Lauren made quick, random turns down the residential streets of Sweetwater. Not that there were very many streets. Behind her, she could hear the sirens from cop cars arriving back at the diner. She glanced in the rearview mirror. There was no sign of the bad guys in the black sedan behind them. She eased off the gas, and after a couple more turns, she was fairly certain no one was following them. She would call the police later and return to Sweetwater to give them a statement describing what had happened if they needed one from her.
She continued down the road until it led to a wooded area where they were no longer in front of any houses. She steered toward the side of the road, stopped and put the SUV into Park. Then she pulled out her pistol and pointed it at Jason.
He’d been looking at the side mirror. He turned and saw the gun, and his eyes widened. “Easy,” he said. “What’s going on?”
“Put your hands on the dash. Keep them where I can see them or I’ll shoot you.” And she was prepared to do that. For all she knew, this guy really was Matthew Cortez and she’d just helped a man who’d participated in a murder get away from the cops. Her own father was a con man—she knew anyone could be fooled by a skilled liar.
“Are you part of some kind of rival criminal gang who’s also after my brother?” Jason asked, his voice hardening. “Is that what’s going on here?”
“Hands on the dash,” she repeated. “Move slowly.”
He complied. Glaring at her all the while.
Without taking her eyes off him, she reached into the file folder tucked beside her seat and pulled out a full-size printed picture of Matthew Cortez that had been taken in the bail bond office a couple of weeks ago. She brought it up to eye level so she could glance back and forth between the photo and the man claiming to be Matthew’s twin brother.
“If you still thought I might be Matt, why’d you drive me away from the shooters?”
“I’m a bounty hunter, not a vigilante,” she said. “I don’t want to see anybody shot up by a couple of thugs.”
Plus, his concern for the safety of the people in the diner and the parking lot had her thinking he wasn’t the hardened criminal she was looking for. But that appearance of concern could have been a calculated ploy to win over her trust.
Now that she was looking at the photo alongside the actual man in the vehicle with her, Lauren could see the difference between the two brothers. Both were handsome men. But along with the scar over his eye, Matthew looked like he’d had his nose broken at some point in his life. He also looked haggard, with a hint of exhaustion in his eyes that said he’d need a lot more than just a few nights’ sleep to have the same robust look of good health that his twin brother had.
“Okay, I believe you. You aren’t Matthew Cortez.” Lauren tucked the picture back into the folder and holstered her gun.
Blowing out an audible sigh of relief, Jason leaned back in his seat. All the while, he kept his gaze locked on her.
“Tell me where I can find your brother,” she said.
“I don’t know where he is. It’s been a long time since I talked to him. I think he still lives in Denver, but I don’t know that for certain.”
“He gave us a fake home address on his bond application. What’s his real address?”
Jason shook his head. “I don’t remember his actual address, but I might remember how to get to his apartment if I went to Denver.”
Lauren sighed. “Let’s exchange phone numbers. I’m sure I’ll have questions for you as I get further into the hunt. And if you think of something that might help, call me.”
He gave her his number and she tapped it into her phone.
“You can go now,” she finally said, waving her hand toward the car door beside him.
He raised his dark eyebrows. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”
She shrugged. “What more do you want? I rescued you from a couple of killers. You’re welcome. Now, get out of my car. I still need to find my bounty.”
“Rescued me?” he said, crossing his arms over his chest but otherwise not moving. “You led those people directly to me. You put me in danger.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I tracked you for hours this morning. Nobody was tailing me. They found you on their own. I should probably say they found the man who they believe is Matthew Cortez on their own. I understand you not wanting to walk the streets of Sweetwater with a couple of gunmen on the lookout for you, so I’ll drop you off somewhere. Maybe the police station? I wouldn’t go back to that ranch right away. If I know Matthew used to stay there, the thugs who are after him probably know that, too.”
He stared at her with an expression she’d seen countless times before, and it triggered a warm feeling in the center of her chest. It was the look of a man who’d just realized he’d underestimated her. She never got tired of seeing it.
“You’re going to continue tracking Matt?” he asked.
“Of course.” She was shaken up by the shooting in the parking lot. She wasn’t going to lie to herself about that. Thank You, Lord, for protecting me. She glanced at Jason and amended her prayer. Thank You for protecting us. But even though she was still unsettled, still felt her heart beating faster than usual thanks to the adrenaline rush, she wasn’t going to give up. “I get paid when I bring in my bounty,” she said. “And like everybody else, I need to make a living.”
He sat there with his hands resting on his thighs, the fingers of his right hand tapping his leg. He stared out the front windshield for what was only a minute, but it felt longer. Light snowflakes started to fall, melting as soon as they hit the glass. “I don’t want you to drop me off somewhere,” he finally said. His tone was filled with dread. “I want to go with you. I’ll help you find him.”
