Royal Protector

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She nodded uncertainly.

“Do you have any idea why someone would ransack your cabin?”

“No.”

“Any idea what they might have been looking for?”

Again, she responded with a flat, “No.”

“Who was Hugh Miller?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, who was he? We know that wasn’t his real name. And the address he gave Mo when he checked in was phony, too. Who was he, Lexie?”

When she didn’t reply immediately, he pressed her. “His prints have been sent to CBI and it’s only a matter of time before they match them with an identity. If you tell me now you’ll be saving everyone a lot of trouble.”

She rose and moved over to the window where she stood with her back to him. “I only knew him as Hugh Miller.”

“Where did he come from?”

“I don’t know. I can’t tell you anything more about the man.”

“Can’t or won’t?” It took some doing, but Lucas managed to keep his voice even. “Look, Lexie…whatever is keeping you from telling me the truth, it can’t be worse than the legal ramifications that could result from your stone-walling.”

She turned around to face him with an openly defiant expression. “There’s no point in threatening me, Sheriff.”

Lucas felt his control slip. An innocent witness afraid to come forward was one thing, but Lexie’s constant evasions were making him question just how innocent she really was. “Damn it! A man is dead. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. The note of desperation in her voice touched off an unwanted rush of protective instincts inside Lucas. She stood silently for several minutes, then sighed and turned to face him once more. “I know you’re trying to help, Lucas. But there’s no need. Every-thing…well, it’s just too late.”

“Too late for what, Lexie?”

She started for the door. “Could you please arrange for someone to drive me back to the ranch?”

Lucas covered the length of his office in three long strides. “What are you hiding, Lexie? Tell me.”

“Let me go.”

“Do you know why he was killed?”

“No!” Although he couldn’t yet begin to explain why, Lucas sensed a world of pain behind that single word.

“You never knew him as anyone but Hugh Miller?”

“That’s right.”

Well, at least that’s something, Lucas thought. “How about his family? Do you know how to contact them?”

“I don’t know anything about his family…or even if he had any.”

“Why was he here, Lexie? What did Hugh Miller have to do with you?”

A look of something close to panic flickered across her face and Lucas could feel her shutting down, again.

“Level with me, Lexie. I can help you, but you have to tell me the truth.”

“I can’t!” When she tried to push past him, he reached for her hand and held her where she stood.

“Let me go! You have no right to detain me.”

Her wrist felt warm and fragile. “I’m just trying to help you.”

She shook her head and pulled away from his grasp. “I know,” she said. “And I appreciate your position. But you don’t understand. Things are not what they appear. It’s out of your hands. Out of mine! There’s nothing anyone can do, now.”

“Tell me what that means, Lexie. Why is it too late? What are you involved in?” Even as he asked the questions, Lucas hoped against all reason that she was as innocent as she claimed to be.

“Please,” she nearly begged him. “Just take me back to the ranch.”

They stood close, so close the faint perfume that was her essence mingled with his every breath, so sweet and distinctly feminine, he could almost taste it.

“I only want the truth,” Lucas said. “And I’m not going to stop until I get it.”

She walked past him to the window and stood once more gazing out at the mountains in the distance.

He moved across the room to stand close behind her, so close it was hard not to touch. “Tell me what has you running so scared. I promise, I’ll do everything in my power to protect you, but you have to trust me.”

He watched her shoulders tense and he felt torn. He didn’t enjoy pressuring her, but he had a duty to bring in a killer.

And if there was a battle raging inside Lexie Dale, Lucas meant to come out the winner.

“Just tell me the truth,” he continued to urge in a low, even voice.

As the moments of taut silence stretched between them, Lucas sensed she wanted to give in. It took every bit of control he possessed, but he allowed her the time she needed to reach her decision. The vow he’d made to her was real. If there was a way to protect her, to help her out of whatever trouble had her scared silent, Lucas would find it. After all, as a cop it was his sworn duty to protect, even if the reaction she sparked inside him was anything but professional.

“Lexie?” he said finally.

She sighed. “There’s nothing anyone can do,” she said without turning around. Her words were tinged with a sadness Lucas could not ignore.

He placed his hands lightly on her shoulders and turned her gently around to face him. With the tip of his finger, he lifted her chin so that he could look directly into her face. The eyes that stared back at him seemed haunted and the expression on her face was one of uncertainty mixed with loneliness. Lucas felt his heart turn over at the sight of such aching vulnerability, and before either of them realized what was happening, he gathered her into the circle of his arms.

She didn’t resist, but seemed, instead, eager to lose herself within the shelter of his embrace. For the space of a few breathless heartbeats the grim circumstances that had caused their paths to cross ceased to exist.

When the phone rang, she pulled back, out of his arms. It rang a second time, before Lucas turned away and reached for it.

“It’s Ritter, with the Burea of Land Management,” Sylvia’s voice announced.

“Tell him I’ll get back to him.”

“He says he’s got to talk to you, Sheriff. One of their trucks was stolen.”

“Get the information and tell him I’ll send a deputy out to talk to him.”

“Want me to dispatch Burt?”

