Lonestar Secrets (34 page)

The plea for help didn't come easily, but as the words escaped her mouth, she realized how true they were. She hung up and buried her face in her hands. She could finally admit the truth. She couldn't exist without Jack, couldn't function without his love and approval. What she felt was more than love it was need too. She, who had prided herself on being self-sufficient, needed him with every fiber of her being.

Instead of horrifying her, the realization was almost ... freeing. She closed her phone and it chirped almost immediately. She flipped it open again. "Jack?"

"Shannon, it's me," Mary Beth's voice whispered. "I need you to come get me before he finds me again."

"Mary Beth, where are you?" More questions could wait until she had her friend out of danger.

"I'm at Mitchell Pass." She ended on a sob.

Shannon sagged in the seat. "What are you doing there? Never mind, I'll come. Where will I find you?"

"I'll be hiding behind the big rock that looks like a buffalo."

Shannon knew the spot. And Mitchell Pass. Her parents were buried in the cave there. Coincidence? Or a plot by the senator to make her reveal where the gold was buried? His curiosity about the Spanish treasure couldn't be coincidence.

It didn't matter. She couldn't ignore her friend's plea. She promised to come right away, then tried Jack again. When she didn't get him, she left another message with the news of where she was heading next. Just as she was about to hang up, the low-battery beep sounded in her ear. Stupid phone was acting up again. Just her luck. She tried to call the sheriff, but the phone was dead before he picked up on the other end.

Jack would come though. And he'd get help. Shannon clung to the thought as she put her SLIV into drive and headed to find Mary Beth.

JACK KNEW HIS ANGER WAS OUT OF PROPORTION TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES. The reason for the anger went far deeper than seeing Shannon with Larue. She had kept so many secrets from him that he doubted her every word, and that wasn't a good approach. He'd actually suspected her of scheming to blackmail his dad. Had he been nuts? She wasn't that kind of woman.

The dreams he'd awakened with this morning seemed to belong to another man.

But a lot of that was his fault. He pushed his hat off his forehead. He'd kept secrets of his own. They'd both danced a jig around the truth. He'd never even admitted he loved her. When he got home tonight, he'd lay it all out and demand she do the same.

After he signed the line he'd missed, he went back out to his truck. His phone signaled a voice mail, and he grabbed it from where he'd left it on the seat. When he heard Shannon's voice and what she had to say, he tried to call her back, but the canned message said the phone was unavailable.

He gunned the truck back out of town. On the way, he tried to call the sheriff, but the dispatcher told him Sheriff Borland was down with the flu. He considered trying one of the Texas Rangers in the area, but they were likely hours away, up in Alpine. Maybe Rick. He called his friend, then stopped to pick him up at the end of the Bluebird Ranch lane.

"So your dad is involved in this somehow?" Rick asked after Jack explained what he knew.

"Looks like it." Jack had tried not to focus on that fact.

"I always thought the senator was a straight shooter," Rick said. "If he made the money from legal gambling, why hide it away in a Swiss bank account?"

"I don't know." Jack tried to piece it together. "He sent one of his goons after Shannon, so he must have thought she had something. Either this book or . . ." He stopped, remembering the box they'd found belonging to Shannon's dad.

"Or what?" Rick pressed.

"You know that horse Shannon is crazy about? Jewel?"

"Sure. I've kept an eye on him for her for years."

"He's a stolen racehorse. I don't know how he fits into the puzzle, but I've got a feeling there's some link."

"Five Lives?" Rick guessed.

"How'd you know?"

"Your dad mentioned him once. Said he was the greatest horse ever to put his hooves on the track."

"I don't get it. The horse belonged to Shannon's parents. If Dad had the horse, why would he let him run free? Why not utilize him as a stud?"

"No idea," Rick said. "I suspect we'll find out before the day is over." His cell phone sang out a tune and he pulled it from his belt. "Hi, honey," he said. His brows winged up as he listened. "I'll be right there." He put the phone away. "Sorry, buddy, I need you to run me home. Allie's water just broke."

"Holy cow." Jack swung the truck around and raced back the way they'd come.

Five minutes later he dropped Rick in front of the house, made him promise to call when the new arrival made an appearance, then accelerated back down the drive.

