Deceptive Truth: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 4)

by Olivia Jaymes

  Even if there wasn't anyone in the house, if she went in there while he was gone he might get pissed off about it. She didn't want to give him a reason to exclude her from the investigation. She was in this for the long haul, wanting to find her sister. Nothing was going to stop her now that she had Knox on the case.

  So I'll just stand here, I guess. Feeling like an idiot.

  Jenna kept her eyes peeled in case she saw anyone suspicious running through the neighborhood but it was quiet, almost serene. If one didn't include a former law enforcement officer chasing a home intruder around the block.

  "You listened. I'm surprised."

  Whirling around, her heart in her throat, Knox was striding up the opposite side of the building. His face was sweaty and he looked mad. Very mad.

  "You mean about staying? I did, although I admit that I was tempted. What happened?"

  Bounding up the porch stairs, Knox held out his arm, gun still in his hand. "I lost him about a street over. I think he might have parked there and walked here because he seemed to just disappear."

  "It was a he? What was he doing?"

  "I actually don't know if it was a male. They were dressed in dark pants and a hoodie, with the hood up. I didn't see their face, but the figure was bulky. I'm assuming it was a male but it could have been a female wearing oversized clothing."

  "What were they doing?"

  Jenna was beginning to calm down with Knox so near, her heart rate beginning to return to normal. He seemed to have a good handle on what was happening.

  "If you look inside, you'll see. I think they were searching for something." He beckoned to her. "I'm going to go in and make sure the house is clear. Wait here for me, this won't take long. Then you can enter."

  True to his word, he wasn't gone long before returning for her. He was also correct when he said that she'd see what he was talking about. The house was a shambles. Drawers open, contents strewn all over. Couch and chair cushions cut open, the stuffing ripped out. The kitchen cabinets had been opened and their contents thrown around.

  "I'm afraid to look at the rest of the house."

  "It doesn't get any better," Knox warned. "Unless your sister is a total slob, they tore apart her bedroom and office too."

  It looked like a bomb had gone off. Repeatedly.

  The mattress was pulled off the frame and cut open. Every single drawer had been dumped onto the floor, the contents strewn around the room. She couldn't take a single clear step. The curtains had been torn down and all the clothes in the closet had been thrown out, along with dozens of pairs of shoes and purses. Lori adored buying handbags and she'd had a large collection.

  The office was no better; in fact, it was worse. Lamps had been overturned, file cabinets emptied. It appeared that every single solitary piece of paper had been thrown into the air, landing willy-nilly on the floor. It would take days to put this place back together.

  "What on earth were they looking for?" Jenna asked, picking up a lamp and setting it on the desk. "Lori wasn't a government spy, for heaven's sake. She didn't have any secrets."

  Hands on hips, Knox was scowling at the mess. "What about a diary or a journal? Did she keep one of those?"

  "I have no idea. She had a journal when we were teenagers but I don't know if she kept it up." Her gaze ran over the rubble. "Is that what you think they were looking for?"

  "Maybe. I don’t know."

  "But why now?" Jenna asked. "It doesn't make any sense. After all this time, they're just looking now?"

  "Because we're looking into Lori's disappearance. Before they didn't have any worries."

  "You sound almost happy," Jenna said with a frown. "They've just destroyed my sister's home."

  "Because we've shaken them up. Good. Now is when they'll start making mistakes. We need to keep them off balance. Keep up the pressure. They're starting to get scared after being complacent for months."

  That did sound like good news. But...

  "I'm happy but I still have a huge mess to clean up here."

  Knox peered into the open filing drawers. "You said that you and Michelle checked this place and nothing was missing, right?"

  "Yes, except for Lori's purse and phone."

  Knox rubbed the back of his neck and grimaced. "Did anything look out of place? Maybe a man's belongings? A tie or something like that? Even a coffee mug that didn't look familiar?"

  "I don't remember anything like that but I have to be honest–that's not what we were looking for. We were looking for her possessions that we knew she would never leave without." Jenna sat on the edge of the desk. "So what happens now? Do we call the police? I'm sure Detective Bauer is going to love this."

  "Maybe this will finally convince him that there is more to this case than just a young woman running away from her life," Knox replied in a grim tone, pulling his phone from his pocket. "But I doubt it. He doesn't seem the type to change his mind easily."

  Jenna had real doubts that Detective Bauer would change his tune. He wouldn't want to admit that he might have been wrong.

  They were on their own.

  Just the two of them...and whomever had ripped the townhouse apart.

  Detective Bauer had been only slightly more helpful in the afternoon than he'd been earlier. He did admit that it was a weird coincidence that Lori's townhouse was broken into and torn apart just one day into Knox's investigation, but he wasn't convinced that the two events were related.

  "Correlation doesn't equal causation," he'd said, taking notes while the other officer he'd brought along had photographed the scene. "Could just be a strange coincidence. Let's not jump to any conclusions."

  Knox, on the other hand, didn't give a shit what Detective Bauer thought. He didn't seem the type that wanted to truly work on...anything. In fact, Knox was puzzled as to why this guy was even a police officer, let alone a detective. Mysteries didn't seem to excite him, nor did doing actual investigative activities such as questioning suspects. Bauer mostly wanted Knox and Jenna to drop the subject and go away.

