Rosa Mercer stood in the massive kitchen to the right of the hallway with her hands to her face, her husband, Alan, holding her with an arm around her shoulder.
Marco rushed through the arched entry to the kitchen, his weapon ready. “What happened?”
Alan and Rosa turned and when Rosa saw Amelia, she rushed into her arms. “I’m so glad you’re home.”
Amelia hugged the petite woman and said, “I’m here. What just happened?”
Alan lowered his gaze, then glanced at Marco. “She thought she saw Daniel.”
Amelia stepped back, shock making her go pale. “Daniel? That... That can’t be.”
“I told her that,” Alan said. “It’s been a few rough weeks. I think we’re all exhausted.”
“I saw him in the courtyard,” Rosa said, her dark eyes misting over. Then she shook her head. “Maybe I just miss him all over again now that Leo’s gone.”
Marco instinctively went toward the two glass doors that opened out onto a lush courtyard full of cacti, mesquite trees and blooming vines with a long table and matching set of chairs centered by a flowing foundation.
“Describe the person you saw,” Marco said to Rosa.
Rosa glanced to her husband. “You didn’t see him?”
“No. But I believe you saw someone.”
Rosa nodded. “Si. He had dark blond hair like Daniel and the same eyes, but his face was different.” She shrugged. “A man was there, a man who could have been Daniel...”
“Except what?” Amelia asked, her heart being pierced with a thousand arrows of agony.
“He looked evil,” Rosa said, her hand to her mouth again. “Evil.”
Marco opened the doors and went out. Then he came back inside. “Nothing. The back gate wasn’t locked, but it was shut. Maybe it was one of the ranch hands?”
“They usually use the back kitchen door,” Alan said. “And they knock first.” Shrugging, he added, “We know their faces, Marco. It couldn’t have been a worker.”
Amelia ignored Marco’s pointed stare and pulled out a chunky chair, then sank down against the long cypress wood dining table. She didn’t want memories of Daniel to override Leo’s death. That would be too much. “Grief can make us imagine strange things. I wish every day that Daniel was still alive. And now I can’t believe Uncle Leo is gone. I’m sorry I wasn’t here, Rosa.”
Rosa shook her head. “He was doing fine and then, he just went downhill so quickly once it started.”
“Do you know what caused his death?” Amelia asked.
Marco had eyes on Rosa. Rosa looked up at him but said nothing. Then she wiped her face and turned back to Amelia. “I’m sorry, but we don’t know yet. Let me get you both some food. Mr. Chastain is on his way.”
Amelia stood. “I can help.”
“No, no.” Rosa’s smile widened. “I have made all of your favorites, bonita. Tamales, bife tacos and flan for a late lunch. I have freshly made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, just the way you like them.”
Amelia’s stomach roiled. She was hungry but not sure she could eat a bite. “Maybe I’ll just freshen up first.”
“Your room is clean and ready,” Alan said. Then he touched her arm. “Amelia, we’re so sorry about Leo. You know I loved him like a brother. He always said we were part of the family.”
Rosa shook her head. “He was so good to us, always.”
“I loved him, too,” she said, hugging Alan. “I want to hear everything after we eat.” She started toward the long hallway to the other side of the house.
“I’ll go with you,” Marco said. “Just to check.”
Rosa and Alan both looked confused. “Just in case of what?” Alan asked.
“If that intruder is still lurking about.”
Amelia gave Marco a warning look. “And just in case I try to run away,” she said with a laugh. “But I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere soon.”
“Neither am I,” Marco told the anxious couple. Then he gave them his own warning glance.
Alan picked up on things. “Marco, we have a guest suite on the other side of the house if you feel the need to stay a few days.”
“I might take you up on that offer,” he said as he moved to follow Amelia. “We’ll see how things go.”
Alan nodded his understanding, then turned to help his wife.
Marco had to walk fast to keep up with Amelia. She sure didn’t like anyone hovering over her. She’d wrapped herself up in grief and couldn’t see beyond her broken heart.
“Hey,” he said, grabbing her arm when she stopped at a corner room, “are you okay?”
“You know I’m not okay. I lost my parents, then Daniel and Siri, and now Uncle Leo, then last night I lost my home and now I’m back here. I had made myself a good life, a quiet life, before you came to see me. Now, my life has changed literally overnight. So I’m a little bitter about things.”
