Keller County Cops Book Seven: Code of Vengeance (23 page)

"Keep rolling, Bob," the reporter threw over her shoulder with glee. Her excitement grew even more intense as she turned her attention back to Sheriff Blaylock, who visibly seethed at having had to confront her. "I'm going to air the story whether or not I speak with Ms. Riley. Don't you want her to have a chance to defend herself against my allegations?"

"And just exactly what
are
you allegations?" he asked, his face an angry thundercloud. "It's a free country. Ms. Riley has the right to take all the classes she wants."

"Taking classes isn't the issue. What I want to know is why she took so many in that ilk in such a short period of time. She had to be gearing up for something." Mindy leaned close and peeked around him, hoping to catch Keegan Riley's eye. No such luck. She met Blaylock's furious gaze instead. "Revenge, perhaps, against the person she believed killed her sister?"

"That's enough," he said with a growl. "Get off my porch."

"Rick -- Sheriff Blaylock -- move out of my way. Please." With a perturbed look on her face, Ms. Riley shoved him aside and stepped in front of him. "She's talking about
my
life, not yours. I want a chance to explain before she makes me out to be some kind of monster."

"Go ahead, Ms. Riley," Mindy said, pushing her microphone closer to the woman's face. Wonder vibrated through her. If she could get a good story out of this, she might be able to placate Maillet, at least for a while, and get him off her back.

The sheriff looked anything but pleased. He grabbed Ms. Riley's arm. "Think about what you're doing."

"Believe me, I have thought about this -- for the past six months." She met Mindy's eyes. "I took all of those classes because I feared for my life. Someone killed my sister, and I was afraid that same person might come after me."

"And why is that?"

"Because I knew who'd killed Jenny, and he was aware that I knew."

"Who are you talking about, Ms. Riley? And why aren't you afraid to talk about him or her now?" Excitement bubbled through Mindy. She couldn't wait to get this story on the air.

The other woman hesitated.

"Don't give her anything," Blaylock snapped. "I mean it, Keegan. Think about your options."

"What options?" She looked up at him. "Are you trying to protect your investigation, or do you have some other agenda I don't know about?"

"No agenda," he said. "I'm only trying to keep you from making a big mistake."

"How can this be a mistake if I tell her the truth?" Ms. Riley straightened her shoulders and turned back to Mindy. "Lord knows, somebody needs to get the real story out there. And now that Dirk is dead--"

"Son of a bitch." The sheriff grabbed her arm. "Keegan--"

"You believe
Dirk Woodward
killed your sister?" Mindy could barely contain her delight at what the woman had just revealed.
Oh, this is just too good.

Keegan met her eyes. "Yes. I've always believed he did, and he knew it."

"And that made you fear for your life."

"Yes, especially before he was acquitted." She lifted her chin. "So I took class after class, hoping to be ready if he ever came after me. Luckily, he never did."

"And now he's dead."
What irony.
Mindy tilted her head before delivering her next question. "So... is it merely a coincidence that you witnessed his murder?"

"That's enough, Ms. Ravens." Blaylock shoved her microphone out of Keegan's face and stepped between them, his broad body vibrating with anger. "I'm in charge of the Woodward investigation, and I have no comment. Neither does Ms. Riley, who did indeed witness Woodward's murder. She had nothing to do with it, however. I can assure you of that."

"And you know this how, Sheriff?" She lifted the microphone to his face. "Do you have solid evidence, or did she seduce you into letting her get away with murder?"

"Oh, my God." Keegan gaped at her. "I did
not
seduce him."

"You're reaching, Ms. Ravens," Sheriff Blaylock said in a grim tone. His eyes blazed with fury. "Keegan is a witness in my investigation. Nothing more."

"Then why is she here with you today, sir, inside your home with her car hidden in your garage? I mean, assuming you two are alone together." She shoved the microphone back at him. "Am I right? Or is someone else in there with you?"

"No comment." He shoved it away. "That's all I'm going to say. Now, we're going back inside, and you and your flunky are going to get the hell off my front porch. Got that?"

