Page 29 of All of Me

“Did you speak to Rawlings?” Drake asked and glanced at me, so I knew why he was asking. He’d filled me in earlier about Albert.

Danny nodded. “Actually, we were already on our way here when Rawlings called for backup for you two with the dogs. He’s home, so it’s too far for him.”

“You were?” Drake sounded surprised.

Danny chuckled. “So, get this. I’ve been careful because I don’t want the marshals breathing down my neck, but with Albert’s age, the Texas angle, and the fact that a twenty-year-old vanished after testifying against the Texas mafia, I took an educated guess. There’re a couple of other possibilities, but this one is the most likely.”

I glanced at Drake, who looked as stunned as I felt. “The mafia?” I asked.

Danny shrugged. “More drug cartel. We’re not talking any Italian or Sicilian connections,” he said with a quirk of his lips. “But a Raymond Dagger owned a spread just outside of Fort Stockton. He’d owned it since his father, Bill Dagger, died five years before the DEA raid. He had a wife who died of breast cancer that same year and a son, Bert Dagger. No other children. From the trial transcripts, he claims he only agreed to store the drugs because the cartel threatened his wife and son, but he was up to his neck in gambling debts and payments to his account told a very different story. He died in jail over ten years ago.The only thing that’s sending up red flags is that one of the DEA agents was fatally shot in the leg. It caught his femoral, so an unusual kill shot if it was deliberate. They had no witnesses and despite extensive searches, they couldn’t match any of the seized guns with the bullet. Five cartel members all went down, one was already dead at the scene, and none of them could be persuaded to give up the shooter. Three months ago, Carlos Garcia was released even though he was originally given life without parole. They wanted to give him the death penalty, but they couldn’t prove who had killed the DEA agent. They needed the gun, but it’s never been found.”

Danny paused to let us take all that in.

“So, this is some revenge thing?” Drake asked, the incredulity coating his words.

“Not just. If the gun was found and they could prove a case, someone would go down for murder,” Danny said, way too cheerfully.

“I can understand revenge if they were going after Albert,” Kane said, clearly working it out. “But they’re not, they’re coming after Ringo.”

“Yes,” Danny agreed, “which makes the other option of the developer and the hundred acres more interesting.”

“Except they don’t need my place to develop that,” Drake said. “Yeah, if it was just my place and the farm, there’s an argument for needing mine for access, but if they can swing zoning changes for the protected farmland, my place wouldn’t matter.”

Danny shut his laptop. “I want to do some more digging. Thanks for the invite to stay, but I don’t have all my meds with me, so we’ll get going.”

Drake walked them to the door. I’d cleaned up the kitchen by the time he returned and he smiled at Maxie, who was snuggled up in his nest.

“I’m pretty sure tonight was personal, but we need to leave this one to the cops. I’m also ninety-nine percent certain Gary’s mom is dead, and he’s collecting the checks.”

“You’re not telling the cops about the break-in?” I assumed so when he hadn’t called anyone right away.

He shook his head, “I have no idea if anything is missing. What I will involve them in is the wellness check. I don’t like the idea that Gary Bruin has no compunction using poison and his mom is uncontactable.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. The thought of someone doing that was killing me. I’d have given anything to still have my mom.

“You’re tired,” Drake said softly. I was. I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep the last few nights, for many reasons. “Look.” He scraped a hand over the scruff on his face but stepped up to me. “I know we had big plans for tonight, but how about we just get in my enormous bed? I’d feel a shit-ton better if I could touch you.”

I might have stood there with my mouth open for a long few seconds until I realized and closed it with a snap.

“Grab your dog,” he said and walked away into his bedroom. I was so shocked I didn’t even react to the “your dog” comment.

He was right. The bed was enormous, but I got distracted by Drake taking off his shirt, and I escaped to the bathroom after putting Maxie in his bed as soon as Drake came out of it. Drake pulled back the comforter. “I spent years in cots and bunks. My bed is a luxury I won’t skip now.”

“You were in the Marines, right?” I cringed internally at the stupid question. I knew he was. I just couldn’t get my brain to come up with something vaguely intelligent to say.

“Yeah, Rawlings, Danny, and Gray are all Rangers. We came across each other a few times and when I got out, Rawlings contacted me for his team.” I had a feeling it had been more than that, but who was I to ask?

I watched Drake strip nonchalantly, knowing I wanted nothing more than to climb in bed with him, but I was stuck in my own head not knowing what to do first.

"You gonna sleep in your clothes?" Drake asked, raising an eyebrow.

I hesitated, then slowly stripped down to my boxers, feeling suddenly self-conscious. As I slid under the covers on the other side of the bed, I was hyper-aware of Drake's presence just inches away.

"Relax," he said softly. "I don't bite."

I let out a shaky laugh. "Sorry, I'm just...not used to this."

"To what? Sharing a bed?"

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