Page 39 of Deadly Evidence
She lifted her head wearily when he knocked a second time, so he considered that an invitation and let himself in. He headed straight toward her.What if she’d gotten herself killed?
“Whydid you go out there tonight? Are you crazy?”
She stared silently at her hands.
“I can’t force you to stay home, but you were mighty reckless if you took that boy out with you tonight. I heard the gunfire, Anna. You and Dante could’ve been hurt, and I was too far away to get there in time. Do you have any idea what you’re dealing with here?”
She looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes dull and her face blank.
“By going out there, you scared those guys off and also screwed up a careful operation involving nearly a dozen agents and officers. We could have traced tonight’s shipment and laid the groundwork for nailing the major drug distributors later on.”
“I—I’m sorry. You’re right.”
She stood like stone for so long that he finally took her shoulders and gently turned her to face him.
And then he saw the bloodstains on her shirt.
“What happened? Are you okay? What about Dante?”
“I was worried about one of my pregnant mares, so I went out to check on her.” Her voice sounded flat, hollow. “I ran into some trouble, though. Maybe the guys you were after. They fired—so I fired once in the air to scare them. They fired a few more rounds, then took off like jackrabbits. Dante wasn’t supposed to be out there. I told him to stay home, but he followed me anyway.”
Remembering his suspicions about Dante, Brady frowned. “Why?”
“He said he didn’t want me out there alone.” Her voice broke. “Later, we found the mare, and she did need help delivering that foal. We also found three of my cattle dead. Nice young heifers. Not even clean kills—I had to put two of them down myself so they wouldn’t suffer. When I heard those shots—I thought they were shooting atus.”
“Awww, Anna.” Brady pulled her into his arms and tucked her head beneath his chin to hold her close, remorse settling deep in his gut for what he’d just said. “I’m sorry.”
What else could he expect from a woman who had single-handedly defended her land and family for so long?
“I put the safety of my livestock above you and the others, and it was a stupid thing to do. I’m the one who needs to apologize, not you.”
She pulled away and braced her hands on his chest. And then he discovered that her eyes were filled with grief and anger rather than tears.
“I didn’t realize that Mojo might have followed us—I never heard her bark,” she said wearily. “But Dante said he saw her. She never came home. What if they shot that sweet puppy, too?”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Unable to sleep, Anna had paced through the house long after Brady went to his cabin. And now, standing on her porch in the early morning light, her thoughts kept returning to the gunfire. The dark figures moving through the shadows.
As a rancher, she’d felt compelled to check on that mare last night, but she couldn’t ignore the truth. Brady had been right. She never should have gone, and she should have sent Dante back home the moment he showed up.
Her heartbeat hitched at the thought of the dead cattle and Mojo’s disappearance.
Men who would kill defenseless animals were lower than scum.
Even now, she found herself watching for Mojo to gambol about in the barnyard or to be lying in her favorite spot under the porch. The loss of her dog filled her with sadness, but what if something had happened to Dante?
Over the years, she’d run off a lot of trespassers—though the actual number who hauled drug shipments across the most remote areas of the ranch was anybody’s guess.
If she happened to see them, a few shots fired in the air, or aimed nearby, usually made them turn tail and head back to the river.
But last night had been different.
These guys had carried powerful weapons and hadn’t hesitated to use them.
Just the thought, given her young daughter and the two defenseless old men who lived with her in the main house, made her blood chill.
She’d been a good shot since childhood, but she couldn’t be everywhere on the ranch twenty-four hours a day.
