The Marriage Profile (5 page)

And he would find her, he promised himself. He had to. Because it sure didn't look like the FBI was going to be able to do it. If anything they only hampered his own efforts.

Thumbing through the file, he scanned the DNA tests that had been run on select members of the country club and the final paternity test that had revealed Luke Callaghan as the girl's father. He couldn't even begin to imagine how Luke must feel, returning home from some sort of business trip out of the country during which he'd been blinded. And then discovering he not only had a daughter he knew nothing about, but that the girl had been kidnapped. What still puzzled him was how Luke could be the baby's father and not know who the mother was. Justin rubbed a hand along his jaw. Had it been any other man, he'd have sworn the guy was lying. But not Luke Callaghan. He didn't doubt for a second that Luke had told him the truth.

For the next twenty minutes Justin fielded calls while he went over the notes on Lena's kidnapping. And once again he found himself with more questions than answers. Closing the file, he picked up the next folder in the stack and sighed at the sight of the label that read “Bridges, Carl—Murder Case.” He didn't even have to open the file on this one because he could recite the details of Judge Carl Bridges's murder from memory. The fact that the case remained unsolved gnawed at him almost as much as Lena's kidnapping. As he made a note to follow up with a call to Dylan Bridges that evening, he snatched up the ringing telephone.

When he hung up the phone fifteen minutes later, Justin reached for the next file, which was not only the oldest working file in his office, but the thickest by far because it contained information on the Mercado crime family. Since Carmine Mercado's death eight months ago and the shifting of power within the organization to Frank Del Brio, Justin hadn't been able to shake the feeling that something was brewing within the family ranks. From all
accounts, Johnny Mercado had been acting strangely of late. That scene he'd witnessed between Johnny and Del Brio last night attested to that fact. But it was more than that, he admitted. There was something about that look in Johnny's eyes, his sudden spirit, that nagged at him like a splinter under his skin. Maybe now that Ricky was back in town, he should pay the younger Mercado a visit, ask him what was going on between his father and Del Brio just so Ricky knew that the sheriff's office had an eye on them.

And what if Angela is with him?

Justin gritted his teeth at the taunting voice in his head and shut his eyes to block out the images of Angela with Ricky last night.

“Sheriff,” Audrey Lou called from the doorway, her voice impatient. “Something wrong with your hearing, son? Bobby's on the line for you. Said it's important.”

“Wainwright.” Justin all but barked out his name as he grabbed the telephone.

“I'm afraid I've got bad news, boss.”

Just what he needed, Justin thought. “All right, spit it out.”

“I lost Del Brio.”

Justin swore. “What happened?”

“He pulled a switch on me.”

“I told you not to let him out of your sight.”

“And I didn't,” Bobby contended. “I tailed him to Mercado Brothers Paving and Contracting this morning just like you told me. And I'm positive it was Del Brio that I followed when he left there. I stayed with him all morning through this string of back roads outside of Mission Creek and all through Goldenrod—even down some private road—until he went back to his spread. Only when he reached his place and got out of the truck, it wasn't
him. It wasn't Del Brio. It was a dude dressed up just like him, and the truck was a dead ringer for the one Del Brio was driving.”

“If you were following him the whole time, how could he make the switch?” Justin demanded.

“The only thing I can think of is that he arranged to have the dummy driver in a look-alike truck waiting around one of those curves. Because I swear that's the only time the man was ever out of my sight.”

Trying to contain his frustration, Justin wiped a hand down his face. He'd ordered the tail on Del Brio after that exchange with Johnny last night—in part because he didn't want a full-scale war erupting between the Mercados and Del Brio and his men, and in part because there was a rumor on the street that a big deal was about to go down.

“I know I screwed up. I'm sorry, Sheriff.”

“Don't sweat it,” Justin told the kid. “It happens to the best of us. Del Brio didn't get where he is because of his brains. He's got the instincts of a cat. Evidently he spotted your tail. I just wish I knew where he was going that he felt the need to shake you.”

“You want me to see if I can pick him up again?” Bobby asked.

“No. We've got too much to do. We can't afford to spend any more time playing games with the likes of Del Brio. Come on back to the office. The phone's been ringing off the hook all morning, and I swear the paperwork is multiplying faster than rabbits.”

