Leaving Liberty, a Western Romance (Book 5) (Texas Hearts) (2 page)

Jackson looked up at Libby as she propped her fists on her slender hips and glared down at him as he sat in her father’s chair. And suddenly Jackson knew who she’d gotten that stern and stubborn glare from. He wondered, too, if Libby Calvert would have ever had that much fire talking to her ol’ man.

Jackson stood up slowly. As he did, Libby kept her eyes fixed on his and it became completely apparent how much taller he was than her. But she didn’t shrink back as he towered over her and for that he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of admiration, even though the visit here was a bust. She was a pistol, for sure.

“I don’t believe your father’s death was an accident.”

She sighed. “What are you implying?”

“Were you good in math?”

“Math?”

“Yes. One plus one equals two?”

She folded her arms across her chest, clearly irritated. “You’ve come here to give me a math lesson?”

“No. But I can see this is a bad time for us to talk.”

She chuckled without any humor. “You think?”

He’d overstayed his welcome. If he’d ever really been welcome at all. Jackson propped his hat on his head and nodded to her. He’d give her a few days to work through her feelings and then he’d be back. There were enough people in town he still needed to talk to before he could wrap up this investigation and be on his way out of Liberty.

“I’ll just see myself out,” he said. Jackson started to walk toward the foyer, but then turned around. “I’m not leaving Liberty. One way or another I will get the answers I need for my investigation.”

Liberty Calvert lifted her chin with determination and fire. “I would expect nothing less.”

* * *

Only when Libby heard the front door shut completely did she allow herself to breathe again. She slumped down into her father’s chair, leaning her head back and smelling the leather fabric that she’d come to recognize as his scent. But her thoughts were not on her father. The chair was still warm where Jackson Gentry had made an imprint. The strong features of his face consumed her mind as she closed her eyes and tried to steady her rampant heartbeat.

“Are you okay?” Libby opened her eyes to find Cole standing in the doorway. He was still dressed in the clothes he’d worn to the memorial service where they’d spread her father’s ashes.

“Don’t look so worried.”

“It’s kind of hard not to given all you’ve been through.”

“I’m fine.”

“It’s been a trying day for you. This visit from the ranger didn’t help.”

Libby heaved a quick sigh. “I have a feeling this is only the beginning. He’s asking questions about you, Cole, and that can only mean trouble.”

“For who? Me or you?”

Libby thought about it for a minute while she rubbed the dull ache at her temple gently. What started out as a small, throbbing pain was now shaping up to be a full-blown headache.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Cole gave her a half smile. “Okay, fine. Why don’t you take a nap? You look wiped out.”

She didn’t need a nap, especially when she knew sleep was the last thing she’d get. Left alone with her thoughts, she’d think and she didn’t want to think about much of anything lately.

Especially not Ranger Jackson Gentry.

She’d spent more than just these past few minutes thinking about the man. How could she not? She’d seen him in town over the last couple of weeks. Any woman with a pulse would stop dead in her tracks the moment she laid eyes on his baby blues. Libby was no different. She may be damaged goods, but she wasn’t dead inside and she still had stirrings that made her notice a handsome cowboy.

“Lib?” Cole was staring at her.

“He’s coming back.”

Cole simply nodded and dug his hands in the pockets of his coat. “Then I suppose I should get out of this suit so I can tend to the animals. Tomorrow, we should look into getting you some help around here.”

“Why would I need anyone else around here? We’ve been doing just fine on our own.”

“Lib?” She heard the same warning in his voice that he’d given her for the past few weeks. “We talked about this. And now the ranger is snooping around, wanting to dig deeper.”

“Don’t worry. He’ll be leaving soon.”

“But what if he doesn’t?”

“Tomorrow,” she said, shaking her head. She didn’t want to deal with any more today.

She heard the front door close as Cole walked out of the house. And then she was truly alone in her father’s house for the first time in her life.

If Jackson Gentry got too close to the truth, she’d be alone on this ranch as well. All the more reason to get him to leave Liberty as soon as possible. This home had dealt with tragedy before. Her family had weathered many storms through the years. She was all that was left. Just her and this ranch. But if Libby was anything, she was a survivor. And she would survive long after Jackson Gentry left Liberty.