“Yeah, right.” Lauren shook her head. “Like I’m going to have you tagging along, giving your brother a heads-up whenever I get close to him so he can get away. Not going to happen.”
“I won’t do that.”
“He’s your brother. Your identical twin brother. Of course you will. People protect members of their family.”
At least that was how it usually worked in Lauren’s experience. Although her own father had apparently never gotten the memo on that. He hadn’t made any effort to look out for Lauren or her mom. She shook off that train of thought. Dwelling on it didn’t change anything.
“The best way I can protect my brother is by helping you find him,” Jason said. He shifted position slightly so he was turned toward her. “I know he’s connected with a criminal group. And the shooter yelled something about Matt being a traitor. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s obviously bad. And dangerous.”
“So you want to help him escape and hide until things die down.”
“No.” Jason took in a deep breath and blew it out. “Look, if he actually had something to do with a murder, then he needs to face charges for that. Even if he’s innocent, he still needs to face the charges. Obey the law. Do the right thing.”
He shook his head. “Matt has to change the way he’s been living. This might be my last chance to help him. And I want to make sure he shows up in court. Owns up to whatever he’s done. Maybe helping you catch him and getting him back in jail will prevent a cop from getting hurt.” He sighed. “I don’t know how Matt will behave if he’s backed into a corner by a police officer. I barely know him anymore.”
Lauren looked into his eyes. She had to make a decision, and she decided she believed him. Would he change his tune when they finally caught up with his brother? Give him some kind of warning? Misdirect her during a chase? Maybe. But it was also possible that he’d rather see his brother locked up than dead.
“All right,” she said. “But you’ll have to earn your keep.”
He tilted his head slightly. “And how would you like me to do that?”
“Give me some leads on how to find your brother. Tell me some things I don’t already know.”
“I can do that. And I can watch your back.”
That brought to mind something she’d noticed earlier when the bullets had started flying in the diner parking lot. “You kept your head back there,” she said. “It looked like you’d been shot at before.”
“Six years in the United States Army,” he said.
That experience would be helpful. All the more reason to let him tag along with her while she hunted his brother.
“Good. That means you know how to take orders,” she said, pulling back out onto the road and picking up speed.
He let out a short laugh. “Yeah, well, I’ve gotten a little rusty when it comes to that.”
Riding down the highway, Jason wished that he was the one driving. Not that Lauren was doing a bad job, it was just that he was used to being in control.
They were halfway to Denver and reaching the edge of the storm clouds that were still sending down snow. But the snowfall was light here and it wasn’t collecting on the highway, so they were making good time.
“Still nothing from your brother?” Lauren asked.
Jason glanced at his phone screen. “Still no answer.”
As soon as they were clear of Sweetwater, he’d called Matt and left a voice mail message telling him that he needed a return call and that it was important. Then he’d sent a text.
Maybe Matt hadn’t gotten the messages yet. Maybe he was too drunk or high to respond. Maybe he just didn’t care anymore.
Jason shifted his gaze to the side-view mirror and watched to see if they were being followed. It didn’t seem likely, but what did he know? He still couldn’t believe that Lauren had been tailing him from the time he’d left the ranch this morning. He’d already seen that she was good at her job, but still, the fact that she’d watched him without his knowing nipped at his pride.
“Tell me about the places where your brother spends time,” Lauren said. “Maybe he’s mentioned the names of friends he’s hung out with, girlfriends he visits, nightclubs he frequents. Anything could help. We can’t waste time. If he hasn’t called you back by the time we hit Denver, we need to start looking somewhere. Whoever sent those shooters is probably still looking for him to kill him.”
The sad thing was, he didn’t know much about his brother’s life. He knew of a couple of his past girlfriends but didn’t know if he had one now. The brother he used to know liked Mexican food, dirt bikes and spy novels. None of that helped, and it might not even be true anymore.
His phone rang. He looked at the screen. It was Matt. His pulse jumped.
“People are trying to kill you,” Jason said into the phone, forgoing any conventional greeting and hoping that his warning would grab Matt’s attention.
There was a pause, and then Matt laughed. “What else is new?” he said sourly.
“There were two shooters in Sweetwater. They fired at me thinking I was you.”
Matt swore. “Were you hit?”
“No.”
“Good. Keep your head down.”
“Wait!” Jason said, because it sounded like Matt was about to disconnect. “I’m on my way to Denver. I want to meet up with you.”
“Why?”
Lauren glanced over at him as she drove, clearly listening closely to the conversation and trying to figure out what was going on.
“I’ve got to go somewhere. I can’t go back to the ranch. Someone might be waiting for me there. They aren’t going to give me time to explain that I’m not you before they start shooting. Maybe you can tell me what’s going on. Maybe we can come up with a plan.”
