Chapter Eleven
While Slater read through the latest report from Detective Thayer, he kept an eye on Lana. The worry was still etched on her face, but she was definitely more relaxed as she sat in the rocking chair and fed Cameron his bottle. Slater thought he was more relaxed as well now that they were back in Saddle Ridge.
But being home didn’t mean they were safe.
He’d hoped Taylor would be able to give them proof of Buck’s accomplice so the person could be arrested and any potential threat neutralized. That hadn’t happened, though. The woman hadn’t provided them with any proof that Leonard and Buck were coconspirators. Heck, she hadn’t even given them proof that Leonard had been involved with Alicia.
It had certainly looked that way, though, to Slater.
And that created a boatload of questions and concerns. Had Leonard and Alicia had an affair? Maybe. Julia at Sencor was digging into that. But even if the pair had been lovers, it didn’t mean Leonard or even Buck for that matter had been responsible for Alicia’s death.
Still, the photo was pretty damning since Leonard was a married man, and at the time of that lustful look, he’d been nearly forty, and Alicia had been just eighteen. Any relationship between them would have been a scandal, but it wasn’t anything Leonard could be arrested for.
Or even questioned about.
He and Lana had discussed that on the entire drive back to Saddle Ridge, and they’d agreed that if they confronted her father about it, he’d dismiss it as a simple party photo. Which it very well might be. That’s why Julia and Lana were looking for more, and Slater was certain Lana would get back to the search when she’d finished feeding the baby.
He was thankful Cameron had needed a bottle. Thankful, too, that Lana had been the one to give it to him, and to burp him. Even with all the uncertainty surrounding this investigation, Lana needed this moment or two of downtime.
The other thing they needed was a long-term plan. For now, staying at his family’s ranch was a good temporary solution. Here, in this makeshift nursery where Cameron had plenty of protection. Here, in the two guest rooms he and Lana were using where none of their suspects could come just waltzing up and try to finish what Buck had started.
But here wasn’t home for Lana.
Soon, she’d want to find somewhere more permanent to live with Cameron. Slater was just hoping she’d hold off on that until Buck’s accomplice had been arrested.
Lana was still holding Cameron against her shoulder when her phone dinged with a text. “It’s Julia,” she relayed to him, keeping her voice at a whisper. She glanced through whatever Julia had sent, sighed and got up to ease Cameron back into his crib. The baby didn’t even stir and stayed fast asleep. “She just emailed me a report with some pictures.”
Slater went to her, and they moved to the other side of the room where they’d set up a small office area, and she opened her laptop to access the email and two attached photos. Not of her father and Alicia but rather of Buck and Stephanie at a party. These weren’t from twenty years ago, either, and looked fairly recent.
“This was taken last year,” Lana provided, reading through the report in the email. “Julia found them on social media.” She paused to read some more. “Julia also interviewed four people who were at that party, and two of them verified that Stephanie and Buck had come together. Another, Cassandra Milburn, has agreed to talk to me about Stephanie.”
Julia had provided the woman’s number with instructions for Lana to call Cassandra first chance she got. Lana immediately did that, putting the call on speaker when it was answered.
“Lana?” the woman greeted. “Julia said you’d be calling me, and that Deputy Slater McCullough would be with you and that he’d want to talk to me, too.”
“Yes,” Lana verified. “You’re on speaker, and Deputy McCullough is listening.” She paused. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“We haven’t. Stephanie told me about you, though, so when Julia brought up your name, I knew who you were.”
“You were friends with Stephanie?” Lana asked.
“Friendly,” Cassandra corrected. “We traveled in the same social circles and have similar backgrounds. My mother was an assistant attorney general for the state. Old money and a mile-wide snobbery streak,” she added in a tone to indicate that had been a thorn in her side.
Yes, that was a similar background, and Slater was hoping that meant Stephanie had confided in this woman.
“How honest do you want me to be about your sister?” Cassandra came out and asked.
“Honest,” Lana insisted.
“Good. Because I didn’t want to paint a rosy picture when Stephanie was going through a tough time.”
