Brendan stepped between him and Lauren. “This won’t take long. I wanted to ask you about the night Dustin Windsor died.”
“I’m afraid I can’t help you. I wasn’t there.”
“Where was Tonia that night?”
McAvoy wet his lips. “Who are you, anyway?”
“Brendan Waddell, Special Ops Intel.” He tossed out his title in hopes of impressing McAvoy, but he should have known better. His military affiliation held no power with a senator.
“I fail to see what interest you have in this.”
“I’m trying to help Lauren.”
McAvoy’s eyes narrowed, and he clenched his fists. “You’re dating her?”
“No, just helping to clear her name.”
The anger in the man seemed to ease. “Well, I’m afraid I can’t help you. I know nothing about it.”
“Steve?” High heels clicked on the tile floors, and an attractive redhead with a sprinkling of freckles appeared. Her gaze flickered to Lauren and she gaped. “You’ve got some nerve coming here.”
McAvoy moved to intercept her. “They were just going, Tonia.”
“What did you tell them?”
“There was nothing to tell.”
The woman smiled then, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Of course not. Well, your little fishing expedition didn’t net you anything, Lauren. I think the sheriff might be interested in speaking with you though. I’ll give him a call.” She turned and reached for the phone on the desk behind her.
In two steps, Brendan ripped it from her hand. “I don’t think so. I’d like to know why you’re so bent on sending your own cousin to jail. Afraid the detective will begin to look elsewhere? Like at you?”
Red bloomed in her cheeks. “Of course not.” She folded her arms across her chest. “You can’t stop me from calling the sheriff forever, you know. The minute you walk out that door, I’ll have him on the phone.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” Lauren asked, her throat tight. “I’ve always thought of you like a sister.”
“You mean like a stepsister. You always got the best of everything, and I got the leftovers.” Tonia lifted her chin. “Well, not this time. You’re going to get what you deserve.”
McAvoy put his hand on her shoulder. “Calm down, honey.”
She shook off his grip. “You’re so clueless, Steve. She would take everything from me if she could.”
Lauren reached a shaking hand toward her cousin. “I hate this division between us. I don’t know what to do about it. I still love you, Tonia.”
Livid spots of red bloomed in Tonia’s face. “Love, hah! If you’d loved me, you wouldn’t have tried to seduce Steve. He told me all about it, so don’t try to deny it.”
Brendan glanced over to see Steve’s face turn nearly purple. The lies in here were getting as deep as that cow dung he’d joked about. “Let’s go, Lauren. We’re getting nowhere here.”
He took her arm and walked with her from the building.
The Mexican restaurant in Alpine looked almost like a house and had a horseshoe hung on the door. Lauren still felt shaken, so she asked the hostess for as much privacy as they could get.
“Cool,” Brendan said when the hostess led them through the cowboy-decor room.
The walls were mottled in warm browns and tans, and the doorway trim was terra-cotta. The hostess took them through the restaurant to the patio. Large cowboy murals decorated the side of the building. They were seated at a secluded table under a trellis on the patio. Grasses and yucca softened the surrounding buildings, and covered with twinkling lights, they made a holiday oasis outside.
He pulled a chair out for her, then settled beside her. “You okay? You’re a little pale.”
“I’m all right.” She drew in a shaky breath. “Wow, she hates me. I don’t know what to do with that.”
“Has your relationship always been rocky?”
She shrugged. “It’s had its ups and downs. She’s bipolar so sometimes you never know which Tonia you’re going to get. She takes a slight and magnifies it to proportions as big as a mountain. It’s like she’s just—snapped. Something pushed her over the edge with me.” She kept seeing the expression on her cousin’s face as she spewed out vitriol.
“Did you see how he acted when he thought we might be dating? He’s married to your cousin, but he still has the hots for you. He could be dangerous.”
Dangerous? She’d never liked Steve, but he’d never frightened her. On the other hand, Tonia had scared her today. Lauren blinked her stinging eyes. “Betrayal is hard to handle. I never would have dreamed Tonia could do something like this, but she still seems determined to see me in jail. She was ready to call the sheriff.”
“Yeah, but it was all bluff. She lives here. Her lies would find her out if she dragged in the local guys.”
“But you hightailed it out of Fort Stockton before stopping for lunch.”
“No sense in taking a chance. But yeah, I don’t think she made a call when we left. I bet she gave old Steve an earful though.”
The server came to take their order, and as soon as she left them alone, Brendan leaned back in his chair and stared at her. “I want to know more about the history between the two of you. Your mom raised her until she died when you were fifteen.”
Heat ran up her cheeks. “You’ve checked me out.”
He shrugged. “It’s what I do best. After your mom died, you were in the same foster home, correct?”
She shook her head. “Actually, we were in different homes. We got to go to the same high school at least, but it was never the same. Tonia got picked on a lot. I got to look after her at school.”
“So you mothered her too.”
Her pulse skipped at the expression in his warm eyes. “Too?”
“You mother everyone. Carly, for example.” His smile broadened. “And threatening to doctor me with some vile-smelling liniment.”
She couldn’t hold back a smile. “Older sisters tend to do that.”
