Nate (11 page)

Good. Sandra Dent’s son and ex-husband were keys to unraveling all of this. Darcy just hoped she could hang on to her temper and composure if one of them confessed to taking the children.

“The rangers have their CSIs at the Lost Appaloosa. Or rather, what’s left of it. The explosions destroyed a lot of potential evidence.” Nate paused. Definitely no smile or laughter now, though he continued to play with the children. “Two of the gunmen have been identified, and they both belonged to a drug cartel linked to Ramirez. One of them is Ramirez’s kid brother.”

“His brother?” she questioned.

“Yeah, his name was David Ramirez. He was just nineteen, and he was the one I got in a wrestling match in the woods. The one I shot.” Another pause. “We believe the brother and all the gunmen belonged to the cartel because they each had a coiled rattlesnake tattoo on their left shoulders. That’s the cartel’s symbol.”

That erased the warm, jolting memories of the kiss and chilled her to the bone. Drug dealers had kidnapped her son. The doctor had been right—they were lucky. Things could have gotten a lot worse than they had.

“It’s okay,” she heard Nate say. And she felt his hand on her arm. Touching her. Rubbing gently with his fingertips. Darcy figured she must have looked on the verge of fainting or something for him to do that.

“I’ve run financial reports on Adam and Edwin Frasier,” he explained. His voice wasn’t exactly all cop now. Or maybe that was her interpretation because he was still touching her. “Both father and son have the ready cash to set up an operation like the kidnapping.”

“But why would they have risked something like this?” she asked.

“More money, maybe. Sandra Dent died without a will. That means her husband will inherit everything.”

“Unless he’s convicted of her murder,” Darcy supplied. “Then Adam would inherit everything. And that makes him the top suspect.”

“Yes, it does. But it’s possible Adam and his father worked out this deal together. Or if Edwin is working alone, he could have figured it’d be easier to continue to get an allowance from his son than Dent. As it stands now, Edwin is paid an allowance for managing Sandra’s charity foundations. You can bet if Dent inherits everything, he’ll cut off Edwin without a penny.”

Yes. But Darcy was having a hard time wrapping her mind around anyone risking children’s lives for money. Even the fifty million dollars that was in Sandra Dent’s estate.

She jumped when she heard a sudden sound in the doorway. It was Mason. With his shoulder propped against the frame, he was holding a cup of coffee and had his attention fastened to Nate’s hand, which was still touching her.

Darcy quickly got to her feet.

She didn’t want to cause trouble between Nate and his brothers, and judging from Mason’s semi-glare, he didn’t approve of her or little arm rubs.

“Ma Ma Ma,” Kimmie babbled, and with her wispy curls haloing around her face, she toddled toward her dark, brooding uncle.

Mason put his cup on a shelf and scooped her up. “We gotta work on that vocabulary, curly locks. It’s Uncle Mason, not Ma Ma.”

Kimmie smiled a big toothy smile, dropped a kiss on his cheek and babbled some more. “Ma Ma Ma.”

“Don’t give her any candy,” Nate warned when both Kimmie and Mason started to reach in his denim shirt pocket.

“Later,” Mason whispered to the little girl. He placed his hand over hers. “When Daddy’s not watching. I’ll leave one for your pint-size boyfriend, too.”

Darcy was more than a little surprised that this particular Ryland also had a way with children. Mason always made her want to take a step back, and until now she’d never suspected there was a fatherly bone in his body. Noah, however, didn’t move. He stayed right by Nate.

“A problem?” Nate asked his brother. He stayed on the floor and accepted some plastic blocks that Noah began to dump in his lap.

“Not with the investigation. A ranching situation. Another cutter quit this morning.”

“Again?” Nate mumbled something indistinguishable under his breath. He was clearly upset, and this conversation was a reminder that the Rylands had more going on in their lives than law enforcement.

“Yeah,” Mason snarled. “What can I say? I’m not into arm touching to keep folks happy.”

Mason had noticed, after all. She felt herself blush.

