Delores Fossen - Roughshod Justice

Kelly stood, too, and she peered over Jameson’s shoulder to get a better look at the man with the shaved head and bulky build. He was tall, at least six-four, and wearing a suit.

“Frank Worley,” Jameson said like profanity. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Worley. The man she’d been investigating when she disappeared. He might also be the man who’d hired those thugs to take Mandy.

“No need for that gun,” Worley insisted. “And I’m going to show you why. Don’t shoot me when I pull back my jacket.”

“Don’t give me a reason to shoot you,” Jameson countered. “But if you pull a gun, you’re a dead man.”

“What I’m going to show you isn’t a gun, but I’m carrying one. And here’s why.” Worley eased open his jacket, and she immediately spotted something she hadn’t expected to see.

A badge clipped to his belt.

“I’m a Justice Department agent,” Worley added, his attention sliding from Jameson to her. “My real name is Lawrence Boyer. And I’m here to arrest Kelly for murder.”

Chapter Three

Jameson didn’t know who was more stunned with Worley’s announcement—him or Kelly. But Kelly did look as if she was about to try to sprint out of there. Jameson wouldn’t let her do that. Nor would he take anything Worley said, or what he was wearing, at face value.

Including that badge or his name.

“Federal agent, huh?” Jameson asked him, and he didn’t bother to sound even marginally convinced.

Worley blew out a long breath as if annoyed with this. Well, Jameson was annoyed, too. He didn’t have time for this clown, especially since Worley could be behind the attack and Mandy’s disappearance. Jameson didn’t want to examine why he was suddenly on Kelly’s side. But when it came to Worley, he was.

“I figured you wouldn’t believe me.” Worley checked his watch. “But you should be getting a call any second now from someone you will believe. Your brother, the sheriff. He’s verifying now that I’m an agent. Once that’s done, you’ll turn Kelly over to me.”

“I won’t go with him,” Kelly said just as Jameson snarled, “Like hell I’ll turn her over to you.”

That caused Kelly to look at him, and he saw not tears this time but an unspoken thanks. But a thanks wasn’t going to help right now. He needed some things cleared up.

“Who are you claiming Kelly murdered?” Jameson asked.

“Those two men your brother and his deputies are investigating.”

Jameson certainly couldn’t deny that she had been the one to shoot them. In fact, the evidence pointed to her doing it. But the evidence was equally clear that she’d also been attacked, probably by those two men. Unless...

He didn’t like even thinking it, but Jameson had to at least consider it. Kelly could be playing him again. She might have had a beef with those guys. Could have even written the note herself. But none of that felt right, especially now that Mandy was missing.

“Who were those men?” Kelly asked Worley.

Worley just stared at her. “You tell me.”

“She can’t,” Jameson volunteered. “See that cut on her head? Someone clubbed her, and she has amnesia.”

Worley looked as skeptical about that as Jameson probably had when he’d first heard Kelly say that she couldn’t remember. But some of that skepticism was fading. Worse, he suddenly felt the need to protect Kelly. Coupled with the remnants of the old attraction, that wasn’t a good combination.

Jameson’s phone rang, the sound slicing through the room. Slicing through him, too, because he saw Gabriel’s name on the screen.

“Worley’s here,” Jameson answered, and he put the call on speaker so that Kelly could hear.

“Yeah. And if he told you he’s a Justice Department agent, he is,” Gabriel said. “I just confirmed it. His real name is Lawrence Boyer.”

Kelly hadn’t had much color in her face, but that rid her of what she did have. “Impossible.”

Normally, Jameson would have agreed with her, but he didn’t doubt anything Gabriel told him.

“My source in the Justice Department is reliable,” Gabriel continued, “and according to him, Boyer aka Worley is a joe, someone who spends months or even years in deep cover.”

So Boyer had told the truth, about being an agent anyway. “Does he have a court order for Kelly’s arrest?” Jameson asked.

“No. Why? Is that why Boyer says he’s there? Because my source couldn’t tell me.”

“Yep, but without a court order, Boyer’s not taking our witness to what could be a double homicide. You agree?”

“Agreed,” Gabriel quickly said. “You need backup?”

“Not yet. I’ll call you if I do.” Jameson finished the call, slipped his phone back in his pocket and turned to Agent Boyer. “Tell me everything you know about those men,” Jameson demanded. “In fact, tell me everything you know about Kelly.”

Boyer volleyed several glances at Kelly and him. For a moment Jameson thought he was going to have to remind this agent that the Rangers and the sheriff had jurisdiction here and that meant Boyer had to cooperate. Even if it was obvious that was the last thing he wanted to do.

“You really don’t remember anything?” Boyer pressed when his attention finally settled on Kelly.

“I remember a few things.” It sounded as if Kelly was carefully choosing her words. And lying. But maybe she didn’t want this guy to know that she had no memory of her association with him. Perhaps it was her way of forcing Boyer to tell the truth.

“I met you and your sister about two years ago,” Boyer finally started. “By then, I’d been on a deep cover assignment for well over a year, and I was posing as a money launderer so I could gather info on a cartel operating in the state. I didn’t tell many people who I really was, but I told you, and I gained your trust.”

“What?” Kelly snapped. She looked over the man from head to toe, and there wasn’t a drop of trust in her eyes or expression.

Boyer nodded. “Mandy and you were working for my ex, Hadley.” His mouth tightened when he said her name. “She was accusing me of stealing our newborn daughter, but you soon realized she was just doing that to get back at me because I’d broken things off with her. After that, you agreed to help me.”

Jameson went through that info, but it only created more questions. “Hadley knew you were an agent?”

“No. And that should tell you something about her. She got involved with me while thinking I was a criminal.”

Jameson lifted his shoulder. “It tells me something about you, too. It tells me you were lying to a woman pregnant with your child.”

Boyer’s mouth tightened even more, and his eyes were narrowed when he turned to Jameson. “The pregnancy was an accident. On my part anyway. I think Hadley planned it to trap me into marriage. When I didn’t go for that and broke off the relationship, she retaliated by accusing me of kidnapping the child just days after she was born.”

As much as Jameson hated to admit it, that could all be true. He didn’t know Hadley, and in his line of work, he ran into plenty of people who didn’t mind bedding down with criminals.

“So what happened to your daughter?” Jameson asked.

“I don’t know.” Boyer scrubbed his hand over his face. “I suspect Hadley had Amy hidden away from me and the cops, and when she was killed in the car accident, the location of that hidden place died with her. Don’t get me wrong. I haven’t given up finding my daughter, but at the moment I’ve run out of leads.”

Kelly made a sound, sort of a muffled moan. Maybe because she realized this could turn out to be a similar situation for her sister. With a similar ending of them never finding her. But Jameson wanted to prevent that from happening, and maybe Boyer could help with that. He was about to ask Boyer to spill all about the two dead guys, but Kelly spoke to Boyer before he could do that.