Page 71 of Texas-Sized Secrets

“Dusty saw too much and Gil knew too much.”

“What about the salesman, Chase Molderhauer? Did you kill him too? Just so you could use his identity at the stockyards?” Sensing her unease, the baby kicked the inside of her belly. The sheriff was pure evil. She had to get away. Sitting in the back seat of his vehicle wasn’t the way to do it. She prayed Reed got her message and was at that very minute speeding toward her.

“He tried to sell me an inferior knife he swore was an antique.” Parker Lee’s lip curled on one side. “It wasn’t antique, but it was just as deadly.”

Mona shivered at the image of the salesman with his throat slit from ear to ear. How she had ever fallen for Parker Lee, she couldn’t fathom, and the more he revealed the more she wanted to throw up. “What about Deputy Jones?”

“Found out about my cattle truck. He had to go.”

Sick, thinking about Tyler Jones’s baby and wife having to live without him, Mona couldn’t stand being in the same vehicle as the murdering sheriff. Escape became a necessity. She climbed out of the backseat, studying her surroundings.

The cabin probably dated back to the forties, the weathered wood hadn’t been painted since…well, it probably had never felt the stroke of a paintbrush. The boards had shrunk so much from the rain, heat and cold that slices of shadowy black gaped between each. Prairie wind whipped at Mona’s hair, slapping it against her face, as if warning her not to go nearer to the ancient structure. The clouds that had been building in the western sky encroached on the canyon, turning daylight to dusk.

Wisps of clouds dangled from the churning gray-green skies. Tornado weather. As if she didn’t have enough troubles with a gun pointed at her.

The corner of a huge galvanized metal cattle trailer peeked out from behind a stand of rocks. Wayne and Les stepped out. Les carried a rifle and Wayne a .38 revolver with a pearl handle. Just like the one her father had given her. The one she’d dropped when she’d been surrounded by the four-wheelers just a short time ago.

“Nice gun, don’t you think?” Wayne asked, twisting the weapon right then left, admiring the polished metal and pearl.

Mona pushed her anger aside. The gun wasn’t as important as her baby’s life. With three against one, her odds couldn’t get much worse. Maybe she could talk to them until help arrived. Would help arrive? Hell, she didn’t really know where she was, how could anyone else find her in the vastness of the canyon?

“Les, keep your rifle trained on her. Wayne, let me see that gun.” Parker Lee held out his hand and waited for Wayne to lay the weapon in it. “Wayne, you know how important it is to follow orders, don’t you?”

Wayne shifted and stared across at Les. “Yes, sir.”

“When you don’t, bad things happen, like to Dusty.”

“That’s right.”

“Dusty was going to rat on us all, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s the trouble with too many people in the mix. Less is better.”

“It is?” Wayne’s eyes narrowed.

“Yeah.” Parker aimed the weapon at Les. The man didn’t even have time to react, before a loud crack ripped the air. Simultaneously, a flash of lightning was followed immediately by the rumble of thunder. The acrid scent of gunpowder stung Mona’s nose.

Les Newton staggered backward and fell flat on his back, a circle of bright red blood forming on his forehead.

“What the hell did you do that for?” Wayne hesitated before lunging at Parker Lee. His hesitation cost him. Parker’s next bullet clipped him in the temple.

Wayne Fennel dropped to the ground.

Mona didn’t wait for the next shot. She threw herself behind the SUV, ducking low to avoid gunfire.

“Running won’t do you much good, you know.”

“Neither will standing there waiting for you to shoot me,” she muttered.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you. Come on out. It’s only a matter of time before your boyfriend gets here. I want to see the look on his face as you die.”

“You’re sick, Parker Lee. You aren’t going to kill me.” She dropped to the ground and peered under the chassis to locate his cowboy boots. He moved to the front of the car. Mona scooted around to the back. “You’re not going to kill me because I’ll kill you first.” Her baby depended on her to stay alive. So what if it’s father was a lunatic. The baby deserved a chance to live a normal, healthy life. “Why are you doing this? Is your mother putting you up to it?”

“My mother doesn’t know anything. Because of what Grace Bryson and my father did the night before my parents’ wedding, my mother suffered for a lifetime. She didn’t deserve that kind of disrespect. I’m only making it right again.”

“Grace and your father didn’t kill anyone, Reed. Killing people isn’t going to make anything right. It’ll only put you in jail and cause your mother even more pain.”

---