While Lance and Clay took care of the prisoner, Nathan worked his sore jaw and decided it wasn’t broken. Bowen had gotten in a good punch before Nathan had managed to take him down. But in the end, Nathan’s training and expertise had come through for him, and they now had their suspect in custody with an angry-looking deputy standing guard. Lance looked ready to land a few punches on the prisoner’s battered face.
An ambulance had already come and gone with Trent who had awakened again, confused and complaining of a killer headache and a shoulder that was on fire. He didn’t remember Becca bandaging him up. The paramedic had looked at them and said, “He’ll be all right. We’ll get him to the hospital and taken care of.”
Nathan nodded.
Clay helped the shooter into the back of the cruiser while Nathan and Becca watched nearby.
Lance shut the door and shook his head. “Think your troubles are over now?”
“I sure hope so,” Becca said. “But I’m still bothered by the fact that he’s being so quiet. Why won’t he talk?”
“He’s mad he got caught.”
Nathan narrowed his eyes and shot a glance at Clay’s squad car. “I don’t know. Most people who don’t talk are scared to. He’s mad, but he’s scared, too. He was pretty desperate to get away.”
“You think someone’s not going to be happy he got caught,” Clay said.
“Exactly.” Nathan crossed his arms. “Thought you were going home to sleep,” Nathan said.
“I guess I’ll do that next month. I stopped at the office when I left here and was just getting ready to head home when your call for backup came in.” Clay looked at Becca. “So that’s Larry Bowen.”
“Yes.” She clasped her arms across her stomach. “He’s the piece I’ve been trying to remember. As soon as I saw his face, it came back to me. Christine was right. He stopped by the day of the accident and we talked for a few minutes. He wanted some information for his daughter who was interested in taking lessons. I gave him one of my flyers and he left. Or I thought he did.”
“What do you mean?”
“I had forgotten my phone. I came back to get it and found him talking on it.”
Clay and Nathan exchanged a glance with raised brows. Clay opened the door and looked at the prisoner in the back seat. “What were you doing on her phone?”
The man glared then turned his gaze to the opposite window, jaw clamped tight.
Clay shook his head. “Right.” He shut the door and locked him inside. “Guess he’s not going to talk without some coercion.”
“What did you do when you found him on your phone?” Nathan asked her.
“He had his back to me and I asked him what he was doing. He turned around fast and knocked a bunch of papers off the desk. He started scrambling to pick them up and I told him to stop. Some of those were tax documents that I didn’t exactly want him seeing. Not that I have anything to hide,” she said with a shrug, “but it wasn’t his business—and he was making a bigger mess trying to help. He knocked over the can of pens and then tripped over a chair. I realize now he probably did that to cover up whatever he was doing, but at the time, I just wanted him out.”
Clay nodded. “What happened after that?”
“He finally settled himself in the chair and said he’d left his phone in his car and didn’t think I’d mind if he used mine. It was definitely kind of weird, but he was so nice about it and apologized so profusely that I didn’t think anything else about it—or even remember the incident.” She looked at the man in the back of the cruiser. “Until now.”
“And then you had your accident.”
“Yes. About an hour later. It took me a while to get the papers and everything cleaned up and back in order. I was Christine’s only lesson that day, so she was fine with waiting on me. We finally got out to the pasture and well...you know the rest. Pete went crazy.”
“You think that’s a coincidence?”
She frowned. “But he wouldn’t have had time to do anything to Pete. He was already saddled and waiting on me. Christine arrived and I watched Larry leave again.”
Clay nodded. “It’s a good thing Christine arrived when she did. Bowen might have come back and planned to get rid of you at that point.”
Becca blanched. “So what stopped him the first time?”
Clay shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he was just checking the place out to see who was around and if he would be able to do it without getting caught.”
She shivered and wrapped her arms around her middle.
Nathan slid an arm across her shoulders and brought her against his side.
“All right,” Clay said. “I’ll get this guy to lockup, then I’ll check the time of that call against the one the dead guy, Donny Torres, received from Becca’s phone. If it lines up then we might have something.”
“But you said someone called that number several times,” Becca said. “I only saw Mr. Bowen—or whoever he is—that once. He wouldn’t have had access to my phone the other times.”
“What if he’s not working alone?” Nathan said.
“I was thinking that, too.” Clay scrubbed a hand down his face. “I’m going to take this guy in and make sure he’s nice and comfortable in his cell, then we’ll do a little more digging into who he is and who he hangs out with.”
“I want to be there when they question him,” she said.
