Gambling on a Dream (7 page)

Her mother’s mums splashed reds and golds against the white clapboard of the house, and the whicker rockers scattered over the expanse invited her to take a seat as she had so many times before. She leaned against the thick railing and crossed her arms. The deep porch where she and her brothers played as kids shaded them from the late-morning sun.

A board creaked as Wyatt shifted his weight. From the hard line of his jaw, he was gritting his teeth. “Chief, we don’t think he’s guilty, but the evidence isn’t looking good in his favor. And leaving town now, only serves to make matters worse.”

Chief squinted his eyes as he looked at Wyatt. “I’ll tell you this much. Yes, I know where Talon is, but I ain’t free to tell you. I can tell you it’s a personal matter and got nothing at all to do with these dead kids or the drugs they’ve been dealin’.” He glanced at Dawn and winked. “I think he took a plane out of Dallas.” He set to peeling the apple again. “Now, get out of here. Your momma can be a real slave driver. She wants these apples peeled before noon.”

Her mother wouldn’t have expected Chief to do any such thing. He no doubt offered to peel the apples for her. With a smile tugging at her lips, Dawn pushed off the railing and kissed her grandfather on the cheek. “I love you, Chief.”

He pulled back and frowned, but she saw the grin that blossomed before it first. “What’s this? I didn’t say nothin’. But I guess I love you too.” He shook the apple and knife. “Now, I mean it, get goin’ with ya and stop botherin’ old men like me.”

Shaking her head with a smile, she patted Wyatt on the arm. “C’mon. Let’s go.”

When they arrived at her sheriff’s Tahoe, Wyatt climbed into the passenger’s side and watched as she buckled herself in. “I’ll check out the Dallas flights.”

She nodded and turned the key. “Good. Chief gave me more than I’d expected he would.” As she turned the SUV around in front of her parents’ garage, she glanced at Wyatt. “We both know Talon isn’t the killer, and chasing him is taking the focus off the real murderer.”

“That’s what I think too.” Wyatt latched his seatbelt and looked out the side window. “I’ll check out the lead with the airport. You continue to see what else you can find out about who might be involved with the drug culture of Colton.”

Turning onto Blackwell Road to head back to town, she looked out over the pastures and trees that lined the narrow country road. She huffed and shook her head. “Who would have ever thought a tiny town like Colton, Texas, would have a drug culture?”

* * * *

Dinner at the McPhersons’ house on Sunday afternoon was quickly becoming the crowning jewel in a shitty week.

Yesterday, the coroner’s report came in for the time of death for Vaughn--sometime between nine and eleven o’clock Tuesday night. No witnesses put Talon, or anyone else for that matter, at the scene. As for the lead Chief gave them, Wyatt discovered Talon boarded a redeye for Las Vegas late Wednesday night. A murderer would have covered his tracks better than that.

“So, Wy, when are you moving out to the ranch?” his twin sister asked him over the autumn daisies, sitting in the middle of his mother’s antique oak table.

He shook off his thoughts from yesterday and reached for his glass of sweet tea. So far, dinner had been anything but pleasant. Rachel sat to his left and picked at her roast beef and garlic mashed potatoes. Lance sat next to his wife across from Rachel and kept his gaze on the plate of food he wasn’t doing a good job of pretending to eat. Only his parents seemed excited to have their family gathered. Of course, no one mentioned the conspicuously empty chair tucked in the corner by the door. Kyle’s name and what he’d done to Charli Quinn weren’t brought up.

He sipped his tea. “I’m hoping to start moving tomorrow. I’m off, since it’s Columbus Day and the Estradas moved out over the weekend.”

“We’d be glad to help.” Lance glanced at Audrey who nodded.

His mother sipped her sweet tea. “Of course we’ll help you move too.”

“I’ll have to check in at the firehouse, but I’ll be around.” His father cut into his roast. “Now, you need to find a wife and start filling up that big old house with my grandkids.”

Marlin Ferguson McPherson had always been something of the black sheep of his family. He’d joined the Navy when he was seventeen to get away from the ranch that had been in his father’s family for three generations. But Wyatt suspected his father had also left Colton to get away from a family legacy he never quite lived up to. After all, he wasn’t a Ferguson by name, but everyone in the county considered him one since his mother was part of the famous clan that helped build Colton, along with the Cartwrights and Blackwells.

