Page 77 of Christmas with Three Cowboys

I dodge two of his bullets, then retaliate and empty the clip, forcing him to take cover while I slip into the passenger seat. The engine roars to life, and before I even shut the car door, Ethan floors it.

We screech onto the road and leave this hot mess behind.

My heart’s in my throat.

Something tickles the side of my neck.

“Are you okay?” Ethan asks, panting as he keeps an eye on me and an eye on the road. “I’m gonna go around to the next highway exit and circle back,” he says. “Are you okay, Mitch?”

“Yeah,” I mutter, checking the side mirror. “It’s just a graze.”

It’s starting to sting, but it’ll be fine. That second round almost got me.

“Jake is still in business with them,” Ethan says. “What the fuck is going on here?”

“He framed Melissa,” I reply. “Nothing else makes sense. He planned everything that night. He had evidence and witnesses to incriminate her. Plus, his own testimony. He was probably hoping to get the drugs out of lockup after Melissa’s sentencing. Something must’ve gone wrong.”

“And Jake is trying to save his own ass by playing the game,” Ethan says. “We need to get to the bottom of this,” I tell my brother. “Or cough up the money and find someplace safe for Melissa to stay until it blows over.”

Ethan shakes his head, hands gripping the wheel so tightly, his knuckles turn white. “It’s never gonna blow over. Sooner or later, they will get to her, and they’ll hurt her. Nobody wrongs the Esparza cartel and gets away with their life. Nobody. That much we know for a fact.”

And it presents us with the inevitable.

We have no choice but to dig into Melissa’s past to get to the bottom of Jake’s lie and machinations in order to prove our theory. Jake wanted Melissa framed so he could run away with the cartel’s money. He almost got off scot-free, too… but something happened. Likely with evidence lockup.

“We need to talk to her,” I say.

25

Melissa

It’s hard to keep a panic attack at bay when Mitch and Ethan come home from a literal gunfight. Luckily, they’re alive and well, with the exception of a graze on Mitch’s neck. All I can do is sit in my armchair by the fire, wondering if I’ll have any sense left in me to cook their dinner later tonight. My brain is ablaze. I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything.

Colton stands near the window thinking while Ethan tells us what happened.

“And so, we think Jake planned the whole thing,” Mitch concludes. I can’t take my eyes off the Band-aid on his neck.

“The whole thing,” I mumble, hands discretely cradling my belly. I’m not showing yet, especially underneath this oversized hoodie, but my baby is growing, my secret lingers beneath, and I could’ve lost both Ethan and Mitch today. The thought brings tears to my eyes.

Mitch rushes to kneel before me. “Hey, hey… Melissa, it’s okay,” he says, gently caressing my face. “We’re okay, see?”

“But you could’ve—" I hiccup.

“We could’ve, but we didn’t,” Ethan adds and sits on the armrest of my chair, lovingly squeezing my shoulder. “We survived, and I have zero regrets about going there in the first place. We figured it out today. The whole thing.”

“The whole thing,” I say it again. “Make it make sense because it sounds like one hell of master plan.”

Colton nods in agreement. “It kind of is if you think about it. Jake was making pennies compared to what the cartel was pulling in from their drug deals. He wanted more, but he didn’t want or couldn’t get involved any deeper with them. My guess is they’re too dangerous, too easy to cross. So, and I’m just theorizing here… he figured he’d move some more cocaine for them. He’d get you arrested, charged, and imprisoned for it. If he had someone on the inside…”

“With Ainsworth PD, you mean,” Ethan replies.

“Yeah. If he had a buddy or some accomplice in uniform over there, it might have seemed like an easy gig. They’d simply wait until Melissa was in prison, and then the confiscated drugs would just disappear.”

Mitch sighs. “The cops have a protocol for these narcotics. They sit in evidence lockup for a predetermined period of time, and once that term expires, they destroy the drugs. If Jake’s inside guy could swipe them before the term expired, he’d get himself a nice cut, and Jake would walk off with the rest. Melissa’s in prison, fooled into pleading guilty because of overwhelming evidence and testimony against her.”

“The cartel blames her, and here we are,” Colton continues. “But something went wrong somewhere along the way. You’re right, Mitch. Something happened with his inside guy in Ainsworth,and Jake found himself cut off from his stash. He can’t get the drugs out of evidence lockup, which is why he came back to find Melissa, to scare her… to push her into figuring out a way to save his sorry ass.”

Ethan scoffs. “He heard about the Path to Freedom Initiative. Probably did a little bit of digging beforehand. Saw the ranch, how big it is. He must’ve thought we’re sitting on piles of cash out here.”

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