LITMIR.BIZ

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penetrated the quiet—it was coming from her daughter. “Michelle, are you okay?” She couldn’t see into the darkness enough to tell anything.

      In the dim light from the dashboard, Cade moved. The sound of a click indicated he’d unhooked his seatbelt. As he broke his fall downward, he said in a tight voice, “Michelle?”

      Another groan followed by her daughter saying, “My arm hurts. I think—” a long pause “—ouch. I’m bleeding.”

      Tory released her strap and braced herself as she collapsed against the roof. “Can you move?”

      “Yes, but glass is everywhere.”

      “Stay put.” Cade used his feet to dislodge the remaining driver’s side window. “I need to check the area, then I’ll get you two out. How bad is the bleeding?”

      “All over my fingers.” Michelle’s pitch rose.

      “Keep your hand over the cut if you can, Michelle.” Cade shoved one leg out the gaping hole, glancing at Tory. “Get the flashlight out of the glove box. Use it to see what’s going on with Michelle.”

      Tory retrieved it and clicked it on. Light flooded the darkness while Cade wiggled through the opening where the window had been. As he stood, she scrambled between the two bucket seats, inspecting the back area while she crawled toward her daughter. Glass shards glistened in the glow from the flashlight.

      Michelle held her hand over her left arm, crimson red oozing between her fingers, reminding Tory of what had been all over her bathroom. The sight nauseated her. She’d always been queasy when she saw blood, but she couldn’t give in to that now. She gritted her teeth and removed her sweater, then used it to swipe away the pieces of glass littering the roof around her daughter, so Tory could get to her.

      As she wiggled herself between her daughter and the driver’s seat, she shone the light on the wound in Michelle’s upper arm. “Take your hand away and let me see it how bad it is.”

      The second her daughter removed her fingers, more blood flowed and dripped onto the roof. The cut was long and probably deep, but Tory couldn’t tell for sure. She took her sweater and tied it around Michelle’s arm to stop the flow, then she reached up and found the seatbelt release.

      In the distance she heard Cade’s voice. Probably calling 911. “I’m going to hold you the best I can as I free you and lower you. You okay with that?”

      Michelle, her eyes gleaming with unshed tears, nodded.

      While she helped her daughter, Cade appeared at the side window closest to them. “I’ve called the sheriff and Paul. Paramedics are on the way too. I think it’s safer staying here. They know where to look for us.”

      He knocked the rest of the glass out of the backseat window, then used his coat to protect them from the shards. He assisted Michelle out of the car before reaching in and giving Tory his hand.

      Strong. Capable. Like the man himself. She’d seen the truck in the road only a half a second before Cade swerved the SUV. Her reflexes weren’t nearly that quick. She shuddered, thinking about what would have happened if she’d been driving.

      In the distance the sound of sirens echoed through the chilly night air. When Tory emerged from the SUV, her legs refused to hold her weight. Shaking, she collapsed next to her daughter on the cold ground, sending up a silent prayer of thanks to God. Somehow she’d managed to escape two threats on her life in one day.

      * * *

      Eight hours later, dawn broke on the eastern horizon as Cade neared the accident site in a rented car. The truck had been moved to the side of the road. There was a group of law enforcement personnel hanging around the vehicle. A couple of deputies managed what traffic there was since the scene was in the middle of an S curve.

      He hadn’t talked to Paul in a few hours and wanted to know the latest. He pulled behind a patrol car and parked, then glanced at Tory. Her head, cushioned with his jacket, rested against the passenger’s window, her eyes closed. When he peeked at Michelle in the backseat, she was lying down. With her cuts and a couple of bruises starting to appear, she looked as though she’d gone into battle, hammering home she and Tory were both in danger.

      They were all exhausted after spending a good part of the night at the El Rio Medical Center that served the area. At least they didn’t have to go to San Antonio. The injury that had concerned him the most was the slash down Michelle’s arm. It required twelve stitches, but she kept it together the whole time. In fact, she had been unusually quiet, her earlier anger before the wreck gone.

      Thank you, Lord. It could’ve been much worse.

      Tory rallied when he opened the driver’s side door. “Why are we here?”

      “I need to talk to Sheriff Dawson and Paul about what they’ve discovered so far, then I’ll drive y’all to the ranch. Uncle Ben has readied the house and will have breakfast for us.”

      “I’m glad it’s Saturday. I don’t know how I would’ve made it to the courthouse.”

      “We’ll talk about all that later. Rest. I won’t be long.”

      She settled against the passenger side door, and her eyes closed immediately. He’d pulled all-nighters before, but he hoped to grab a couple of hours of rest later today. He needed to be at his sharpest if he was going to protect Tory and Michelle.

      Cade shook hands with the sheriff. He’d just started working with him and hadn’t known him previously, not like Paul who he’d gone to school with. “Have y’all found anything that leads to the person who left the truck on the road?”

      “Now that it’s daylight, we wanted to search the surrounding area more thoroughly. As you know from last night, we found human blood in the back of the pickup that hadn’t been there long. The marks in the truck bed indicated something was dragged from the back still bleeding. We have latent prints in the cab and on the handle of the tailgate as well as fibers. Not sure from what but I sent it to the lab in San Antonio.”

      “Any test result back yet? Blood type?”

      “Not yet, other than it was human. Should hear soon on that. We did find out that the blood in Tory’s house was from a pig.” The sheriff glanced at where Cade’s wrecked Jeep had been. “I know you said last night you didn’t see anyone in the truck because you were too busy trying to avoid crashing into it. But when you got out to check around your SUV, did you glance up at the road and see anything?”

      “No, it was too dark. The more I think about the moment I first saw the vehicle, I don’t believe there was anyone in the cab. Whoever left it was gone or hiding on the side of the road. If I hadn’t had my bright lights on, I might not have been able to avoid the black truck. As you saw, it was parked on the road at just the right place to hinder the chance to stop in time. Who owns it?”

      “It was reported stolen in San Antonio last night before the accident. Mark Summers owns it, and the police there have checked into his alibi. Part of the time he was with an officer filling out a stolen vehicle report. The rest of the time he was with his family and neighbors discussing the theft and how to beef up security. San Antonio Police will follow up and interview people in the area where the truck was when it was stolen.”

      After talking with a couple of his officers, Paul joined them. “I’m going to focus on some of the traffic cams and see if I can catch the truck on any of them last night. Maybe we’ll be able to get a picture of the driver that way.”

      “Who else is involved in the trial of Diego Mederos?” Finding blood in the back of the pickup made Cade wonder if more people than just Tory had been targeted yesterday. Even if they knew it was Mederos who was responsible, without evidence he would get away with a crime yet again.

      “Judge Parks is presiding over the trial. But he’s on a hunting weekend right now and isn’t answering his cell phone. Lieutenant Sanders ran the investigation in my department,” Paul said. “I contacted him, and he’s fine. Deputy Collins helped from the

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