Texas Holiday Hideout Read online

  He approached her while she was stretched out on the couch, a blanket covering her. “I’d like you to look at these photographs to see if you can point out the marshal who gave you back the necklace.”

  She nodded and took the phone with shaky hands. “I’ll do my best.”

  She scrolled through several photos before she stopped on one. “That’s him.”

  She handed the phone back to him and he glanced at the image. His heart dropped. She’d just pointed out Adam Stringer, his best friend and Lanie’s boyfriend. Adam was the one to place the GPS tracker on the necklace.

  He sent the image to Griffin with a short message about Melissa’s identification and then he put his phone away. He leaned against the desk in the office as the weight of the truth about his life sank in. Even his secrets had secrets, and he was growing weary of them. His friend, one of the only people in the world he’d felt comfortable sharing himself with, had proven untrustworthy and placed Melissa and Dylan’s lives in danger.

  God, I don’t know where to turn.

  How could his friend have betrayed him this way? How could someone be so desperate that they would turn on a witness under their protection? He couldn’t understand it, but at least now he could call in the marshals to help search for Dylan. The program still owed it to her to find her son and bring him home safely.

  Griffin sent him a text message letting him know the marshals would be arriving in Courtland County by the next morning. They were bringing the full force of the United States Marshals Service with them, minus Adam Stringer, who had mysteriously gone missing and wasn’t answering his cell phone.

  Miles watched Melissa through the office window as she dealt with her grief over what she’d done, keeping that secret from him. His heart broke for her. He understood Melissa’s dislike for secrecy and he was beginning to dislike it more and more. Could he continue doing what he did even once this was all over? The problem was that he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. His job was important and the secrecy was a necessary part of it. That would never change for him. But perhaps the agency and Griffin would implement some controls that would prevent their inspectors from being so isolated that they became prime recruits for the bad guys.

  Of course, any change they made in the future wouldn’t do anything to help Melissa right now. The only thing the marshals service could do for her at this point was rally the forces to try to get back her son...and then send Melissa and Dylan off to start a new life somewhere. Without him.

  He couldn’t deny his attraction had been growing stronger and stronger with each day he’d been with her. He wanted her and Dylan in his life, but that was something that could never be. Especially not now, after he’d let her down the way he had. His only hope was to bring Dylan home to her and make certain the next place they were sent to would be safe. Keeping her alive had to be more important than keeping her with him.

  But first, they had to find Dylan.

  And given that Adam had gone MIA at the same time that an unknown man had begun recruiting people to kidnap Melissa, Miles suspected the man on that video had been Adam. That was why his voice had sounded so familiar on Zeke’s recording.

  He was going to find Adam and make sure he paid the price for his betrayal.

  * * *

  Miles and Melissa headed back to the Silver Star. The chasm between them stretched far and wide and felt all the more painful as he recalled how close they’d become. All that was gone now and he wondered if they could ever get it back. Perhaps it was better that they never did. He’d moved his focus from protecting Melissa to being with her, and that had caused him to overlook important details, things that had placed her and her son’s life in danger. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—allow that to happen again.

  Once they were back at the ranch, she went upstairs and locked herself into her bedroom, while Miles settled down to reread the statements and reports from Dylan’s kidnapping. They still hadn’t received any contact from the killer luring Melissa to him. That troubled Miles. What other purpose would they have in taking Dylan? Dylan hadn’t even been in the house when Melissa’s mother was killed and, even if he had been, he was too young to testify against Kirby. And besides, why kidnap Dylan when Melissa was right there, drugged and vulnerable? The perfect target. Had the drug in the drinks been meant to kill her instead of just knocking her out? That was a possibility, but as murder weapons went, it was a sloppy one. That led him back to Zeke’s encounter with the mystery man, possibly Adam, who was recruiting young adults to try to harm her.

  He poured over the statements taken from everyone they’d interviewed that evening. The roadblocks were still set up and other counties alerted, and an Amber Alert had been issued for Dylan, but so far no leads had come in to point them in the right direction.

  He made a list of all the people who had been at the sheriff’s office around the time Dylan went missing. They included Melissa, Miles, Josh, Paul, Kellyanne, Ellie, Deputy Vance, Deputy Willbrook and Deputy Turner. There had also been two food deliveries during that time, including the laced coffee that Melissa and Kellyanne ultimately drank. He knew Josh had had trouble with a former deputy back in the summer who had been secretly working for a drug runner. It was possible they were dealing with a similar situation, but he had to admit, he’d known all three of these deputies for most of his life and couldn’t imagine any one of them kidnapping a child. And from what he’d heard, if anyone knew the heartbreak of losing a child, it was Ellie. She could never put another mother through that nightmare just for some quick cash.

  He moved on to the delivery drivers who’d brought the food and coffee. The coffee had come from a local café around the corner that regularly delivered to the sheriff’s office. Josh and the others knew both delivery drivers well and, during questioning, neither had acted suspicious, and their backgrounds didn’t have any red flags.

