- -
- 100%
- +
She glanced down at her sweater. She hadn’t realized her lip had bled so badly. That damn Cody. “What’s brought you all the way out here? If you had just waited, I would have been back soon.”
With a quickness that nearly took her breath away, he stepped forward and slid one hand along the side of her jaw, tilting her face up. “Kit, would you tell me if you were in trouble?”
His move and question took her by surprise. His touch warmed her skin. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“Are you in trouble? Because if you are, I’ll help.”
With his hand on her, she could barely think. Could he have heard about her argument with Cody? But no, that didn’t make sense. For better or worse, she had taken care of the matter. “Why are you here, Des?”
He let his hand drop away. “You’re needed back at the homestead.”
“Why? I don’t have any appointments scheduled until this afternoon.” She didn’t have a clue what he was thinking, and instinct honed over time kept her from trying to find out. With Des, it was better if she kept her distance. “Oh, never mind. I was about to head back anyway. I’ll just close up.”
“Wait.”
His grim tone halted her as she was about to turn. She eyed him cautiously. Because of her father’s cruelty in keeping her and her sisters under his thumb, and later, because of her wariness of Des, she’d never been close to him. But even she knew he wasn’t acting normally. “What is it?”
“Someone’s been killed, Kit.”
“Oh no! Who?”
Death on the ranch wasn’t a complete shock. Working with large animals, as well as heavy machinery and equipment, offered too many chances for accidents. But she always hated to hear about it.
“Cody Inman.”
She stiffened. How could that be? After she had left, he hadn’t even been supposed to go to work, only draw his check from the paymaster and leave. “Cody Inman?” she repeated to make sure she’d heard correctly. “But I saw him right before I rode out this morning.”
“That’s what Tio said. A little while after you left, Tio went into the barn to start his work and found the body in one of the empty stalls. Since you weren’t around, he came to me. I called the sheriff, then drove out here to get you.”
She nodded. “Of course.” How had Cody managed to get into an accident on what should have been his last few hours on the Double B?
“How awful.” However Cody had acted toward her, she felt a deep pang of sadness for him. Just last night he had been so alive, dancing and laughing with her. But then he’d begun to drink and come on to her, and then this morning…
Questions raced through her mind as she tried to grapple with the fact that a man she had argued with mere hours before was now dead.
“How did he die?”
“You don’t know?”
Confused, she stared up at him. “How would I know?” He didn’t answer. “Des? How did he die?”
“It looks like a blow to the head with a blunt object. Perhaps a shovel.”
The air went out of her. “Are you saying Cody was murdered?”
“That’s right.”
“But I don’t understand. How could such a thing have happened?”
“That’s what the sheriff wants to question you about.”
“Okay, I’ll close up here and be there as soon as possible.”
“No. Just leave Dia here and come with me. We’ll have someone bring a horse trailer out for him.”
“Is that really necessary?”
“The sheriff will be waiting to talk to you.” He paused. “So, now do you want to tell me how you got that split lip?”
She hadn’t told him. And for the most part, Des didn’t say much on the drive back to the homestead, which was fine with her. She’d given him the general outline of what had happened, but no details. Her morning encounter with Cody was still not something of which she was proud. It had been a situation she had let get out of her control.
Thoughts of Cody and the way he had died kept her busy. She kept trying to come up with scenarios for what could possibly have happened, but for the life of her, she couldn’t come up with one that made sense.
But then, Des also occupied a large part of her mind. She attempted to ignore him by fixing her gaze on the passing landscape, but time and again his nearness drew her thoughts and senses back to him. Despite her attempts to ignore him, it had always been like that. With resignation, she wondered if it always would.
When he finally pulled up to the saddle barn, she breathed a soft sigh of relief.
She didn’t recognize several of the cars and trucks parked there, but she did recognize the sheriff from a picture she had seen in the paper, put there when he had first come to their area nine months earlier. A tall, lanky man in his late thirties, he stood beside one of the trucks, speaking on a cell phone, but as soon as he saw them, he hung up and waited expectantly.
