Chapter 24

24

Dale had had a nightmare. That damned Bruce Tyler had played the starring role. Again. Tyler had been following Dale's daughter. He wanted revenge—for what Morris had done to Bruce's daughters. For some reason, he blamed Dale for Morris's actions. Dale knew those girls though they were a few years younger than his Sierra. Just young women not harming anyone.

What Morris Preston and Larry Kellman had done to those girls had been horrible. The men had both gotten far less than they deserved in his opinion. He had told Tyler that—but that evil bastard hadn't believed him.

Tyler had made it clear—Dale couldn't do a damned thing to help Morris now…or Sierra would pay the price. He had made that very clear. Tyler hadn't given a shit that Morris had Dale by the balls either. Or that Dale wouldn't ever have done a damned thing to those girls. He never would have. Ever.

But all Tyler cared about was that Dale had helped Morris so many times before—had he not, had he convicted Morris before, Tyler felt those girls never would have been harmed.

And had Michelle…

Bruce Tyler was going to come for Michelle, eventually. Dale just knew it.

And Tyler was a deranged man on a mission.

Dale didn't know what he was supposed to do now, how he was supposed to fix this. Morris had so much on him, Morris's goons had so much on him.

Dale just didn't know what to do. He was still feeling ill when Michelle came in. She normally knocked first. Maybe he hadn't heard it this time.

She was upset. It was on her face, so like their daughter's. He'd been worried about Sierra ever since Tyler had been in his home days ago.

Bruce had made it clear. He was watching Sierra. And liking what he saw.

Dale would never forget the way that sick bastard had looked while he was talking about Dale's little girl. He had no doubt, Tyler was watching Sierra. He had said too much that rung true.

And Dale couldn't do a damned thing about it.

"What's wrong?" Michelle asked him. Then she just kept talking. "You'll just have to deal with it later. Something has happened. In Texas. It might be a problem for us."

Dale just sat there and listened. In horror. This changed things. Greatly. "They know names now?"

"Some. Not ours, not yet. We need to do something, Dale. If they connect us to this, we…I just don't know if I can make this go away. The paper trail. And what if those fools who hurt that Barratt boy are caught? It's his sister that is missing. It's just too coincidental that he'd be living up here now, with everything going on down there now. What if he knows? What if…"

She was panicking. No denying that. Dale put his worry for Sierra aside. All he and Michelle had done with Morris had been favors. They had never truly hurt anyone. Not for Morris anyway.

"I'll see what I can do, what I can find out." He had contacts all around the country. Texas was no exception. He would do what he could. "I'm already taking steps to deal with that Barratt up here. Trust me, Michie, I'm going to fix this. I promise."

Why couldn't he make all of this just go away?