Page 19 of Ranger Bravery

Piper wrestled with the emotions threatening to overwhelm her. She should put a stop to this, but there was no wall big enough to keep Jackson out of her heart.

She swallowed hard. “I care about you too.”

“I know. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t fight so hard to keep me at a distance. Jensen.”

She huffed out a laugh. “I knew something was bothering you this afternoon.”

His lips brushed against the top of her head. “Go inside, Piper. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow. One of us has to be conscious enough to interview Kylie Reynolds.”

She reluctantly stepped out of his embrace. “I feel bad leaving you out here.”

“Don’t. It’s my decision.” He gently turned her toward the house. “And take Moxie with you. I’m covered in dog slobber.”

“Ewww. You hugged me.”

“Actually, you hugged me.” He winked. “See you in the morning.”

Piper whistled for the dog before crossing the street back toward her house. She reached the front door, and with one last glance at Jackson’s vehicle, ducked inside. The locks slid home easily. Piper armed the alarm. Then she parted the curtain to view the street.

Quiet. No sign of trouble. She was safe. Locked inside her house, with an alarm on, and a Texas Ranger standing guard. Still a sense of overwhelming dread pressed on her sternum. It’d plagued her since the move back to Rock Fort and, after Elena’s murder, had only gotten worse. It wasn’t logical. The conversation with Derek should have silenced all her doubts. Her attacker was six feet underground in the cemetery. She was safe.

So why on earth did she feel so scared?

ELEVEN

Kylie Reynolds lived in a double-wide trailer perched on cement blocks. Folding chairs were scattered in the brown grass around a homemade firepit. A hammock, chewed by the squirrels, hung broken from an oak tree, and the wooden front porch looked ready to collapse.

Jackson swigged his takeaway coffee, hoping to wake up his exhausted brain cells. There hadn’t been a lick of trouble at Piper’s, and he’d left at dawn to catch a few hours of sleep. He was tired, but adrenaline would keep him going. This wasn’t the first case he’d worked day and night to solve.

He eyed the older model Chevy truck in the dirt driveway. “That’s Kylie’s vehicle. Looks like she’s home.”

Piper hummed in reply, but her gaze was locked on something farther down the street. Her complexion was unusually pale. Jackson leaned over to see what had caught her attention. His heart skittered. This was Piper’s old neighborhood. In fact, they were on her street. If he hadn’t been so tired, he might’ve realized it earlier.

Her mom’s trailer hunched at the end of the road. Time had not been good to it. Rust climbed the siding like a swarm of bugs. Cement blocks and random car parts peeked out from the overgrown weeds taking over the property. A dented mailbox perched at the end of the drive.

Piper’s expression was blank, her posture loose, but underlying the calm exterior was a well-hidden tension. She hadn’t lived there at the time of the attack, but was staying with Grandma Mary. Still, she’d often go to her mother’s trailer to visit or clean or deliver groceries. It was while doing one of those small acts of kindness, she’d been attacked. Lionel Islip, one of her mother’s exes, had entered through the broken back door, beaten her, and then pointed his gun at her. It was only the unexpected arrival of her mother that saved Piper’s life.

Sadly, that hadn’t been the first violent or abusive thing that’d happened to Piper in that house. It was just the worst.

Jackson placed a comforting hand on her arm.

Piper flinched.

He quickly removed it. “Sorry.”

Embarrassment heated her cheeks. She blinked and then straightened her shoulders. “Come on. We have to interview Kylie.”

Before he could respond, she flung open the door and got out of the car. Jackson was tempted to call her back, but what would be the point? She’d never admit that her PTSD was triggered by being in this neighborhood, so close to her mother’s house. It left him feeling helpless and frustrated. He didn’t know how to help her, and in the past, any hint of comfort he offered only made things worse.

Piper iced him out. She always had whenever things got hard. Except… last night had been different. She’d hugged him like he was her anchor in the storm. Jackson wasn’t sure what had cracked through her outer defenses, but he wanted to figure it out.

A dangerous proposition. He was likely to end up brokenhearted for his trouble.

Shaking off the train of thoughts, he joined Piper on the sidewalk, and together, they approached Kylie’s trailer. Jackson punched the doorbell, but when nothing chimed inside the house, he gave a swift knock on the worn wooden door. The sound of a baby crying drew closer, along with shuffled footsteps. The curtain at the window shifted. Moments later, the door swung open revealing a dark-haired woman with a child on her hip. Kylie. Jackson recognized her instantly from her driver’s license photo.

Her chin trembled and a tear leaked from one eye. “You’re here about Elena.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He introduced himself and Piper. “We were hoping to ask you a few questions. May we come in?”

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