Page 51 of Ranger Devotion

Details registered in her cop’s mind. Dwayne’s hands had blood on them, but his clothing was clean, something that would be impossible after slitting a person’s throat. No knife, either in his hands or on the ground. She also recognized that he’d called Bud off when he didn’t have to. Still, Annie wasn’t willing to extend him the benefit of the doubt. He’d lied to her. Betrayal and uncertainty swirled like a hurricane inside her, so Annie retreated to her law enforcement training. Safety required them to secure him before hearing anything he had to say. She kept her weapon fixed on him. “Down on the ground, Dwayne. Now!”

Dwayne lowered himself to the ground, knees first, and then dropped facedown onto the floor. Tate glanced at Annie, and she nodded in silent acknowledgement that she’d cover him. He reached for the handcuffs attached to his belt.

“Annie, you know me.” Dwayne didn’t struggle as the cuffs snapped onto his wrists. “I didn’t do this! I swear I was just trying to help.”

Tate patted the older man down, removing a cell phone, wallet, and keys from his pockets. No weapons. No radio. He’d left it in the UTV cup holder. Annie had seen it there when she used the vehicle for cover.

Tate pulled Dwayne up until he was in a seated position. “Help how?”

“By stopping my son.” His pleading gaze found Annie’s again. “He’s lost and angry. He doesn’t know what he’s doing⁠—”

“He’s killing people!” Anger came up so fast it startled her. Her hands trembled as she stared in disbelief at the man she’d considered a friend. “You knew who it was this whole time and never said a word.”

Tate placed a steadying hand on Annie’s arm. She sucked in a breath and reined in her temper. There would be a time to fall apart, but now wasn’t it. They needed information.

“Where is Marcus now?” Tate demanded.

“I don’t know.”

“Are you working with him?”

“God, no.” Again his attention fixed on Annie. “I swear on Seth’s grave, I’m not helping Marcus. I didn’t even suspect him until after Kayla died. When you discovered her body, and I learned about the Raven Hills High pennant, I started to worry Marcus was involved. But it wasn’t until he attacked you at the cabin and we learned about the text messages that I was sure. Since then, I’ve been doing everything I can to find him. To stop him. I thought I could convince him to turn himself in before anyone else got hurt.”

Unwilling to take his word for it, Annie reached down and picked up Dwayne’s cell phone from the ground. She used his face to unlock the device and scrolled through his messages. Sure enough, he had sent a string of texts to Marcus. First asking where he was, demanding to know if he was involved in Kayla’s death, and then begging him to meet so they could talk and put a stop to this. The texts wavered from angry to concerned to desperate and back again.

None of them had been answered.

She handed the phone to Tate. Someone had provided Marcus with information about the reunion—the dates, participants, and their phone numbers. That same person had been feeding Marcus information about their movements. If it wasn’t Dwayne, then it was someone else. “Who is Marcus working with?”

“I don’t know.”

She didn’t believe him. “You must have some idea. The reunion gave him an opportunity, but Marcus has been thinking about this for a long time. He questioned both Caleb and Evan about what happened at the bonfire.”

“I knew he was digging into what happened, but that was years back. I thought he just needed answers.”

“Other than Evan and Caleb, who did he speak with?”

“I don’t know.” Dwayne’s expression was a mix of frustration and regret. “Marcus stopped telling me things a long time ago.”

“Marcus told his neighbors that he was coming to visit you.”

“He lied.” Dwayne looked away. “We barely have a relationship, and haven’t been close since I went to prison.”

A pinprick of sympathy punctured her anger. “Why didn’t you come forward and tell us the truth when you figured out Marcus was involved?”

“Because I was scared for my son. I thought…” He shook his head. “Stupidly, I thought I could fix things. Contain it somehow.”

“You wanted to keep him out of prison?”

“No.” His jaw tightened. “If Marcus murdered Kayla, then he needs to face punishment for that, but…” Dwayne struggled for a moment as if to find the right words. “Maybe it’s hard for you both to understand, but I’ve been in that darkness. I drank myself into a different person, and I made decisions that changed everything. I killed someone, and I’ve had to carry that pain with me every day since. Marcus…he’s more than this…he…this isn’t the person God wants him to be.”

Annie could hardly disagree with that. Still, in her mind, killing a person while driving drunk and murdering someone in cold blood were vastly different. Dwayne and Marcus weren’t as similar as he wanted to believe.

Dwayne’s shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry, Annie. I should’ve come forward and told you what I know, but…I guess deep down, I didn’t want to admit to myself what was happening.”

Compassion swept through her, diluting the pulsing heat of her anger. Dwayne had made serious mistakes, no doubt, but he’d done so with the mindset of a desperate father. Reaching out, begging for his son to grasp the lifeline he was extending. Annie didn’t know what it was like to have a child, but she knew God’s love. He also reached out to His children when they were lost, begging them to come toward Him so He could ease their pain and soothe their troubled hearts.

Tate crossed his arms. “You expect me to believe you just happened to be living in Oakwood and working for Annie when all of this went down?”