“Boss, there's something else you should know,” Bobby told him.

Justin paused, sensing he wasn't going to like what his deputy had to say. “What?”

“I wasn't the only one tailing Del Brio. So was Johnny Mercado.”

Justin scowled, not at all happy to learn his own instincts had been right. Something was brewing between Johnny and Del Brio, and whatever it was, it could only mean trouble. “I was afraid of that.”

“You think Johnny plans to fight Del Brio for control of the family?”

“No.” At least Justin hoped that wasn't the case because Johnny, even with this newfound spirit he'd shown, didn't stand a chance against a ruthless thug like Del Brio. His son, Ricky, however, was another story. “But something's going on, and I intend to find out what it is.”

“You going to go see Johnny? Try to talk to him again?”

“No. The old man is playing his cards close to the vest. I was planning to pay Ricky a visit later. But I think maybe I'll drive out to the Mercado place and have that little talk with Ricky now. I'll see you when I get back.”

After hanging up the phone, Justin shoved away from his desk and headed out of his office. He grabbed his hat and paused in front of Audrey Lou's desk. “Bobby's on his way in, and I'm going out to Johnny Mercado's place. I need you to hold down the fort for me until I get back.”

The woman didn't so much as bat an eye. “What do you want me to tell your sister? Rose has called for you twice already.”

“Tell her I'll call her when I get back.”

But when Justin got back, after striking out on catching either Ricky or his father at their place near Goldenrod or the Mercado Brothers Paving, Audrey Lou was manning two phone lines and Bobby was taking down Mrs. Elkinson's weekly complaint about the randy bull on the neighboring homestead bothering her milk cows. Wanting no part of that scene, Justin reached for the stack of phone
messages Audrey Lou held out to him and headed for his office when Audrey Lou hung up the phone.

“That was Dylan Bridges's office returning your call.”

Justin looked up from the messages he'd been skimming. “He still in his office?”

“No. That was his assistant who called to say he's tied up until late this afternoon, wanted to know if he could call you at home tonight. I said I didn't see why not since you don't do much of anything but work and sleep, anyway.”

Justin ignored the dig at his lack of a social life. “Anything else I need to know?”

“Nothing except that you've got yourself a visitor. I put her in your office to wait.”

“Damn! She's here already?” Justin asked, assuming it was his sister. Granted he'd called her from his vehicle and agreed to meet with her back at his office, but he'd told her he needed at least an hour. Evidently Rose decided not to wait. Which seemed to be par for the course where his younger sister was concerned this past year—starting with her running off to Aunt Beth's in New York and shocking everyone when she came back with the news that she'd married Matt Carson of all people and was expecting his child. While the wedding hadn't sat well with either the Carsons or the Wainwrights, the early arrival of the baby and the illness that had threatened both Rose and the baby had not only scared everyone but it had eased some of the tensions between the two families. However, his sister didn't appear to be content with the strained truce. No, now that the danger was past, the darned female seemed hell-bent on ending the feud between the two families that had spanned seventy-six years. And for some reason, she had decided he was to be a key player in her fence-mending plans.

“You knew she was coming?”

“Sure. I talked to her about twenty minutes ago and told her to come by. Of course, I told her to give me an hour to return some of these calls. Obviously, she didn't hear that part,” Justin said, but he wasn't really irritated. He both liked and loved his sister, and he especially liked getting a chance to see his nephew.

“Well, you might have seen fit to tell me she was coming,” Audrey Lou sniffed. “And she might have told me you was expecting her instead of just saying she needed to see you and that she didn't mind waiting.”

“She probably thought you knew,” Justin said, not wanting Audrey Lou angry with Rose. “She got the baby with her?”

“You mean to tell me she's got herself a baby?”

Justin frowned. Obviously his sister Rose wasn't the woman waiting in his office because everyone in Mission Creek, for that matter, half of Texas, knew about the recent birth of Wayne Matthew Carson and the danger that both the baby and Rose had faced. It had been the near loss of his sister's life and the birth of the baby that had prompted Archy Wainwright to begin making amends with the Carsons, Hawk and even with his ex-wife, Kate. From what he'd seen the previous night, Justin suspected his parents were well on their way to a reconciliation—three decades after their divorce.