“You have any other siblings?”
“Just Tonia, and well, you know about that relationship.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that. No wonder you are so good with those kids. It doesn’t seem fair you ended up having such trouble on top of trouble.” He picked up his fork and ran it through his fingers. “I think either Steve or Tonia know who killed Dusty Windsor.”
“Why?”
He tapped the end of his nose. “It smells to high heaven. She gains nothing by throwing suspicion on you unless she’s afraid of something. I think it’s more than fear of losing her man, or even fear of having the police look at her too closely. What are her habits? She have any expensive hobbies?”
She reached for a tortilla chip and scooped up some salsa. The burn stayed on her tongue. “She likes to travel. She makes two trips out West every year. Says it clears her head. She asked to borrow some money for a trip about a month before all this happened.”
“Out West, huh? Where out West?”
“Nevada, mostly. She likes to hike out there.”
“Are you kidding me? Hiking in Nevada? Lauren, is Tonia a gambler?”
“What? No, I . . .” Lauren thought for a moment. It made sense.
“Did you give her the money?”
Hating to admit she’d been foolish, she began to tear her napkin into strips. “Yeah, I did. Two thousand dollars.”
He whistled softly through his teeth. “You ever think about exercising some tough love and saying no?”
“All the time.” She heaved a heavy sigh. “Sometimes it’s just easier to give her what she wants.”
“If Tonia is a gambler and is borrowing money, she could be in over her head.”
“Does refinancing her house count? She was working on that just before the murder.”
His eyes brightened. “I can check that out, see how much she got and if it sounded like she needed more.”
The server brought their food, and her mouth watered at the w
afting aroma of arroz con polla. Eating would keep her mind off how much she liked being with Brendan. His offer of help made her believe it just might come out all right. When had anyone last reached out to her with genuine concern? It had been a long time.
SIX
AFTER SPENDING TIME WITH LAUREN, BRENDAN REALIZED HE believed in her innocence. While they waited for the check, he placed a call to one of his contacts and asked him to check on how much money Tonia got when she refinanced her house. And also to check out any trail where her finances might lead.
He left money on the table for the bill. “Ready? I told Rick we’d do some Christmas shopping for the kids.”
She brightened. “For all those kids? How will we pay for it? I’m a little short since buying Angel from McLeod.”
“No problem. I’ll buy them and Rick can pay me back later.”
“All right then. I love to shop. Especially for kids. Do you have a list?”
He pulled out a paper from his pocket and waved it in front of her. “It’s a little daunting.”
She grabbed it from his hand and scanned it. “It’s not that bad. It will be fun buying dolls and fire trucks. What was your favorite toy as a child, Brendan?”
“G.I. Joe, of course.” He grinned, remembering his collection of action figures.
“I bet you were always the hero sneaking in to rescue the prisoners.”
He looked away from her intent stare. “I’m no hero.”
“Sure you are.” Her voice was soft. “I heard Rick telling the children you’d rescued ten guys in Afghanistan recently. I bet there are many more who owe their lives to you.”
He shrugged. “It’s just my job.”
“Right.”
The attention made him a little uncomfortable, but it felt, well, kind of good to see the admiration in her eyes. “My dad was a Marine, and I wanted to be just like him. It wasn’t until I’d enlisted that I found out his dark side. He had a string of women. Mom covered it up well, but she knew all these years he had feet of clay. And he was a lousy dad with a hard fist.”
“Is that why you’ve never married? You’re afraid you’d be like him in that way too?”
He controlled his expression as he stared at the certainty in her eyes. “Maybe.” He would never want to cause the kind of pain he saw in his mother. “My brother ended up just like him. Maybe I would too.”
“You’re a good man, Brendan. It didn’t take me long to see that. Not many guys would go out of their way to help someone like me.”
“Someone like you? What does that mean?”
“I’m nobody. No power or money. A foster kid who’s had to fight for everything I’ve managed to accomplish in my life.”
He smiled, drawn to everything about her. “The plucky underdog who never lets anything get her down. You’re one of those who will come from behind to win the race because you never give up.”
A smile spread across her face and lit her eyes. “Is that right? It sometimes feels like I’ll never manage to put one foot in front of the other.”
“But you keep going. I like that about you.” In fact, he liked everything about her. The relentless way she clung to hope, the way she refused to be a victim. She would never stop fighting for her family, unlike his mother.
His words hung in the air, and a breathless charge permeated the air. The smile in her eyes nearly dazzled him, and he had an almost uncontrollable urge to lean down and brush his lips across hers, but he managed to check the impulse. He’d known her, what, two days? It felt like two years though. He’d never felt such an instant connection to someone. He’d heard of love at first sight, but he’d always thought it was baloney. Now he wasn’t so sure.
Shields up. His mental command did little to quench the fire spreading through his limbs when he looked down at her parted lips. He finally tore his gaze away and nodded to the block of stores on the street. “Guess we’d better get started.”
“I think so. We’re still an hour and a half from home, and Allie is expecting us back for supper.”
“She’s a good woman. Rick is lucky to have her. In fact, Rick is lucky in a lot of ways. Living out here in all of God’s beauty, working with horses. It seems so far from the life I’ve been living.”
