Outlaw Lawman (12 page)

Very
good.

But afterward...well, afterward would be awkward and would likely put some distance between them. She didn’t need distance when they were essentially fighting for their lives.

Caitlyn reminded herself of all that. Three times. And even though it took every ounce of willpower, she gripped him by the shoulders and pushed herself away from him.

Oh, mercy.

She instantly felt the loss, and regret of a different kind. The realization, too, that she was just as attracted to Harlan now as she had been sixteen years ago.

Caitlyn groaned. Stepped back even farther.

“I need to apologize,” he mumbled.

She shook her head. “It’s not that. I’m just trying to keep myself from going back for another round. Because we both know where this will lead if we keep kissing.”

He stayed quiet a moment, giving that some thought, and giving her the look. The one that had melted her too many times to count. Caitlyn felt the tug, as if they were connected by a big rubber band that might snap her back to him at any second. And it probably would have.

If Harlan’s phone hadn’t buzzed.

Neither of them seemed relieved by the sound, but Caitlyn thought that later—when her body had cooled down some—they might be thankful for the interruption.

Might.

Harlan took out the phone. “It’s Slade.” And like the other call, he put this one on speaker.

“Hope you’re sitting down,” Slade immediately said, “because you’re not going to believe what’s just happened.”

Caitlyn automatically groaned. Slade’s tone always sounded the same to her—drenched in a gallon of gloom and doom—so she braced herself for more bad news.

“The Rangers killed the warrants for your arrest,” Slade announced.

Harlan and she stared at each other, and even though it wasn’t much to process, just one sentence, it didn’t seem to make sense.

“Why?” they asked in unison.

“Still digging for the details, but whatever evidence they thought they had, it was discredited.”

She shook her head. “How?”

“By someone unexpected. Farris.”

That was the last name on earth she’d expected Slade to say. “How?” she repeated.

“Don’t know all the facts there either, but what I do know is that Farris claims he sent those threatening emails to Sherry.”

The surprise caused her stomach to flip-flop. Not that she’d thought for one second that Farris was innocent in all of this. Nope. But the surprise was that he would admit any wrongdoing.

And why would he?

“What does Farris want?” Caitlyn had meant the question more for herself than Slade.

“Who knows, but he’s here at the Rocky Creek sheriff’s office, and he’s talking,” Slade told her. “My advice? Since the law’s not after you, both of you should get down here now and hear what this little viper has to say.”

Chapter Twelve

Even though Caitlyn and he were walking into the Rocky Creek sheriff’s office, Harlan didn’t exactly feel safe.

For a darn good reason.

They’d been shot at less than two miles from here.

Plus, they were about to face down two of the men who could be responsible for the shooting. Harlan wanted Caitlyn far from here, tucked away someplace safe. But someplace safe might not exist, and right now his best bet was to keep her by his side. He hoped like the devil that his decision didn’t have anything to do with their recent kissing session.

But it probably did. And that riled him to the core. Attraction and kisses shouldn’t be playing into any decision about her safety.

He got Caitlyn inside the building and immediately came face-to-face with not just Sheriff Sheldon but three uniformed deputies. Normally the uniforms wouldn’t have made Harlan uneasy, but it had been less than a half hour since the Rangers had dropped the charges against Caitlyn and him. It might be a while before he trusted anyone with a badge unless it was one of his brothers.

And speaking of family, both Slade and Declan came up the side hall toward the reception area. Slade greeted them with his usual no-greeting that included zero change in his expression, but Declan’s forehead bunched up, showing his concern.

“You two okay?” Declan asked, but his question seemed more for Caitlyn than Harlan.

Or maybe that was just Harlan’s overactive imagination. He was still nursing a twinge of jealousy over the whispered conversation that Declan and she had had back at the hospital.

“Fine,” Caitlyn lied, and she repeated it, sounding less of a lie when Declan gave her arm a gentle pat.

Harlan felt a rumble of jealousy over that, too, and wondered if he should just hit himself in the head with a big rock. It might knock some sense into him.

“Billy Webb’s in the first room down the hall,” Sheriff Sheldon informed them. “With his lawyer. That’s my way of saying he’s probably not gonna be talking much, but it doesn’t matter, I guess, since we got nothing to hold him. He said he’d be leaving as soon as he spoke to you.”

Well, at least Billy had waited around. Harlan didn’t know if that proved his innocence or if he just didn’t want to look guilty. “And what about Farris?”

The sheriff tipped his head toward the hall again. “He’s in the room next to Billy Webb. No lawyer yet, but he’s got a couple on the way. I figure he won’t be leaving any time soon. It’s gonna take us a while to sort through all of this, and the Rangers want to talk to him, too.”

No surprise there. “I want to question Farris. You got any problems with that?”

Sheldon shook his head. “If you get him to confess to firing those shots, I want to know about it. Rocky Creek ain’t the wild, wild West, and I don’t want anybody thinking they can come in here and start shooting up the place.”

