Shoot to kill.
Not exactly orders that Jericho had wanted to hear, but it’d gotten Laurel, Maddox and him hurrying away from the scene and to the sheriff’s office in Appaloosa Pass. That wasn’t exactly ideal for a toddler, but it would have to do until Jericho could make other arrangements.
And put an end to the danger.
The first would be a whole lot easier than the last.
Sandy didn’t have any info about the kidnappers, and the one captured kidnapper was no longer talking, other than to tell them that those shoot-to-kill orders were meant only for Laurel and him. Jericho felt no relief about the fact that Maddox had been excluded in that hit plan because the baby could have easily been hurt in the attack.
Someone would pay for that.
Herschel, no doubt. But it was going to be a bear to prove his involvement.
Too bad Jax hadn’t found the two gunmen in the black car who’d followed Jericho after the attack at his house. Jericho had indeed wounded at least one of them, because his brother had found blood on the road. But neither the car nor the men had been there by the time Jax arrived.
Not good.
He needed all these thugs in jail to up their chances of finding information to stop Herschel. Or anyone else who might be involved in this.
Jericho finished up his latest round of calls and made his way to the break room at the back of the building. Hardly living quarters, but there was a small bed that he and the deputies sometimes used when pulling double shifts. Tonight, however, Laurel and his son were sleeping in it.
It might take a while before those words—his son—didn’t sound foreign to him. Not because of his feelings for the baby. No, he already loved the little boy. But his son was still a raw reminder that Laurel had kept Maddox from him.
Jericho didn’t knock on the door because he didn’t want to wake Laurel and the baby, but when he stepped inside the room, he saw that only Maddox was on the cot. The little boy was on his stomach, snuggled in some blankets. No snuggling for Laurel. She was pacing.
And crying.
Jericho saw that right off, though she did quickly wipe away the tears and turn from him. He shut the door so the noise from the squad room wouldn’t disturb Maddox.
“Sandy just called,” Laurel relayed before Jericho could say anything. “The doctor at the hospital checked her out and released her. She’s on her way to Houston to stay with friends, and she told her parents not to come home until she’s sure it’s safe.”
That was a smart move. The hired guns probably wouldn’t go back to her place, but there was no sense taking that kind of risk, especially since they might see Sandy as a possible witness who needed to be eliminated. Jericho made a mental note to call Houston PD and arrange for some extra security for her.
“Please tell me the kidnapper you arrested is talking,” she added. “And that he’s got evidence to lead to my father’s arrest.”
“Afraid not.” But she already knew that would be the answer. If he’d gotten big news like that, he would have come straight to her with it, and he darn sure wouldn’t have been sporting a scowl.
A scowl that faded considerably when he went closer to his son.
Hard to scowl when looking at Maddox’s face. Jericho could see so much of himself in the boy. Some of Laurel, too.
“What about the other man?” she asked, walking to Jericho’s side. “The one who tried to run you off the road. Is he talking?”
Jericho had to shake his head. “We know from his prints that his name is Travis DeWitt. He’s got a record, a long one, but so far we haven’t been able to connect him to your father.”
“There’s probably a connection.” Laurel gave a heavy sigh and turned away from him again when she swiped at more tears.
She had plenty of reasons to cry. Someone had tried to kill her tonight, and that someone apparently wasn’t giving up.
Part of him wanted to put his arm around her and try to comfort her. Thankfully, that part of him didn’t win out, because the last thing he should do was have Laurel in his arms. Despite the bad blood, the attraction was still between them, too. No sense flaming that kind of heat when it would only make things more complicated than they already were.
She went to the table, picked up a notepad and handed it to him. “Those are the names of the people involved in the money laundering deal.”
The deal that Herschel was using to try to have her arrested. There were only two names: Quinn Rossman and Diego Cawley.
“I’ve tried to dig up anything on them, of course,” Laurel continued. “But so far, nothing. I thought it was just a simple real estate deal.”
Because her father had no doubt wanted it to look that way.
“That’s also the time line, as best as I can remember.” She pointed to some dates, times and a brief description of phone conversations she’d had with Rossman and Cawley. “I didn’t have any face-to-face meetings with either of them.”
Jericho checked through the time line and saw that something was missing. “I’ll need the exact dates of your mother’s death and when you broke off your engagement.” Because one or both of those could have triggered what was happening now.
