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“Oh.” Confusion flashed through the woman’s eyes, then she shrugged and began ringing up his purchases. “There was a guy who came in after you, and he seemed to be waiting over by the housewares.” She motioned toward several crowded displays where a man could have lurked unseen. “He left after a few minutes, though, so I must have been mistaken.”
“Must have been.” Zach dropped a hundred and two twenties on the counter, then waited as she counted back four ones plus change.
He’d made no long-term friends during his brief stay in town as a teen. There wasn’t anyone in this entire town who would hang around wanting to talk. Which left...the guy who just might have tracked him to Fossil Hill.
“What did he look like?”
“Not very tall. Sunglasses. A ball cap—but it’s always hard to see someone’s features when they wear those dark glasses, don’t you think? You two have a good day now, okay?”
Probably ninety percent of the people outside wore sunglasses and a hat of some kind. The description wasn’t unique. But it matched what Alex remembered.
Out on the sidewalk, he held Katie’s hand tightly as he scanned the street in both directions. No out-of-state license plates. No one who looked out of place in a town dominated by cowboy boots and jeans.
At the end of the block, a dusty black Mustang whipped backwards from behind a pickup with a camper top, its tires squealing as it took off down the street.
Zach tried to see the driver behind its smoky windows. Leaned forward, trying to catch the license plate number. But a woman with an armload of groceries and three kids in tow blocked his line of vision at the critical moment.
Zach scooped up Katie and her packages into his arms and strode into the street, trying for a better view. He caught just a glimpse of the plates before a red dually pickup pulled in behind the Mustang. Texas?
An image from the past exploded in his brain—of an old black Mustang lingering near his Dallas condo.
On the day his condo was bombed, he and Katie had passed that car as they walked across the street. He’d given it a second glance, because at the end of the block there’d been trees and shady parking spots. Who sat in an idling car for any length of time under the fierce Texas sun if there was shade close by?
If Katie hadn’t been with him, he might have circled back and kept an eye on that car for a while, just to see if any deals were going down. With an elementary school a half block from his condo and a park just beyond that, he’d always investigated any suspicious activities in the area.
Now Katie tugged at the collar of his T-shirt. “Let’s go!”
Shaking off his memories, he smiled at her, then scanned the street again. Who would drive a battered Mustang clear up here from Dallas?
Recently, a stranger had asked Alex directions out at the Rocking H—though that had involved driving down a long lane to the house and clinic, while there were other places he could have chosen that were much closer to the highway. And now someone had just lingered close by with Texas plates.
A coincidence, or something more?
At his SUV, Zach had just hit the unlock button on his key ring when a thin, all too familiar woman stepped out of the library entrance and headed straight for him.
“You’re still here,” she hissed.
Startled, Katie pulled back.
“It’s okay, honey,” Zach said. “This lady is Dana’s mother.” He opened the back door and lifted Katie into her car seat, then fastened her in, leaving the door open. “Hello, Vivian.”
Dana’s blond, fresh beauty sure didn’t come from her mother. From those pinched, thin lips to the hard look in her eyes, Vivian hadn’t mellowed over the past fifteen years...at least toward him.
“Stay away from my daughter,” she said through gritted teeth. “She has a good life here. A future with a good man who would be a wonderful husband and father.”
He’d once wondered what he would say to this woman if he ever had the chance. Now he could only feel pity for her. “Is that what she wants? Your daughter is able to make her own choices, Vivian.”
“I’m warning you—”
“And I’ll just offer a piece of advice. Let your daughter live her own life.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed, but not before he caught a flash of fear. “How dare you.”
“I just want Dana to be happy.” He shut Katie’s door, then slid behind the steering wheel. When she stepped forward to rap on the glass, he rolled down his window.
“You were never good enough for my daughter,” she snapped.
He turned the key in the ignition, and the engine roared to life. “The funny thing is, that’s one point we agree on. I never thought I was.”
