Page 6 of Lone Star Wanted
Kincade cursed under his breath. “Hell, I should’ve called her.”
“I think your boss would understand the delay if she got a look at you,” Cassidy shot back. “You shouldn’t even be standing.” She answered the call and put it on speaker. “Ruby, I’ve got Kincade.”
Ruby’s voice came through crisp and calm, but with that edge that said she’d been holding her breath for too long. “Is he injured?”
“Some,” Kincade was quick to say.
Cassidy shot him a look, then leaned in toward the phone. “It’s more thansome,Ruby. Blunt force trauma to the head. No memory of the past forty-eight hours. He’s lucky to be walking.”
There was a beat of silence on the line, just long enough for Cassidy to picture Ruby standing in Ops headquarters, eyes narrowed, posture rigid.
“What details do you remember, Kincade?” Ruby asked a heartbeat later.
Kincade cleared his throat. Winced again. “I woke up in the middle of the torched safe house by Miller’s Pass. I had no memory of the last two days and no sign of Travis. The place was clean. No gear, no phone, no backup. Just fire debris and nothing else.”
A beat of silence hummed on the line before Ruby replied. “Then the situation’s worse than I thought,” Ruby said, her voice tight. “Either someone left you for dead, or you got incredibly lucky.”
“Not sure which one I’m rooting for,” Kincade muttered. “If it’s door number one, someone left me for dead, then that means I’m a loose end that someone might want tied off.”
“Exactly,” Ruby was quick to say. “I’m sending a CSI team out to the safe house now. If there’s anything to recover—footprints, accelerants, surveillance—we’ll find it. I want to know who hit you, how they pulled it off, and what the hell they were after.”
Cassidy glanced at Kincade, who didn’t say anything, but she could see the storm building behind his eyes. He wanted those answers just as much as she did.
“I’ve got resources digging into the Harlan case,” Ruby continued. “But I’m not leaving you alone, Kincade. I’m sending someone to the hospital. Jericho McKenna.”
Cassidy turned slightly toward the phone. “The one who helped break up that kidnapping ring in Del Rio?”
“That’s him,” Ruby confirmed. “Jericho’s fast, quiet, and he doesn’t miss.”
Kincade leaned forward slightly, wincing as he shifted. “Shouldn’t Jericho be out looking for Travis instead of shadowing me?”
There was a brief pause before Ruby answered. “We’ve already got boots on the ground for Travis. Other operatives are running down leads, monitoring surveillance, and working the digital trail. But you? From the sound of it, you’re not exactly in fighting shape.”
Kincade let out a low breath, not quite a sigh, but close. Cassidy could see the frustration in the tight set of his jaw, the way his hand curled loosely on the edge of the exam table.
“Great,” Kincade grumbled. “I love being babysat.”
“You’re likely concussed,” Ruby snapped. “You don’t even know what day it is. So yes, you’re getting backup. Because whoever set that fire and framed Travis is still one step ahead, and I don’t intend to let them stay that way.”
Kincade didn’t argue this time. He just leaned his head back against the wall, his eyes half-lidded, breathing sharply.
“I’ll let you know when Jericho gets here,” Cassidy told Ruby.
“Good. Keep Kincade upright, Deputy. And keep each other alive.”
The call ended with a soft click, leaving only the buzz of the overhead lights and Kincade’s slow, uneven breath. Cassidy barely had time to process everything Ruby had said before a nurse came around the corner, clipboard in hand and a wary expression on her face. Cassidy knew this one as well. Melody Matthews.
“We’ll need to take him back for an exam,” Melody immediately said, eyeing Kincade’s blood-streaked temple. “Concussions can be tricky. The sooner we get a look, the better.”
Kincade started to protest, but Cassidy raised a hand to cut him off. “You’ll live through a ten-minute exam. Sit tight.”
He grumbled something under his breath, but stayed put, leaning heavily against the wall like the last of his adrenaline had finally drained out.
Cassidy turned to speak with the nurse and then her phone buzzed. And she saw the name on the screen. It was her fellow deputy, Wes Morales.
She answered instantly. “Prescott.”
Wes didn’t waste time. “Cassidy, we’ve got a possible sighting. Someone matching Travis’s description was spotted about two miles east of town, near the old quarry. A ranch hand made the call. Every available officer is en route, including county.”
