A Promise to Protect (Logan Point Book #2): A Novel (19 page)

The smell of frying bacon woke Leigh, and she threw back the covers and rubbed her eyes. Six o’clock. She had to be at the hospital at six-forty-five. Her last day for a month. Monday she started working at the clinic. Decent hours, patients she could get to know without it being an emergency situation. She threw on a pair of scrubs and ran a brush through her straight hair before hurrying down the stairs for coffee.

The sight of TJ and Tom Logan in the living room stopped her in midstride. What was TJ doing up at this hour? And with her iPad. Except Tom wasn’t concentrating on the iPad. He’d used his good hand to push TJ’s hair back and was staring at his face. Leigh’s heart almost failed her.

“Try once more, Pops. Point to the glass of water.”

“TJ, don’t bother the sheriff this early in the morning.” She hadn’t meant her voice to sound so sharp, and she tried to soften it even as she avoided Tom’s eyes. “Why are you up so early?”

“But, Mom, I’m not bothering him. He’s getting better, he really is. We’ve been doing this every morning.”

That did it. They were moving. She would call Ian as soon as it was a decent hour, and they would be in the house on Webster tonight. She didn’t care whether Ben Logan approved or not. Still avoiding the former sheriff’s gaze, Leigh pushed her lips into a halfway decent smile. “He’s probably tired now. Have you eaten?”

“Cereal.”

Standard fare for him. “I’ll be home by four, and I have a surprise for you.”

His eyes brightened. “What is—”

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, now would it.” Maybe Sarah would consider staying a few days longer while Leigh adjusted to working at the clinic and could get TJ set up with Jenny again. She felt Tom Logan’s eyes boring into her and finally glanced his way. His gaze shifted from her to TJ.

“Tee . . . juh . . .” he half-growled.

“Mom! He almost said my name!” TJ’s eyes danced. He knelt beside the older man. “You can do it.”

“TJ!” Panic tightened her vocal cords. “Come away and let him rest. He’s upset.”

“Mom, I can help, I know I can.” Her son’s eyes pleaded with her.

In the quietness that followed TJ’s plea, Tom spoke again. “W . . . why . . .”

Cold chills ran over her body. The alarm on her phone she’d set for six-twenty beeped. She couldn’t leave TJ here with Tom. And she couldn’t be late to the hospital. “TJ, let’s go see if Miss Sarah is up. Maybe she can take you shopping to get school clothes.”

“Now? I want to stay—”

“I don’t have time to stand here and argue with you.” She nudged him up the stairs.

“But she’s in the kitchen.”

Pain shot through her jaw as she ground her teeth. “Then that’s where we’ll go.” She pushed through the kitchen door with TJ in tow.

Sarah sat at the table, drinking coffee with Marisa. “Wondered if you’d overslept,” she said and poured Leigh a cup of coffee.

“I didn’t hear my alarm.” Leigh gulped a sip of the strong brew, burning her tongue. She rummaged through her purse for money. “Sarah, would you mind taking TJ shopping today? Get him something new for school? Since the fire, I’ve only bought summer clothes. I’d meant to do it tomorrow, but he has that ball game tomorrow afternoon and I have paperwork in the morning.” She was rattling on, but she couldn’t help herself.

“That’s a good idea,” Marisa said. She turned to Sarah. “Emily’s dropping the twins off shortly. Maybe we’ll tag along. She’s been so busy, I’m sure she hasn’t bought their clothes, either.”

Leigh hadn’t anticipated Marisa tagging along, but she couldn’t very well object. She handed Sarah four crisp twenty dollar bills. “If that isn’t enough, let me know.” She knelt over and hugged TJ. “I’ll see you around four.”

He shrugged out of her embrace. “Does Miss Sarah know what your surprise is?”

Leigh glanced at Sarah, who had raised her eyebrows. Her throat tightened and she swallowed. “Nope, she doesn’t know.” She tousled his copper hair then grabbed a Styrofoam cup and poured fresh coffee into it. “Thanks,” she said as she walked to the back door. “I really appreciate you taking him shopping.”

“Wait!” Marisa stood. “Ben’s not here. You can’t go without an escort.”

In her haste, she’d totally forgotten her escort. Where was Ben, anyway? “I can’t wait. I’m already late as it is.”

Marisa grabbed the phone on the wall. “Let me find out what’s going on with Ben.”

A text beeped on Leigh’s phone, and she glanced at it. “That’s okay. Deputy Ford is at the gate.” Ben could’ve at least let her know himself.

“Mom, can I start your car?”

She tossed him her keys. “See if you can beat me to it.”

He shot out the door ahead of her and, ten yards away, stopped and pressed the start button. The Avenger hummed to life.

“That’s so cool,” TJ said as he handed her the keys.

“Yeah.” TJ loved technology, even if it was packaged in a five-year-old car. She slid in the seat and lowered the window. “See you this afternoon.”

A little after nine, Leigh took out her cell and dialed Ian. He answered practically on the first ring. “Good morning,” she said.

“I hope you’re not calling to cancel our date.”

Oops. She had completely forgotten their date. Another thing she needed to mention to Ben, along with the news she was moving out. But first things first. “How about if we amend it?”

