CHAPTER TEN
Maggie knew she had to do something to stop what had already been put into motion. Jake didn’t deserve to be arrested. But first things first, she had to make sure this situation didn’t escalate into a shooting.
She lifted her hands, so the marshals could see the weapon she held. Beside her, Jake did the same, and with their guns pointed right at Jake and her, the marshals made their way up the trail.
“Can I go now?” Wade asked one of the lawmen.
The taller one nodded, and Wade hurried away as if someone had lit fire to him. Maggie didn’t want that to happen, not exactly, but she wouldn’t mind blasting Wade for planting that GPS on Jake’s truck and then leading the marshals right to them. Of course, better the marshals than Tanner, but still, this situation could get ugly.
“Maggie,” the taller marshal greeted.
She released the breath she’d been holding because she recognized that voice. It belonged to Dallas Walker, the very officer who’d been monitoring her in WITSEC.
Maggie slipped the gun into her coat pocket. “You’re a long way from Maverick County. Why did they send you?”
“I volunteered when I heard what happened.” He was an imposing man, at least six-three, and even in the dim morning light, she could see the imposing glare he aimed at Jake. “I’m Deputy U.S. Marshal Walker, and this is my partner, Marshal Harlan McKinney, and you need to put down that gun. Use just two fingers and ease it onto the ground.”
Oh, mercy. They were treating Jake like a common criminal.
The moment Jake put the gun on the ground, Marshal Walker took the cuffs from his belt and went toward him.
Maggie stepped in front of the marshal. “Jake did what he did to save my life.”
“Maggie,” Jake warned. “You don’t need to do this.”
“Hush,” she warned him right back. She stared at the marshal. “Jake found out I was in danger, that Bruce Tanner had found my location and was going to send a gunman after me. When Jake couldn’t find me, he went into my files so he could tell me.”
“He did that to save you?” Harlan, the other marshal questioned.
Maggie nodded. Her breath was gusting now from the cold and the adrenaline, and she hoped she looked more confident about that answer than she felt.
The marshals exchanged glances. Walker mumbled something and he hitched his shoulder toward the vehicles. “Let’s go to the sheriff’s office and get this straightened out.” He reached down and retrieved Jake’s gun.
Jake just glared at her. “What do you think you’re doing?” he said in an angry whisper as they made their way down the ridge.
“The right thing,” she assured him.
Jake opened his mouth to argue with her, and she hooked her arm around him to pull him closer. “Think of Sunny. She needs you, and she won’t have you if you go to jail.”
There. That seemed to do it. Well, except that his muscles went rock hard. Jake had broken the law to find her, but lying about that seemed to be a higher crime for him. Maggie, however, thought the lies would be well worth it if they stopped this injustice from happening.
The marshals ushered them into the backseat of their vehicle and started the drive back down the ridge and toward town.
Marshal Walker met Jake’s gaze in the mirror. “Your daughter’s sick,” he tossed out there like a gauntlet. “There’s talk around town that you’ve been looking for a bone marrow donor for her.”
“I have been.” And that’s all Jake said. His jaw muscles had tightened, his forehead had bunched up, and she was afraid at any second, he’d blurt out the truth.
“If you’re implying that’s why Jake found me,” Maggie said, “you’re wrong. It’s true he did want me tested, but like I said, he found me to save my life.”
“Talk is the sheriff hates you,” Walker added.
Maggie was beginning to despise those who were doing all this talking. “He does,” she readily admitted. Even though as she said that, she remembered the scalding kiss. And all that snuggling on the bunk bed. Still, there was some hate left. “But he saved my life by finding me.”
With his partner behind the wheel, Walker turned in the seat and stared at her. “Can we cut the BS? The sheriff hacked into a classified database to locate you so he could have you tested as a bone marrow donor for his sick child.”
“What would you have done in his place?” she snapped.
The staring continued before the marshal said something she didn’t catch, and he turned back around. “Probably the same, but I can’t give him a get out of jail free card on this. You could have been killed. I’m hearing reports of a gunman who attacked you right outside Coopersville.”
“Did you find the body?” Jake asked. “Or better yet, did you confirm who hired him?”
“No to both questions, but I figure you know who we’re dealing with—Bruce Tanner. He wants Maggie dead, and it was desperate and reckless for you to lead him to her.” He cursed, shook his head. “Desperate anyway.”
Yes, that pretty much described their situation.