“Have you had any dealings with this sheriff?” Des asked quietly as he cut off the engine.
“No. Any problems we have with the men we try to handle ourselves.” Her hand went to the door handle.
“Wait a minute.” Des leaned over and clasped her wrist, and his arm pressed against the softness of her breasts.
Heat filled her lungs and, uncontrolled, her nipples hardened. No matter what, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from responding to him.
“Listen to me, Kit. The sheriff’s name is Moreno, and his reputation is that he’s ambitious. So I want you to say as little as possible, and when in doubt, let me answer for you.”
“What are you talking about?” She pushed against his arm.
He straightened away, but the severity of his tone didn’t lessen. “Don’t volunteer anything he doesn’t ask. And if I tell you not to answer a certain question, don’t.”
She glanced through the windshield at the sheriff, whose gaze was now trained on her. “He just wants me to tell him what happened.”
“Actually, he wants you to make his job easy by confessing. Right now, you’re the only suspect for Cody Inman’s murder.”
Her mouth dropped. “Suspect? Confess? But that’s ridiculous.”
“It’s also the truth. So just be careful what you say.”
“This is absurd.” Suddenly she felt as if she were suffocating. Cody was dead, and Des was focusing his entire attention on her. It was too much. Her legs were shaking as she climbed out of the truck.
“Ms. Baron.” The sheriff touched the brim of his hat in greeting.
“Sheriff Moreno.” Her nerves were strung tight, but there was no point in taking her mood out on him. It wasn’t his fault. “Sorry to have kept you waiting, but I didn’t realize anything was wrong until Mr. Baron came to get me.”
Des stepped up beside her, and the sheriff’s gaze shifted to him, then back to her again. She wouldn’t have been surprised to see a hint of intimidation enter his expression. After all, Des had an international reputation as a lawyer, and she ran one third of Baron International, specifically the massive ranching division. But the man’s demeanor remained businesslike and aggressive.
“I’ll get right to the point. I understand you were the last person to see Cody Inman alive.”
“No. The person who murdered him was the last person to see him alive.”
“Of course.”
Des was standing so close to her that the warmth from his body filtered through her clothes to her skin. She supposed it was his way of supporting her, but she didn’t need his support, and she certainly didn’t want it—at least, not this kind.
The sheriff once again glanced at Des, then back at her. “Let me put it this way. It looks as if you were the last person to see Cody Inman before he was murdered. In fact, one of your hands—”
“That would be Tio.”
He checked his notes and nodded. “Tio Rodriguez. He indicated that you and Mr. Inman had had a problem this morning.”
She nodded. “In fact, I fired Cody right before I left for my morning ride.” Beside her, she felt Des stiffen.
The sheriff’s brows shot up so high they almost disappeared beneath his hat. “You fired him? Was that because of something work related?”
Slowly, as if it were a perfectly natural gesture, Des reached out, circled her wrist with his long fingers and lightly squeezed. She felt something lurch near her heart. The questioning didn’t bother her. Des, however, did. “No,” she said, impatient to get away from both men. “It was personal.”
“How so?”
“You don’t need to answer that, Kit.”
Des’s sharp tone tightened her nerves, making her response even quicker. “We went out last night and—”
“You and Mr. Inman? Just the two of you?”
“That’s right.”
“And what happened?”
“To put it as simply as possible, Sheriff, Cody wanted our relationship to go farther than I did.”
“Kit—”
“And did you and Mr. Inman fight over this?”
“Kit! Stop answering.”
She glanced at him again. His jaw had tensed, and his eyes had darkened. “I’ve got nothing to hide. Cody and I definitely fought. But did I kill him? No, I did not.”
“I see.”
The sheriff didn’t believe her, she realized with a small shock. On the Double B her word was law, and she wasn’t accustomed to being doubted. Slightly shaken, she scanned the faces of the men who had gathered around him. Several of them looked confused, even skeptical. Great. Just great.
The sheriff nodded toward her lip. “Did you get that injury in the fight?”
“He kissed me.”
“And the kiss split the lip?”