SHANNON KNEW THESE CRAGS AND HILLS LIKE KYLIE'S WORN-OUT CandyLand board. She paused to catch her breath when a stitch cramped her side. Fixing the landmarks in her mind, she decided this was as good a place as any to hide the ledger.

Not at eye level. If she wasn't mistaken, there was a crevice at the base of the striated rock formations that looked like soldiers. She forced the ledger into the nearly invisible opening. Only she would ever know it was there and she wasn't telling.

She had no weapons, only her wits. Before she finished the climb, she glanced back the way she'd come in case she saw Jack's broad shoulders coming to rescue her. But no, there was only the cry of an eagle from his craggy perch high over her head and the sound of the wind in the mesquite.

He would come. She just had to stay alive until he did.

She resumed her climb up the narrow path. Below her, the Rio Grande wound through the mesquite and cedar elm. Above her head, the black igneous rock, left over from the massive volcanoes when this region was formed, showed striation marks from the centuries of wind and rain.

Her legs ached from the climb. She stopped again and wondered if she should have tried the gentler climb on the other side. But no, if this was a trap, the senator would expect her to choose the easiest way up. The old mining shaft where her parents' bones lay interred by tons of rock was just over the crest of the path. Shannon forced herself forward until she stood at the rockfall.

No one would ever know this heap of rocks was anything more than the other piles in the area. But she knew. And Jack knew. She'd told him her most closely guarded secret. Tearing her gaze from it, she pressed on the last few yards. She crouched behind a cat's-claw shrub and let her gaze sweep the area. A flicker of movement caught her eye, and she spied Mary Beth's head. Nearly all her hair was shorn. Shannon saw her mouth move, but she couldn't see anyone else there. Maybe she was wired.

Just what she should do wasn't clear to Shannon. The whole setup smelled like a trap. Before she could decide, she heard pebbles tumble down the path behind her. Ducking behind a rock, she peered down the trail. Her spirit leaped when she recognized her husband coming up the trail. He wore a somber, determined expression.

Keeping a low profile, she moved to meet him. His eyes recorded his joy at finding her, but he didn't smile, and she knew she was in trouble. Again.

When she reached him, he took her shoulders in his hands. "Shannon, you have to stop this. We can't have a marriage without being a team. I love you, and "

She held up her hand. "Wait, say that again."

"Say what again?"

"That you love me."

His mouth softened. "I love you. I've loved you for a long time. But we've got to start working together."

"I know. That's why I called you. I knew I was wrong. I need you, Jack. Not just for this, but in my life in every way."

He cradled her against his chest. "It's about time we both woke up."

Reluctantly she pulled away and gestured behind her. "Mary Beth is back there, at Mitchell Pass. I saw her mouth moving like she was talking, but I couldn't see anyone."

"She's wired?"

"That's what I wondered. I told her I'd come get her. She may hide if you show up though. I've got to go in there alone." She thought Jack would object, but he nodded.

He slapped his hand onto his holstered gun. "I got this out of the truck just in case. I'll cover you. Dad won't hurt you though, even if he's involved with this."

"You don't believe me?"

"It's not that. I know he called you, asked you to come. But maybe he was forced into it."

He sounded much more confident in his father than Shannon, who was beginning to believe the senator would dispatch her without a qualm. But she didn't tell Jack her misgivings. He loved his father, which was as it should be. "There's a good place to hide up here. I'll show you." She led him to the shrub and waited until he hunkered down and pulled out his revolver. She started for the path, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her down beside him.

"Wait," he said. He kissed her. "A kiss for safety," he said. "Be careful."

She clung to him for a minute, then rose and hurried down the path. The connection she had with Jack was something she'd never experienced. And he trusted her. Trusted her enough to let her rescue her friend.

Mary Beth didn't see Shannon until she nearly reached the overlook into the river valley. She rose, her face eager. Shannon examined her friend and noticed the bruises on her left cheek, the way she limped when she hurried to meet Shannon, and the lump on her forehead. Whatever had happened, Mary Beth had been an unwilling participant.

The women embraced. Mary Beth clung to Shannon. "I knew you'd come," she whispered.

Shannon stepped back. "Where is the senator, Mary Beth?"

Mary Beth put her hand over her mouth. "Sh," she whispered.

