A Bride By Summer: The Texas Ranger's Bride / From Best Friend to Bride / Once Upon a Bride

“See you in a minute.”

Cy hung up and went out to the garage. He lifted the door partway. In less than a minute, Vic came crouching in before Cy lowered it. They both walked through the garage and kitchen to the living room.

“Has Kellie gone to bed?”

“As far as I know.”

“How’s she handling it?”

“The woman is tough. I’m beginning to understand why she’s such a fierce competitor in the arena. That’s the only reason this setup is working.”

“I think it’s more a case of the right two people being thrown together.”

Cy knew where his friend was going with that remark, but now wasn’t the time. “The thing I keep wondering about is why this pervert targeted Kellie specifically. Her beauty provides one obvious answer. But there’s more to it than that. Nothing we’ve learned so far, not even after collaborating with the FBI agents back east, has shed any light. I’m trying to find the missing link.”

“Maybe it will have to come after we catch them.”

“You’re right.” He glanced at Vic. “What do you say we do this in shifts? I’ll take the first watch.” He fixed the hide-a-bed so Vic could stretch out when he was ready. “Since we know there’s no side or back door to this place, my hunch is he’ll come in through the garage with a device to let himself in the door into the kitchen.”

Vic nodded. “That makes the most sense. The fence isn’t that high. He’ll be able to scale it easily. I did a patrol of the town houses on the other side of the alley. The tenants don’t have garages and park their cars in covered parking across their street. If someone wanted to hide out, they’d have to jump the fence from this alley into one of the backyards and wait so they wouldn’t be seen.”

After talking strategy for a while, Vic lay down. Cy turned out all the lights in the condo before going into the kitchen. He took out his .357-caliber SIG Sauer and put it on the table. After pouring himself a hot mug of coffee, he sat down in front of his laptop in the dark. Time to catch up on the paperwork for Kellie’s case while he could still remember times and details of their trip to Colorado.

Once he’d finished, he went back to Kellie’s website and scrolled through her scheduled events, starting with the first rodeo of this year. To his shock he discovered she’d entered the Salem, Virginia, Annual Stampede on January 9. His adrenaline surged.

She’d gone back east!

Cy should have thought about that before now, but he’d been so concentrated on the months since the stalker had appeared, only now had he started to explore all the possibilities.

After consulting a Virginia map, he saw that Salem was on the opposite side of the state from Virginia Beach.

He scrolled down quickly. More shocks. She’d ridden in the Walterboro, South Carolina, Rodeo two weeks after leaving Virginia. Cy looked up the South Carolina map. Walterboro was only forty minutes away from Charleston.

Were the stalkers born in Charleston? Did they call it home when they weren’t victimizing women? Vic was still waiting to hear back on the identical twins most likely born there or the Virginia Beach area. His friend was asleep, so Cy would have to wait to discuss the idea with him later.

Needing to do something with all the energy flooding his system, he kept scrolling for more information. On the first weekend of February she rode in the Chatsworth, Georgia, Rodeo. Mid-February she entered the rodeo in Memphis, Tennessee, where another murder had taken place.

In March she’d participated in rodeos throughout the Midwest before returning to Austin via a rodeo in Hampton, Arkansas, and another one in Fort Worth, Texas. But his mind kept going back to the Walterboro Rodeo.

If for some reason the stalkers had gone to the rodeo that night, they would have seen Kellie, who had the best time during the performance that night. That might have been the place they first decided she’d be their next target.

Unless—and it was a big unless—they were born in Walterboro or the surrounding area. Were Cy’s thoughts leaping to improbable conclusions because of the voice match Rafe had found? Could he rely on such a science to provide answers?

Impatient with himself for wanting to find Kellie’s stalker so badly he was starting to cross that line TJ had warned him about, he got up to pace the kitchen. He didn’t want to take the time to fix another pot of coffee, so he opted for a soda from the fridge. No sooner had he sat down again than his phone rang. It was ten to three. A check of the caller ID told him it was Jose.

