Less-than-Innocent Invitation

by Shirley Rogers

  Standing, Logan walked to the corner of the room and fed the tape Melissa had given him into the video recorder connected to large television. “Let’s get down to business. You’ve all heard about the incident at the museum by now?”

  “So the map hasn’t turned up yet?” Mark asked, still feeling responsible since he’d was supposed to have been guarding it.

  “No,” Gavin said. “Melissa was nearly killed and we believe it was because of the map.”

  Connor brought his chair down on all four legs. “So you don’t think Melissa was the target?”

  “No. But someone wanted the map desperately enough to kill for it. Jonathan Devlin’s murder proved that. This latest incident confirms how bold the killer is. If Logan hadn’t gotten to her when he did, Melissa could have died.”

  Just hearing Gavin state the killer’s intent caused Logan’s blood to boil. “Which means that if she wasn’t the original target, she might be one now. Whoever did this might think they were caught on tape stealing the map. Or, that possibly they were seen by her.”

  Jake swore. “Is Melissa all right?”

  Logan nodded. “She’s a little bruised, but she says she’s fine.” Pride filled him. “She’s taking the ordeal like a trooper and continuing to cover the story.” He didn’t like it, but he respected her dedication to her job. “I’m going to make damn sure nothing happens to her again.”

  A brief moment of silence followed Logan’s declaration, then Mark asked, “Do you know how the chandelier broke loose?”

  “Someone definitely tampered with the wiring and the bolts. It was rigged to drop. We haven’t determined how anyone could have gotten access to the attic to do so, but we’re still investigating,” Gavin explained.

  Logan hit the play button. The museum room appeared on the screen, the map on the podium in the center. “This is the tape from the accident. We were lucky to capture some of it. Unfortunately, where the killer comes in is blurred because the cameraman got bumped during the melee. But it’s obvious that someone comes near the podium after the chandelier fell. That individual has to be the person who stole the map.”

  The men studied the television in silence. After showing it once, Logan hit the rewind button and they viewed it a second time. “The person isn’t very tall.”

  Connor nodded in agreement. “I think it’s a woman. The figure seems too small to be a man.”

  “Logan, play it again and stop it when the image moves into view,” Jake said. As the tape started playing, he walked over to the television. “Stop.”

  Logan stopped the tape.

  Jake pointed to the slender, blurred image. “It’s a woman, for sure. Look at the head.” He circled a small section with his finger. “She has a black cap on, but her hair is in a ponytail. See here?”

  “You’re right.” Gavin’s eyes never left the screen. “The color of her hair is either light brown or blond. But I can’t make out who she is. Does anyone recognize her?”

  Mark shook his head. “She doesn’t look familiar to me.”

  “Me, either,” Logan added. “Wait.” He placed his finger against the screen. “There are letters on the cap. See? There’s an S and a C.”

  Connor frowned, then said, “That’s odd. Why would it have letters that far apart? Look here, her ponytail is between the two letters. There’s probably more beneath it.”

  “I think you’re right, Connor,” Gavin agreed. “At least we now have something to go on. We agree it’s a woman?” he asked. They all nodded. “And the letters on her black cap are an S and a C?” He rubbed his hand over his jaw. “Unfortunately her description fits about a third of the women of Royal.”

  Satisfied they’d gotten a solid lead, Logan turned off the television, then removed the tape from the recorder. “What’s happening out at the Windcroft horse farm?” he asked Gavin, referring to the trouble Nita Windcroft had been complaining about. “Anything turn up about the poisoned horse feed?”

  Gavin took a deep breath. “Nita’s confirmed that the feed didn’t come from her regular supplier. In addition to the cut fences she’s already reported, she called me this morning with another complaint. She said the air had been let out of the tires in several of her horse trailers. She’s convinced that a Devlin is behind the mischief going out there.”

  Mark sat forward. “What do you think?”

