“You sure about that?” Logan asked softly. “You know what the psych report said.”
The psych report. Right. The one that Uncle Sam kept shoving down their throats. When Cale had left the Rangers, the EOD had thought about recruiting him. Only a psych report had surfaced. One that said Cale’s tendency for extreme violence couldn’t be controlled. That Cale Lane was a menace to himself, and others.
That he had serious aggressive tendencies that could result in harm to even those close to him.
But on this point, Jasper didn’t think his instincts were wrong. “Cale wouldn’t have to search the house. If he’d hidden something there, he’d just slip in and get it, not leave that mess for his sister to find.” That would be the last thing he’d do. “No, it’s someone else.” Someone they hadn’t counted on. And if there were more players in the game... “I don’t think Cale was behind the attempted kidnapping.”
Silence from the other end of the phone.
“Cale wouldn’t need two men to force his sister in a car.” With her history, Jasper knew that Cale would never have been behind anyone forcing her off the road. “If he wanted to get Veronica alone, all he’d have to do would be to call her, and she’d go anyplace he told her to go.” Which was a scary proposition. “We’re still monitoring all her calls, right?” he couldn’t help asking.
“Yes, we are.”
Somewhat reassuring.
“Someone wanted to get control of Veronica for the same reason that we wanted to approach her.” Before he smashed the phone, he forced his fingers to ease their grip. “Someone else wants to use her against Cale.”
“The man probably has a whole lot of enemies.”
The kind who wouldn’t mind torturing an innocent woman to get what they wanted.
They want you, Cale.
“We need extra surveillance out here,” Jasper snapped. The idea of Veronica being watched by someone, of her being targeted, had rage twisting in his gut. “I want fingerprints taken from the house. I want to know just who the hell is playing with us.”
Who’d tried to hurt Veronica.
“A team is on the way now. They’ll search for prints, but do you know what was taken?”
Jasper glanced back at the house. “I’ll find out.” He paused. “If the intruder found what he wanted.” All those slashes and the destruction upstairs...maybe that had happened after the intruder didn’t find what he wanted. Whoever it was could have been furious. Enraged. So he took out that fury on Cale and Veronica. “I don’t like this,” Jasper gritted.
“I know.” Logan’s voice was softer, and Jasper knew that Logan really did understand. On their last big mission, the woman Logan loved—had loved, for years—had been put in a killer’s deadly path. She’d been bait, and the killer had come far too close to taking out both Juliana and Logan.
Logan’s gaze had been haunted for weeks after the attack. He’d realized just how close he’d come to losing his Juliana, and he’d been afraid.
If anyone could relate, it would be Logan. Sighing, Jasper said, “I don’t want her put at risk.”
“The ranch covers a huge area. Her nearest neighbor is over forty miles away.”
Yeah, and the ranch was overgrown, with extra buildings scattered around and far too many places for anyone to hide.
“It’ll be tough to keep every section clear,” Logan added.
Tough, but not impossible. “I’ll take Veronica with me. We’ll start searching the north end of the property.”
“And I’ll send a team to begin in the south.”
Because their watcher might not have left entirely. He could easily still be killing close.
You won’t get her.
“Jasper.” There was a tense note in Logan’s voice. “Is this case getting personal?”
It wasn’t supposed to be. He’d already been screened. Checked to make sure that the bonds he’d had with Cale wouldn’t get in the way of performing the mission. But when the team leader asked about the mission getting personal, Jasper knew that Logan wasn’t referring to the other ex-ranger.
Veronica. “I can do the job,” Jasper said, deliberately not answering. Sure, he wanted Veronica, pretty damn desperately, but he couldn’t be falling for the woman, not that fast. Lust wasn’t personal. Lust was just about need. “I’ve got this.”
“That’s what I thought, too. Then when I realized how much danger was right beside Juliana, I wanted to kill everyone who ever thought about hurting her.”
That’s how I feel. “I’m in control” was Jasper’s response.
Then the screen door opened. Veronica appeared on the porch. She looked tired. Her eyes were big, but dark shadows whispered under them.
“Send out the crew,” Jasper said, and ended the call. He shoved the phone into his back pocket. He’d gotten a holster from his truck and it was under the edge of the light jacket he wore. The heat had cooled, giving way to the dark clouds and the storms that the forecasters said would continue soon.
Not that he really needed the jacket for anything more than covering his weapon.
“What crew is coming?” Veronica asked him. Then she held up her hand. “No, wait, let me guess, your federal buddies? They’re coming to my house?”
“You think the sheriff’s going to sweep for prints?” he asked her.
“No.” Her hand dropped. “But they will?”
“They already have a tech team at Last Chance. Logan and Gunner...those guys are in my debt, Veronica. They can do this job for me. Hell, it’s the least they can do. Someone wants something that your brother—or even you—have, and there’s no telling how far that person will go to get what he wants.”
Her steps were slow as she eased off the porch and came toward him. He was positioned with his truck in front of him and the house behind him. Good cover, for the moment. She advanced until less than a foot separated them. “You think...you think this was just about finding something I have?”
Yeah, he did.
“But m-my clothes...” Her lips trembled. “All of the things in my room. There was so much fury in there. So much hate.” She raked a hand through her hair. “How’d he get in? How’d he get past my alarm?”
“If you know what you’re doing, it’s easy enough to bypass most alarms.” With the right tools. Unless, of course, the intruder had already known the code for her system. Then all he would have needed to do was type in the digits. Didn’t get simpler than that.
“You told Wyatt a few minutes ago...” Her gaze darted to the stables. “You said someone was watching me?”
Jasper nodded.
She crept even closer. The wind blew the scent of honeysuckles toward him. He stiffened, aware that this wasn’t the time to get turned on by her.
