by Dana Marton
Wearing a pretty blue summer dress.
Two young guys turned after her, checking her out, but she was oblivious to her admirers, just smoothed her dress down and walked inside, looking a little nervous.
Mo crossed the road and went in after her. Might as well ask her if she had any trouble last night, why the Pebble Creek sheriff was over at her place. He wanted to make sure she was okay. But as he stepped into the restaurant, he spotted the man in question getting up from a table in the back and greeting Molly with a big smile.
For a moment, Mo stood and stared.
They’re on a damned date.
Man, he felt stupid. And then he knew at once what Kenny had been doing at her place last night.
His jaw clenched, even as a perky blonde waitress hurried over to him.
She flashed a toothy smile. “How many are in your party?”
“I was just looking for someone. Thanks. They’re not here.” He turned on his heel and stalked out. The sight of the sheriff with Molly twisted his insides as if he’d swallowed poison. What the hell was wrong with him?
* * *
SAYING YES TO KENNY had been a mistake. She knew it five minutes into dinner, but at that point, it would have been inexcusably rude to get up and walk away. She appreciated all Kenny was doing for her, but whatever her grandmother had said about love growing over time, she knew at a gut level that nothing whatsoever was ever going to grow between them. Even the least spark of chemistry was completely missing.
She had more chemistry with Moses Mann, for heaven’s sake, and that man thought she was a criminal.
“I can probably find a buyer for Dylan’s truck,” Kenny was saying as they walked out of the restaurant after dinner. They’d talked more about her brother than anything else. “After the police release it.”
“That would be great.” Whatever money she got for that she would immediately put into the new mortgage on the ranch.
A pink convertible pulled up in front of the diner next to them. Four women about her age got out, laughing and teasing each other. They had matching tattoos on their shoulders, maybe some sort of a sorority symbol. They joked about their cross-country drive that sounded like a grand adventure.
They looked wild and free, and she felt a sudden pang of envy. She’d done everything possible in the past eight years not to raise any eyebrows, to become a respectable mother, someone people didn’t whisper about. She didn’t want Logan to have to struggle with that in school like she had to with her mother’s reputation back in the day.
Her wild side scared her. She’d given in to it once and ended up with the wrong man. She’d had to pay for that every day since. She’d learned her lesson. Safe was always best.
Kenny looked safe enough. He was a sheriff.
Why couldn’t she feel some attraction toward him?
He was looking her over, his interest clear in his gaze. “Wish I could drive you home.”
She was flattered. She really was. But she wasn’t interested.
“Got the pickup right here.” She stepped toward her car. “Have to go get Logan from the library.”
Kenny leaned forward, probably to kiss her on the cheek. She headed him off by lifting her hand for a quick wave and stepping back at the same time. Then she turned to search for her car keys in her purse. She didn’t look up until she found them.
“Thank you for dinner. It was really nice to catch up.” Was it too late to start pretending that the past hour and a half had been just a friendly meeting?
Kenny watched her for a second. “I’ll see you around, then. I have the night shift tonight. I’ll be driving by to make sure everything is all right out your way.”
“Thanks,” she said sincerely. Kenny wouldn’t work as a boyfriend, but she was more than grateful to have him as a friend. Maybe she could pay him back in some small measure with a basket of goodies from her garden. And by taking extra-special care of his horse. Not that she didn’t pretty much spoil all her animals rotten.
She drove over to the library, wishing once again that she had Grace to discuss her date with. Maybe Grace would talk her into trying harder. Heaven knew she was pitifully lonely these days. Somebody to share her life with would be nice.
She kept thinking about that as she drove to pick up her son, not liking at all that for some reason Moses Mann kept popping into her head.
“Look what I won, Mom!” Dylan held up a bag of books, his face radiating joy.
“I’m so proud of you. How about I take you for ice cream?”
“Ice cream!” He was hopping on one foot in excitement all the way to the car, then chatted on the drive to the ice-cream shop, filling her in on everything that had happened at the treasure hunt.
All right, so a boyfriend would have been nice, she thought, but as long as she had Logan, she was more than okay. The most important thing was that her son was happy.
They had ice cream, drove home singing to country songs on the radio, did their evening chores. After dinner, they moved on to their bedtime routine. Then she did some more work, washing glass jars, getting ready for the last of the canning. Eleven o’clock rolled by before she fell into bed, exhausted. But her rest was short-lived.
Shortly after midnight, she woke to the dogs barking outside.
Probably a coyote, she thought, fuzzy-brained. She turned onto her other side and tried to go back to sleep, but the dogs wouldn’t give up. Then she came awake enough to remember the shed and all her recent problems with people prowling her property. Her heart rate picked up as she slipped from the bed.
She left the lights off so she could look outside and not be seen. Plenty of moonlight filtered into the room to make sure that she wouldn’t trip on anything, so she shuffled to the nearest window.