"And if we don't?" Mindy couldn't resist taunting him. He was such a beautiful hunk of man, the polar opposite of flabby Henry Maillet. She loved an angry good-looking man.

He pinned her in place with a razor-sharp glare. "I'll get on the phone to dispatch and have you both thrown off my property. Won't take my deputies long to get here, that I can promise you. Now... please go before I'm forced to use such drastic measures."

"Fine, Sheriff. We'll go." She attempted to suppress the smile that stretched across her face, but she didn't succeed. This story was just too damned juicy. She backed away without argument.
Hell, I have enough for more than one newscast if I drag this out. Maillet has to back off now.
"Be sure to watch WHBZ's six o'clock report, okay?"

"Wouldn't miss it," he snapped, urging Keegan back inside and shutting the door.

So filled with glee she could hardly stand it, Mindy turned to Bob. "Let's hurry and get back to the station. I have a story to edit."

"Phil is gonna shit his pants." He followed her down the steps.

She grinned at him. "I don't give a damn what the news director
or
the station manager think. This is the story I've been waiting for. Isn't it delicious?"

"You think it's good enough to get Maillet off your back?"

"I know it is," she said, her heart lifting.

He shook his head. "Saving yourself at the expense of the people of Keller County. I thought you were better than that, Mindy."

"Screw you, Bob. Just... screw you."

*****

"I'm so sorry," Keegan said the minute Rick closed the door in the reporter's face. Tears welled in her eyes.  "If I'd had any idea she'd follow me here, I never would've come."

"You couldn't have known she saw you, or that she and her cameraman followed you."

"I know." She made a fist. "It's just that... damn that woman. The election is right around the corner, and this is going to hurt you."

"Probably so." He ran a hand through his tousled hair. He looked like a worried little boy.

She longed to wrap her arms around him and hug him tight, but instead took a deep breath and met his eyes. "I just don't... can you stop her from putting the story on the air?"

"I don't see how." He stalked over to the window, lifted one of the slats in the faux Venetian blinds, and peeked outside. "But hell, at least they're gone now."

"That bitch will ruin your career."

"Maybe she will, and maybe she won't." He let the slat fall back into place and turned to face her. "I won't be sheriff anymore if I lose the election, but I've been in this line of work all my life. I'm sure I can find another job in law enforcement."

"Here in Keller County?"

"Absolutely not." He met her eyes. "Maillet wouldn't want me here, and I sure as hell don't want to work for him. He's not qualified to be sheriff, and seeing him destroy this department--" 

"The department you've worked so hard to clean up." A hollow space opened up in her heart. "Where will you go?"

"Don't know. Depends on who wants me."

I want you.
The truth slammed into Keegan like an overloaded freight. She
did
want him, in the worst way. Only... she was a witness in a murder investigation, and she'd already compromised his position and probably sabotaged his re-election. He'd never want her now.

Too choked up to say anything, she turned away and brought a hand to her mouth.

"Keegan?" He walked over and touched her arm. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." The heat of his thick fingers burned her. She drew in a shaky breath and pulled away. "Please... I just hope you can forgive me one day."

"Forgive you for what?" He drew his brows together.

A tear escaped her eye, and she brushed it away. "For undermining your campaign. I never meant to hurt you. I just--"

"Keegan, don't," he said, pulling her into his arms.

She gasped at the sensation and pushed her face into his broad chest. His warm, masculine scent enveloped her. Unable to keep her hands to herself, she wrapped them around his lean waist and hung on tight. A sense of rightness surrounded her.

He squeezed her to him and groaned. Then abruptly, he let her go.

"Rick?" Stunned by his sudden withdrawal, she stumbled.

He caught her arm and steadied her. A look of remorse flashed over his face. "Sorry. I didn't mean to overstep. I only thought--"

"It's... it's okay," she said, grief rising up within her. "I know we shouldn't. It's just been so long since I've had a hug, since anybody's cared enough to... to touch me, that I--"

"God, Keegan." He raised his hand to her cheek and hooked a lock of hair behind her ear. The gentle contact made her shiver. He edged closer. "Aw, hell. You know what? Fuck 'em."

"What? Who? I don't--" She gaped at him.