In the Navy, his father had become a firefighter and spent the Vietnam War on a ship in the Pacific. When he’d gotten out, he’d come back to Colton and married his high school sweetheart. But he’d refused to be just a rancher. He’d volunteered at the local fire department and lobbied for them to organize into a paid entity. He’d been the first and only fire chief to have ever been a Forest County employee.

However, for as much as his dad yanked against his roots in the hard, dusty soil of Central Texas, he’d lived as God wanted every good Texan to--married to a good woman, an even better cook, and had at least one child to pass along the family bible to.

So far, all four of his father’s children have been a disappointment in that last area. Wyatt didn’t miss the look that passed between Audrey and Lance. They’d been trying to have a child for twelve years, ever since Audrey lost her first pregnancy after a riding accident. The only other time Audrey was pregnant since, she’d miscarried early.

Rachel shifted in her seat, and he frowned. His father was one of the most genuine and nicest men he’d ever known, but sometimes he was as uncouth as a bull in rutting season. Hadn’t he considered how his words would have hurt his daughters? Rachel had never been pregnant, and now she would never have a child of her own.

Wyatt shoveled a fork full of the mashed potatoes smothered in rich gravy into his mouth to keep from responding.

“At least, you had the good sense not to marry Vanessa.” His mother forked some green beans into her mouth.

Marrying Vanessa would have been the biggest mistake of his life. When she confronted him about marriage for the last time, she gave him an ultimatum--he had to either marry her or breakup with her. He walked away and never looked back.

“You need to find a local girl,” his mother said.

“Amen to that.” His father took a bite of the roast. “Jeannie, this is one damned good roast.”

“Thank you, Marlin.” His mother actually blushed. “It’s your momma’s secret recipe.”

How could a recipe be secret if his mother knew it? He didn’t know, but he was glad the talk of grandkids was dropped.

“Lance and I have good news,” Audrey said.

“What’s that, sweetheart?” His mother took one of her homemade rolls out of the basket beside her. “Rachel, dear, could you please pass the butter.”

Lance and Audrey exchanged a secret smile, and Wyatt had the feeling of sinking in quicksand as he shoved another bite of potatoes into his mouth.

“I’m having a baby!”

Wyatt choked on the potatoes and stared across the table at his sister and the man sitting next to her. His stomach twisted and flopped over. So much for the topic of kids being over.

He jerked his gaze to Rachel when her fork clattered on the china plate in front of her. Her shoulders curved inward, and she folded her hands in her lap so tightly her knuckles were white. Wyatt could have wrung his twin sister’s neck right then and there. Goddamn, didn’t she have any idea what this was doing to their baby sister?

As his mother jumped out of her chair at the far end, she dropped her butter knife. It clanged against her plate and fell to the oak floor with a soft thud. Ignoring the utensil, leaving a grease stain on the ancient braided rug, his mother rounded the table. Audrey stood and hugged her mother.

“Oh, God, that’s fantastic news, sweetheart!” His mother moved from his sister’s embrace and into Lance’s arms. She kissed his cheek. “I’m so happy for you both.” She took Audrey’s hand. “When are you due?”

“April tenth.” Audrey laid her free hand over the flared blouse covering her belly. Her smile was bright enough to short out a power plant. “We waited until we were sure things were okay before saying anything. I had a doctor appointment on Friday, and he’s convinced this pregnancy is healthy and perfect. I couldn’t wait to tell you, Momma.”

“The funny thing is we found out she was pregnant during our appointment with the fertility specialist last month.” Lance chuckled, wrapped his arm around Audrey’s waist, and pulled her close. “Shocked the hell out of us both,” he drawled, in that deep Texas cowboy twang he’d seemed to have perfected despite the law degree hanging in his Dallas office and his thousand-dollar designer suits.

“Congratulations, Tinkerbell.” His father kissed Audrey on her forehead and chuckled as he shook Lance’s hand. “About time you get the job done right, buddy.”

His parents were thrilled, but Rachel shook as if cold, as if she were only holding herself together by the thin stitches of her pride. She grabbed her cane from the back of her chair and teetered to her feet.

Wyatt stood, taking her freezing hand. “Where’re you going?”