But then, he seemed to get turned on every time he looked at her.
“I’ve felt like someone was watching me for a while now.” Her confession was stark.
The breath hissed between his teeth. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I told the sheriff.” Her shoulders rolled. “He came out and checked a few times, but didn’t see anything. I thought...I thought I was just being paranoid.”
Paranoid, his as—
“It started about two months ago. I don’t even know what made me nervous at first.” Her gaze was on the stable. “The horses...I think it was them...they seemed agitated one day. I heard them neighing and pushing at their stalls. I went out to check, but nothing was wrong.”
Or the watcher had just slipped away before she’d gotten to the stables.
Because he needed to know just how often the watcher could have been around, Jasper asked, “Do you just feel like you’re being watched at the ranch?”
She shook her head, glanced back at him. “I felt that way in town once or twice. I’d hear footsteps, look over my shoulder, but no one would be there.” Her shoulders hunched. “You really think that someone’s been watching me this long? I haven’t just been imagining it?”
He knew his eyes said that, yes, he thought that.
“Why?”
“Because maybe you aren’t the only one looking for Cale.” Not even close. “Maybe the others think you’re their key to finding him.” That was what the EOD had thought. That Cale would never completely leave his sister. He’d come back for her, sooner rather than later. “You are his only living relative.”
“They want to...use me against him?”
He nodded. “Looks that way.” The words were stilted. I’m using you.
“Cale’s done something...bad.”
Serious understatement. She sounded almost like a lost child, but maybe that was the point. She saw Cale as the big, protective older brother. Perfect. Strong.
Now she was starting to wonder about his flaws.
“Think about this,” he urged her. “What would someone want to find in that house? Did Cale keep anything special there? You said you went through his computer before.”
“His computer wasn’t touched.”
How was she so sure?
“I, um, put a special security system on it. Trust me on this, no one will be getting past that.”
If not the computer, then what would Cale have? Why suddenly get so desperate to find it? If the watcher had been eyeing the house for months, then the guy could have broken in anytime.
But he’d chosen that specific day. Chosen a time hours after Reed Montgomery was killed.
“Veronica!”
She turned at the sheriff’s call. He hurried down the front steps, a worried frown pulling his brows low. “Veronica, those feds just called me. They’re sending a team out here.” He gave her a fierce stare. “I don’t know how long it will take them to sweep for prints, but I just... I don’t think you should be staying out here by yourself. Not with these murders going on.”
Murders that were shattering the peace of Whiskey Ridge.
“There’s only one motel in town,” she said, lips curving in a smile that was sad. “If I leave my house, don’t you think anyone watching me would realize exactly where I’d gone?”
“You can stay with me,” Wyatt offered at once.
Jasper stiffened. He didn’t like the way he’d caught the sheriff staring at Veronica. A guy knew lust when he saw it. The sheriff wasn’t about to get cozy with Veronica.
Jasper knew the jealousy for exactly what it was. Stay away from her. He glared the message at the sheriff.
Only the sheriff wasn’t looking at him. His total focus was on Veronica. “You don’t need to be alone,” Wyatt continued, and that was when Jasper realized that the sheriff’s voice was a little too intense. Emotions hummed beneath the surface. “You shouldn’t be alone. I can—”
“She’s not alone,” Jasper growled. Then, when Wyatt glanced over at him, Jasper offered the sheriff a tiger’s smile. “I’m standing right here.”
The sheriff narrowed his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was clipped now. Not filled with warm emotion. Biting with fury. “I did some checking on you. Sure, you got bureau friends, but I know about you.”
No, the sheriff knew what his fake bio said. The bio that Sydney had put in place for him.
“You’ve been to every hellhole on earth, and you left a trail of bullets and bodies behind you.”
“I was following orders,” Jasper said, his own anger rousing. The guy was trying to attack him? Trying to make Veronica doubt him? “Sometimes orders aren’t pretty.”
“Yes, but that was when you were in the military. Years ago. You’ve been in bar fights, brawls. You’ve—”
He wanted to get in a good, hard fight right now with the sheriff.
“—got connections with some shady characters who have spent most of their lives in jail.” The sheriff turned his gaze back to Veronica. “I don’t think you should trust him. You know me. I can help you.”
Damn it. The last thing he needed was this guy trying to play white knight.
Or trying to get in Veronica’s bed.
Back off, Wyatt. Back. Off. Jasper’s hands clenched into fists.
Veronica cast a fast glance at Jasper, then turned back to the sheriff. “When I needed help, Jasper was the first person to listen to me. The first to agree that he’d try and find Cale.” Veronica shook her head. “I begged you for months, Wyatt, but you wouldn’t even fill out a missing person’s report.”
“Because Cale was supposed to be on a mission—”
“I trust Jasper.”
Damn straight. He flashed another hard smile at the sheriff.
Wyatt’s glittering gaze met his. “I don’t. Check your timeline, Ronnie. He comes to town, and folks start dying. He comes to town, and your place gets trashed.”
“I was with him then.”
“Maybe he has a partner. Maybe he has—”
The sheriff was accusing him? Jasper stepped forward. “Get some facts to back up any accusations you’re making.”
Veronica pushed between the men. “Calm down, both of you.” Her breath expelled in a rush. “Wyatt, Jasper may have shady friends, but so do you. So does Cale. I’ve seen them. Heck, I told you that I’d been going through old photos of his and just the pictures of some of those guys intimidated me.” Guys like Reed Montgomery. She paused, then said, “He may have some dangerous friends, but Jasper also has some friends who are coming in very handy.” She tilted her head and studied the sheriff. “If he was involved in this, would he be pulling in the feds? Jasper is helping us, getting more done than—”