Chapter 11

"Rena!"

Westin chased after Rena, surprised by how fast someone so small could be. They were halfway to the barn when he finally grabbed her, snagging her coat from behind and nearly pulling her off her feet.

"Will you stop?"

"Is it true? Were you with that girl last night?"

"You don't understand," he said, feeling like he was constantly repeating himself.

"What don't I understand? That you're just like my father said you were? A double-crosser? A liar? A user?"

"I never meant for you to get the wrong idea, Rena." He wanted to touch her, but he was afraid that she would read too much into it, so he stepped back, shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. "You were the one who assumed it was a date. Not me. I wanted to tell you, wanted to explain everything, but you just… I didn't know how to do it without alienating you."

"Tell me what? That all you wanted from me was what I'll inherit someday?"

"It's not like that."

"Then you weren't just dating me to get close to my father, to Rocking D? You're just like all these other fools around here, all these ranch hands who see themselves as some lord of the manor if they can just get me to marry them! But I thought you were different!"

"Did I ever say anything to you about marriage? Did I even kiss you?"

She turned away. "So, what? You didn't kiss me so that makes you some sort of saint?"

"I'm as far from a saint as anyone could possibly be."

"Why did you go out with me, then?"

"Because I needed a way to get your father's attention."

"See!" she cried, spinning on him. "You admit it. You were using me!"

"Not for the reason you think."

"Does that make it better?"

"No. What I did is wrong. I know it was wrong, I knew it as I was doing it. But I was desperate, Rena." He took off his hat and worked it in his hands, needing something to do with them. "I've been here for three years. Three years trying to find a way to get to your father. I tried applying for a job at Rocking D, but I couldn't get past the foreman. I tried calling his office, tried ambushing him in town, but he never goes to town! I tried everything I could think of, and then you just… you were sweet to me, always seeking me out whenever we ran into each other in town, always talking to me when all those idiots from Rocking D looked down their noses at me."

"Because I liked you!" she said, sniffing as her nose began to run. "You're different from those other guys. I thought we were friends!"

"So did I."

"Then why would you do this to me? Why did you want to see my father so badly?"

"Because he's my father, too."

That knocked the air out of her. Her mouth dropped open, her jaw unhinged. She backed away, then doubled over, gasping for air. He went to her, but when he touched her, she pushed him away, stumbling a few yards further across the field.

"I'm sorry, Rena. I didn't want it to come out like this."

She fell to the ground, landing hard on her ass. He didn't know what to do. He stood over her, guarding her, but he was afraid to touch her, afraid of not touching her. The ground was still covered in the snowfall they'd gotten days ago, and it was probably soaking through the linen pants she was wearing, pants that were hardly appropriate for the weather. She was going to catch her death, and then where would he be?

"Rena—"

"Explain."

He cleared his throat, not sure exactly how much explanation she wanted. But, again, wasn't it time for the entire truth to come out?

"My mother worked at Rocking D back in the mid-nineties. She was a ranch hand, moving cattle with all the other ranch hands. And your grandfather decided your dad needed to learn the craft, so he sent him out there for the summer to live like a ranch hand, sleeping in the bunkhouse and working side by side with my mom and the others." He ran his hand over his head as he slapped his hat against his thigh. "The way she told it, they set eyes on each other and it was love at first sight. She was young, just past her nineteenth birthday, and she had all these dreams, things she was going to do with her life. Falling in love wasn't part of the plan."

Rena looked up, tears still slowly falling down her face. She didn't speak, but he could read the questions in her eyes. They were the same questions he'd always asked. Why? How?

"He convinced her that he was in love with her, that they could do anything as long as they were together. They were going to run away together. But then my mother found out about your mom." He remembered his mother telling him about it, how she'd been invited to a big party at the main house, a birthday party for Dominic Mollohan. She had mistakenly believed she'd be his date, and she'd taken great pains with her appearance. But when she arrived, it was just in time for Dominic's father to make the announcement that Dominic was engaged to marry Carolyn. "She went to him, told him she was pregnant. He gave her all the cash he had on him at the time—a thousand dollars— and told her to take care of it. That he had no choice but to do as his father asked of him. His hands were tied."

