Chapter Eleven

Luca, Bree, Duncan and Slater stood in the living room of the ranch, their attention pinned to Luca’s phone. They watched as Woodrow, who had FaceTimed them, approached the travel trailer where Shannon had supposedly lived.

This was not the way Luca wanted to conduct a search. Especially a search that could finally give Bree and him answers as to who was trying to kill them. But Luca also hadn’t wanted to leave Bree behind while he joined the search. Duncan had agreed, and that’s why he’d sent Woodrow to accompany County Deputy Morales.

Thankfully, Beatrice and Joelle had agreed to stay upstairs with the babies. Both Izzie and Gabriel were way too young to know what was going on, but neither Luca nor Bree had wanted them in the room in case something god-awful was discovered in the search.

Like another body.

After all, Shannon might not be the only loose end a killer wanted to tie up.

Woodrow panned his phone the entire length of the trailer, and Luca could see it wasn’t that large, but it seemed to be in good shape with no obvious damage to the sleek silver exterior. Woodrow then turned his camera back on Morales as he went up the narrow trio of steps. He already had his weapon drawn, and he knocked on the door.

“I’m Deputy Morales,” he announced. “Anyone here?”

There was no response, which wasn’t a surprise since there’d been no vehicles in the gravel driveway that led to the trailer. From what Luca had been able to see so far, this wasn’t the sort of campground where people normally parked their RVs and such. There were no community buildings, no pristine trails. This was basically just a partially cleared area in the woods, with an old mailbox to indicate the address. It was secluded, and with no neighbors in sight, no one would have seen Shannon coming or going, which was probably why she’d chosen this particular location.

“Anyone here?” Morales called out again, and when he didn’t get a response, he gloved up and tested the doorknob. The deputy frowned and glanced back at Woodrow when the knob turned. “It’s not locked.”

Even though Luca couldn’t see Woodrow’s right hand, he knew his fellow deputy already had his weapon drawn, and judging from the movement of the phone, Woodrow was adjusting his aim in case someone inside the trailer started shooting. Morales was doing the same.

Morales eased open the door and immediately stepped to the side. A classic cop move so he wouldn’t be in the line of fire.

But no shots came.

In fact, nothing happened. There was only silence and darkness in the trailer.

Still staying to the side, Morales reached in with his gloved left hand and turned on the lights. He must have not heard or seen anything alarming because he stepped in with Woodrow right beside him. Woodrow set his phone aside for a couple of moments while he, too, put on some gloves.

When Woodrow resumed the call, Luca got confirmation that the camper was indeed small, with a kitchen on one side and a seating area on the other that had been let out into a bed. An unmade one. There were clothes strewn on the floor and take-out bags on the narrow strip of counter.

The bathroom door was open so Morales headed there while Woodrow focused on going through the pockets of the clothes at the foot of the bed and on the floor. “Nothing,” he relayed, moving to the small table next to the bed.

There was a phone charger plugged in but no phone or laptop, though Luca saw a charger for that as well.

“I think someone’s cleaned out the place,” Morales relayed from the bathroom. “I can see where some things were, but the shelf and the trash can are empty in here.”

That sent Woodrow to the cabinet under the sink where he, too, found an empty trash can. Considering the take-out bags were still there, it did appear that someone had almost certainly gone through it and removed anything incriminating.

And that someone was no doubt Shannon’s killer.

“Any sign that the door had been jimmied open?” Luca asked, though he believed he already knew the answer.

“None,” Woodrow confirmed while he checked behind the trash can. Nothing there. He moved on to checking the bags, stopping to check the receipt that was taped to one of them. “This was a pickup from this morning at eight, and it came from the diner in Saddle Ridge.”

Slater and Duncan both cursed, and Luca figured Bree was mentally doing the same. This meant Shannon had likely been the one who’d set the fire in the parking lot, though it was beyond risky of her to order takeout from the diner since it was so close to the sheriff’s office.

“She must have come back here after being in Saddle Ridge,” Woodrow concluded, panning the camera around again. “But there’s no blood. No signs that anything violent happened in here.”

“No signs of that in the bathroom either,” Morales added.

The deputy started going through the fridge while Woodrow went back to the bed. He lifted it and muttered, “What’s this?”

The camera angle wasn’t right for Luca to see what had caught Woodrow’s attention, but it obviously got the other deputy’s as well because Morales joined him and took Woodrow’s phone so he could aim it at a piece of paper.

