Page 10 of Deadly Evidence
“Sorry.” She shrugged wearily. “I’ve learned to be careful. The sheriff and his deputies cover a huge area, and the nearest border patrol station is a good forty miles away. Out here, we have to stand on our own two feet.”
For all that he didn’t enjoy being at the wrong end of a weapon, he had to hand it to her—she knew how to take control of a difficult situation. The contrast between her lovely face and that rifle was intriguing.
A combination, he reminded himself, that he would need to ignore.
“Then we’re all set?” he asked.
“Just one thing. This is going to be a difficult situation if you can’t be more upfront with me.”
He hesitated. Sure, she’d called in the DEA to request assistance a few weeks ago, but from the reports he’d read, her own past wasn’t pristine.
There was a slim possibility that she wanted to divert suspicion from herself or even sabotage someone she was working with. Maybeshewas the one with something to hide.
Stranger things had happened—that case up in Fort Worth came to mind—and the last thing he wanted was to share any information that could jeopardize an entire operation.
An operation that could well be his last.
Obviously reading his hesitation, she gave a derisive laugh. “You sure haven’t done your homework.”
He had—on the bleak financial situation at the Triple R, and on Anna herself, clear back to her college days. That information alone had been enough to make him wary. “Why do you say that?”
“I’ve spent my life trying to keep this ranch in the black. Protecting it. Over the past few years, my dogs and I have run off more traffickers than you could count.”
“Maybe you and I can make a difference.”
“But you don’t trust me, and I’m still not so sure about you.” She gave a bitter laugh. “It was probably a waste of time to ever contact the DEA.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“I just don’t think...”
“Consider it a chance to clear your name, then.”
“What?”
“Your ranch is in financial trouble, and there’ve been cases where ranchers have cooperated with the drug runners just to keep their ranches afloat. So,” he added after a long pause, “the agency did a background check.”
“That’s ridiculous! I haven’t even had a speeding ticket in the past ten years.”
“We know,” he said, watching her expression and body language, “about Ethan.”
Her face paled as she stared at him, her eyes angry and accusing and hurt. There was a flicker of fear there, too, and that made him feel like a complete jerk.
Her reaction was too raw, too open for anyone trying to hide secrets about the past. He’d bet his badge that she’d never been associated with the darker side of Ethan Dearborne’s life.
“If you think I was involved in his party scene, then you’re wrong.”
She fell silent, then gave a bitter laugh. “I was a shy, naïve ranch girl away at college in the big city. I had no idea about what he and his rich friends were doing for fun, until the day he died.”
“He didn’t just party, Anna. He sold drugs to support his habit.”
“Maybe he made some mistakes, but he came from a good family. He was a nice guy, not some criminal.”
“He also embezzled money from his parents’ company.”
“You’re dead wrong. I think I’d like to hear everything else that youthinkyou know about my past.”
Brady shrugged. “Let’s see...you went off to Texas A&M for college at eighteen. Rented an apartment a few blocks off campus with two gals from Lubbock. Started dating Ethan—a wealthy dude from back East—at the start of your freshman year, and your dad was upset about it.”