Harlan doubted Farris would confess to anything that serious. In fact, this could all be part of the cat-and-mouse game he was playing with Caitlyn. Still, sometimes people spilled things they didn’t intend.

“There’s a camera in the interview room,” the sheriff added. “Already turned on. I read Farris his rights, told him everything was on the record, so whatever he says I can and will use against him.”

Harlan thanked Sheldon and considered asking Caitlyn to wait with Slade or Declan. It would save her from facing down Farris again, but before Harlan could even make the suggestion, she was already walking in the direction of the interview rooms.

Harlan caught up with her, and they stopped in the doorway of the first room. The moment Billy spotted them he got to his feet.

“Caitlyn, Harlan,” Billy greeted, and he came to them and shook their hands. His lawyer, a bald bulky man, got up, too, and stood behind him. “Wish this was under better circumstances,” Billy added.

There was no trace of the stutter that Billy had once had. No trace of the painfully shy kid who’d kept to himself. Heck, he was wearing a Rolex, for heaven’s sake, and from the looks of it, he’d had a recent manicure.

Yeah, he’d come up in the world, all right.

But Harlan knew that money didn’t make a man innocent.

“You think Devin Mathis set up the shooting?” Billy came right out and asked.

Harlan had to shrug. “Who set up the meeting—you or Devin?”

“I did, but he’d been trying to find me for weeks. Even hired a P.I. So did Sherry’s business partner, Curtis Newell.” Billy looked at Caitlyn then. “And you.”

She confirmed that with a nod. “A lot of people have been looking for you, especially me. Any reason you didn’t want to be found?”

“I have a new life now,” he said without hesitation. “I didn’t want to get caught up in the old memories and a past I’d rather just forget.”

“But something changed your mind,” Harlan pointed out.

“Yes.” He gave a weary sigh. “I started reading about the investigation of my father’s death. About Tiffany’s car accident and Sherry’s disappearance. I didn’t think it was a coincidence that those things were happening so soon after my mother’s...incident at your family’s ranch.”

The
incident
had nearly killed Harlan’s brother Dallas and Dallas’s wife, Joelle. Sarah Webb had hired armed men to make sure no one uncovered the fact that she’d murdered her husband. Sarah had been seriously injured in the attack that she’d orchestrated and had lapsed into a coma before she could name her accomplice.

Was Harlan now looking at that accomplice?

“Who helped your mother kill your father?” Harlan asked.

“I honestly don’t know, but it wasn’t me.” Again Billy didn’t hesitate. “If you remember correctly, I didn’t have much of a backbone in those days.”

Caitlyn stared at him. “Or maybe you did. Webb was beating your mother nearly every time his temper blew, and from what I remember, it happened often. You must have wanted to see him get his due.”

Billy shrugged. “I didn’t say I didn’t have motive. I did. Just like the rest of you. My father had gotten approval to keep Rocky Creek open, and none of you wanted that—especially Kirby. Plus, Declan had been on the receiving end of Dad’s fists that day. Joelle, too, if I remember correctly. All of that is motive for wanting him dead.”

Harlan couldn’t argue with any of it. Joelle had been a resident at Rocky Creek, and Webb had slapped her for some piddly infraction. Dallas and Joelle were just teenagers then, like the rest of his foster brothers, but they’d also been lovers. And Dallas was beyond protective of her, giving him a big reason to go after Webb.

But Harlan figured someone beat Dallas to it and put that knife in Webb.

The only thing Harlan was certain of was he hadn’t killed the headmaster, and he was sure Caitlyn hadn’t been involved either. For argument’s sake, if he ruled out members of his family—and he intended to do that whether he should or not—that left Billy, Devin and Curtis.

Maybe Sherry, too, if she’d faked her disappearance.

Harlan took a business card from his wallet and wrote down the number for the prepaid cell he was still using. “Call me if you find out anything.”

“I will.” Billy took out a card, too. “And I ask you to do the same for me.” He pulled in a long breath. “My father was a despicable man and deserved to die, but I’ve spent a decade and a half getting away from the muck that he caused in my life and others’. I don’t want to be pulled back into it. That’s why it’s important that
I
find whoever’s behind these attacks so my name will be cleared.”

“I?”
Harlan challenged. He didn’t like the sound of that. “What are you planning to do?”

“Something that should have been done years ago. I intend to find the person responsible for my father’s death.”

Billy didn’t wait for Harlan to respond to that. He eased past them, barely sparing them a glance, and he and his lawyer walked away.

“You believe him?” Caitlyn asked before they were even out of earshot.

Harlan had to shake his head. Billy was the obvious suspect in his father’s death, and that made him the obvious suspect in any cover-up.

If that was what was going on.

But Billy wasn’t the one who’d confessed to any wrongdoing. That honor fell to Jay Farris.

“I’m going in there,” Caitlyn said before Harlan could offer to do the interview alone. She leaned in, lowered her voice to a whisper. “I can’t let him know how much he still scares me.”

Oh, man. Harlan gave her arm a rub as Declan had done, but when that didn’t work, he dropped a kiss on her cheek. The fear was in her eyes again, probably because she hadn’t had time to recover from the last attack. Now here she was about to face down someone who’d tried to kill her.