  He rubbed his hands over his face and sighed. He had to think about this differently. What if Dylan’s kidnapping had nothing to do with the threats against Melissa? What if this incident wasn’t a result of Kirby or Shearer plotting against her? It was a stretch, but it was a possibility he had to look at. It would explain why they’d had no contact with the kidnappers and why they hadn’t killed Melissa when they’d had the opportunity.

  He glanced through the list of names again.

  He realized if he was going to consider the idea that someone might have kidnapped Dylan for their own personal reasons, he had to look at Ellie as a viable suspect. She’d lost a child, as well as had multiple miscarriages, if the rumor mill was to be believed. Just because someone lost a child didn’t automatically make them crazy enough to snatch someone else’s child, he rationalized. But Ellie had lost more than just children. She’d lost her husband through divorce and her parents the year before. She’d gone from buying high-priced clothes and living in a large home to working at Robbie’s as a salesclerk. And she’d doted on Dylan when she’d seen him.

  So has Kellyanne.

  So has everyone who knows Dylan.

  He grunted. His sister obviously wasn’t a kidnapper, but he couldn’t completely rule out Ellie without speaking to her first. She’d been at the sheriff’s office before Dylan had been kidnapped but hadn’t been there afterwards. But then neither had the food and coffee delivery drivers. They’d had to return later to be questioned but, to his knowledge, no one had been able to reach Ellie for questioning.

  And while he questioned her, he could have his brother check out more nefarious reasons Dylan might have been taken.

  He dialed Josh and learned he and Cecile had already investigated that angle. “I got a list of pedophiles in the area and we’re in the process of accounting for all of their whereabouts, but so far, it doesn’t look like any of them were anywhere near the courthouse or the sheriff’s office. There were no court sessions going on that late so few people would have reason to be at the cou
rthouse, and I think we’ve questioned everyone we saw on the video surveillance that was close by.”

  “I want to reinterview the deputies who were there, then go talk to Ellie just so I can cross her off my list.” He didn’t really believe she was a suspect, but she’d been there so he had to speak to her.

  “Cecile is already handling those interviews, but I don’t believe any of them were involved. I’ll go with you to Ellie’s,” Josh stated. “I’ll meet you at her house.”

  Josh rattled off the address taken from Ellie’s earlier complaint about a break-in and Miles put it into his phone. He woke his dad and asked him to keep an eye out for Melissa, and his father assured him he would.

  Miles drove to the address Josh had given him and found his brother already parked in the driveway. Miles got out and approached him.

  “It doesn’t look like anyone is at home,” Josh told him, “but look what I found sitting by the outside trash.”

  Miles saw it was a brand-new box for a child’s car seat and knew without a doubt Ellie was involved. That meant it looked less and less like this had anything to do with Kirby or Shearer or the reason Melissa was in WITSEC in the first place.

  “There also don’t appear to be any signs of a break-in. All the doors and windows are secure. She must have concocted that break-in story to have a reason to be at the sheriff’s office.”

  “But how would she have known we would be there at that time?”

  Josh shrugged. “Small-town gossip? At least it didn’t get back to the men Zeke was meeting with.”

  Miles soaked it all in and tried to think where Ellie might go. Then he recalled the conversation they’d had at the general store. “She has an aunt in Dallas. We need to find out where that is.”

  He hoped Ellie wasn’t a sophisticated enough criminal to think about covering her tracks. Or perhaps she thought they would blame whoever was after Melissa. Which they had. Truthfully, she could be anywhere, but they would start their search for her with the only family she had left.

  “On it.” Josh nodded, pulled out his cell phone and called the office.

  Miles phoned Paul, updated him and asked him to return to the Silver Star to keep an eye on Melissa. Paul agreed. Now that he believed Dylan’s kidnapping wasn’t tied to Kirby or Shearer, Miles couldn’t discount the possibility that they, or someone they’d hired to do their dirty work, would take advantage of his absence to try to grab her. He wanted to be there but knew she would want him to focus on bringing Dylan home first.

  * * *

  Lanie, Griffin, several of the other marshals in his office and a unit from the Dallas PD met them at the address Cecile had found for Ellie’s aunt. Miles readied himself to enter the apartment, praying he would find Dylan unharmed. He was already looking forward to holding him again and bringing him home to Melissa.

  Lanie removed her US Marshal gear and approached the apartment first, knocking on the door with a made-up story about searching for her missing cat. The woman who answered—obviously Ellie’s aunt—wished her luck but stated she hadn’t seen anything. Lanie thanked her, then walked back toward the group.

  She nodded at Miles. “There is a child in there. I saw him sitting on the couch with a woman who looked like our suspect.”

  Miles thanked her, all sympathy for Ellie evaporating now that he knew she’d drugged Melissa and Kellyanne, then snatched Dylan from them. He readied his weapon, hoping he wouldn’t need it but wanting to be ready in case he did.

  Dallas PD led the maneuver into the apartment and by the time Miles entered, the officers were in a standoff with Ellie.

  She gasped when she spotted Miles. “You can’t just come in here without knocking.”

  But he was done talking to her. “Move away from the child, Ellie.”

  From behind her, he spotted a dark head poke out and a smile light up the boy’s face. “Miles!”