Lana sighed again. “A tough time with Buck?”
“No. With your parents. They were pressuring her to marry Marsh, and she was rebelling in her own way, and one of those ways was to hook up with Buck. I don’t need to tell you that he was a bad boy to the core. Not the redeemable kind, either. I always thought Buck was dangerous, and when Stephanie got involved with him, I tried to warn her that she was playing with fire.”
“Why did you think Buck was dangerous?” Slater asked, hoping this would dovetail with Alicia’s murder as well.
“Because I dated him when I was sixteen,” she admitted without hesitation. “He was an exciting adrenaline junkie who knew how to have fun. His mood could also change in a heartbeat.” Cassandra’s voice wavered on that last word.
“Was he ever violent with you?” Slater pressed.
“No, but after we had an argument, I thought the potential was there for violence. He scared me, Deputy McCullough, and that’s why I ended things with him. He didn’t take that well, and I didn’t know how to handle him because I was a teenager, and he’d been my first boyfriend,” Cassandra added. “After the breakup, he stalked me for a while until my mother intervened and put a stop to it. She never told me what she said to him, but Buck quit bothering me.”
So, Buck didn’t handle rejection well. At least he hadn’t back then. Maybe that’s what had happened with Alicia? Maybe he’d lost his temper and killed her, and Alicia hadn’t had Cassandra’s powerful mother to intercede.
“Was Buck ever violent with my sister?” Lana asked.
“I don’t think so. They had a hot and fast affair, and like I said, I believe Stephanie was rebelling against your parents. And then she got pregnant,” Cassandra tacked onto that.
Lana jumped right in with another question. “You knew she was pregnant?”
“Yes, I’m a doctor, and Stephanie came to me after she’d done a home pregnancy test. I can’t get into the specifics of what we discussed since doctor-patient confidentiality continues even after death, but I will say that Stephanie was worried about how your parents would react.”
Lana and he both stayed quiet a moment, processing that. “But she wasn’t worried about Buck?”
Cassandra wasn’t so quick to answer. “I thought you might ask that, and I’ve been trying to figure out what to say. Judging from the stories on the news, Buck murdered her? Is that right?”
“Yes,” Lana confirmed.
Again, Cassandra took her time to respond. “I will say that whenever I met with Stephanie, she didn’t claim to be scared of any person in particular. She was just adamant that I not tell anyone she was pregnant.”
Slater considered that a moment. Since Cassandra had already warned Stephanie about Buck being dangerous, it seemed reasonable that Stephanie would have voiced any concerns she had about the father of her baby. Maybe, though, those concerns had surfaced later.
“I’m really sorry about Stephanie,” Cassandra added a moment later. “Could you please tell me what will happen to her child?”
“He’ll be taken care of,” Lana was quick to say. “I have an online appointment with a lawyer tomorrow and will be petitioning for custody.”
“Good, I’m glad,” Cassandra said. “I have to go, but if you have any questions you think I might be able to answer, feel free to call me.”
“I will,” Lana assured her, and ended the call.
They sat there in silence for several moments, and Slater decided to spell out what they’d just learned. “Buck probably didn’t sexually assault Stephanie.”
Lana made a sound of agreement. “And she likely went into hiding, initially anyway, because of our parents and not because of Buck. That doesn’t mean, though, that Buck didn’t threaten her afterward.”
Slater was fast to agree with that as well. “If Stephanie had trusted Buck, she wouldn’t have done the Acknowledgment of Paternity, naming me as the baby’s father.”
Lana’s gaze came to his and held. “You could challenge me for custody because of that. Stephanie obviously wanted you to raise her son.”
“Because she knew I’d protect Cameron from Buck. Or from your parents. Or from anyone else for that matter who might be a threat to him,” Slater reminded her. “And, no, I still have no intentions of challenging you for custody.”
Lana didn’t seem surprised by that, only reassured. Good. She had enough to deal with without worrying about Cameron’s future.
“Thank you,” she muttered, and she glanced at her laptop as if ready to go back to work.
