“I can’t believe you don’t like my beard,” he teased, catching my eye in the mirror. “I have it on good authority that women like scruffy-looking men.”
I returned his smile. “I like it when you have stubble in the morning. That’s sexy. But you look like one of the guys from Duck Dynasty. That’s the opposite of sexy.”
Landon rolled his eyes. “I don’t look like one of the guys from Duck Dynasty.”
“You know what? Even if I had no choice but to live with the beard forever I’d find a way to live with it. That’s how much I love you.”
Landon’s expression softened. “Right back at you.” He dropped a kiss on my upturned mouth before wiping away the stray shaving cream that landed on my chin. “I know you don’t mean that over the long haul, though. You’d wear me down on the beard.”
“I’m just glad it’s going away.”
Landon smirked. “Give me five minutes.”
I dressed in simple jeans and a T-shirt – Chief Terry didn’t get fancy when packing for me, and I was thankful for that – and my hair was still wet when I returned to the bedroom. I spent five minutes running my fingers over Landon’s smooth face, “oohing” and “aahing” about how handsome he was before reluctantly tearing myself away from him. I was keen to spend time with that freshly-shaven face, but I was absolutely starving.
I pulled up short when I realized we were no longer alone, my mother and Aunt Tillie holding trays in the open doorway.
“What … ?”
“Good morning.” Mom’s tone was warm and friendly, and she managed to muster a smile for Landon as he walked into the room behind me. “You look much better without the beard.”
“So I’ve been told.” Landon arched an eyebrow as he stared at the trays. “What’s that?”
“Breakfast.”
“Really?” My stomach growled as I shifted closer. “Is there poison in it? Did you hear what happened last night?”
Mom made a face as she carried the tray to the small table at the edge of the room. “Like I would poison my own food. I don’t spend hours a day slaving over the stove so I can poison you.”
“That wasn’t really an answer to my question.” I sat in the chair, doing my best to keep from groaning at the pain, and then sighed when I lifted the cover from the plate. “You made me an omelet.”
“It’s your favorite.” Mom’s smile was gentle. “Ham. Onions. Mushrooms. Tomatoes. There’s also hash browns and fresh toast. Do you want coffee or juice? I can bring up either.”
“You don’t have to wait on me,” I said, grabbing the napkin from the tray. “I’m starving. We were on our way down. We had no idea how long we slept.”
Landon accepted the tray from Aunt Tillie, giving her a dubious look as he sat down across from me. “Did you spit in it?”
“I wanted to, but Winnie wouldn’t stop watching me,” Aunt Tillie replied, moving to the bed and flopping down at the end. “I’m not rolling in sex cooties, am I?”
Landon shot her a dirty look as he lifted the cover on his plate, the corners of his mouth tipping up when he saw the French toast. It was offset by a huge mound of bacon. “I can’t believe you did this given … well … given everything.”
“I happen to believe most of this isn’t your fault,” Mom said.
“Thank you.”
“That doesn’t mean a lot of this isn’t your fault,” Mom pointed out. “Terry came for breakfast. He told us most of it, by the way. He’s not happy.”
“I figured that out myself last night.” Landon bit into a slice of bacon and moaned. “Oh, it’s as good as I remember.”
“What? You didn’t have bacon when you were undercover?” I asked, cutting into my omelet with gusto. “I’m so hungry I could eat your bacon.”
Landon flipped several slices of bacon from his plate to mine. “Eat up. You need your strength. As for having bacon while I was away, I used it as a psychological tool. I thought I would get things in order faster if I didn’t have my two favorite things in the world.”
“What else didn’t you have beside bacon?” I asked, genuinely curious.
Landon answered without hesitation. “You.”
“Oh, that’s kind of sweet.” Mom cuffed the back of Landon’s head. “You’re still an idiot. I can’t believe you didn’t call after running into Aunt Tillie and Bay at that corn maze.”
“Yes, my idiocy has been well established,” Landon noted. “I’m prepared to grovel for the rest of my life to make up for it.”
“That’s well and good for Bay, but I might need something more,” Aunt Tillie said. “I’ll make a list for when things are back to normal. For now we have to focus on the dead person.”
“Becky,” I supplied. “It was the woman we met at the maze that day.”
“Yeah, that’s what Terry said.” Aunt Tillie looked serious. “How does your case stand now?”
“I thought it was done,” Landon replied. “I gave the information I gathered to my superiors. The Prosecutor’s Office issued warrants for various arrests. I was not around for those arrests because I headed straight here the moment I was free.”
“So, as far as you know, everyone should’ve been in custody,” I mused.
“Yes, except Becky clearly wasn’t in custody, and neither was the person who killed her,” Landon supplied. “I need to find out what’s going on. We can’t move forward until we see where we stand.”
“And then what?” I asked, my stomach flipping as something occurred to me. “What happens if I’m arrested for murder and go to jail?”
“That won’t happen,” Landon replied, his tone gruff. “I won’t let it happen.”
“I won’t either,” Aunt Tillie offered. “I’ve already got a plan ready to get you out of the country. Don’t worry about it.”
Landon shot her a warning look. “Don’t be cute.”
