Camouflage Cowboy

“No, but she’s here with the specific task of finding you.”

“She must never learn of my identity, and I do not want to know hers. It could jeopardize my bid for the presidency and decimate my political career. The press and my pundits would have a field day with the information. Not even my press secretary would be able to spin the rhetoric before it destroyed me.”

“There’s more to it, Governor. She has a sick child who needs a bone-marrow transplant. She needs a close blood relative as a donor. She’s a mother, and she’s desperate.”

The color leaked from the governor’s face, then returned under her makeup in the form of rosy blotches on her cheeks. “So you believe she could be here to blackmail me into becoming the child’s donor, if she’s able to discover who I am, or she’ll torpedo my presidential aspirations with the scandal it could ignite?”

Nick gritted his teeth. He’d been retained to make sure that scenario never took shape. “I’m monitoring her on a daily basis. She hasn’t discovered your identity. She’s been working from a redacted copy of the adoption order—that’s how she tracked you to Freedom—but you might consider beating her to the punch by becoming an anonymous donor for her child.”

“I will not!” Lila’s eyes narrowed as she studied him. “Find out how much it’s going to cost me to keep her quiet. Better yet, I’ll pay out-of-pocket for a Texas statewide bone-marrow drive in Amarillo. Perhaps a donor can be found there.”

Tension walked across the back of his neck. He found another focal point in the room, a set of longhorns protruding from a velvet-covered mounting. The governor’s callous response was wreaking havoc on his sense of right, but he hadn’t been handed this assignment so he could advocate for Grace on the other side. He’d been hired to make sure none of it ever came to light.

“A lot of desperate recipients could benefit from that, Governor. Maybe even your own grandson.”

“I’ll put the wheels in motion.” She nodded, showing no sign that the word grandson had even penetrated her seemingly glacial emotions.

“Assure me you’ll continue to monitor the situation, keep her quiet and keep me informed?”

“You have my word.” Nick gritted his teeth and stood up. Maybe the bone-marrow drive would produce a donor for Caleb. He had to hang hope on that.

“Bart speaks highly of you, Agent Cavanaugh. That’s why I chose you to take this assignment. Don’t let me down.”

He nodded to the governor and she went back to work on the papers scattered across the desktop in front of her.

Nick went to the door. He grasped the knob, turned it and stepped out into the corridor, spotting Parker McKenna coming toward him at a fast clip.

“Nick. I need you in the control room. Matt has isolated a couple frames of last night’s intruder. He’d like you to take a look. Says the guy looks familiar.”

Pulling the door closed behind him, he fell in step next to Parker.

“Let me guess. The thug from the hospital?”

“He says it could be, but he wants you to take a look, as well. Back up his call.”

Caution worked its way through him. It made sense that the guy who’d made sure Trevor Lewis never spoke again was the one who’d tried their defenses at the ranch. Could he be the shooter, as well?

Nick followed Parker down a narrow hallway off of the gallery. A sharp right and they were standing in a small room with a bank of security-camera feeds lining the wall.

Matteo glanced up at him. “I think it’s him, Nick.” He pushed and held a button and Nick watched the image click backward, before pausing for an instant. He moved closer, leaned in and studied the fuzzy picture on the monitor.

“We captured a few seconds of physical movement before he faded out of camera range.” Matt pushed the pause button again and set the figure in motion.

Nick watched the ski-mask-clad intruder stand up from a crouching position, turn and move out of sight. “Same powerful build. Approximately the same height. I’d say he’s the man who took Lewis out. Could be our shooter, as well. Maybe you should contact the deputy whose uniform he took. They’d have to be about the same size. Maybe he’ll remember something if you show him the footage.”

“Good call. We’ll get on it.” Parker headed out of the control room, presumably to contact the deputy the thug had almost killed with a violent blow to the head.

Matt paused the video and turned his chair. “What’s up?”

Nick crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorjamb. “I need a favor.”

“If it involves stealing more glasses from Talk of the Town you can count me out. Faith is protective of those damn glasses.”

“She told you, huh?”

“She mentioned you pocketed one and promised to bring it back washed.”

A smile busted loose and spread on his face. “It’s at headquarters. I’ll see that it makes the trip back to the café. But that’s not the favor I need.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.” The grin on Matt’s face confirmed that his buddy was all in.

“Faith just hired a woman to work some evenings at the café, a Grace Marshall.”

“I’ve met her. She’s gorgeous, and nice. We like her.”

“I need to see the employment application she filled out.”

“Damn.” Matteo stood up and pushed in the chair. “I’m not sure I wanna go there, Nick.”

“I need to know who her previous employer was, or her previous address before she moved to Freedom. I know she grew up in Amarillo, but after college in Texas, she married and disappeared. I’ve got a hole to plug in her background, or at least I’ve got to know what fits in it.”

“Does this involve your special assignment for Governor Lockhart?”

“Yeah.” In a roundabout way it had everything to do with his assignment, but deep down he needed to get a handle on who was following Grace and why she was running scared. Besides, he was responsible for keeping her under surveillance and that meant keeping her and Caleb safe.

“I’ll see what I can do.”