Justice At Morgan Mesa. Jenna Night

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      “Of course I will.” Vanessa glanced over at the woman riding in the pickup truck’s passenger seat, Rosa Sandoval. Her husband, Pablo, had worked as a ranch hand alongside Vanessa’s grandfather for years.

      When Vanessa’s grandparents started looking into buying property and turning it into a guest ranch for their working retirement, it naturally followed that they’d invite their best friends to join in the venture. Pablo and Rosa had jumped at the chance.

      “I’m not trying to deceive Grandpa. I would never do that.” Vanessa downshifted her grandfather’s old truck when she came to a steep drop in the road. “It’s just that he’s finally gotten back to his normal sleeping pattern. It’s been eight months since Grandma Katherine passed away and for most of that time, I don’t think he slept more than two or three hours a night.”

      “For a while there, he really was looking like something the cat dragged home,” Rosa agreed.

      “Now that he’s finally back to his usual routine of lights out at eight at night and coffee in his cup by four the next morning, I don’t want to mess that up by having him worry about me tonight. He needs his rest.”

      Rosa sighed loudly. “You have to tell him as soon as you get up tomorrow morning.”

      “Yes, ma’am, I will. And I’ll call my mom and let her know what happened, too.”

      Vanessa glanced over and offered her a smile. Rosa was a retired parole officer, which meant she could be tough when she needed to be. Just the kind of person Vanessa wanted alongside her on the ride home tonight.

      With a borrowed phone from a patrolman, Vanessa had called to have her car towed into town so the tires could be replaced and the battery checked out. Then she’d called Rosa, at the time telling her only that she’d had car trouble and needed a ride back to the ranch.

      Vanessa shifted gears again when they reached the foot of the mesa and drove back onto flat land. She’d wanted to do the driving because she’d thought it would help her feel more in control. So far, it hadn’t worked. The stuff of nightmares had just happened to her. A masked lunatic had tried to kill her. With a hammer.

       Thank You, Lord, for protecting me.

      A cold chill passed over the surface of her skin and she drew in a quivering breath.

      Rosa reached forward and turned on the heater.

      After a few seconds, warm air blew out, relaxing Vanessa’s tense muscles. In a way, it made things worse. Physically relaxing made her emotions start to loosen up, and she became more conscious of them. That was the last thing she wanted right now.

      What she needed to do was toughen up and pull herself together. She’d done that as a kid when her father was murdered. And again, when her mother had gotten remarried to an abusive man and it had seemed like life was just one terrible thing happening after another. She’d gone on to hone that skill of tamping down her true emotions when she became a lawyer and needed to appear confident every time she stepped into a courtroom.

      “I saw Levi Hawk while I was sitting in the truck waiting for you,” Rosa said. “He’s a very determined and thorough investigator.” Despite her retirement, Rosa still kept active ties to the law enforcement community.

      “Good to know,” Vanessa said. He was handsome, too. Military-cut black hair. Intelligent dark eyes. Bronze skin. And a capable, calm demeanor. Not that any of that mattered.

      Vanessa tapped her thumbs on the steering wheel, directing her thoughts back to the man who’d chased her tonight, trying to think of any hint at who he was or what his motive might be. She’d been threatened a few times during the course of her career, but never anything like this. She couldn’t imagine it was connected to her work back in Vegas. Her attacker had seemed intent on getting her away from here, specifically. Why would a client with a grudge care where she went?

      “What I’m wondering is whether that guy knew you were going to be up on the Heaton property and was waiting for you,” Rosa said. “Or if you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and stumbled across some creep who was desperate to scare you away for some reason. Did you tell anybody you were going to be there?”

      “Yeah. Pretty much everybody I talked to on the mesa today. I had no reason to think it was dangerous to do that. I know it was a long shot, but I guess I was hoping somebody might come out and join me to tell me something new about my dad. Maybe give me some new information on what happened to him twenty years ago. I let people know I was going to be there on the Heaton property because I wanted to make it easy for anyone who didn’t want to talk to me around other people, or who might be afraid of our conversation being recorded if they talked to me on the phone.”

      Rosa turned in her seat to face Vanessa. “Well, you need to make sure you don’t go to some isolated place alone again. Not until this creep is caught. And don’t tell strangers where you’re going to be.”

      Vanessa felt herself trembling again. She glanced in the rearview mirror to see if they were being followed. Of course they were. They were on the only road that led down from the mesa and it intersected with the four-lane highway heading into Torchlight. You could eventually get into Torchlight by following the unpaved county roads on the mesa, but it would add a good sixty miles to the trip. She tried not to be bothered by the headlights behind her, but she felt her shoulders tighten up all the same.

      “I’ll be very careful from now on, believe me,” Vanessa muttered, understanding the wisdom of the advice but still angered that she had to change what she did because of some violent crazy person.

      They were nearing the intersection with the highway. Torchlight was to the left. The Silver Horse Guest Ranch—her grandfather’s new home—was to the right, several miles away.

      “I bet you haven’t had dinner,” Rosa said. “We could load you up with pancakes and hot chocolate. All those carbs will make you sleepy.”

      “I’m too nervous to eat anything.”

      “Honey, I’ve been through some pretty hair-raising situations in my day,” Rosa said. “And my experience is that afterward you need some time with somebody you can talk to. Even if you don’t eat, you need to talk until you start to wind down a little. Then maybe when you get back to the ranch, you’ll be able to fall asleep.”

      Vanessa doubted she would get any sleep tonight. She was pretty sure anytime she closed her eyes she’d see that masked figure with that claw hammer and hear him laughing. She wanted to put that experience off for as long as she could.

      “Okay,” she said, turning left onto the highway. “Let’s go into town.”

      * * *

      The next morning, Levi turned off the highway at the sign that read Silver Horse Guest Ranch. He drove up the winding private road, early-morning sunlight filtering through the new spring leaves on the trees lining the way.

      This was an unannounced visit after last night’s strange attack up on Morgan Mesa. Between searching the area on and around the Heaton property for any evidence he could find and coordinating a search for the suspect, Levi hadn’t had as much time as he’d wanted to interview Vanessa. He hadn’t found the perpetrator last night and he was anxious to get the investigation moving forward today. The creep who liked to threaten women with a hammer needed to be locked up.

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