That was close to what they had been told already. Wes and Charlotte’s marriage was on a collision course with divorce.
“I also questioned some of Wes’s workers and none could say they saw Wes or knew where he was during that time frame,” the sheriff said.
“He let you?” Skylar asked.
“He didn’t seem to like the idea but he didn’t try to stop me. I didn’t get a sense that he was trying to hide anything. He seemed more reluctant to have his personal affairs aired. He’s not a very public man.”
Though Julien agreed, he could see Skylar resist any notion that Wes hadn’t done something terrible to his wife. Julien didn’t have a definitive opinion either way. Not yet. Sheriff McKenzie was well on board with them on this case. It was good to know they had him as a resource. Julien could skirt the rules only so far, although he was willing if it meant saving a life.
A fleeting thought of Sawyer came to mind. How was he doing? The boy had not called.
After the call ended, he looked over at Skylar.
“I still think he killed her,” she said.
Damn if he didn’t love her bluntness. Her spirited nature. “I know you do. We will find out what happened to her.”
Her mouth curved and her eyes warmed. He needed no words for her to convey her gratitude.
He patted the couch cushion. “Come here. You’re too far away.”
She eyed him a moment but then scooted closer. “Why do you want me closer?”
He put his arm around her and slid her right up against him. “I just do. I can’t explain it.”
“I can’t explain why I like it, either.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “I suppose, since I’m going to be staying here, I could start on decorating your house.”
“Yes. You could.”
“That will keep me occupied and distracted from you.” Lifting her head, she smiled up at him.
“Yes, but I won’t be distracted.” He’d be there watching her. Wanting her.
As they met each other’s eyes, Skylar’s smile faded. That magical heat flared and he instantly needed to kiss her. Her gaze fell to his mouth, too.
He leaned in and touched her lips with his, light and feathery at first then, loving the taste of them, he angled his mouth over hers, going deeper and wondering if this would be the time they made it to the bedroom. More and more, he yearned to know if they’d be as good in there as they were at kissing.
Skylar began unbuttoning his shirt and he reached for her top, lifting it up and over her head. Then she moved to straddle him, looping her arms around his shoulders. He felt her breasts against him.
He slid his fingers into her hair at the back of her head and drew her to him, kissing her with all the passion burning in him. She met him with equal fervor. When Julien could take no more without going to the next level, Skylar pulled back.
He looked into her feverish eyes and watched her struggle to regain control. Oh, no. She was going to stop this again.
“What if we just did this to see what happens?” she asked breathlessly.
Had he heard her correctly? She contemplated having sex with him. “I don’t think we can avoid it.” And he truly believed that. Their attraction was too strong.
“But if we do...there will be no erasing it.”
If the sex was as good as he suspected it would be, they would either be headed for a very serious relationship or would deal with a difficult decision. Would they walk away? “No. But if we don’t, we will never know if what we have going is as good as it seems.”
“We might not be able to stop,” she said, sounding apprehensive.
“Is that a bad thing?” he asked.
She took her lower lip between her teeth as she decided, making him yearn to carry her off to his bed.
“I vote for seeing where this goes,” he said, bringing her head back to his and kissing her.
He knew her vote when she cupped his face and lowered her head to kiss him, holding him while their tongues danced.
As fate would have it, his cell rang at that moment.
Breaking away from the kiss, he looked at Skylar, feeling her asking the same question he posed to himself. Should he answer?
He leaned to see his phone on the coffee table. It was the social worker.
“It’s Tracy Compton,” he said.
Skylar climbed off him, reaching for her shirt as he answered.
“Mr. LaCroix, I’m going to visit Sawyer and he said he would like you to be there, as well. It’s all cleared with his parents. Maybe you can get him to open up about his living situation.”
Or maybe Sawyer was ready to talk. “I’ll have to bring Skylar. Is that all right?”
“Yes, as long as she doesn’t interfere.”
“Great.” They arranged to meet at the deli where Julien had already planned to take Skylar.
When he disconnected, he saw Skylar had put her top back on. It was just as well. They had an appointment in an hour. He preferred to have all the time he needed to savor every inch of her.
* * *
At Nettie’s Café, Skylar slid in beside Julien on the booth seat, across from Tracy and Sawyer. She didn’t see any marks on the boy, though he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt with a high neckline.
“It’s good to see you again,” Julien said to him.
“It’s good to see you, too,” Sawyer responded.
“How are things at home?” Tracy asked.
“Good.” Sawyer lowered his gaze to his glass of soda. “My parents are being nice to me.”
Because they had to, Skyler thought. But how long would that last? For as long as Child Protective Services was involved, no doubt.
“But they’ve not been nice in the past, right?” Julien asked.
Sawyer looked at him. “They were okay.”
“It’s normal for parents to discipline you when you do things that are wrong, Sawyer,” Tracy said, “but not to physically or mentally hurt you.”
