a few moments, trying to decompress after an intense afternoon selecting members for a jury in the Diego Mederos trial.
As Mederos was escorted from the courtroom, he’d looked right at her, winked and smiled. The memory sent a chill racing through her body. She’d convicted hardened criminals before as the county district attorney, but this one was different. In his black eyes, she’d seen pure evil lurking behind the swagger he presented to the world. Finally, an angry father had come forward to testify against the man who ran a biker gang and murdered the witness’s only son.
Her hands ached from gripping the steering wheel so hard. She pried them away and rubbed them together. When she’d become the DA six years ago, she’d promised herself she wouldn’t bring home her cases and ruin her time with her daughter, Michelle. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard and quickly gathered her briefcase and purse, then exited her car.
She was later than she thought and hoped as pre-arranged when she was running behind that Michelle had caught a ride with her best friend, Emma, to the junior varsity’s basketball game at the high school gym.
At fourteen, Michelle’s world revolved around boys and playing basketball. It was times like this that Tory really missed her husband, Derek, who died two years ago. He was the one who’d gotten Michelle interested in basketball. After he’d come home from work, they used to play together most evenings. Her daughter adored her father. His death had been so hard on both of them. But especially Michelle.
Tory unlocked the garage door and hurried into the kitchen. In case Michelle hadn’t gotten a ride, Tory shouted, “Michelle, are you here?”
Silence greeted Tory. Relieved she had time to change out of her suit and high heels before going to the game, she scanned the kitchen and saw evidence—a plate and glass by the sink—that her daughter had come home after school as she usually did every day, especially on game night, and had called Emma down the street when Tory wasn’t home by the designated time. As a working mom, Tory was thankful for Emma and her mother being able to help her out occasionally.
Tory set her briefcase and handbag on the counter, then walked through the dining room and living room to the entry hall where she gathered the mail Michelle had put on the table near the front door. Heading down the hallway to the bedrooms, Tory flipped through the mail. Nothing important. She looked forward to relaxing and watching Michelle play basketball.
Tory opened the first bill and reviewed the credit-card expenses. The sound of the shower running caused her to pause at the bathroom. Michelle was still here? She’d be late. Her daughter was the one who always kept Tory punctual.
Tory knocked once, then hurried inside.
Came to a dead stop.
Shards of the large mirror over the counter crunched beneath her shoes.
But what caught her full attention was the blood all over the sink and ceramic top. Bile rose into her throat. She put her palm over her mouth and turned away.
“Michelle, what...” Heartbeat racing, Tory yanked the shower curtain back.
Water pounded against the tub and swirled down the drain.
No Michelle.
Tory ran into the hall. Bright red drops trailed on the floor all the way to Michelle’s closed bedroom door. Tory charged forward and gripped the handle, then burst inside her daughter’s room.
It was chaos. The clothes from Michelle’s closet were flung all over the room along with the contents of every drawer in her dresser and desk. Her basketball trophies, photos and books were swept off the bookshelves. Then Tory’s gaze fell upon a skull and crossbones painted in red on the wall over her daughter’s bed. Fear flashed down her spine.
Get out! screamed through her mind. As she spun around, her heart thumping against her rib cage, her gaze fell on the window, the lower glass pane shattered. Tory raced into the hallway while fumbling for her phone in her jacket pocket. She made a call to Michelle, but it went to voice mail. She really wanted to believe that her daughter was probably fine and on the basketball court, her cell phone left in her locker in the girls’ dressing room. She tried Emma’s mom’s number, but it went to voice mail too. Tory didn’t have a good feeling about this.
The image of Mederos with the skull and crossbones symbol tattooed on his arm as he strutted from the courtroom entered her mind again. He was behind this. He had to be.
As she rushed into the kitchen, grabbed her purse and headed for her car, she called the police chief, Paul Drake. When he answered, she slid behind the steering wheel and started her SUV.
“Paul, someone has broken into my house—” she took a gulp of air “—and trashed my daughter’s bedroom. The bathroom... There’s blood everywhere.” She tried to shake the image from her mind. She couldn’t.
“Tory, where are you now?”
“I can’t get hold of Michelle. There’s a skull and crossbones on the wall in her bedroom. That’s Mederos’s gang symbol,” she rambled while she drove as fast as she could.
Tory saw the stop sign too late and slammed on her brakes as a driver at the intersection pulled out to cross. She jerked the steering wheel to avoid the vehicle and sent her Chevy into a spin.
“Where are you?” Paul asked in a firm, no-nonsense voice.
“I...” Tory tried to control her panic. All she could hear was the thunder of her heartbeat in her ears.
“Tory! What happened?”
Pull it together. “I almost had a wreck.” She backed up and turned her car in the right direction, her sweaty palms slipping on the steering wheel. “I tried calling Michelle. She didn’t answer. I’m going to the high school gym and praying Michelle wasn’t at the house when someone came in.” Praying she isn’t kidnapped or worse. She banned that last thought from her mind.
“I’ll send some officers to your house. I’ll meet you at the gym.”
“Hurry.” Mederos has retaliated before against family members of people who have opposed him.
But she didn’t say that out loud. Going after her or her family members wouldn’t really help Mederos’s case. There was always another prosecutor who could take over. It made more sense that Mederos would put his effort into intimidating the star witness, but then she had the father in hiding and guarded. Few people knew where—except her and the US Marshals.
Would Mederos have her daughter kidnapped to find where the star witness was kept? The image of the skull and crossbones over Michelle’s bed mocked that question. Mederos would do whatever he pleased.
Tory sped up, praying to God to keep her daughter protected. She didn’t know what she would do if she lost another loved one, especially her daughter.
* * *
As Cade Morgan drove toward his family ranch on the outskirts of El Rio, Texas, he realized it was later than he’d thought. He had only fifteen or twenty minutes to grab something to eat, check on his dog to see if she’d given birth yet and then head back to the high school gym for the basketball game. This would be the first time he’d see Michelle playing on the Mustang High School girls’ freshman and sophomore team. Seeing his daughter was the reason he’d taken the job in El Rio, covering this part of the state as a