“I’m sorry for that and for your grief,” he said, letting out a breath, “but have you stopped to think about how things could have turned out if I hadn’t showed up?”
She opened the heavy wooden door and motioned him inside. “You’re right. I could be dead and while I’m forever grateful, I find it strange that whoever tried to gun me down showed up when you did. I’m not saying you were involved. Just wondering how that happened.”
Marco took in the room, checking for entryways. Then he came back and put a finger to his lips. In a soft whisper, he said, “It happened because someone knows your uncle died, and that someone probably has this place bugged. Maybe not this room, but the main rooms. I’ll need to check.”
To prove that point, he ran his hands over the lamps and opened the nightstands, and even checked under the bed. He studied the air-conditioning vents but couldn’t reach them without a ladder.
Motioning to the en suite bath, he followed her in the luxurious room and checked every nook and corner there before turning on the water as loud and fast as it would go. The room was rectangular and big, with high windows that would allow sunlight and moonlight, too narrow for a human to crawl through.
Leaning close again, he whispered, “I’m still wondering about Chastain. What his angle is.”
Amelia’s eyes flared with disbelief when she hissed a return whisper. “He’s Leo’s lawyer and best friend. You can mark him off your list and remember he’s paying your salary.”
“Yes, and he demanded updates on my search with every step. He’d be able to track me if he wanted to. Or have someone track me. I’ll make sure my truck doesn’t have a bug on it.”
She shook her head and backed away from his whispers. “None of this makes any sense.”
“Well, until it does, consider everyone a suspect.” Then he waved one hand in the air, turned off the water and took her back to the other room. “This is a big bedroom—no, make that a suite.”
The room had a cozy sitting area with two matching light blue leather chairs and a paned sliding door out to the courtyard. He moved over to check that door. Locked up tight, but no security measures beyond that. Then he checked the walk-in closet and noticed the boots, jeans and other clothing she must have left behind.
Amelia sank down in one of the chairs. “Are you finished checking for the monsters under the bed?”
He whirled and glared at her. “The monsters could be out in that courtyard.”
Amelia got up and stared him down. “The monsters are in my head, Marco. Daniel? Rosa thought she saw him. I have to live with his death every day of my life. Before that, it was my parents, and then Siri. Now, Leo. Everyone I’ve ever loved has left me, and Rosa is scared she’s seeing ghosts.”
“What if she really did see someone out there?”
“I can’t...go there right now.”
“We need to go there. Rosa seemed sure she’d seen a man in the courtyard. I believe her.”
Amelia stopped, held a hand to her mouth. “No, I need to get it together right now, and I can’t do that with you standing there making all these suggestions and assumptions.”
“Amelia...?”
“No. You don’t know me well enough to be my friend. You know way too much already, though, information you found by asking around, by going deep online. I need some time alone, to absorb all of this, to think, to figure out what happens next. After that, I could sleep for a week, but I don’t have that luxury.”
“Do you want me to take my money and leave?”
She was about to say something when they heard a knock on the door. “Amelia, Samuel Chastain is here,” Alan called out.
“I’ll be there soon,” she said, her right hand grabbing at her hair. “Go, Marco, talk to him while I get a quick shower and find some clean clothes.”
Marco lifted a hand, then dropped it. He wanted to help this woman, wanted to keep her safe. Feelings he’d never had for a client before, and feelings he needed to end right now.
She was pricklier than any cactus he’d ever come across and as about as stubborn as a wild mustang.
Although Amelia wasn’t the person who’d hired him, she was the person someone wanted dead, and thankful that he’d found her in time, he wouldn’t leave until he knew she’d be safe.
“You think about my question,” he said as he headed for the door. “I can leave at any time, or I can stay and help figure this out. It’s your call.”
Amelia didn’t say a word. She just stared at the floor, her arms crossed in a protective shield against her heart.
He left her like that and then, tired and frustrated, headed to the other side of this enormous house, his mind still on the man Rosa thought she’d seen out there.
Daniel couldn’t have been that man, but Marco believed Rosa had seen someone out there. Someone who wanted Amelia dead.
Amelia hurried to get dressed. After finding some jeans and a light sweater she’d left in the closet, she threw on her boots and dried her hair with the old drier in the bathroom closet, leaving it a little damp in her haste. Rosa had kept her room almost the way she’d left it, so she at least had clothes. And Rosa had also put a basket of good-smelling toiletries in the bathroom. Amelia would thank her friend later.