The marshal drove down the trail and onto the farm road that rimmed McCall land. Maggie considered continuing the argument to get Jake free, but the timing was wrong. Mainly because Jake wouldn’t let her have that argument. He wasn’t just desperate, he was darn stubborn. Well, she was stubborn, too, and she wasn’t dropping this without a fight.
By the time they arrived in town, the sun was already fully up, and while there was a dusting of snow, it wasn’t as brutally cold as it had been the night before. A beautiful Christmas Eve morning. Or rather it would have been if not for Jake’s and her situation.
The marshals both looked around Main Street, keeping watch. Maggie and Jake did the same, because Tanner was bold enough to hire someone to make an attack in broad daylight. However, there wasn’t anyone out and about when Marshal McKinney brought the car to a stop directly in front of the sheriff’s office.
Thank God, they didn’t cuff Jake when they escorted him into the building, but Marshal McKinney kept a firm grip on Jake’s arm.
The deputy, Billy Kilpatrick, had been asleep at the front desk, but he jumped to his feet when the bell over the door jangled. Maggie couldn’t see or hear anyone else in the office, and it made her wonder where Wade had gone.
Obviously, not here.
So, maybe his request for protection had just been a ruse to cover up his real reason for going to the ridge—to lead the marshals directly to Jake.
“You all right, Jake?” Billy asked.
Jake didn’t answer, and McKinney led him to the interrogation room down the hall. Walker would have followed him if Maggie hadn’t stepped in front of him and blocked his path.
Maggie looked at the deputy. “Billy, could you give us a minute?”
The man glanced around as if trying to figure out where to go. The Mustang Ridge sheriff’s office wasn’t a large building by any means. There was the entrance area with three desks for the dispatcher and two deputies. Down the hall was Jake’s office, an interrogation room, a holding cell and a small break room.
“Maybe you can fix a fresh pot of coffee,” Maggie suggested.
Billy nodded hesitantly and volleyed glances between her and the marshal before he left for the break room.
Maggie didn’t waste any time. She looked Marshal Walker straight in the eye. “What will it take for you to let Jake go?”
“I can’t,” he said, not wasting any time, either.
“You can.” She shoved her hair from her face. “He really did save my life.”
He gave her a flat look. “And he really did hack into the database just to save you and not because he was looking for a bone marrow donor?”
“Why does it matter why he did it? He saved me.”
“Yeah, after he put you in danger in the first place.” His hands went on his hips. “Look, if it were up to me, I’d let him go. I do know the difference between justice and the law, and justice is a helluva lot more important. But there’s no way I can justify to my boss that I didn’t arrest the man who endangered someone in WITSEC.”
“Yes, there is,” Maggie said. She moved closer and lowered her voice to a whisper. “If Jakes goes free, I’ll give you evidence that you can use to have David Tanner arrested. And when the times comes, I’ll testify against him.”
“Evidence?” he repeated.
“The kind that can put David in jail for a long time.” She had to pause, gather her breath and pray that the marshal would snap this up. “Nearly two and a half years ago I cut a deal with Tanner to keep the evidence against his son a secret. In exchange, I agreed never to see the McCalls again. Well, the pact’s been broken, and since Tanner seems bound and determined to kill Jake and me, then there’s no reason for me to protect his son.”
Walker stared at her and then groaned. “You should have told me this sooner, like two and a half years ago.”
“I couldn’t. I had to do something to keep the McCalls safe. And it worked. Until yesterday.”
“Until Sheriff McCall allowed Tanner to find you.”
“It wasn’t like that,” she argued. “I wanted to know about my niece. I want to try to save her, and there’s no way Jake could have gotten the marshals to release my location since I had a no-contact order in my file.”
He opened his mouth, no doubt to remind her the reason she had that no-contact order. It was because of Chet’s threat to kill her. But it had also been so Maggie could cut herself off from the people she’d hurt.
“Please,” she said.
The staring continued, and the seconds ticked off the clock. “Give me the evidence against David Tanner, and I’ll keep it close to the vest until I can figure out how to use it without getting you killed.”
“What about Jake?” Maggie pressed.
He had to get his teeth unclenched before he spoke. “Since I doubt you’ll go back into witness relocation until this mess is resolved, I’m placing you in the sheriff’s protective custody. No arrest, and in my report to my boss, I’ll say that I believe some unknown perp used McCall’s computer to hack into the database.”