The door on one of the outbuildings hung open. Had she forgotten to close the latch? No, she couldn’t have. She’d been paying extra attention to make sure everything was closed up tight.
She tried to see the dogs but couldn’t. One of them cried out, the long whine cutting through the night. She hurried downstairs and jumped into her boots. Then she stopped in her tracks when she thought about Mo’s revelation that the knife used to slash her tires had also been used in a murder.
The dog whined again. She wasn’t going to hide in here while one of her animals suffered, dammit. Who knew if Mo was even telling the truth? Could be he was just trying to scare her into spilling her brother’s supposed secrets. She grabbed one of Dylan’s rifles to be on the safe side and reached for the door, but then froze in her tracks as she put her hand on the doorknob.
She could see through the glass as a shadow, a human shadow, slipped from the outbuilding and ran around it, the dogs in close pursuit.
She opened the door and whistled for the dogs.
She had to whistle repeatedly before they came at last. She ordered them inside then locked the door and the doggie door. Then she went around to make sure all the other doors and windows were locked tight, too. And then she dialed Kenny. Shane and the Hullett police couldn’t care less about her.
The phone rang and rang, but Kenny didn’t pick up.
Her gaze fell on the card Mo left on her fridge. Okay, so it was possible he’d been right. Maybe someone was out there trying to do her harm.
Mo refused to believe that Dylan was innocent, but at least he cared about her and her son’s safety. She dialed his number.
He picked up on the first ring. “Are you okay?” he asked before she could even say her name.
She had to raise her voice to be heard over the barking dogs that were jumping on the door, wanting to be let out. “There’s someone outside.”
“Go upstairs.” His voice snapped tight. “Barricade yourself in one of the bedrooms with Logan and the dogs. I’ll be right there. You have a gun with you?”
“Yes.”
“If you need to use it, use it,” he said before he hung up.
She had to practically drag the dogs upstairs with her. They wanted to go back outside, barking their heads off.
Waking up Logan, too.
“What happened, Mom?” he asked, sleepy-eyed, as she dragged the dogs into his room and locked the door behind them.
“Probably an armadillo.”
His eyes closed. Then opened again. “Can I have pancakes for breakfast?”
“Sure. But it’s not morning yet. You go back to sleep.”
He drifted off again as the dogs jumped onto the bed and settled down around him in a protective circle.
An eternity passed before she heard a car pulling up her driveway. Which set the dogs barking again. She was pretty sure it was Mo, but since she couldn’t see the front from Logan’s room, she stayed put, hanging on to the gun.
Whoever it was didn’t try to come into the house. But soon she did see Mo going around back, walking from outbuilding to outbuilding, checking everything. For the first time, she found his bulk and the determined way he moved reassuring. And she relaxed. Which was so stupid. She shouldn’t relax around Mo. His presence shouldn’t make her feel safe.
He wanted to pin multiple murders on her brother. He was scarcely her friend. And yet, she did feel better for having him here.
He spent half an hour doing a thorough job of checking every building before he came to the back door and knocked. “It’s me.”
“Coming.” She padded downstairs to let him in. The dogs saw their chance and rushed out as soon as the door opened, this time ignoring her calls to get back inside.
He pretty much filled the doorway as he stood on the threshold, looking her over. “Are you and Logan okay?”
And there came that sense of safety again. As if everything was fine now just because he was here. She wanted to throw herself into his arms in relief. Which was an impulse beyond crazy, and very distracting.
He had to repeat his question before it finally reached her brain and she nodded.
“Did you see who it was?”
“Just a shadow.”
“One person or more?”
“I only saw one.” She reached for the kitchen light.
He put his large hand over hers. “In case somebody is out there still, let’s not give them a target.”
“You looked.”
“Around the buildings. You can pick someone off with a good rifle from a fair distance.”
Her stomach tightened at the thought. “Why would anyone want to hurt me?”
He seemed distracted. Kind of staring at her. And as she looked down, she realized she was standing in a shaft of moonlight, wearing nothing but her skimpy summer nightgown.
“Molly.” His voice was low and thick.
Her gaze flew up and met his, and she found his eyes filled with hunger.
Tension ratcheted up and up between them. And then heat. All the heat that she’d been missing with Kenny.
Chapter Four
He’d been doing commando work long enough to have a sixth sense for knowing when trouble was coming.
Molly Rogers was trouble.
And the need that pulsed through his body as he took in her curves in the lavender silk gown was the least of it.
She stepped around him to the peg board by the back door, grabbed a summer cardigan and wrapped it around herself. He only registered disappointment where he should have felt relief. He didn’t need the distraction.
He liked too many things about her. Her loyalty to her brother. Her devotion to her son. That she dealt with whatever came her way, worked the ranch, took care of everything with dignity and without complaint.
