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“Do you recall when you last spoke to these women?” Rio inclined his head. “Have you asked Johanna out on a date?”
“No and no.” Strauss looked from one to the other. “You have CCTV footage, so you have the dates I was in the stores. I take my downtime when the workload is low. It’s a ranch. Surely you know the days all run into each other.” He shook his head slowly. “I shouldn’t have asked Dakota to the Halloween Ball. You know, I regretted it the moment it came out of my mouth. I felt kinda sorry for her.”
“How so?” Rio rolled his shoulders.
“She wasn’t my type.” Strauss removed his hat and ran his hand through his hair. “She was friendly enough and it just slipped out, is all. I figured she’d be grateful.” He smiled. “I don’t have a problem getting dates, so when she refused it surprised me some.” He lifted his chin and replaced his hat. “The next girl I asked came to the ball with me.”
Rowley nodded. “Are you an item now?”
“Nope.” Strauss smiled flashing uneven teeth. “I’m not planning on being restricted for some time yet. Maybe never.”
Glancing at Rio and seeing he didn’t have anything further to ask, he turned back to Strauss. “You live here on the ranch?”
“Yeah, in the bunkhouse. There’s four of us who work here year-round.” Strauss looked from one to the other. “We done here? I have work to do.”
“Yeah.” Rio nodded. “Thanks for your time.”
Outside Rowley turned to Rio. “What’s your take on him?”
“I’m not sure.” Rio tipped his hand back and forth. “I’m of two minds about him. One thing’s for sure, I’m going to look into him a little closer when we get back to the office.”
THIRTY-THREE
Relieved to see Nanny Raya waiting inside the kindergarten when they arrived with Tauri, Jenna took her to one side. “Are you carrying?”
“All the time.” Nanny Raya squeezed her arm. “What happened was out of your control. Don’t blame yourself, Jenna. All the intel Kane had going into this situation indicated the arrests had been made.”
Frowning, Jenna kept her voice to just above a whisper. “Styles called Dave this morning. He told him, as far as he was aware, Mateo was arrested in the raid. So someone took his place and his prints were switched. There’s a rotten apple in the sequence of events, and Dave’s not convinced we’re safe until he’s been identified.”
“Maybe not.” Nanny Raya raised an eyebrow. “The problem has been neutralized. The chances of any intruders are negligible. From what I understand, the FBI is running an investigation to find the mole. There is no reason to believe the cartel will cause you any more problems.”
Shaking her head, Jenna stared at her in disbelief. “The families of the cartel are spread out all over and they’re loyal. It would be impossible to find them all. If they have a vendetta against Dave, then we’ll never be safe.”
“As far as I know, only the men who took Kane were involved.” Nanny Raya gave her a long, concerned look. “Speak to Wolfe. He’s been working closely with Styles to get the information you need. Styles was a highly trained military investigator and he’s working on the problem. The FBI isn’t too happy about the leak either. If the information was passed using the dark web, he has the best cybercrime expert as a partner. Sometimes you must trust in the system.”
Not happy in the least, Jenna nodded. “Fine, but you watch Tauri like a hawk.”
“I’ll keep him safe, Jenna. You have my word.” Nanny Raya smiled at her. “Don’t worry.”
Turning and looking for Tauri in the mass of kids, she spotted him close to Kane. They walked along the display of paintings of Thanksgiving the kids had pinned to a board along one wall. That morning, although a little more clingy than normal, Tauri had spent the entire time over breakfast telling Jenna how Kane ripped the chains from the wall and roared like a great warrior. He had hidden, covering his head, and the gunshots had frightened him, but his daddy had curled up around him and saved him. He was so proud of Kane and kept on looking up at him and squeezing his hand. She went to them and smiled. “We need to go to work now. Nanny Raya would like to stay and help out today. Is that okay?”
“Yes, maybe she can tell us a story?” Tauri hugged Kane’s legs and then lifted his face to kiss Jenna’s cheek.
Jenna hugged him close. “I’m sure she will if you ask her in story time. We’ll be close by and come and get you and Nanny Raya this afternoon.”
“I’ll look after her.” Tauri smiled.
“See you later.” Kane ruffled his son’s hair and gave Jenna a meaningful stare. “Ready?”
Lingering would be unusual and Jenna wanted everything to be as normal as possible for Tauri. She gave him a wave and they hurried reluctantly from the room. She turned to Kane. “I hate leaving him. Are you sure this is our best option?”
“No one can get through the front gate.” Kane blew out a breath. “Nanny Raya is armed. Everything is as safe as we can make it right now. The FBI is on the job. I figure Styles is solid, and his military record is exemplary.”
Jenna climbed into the Beast. “So why did he leave? No one that overqualified ends up in Rattlesnake Creek.”
“Wolfe checked him out.” Kane started the engine and headed for the office. “Apparently, his wife tried to kill him. He needed to get away and went back to his roots. His great-grandfather was a miner there way back, and it seemed like a nice quiet place to settle.”
As they stopped outside the office, she looked at him. “You mean a nice quiet place like Black Rock Falls?” She snorted. “They sure made a mistake sending us here, didn’t they? I was supposed to blend into the local population and now we’re in books. So much for a quiet life.”