While Laurel jotted down those dates, Jericho fired off a text to his brother Levi, who was a cop at the San Antonio Police Department, and asked him to run background checks on both men. Maybe Levi could dig up more than Laurel had. He also told his brother that he’d be faxing him a copy of the time line Laurel had just provided.
“So, what happens now?” she asked, handing him back the notepad.
Good question. But Jericho didn’t have anything remotely resembling a good answer. “We keep looking for the idiots who attacked us. Keep looking for anything we can use to stop Herschel.” He paused. “Please tell me you’ve got some dirt on him. Any kind of dirt that I can use to start legal proceedings for an arrest.”
“No.” Another heavy sigh. “Within minutes of Theo telling him that he wasn’t Maddox’s father and that I’d broken off the engagement, all my computer files and backups disappeared. They were corrupted by a virus that someone triggered.”
That someone was no doubt one of Herschel’s lackeys. “What about paper files?”
She shook her head. “All missing. By the time I got to my office, everything was gone.”
Herschel had worked fast. But then, he’d probably had this backup plan ready to go for years just in case Laurel turned against him. Still, there was something about this that didn’t make sense.
“You must have known your father would retaliate when you stopped being the perfect daughter.”
“I did. But I didn’t think he’d go this far.” Her voice broke, and again Jericho had to stop himself from lending her a shoulder to cry on.
Hell.
He only managed to hold himself for a couple of seconds, and then, as if it had a mind of its own, his arm eased around her and pulled her closer. Until they were touching far more than they should. Of course, any kind of touching was out between Laurel and him. That didn’t stop him.
Nope.
Jericho just waited until she wrestled with more of those tears. Thankfully, it didn’t last long. But it was long enough for his body to get really stupid ideas about the touching.
“Sorry,” Laurel said, and moved away from him.
Jericho got the feeling that the apology extended to a lot of things. Things he didn’t want to get into right now since he was still seething over the fact that Laurel had kept his son from him. And all because she was afraid Herschel would have tried to kill him.
Which Herschel would have tried to do.
All the more reason to figure out how to put that idiot behind bars.
“I guess you didn’t know Theo was going to tell your father the truth about Maddox when you broke off the engagement?” Jericho asked.
“I figured he would. Just not so soon.” She pushed her hair from her face. “I wasn’t thinking straight. My mother,” Laurel added.
Yeah, he figured her grief for her mother had played into this. From all accounts, they’d been close.
“So, after your mother’s death, you decided...what?” Because Jericho was having a little trouble filling in the blanks. “That you didn’t want to live by your father’s dirty rules?”
Her gaze slowly came to his. “I think my father murdered my mother.” No tears this time. There was a totally different emotion in her eyes and voice.
Anger.
And lots of it.
“You said she died from cancer,” Jericho pointed out.
“I think he helped her death along with an overdose of pain meds.” Laurel folded her arms over her chest. Started pacing again. “My mother wanted me to break off my engagement to Theo. She wanted me to leave and tell you the truth about Maddox.”
Jericho didn’t cheer out loud, but he was on her mother’s side on this. “She was right.”
“She was. And I think my father eavesdropped on our conversations and arranged for her to get an overdose of painkillers. Yes, she was sick. Very sick. But the chemo was working, and she wasn’t so much out of it that she would have taken too big of a dose by accident. I think my father might have put them in her food or something.”
That gave him a new surge of anger, too. Herschel preying on a sick woman because she wasn’t toeing the line. “Was there an autopsy?”
“No. And my father had her cremated the same day she died.”
Jericho wanted to curse. Hell. Now they were looking at murder. Two counts of it, since he was certain Herschel had also been responsible for his father’s death.
“I was grieving,” Laurel added, “and by the time I figured out what might have happened, it was already too late. Any evidence proving his guilt was cremated with my mother.”
Which Jericho was betting wasn’t an accident.
There was a soft knock on the door, and a moment later Jax opened it. “DeWitt’s lawyer is here.”
Good. Maybe the lawyer would convince his scummy client to talk.
Jax walked closer to them, and his gaze slid from Jericho to Laurel. Then to Maddox.
“He’s your son.” There wasn’t a shred of doubt in Jax’s voice. “How long have you known?”
“A couple of hours.” That alone said plenty, but his brother deserved a whole lot more, especially since Jax knew the emotional wringer he’d been through over the years with Laurel and her father. “Herschel’s trying to get custody.”
