Free The Texas Lawman's Last Stand by Delores Fossen

won’t tell the officers that.”
    Mattie was betting either Kendall told him or else Ian had learned it from his new client, Terrance Arturo, the guy in the black van.
    “Ian wanted me to give you a message,” Bo continued. “He says he can save your life, and all you have to do is walk out there and talk to him.”

Chapter Seven
    Walk out there and talk to him.
    Right. As if Bo would let that happen. But one glance at Mattie, and he knew she was considering it.
    “Ian could gun you down on the way out the door,” Bo reminded her.
    “The two officers are out there. I doubt they’d let him pull a gun.” However, she didn’t sound completely convinced of that.
    Bo tried again. “I don’t want to risk a shootout with my kids in the house.” Since he was trying to reason with her, he probably should have said the kids instead of my kids, but the truth was, they were his. Both of them. And that didn’t have anything to do with DNA. It made his heart ache just thinking of the possibility that he might lose a child he loved more than life itself.
    Of course, Mattie no doubt loved Holly, too.
    Still, Mattie hadn’t raised Holly for the past thirteen months. She had no history with the baby. She only had a mountain of danger that might fall down on her at any minute. And because of that danger, Bo needed to move Jacob and Holly as soon as he got Ian away from the house.
    “But what if Ian can put an end to this mess?” Mattie asked.
    Bo took out his phone and pressed in the number to the officers out front. “Then he can tell you all about it while he’s out there and you’re in here.”
    “Let me speak to our visitor,” Bo told the officer when he answered, and he watched as the young cop did just that.
    “Lieutenant Duggan,” Ian spat out, making it sound like profanity. “I want to see Mattie.”
    Bo moved Mattie in front of the sidelight window for just a second and then pulled her back. “There, you’ve seen her. Now, tell me how you knew she was here.”
    Ian flashed a snarky smile. “Well, the cops in front of your house were a dead giveaway.”
    “Wrong answer.” Bo put some snark in his voice. “Try again.”
    That at least wiped the smile off Ian’s face. “Look, Mattie and I are on the same side here. I just want to make sure she’s safe.”
    “She is. And you dodged the question again. How did you know she was here?”
    Definitely no smile now. The man’s eyes narrowed. “Put Mattie on the phone, and I’ll tell her.”
    Bo merely clicked on the speaker function. “She’s listening.”
    “Mattie,” Ian said after several seconds. “I want to talk to you in private. ”
    She looked up at Bo, and he shook his head.
    “Ian, what is this all about?” Mattie asked. “Why are you here?”
    “Why?” he snapped as if the answer were obvious. “Because I care about you. Because I want to keep you alive. I can do that, Mattie. All you have to do is talk to me.”
    “I will…if you’ll tell me how you knew I was here.”
    Good for her. Because Bo was certain that information would give him some critical details about Ian—like his motive for this untimely visit.
    Ian huffed and shook his head before he responded. “I hired Terrance Arturo to find you.”
    Mattie’s mouth dropped open. “The man in the van that you’re representing?”
    “Yes. He’s not exactly a P.I., but he’s done this sort of work for me before. And for the record, he didn’t know about the phony plates on the van. He borrowed the vehicle from a friend.”
    Bo figured that would be easy enough to confirm. “But how did Arturo find Mattie? She’s been in hiding.”
    More hesitation. “Arturo found Mattie through you.”
    Mattie pressed her fingers to her lips, and groaned softly.
    “Explain that,” Bo demanded.
    “I’ve been trying to find Mattie all this time, and I hired several people to look for her. I figured she might visit her old friends. Or Brody’s grave.” Ian paused again. “I also