“What’s going on?”

“I’ve got my night-vision goggles trained on a masked figure wearing a dark pullover and pants walking in the alley toward you. Can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman.”

“Don’t do anything. Let’s see what happens, then close in.” He hung up and called to Vic, who sprang off the couch and joined him. “Jose has spotted someone in a mask walking in the alley in this direction.”

Vic nodded and drew out his weapon. While he hunkered under the table, where he had a direct view of the doorway, Cy flattened himself against the wall on the other side of the door.

They remained in position ten long minutes before Cy heard the sweet telltale sound of someone picking the lock, probably with a paper clip and tension wrench. If Kellie hadn’t gone to the police, the scenario happening to her now would have ended her life. As he geared up for the takedown, a rush such as he’d never known took over.

All of a sudden the door opened. Cy came at the killer from behind and put a headlock on him, forcing him to the floor. The stalker let go with a stream of venom while he fought with the strength of a man high on drugs. Cy felt him bite his arm. It took Vic’s help to subdue him long enough to handcuff his hands behind his back and ankle cuff him.

Cy rolled his body over and pulled the mask off his head. There was the face of the man in the picture with the longer hair. He leaned over him. “Surprise, Denny, or whoever the hell you are. Was it Donny, Andy or Drew who strangled the woman in Charleston? I’m the husband you and your twin didn’t think existed. You’re under arrest for the stalking of Kellie Parrish.”

By now Vic was on the phone to the rest of the crew. Within seconds Kellie’s town house was filled with agents. Cy took the greatest pleasure in reading him his Miranda rights before he was hauled out to the van.

* * *

THE SOUNDS OF men’s raised voices had brought Kellie awake. She shot out of bed and dressed quickly in a top and jeans. Cy had told her not to go downstairs. But whatever had been going on below, she couldn’t stay up here and not know what was happening. She hurried out of her bedroom and flew down the stairs straight into Cy’s arms.

He must have been on his way up to her because he caught her to him, hugging her hard before he held her away from him. “We caught the twin with the longer hair, Kellie. For the sake of practicality, we’ll call him Denny. In time we’ll catch his brother and you’ll never have to be afraid again.”

The information he relayed filled her with such relief, she could barely find words. “If anything had happened to you...” Her voice sounded raw.

“Nothing did.”

“That’s not true. There’s blood on your forearm.”

“He bit me.”

“Let me see.” She pushed the sleeve of his shirt up to his elbow. “You need to go to the ER for stitches and a tetanus shot. You could be infected already.”

“The bleeding has stopped. I’ll take care of it later. Right now we need to talk.” He ushered her over to the couch, where they could sit.

The warmth of his body stayed with her. “I know what you’re going to tell me. This isn’t over yet.”

“No, it isn’t.” In the soft lamplight, his chiseled jaw stood out in stark relief. “We don’t know if his brother was watching what went down here tonight from a distance, or if Denny planned to kidnap you and take you to his brother at another location. What we do know is that when the brother we’ll call Dan realizes Denny has been arrested or isn’t around anymore, his rage will escalate and he’ll come after you himself to finish the job. Dan is the one who approached you in Pendleton.”

Kellie kneaded her hands. “When he finds out you exist—maybe he believes it now—his hatred toward you is what frightens me.”

He gave her arm a squeeze. “Nothing’s going to happen to either one of us. Why don’t you go upstairs and phone your parents? Tell them that one of the brothers is now in custody, and we’re hoping to catch the other one soon. It will be a great relief to them.”

“I know.” She looked into his eyes. “Are you going to get your arm looked at now?”

“I’ll do it after I run by headquarters. Vic will stay here while I’m gone so you’ll be safe. I want you to go back to bed and we’ll see each other tomorrow.”

“It already is tomorrow.”

His lips twitched. When he did that, her heart skipped a beat. “So it is.”

“Cy?”

“What is it?”