Lawman's Redemption (15 page)

“What's wrong, sweetie? Did you miss your nap today?”

“You're not funny.”

“I wasn't trying to be. Tell me—did you get your lovely disposition from your father or your mother?”

“I didn't get
anything
from Sandra but a hard time.”

“Uh-huh.”

“If you'll sign here,” the clerk said, then gestured toward two men at the end of the counter. “Tell them which vehicle is yours and they'll start loading it for you.”

“It's the blue pickup right in front.” She'd borrowed Brady's truck for this trip into Tulsa to pick up the tile for Neely's bathrooms and entry, and to choose and order the wood flooring for the rest of the house. Though she'd tried her best to avoid it, she'd caught herself more than once wishing it was her own house she was shopping for, with the prospect of sharing it with her own family.

The house part she could do. She still had zero desire to return to Beverly Hills to live. She hadn't given it much thought—the idea of leaving Oklahoma was one she preferred to avoid, since it also meant leaving Brady and Lexy—but one of these days soon she would. Maybe she would just hang a map of the country on a wall, close her eyes and throw a dart at it, then live where it landed.

Or maybe she'd find someplace not too terribly far from Heartbreak and Neely.

And Buffalo Plains and Brady.

And what? Exchange awkward greetings with him when she went to visit Neely and Reese? Maybe even have another one-night fling in a year or two? Or maybe find out on one visit that he was seeing someone else, and learn on another that he was married?

Perhaps, instead, she would make her home on whatever little bit of American soil was as far away from Buffalo Plains as possible without leaving the country.

“Hallie.” Reaching across, Lexy waved her hand, with nails painted black, in front of Hallie's face. “Hey, snap out of it. She's been finished, like, forever. Let's go.”

Giving a start, Hallie tucked the credit card and receipt in her wallet, then followed Lexy outside. As soon as they were settled in the truck, the girl said, “Let's go to a movie.”

“Sorry. Not this time.”

“Oh, come on. I just spent
three
hours with you in the floor place. Now let's do something fun.”

“We were only there two hours—” Hallie glanced at the clock on the dashboard “—well, two and a half. Now I've got to deliver this tile to the guy who's going to lay it.”

“Shouldn't he be picking up his own tile?”

“I don't know. I've never built a house before. But he's doing some special patterns that require a lot of cutting, and he asked me to pick it up for him, so I did.”

“You just do everything anyone asks, don't you? Your sister says, Come watch over my house, and you drop everything and come. Brady says, Watch over my kid like she's three years old,
and it doesn't even occur to you to tell him no. Except me. I ask to go to one lousy movie, but no, we can't do that.”

“Sweetie, I have thousands of dollars' worth of tile that took five weeks to get in from the manufacturer in the back of this truck, where anyone can reach it. I can't park outside a movie theater for two or three hours and just leave it there.” She pulled onto the expressway that would take them back to Buffalo Plains and Heartbreak, merged into the traffic, then glanced at Lexy, slouched in the passenger seat. “And why shouldn't I help out my sister and your father? Why shouldn't I spend time with you? I
like
you.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.
Brady's
the one you like. You're just trying to get on his good side.”

She'd already been on his good side, Hallie thought with a faint smile—and, heavens, was it
good.
Of course, she would never say anything like that to Lexy. “Is it PMS, normal crankiness or just being a teenager that's got you in such a mood?”

Lexy's only response was a frown, then she pulled the ever-present headphones over her ears and reached inside her backpack to turn on the music.

Hallie didn't mind. She turned on the stereo and switched the setting from Brady's preferred country music to rock, then hummed along with the familiar tunes.

When they reached the outskirts of Buffalo Plains, Lexy removed her headphones. “Can we stop by the house? I gotta pee.”

“Such a refined and gracious request,” Hallie teased as she turned onto the side street that was the quickest route to the Marshall house.

When she pulled into the driveway behind her Mercedes, Lexy unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door. “You can wait here if you want. I'm just gonna—” sarcasm glinted in her eyes when she glanced at Hallie “—make use of the facilities, then change clothes.”