“It’s a torn-off piece of a white delivery bag,” Woodrow explained, “and there’s some writing on it.” He paused, did some cursing of his own. “It’s Bree’s address.”

Luca heard the quick breath that Bree took in. Of course, Bree had known that Shannon was likely involved in the attempt to kidnap Gabriel, but it still had to feel like a punch to the gut.

“There’s something else,” Woodrow went on. “It’s the name Aubrey with a circle drawn around it. There are some doodles, too.”

Morales shifted the camera so they could see it, and it did indeed look as if someone, Shannon probably, had done some crude drawings of a rifle and a baby. Now it was Luca who felt the gut punch. Because one of the doodles was another name.

Manny.

The last letter of the name had a little heart dangling from it.

“Manny claimed he didn’t know Shannon that well,” Bree muttered.

Yeah, he had. “If we confront him with it, he’ll probably just say he has no idea why Shannon wrote his name.” Luca paused. “But Manny might own up to knowing who this other woman is.”

“Aubrey,” Slater repeated, and he hurried to his laptop. “I’ve seen that name before.” It took him nearly a minute before he finally got that aha gleam in his eye. “Aubrey Kincaid. She was arrested with Shannon about four years ago when they were caught doing a B and E. Aubrey didn’t have a previous record so she got parole.” He continued to type on his keyboard. “And Shannon and Aubrey were in the army together.”

Bingo. That was a solid connection. “Contact information?” Luca asked, grabbing a notepad so he’d be ready. Slater rattled off an Austin address and a phone number.

“Slater, try to call her,” Duncan instructed, “but block your number. If she sees a cop calling, she probably won’t answer.”

“True,” Slater muttered, and he made the call and put it on Speaker. It was answered on the first ring.

“Shannon?” a woman immediately said. “Is that you?”

“Yes,” Bree lied, making her voice a hoarse whisper.

“Where the hell are you?” the woman demanded. “We were supposed to leave for the McCullough ranch by now.”

Hell. That was another gut punch. They’d planned to come here, and Luca figured that meant they’d planned another attack.

“Shannon?” the woman repeated. “Are you there?” She sounded suspicious.

It was that suspicious tone that no doubt had Slater responding the way he did. He cupped his hand over his mouth and muttered something that was indistinguishable.

“I can’t hear you,” the woman said, punctuating that with some raw profanity. “This is a bad connection. Where are you?” she repeated.

Slater did more of the muffled muttering.

“Hang up and call me back,” Aubrey instructed. “And make it fast. We’re already running a half hour late, and we’re not going to get paid if we screw this up.”

Luca held his breath, hoping that Aubrey was about to say who was paying them. And for what? But she merely added. “Call me right back.”

Slater hung up, hit Redial, and waited for Aubrey to answer. She did. “This better be a good connection. Are you still out there in the sticks?”

Slater repeated some muttering, causing Aubrey to curse some more.

“All right, just meet me at the ranch,” Aubrey said. “We can...” She stopped, and a few moments crawled by. “Shannon?” she questioned. She paused again, doled out some more profanity, and Luca could hear her suspicions skyrocketing.

Not for long though.

Because Aubrey hung up.

Duncan whipped out his phone to call Austin PD. He didn’t have to spell out that they had to stop an attack on the ranch. They needed to find Aubrey now.

B REE KNEW EVERYTHING possible was being done to find Aubrey, but that didn’t help settle her nerves one bit. Aubrey’s words kept racing through Bree’s head. Words that tightened and twisted every muscle in her body.

We’re already running a half hour late, and we’re not going to get paid if we screw this up .

Aubrey had made it crystal clear that Shannon and she had plans to come here. Maybe to try to kill Luca and her. Maybe to try to kidnap Gabriel. It was possible Aubrey would carry through with it even if Shannon wasn’t with her.

Bree had considered taking Gabriel and just leaving in a cruiser with Luca. But that could be a huge risk, too, since Aubrey could attack them on the road. At least here they had a security system. And now that they knew Aubrey was coming, they could watch for her.

That was the reason Bree had come back to the guest room so she could be with Gabriel and keep an eye out the upstairs window. Thankfully, Luca had come with her. Just having him nearby was a reminder that they were a united front there to keep their son safe.

Luca was on the phone, getting updates from Duncan, but he was practically whispering so Bree couldn’t hear what he was saying. The low voice was no doubt so he wouldn’t wake up Gabriel, who’d just been fed and was now asleep in Bree’s arms. Since she very much wanted those updates, she eased him into his crib and went closer to Luca.

