully, she wasn’t alone. Carla’s psychiatrist, Dr. Joanne Wilks, came in right behind her.

“I heard about the attacks,” Carla said, pulling Shelby into a hug. “About the murders, too. And I demanded that Dr. Wilks bring me to see you.”

Shelby and her mother hadn’t exactly had a picture-perfect relationship, especially after her father’s murder. But for now Carla just seemed like a worried mom.

“Your mother can’t stay long,” the doctor clarified. “She needs to get back for her therapy sessions. She just wanted to see you.”

Shelby doubted the therapy sessions were that pressing, but the doctor probably didn’t want Carla in this stressful situation any longer than necessary.

“We’re okay,” Shelby assured her mother. Something she’d been lying about a lot lately.

“But Marcel isn’t.” Carla started to sob and dropped her head on Shelby’s shoulder.

Seth moved closer as if he could help, but he must have realized there wasn’t much he could do. However, Shelby noticed his movement had snagged her mother’s attention because Carla pulled back and looked at him.

“You’re Jewell’s stepson,” she said. Not quite an accusation, but close.

“I am.” Unlike Carla’s tone, his held no hint of a bad attitude.

Her mother looked him over from head to toe. “I’d heard that you were easy on the eyes.”

Really?
Her mother was bringing up Seth’s looks at a time like this?

“Easy on the eyes,” Carla repeated to Shelby in an almost secretive whisper. “And with you two being thrown together like this, I can understand why you’d let him jump in front of you like that.”

Oh. So that was where this was going.

“Seth has saved my life multiple times,” Shelby volunteered just in case her mother was about to launch into some kind of tirade against Jewell and anyone associated with her.

But clearly that was not where Carla was headed.

No.

Did her mother see this “thing” that was going on between Seth and her? Shelby hoped not, because she’d never hear the end of it.

Carla swallowed hard before she looked up at Seth again. “Don’t let this monster hurt Shelby.”

“I won’t.” Seth didn’t hesitate, either, but his gaze went from her mother to the front of the building. To the man who was stepping from his car.

“Marvin Hance,” her mother said, following Seth’s gaze. Now there was plenty of venom in her voice. “Why is he here? Is he responsible for what’s happening?”

“Possibly,” Seth and Shelby said in unison. As he’d done with Shelby earlier, Seth stepped in front of Carla and her.

“We should be going,” Dr. Wilks insisted. Probably because she sensed this meeting would only add to her patient’s stress levels.

But Carla didn’t budge, even when the doctor took hold of her arm. She stared at Hance. Nope, it was a glare. And Carla would have launched herself at Hance if both Seth and Dr. Wilks hadn’t held her back.

Carla cursed him, calling him a string of vicious names, but it only caused Hance to smile. “You’re high-strung like your daughter,” he said.

Hance turned that sick smile on Shelby. “You know, if you want to keep seeing me, all you have to do is ask. You don’t have to do it under the pretense of accusing me of another crime.”

“No pretense,” Seth insisted. He motioned for the doctor to get Carla moving, and she did. He waited until they were out of the building before he continued. He also moved in front of Shelby so that Hance couldn’t see her. “Sheriff McKinnon here is going to question you about your connections to the person who tried to kill Shelby and me.”

Shelby looked over Seth’s shoulder to see if Hance had a reaction to that. He didn’t, but he smiled at her again, causing Seth to huff.

“You can handle this?” Seth asked the sheriff, and when Cooper nodded, Seth’s attention went to Colt. “Could you follow Shelby and me? I’d like to get her out of here.”

Now Hance had a reaction. “What? You don’t think your girlfriend can handle being in the room with me?”

Seth didn’t respond. Well, not verbally, but Shelby could practically feel the anger boiling inside him.

“Shelby,” Hance tried again. “You’re going to let Seth call the shots here? That’s not like you. Where’s the tough reporter who’s been hounding me for months?”

Since Hance was clearly becoming agitated by Seth’s silent treatment, Shelby went with it, too. She ignored him, though it was hard to do, and she walked with Seth and Colt to the door.

“That’s it?” Hance shouted. “You start a mess and then just leave?”

Hance moved as if to reach for her, but the look Seth gave him could have frozen the desert.

“Let me know if he confesses,” Seth said to Cooper, and he got her out of there. Not quickly. They strolled out as if they didn’t have a murder suspect trying to goad them into a fight.

“You don’t bring out the best in him,” Colt mumbled as they walked to their vehicles. “So where am I following you?”

“The McKinnon ranch,” Seth answered. That got Shelby’s eyes widening, and it earned him a “what the heck?” look from Colt.

“I’m a thousand percent sure that’s a bad idea,” Shelby told Seth.

Did he listen? Of course not. Seth got them in a borrowed cruiser and headed toward the ranch with Colt following behind them in his truck.

“I needed to get you out of there,” Seth explained to her. “Hance was enjoying that way too much. He’s a sociopath, and he’s getting off on seeing you in pain.”

She couldn’t argue with any of that, but Shelby could argue with the direction they were heading. “The McKinnons aren’t going to want me on their ranch.”