Clay shook his head. “You don’t need to be there. You’ve already ID’d him as someone who’d trespassed before. We’ve got a name to go with him. Even if it’s an alias, it’s a start. We’ll print him and see what turns up.”
Clay climbed into the cruiser and rolled the window down. “And then I’m going to sleep for a couple of hours. Try to stay out of trouble until I can do that, okay?”
Becca rolled her eyes and Nathan crossed his arms with a scowl. “We’ll do our best.”
Clay waved a hand. “I’m kidding. Sort of.”
He drove away with Larry Bowen staring out the window, the look in his eyes chilling, promising retribution. Lance followed close behind.
Nathan ran a hand through his hair.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“I’m thinking our plan worked, but we’re not out of the woods yet.”
“Because he was working with someone?”
“Yes.”
Becca turned to walk back into the house. A sharp crack ripped through the air and she spun, only to slam into Nathan. He clamped his arms around her, keeping his body between her and the direction that he thought the bullet had come from. “Run to the house!”
“Clay!”
“Go, Becca!”
She stopped protesting and they raced to the house together with Nathan covering her back.
Jack raced next to him to catch up with them just as Nathan threw open the door and shoved her inside. “Stay here and call for help!”
“Nathan, no—” She broke off when he turned on his heel and raced back to Clay, his prisoner and the cruiser. Lance was already on the scene, pulling Clay out of the car.
From the way the man was moving, Nathan didn’t think he was hurt. Lance kept his back to Clay, who slid Larry Bowen from the vehicle and laid him on the ground.
Nathan dropped to his knees beside Bowen and looked at Clay. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “But he’s not.”
“No.” Nathan pressed his fingers against the man’s neck, but the bullet had done its damage to Bowen’s face. “He’s dead. Probably didn’t know what hit him.”
“Great,” Clay said. “Just great. I wanted him alive.”
“And someone figured he was better off dead.”
Clay’s eyes met Nathan’s. “Yeah. The same someone who thinks Becca should be, too.”
* * *
Two hours later, Becca opened the refrigerator while Nathan took a seat at the kitchen table. “Want some tea?”
“Sure.”
“I can’t believe this.” Shaking, she pulled the pitcher out and poured two glasses, the liquid sloshing over the sides.
Nathan rose, took the pitcher from her and set it on the counter. He gripped her upper arms in a gentle clasp. “You’re going to be okay, Becca.”
“I’m scared.”
“I know you are. I’m scared for you.”
She pulled away from him and handed him one of the glasses. At the table, she sat in the nearest chair while he sank back into the one opposite. “You didn’t have your vest on,” he said.
She rubbed her eyes. “I know. I saw Lady Lou get out of the barn and ran out of the house without thinking about it. Not that it mattered. The gun was aimed at my head, not my torso.”
“True.”
“That was scary.”
“Terrifying.”
She sighed. “You know, I don’t want to believe it, but I keep coming back to my father as the one behind all of this.”
“You really think he’d try to kill you?”
Tears formed and she blinked them away. “No. Of course not.” She fell silent then sighed. “Then again...”
“Yeah?”
Her gaze met his. “I really don’t know if he would go to such lengths to get me to quit this ranch or not. How sad is that? What kind of awful daughter am I to actually consider that my father would do something like this? To think that he would hire people like the man who was arrested today. How can I entertain such thoughts about my own father?”
“I think we need to take a trip to Nashville to see him.”
She bit her lip. “Can we do that and be safe? Someone’s already tried to run me over the side of the mountain. I’d be afraid they’d try again.”
“I know. We’ll have to work out the security details, but I think you need to talk to your parents face-to-face.”
She shuddered and he scooted his chair closer to wrap an arm around her shoulders. She buried her face in his chest, and he simply held her for the next few minutes.
The knock on the door startled them both. Jack barked and got to his feet. Nathan jumped up and placed a hand on his weapon.
Becca stood, too. “I don’t think the person trying to kill me is going to knock.
“Probably not, but we’re not taking any chances.” Nathan glanced through the screen. “It’s your neighbor.”
Becca stepped up behind him. “Jean, hi, come on in.”
Jean walked into the house and Becca motioned for her to have a seat at the table. “Can I get you anything? Tea? Water?”
“No, no. I’m fine, thanks.” She slipped into the chair on the end. “I just came over to ask you a favor.”
“You should have called.”
The woman shook her head. “Well, if you say yes, and I’m pretty sure you will, I’ll need my truck.”