  “That she may be right, but with no actual proof, my hands are tied. We need to consider sending someone out to her horse farm to keep an eye on things.”

  “If we do,” Logan interjected, “it may look like we’re taking sides.”

  “Right. The Devlins might believe we’re already suspecting them,” Jake said.

  “Which could put fire under the feud if they’re innocent,” Connor reasoned.

  “It may be wise to hold off sending anyone anywhere until we have more to go on,” Mark suggested. “Nita should understand that.”

  “She mentioned that she’d heard that Jonathan Devlin was murdered, which only raised her suspicions that the Devlins have something to do with her problems.”

  “One of us could talk to Lucas,” Tom suggested. “That might be enough to calm her down.”

  “Good idea,” Gavin agreed. “But since you’re just getting acquainted with your family, let’s keep you out of it.”

  “I could go to see Lucas and his family and ask a few questions,” Logan offered. “I won’t suggest the Devlins are behind anything, but it would interesting to gauge their reactions to all of this.”

  Gavin nodded. “That’s a good idea. We’ll meet after you’ve talked to Lucas. In the meantime, everyone keep an eye out for a woman matching our suspect’s description. So far she’s our best lead in solving this mystery. And Logan, stay close to Melissa. We don’t know yet if she’s in danger.”

  Logan nodded, but he’d already made that decision. Someone was going to be with her whenever she was away from the ranch. Whether she liked it or not.

  Two days later Melissa sat back in her chair at WRYL’s editing facilities and smiled at Rick. “We’re done with this part of our story.”

  “The editing went faster than I anticipated,” Rick said.

  “Yes. I need to talk to the sheriff to see if he has anything more on the Devlin murder.” If something concrete didn’t turn up soon, she’d have to start digging more into Jessamine’s past. Melissa had already delved into the story about the gold heist Jessamine had engineered. In the process, Melissa had read something about Jessamine possibly being involved with a man—the town sheriff. Supposedly they’d had a love affair, but Melissa hadn’t been able to discover if it was true or what had happened between them.

  But if Jessamine had suffered a broken romance, Melissa knew how she felt. Her own heart ached at the thought of leaving Logan.

  You knew it was only an affair, her mind taunted. She’d told herself that she could enjoy being with him temporarily, that she could deal with a brief affair.

  She’d been wrong.

  Sighing, she stood. “I’m going to find Joe and thank him for giving us access to their equipment. I’ll let him know we’re finished.”

  She found Joe in his office. When he saw her at his door, he waved her inside. “Rick and I want to thank you again for the use of your facilities.”

  Joe nodded. “You’re more than welcome. Come back if you need to.”

  She and Rick had finished editing all the footage they had so far. But Gavin had promised to keep her updated on his investigation, so it was possible she’d need access to the studio again.

  She and Joe spent a few minutes chatting. He asked her about her career, and Melissa told him a little about her work. He seemed quite interested and even mentioned a documentary she’d done on battered women which had won an industry award. She was surprised he even knew about it.

  Joe stood. “I enjoyed talking with you.”

  “It’s been a pleasure.” Melissa smiled and shook Joe’s hand as she started to leave.

&
nbsp; “Look, I can’t let this opportunity go by without mentioning that I’d be interested in talking with you about working at WRYL.” He took out his card and handed it to her.

  “I don’t know, I—”

  “Oh, I know there’s less prestige working in Royal and the pay wouldn’t match what you make in Houston because we’re a smaller market, but we’d do our best to make it up in perks.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate your interest.”

  “Feel free to call me anytime,” he said, coming around his desk. He walked with her back to the editing facility. Rick appeared to be waiting for her, his camera and a couple of tapes in his hands. He handed them to her as she approached and she tucked them into her bag.

  As they left, Melissa thought about the differences between her station in Houston and this smaller one in Royal. The pace was definitely slower here. She’d had the chance to catch a couple of their newscasts and found their presentation was topnotch, their field reporters professional. The quality of her work certainly wouldn’t be jeopardized in the smaller market.