“Yes. Thanks, Sylvia.” As he spoke to his secretary his eyes searched Lexie’s face, looking for something—anything—that would solve the mystery that was increasingly surrounding her. “Oh, and, Sylvia, please hold all my calls until I let you know otherwise.”

He hung up the phone but didn’t make a move to close the distance between them. “Level with me, Lexie. Tell me what you know about the man who called himself Hugh Miller. Begin by telling me why he used a false identity.”

She blinked and some of the color left her face.

“You really didn’t know, did you?”

She shook her head. “The first time I saw him was here at the ranch.”

“But you weren’t surprised to meet him. Why, Lexie?”

She stared at him a long moment and Lucas sensed she was close to cracking. Finally, she sighed, moved back to her chair and sat down. “He was a paid bodyguard.”

Her admission wasn’t really all that surprising. Her obvious distress at having been forced to admit it, however, was. “How long had he been working for you?”

“He wasn’t working for me, exactly. My family hired him.” Unmistakable anger turned her eyes a darker shade of blue. “Or to be more precise, my father hired him. He made all the arrangements.”

“What made your father believe you needed the services of a bodyguard?” Lucas studied her face as he waited for her answer and imagined what he’d do to anyone who tried to harm even one hair on her lovely head.

“There was a kidnapping attempt—” She hesitated. “It was a long time ago. When I was a child.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I don’t…remember much. I was very young.”

“What do you remember?”

“Not much. My mother died years ago. And my father…well, it’s never been a subject he’s felt inclined to discuss.” Something about the way she said the word father made Lucas want to punch the man.

“I’ll want to talk to him. To your father.”

Her laugh was short, dry and completely without humor. “Oh, believe me, you will. In fact, he’s probably tried to reach me this morning at the ranch.”

Lucas reached for the phone again. “What’s his number?”

She leaned back in her chair. “I don’t have it with me, but even if I did, you wouldn’t be able to get through.”

“Why not?”

She sat forward in her chair. “Because it doesn’t work that way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, there’s no way to get through to him. He’s a very…busy man. Lots of meetings. And he travels a lot, too. I wouldn’t know how or where to begin looking for him today.”

“But you spoke to him yesterday.”

She nodded. “Yes. That’s why I know he’s undoubtedly tried to reach me today.”

“If you don’t mind my saying, you seem less than happy by the prospect of talking to your father.”

She shrugged, but the indifference she seemed to want to portray was undermined by the distinct sadness in her eyes.

“Are you sure there’s no way to contact him, now? At his office or at home?”

She gave him a small smile. “Trust me on this one, Lucas. By the time you drive me back to the ranch, His— My father will have left a message instructing me exactly when and where to call.”

Lucas reached for his hat. “Then let’s go.”

She nodded and rose to walk ahead of him out of his office, with all the enthusiasm of a woman headed for the gallows.

Chapter Four

In the outer office, Deputy Eli Ferguson reclined in a chair with his long legs stretched out on the desktop in front of him. “Hey, Lucas,” he said and came to his feet.

“Am I glad to see you!”

Lucas was fortunate to have such a competent second-in-command. In spite of Eli’s few annoying affectations, like wearing his sunglasses indoors and sliding into a west Texas drawl that stretched a single sentence into a lengthy monologue, he was smart and a good leader. Lucas asked Lexie to wait in his office while he turned over the loose threads of the investigation to his deputy.

“I want four more men up on that trail, checking for anything we might have missed yesterday. Also, BLM just reported a stolen truck. It’s a long shot, but there could be a connection.”

“Could be our shooter needed the truck for his getaway. I’ll compare the cast we took of the tire prints on the trail with the BLM vehicles.”

“Put out an APB on that truck,” Lucas said.

The next task was more complicated. “Last night, someone ransacked Lexie’s rental cabin. Send two men over there to check for prints and take photos.”

Eli removed his sunglasses and glanced toward the office where Lexie was waiting. “Is she all right?”

“Mo insisted she stay in the guest room at the house.” His sister had been correct in assuming there was still a danger. “I don’t need to tell you that those cabins are within spitting distance of the ranch house. I sure as hell don’t like the idea of something like this happening so near Pop’s front door.”

“I’ll get a full report from the deputy who was supposed to be on patrol last night and have it on your desk by noon.”

Lucas nodded. “From now on until this thing is over, I want you to personally oversee the surveillance at Destiny Canyon Ranch.”

“Consider it done.” Eli slipped the sunglasses back onto the bridge of his nose. “There’ll be someone on the premises round-the-clock from now until we bring in the perpetrator. So, where are you headed, Lucas? Back up to the mountain?”

“Later,” Lucas replied and inclined his head toward Lexie. “Right now, my first priority is finding out how she fits into this thing.” His gut instincts told him that the answers they sought resided somewhere in Lexie Dale’s stubborn little head. If he could find a way around her fears, convince her he was not the enemy, there just might be a way to not only apprehend a murderer but keep Lexie safe, as well. “I need you to follow up on the loose ends, so I can be free to act on whatever information I manage to pry out of our witness.”