“Of course. What is it?”
“Could I borrow a barrel of feed from you? I have some on order, but they haven’t been delivered yet. I could run into town and get some, but I don’t want to be gone too long from Hank. He’s not feeling well and I hate to leave him.”
Becca jumped up. “Absolutely. I have two barrels in the barn you can take tonight.”
“Oh thank you, dear girl. I was hoping you’d have some to share.”
Nathan was already pulling on his gloves. “I can put them in your truck.” He looked at Becca. “You want me to use the two barrels at the back?”
She nodded.
“All right. You two ladies stay put. I’ll be back.”
He left and Jean leaned forward. “I’ve been so wrapped up in what’s going on over at my ranch that I haven’t checked in on you like I should have. How are you holding up?”
“I’m holding—and healing. It’s taking time, of course, and I’m not the most patient person around, but I’m getting there.” Should she mention the incident with Larry Bowen or not? “Thank you very much for your help with the lessons. I hate that we took you away from Hank. I didn’t realize that he was sick.”
“It’s just a nasty cold, but I’m watching him close to make sure it doesn’t develop into pneumonia like it did a couple of years ago.”
The woman was in her late sixties, petite and energetic. Becca had immediately liked her engaging personality and infectious laughter. “I hear you’re still having trouble over here.”
Becca drew in a breath and nodded as she let it out slowly. “I am.”
“Sorry about that. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“No. But you might want to steer clear of my place until the trouble is over. I’m not very healthy to be around.”
Jean waved a hand. “I’m not too worried.”
She didn’t understand the gravity of the situation. Most likely she wouldn’t need to. She’d get her feed and head back to her ranch to take care of her animals and her husband and that would be that.
The door opened and Nathan stepped back inside. “Got you all loaded up. You’re good to go.”
Jean stood and so did Becca. “Thank you so much,” the woman said. “This is a huge help.”
“No problem.”
“Are you going to be able to unload those barrels?” Nathan asked.
“I’ve got a couple of helpers that come over for a few hours each day. We’ll get them where they need to be. And when my shipment comes in, I’ll have them bring your replacement feed.”
“No problem.”
Jean drove away and Nathan returned to the table. “So. When’s a good time to go to Nashville?”
Becca rubbed her forehead. “I don’t even know.” She glanced at the clock. “I haven’t talked to my parents in months—like close to a year.” She paused. “I could probably track down someone my father works with and ask.”
“Your dad’s a doctor, right?”
“A surgeon.”
“Right.”
“And my mother is a lawyer.”
He blinked. “Yes, seems like I knew that. The Wrangler’s Corner power couple.”
“Hmm. Until Dad took the job as chief of surgery at St. Thomas in Nashville.”
“And then moved you away from me.” He smiled. “Why don’t you make that call?”
Her parents had let her finish her junior year of high school before whisking her away to Nashville. She’d been devastated to leave Wrangler’s Corner. Which was probably why she found her way back here. She reached for her phone. And realized she didn’t have it. With a sigh, she rose and walked to the counter and retrieved the device. “I’ve got to learn to keep this on me.”
“As long as it’s in reaching distance.”
She dialed her father’s number. Of course it went to voice mail. She hung up and dialed the hospital emergency department number. “This is Becca Price. Could I speak to Rachel Goodman?”
“Price? Any relation to Dr. George Price?”
“His daughter.” She’d admit it if it got Rachel on the phone.
“Wow. Okay. And you want to speak to Dr. Goodman?”
“Yes, please.”
“Just a minute. Let me see if I can track her down for you.”
Rachel always knew where her father was. She was one of his surgeons who had her eye on his job whenever he was ready to retire. He was only fifty-two so she didn’t think that was going to happen for a while. He liked his position of power too much—doing what he did best. Controlling lives, feeling like he was cheating death because without him and his scalpel, his patient would have died. And while that might be true, she believed God had more control over that part than her father did. He didn’t see it that way, though.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Rachel, this is Becca.”
“Becca? I haven’t heard from you in forever. How are you?” The words were pleasant enough, but she could hear the chaos in the background and knew the woman needed to get going.
“I’m fine, thanks. Listen, I won’t keep you, but you’re my only hope for tracking down my father. To make a long story short, he’s not taking my phone calls.” No need to go into details. “Do you know if he’s going to be around today and in his office? What time would be good to drop in on him?”
“Hold on a second and let me check the surgery schedule.” There was a short pause before she came back on. “It looks like he’s going to be in his office between four and five this afternoon.”
