had been acting strangely of late. That scene he’d witnessed between Johnny and Del Brio last night attested to that fact. But it was more than that, he admitted. There was something about that look in Johnny’s eyes, his sudden spirit, that nagged at him like a splinter under his skin. Maybe now that Ricky was back in town, he should pay the younger Mercado a visit, ask him what was going on between his father and Del Brio just so Ricky knew that the sheriff’s office had an eye on them.
And what if Angela is with him?
Justin gritted his teeth at the taunting voice in his head and shut his eyes to block out the images of Angela with Ricky last night.
“Sheriff,” Audrey Lou called from the doorway, her voice impatient. “Something wrong with your hearing, son? Bobby’s on the line for you. Said it’s important.”
“Wainwright.” Justin all but barked out his name as he grabbed the telephone.
“I’m afraid I’ve got bad news, boss.”
Just what he needed, Justin thought. “All right, spit it out.”
“I lost Del Brio.”
Justin swore. “What happened?”
“He pulled a switch on me.”
“I told you not to let him out of your sight.”
“And I didn’t,” Bobby contended. “I tailed him to Mercado Brothers Paving and Contracting this morning just like you told me. And I’m positive it was Del Brio that I followed when he left there. I stayed with him all morning through this string of back roads outside of Mission Creek and all through Goldenrod—even down some private road—until he went back to his spread. Only when he reached his place and got out of the truck, it wasn’t him. It wasn’t Del Brio. It was a dude dressed up just like him, and the truck was a dead ringer for the one Del Brio was driving.”
“If you were following him the whole time, how could he make the switch?” Justin demanded.
“The only thing I can think of is that he arranged to have the dummy driver in a look-alike truck waiting around one of those curves. Because I swear that’s the only time the man was ever out of my sight.”
Trying to contain his frustration, Justin wiped a hand down his face. He’d ordered the tail on Del Brio after that exchange with Johnny last night—in part because he didn’t want a full-scale war erupting between the Mercados and Del Brio and his men, and in part because there was a rumor on the street that a big deal was about to go down.
“I know I screwed up. I’m sorry, Sheriff.”
“Don’t sweat it,” Justin told the kid. “It happens to the best of us. Del Brio didn’t get where he is because of his brains. He’s got the instincts of a cat. Evidently he spotted your tail. I just wish I knew where he was going that he felt the need to shake you.”
“You want me to see if I can pick him up again?” Bobby asked.
“No. We’ve got too much to do. We can’t afford to spend any more time playing games with the likes of Del Brio. Come on back to the office. The phone’s been ringing off the hook all morning, and I swear the paperwork is multiplying faster than rabbits.”
“Boss, there’s something else you should know,” Bobby told him.
Justin paused, sensing he wasn’t going to like what his deputy had to say. “What?”
“I wasn’t the only one tailing Del Brio. So was Johnny Mercado.”
Justin scowled, not at all happy to learn his own instincts had been right. Something was brewing between Johnny and Del Brio, and whatever it was, it could only mean trouble. “I was afraid of that.”
“You think Johnny plans to fight Del Brio for control of the family?”
“No.” At least Justin hoped that wasn’t the case because Johnny, even with this newfound spirit he’d shown, didn’t stand a chance against a ruthless thug like Del Brio. His son, Ricky, however, was another story. “But something’s going on, and I intend to find out what it is.”
“You going to go see Johnny? Try to talk to him again?”
“No. The old man is playing his cards close to the vest. I was planning to pay Ricky a visit later. But I think maybe I’ll drive out to the Mercado place and have that little talk with Ricky now. I’ll see you when I get back.”
After hanging up the phone, Justin shoved away from his desk and headed out of his office. He grabbed his hat and paused in front of Audrey Lou’s desk. “Bobby’s on his way in, and I’m going out to Johnny Mercado’s place. I need you to hold down the fort for me until I get back.”
The woman didn’t so much as bat an eye. “What do you want me to tell your sister? Rose has called for you twice already.”
“Tell her I’ll call her when I get back.”
But when Justin got back, after striking out on catching either Ricky or his father at their place near Goldenrod or the Mercado Brothers Paving, Audrey Lou was manning two phone lines and Bobby was taking down Mrs. Elkinson’s weekly complaint about the randy bull on the neighboring homestead bothering her milk cows. Wanting no part of that scene, Justin reached for the stack of phone messages Audrey Lou held out to him and headed for his office when Audrey Lou hung up the phone.
“That was Dylan Bridges’s office returning your call.”
Justin looked up from the messages he’d been skimming. “He still in his office?”
“No. That was his assistant who called to say he’s tied up until late this afternoon, wanted to know if he could call you at home tonight. I said I didn’t see why not since you don’t do much of anything but work and sleep, anyway.”
Justin ignored the dig at his lack of a social life. “Anything else I need to know?”
“Nothing except that you’ve got yourself a visitor. I put her in your office to wait.”
“Damn! She’s here already?” Justin asked, assuming it was his sister. Granted he’d called her from his vehicle and agreed to meet with her back at his office, but he’d told her he needed at least an hour. Evidently Rose decided not to wait. Which seemed to be par for the course where his younger sister was concerned this past year—starting with her running off to Aunt Beth’s in New York and shocking everyone when she came back with the news that she’d married Matt Carson of all people and was expecting his child. While the wedding hadn’t sat well with either the Carsons or the Wainwrights, the early arrival of the baby and the illness that had threatened both Rose and the baby had not only scared everyone but it had eased some of the tensions between the two families. However, his sister didn’t appear to be content with the strained truce. No, now that the danger was past, the darned female seemed hell-bent on ending the feud between the two families that had spanned seventy-six years. And for some reason, she had decided he was to be a key player in her fence-mending plans.
“You knew she was coming?”
“Sure. I talked to her about twenty minutes ago and told her to come by. Of course, I told her to give me an hour to return some of these calls. Obviously, she didn’t hear that part,” Justin said, but he wasn’t really irritated. He both liked and loved his sister, and he especially liked getting a chance to see his nephew.
“Well, you might have seen fit to tell me she was coming,” Audrey Lou sniffed. “And she might have told me you was expecting her instead of just saying she needed to see you and that she didn’t mind waiting.”
“She probably thought you knew,” Justin said, not wanting Audrey Lou angry with Rose. “She got the baby with her?”
“You mean to tell me she’s got herself a baby?”
Justin frowned. Obviously his sister Rose wasn’t the woman waiting in his office because everyone in Mission Creek, for that matter, half of Texas, knew