Page 25 of Marked For Revenge

“We’ll be there,” Ava assured him as Theo ended the call.

Ava’s sigh was long and weary, and she continued to stare at the phone for several more seconds. “Whoever’s behind the murders and the attack today...why didn’t he or she just directly come after me since I’m almost certainly the intended target?”

Harley had already given this plenty of thought and he kept going back to one point. “Maybe the killer is waiting for you to have the baby. After all, none of the other three victims were pregnant.”

That didn’t help the weariness in her eyes. “So, four more months of murders and then me. If that’s true, I guess I should be thankful that the serial killer doesn’t want to harm our baby.”

The “our” caused his stomach to jitter because it made them sound like a unit—which they were. For parenting anyway. Harley was hoping that was a start. Even if Ava and he were never lovers again, he wanted her to at least be in the same room with him without tensing up.

“Duran, Aaron and Marnie,” she muttered, obviously leaving that “our” behind. “There’s also the possibility my father could have hired someone.” Ava stopped, shook her head, obviously rethinking that. “No, he wouldn’t have needed to hire anyone. Not when Duran will do anything and everything for him.”

“Good point. And, rather than risk anyone finding out what was happening, Duran could have done the murders himself.”

Even though he’d been in law enforcement for well over a decade, it was still hard for Harley to wrap his mind around calculated murder. Especially murders like these that were meant to send a message and not because the actual victims had given the killer cause to murder them.

Ava stayed quiet a moment, but Harley could see the tightness creep back into her body. “Edgar told me that he struck a deal with you.”

She couldn’t have shocked Harley more if she’d slapped him. “What?” he demanded, his shoulders snapping back.

Ava took another moment and she pinned her cop’s eyes to him. “My father’s exact words were I struck a deal with that bedmate Ranger of yours. He said there’d be no charges against him and that his name would be cleared within the hour. And his name was indeed cleared.”

Harley was shaking his head before she even finished. “I made no such deal, not with him or anyone else I’ve ever investigated. That’s not how I work, and you know it.”

“He had me listen to a recording of a conversation between the two of you. In it, you said he’d be cleared, that you’d make sure of it.” She stopped, cursed. “He could have doctored the recording.”

“Damn right he could have, or taken it out of context.” Harley groaned and wanted to join Ava in that cursing. “Is that why you split with me?”

“It played a part in it,” she admitted. “But so did the pregnancy itself. I figured if we were together, you’d feel obligated to do something. Like propose or suggest we move in together for the sake of the baby. I didn’t want that.”

He opened his mouth to say that wouldn’t have happened, but Harley had to admit that, yes, it would have. He would have certainly offered marriage, and while he’d had deep feelings for Ava, she would have known the proposal had only come because she was pregnant. No way would she have accepted, so it’d just been easier for him to keep her at arm’s length.

“Edgar told you that lie to put a wedge between us,” Harley spelled out. He would have pressed for a heart-to-heart that he thought they should have now, but her phone rang again.

It wasn’t Theo’s or her dad’s name on the screen this time. It was Candice Barlow, Ava’s nearest neighbor.

“She probably heard about the shooting and wants to make sure I’m okay,” Ava muttered, answering the call on speaker.

“Ava,” the woman immediately said, and Harley had no trouble hearing the distress in her voice. “I was just looking out my kitchen window and I think—” She broke off and a hoarse sob tore from her mouth. “Oh, God. Ava, I think there’s a body on your back porch.”

Chapter Eight

A body.

Ava had thought this day couldn’t possibly get any worse, but she’d obviously been wrong.

“I think it might be a woman’s body,” Candice continued. “I didn’t want to get any closer to see for sure—”

“Stay inside your house,” Ava instructed. “I’ll check it out.”

“Not alone, dear. Please not alone. I can call the sheriff,” her neighbor offered.

“I’m not alone. Harley Ryland is with me.” No need for Ava to explain that Harley was a Texas Ranger. In a small town like Silver Creek, everyone already knew that. “Just stay inside,” she repeated, ending the call.

And drawing her gun.

Harley had already drawn his, and stooping low so his head wouldn’t be an easy target from her kitchen window, he went closer so he could look. Then he cursed.

“Not a body,” Harley assured her. “It’s just a mannequin head, like the ones that people put wigs on. There’s a garbage bag, but it doesn’t appear to have anything in it.” He paused a heartbeat. “It has a mask of your face.”

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