Jax didn’t look surprised, just as disgusted as Jericho was. “By trying to eliminate Laurel and you?”
“It looks that way. Herschel has dirt on Laurel to have her arrested.” Jericho handed Jax the notepad with the time line and names. “I need that faxed to Levi so he can try to help with the threat of Laurel’s arrest. But Herschel also has fake dirt to have her committed to the loony bin. Laurel wants me to marry her so she can transfer custody of Maddox to me.”
His brother didn’t say anything for several moments. “So, you’ll marry her?”
That question just hung in the air, and before Jericho could even attempt an answer, he heard voices in the squad room. Loud ones.
“Wait here with Laurel,” he told Jax, and Jericho drew his gun.
Bracing himself for another attack, Jericho hurried out of the break room and down the short hall to the squad room. But there was no attack. Their loud-talking visitors—a tall, bulky-shouldered man and a gray-haired woman—didn’t appear to be armed. However, one of the deputies, Dexter, was frisking them, and neither seemed especially happy about that. The unhappiness went up a significant notch when the man’s gaze landed on Jericho.
“Sheriff Crockett,” he said like venom.
Jericho didn’t recognize the guy, but venom like that was almost certainly personal.
“Theo James.” Jericho put some venom in his voice, too.
“We want to see Laurel now,” the woman demanded. And there was no doubt that it was a demand.
“And you are?” Jericho made sure he sounded like the sheriff when he asked that question.
“Dorothy James. Theo’s mother.”
Of course.
He didn’t see much of a resemblance. Maybe because of the woman’s slight build. She looked on the frail side, and her skin was as thin and white as paper. Unlike her son, who towered over her and had a tan despite it being the dead of winter.
Jericho knew that Theo James was a lawyer, like Laurel, but he could have passed for a bouncer. A well-dressed one, though. Jericho figured that suit had come with a big price tag. Ditto for the haircut. And it looked as if he’d had a manicure. As a general rule, he didn’t trust men who had manicures.
Of course, he hadn’t needed a manicure to feel that way about Theo James.
And Jericho was certain that jealousy wasn’t playing into this.
Almost certain, anyway.
“Why do you want to see Laurel?” Jericho pressed.
Dorothy wasn’t the sort of woman to hide her emotions. She huffed, glared and generally looked ready to run right over him to get to Laurel. “We heard about the attack, and I want to make sure she’s okay. She’s my son’s fiancée.”
“Ex-fiancée,” Jericho corrected.
Oh, that did not please either Theo or his mom.
“The breakup is all just a misunderstanding,” Theo answered. “And a temporary one. Once I speak with Laurel, we can sort it all out—”
“I doubt that. What do you know about the attack?”
“I don’t like your tone,” Dorothy snapped. “Are you implying we had something to do with it?”
Jericho stared at her. “Did you?”
“No!”
Man, the woman could yell, and all in the same breath, she belted out a denial and a threat to slap him with a defamation-of-character lawsuit. However, Theo wasn’t denying much. That’s because he had his attention nailed to the hall. More specifically, to the doorway of the break room where Laurel was standing.
“Laurel,” Theo said on a rise of breath, and he started toward her.
He didn’t get far because Jericho latched onto his arm. Yeah, the guy was big. Strong, too. But Jericho shoved him back.
“Stay put,” Jericho warned him.
“Theo just wants to go to his fiancée.” Dorothy again. The woman turned her attention to Laurel. “Are you going to come out here and stop this asinine interrogation of the man you love?”
“No. She’s not.” And Jericho gave Laurel a warning glance. She didn’t say anything, but she also didn’t stay put. Not exactly a compromise since he didn’t want Laurel in the same general area as the pair.
“Laurel, we need to talk,” Theo said. He threw off Jericho’s grip but didn’t go closer. “Alone.”
“Then talk. But it won’t be alone,” Laurel added. “Whatever you have to say, you say here.”
Laurel took the words right out of Jericho’s mouth. Except he’d intended to glare more than she had. Theo sure added some glare and snarl though—he aimed it at Jericho—before turning back to Laurel.
“Certainly you must know by now that calling off the engagement was a mistake,” Theo said to her. “You’ve upset your father. Us. And yourself.”
“Upset?” Laurel threw her hands in the air. “Gunmen attacked Jericho and me. That’s why I’m upset.” She walked toward them. “If you know anything about those gunmen, tell us.”
