Holding the Truth

by Calle J. Brookes

  He tensed.

  Her hair was down. When it wasn't in one of those braids or a ponytail, it reached midway down her back. Pale silk, with just the touch of curl.

  She wore faded jeans that hugged her scrawny little ass perfectly. He stared for a moment. Not at her ass, but at the whole picture. The way she sat told its own story. She looked so...hurt.

  Broken. Confused.

  In a way he didn't know how to fix. Was it because of what he'd done the night before? Or something more?

  "Bailey?" Her name came out in a soft sigh. But she heard. She turned.

  “Clay. Why are you here? Has something happened?”

  “No. I just...wanted to stop by. Talk. I was in the neighborhood.”

  “There’s not much past this place.”

  No. She had him there. Anyone in this area was here for a damned good reason. “Hell, I’m here to apologize.”

  “Oh.” Her arms crossed over her chest. She was putting up barriers between them. His fault.

  He’d kept barriers between them from the very beginning.

  He shoved his hands into his pockets. It was all that was keeping him from touching her. “I was just...angry.”

  “At me. You’re always angry at me. And I don’t know why. I don’t know why I stay here either. Maybe because I needed to at first. I need to leave on my own terms, if I leave at all. My terms. No one else’s. I’m tired of others trying to be in charge of my life.”

  There was such vehemence in her words Clay almost stepped backward. He had never intended to be in control of her life, or make her think that. “I’m not in charge of your life. I know that.”

  “I don’t understand you.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s none of your business what I do with my life. I need you to stop confusing me. You want me sexually. You won’t do anything about it.”

  “I know.” Everything she’d said was truth.

  Bailey’s blue eyes bore into his. A world of confusion looked at him. “Then we need to keep to the boundaries. Until I leave—for Finley Creek. I’m going to talk to Elliot Marshall and Haldyn Harris today. I’ve already made an appointment with them when I’m finished with Kevin Beck and the crime scenes.”

  “Hell, I don’t know why you bring out the asshole in me. I really don’t.” He wanted to touch her. Just reach up and wrap his fingers in that blond silk. Capture it from the wind that kept taunting it.

  The resolve in her eyes had lead settling in his stomach.

  “Guess I’m just lucky, then.” She picked her way over the rocks. She wobbled.

  Clay reacted before he could stop himself. He put his hands on her waist and steadied her.

  Bailey turned on him. “See. You’re a sexist at heart, Clay Addy.”

  “I was just helping you.” What in the hell had he done wrong? Clay didn’t have a clue. Bailey had needed him and he’d reacted. Like he always would.

  “But you wouldn’t help Jeremy or Jeff or Ralley. Because they’re men.”

  Hell, that had nothing to do with it. He certainly hadn’t ever worried about his last female partner when in the field.

  Or any other woman he had worked with.

  It was just this woman he worked with. It would always be just Bailey. “Because they are not you. I don’t care what equipment the people I work with have. It’s you I want my hands on, Bailey. You. Bailey Jane Moore. No one else. And that is what makes me angry. Because I want you and there’s not a damned thing I can really do about it.”

  Blue eyes flashed at him, and he knew he’d messed up again.

  “Yes, there is. You’re just too afraid to do it.”

  She stood and slid off the rock, picking her way back down to the ground. Clay followed.

  She spun to look at him. “As soon as we close this case, I’m transferring to Finley Creek. You’ve won, Clay. I’m leaving you alone forever. You’ll never have to do anything about me again.”

  Clay’s hands went around her before he could stop himself from moving.

  He couldn’t lose Bailey. But he’d never really had her to begin with. His own damned fault. Bailey took off toward the house, leaving him staring after her.

  Chapter 74

  Clay followed her, fighting an overwhelming need to plead his damned case. To convince her that leaving Value was the last thing she wanted. The thought of her not being there every day was sinking in. Rapidly.