Finding her bracelet, she slid the latch through the round hook, making sure it was secure. This bracelet had been a gift from Leo, but Daniel had given her several of the charms on it. Siri had added a few here and there. Now it held special memories from all of them. Each time the charms clinked and tinkled, she thought of all the people she’d lost.
Now she had someone after her.
Right now, she needed coffee and explanations.
When she heard voices in the huge den on the other side of the kitchen, she kept walking the long hallway. Rosa had set out coffee and her famous cinnamon rolls on a side table. Amelia grabbed a cup and filled it with the rich brew Rosa kept stocked, then took a plated roll so she wouldn’t hurt Rosa’s feelings.
“There you are,” Sam Chastain said as she entered the den. He looked as debonair as ever, his thick hair now completely white, his suit tailored to perfection.
Amelia set down her coffee and food and gave the white-haired lawyer a hug. “Samuel, thank you for letting me know about Leo. I mean, finding me to let me know.”
Samuel gave her a long, sad stare. “And you were hard to find at that. I’m so sorry, darlin’. I sure wanted you to know, of course. But it was an urgent matter, too. We’ll have a formal reading of the will whenever you’re ready, but now you know why I sent Marco to find you.”
Marco took a sip of coffee and motioned to her. “Why don’t we sit down.”
“Of course,” Samuel said, waiting for Amelia.
She found her favorite chair, a soft paisley material with flowers twirling through the design. “I’m still in shock,” she admitted. About so many things.
Taking in the room’s massive fireplace and set of glass doors that gave a beautiful view of the pastures and the Chiquita River beyond, she decided this place hadn’t changed much. But she had. She wouldn’t back down on finding out the truth.
But she had to wonder how much Marco had told Samuel.
“So what were you two discussing?” she asked, hoping for some clues.
Marco finished his coffee. “I filled Samuel in on what happened at your place.”
“I’m so sorry,” Samuel said. “Rosa said you loved your new home. I agree with Marcus—he should stay here and help solve this problem. I can’t believe someone tried to hurt you. You don’t have to live looking over your shoulder all the time.”
Surprised that Marco hadn’t outright accused Samuel, she could only guess he hadn’t been paid yet. “I told Marco he doesn’t need to stay, but I would feel better if we retained him a while longer. I can’t make any decisions when someone wants me dead.”
Both men looked surprised, but Marco also looked relieved while Samuel looked shocked.
“The only decision you need to make,” Samuel said, his hand waving in flourish, “is regarding Rio Rojo Ranch. Do you want to keep the Triple R going, Amelia? Or are you planning to sell out and move on?”
Amelia took a long sip of the rich coffee and then broke off a piece of warm cinnamon roll with her fork. After she’d enjoyed that small bite of bliss, she glanced from Samuel to Marco. “What I want right now is the truth. Samuel, do you have any idea who wants me dead and out of the way?”
Samuel had just taken a bite of his own roll, and now he started coughing. Marco got him some water and Amelia gave him a concerned look.
“I’m fine,” he said. “Your question just threw me off a little bit. But you always were direct and to the point.”
“I haven’t changed,” she said. “Only now I’m stronger and I need the truth. If you know more than you’re saying, now is the time to confess all.”
Marco gave her an inquisitive glance that held a touch of admiration. Then he glanced at Samuel. “You heard the lady. Do you know why anyone would want to do harm to Amelia?”
Samuel’s gray eyes widened. “I...uh—”
Alan came into the room. “Amelia, we have a problem. Someone cut the fence in the north pasture. We got cattle running wild and not enough help to round them up.”
Marco and Amelia both stood at the same time. “This can’t be an accident,” Marco said. “I can go check it out.”
“We’ll both go,” she replied. “I still know how to ride a horse, and herd cattle.” She took one last drink of her coffee. “And I’ll bring my gun.”
“You’ll be exposed out there.”
“I just hired you to protect me, so let’s go.”
Marco grunted and followed her out the door toward the stables. “I don’t like this.”
“You don’t ride?”
“Horses? Yes, and I can round up cattle. But you shouldn’t go out there.”
“Technically, I own the ranch now, so technically, I’m the boss. And the boss always saddles up, cowboy. Lead, follow or get out of the way.”
She spun like a top and headed toward the back door of the kitchen.
Marco grunted again. But he followed her.