  Ellie scooped Dylan into her arms and Miles took several steps toward her, but she quickly walked backward the same distance. “Don’t come any closer,” she demanded, gripping the boy so tightly that he began to whimper. “I’ll hurt him if you come any closer.”

  He shook his head. “You don’t want to hurt him. He doesn’t belong to you. You have to know this is wrong.”

  Her aunt, who’d already been detained by the local PD, cried out. “Ellie, what did you do? You told me you adopted him from a family who couldn’t care for him any longer.”

  Ellie’s face contorted. “Wrong? You have no idea what the word wrong means. Wasn’t it wrong that I had to lose my baby? That I had to have my husband leave me? That I lost my parents? Wasn’t that wrong? Don’t I deserve something good in my life? Melissa has everything I’ve ever wanted. The husband, the child, the big loving family. Why should she get all of that when I have nothing, Miles?”

  His heart broke at her words, mostly because she had no idea what Melissa had and didn’t have. Melissa’s tales of woe were as bad as Ellie’s. She’d lost so much, too. Her mother, her home, her husband. Even her identity. All she had left was this child that Ellie had taken from her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he warned her. “You have no idea what her life is like and now you’re trying to take the only good thing she has—her child.”

  “I’ve lost everything! At least she still has you, Miles.”

  So once again, Melissa was in this mess because of him, because of the lies and secrets he’d forced her to share. He’d made up a life for her that was built on lies, and those lies had convinced an unstable woman that Melissa was a fair target. She would never forgive him for this and that was okay. He would be satisfied enough if he could bring Dylan back to her. “I’m not letting you leave with that child. You may as well hand him over.”

  She clung to him and Dylan began to cry. He squirmed and called Miles’s name, reaching for him. “Miles! Miles, help me!” He managed to wriggle away from her and slide to the floor, running toward Miles before she could grab him again.

  Ellie’s shoulders slumped as Miles scooped Dylan into his arms and hugged him, soaking in the feel of him. Melissa had missed him so much, but until that moment Miles hadn’t realized how much he’d missed him, too, how much he would miss them both when they were gone. They’d been playing this game of make-believe for so long and he’d become invested in it and in them. But it was time to reunite this family—and remind himself that he wasn’t a part of it.

  He glanced back to Ellie, who’d fallen to her knees in hysterical tears. He left the Dallas PD to handle her and carried Dylan outside to his truck.

  Lanie approached him and Miles turned to her. “Thank you for coming when I needed you.”

  She gave him a half-hearted shrug. “Always.” Then she punched him—hard—in the arm. “And that’s for thinking I could ever be a mole or betray a witness. My aunt loaned me the money to buy that house.”

  He rubbed his arm. She was petite but fierce. “I’m sorry about that. I suppose Griffin told you about Adam, though?”

  He saw a mixture of hurt and anger flash across her expression before she regained control of her emotions. “He did. After talking to Griffin, I went to Adam’s apartment and did some snooping of my own. Apparently, he’s been gambling. He’s got debts.”

  Miles knew where this was leading. “And Max Shearer just happened to buy those debts.”

  She nodded. “Looks that way. I’ll take my car and follow you back to the Silver Star to drop this little guy back with his mama, then we need to work on finding Adam before he does any more damage.”

  Miles buckled Dylan into his car seat, then he and Josh headed back to the ranch with Lanie, Griffin and three other marshals following behind. He phoned the house to let Melissa know and his mother answered. She squealed at the news. “She’s resting upstairs. I’ll run up there now and tell her.”

  He thanked her, then ended the call.
At least he would be able to fulfill one promise he’d made to Melissa. He was returning Dylan to her. That would have to be enough to make up for his falling down on the job of keeping them safe in the first place. Then they would find Adam and bring him to justice, and send Melissa and Dylan on to their new life and new identities with the assurance that the leak in WITSEC had been taken care of.

  * * *

  A crash shook the house and jerked Melissa awake. She’d been struggling to rest but must have finally dozed off. Now this.

  She heard voices rising from downstairs, so she opened the door and rushed out. A few steps down, she saw what had made the jarring noise. A full-size SUV had slammed through the front window of the house.

  She hurried down a few more steps before she saw bodies on the floor—Paul, John and Diane, all lying unconscious. Kellyanne was kneeling over Paul, then she looked up at the intruder. “You hit my brother. He was standing by the window.”

  John pushed himself to his elbows then tried to scramble to his feet. “Get out of here,” he cried at the intruder, who didn’t seem bothered in the least by his warning.

  John lunged at the man, who used the back end of his gun to club him over the head. John grunted and fell back down, causing Kellyanne to rush over to him.

  “Daddy, are you okay?”

  Melissa started to turn and run back upstairs to phone for help, but the man’s voice stopped her cold. “There you are.”

  She turned and saw his eyes locked on her. “Come here, Melissa. You’re coming with me.”

  Fear locked her in her spot. She recognized him as the man, the marshal, who’d given her back her mother’s necklace. The man who’d bugged it and used it to track her to Courtland County and the Silver Star Ranch, all so he could hand her over to be murdered. She shook her head. “I won’t go with you.”