  Those four months without her had been some the darkest he’d had in a long, long time. He didn’t want to think of a future of darkness. Not any longer.

  “Bailey...” He wanted to say more, but he didn’t know what the words should be.

  “I...we have work to do.” She stopped walking. Bailey wouldn’t look at him, instead staring off in the distance. Toward where he had found her that day.

  Clay came up behind her. Before he could stop himself, he had his hands on her shoulders. He felt the sigh go through her.

  “It was different then, Clay. Before.”

  “Me? What?” His fingers flexed. Bailey had fine, narrow shoulders. The blond hair tickled his fingers.

  “Everything. You. Me. The TSP. The world.” She looked up at him. The sadness in her expression pierced through him. “Things made sense to me back then. I had a plan, goals. Things felt right. I hadn’t even thought about my father or what he had done in years. I was so tunnel focused on being a good cop. That was all I cared about. Until April. I was naive, I guess.”

  “Not naive. Just young. Inexperienced.” Beautiful, wonderful, maddening. Perfect. To him. She had drawn him the moment she’d walked in. That hadn’t changed for even a moment since. It never would.

  Just what that meant for him was sinking in fast.

  “I have that now.”

  “Yes.”

  “Things have changed between us. I’m not sure I understand how.”

  Clay wasn’t certain he did, either.

  Bailey was practically in his arms again. Clay turned her, and before he could stop himself, he lowered his head.

  Just waiting for her to pull away.

  But Bailey didn’t.

  ***

  It wasn’t like the last time. Not the same heat. The fire was still there, but the intensity had shifted. He kissed now to comfort, to connect.

  Before, she’d suspected he’d kissed her out of anger because he didn’t want what was there between them.

  Clay fought everything. Especially her.

  But he wasn’t fighting now.

  Bailey just stood there, stretched up against him. He felt hot and hard against her. Strong. Like nothing could knock him down. Nothing could ever stop Clayton Barratt Addy.

  Not when there was something he wanted.

  That he wanted her was just more proof that the world had shifted on its axis in ways Bailey would never understand.

  But like the idiot she knew she was, Bailey pressed closer. And kissed him back. Just one more time.

  It was Clay that pulled away first. “Bailey...I...”

  Bailey didn’t want him to talk. When they talked was when things didn’t make much sense.

  Of course, they didn’t exactly make much sense now, either. “I’m going to go to Finley Creek. I think it’s where I belong.”

  She didn’t miss the panic that hit his green eyes. “I don’t want you to.”

  “The problem is that you don’t know what it is you do want. Just what you don’t. I can’t wait around for you to figure out what scares you so much about me.”

  Her life had been in stasis for long enough where Value was concerned.

  She’d found one thing in Value that really mattered—her family. She was healing now, thanks to them.

  Her position in the Value TSP didn’t matter now. Not like it used to.

  She could leave. Go on. Find a different future for herself.

  Take charge of it for herself.

  Bailey deliberately pulled away.

  No matter what was there betw
een them she was making choices for herself. And wasn’t going to let him confuse her any more.

  Chapter 75

  They hadn’t said anything after Bailey had turned away. Just walked back inside to find Bert had made a breakfast fit for an army. Bailey had eaten by rote, almost, conscious of the man at her side.

  Then she’d gotten lucky—Veri had called Clay in to deal with a drug-smuggling suspect up near the northern part of the county.

  He’d shot her a look and told her simply that they would talk later.

  That had been it.

  Jake and Bert hadn’t said a word, either.

  Bailey didn’t care. She was in charge of her life now. No one else.

  She was attracted to Clay.

  There would other men she was attracted to. Maybe she would take a leap and act on that attraction when the time came.

  She had a forty-minute drive to Finley Creek. She had to get her head back in the job and not so consumed with that man. Finley Creek was her future. Clay was going to be in her past.

  Maybe she’d even start doing volunteer work at W4HAV, help other women find their way to healing, too.

