Page 4 of Deputies Under Fire
Hell.
That was the one word that kept repeating through Rory’s head. And he was certain it would keep repeating as the night dragged on.
A woman was now unconscious and barely clinging to life. His father’s ex-girlfriend. Rory would need answers about that. Answers, too, as to why Brenda had been left here in this barn, where Mellie’s body had been found.
Were the two attacks connected?
The odds were yes, they were. It was too much of a coincidence for it to be otherwise. And that meant the connection would lead straight back to his father, Ike.
So, yeah.
Thathellwould be echoing in his head for a while.
With Eden right by his side, Rory kept watch around them as the EMTs eased Brenda into the ambulance. The moment they had her secured inside, they hit the sirens and started for the hospital.
Fast.
Because every second was going to count now. The woman was hanging on by a thread.
He and Eden hurried to the cruiser that they’d left off the old ranch trail and jumped in so they could follow. If they got lucky, Brenda would regain consciousness and be able to tell them who’d attacked her and put her in the barn. If she named hisfather… But Rory stopped and decided he’d cross that bridge once he came to it.
For now, he drove toward the Renegade Canyon Hospital, glancing around to see if there were any indications of who’d brought Brenda here. The CSIs would arrive soon and do a thorough check, but the scene had already been disturbed, first with Eden’s and his arrival, and then with the EMTs and ambulance. Maybe potential evidence hadn’t been destroyed that would help them ID Brenda’s attacker.
He glanced at Eden, who was pulling up some info on her phone, and he saw the slight tremble in her hands. A tremble she wouldn’t want him to notice. She was a tough cop.
A damn good one, too.
But that didn’t mean she could tamp down the basic human emotion of grief. She’d basically just relived one of her worst nightmares by walking into the barn and seeing another bleeding woman. At least this time the woman was alive. That hadn’t been the case with Mellie.
“I figure you’re about to ask me if I’m okay,” Eden murmured while the cruiser bobbled over the seriously uneven surface of the ranch trail. “Please don’t, and I won’t ask you the same.”
Good. Because neither of them was anywhere in theokayrange right now. She was fighting those traumatic memories, and he was dealing with the firestorm he was about to face. He got started on that firestorm by giving the voice command to make a call to his father.
As usual, Rory had to steel himself for any kind of contact with his dad. Things hadn’t been civil between them for a long time.
Rory supposed if he had to put his finger on when the rift started, it would have been when his mother transferred ownership of the ranch to Rory’s older brother, Dutton, when he turned twenty-one. Rory had been just sixteen then, but he’d had no trouble choosing his brother’s side over their father’s.
Ike hadn’t taken that well at all.
Of course, Rory had known that Ike could be a vindictive, mean-as-a-snake SOB. Those traits hadn’t improved over the years, and they’d escalated big-time when Rory had become a cop. Then, Ike’s venom had gone up even more when Rory’s mom had died nearly a year ago.
And again, when Eden had given birth to Rory’s baby.
Ike hadn’t learned that news until the day Eden had given birth since neither Eden nor Rory had felt the need to tell him sooner. No way did Ike approve of Rory having a baby with one of Mellie’s foster-home kids. Or “brats,” as Ike was fond of calling them.
The call to his father connected, and it rang and rang and rang. Just when Rory thought it would go to voice mail, Ike finally answered. “What the hell do you want?” he snarled, obviously seeing Rory’s number on his caller ID.
“I need you to come into the police station,” Rory answered, making sure he sounded exactly like the cop that he was. “Be there in one hour.”
That should give him enough time to check on Brenda, arrange for a reserve deputy to guard her, get a search warrant for Ike’s house and vehicles and then prep for what would be the interview from hell.
Ike laughed, and it wasn’t from humor. “And why would I do that?”
“Because someone tried to kill Brenda Watford. She’s alive and talking.” Yeah, the last part was a lie, but he wanted to rattle Ike. Or rather, it would rattle him if he’d been the one who had actually attacked her. “Be at the police station in one hour, or I’ll be out to arrest you.”
With that, Rory ended the call, figuring that Ike might just try to ring him right back. He didn’t. So he was probably callinghis lawyer instead or trying to find out anything he could about Brenda’s condition.
“I’ll text the hospital chief to put a lid on any and everything about Brenda’s condition. Or anything she might say if she regains consciousness,” Eden explained, already typing the message. “You know Ike will probably show up there.”