Good, Hallie thought silently as she nodded. After her relatively…er, ordinary clothes the past weekend, today Lexy had chosen black leggings that ended midcalf, a black tank top and, over it all, a sheer black dress printed with purple flowers. In
keeping with the theme, every single earring she wore was a skull or dagger, and her lipstick was a purple so deep it appeared black in a certain light. It had been all Hallie could do to contain her shudder when she'd first seen her.

Black was hell—uh, hard on a person when the temperature was over a hundred, Lexy thought as she closed the pickup's door and started across the yard. When she'd gotten up this morning, it had seemed appropriate, considering that she had officially been gone a week and still there'd been no calls from Sandra.

How dense could her mother be? How could she possibly not know that the first place Lexy would go was to her father? Probably she did know, and just didn't care. And that was okay, 'cause Lexy didn't care, either. She could never see Sandra again, and it wouldn't matter to her at all. She was a lousy mother. Hell—heck—Lexy could take care of herself better than Sandra. She'd been doing it practically all her life. And she liked it here with Brady and Hallie. She kinda liked Buffalo Plains and Mrs. Tucker and the kids she'd met Saturday night, and that deputy Mitch who'd come to the house yesterday had been awfully cute. She'd liked him a whole lot.

But she'd still thought Sandra would have called by now.

Scowling because it hurt even though she didn't care, Lexy climbed the steps, then propped the screen door open with one foot. Brady had let her keep the key she'd snitched after she pointed out that not having it meant she and Hallie had to stay at his house all day or they couldn't come back once they'd left. Now she opened the door, took a step inside and froze.

Holy— Heck, darn, drat— Hell!

The living room was a mess. The pillows and cushions from the couch and chair were thrown all over the place, and the armchair lay on its side. The end tables were turned over, the lamps they'd held broken, their drawers emptied. All the books and videos from the shelves against the wall were on the floor, the fireplace mantel had been swept clean, and the few green plants had been dumped from their pots, stomped and broken.

And it didn't end there. She could see her own clothing scat
tered in the hallway, and in the dining room broken dishes and stuff from the cabinet drawers were everywhere.

Aw, hell, Brady was going to blame her for this, even though he would say he didn't. How could he not? His life had been perfectly normal until
she'd
come along. And now this….

And what if the people who did it were still around?

She backed out of the house and let the screen door bang, then backed to the edge of the porch. Instead of bothering with the steps, she jumped to the ground and reached Hallie's window in seconds. “Someone broke into the house, Hallie! It's all torn up! You gotta call Brady!”

Sandra would have questioned her and doubted her and gone to see for herself to make sure she wasn't lying, but not Hallie. She dug in her purse for her cell phone and started dialing without question. Lexy liked that.

Hugging her arms to her chest, Lexy leaned against the bed of the pickup and waited. If weird stuff didn't quit happening, Brady was going to send her away for sure, and he'd probably never let her come back. He was expecting her to leave soon anyway, though he hadn't asked her about it lately. But she didn't want him to decide before then that she was more trouble than she was worth.

Within seconds of Hallie getting off the phone, they heard a siren coming their way from the east side of town. It seemed like just seconds after that, though it must have been at least a couple minutes, when Brady turned onto the street from the highway to the west. Deputy Mitch arrived right after Brady, and they went in the house together, leaving Lexy and Hallie in the driveway.

“He's awfully good-looking, isn't he?” Hallie asked.

“Who?”

“Mitch.”

Lexy copied one of her father's favorite looks—that long, steady, measuring gaze. “A little young for you, isn't he?”

Hallie's grin was wicked. “I like 'em young.”

When Lexy didn't respond, Hallie poked her with her elbow. “Come on, lighten up. Everything's okay.”

“Easy for you to say. Some idiot out there isn't stalking you.”

