“I don’t know.” John let out a frustrated whine and dropped his hands from the bars. “I have proof they’ve been threatened though. I gave everything to Sheriff Chambers.”
Mason slid a glance at Nick, who nodded in agreement.
“You should have come to me from the start,” Mason said. His voice was still tight and sharp from the adrenaline rush of anger. “And Sheriff Chambers. We’d have made sure your family was safe.”
“That would have been the smart thing to do,” John said as he fidgeted with the hem of his untucked shirt, “but I was terrified for their safety. They sent me photos of Julie and Sandy with target sights drawn in red pen over their faces. Photos of them at home, through the windows, and in the backyard where Sandy was playing. Photos of Julie at work, of Sandy at school. What was I supposed to do? What would you do?”
Okay, Mason could understand the position John had been put in. John was a good man shoved between a rock and hard place, only trying to protect his family. What would Mason have done if forced into the same situation? How did one decide which life was more important than another? He glanced at Colt standing a few feet from his side. He would do anything for Colt. Even bury the bodies.
His anger at John’s betrayal dampened. He didn’t agree with John’s actions, but he understood what drove him to them.
“How did they find your family?” Mason frowned. “How did they contact you and tell you what to do?”
“It started with an envelope stuck under the wiper blade on my truck when I was in town one day,” John began. He dropped his hands from his shirt and shoved them in his pockets. “The photos were inside, along with a note that said I had to get you off the ranch, permanently, or my family would pay with their lives. I didn’t know what to do, and a couple of days later, I got an email telling me I had twenty-four hours to make something happen.
“I figured I’d write some threatening letters and maybe scare you off. Maybe do a little harmless vandalism, but I didn’t want to do anything too serious or dangerous.”
“Harmless? You almost killed Thad by cutting my brake lines,” Mason reminded him. “How is that not serious and dangerous?”
John’s face contorted as he looked away. He nodded, cleared his throat, and then said, “They told me to do that. To cut the brake lines on the truck the night before you went into town. I didn’t want to, but they’d sent a new photo with a man talking to Sandy through the schoolyard fence. They were going to hurt my little girl. Or worse. So, I cut the brakes. I knew where you’d put all the cameras, so it was easy to stay out of their line of sight.
“But then I panicked so bad I threw up. I couldn’t let you go to town, so I ran over to the main barn before anyone got up for work and spray-painted Cuervo so you wouldn’t go. I hated doing it and made sure the paint wouldn’t harm him. But then Thad took the truck and . . .”
And Thad was nearly killed instead of me. Mason shuddered at the thought.
“Please understand, Mason,” John pleaded, gripping the cell bars once again. “I had no choice.”
Mason didn’t know what to say. His mind reeled from the new information. He wasn’t going to tell John it was okay because it wasn’t. If he’d come forward from the beginning, when he’d received the photos, Nick could have made sure none of this would have happened. Unless whoever was truly behind this found someone else to do their dirty work. Or did it themselves.
He turned for the front office. He couldn’t stand being in the holding cells, near John, any longer.
“Mason, please.” John’s voice echoed behind him, but he didn’t turn around or acknowledge him.
“We have another situation,” Nick said when they were all back in the main office.
Because of course we do. Mason sighed.
There was a grave note to Nick’s voice that warned Mason he was not going to like what he was about to hear.
“Whoever is pulling John’s strings is bound to find out that John’s been arrested.” Nick leaned against the empty desk beside Maeve’s and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m worried they will escalate now.”
“What do you propose?” Colt asked. He stood at Mason’s side, close enough that Mason could feel the heat of his body and breathe in his woodsy scent.
Nick stared at Mason for a long second, expression assessing as the wheels turned behind his sky-blue eyes. Mason’s skin crawled.
“We need to send John back to the ranch,” Nick said matter-of-factly.
Mason’s jaw dropped.No goddamn way.
Nick raised a hand to forestall Mason’s impending tirade.
“Hear me out,” Nick implored, his voice full of authority. “John being here at the station could tip off whoever is behind this whole thing and reduce our chance of catching them while at the same time increasing the risk to your safety. If he’s back at work, they’ll be none the wiser, hopefully, and he’ll be working for us. He will immediately forward any contact they make directly to us. That is the best hope we have of finding and arresting whoever is pulling the strings.”
Silence reigned heavy in the office, and Mason felt like everyone was holding their breath, waiting for his reaction. Logically, he knew Nick made sense. It was a good plan. But the idea of John back on the ranch, after everything he’d done . . . he could never trust the man again.
“Wes can intercept any emails John receives,” Colt said.
Nick nodded. “Good call. See that he sets that up right away.”
