“Beth looked the way every bride-to-be should look. Radiant with no cloud in her sky.”
She felt his glance. “You said that with a degree of sadness.” Cy was already picking up on her dark thoughts.
“I didn’t realize it was that obvious.” She changed the subject and they talked about the different relatives and friends she’d met at the party. They kept the tone light, but once they’d reached her town house and had gone inside, he shut the door and put his hands on her shoulders from behind.
“Tell me what was eating at you during the ride home,” he murmured against the side of her neck.
This was going to be the hard part. She moved away, forcing him to drop his hands. “Before we talk, I want you to read the draft I’ve written for the blog. And after that I’d like your opinion on what we should give to the newspaper. The Statesman and the Chronicle have been asking for an article. My laptop is upstairs. I’ll bring it down and we can work at the table.”
She tossed her clutch on the couch and rushed away, praying he wouldn’t try to stop her. When she’d told herself she could quit Cy cold turkey, that was before she realized she was madly in love with him. This was the kind of love that would never go away, not in a millennium.
* * *
CY REMOVED HIS suit jacket and tie. He hung them over the back of one of the kitchen chairs before sitting down in another one. This place had been like home to him for a week. Now he was a guest.
While he waited for her, he pulled out his phone. There were messages from the guys, but those could wait. He listened to the one from the captain. “Call me on my private line ASAP. I have some news on the Ravelo case.”
Since Kellie hadn’t come down yet, he phoned his boss. “TJ?”
“I’m glad you called, Cy. There was a homicide over in East Austin tonight around ten. It turns out someone shot one of the hostages taken by Ravelo during the robbery two years ago. His name is listed in the file as Jorge Montoya. Go over to the morgue and see what the autopsy revealed before you come into work in the morning.”
Kellie walked in the kitchen while they were talking and put her laptop on the table. He stood up and turned his back to her while he finished the conversation.
“I’ve been studying the case. Maybe Montoya was in on the robbery with Ravelo. But when he didn’t get his cut of the take, he gunned for Ravelo and got liquidated by a hit man or Ravelo himself. I’ll find out when I’m down in Brownsville.”
“Trust you to come up with a better possibility than anything the police have been able to figure out.”
“It’s a guess.”
“Nine times out of ten your guesses beat the hell out of everyon
e else’s.”
“Don’t I wish. Good night, TJ.”
When he hung up and turned around, Kellie had taken a seat at the table. “I’m sorry if I intruded on a private conversation.”
He bristled. “You could never intrude. The captain and I were going over a new case.”
“So I gathered.” She averted her eyes and opened her laptop. “Take a look at what I wrote the other night. Tell me what needs to be added or deleted.” She was all business.
Cy moved it around so he could read it. The sooner they got this out of the way, the sooner he could find out what was causing her to pull away from him. At the park before the party, she hadn’t hidden anything from him. The old saying that he thought he’d died and gone to heaven had summed it up best. After that, how could she change so fast from the warm, loving woman he was crazy about to someone he didn’t recognize?
To all my fans—If you haven’t watched the news, then you may not know that I’ve been the target of two stalker brothers who have made my life a living hell for the past month. The Texas Rangers were called in to help me.
In order to draw these criminals out, I had to pretend to be married in order to trap them. Now that they’ve been arrested in a cunning sting, I can announce that my marriage was a brilliant piece of fiction that kept me alive until they were caught. Besides my wonderful parents, I owe the Texas Rangers my life.
But I’ll have you know that the husband I made up truly is the man of my dreams. Maybe one day... In the meantime, I’ll be working hard riding the circuit until December, when I’ll be participating in the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. See you there! Long live the rodeo!
He sucked in his breath. “I can find no fault with it.”
“Good. I thought I could send the first two paragraphs to the newspapers. But I’ll put the entire article on my blog.”
“Again I think what you’ve written is just right. One question, though.” He shot her a glance. “Why did you use the word cunning?”
“Because you had to fight fire with fire. It’s what you do. No one else comes close to your genius. Cunning means deceitful, crafty and full of guile. Those words describe the two stalkers who would have murdered me if it hadn’t been for you. That’s why you’re such a brilliant Ranger.”
He rubbed the side of his jaw, trying to figure her out. “Why are you suddenly distancing yourself from me?”