“Who’s being cute?” Aunt Tillie challenged. “If you think I’m letting one of my girls go to prison for something she didn’t do – heck, I wouldn’t let it happen for something she did do – then you’re crazy. I won’t simply sit back and let someone hurt Bay.”
“Then you can join my club,” Landon suggested, handing me another slice of bacon as he kept his eyes on Aunt Tillie’s serious face. “I won’t let anyone hurt her, either. I promise.”
Aunt Tillie wasn’t ready to back down. “What if you can’t stop it?”
“Then I’ll be with her when you get her out of the country,” Landon replied. “I won’t let Bay pay for something she didn’t do, and I won’t live without her. For now, though, we’re nowhere near that point of no return. We have to find out what’s going on and then adjust our planning from there. Can you live with that?”
Aunt Tillie’s face was hard to read as she perched on the end of the bed and blinked. Finally she was stirred to movement. “I can live with it for the time being, but I can’t promise what will happen down the line. If I feel this thing is going in a direction I don’t like, I’ll start handling things myself.”
“That’s a terrifying thought,” Landon muttered. “I won’t let anyone take Bay from this family. More importantly, I won’t let anyone take her from me.”
“How is that more important?” Mom asked, confused.
“Because I love her more than anything,” Landon answered, refusing to back down. “We’re going to figure this out. I need everyone to work as a team to do it. Okay?”
Aunt Tillie furrowed her brow. “Okay, but I’m still going to curse the dickens out of you when this is over. You hurt her feelings.”
“I know, and I’m sorry.” Landon flashed me a reassuring smile. “She’s going to punish me later, too.”
“Oh, please,” Aunt Tillie scoffed. “Kisses aren’t punishment. You’ll be crying when I’m done with you.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“You won’t be when I’m done. I can promise you that.”
Eleven
“Where is your coat?”
Landon looked me over once we hit the front lobby after finishing breakfast. He placed a call to his boss while I talked things over with my mother and aunts in the kitchen before rejoining him. I thought for sure he’d put up a fight when I said I wanted to go with him – wherever he planned to start the investigation – but he opted for the opposite tack.
“I … don’t know.” That was a good question. I racked my brain about the night before and frowned. “Someone took it.”
“What do you mean?” Landon was confused. “You were wearing it when I dropped you off at the guesthouse.”
“And I was wearing it when I got attacked,” I said. “I wasn’t wearing it when I woke up. I didn’t take it off so … maybe it’s in the guesthouse. Chief Terry probably didn’t think to grab it. I can borrow a hoodie from Aunt Tillie. She has a bunch of them.”
“I’m fine with that – although try to grab something that won’t draw too much attention when we’re questioning people at the corn maze. I don’t understand how someone got your hoodie off while you were unconscious.”
That was a good point. “Maybe they wanted it for something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.” I ran my hand over the back of my neck. In the bright light of day my neck and head hurt the most, although my hip didn’t feel great either. “I didn’t even notice it was missing until you asked about it.”
Landon absentmindedly moved my fingers from my neck so he could rub the area. “I don’t like that. It’s weird. Call Chief Terry and ask him if he saw your hoodie inside the guesthouse. I’d like to go over there and check out the scene myself, but I don’t want to run into the state troopers. I’m guessing they’re over there again today.”
“Why don’t you call him? And that feels really good.”
Landon smirked, although the expression hung around for only a few seconds. “Chief Terry isn’t accepting calls from me right now. I think he’s angry.”
“Why? You didn’t choke me.”
“No, but I left you to walk into that guesthouse alone and this is happening because of me,” Landon pointed out. “He’s angry, and he has a right to be. You’re his favorite, after all. I’ll talk to him when I get a chance.”
“I’ll call him on the way. Let me grab a hoodie from Aunt Tillie and we’ll get going.”
“That sounds like a plan.”
LANDON DROVE by the guesthouse on our way out, his eyes narrowing as he studied the cars in front of the structure. He didn’t look happy, but refrained from commenting.
“Chief Terry has no idea what happened to my hoodie. He doesn’t think it was inside when he packed for me,” I volunteered once I disconnected the call. “He’s definitely angry with you.”
Landon didn’t look surprised at the tidbit. “What did he say?”
“That he’s worried about what happened to my hoodie, the same as you.”
“Not that.” Landon made an exasperated face. “What did he say about me? Wait … don’t tell me. No, I want to know. Tell me.”
“He didn’t say much.” I averted my gaze and stared out the window as Landon pulled on to the highway. “It’s not important. He’ll get over it.”
“You’re a terrible liar. You know that, right?”
“It’s not a lie.” Technically it wasn’t. Chief Terry said very little about Landon. His tone was a different story. I could feel the fury over the call, and he wasn’t happy when I mentioned that Landon and I planned to spend the day investigating. I decided to change the subject. “What did Steve say?”
“He said the entire thing is a mess and he doesn’t know how Becky evaded arrest,” Landon replied, apparently opting to let the Chief Terry kerfuffle go for the time being. “They had eyes on her before serving the warrants, but when they entered her place she was gone.”
“Did anyone else evade arrest?”
“Doug.”
