Blame It on Texas (28 page)

But the heavy feeling knotting her emotions right now was different. She didn’t want to cry because she lost her mother, or because her parents had lied to her. Not
even because they might turn out to be murderers. The need for tears wasn’t even because someone was trying to kill her.

She wanted to cry because she was starting to care about someone who didn’t want to care about her. But given the chance, he’d love to fuck her. And she was actually considering letting him. She was that lonely, that pathetic.

Her need to cry increased with the vulgar thought bouncing around her head.

She heard him moving down the hall toward her. He dropped down beside her. His weight caused the cushions to shift and brought her shoulder flush with his. The oh-so-casual brush against him caused a sharp pain of longing to fill her chest.

And there was nothing casual about that pain… or the longing.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Tears stung her sinuses. “I want to go back to Alabama. I just want to go home.”

He frowned. “You can’t,” he said matter-of-factly. “Not yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because… because there’s a damn good chance that whoever tried to shoot you will try to find you in Alabama. And I did a little Google search on you today to see how easy that would be. I found your address, your telephone number, and your place of employment.”

She pulled her legs up and dropped her forehead on her knees.

“Look,” he said. “I know this is probably about last night. And you don’t have to worry. I completely respect
your decision. You have my word that I won’t try anything. This is strictly business. I’m your PI and you’re my client.”

She raised her head and looked at him. Couldn’t he have worked a little harder to persuade her? Was she that easy to forget about?

“Fine.” She tightened her throat. “Now can I go to sleep?”

Ten o’clock the next morning, Tyler hung up the phone from talking with Roberto, disturbing Lucky from his morning nap. The feline seemed to think the clutter on Tyler’s desk made the perfect sleeping spot.

“And?” Austin asked, his chair creaking as he leaned forward.

“He’s pretty sure it’s a DeLuna operation.” Tyler smiled. “I think we’ll be taking another chink out of that bastard’s armor pretty soon. Roberto said he’d call us back next week. He’s supposed to meet up with someone about possibly getting a position as a carrier for them. If he gets in, it could lead us to DeLuna.”

“It’s about fucking time,” Austin said.

“Fucking time for what?” Dallas asked, stepping into the office and moving to his desk. He’d called earlier that morning saying he was going to stop in and see his brother and ask if he could pull some strings and see if they could get anything on Ralph and Mildred Adams. And then he had to take Bud to the vet to get his anal glands cleaned out. Something Tyler really could have gone without hearing about, too.

“Roberto called.” Tyler gave Dallas the good news.

“You’re right, it’s fucking time.” Dallas slapped a hand
on his desk. “Sooner or later, we’re gonna get his ass.” He reached his hand up over his head and stretched. “I knew it was going to be a damn good day after I got off the phone with Rick.”

“He get something on the Adamses?” Tyler needed good news to give to Zoe. Wanted to find something to ease some of the tension that seemed to have surfaced since last night.

He wanted it before she did something stupid like go back to Alabama. He couldn’t protect her in Alabama. And protecting her seemed to be all he could think about. And while his obsession over it might have concerned him, he told himself it was okay. That’s what PIs did. Protect people. Which meant she was still just a case.

Dallas grinned. “First, Rick got us a list of names who worked at the mansion during the kidnapping.” He pulled out a piece of paper. “And he figured out how he could get into the mansion.” Dallas looked toward the door and lowered his voice. “Mrs. Daniels, the old man’s daughter, has the hots for Rick.”

“The same Mrs. Daniels we met?” Austin asked. “She’s old.”

“Supposedly, the woman likes tender meat.”

Austin laughed. “I don’t think there’s anything tender about Rick Clark.”

Dallas chuckled. “She invited him to the big house last night to eat some pound cake. The old man came down, but she mentioned a rain check.” Dallas chuckled. “He said if he had to wrap his lips around anything other than cake, we were gonna pay.”

“What else did he get?” Tyler asked, wanting to cut to the chase.

“He ran a check on both of them for warrants. Found nothing. Then he called Shadows County, where Zoe was born, and they did a local rundown. They found three unpaid tickets belonging to a Ralph Adams. It looks like they are two different guys. But one of them had a home address listed as Barker County. And I remember you mentioned something about one of the Ralph Adamses you ran across holding some sort of a state license in Barker.”

