Page 112 of Deadly Target (Rocky Mountain Courage 2)

“Because I knew they were always searching. Then when the bridge went out, I had my confirmation.”

“Why would that confirm it for you?”

“The McPherson family employed an assassin. A henchman who was an explosives expert—Ricky ‘Flashpoint’ Flannagan. The bridge was blown the night Missy was taken, giving the abductor ample time to escape with her before the police could arrive.”

Had her mother just shivered?

“Why didn’t you tell me that what happened when Missy was taken was tied to your past? All this time I thought it was my mistake. That she was taken because of me!”

“I wanted to be someone else. I couldn’t do that if you knew the truth about me. I had to make a clean break. I ... That’s why I volunteer at the thrift shop. To become someone other than the daughter of a mob boss. I have to give back and help others. I love their motto, ‘By our work we are known.’ So I’d hoped to be known by my good works, my fruit, not my family history. Not the sins of my father. What good would telling you have done? What could the truth of the past do except destroy you? I wanted to protect you. Don’t you understand?”

“But we’re here, Mom. All because I didn’t know the truth long ago.” Erin would press her mother for answers while she still had the chance. She had no idea if either of them would make it out of this alive.

“It’s not your fault, Erin. I think they’ve been closing in. Newt Campbell even could have led them here. But it doesn’t matter how they found us now.”

Erin tried to absorb all her mother had shared. None of it really mattered to her except the one morbid fact—Finn McPherson took the wrong girl. Oh, Missy. Erin shoved back the tears. “Do you think there’s a chance Missy’s still alive out there somewhere?”

“I don’t know. All you can do is pray and give it to God. Cast your cares on him.”

How did her mother do that, exactly, in the middle of this battle? “I’m glad you’re in a good state of mind at the moment.”

“I’ve told you repeatedly that I didn’t try to commit suicide. Don’t you see? They found us and tried to kill me and make it look like a suicide. I would have died had Nadine not found me. They wanted to kill me, but something must have changed or I would already be dead.”

Of course! The henchmen had been sent to kill both Erin and Mom on the same day.

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust what you told me,” Erin said. “It seems incredible that we’ve survived this long.”

The boating accident and Mom’s suicide—both meant to appear like something other than murder. The shooting that should have killed Newt and then the dam...

The dam. “You mentioned to Nathan that someone might have intentionally caused the dam to fail.”

“I had hoped that if the dam had been bombed, Nathan would tell me and then I could be concerned that we’d been found. I was hoping he would tell me I was wrong, and he would just think I was a crazy old lady to even ask. I was still piecing it all together. Maybe even in denial at first.”

“If the dam was blown, why do it? Newt was taken out with a gunshot.” He should have died.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Mom said. “If Ricky was sent to take him out and make it look like an accident, the old dam breaking was his strategy. Maybe Newt had gone there several times, and Ricky was waiting for the moment he would return. I think the explosion didn’t happen like it was supposed to, so he shot Newt instead.”

“Then, the next day when Nathan and I were there, the bomb finally went off?”

“Or he planted the bomb to take out Nathan, reasoning a detective’s son—also a detective—would return, and he wanted to make that look like an accident. Ricky probably thought Newt had told Nathan what he’d learned, so he needed to be taken out too. Now ... it’s time to get out of here.”

“What? Just how are we going to escape? You don’t have a shotgun to blast your way out of this.” Mom had been stripped of her weapons when they were captured in the middle of their grand escape.

“Give me some space.”

Erin scooted over and leaned away. She felt movement followed by a snap. Mom groaned. Cold replaced the warmth emanating from Mom’s body. She must have moved.

“What are you doing?”

Erin was yanked to her feet.

“We need to be gone by the time they get back,” Mom said.

“How did you get out of the ties?” Erin asked.

“An old trick I learned years ago. Now hold still. I need to find the locking mechanism, then slip my nail under it.”

Mom slid the ties off Erin’s wrists.

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