“Well, she never said a thing about any baby.”

“Audrey Lou, why don't we start over? I take it that that's not my sister Rose waiting in my office.”

Audrey Lou blinked, her big brown eyes magnified by the wire-rimmed glasses, reminding him of an owl. “Who said anything about Rose?”

“No one. My mistake. So who—”

The phone rang and she grabbed it. “Lone Star County Sheriff's Office. Audrey Lou speaking.”

Justin strove for patience as he waited for Audrey Lou to finish the call. She'd no sooner hung up when the phone rang again. When she started to reach for it, Justin grabbed the receiver. “Lone Star County Sheriff's Office. Hold on a minute. Now,” he said after punching the hold button on the phone, “who am I going to find waiting in my office?”

The woman gave him a look so stern, he felt like an errant schoolboy who needed to apologize for his poor manners and not the county's sheriff and her boss.

“Thought you just said you was expecting her,” Audrey Lou told him with a sniff.

“Audrey Lou…”

“It's your wife.”

“E
x-wife,” Justin corrected. “We're divorced.”

Angela tensed at the sound of Justin's voice just outside the door. Despite a sleepless night and the lecture she'd given herself this morning, she was every bit as anxious at the prospect of working with Justin now as she had been when she'd agreed to take the assignment. But even if she could convince the FBI and the police chief to release her from her agreement to work the case, her conscience would never allow her to walk away. That meant she had to face Justin now and try to make him see that this wasn't about them, but about the welfare of a missing little girl.

Bracing herself, Angela turned away from the window she'd been staring out of and watched Justin saunter into the room with that same purposeful stride she'd noted the first time she'd set eyes on him. His air of self-confidence had always fascinated her. Perhaps because she'd had so little self-confidence growing up and throughout their marriage. It had only been in the past few years that she'd begun to feel more sure of herself.

She hadn't been mistaken in her impressions of him last night, she mused. Age hadn't diminished Justin's looks in any way. If anything, he was even more handsome in the slate-gray sheriff's uniform than he had been the previous evening in the expensive suit. The silver badge pinned on his shirt gleamed beneath the office lights. With his service revolver strapped to his waist and the Stetson in his hand,
he could have stepped right off the pages of some slick magazine showcasing lawmen hunks of the Southwest. Right down to the forbidding scowl on his face. She wasn't sure if that grim set of his lips was due to her presence or to Audrey Lou's reference to her as his wife. Probably both, she decided.

“For what it's worth, I did try to explain that I was your ex-wife,” Angela told him. “And the truth is, I was surprised that Mrs. Cox even remembered me, let alone the fact that we were once married.”

“Audrey Lou's got a memory like a computer chip,” Justin informed her as he made his way over to his desk. “The woman doesn't forget anything when it comes to the citizens of Lone Star County. And there's very little that goes on in this town that she doesn't know about.”

The mention of how everyone knew everyone's business made her smile. “I guess I forgot what a small town Mission Creek can be at times,” Angela offered.

“It's not all that small of a town. But then I suppose that depends on the person and what they want.”

Angela knew it was a dig at her because she'd opted to move to the big city of San Antonio instead of remaining in Mission Creek and trying to salvage their marriage. Since Justin had refused to admit five years ago that the real problems at the core of their marriage had little to do with their careers and everything to do with their relationship, she doubted that rehashing her reasons for leaving would serve any purpose. Deciding to let the remark pass, she said, “Well, I'm sorry, anyway, about the confusion and any embarrassment it caused.”

“The confusion was of my own making. I thought you were Rose,” he explained as he dropped his hat on the corner of the paper-laden desk. “As for embarrassing me, you didn't.”

“I'm glad. That I didn't embarrass you, I mean,” she added nervously. “But I suppose I should have made sure Mrs. Cox understood.”

“She understood, all right. But whether we'd been divorced five years or fifty, it wouldn't have made a difference to Audrey Lou. As far as she's concerned, you're still my wife.”

“I take it she's not too fond of divorce?”

He made a dismissive sound. “That's like asking if water is wet. The woman thinks the only time a marriage ends is when one of the pair dies. As far as she's concerned, ‘until death do us part' means just that. And since she's been married to the same man for over forty years, I guess I can understand why she feels the way she does.”