“I think we need to move another of the hands to the back part of the ranch near the pond,” he said to whomever was on the other end of the line. “One is already patrolling that area now, but it’s a weak spot. There’s a trail there with easy access to the road.”

There was. And it was a trail where Luca and she had parked and done some heavy making out when they’d been teenagers. It probably wouldn’t be an easy place for a nonlocal like Aubrey to find, but the woman could and probably had researched such things.

Luca ended the call and slipped his phone into his pocket. “That was Slater. We’re working out where to put the hands and the deputies who are keeping watch.”

“Good,” she muttered. And it was. Any and all security measures could keep Gabriel safe. But Bree knew there were plenty of weak spots where Aubrey could get through. “I read her background. She’s had a lot of firearms training.”

He made a sound of agreement. Then he sighed as he pulled her into his arms. “If she decides to do this mission solo, we have more than a dozen hands and deputies to spot her. It’s my guess though that she’s gone on the run. Or maybe run back to her boss because she was suspicious of the two calls she got from an unknown number.”

“Yes,” Bree said. She had to figure that Aubrey would at least contact her boss. Whoever that was. Perhaps Manny since Shannon had doodled the man’s name along with Aubrey’s. No matter who it was though, during that call Aubrey might learn Shannon was dead.

“Unless Aubrey was putting on a really good act, I didn’t get the sense that she was the one who’d murdered Shannon,” Bree added.

“Neither did I,” he said.

Bree was certain that Luca had been through every one of the woman’s words many times. For such a short one-way dialogue, they’d learned a lot. Shannon and Aubrey were basically hired guns, and they were supposed to have arrived at the ranch well over an hour ago. Added to that, Aubrey must have been accustomed to having Shannon call her on a burner with an unknown number since Aubrey didn’t question that. She’d simply answered Slater’s call and had assumed it was Shannon.

“If Aubrey goes to her boss, he or she could kill her, too,” Bree pointed out, but she figured she was voicing what Luca already knew.

His nod confirmed that, and while neutralizing such a potential threat would be good for the here and now, it wouldn’t be good in the long term. If they could make contact with Aubrey, they stood a chance of learning who’d hired her. If, like Shannon, she was killed, or simply vanished, the boss could just end up hiring other would-be killers to come after them.

At that thought, she had to close her eyes for a moment. Had to try to rein in the panic that was starting to slide through her. Luca helped with that.

By kissing her.

Since her eyes were closed, Bree hadn’t seen it coming, but she certainly felt it. His mouth landed on hers for what he’d probably thought was a soothing gesture. And it soothed all right. It also gave her a jolt of pure, hot lust.

The heat came, skimming right over the panic and filling her with a need that she knew was a distraction. That didn’t stop her from sinking right into the kiss. It didn’t stop her from wrapping her arms around Luca and pulling him closer.

So many sensations hit her at once. The feel of his body against hers. His scent that was as familiar to her as her own. The taste of him. That had always revved up the heat, and this time was no different.

Bree wanted to just keep kissing him. To get lost for a moment in the hazy heat he was creating. She wanted to hold on to Luca and never let go. But this was the opposite of a security measure so with much regret, she eased back.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

The corner of his mouth lifted in a dry smile. “I’m the one who started it.” He paused, brushed a chaste kiss on her forehead. “When this is over—”

He stopped at the sound. Not Gabriel whimpering this time. This was a car engine, and it was approaching the house. Mercy. Was this Aubrey? Had she decided to go through with an attack?

Luca and she whirled toward the window and saw two armed ranch hands step in front of the dark blue car that was in the driveway. Both hands took aim at the driver, and a couple of seconds later, a woman stepped out.

Tara.

She lifted her hands high in the air, and even though she was saying something to the ranch hands, Bree couldn’t make out what since she was so far away.

Luca’s phone buzzed, and she saw Duncan’s name on the screen just as Luca answered it. “I’m guessing you weren’t expecting her,” Duncan said.

“No,” Luca verified. “I’ll call her and see what she wants. The hands have instructions not to let her close to the house.”

Luca ended the call with Duncan and made one to Tara. They watched as Tara said something else to the hands, and then she got back in her car. Seconds later, she answered.

“Deputy Vanetti,” Tara said. “You need to tell your goons to let me through.”

“They’re ranch hands, not goons, and they’re not letting any unscheduled visitors through,” he snapped. “Why are you here, Tara?”

