Chapter 3

He drove as close to the speed limit as he could, but Katie's cryptic request for him to hurry home left Darrin nervous and worried. He pulled into the driveway and Katie came out of the house with Fiona perched on her hip. The little girl saw him, squealed with delight, and held out her arms. Darrin took her and held her close, despite the grease on his shirt.

"Is she okay, Katie?"

"Fiona's fine." She smiled, but it faded. "It's our guest, Darrin. Do you really know anything about this man?"

"Not a whole lot. His name is Jake Baldwin, I think he said he was from Ohio or something. He was in the military at one time, and he's just wandering around from state to state looking for a place to settle down." He stared at Katie. "Why?"

She turned the laptop that she'd held in her hand, opened it, and displayed the page she found. "I don't know who he really is, Jake, but this... this is the real Jake Baldwin."

Darrin scanned the obituary. The Jake he knew didn't look anything like this guy and was older. The things Jake told him were mentioned in the article, except for the story of how he was wandering around the country. The dead Jake Baldwin was a mathematician and spent his life working for the university after he left the Navy. The Jake he knew didn't look like he spent a day in the classroom after graduation. He was handsome, yet rough, like he'd been through a lot in his life. That didn't sound like a mathematics professor.

"What's going on?" Darrin's voice came out in a whisper.

"I don't know. Darrin, I'm scared. Why would he pretend to be someone he's not, unless he's like an escaped criminal or something?" She shook her head. "Yet I find it hard to believe, because he's an honorable man. He saved Corey, he was in the Navy doing things, secret things." She told him what she discovered about Jake's tattoo.

"I can't believe he did something bad, Katie. There's a logical explanation, and we'll find out what it is. Then we'll go from there." Darrin moved toward the house. Katie followed him, and he handed Fiona over to her when they got inside. "Take her into the back yard for awhile. Just in case."

Darrin kept a handgun in the house, just for emergency's sake. In the town's entire history there had never been a break-in, but one could never be too careful these days. He retrieved the gun, loaded it, and returned to the living room.

Sam heard sounds, whispering, and footsteps while his mind revisited an imploding mission in Eastern Europe in living color. They'd worked so hard to become entrenched into this group, but someone gave them up, and now they would pay with their lives. Two of his men were mowed down by gunfire right before his eyes. He opened up on their killers, and even when a bullet took him down, Sam kept firing until all the shooting stopped. He brought a hand up to his right shoulder and it came away red. His breath heaved in short gasps as the world around him swam out of focus. It was then that he heard his friend's voice.

"Sam, it's okay! We'll take good care of you."

"Mike... Mike, it hurts."

"I know. We'll get you some help real soon. Just hold on."

Little did he know that Sam's words came out of Jake's lips, causing Darrin to wonder who 'Mike' was. He approached the couch and laid a hand on Jake's sleeve. The tip of the tattoo showed again, and he had to see it for himself. With one hand on the gun, he used his left hand to pull up the sleeve. The action woke Jake.

Through pain-fogged eyes, he tried to focus. "Darrin? What... what's going on?"

"It's okay, Jake." He gently pulled the sleeve down, grasped his arm, and pulled him up to sit on the couch.

Jake supported himself with his elbows on his knees and stared at the gun. "Hey, what's that for?"

"You tell me, Jake. Jake Baldwin, if that's yer real name."

He tried playing dumb. "I don't know what you're talking about. Of course it's my real name. I'll show you my license."

"Don't bother." Darrin pulled an ottoman over to the couch, sat on it, and kept the gun trained on the man he'd come to think of as not just an employee, but a friend. "Who are you? Why are you posing as this guy?" He picked up the laptop that he set down on the coffee table and turned it to face the man.

Sam saw the obituary and let out a long breath, then chuckled weakly. "There are plenty of guys out there with my name. Maybe even a few born around the same year as me. So what?"

"I trusted ya, Jake. I thought ya were fer real, but yer playin' some kind of game with me, my family, and this town. I think ya better jest get on over to the motel, pack up, and get outta here before ya deceive these people any more."