"I know you're probably wired. I saw you talking earlier." Her gaze scanned the shrubs and trees around the spot where they stood. "Come on out, Senator. I know you're there," she called.

"Don't," Mary Beth begged. Her eyes flickered to the left. "Let's get out of here."

Shannon's gut instinct swung in the direction Mary Beth had looked. "Senator? Be a man and come out and talk to me."

The mesquite bush rustled, and a man stepped into view. It wasn't the senator, but his lackey. The big guy Shannon had encountered several times already.

"You don't think the senator has time to take care of his own messes, do you?" the man asked, his black eyes hard.

Mary Beth pulled on Shannon's arm. "Run!" she screamed.

So Shannon did. She couldn't reason with a tree trunk like this guy. He blocked the path back to Jack, chuckling, so she grabbed Mary Beth's hand and half dragged her in the opposite direction. This guy couldn't possibly know the area like Shannon did. There was a rock ledge just around the bend in the trail that couldn't be seen unless you leaned over the edge. They could hide there until he passed, then climb back up and join Jack.

He was probably in hot pursuit of the guy chasing them, though she wished he'd fire his gun and save them the trouble of running. Shannon spared no more thought for anything other than escape. This man was the type who would enjoy the chase and take his time. Which was to their advantage.

They reached the spot where she knew the ledge to be. "Climb down," she told Mary Beth.

Mary Beth backed away. "I can't," she whispered. "I'm afraid of heights."

Too late Shannon remembered how Mary Beth wouldn't even look out the window of their apartment. "Don't look down," she said. "Look at me and I'll lower you. It's not far to the ledge maybe four feet."

Mary Beth was shaking her head and backing away. Shannon grabbed her by the hands. "Do you want him to kill us?" she hissed. "This is the only way out. Do what I say. Don't look down, look at me."

To her surprise, Mary Beth nodded. "Don't let me fall," she pleaded.

Mary Beth got on her hands and knees. Shannon grabbed her wrists and began to ease her over the edge. The ledge was closer than Shannon remembered, maybe forty inches down, and Mary Beth's face brightened when her toe reached it. Shannon let her go, and Mary Beth ducked down onto the ledge. Shannon slid over the side and onto the rocky surface just seconds before she heard their pursuer round the rock. She and Mary Beth lay flat on their stomachs on the ledge, and Shannon prayed there were no scorpions or spiders lurking about. She held her breath and heard the man shuffle on the trail.

He gave an exasperated sigh. "You can't hide from me, ladies. Make it easier on yourselves and come out now while I'm in a good mood." But his voice held amusement. Another shuffle came on the rocks, then his steps began to move away.

Shannon let out the breath she'd been holding. They'd have to wait a few more seconds before they climbed up so the sound didn't attract his attention again. She dared to glance around and saw a scorpion headed their way. She took a loose rock and knocked it off the ledge.

Poking her head over the top, she glanced around. The guy was nowhere to be seen. "Let's go," she told Mary Beth. She stood and boosted Mary Beth up, then pulled herself up onto the path as well.

"Jack is following us too," she said. "He's got a gun." But she was surprised as they went back down the trail that they didn't run into her husband.

Until they arrived at the rockfall that hid her parents and found Jack unconscious. His father loomed over him with Jack's gun in his hand.

The senator waved the gun in the air. "Quentin, get over here!" he called. "I've got the girls."

Shannon knelt by Jack and touched his head. A trickle of blood oozed from a goose egg on his forehead. "What did you do to him?"

He shook his head. "How does Jack put up with you? You got enough tongue for ten rows of teeth. 'Course, I didn't hurt him more than a little tap on the head." He gestured with the gun. "Leave him be and get me my property."

She'd expected this. Putting her hands behind her back, she stared him down. "I don't have the ledger."

"I said get my property. I didn't say ledger." He grinned, revealing perfectly capped white teeth. "Missy, you're runnin' with the big dogs now. Don't try my patience."

He stepped to Mary Beth and circled her neck in a choke hold with his free arm. She shrieked and squirmed as he dragged her to the edge of the trail. "Get it now or she goes over the edge." Mary Beth's screams grew pinched and she beat at his arm with her fists, but he held her fast.