“That remains to be seen.” She could hear his frustration level climbing, and she knew there were only a few moments left before he started hollering over the line. “ All we do know is someone caused a fiery explosion at your barn yesterday. When your life is in the balance, everyone is a suspect, including the two ex-convicts you have living out there with you.”
“Uncle Ricky—”
“You could’ve been killed.” Aja swallowed the protest on her tongue and let her uncle’s words sink in. He wasn’t wrong. If her employee hadn’t called her name before she reached the barn, Aja would’ve been inside when the electric wiring ignited the kerosene lamps and her barn went up in a loud burst of flames. “Dammit, Aja! Why are you so stubborn?”
“Uncle Ricky, I’m fine. Yes, my barn was destroyed, but the only thing that happened to me was a cut on my head that didn’t even need stitches.”
“I wouldn’t care if the only thing you got was a broken nail. You are not setting foot back on that ranch, Aja. Not until Mat gets those ex-convicts off your property and you are unenrolled from that Pathways program.”
The stiffness in her uncle’s voice, coupled with the mention of Seneca and Brooklyn’s parole officer Mat Ryan, made her head throb. She called this her uncle’s “judge voice.” He’d spent so many years using it to call people to order that he foolishly believed she’d fall in line when he used it on her too. “You know I won’t agree to anything like that. I can’t leave Aunt Jo and my employees to fend for themselves on the ranch.”
“No,” he replied. “I don’t want my sister in harm’s way, either, so I already moved Jo to my house. It’s a gated community with round-the-clock security. She’ll be fine, and so will you once you’re under my roof too.”
She tried to shake her head, but it throbbed from the movement, so she rubbed her temple instead. “Uncle Ricky. You’re doing way too much. I don’t want all this.”
“You may not want it, but it’s what’s happening. I’m only waiting for Mat to figure out what to do with the parolees you’re harboring before I send someone out there to close the ranch down.”
She pulled the phone from her ear and glared at it for a long moment. “No, Uncle Ricky,” she hollered, and she immediately regretted raising her voice when the Rangers each glanced back at her. She quieted her voice before resuming her conversation. “I’m not gonna let you close my ranch down.”
His lack of immediate response told her he was gearing up for a fight. If she knew her uncle, he was squinting over his glasses, trying to put the fear that only southern elders managed to instill into their young’uns into her, even though they were on the phone. He was good, but she was better. She managed a similar glare of her own, slowly tilting her head to keep the achy stiffness from yesterday’s drama from settling in again. “Uncle Ricky, you were the one who told me to fight for what I believed in. I believe in these women. I believe in the Pathways program. Why can’t you support my decision to help them rebuild their lives?”
“Aja, you’re my niece. My only niece.” His voice cracked.
Aja swallowed, trying to shove down the grief that was suddenly clawing at her. God, she still missed her sister.
Yesterday morning before all hell broke loose, she’d been proud of her ability to move on these last two years. But in moments like this, when she had to deal with her grief—and her uncle’s too—Aja felt like she was right back at the start of her own personal hell.
She took a deep breath, trying to desperately quiet the sad thoughts swirling in her head. “Uncle Ricky, you’ve called in the Texas Rangers against my will. I’ll go along with them investigating the vandalism because obviously things have gotten out of hand. But I am not shutting my ranch down, and I’m not abandoning Seneca and Brooklyn when they’ve done nothing to deserve it. My house, my rules. Isn’t that what you always say to me when I set foot into your place?”
Aja saw the Ranger in the passenger seat sneaking a sideways glance at her. She’d deal with him when this was over. Right now, she needed to get her uncle off her back.
“All right, Aja. As long as you let the Rangers do their job, I’ll back off. But if there’s any more trouble, I don’t wanna hear a damn thing other than the sound of your boots headed out of that place. You understand me?”
“Yessuh.”
She ended the call and focused her attention on the Ranger who was still trying to hide the smirk on his face.
“Is there something you need to say, Ranger…Gleason is it?”
He shook his head. “No, ma’am.”
“You sure? The expression on your face seems to say otherwise.”
He shook his head again. “No, just thinking that my boss, Ranger Dean, ain’t ready for you.”
She shifted in her seat, crossing her arms as she leveled a pointed stare at him. “No man ever is.”
And she doubted this Ranger Dean would be an exception to that rule. Ever since her uncle had called the Rangers in last night, she’d surmised they, like her uncle, would never look further than the obvious suspects Seneca and Brooklyn seemed. But that was all right. Aja always had a plan. She hadn’t been one of the most successful trial attorneys in New York for nothing. Her gift was always being able to outstrategize her opponents.
This Texas Ranger wouldn’t be any different as far as she was concerned. She wanted this case solved, but not at her ladies’ expense. To avoid that, she’d simply have to get Ranger Dean off their scent with the same steps she used to win over unforgiving juries.
Step one: Humanize the defendants. Step two: Provide an alternate version of the crime. Step three: Create a reasonable doubt the defendants could ever have committed the crime. Step four (the most important step of all): Smile and turn those that would condemn you into your advocates. Make your enemy do the fighting for you.
A calm stillness spread over her and she returned to staring out the window. Brooklyn and Seneca were counting on her. She’d done this before with great success; there was no reason Aja could see that it shouldn’t work now when her success was more important than adding another mark in her win column.
A smile crept onto her lips as her plan solidified. Aja had the perfect strategy and her secret weapon was tucked away safely in the cargo area of the SUV.
I won’t let you down, ladies.
