Laying Down The Law. Delores Fossen

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СКАЧАТЬ her own life. Her mom had finally ended it all with sleeping pills.

      And Willie Lee had been there to help Karina get through that, too.

      “Anyone else other than DeWayne who might want to hurt you?” Cord persisted. “An ex-boyfriend, maybe?” he repeated. “Or a current boyfriend?”

      She seriously doubted he was fishing to find out if she was romantically involved with anyone. “No current boyfriend. No recent ex, either. The ranch keeps me busy,” Karina added because she felt she had to add something so Cord wouldn’t think she was a loser.

      Though he probably thought that anyway. A loser and very gullible to believe in Willie Lee’s innocence.

      “How about any disgruntled employees?” Cord asked a moment later. “Or just someone you got a bad vibe about?”

      She opened her mouth to say no, but that wasn’t true. “There might be someone else. Might. A couple of days after Willie Lee was captured, a man showed up at the ranch. Harley Kramer. He said he was an old friend of Willie Lee’s, of my mother’s, too. But I’d never heard either of them mention him.”

      “What’d he want?” Cord asked.

      “He said he wanted to look through Willie Lee’s things, that Willie Lee had some old photos he wanted. I told him that wouldn’t be possible, not without Willie Lee’s permission. He left, and I thought that was the end of it.” She paused. “I definitely got bad vibes from him, and it wasn’t just because of his scars.”

      “Scars?”

      She motioned to her face. “He’d been burned and had obviously had a skin graft. And I know that sounds shallow to be creeped out by a guy with a scarred face, but it wasn’t just that. It was the way he looked at me. Then, I caught him sneaking into the cabin where Willie Lee lived. I called the sheriff, and he arrested him for trespassing and breaking and entering. Needless to say, Harley wasn’t happy about that.”

      Cord added Harley’s name to the note on his phone. “Did this guy threaten you?”

      “Not exactly, but he was furious. His trial date will be coming up soon, and he might have to do some jail time.” Probably not much, though, since the sheriff had told her that Harley didn’t have any priors and would likely get probation.

      Still, it must have been enough motive for Cord because he typed something else in his notes. He was still typing when his phone rang.

      “Jax,” Cord said, glancing at the screen.

      One of the deputies. This was no doubt about the investigation. “Put the call on speaker, please,” she said.

      Karina wasn’t sure Cord would do that, and judging from the way the muscles in his face stirred, Cord wasn’t sure of it, either. However, he did press the speaker button when he answered it.

      “This is a heads-up,” Jax informed Cord. “You need to keep that ranch hand, Rocky, away from Karina.”

      Her heart went to her throat. “Why?” Cord and she asked in unison.

      “Because you’re not going to believe what we found in the bunkhouse where he was staying. I just called Jericho to have him take Rocky into custody.”

Chapter Five

      Cord didn’t know what Jax had seen that’d caused him to make that call, but he figured he wasn’t going to like it.

      Karina certainly wouldn’t, either.

      She’d practically jumped to defend her ranch hand, but judging from Jax’s tone, she wouldn’t be defending Rocky after she saw the photos that Jax had sent to the sheriff’s office.

      Jax hadn’t wanted to describe them over the phone, only adding that the pictures would be worth a million words. Cord only hoped whatever they were, it would be enough to pin attempted murder charges on the man so he could end Karina’s doubts about Willie Lee not being the Moonlight Strangler. That way, Cord could walk away from this, from her, and know that they had the right man in custody.

      Then, maybe he could start dealing with the feelings that he’d buried deep within him.

      Of course, first they had to find Rocky.

      Despite being told by both Cord and Jericho to go to the sheriff’s office, the ranch hand had yet to show up. Cord figured that wasn’t a good sign.

      “Are you okay?” Cord asked her.

      Karina gave a heavy sigh and tore her gaze from the cruiser window, where she was looking at the shops on Main Street as they rode past them. She was pretending to look at them at least. He figured her mind was really on her ranch hand and the fact that she’d nearly died tonight.

      “Every inch of me is hurting,” she admitted. “And I’m upset about Rocky. How about you?”

      Cord went with the lie. “I’m fine.”

      But every inch of him was hurting, as well. Man, he needed a long soak in the tub and a handful of aspirin. He wasn’t counting on getting either anytime soon.

      “Move fast when we get out of the cruiser,” Cord instructed Karina when the sheriff’s office came into view.

      Jericho had sent the vehicle to the hospital to pick them up, and Cord was thankful for not only the ride—his truck was still back at Karina’s—but also for the deputy driving. With Karina’s attacker still out there, he didn’t want to be without some kind of backup. And he didn’t want her in the open any longer than necessary.

      The deputy stopped by the front door, and Cord hurried her in. Jericho and Levi were there, both talking on their phones, but Jericho motioned for them to follow him into his office. Judging from what part of the conversation he could hear, Jericho was having a chat with one of his other deputies, and once they were in his office, he motioned for them to sit.

      Jericho cursed and ended the call. He looked at both of them and mumbled yet more profanity. Probably because they both looked like hell, but Cord knew the cursing wasn’t all for them.

      “Still no sign of Rocky, but Jax is staying at Karina’s place a while longer to see if he shows up there. Any idea where he’d go?” Jericho asked her.

      Karina shook her head, winced a little. No doubt from the pain. Jericho noticed, and that prompted him to take out a huge bottle of ibuprofen from his desk and two bottles of water from the small fridge in the corner.

      “Help yourself,” Jericho offered.

      Well, it wasn’t aspirin and a bath, but it would do for now. Cord exceeded the recommended dose by a lot and hoped that the pain in his head faded to at least a tolerable throb before long.

      “I don’t know where Rocky would go,” Karina said, gulping down two of the pills. “On his references he said he didn’t have any family, that he’d been raised in foster care.” She lifted her shoulder. “I’m not sure if that’s even true.”

      “It’s not,” Jericho quickly responded. He turned his laptop in their direction so they could СКАЧАТЬ