He quirked his mouth. "Whoever says we shouldn't do this."

Then he kissed her.

Not just a little kiss either, a tentative brush of lips, but a full-on, mouth-lips-tongue assault that took her breath away and would have dropped her to her knees if he hadn't wrapped his good arm all the way around her and pulled her flush against him. The evidence of his arousal dug into her hip. He was hot and hard and all man. Keegan couldn't stop the desperate moan that escaped her lips. She'd never been kissed like this. Not even by the guy who'd asked her to marry him when she was only twenty.

"You take my breath away, Keegan Riley," Rick whispered when he finally released her. "Why in hell did you have to be at the crime scene when Woodward was murdered?"

"Because I wanted revenge for Jenny," she croaked, the gravity of what they'd just done making her weak in the knees. She held on to his rock hard biceps for support. He was her anchor, but for how long? She gulped. "What... what are we going to do now?"

"Well, for one thing, you shouldn't ever tell anyone else what you just said to me."

"I don't know if I could've killed him, but I sure wanted to." She ducked her head. "I wanted him to die for what he did to my sister. For leaving Haley without a mom."

"Maybe, but you're not a murderer," he rasped. "I refuse to believe you would've followed through. No matter how much you wanted Woodward to die, I can't believe you would've killed him in cold blood. It's just not in you."

"You don't know
what
I'm capable of doing." She looked up at him, and pain sliced through her. "You do realize that, don't you? We barely know each other."

"I know you can handle a gun and a knife, and that you can probably kick my ass from here to tomorrow after talking all of those martial arts classes. That doesn't mean you'd ever use any of those skills to kill someone."

"All I know is that fate intervened to save me. Twice now."

"You don't know how thankful I am that it did."

"I'm still a witness in Dirk's case. I saw that man kill him, and now you and I just--"

"We have surveillance video from that night. If we can ID Dirk's assailant well enough from that, we won't need your testimony. You'll be home free."

"Still..." She pulled back a little further and gnawed her lip. "Mindy Ravens knows I was there that night. She's already connected the dots and broadcast the truth to WHBZ's entire viewing area. That's the whole Gulf Coast, and New Orleans, too. And after she airs the story about us being here alone together today, just you and me inside your house--"

"That means we're already tainted," he said gruffly, pulling her back against him. "So kiss me again, Keegan. Please. What does it matter now? Like the song says, might as well give 'em something to talk about."

"Oh, Rick," she moaned. She longed to stop herself from doing as he asked, but she was unable to pull away. He smelled too damned good, even with the lingering medicinal scent mixing with his cologne. Her hungry body melted into his, her soft curves meeting his thick muscles, and she couldn't make herself let go of him if she tried. He was older than any man she'd ever dated, yet what did age really matter? She ached for him. So without giving their age difference another thought, she gave in and lifted her face to his.

This kiss was even more thorough than the first. So hot and deep, she shuddered. Then he moved his hands to the buttons of her blouse and undid the first one.

"I want you, Keegan," he murmured, dropped hot kisses along her neck as he revealed more and more of her bare skin and her black lace bra. Thank goodness she'd worn a nice one today. The incredible heat of his mouth burned her, and she shivered. He grinned and sucked on the tender skin just above her collarbone. "You're so damned beautiful."

"Are you... are you sure we should do this?" she whispered, her whole body sparking like a live wire. She pulled down the collar of his tight-fitting tee shirt and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the slice of skin now revealed. Then she slid her lips along the rough stubble beneath his chin that enticed her to lick her way back up to his mouth. With shaky hands, she lifted the hem of his shirt. "I mean, what about your shoulder?"

"I'll survive." He pulled back with a hungry smile and looked into her eyes. "Come on, Keegan. I've wanted you since the day we met, but you were off limits. Now, after Mindy's interference, all bets are off. So what's to stop us?"

"Nothing, if you don't think I'll hurt you, but I want to do the right thing." She swallowed, hard. The taste of him still lingered on her tongue, and her body hungered for him.

He grasped her fingers with his good hand and tugged her toward the dark hallway. "Then come with me and let's make love. You'll have to be on top, but that should work okay."