Silence in the Dark (21 page)

Her mom was good at getting her to do what she didn’t want to do, but the words were said with a smile to soften their truth. Perhaps if she focused on the mug, her mom would let it go. She threw another ball of clay on the wheel and concentrated on centering it and forming a cylinder.

“Danny’s matured in the last two years.”

Bailey held a measuring stick to check the height of the mug. Not quite there.

“What happened with you two?”

Her hand bobbled, and the cylinder collapsed. She stared at the mess on her wheel, and tears scalded her eyes. Abruptly she yanked the ruined mug off the wheel and squeezed the clay in her hands.

Silently Kate moved from behind her wheel and took the clay. “Let’s wash up and sit at the worktable.”

A few minutes later, Bailey rubbed the smooth ash lumber where her mother fashioned her hand-built pieces. Kate sat across from Bailey, waiting. When Bailey didn’t meet her gaze, she said, “Did Danny hurt you that badly?”

Bailey’s eyes teared up again. Fatigue. It was nothing but fatigue and stress. She shook her head. “Our breakup wasn’t Danny’s fault.”

“Do you want to talk about it?

She’d never told her mother why she’d given Danny his ring back, and bless her, until now she’d never asked.

“I know he loves you, but do you love him?”

Startled, Bailey looked up. “How can you be so sure he does?”

“Honey, he risked his life for you, and even now, he won’t leave your side. If he didn’t love you, he would’ve handed you over to Ben once you returned. You can trust Danny.”

She bit her lip. “Can I? Can you trust any man? Every time I think I can, I think about Mr. Carver.” There. It was out. Bailey stared at the dried clay on her hands in the dead silence that followed.

“I thought you had moved past that.”

The pain in her mother’s voice drew Bailey’s gaze. She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. After a minute of deep breathing, she said, “Just when I think I’m over it and ready to move on with my life, the nightmares start again. I’m in the twins’ bedroom, and he’s coming for me. I want to stop him, but instead I run and run until I wake up. I’m so tired of being afraid.”

Kate hurried to her side and wrapped arms around her. “Have you given it to God?”

Bailey stiffened. That was always her mother’s first thought. “Of course I have. But evidently I pick it right back up.” She dropped her head. “God must get tired of keeping up with my mistakes.”

“God doesn’t keep score.” Her mother’s touch was gentle as she smoothed Bailey’s hair.

“I know it’s not rational, and I should be able to let it go. You wanted to know what happened to Danny and me. Well, when he asked me to marry him, I thought I could do it. But that night I couldn’t sleep. I fixated on Mr. Carver and the way he killed his family. He was a model husband and father. And I kept thinking if he could go bad . . .”

She pulled away from her mother and used the back of her wrist to wipe away the tears that streamed down her face. “By morning I was a basket case. And I knew I couldn’t marry Danny. It
wouldn’t be fair to him. He didn’t need a wife who jumped every time he touched her.”

Her mom sat in the chair next to her. “I’m so sorry, honey. I had no idea. You seemed so brave, going to Mexico, working in that village—”

“I was running away, Mom. The danger in Mexico was better than staying here and hurting Danny, or . . .”

Kate squared her shoulders and turned Bailey to face her. “I’m going to say something you won’t like.”

“What’s new?” A wry smile pulled at her lips. It didn’t matter what her mother said, it wouldn’t change anything.

“You’ve given this fear control and power over you. Shh . . .” She held her finger up when Bailey started to protest. “Hear me out. You’re holding on to it so tightly you can’t see anything else.”

“Mom—”

“I’m not through. God saved you that day, but all you can see is your fear. Over and over he tells us to fear not, that he is with us. The way I see it, you can keep holding on to it and nothing changes. Or you can turn it over to him, trusting he will give you peace. It’s your choice.”

“But why did he let it happen in the first place? Why didn’t he save the twins?”

“Two hard questions I don’t have answers for.” Conflicting emotions crossed her mom’s face. “I wish I did. But for those times I don’t understand, I trust who he is. I look at what he’s done in the past—the blessings he’s poured out on us and all the troubles he’s brought us through.”

“I wish I could do that. Sometimes I feel so guilty questioning God . . .”

“It’s okay to do that. Job did, and in the end, God poured out more blessings than ever. I read Job sometimes when I have questions.”

“I’ve read it. Over and over.” She’d even memorized some of the passages, for all the good it had done.

Her mom squeezed her hand. “Read Job 39 and pay attention to what it says about God’s power.”

Danny cornered Angel after Solana took Maria upstairs for a nap. “Do you want to take a ride with me?”

Angel’s eyebrows raised. “Depends on what kind of ride you’re talking about and who’s going along.”

“Just me and you. We’re going to go talk to Geoffrey Franks.” Angel didn’t bat an eye at Franks’s name.

Angel shrugged. “And you want backup?”

The guy was cool. Danny would have to give him that. Or he’d been telling the truth and didn’t know anything about the Blue Dog Company. “Something like that.”

After they got in the car and turned to the right out of the drive, Danny glanced at his passenger. “Tell me something . . .”

Angel laughed. “When someone starts a sentence with those words, the other person’s guard goes up.”

“Is yours up?”

“Not yet. Which do you want to know about? Edward or Joel?”

Danny doubted he’d ever be able to use the element of surprise with Angel. “Both, but right this minute, I’m interested to know why you accused your uncle of killing your parents.”

“It’s not an accusation. It’s true. Edward has always taken the easier road. He wanted what my father had, but he didn’t want to do the hard work to get it. He may not have planted the bomb under their car that killed them when I was fifteen, but he was involved. He took over the business, their house, and put me on the streets.”

“How? Didn’t your father leave a will?”