  In Houston she lived and breathed her job, rushing to assignments, racing to meet deadlines. All of that effort built her profile so that, one day, she could see herself working for a major news network. That’s what her focus in life up to now had been. And, she was on the verge of a major promotion.

  Could she even consider staying in Royal? Could she slow down her professional pace and start filling in all those pieces—home, family…love—that had been missing in her life? Could she make a commitment to Logan?

  For a moment her heart soared with the possibility of marrying him. She would be greeted by his kisses the way she’d dreamed the other day. She would love him, and he would… Her thoughts paused there. She didn’t know if Logan loved her or not. He desired her, yes. But did he love her? Was she really considering changing her career path without the certainty of a future with him?

  Because one thing was certain, for her career, it would be a move in the wrong direction.

  Eleven

  “He’s beautiful.” Melissa laughed as the young calf trotted after his mother in one of the Wild Spur’s pastures. Needing to check his stock, Logan had invited her for a tour of his ranch.

  Another week had passed. Daniel had called to ask how things were coming along. Melissa had done more research on the town of Royal than she’d ever dreamed she would. She and Rick had spent hours looking at newspapers on microfiche. Sheriff O’Neal had given her another interview, which Rick had filmed.

  Today they were both taking a day off. Sharing Logan’s love for his ranch, she was glad for the opportunity to ride along with him.

  Leaning against the split rail fence, Logan propped his foot on the bottom rail. “He’s from prime stock. His father’s a descendent in a line of champions. In the future, I’ll use that little bull to breed.”

  Logan’s future—one that didn’t include her.

  Hearing him say the word stopped her heart. She looked around at the never-ending expanse of land, felt the warmth of the sun shining down on her, heating her skin. Yet inside she suddenly was chilled.

  When she’d decided to take this assignment and return to Royal, she’d dreaded the thought of seeing him again. She’d never conceived that they would have anything other than animosity between them, let alone enter into an affair.

  Amazingly, they’d managed to work through the pain of their past. Though they’d discovered that they had been manipulated by his brother and Cara, their fragile intimacy didn’t change the stark truth of reality.

  Logan had said he loved her years ago. She’d wanted to believe it. But he’d married another woman shortly after she’d left. If he’d fallen in love with Cara so soon after she’d moved to Houston, could he have truly loved her? Needing to hear his explanation, she rested her arm on the fence. “Logan, I know we talked about this before, but I need to hear some things again…get them straight in my mind.” She took a deep breath, struggling to find the courage to speak further. Then she finally faced him. “Did you love Cara?” She braced herself for his answer.

  Ever since that night they’d confronted their past, Logan had dreaded this moment. He didn’t want to hurt her, but how could he explain why he’d fallen so easily for Cara? “When I married her I thought I did,” he answered, his voice carrying an edge of anger at Bart’s and Cara’s deception. “And that didn’t happen until six months after you’d left.”

  “Six months.” Disappointment and anger flashed through Melissa. Not long to grieve for a broken engagement with a woman he’d professed to love, a woman he’d planned to spend the rest of his life with. “Why didn’t you call me?”

  “Pride, I guess. And anger.” Bitterness mixed with regret in his tone. “I was so damn angry with you.” Hurt flickered through her eyes, and he hated being the one who caused it.

  “That doesn’t say a lot for your love for me, Logan,” she responded bluntly.

  Heat flushed Logan’s cheeks. “Your rejection stung, hitting me where I was most vulnerable.” A few moments passed before he forced himself to continue. “After my mother died, I didn’t have anyone in my life who really cared about me. Until you.”

  “And I left you.” She couldn’t ignore that she’d played a part in their bitter breakup. Young and naive, she hadn’t trusted her own instincts, her own love for Logan.

  He shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but it had. “Cara came into my life at my lowest point. To be honest, she pursued me, made me feel special. She began talking about marriage and I thought, why the hell not?”