“I think that was the one who held a cosmetology license,” Tyler added.

“Right.” Dallas continued. “Anyway, when I was telling Rick about Zoe’s birth certificate, he asked if we’d had it cross-matched with death records.”

“I did that,” Tyler said.

“Yeah, but Rick remembered a case of his years ago about some guy from some small county in Texas who was running cons using names of deceased people who he knew hadn’t been entered in the state’s main system’s death records.”

“Why wouldn’t they have been entered?” Tyler asked.

“Supposedly, some of the smaller counties either haven’t gotten all that data on a computer or they just don’t see the need to share the info. But that’s not important.” Dallas leaned both elbows on his desk. “What is important is that while Bud was getting his asshole cleaned out, I called Barker County to see if they could give me anything on Ralph, Mildred, or Zoe Adams.”

Dallas, looking rather proud of himself, put his hands behind his neck. “Your girl was right.”

Your girl.
Tyler liked how that phrase felt rolling around in his eardrum. “Right about what?”

“Ralph and Mildred didn’t kill their own child. Zoe Adams, the real Zoe Adams, died at four months old from lung complications. It was listed on Barker County’s system. Death records should be faxed to us by lunchtime.”

Zoe stood under the spray of warm water, hoping it would soothe the stress in her shoulders. She’d hardly slept the night before, agonizing over her attraction to Tyler and his new, strictly-business policy.

If he could completely disregard the attraction, so could she. She didn’t need a man.

Yes you do!
She was a normal, albeit a mite neurotic, twenty-six-year-old woman, who’d taken a hormonal vacation due to having her heart broken. It made complete sense that her sexual urges—which were a normal part of being human—would eventually return.

And now that they had, she’d deal with them. Just as soon as she got back to Alabama. There were plenty of men who’d made their interest known since Chris had taken up with the stripper. She just hadn’t been interested in any of them.

Mentally, she envisioned the guys: Coach Bradley at school; Tim Hendricks, her neighbor’s brother; her mom’s lawyer who continued to call and just check to see if she needed any of his services. She tried to see herself with each of them. See herself wanting to run her hands over their abs the way she wanted to run her hands over Tyler’s.

Okay, so maybe those men didn’t have the right abs. Her heart clutched. She wanted Tyler. And honestly, was it so bad for her to have him?

No, it wasn’t. Tyler was right. They were two consenting adults attracted to each other.

She cut the water off and pushed back the shower curtain. The loud barking put her on instant alert. But it was the loud cat screeching that shot her into action.

“Lucky!” She bolted out of the shower, slipped, and landed on her naked ass on the cold tile. But she didn’t stay down. Bouncing up, she vaulted for the door, slung it open, did one quick glance to assure herself she was alone, and then followed the serious cat-and-dog-fight noises coming from the bedroom.

Lucky was on the bed. Bud bounced on and off the bed, barking and snapping his fat little jowls. To the dog’s credit, he looked more like he was playing, but Zoe wasn’t sure. And she sure as hell wasn’t taking chances.

“Out!” She went after the dog.

Bud jumped up on the bed. And for a round, stumpy little fellow, he could really jump. He danced around the mattress, leaning down on his front paws and bouncing back up. Lucky, not enjoying his antics, stood up on his hind legs, hissing and swatting his paws like a champion feline boxer. His one eye shifted back and forth to keep track of the ping-ponging dog.

Zoe dove for the dog, missed, and landed facedown on the mattress. Popping up, she tried again, but Bud jumped down to the floor, ran around the bed, and leaped up on the other side. Zoe leaped up on the mattress and snatched Lucky in her arms.

Bud started hurdling up in the air like a dog after a flying Frisbee.

“Get out!” She started turning in circles.

Tyler heard the barking. Heard Zoe screaming. “Shit! Where’s Bud?”

He bolted out of his chair, followed by Austin and Dallas, and all three went darting into the apartment.

“Bud, get your butt in here!” Dallas yelled behind Tyler.

“Bud!” Tyler cut the corner, and when his shoes hit a puddle of water on the wood floor, he nearly fell. “Shit,” Dallas grunted behind him.

