Free Slade's Secret Son by Elizabeth August Page B

while later, as the plane taxied down the runway, Lisa sat back in her seat and closed her eyes. Slade had called Detective Overson from the airport to find out if the police had discovered anything about the car and driver who’d tried to run her down. Overson informedhim that they’d found the car abandoned in a lot on the west side of town. It had been reported stolen the day before the incident by an elderly couple. The only discernable fingerprints on the steering wheel belonged to the elderly woman. In a couple of places the prints were badly smudged and the police hypothesized that whoever had stolen the car had worn gloves.
    It was late evening when they arrived in Dayton. Both tired, they opted to grab dinner at a fast-food restaurant, then checked into the first respectable-looking motel they saw. As soon as they settled in their room, Lisa called the ranch to check on her family.
    It was earlier in Texas and she heard Andy laughing in the background when Slade’s mother answered the phone.
    His voice grew nearer as her mother came to the phone and the longing to hold him in her arms grew intense. “There’s someone here who wants to talk to you,” Helen said, laughter in her voice.
    “Pon-ney. Meee. Ri-idee,” the toddler garbled excitedly when Helen put him on the phone. “Coowbooy. Meee.”
    Lisa hadn’t ridden since she was in her early teens, and the mother in her panicked. Andy was just a toddler. His legs wouldn’t even reach around a pony. Her mind flashed back to the times she’d fallen. There had only been two and she hadn’t been injured except for her pride and a small amount of bruising, still the possibility of serious injury had existed. Not wanting to alarm Andy, she hid her concern until her mother came back on the line.
    “They have a child-size saddle and Andy’s only allowed to ride in the corral with Jess walking on one sidekeeping a hand on him while one of the ranch hands walks on the other,” Helen assured her.
    Still, Lisa remained apprehensive.
    When she handed the phone to Slade, he spoke first to Andy and then to Jess. As he went through a checklist of safety precautions with his brother, Lisa realized that he was as concerned for their son’s safety as she was.
    “Thanks,” she said when he hung up.
    Slade raised a questioning eyebrow.
    “For making certain Jess was being very careful with Andy,” she elaborated.
    “He’s my son, too. I don’t want to see him injured.”
    She heard the irritation in his voice and knew he was angry with her for thinking he wouldn’t be concerned. “I just figured that you’d be so proud Jess was making a cowboy out of him that you wouldn’t consider the danger,” she said to defend herself. She meant to stop there, but something that had always concerned her about his behavior insisted on being said. “You disregard danger to yourself.”
    He scowled. “I always know what I’m doing.”
    “I think that’s what used to frighten me most. You did always know what you were doing.” Deep inside the pain he’d caused her in the past came back as intense as ever. “I used to wonder if you placed yourself in harm’s way because you wanted to join Claudette so badly you were willing to die to accomplish that aim.”
    “I was just doing my job. That’s what lawmen do…put their lives on the line.”
    She met his gaze. “That time you didn’t wait for backup and went in after that drug dealer yourself was putting your life way over the line. Then there was that bank robbery with hostages when you walked right in and offered yourself to the robbers in place of hostages.”
    “I didn’t want the drug dealer getting away. As for the hostages, I figured it was my job to do what I could to save them.”
    He’d given her the same reasons at the time the incidents had occurred. She hadn’t bought them then and she wasn’t buying them now. The only difference was, at that time, she hadn’t voiced her opinion that Claudette had