Page 11 of Rangers Last Promise

“It’s Doc.”

Another silence.

Then a chair scrapes across the floor.

“Doc?”

“I need you to listen. Is Mara Ellis at the tavern?”

“What?”

“Is she there?”

“No. Why would she be?”

“Find her.”

His voice hardens. “You disappear for fifteen years, call me out of nowhere, and start giving orders?”

“Someone sent me a photograph of Mara taken through a rifle scope.”

Every sound on his end stops.

“When?”

“Less than five minutes ago.”

“Send it to me.”

I forward the photograph and the message.

Wolf curses when he receives them.

“I’m calling Trigger and Sheriff Tate,” he says. “Where are you?”

“Outside Fort Worth.”

“Why would someone send that picture to you?”

I grip the steering wheel.

“Because of Grant.”

“What about him?”

“I can’t explain it over the phone.”

“You’d better start explaining something.”

The anger in his voice is justified.

Wolf searched for me after Grant died. So did Trigger. I ignored their calls, returned their letters unopened, and made sure no one from the unit knew where I went after I left the Army.

They thought I blamed them.

The truth is worse.

I blamed myself.