Her relief was so overwhelming that she caught on to the marshal’s arm to steady her wobbly legs. “Thank you,” she said.
“Don’t thank me, because I’m not doing you any favors. Tanner will still come after you, and you and Sheriff McCall will have to figure out a way to stay alive and neutralize Tanner once and for all.”
That would indeed be a Christmas miracle, but for now, Maggie was content with the gift the marshal had just given her.
“Oh, and don’t contact anyone in the Marshals Service. I need to do some smooth talking to convince my boss that I did the right thing here, and he’s off from work this week. Best if he doesn’t have any input or contact with the sheriff or you.”
Maggie nodded, and it wasn’t a difficult agreement to make. She wanted the marshals out of the picture completely until she was positive that Jake wouldn’t be arrested.
“We can help a little,” the marshal continued. “We can take a harder look at Tanner’s visitors at the jail, and if it appears he’s sending out any messages for potential assassins, we can stop it.”
Maggie doubted that would be nearly enough, but she kept those doubts to herself.
Walker turned and went to the interrogation room. While he was there, Maggie took a piece of paper from Billy’s desk and jotted down the name of the bank and the number and password for one of the safety-deposit boxes where there were copies of David’s signature on illegal land deals. There were two other sets of the info, but each deposit box had identical information.
Several moments later, Walker and McKinney came out of the interrogation room, and Maggie handed Walker the paper. “Thanks again,” she whispered.
He certainly didn’t issue a you’re welcome, and Walker handed her both guns he’d taken from Jake and her, and the men walked out. Maggie didn’t waste any time. She hurried back to the interrogation room, where Jake was mumbling profanities and pacing.
She braced herself for round two.
Jake glanced at the guns, and no doubt knew what that meant. “Damn it, Maggie, I didn’t want you to lie for me.”
“Oh, it’s all right if you sacrifice yourself, but you won’t allow it from anyone else. Well, relax. I didn’t sacrifice anything. I’m doing something that I should have done a long time ago. I’m giving Marshal Walker the evidence I have against David.”
Later, she’d deal with the fallout from that decision—from Tanner, David and even Jake. That evidence had a high price tag on it, and even though it would keep Jake out of jail, it would still hurt him. Badly.
Maggie pushed the thought aside. One battle at a time.
“We can’t contact anyone in the Marshals Service until Walker gets everything straight. And he’s going to help,” she added, handing Jake his gun. She put the other in her coat pocket. “Walker will monitor Tanner’s visitors and make sure he’s not sneaking out any instruction to kill.”
Jake stopped pacing and that seemed to get his mind back on Tanner and the threat he was to them. “He’s probably getting the word out through his lawyers, and they can’t monitor those conversations.”
“No, but they can monitor the lawyers, and if he meets with anyone that could be a suspected assassin, then they can bring the lawyers in for questioning.”
He reholstered his gun, and the pacing returned. “It’s dangerous for you to give up that evidence. It could have saved your life.”
“And it could get me killed if David and his father are truly on the outs.” She leveled her breath. Her emotions. And went closer to him. “It’d be more dangerous with you locked away. Do you think putting you behind bars will stop Tanner from coming after me and your family? No, it’ll just make it easier. I want as many buffers as possible between Tanner and Sunny, and you and I make darn good buffers.”
Maggie knew he couldn’t argue with that, but it didn’t mean Jake was happy about any of this. He didn’t want to be in her debt, in any way, and she understood that. But she also understood that Jake would always put Sunny first.
“Thank you,” he said. She heard the weariness and emotion in his voice. Felt the same in her own body.
She walked closer and risked touching his arm with just her fingertips. He didn’t back away. In fact, he turned, slipped his arm around her and eased her to him.
“Thank you,” he repeated. He brushed a kiss on her right temple. “If Chet were to see us like this, he’d blow a fuse.”
“Then it’s best we don’t give him the chance.” She’d tried to keep both her voice and the moment as light as possible, but she failed. Even though she’d known there could never be anything like a relationship between Jake and her, it hurt to think about what could have been.
She blamed that kiss in the cabin.
Twice she’d kissed Jake, and both times it had only made things worse between them. That should have been a lesson for her, but she didn’t back away when Jake brushed another kiss on her cheek.
Just like that, Maggie felt her body go all warm and golden. It was a hunger. Always there. And touching him, with him holding her this way, only made the hunger worse.
