Daughter of Texas. Terri Reed

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СКАЧАТЬ sensed she was close to the edge, but he had to know. “You what?”

      “I opened the door.”

      “What did you see?”

      She began to rock slightly, back and forth. Back and forth. “Nothing. Gabby startled me and I jerked back.” She lifted her gaze, her obsidian eyes filled with horror.

      “Someone shot at me.”

      “Did you see anyone?”

      “Too dark. I hid. The person ran out through the patio doors.”

      Grateful that she’d had the presence of mind to hide, he asked, “When you turned the light on, was…your dad like you found him?”

      “Yes. But…he wasn’t breathing.” Her voice broke on a sob.

      “Do you know the other man? Do you know why he was with your father?”

      “No. No, I don’t.”

      “Did you hear anything else? Voices? See anyone?”

      She shifted her gaze away toward the window. “I heard the distant sound of an engine.”

      Ben glanced out the picture window at the back of the living room to the acreage where he knew a dozen or so horses grazed. The killer could have used the property’s rear gate.

      “We should question the neighboring ranchers. See if anyone saw a vehicle leaving the premises,” Trevor stated in his brusque manner. “Cade, Levi, go.”

      The two agents looked to Ben for confirmation. Ben nodded. “And check the gate. That could have been the escape route.”

      The two men hustled out of the house. Ben noted Trevor’s frown but now was not the time to deal with the pecking order within the Rangers.

      He refocused on Corinna. “Do you normally arrive home at this time?”

      “No. I’m usually much later, but Kyle’s sick. Hard to practice the duet routines without him,” she said.

      Was it coincidence that her dance partner had been sick or a ruse to get her home? Was she the intended target? Ben knew of Kyle Dennison, though they’d never met. He would run a check on Dennison as a precaution. At this point, he couldn’t overlook anyone as a potential suspect.

      Anything out of the ordinary required examination. They didn’t know what or who they were dealing with.

      If only Greg had kept Ben in the loop on what he’d been working on before it became a dire situation. If only he’d contacted Ben sooner…

      Oliver stepped forward, his dark eyes on Corinna. “So you heard nothing that would tell us who did this?”

      “No. Just the gun…” A sob broke from her and she buried her face in her hands.

      Ben gathered her stiff form close, letting her cry. He hadn’t had much opportunity to comfort grieving women. Doing so felt awkward and yet, tenderness rose to the surface, making him tighten his arms around her. She felt so delicate and defenseless in his arms.

      The white bandage covering her biceps glowed like a neon sign. A few more inches and the bullet could have lodged in her heart. She’d come close to dying tonight.

      Just like her father. Grief battled to be loosened. He held it in check. This was not the time to give vent to his emotions. He had to stay focused. Greg would have counted on Ben to find his murderer. As well as protect Corinna. Failure at either task was not an option, which only served to increase the pressure building in Ben’s chest.

      Corinna clutched the front of his chambray shirt. A haunted look darkened her eyes. “You have to find the person who did this.”

      “I will,” he vowed as he pulled her back to his chest.

      No matter what it took, he would bring down Captain Pike’s murderer. For Corinna. For all of them.

      TWO

      Ben’s strong arms encircled Corinna, buffeting her from the raging nightmare going on around her as uniformed San Antonio police officers filled her house. She shifted on the couch. Biting pain from the wound on her arm zinged through her. Never in a million years would she have thought she’d be in this position.

      Acutely aware of Ben’s closeness, she allowed him to hold her, needing his strength. At the moment, she had none of her own.

      His heart pounded like thunder in her ears through his shirt, drowning out the crackle of radios and dismay of law enforcement officers as they discovered one of their own had been murdered. The cotton fabric of Ben’s shirt, so soft against her cheek, smelled freshly laundered. She focused on the little things. That’s all she could do right now.

      She squeezed her eyes tight.

      Why couldn’t this be a nightmare? Why couldn’t she open her eyes and find herself back at the dance studio? Or better yet, back to this morning when she’d kissed her father goodbye for the day, not realizing it would be the last time she’d ever see him alive.

      A sob of pain and grief lodged in her throat. Tears leaked from her closed eyes. She fought to hold them back. She was usually so good at keeping her emotions under control.

      But the image of her father lying in a pool of his own blood blazed in her head, forever imprinted in her mind. She shuddered. Ben’s hands smoothed over her back in a calming rhythm. He would find whoever had done this. Her father had trusted Ben.

      Truth be told, so did she, even if she did harbor anger and resentment toward Ben for invading their lives and taking her father’s attention away from her. Every time they went off to do “guy” things, Corinna had seethed inside and longed to be included. She never was. They had locked her out of that world. Though as she’d grown older she’d resigned herself to being excluded, she still blamed the man her father had taken under his wing. The son he’d never had.

      “Ben, we need you in here,” said a deep voice that Corinna recognized as Ranger Marvel Jones. He was a tall African-American man with a shaved head.

      She felt Ben nod.

      “In a minute,” Ben replied. “Can you ask Gisella to come here?”

      “Sure thing,” Marvel said.

      Ben tried to ease Corinna out of his arms. She resisted, unwilling to face reality on her own. Here, within Ben’s embrace, she felt safe, felt protected from the grief waiting to overwhelm her.

      It didn’t make sense. He was the last person in the world she should be looking to for solace. Old wounds full of antagonism stirred, but the overpowering anguish wouldn’t let anything else in.

      “Corinna, honey, I need to talk to you. Please, look at me,” Ben said, his voice soft and coaxing.

      She shook her head. “I can’t,” she whispered, not wanting to break the protective barrier of isolation that kept reality at bay. She squeezed her grip on his shirt, pulling herself tighter against his chest.

      With СКАЧАТЬ