Again the boy averted his gaze.
“I won’t let your parents hurt you, Sawyer,” Julien said.
“You can come stay with us until Tracy finds you a good family. If it is okay with the case worker, of course,” Skylar said, surprising herself. She felt sure she wanted that for this boy—and for Julien. She knew how much he cared about him and Skylar would help if she could.
“Thanks. I liked it at your house,” Sawyer said then looked at Julien. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to thank you for getting me from my uncle’s house. I didn’t see it then, but I do now. He isn’t a kid person.”
Skylar hadn’t felt like a kid person before she’d met Julien, but for some weird reason, he was changing that.
“You’re welcome,” Julien said. “The door is always open for you.”
Sawyer smiled and looked from him to Skylar. “If I didn’t have my parents, I’d want you to be mine.”
Julien smiled. “Skylar and I aren’t together that way.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No. I’m a private investigator, working on a case that involves her,” Julien said.
Skylar couldn’t tell if he was so insistent to ease her mind or Sawyer’s.
“You act like you’re married,” Sawyer said.
Did they? Skylar glanced at Julien, who met her eyes.
“The way you talk to each other and look at each other reminds me of my best friend’s parents. They’re always talking nice to each other and kissing and touching.”
Skylar had to take a moment to absorb that insight. Was that how she was reacting to Julien? She recognized how he heated her blood with just a kiss or a look, but she couldn’t recall an instance of that happening in front of Sawyer. It had to be something different. Maybe their tone of voice or body language? She supposed she wasn’t conscious
of the way she looked at him all the time.
“Your parents don’t have that?” Tracy asked.
Sawyer slowly turned to her, clearly realizing what he had opened up. “No.”
At least he was honest.
“You said they fight,” Tracy said. “How often is that?”
“Not often.” Sawyer abruptly stood. “I just wanted to thank them. I have, and now I want to go home.”
He was so defensive with questions about his parents. Skylar had a knot in her stomach. She was sure Sawyer’s parents had mistreated him and saw no reason why they would suddenly change their behavior.
“Do you still have my card?” Julien asked.
“Yeah,” Sawyer said grumpily, then turned and walked toward the exit.
Tracy didn’t force him to come back. She stood, as well, looking from Skylar to Julien. “I’m sorry for dragging you all the way here. This isn’t how I planned it to go.” She grabbed her purse. “Well, unfortunately, I’m going to be forced to close this case. Without any evidence, we can’t remove him from the home.”
Skylar was afraid of that. Something terrible would have to happen and Sawyer would be the one to suffer the most.
After Tracy went after Sawyer, she spent a few seconds lingering on those thoughts. Then she picked up the menu. “Well, we’re here. We might as well grab something to eat.”
Julien picked up his menu. “You might consider that Sawyer may feel it would be worse for him to be removed from the house than to stay,” she said, playing devil’s advocate. In truth, every part of her suspected Sawyer was living a child’s nightmare.
“Yeah,” Julien said after a while, sounding reluctant.
The waitress arrived and took their orders. Skylar drank some water and caught Julien looking at her. His expression had changed from the somber one his worry had conjured to something much warmer.
Skylar felt herself shying away from that. She recalled their kisses earlier. She had lost control. Now she needed to set some boundaries.
“About before...” she began.
“Tracy’s timing was awful,” he said with a grin that promised more of what Tracy had interrupted.
“Julien, it would be a mistake if we had sex.” She had to blurt it out. He had to know they were setting themselves up for disaster if they gave in to their mind-numbing temptation.
“You didn’t think that when you got on top of me,” he said in a low voice, leaning forward as he talked.
She sent him a wry look, unable to resist his frankness. She liked it.
“You have to know that whatever we have is overpowering,” she said, her flirtation coming out in her tone automatically. This was exactly why she had climbed on top of him.
His grin renewed. “Yes.”
“And that it’s just sexual,” she said.
“Maybe.”
How could he say maybe? They didn’t know each other well.
With her continued silence, he said, “I like you and we get along just fine when we aren’t kissing. It’s not just when our defenses fail and this red-hot chemistry takes over.”
He thought they got along well? She supposed they did. No, she knew they did. She just didn’t want to acknowledge that. A scared feeling nipped at her.
“I’ve spent my entire life on River Rock Ranch,” she said. “Ranching is what I know. City living is alien to me.” Why did she sound as though she were trying to persuade herself instead of Julien? When he didn’t respond, clearly just letting her think out loud, she went on. “Your apartment doesn’t feel like home to me.”
“Then make it feel like home.”
What was he saying? Why would he want her to make his apartment feel like her home? Because he planned to see where this led? Because he intended to get her into bed?
“I won’t be put in a position where I have to choose between my ranch and you, Julien. We would both have to be crazy to let this run its course.”
“Crazy? Or brave?” he asked.
“All right. Say we do have an affair. What if we fall in love?”
