Lassoed (Steele Ranch 5)

“Five sisters who you didn’t even know existed. If you had, you wouldn’t have killed him, right? I mean, why would you want to share the inheritance with five women?”

Archer talked as if we were in an interrogation room, not a kitchen.

“They ruined everything. Everything!” Patrick spun about and stepped toward me, eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring. There was no way he’d get to me through Ashe, Sam and Sutton, but I still flinched back. He was beyond mad, he was eaten up by it. Crazed.

“Aiden Steele never told me about you. He never put you in his will,” Riley added. He was the lawyer and knew things none of us did. “Which means, you get nothing.”

“Not unless all of the sisters are dead,” Archer continued.

“DNA would prove I was his son. That it was all mine. I’d get it all!”

“So you tossed spikes onto the road. What did you do, wait for them to come up the road? I mean, you couldn’t have just put them out at any time. You didn’t want to kill the wrong people.”

Patrick rubbed his hands together. “Binoculars. That SUV’s like an aircraft carrier. Can’t miss it on that straightaway.”

“But you missed a spike when you stopped to pick them up after the tire blew.”

“And they didn’t go over the guardrail on the bend.”

“That wasn’t the first time you tried to harm one of the women, is it?” Archer asked.

Penny wheedled her way in beside Jamison and he tucked her into his side. Close. Cricket settled in next to Lee as Sarah stood with Wilder and King behind the others. While they didn’t have a front row seat, they couldn’t miss what was going on.

Patrick’s eyes lit up and he started to talk. It was as if he had to tell us everything, that he’d held these secrets in for so long, that he seemed proud of his activities.

“I didn’t have to do a thing for Kady. Hell, she had a fucking hit man after her. Unfortunately, he wasn’t successful in his task. Penny was almost a success. That guy at the bar made contact and—”

“He was going to take her out the back door of the Silky Spur and rape her,” Jamison growled. Penny turned her face into his chest, hugged him.

Patrick shrugged. “Yeah, and you thought our lack of escort to the restroom was because we lacked gentlemanly traits.” He laughed. God, it gave me chills. “More like I wanted her to suffer. Sarah though, well, no one knew she even existed. It was pretty hard to try and kill someone who was a secret. Then she was married to King and Wilder and impossible to get to.”

Jamison’s jaw clenched and he tugged Penny even closer. She was crying now, silently, but tears streamed down her cheeks.

“And Cricket?” Archer asked, his voice deep, barely hanging on by a thread now that he asked after his woman.

“It wasn’t too hard to get that idiot to camp out in her apartment.”

I was amazed by Archer’s restraint, that he didn’t kill him but instead only punched Patrick in the face. Blood spurted from his nose as the impact rocked him back, slamming into the edge of the counter. It seemed Archer had heard enough. He pulled his cell phone from his shirt pocket, tossed it to Sutton who caught it easily.

When I glanced at it, I saw Archer had been recording the whole thing.

Archer tugged Patrick’s hand behind his back, pressed his head down into the counter as he kicked his feet apart and frisked him.

“Get me the cuffs out of my truck,” Archer snapped, keeping his attention squarely on Patrick. His breathing was ragged, his cheeks flushed. I heard heavy footfall behind us, the front door open.

“Patrick Monaghan, you’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, you so much as fucking blink, the—”

As Archer read him his rights—with a little extra—I turned my face into Sam’s chest. He was warm and strong, his scent familiar and my mind recognized it as safety. He was my anchor and so was Ashe. He led me out of the kitchen and into the great room. Tipping up my chin, he made me look at him. “Are you all right?”

I licked my lips. “Stunned.”

King returned with the handcuffs and walked past us into the kitchen.

“I called 9-1-1 a few minutes ago,” Cord said, his arm around Kady who held Cecily. “I’m sure someone else has, too. They’ll be here in a few.”

“We missed most of it,” Kady added, looking disappointed.

I stared at her for a second, stunned, then I burst out laughing.