  Plus, Bauer wouldn't even talk to Jenna at all. He'd only speak to Knox, which was total bullshit. He might think Jenna was uptight or difficult but that wasn't an excuse for completely freezing her out of any discussion. This was her sister's home and she knew a hell of a lot more about it than Knox did. Yet, the detective still didn't want to talk to Jenna. He'd avoided her the entire time. If this wasn't an active investigation, Knox would have been quite amused by how Bauer practically raced around the townhouse trying to stay out of Jenna's orbit.

  "He's a douchebag," Jenna said when the cops were gone. "I wouldn't trust him to get my cat out of a tree."

  "He didn't seem all that engaged," Knox agreed. They were locking up the townhouse and heading back to Tom and Michelle's home. "But he did say that he'd check with the neighbors to see if they have any security camera footage."

  "I'll be shocked if he actually follows through."

  "I think he'll do it. He said he would."

  "So cops can't be assholes?"

  Knox chuckled and opened her car door. "I would imagine the percentage of assholes in cops is about the same as the percentage in the overall population. There are always going to be a few. But Bauer specifically said he was going to check for security footage so I think he actually will. I just kind of get the feeling that he doesn't love his job."

  "Did you love your job?" Jenna asked after Knox settled into the driver's seat. "Do you love it now?"

  "The quick answer is yes and yes. I didn't love every single day of being a cop but I loved the job overall. Do you love your job? Are you anxious to get back to it?"

  Tapping her chin, she considered his question. "I love parts of my job. But I have to admit that I'm not as fond of the traveling as much as I used to be. I used to think it was kind of exciting to see different states but now I would rather curl up in my own bed at night. I guess I'm just getting older."

  "So you won't sign on to another campaign?"

 
"I probably will," she admitted. "Eventually. It's what I do and I think I do it well. I have thought about going back to school to get my doctorate. Right now I'm simply concentrating on Lori. Later I can think about my own situation."

  A question had been in the back of his mind since meeting her family.

  "If you stopped traveling would you live with Tom and Michelle?"

  Laughing, she shook her head. "I can tell that you think that living with a sibling is weird. But the answer is no, I wouldn't live with them. I like having my own space and I'm mostly an introvert."

  "I can't imagine living with any of my siblings. Not even the ones I get along with. I couldn't wait to get my own place. I don't like sharing things."

  "Like the bathroom?"

  "The bathroom, the kitchen, the couch, the television. You name it, I don't want to share it. I love living alone. I can do whatever the hell I want without anyone there to tell me I'm not doing it right."

  Her brows shot up. "Wow, your family really did a number on you, didn't they? Did they often tell you that you were doing things wrong? Because they brag a lot about you being a super cop."

  She didn't even realize how loaded her question was.

  "Every damn day. Now we need to talk about next steps. Obviously, we need to talk to that Brett guy and find out where he was this afternoon. He's my top suspect for the break-in. We'll need to talk to Steve again too. I'm guessing he called his friend but I'd like for him to admit it."

  Jenna's finger tapped on the door armrest. "What about your brother Cal? You haven't talked to him yet. When are you planning to do that?"

  Soon. Knox had wanted to get as much information as possible before he did it.

  "I need to call him and schedule something but he doesn't yet know that I'm investigating Lori's disappearance."

  Jenna didn't reply but Knox wasn't an idiot. The tension between them had gone from zero to a billion in about thirty seconds. She hadn't liked his answer. He could almost physically feel the resentment radiating from her.

  "You're pissed. Care to tell me what I did this time?"

  Glancing quickly at him, she turned to stare out of the car window. "You always sound so sure of yourself. Do you ever have doubts? At all? For example, you said that Cal doesn't know that you're doing this investigation. But how can you be so certain? Didn't you talk to your brother this morning? He could have told Cal."

  Knox opened his mouth to say the Randy wouldn't do that but then snapped it shut. Because he didn't know that for sure. His brother had talked a hell of a lot about loyalty in that conversation. Fuck.

  "You're right. I'm going to have to call Randy and find out if he told Cal. If he did, then yes, I agree that Cal would also be a suspect in the break-in."

  "So you'll talk to him?"

  "I was always going to talk to him," Knox assured her. "I just wanted to have my ducks in a row before I did."

  "That's good. Ducks and rows are good."

  "I think we need to talk about you and Lori."

  Her head jerked around, her brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

  "My firm is going to be sending me Lori's financial records, credit cards and all of that sort of stuff. This is the part of the investigation where we might find out things that you wouldn't want to know normally. Things that our family and friends don't show us. It's the hard part of looking into cases like this. People have secrets, Jenna. Even nice, normal people have secrets that they don't let the world know. Maybe they sleep with a dozen stuffed animals, maybe they watch kinky porn. Maybe somewhere in between. But either way, what we find out can alter your perception of that person. Are you ready for that?"

  "You make it sound ominous. Like I'm going to find out that Lori was a secret spy for some paramilitary group."