“As in?”

“I want to accept your generous offer to let us use your house on Webster. I’d like to move in today.”

There was a brief silence on the other end. “So, Ben approved the house?”

“Ben . . . I’ll make it all right with him. Can you meet me at the house, say around four or four-thirty?”

“What if I drop the key off at the hospital, and then bring dinner around seven?”

“Perfect. And, Ian, thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

After hanging up, Leigh didn’t immediately slide her cell back in her pocket. It was done. Now to tell Ben. She dialed his number
and was relieved when it went to voice mail. She left a message asking him to call her. Fifteen minutes later as she was looking over a chart, he called back. “Thanks for getting back to me,” she said after she answered.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to escort you to the hospital, but I’ve been dealing with the aftermath of the fire here at the jail.”

“Your deputy did an excellent job, and for the record, I don’t think I need an escort any longer.”

“I don’t agree. Did you need anything in particular?”

She took a deep breath. “I’ve found a house and want to move in this afternoon.”

“Whoa, slow down. Did you say you wanted to move today?”

“You heard correctly.”

“Leigh—”

“Ben, we can’t stay with your parents indefinitely. The house Ian is offering is in a gated community with a guard, in the middle of the block with houses all around. It will be perfectly safe.”

“I don’t want to discuss this on the phone. Would you please wait to make a decision until I pick you up at three?”

He wasn’t changing her mind, even if he did sound hurt. Neither did she want him to show up at the hospital and argue with her in the middle of the ER. “I’ll see you at three.”

Six hours to dread the dragon.

Armero smoothed his hand over the soft leather seat. He never tired of the smell of a new car, and the week-old SUV was no exception. Where was Jonas? He should have been here already. The outside heat seeped into the car, and he adjusted the temperature lower. Behind the driver’s seat, a box of receivers awaited transfer to Jonas’s truck.

The passenger door opened behind him, and he startled as Jonas slid in the backseat. “I didn’t see you come up,” he snapped.

“Grouchy today,” Jonas said. “What’s got your goat?”

“You’re late, and I have meetings.” His lip curled at the odor of sweat and some other foul scent.

“Well, I’m here now. You got the receivers?”

“Beside you in the floorboard.” He drew in a steadying breath and almost gagged. The man evidently had come straight from feeding hogs. He’d never get the scent out of his car. He coughed and left his hand over his nose. “Where were you after the fire at the jail? And what did you mean by setting it? What if you’d been caught? Or Logan figures out what you’re doing?”

“I wasn’t caught. And he won’t. At least not until I’m ready. But Logan is going to pay for my two boys.”

Armero lowered his hand. “Billy Wayne died because he joined your vendetta against Ben Logan.”

“All Billy Wayne wanted was justice for Tommy Ray’s death.”

“Like shooting at the sheriff would give you justice. If you kill an officer of the law and get caught, it’s automatically the death penalty.”

“I ain’t stupid.”

“I don’t know about that. You almost killed his father.”

“My mistake that I didn’t. He was getting too close to my dogs. I came up on him nosing around my pits, then hightailing it back to town. Figured he was going after a search warrant. So I intercepted him and—”

“Just shut up. I don’t want to know anything about what you’re doing with those dogs, or anything else illegal.”

Jonas snorted. “You think there’s a difference between the two of us?” He nudged him on the shoulder. “We’re cut from the same cloth. I knew that when I came to you about selling rifles to the Mexicans. And you knew I had fighting dogs when you agreed.”

Armero clenched his jaw tight. Jonas was a loose cannon. And he knew too much. The idea of selling guns to Mexico had been his idea. Four years ago, the old man worked at Maxwell Industries,
and it’d been easy for him to slip a couple of unstamped receivers out when he took a smoke break. Jonas hid them and Armero picked them up. But it was Armero’s connections that made the operation a success. He never told Jonas what kind of money he received for the rifles, but Jonas seemed content with what he gave him, which was plenty.

Maybe it was time to get rid of the old man. From the rearview mirror, Armero flicked his gaze over Jonas. Stains of no telling what dotted his khaki shirt. Wet dog. That’s what Jonas smelled like. “And I wish you would take a bath and change clothes before we meet.”

Armero tried shallow breathing. He remembered something else he’d heard. “Did you put those snakes on the ball field last night?”

The older man cackled. “You ought to have seen Logan and that deputy’s face.”

“A child was bitten!”

“He survived.”

“What was the purpose?” He had to find a way to get rid of Gresham, but another body right now? No, he’d bide his time and make sure there were no trails leading to him when Jonas was caught.

A sly look slid over Jonas’s face. “He thinks he can protect this county. Every time I do something, he finds out he can’t.” He opened the car door and spat on the pavement before exiting Armero’s car with the receivers. “I heard he was running for sheriff in the special election. Won’t take but a few people talking about the snakes and fires to beat him. He won’t want to be sheriff by the time I get through. Won’t have the heart for it, anyway. Especially when I get finished with his girlfriend and her boy.”

As soon as Gresham pulled away in his beat-up truck, Armero lowered his windows. Maybe a fast drive around the bypass would get the stink out of his car. Fifteen minutes later, he pulled into the company parking lot.