“I’m not feeling well.” She pulled her cold fingers from his hand as she looked up at him. The pain in her eyes broke his heart.

With the cane for balance, she turned and set her prosthetic foot on the floor before her. She moved her good foot forward, then the fake one. The going was slow, but the result was the same. She was running away. And that scared him. Rachel had been running away for most of her life.

Audrey moved away from her husband and parents and easily caught their sister at the door. “Rachel?”

She jumped at her sister’s soft touch on her shoulder. She’d been so intent on running she must not have heard Audrey behind her.

“Are you okay?”

Wyatt couldn’t see Audrey’s face, but the concern in her voice seemed genuine.

Rachel sucked in a breath so deep her shoulders moved up, then down as she exhaled.

Audrey pushed her long sandy blond hair behind her ears. “I guess I should have been thinking when we made the announcement. It’s just that after so many years of trying… and Dad’s talk… I’m so sorry.”

“No, you should be happy. Congratulations. But now I need to lie down.” She limped out of the dining room.

Wyatt stared after Rachel until the closing of her bedroom door sounded like a thunderclap in the quiet room.

He whirled on Audrey with the fury of a tornado brewing inside him. “Are you really this much of a heartless bitch? Or are you blind to what has happened to our baby sister?”

“Whoa, buddy. Audrey might be your sister”--Lance stepped up beside Audrey and put his arm around her shoulders--”but she’s my wife, and I won’t let anyone, including you, talk to her that way.”

Audrey swallowed again, blinked her eyes, and wrapped her arms around herself. The silence was deafening as he stared at his sister. “Is that what you think of me?” Her voice cracked.

“No.” Wyatt took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry… But damn it. This is killing her. Don’t you see it? You and Lance, and what you did, is not making any of this easier on her.”

Audrey closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’ll admit I was wrong all those years ago. Dear God, I know I shouldn’t have done what I did to her. But she’s the one who’s been pining after my husband for twelve years.”

“I’ve never
pined
after Lance.”

Wyatt turned to Rachel, standing in the doorway. His parents went to her side, but she stepped away from them.

“Then what do you call not ever coming home? Never once even acknowledging me? You were home in May and didn’t speak to me or Lance even once.” Audrey lowered her arms to her sides.

Rachel moved into the room and winced as her father helped her into a chair.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to your room?” Dad asked.

Rachel shook her head. “No, Daddy. This has to come out. This needs to be said.” She tucked her cane in beside her, and he moved away.

Wyatt glanced at the stricken faces of his parents, standing next to each other in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room.

Rachel wiped over her mouth with her left hand. For the first time, Wyatt noticed the diamond ring. She must have gone to her room to get it. “At first, I hated you both.” She looked at Lance, and he squared his shoulders. “Yes, I loved you. But soon, I realized you were not the only goldfish in the bowl. In fact, you were a tadpole to my Alex’s whale.”

“Who’s Alex?” their mother asked.

Rachel bowed her head and fisted her left hand. “Alex and I met four years ago in Afghanistan after the Battle of Wanat. I flew into his MASH in the belly of a helicopter with three wounded soldiers on board, one of them critical. He was only a private. Right out of basic and hadn’t a clue. He was shot in the leg. Here.” She rubbed her upper thigh over her jeans and her eyes looked beyond them, as if she were back there in the battle. “The bullet severed his femoral artery, and he was bleeding out. I couldn’t apply a tourniquet on the battlefield because it was too close to his groin. All that was keeping that boy alive was the hemostat I’d clamped on the heart side of the artery and the pressure I held on the wound.” She shook her head again and swallowed.

Her mother put her hands on her shoulders. “Rachel, sweetheart, you don’t have to do this.”

Rachel tilted her head to look at her mother. “Yes, Momma, I do. Or y’all will continue thinking I’ve spent my life as some pathetic, jilted old maid because my older sister stole my boyfriend.” She pushed her mother’s hands away and stood.

When she wobbled, Wyatt rushed forward and caught her before she fell.

Rachel glared at him, but she didn’t push him away. She held onto him as she faced their sister and brother-in-law. “As the other two wounded were helped out by the medics, Alex climbed into the Hewie, and together we saved that boy’s life. The kid had long ago passed out, so we did what we had to. Once we got him inside for surgery, we cleaned the wound, removed the bullet, and repaired the artery.”