  "You may just find out that she really, really liked Care Bears and spent hundreds of dollars every month on them, but you still need to be ready for your view of her to be changed. It would be the same if we were looking into you or me. Most people's lives look different when we dig deeply into them."

  A slow, mischievous smile spread across Jenna's face. "I wonder what your secrets are. I bet they're a doozy."

  In his opinion, he lived the most boring life on the planet. He didn't think anything he did was all that exciting.

  "I doubt you'd find them that interesting."

  "And you'll never find out my secrets either."

  It was a perfectly normal reply. Jenna hadn't said it in a mean tone or anything. She'd sounded like she was teasing, to be honest.

  But she had a point. They weren't a couple anymore and he wasn't going to be learning any of her secrets. He wasn't going to find out more about life unless it was something he learned through this investigation. She wasn't going to be telling him about her hopes and dreams. Or whether she liked Christmas more than Halloween. Did she do turkey or ham on Thanksgiving?

  And he wanted to know those things. He wanted to know more and more about Jenna with every passing day. This wasn't going how he'd planned.

  He could say that he didn't want to be her man.

  He just wasn't sure he was telling the truth.

  15

  Later in the evening, Jenna was starting to fix dinner when Knox joined her in the kitchen. He'd been holed up in his bedroom for over an hour combing through Lori's credit card statements. Jenna had wanted to help but Knox had said it was a one-person job.

  "Where are Tom and Michelle?" he asked, leaning a hip against the kitchen counter. Knox was dressed casually in jeans and a white button-down shirt. Nothing special. Yet somehow, he managed to look incredibly handsome even with his hair slightly askew. Jenna knew that it was from him scraping his fingers through his hair when he was thinking or concentrating. He probably didn't even realize he was doing it.

  His jaw was covered with a shadow of whiskers after their long day and there was a tiredness around his eyes. She was impressed with his work ethic when on a case. He'd already said he planned to stay up tonight to go through all of the files that his firm had sent. She'd offer to help again, of course. Maybe this time he'd take her up on it.

  "Tom had a business meeting tonight in Billings so he'll be home quite late. Michelle has a nasty migraine so she took some medicine and went to bed early. We're on our own for dinner."

  Leaning over the pan on the stove, Knox gave the simmering food a sniff. "If you'd let me know, I would have come down to help."

  Despite Knox's overprotective instincts, he wasn't the type that got stuck into gender roles. She liked that about him.

  Stop. I don't want to admire or like anything more about him.

  I want to find things I don't like about him.

  "It's not a big deal. I'm making some skillet lasagna. It's easy to whip up. You said you liked Italian food."

  "I do," he confirmed. "Is there anything I can help with?'

  Jenna nodded toward the refrigerator. "You can do the salad. It's just one of those bagged Caesars. When this is done, I've also got garlic bread to go in the oven for a few minutes. I need to mix up the butter and garlic."

  "I can help with that too."

  His help would be fine but that meant that he was moving around the room, often brushing up against her or accidentally making contact when reaching for a utensil or bowl. She'd never realized just how small this kitchen could be with two people in it. She, Michelle, and Lori had prepared meals a thousand times in here but she'd never been as hyperaware of another human being in her life. She could smell his body wash or aftershave, a clean citrus scent. When he reached over her head to grab a large salad bowl from the cabinet, she could even feel the heat of his body.

  I am such a wuss.

  She was weak and it was pathetic. He was only a man. Yet, he had her practically following him around with her tongue hanging out. She'd never cared like this before. She'd gone much longer without sex and it hadn't fazed her in the least. Hell, when she was working on a campaign, she might go months. It had never been a
big deal but tonight this man had her literally sweating.

  "I can do this."

  Now she sounded frustrated and pissed off. Which she was. But she didn't want Knox to know that he had her tied in knots. He didn't look like he was even aware that she was in the same room.

  Asshole.

  Knox paused tossing the salad, his expression perplexed. "You don't want me to help?"

  She couldn't explain it. Not to him.

  "You can help," she finally said with a sigh. "But you don't have to if you don't want to."

  "I want to."

  She placed the lid on the skillet and set the timer for twenty minutes so the broken lasagna noodles could soften in the meat sauce. The kitchen was filled with the delicious aromas of tomatoes, garlic, and oregano. She adored Italian food and this was one of her favorites. They'd have leftovers for sure. If Michelle got hungry in the middle of the night, she could have some or they could eat it for lunch the next day.

  Determined to ignore Knox, she retrieved the cheeses she needed from the refrigerator and set them on the counter. She grabbed a large spoon from the drawer and then opened the cabinet next to the stove for a bowl. The size she needed was on the top shelf and she stretched her arm up, going up on her tiptoes but she was still a few inches too short. She'd need a step stool. Before she could move, another arm came over hers, his big body pressed up against her back.

  "Let me get that for you."

  His voice was close to her ear, his breath tickling her cheek. She accepted the bowl that he held out, their hands brushing together. Her skin tingled where they had touched, her heart pounding against her ribs. She was surprised that he couldn't hear its deafening noise.

  She'd turned around to face him, her gaze level with his shoulders before wandering up to his face. He was looking down at her, watching intently, scanning her for...what? She didn't know what he was looking for. She didn't even know what she was looking for.