Sam met Darrin's eyes and saw betrayal in them, and he hung his head. In his weakened state, it would have been so easy to give up who he was and why he was running. But he didn't need to complicate things and possibly put Darrin and his family in danger. He nodded his head. "Yeah, I wish I could tell you the truth, man." He carefully stood, ignoring the pain over his shoulder blade. "Please believe me when I tell you I didn't mean to hurt anybody. All I can say is that I didn't do anything wrong. I mean, you know me well enough to believe that, don't you?"

Darrin looked into Jake's pleading eyes. "That's why I'm kinda shell shocked right now."

"I know. And I'm really sorry. Can you promise me something?"

"Maybe. What is it?"

He looked straight into Darrin's eyes, his own darkening with the gravity of the situation. "If anyone comes looking for Jake Baldwin, deny you ever saw me. It'll be much better for you and your family if you forget I ever existed."

Darrin nodded, and for some reason, his eyes teared up. He knew deep down that Jake was a good guy. "Jake, what's going on?"

"Trust me, you're better off not knowing."

The care and concern the man had for his family was genuine, and it touched him. He put the safety on the gun, tucked it into his waist band, and stepped forward to give Jake a hug and a slap on the back, careful of the wound.

"Take care, Jake." He pulled out the gun and handed it to him. "And take this. Ya might need it. And I've got some more clips, you can have 'em."

Jake looked down at the gun, his focus turning fuzzy again from the emotion flooding his eyes. "Thanks, Darrin. I'll never forget your kindness."

"Oh, hold on! Don't leave yet!" He trotted into the bedroom and scrounged around where he kept the extra ammunition. He soon returned with two more clips and a wad of cash. "We keep this all around fer emergencies. Seems like you've got a heck of one right now."

Jake let out a soft laugh. "I've had worse, pal. But thanks, anyway."

"Yer welcome. Good luck, Jake." He held out his hand. Jake shook it, accepted one more man hug from his former boss, and walked out the front door. Darrin watched Jake through the large window until he disappeared down the street.

Katie entered the house. "Darrin, where's Jake goin'? He shouldn't be up and around! Did you kick him out because of what I found?"

"No, honey." Darrin put his arm around her shoulders. "It's just time for him to move on. I don't know why he's using someone else's identity, but whatever the reason, he's into somethin' deep. He asked us to forget we ever saw him, and if someone asks about him, to deny he was ever here."

"Oh, mercy!" She looked down at the table and saw Jake's prescription still sitting there. "He left without his meds!"

"Somehow, I don't think he'd take 'em even if you went after him, babe. He's a man on a mission."

Small towns were notorious for news traveling fast, and Jake witnessed it firsthand. On his way back to the motel, several people stopped him, shook his hand, and thanked him for his heroic efforts to save the Jackson kids. He turned down offers for dinner and a better bed to sleep in while he was there, and some even offered him a beer. That was the hardest thing to refuse, but even though he was leaving, he couldn't risk something so innocent as a drink ruining his cover if someone tracked him to Grandy.

He finally made it to the motel. His burn throbbed, but he changed his shirt, packed his things, threw them into the cab of the truck, and went to pay for his lodging.

"Oh no, no, no, Jake. Can I call you Jake?"

"Uh, sure," Jake answered, giving the innkeeper a strange look. He didn't even know the guy's name.

"Alright, Jake, I don't need your money. Your stay has already been paid for!"

"What?"

"A bunch of people came by to take care of it. If you hadn't been here, those boys would have been killed. So they just wanna thank you properly."

Jake shrugged and hid a wince of pain. "No problem. Glad I was here to help. Now, I've gotta get moving."

"It was a pleasure having you stay with us, Jake! Are you sure you really have to go?"

"Yeah. I do. I've already stayed longer than I should have."

As much as he liked the laid-back, calmer pace of the small town, Jake couldn't wait to get out and on the road again. Sitting with his back against the seat hurt too much, and he suddenly realized that he'd left his meds at Darrin's house. But he refused to go back and get them. The minute this story hit outside of town, no doubt someone's curiosity would perk up and they'd come to check it out. Then again, maybe it would just fade away as some random small town news. Jake didn't think he could be that lucky.

