Free Security Blanket by Delores Fossen

someone echoed. It was her father who stepped inside to join forces with her mother.
    “Oh, goody,” Marin mumbled.
    Lucky placed the envelope on the foot of the bed and positioned himself closer to her, so that they were literally facing down her parents.
    “By the way, did either of you know about the threatening phone message that Grady Duran left Marin on her private line?” Lucky asked.
    It was a good question. One that Marin should have already thought to ask.
    “That message,” her father grumbled. “Marin’s grandmother told us about it after her visit with you. No. We didn’t know. But the sheriff does now. For all the good that’ll do.”
    Apparently, her father wasn’t any happier with the sealed envelope than her mother. Marin didn’t care. She wanted the authorities to know about Grady Duran because it was her guess that he was the one responsible for that explosion, and she wanted him off the streets and behind bars.
    Her father propped his hands on his hips. “I thought you should know, I just heard from your brother.”
    Marin could have sworn her heart stopped.
    Lucky must have had a similar reaction because he didn’t utter a word. Neither did her mother. And the three all stood there, staring at the man who’d just made the announcement she’d never thought she would hear.
    “Dexter’s not dead?” Marin finally managed to say.
    “Obviously not. He just e-mailed me,” Howard explained.
    Lois pressed her hand to her chest and pulled in several quick breaths. “What did he say?”
    “That he’s alive and he wants to come home to see his family.”
    “Where is he?” Lucky demanded.
    “Even if he had said, I wouldn’t tell you. Dexter’s worried about his safety, as he should be. He knows someone killed two of his employees and an agent who was posing as a security guard at the research facility. Whoever did that is trying to set him up to take the blame.”
    Marin figured Lucky wasn’t buying that or this entire conversation.
    Her father’s eyes narrowed when he looked at Lucky. “But Dexter says he won’t come while you’re here, Randall. And he wants you to leave immediately.”
    It was another shock. Not that Dexter wanted to come home. But that he’d even mentioned Randall, Marin’s dead ex-boyfriend.
    “I want to see that e-mail,” Lucky insisted.
    “I’m sure you do,” her father snarled. “But first I want you to answer one question. Since you’ve supposedly never met anyone in Marin’s family, mind explaining how the hell my son knows you?”

Chapter Eight
    How the hell does my son know you?
    Lucky hadn’t been able to provide an answer to Howard Sheppard, nor had he speculated to the man. He’d ended the inquisition by walking away. Now, two hours later, he still didn’t know the answer to Howard’s question.
    Was the e-mail bogus? And if it was real, did that mean Dexter knew who Lucky really was and why he was at the ranch?
    Of course, another possibility was that Howard had asked Dexter to make that demand. After all, what better and faster way to get Lucky off the ranch than to tie Dexter’s homecoming to his departure? It would give Howard and Lois everything they wanted.
    Their son’s return.
    And their daughter and grandson at the ranch with no ally, other than Marin’s grandmother, who was too old to put up much of a fight. After all, Helen hadn’t been able to stop the Sheppards so far. That’s why Lucky had refused to leave and then ordered Marin’s parents out of the room.
    Well, it was one of the reasons anyway.
    That kissing session with Marin was another.
    Pushing that uncomfortable thought aside, Lucky concentrated on the images from the surveillance disks on his laptop. So far, he hadn’t seen anything or anyone suspicious, and he’d been looking for well over an hour. He’d hoped to have spotted Dexter doing something incriminating by now.
    He heard Noah stir, and Lucky got up from the desk to check on him. But Noah was still