# # #

There were days he hated his job. After his encounter with Liberty Calvert, Jackson decided today was one of them. He glanced over the paperwork he’d collected over the last couple of days on Buck Calvert’s death. Accidents happened every single day. Sometimes they couldn’t be explained. Everything pointed to Buck’s death being an accident except for the fact that he’d been killed from a shot at least fifteen feet away from the weapon. Add the fact that Cole River’s fingerprints were on the very gun that killed Buck and things didn’t add up.

Although Texas Rangers had worked on many high profile cases throughout history, including aiding in stopping Bonnie and Clyde, and stagecoach robber, Sam Bass, most of the work Jackson did was follow-up for local law enforcement when they’d hit a dead end in their investigation, and needed reinforcements to close a case. Sometimes it was easier to have a fresh set of eyes from the outside.

Right now his eyes were failing him. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he closed his eyes, hoping to ease the strain he felt.

In this case, the local sheriff had called him to investigate Buck Calvert’s death. The math analogy he’d given Libby earlier wasn’t his. It was exactly what the sheriff, Levi Nolan had said on the phone when he’d called three weeks ago.

“One plus one shouldn’t add up to three,” Levi had said. His deputy, Dane Bancroft, didn’t think the math was a problem and had voiced his opinion on the matter during their first phone call. That kind of disconnect was enough for him to get in his truck and check things out for himself.

Now he was stuck in Liberty, Texas under delicate circumstances doing math that didn’t add up. What’s worse was the fact that he had taken a liking almost immediately to Liberty Calvert, making it harder for him to put on his usual pressure during questioning.

She hadn’t seemed as broken as she’d been the first day he’d met her. His first few days in town he’d spent looking over files and getting to know who Buck Calvert was to the community. Experience had shown him getting familiar with all the principals of the case first would tell him what questions to ask without rattling too many cages.

Libby Calvert seemed unflappable. Even though he could have pushed her more today, he’d pulled back. He saw the same stubborn determination in her as he’d seen in his brother Cody his whole life. In Cody’s case, it had taken the loss of his eyesight to break through the rough exterior. That and the love of a special woman who’d helped pull Cody out of the hole losing his eyesight had made him fall into. Lyssa McElhannon had been a blessing to Cody and Jackson was thrilled when the two were married.

But Jackson had a lot of work to do before he could enjoy a family reunion with his three brothers. Dropping the paperwork on the small table in his hotel room, he phoned his captain at the main office in Austin.

Paul Townsend answered on the first ring. “I wondered when you’d check in with me,” he said after the initial greeting.

“It’s not as open and shut as I thought it would be when I first got here,” Jackson said, scrubbing his face with the palm of his hand. “I’m going to need to dig a little deeper.”

“I thought you said it looked like an accident.”

“At first, it did. But the rifle was found on the ground at least fifteen feet from the body. Buck Calvert was a lifelong sportsman. He knew gun safety. It seems too clumsy a move for a man with his experience to place his rifle down so that it would discharge if it fell.”

“What?”

“He had another rifle beside him.”

“This is Texas. Lots of ranchers carry more than one rifle with them when they’re out checking their property.”

“Then why place one down and keep the other handy? See what I mean?”

“Is there a motive for any wrong doing? How about the daughter?”

“Liberty Calvert is…”

What? Jackson couldn’t quite put the words to his reaction to Liberty. Somehow he didn’t think telling Paul that Liberty Calvert was beautiful and that he longed to see her smile. Every time he’d seen Libby she’d been stoic, dealing with her pain. Although, there had been a moment earlier when her eyes lit up and he thought he might actually get to see it.

“Jack?”

“Ah, sorry. I got distracted for a moment.”

“Liberty Calvert is now sole heir to the ranch. Is that right? Would she have done something?”

“No. She’s been completely broken up about her father’s death. And she seems…almost too fragile to have done something like this intentionally. Besides, her fingerprints weren’t on the gun.”

