The Seventh Victim (Texas Rangers 1)

The bartender popped the top on a beer and handed it to Mike. Both with drinks in hand, they faced the crowd.

Danni took a long sip. “Thanks.”

“Sure.” Raines glanced at the artsy crowd. They lived in an insulated dream world. He worked back alleys and dark streets. “So what can you tell me about this art, Danni Rome? I’m helpless in places like that.”

“You, helpless?” Laughter twinkled in her gaze.

“What can I say? The artsy types aren’t for me.” He glanced down at her. “Present company excluded.”

“Thanks.” She took another sip. “Lara uses a one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old bellows camera.”

He listened as she explained the photography process to him. “Sounds like you know what you’re talking about.”

“As of yesterday. She asked me to help her with a shoot, and I got a chance to prepare a glass negative and shoot a picture.”

“Nice. So what did you shoot?” He knew the answer but wanted to hear it from her.

“What she always shoots. A crime scene.”

“A crime scene.” Tension rippled up his spine. “I’m surprised she’d take an underage kid.”

Danni sipped her drink. “I gave her a note from my mother saying it was okay.”

So she was as young as he thought. “Did your mother write the note?”

Danni sipped her drink, her lips wide in a grin.

“Thought so. When do you hit the big one-eight?”

“Nine days.”

Raines let out a sigh. “Kid, you are far too old for seventeen.”

“Technically eighteen.”

“In nine days.” He raised a brow. “So where did you go?”

“A clump of land off of Interstate 35. Not much to look at, but she was determined to get the shot.”

“When did you go?”

“About dusk. She’d been there earlier in the day at sunrise. And she wanted to get a different perspective on the site.”

He thought about the woman’s sunglasses in his breast pocket. “And did you?”

“I’ll know tomorrow. We’ll be developing the negatives.”

He spotted Lara across the room and for a moment was taken aback. When he’d first met her she’d been traumatized and so afraid. And during their subsequent interviews she’d drawn deeper into herself. The harder he pushed, the deeper she’d burrowed.

However, this Lara wasn’t like the woman he’d interviewed countless times. This Lara was hot. Her blond hair draped over her shoulders, and her black dress hugged her curves in all the right places. Her smile was radiant and her gaze sharp.

“So do you know who died at that spot?” Mike said.

“Some woman was strangled there. Apparently, she was pretty decomposed when a utility worker found her body.”

“You two should be careful,” Mike said. “Killers have been known to return to the crime scene.”

She cocked a brow. “So that line you gave me about being a cop was true?”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I don’t know you. You could have been feeding me a line.”

He winked. “Smart girl.” He sipped his beer. “Yeah, I was a cop. Best twenty years of my life.”

“Was?”

Regret always mingled with these words. “Gave it up about six years ago. Time to expand my horizons.”

“And the new horizon is?”

“I own a security firm. We aren’t huge, but we get by and do well enough.”

“So do you follow or find people?” She tapped a finger against her glass.

He sensed the deep curiosity behind her questions. She wasn’t just making small talk but was intrigued. “So, Danni Rome, do you need me to follow or find someone?”

She offered a whatever shrug. “Just making conversation.”

“I hear interest. There a boss, neighbor, or boyfriend out there giving you a hard time?”

“No,” she said quickly. “No one.”

His cop radar said differently, but he let it pass. Not only did he like her, but she was close to Lara and that connection might prove beneficial. “Danni Rome, let’s have a look around this place.”

She stopped tapping her glass. “Sounds like a plan.”

Chapter 11

Friday, May 24, 11:15 PM

By the time the evening ended, Lara’s feet ached from the heels, and her face hurt from so much smiling. Cassidy waved good-bye to the last guest and locked the front door behind her. A wide grin softened her face. “You, my dear, were a huge hit tonight. Huge! This is just the beginning.”

Lara shrugged, trying to shake loose the knot between her shoulder blades. “It’s been a long time since I’ve talked to so many people.”

Cassidy walked to the bar and poured them each a glass of wine. She handed one to Lara as she took a sip from the other. “You were great. A natural. And you looked stunning.”

“Thanks.”

“It’s almost as if I was looking at a different person tonight. The first time I proposed the show, you looked as if you wanted to run and hide.”

Lara swirled her wine in her glass. “That’s not too far from the truth.”

Cassidy tipped her glass toward Lara. “But you did not run. You were like your old self tonight.”

Lara recognized seeds of change growing. “You’re right.”

Cassidy sipped her wine, her eyes keen and sharp. “Why didn’t you run? What made you say yes?”

Lara stared into the gold depths of her wine, wishing she could drink, knowing she wouldn’t. “I was tired of hiding.”

Cassidy cocked her head to the side. “And what were you hiding from?”

Lara’s secrets rose up again begging to be spoken. “You need to know this because I shared it with Vera tonight.”

Cassidy stilled her entire attention and fixated on Lara.

“I had a trauma in Seattle about seven years ago. It sent me inward.”

Cassidy’s glass paused inches from her lips. “What kind of trauma?” Her cousin always drove straight to the heart of the matter.

“I was sexually assaulted and nearly strangled to death by an attacker.”

Cassidy’s grip on her glass tightened. “What?”

“I don’t remember what happened.” She recapped what she did remember.

Cassidy set down her glass. “So you don’t remember who did this to you?”

Fatigue rushed over her. “No. I have no memory of the attack.”

“How can that be?”

“Doctors said it was the trauma of the concussion. Some even thought I was lying so that I could avoid the police investigation.”

“You weren’t lying.” She shook her head as if pieces of a puzzle fell together. “Grandma was upset around that time. I thought it was because she was sick and couldn’t attend your graduation.”

“I called her and told her what had happened. I begged her not to tell anyone, but she asked Jonathan to come and be with me.”

Cassidy’s lips thinned. “I would have come.”

“You were in New York. Life was going so well for you. I wouldn’t have wanted to drag you into my mess.”

“I would have come,” she said softly.

“I know.”

After a heavy silence, Cassidy said, “Jonathan always liked you.”

“He was great after the attack and so good to me, but I couldn’t stand being in a town where my attacker lived. I’ve been on the move until eight months ago.”

“And that explains why you take pictures of so many crime scenes.”

Lara set her glass down. “I told Vera because I know she’ll write about it, and I’m tired of hiding.”

Cassidy raised a brow. “Oh, she will. It will be an eye-catcher for her readers when it runs in Sunday’s paper. That kind of news could take the exhibit national.”

“That wasn’t my intent.”

Cassidy tugged off a clip-on earring and rubbed her earlobe. “Then why talk to Vera?

”

“I’ve been hiding for seven years. And I’m tired of it. I want my life back.”

Cassidy nodded with approval. “Well, after that article hits you will have a different and, I hope, a very lucrative, life.” She took one last sip and set her glass down. “You want to stay the night here?”

“No, no, I’m fine. But do you need help cleaning up?”

Cassidy laughed. “Lara, you must be more of a diva. Artists do not clean up.”

A chuckle rumbled in her throat. “I’ll remember that when I’m walking Lincoln and bagging his business.”

“No, I do not need help. I was offering a bed so you don’t have the long drive home.”