Maybe more than once.

“Besides,” she added, “if Farris tries to strangle me again, I fully expect you to beat the living daylights out of him. Yes, I know that sounds sexist, but you’re bigger than I am and can do a lot more damage. Promise me, if it comes down to it, you’ll do
damage.
”

He couldn’t help it. He smiled. “I promise.” In fact, Harlan almost welcomed it. He had a lot of dangerous energy boiling inside him, and he figured Farris better not push any of his buttons or he’d be on the receiving end of that energy.

Harlan opened the interview-room door, and unlike Billy, Farris didn’t jump to his feet. He sat there, his face buried in his hands. “I’m so sorry, Caitlyn.”

Harlan wasn’t interested in an apology, and apparently neither was Caitlyn. She folded her arms over her chest. “Start talking, and explain the threatening notes and how you were able to discredit that so-called evidence.”

Taking his time, Farris lowered his hands. “You should probably sit down.”

“Start talking,” she repeated. It wasn’t a suggestion either.

Farris reached inside his pants pocket and pulled out a handful of paper. Not neatly folded—it looked as if he’d crammed it in there.

“My instructions,” Farris explained, which didn’t explain anything.

Harlan went closer and looked at the first note, which was handwritten in block letters.
Leave this for Caitlyn to find.

“There was a note attached to it,” Farris went on, “the one that warned her if she talked to the Rangers she’d be sorry.” He fished out another note. “This one was attached to the one that said she’d die if she talked to them.”

Harlan riffled through the others. If he followed Farris’s explanation, then one of them would have been attached to the note that included the very private sentence—
you’ll always be my first
.

“I didn’t know where Caitlyn was, but this person knew—one of the notes had her address. Still, I didn’t want to leave those threats for her to find,” Farris went on. “I knew they’d upset her.”

Caitlyn gave him a flat look. “And you expect me to believe that my being upset would bother you?”

Farris opened his mouth, but then his attention landed on Harlan, specifically how close he was standing to Caitlyn. Farris’s gaze darted away but not before he swallowed hard. “It would have bothered me. Whether you believe it or not, I didn’t want to torment you.”

“But you did,” she fired back.

“Only because I got that note.” Farris jabbed his index finger at the papers.

Harlan didn’t need to ask for clarification as to which note Farris meant, because it had already caught Harlan’s attention. “‘Do as I say, or you and Caitlyn will both die.’”

Farris nodded. “And with everything else going on, I didn’t think it was a bluff.”

“Who sent these to you?” Harlan didn’t bother to sound as if he believed Farris. Because he didn’t. Farris could have written all the notes himself and could have hired someone to find Caitlyn.

“I don’t know who sent them, but whoever it was killed my dog, slashed my tires and vandalized my place. Then I got this note.” He plucked another one from the stash. “It said if I didn’t do as I was told, then the order releasing me from the institution would be revoked and I’d have to go back in. He—or she—said that’s where they’d kill me.”

Harlan studied his body language. It was right for someone who was genuinely upset, but Farris was likely a nutcase, which meant he could probably lie and not have any of the telltale signs.

“Ranger Morris will want to see all those notes,” Harlan reminded Farris. If the man objected to that, he didn’t show it either. “For now, talk to us about the evidence that you supposedly refuted.”

“I disproved it,” Farris corrected. Another gaze dodge. In Harlan’s experience, that wasn’t a good sign. “One of the notes said to hack into Sherry’s computer and make it appear that Caitlyn and you had done it.”

Caitlyn made a sound of surprise. “How’d you do that?”

“I’m good with computers.” Farris’s tone was somewhat defensive now, but he still didn’t make direct eye contact. “Good at hacking,” he mumbled. “My family owns a software business, and I’ve always helped. And as for setting you up, I just used your own personal computers.”

“How?” Harlan demanded. “And if you say you broke into my house—”

“I didn’t. Not yours anyway, but I did break into Caitlyn’s once I had her address, and I used her computer so it could be traced back to her.”

Harlan saw the goose bumps riffled over her arms. Yeah, that was a major creep factor to have her stalker, the SOB who’d tried to strangle her, break into her home.

“I didn’t think it’d be easy or wise to get into your place.” Farris glanced at Harlan. “So I made it look as if I’d used your computer. It was good enough to fool the Rangers anyway.”

Caitlyn muttered some profanity and shifted her position so that she was even closer to him. Harlan figured it would just rile Farris even further or set him off, but after all the violations Farris had just confessed to, that seemed like a plus. So Harlan slid his arm around Caitlyn’s waist and eased her to him. Until they were side by side, facing down this SOB who’d made their lives miserable.

“If I hadn’t told the Rangers what I’d done, they’d still be after you.” And Farris’s eyes narrowed when he said that.

“If you hadn’t lied in the first place, the Rangers would have had no reason to suspect us.” Harlan didn’t intend to give this guy any credit for clearing up something he’d helped set up.