  Bailey had a purpose in life. And it didn’t involve worrying about Clay any longer.

  When she arrived at the W4HAV parking lot where she’d agreed to meet Kevin, Bailey was feeling stronger and more resolved than she had since she’d returned to work.

  Kevin greeted her with a smile and a cup of coffee. “Deputy Moore, how are you?”

  “Please, it’s Bailey.” For the first time, nerves didn’t hit her when she smiled at him. It didn’t matter that Kevin had arrested her father. He’d been doing what he had to do. Just like she would. “Thanks for meeting me, Detective Beck.”

  “None of that. It’s Kevin. It’s no problem. I want you to catch this man.” A dark shadow passed his face. “If I had known, I would have pushed more years ago.”

  “So where’s our first crime scene?”

  “Three blocks from here. Behind the hospital. It was twenty-eight years ago next Sunday that he first struck. In this area.”

  “I wonder where he came from. It seemed too efficient to be the first time he’d done this.” Bailey stepped toward the alley that led to the original crime scene.

  She could see the hospital in the distance if she turned around. It had stood there for almost a hundred years now. If she had been killed there, the victim would have had the thought that help was just blocks away. Had the killer enjoyed that? Knowing the girl was that close to rescue?

  Something about the Garrity victim tickled her mind. She’d been an intern. “Kevin, did the victim have any connection to the hospital?”

  “She worked part-time in the cafeteria on weekends.”

  “Were there any others with connections to a medical facility?”

  “I can’t recall off the top of my head. But it should be in my notes.” He led the way to the second crime scene—six blocks away.

  Bailey knew the location of the third. It was less than a quarter of a mile from where they stood.

  They needed two more points to form a decent geographical profile. But she was convinced she knew where he’d been centralized—at least twenty-eight years ago. “The hospital. It was ground zero.”

  “Then you’ll need to speak with someone about personnel files twenty-eight years ago. I never followed that angle.” Regret was in the man’s brown eyes. Bailey suspected she knew the reason. “But this case—these cases—they weren’t connected then. And they weren’t high priority. There were a lot of cases that were treated that way back then. Elliot’s cleaning that up now.”

  She didn’t say anything about what Bert had told her. But she suspected Bert wasn’t the only former TSP officer included in this task force of Elliot Marshall’s.

  No doubt the man in front of her was as well. “I’ll swing by the hospital. Talk to HR.”

  “I’ll call my son-in-law, have him grease the wheels.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Bailey, watch your back on this. Because if the past is connected to that woman you found in Value, this guy is still out there. And we don’t know who he’s going to go after next. And we don’t know how many women he’s killed in between. Just...watch your back out there. I’d hate to see something happen to you.”

  Chapter 76

  Boethe Street had always been the dregs of Finley Creek. Lou took advantage of that fact now. Most of the shops and stores and apartment buildings were too damned poor and broken to have much in the way of security cameras. Not like other parts of the cities. Experts estimated people in cities were on camera dozens of times each day and didn’t know it.

  Lou had no doubt about that.

  Not on Boethe Street. But he still kept his cap low over his head and had dyed his hair brown. Just brown. Not like the gray it had been. He’d bought himself some new clothes at the secondhand store, and one of those shirts had had the name Bob stenciled on the patch.

  Lou had become Bob in that moment.

  It was easy enough to snag a fake ID from an old acquaintance he’d reconnected with at the halfway house he’d once stayed in.

  Where Bert Dillon worked.

  Lou had been filled with hope back then. Hope that he could fix things between him and his daughter. Hope that he could build a life.

  All that had been dashed with Pete Holte convincing him to help him look for that damned Dillon treasure that had been talked about in this part of Texas since the 1910s.

  Lou had had stupid dreams of giving his share of the pot to Bailey to make up for the struggles she’d faced as a child. Of her being grateful and welcoming of him in her life.

  Instead that treasure had nearly killed her.

  He had a lot of making up to do.

