The Marshal's Justice (Appaloosa Pass Ranch 4) (6 page)

“I want Bailey in my life,” he said. “We’ll just have to work out the rest as we go along.”

April didn’t get a chance to say anything about that because the footsteps got their attention. Jericho was walking up the hall toward them, and he had his phone pressed to his ear.

Chase put the baby back in April’s arms and stood. Waiting for Jericho to finish his call. Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait too long.

“That was Houston PD. A uniform was responding to a call in Quentin’s neighborhood and spotted your brother near his house,” Jericho explained.

April slowly got to her feet. “Is he okay?”

Jericho shook his head. “Quentin appeared to be bleeding, but he ran. The cop’s in pursuit now.”

Chapter Six

April held Bailey even though the baby was sound asleep and would likely stay that way for hours. Her head was spinning with too many bad thoughts and images. Ones that would be there for a lifetime no doubt.

Images of Deanne dead.

And of Bailey being ripped from April’s arms during the kidnapping.

Having Bailey so close to her now helped stave off some of those nightmares. Being at the safe house helped some, too. But April still couldn’t fight off all of those bad thoughts. Now she had her brother to worry about. The police had yet to find Quentin, and he was out there somewhere, on the run. Maybe injured.

Maybe dead.

Plus, there was the additional worry of being in the safe house itself. The place wasn’t that big, only one living area, two bedrooms and two baths, and while it was better than staying at the sheriff’s office, it meant close quarters. With Chase.

Chase finished up his latest round of calls. All whispered conversations he’d had in the kitchen. And while looking over the notes he’d taken during those calls, he made his way back into the living room. He checked Bailey first, but it was obvious from Chase’s bunched-up forehead that he’d learned some things in those conversations that hadn’t pleased him.

“The CSIs gathered up all the cameras and bugs from my house,” Chase explained, keeping his voice low probably so that he wouldn’t wake the baby. “There were eight in all, and they’ll be analyzed for prints and trace. We might get lucky.”

She doubted Crossman’s lackeys would be that careless, especially after they’d done such a thorough job of installing them. After all, Chase hadn’t had a clue they were there until April had pointed out the possibility.

Chase scowled again, something he’d been doing all night, and despite what he’d just said to her, he looked at her as if she’d screwed up yet once again.

And in his eyes she had.

But since Deanne had been right about those cameras at Chase’s place, the woman had probably been right about the mole in the marshals’ office, as well. It’d been too big of a risk for April to call him when Bailey was born. Of course, in hindsight that hadn’t kept Bailey safe. Maybe nothing would, and that broke April’s heart.

“What about the man you killed, the one who murdered Deanne,” she said. She kept her voice at a whisper, too. “Anything more on him?”

“Nothing. Especially nothing to connect us to Crossman or Deanne. I thought maybe Deanne knew him. Maybe they had somehow been involved.”

He didn’t need to spell that out. Chase had been looking to see if Deanne had been hired to lure Chase and her to that creek. “Deanne was just as afraid of Crossman as I am,” April pointed out.

“Maybe. But Deanne had been living her normal life. Well, normal for a CI anyway. If Crossman hadn’t gone after her in these past six months, then I figured he didn’t want to pay her back for the part she’d played in his arrest.”

And Deanne had indeed played a part. But the difference was Deanne hadn’t agreed to testify against Crossman. Instead, the cops had made a deal with April and Quentin because they thought their lack of a police record would make them more credible. They’d turned informant, and in exchange they wouldn’t be prosecuted for the crimes that’d gone on in the bar that Quentin owned.

In Crossman’s eyes, that no doubt made them traitors. Along with his CPA, who was also scheduled to testify at his upcoming trial.

“I want to pay for Deanne’s funeral,” April offered. “It’s the least I can do for her.”

Chase nodded. “I’ll let Jericho know, but it’ll be a while before the ME will release the body.”

Yes, because it was a murder.

“Still no sign of Quentin,” Chase continued a moment later, “but the blood found in his house is being tested to see if it’s really his.”

April had been in worst-case-scenario mode for a while now, and she hadn’t figured the blood belonged to anyone but Quentin. However, maybe it belonged to one of Crossman’s thugs. She hoped it did. Maybe Quentin had managed to hurt one of them before he’d escaped.

Chase looked over his notes. “I found out more about Renée. The local cops interviewed some of her neighbors, and according to several of them, she’s mentally ill. Has been for years.”

