Must Be Doin' Somethin' Right [The Chisholms of Texas 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (22 page)

Dillon started to argue with his friend the sheriff.

“No. I know what you’re feeling. Believe me, I’ve been there. You want to wrap her up in cotton wool and beat the living shit out of this guy. Take it from me that it won’t work and the guy will get off scot-free, leaving you more pissed off than ever and totally unable to do anything about it. It’s not worth the momentary satisfaction you would get. Trust me.”

Decker was talking as a friend now and not the sheriff. He had obviously been through something similar in his past. Decker had lived in Deseo for more than ten years. Although they were friends, Dillon never really questioned the man about his distant past and Decker had never shared. There was a story there, but now wasn’t the time to get his friend to divulge his secrets.

Dillon made a concerted effort to keep it together. In his mind, he knew his friend was right, but his heart was another matter. He wanted justice for all Abby had been through and for the lasting emotional damage that had been inflicted on her. Her mother had been murdered right in front of her when she was a little girl for Christ’s sake. She didn’t need any more violence, and she certainly didn’t need to see the violence, or its aftermath, that he felt capable of at this moment. He reined in his temper and tamped it down with cold determination.

“I want to kill this motherfucker, Decker, but I’ll do my best to stay away from him until we hear from your expert. I just hope you get to him first once that handwriting expert confirms that Hernandez wrote the note, because I don’t know what I’ll do then.” Decker nodded in understanding.

“I brought the duty rosters for the next five days with me so we could see where Hernandez is supposed to be working on the Ranch. I’d fire him today if I thought that would do any good, but it seems like it would be better to know where he’s at rather than have him running around loose.” Xander had been hanging back and listening to everyone talking. He had several sheets of paper in his hand that Dillon hadn’t noticed before.

“You’re probably right, Xander. We want him visible until we find out one way or another. Where’s he supposed to be through Monday?”

“He’s fairly new, so he got duty for Christmas and the next two days. He’s scheduled to be in the horse barns. I’ll make sure Levi doesn’t float him out to another area of the Ranch. We’ll be able to keep an eye on him. Monday and Tuesday are his scheduled days off.” Xander looked at Dillon apologetically at that last bit of information.

“I’ll have one of my men keep an eye on him while he’s here at the Ranch. Hernandez won’t even know he’s being watched. I’ll have another man pick him back up as soon as he drives into town each night. I’ll have a man on him on Monday and Tuesday as well. We’ll know where he is at all times until we get this figured out.” Rio spoke softly but with complete confidence in his ability to keep Jaime Hernandez under surveillance until this was over.

“Okay, we’ve got a plan. Rio’s men will keep surveillance on Hernandez starting tomorrow while he’s at work. I’ll have my men drive by regularly tonight to make sure his truck stays at his new place. He rented a little house just east of town. No roommates as far as we can tell and no garage, so his truck will be in the driveway. Dillon, you and Abby need to go about business as usual as much as possible. How much are you going to tell her?” Sheriff Decker stood as everyone made to get ready to leave.

“Not any more than I have to. When her mom was killed, they pulled her in for two separate lineups to identify the guys. Abby couldn’t do it. She thought one of the guys that killed her mother was in one of the lineups but she wasn’t sure. They had to let him go. She had nightmares for months thinking the guy was going to come after her all because she couldn’t swear he was one of the killers. I don’t want her to know that this asshole is out there and we can’t do anything yet. I’ll just make sure she’s extra careful.” The men all nodded at Dillon’s reasoning. They would want to protect their women from the knowledge if they could, too.

Dillon shut the door after everyone left and set the security system. He wanted to check on his gun in the table beside the bed. He and Abby would go to target practice tomorrow. She was getting to be a pretty good shot, and he wanted her fresh from practice in case something went down in the next couple of days and she needed to protect herself.

As he stepped into the bedroom, he noted that the lamps were all off and the bedroom was in darkness. Abby was under the covers on her side of the bed, sleeping on her side with her back to him. He shucked off his jeans and T-shirt and crawled under the covers with her, pulling her soft body tightly against his chest as he spooned her from behind.