  “It wasn’t long before I realized I’d married Cara on the rebound from loving you. I missed you and I thought I’d never feel whole again. They were all the wrong reasons for marriage. I felt awful and, as the weeks passed, I faced the fact that it wasn’t going to work between us. We got divorced within a year. She didn’t even fight it—just took her settlement and walked.” He gave a hard laugh. “Now, aware of her and Bart’s association, I know why.”

  “Somehow that makes me feel a little better.” Though she accepted that he’d fallen for another woman and had married quickly, it still hurt. But she needed to move past her resentment to heal her spirit. She knew now that she had to give him her trust.

  He expelled a harsh breath. “It makes me feel like an idiot.”

  “You weren’t an idiot. You were fooled by Cara.” She laid her hand on his arm. “We both were.”

  “And I was lonely,” he told her. “I wanted you and couldn’t have you.”

  Sadness stole over her expression as she withdrew her hand. “I wish we could go back.”

  “We can’t, though, sweetheart.” He wrapped his arms around her and tucked her head against his shoulder. She tilted her face and his gaze drifted over her, taking in the shadows in her eyes, the pain. “It took me years to get over you.”

  Melissa sighed as he held her. But he had gotten over her. He’d moved on with his life. She leaned up on her toes and kissed him. “At least we both know the truth, Logan. Though it can’t make up for the past, we’ve had this time together.”

  “You’re amazing. Only you could find something good in the tragedy of our past.” Amazing was how she felt in his arms. Logan tightened his embrace.

  Stepping back, she favored him with a smile. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”

  He chuckled. “There haven’t been many. My attempts at dating haven’t gone very well,” he admitted. “No one could take your place.”

  She blushed. “That a sweet thing to say.”

  Unable to stop himself, he asked, “What about you? Has there been someone special in your life?”

  Shaking her head, she met his gaze. “When I first started working I didn’t have time in my life for a relationship. Later, I dated someone I cared about, but he resented my work and…” Unable to tell him the whole truth, she let her words drop off.

  Because I loved you. I always will.

  Melissa turned away,
not wanting him to read her thoughts.

  Logan glanced at his watch. “We’d better get back to the house. I have a meeting with Lucas at the Devlins’ ranch.”

  She entwined her hand with his and they walked to the truck Logan used on the ranch. Old and a little beat-up, its red paint was covered in several layers of dust, but the ride out to the pasture had been smooth. “What are you going to see him about?”

  “Nita Windcroft insists the Devlins are behind some trouble she’s been having out at her horse farm. Recently she found flat tires on several of her horse trailers. She’s also had downed fences and their line shack broken into.”

  “So you’re going to see Lucas to ask him if his family is causing the problems?”

  He started driving toward the house. “Not in those words. The last thing anyone wants is to encourage trouble between the Devlins and the Windcrofts. I’m going more to see if I can shed any light on it.”

  “Great. I’ll go with you.”

  Logan gave her a sidelong glance, observed the determination written on her face. “You’re staying at the ranch, sweetheart.”

  Melissa glared at him. “Why?”

  Pulling into the yard, he stopped the truck short, his mind made up. There was no way in hell he was taking her with him. After the accident with the chandelier, he wasn’t placing her in any further danger. “Because.”

  “That’s not an answer, Logan.”

  Because I love you.

  But he couldn’t admit that. She’d already told him one relationship had failed because of jealousy over her work. He wasn’t going to make her feel guilty for making that choice.

  “Because of the accident that almost took your life,” he finally said. “Besides, if you go along, Lucas may not be as open to discussing what’s been going on at the Windcrofts’.” Logan reached across her and opened her door. “I respect what you do, Melissa, but I want you safe. I’m going to the Devlin ranch alone. With all that’s been happening, I don’t know what I’m going to be walking into.” He nodded. “I’ll be back in an hour and tell you what I learned.”