“True,” he agreed. “But Roy won’t turn you away. Not when he realizes you’re in danger. Besides, we’ll be in the guesthouse, not under the same roof as the others.”

That didn’t settle down her nerves one bit. “For how long?”

“Until I can make other arrangements, which I’ll start working on right away, I don’t want to use FBI channels because Hance still has plenty of connections. Connections that might accidentally leak the location of a safe house. I’d rather make the arrangements myself, and not while we’re in the sheriff’s office.”

“You don’t trust Cooper?” she asked.

He didn’t exactly jump to say yes, something he probably would have done just a day or so ago. “The fewer people who know where we are, the better.”

Shelby was all for that, but she couldn’t stop the knot from forming in her stomach when Seth took the final turn to Sweetwater Ranch.

She hadn’t been here since she was a kid, and the place had certainly changed. Three new houses were scattered around the property. Shelby had heard enough talk to know they belonged to Cooper, Colt and Seth’s sister Rosalie and her husband. Shelby’s sister, Laine, and her husband, Tucker, lived in another house that once had belonged to their grandfather.

All the McKinnons were coming home to roost.

That knot in Shelby’s stomach got worse when she spotted the people on the porch of the main house.

Roy and Seth’s sister Rayanne.

Seth parked the cruiser next to the guesthouse and waved at Colt to let him know he could go back to the station. Part of Shelby wished she could go with him because the idea of facing Hance suddenly seemed like the lesser of two evils. Especially considering the way Rayanne was glaring at her.

Seth didn’t dodge that glare. He walked toward Roy and Rayanne, and Shelby was more than a little surprised when Roy smiled at her. And it seemed genuine.

“I’m sorry about the latest trouble,” Roy said. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you need.”

It was a generous offer. One that Shelby certainly hadn’t expected. The generosity, however, didn’t extend to Rayanne. Seth’s sister was megapregnant, and she had her hands on her huge belly and a big scowl on her face.

“Play nice,” Seth said to Rayanne, and he brushed a kiss on her cheek. “How’s my nephew?” He rubbed his hand on her stomach.

“As hardheaded as his uncle,” Rayanne snarled, giving most of that snarl to Shelby.

“Rayanne’s two days past her due date,” Roy provided. “The doctor said she should walk, and I think she’s a little tuckered out. Plus, she’s craving ice cream, and we’re out, so she’s waiting on her husband to get back from the grocery store.”

Rayanne made a yeah-right sound. “I’m not sporting this expression because I’m tuckered out or craving mint chocolate chip. I’m riled because my hardheaded brother brought Whitt Braddock’s daughter here.”

“Shelby’s not responsible for what went on with Whitt,” Roy said. “And I think Seth will breathe a lot easier if she’s here, where she’s safe. That means you’ll breathe easier, too, since he’ll be safe, as well.”

Rayanne probably wanted to disagree with that, but then she huffed, her gaze going over Seth’s dirty, torn suit. The dirt and the tears he’d gotten because someone had tried to kill them again.

“Just be careful,” Rayanne finally said to Seth. The warning might not have just been for the danger, either, because Rayanne volleyed a few glances between Shelby and him.

Mercy, were she and Seth wearing some kind of unwanted-attraction sign that others could see? Her mother had certainly picked up on it. Jewell, too. Now maybe Rayanne.

Roy slid his arm around Rayanne’s waist and got them walking again. Seth did the same to Shelby and took her into the guest cottage. The place wasn’t big: a living room– kitchen combo, two bedrooms and a bath. And it seemed even smaller when Seth stepped inside to join her.

“There’s water and sodas in the fridge,” he said, heading straight for one of the bedrooms. He shucked off his dirty jacket along the way.

Even though her throat was as dry as dust, Shelby sank down on the sofa instead. Too bad it gave her an unobstructed view of Seth, since he didn’t shut the bedroom door. His holster and shirt came off next. Then he reached for the zipper on his pants.

That didn’t help her dry throat.

Seth stopped, and as if suddenly remembering that he wasn’t alone, looked back at her. “Sorry.”

Shelby tried to shrug to make it seem like no big deal. It was, though. Seeing a half-naked Seth only reminded her body that she wouldn’t mind seeing him completely naked.

Wouldn’t mind more of those kisses, either.

Thankfully, that set off some huge warning bells in her head, and she forced herself to tear her gaze from him. To give herself something else to do, she picked up a photo album from the coffee table and thumbed through it.

It was a family album. Specifically, photos of Seth, Rosalie and Rayanne as children. In nearly all the shots Seth was riding a horse in what appeared to be various rodeo competitions.

And there was Jewell, of course.

In several photos she was standing next to a man in a wheelchair. He was the spitting image of Seth.

“Rosalie brought that album with her when we came to the ranch,” Seth said. He came out of the bedroom wearing clean black pants. Zipped at that. No shirt, though he did have one and his badge in his hands. “Anything wrong?” he asked.

She was gawking at him again but managed to shake her head. What the heck? She might as well just spill what Seth already figured she was thinking.

“You know you tick all the boxes for ‘hot guy,’” Shelby said. “Even my mother noticed. Half the women in town are fantasizing about you. The other half are too young or old to fantasize.”