Rena was quiet for a long moment, her gaze drifting over the field behind him, the house that towered over the landscape. Finally, she wiped her hands on her pants and then rubbed at her cheeks, wiping her tears away.

"Where did she go?"

"Denver. She got a job as a waitress and used the money to put a deposit on an apartment."

"Did she tell my dad that she didn't have an abortion?"

"She wrote to him. A letter a week for years. She even showed me a couple of them, let me write notes to him on birthday cards."

Rena shook her head. "I don't believe you. My father isn't the greatest guy, but I don't think he'd turn his back on a son. I mean, hell, I've listened to him and my mom fight for years over the fact that she never gave him a son. He resents her for it!"

"I don't know what to tell you."

She stood up and wiped her butt off as best as she could, doing nothing but muddying her hands. "Your mother must have lied to you."

"Now you sound like him."

Rena's eyes narrowed. "Yeah? And who's the one who used me to get close to him? Who made me believe he was interested in me just so I'd invite him to dinner?" She shook her head. "My mom liked you. She defended you to him last night, just like I did."

"I'm sorry if I hurt you, Rena. That wasn't my intention."

"What did you think you were doing? Did you think you'd tell me the truth and I'd be okay with it?"

"I don't know." He slipped his hat back on his head. "I guess a part of me was hoping that you would be. We both grew up as only children when we could have had each other all along. I was kind of hoping you'd be open to getting to know me. The real me."

Rena shook her head. "That's asking a lot."

"Is it?" He sighed. "Your father pretty much said the same thing. He called my mother a slut and implied that he couldn't possibly be my father. Do you think that, too? Do you think she made it all up?"

"I think you lied to me, and that's about all I can hear right now."

He lowered his head. "Fair enough." He started to walk away, headed toward the barn where he could catch a ride to Lee. "You should know, though, I liked your mom, too. She's a nice lady who doesn't deserve a man like Dominic Mollohan. Neither of you deserve someone who's too involved in his own life to pay attention to you over a simple meal."

He walked off, leaving her to consider that thought. He honestly did feel bad for what he'd done to her. She had every right to never forgive him for it. But there was a part of him—just like the part that had held on to the hope that Dominic Mollohan would accept him as his son—that hoped she would understand where he was coming from and see past the deception. It was a lot to ask of her, he knew. But he couldn't stop holding on to that hope.

***

Lee curled up on the couch, the mug of tea Clint had fixed for her between her hands. She stared out the windows at the snow-covered ground and the heavy clouds, wondering if it might snow again. She couldn't remember the last time she'd spent a winter in this kind of weather. They didn't get a lot of snow up in Seattle. Just a hell of a lot of rain.

But, again, it had been a while since she'd spent an entire winter in Seattle.

"Do you have a phone?"

"Why?" Clint asked as he settled in a chair near her with a mug of his own.

"I'd like to call my mother." Lee glanced at him. "I haven't talked to her in a while, and if this is my last day on earth…"

"We're not going to talk like that."

"Might as well be realistic."

"What makes you think he's coming after you?"

"Because I turned him in to our boss in Seattle. If he's there—which I doubt—he'll be arrested in a matter of hours. If he isn't—which I kind of lean toward—he'll do what he can to protect himself, including finding me, killing me, and covering his ass."

"You think Will is here in Milsap?"

"I do. I think he's hanging out with the people he's been running this drug deal with."

Clint tilted his head slightly, regarding her over his mug. "Tell me."

Lee sighed. "Someone who knew about the boxes, the codes, took over the operations of that old cartel leader. I can count on two hands how many people knew that, and most of them are in prison."

"You think your partner picked up where the cartel left off."

"I think he used the information we found during that investigation to start the operation again. And I think he was working with Fang and his gang to do it. But not just him."

"Someone local?"