He drove down a flat two lane road heading west northwest, hoping that he could find some place to get a bite to eat and sleep without being disturbed or disturbing someone's little world. He'd never been to Texas before, at least not this part. Houston and Dallas were it, except for a brief stint in Galveston assisting in cleanup after a major storm many years ago when he was in the Navy. His headlights flashed on a sign announcing that Alberta was only fifteen miles away.

Alberta. Isn't that in Canada? Sam laughed silently at his stupid joke. I must be getting really tired. Alberta, you can't get here fast enough, and I hope you've got a motel where I can crash.

One second his eyes were on the road. The next second, he jerked himself awake. Just in time, too, because a big brown steer took up his lane just fifty feet ahead. He jammed on the brakes and turned the steering wheel to navigate around it, but the truck went into a skid. He forgot that the truck was too old to have an antilock brake system. He took his foot off the brake and tried to steer out of the skid, but it was too late. The back wheels slipped onto the gravel shoulder on the opposite side of the road, the truck bed tipped precariously, followed by the cab. The truck tipped onto the driver's side and skidded on the asphalt to the side of the road. It rested on the shoulder with the back end hanging over a culvert.

Jake wasn't wearing his seatbelt.

Jolene was tired, dead tired, but she was almost home. She rounded a small curve, and in the distance she could see the lights of the ranch twinkling in the night. In the distance beyond it, lightning flashed, signaling that a storm was on the way. Good. We can use the rain. To her right, just off the road, she saw something and stopped, backed up, and shone her lights on it.

"Awww, man! Billy Ray!" She put the car in park and got out, and her heels clip clopped across the cooling asphalt as she approached the steer. "You are the most stubborn piece of meat I've ever seen!" She picked up the tie rope still attached to his harness. With one hand she opened up her cell phone.

"Yeah."

"Billy Ray, that stupid steer of yours broke out of the pen again! I swear, you need to shackle him with chains or something!"

"Where's he?"

"Just up the road, east of the ranch about a half mile or so. Come on out here with the trailer and get him. I'm drivin' my car, I can't take him."

"Alrighty, Jolene. I'll be right out there."

"Make it snappy, Billy Ray. I'll stay here with him so he doesn't go wanderin' off." She closed the connection and grumbled about her brother's intelligence while she waited. The steer tried to meander into the road, but she pulled on his lead and he stayed where he was. That didn't stop him from protesting, however. "Oh shut up, or I'll make steak burgers outta ya! Dumb a..."

Jolene peered into the darkness. Just out of the beams of her headlights, some of the glow dimly illuminated a large object. As her eyes adjusted, she realized it was a pickup truck on its side. She glared at the steer.

"Don't tell me. You had somethin' to do with this, didn't you? If anybody in that truck gets killed because of your shenanigans, you are dead meat. And that's a guarantee!" She had no clue if talking to the dumb animal qualified as smart, but sometimes it was the only way to keep her sanity when it came to living on the ranch with Billy Ray.

Headlights came up the road, skirted around the pickup, and stopped. Billy Ray flew out of the truck. "Jolene! Are you okay? What happened here?"

"Your dumb prized steer musta caused an accident!"

"Is anybody in the truck?" Billy Ray removed his cowboy hat and scratched his head.

"I don't know! Just take this animal! I'll check on the driver." She handed Billy Ray the tether and went to her car, pulled a flashlight from the glove compartment, and walked over to the truck. She shone the light into the cab through the cracked windshield and gasped. The man inside was unconscious or dead, she couldn't be sure. There was too much blood, and from where she stood, Jolene couldn't tell if he was breathing. "Billy Ray! Come here!"

"Whoooweee! That boy's got himself in a heap 'o trouble!"

"No kidding, Einstein! Go get Momma and Daddy, and have them bring the truck. Now!"