“That’s right. He wasn’t exactly gentle.”
“Uh-huh. Made you mad, did he?”
“He made me very mad.”
“That’s enough.” The authority in Des’s voice cut between the sheriff and her. “If you need any further information, Sheriff, make an appointment with Ms. Baron through me. Kit, I’ll see you back to your house.” His strong hand on her back quickly turned her and headed her back to the car.
“Wait a minute!” the Sheriff yelled. “Ms. Baron, I’ll need to ask you to come down to the office. We’ll need your fingerprints, and I’ll want to question you further.”
“She’ll come in later,” Des said, raising his voice, but not stopping until he had her in the truck and they were driving away.
Two
Kit slammed the front door shut in Des’s face.
Damn the woman. A muscle clenched in Des’s jaw as he opened the door and went in after her. He found her in the living room, lighting a fire.
“What were you thinking about, talking to the sheriff like that?”
She wheeled on him. Her green eyes flashed, vivid with anger, and her long red hair curled like flames against her shoulders. “Don’t ever do that again to me.”
“Do what? Save you from incriminating yourself?”
“Don’t ever again tell me what to say or not to say. And don’t ever give me an order in front of my men. You may own fifty percent of this ranch, but I run it.”
“Listen to me, Kit. You can’t tell the sheriff everything you did without expecting to be arrested. Not in this case. Why didn’t you do as I said?”
The logs began to burn behind her but she barely noticed. “Do as you said?”
All of his career, he had faced hostile clients, lawyers, judges and juries. Part of his success was that he was always able to remain cool under fire. Staying calm and above the fray was one of his trademarks. No one ever got to him.
Kit got to him.
He wanted to shake her. Worse, he suddenly realized, he wanted to kiss her. Lord help him, where had that come from?
“Whether you realize it or not, Kit, you’ve gotten yourself into a serious situation. And just because it was me who gave you the advice, doesn’t mean you had to go against it.”
“That’s not what happened.” She stripped off her coat and threw it across a chair.
“That’s exactly what you did. Admit it. You hate for anyone to try to tell you what to do, but this case is different, and you need to realize it. In this case, you don’t know what’s best. I do. And believe me when I say, you told him entirely too much.”
She threw up her hands. “For heaven’s sake, get over yourself. The women you go out with must not have any brains, but I do.”
“You’re not hearing what I’m saying. Dealing with men like that sheriff is what I do for a living, and I know what I’m talking about. Let me do my damn job.”
“This isn’t a job you need to concern yourself with. Whatever happened, happened in my realm. I’ll take care of it.”
He shook his head. “Trying to defend yourself is the worst thing you can do.”
“I’m not trying to defend myself.”
“Then tell me what you think you’re doing.”
“Telling the truth about what actually happened.”
He gave a sound of disgust. “Prisons are filled with people who told the truth. At this stage of the game, everything you say is important. Even how you say it. You have to be careful, and you weren’t.”
“What are you talking about? The sheriff didn’t indicate he suspected me.”
“If you believe that, you weren’t listening.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Cody’s body was just found. It’s way too early for the sheriff to suspect anyone.”
“Granted, it’s early, but have you ever heard of quick arrests?”
“Of course, but—”
“Ideally, authorities like to make an arrest within the first twenty-four hours of a crime. After that, witnesses can go foggy, crime scenes can be tampered with, or any number of other things can happen. Kit, face it. That’s exactly what may happen here, because, unfortunately, it looks as if everything so far points to you.”
“That’s not true. They haven’t even found the murder weapon yet.”
“Are you telling me that if the murder weapon turns out to be a shovel, or any one of the implements used in that barn, your fingerprints won’t be on it?”
“No. They probably will be—” Abruptly she broke off and swiveled back to the fire. “I don’t have my own silver-plated shovel, Des. At one time or another, I’ve probably used and touched everything in that barn.”
She was electric, all fire and fury. But he also saw the fragility there. He had always been able to. He had often heard his adoptive father, William Baron, grumble about the stricter than strict way his brother Edward was raising his three daughters. He hadn’t seen Kit on a daily basis or even a monthly one, but rather over time and at various stages of her life.
