Page 137 of Proof of Guilt

The muscles in Theo’s face tightened. “Yeah. Stop right here.”

They were still a good twenty yards from Wesley, and Theo took out his phone. Since Ivy was sitting right next to him, she saw when he pressed Wesley’s number, and when the man answered.

“I’m not going to shoot you,” Wesley snarled. “You can come closer.”

“This is close enough,” Theo snarled right back, and he put the call on speaker. “Why are you here?”

She had no idea how long Wesley had been there, and since he was a good half mile from the ranch, the hands probably had no idea he was there. Still, for someone who’d come out this way to see them, he didn’t jump to answer Theo’s question.

However, Wesley did mutter some profanity that she could still hear from the other end of the phone line. “I came to apologize. I was wrong to accuse you of anything criminal.”

“You were wrong, but you didn’t have to come out here to tell me that. How’d you even know I’d be here?”

Wesley lifted his shoulder. “I went by the sheriff’s office, but no one would tell me where you were. I wanted to talk to you face-to-face, and figured sooner or later Ivy would want to come home. And that you’d be the one to bring her.”

To most people that probably wouldn’t have sounded like a threat, but it did coming from this man. Of course, that probably had something to do with the fact that he was still a suspect.

“I didn’t have anything to do with what went wrong with that raid,” Wesley went on. “It’s important you know that.”

“Why?” Theo didn’t ease up on the intensity in his voice. Nor his expression, either.

Wesley cursed again, and looked away. “I don’t want anybody watching my every move. I don’t want people to think I’m a dirty agent.”

“Too late. They already think that.” Theo paused a heartbeat while he kept watch around them. Edwin and Gabriel did the same. “Let me guess—Dwight Emory has started some kind of internal affairs investigation on you?”

Bingo. Even though Wesley didn’t confirm that, Ivy could see enough of his face to know that it was not only true but that Wesley was riled about it. He certainly wasn’t looking apologetic now.

“I won’t let this ruin my career,” Wesley spat out. “Or my life,” he corrected. “Just know that I expect you to stop it. You need to tell Emory I did nothing wrong.”

Ivy figured there was little or no chance of that happening, which made her wonder why Wesley had really come. Was it to find out if they were at the ranch? If so, he now knew they were, and if he was the person after them, they might not have to wait long for this to all come to a head.

“Drive,” Theo instructed Edwin. “We’ve wasted enough time here.” And with that, he hit the end call button but not before Ivy heard Wesley curse some more. The man continued to curse, too, when Edwin sped past him.

Ivy braced herself in case Wesley took out his gun and fired at them. But he didn’t. She watched as he got back in his car, and he drove away—in the opposite direction of the ranch. Of course, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t just double back.

“What the hell was that all about?” Gabriel grumbled.

Theo shook his head. “I figure Emory put him on suspension, pending an internal affairs investigation.”

An investigation that could be connected to the attacks against them if Wesley was indeed trying to silence Theo. Maybe Emory could find something against Wesley before things went from bad to worse.

Edwin took the turn to the ranch and drove through the cattle gate. She didn’t see any hands, cameras or sensors, but Ivy figured they were all there. Another thing that wasn’t in sight was the wedding decorations that had been on the fences. Someone had taken down the blue bows, a reminder that Gabriel’s and Jodi’s lives had been thrown into chaos, as well. They should be on their honeymoon by now, and here Gabriel was, preparing to face down a killer.

A ranch hand stood in the opened doorway of Gabriel’s house, and the moment Edwin stopped the cruiser, Gabriel, Theo and she rushed inside. Gabriel set the security system.

“It won’t be dark for a while,” Gabriel reminded them, “but I don’t want you two out of the bathroom. If you need something, call me, and I’ll bring it to you,” he added. “Oh, and you can use the laptops to monitor the security cameras. The motion detectors shouldn’t pick up slight movement like a small animal or such, but if you hear a beep, it means we’ve got someone where they shouldn’t be.”

Someone who would almost certainly be there to kill them.

Theo and she didn’t waste even a second. They went upstairs to the guest bath suite, and they locked the door just in case someone managed to break in.

“Don’t turn on the lights.” Theo put his hand over hers when she automatically reached for the switch. Both his touch and the warning caused her to look at him. The warning because it was a reminder that they could still be targets here. The touch, well, because even something that simple could cause a swirl of heat to go through her body.

Of course, the timing sucked for that, so Ivy stepped away. It wasn’t a tiny space, not with the private toilet area, bathtub and massive walk-in closet all in separate rooms. But she suspected it wasn’t the large space that had caused her brother to want them there. It was the natural stone walls in the shower. Like the cruisers, it would be bullet-resistant.

Ivy had been using this bathroom and adjacent bedroom during her stay at the ranch, but someone had added a few things. There was bottled water, a gun with extra ammo, some snacks and a laptop—which Theo went to right away. He sank down on the floor with the computer and booted it up.

“Stay away from the window,” Theo added.

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