  So when he saw her standing next to an alley entrance with that damned sonofabitch Kevin Beck at her side, Lou stopped short.

  Lou had wished Beck dead hundreds of times over the last twenty years. Sanctimonious prick.

  He’d almost called her name. Only basic self-preservation kept him from making that stupid mistake.

  Instead, Lou slipped into the café nearby and took the only window seat. And watched her.

  Chapter 77

  The last thing he wanted to be doing right now was accompanying his older brother to Cam’s future father-in-law’s, but Murdoch had no choice. Cam had shown up at his office when Murdoch had been packing things up. In a week he was supposed to report to Garrity because it had more state-of-the-art facilities.

  Murdoch snorted at that—there wasn't state-of-the-art anything about any of the smaller TSP branches.

  Whoever was at the Garrity post—Murdoch hadn’t bothered to learn much about his new partner—had some serious pull somewhere. He’d heard through the rumor mill that she—his lip curled at the thought of partnering a woman; he wasn’t a sexist...but, well—he’d heard she was a good ten years younger than he was. He didn’t hold favor with nepotism. If her sister was the governor’s new sister-in-law, then it explained a few things.

  Cam had shown up and badgered Murdoch until he’d agreed to accompany his older brother to Value. Otherwise, Cam had threatened to drive over to Garrity and tell the new sheriff all about Murdoch. Over doughnuts.

  He could only imagine the things his brother would say. Murdoch would deal with this Garrity sheriff in his own sweet time.

  No doubt Cam had every intention of finding Celia when they were done. That was what truly had Murdoch surly today.

  He wasn’t ready to see his youngest sister yet.

  He hadn’t seen her since she’d been found. It had been twenty years since he’d lain eyes on her. He’d wanted to be there for Cam back in April when his fiancée was missing and they’d found Celia, but Murdoch hadn’t been able to. No matter that he would have wanted to.

  He’d been in the midst of a substantial drug bust spanning two counties and three days when Kyra and Cam had gotten into trouble—and had just taken a hard shot
right to his vest dangerously close to his heart.

  He’d been out of it after that hit. He hadn’t even known what was going on until two days after it had ended. When he’d woken, it had been to find out that his uncle had been the one to abduct Celia all along.

  Damn it. He should have known.

  Charlie had lied to him that night. Had comforted him after Murdoch had confessed his guilt in not going straight home like he’d been told to by his parents the night Celia had been kidnapped. She was only supposed to be alone for an hour. Murdoch was supposed to be there with her.

  Charlie had given him twenty bucks a few hours earlier for helping him repair his porch steps.

  After that, Charlie had probably driven to their home and taken his younger sister, assured that Murdoch wouldn’t be there to stop him.

  Murdoch should have known.

  Did his sister realize that?

  “We’re in luck,” his oldest brother said.

  "What do you mean?” Murdoch took a look around the small ranch. It was typical for this part of Texas, but seem to be decently prospering. The house had been recently painted. The vehicles in front were relatively new.

  “My brother-in-law’s van is there. Someone’s home. Maybe it’s Bailey. You should meet her; she’s a sweet little blond who could really sweeten up your disposition. Love to have her as a sister-in-law. I know Kyra would. She’s made noises about Bailey getting with Jake, but I think Sheriff Addy likes her, too. You should give him a run for his money. I don’t think that happens enough.”

  “Shut up, Cam. I’ve already met her. Why exactly are we here again?”

  "Because I have court tomorrow. I’m testifying in an old case I worked about six years ago. The guy who did it is up for appeal; I aim to see he stays exactly where he’s at. I’d stay with Ronnie, but her in-laws are camping with her for a few weeks. She’s not too happy at the moment. And I don't want to make more work for Becky right now. Even though having me would be a gift. So...this time the father-in-law gets me. I figured they may as well get used to me now, since I'll probably be completely irritating once my baby is born." Cam gave him a goofy grin after he said it.