Last Stand Ranch (7 page)

She sniffed loudly and sat up straighter. “I lost my job in Las Vegas and I've had a hard time finding another one. This wouldn't be the same kind of work that I was doing, but it would be meaningful. Aunt Claudia lined up the opportunity for me and I intend to make the best of it.”

She turned to Elijah. “So, no. I won't reschedule. I'm going.”

“Okay,” Elijah said. “I'll take you.”

“Thank you.” Olivia used her good arm to push herself up off the couch. “I'm going back to the house with you,” she said to Claudia. “After everything that's happened, I don't think you should go back alone.”

“She won't,” Linda said brightly, also standing up. “Mark and I are going with her.” She beamed at Claudia. “I love that cute little office with the day bed you have downstairs by the kitchen. And Mark's never met a couch that didn't double as the perfect bed for him. He'll sleep in the living room.”

Olivia's jaw dropped slightly as she looked around the room. Her gaze finally settled on Elijah.

“Well, you've certainly got all this planned, don't you?” she said.

“It's what we do.”

She turned to Claudia “After everything that's happened, you and I should stick together. I could go back to your house with you. Elijah could come, too. We'd have three people protecting us.”

“You and I can move into Claudia's house tomorrow,” Elijah said.

“Why wait?”

“Because nobody's out to kill your eighty-year-old aunt. They're after you. If Kurtz is that determined, he may try something tonight, when he knows you're already injured and vulnerable. I would think you wouldn't want Aunt Claudia in the same house with you.
I
don't want her in the same house with you. We'll have time tomorrow to make her house more secure before you move back in.”

“Oh. That makes sense.” The fire went out of her eyes.

Elijah turned to Mark and Linda. “Now that we've got that settled, why don't you take Aunt Claudia home. We can take care of things here.” His gaze shifted back to Olivia. His first impression of her was right. Trouble was hot on her heels. He just hoped he could keep that trouble from taking over his town.

SEVEN

O
livia rolled over in bed and was instantly jarred awake by a sharp pain jabbing into her shoulder. She groaned and glanced at the small clock beside her. This was the third or fourth time she'd woken up since going to bed. At least this time she could take another pain pill.

She sat up and flicked on the bedside lamp. The guest room in the Morales house was comfortable and beautiful, with the same relaxed, rustic, Southwest feel as the main rooms downstairs. But it wasn't home. Who knew when she'd be able to get her furniture out of storage and settle down in one place again? She reached up to touch the area where she'd been shot. She shivered, even though the room wasn't cold.

The bottle of pain pills the hospital gave her sat on the dresser, but she'd need to go downstairs to the kitchen for a glass of water. Mentally thanking Claudia for packing an overnight bag for her, she reached for her robe at the foot of her bed. She tucked her good arm into a sleeve and let the fabric drape over her sore shoulder.

She headed toward the stairs, stepping softly on the thick carpet, trying not to wake anyone. But at the top of the stairs she could see dim light glowing down in the living room. Someone was already awake. Maybe they'd heard something. Dogs barking. A car engine prowling up the drive. The sound of someone ratcheting a shotgun.

Fear twisted her nerves from head to toe, turning the dull pain in her shoulder into a piercing jolt and setting her teeth on edge. She grabbed the banister with her good hand and started down the stairs.

Elijah sat on one of the leather sofas, his booted feet on the coffee table, watching the flat-screen TV on the wall with the volume turned down low. A laptop lay open with an electronic tablet beside it on the table in front of him. He had a pistol within reach on the sofa cushion.

Bobby sat at the dining room table, visible through the open, airy design of the common area. He was facing a laptop computer screen, the bluish glow reflecting on his glasses and giving his bright red hair a more muted, brownish appearance.

Jonathan, sprawled on the second living room couch, flipped the page of a thick paperback book.

Olivia reached the bottom of the stairs and all three of the men looked up. Elijah was on his feet in an instant. “What's wrong?”

“Something up?” Bobby asked, looking directly at her.

“I don't know.” The sudden, intense attention was disorienting. “I was going to ask
you
if there was something wrong.” Olivia looked for reassurance in the tense expression on Elijah's face. “Why are all of you awake?”

“Why are
you
awake?” Elijah asked.

Jonathan set his book aside and stood up.

“Did you hear something?” Elijah demanded, sounding like a battlefield commander. “Did you see something?”

“I don't see anything,” Bobby said, his attention back on his computer.

“See anything? What are you looking at?” Confused, Olivia turned to Bobby, and then back to Elijah. “Do you have security cameras set up around your house?”

“What woke you up?” Elijah barked.

“My shoulder,” Olivia barked back. She dug the bottle of pain pills out of her bathrobe pocket, held it up and rattled it. “I came downstairs to get a glass of water.”