“I watched you,” he said. “When you were touching my shirt in the bathroom at the cabin.”
Maggie lifted her head, looked at him and tried to recall everything she’d done during that touching session.
Oh, mercy.
She’d done that. She had pressed her hand to her stomach to try to ease the desire that thinking of Jake had created.
Jake glanced down between them at the specific parts of her she’d touched. There was no anger in his eyes now. Just that smoky, cool look that could have qualified as foreplay. He could seduce with those eyes alone, but he had so many more weapons in his arsenal.
That face, for one.
She wasn’t sure how any guy could manage to look that hot with two days of stubble, but on Jake it always worked. So did the mussed hair. The mouth. His hands that were still gently bracketing her waist.
“That’s why you got that…involuntary response?” she asked.
The corner of his mouth slid up. “That’s as good a name for it as anything. It’s been a while,” he added in a whisper.
Sheez. That was not the right thing to say to her already aroused body. She was weak right now from the spent adrenaline and the worry. And an admission like that made her want to do something to erase that a while.
“That wasn’t a request for pity sex,” he let her know.
She nodded. “I think if we had sex, pity wouldn’t play into it.”
He nodded, too. Stared at her. And stared. The timing was so wrong it couldn’t get any more wrong. Jake must have realized that because he stepped back so suddenly that Maggie staggered a little.
“Sorry,” he said. “Sometimes, I forget.”
She almost said Forget what? She suspected the answer was Anna, but fearing that it was his hatred of her instead, Maggie really didn’t want to know.
Jake scrubbed his hand over his face, checked his watch. “I need to see Sunny.”
She didn’t question that, either, though it would take a lot of security measures for them to make a trip to the Amarillo hospital. Still, it’d be worth it. She needed to see Sunny, too.
Maggie heard the bell jangle, and someone opened the front door. Jake reacted instantly. After everything they’d been through, he obviously wasn’t taking any chances. He shoved her behind him and drew his weapon.
“Sheriff McCall?” someone said.
It was Dr. Gavin Grange, and just the sound of his voice caused Maggie to take out her gun at well. The doctor’s eyes widened, then narrowed, when he appeared in the doorway and spotted the drawn guns aimed right at him.
“You’ve both known me for over a decade,” the doctor growled. “And I don’t deserve this kind of treatment.”
Neither Jake nor Maggie lowered their guns, and when Billy went by the door and saw what was going on, he drew, too.
“What’s wrong?” Billy asked.
“I came to give them an update on the test results.” Grange didn’t say it nicely, either, and his eyes stayed narrowed.
“It’s okay,” Jake assured his deputy. “I can handle this.”
“Now I require handling,” the doctor spit out. “Well, believe what you will, but I’m not here to kill you.”
“Maybe not,” Jake answered. “And if that’s true, then I’ll apologize later. For now, Maggie and I need to take precautions, and you’re included.”
“Fair enough.” But he didn’t sound as if he believed it. “I came by to tell you that we should have the lab results this afternoon.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.” And unlike the doc, Jake sounded genuine.
Grange stared at them for several more moments, turned as if to leave but then stopped. “Tanner’s trying to set me up to make me look guilty of trying to kill you, but I don’t want to harm anyone. I just want Tanner and his son out of my life.”
Now, that was a strange thing to say.
“Other than David coming to see you about taking a bone marrow test for Sunny, I didn’t realize they were in your life,” Maggie commented.
“Or was David lying about that?” Jake pressed.
“He wasn’t lying. Well, not that I’m aware of. He did take the test, but there aren’t any results yet.” Grange paused. “Yesterday morning, I visited Tanner at the prison.”
Jake and she exchanged glances. “Why?” she asked.
“Because Tanner called and said it was critical that he see me. And no, he didn’t ask me to kill you.” The doctor shook his head. “I’m actually not sure what he wanted. He rambled on about a lot of things. His strained relationship with David, his exhausted appeals.” Another pause. “And then he brought up Chet.”
Maggie was sure she blinked. Because of Anna’s murder, there was no love lost between Tanner and Chet, but Maggie found it suspicious that Tanner would talk about him. Unless Tanner was going to make Chet a target.
Of course, the doctor could be lying about all of this.
“What did Tanner say about my father?” Jake asked when the doctor didn’t continue.
“That’s just it. He didn’t say much of anything, other than that Chet had visited him.”