Lee was quiet for a few minutes, her thoughts spinning in her head. She wasn't sure how much she wanted to tell Clint. She was afraid if he knew too much, someone would put a target on his back, and she didn't want that. But she was also afraid it was too late, that all five of these boys already had a target on their backs just by virtue of the fact that they'd helped her.

"I'd like to call my mom. I have a few hatchets that need to be buried, if you know what I mean."

Clint nodded, reaching into his back pocket before handing over his phone. She held it for a second, looking at the photograph he used as his wallpaper. It was a little girl with pigtails, a big smile on her pretty face. His daughter, she assumed. It made her ache some, this sudden fear bursting through her that she would never know the joys of motherhood. She'd never really spent much time thinking about her future. She wasn't sure until that moment that she even wanted kids. It was like a punch to the stomach to realize she did but she might not have the chance.

She dialed quickly before she could change her mind.

"Angie Wallace," the disembodied voice answered after three rings. "How may I help you?"

Lee closed her eyes. She almost couldn't make herself speak.

"Hello?"

"Mom? It's Lee."

"Lee."

Her voice took on this familiar edge that Lee couldn't help but bristle at. But she reminded herself that this could be the last time she might speak to her mother, so she made herself stop. Just stop and listen.

"Listen, Mom, I just… I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. I know I never made things easy for you after Dad, and I… Shit! " She rubbed her eyes, sitting up a little taller on the couch, aware of Clint watching her. "I just wanted you to know that I get it. And I'm sorry."

"Lee?" The edge was gone to her mother's voice, and now it was filled with concern. "Is everything okay? Where are you?"

"I'm all right, Mom. I'm in Colorado. On a ranch, actually." She glanced out the windows again. "Do you remember Grandpa's farm? That pony he taught me how to ride? He'd be proud of me now, Mom. I went riding again the other day, and I remembered everything he taught me."

"That was a long time ago, Lee."

"I know. But it's made me think a lot about what you must have gone through back then, just after Daddy died. I know that couldn't have been easy for you."

"It wasn't," she agreed. "But I shouldn't have let it get between us."

Lee's chin began to quiver a little. "Thanks for saying that, Mom. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that."

"I love you, Lee," her mother said softly. "Whatever's happening… please come home. As soon as you can. The twins' graduation is in May, and Johnny will be home for spring break in a month or so. They'd really love to see you."

Lee smiled even as tears began to spill from the corners of her eyes. "I'll try. Really."

"I'm proud of you, sweetheart. I don't think I ever told you that."

Lee took a deep breath, barely keeping her voice steady. "Thank you. I appreciate that."

"Will you call again?"

"In a few days."

"Okay. Be safe. Please."

"I will, Mom. I love you."

"Love you, too, darling."

Lee ended the call and pressed the phone to her chest as she gave in to the sobs she'd held back. That was the most intimate call she'd had with her mother since she was a preteen. Her father's death had driven a wedge between them that Lee had never tried to understand, or overcome. But there was no time better than the moment one realized their partner was out to kill them to bury the hatchet—right?

"You okay?" Clint asked.

She nodded. She handed him back his phone without looking at him, curling up on the couch again with her tea mug. She rubbed at her tears and sighed heavily. "You should give me a vehicle and send me off on my own. With any luck, they'll follow me and leave you alone."

"And if they don't? Then we'll have to fight them on two fronts."

"You say that like this sort of thing happens on a daily basis around here."

"I still don't even know what ‘this' is."

"Yeah." She sat up, shooting a glance in his direction. If she were him, she'd be freaking out right about now, but he seemed as calm as he always was—even when he'd been talking Remington down off the drug dealer trying to kill her. "I guess I owe you that much."

Lee took a deep breath, trying to get her emotions under control. "So, I hacked into Will's computer. Not his work computer, but the laptop that he uses for his personal stuff." She tilted her head to one side. "I was looking for his password into his DEA files in Seattle, but discovered that my partner is just as stupid as Fang. Apparently, he felt that the password he had on the physical laptop, and the simple encryption on his files was enough to keep someone out. He forgot that it was the computer specialists at Homeland who taught me how to hack."