She saw him nearly flinch at that. His eyes blinked and he moved back a fraction, as though he hadn’t thought of that possibility yet.
“What if we can’t stand the idea of living apart?” she asked, pressing him further.
He had no answer. He just looked at her, dumbfounded, and her heart sank.
How many people had this much bad luck? Someone was trying to kill her and it appeared she had found the perfect man she couldn’t have.
Chapter 10
Shawn refused to talk to Julien, but his girlfriend, Felicia, worked at Maxine’s in Waldon. Julien took Skylar with him, of course. She had spent the morning picking out items for his apartment. She had also been on the phone numerous times with the temporary ranch manager. He was doing fine, but she was micromanaging. He hoped she would learn to let go. If she did, maybe she’d be more open to living somewhere other than her family ranch. He couldn’t help thinking that she needed to experience life away from it before she could truly decide if that was where she wanted to spend the rest of her life.
He also had to deliberately caution himself not to get too sold on that idea. Ranching was in her blood. She loved what she did at River Rock Ranch. The remarkable chemistry they had made it worth his time and effort to convince her there were other options. She didn’t have to completely give up the ranch, for one thing. It belonged to her family. It wasn’t going anywhere.
As for having a family, he didn’t trust her to come around in that regard. And it was so important to him. He really did want a family. After the crushing disappointment with Renee, he feared being wrong again. But if he didn’t push Skylar, he was afraid she’d go back to her everyday routine at the ranch and try to forget him. Would she be able to? Even after the short period of time they had been together, Julien would never forget her. And if things fell apart because Skylar refused to compromise, he would always wonder what-if.
He held the door of Maxine’s for her, then approached the young man standing at the cash register, finishing up checking out a patron. There were only two tables occupied.
“Have a seat anywhere,” the young man said.
Julien explained who he was and asked if Felicia Montague still worked there.
“No, she quit a couple of weeks ago.”
That was around the time Skylar had seen the man digging. “Did she say where she was going?”
“She said she was moving back in with her mother. Apparently they were estranged for several years and patched things up.”
“Where does her mother live?”
“I didn’t ask. She sort of left me in a lurch. No notice. Just quit.” The young man must be the general manager.
“Did you know her boyfriend, Shawn Bellarmine?” Julien asked.
“No. I didn’t know she had a boyfriend. I don’t ask about my employee’s personal lives.”
“Why are you asking about Felicia?” a woman asked from behind them.
Julien turned with Skylar to see a woman approach, carrying a pot of coffee, having just filled the patrons’ cups.
“We’re following up on a missing person case.” Julien didn’t think it was necessary to go into much detail.
“Felicia is missing?”
“That’s what we need to find out. How well do you know her?”
“Not well. I mean, we talked at work, but we never hung out together,” the blonde woman said.
“Did she ever mention her boyfriend?” Skylar asked.
“Shawn? Yeah. She talked about him a lot. He was a jerk. In fact, that’s the main reason she left town.”
“Why was he the main reason?” Julien asked.
“He was a control freak. He would get mad every time she did things with her friends. He made her take this job because she wouldn’
t have to work nights. He was a piece of work.”
“Did he ever harm her in any way?”
“No. He was just temperamental. She liked him when he wasn’t going berserk, but it got to the point where she couldn’t take it anymore. Besides, her mom contacted her and wanted her to move back home. They drifted apart when Felicia graduated from high school. Her mom didn’t like the guy she was with—the one before Shawn. I guess Felicia realized her mom was right. She didn’t exactly choose the good ones, you know?”
“Where does her mother live? And do you know her name?”
“Santa Fe, New Mexico. I don’t know her mom’s name, sorry.”
Julien thanked both the manager and the waitress and he and Skylar left.
He had a feeling something was on her mind and was proved right when she stepped outside and said, “I don’t think Shawn would plant a bomb in my truck. And the attacks on me and the bomb have to be the work of the same person.”
“Felicia left around the same time you saw the digger,” Julien pointed out.
“That has to be a coincidence. Besides, Felicia moved in with her mother. She isn’t missing.”
Julien didn’t have a strong feeling Shawn was the bomb planter, either, but he had to confirm Felicia was all right. He called DAI and asked one of their professional trackers to find Felicia’s mother.
“As long as we’re out and about, let’s go talk to the lawyer.” Julien opened the door of his BMW for her.
“Okay.” She got in and he drove them there.
* * *
Benson Davett had an office in a high-rise building in Dallas. Sparsely but modernly decorated, it gave the appearance of swank, as one might expect in a lawyer’s office. And since the name of the firm was Davett and McDermott, he was also a partner. A successful attorney could have a lot to lose if he killed his wife, Julien told himself.
Benson stood from behind his desk, leaning over with an offered hand. “My assistant says you two are private investigators.” He had a somewhat loud voice and a commanding presence, with short dark hair and direct brown eyes.
Her P.I. Protector Page 11