Maggie glanced at Jake to see if he knew that’d happened, but he only shook his head. “When?”
“Don’t know. Tanner wasn’t clear about that. But he was clear on something else. He told me to give you two a message—that if you came to see him, he’d make it worth your while.”
“How?” Jake immediately wanted to know.
“He said it was about following the money trail to find what you’re looking for. And before you ask, I don’t know what money, but I got the feeling he was talking about the threats to Maggie’s life.”
Probably. But she wondered why Tanner would give them info about that when he’d almost certainly been the one to hire the man who tried to kill them?
“Did Tanner happen to say what he and my father discussed?” Jake asked.
“Not directly, but he asked if I’d ever seen Chet at the clerk’s office where Anna and Nell worked. I said I hadn’t, but that it was highly likely he’d been there.”
She wasn’t sure any of this meant anything, but Maggie had the niggling feeling that it was important.
But how?
Why would Tanner have wanted to know something like that?
The answer flashed in her head. Anna and Nell often dealt with land records. One look at Jake, and she realized he was thinking the same thing.
“You think Tanner’s worried that Chet saw something like the records for an illegal land deal?” Jake asked her.
“Maybe.” But then she had to shake her head, too. “Why, though, would Tanner have waited all this time to say something about it?”
“Could be a veiled threat,” Jake readily answered. “Or some kind of smoke screen meant to get us looking in the wrong direction.”
That was true. Except Tanner had said Chet visited him. If Chet had indeed done that, then maybe Tanner had convinced him he had information that Chet needed.
Still, why keep the meeting a secret?
She figured Jake was asking himself the same thing.
“Ask your father about the meeting with Tanner,” the doctor suggested. “And if I were you, I’d take every precaution, because Tanner came right out and said he wanted you dead.” As David had done, Grange’s attention was on Jake when he said that you.
“You want me to believe that Tanner doesn’t want me dead?” Maggie asked.
“I’m sure he does, but he seemed more focused on hurting you than killing you. I think he blames you for the rift with his son.”
“Me?” she questioned. “Before yesterday, I hadn’t seen David since his father’s arrest.”
The doctor lifted his shoulder. “Just giving you my impression.” His attention shifted back to Jake. “I’ll call you when I have the results.”
He walked away, and neither Jake nor she said a word until they heard the doctor leave.
“You believe everything he said?” she asked.
Jake blew out a long breath. “Tanner has a lot of money. Power, too. And he knows how to get to people.” He checked his watch again. “But maybe talking to Tanner might help.”
Maggie mentally replayed that to make sure she hadn’t misheard him. “You want to see Tanner?”
“Yeah. And I want to see his face when I ask him about his visits with my father and Dr. Grange.”
“You could just ask your father,” Maggie pointed out.
“I could. But I’m not sure I’d get the truth about what they said to each other. I’m pretty sure we didn’t get the truth from Grange.” He stepped across the hall to his office and took a set of keys off the wall hook. “It’s for an unmarked car,” he let her know. “We can stop by the ranch and grab a shower and a change of clothes, and then I can head out to the prison before I go see Sunny.”
She thought about the location of the prison, at least a thirty-minute drive, but it might be an hour round trip well spent while they were waiting on those test results. And at least if Jake went there, he wouldn’t be risking arrest from the marshals.
“I can use the drive to the ranch to catch up on some phone calls,” Jake added. “I want to ask Royce about Sunny and arrange to get some deputies from nearby towns to cover the station.”
Yes, because Jake and she were obviously going to be tied up with this investigation. And hopefully, the bone marrow transplant for Sunny. She wasn’t sure exactly what that entailed, but she didn’t want Tanner’s goons interfering with that.
“And we’ll use the back roads to get from the ranch to the prison,” he added.
“You think it’s safe to go the ranch?” Maggie asked, though she would love a hot shower, as well.
“We won’t stay long, and I’ll make sure no one follows us. Plus, the ranch hands are still there, guarding the place.” He stopped, stared at her. “When I visit with Tanner, it’s probably a good idea if you wait here or at the police station in Amarillo.”
Maggie didn’t even have to think about her answer. “Not a chance.” And she wouldn’t back down on this. She would bargain with the devil again if it meant keeping Sunny and the rest of the McCalls safe.
“I’m going with you,” she insisted.
And before Jake could argue about her decision, Maggie headed for the door.