Page 34 of Lone Star Showdown

“I need to see her,” Rachel insisted.

The doctor stepped in front of her to keep her from charging toward the exam rooms. Not that Rachel would have known where to go anyway.

“You can’t,” Dr. Milbrath told her. “Not right now anyway. She’s in surgery. Nothing major, just to repair the damage, but she’s been given a general anesthesia so it’ll be at least an hour or two before you can speak to her.”

“But she’s all right?” Rachel pressed.

“She’ll be fine,” the doctor said. “Despite her age, your aunt is in very good shape. She has no underlying health issues to hamper with a recovery.” He patted Rachel’s arm. “I’ll let you know when she’s out of surgery.”

As the doctor walked away, all the energy seemed to drain right out of Rachel, and she caught onto Jericho. He caught on right back and pulled her to him so she could drop her head on his shoulder. The sound she made was a mix of weariness and relief.

Jericho looked at Bree. “Thanks for stepping in to protect Tilda.” He shifted his attention to Woody. “And thank you. Any idea what happened?”

Woody shook his head. “I heard gunfire, ran out to see what was going on, and I saw Tilda lying on the ground in her yard. She was bleeding,” he added, looking down at his shirt, “so I used my granddaughter’s phone to call an ambulance.

“I’m training to be a licensed vocational nurse,” the blonde said. “I applied pressure to slow down the flow of blood.”

“This is my granddaughter, Sasha,” Woody offered, and he made quick introductions. “She stepped right up. I’m real proud of the way she handled herself with Tilda.”

The girl beamed and leaned into her grandfather.

Jericho thanked both Woody and Sasha, and Rachel added her own appreciation. It was Rachel who voiced the million-dollar question.

“Who shot her?” Rachel asked.

Woody shook his head again. “I didn’t see.” He paused. “But I suspect it was Arnez. He’s pissed at both of you, and this might be his way of getting back.”

More like his way of setting up an attack. If Arnez had wanted to kill Tilda, unfortunately, the woman would likely be dead. But he hadn’t wanted her dead. He’d wanted to use her as a lure.

And it’d worked.

Arnez had likely hurried from Stronghold right after he shot Tilda and raced to set up the ambush on the road. It wouldn’t have been hard for him to commandeer a tractor since there was a ranch less than a quarter of a mile from where he’d attacked Rachel and him.

“Is Arnez the one who just tried to kill you?” Bree wanted to know.

“Yes,” Jericho verified. “And I need to get an update on his location.”

Jericho glanced around, spotted some chairs, and he led Rachel there so she could sit. She didn’t look too steady on her feet, and the adrenaline crash was no doubt closing in on her. He took out his phone and called Marco, who answered on the first ring.

“Heard about your trouble, and I’m on my way to you now,” Marco was quick to say. “Just got three updates though from Spike and Ruby. None of it is good news, so I expect you’ll be doing some cursing when you hear.”

Jericho did a preemptive strike and went ahead and cursed. “What happened?” Though he could already guess what one piece of the doom and gloom news was.

“Update one. Arnez shot down the drone so we’re not sure where he is. Ruby has deployed a tracker and a couple more drones. The reinforced ones that aren’t so easy to shoot out of the sky.”

Yeah, that was exactly what Jericho had expected on both the destroyed drone and the ones now being used. Which meant Arnez could now be any damn where.

Again.

He could slink back into some makeshift hidey hole and plan yet another way to come after them, all the while a killer was making plans, too.

“And update two?” Jericho pressed.

“Manson knew Bodine, and she knew him well. A camera feed outside a shopping mall shows them sitting in a car having what appears to be an intense chat. She gave him something. Looks like some kind of envelope.”

“Payment for a hired gun?” Rachel wanted to know.

“Could be, but there’s no record of payment. I think that’s because additional feed shows her kissing Bodine and fondling parts of his body to indicate they didn’t care diddly-squat about PDA in a public place. My guess is this is a sex in exchange for you kill some people for me deal.”

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