Free Laying Down the Law by Delores Fossen

attacked me. To make Willie Lee look innocent.”
    He nodded. “San Antonio PD will be handling this since the club is based there, but they’ll take a close look at each member to see if one of them knows where Rocky is. Or if one of them was Rocky’s accomplice. I’m betting at least some of them have criminal records, too, so once the CSIs have a DNA profile, they can start comparing it to the club members.”
    Karina doubted all of that would happen overnight, and that meant she really did have to come up with a different place to stay. However, before she could even bring up the subject, Cord continued.
    “I also made a call about Harley Kramer, the guy you had arrested. He’s on bail right now, and his trial date is in five days.” Cord paused and made eye contact with her again. “And you’re the only person scheduled to testify against him.”
    Karina stopped and gave that some more thought. “At most Harley’s only looking at a year or two in jail if he’s found guilty. That’s not much of a motive for wanting me dead.”
    “It’s a motive, though,” Cord concluded. “He’s got a very wealthy wife and some in-laws who want all this to go away so he won’t muddy their name. And that alone makes him a person of interest in the attack.”
    Cord didn’t add more because his phone rang, and he held it up for her to see.
    Jericho’s name was on the screen.
    When Cord answered it, he put it on speaker, and even though she shouldn’t read too much into that, Karina thought maybe he’d done that so she wouldn’t go closer to him so she could hear. She definitely got the feeling that he wanted to keep some distance between them.
    “A problem?” Cord asked.
    “Maybe,” Jericho readily admitted. “DeWayne just came in, and let’s just say, he’s not a happy camper. He’s lawyered up already and insists the only person he’ll talk to is Karina. If she’s up to it, you should get her down here right away.”

Chapter Seven
    Cord wasn’t sure Karina was actually up to this visit with DeWayne, but she had insisted on coming anyway.
    He had to hand it to her. Most people who’d just survived two murder attempts probably wouldn’t want to face their possible attacker. But she hadn’t backed down an inch.
    Maybe not a good thing.
    After all, if DeWayne was indeed the one who’d tried to kill her, then it could antagonize the man even more if she went toe-to-toe with him. Still, Cord had no intentions of trying to rein her in. If he’d been in her situation, he would have wanted to do the same thing.
    As they’d done the night before, Cord parked his truck in front of the sheriff’s offices. Jax had been good enough to bring it to the ranch. Good enough to have been pleasant about dropping it off, too.
    Cord’s relationship with Addie’s adopted brothers wasn’t picture-perfect, but since Willie Lee’s capture, it’d gotten a little better. At least Cord didn’t feel as if they were ready to slug him anytime they saw him. Cord blamed those earlier reactions on his obsession to capture the Moonlight Strangler. An obsession that the Crockett lawmen believed might put Addie in danger.
    Thankfully, it hadn’t.
    Well, not so far anyway.
    “Remember, don’t let DeWayne get to you,” Karina whispered to herself.
    Cord figured she’d been giving herself that pep talk since they’d left the ranch. It seemed to be working. She marched into the sheriff’s office just ahead of him and made a beeline to the tall, dark-haired man who was standing across from Jericho.
    It was DeWayne, all right.
    Cord had never met the man, but he had pulled up his DMV photo, and it was a match. However, the photo hadn’t shown that smug expression that DeWayne aimed at Karina. Cord couldn’t be sure, but he thought maybe the smugness went up when the man looked at her cuts and bruises.
    DeWayne wasn’t alone. There was a man about the same age—late fifties—wearing a suit, and he was right by DeWayne’s