Tyler looked back and watched as Dallas landed on his butt. Then Austin cut the corner and fell over him and landed on his butt, too. Tyler started to ask if they were okay, but Zoe screamed again, the dog barked, the cat hissed. His partners were on their own. Tyler shot through the bedroom and…

And…

The moment his gaze landed on a naked Zoe jumping up and down on the bed, his mind couldn’t think of anything else.

Well, until he heard Austin say, “Oh, my!”

And Dallas said, “Damn.”

Zoe let out another ear-piercing scream.

Tyler pushed Austin and Dallas out of the bedroom and slammed the door shut. Then he swung back around.

Zoe had managed to snatch up a pillow, and she stood on the bed hugging it over her front with one arm while holding Lucky with the other. She danced from one foot to the other, struggling to keep the cat away from Bud, who soared up two to three feet into the air, barking with playful glee.

Zoe’s pillow slipped down. Exposing her gorgeous breasts, which were jiggling up and down. She yanked the pillow up to cover her top half and exposed the red triangle of hair between her thighs.

“Stop,” Tyler yelled at Bud.

The dog didn’t obey.

“Do something!” Zoe screamed.

“I am.” Then again, she probably meant do something more than stand there and enjoy the view. He bolted forward to grab Bud.

Bud shot across the bed. Zoe shot around to keep Lucky from him. With one knee on the mattress, Tyler got a close-up, fabulous view of Zoe’s beautifully round and perfect ass.

She swung around, caught him entranced, and scowled. “Get the dog!”

“Do you need help?” Tyler heard Dallas call out between snorts of laughter. Damn, but Tyler had to fight not to laugh as well.

“No!” Tyler dove across the bed and grabbed Bud around his chest. Chancing it, he glanced up, finding the view from this angle amazing. Zoe, clutching her pillow, glared at him.

Hugging the squirming dog, Tyler backed off the bed, opened the door a crack, and pushed the dog out.

Then Tyler turned back around. Zoe still held on to Lucky and her pillow. She pulled the pillow up to cover her chest. Then, as if realizing what she was exposing at the bottom, she lowered it down. Personally, Tyler liked both views.

Right then he praised Dallas’s choice of standard-size pillows in lieu of the queen size.

Lucky let out a pathetic meow.

“The cat okay?” Tyler asked, feeling the tightness in his lower body. If he stayed in here much longer, he was going to need his own pillow.

Zoe looked at the cat. “I think so.” The cat squirmed loose, fell to the mattress, bounced off the bed, and darted under it.

Zoe froze, standing in the center of the bed, her pillow positioned in the optimum placement to hide all the best parts.

“Did you get hurt?” he asked.

“No.” She clung to the pillow like it was her lifeline. “You can leave now.”

He noticed her blush. Noticed it went all the way down her neck and behind the pillow.

“I could.” He grinned.

“Don’t you dare laugh!” Her eyes tightened, but it didn’t look like anger. He could swear she looked about ready to laugh herself.

“Okay.” He backed to the door, not wanting to waste one second of the view. Then, way sooner than he hoped, his butt hit the door. As he reached his hand back to find the knob, he continued to feast on the view in front of him. Even with optimum pillow placement, it was a sight to behold.

Her hair hung wet in ringlets down her shoulders. Her toes, with the nails painted a pink tint, curled into the down comforter. But holy hell, she stood there with nothing but a bag of duck feathers between him and every sweet wet inch of her naked skin.

He never hated duck feathers so much in his life.

“Leave!”

“Okay.” He turned the knob, opened the door, and slipped out.

Austin and Dallas weren’t in the hall. Smart men, he thought. He’d probably punch them if one of them had
tried to get a second peek. Not that Dallas would, but Austin… maybe.

Tyler inhaled and took one step, but then he turned around and leaned his forehead against the door.

He stood there for all of sixty seconds, not sure what to say. Then, still clueless, he called out, “Zoe?”

“Yes,” she answered with hesitancy.

“You’re beautiful.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A
N HOUR LATER
, with Austin and Dallas off on an investigation, Tyler sat alone in his office, trying to review Zoe’s case file, unable to get the image of her bouncing up and down on the bed, naked except for a pillow, out of his mind.