“I’m certain he did, but I couldn’t find it, and there was no
record of it at the lawyer’s office. Father’s old solicitor had died, and many of his papers were missing. Like the contract where my father had bought Edward out.” Angel grimaced. “My uncle produced his father’s original will, leaving the company to both sons with the provision if one died, his share of the company went to the survivor. Without Father’s will and the contract, I didn’t have a case.”

Angel’s voice, devoid of emotion, sent chills through Danny. “What proof do you have that he was responsible for their deaths?”

“None. People like my uncle do not leave evidence behind.”

“Then how can you be so sure he did it?”

“My father told me.”

“How?”

“He left a letter with a friend to give to me and my mother if anything happened to him. I don’t think he ever believed my mother would be killed with him.” He drummed the console with his fingers. “If I had not had ball practice that afternoon, I would’ve been with them as well.”

“What did the letter say?”

“For me to make sure Edward didn’t get away with his murder. To look at his business associates.”

“Did you?”

“Yes, but it is impossible to know everyone he associates with, and like I said before, men like my uncle don’t leave evidence lying about. I will exact my own justice.”

Passion drove Angel, allowing him to justify breaking the law to get justice. But would that extend to buying illegal guns?

He parked in the drive and climbed out of his SUV. The garage door was down and the blinds pulled. Not surprising.

“You think this guy is home?”

“One way to find out. Coming with me?”

“Why are you doing this?”

Danny jerked his head toward Angel. “What?”

“Coming out here to question this man. Do you really think he’ll give you any answers?”

A slow flush crept up Danny’s neck. “Won’t know until I ask.”

He stuck his Glock in his belt, and together they walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. Finally, the wooden door swung open.

Franks kept the screen door between them and shifted his gaze from Danny to Angel, then back to Danny. Franks didn’t seem to recognize Angel. “What do you want?”

“Ben Logan said you were cutting a deal with the DA.”

“That’s none of your business. Get off my property.” He opened the screen door, revealing a .38 revolver in his hand.

Angel and Danny stepped back. “Whoa!” Danny said. “I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions.”

Franks glowered at him, then his gaze slid past him to Angel. “You and your bodyguard there better beat it. I’ve called my lawyer. The next time you step on my property, you’ll be breaking a court order, and I have a right to protect myself.”

“Is that a threat?”

Franks cocked the revolver.

Danny held up his hands. “Okay, we’re going.”

He didn’t think his former employee would shoot him in the back, but nevertheless, he didn’t relax until he’d driven away from the house.

“That was a pretty stupid trick you just pulled,” Angel said once they were safely back in the SUV. “But if you figured out that I didn’t know him and he didn’t know me, then I’m glad you were stupid.”

Danny’s face burned. “I didn’t think he had it in him to threaten me with a gun.”

“I learned a long time ago, a cornered rat will do almost anything. Tell me more about this Blue Dog Company and the evidence you have on Franks.”

A twinge of guilt for not completely trusting Angel pinged his conscience. “Okay, the operation went like this—Franks stole rifle parts, and either he or the other person charged with the crime put the rifles together, and then the rifles were added to shipments that went to Montoya Ceramics and labeled as glaze. They were then off-loaded at the Blue Dog Company before the rest of the shipment was delivered to your uncle. Earlier this week I went to the address on the invoices, but it was no more than an empty building. Chavez indicated there was another building, a warehouse, but he wouldn’t give me the address.”

“Wasn’t Franks afraid the guns would be traced back to Maxwell Industries?”

“He stole the receivers before they were stamped, so they couldn’t be traced to any company. If his partner hadn’t been on a vendetta against Ben Logan, they probably would have gotten away with their little operation for years. As it was, they’d been stealing the parts and selling them for a couple of years.”

“You say he was caught last summer?”

Danny nodded.

“So that means the operation was going while I was in a Texas hospital.”

That’s what had been nagging at the back of his mind. Angel couldn’t be Franks’s Mexico contact if he’d been in the hospital. He shot a quick look at Angel. The man had read his mind. “Okay, so I’m a slow learner.”

“You could have asked.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone where you were?”

A sigh escaped Angel’s lips. “That’s a question I’ve asked myself over and over. If I had, Claire might still be alive. But . . .” He shifted his gaze out the window. “The doctors did not hold out much hope that I would live to my friends who got me to the hospital. They feared the cartel would find me and finish the job, so they told everyone I was dead. By the time I was able to correct
the lie, six months had passed. I was in a wheelchair, unable to walk, and almost wished I was dead. I couldn’t let anyone see me until I was whole again. By that time, Claire had accidentally mixed the two medicines . . . Maria seemed happy enough, and I put off revealing myself to her.”

“It would have been hard to know who to trust,” Danny said.

“Yes, like you with this Blue Dog Company.”

Danny shot him a wry grin. “You do have a good reason to want rifles, especially ones like the AR15 that Franks was selling. You and Chavez said the subject of rifles was one of the things to be discussed at the meeting where you were ambushed. And Joel made it sound like you had been buying illegal guns. I just didn’t put the timing together.”

“I understand, and Chavez was correct as far as he knew. Joel supposedly set up the meeting to discuss an alliance between me and my men and the Federal police in Chihuahua, and we were going to discuss arming my men. But I believe he set it up to get rid of me and was acting under my uncle’s orders. I am a thorn in Edward Montoya’s side. Unfortunately, I cannot prove it yet, but when I return to Mexico, I will find a way to corroborate it.”

“Do you plan to take Maria back with you?”

“If I can find a way to keep her safe, yes.”

Danny drove the next few miles silently, absorbing the information he’d learned. What Joel said versus what he knew about Angel. The man had risked his life for Maria and Bailey, and that put him way ahead of Joel, but what if Angel had an agenda Danny knew nothing about? Still . . .

“Are there any other rooms available at the bed-and-breakfast?”