“Did you find any other prints?”

“I got prints that matched the victim but also another set from the ranch hand.”

“Have you questioned him?”

“I was going to today. But I walked in at the tail end of the memorial service.”

Paul made a grunting sound. “Bad timing.”

“You could say that. No one was in the mood to cooperate.”

“Are you going to be able to wrap this up in a few days?”

Jackson thought for a moment. When he’d first come to Liberty to investigate Buck Calvert’s death, he’d been convinced he was only going to be in town for two days. Three tops. It had been two weeks since he’d arrived.

“If I can get what I need tomorrow then it should be finished by the end of the week.”

Jackson hung up the phone and wondered why the idea of finishing his investigation left a sense of longing in him. He didn’t know Buck Calvert or anyone else in Liberty, Texas for that matter. Glancing at the names listed in his notes, his eyes settled on Liberty Calvert and he knew the reason he was hanging around.

Liberty wasn’t just a beautiful woman. There was something about her. She was fragile and full of fire all rolled up into one. On the few occasions he’d had the pleasure of watching her, that much was clear. She’d be a challenge. But this was one challenge Jackson wanted to take.

* * *

As Libby had suspected, work was her savior. It had been a long time since she’d worked in the barn and she’d forgotten how much she missed simple dirty work. Hannah had always thought she was crazy whenever she said that. Well, it was no crazier than Hannah’s decision to up and join the army when Libby’s brother, John, was killed in Iraq after his truck had been hit by snipers.

Losing her brother had been bad enough. Losing her best friend had been more than Libby could handle. Trying to be supportive of her friend had been hard, especially long distance. But they’d been best friends since the cradle and whatever differences of opinions they had were never enough to keep a wedge between them.

The grounds outside were quiet except for the horses in the paddock. Occasionally she’d heard the sound of a cow or chicken. But as she finished saddling up Spirit, the chestnut mare she’d raised since birth, she realized she hadn’t heard Cole come back from town.

Standing by the barn door, she scanned the yard and then the driveway. She didn’t see his truck. Her stomach dropped. Had he decided to leave like he said he might?

After a few seconds of worry, she realized the ringing she heard wasn’t coming from her head. It was coming from the phone in the barn. She turned and ran through the barn to the other side to catch the call.

“Lib?”

It took Libby a second to realize it wasn’t Cole calling her from town. “Dane? This is an unexpected surprise, you calling me in the middle of the afternoon. I was working in the barn and almost ignored the phone.”

“Good thing you didn’t. This isn’t a social call.”

“Oh?” Libby’s stomach sank. “Is something wrong? You didn’t get word about Hannah, did you?” If something had happened to Hannah, surely they would have called her directly rather than have Dane send her word. Her heart pounded in her chest.

“No. Nothing like that.”

Libby breathed a sigh of relief and pushed wayward strands of hair away from her face as tears filled her eyes.

“Oh, good. What is it then?”

“I take it you’ve met Ranger Gentry?”

“Ah, yes. He stopped by the house yesterday.”

“He just brought Cole to the station.”

That station would be the police station.

“What? I thought all the questions about my father’s accident had been answered. What’s he fishing for?”

“Don’t know. And I shouldn’t even be calling you. But I know how close you and Cole are.”

“Do I need to hire a lawyer, Dane?”

“That’s not for me to say. They’re just talking.”

Libby bit her bottom lip and swallowed hard. “Thanks for letting me know.”

She hung up the phone and turned around. Spirit was all saddled up and ready to go. She’d needed this ride as much as Spirit did to clear her mind.

She walked over to Spirit and stroked her nose, lovingly. “Sorry, girl. We’re going to have to take a rain check on that ride.”

* * *

Damn Jackson Gentry. Libby drove the entire way to the police station, fuming about the mess this ranger was making of her life. Didn’t she already have enough to deal with? If grieving wasn’t enough, she still had a ranch to run. Without Cole on the Bucking Hills Ranch to help her pick up the extra work, everything would fall apart. As much as she longed to get back to work, to feel a sense of normalcy again, Libby knew she still didn’t have her full strength back.