“She adapted to a lot of things, but it’s a lie that she didn’t worry about him getting killed. She worried every time he left for work, but she put up a good front around him. Robin’s the same way around Randy, but he and I know differently.”
“That describes my mother, too,” Ally confessed. “Dad will never know how hard her life with him has been at times. He’s had death threats. It’s a miracle he wasn’t shot during his tenure.
“They never spoke about the close calls and Mom and I pretended we didn’t worry. But nothing could have been further from the truth. Early on, she decided to fight her fear by doing something dangerous herself. That gave me courage and I helped her. Somehow we survived those years.”
A grimace marred Luckey’s handsome features. “Only to meet me and hear me bring up marriage on the same night one of our legendary Rangers was gunned down.”
Ally bit her lip. “I won’t lie. It shook me to the core. I thought of his poor wife. I thought of your ex-wife. I’m sure when she heard the news, she was thankful she didn’t have to bury yo
u.”
“I have no doubt that’s true. I hate to tarnish your vision of your childhood idol, Ally, but it has to be said.”
She shivered at the direction their conversation was taking. “What do you mean?”
“The Lone Ranger didn’t marry. Now you know why. It’s good we cleared the air. Come on. Persey and I will race you to the trailer.”
He took off like a silver bullet. She let him go. Of course she couldn’t catch up with him, but that wasn’t the reason she didn’t try. Their conversation had reminded him of his divorce and the choice he’d made to stay with the Rangers, which meant losing his wife.
By the time she reached his horse trailer, the shadows of evening were lengthening and she knew he wouldn’t ask her to marry him a second time.
Silence reigned on their way back to her parents’ house. When he pulled up in front of the barn, he darted a glance at her and said, “I’ve decided to get a tutor for my Chinese lessons. Agent Chen said she’d fit me into her schedule when she could. She could never be you, but we can’t always have the things we want.”
He didn’t say it in a cruel, punishing way. Luckey simply sounded resigned, but every word caused Ally excruciating pain.
After levering himself from the truck, he walked around to help Silver back out of the trailer. Ally took over and led her horse into the barn. While Luckey stood by, she fed and watered her Morgan before walking out of the barn.
Gathering her courage, she looked up at him. “I had a fantastic time with your family. Thank you for that. I know you need to get back to work. You don’t have to drive me to the front of the house. I’d actually prefer to walk.”
His face had turned into a frozen mask. “As I dig further into this case, I’ll give you and your parents updates. You know where to find me if there’s anything you need. I think you’re an amazing woman, Ally Duncan. What you did for Shan won’t be forgotten. It’s been my privilege to spend time with you.” He tipped his Stetson and climbed into his truck.
Her vision blurred as he drove off. She felt as though she’d been run over by a tank and couldn’t move.
* * *
WITH PERSEY PUT to bed, Luckey grabbed a beer out of the fridge and stood in the kitchen, feeling at the lowest ebb of his life. Nothing could alter what had just happened between him and Ally. If he lost her, he didn’t know how he was going to carry on.
He was in hell, but he had a job to do. Work would help stave off the red-hot pain until he dropped from sheer exhaustion.
Yesterday he’d spent all day in Freeport, three hours from Austin, looking for evidence of any kind that would lead him to find Robert Martin. The two addresses where cream had been delivered turned out to be a health care facility and an elderly couple’s home.
As for the adoption, he’d discovered it had been closed. That was too suspicious under the circumstances. Luckey visited Brazosport Independent School District in Freeport to make inquiries about Anna Martin. No one could shed any light on her.
He’d decided to visit some kung fu facilities. At the fifth one, an older man in charge of a Chinese gym that taught martial arts told him Anna Martin had worked out there for several years. She’d won some local awards for kung fu. He remembered that she took take care of her sister’s boy. When her Chinese boyfriend wanted her to go to China, she wouldn’t go unless he took the boy, too. They’d had a big fight, and the manager of the gym never saw them again.
Luckey was excited to have learned that Robert Martin was the son of Anna’s sister. It brought him a step closer to solving this case. The adoption had to be illegal. Luckey went to the vital statistics bureau, where he found a birth certificate for a Caucasian baby boy, Robert, the son of Sybil Martin and Andrew Mott.
Further inquiry proved the two parents were deceased.
Momo Demott was one of Robert’s aliases. Sid Marteen was a close fit for Sybil. That led Luckey to look up any Martins, Marteens, Motts or Demotts, who’d lived in Freeport, but nothing that could be linked to Robert Martin turned up. No matter. Luckey wouldn’t stop until he found him and sent him to prison for the rest of his life.
At two in the morning Luckey finally staggered to bed. As soon as he woke up the next morning, he went outside to see to Persey’s needs and put him in the corral. After eating breakfast, he started cross-checking all Robert Martin’s aliases against the remainder of names he hadn’t yet gone through from the international carriers’ files.
He left his phone on voice mail while he worked. Randy called to announce his approval of Ally. Following that call, he heard from both his parents and three cousins, all letting him know they were very impressed with her. The only person he knew who wouldn’t call him was Ally herself. But when he looked for her name on his phone anyway, and discovered it wasn’t there, he received another gut punch that came close to incapacitating him.
Around noon an email came through from Mr. Guan. At last! Luckey opened it.
I have two contacts for you, Mr. Davis. A silk merchant in Chengdu named Mr. Li Wang will be expecting to hear from you. Also a Mr. Mahyadi Suharto from Jakarta. Their phone numbers and email addresses are written below. I hope this helps you in your investigation.