“Of course we don’t know anything,” Dorothy insisted. “Now, get Maddox and come home with us. We’ll make sure you’re both safe.” The woman paused. “Where is Maddox, anyway?”
“He’s already safe,” Jericho assured her.
Partly true. Jax was back there with Maddox, and a gunman would have to break into the back exit or come through the front to get to them. Still, Jericho wasn’t about to share that with these two.
A staring match started between Theo and him. Dorothy joined in on it, but Jericho pretty much ignored her and focused on Laurel’s ex.
“You think Theo here could be in on the attacks?” Jericho asked Laurel. He knew the question would rile mother and son. And it did.
Dorothy made a sound of pure outrage. “Theo had nothing to do with this. He loves Laurel. He only wants to marry her and be a father to Maddox.”
“Maddox already has a father.” Laurel’s voice was hardly more than a whisper, but it was obvious Dorothy heard it loud and clear. She jerked back as if Laurel had slapped her.
“It’s true,” Theo said, his voice quiet, as well. “We’ll discuss it later, Mom.”
Okay, so Dorothy didn’t know about Maddox’s paternity, but like Jax, she had no trouble putting two and two together. Except in Dorothy’s case, there was more disapproval than Jax had shown.
A lot more.
“Later,” Theo warned his mother when it appeared she was ready to launch herself at Jericho. He gently took hold of his mother’s arm. “Laurel’s tired and upset,” he repeated, as if making a point. “I can talk to her in the morning when her head is clearer.”
Jericho tapped his badge, pulling the lawman card, and he put his gun back in his holster. “You’ll talk to me. And not in the morning. You’ll do it right now. Is Herschel behind the attacks?”
“Of course,” Dorothy answered without hesitation. “Who else?”
Jericho was thinking the who else could apply to the woman asking the question. And her hulk of a son. “If you disapprove of her father so much, then why insist Laurel marry Theo?” he asked.
Dorothy gave him an isn’t-it-obvious? huff. “Because they’re right for each other, that’s why. And besides, even if Theo isn’t Maddox’s biological father, he’s been a father to him. He deserves to raise that little boy.”
“Theo’s hardly seen Maddox.” Laurel went to Jericho’s side, stared at Dorothy. “For that matter, Theo’s hardly seen me over the past six months.”
Six months? The more Jericho learned about this unholy union, the less he liked it. Soon, very soon, he’d want to know why Laurel had gotten involved with the guy in the first place.
“Theo hasn’t seen Maddox or you much because he’s been working out of state, that’s why. And I’m betting Theo’s seen more of Maddox than his so-called birth father has.” With that zinger, Dorothy added a smug nod. No doubt to rile Jericho.
It worked.
However, Jericho reined in his temper so he could try to get some usable info from these two clowns. Except he realized it would have to wait a second or two when he heard footsteps. They weren’t coming from the break room but rather from the side hall where the holding cell was located. The man who appeared was wearing a pricey suit like Theo’s.
DeWitt’s attorney, no doubt.
“Did you get your client to talk?” Jericho asked him.
The lawyer didn’t introduce himself, didn’t even spare Jericho a glance. “I’ve advised him to remain silent. If he’s smart, he’ll listen.” He went past Dexter and let himself out. He shut the door so hard that it shook the nearby Christmas tree and sent the sparse ornaments jangling.
A moment later, Mack, the other deputy, came out from the holding-cell area. “DeWitt’s all locked up.” He volleyed his attention between Theo and his mother. “Want me to arrest somebody?”
“Not yet. Maybe soon.” Jericho turned back to Theo. “Okay, I’ll bite. If you know Maddox isn’t yours, then why would you want to marry Laurel?”
Theo looked at Jericho as if he’d sprouted horns. “Because I love Maddox and her, that’s why.”
Maybe. But something about this felt as wrong as wrong could feel. “I don’t know all of what’s going on, but I suspect there’s either money or power involved. Money and power you’ll lose somehow if you don’t have your ring on Laurel’s finger.”
Bingo.
Dorothy got some fire in her dust-gray eyes. Theo’s teeth came together for a moment. Neither of them, however, jumped to volunteer anything.
However, Laurel did. “Theo and my father were involved in several business deals. Major ones. And some of the investors pulled out when I broke off the engagement.”