“It’s him.” I was certain. “I told you it was him.”
“Yes, well, I would like a little more proof before settling on him as the only suspect.” Landon reached across the center console in his Explorer and gathered my hand. “If he ran, there’s no telling where he’ll end up. Part of me hopes he’s already left the area.”
“And the other part?”
“I hope he’s close, because I’m going to beat the living snot out of him if he touched you.”
Landon sounded so bloodthirsty my mouth went a bit dry. “I’m okay,” I reminded him. “I’m right here.”
“No thanks to me.”
“Oh, geez.” I rubbed my forehead as I leaned back in the seat, being careful to keep the hard seatback from pressing against the knot on my head. “Are you going to go into martyr mode? If so, I’m really not in the mood.”
“I’m not being a martyr.”
“That’s exactly what you’re being,” I countered, refusing to back down. “You were doing your job. Things got out of hand.”
“And you’re paying the price. That’s on me.”
“Oh, yeah? How many times have things gotten out of hand with my family? How many times have you covered for us? How many times have you paid the price for something I did?”
“I … .” Landon broke off, uncertain how to answer. “I don’t think that’s even remotely the same thing,” he said after a beat. “I brought someone to your door who almost killed you.”
“And you’ve been shot protecting me.”
“I was doing my job.”
“And you’ve risked yourself to save me other times,” I reminded him. “You’ve jumped off tankers with me because we were being chased by mean ghosts. You’ve saved me more times than I can count. Should we keep a running tally to make sure things are equal?”
“I hate it when you use that tone,” Landon muttered, refusing to meet my gaze.
“And I hate it when you use that tone,” I shot back. “We can’t go back in time and change what happened. We can only move forward … if you want to move forward, I mean. You acted like an ass when you didn’t call me, but I don’t believe you did it out of malice. That’s what I’m angry about, by the way. I’m not angry because the people from your undercover operation came after me.”
“Which shows you have skewed priorities.” Landon lifted an eyebrow as his eyes drifted to me. “Bay, the fact that you got hurt because of me makes me sick.”
“And the fact that you didn’t bother to call after we ran into each other at the corn maze makes me sick,” I shot back. “The thing is, I’ve decided to let it go. You made a mistake. You apologized. I’m going to make you into my personal masseuse for at least the next month. I’m pretty sure things worked out in my favor.”
“Except for the pesky fact that you’re now a murder suspect.”
“Yes, well, that bites the big one, but there’s nothing we can do about that until we delve further into this investigation,” I conceded. “You blamed yourself for a long time after I fell off the horse even though it had nothing to do with you. That drove me crazy. This has the potential to drive me even crazier. Do you want to drive me crazy?”
Even though I could tell he was determined to remain serious, I didn’t miss the way Landon’s lips quirked. “I’m pretty sure you’re already crazy. In case you’ve forgotten, when I found you on the street yesterday, you and your cousins were using a magic ball of light to find me … even though I could’ve been in the middle of a very dangerous situation.”
“And up until now you’ve wisely pretended that didn’t happen.”
“Wisely?”
I nodded. “That’s my freebie. I went crazy and it ended before something terrible happened. You can’t bring it up again. It’s not fair.”
“Ah! Well, what can I bring up again?”
“How much you love me is always a crowd pleaser.”
Landon choked out a laugh as he rolled his eyes. “I would complain about the way you look at the world, but I’m so relieved to have you sitting next to me that I can’t do it.�
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“See, it’s my freebie.”
“I guess it is.” Landon squeezed my hand. “I’m going to make all of this up to you. I promise.”
“You don’t have to make up for anything other than the fact that you made me crazy when you didn’t call. You didn’t do this, Landon. You didn’t kill that woman and dump her on my walkway. You didn’t choke me. You didn’t steal my hoodie.”
“Yeah, I’m still agitated about that,” Landon muttered. “For now, we’re going to table the guilt discussion. Once this is all settled, though, I’ll want you to punish me severely.”
“You make it sound dirty.”
“If you can manage to make the punishment dirty, it will be an added bonus.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
LANDON WAS out of the Explorer and opening my door to help me out of the vehicle before I had time to register his movement. He extended a hand, putting his other on the small of my back to make sure I didn’t jolt myself when I hit the ground.
“Since when are you so gallant?”
“What?” Landon cocked an eyebrow as he met my gaze. “What do you mean?”
“I’m kind of sore, but I’m more than capable of getting out of the truck without help.”
“Have you ever considered I’m a gallant guy?” Landon challenged.
“More often than you’re probably comfortable with,” I replied. “Still, I won’t break.”
“Bay, I just spent a month away from you, came home to a big fight and then found out you were choked and someone is trying to frame you for murder,” Landon argued. “If I want to help you out of the truck, I’m going to help you out of the truck.”
The admission squeezed my heart, mostly because he was so earnest. “You’re going to want to rub my back later, just for the record.”
Landon smiled as he shut the door and linked his fingers with mine. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
I fell into step with him, letting him lead me toward the barn. He seemed to have a specific destination in mind. “How often were you here while you were undercover?”
[A Wicked Witches of the Midwest 10.0] Murder Most Witchy Page 11