“That will work,” Becca said. “Thanks so much.”
“Do you want me to tell him that you are going to come see him?”
“No!” Becca realized she’d nearly shouted the word. She softened her tone. “No, that’s okay. I want to surprise him.” There was no way her father had shared with Rachel the grief his stubborn daughter was causing him, so there was no reason for Rachel to suspect that the surprise wouldn’t be a good one.
“He’s not a big fan of surprises or people just dropping in on him. Are you sure you want to do that?”
Okay, maybe the woman knew Becca’s father better than she thought.
“I’m sure.”
“Becca, he’ll kill me if I don’t tell him you’re coming by.”
“He’ll be fine, Rachel. Don’t say anything, please. He won’t even have to know we talked.”
“He’ll know.” The woman sighed. “Fine. I won’t say anything. It’s not my business to get involved in family matters.”
“Thank you.”
“Well, stop by and say hello if you get a chance.”
“I will.”
Becca hung up and blew out a breath.
“Well?” Nathan asked.
“I think we’re good to go. I can’t believe I’m actually going to do this, but I’m ready when you are.”
“I’m going to call Clay and see if he can set up an escort for us.”
She nodded. “Okay...”
His eyes lingered on hers. “What?” he asked.
“What did you mean that my parents moved me away from you?”
“They did. At least, I took it personally. It was one of the saddest days of my life when you told me you were moving.”
“It wasn’t exactly the best day of my life, either.” She paused.
“You knew I had a huge crush on you, didn’t you?”
Her jaw dropped. “What?”
He lifted a brow. “You seriously didn’t know?”
“No, you never did anything about it.”
A short laugh escaped him. “I didn’t dare. I cherished your friendship too much.”
“But you were the popular basketball star in all the honors classes. You could have had any girl in the school. They fell all over themselves to get you to notice them.”
He didn’t smile. “But not you.”
She flushed. The heat traveled from the base of her throat and into her cheeks. “No, I didn’t know how to flirt and be all prissy like those girls. As much as I wanted to, it just wasn’t me. So, I didn’t.”
“And you noticed who I wanted to hang out with.”
True. But it didn’t stop him from going out with the other girls. Occasionally. And never one for very long.
He gave another low laugh. “And as for the honors classes, you were in those, too. I was a sixteen-year-old kid without a dollar to my name. You were the rich kid who lived in the big ranch on the hill with a maid and all the boys chasing after you.”
Becca swallowed. “I didn’t care about all that. The boys or the house. The boys were just interested in my parents’ money, and the only thing I loved about that house was the horses. I spent most of my days riding and working in the barn.”
“I know. You were really focused on that. And besides, you spent every weekend at competitions. You didn’t have time for a boyfriend. Even I could see that.”
“True. Maybe.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “But it might have been nice to have the option.”
“You mean you would have given me the time of day? Other than hanging out as a friend, I mean?” He scoffed. “Come on.”
She shrugged. “You never know.”
“And I guess we won’t now, will we?”
“No. I guess not.” She looked away, then turned back to him. “Why did you kiss me? Was it to satisfy some kind of leftover teenage crush curiosity?”
He held her gaze and then shook his head. “No. I wasn’t even thinking about that.”
“Then what?”
“I was thinking about how strong you are. How determined and honorable...and how much I admire you.”
“You admire me?” She frowned. “I don’t know that I deserve your admiration. Some days I feel like a huge failure.”
“Becca, surely you can see how amazing you are. Not everyone could have accomplished so much in such a short time.”
“Maybe. I mean, yes, I know I’ve accomplished a lot. It takes hard work and determination to get through medical school and I won’t make light of that. But I’m really not so sure about the strong part. Some days I don’t feel very strong.”
He gripped her fingers and the sleeping butterflies in her belly fluttered to life. “I don’t think you give yourself enough credit.”
“Maybe not.”
“You’re a doctor.”
“I am. On paper anyway. And in practice, for a while.”
“And yet you gave it all up to chase your dreams.”
“Hmm. I wouldn’t say I gave it all up.”
“What would you say then?”
She blew out a low breath. “I would say that I put a career that I love on hold to see if I could do this. To find out if I can have a successful barn, watch children’s eyes light up when they ride a horse for the first time, watch a student get the form right for a jump. All of that. It’s so amazing. Almost as amazing as surgery. Sometimes more so.” She paused. “Depends on the surgery.”
“Exactly. Admirable.”
She bit her lip and he leaned in. Her heart thundered in her ears as she realized he was going to kiss her again.