Living on the same ranch, he’d had a unique perspective from which to watch her grow up. As a little girl, she had tried in vain to battle against the tyranny of her father. As a teenager, she had become subdued and resigned to living beneath her father’s thumb.
Her father’s death when she was twenty had finally given her the freedom to come into her own, but that had also been when her rebellion kicked in. It had seemed to him that during those years she had been all flash and fury, yet she had also taken the reins of the ranch. Now she had everything she ever wanted, including power. The problem was, she now seemed to be rebelling against him. Worse, he felt the effects much more than he should.
He took a steadying breath, but it didn’t have the desired effect. He couldn’t seem to hold on to his objectivity. Deep down, he was frightened for her. Even more frightening to him, he was coming to realize he badly needed to keep her safe. Where had that come from? And when? “I’ll put an investigator on this Cody Inman and find out about him.”
“Don’t be stupid. You won’t find anything unusual about him. He was just an ordinary ranch hand.”
“He was a man who hurt his boss, a woman. He tried to force himself on you, or have you forgotten?”
“Of course not.”
“Odds are good that somewhere he’s got a bad history, and I need to find out what it is. It could make a difference in the trial.”
“Trial?” she practically sputtered. Her hair flew out around her as she spun around. “There’s not going to be a trial—at least, not with me as a defendant.”
“Calm down. I’m just thinking ahead. It’s what I do.”
Her brow furrowed with anger. “Who asked you?”
“Damn it, Kit—” He stopped himself and forced another deep breath through his lungs. He wasn’t going to be able to help her unless he could regain his composure. Unfortunately, his temperature was rising by the minute.
She affected him way too deeply.
For most of his life he had deliberately stayed away from her and her sisters. Their father’s will had stipulated that unless Kit and each of her sisters made his idea of a fortune within ten years of his death, they would lose their thirty-three and one-third percent portion of Baron International. Even though she was the youngest, Kit had already met the first condition of the will, earning that fortune plus more. Her sisters Tess and Jill had, too.
In addition, they had all known that his step-father, their father’s brother, would leave his fifty percent of the corporation to him upon his death, which would essentially give him control of the company, unless the three of them voted together at all times, leading to a stalemate.
The sisters had quickly come up with the theory that if one of them could obtain control of his fifty percent of the Baron empire through marriage, she could thus control Baron International. So, like her sisters, Kit became caught up in the mad game of trying to get him to succumb to her charms. She and her sisters had actually competed to get him to the altar.
Most men would have reveled in the attentions of three beautiful women, but under the circumstances, he had decided reticence was the intelligent response. Fortunately for all concerned, the game had come to an abrupt halt when Tess and then Jill had married. In effect, they had given up everything for love and left the path to him wide open for Kit.
But then, suddenly, she had started to shun him. It didn’t make any sense to him, and anything that didn’t make sense bothered him.
She had always intrigued him, and now that he was no longer preoccupied with his father’s health or a trial, he had vowed that this was the trip home when he would find out why she was going out of her way to avoid him.
But now, just when he had decided to seek her out, fate had stepped in before him. A murder had put her in peril, and he wanted, needed, to help.
But she continued to confuse him.
She made his mind veer away from the subject at hand and on to the fact that she was the most desirable woman he had ever seen. At the moment she was practically vibrating with anger at him, yet all he could think about was how much he would love to kiss her.
The knowledge was a shock to his system.
He shrugged out of his vest and carefully placed it on the back of a sofa. “Let’s go at this a different way. You told the sheriff that Cody had wanted to take your relationship farther than you did. What exactly was he to you?”
“Just a guy to go dancing with.” She wrapped her arms around herself and began to pace. “I never meant it to be serious.”
“Then why did you go out with him in the first place?”
She fixed him with a straight gaze. “Do you plan to take every woman you go out with to the altar. Or even to bed?”
“I’ve never dated a woman who ended up dead the next morning.”
“Then obviously you’ve been lucky and I was unlucky. But believe it or not, I didn’t know Cody was going to be murdered.”