“Anything I need to know about?” she murmured drowsily.

“No, baby. Nothing for you to worry about. We’re sort of at a wait-and-see point in the investigation. We should know more next week.” Dillon was telling her as much of the truth as he planned on. The rest would just worry her unnecessarily. Although he knew deep in his gut that Jaime Hernandez was the stalker, there was still a slight chance it was someone else. He didn’t want to tell her they had the guy and then have to tell her they’d been wrong. She’d dealt with that when her mom was killed, and he didn’t want to scare her unnecessarily.

“Okay,” she murmured as she went back to sleep.

Dillon shifted a little, making himself more comfortable. Decker told them to do what they normally do on the weekends, so he planned on doing just that. Barring any veterinary emergencies, he and Abby would take the Knucklehead out for a drive tomorrow and go to the firing range to get in some practice. Sunday, they would go for a horseback ride and spend the day being lazy. It was a tough assignment, but he planned to enjoy every minute of it. He settled into the bed and let himself drift off to sleep, holding the woman he loved.

* * * *

Abby woke on Monday morning in a great mood. The weekend had been fantastic. She and Dillon spent both days together and hadn’t talked about the stalker at all. They picnicked near Lake Rojas on Saturday while they were out riding on Dillon’s Harley. On Sunday, they skipped the family dinner and took their horses out a couple of miles and had another picnic on the bank of Deseo Creek. While the horses grazed nearby, they made love on the old blanket they’d used for their picnic. They’d forgotten a condom again. They had forgotten to use condoms a few times over the past several weeks, and Abby hadn’t started her period. They agreed Abby would not start taking her birth control again and they would use condoms until they could find out whether or not she was pregnant. She planned to call the clinic this morning to find out how early she could take a pregnancy test.

She and Dillon talked about what would happen if she was pregnant. Dillon said he took complete responsibility, as he was the one who had initiated sex each time they had forgotten to use a condom. It usually happened when he joined her in the shower. One thing led to another, and they would end up making love without protection. Abby was a little worried about how Dillon would react if she was, indeed, pregnant, but he told her he’d be overjoyed. He told her the only thing that would change would be that they would move the wedding date up, which was tentatively set for June. Secretly, Abby hoped she was pregnant. She was thirty years old and wanted to have several children. She didn’t want to be forty and still have kids in diapers.

Early Monday morning, Dillon had already headed to the vet office to start his day. Abby was supposed to be in the office today catching up on paperwork. Actually, it was computer data entry as everything on the Ranch was computerized, but she had several days’ worth of information to enter into the computer so that the work she’d done the few days before Christmas was documented. The Christmas holiday put her behind, so it was important she get it done as soon as possible.

Calling the doctor’s office, she found out that they could test for pregnancy the first day after a missed period. Abby was already several days past when her period should have started and told the receptionist that she’d like to set up an appointment. Abby thought it fortuitous that there had been a cancellation that day for 1:00 p.m. and accepted the appointment. Sure, she could have gone into town and bought a prepackaged pregnancy test kit, but it wouldn’t be long before everyone in town knew if she did that. She had learned about the Deseo gossip chain very quickly once she moved here and didn’t think it was anybody else’s business.

She’d tell Dillon about her appointment when he stopped by the vet clinic later today. She worked at her computer for several hours, but Dillon never showed. Something must be going on in one of the barns necessitating a vet’s presence. She was tempted to call his cell and find out where he was but knew that if he needed her, he would have called.

At 12:30 p.m., she wrote Dillon a quick note telling him where she had gone, got into her car, and headed into town. The clinic was housed downtown, next to Raymond’s, the best Texas barbecue place in Deseo. The smell from the restaurant was heavenly, and she made a note to herself to get some to take back to the Ranch for supper.

Since her appointment was right after lunch, she was called back just after 1:00 p.m. and she was immediately asked to pee in a cup. A nurse took some blood and she waited in the rather boring exam room for the nurse to come back. She was reading a poster about domestic violence for the fifth time when Dr. Baker, the doctor that had diagnosed her with bronchitis several weeks ago, came into the room with a chart. Abby really liked the woman and was happy to see her again.

