Showdown in West Texas. Amanda Stevens
to believe that it had not been. But dread tightened like a fist around Grace’s heart. What if it had been Lily?
What if her own sister…had just tried to kill her?
THE DESERT WAS NOT an ideal place to hide, Cage soon discovered as he made his way back to his car.
Putting the manual transmission in neutral, he pushed the vehicle as far out into the barren landscape as he could manage. He hated like hell to abandon it. That car was about the only thing he owned free and clear these days. But in his current fix, there wasn’t much else he could do.
Getting out his map, he decided the best way to evade his hunters was to stay off all roads that led into or out of San Miguel. There was another highway about ten or fifteen miles due west across the desert where he might be able to find a phone or hitch a ride.
He glanced up at the blazing sun. He’d be crossing in the heat of the day, but he had two water bottles and he damn sure had the will to live.
Down on his luck was a helluva lot better than dead, Cage decided as he buried the license plates from his car and the contents of his glove box in the sand.
Chapter Four
Ethan helped Grace carry her bags to the truck while Lily watched from the front porch. When Grace went back in to get the last of her things, Lily followed her inside.
She picked up the envelope and tapped it against her palm. “You may as well know,” she said. “I’m putting the ranch on the market.”
Grace looked up in surprise. “When did you decide to do that?”
“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. I’ve already talked to Rachel. She says to do whatever I want. She’ll sign the papers.”
Grace tried to shrug off the stab of betrayal she felt over Rachel’s silence. She wasn’t surprised to be the last person Lily would talk to about this, but why hadn’t Rachel called her? “When were the two of you going to tell me about it?”
Lily’s eyes glinted with a touch of defiance. “I’m telling you now.”
“Do you have a buyer?”
“I’ve had some interest. No firm offers yet.”
“Where will you go?”
Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. Find a place in town, I guess. Or maybe it’s time that I move on altogether.”
“Leave Jericho Pass, you mean?”
She tossed her braid over her shoulder. “Why not? You and Rachel couldn’t wait to get out of this place. Now that Grandma Stella’s dead, there’s nothing keeping me here, either.” Especially now that you’re back, her eyes seemed to taunt.
A sound from the front porch brought both women around in surprise. Grace had forgotten all about Ethan, but there he stood watching them.
He cleared his throat. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I just came back to see if I could give you a hand with anything else.”
Grace supposed the offer had been posed to her, but Ethan couldn’t take his eyes off Lily. He looked crestfallen, and Grace thought she knew why. Given his position at the county clerk’s office, he probably knew or at least suspected that Lily had plans to sell the ranch, but Grace was almost certain that until that very moment, he’d never contemplated the possibility of her sister actually leaving town.
When he realized that Grace was studying him, he quickly glanced away.
Lily, of course, noticed none of this. Where Ethan Brennan was concerned, she seemed completely oblivious.
“I think that’s the last of it,” Grace told him. “Thanks for the help.”
“Any time.” His gaze crept back to her sister. “See you around, Lily.”
She seemed to catch herself then and said, “Yeah, thanks for everything, Ethan.”
“Glad to help out.” He hesitated, obviously hoping for another bone, then turned with a defeated little shrug and left.
Grace waited until she heard the screen door close before she faced Lily. “You could have left Jericho Pass anytime you wanted. Why now? Is it because I’m back?”
Anger flared in Lily’s eyes. “Newsflash, Grace. Not everything is about you. If I decide to leave town, it’ll be because it’s what I want.”
Grace stared at her in exasperation. “Why the attitude, Lily? What did I ever do to you?”
Her sister folded her arms. “Like you don’t know.”
“It can’t be just about the job,” Grace said helplessly. “You’ve been like this for years. Why don’t you just tell me so we can try to work it out? We’re sisters. It shouldn’t be like this between us.”
Lily smiled. “Well, see, that’s the beauty of it, Grace. You don’t get to control how I feel about you.”
She turned and bounded up the stairs, then paused on the landing to stare back down at Grace. “Ethan was right, you know. You’re lucky you didn’t break your neck.”
THE SUN WAS ALREADY going down when Cage finally spotted the highway up ahead. He’d been walking due west since he set out, and early on, the light had been blinding. Now, as the sun sank below the horizon, the sky turned blood red, then deepened to a gilded violet.
As he gazed upward, Cage thought of Sadie and the way Frank had teased her about hoping for a close encounter. You’d be amazed at what you can see out there, she’d said. Cage couldn’t help wondering now if she’d witnessed more than just a starry sky on her nightly excursions to the desert. Was there a reason she’d been shot, other than being at the wrong place at the wrong time?
Cage had a bad feeling the massacre at Del Fuego’s was only the tip of the iceberg. Corruption and drug trafficking were nothing new along the border, but he didn’t think what he’d stumbled into was some penny-ante deal gone south.
In spite of their youth, the shooters were highly trained professionals. And the men in suits looked to be upper crust law enforcement. State level, at least. Maybe even FBI or DEA, which left Cage with few options. If he called the state police, they’d likely haul his ass in for questioning, and until he managed to convince someone to believe him, he’d be a sitting duck in custody. Eventually, the truth might come out, but with cops involved, he could be dead by then.
So, at the moment, he had only one clear course of action. Put as much distance as he could between himself and San Miguel.
About a hundred yards up the road, Cage spotted a car pulled to the shoulder. He hesitated, wondering if he should approach or head off in the opposite direction.
Hunkering down at the edge of the desert, he waited several minutes, but he didn’t see any movement. He might have thought the car had stalled and the driver had taken off on foot like he’d had to do earlier, but the top was down and he could hear the radio.
The twang of an electric guitar seemed a good enough omen to Cage, and he decided to move in a little closer, see if he could detect any sign of life.
The car was an old black Cadillac Eldorado, beautifully restored, with high tailfins and a low slung profile that looked about a mile long. Cage took a moment to appreciate the classic lines before he inched in, keeping an eye on the road behind him and the desert on either side of him.
Easing up to the driver’s side, he glanced in. The key was in the ignition. Whoever the car belonged to couldn’t have gone far—
“Hold it right there, mister.”
Cage straightened. A man stood on the other side of the car pointing a gun at him.
“Back away from the vehicle,” the man said gruffly.