April groaned softly. This was the woman who’d had Bailey for hours. Thank God Renée hadn’t done anything to harm her. “Did Renée’s neighbors believe she was actually pregnant?”

“Yeah. With Quentin’s baby.” Chase paused. “I think we have to consider that Renée, not Crossman, was behind the kidnapping. It’s possible she hired someone to hack into WITSEC to find you because she was planning to pass off Bailey as her and Quentin’s child.”

April’s stomach twisted and turned to the point where she had to take several deep breaths to steady herself. “If that’s true, then she hired those gunmen. She’s the one responsible for Deanne’s death.”

Chase nodded. “And it could have been her plan to kill us once she found out where Quentin was.”

What sickened April even more was that it could have worked. If Renée and Quentin had been actual lovers, that is. Since Quentin had many lovers, she figured Renée could be telling the truth about that.

“If Renée hired those two gunmen, then she could have hired others,” April said, thinking out loud. “Or at least one other one who helped her escape.”

He nodded. “That’s what I was thinking, too. Even though Jax said Renée seemed scared when the gunman took her. Of course, she could have been faking that or maybe she decided hired thugs weren’t so trustworthy after all.”

True. The thugs could have turned on Renée.

“Renée has an estranged husband we’re trying to track down,” Chase added. “His name is Shane Hackett, and one of the neighbors said whenever Renée’s in trouble, she always turns to Shane for help.”

Well, that was a start. The woman was definitely in trouble now so maybe she was with her husband. Though April couldn’t imagine Shane or anyone else staying with a woman who was so obsessed with another man.

“Any indications that Shane knows about Renée’s possible affair with Quentin?” she asked.

“He knows. That’s the reason Renée and he separated. He hasn’t filed for a divorce yet, though, and at least one neighbor thought that was because Shane was still in love with her.”

Heaven help him. Of course, it was possible Shane was off his rocker, too.

“I can’t get started on a more permanent safe house and a new WITSEC identity for the three of us,” Chase continued a moment later. “Not until I’m sure it’s okay to deal with the marshals. But we can stay here until I figure out a better solution.”

Chase walked closer, eased down on the arm of the sofa next to her. No scowl this time because he looked at Bailey instead of her. He smiled, something he had been doing every time he looked at their daughter.

That smile could be trouble.

Not just because it stirred the heat inside April but because the love he had for Bailey might make it harder for her to talk him out of making one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

“You told me once you had no plans for fatherhood,” April tossed out there. Obviously, not very subtle.

His eyebrow lifted, and Chase gave her a
where’s this going?
look. “I didn’t. That was then. This is now.”

Yes, but his
now
was colored by the love he had for his daughter. “You said the badge would always be your first priority. What you loved most.”

Oh, that got her another scowl. “What I love most is my family. That includes Bailey.” He huffed. “What’s this about? Are you trying to talk me out of going into WITSEC with you?”

“Yes,” she readily answered. “Just hear me out,” April added before he could dismiss her. “You do love being a marshal. You and your brothers have that whole need-to-get-justice thing. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not just a job. It’s a way of life. It’s
you
.”

The scowl got worse. “If you think I’ll just walk away from my daughter—”

“No, but I believe there’s another way of being a father without giving up what you are.
Who
you are,” April corrected. “It wouldn’t be easy, but we could set up secure locations for you to visit Bailey on a regular basis.”

“Visitation rights.” Chase said that as if it were profanity. Somehow, though, despite the intense conversation, he managed to keep his voice soft. “I don’t want to just visit my daughter. I want to be her father.”

“I know. But I’m trying to look down the road. We might be in WITSEC for the rest of our lives. What will you do? Because you certainly can’t be in law enforcement again. That’d make you too easy to track.”

“So, I’ll find something else.”

She groaned. “And at some point, you could start to resent giving up your badge. You might not want to resent it, but you will.”

“And you won’t?” he fired back.

“It’s different for me. I wasn’t exactly looking to hang on to the life I had. Not after what happened.”

April saw the moment that Chase shut down. The subject was straying too close to something he didn’t want to discuss with her. Not now. Maybe not ever. The murder of the cop.

The one she could have prevented.

“Just think about it,” April suggested.

Chase didn’t have time to think about that though or anything else she’d said because his phone rang. It woke Bailey, and the baby started to fuss. However, even the fussing didn’t stop April from seeing the puzzled look on Chase’s face.