But she didn’t.
She stood, went to him, leaned down and kissed him. Slater hadn’t seen it coming so he hadn’t had time to steel himself for the heat. It hit him full blast and dissolved the reins he had on this need for her. With no reins, he moved right into the kiss as well, letting her taste and the feel of her mouth take him to another time, another place. Where there was no investigation, no threat. Where anything was possible.
He started to stand so he could pull her to him, but Lana placed her palm on his chest, indicating he should remain seated. Instead, she was the one who initiated the body-to-body contact by moving onto his lap. Her breasts landed against his chest, and her hip pressed against the zipper of his jeans.
Slater immediately felt the heat skyrocket. So did the need. Then again, the need was always there when it came to Lana, but with her mouth on his, it drilled the point home.
Everything inside him pointed to her. To this edgy heat that she had created inside him. To all these intense feelings he had for her. And there were so many feelings. Too many to sort out, and even if he had wanted to do that right now, he couldn’t. No way could he think straight when she was kissing him like this.
She slid her hand around the back of his neck, bringing him even closer to her. Deepening the kiss. And giving the heat another jolt that it in no way needed. This wasn’t just a kiss. This wasn’t just foreplay. This was many steps beyond that, and it was those steps that could lead them straight to bed if they weren’t careful.
Slater’s body was all for them landing in bed, but his brain knew there would be consequences. Consequences that he did not want for Lana. When the timing was better, when it was right, he wanted only pleasure for her. Now, though, there would be guilt and doubt, and so many other things that he didn’t want her to feel.
Even after mapping out all the reasons why he should stop, Slater didn’t do that. He took more of the kiss. Took more of Lana. Until the need had turned into a fiery ache that was demanding to be sated.
“Just a little more,” she murmured when he started to ease back from her.
The more was, well, a lot, but Slater just sank right into the kiss and let her take what she needed. Somewhere along the way, he lost sight of why they should even stop, and he found himself taking hold of her and pulling her closer. And closer. Until he’d turned Lana so she was now straddling him.
This definitely wasn’t going to cool them down, but it gave him a good glimpse of what it would be like for them to have full-blown sex. It’d be amazing, that was for certain.
Amazing, with really bad timing.
He latched onto that thought again, but it wasn’t helping him fight this battle he was having with himself. Slater couldn’t figure out how to make himself stop. Thankfully, though, Lana seemed to figure it out. He eased back, gulping in air, and she looked at him.
“I’m not sorry,” she said just as Slater said, “Don’t you dare apologize.”
The corner of her mouth quivered, and she smiled. It was an incredible thing to see, and it eased some of the ache in his body. Not the need, though. Nope. It was there to stay. But it felt so good to see her smile.
“You’ve been a fantasy of mine for a long time now,” she admitted.
He was flattered. And aroused all over again. Slater hoped, though, that she wasn’t about to qualify that with something he didn’t want to hear. Something along the lines that it would never work between them. Thankfully, she didn’t go that route. She just kept it at that, which kept the door open to them fulfilling a fantasy or two when things weren’t so uncertain.
“Work,” she said as if trying to convince herself to move.
But she didn’t move one inch. Lana stayed on his lap and continued to stare at him until that need took on a whole new urgency. Slater was a hundred percent certain he would have acted on that urgency had Lana’s phone not started ringing. Both of them muttered some profanity at the interruption and then checked the crib to make sure the sound hadn’t woken up the baby. It hadn’t. Cameron stayed asleep.
Lana took out her phone and muttered more profanity when she saw the name on the screen. So did Slater, because it was Pamela. While Lana’s mother wasn’t the last person he wanted to speak to, she was close to it. Apparently, Lana felt the same way because she groaned softly when she moved off his lap and onto the chair next to him.
“Lana,” her mother said the moment she answered, and Slater immediately heard the distress in the woman’s voice. It seemed as if she’d spoken her daughter’s name on a sob.
“What’s wrong?” Lana asked, clearly picking up on her mother’s tone.
“That man who tried to blackmail your father just called me,” Pamela blurted, her words running together.
