Page 24 of Lone Star Target

“Jace,” Ruby greeted. “I just got a call from Marvin Shoemaker.”

There it was again, that stomach churning effect she got just by hearing the SOB’s name.

“What did he want?” Jace asked.

“To talk to Kit. Not over the phone,” Ruby quickly added. “He wants to meet with the two of you in person, and he wants to set up the time and the place.”

“I’ll bet he does,” Jace grumbled. “That way, he might get the chance to silence Kit for good.”

“That could possibly be what he has in mind, and I certainly gave him no guarantees that a meeting would happen.”

“How did Marvin even know to contact you so you could relay a message to Kit?” Jace pressed.

“Apparently, someone in the apartment complex recorded the shooting and the aftermath and then posted it on social media. The cops have the recording now,” Ruby was quick to add.

Good. Maybe they could analyze it and get some useful info about the shooter. But Kit figured the would-be killer could be analyzing it as well and maybe using it to get info about Jace and her. Such as where they’d been heading after the attack.

“The news media aired the recording,” Ruby continued a moment later. And after saying that, she huffed. “And Marvin saw Angel and you. He claims he then did some digging and learned that you worked for me.”

“You don’t buy his story?” Kit came out and asked.

“I don’t buy anything he has to say,” Ruby fired back. “Marvin could have learned about Jace from Trevor or Ramsey. Or heck, from the shooter if Marvin is the one who hired him.”

That last scenario would make more sense than Trevor hiring a gunman. After all, Brandon had been hurt. Not seriously, but he could have been killed if he’d been in the wrong spot in the apartment. And she still couldn’t see Trevor putting Brandon in danger like that.

“Marvin insists that he knows who’s trying to kill you,” Ruby added a moment later.

“Who?” Kit demanded.

“He won’t say.” Ruby sighed again. “Marvin insisted that the only person he’ll tell is you.”

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Chapter Eight

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Jace sat in his office, multitasking. Sipping his morning coffee, reviewing the report he’d just written and glancing at his horses as they grazed in the pasture.

The Palominos were an indulgence, something he’d wanted as a kid but had never had. He’d bought the pair the same day that he’d bought the house, and just looking at them was a reminder of how far he’d come. Each step, the military and then SAPD—heck, even his time in foster care and his marriage to Kit—had brought him here.

He got a different kind of reminder when he heard Kit groan and then huff. She was in the sitting area of his office, doing her own variation of multitasking. No coffee for her but her usual Coke, and instead of reports on a large monitor, she was viewing traffic camera feeds on a laptop. Trying to pin down Trevor’s locations so they could possibly connect him to the person who’d been hired to kidnap and murder them.

It was a long shot since a) they didn’t know who the attacker was or what he or she looked like, and b) other than the burner phones, there was no proof that Trevor was involved in the attack at Brandon’s apartment or the attempts to hurt, silence or kidnap Kit and him.

Judging from those sounds of frustration that she just made, the search of the camera feed wasn’t going well.

Then again, the night hadn’t gone well either.

Kit had probably slept, some, but certainly not enough. More than once, he’d heard her moving around in the guest suite across the hall from his bedroom. Pacing. Probably doing a lot of thinking and worrying, too. It was a lot to process that her brother or father might want her dead.

And he hadn’t helped with that.

That kiss in the SUV had muddied waters that needed no more muddying. Yeah, it’d been a damn good kiss, and at the time, it’d felt like a necessity. But he still should have resisted. Because now, the attraction was there, tossing and turning with all the other info they had to deal with.

One of those other info things was Marvin.

He still hadn’t contacted Kit to tell her the name of the person that he believed was trying to kill her. And even if the man did do that, it would pose a legal dilemma for Kit. As a witness against Marvin, having a conversation with him could be construed as witness tampering. It could hurt any testimony she might give. So, if Marvin did plan on spilling about the possible killer, then it couldn’t come in a direct chat with Kit.

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