“I suppose so,” Angela offered, feeling more awkward by the second. “The idea of two people spending their lives together, well, it is a lovely sentiment.”

“I guess that would depend on the two people and whether or not the marriage works out. In our case, it didn't.”

While he didn't say “because of you,” Angela could almost hear the words he'd left unsaid. Uncomfortable, she stared down at her clasped hands a moment. She'd long ago accepted blame for the failure of their marriage. Looking back now, she could see so clearly that their marriage had stood little chance of succeeding. How could it? Even without the added strain caused by Justin's family's objections to his choice of her as a wife and her inability to conceive a child, the marriage had
mistake
written all over it from the start. Someone like her wasn't meant to be anyone's wife—especially not the wife of a man like Justin Wainwright. Yet knowing that, she'd been too blinded by her love for him to say no when he'd proposed. And be
cause she'd been selfish, she had married him and had made them both miserable.

Shoving aside the sad thoughts, Angela lifted her gaze again and found Justin's eyes on her. And as had so often been the case during their marriage, those cool green eyes of his gave away nothing of what he was thinking. Growing more stressed by the minute, she decided the best thing to do was to get this over with and tell Justin the reason she was there. “Justin, I—”

“Listen, Angela, I—”

He chuckled.

So did she. And she let out a breath as some of the tension eased. Even though she realized that she was simply delaying the fireworks that her announcement was sure to set off, she said, “Go ahead. You first.”

“I was about to say that considering how our conversation ended last night, I'm surprised to find you here.”

“I realize I should have called you first, instead of just showing up here like this,” she said, feeling defensive. “But to be honest, I wasn't sure you'd agree to see me. So I decided to just take my chances and come by.”

A hint of red burnished the sharp lines of his cheeks. “Yeah, well, can't say that I blame you. I didn't do such a good job of handling things last night. Seeing you…well, it took me by surprise. I was out of line.”

Angela knew what a proud, stubborn man Justin was, so the unexpected admission that he was wrong left her reeling. She opened her mouth, then closed it, unsure what to say.

It was Justin who spoke. “Anyway, I apologize for the way I acted last night.”

“Apology accepted,” she finally managed to say.

“I'd have apologized to you sooner, but I couldn't find you at either of the hotels.”

“I didn't stay at a hotel.”

“Yeah, I figured that much,” he said, a slight edge in his voice. “And I don't suppose you drove all the way back to San Antonio last night and then turned around and drove back here this morning.”

“No, I didn't.”

His lips tightened at her response, but he made no comment. And the short break in the tension between them evaporated as quickly as it had come. Once again Angela rued her decision to accept this assignment. “May I?” she asked, motioning to the chair in front of his desk.

“Suit yourself,” Justin replied, and once she was seated, he sat down in the black swivel chair behind the battered mahogany desk.

Striving to smooth the way for the bombshell she intended to drop on him, she said, “For what it's worth, I didn't make the decision to attend the dedication ceremony at the hospital until the last minute. Otherwise, I would have called and warned you that I'd be there.”

“As you pointed out last night, I don't own Mission Creek and you're no longer my wife. Where you go and who you go there with isn't any of my business.”

The cool reminder stung. “True. But considering that we share a history, telling you that I'd planned to be there would have been the courteous thing to do. I'm sorry that I didn't.”

“Fine. Now that we've both got our apologies out of the way, you're going to have to excuse me because I need to get back to work.” Without waiting for her answer, he reached for the stack of mail in his incoming basket. “You can just leave the door open on your way out.”

His dismissal stunned Angela almost as much as it irritated her. “Believe it or not, I didn't come here because
I felt I owed you an apology or because I expected one from you.”

“Whatever you say. But I can't imagine anything else we have to discuss and I really do need to get back to work.” Obviously believing the matter was at an end, he went back to perusing the papers in front of him.

Angered by his arrogance, Angela shoved to her feet. “Aren't you even the least bit interested in knowing why I'm here?”

“Not particularly,” he told her without so much as a glance in her direction.

