Pedro examined his face, missing nothing.
He didn’t know whether to feel relieved or depressed. “Will I be doing this every day?”
Pedro laughed. “No,
Dylan hoped he was joking. Getting blood on his hands hadn’t made him feel tough, and the other guys had practically called him a pussy. But he nodded, because he wasn’t a quitter, and no one ever said it was easy to be a man.
On his way out, Dylan decided to stop by Bull’s office. It couldn’t hurt to thank him for the job. When he got close to the office door, he heard two men arguing. Not wanting to interrupt, he leaned against the side of the trailer and waited for them to finish.
“Come on, Dad,” one of the voices said. “Are you really going to sit there and lecture me about women? Clay’s mama would find that highly ironic.”
Dylan knew immediately that the man speaking was Jesse Ryan. His ears strained for Bull’s response.
“We aren’t talking about Clay’s mama, we’re talking about your wife. I heard Clay was paying her court. While you’ve been out tomcatting, pissing away my money, the mother of your child has been entertaining other men.”
Jesse made a snort of disbelief. “Tammy Lee wouldn’t know how to entertain a man if she took lessons.”
“Maybe he’s giving her lessons.”
“Over my dead body,” Jesse said in a growl.
“You do this one more time and I’ll kill you myself,” Bull warned. “I’m tired of paying for your mistakes. You don’t take care of your business. You can’t even take care of your wife. When are you going to grow up?”
Jesse wisely remained silent.
“This is the last time I bail you out. And you better come in and work for me tomorrow. Fixing cars is obviously not keeping you occupied.”
“Yessir,” he said in a sulky voice.
Aware that the conversation was winding down, Dylan backed up and moved away from the door, leaving as quietly as possible.
After Luke sent Garrett home, he sat behind a strange desk in an office that didn’t feel like his, thinking about the case while the last rays of the sun eked away.
Darkness closed in on him, but he didn’t bother to get up or turn on any lights. He still had more than an hour before he had to meet Shay, and he wasn’t looking forward to facing her again. She would surely make him pay for the callous way he’d treated her.
He knew he’d screwed up. He just didn’t know how to fix it.
If only he hadn’t gotten so close to her last night. He’d been freezing his ass off in damp pants and no shirt, the embers of the dying fire barely penetrating the chill in the air. He never should have taken her up on her offer to get warm.
He’d known what it would lead to.
“Damn it,” he muttered, rubbing a hand over his face. Now more than ever, he wished he had a place to call home. There was nothing remotely comfortable, or comforting, about his cot in the barracks at the firehouse.
Sure, there was a couch, a giant TV, and a stocked fridge, the staples of every bachelor pad, but there was no privacy.
There was no… peace.
Tenaja Falls was supposed to be a kind of retreat for him, a few months of rest and relaxation. He was burned-out and he needed to regroup. That was all. While he was here, he planned on charting his future course.
Going back to Vegas was out, but it wasn’t as if he had no other options. He had an excellent record, an extensive education in criminal justice, and plenty of experience with investigating organized crime. He could get a job anywhere there was gang activity.
For some reason, working in a big city didn’t hold the appeal it once had. Ten years ago, he’d wanted to make a difference. Now he was jaded enough to question whether hitting the mean streets and shaking down gun-toting teenagers was the best way to do it.
On impulse, he picked up the phone and dialed a number he knew by heart. “Mom,” he said as soon as she answered, feeling an odd tightening in his throat at the sound of her voice.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
He laughed, feeling some of his tension ease away. “Don’t I ever call you just to say hello?”
“Of course, but you sounded funny.”
He felt funny, too, but he didn’t tell her that. “How’s Lauren?”
After they left Pala, his mother had met the love of her life, and she’d been happily remarried for thirty years. Now his stepsister, Lauren, was happily married, too, with a three-year-old daughter and another baby on the way.
His mom chatted about her favorite subject for a few moments, offering him a welcome distraction. And after she was finished catching him up on the latest news, she didn’t even ask him when he was going to settle down and have children of his own.
Maybe she’d given up.
She didn’t mention the mountain lion mauling, and neither did he. He didn’t want her to worry.
“Do you like it there?” she asked, sounding hopeful.
“Yes,” he lied.
“Are the people nice?”
He knew where this was going. Straight to finding a small-town girl and hanging up his hat, Andy Griffith-style. “I miss you,” he said to change the subject, and because it was true.
She sucked in a little breath of pleasure. “Well, I miss you, too, Luke. We all do.”
“I know. I just wanted to tell you. I sort of promised someone I’d tell you”-he swallowed back another laugh at his expense, because he was getting ridiculously sentimental-”that you have a great smile.”
She was silent for a moment. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” he said, and suddenly he was.
Since everything had fallen apart in Vegas, he’d been searching for something worthwhile to hold on to. A deeper understanding of himself, and a more meaningful connection to others. Tenaja Falls didn’t have much flash, but it had substance. He didn’t know if this town was the right place for him, but he
He wasn’t ready to start house-shopping yet, but the idea of staying here brightened his outlook rather than dampening it.
After Luke hung up with his mother, he called Clay Trujillo. The short conversation had revived him, and reminded him of another mother he’d yet to talk to. “Do you know Tamara Ryan?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Luke was reluctant to tell Clay about the blood evidence found at the scene. Sometime before the body was dumped, an unknown female had bled on her. Perhaps Yesenia had been confronted by a jealous wife. Maybe Tamara fit the bill.
“I wanted to ask her a few questions about Jesse. He was the last person to see Yesenia Montes alive.”
There was a short pause. “I’ll go with you.”
It was the response Luke had been fishing for, so he agreed without a qualm. He wanted to find out what was going on between Shay, Jesse, Tamara, and whoever else had been dipping into Tenaja Falls’ shallow dating pool.
Clay met him at the station and Luke drove from there, heading toward the outskirts of town. Tamara Ryan lived on the southwestern edge of Tenaja, in a lonely cluster of trailer homes situated near a convenience store just off the main drag.
The place made the quaint little houses in Shay’s neighborhood seem prosperous. An older model red Ford Escort sat in the driveway, covered in a fine coat of dust, its cooling system still ticking. Inside, there was the sound of a baby crying.