“You know anyone by the name of Melody Sutterfield?” he asked, glancing at his phone screen.

April had to shake her head, but she instantly had a bad thought about all of this. “Is there any way someone could use your phone to trace our location?”

“No.” But Chase didn’t answer the call until she had the bottle in Bailey’s mouth to quiet her. He put the call on speaker, but he didn’t say anything.

“Marshal Crockett,” April heard the caller say. Not a woman as the caller ID had indicated. It was a man. One whose voice April instantly recognized.

The chill slammed through her. Head to toe. Chase mumbled some profanity. Because he obviously recognized the caller, too.

It was Tony Crossman.

“Cat got your tongue, Marshal?” Crossman taunted. “Or have you defriended me?”

“I seriously doubt you got permission for this call,” Chase said. No taunting for him. His eyes narrowed. “Let me guess—you’re using your lawyer’s phone.”

“Guilty. But I needed to talk to you, and this was the only way. I heard Deanne was dead.”

“Who told you that?” Chase countered.

“I’m in jail, not deaf. It’s on the news. And someone hacked into WITSEC files.” It wasn’t a question. “You’ve had a rough night, Marshal. April and her scumbag brother, too.”

“Did you do something to my brother?” April snapped.

Obviously, Chase hadn’t wanted her to say anything, but if Crossman was talking, she needed to hear what he had to say. Besides, Crossman had probably already figured out that Bailey and she would be with Chase.

“How could I do anything to Quentin?” Crossman challenged. “I’m behind bars. You know that better than anyone because you lied to put me here.”

“No lies. In case you’ve developed selective amnesia, you should remember I found proof that you were using Quentin’s bar to launder money.”

“Yes, that. But yet you didn’t go to the cops. Must not have thought I was doing anything so wrong if you didn’t report it or confront me about it.”

Despite the glare Chase was giving her, April continued. “I was trying to protect my brother. And gather more evidence against you. I didn’t know you were going to gun down a cop.”

Crossman made a noncommittal sound. “All that sneaking around on your part, trying to gather dirt on me. Then, you got distracted by the marshal. Things didn’t work out so great between you, though, when he learned you knew all about a sister in blue being killed.”

“A woman you killed,” she pointed out.

“Allegedly.”

“You’re in jail, waiting to be tried for it,” April reminded him. “Your CPA actually heard you talking about it. And I didn’t know about the dead cop when I went to Chase.”

“Allegedly,”
Crossman repeated. “That’s the rift between you two, isn’t it? Chase says you knew. You said you didn’t. So what’s really true?”

“Did you call for a specific reason?” Chase demanded before April could say anything else.

Crossman took his time answering. “I did. I wanted April to know I’m not behind this. I didn’t hack into WITSEC and I didn’t kill Deanne.”

April rolled her eyes. “I’m just supposed to take your word for that?”

“Of course. Why would I lie?”

She could think of a very good reason. “Because it wouldn’t look good if we managed to tack on more charges to the ones you’re already facing, that’s why.” April wished she could see his face to know if she’d struck a nerve.

“Maybe. And maybe I’m trying to help you. For instance, you need to watch out for Malcolm Knox.”

Everything inside her went still, and Chase looked at her, obviously wanting an explanation. Well, she wanted some explaining done, too.

“How do you know Malcolm?” she asked.

“I know lots about you and your new life. Be careful, April. Malcolm has some pretty nasty secrets of his own. Bye for now.” Crossman hung up before April could ask about those secrets.

“Who’s Malcolm?” Chase immediately wanted to know.

“Someone I met when Bailey was in the hospital. He’s supposedly a cattle baron and was regularly visiting a sick friend.”

Chase’s stare stayed on her. “Supposedly? Does that mean you didn’t believe him?”

“I didn’t trust him. But then, I didn’t trust anyone I came in contact with.” She paused. “Truth is, he gave me the creeps. He kept showing up outside Bailey’s room.”

His eyebrow lifted. “Stalking you?”

She shrugged. “I did a background check on him and he doesn’t have a record or any history of that. But maybe I need to do another check if Crossman’s warning me about him.”

“Crossman could be lying or yanking your chain,” Chase reminded her. But then he groaned, scrubbed his hand over his face. “Or there’s another possibility. Malcolm could be working for Crossman.”