“What’s a cutter?” Darcy asked to fill in the very uncomfortable silence that followed. “I was born and raised a city girl,” she clarified when Mason gave her a flat look.

“A person who trains cutting horses. They’re used to cull out or cut individual livestock from a herd,” Mason finally explained. “But folks use them for competitions and shows.”

“People pay a lot of money for a well-trained cutting horse,” Nate went on. “And despite going through a trainer every six months, Mason produces some of the best cutting horses in the state.”

If Mason was flattered by that, he didn’t show it. Instead, he gave Kimmie one of those flat looks. “You impressed, curly locks? Didn’t think so.”

Mason kissed Kimmie on top of her head and set her back on the floor. “Cause some trouble today, okay?” He eased two foil-wrapped pieces of candy on the shelf, grabbed his coffee cup and strolled away.

“Bye-bye.” Kimmie added a backward wave and then reached up toward the shelf where she’d no doubt seen her uncle leave the candy.

“Later, baby,” Nate insisted.

But Kimmie didn’t give up. The little girl went to Darcy, caught her hand and babbled something.

“Maybe I can distract her,” Darcy said, smiling, and she lifted Kimmie into her arms.

Kimmie waggled her fingers in the direction of the shelf with the candy, but Darcy took her in the opposite direction. To another shelf.

One Darcy hadn’t noticed when she walked into the room.

There were more pictures here. Dozens of them, all in gleaming silver frames. Some were candid shots of Nate and his brothers, including one Ryland she’d never seen. That had to be his late brother, Gage, who resembled Mason except he had a cocky grin. There was also a copy of the picture of Nate’s grandfather, the one that Kayla had faxed her.

“I called my assistant this morning,” Darcy told Nate, “and asked her to look into the matter of your grandfather’s photo. If Charles Brennan had something to do with Chet McLaurin, then we might find it in his files.”

Files that she and her assistant had total access to. If she could give Nate and his family this information, then she would. Of course, Darcy hoped it wouldn’t be another round of bad news because her former client, Brennan, was now dead, but when alive he’d no doubt committed murder and a litany of other crimes.

“There’s Daddy.” Darcy pointed to one of Nate holding Kimmie. Behind them were several horses.

“Da Da Da,” Kimmie babbled, and then she switched to “Ma Ma.”

Darcy expected to see a photo of Mason, but it wasn’t. She recognized the beautiful smiling woman from articles in the newspaper. This was Nate’s late wife, Ellie, and she was wearing a wedding dress.

“Ma Ma,” Kimmie repeated, and she clapped her hands.

“Ellie died when Kimmie was six weeks old,” Nate said softly. “I thought the picture might help her know who her mother is.”

Well, it was obviously working because Kimmie was reaching for the photo now and had forgotten all about the candy. Darcy carefully lifted the picture from the shelf and brought it closer to Kimmie.

“Ma Ma.” And the little girl kissed it. Darcy saw then that there were dozens of smudges on the glass. No doubt from Kimmie’s kisses.

It put a lump in Darcy’s throat, and she eased the picture back onto the shelf. She saw it then. The little silver disk. When Kimmie reached for it, Darcy picked it up so the little girl couldn’t get to it. She didn’t want to risk Kimmie choking on it.

“A concho,” Nate provided.

Darcy turned it over and saw the double
R
s on the back. “For your ranch?”

“Yeah.” And that was all he said for several seconds. His mood darkened a bit. “My father gave me and each of my five brothers a concho. A family keepsake, he said. And then a few weeks later, he walked out and never came back.”

She turned, stared at him. “What happened?”

But judging from the pain that went through his eyes, she was sorry she’d asked. “I’m not sure why he left. My mother wasn’t sure, either, and his leaving destroyed her. She killed herself, and in her suicide note she begged Grayson to keep the family together.” Nate lifted his shoulder. “And he did. End of story.”

No. Not the end. The pain was still too raw for that. It didn’t help with that lump in her throat, and it gave her added respect for the Ryland brothers. They’d raised themselves, kept their family together, and they’d done that under the worst of circumstances.

