Page 75 of Risk of a Lifetime
“You called me.” JB knew Evans wouldn’t have phoned again without a good reason.
“Jeff City tracked Landon’s phone. Found him tied up in an abandoned house just outside of town. I’m patching you through to him now.”
What the hell? Landon tied up?
The phone clicked a couple of times with connections and reroutes. Seconds drug like hours.
“JB, I’m not the one.” Landon’s voice sounded tense, a siren wailed close on his end. “Wilson set everything up to lay blame on me.”
He tried to wrap his mind around those two sentences. Couldn’t be. “How do you know?”
“Long story short. I called headquarters to check on some paperwork that I’d turned in to Wilson. They told me he’d been relieved. Arrested. Evidently, he’d been under investigation for some missing money. They believe Jennings got close, so he had him killed.”
What the hell was going on?
“But I just got off the phone with him.” JB pushed Marcy behind him and aimed his Glock at the door.
Landon grunted with pain. “The Bureau said he escaped before they got him to jail. He gave me a lead on your case last night, then ambushed me when I showed up.”
That would explain Wilson’s new phone number and so-called vacation. Never mind the strange exchange they’d had a few minutes ago. “But why would he be after you and me?”
“Something to do with that meth bust. Some woman that was killed. He said we’d ruined his life. Every time he punched me, he’d yell about how you and I would pay for what we did.”
JB glanced up toward the roof. Had that been a footstep? A falling acorn? A squirrel taking a shortcut? “I didn’t know either one of those women who were killed that day, did you?”
“No. But evidently, he knew one of them as more than an acquaintance.” Landon coughed on an intake of breath. “He kept mentioning something about Oklahoma.”
“The younger girl killed that day was from Oklahoma. I could swear her name was Carla.”
“I don’t know about that, but every time I asked who she was, he’d hit me again. Or get right in my face all crazy-eyed and say how I was getting my payback slow and steady. Seemed real proud of himself that he’d used blue and brown contacts to lay blame off on me when he killed Leon and ran the sheriff off the road.” Landon paused. “Then he’d stomp around the room laughing. Crazy…like he’d gone mad. Once he calmed down, he became the cool professional again.”
None of this made sense any more. Of course, when had it ever made sense? “There’s got to be a reason.”
“Don’t try to figure out why. Focus on keeping your wife safe.” The steady drone of the siren mingled with Landon’s voice ramped the tension. “From what I gathered, he’s after you by using her. Told me he didn’t know which he’d enjoy more—my one-day-at-a-time agony, or the look on your face when he kills your wife right in front of you.”
JB didn’t know what a day-at-a-time agony for Landon meant, but he’d already figured the villain was after himself through Marcy. Now the missing link had fallen into place—Wilson. But who was Carla to him? That could be the key to tripping the man up. Carla? Oklahoma?
“You still there?” Landon asked.
“Yeah. Do you think he’s targeted anyone else?”
“Don’t know. He’s got to be stopped at all costs.”
JB didn’t need anyone telling him what had to be done. He didn’t need the badge to know the procedure. He also knew the unspoken procedures. Ones nobody talked about. Ones that saved lives.
Glancing at his wife, he felt the ache of the hard clench of his jaw. God, he loved her.
Nothing she’d ever done or said had been to put him down. She’d only been protecting herself from her own insecurities. He’d done the same by believing the words from his childhood that he wasn’t good enough. The hell with that. He was damn good. Good enough to fight to save her any way he had to. Whatever the situation called for today, Marcy would survive, or he’d die trying.
That simple. Raw and brutal. No regrets.
“Backup would sure be nice about now.” He gripped the Glock tighter.
“I’m on my way, man. We’re all on our way.” Landon hung up.
Question was…would they get there in time?
…
