I watched as the weight of my words settled on him. There was as much relief etched into his furrowed brow as there was concern. He held me close to him but didn’t speak. It wasn’t until my phone rang again that either of us did.
“What should I do?” I asked.
“Turn it off.”
“But—”
“You can return his call as soon as we’re back at the ranch.”
Before I could ask another question, I heard a different phone buzz, but I had no idea where the sound was coming from.
16
Decker
I pulled the phone out of my bag. I’d left it on, anxious to hear back from Rile.
“Hello, my friend,” the man said, beginning our conversation the way I was growing accustomed to.
“Rile.”
“When do you intend to return to Austin?”
“We’re leaving for the ranch in a few minutes. Where are you?”
“Our plane was diverted to DFW. We should arrive shortly after you.”
“I found evidence that someone paid us a visit last night.”
“As your email stated.”
That wasn’t accurate. My email stated that I suspected someone had been outside the cabin the night before; I hadn’t yet confirmed that fact when I sent it.
“I’ll be in touch.” I ended the call rather than point out the inaccuracy in Rile’s statement.
When I went back to look for Mila, I found her gazing out the window. Like yesterday when we were having breakfast, she looked like an angel with the way the sun’s rays came in through the window. I stood and stared, not wanting the moment to end. When she turned and smiled, it only intensified the feeling.
“That was Cortez DeLéon. He, Keon Edgemon, and Miles Stone will be meeting us at the ranch this afternoon.”
“Your partners.”
It would take me some time to get used to thinking of them in that way, but yes, that’s who they were.
“Once we’re there, I’ll ask you to contact Adler and invite him there as well.”
“I don’t know what I’ll say.”
“We have a three-hour drive to figure it out.”
Having a plan to deal with Livingston, along with knowing I’d have backup from Rile, Edge, and Grinder, left me feeling less anxious than I’d been last night or even this morning.
My gut told him two things. First, Adler was no friend to Mila. He had an agenda. Second, I would be willing to wager that he’d been the one snooping around the cabin the night before. That was the reason I’d asked Mila to turn off her phone. If Adler, or anyone else, had found us at the cabin, that meant someone was tracking her.
Like every other time we’d driven any distance, Mila was asleep not long after we got on the road. Also like every time we’d spent time in my truck, I stole every glance I could at the beautiful woman sitting beside me.
She’d spoken frankly when she told me that she hadn’t allowed another man to touch her in nine years. However, I found it troubling that I hadn’t found any record of an assault. Whatever had happened was significant enough that it still impacted her in a profound way. The natural assumption was that she had been sexually assaulted. If it had happened nine years ago, she would’ve been seventeen years old. While some juvenile records were sealed to protect the privacy of the victim, the intelligence networks that the ranch’s security system was tied into would’ve had a record if she’d had as much as a hangnail.
The other thing nagging at me was her lack of a relationship with Judd. She’d made no mention of contacting her father with news of her sister’s death, nor had she asked if Mac had contacted him. The only thing she’d said about him was that some people weren’t cut out to be parents. I made a mental note to pull a full report on Judd Knight. In my gut, I didn’t believe Judd had been the one to assault Mila, but something didn’t add up about her relationship with him.