She sipped from her tea mug, then set it on the coffee table in favor of pulling her knees up against her chest, holding herself for the little illusion of security it provided. "There are emails and audio files on his computer, just like Fang's. He's been keeping a record of conversations with his partners, I suppose because he's not sure he could trust them. Or maybe he was planning to use them for something else. I don't know."

"What else could he use them for?"

Lee's eyebrows rose. "Worst-case scenario? Someone finds this stuff on his computer, but I'm dead? He could say that I'd convinced him that he should do and say certain things with these people as part of the case, but the truth was I was the one who went rogue, and I set him up to make it look like he was going with me. He could turn it all around, stay clean and still get the benefit of all the money these drug dealers have been paying him." She shrugged. "He wouldn't be the first to do it."

"You don't think it's possible that those recordings are part of an undercover case you don't know about? Or a part of the one you were working together?"

"No." She took a deep breath, then sighed. "I want to think he's still clean, but I looked at his bank account. Not hard once I hacked the rest of his personal accounts. He has money coming in that can't be explained by the DEA. There's an account in his name that his wife probably doesn't know about, an account that has more than ten million dollars in it. I don't know what legitimate explanation he could come up with even if he had an answer for the recordings, the emails. It's just too much."

"Then there's no doubt."

"No."

"So… who do you think he's working with?"

That was the tricky part. "Do you know this Petey J?"

"He's the foreman over at Rocking D. He's born and raised around here, just like most of the ranch hands in the area. Mom still lives in Milsap."

"He strike you as the kind who might deal drugs if the right person talked him into it?"

"He'd do anything Dominic Mollohan told him to do. Might let a woman talk him into some stupid stuff. But I don't see him being a pushover for anyone else."

Lee was quiet for a second, mulling this over. "What about the morning you guys met me? You said there were no unfamiliar vehicles in that parking lot that morning, that if Fang had followed me there, he'd have to have walked?"

"Yeah?"

"Was Petey J there?"

It took Clint a second, but he was quick to follow her line of thought. "A whole group of ranch hands were there from Rocking D. I remember because Landry wanted to talk to them about this new cow vaccine he'd heard about. Figured they would know about it if anyone local did."

She chewed on her bottom lip, some of the final puzzle pieces falling into place. Before she could connect the dots for Clint, however, the door burst open and Westin came into the house.

"Lee, I can explain everything. It wasn't what it looked like."

"How is she?" she asked gently.

He shook his head, looking as though he might just be standing on the last straw. "She was pissed."

"I'm sorry."

He threw himself onto the couch beside her and knocked off his hat in his attempt to run his hands over his face. "What a fucking day!"

She moved against him, just wanting to feel his arms around her. He obliged, wrapping her up tightly, pulling her hard against his chest. She closed her eyes, thinking that if this was the last thing she felt on this earth, that would be okay. This was heaven all on its own.

"I think now is a good time for me to make myself scarce," Clint volunteered. "I might go make a phone call to the local sheriff, explain to her some of the things you've been telling me."

Lee pulled away from Westin. "Wait. What if the local sheriff is involved in… I mean, I haven't—"

"We can trust Sheriff Reeves," Westin told her.

"She's a good person, Lee. She isn't corruptible."

She rolled her head. "That's what I thought about Will."

"You can trust her," Clint repeated. " I do."

"You can," Westin agreed.

Lee slowly settled back down against Westin. "I guess I put my life in your hands the day I came here. I should probably start trusting you."

Westin kissed the top of her head. "Maybe you should."

Clint headed for the door. Just before he stepped through it, Lee sat up again. "One more thing."

"What's that?"

"Do you think you could get me a gun?"

Clint shot Westin a look, but then he nodded. "Yeah, I can do that." He backtracked, going through the door that cut the main part of the house off from the bedrooms. A few minutes later, he was back, a 9mm Glock in his hand. He popped the clip, emptied the chamber, and then handed it to her.

"Military?"

"Marines."

Lee nodded. "Thank you for your service." She looked the gun over, the feel of it not unlike her DEA-issued weapon. "This'll work."