“BoBo,” Slater muttered on a groan, but he kept his voice low enough so that Pamela wouldn’t hear him. He figured Pamela might hang up if she knew he was listening.
“What did he want?” Lana pressed.
“He wanted money.” Pamela made another of those sobbing sounds. “He claimed to have emails from your father and one of his private investigators. Emails that prove your father knew where Stephanie was the whole time she was pregnant.”
So, Austin PD hadn’t managed to arrest BoBo yet if he was calling Pamela. Or maybe the guy was already out on bail and looking for yet another way to cash in on the hacking job that Taylor had paid him to do. It was also possible that BoBo hadn’t managed to get a cent from Leonard so he’d then gone after Pamela.
“Is it true?” Pamela pleaded. “Did your father know where Stephanie was when she was pregnant?”
Lana groaned again. “What did Dad have to say about it?”
“He’s not here, and he’s not answering his phone. Marsh doesn’t know where he is, either. I’m sure your father’s avoiding me because he doesn’t want to answer my questions.”
“Is he aware you know about the emails?” Lana asked.
“I think so. When he didn’t answer his phone, I sent him a text to let him know the blackmailer had called me, and I asked him how I should handle it. Then the blackmailer told me about those emails so I tried to call your father again. I left him a scathing voicemail,” she added, and broke down into what sounded like a full-fledged crying jag.
Slater figured the woman had to be plenty upset, but considering she’d been married to Leonard for nearly four decades, she must have known he was capable of keeping a secret like this. Yet she seemed stunned and heartbroken. Either it was an act or Leonard had truly done a stellar job at hiding the truth.
And maybe not just this truth, either.
He thought of that photo, of the way Alicia had been looking at Leonard. Then he recalled Cassandra’s warning about Buck being dangerous. It was possible that Leonard had known about Buck’s dangerous streak, too, and that the streak had gone all the way back to Alicia. That left Slater with a huge question.
Had Leonard known that Buck murdered Alicia?
If so, Leonard might have been hell-bent on keeping Buck away from Stephanie. It could have been why he’d had both Buck and Stephanie under surveillance of his PIs.
“Your father knew where Stephanie was,” Pamela went on, “and he didn’t tell me. He let me worry all that time. And I was worried sick,” she ranted. “I needed to see my daughter. He knew that, and still he didn’t tell me.”
“I’m not trying to excuse what Dad did,” Lana tried to explain, “but Stephanie wouldn’t have wanted to see you or Dad. She didn’t want to see anyone, including me. Maybe because she was scared of Buck or maybe because she didn’t want to face you while she was pregnant.”
Her mother didn’t answer right away, but she continued to cry. “There’s more,” she said. “Lana, there’s more.”
Lana’s gaze fired to his, and Slater saw plenty of fresh concern there. Slater was sure he was showing some concern, too, because he didn’t like the sound of that.
“What?” Lana asked when her mother didn’t add anything to that.
“After that horrible blackmailer called me, I phoned Taylor.”
“Why?” Lana was quick to demand.
“Because I heard your father mention her. Something about her being the reason this man was trying to blackmail him. I didn’t know what Taylor had done, but I figured she’d be able to give me answers.”
“And did she?” Lana prompted after her mother broke into a fresh sob. This one was even louder than the other one.
“Taylor gave me...something. Something I don’t want to believe,” Pamela wailed. “Lana, I think I need to leave. I think I should go to a safe house, a place like the one you set up for Stephanie.”
Now there was alarm on Lana’s face. “Did Taylor threaten you? Are you scared of her?”
“No.” And that was all Pamela said for several long moments. “I’m not scared of Taylor. I’m scared of your father.”
Lana groaned and scrubbed her hand over her face. “Why? What happened? What did Taylor tell you to make you afraid of him?”
“She said...” Another sob stopped Pamela. “Taylor said that it was your father who killed Stephanie and that it wasn’t the first time he’d killed someone.” Both her voice and her breath broke. “Taylor said he killed Slater’s father, too.”