“Because of Manny,” the woman was quick to say. “Because I want you to arrest him.” Tara’s voice trailed off into a sob. “I want him to pay for what he did to my sister.”

“We’re not certain Manny killed your sister,” Luca pointed out just as there was a light tap at the door, and Duncan announced he was coming in. He did, and he headed straight to the window with Luca and her so he could hear the phone conversation.

“Well, I have something that’ll help convince you,” Tara argued. “Let me in, and I’ll show it to you.”

Luca huffed. Clearly, he wasn’t convinced this wasn’t some kind of ploy or maybe even a diversion so that Aubrey could get close to the house.

“What do you have, Tara?” Luca demanded.

“Something important. A video I recorded,” she added when Luca only huffed again. “Trust me, you’ll want to see it.”

Bree certainly wanted to see it, and if it was indeed something that could lead to an arrest, then this could be the break in the case they’d been searching for. Then again, it could turn out to be nothing, so Bree tried to tamp down her hopes.

“Text me the video,” Luca said.

“No, I want to show it to you,” Tara insisted.

“I’m not letting you inside, Tara,” Luca spelled out. “If you want me to see the video, then text it to me. If not, then hand your phone to one of the ranch hands, and he’ll bring it to me.”

Tara’s next sob was even louder than her other one. “All right, I’ll text it to you, but swear to me that you’ll arrest Manny once you’ve seen it.”

“I can’t promise that,” Luca said in a tone to indicate Tara was definitely testing his patience. “But I will view it and see if there’s anything that could result in charges being filed.”

That seemed to appease Tara because Bree saw the woman type in something on her phone. A few moments later, Luca got the text. Once the video loaded, Luca motioned for Bree to step to the side of the window. Probably because this could be some kind of ruse to distract them while a shooter got in place to try to gun them down.

Bree did move to the side but motioned for Luca and Duncan to do the same. They did, but both angled themselves so they could keep an eye on Tara.

The video finally came on the screen, and Bree immediately saw this wasn’t some kind of security footage. It appeared to have been filmed from a camera phone, and the person holding it didn’t exactly have a steady hand. There was also something obstructing the view, and it took her a moment to realize the person was likely recording this through an ajar door.

“Manny,” Bree muttered when she saw him. He was in an office with a desk and bookshelves, and he wasn’t alone. There was a woman with him, but Bree could only see the back of her head.

“I don’t want you showing up at my apartment in the middle of the night,” Brighton snarled. “I’m tired of going through this because it’s over.”

“It’s not over until I say it is,” Manny lashed out.

Just as Manny said that, the woman turned enough so that Bree could see her face. Yes, it was Brighton all right, and it was hard to tell with the shaky recording, but she seemed to be crying.

“If it was over, you wouldn’t have called me,” Manny continued. “You wouldn’t have wanted to keep having sex with me.”

“It was just sex,” Brighton insisted, the anger coming off her voice. “And, trust me, I regret it. You think I enjoyed that scene you just made when you showed up at my place last night?”

“It wasn’t a scene,” Manny snapped. “I was merely talking to my replacement.”

Replacement? So, Brighton had seemingly dumped Manny and moved on to someone else.

“You were causing a scene,” Brighton said like a warning, “and I want it to stop. Don’t contact me again. I love this bar, and I plan on coming here in the future, but I don’t want to have to deal with you, understand?”

The camera stayed on Manny’s face, and Bree had no trouble seeing the rage there. Yes, rage. Apparently, Manny wasn’t ready to accept this breakup. And it also meant Manny had lied to them by omission.

“Check the date of the video,” Tara insisted after the recording had ended.

Luca did. And cursed. Because this had been recorded just two days before Brighton’s murder.

“Well, does that convince you that Manny killed Brighton?” Tara asked.

Luca didn’t respond to that. Instead, he doled out a question of his own. “Do you know your sister’s friend, Aubrey Kincaid?”

“A little,” Tara said after a short pause. “Why?”

“Because we’re trying to get in touch with her. Do you have any idea where she might be?”

Tara paused again. “No, but Manny might. Aubrey and he dated for a while.”

Bingo. There was another red flag. Well, it was if Tara was telling the truth.

“So, are you going to arrest Manny?” Tara repeated with even more venom in her demand.

Duncan nodded, not responding to Tara but letting Luca and Bree know what he was about to do. “I’ll get an arrest warrant started. Arrange to have Manny picked up right away.”