Page 12 of Protecting the Newborn

Gracelyn hoped that his distrust extended to Charla. And maybe it did. Her distrust for Charla was certainly there. But it was possible Ruston was simply being cautious. There were plenty of reasons for that.

Maybe Ruston wanted to send up someone he’d be sure wouldn’t plant anything or take something else. Then again, since the break-in had already happened, Gracelyn was betting any planting or taking had already happened.

“Where are you, Ruston?” Charla pressed a moment later.

“I’ll get back to you on that,” he said and ended the call.

Charla must not have cared for that abrupt dismissal, because she immediately tried to call him back, but Ruston declined it.

He looked in the rearview mirror to meet Gracelyn’s gaze. “I don’t know what’s going on,” Ruston said before he turned his attention back to their surroundings. “Do you?”

“No.” And she wished her head would clear enough so she could think straight. Everything was still racing inside her, and it was hard to sort through the details when she wasn’t even sure they were safe.

“Marty hired you to come after Abigail and me,” Gracelyn spelled out, hoping that just going through the obvious would help them piece this together. “Then someone murdered him and tried to set you up. That someone killed Marty about the same time two gunmen were trying to kill us.”

Saying it aloud worked. Something flashed in her mind. It must have come through in Ruston’s, too, because he voiced what she was thinking.

“If the gunmen had killed me, then there’s no way Marty’s murder could have been pinned on me,” he reasoned. “I spoke to Marty on the phone just minutes before the attack, which means it was probably minutes before he was murdered. I was at least fifty miles from Marty. So, the badge wasn’t to set me up.”

Gracelyn made a sound of agreement. “Maybe it was left to taunt you? To blow any future cover you might have?” If so, it would take Ruston off the market, so to speak. Since his face would be recognizable, he wouldn’t be able to go back undercover.

Why would someone want that?

Again, Ruston supplied the answer. “This could have been done to discredit me with both the cops and the criminals.” He stopped, shook his head. “And it just might work.”

Yes, it possibly would, because even if Ruston had an alibi for Marty’s murder, there’d still have to be an investigation. Gracelyn was betting that Ruston would be doing his own investigation, too. She certainly would be as well, since she didn’t want another of these attacks.

“Either Charla or Tony could be dirty,” she told him. “Of course, that’s true about some other cops, but those two were in on every detail of our last assignment. And they were almost certainly in on every detail of your dealings with Marty. I’ve been digging into their backgrounds, and I believe there are some possible red flags for both Charla and Tony.”

Thanks to the rearview mirror, she saw the concern flash in Ruston’s eyes. Gracelyn didn’t get to say any more, though, since there was the howl of sirens, and just ahead lights slashed across the dark road. Not solo ones either. There were at least three cruisers. In the same instant Gracelyn spotted them, Ruston’s phone rang again, and this time it was Slater’s name on the screen.

“Is that you coming my way in the black SUV?” Slater asked the moment Ruston answered.

“It is,” Ruston verified. “We’re not injured, but the SUV is shot up courtesy of two gunmen in a silver truck. They went off the road about four miles back. It’s possible one of them is injured, but they’re dangerous, Slater. And they need to be caught so we can find out why they did this.”

“Understood,” Slater said. “Woodrow’s right behind me, and the two of us will go after the gunmen. Carmen’s in the third cruiser, and I’ll alert her to turn around and shadow you.”

Gracelyn didn’t know who Woodrow and Carmen were, but she was guessing they were deputies. She was also guessing they’d come in separate cruisers to create that “lights flashing and sirens blaring” effect that Ruston had wanted. He’d gotten it, and it might be enough to put off any attackers who were nearby and ready to strike. Hopefully, though, those attackers didn’t have a way to escape since they’d crashed their truck.

“Are you going to your place or the ranch?” Slater asked a second later.

“The ranch,” Ruston verified, and he ended the call just as Slater and one of the other cruisers went past them.

Slater slowed just a little, probably so he could make brief eye contact with his brother and see for himself that Ruston wasn’t hurt. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, Slater went off in pursuit of those gunmen with the second cruiser right behind him. The deputy in the third cruiser waited until Ruston had passed before she executed a U-turn so she could follow them.

“To the ranch?” Gracelyn questioned.

Ruston did another glance in the rearview, and he no doubt saw the concern on her face. And she didn’t have to spell out why that concern was there. His father had been gunned down on the family ranch seven months ago, and Gracelyn didn’t want to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.

“We’ve upgraded security since my father was killed,” Ruston said.

Good, because she didn’t want a killer to come waltzing in and try to finish what those two gunmen had started. Then again, she’d done plenty of security upgrades and look what’d happened. Still, there had to be a way to keep out a killer, and for Abigail’s safety, she had to find it.

Had to.

Abigail wasn’t her biological child, but Gracelyn couldn’t have possibly loved her more. Of course, when and if Allie returned, her sister might take the baby. Or rather she would try, but Gracelyn couldn’t let her do that unless she was certain the little girl was safe. At the moment, she wasn’t.

Then again, maybe Allie wasn’t either.

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