All right. Now, that was motive.
“How big were these business deals?” Jericho asked.
“Millions,” Laurel provided.
Yeah, definitely motive.
“A misunderstanding, that’s all,” Theo insisted. “A few of the investors were worried that I didn’t have Herschel’s backing. I do. And once that’s made clear, then they’ll pony up the money again.”
“So, you’ve got Herschel’s backing even if he’s trying to murder the woman you want to marry?” Jericho concluded.
“My mother accused Herschel of wrongdoing. You didn’t hear that from me. And you won’t,” Theo added. “Because I don’t believe Herschel would do anything like this.”
Interesting. Dorothy’s reaction was interesting, as well. She turned those frosty eyes on her son.
“If Herschel’s not behind this, then who is?” Jericho asked Theo.
“You and your family maybe,” Theo answered. “From everything I’ve heard, none of your siblings or your mother wants you involved with Laurel.”
They didn’t. But Jericho had no intention of admitting that to this beefed-up jerk. He tapped his badge again. “I’m a lawman. My brothers are all lawmen, too. That means we’re not into attempted murder or other assorted felonies. Now, talk. If not Herschel, then who? And this time, I want your answer to make sense.”
Theo’s mouth tightened. “You’d have to ask Laurel. I suspect she was involved with someone else, or she wouldn’t have ended our engagement. Someone who’s angry enough to want her dead.”
Laurel cursed, something he’d rarely heard her do over the years. “There was no one else.”
“Right.” Theo shot Jericho a glare.
“It appears you’ve got something to say to me?” Jericho challenged.
Oh, Theo wanted to say plenty, all right, but Jericho saw the moment the man reined in his manicured claws.
Dorothy, however, appeared to be sharpening hers. “When you look at other suspects, look at a businessman named Quinn Rossman.”
The very man involved in the money laundering scheme that Herschel was trying to use to have Laurel arrested. Theo clearly knew the name, too. Clearly didn’t like his mother mentioning it, because he glared at her.
A glare that the woman ignored. “Rossman’s the one who’ll take the biggest financial loss because of these failed deals,” Dorothy added.
So, the claws weren’t for Jericho but for this Quinn Rossman.
Laurel nodded. “Quinn Rossman will lose several of those millions, but like everyone else involved in this, I haven’t found anything to link him to what’s going on with the attacks.”
“Then, keep looking,” Dorothy insisted. “You don’t have to worry about his moron of a partner, Diego Cawley. He doesn’t have the stones or the brains to do something like this.”
“Mom,” Theo whispered. And it was indeed a warning. “You’ve said enough.”
Jericho didn’t agree. He wanted to hear a whole lot more. “You seem to know plenty about these two, Rossman and Cawley. How much do you know about their money laundering deal?” He stared at Dorothy, waiting for an answer.
“She knows nothing about that,” Theo snapped, and he took his mother’s arm. “If you want to question us further, then contact our attorney.” He rattled off his lawyer’s name and left, practically dragging his mother with him.
“Want me to stop them?” Mack asked.
Jericho gave it some thought, and while it would give him some instant gratification to grill Theo like a common criminal, he wasn’t likely to get any other answers from the pair. Not tonight, anyway.
“No, let them go,” he told Mack before turning to Laurel. “You need to be back in the break room. Away from these windows.” They were bullet resistant and the blinds were pulled all the way down, but there was no sense taking any chances.
Laurel motioned toward the break room. “What about the door that’s in there?”
“It leads to the parking lot, and it’s reinforced and locked. Wired to the security system, too. If anyone tries to come in that way or through the windows, the alarm will sound.”
Apparently satisfied with that, she nodded. However, Jericho and Laurel had only made it a few steps when he heard a thudding sound coming from the other side of the building.
From the holding cell.
Both deputies went running in that direction. Jericho nearly followed them but instead decided it was wise to move Laurel into his office just off the hall. There was a single window in there, but it stayed locked. It was also bullet resistant and wired to the security system.
“What’s going on?” Jericho called out to the deputies.
No answer. But he could hear them moving around and cursing. What had gone wrong now?
“Wait here,” he ordered Laurel.
With his gun drawn, Jericho hurried to the other hall, and he didn’t have to go far before he saw the deputies in the holding cell. His first thought was that DeWitt was trying to escape.
But he wasn’t. DeWitt was sprawled on the floor.
Dead.