He shook his head, frustrated beyond belief with her, with himself. And he knew what the problem was. He was letting himself get too involved, something he never allowed with clients. Yet even armed with that knowledge, he couldn’t stop himself. “Your flirtations have always been within inches of getting out of hand and you know it. It’s called playing with fire, and sooner or later it was bound to get you into trouble.”
She made a sound of anger. “You know nothing about how I handle my personal life.”
“I know enough. I’ve seen you on the dance floor with one guy after another, and, honey, let me tell you something. The way you dance is an invitation to every red-blooded male in the state.”
“That’s not true.”
She looked as if he had struck her, but at least she was finally listening. “It’s true all right,” he said, his tone grim. “The last time I saw you at a party, you were wearing a little nothing of a white dress, and every man in the place was salivating.”
She stared at him, her green eyes wide and gorgeous. “You remember what I was wearing?”
He frowned, as surprised at himself as she was. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s get back to Cody. What happened when you were out with him last night that made him think he could have a future with you?”
Years ago, he’d had firsthand experience of how easily she could melt against a man. Even now, just looking at her made him want to grab her into his arms and make love to her. In fact, he couldn’t get the idea out of his mind. So he didn’t even want to think of her in another man’s arms. The very idea infuriated him.
She made a vague gesture. “Nothing extraordinary happened.”
Nothing extraordinary. She would probably classify the kiss they had shared in the barn all those years ago as nothing extraordinary, too. Hell, she probably didn’t even remember it. But he did. He always would.
He crossed to her and gripped her arm. “That’s where your faulty thinking comes in. You are extraordinary. You turn those green eyes on a man, you press that sweet body of yours against him, and I guarantee a man’s going to feel something.”
He couldn’t help himself. He pulled her against him, and his throat went tight. He hadn’t felt her body against his since she was seventeen. Then he had kissed her and hadn’t wanted to stop. Now he felt the same way. It was completely inappropriate. It was totally astounding. “Exactly how hot and heavy did you get with him?”
She twisted, trying to free herself. Her breasts and thighs rubbed against him, making him hard. What little control he had left was about to disappear. Suddenly he was quite sure he was about to do something irrational, and abruptly he let her go. He needed to help her situation, he reminded himself, not harm it. He needed to remain clearheaded.
Looking shaken, she rubbed herself where he had gripped her and moved away. “Hot and heavy? Charming phrasing, Des. Really charming.”
It was a clumsy phrase, but his vaunted word power had deserted him. He drove stiffened fingers through his hair. He knew better than anyone the need to keep personal feelings out of this, but the thought of her in danger made him crazy. “You know what I mean.”
“No. In no way did I lead him on. Furthermore, nothing hot and heavy happened. At the bar, he forced a kiss on me and I brought the evening to a quick halt.”
“And after that, what happened? Did he just accept your decision?”
She shrugged. “He got a bit sulky. After we got back to the ranch and I went to drop him at the bunkhouse, he tried to kiss me again, but he didn’t get very far.”
“How did you manage that?”
“I had one of the guys at the hangar secure the helicopter for me, I dropped Cody off, then I came home.”
“And do you know what he did after you left?”
“I don’t have a clue. Except…”
“Except what?”
“Well, it was obvious this morning that, whatever else he did, he went off and began drinking heavily. When we were together, he had two beers.”
“How many did you have?”
Resentment flared in her eyes. “None of your business.”
“Someone’s going to ask, Kit. It might as well be me.”
“I had one. Okay? I had one.”
“Is that usual for you?”
“What are you getting at?”
“To your knowledge, has anyone where you were last night ever seen you drink a lot? Or even get drunk?”
“No.” Her eyes darkened with her anger. “Do you honestly believe I would have had more than one beer when I was flying home?”
He studied her for a moment, believing her and wondering how his planned quiet talk with her had turned into this angry confrontation. Then he silently answered himself. He had just realized that he cared too much. “Okay. You said you dropped Cody at the bunkhouse. Did anyone see you drive off in your car alone?”