Tory unlocked the garage door and hurried into the kitchen. In case Michelle hadn’t gotten a ride, Tory shouted, “Michelle, are you here?”
Silence greeted Tory. Relieved she had time to change out of her suit and high heels before going to the game, she scanned the kitchen and saw evidence—a plate and glass by the sink—that her daughter had come home after school as she usually did every day, especially on game night, and had called Emma down the street when Tory wasn’t home by the designated time. As a working mom, Tory was thankful for Emma and her mother being able to help her out occasionally.
Tory set her briefcase and handbag on the counter, then walked through the dining room and living room to the entry hall where she gathered the mail Michelle had put on the table near the front door. Heading down the hallway to the bedrooms, Tory flipped through the mail. Nothing important. She looked forward to relaxing and watching Michelle play basketball.
Tory opened the first bill and reviewed the credit-card expenses. The sound of the shower running caused her to pause at the bathroom. Michelle was still here? She’d be late. Her daughter was the one who always kept Tory punctual.
Tory knocked once, then hurried inside.
Came to a dead stop.
Shards of the large mirror over the counter crunched beneath her shoes.
But what caught her full attention was the blood all over the sink and ceramic top. Bile rose into her throat. She put her palm over her mouth and turned away.
“Michelle, what...” Heartbeat racing, Tory yanked the shower curtain back.
Water pounded against the tub and swirled down the drain.
No Michelle.
Tory ran into the hall. Bright red drops trailed on the floor all the way to Michelle’s closed bedroom door. Tory charged forward and gripped the handle, then burst inside her daughter’s room.
It was chaos. The clothes from Michelle’s closet were flung all over the room along with the contents of every drawer in her dresser and desk. Her basketball trophies, photos and books were swept off the bookshelves. Then Tory’s gaze fell upon a skull and crossbones painted in red on the wall over her daughter’s bed. Fear flashed down her spine.
Get out! screamed through her mind. As she spun around, her heart thumping against her rib cage, her gaze fell on the window, the lower glass pane shattered. Tory raced into the hallway while fumbling for her phone in her jacket pocket. She made a call to Michelle, but it went to voice mail. She really wanted to believe that her daughter was probably fine and on the basketball court, her cell phone left in her locker in the girls’ dressing room. She tried Emma’s mom’s number, but it went to voice mail too. Tory didn’t have a good feeling about this.
The image of Mederos with the skull and crossbones symbol tattooed on his arm as he strutted from the courtroom entered her mind again. He was behind this. He had to be.
As she rushed into the kitchen, grabbed her purse and headed for her car, she called the police chief, Paul Drake. When he answered, she slid behind the steering wheel and started her SUV.
“Paul, someone has broken into my house—” she took a gulp of air “—and trashed my daughter’s bedroom. The bathroom... There’s blood everywhere.” She tried to shake the image from her mind. She couldn’t.
“Tory, where are you now?”
“I can’t get hold of Michelle. There’s a skull and crossbones on the wall in her bedroom. That’s Mederos’s gang symbol,” she rambled while she drove as fast as she could.
Tory saw the stop sign too late and slammed on her brakes as a driver at the intersection pulled out to cross. She jerked the steering wheel to avoid the vehicle and sent her Chevy into a spin.
“Where are you?” Paul asked in a firm, no-nonsense voice.
“I...” Tory tried to control her panic. All she could hear was the thunder of her heartbeat in her ears.
“Tory! What happened?”
Pull it together. “I almost had a wreck.” She backed up and turned her car in the right direction, her sweaty palms slipping on the steering wheel. “I tried calling Michelle. She didn’t answer. I’m going to the high school gym and praying Michelle wasn’t at the house when someone came in.” Praying she isn’t kidnapped or worse. She banned that last thought from her mind.
“I’ll send some officers to your house. I’ll meet you at the gym.”
“Hurry.” Mederos has retaliated before against family members of people who have opposed him.
But she didn’t say that out loud. Going after her or her family members wouldn’t really help Mederos’s case. There was always another prosecutor who could take over. It made more sense that Mederos would put his effort into intimidating the star witness, but then she had the father in hiding and guarded. Few people knew where—except her and the US Marshals.
Would Mederos have her daughter kidnapped to find where the star witness was kept? The image of the skull and crossbones over Michelle’s bed mocked that question. Mederos would do whatever he pleased.
Tory sped up, praying to God to keep her daughter protected. She didn’t know what she would do if she lost another loved one, especially her daughter.
* * *
As Cade Morgan drove toward his family ranch on the outskirts of El Rio, Texas, he realized it was later than he’d thought. He had only fifteen or twenty minutes to grab something to eat, check on his dog to see if she’d given birth yet and then head back to the high school gym for the basketball game. This would be the first time he’d see Michelle playing on the Mustang High School girls’ freshman and sophomore team. Seeing his daughter was the reason he’d taken the job in El Rio, covering this part of the state as a Texas Ranger.
He couldn’t be part of her life openly, and years ago he’d accepted that, but he still wanted to be involved with her as much as he could be. He needed to talk to Tory, his high school sweetheart, about what that could possibly be. He’d been back home for only three weeks, and in that time he’d been helping the police chief and sheriff to strengthen the case against Mederos that had gone to trial a couple of days ago.
If he was honest with himself, he’d been putting off talking with Tory. When the Texas Ranger position came up, he’d wondered if it had been a sign from God that it was time for him to return home to live after seventeen years.
As he turned onto the highway that led out of town, his cell phone rang. “What’s up, Paul?” The police chief in El Rio, a town with a population of twenty thousand and the county seat, had been a good friend when Cade grew up here. It had been nice renewing that friendship.
“I’ve sent two officers to Tory Carson’s house. She just called. Someone broke into her house and trashed her daughter’s bedroom. One of the windows was broken. She said blood is everywhere.”
Michelle’s room! Cade made a quick U-turn and headed back into town. “Where’s her daughter?”
“Tory is hoping at the basketball game. She’s heading to the high school gym to see.”
“I’m already heading that way. It shouldn’t take me long.”
“I’ll meet you at the gym. If you find Michelle before I get there, call me and I’ll go help the police officer secure the crime scene.”
When Cade disconnected the call, he pressed his foot on the gas pedal. Is my daughter missing? The question froze him to his core. Criminals like Mederos would stop at nothing to walk away from his trial without a conviction.
Ten minutes later he raced into the high school lobby to find Tory rushing to a set of double doors that led into the gym, her mouth set in a firm, determined line. Her gaze locked with his right before she slipped inside.
Cade