One Night Standoff by Delores Fossen Page A

was exactly what they needed. Clayton put the call on speaker so that Lenora could hear. “ We’re listening,” he said to alert his brother this was no longer a private conversation.
    Harlan hesitated a couple of moments. “I’m not sure you’ll want to hear all of this, but I dug up some things about him. And Lenora.”
    “She was a criminal informant,” Clayton supplied.
    “And a criminal,” Lenora added.
    An unknowing one, from what Clayton had heard so far. A man she’d loved had dragged her into a situation that could have put her in grave danger. But yeah, that still made her a former criminal.
    Harlan hesitated again. “Remember Corey Dayton?”
    Even with his memory problems, that was one name Clayton would never forget. “He’s the guy who shot me in the diner.”
    “Yeah,” Harlan verified. “Like Lenora, Dayton was once a criminal informant. There’s no official record of it, but my friend says he used some info that Dayton provided during an investigation.”
    Clayton looked at Lenora to see if she knew that, but she obviously hadn’t. She shook her head.
    “There’s more,” Harlan said, and there was a lot of concern in his voice. “According to my agent friend, when Dayton worked as a CI, he reported to none other than Special Agent James Britt.”

Chapter Eight
    Lenora forced herself to eat, though the way her
stomach was churning, she wasn’t sure she could keep it down. Still, she did it
for the baby’s sake. And for Clayton’s. She was tired of seeing the worry in his
eyes.
    Worry that she’d put there.
    Worry that was now mirrored in his brothers’ eyes, too.
    There were three of them at the dinner table—Harlan, Wyatt and
the youngest, Declan. Stella, the family friend, was there as well, and even
Clayton’s foster father, Kirby. The man was in a wheelchair and looked every bit
as sick as Clayton had said he was—salt-white hair, and his veiny skin seemed
paper thin. He wasn’t eating but instead had an IV bag hooked up to his arm.
    An odd gathering indeed.
    There seemed to be lots of silent communication going on, as if
they were all wired into each other’s thoughts. Except for her, of course. While
all of Clayton’s family seemed sympathetic to the danger she and the baby were
in, she figured there was a massive amount of suspicion, too. Probably because
of her criminal past.
    “You okay?” Clayton asked her.
    Lenora realized she was staring at the plate of lasagna again,
so she took another bite and nodded. “It’s my first time eating with four
lawmen.” She wanted to keep the conversation light since the mood was anything
but. “I keep waiting for one of you to read me my rights and arrest me.”
    Her attempted humor didn’t work that well. The corner of
Clayton’s mouth lifted. Stella’s, too. But the remaining trio of marshals and
their foster father didn’t crack a smile, and the quiet tension returned.
    They had plenty to discuss, but no one was discussing it. Maybe
because they were all so familiar with what was going on. Or maybe the lack of
discussion was to spare her feelings. It wasn’t working, but then discussing the
investigation wouldn’t help in that department, either.
    All afternoon Clayton had tried—and failed—to get more info on
James’s association with the dead man who’d shot Clayton. Ditto for more info on
Quentin. He was a suspect now, along with James, and either one of them could be
working for Riggs. However, Clayton had been able to find out that James was in
serious debt from two failed marriages and child-support payments. Maybe the
debt had made him desperate enough to turn to Riggs for cash and murder for
hire.
    “Heard you got a clean bill of health from the doctor,” Stella
commented.
    It took Lenora a moment to realize the woman was talking to
her. She nodded. Dr. Cheryl Landry had given Lenora a checkup and said all was
well. A huge relief. Despite all the craziness going on, her baby was still her
first