Cody Walker's Woman

“Top of the list.” Callahan smiled coldly. “I don’t know if it has anything to do with ancient history between the militia, Pennington and me, or if it’s just because I’m the local sheriff—Steve didn’t know. All he knew was he’d seen six names on a hit list, and that was something he wanted no part of. But it wasn’t that easy.”

Cody looked over at Keira. “I don’t know how much McKinnon told you when you started on this assignment...”

Keira’s soft brown eyes hardened. “Enough to know no one just walks away from the New World Militia. At least, not the one from years ago.”

“Right,” Callahan said. “I doubt that’s changed, and I wasn’t taking any chances. He wouldn’t tell me how he came across the list, or who had it, or anything. He said he didn’t want to get anyone in trouble.” His face showed his frustration.

“Since I couldn’t get anything more out of Steve, I told him to just sit tight and not let on to anyone in the organization he’d seen that list or wanted out.” His face contracted as he said roughly, “He was just a kid—barely old enough to drink. And they...” He drew another deep breath and put a tight rein on his emotions. “I told him I was going to call in the cavalry—your agency,” he said, indicating Cody and Keira with one controlled gesture. “Which I did, first thing.”

“But now he’s dead, and any proof he had died with him,” Cody said.

“Not quite,” Callahan said. “But that reminds me. I can’t just leave his body where it is. Not to mention his truck is parked at my house—he left it in the driveway in front, and I moved it behind the house last night before we left. But I didn’t have time to do anything about the blood trail leading right to my front door.”

“D’Arcy is sending backup teams to Buffalo and Sheridan,” Cody said. “They’re a few hours behind us, but I can have one of them handle it. They’re not official crime-scene investigators, but they’ll preserve any evidence, just in case. And they’ll clear away any trace he was there, if that’s what we want. We just need to decide if we want to make Tressler’s death public yet.”

“It depends on the original crime scene,” Callahan said. “If he was shot in his cabin...I’m thinking that’s where we’ll want his body discovered. Whoever beat him and then shot him will be expecting us to find him there.”

“Good point,” Cody said. He glanced at Keira for her input, and she nodded her agreement. “What’s the address? I can arrange for the backup team to check it out and handle moving the body back, if necessary.”

Callahan told him, and Cody jotted it down. “That settles that. But what are you going to do?” he asked Callahan. “You can’t just disappear from sight. I think the wrong people might start to wonder if the sheriff just up and disappeared, especially since your name is on the hit list.”

“You’re right.” Callahan ran one hand over his unshaven face. “I’m too tired to think straight. But I’ll have to go back to work, act as if Steve never told me anything.”

“Can you do that?” Keira asked.

One corner of Callahan’s mouth quirked in a faint smile. “Now that my family is out of danger—no problem.”

For the first time Cody noticed the lines of tiredness on Callahan’s face. The man must have an iron constitution, he thought, but he’s human like the rest of us. “Did you get any sleep last night?” he asked, knowing the answer before he heard it.

“I couldn’t take that risk.”

Cody pointed to the bed in the corner, the one Mandy and the children had used. “Why don’t you get some sack time now?” he asked with rough concern. As Callahan started to protest, he added, “You’re all in. We at least had some sleep last night before you called,” he said, indicating Keira and himself, “and we switched off driving on the way up, so we dozed then, too. Maybe you can go day and night, but you won’t be at peak efficiency. And that puts the whole team at risk.” He threw that last statement in, knowing it was the one argument the other man couldn’t ignore.