Elijah's shoulders relaxed slightly. She realized he had his pistol in his hand.

He tucked the gun into the waistband at the small of his back.

She sighed. Nothing like annoying the people trying to help you.

She walked by Bobby on the way to the kitchen and paused to see what he was looking at on his computer.

The screen was split into twelve images. She recognized the wooden crossbar at the entrance to the long driveway, the front door and a couple of views of the veranda at the back of the house. The other images were views of the outside of the house, and some other buildings, maybe a barn and a stable.

She looked up and saw Elijah watching her. “Who
are
you?” She gestured at the computer screen. “Why do you have so much security at your house?”

“It never hurts to be careful.” He started toward the kitchen. “I'll get your water.”

Olivia maneuvered around Bobby's chair so she could block Elijah's path. “Wait.”

He stopped, his dark eyes intensely focused on her. Her mouth suddenly felt dry, but she held her ground.

“You already know a lot about me,” she said. “You know a couple of humiliating things I would keep secret if I could. You know I lied about Ted Kurtz and you know I never gave Aunt Claudia the time of day until I needed her.”

Olivia's eyes began to burn. Speaking that second truth aloud made her chest hurt.

Don't cry. You will not cry
. She cleared her throat. “There are lots of things going on right now that I don't understand.” Tears started leaking out despite her best efforts to hold them back. She awkwardly wiped them away with her good hand. “I think you should tell me something about yourself. And tell me why you're doing this for me. You don't even know me.”

“She's got a point,” Jonathan muttered.

Elijah shot him a brotherly glare. Jonathan picked up his book and sat back down.

When Elijah turned back to Olivia he took the pill bottle from her hand, glanced at the label and handed it back to her. “Come on,” he said gently. “Let's get your water.”

The shades were pulled down over the kitchen windows. An individual bulb in the vent hood over the stove was the only light left burning.

He filled a glass of water and handed it to her. While she took her pill, he opened the freezer and took out a half-gallon container of ice cream. “Caramel cashew,” he said. “Your bottle didn't say you couldn't have food with your meds. Do you want some?”

“I never turn down ice cream.”

He smiled and it looked good on him. It didn't soften his features as much as give them context. He wasn't an angry man, Olivia decided. He was just a very serious man most of the time.

She smiled back at him, letting her gaze meet his and lingering there for a few seconds.

Elijah turned away first. He opened a cabinet door and took out two bowls. While he was busy, Olivia found herself worrying about how she looked. Having to work one-handed, she did the best she could to smooth her hair and tuck some of the more unruly strands back behind her ears.

Elijah dished up the ice cream and carried the bowls to the breakfast table. Then he pulled out a chair for Olivia.

“It looks delicious,” she said after they sat down. “But it doesn't get you out of answering my questions.”

He savored a bite of ice cream before he answered. “Most of what Vanquish the Darkness does involves visiting people in the hospital, getting them outside and back into nature if we can, and just letting them know they aren't forgotten.” He jammed his spoon back into the bowl and stirred his ice cream for a few seconds. “Sometimes we help people in a financial jam. Sometimes we run across someone in danger. In that case, the first thing we do is call the cops. But we like to offer a little extra support when we can.”

He brought a spoonful of ice cream to his lips and let it hover in front of them. “We've brought people here before to keep them safe. It's made some bad guys angry. So that's why we need the extra security.” He popped the ice cream into his mouth.

That was a very serious commitment to an outreach program.

“What about my second question? Why are you going out of your way for me? There are other members in Vanquish, other people you could have asked to help me.”

He hunched over his ice cream. “You remind me of someone.”

“Who?”

“A woman I was assigned to protect while I was in Afghanistan. Mrs. Elaine Somerset.” He smiled slightly and shook his head. “She was a piece of work. She arrived courtesy of a charity organization, determined to make sure girls in Afghanistan got a decent education.”

“A worthy goal,” Olivia said, watching him closely. The confident expression he normally wore had begun to turn to something different, something more uncertain.

“I was her bodyguard for three weeks, then I was reassigned. There was a gap of time, very short, barely twenty-four hours, between when I left and when her new bodyguard would arrive.” He stopped talking for a minute. “I had a bad feeling about leaving her unguarded, but I followed orders.” He paused again. “I should have stayed to protect her, but I didn't.”

Olivia was sorry she'd pressed him on the issue.

“Mrs. Somerset knew not to leave the secure complex where she lived and had an office,” he said quietly. “And yet she did leave. To meet a reporter she knew who'd just arrived in Kabul.” He paused again. “Both she and the reporter survived the acid attack, but Mrs. Somerset was severely burned.” He took a breath. “She was splashed in the face and blinded.”