Jolene couldn't figure out what happened with her little brother Billy Ray. He was an idiot through and through, no common sense, and he barely graduated high school. Jolene, on the other hand, went to college and found herself a great job in Dallas working for one of the biggest accounting firms in the state. She could have gone to the Rivera for her vacation, but she missed her folks so much, she just wanted to go home. And this is what greeted her. Lord, I wish I'd become a paramedic, 'cause right now, this guy looks like he needs one bad!

She knew how to handle injuries and illnesses in cattle and horses; she'd also done her share of patching up people. The nearest hospital was fifty miles away, which made it necessary to learn first aid. If things got really bad, their neighbor five miles down the road was a doctor/veterinarian and could be counted on to help. In this case, however, she didn't want to do anything until her dad arrived. He was a medic in the Army many years ago and was well versed in prepping someone to be moved.

"Daddy, there's a man in there, looks like he's alive, but I'm not sure." She reported as she hugged him.

"It's okay, sweetheart, we'll get him out and take a look."

The windshield shattered when Daniel hit it with a tire iron. He was in his 50s, but the years of working the ranch kept him fit and strong. A couple more swats, and it gave way completely. "Okay, keep holdin' onto that flashlight, darlin'. I'm goin' in there to check on this fella."

Jolene kept the light steady. Her mother stood beside her with another larger light that she pulled out from the gear box in the truck bed. "Daniel, be careful!"

"I will, Maddie. Don't you worry 'bout a thing!"

"Daddy, you need any help in there?"

"No, but I am gonna need that stuff I brought along. Take that light from your momma, and Maddie, you know what I'm talkin' about."

Maddie nodded. She gave the light to Jolene and hurried to retrieve the things Daniel needed. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Daniel heard it, looked up at the sky through the broken passenger side window, and prayed that the rain would hold off for awhile.

The man startled at the sound of a very loud thunderclap. Lightning charged the air outside the window, highlighting the rivulets of water that ran down the panes. But other than a slight jump, he didn't respond to anything else. Daniel let out a deep breath and pulled the stethoscope out of his ears.

"How is he, darlin," Maddie asked as she entered the room with a tray. On it, she had a glass of iced tea and a bowl of soup.

Daniel turned and saw the tray. "He won't be needin' any of that tonight, Maddie. That head injury is gonna keep him out for awhile. I've been trying to rouse him, and he'll sorta get there, but not quite." A peal of thunder sounded like a curtain tearing and ended in a crescendo that rattled the house. The lights flickered, then came back strong.

The patient mumbled something unintelligible and shifted. His face registered pain, and he rolled over. Daniel had stripped him down to his boxers and covered him to the waist with a blanket while he examined him for breaks or internal bleeding, so when the man turned onto his stomach, Maddie saw the bandage over his right shoulder blade.

"What's that on his back," she asked.

"It looked like a burn. It's recent, but it didn't happen in the accident. I re-dressed it after my initial exam. Once this storm lets up, I think I'm gonna have Henry come on out and take a look at him."

"Will he have to go to the hospital?"

"I hope not. I think he's just got a concussion and some bruising. I haven't been able to detect anything broken, but I just wanna be sure." He stood and stretched. "There's not a whole lot I can do for him right now, honey. Let's go out in the living room and let him rest, and I'll check back in an hour."

When they left the room and entered the living space, she asked, "Do we even know his name?" She hated the thought of something terrible happening to the stranger or have him die without anyone knowing who he was.

"I found his wallet in his jeans, Momma." Jolene held it up. "His name is Jake Baldwin. His driver's license says he's from Cincinnati, Ohio. Poor guy. No wonder he's down here." She shrugged. "Anyway, he travels light. No credit cards, he's got the driver's license and cash and that's about it. Not even any pictures of a wife, kids, nothing." She let out a breath.

"Did you look in his luggage?"

"No, Daddy." Jolene got up from her seat at the dining room table. "I'm gonna get my laptop and see if I can check this guy out on the internet."

"There has to be someone out there who knows him. Someone who has to be wondering where he is tonight," Maddie said softly as she stared out into the darkness and watched the rain pour down.