Maybe she wasn’t as sore as she thought.
Lexi pushed the covers back and grabbed one of Aidan’s T-shirts. It covered everything that needed covering. She would grab a cup of coffee and then go sneak a peek. Then she would sit down and write for a while. That sounded like a great way to spend the day.
Lexi stopped at the door when she heard a cell phone chirp. Lucas’s. He must have forgotten it, a sure sign he’d relaxed. Lexi found it buried underneath the scrubs from the previous evening. Aidan had decided they would keep the scrubs for when they needed to play doctor. Lexi looked down at the number. Ben Dawson. Oh, she wasn’t about to miss that call.
“Hello.”
There was a pause. “I’m sorry. I’m looking for Lucas Cameron. Is this Lexi?”
“In the flesh. Lucas is doing things he really can’t do with a phone in his hand. I’m afraid you have to talk to me.”
A low, seductive chuckle came across the line. “Oh, sweetheart, I would love to do more than talk to you. Have you decided to leave those two boys you were playing around with? Maybe you would like to see how semi-psychic twins do it. I can answer that question. We do it better. Hey!” Ben’s voice went from sexy to irritated in a second. “You didn’t have to throw something at me. I get the picture, asshole. Fine. I’ll move on. Chase wants to talk to Lucas.”
Weird. Chase forced Ben to make his phone calls? Those twins were a very curious pair. “Lucas isn’t here. I can have him call you back.”
A slow sigh came over the line. “No, don’t bother. We’re coming out there. We’re at the police station right now. Chase is nervous about something. I’ve learned to trust his instincts. He’s an asshole who throws staplers at his own brother and refuses to talk on the phone because he’s sure it’s going to give him cancer, but he’s freaky on target when it comes to stuff like this.”
“Did they let Karen out?” Lexi was a bit surprised. She’d heard they were planning on throwing the book at Karen. By the time Bo had come to pick them up the night before, everyone had known that Karen had been found drunk in her car not far from the accident.
“No, she’s still in jail, but Chase is certain it wasn’t her.”
That was in line with what Lucas thought. God, Lexi wanted it to be Karen. It was very disappointing. She had been looking forward to seeing Karen in an orange jumper. “They found her in her car in a ditch. She wrecked it after she tried to kill us.”
“Then why didn’t her airbag deploy? According to the report, she blew a 1.6 on the breathalyzer. She was two times the legal limit. There’s no way she drove that car, much less managed to drive Aidan’s truck off the road. That was deliberate and took discipline Karen Wilcox simply doesn’t have. But of course we can’t get anyone to see that here. These cops like open-and-shut cases.”
He had a point. “If not Karen, then who?”
“Chase has been looking into the firefight Aidan was injured in. He doesn’t like it.”
“I’m sure Aidan didn’t like it, either.” But she didn’t see why Chase was spending his time on it.
“No, you don’t understand, sweetheart. Things don’t add up. The reports don’t make sense. Why was Aidan hit from both the back and the front? PFC Creely explains—and I’m using air quotes here—how it all went down, but I don’t buy it.” There was a muffled pause as though Ben had put his hand over the phone, then he was back. “Fine, I’ll tell her. Chase wants you to know that this was the sloppiest report he’s ever hacked into a government database to read.”
Interesting. “Does he do that often?”
“Often enough to get the FBI interested in us. Some people like to watch baseball. My brother likes to hack high security systems.”
Maybe Chase Dawson would be the one in an orange jumpsuit. But that was irrelevant. “What did the report say?”
“Specialist Tanner’s injuries were to the back of his neck. According to Creely, Tanner broke position and ran. But Chase checked his records. Tanner was set for Ranger training two weeks after his death. He was seasoned. He’d seen worse fighting. He wouldn’t have run. Most of the men killed in the fight were taken out by M-16s. Unusual, but not unheard of. Insurgents can get M-16s, too. And then there’s the fact that all the weapons were recovered from the scene. All but one. PFC Creely said he lost his M-16 somewhere between the scene and the hospital. That makes ballistics tests impossible.”
“Who is this Creely guy?”
“It’s Dwight Creely, Aidan’s foreman.”
Holy shit. Dwight, who constantly harped on Aidan to take his sleeping pills. Dwight, who got agitated every time Aidan started to remember something. “You think Dwight killed those men and shot Aidan?”
Ben hesitated, but only for a second. “Suspect is the proper word. We don’t think he killed all of them, but what if he panicked? What if he accidently killed someone and shot Aidan? It wouldn’t be the first incidence of friendly fire the US Military has covered up or just plain looked over. But we think Creely wants it buried, and it looks like he’s willing to kill to keep Aidan quiet. This was never about you, Lexi. This is about Aidan.”
Lexi let the phone drop. That son of a bitch was out there with Aidan. Unless Lucas had found them, Dwight was alone with Aidan, and Lexi had no idea what Dwight had planned next. It was obvious to her now that Dwight had done what he did to get Aidan back to the ranch where he could watch the only man who could put Dwight away. Now that Aidan was starting to remember, Dwight had decided to take him out.
She stopped in the middle of the hall. She couldn’t panic. Panicking would tip Dwight off. She needed to stay calm. Lexi went to the office and pulled up the radio. If Aidan was out on the range, he should have his radio with him. Lexi tried to turn the radio on, but got nothing. She checked the cord to make sure it was plugged in, but all she came up with was a ragged end.
Someone had cut the cord to the radio. Someone didn’t want the cowboys on the range to be able to get in contact with the house.
Lexi’s hands shook. Ben and Chase were on their way, but it was twenty minutes from town. She couldn’t wait.
Think. Think. Think.
Aidan’s dad kept a multitude of guns in the house. She remembered that from her previous visits. It had been years, but she seriously doubted Aidan had gotten rid of all of them. Lexi remembered that there was a gun cabinet in the closet. She opened the closet in the office, and sure enough, the gun cabinet was still there.
And locked.
Damn it. There was a little place for a key. The desk. She rushed to the desk and prayed the key was there. She opened the desk drawer and found something much better than a key. Sitting right there on top of some papers was a revolver. She was going to have such a long discussion with Aidan about gun safety right after she saved his ass from the man trying to kill him. Lexi picked up the revolver. Damn, it was a heavy son of a bitch. She found a fast load cartridge. Six bullets. Hopefully she wouldn’t need them at all, but she wasn’t going to go after PFC Dwight Creely with a crop, and that was the only other “weapon” she had seen in that closet.
Lexi silently thanked her stepfathers. Jack and Sam had taught her how to use a pistol and a rifle. They had taken both Lexi and her mom to a shooting range. Her stepfathers’ belief was that if she and her mom were going to be around guns, they should damn sure know how to use them. Lexi popped the cartridge into place and clicked the safety off. The phone was sitting right there. She picked it up and dialed her mother’s cell, praying she made a connection. Her mom and stepdads were twenty minutes away, too, but she was calling in the cavalry.