“Congratulations, Abby. You’re definitely pregnant.” The doctor gave her a smile.

At Abby’s stunned look, the doctor took a seat beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. “I take it this is a surprise. Pleasant or not so much? I know you were on the birth-control pill when you were here several weeks ago for the bronchitis. I told you to use a barrier method if you didn’t want to become pregnant because of the antibiotic.”

“No, I know you did. And we did. For the most part,” she admitted ruefully. “We forgot a few times, but we talked about it and we both agreed we would be happy if I was pregnant. It just moves things along a little faster than I had intended. But, I’m happy. Just a little surprised. We only forgot a few times.”

“Well, given the size of the Chisholm family, you already know they’re a fertile bunch,” the doctor teased Abby. “If you only forgot a few times, we can probably be pretty accurate as to the due date. Let’s look at the calendar.” Ten minutes later, Abby left the doctor’s office with a prescription for prenatal vitamins, some brochures on pregnancy, a referral to an ob-gyn, and a due date for the baby. She wouldn’t need to be seen by the obstetrician for at least another two months as she was barely one month along. Doctor Baker had told her that she might start experiencing fatigue and morning sickness within the next few weeks and to call if either got too bad.

Abby left the building housing the doctor’s office in a happy daze. She was pregnant. She was going to have Dillon’s baby. She knew he’d be excited, and she could barely wait to tell him. She remembered she wanted to get some barbecue to take home with her for supper, so she went into Raymond’s and placed an order to go. While she waited, she noticed that Jaime Hernandez was sitting in the back with several friends eating a late lunch. Feeling his eyes on her, she made no move to acknowledge his presence as she waited on the bench for her to-go order. Dillon’s distrust of the man had left her unsettled and unsure of her own judgment, so she thought it best to steer clear of him for now.

Once her order was ready, she headed back out to the parking lot to her car. She put the food on the floor of the backseat, got in the car, and put on her seat belt. When she turned the key in the ignition, however, the engine wouldn’t turn over.
Shit. Not again.
Dillon was definitely going to insist on buying her a new car now. He’d told her if she had any more problems with “the piece of shit” that he would replace it whether she wanted him to or not. Abby hadn’t wanted to admit the car was well past its prime and was becoming more of a hindrance than anything else. She knew Dillon’s idea of a replacement would be something along the lines of a Sherman tank. Well, maybe more like an Escalade like Jessie drove or something similar.

Her little red Mazda was special to her. It was the first car she had ever owned. She was proud of the fact that she had paid for it herself, working part-time jobs while she was in college and scrupulously saving her money until she had enough to buy the thing outright. Her father hadn’t seen the need for Abby to have her own car, so he wouldn’t help her pay for it or cosign a loan for one, either. He had even insisted she park it on the street even though they had a two-car garage and they had always only had one vehicle. Abby had realized a long time ago that her father had been something of a passive-aggressive when he couldn’t control her as he wanted as she had gotten older.

Up until her mother was murdered, she and Abby had traveled by subway most of the time, going to the animal shelter, museums, and other places. After the murder, Abby’s father had driven her where she needed to go or insisted that she take a cab. When he couldn’t drive her, he always paid for a cab. He never complained about the expense. He didn’t want her on the subway any more than she wanted to be on it.

Abby tried turning the key in the ignition again and groaned in frustration when all it did was make a clicking noise.
Shit.
She was going to have to call Dillon to come and get her. She got out her phone and realized it was dead. She’d forgotten to charge it last night. Oh well, she’d just go back into Raymond’s and ask to use their phone. She grabbed her purse and cracked open the car door as she started to climb out.

“Hey, Abby. Everything all right?” asked a familiar voice. Abby looked up and saw Jaime Hernandez standing next to her little Mazda looking at her questioningly. When she looked over his shoulder, she could see that he had parked his truck directly behind the Mazda, blocking her exit.