He’d asked around town about her. Found the town gossip at the diner. Mrs. Martin had called Molly “loose,” not the kind of woman a decent man would get tangled with. But when Mo went after specifics...
“So she’s in town and in and out of bars every night?” he’d asked.
“Well, no. She doesn’t really do bars,” the woman admitted with some reluctance.
“With a different man, then, every week, flaunting her boyfriends around town?”
“Not like that.”
“Men go visit her at the ranch?”
“Probably. Just like her mother. It’s in the blood. Women like her draw men to sin.”
Okay, that he could picture. She certainly inspired sinful thoughts in him.
“You know any of the men?”
“She was here with a sheriff the other day. And I’m sure there are many others.” Then came a meaningful look. “She never told anyone who her son’s father is, you know. There has to be a reason for that.”
At the end, he found out nothing new about Molly, but had felt dirtier for the gossip.
He had no trouble talking to her in the interrogation room, but he had no idea what to tell her now, in the middle of the night in her dark kitchen, with her standing there semi-naked. He wasn’t exactly a ladies’ man like some of the guys on his team.
He wanted her. He couldn’t tell her that. For one, he had no business wanting her. He was here on an op, an op that was tied to her brother, even if she was innocent like he was believing more and more with every passing day.
“I hope Logan didn’t get scared,” he said. There, her son should be a safe subject.
She looked toward the stairs. “Barely woke up. Went right back to sleep.” She turned from him and walked to the fridge. “I’m sorry for bothering you in the middle of the night. Thank you for coming out. Would you like a cold drink?”
“No bother. And a drink would be great.”
She poured him sweet tea. “Sun-made.” She filled a glass for herself then sat at the kitchen table by the window and looked out.
He followed her gaze to keep his eyes from sliding to her bare legs. On second thought... He sat across the table from her. Better have something tangible between them.
Moonlight bathed the outbuildings in a silver glow, the stars bright in the sky. With very little pollution out here in the country, every star in the whole universe seemed visible from where they were sitting.
He liked sitting with her in the night, drinking her sweet tea and looking at the stars. He liked it too much. Being with her somehow made him feel as if he’d been lonely all his life, until now. Which was ridiculous. With back-to-back ops, he’d never had time to be lonely.
He shifted in his seat and tried to focus on things he should be focusing on. “Anything you can tell me about your brother will only help.”
She drew back, her face hardening in a split second. A different kind of tension filled the air. “Who would it help? Not him. He’s dead. Killed by one of the men you work with.”
“If we had some answers, it would help you and Logan. Too many things are going on at the ranch. All the smuggling we discovered so far is not a good thing. And it might be just the tip of the iceberg.” That was as much as he could tell her.
“Dylan was not a smuggler.”
“You’re not going to be able to move on until you face the truth. And you’re not going to be safe until we figure out who his partners were and what exactly they were doing with him. They clearly want something from you. Your best chance at staying safe is if you help me take these men out of circulation.”
Her lips flattened. “The truth is, my brother was framed. And the ranch is perfectly safe. The man...was probably just some drifter. It happens.”
He looked at her for a long time. “You’re a smart woman. You’ve faced hardship before, but you made it work. You’re raising your son just fine. You’re handling the ranch...”
She cut him off. “I’m not in denial, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Dylan—”
“Dylan can’t be the bad guy.” She shook her head stubbornly. “You don’t understand. Dylan was always the perfect child in the family, the small-town football hero, then the successful businessman. I am the family goof-up.”
She had plenty of conviction in her voice to tell him she fully believed that. Apparently, she saw herself in a completely different light than he saw her.
“I get it. Your brother was a very important part of your life. When people who are supposed to care about us do bad things, it’s not an easy thing to face.”
She shot to her feet, her hand grasping the back of her chair. “What would you know about that? I’m sure you grew up in a perfect family. I’m sure your father never drank, your mother never ran off with a stranger, you never had to—” She bit her lower lip.
A long moment of silence stretched between them.
“You think I have the perfect life?” He laughed out loud at that.
But she wouldn’t give up. “You’re strong. Whatever happens, you can defend yourself. You have all kinds of power, working for whoever you’re working for. You’re not at the mercy of anyone or anything. You have everything together.”
He watched her. “And you?”
She let go of her chair and wrapped her arms around herself. “I have nothing together. I just lost my brother. People think he was a criminal. My son is getting into fights defending him. I can barely pay my bills. And strangers are coming to the ranch in the middle of the night for God knows what reason.”
She sank back into her seat. “I’m a single mother. Half the time, I’m petrified of doing something wrong, not being able to protect my son, people being mean to him because of my mistakes.” She shook her head. “I have nothing together. I’m just pretending that I do for Logan’s sake.”
They sat in the quiet of the night for a while after the confession ended, her gaze on the table. She was probably embarrassed that she’d told him all that.
He wished he knew what to say.