Olivia's stomach sank. “You can't think that was your fault.”

He shrugged. “She was a civilian in a dangerous place. Someone should have looked after her.” He looked Olivia straight in the eye. “Just like someone should look after you. You're in over your head right now. You know that, right?”

“I do.”

He gestured at her to eat. She took a bite of ice cream. It was delicious.

“I'm going on that job interview tomorrow at eleven,” she said after a couple more spoonfuls. Just so he knew her acceptance of his help didn't give him the last word on everything.

“Okay.”

“We'll have to go by Aunt Claudia's first so I can get properly dressed for it.”

“Understood. In the meantime, you might want to get back upstairs and get some more sleep.” Elijah glanced at his watch. “Bedford will be here in about five hours. He'll probably have some tough questions for you.”

* * *

Elijah glanced at his computer screen just before eight the next morning and took a sip of coffee. On the screen, Deputy Bedford made the turn from the road and drove his patrol car beneath the arch onto the Morales driveway. Somebody else was with him. A couple of minutes later Elijah was opening the door for Deputy Bedford and Sheriff Ben Wolfsinger. “Good morning.”

“Morning.” Bedford took off his department-issue cowboy hat while giving Elijah a nod. Wolfsinger, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved dress shirt, likewise took off his cowboy hat and extended his hand to Elijah for a handshake. The gray at his temples gave him a distinguished look.

Elijah ushered them toward the couches in the living room. “There's coffee if you want some.”

Both men declined.

Claudia sat on a couch with Olivia. Jonathan had fetched Claudia from her house and brought her over. Everyone else was at work or otherwise going about their daily routine. Elijah made the introductions between Olivia and Wolfsinger.

“How are you doing?” Wolfsinger asked in that focused way he had that made people feel their concerns were his concerns.

“Other than being shot at, I'm doing okay,” she responded.

“I'm sorry that happened to you. But we're looking for who did this and we're going to find him.”

Last night had been quiet after Olivia went back upstairs. She'd been surprisingly easy to talk to, and Elijah had found himself wondering about her personal life. He'd thought back through every conversation he'd had with her, trying to remember if she'd ever mentioned a man in her life. He didn't think she had.

Now, with Bedford and Wolfsinger here, maybe he'd get a clearer idea of what Olivia was facing and what he needed to do to protect her. As soon as everyone was situated in the living room, he turned to Wolfsinger and said, “Tell me you're closing in on Kurtz.”

The sheriff sighed and turned to Olivia. “Who else wants to kill you besides Ted Kurtz?”

Olivia leaned back, staring at Wolfsinger with the wide-eyed expression of a woman confronted by a madman.

Elijah set his coffee mug on the table with a loud clang.

Olivia hadn't eaten more than a couple bites of her breakfast. She looked as if she hadn't slept very well, either. And she had that job interview she still insisted on going to. She didn't need any extra grief right now.

“Nobody else wants to kill me,” Olivia finally answered, her voice brittle.

Elijah looked at the sheriff. He'd better have a good reason for asking that question.

“Nobody else has ever threatened to kill you?” Wolfsinger watched her closely.

“No, no one else has ever threatened me,” Olivia said.

“Never?” Wolfsinger pressed. “You never had run-ins with irate husbands or boyfriends at that safe house? Or maybe after giving testimony in court or talking to the police?”

“Nothing I took seriously. I've had a few tense moments, but it was just angry people lashing out. The moment passed. Things moved on.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Why are you asking me this?”

“Because Ted Kurtz is out of the country,” Wolfsinger answered. “He left ten days ago.”

Her jaw dropped. But Elijah wasn't completely surprised by the news. He'd gone online and done some research last night. Like Bedford said the night Olivia arrived in town, it was hard to imagine designer-suited mob attorney Ted Kurtz skulking through the foothills around Painted Rock wearing a ski mask.

Olivia shook her head, refusing to accept what Wolf singer was telling her. “Maybe Kurtz is just trying to make it look like he's out of the country.”

“He's in the UK,” Wolfsinger said. “I got confirmation this morning.”

“Do you think he hired someone to kill me?” she asked faintly.

Sitting across from her, Elijah could see the tears well up in her eyes. And he could see the beginning signs of panic. She started to gasp, and then her chest began to heave as she fought back sobs.

“That's one of the scenarios we're looking into,” Wolfsinger said. “But I don't want to rule anything out. If you could get the names of the men who threatened you because of your work at the shelter, we'd like to look into them, too. I'm sorry, but I have to ask again, who else might be angry enough with you to want you dead? An old boyfriend, maybe? A bitter ex-husband? Did you borrow money from somebody and you can't pay them back?”