Suddenly Angela's patience snapped. She came around the desk, slapped her hands down on the papers in front of him. “Dammit, Wainwright, look at me!”

Slowly he lifted his gaze to hers. And the heat in those green eyes sucked the breath right out of her. “All right, Mason. I'm looking.”

Angela's pulse jumped. Her head began to spin, and she tried to remember exactly what it was she'd been about to say to him.

“As much as I enjoy looking at you, Angel, I'm pressed for time. So if you've got something on your mind, I suggest you spit it out.”

Angela felt a sharp pang at Justin's use of the pet name he'd given her during the early days of their courtship. She started to speak, but her throat seemed impossibly tight, and she closed her mouth again. She couldn't think about the past now, she reminded herself.

“You going to tell me why you're all worked up? Or am I supposed to guess?”

Angela swallowed, tried to clear her head. But before she could answer him, he shoved away from the desk and walked away from her, only to whirl around and march back over to stand in front of her.

“Since you seem to be at a loss for words, why don't I tell you why I think you're here,” he began, his mouth hard, his expression even harder. “I think you're here because you want a little payback.”

“Payback?” Angela repeated.

“Yeah, payback. I gave you a rough time about the divorce, and last night you decided to pay me back by flaunting your relationship with Ricky Mercado in front of me and everyone else in this town. Well, it worked. I blew my cool last night when I saw the two of you together. But that was last night. It isn't going to work today. You're not going to be able to use Mercado to push my buttons.”

“Is that really what you believe? That I would do such a thing?”

The look he gave her could have melted ice. “You saying it isn't? Are you going to stand there and deny that you wanted to rub my nose in the fact that you're sleeping with Mercado?”

Taken aback by his accusation, Angela remained speechless for several moments. While Justin had never liked nor understood her friendship with Ricky, she had always believed it was because of the Mercado's family business and Ricky's ties to organized crime. It had never crossed her mind that Justin might have seen Ricky as a romantic rival. Staring at the man she'd given her heart to so long ago, she wondered how she could have been so blind. “You're jealous of Ricky,” she murmured more to herself than to him as realization dawned. Which made no sense—especially now when Justin had all but said he wanted nothing to do with her.

“The hell I am!” He jammed a hand through his hair, paced the length of the room. “I just don't like seeing you hooked up with a scumbag like Mercado.”

“But you're wrong. Ricky and I—” She swallowed,
deciding she needed to be blunt. “Justin, I'm not sleeping with Ricky.”

He whipped around, pinned her with those stormy eyes. “You expect me to believe that when I know damn well that you didn't stay in a hotel last night?”

“Believe whatever you want,” she told him while she tried to convince herself that what Justin thought about her didn't matter. “But the truth is I didn't spend the night with Ricky. I spent the night in my own bed.”

Justin narrowed his eyes. “That's quite a trick since you've already said you didn't go back to San Antonio.”

“But I did return to my condo. Or perhaps I should say to my new condo—the one that I'm leasing, which happens to be located just outside of Goldenrod and is the place where I spent the night in my own bed, alone.”

Justin marched back over to her. “You're lying.”

“Why would I lie about something like that? It's easy enough for you to check. I moved into the place two days ago.”

“Why?” he demanded, eyeing her warily.

“Because I didn't want to be living out of a suitcase while I'm working here.”

Justin's head snapped up at that. “Working here? On what?”

“Finding the baby that was kidnapped from the Carsons' ranch. The FBI said they'd had a request for my help.”

“The hell they did,” Justin shouted. “There's no way that I asked for you, and if anyone in Lone Star County had, I'd know about it.”

“Evidently, someone did,” Angela replied, recalling her conversation with her FBI contact and her dismay upon hearing no one had advised Justin about her involvement in the case.

Justin snatched up the phone. “Audrey Lou, get the person we had as a contact with the FBI on the phone for me. Now.” When he slammed the receiver back down, he said, “I'll speak with the Bureau and have them take you off the case.”

“I don't want off the case.”

“No offense, Mason, but I don't need your help.”

“No offense taken, Wainwright. But you obviously do need my help. So does the FBI. From what I understand, the little girl's been missing for almost three months now. And you and I both know that in a kidnapping every day that goes by without her being found makes the chances of getting her back even slimmer.”