“You coming alone?” Matt asked, a hint of suspicion in his tone.
Jason glanced over at Lauren. Did he lie to his brother or did he admit he was bringing someone along? Obviously if he said he had a bounty hunter with him, his brother would be long gone by the time they got there. And if he were honest with himself, maybe some part of him wanted that. Maybe he wanted Matt to get away. Maybe he wasn’t strong enough to help send his brother to prison.
He and Matt had been eight years old when Matt got that distinctive scar over his eye. They were playing in the mud at the ranch with little metal cars and trucks, maneuvering the chipped and dented toy vehicles as they climbed over boulders and fallen trees. Jason had gotten mad about some dumb thing. He’d flung his car at his brother, and they’d both been astonished when it hit him and split the skin above his eye, blood running out of the wound. Of course their dad was nowhere to be found.
Matt never got the stitches he’d needed. And he never seemed to hold a grudge about the scar that had been the result.
Matt had done a lot of bad things, but he had never intentionally betrayed Jason. And what Jason was doing right now—betraying Matt’s trust—could put an end to their tattered relationship.
But not following through with his plan could lead to Matt ending up dead at the hands of his fellow criminals.
“You still there?” Matt asked.
“Yeah, I’m here. You still at the same apartment?” Jason asked, feeling queasy even though he believed he was doing the right thing.
He heard noise on Matt’s end of the call. It sounded like other people were there, and Jason felt his body tense. Other people there could make things go haywire when he and Lauren showed up.
“I’m still living at the same place,” Matt finally said. There was more noise. People were there in his apartment. Or maybe it was just the TV. It was hard to tell. “I’ll see ya,” Matt said, and then he disconnected.
Jason relayed the full conversation to Lauren.
“If you want, I can drop you off somewhere after you show me Matt’s apartment,” Lauren offered as they reached the outskirts of Denver. “You don’t have to be there when I apprehend him.”
Jason shook his head. “He’s a smart man. He’ll figure out what happened.”
“He might guess, but he won’t know you helped me find him. I won’t tell him.”
“Yeah, well, I have to be there. It might be my last chance to talk to my brother. Ever.” There was no going back now. He had to grab whatever opportunity presented itself to convince Matt that he was doing this because he cared about him.
“I understand,” Lauren said. “And I know this is hard.”
“He might not be alone,” Jason said, realizing he should have mentioned that sooner.
“What? Who’s there with him? How many people?” Lauren’s tone changed. She was back to the way she was when she’d first spoken to him, impersonal and professional.
“I heard voices,” he said. “Two or three. But it might have just been a TV.”
Lauren nodded. “To be safe, I’ll call for backup as soon as we get to Matt’s apartment.”
This could turn out to be a long night. Jason called his neighbor in Sweetwater and asked if he’d go over to the ranch and make sure his dogs, barn cats and horses were okay and that they had food and water. He didn’t have much in the way of livestock to worry about. The place was a ranch in name only these days.
The neighbor was happy to help.
Dusky shadows were forming between buildings as they rolled into the city. Lauren made a call alerting someone to be on standby to help apprehend a bail jumper. She told them she’d call with a specific address when she had one and then disconnected.
Jason told her when they were nearing the freeway exit where they needed to turn off.
“When’s the last time you visited your brother?” she asked as they waited at a traffic light.
Jason looked around to get his bearings, searching for landmarks. When they started moving again, he saw a grocery store and a doughnut shop he recognized. They were on the right track. “It was about a year and a half ago.” He’d still been dealing with a lot of anxiety back then. Matt, on the other hand, had seemed very detached. Probably an effect of the drugs he was using.
He directed her to take a couple more turns. “Slow down,” he finally said. “It’s up here on the left.”
She pulled over just short of reaching the apartment complex and parked at the curb on the opposite side of the street. She called her people and gave them the address and told them she’d wait for their arrival.
“They should be here in about fifteen minutes,” she said after disconnecting.
Meanwhile, Jason stared at the apartments. Why hadn’t he come here to visit Matt more often? Why hadn’t he pushed a relationship on his brother, even if Matt didn’t want one?
“Which apartment is your brother’s?” Lauren asked.
“Downstairs, on the right.”
“Do you see his vehicle?”
“No. Parking is in the back.”
“When everybody gets here, we’ll break into teams,” Lauren said. “Someone will go with me to the front door. Two people will go behind the building in case he tries to run out the back. Once we’ve got him secured, you can talk to him. Then we’ll turn him in to the police, and it will be over.”
Jason got out of the SUV.
“What are you doing?” Lauren called out sharply.
The smart thing would be to hold back and wait. Jason didn’t have a weapon. Didn’t know his brother’s state of mind. Wasn’t sure who was in the apartment with Matt.
And yet, he found himself walking toward his brother’s front door.