“Do you hate your father for abandoning you?” Darcy asked, holding her breath.

“Yeah. All of us do. Well, except for Kade. He was only ten when our father walked out.” Nate tipped his head to the concho. “Mason put a bullet through his. Dade threw his away.”

“But you kept yours,” she pointed out. And he’d polished it. Or someone had. Because it had a gleaming shine.

“Only so I could remember how much it hurts when people do irresponsible, selfish things.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to be anything like my father because I would never put Kimmie through that.
Never.
”

It was the answer she’d feared. “Noah’s father, Jake Denton, abandoned him. Jake’s never seen Noah and swore he never would.” And Darcy could see firsthand the pain that abandonment could cause.

Would Noah have the same bitterness that Nate had?

Darcy hated Jake for that. Hated that Noah would have this wound.

“It’s my fault, of course,” she added. “I should have chosen a better partner.” Even though her pregnancy had been an accident. One she certainly didn’t regret.

“Sometimes, even when you choose the right partner, it’s not enough,” Nate said. She followed his gaze, and he was staring at Ellie’s picture.

Kimmie looked at her dad. Then, at Darcy, and even though she was just a baby, she seemed to realize something wasn’t right. Kimmie hooked her arms around Darcy’s neck and kissed her cheek.

Darcy smiled in spite of the sad moment.

Children were indeed magical, and Nate’s daughter was no exception. Noah, however, disagreed. He must have objected to Darcy giving this little girl so much attention because he toddled toward them and tugged on her jeans. Darcy treated herself to holding both of them, even though they were a double armful.

She glanced at Nate, who was smiling again. After the hellish day they’d had, this seemed like a moment to savor.

What would it be like to have moments like this all the time?

Darcy hadn’t let herself consider a relationship, not after Jake had burned her so badly. But what would it be like to be with Nate? Thinking about that caused the heat to trickle through her body again.

Nate made a
hmm
sound.

Did he know what she was thinking? Probably not. But that didn’t erase the little fantasy in her head.

Then Nate’s phone buzzed, and the moment vanished. Darcy snapped back to reality. Especially when she heard Nate greet the caller.

“Grayson,” he answered. “You have news?”

She stepped closer, watching Nate’s face.

“What?” Nate asked several second later, and he paused. Darcy couldn’t hear anything his brother was saying, but Nate finally snapped his phone shut.

“Edwin and Adam Frasier just arrived at the sheriff’s office,” Nate relayed to her after dragging in a long breath. He was the cop again. All business. And he got to his feet.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, afraid to hear the answer.

Nate looked her straight in the eyes. “Edwin and Adam both claim Dent and
you
were behind the kidnapping plot, and they say they can prove it.”

Chapter Nine

Darcy wasn’t denying anything that Edwin and Adam Frasier had claimed. In fact, she hadn’t said more than two words on the drive from the ranch to the sheriff’s office. She just sat in the passenger’s side of his SUV and stared out the window.

That caused Nate to do some mental cursing.

He didn’t need this now. He needed clear answers that would lead him to the person responsible for kidnapping Kimmie and Noah, and with this latest allegation, Nate was afraid these interviews wouldn’t give him anything useful.

The moment Nate parked the SUV, Darcy got out, and she didn’t wait for him. She stormed toward the back entrance, threw open the door and hurried inside.

“Where are they?” Darcy asked Mel, and the deputy hitched her thumb toward the interview room at the front of the building.

“Grayson’s in there with them now,” Mel let her know. “How are the kiddos?”

“Fine,” Darcy mumbled. “Kade and Mason are staying with them while I straighten out this mess.”

Okay. She clearly wasn’t pleased, and Nate couldn’t blame her since they’d accused her of being involved with the kidnapping. Still, he hoped she wouldn’t try to attack one of them. He’d faced Darcy in court and legal hearings and had never once seen her lose her composure. But now her fuse seemed short and already lit. Just in case her temper was about to explode, Nate hurried to catch up with her.