“Are you eager to go back?”
Her voice seemed a little husky, but he didn’t dare think about what that might mean. He shook his head. “I would miss the excitement, but with this gimpy leg, I’m not sure what’s waiting for me.”
“Your limp is getting better.”
“You sound like you’re trying to get rid of me.”
Her hand came down on his. “I’ll hate it when you leave.”
“I might not leave. I’ve been thinking about taking a medical discharge.” Until the words came out of his mouth, he’d pushed away every thought leading in that direction. But now that he’d said it, it didn’t seem so impossible.
Her fingers tightened on his. “What would you do?”
“I don’t know. Help out Rick. Maybe adopt a passel of kids myself and see what kind of father I’d make.” He cleared his throat and turned toward the storefronts. “Let’s see if we can get everything at this general store. They probably have toys too.” He held the door open for her and sniffed her sweet scent as she went by.
A clerk directed them to the two shelves of toys, but the store was well stocked with the types of items they needed. They quickly went down the list and filled their cart with an assortment of items that would be sure to bring smiles on Christmas morning. He whipped out his wallet and produced his debit card to pay for everything.
“That cost more than I expected,” Lauren said when they walked out of the store with their bags.
“It wasn’t bad.”
“Oh, wait. We forgot to get a receipt. I’ll run back in and get it so you can give it to Rick.”
“Forget about it, and let’s go.”
She stopped and stared up at him. The brilliant sunshine illuminated the golden lights in her big brown eyes. “You’re not going to let Rick repay you, are you?”
He squirmed under the beam of her admiration. “Nope. He spends every penny he has on those kids. It’s the least I can do. I don’t have anyone else to buy Christmas presents for.” He took her arm and turned her back toward his truck.
She resisted the tug of his fingers. “Look, Brendan.” She pointed to a sign in the window of a feed store. “Puppies!”
He studied the fat puppies. “You’re thinking what I’m thinking? Allie might shoot us. And what about Carly’s guardians? They might have something to say about her dragging a puppy home with her.”
“They seem to want to do anything they can for her. I can talk them into it.”
He couldn’t resist the appeal in her eyes. “It’s on your head then.”
“I’ll take the blame.” Her smile turned radiant, and she rushed to the door.
He followed with a grin. Her childlike enthusiasm touched him. They approached the counter, and the middle-aged woman brightened when she heard they were interested in a puppy.
She gestured to a box at the end of the counter. “No one has taken any of them yet, so you can have the pick of the litter.”
Lauren knelt beside the box. “Oh, they are adorable! They look at least part golden retriever.”
“Part golden and part Lab,” the woman said.
He mentally groaned. “I was hoping for a small dog.”
“Small dogs are yappy. There is no better dog than a golden or a Lab.” Lauren scooped up a golden bundle of fur and held it to her cheek. “He’s precious. We’ll take him.”
The woman shook her head. “He’s the runt of the litter, and he has a little bit of a limp. Pick another one.”
A gimpy leg, just like him. But with some love and care, that little pup would be running around.
Lauren shifted the puppy to one arm and opened her purse with the other. “Even better. He’ll need a good home. How much?”
The woman shr
ugged. “The rest are a hundred, but I can let this one go for fifty.”
Brendan took out a hundred dollar bill before Lauren could pull out her wallet. “He’s worth the hundred.”
He would have paid ten times that amount to bring that kind of glow to Lauren’s face.
It was going to be hard to hide the puppy for another week. The poor thing didn’t leave Lauren’s side, so she put him in her bed and turned out the light. He snuggled against her, and she rested her chin on top of his soft head.
What a lovely, lovely day. She liked Brendan entirely too much. Even her reckless heart recognized the danger. Before long, he’d recover from his injury and he’d be off on another adventure. She didn’t want the kind of man who left her worried and anxious. What kind of life would that be? And he might die and leave her, just like Mom.
Even if he had feelings for her, and there were no guarantees about that, she was treading on dangerous ground. There seemed to be some kind of attraction between them, but her naïveté could lead her to read more into his intense glances than he intended. She wasn’t a good judge of what men thought.
What if he is looking to add me to his conquests?
She rejected the thought immediately. He wasn’t that kind of guy. Integrity resided in every cell of his body. She would bet her life on that. Besides, Rick and Allie adored him.
So what did those warm glances and the tension between them mean? And did she want it to lead to anything at all?
She inhaled the good scent of new puppy and closed her eyes only to open them at a sound outside her door. It might have only been one of the horses moving about, but something about the sliding, muffled noise sounded furtive. Maybe it was just Brendan coming to check on her and the puppy.
Cradling the little dog against her chest, she slipped out of bed and stepped to the door. She put her ear against the door but heard nothing. She opened it a crack and peered out. The inside of the barn was dark, illuminated in spots by the moon shining through the windows.
“Hello? Anyone there?”
A horse snuffled in answer, but there was no other sound. She shut the door and went back to her room. Her imagination again. She climbed back into bed and slid under the sheet. Her pulse finally slowed, and she closed her eyes. Her breathing slowed, and she began to drift toward sleep.