“You're safe, Lexy. Your dad and I would never let anything happen to you.” She slid her arm around Lexy's shoulders and hugged her close. Even though it was miserably hot and they were both sticky, it felt really good and—and motherly, Lexy thought. Not that she had much experience with motherly stuff. That wasn't one of the things Sandra was good at.

After a while, Brady came back out, looking real serious. “They kicked in the back door. It looks like they broke everything they could get their hands on, but as far as I can tell, nothing's missing.”

“I have to deliver this stuff to Neely's tile guy,” Hallie said, “but when I'm done, we'll come back and start cleaning up.”

“No. I don't want you guys here alone. I'll do it this evening.” He looked from her to Lexy. “Why did you come back here?”

“I have to use the bathroom. Can I go now?” Lexy asked.

“Yeah, sure. Be careful of the broken glass.”

Hallie watched until Lexy was inside the house, then turned her attention to Brady. She'd seen plenty of men in uniform, but there was something quite amazing about him in
his
uniform. It fitted as if tailor-made, and the colors—green and khaki, with a tan cowboy hat to match—flattered him. Of course, she hadn't yet seen him in anything that didn't fit perfectly, and she doubted the color existed that wouldn't flatter his dark skin and hair.

Ah, the advantages of being to-die-for gorgeous.

“You look tired,” she remarked.

“Not tired. Just puzzled. Why in hell would someone break in and not take anything? I mean, obviously they were searching for something, but
what?
All Lexy brought with her was a duffel bag of clothes, and God knows, nobody wants to steal them. What else could a fourteen-year-old girl have?”

“You're assuming this is connected to what happened Saturday night and yesterday morning,” Hallie said quietly.

“I've lived here more than six years, and I've never had any trouble. Then Lexy comes to town and—” He gestured toward the house, then shook his head.

“But she's a kid. She's not even from around here.”

“I know. And maybe it's time to send her back where she belongs.”

Hallie stared at him, but he refused to meet her gaze. He looked so serious, so grim and cold. “You can't do that.”

“Hey, we all knew from the day she got here that she had to go back sometime,” he snapped. “Now seems like a good time.”

“And what if this continues and you're not there to protect her?”

The muscle in his jaw started twitching. “Her mother will be there.”

“
Sandra?
You're kidding, right?”

Wearing a chagrined look, as if he couldn't believe he'd suggested Sandra as a protector, he shrugged. “Her stepfather will be around.”

“The man with all the creepy guys working for him? Oh, yeah, that makes me feel so much better. By all means, put her on the next bus that rolls through town and send her home to the parents who obviously love and protect her as if she were their most precious possession—the parents who thought it perfectly reasonable to put her on the damned bus in the first place!”

Finally he did look at her, his expression belligerent. But his eyes…his eyes were filled with shadows and worry. “So what do you suggest? I let her stay here, and hope we can catch these guys before they get her or you?”

“They're not interested in me.”

“You're with her virtually all the time. If you get in their way….”

Hallie focused on breathing deeply, easing the tension and anger—and, yes, fear—knotted inside her. It was another hot day, and the sky was clear from horizon to horizon, a soft pale lazy blue that invited stretching out underneath it and relaxing. It was too bright a day to let darkness take control.

Calmer, she laid her hand on Brady's arm, bringing his attention to her. “Have you considered the possibility that this is just a run-of-the-mill, garden-variety break-in? Even a perfect little town like Buffalo Plains must have them from time to time.”

“We get our share. But
nothing
was stolen.”

“Maybe they didn't have time. Maybe they were looking for cash, jewelry—something small and easy to hide. Maybe—” She broke off as he solemnly shook his head. “She'll think you're looking for an excuse to get rid of her.”

“She'll have to understand—”

“She's a kid, Brady, who's spending time with her father for the first time in her life. She's not going to understand.”

“Then she'll just have to live with it.”

When he started to turn away, Hallie tightened her grip on his arm. He turned back to look at her, and she quietly asked, “
Are
you looking for an excuse to get rid of her?”