Chapter Three #2
There was something about her. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
She just…didn’t fit into any easy categorizations.
He couldn’t get a handle on just who she was.
The quiet, demure woman who stood in the background while her sister raged around.
The tough rancher lady handling all this on her own, basically.
The frustrated woman who’d given him the cold shoulder when she thought he’d been responsible for her sister’s injury.
None of it melded together to make sense to him. That’s why he found her fascinating. Once he could peg her, this uncomfortable reaction to just how pretty she was would fade away.
After a cold if short ride, she came to a stop and swung off her horse, easy as you please. Copeland followed suit and dismounted without making a fool of himself. Audra pointed to the fence. He could see exactly where it had been fixed, so he handed her the reins of his horse and got to work.
Happy to have a purpose that wasn’t her, he got out his flashlight and looked at the now fixed fence.
He wished he could have examined it before they’d mended it, but between the cattle prints, boot prints and horse prints all in the melting, blowing, falling snow… he probably wouldn’t have found much.
Still, he took a few of his own pictures just in case.
“Let me see the picture of what it looked like broken.”
Audra held out her phone, and brought up a picture on the screen. “It’s a little blurry. Norman isn’t the best with technology, but you can make it out.”
He could. One post had been completely pulled out of the ground and tossed down. “Someone did that.”
“Norman thinks it was a cow.”
He could hear it in her voice, the obvious thread of doubt. He glanced up at her, met her gaze. “You don’t.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. Her blue eyes looked desolate, even in the encroaching dark. “I don’t.”
He had the annoying reaction to want to soothe her. But she was tough and what did soothing do for anybody? Sure didn’t solve the problem.
“I’m going to need a list of anyone who might have it out for you, Audra.”
She laughed, though there was clearly no humor in it. “Out for me? No one has it out for me.”
“Everything that’s happening says different.”
“It’s all just a weird mix-up.”
“Then why did you come to me? A police detective. Some extensive ruse to get my attention?”
When she laughed this time, it was with humor, though maybe a little more than he’d been going for. Even if it was good to see her laugh. And she looked a damn sight prettier when she did that instead of looking scared and beaten down.
Still. “It’s not that funny,” he muttered.
“Right. Right.” She cleared her throat and fixed a very serious expression on her face. “Seriously though. I don’t know anyone who’d… Why would anyone want to mess with me this way? I can’t think of a soul.”
“Think of it less as who could or would do this and just focus on anyone you might have made mad. Even something that seems superficial to you. Any person who might be a little ticked off at you.”
She sighed, and in the sound he heard an exhaustion born of something deeper than whatever this was. “I’ll see what I can come up with. Come on, let’s head back before it’s full-on dark.”
It scraped at him as they rode back. The way she seemed so defeated. It just…wasn’t right. Out of character. Not that he knew her character. Having a few run-ins with somebody didn’t mean he knew them, even if he was usually pretty good at pegging people quickly and accurately.
They got back to the stables. This time he dismounted first. When she did the same, the dismount was as smooth as her mount, but then she…stumbled when her feet hit the ground. Not over something, just like her legs kind of gave out.
He was quick enough to grab her before she tumbled forward. For a minute, she seemed to struggle to get her feet under her, and her whole body trembled a little bit.
He wasn’t stupid enough to think it was some reaction to him catching her, but the fact he wanted to believe that irritated him enough to be frustrated. “Jesus, what the hell is wrong with you?”
She jerked out of his grasp, and he thought she was more angry with herself than at him, but took it out on him just the same. “I’m exhausted and starving, that’s what’s wrong with me.”
“Well, why don’t you eat and sleep?”
“Gee. I hadn’t thought of that.” She took the horses into the stables. He knew enough about the whole process that she had to take the saddles off and he knew how to do all that, so he nudged her out of the way. “I can do it,” he muttered.
He could feel her wanting to argue with him, but she didn’t. She watched, and once she seemed satisfied that he wasn’t completely ignorant, she filled something in each stall with water and handled other things he supposed were important.
He got the equipment off and put it all back where she’d had it before the ride. They worked in silence until done. Then she shut the stall doors. He followed her back out into the freezing cold night.
“Thanks,” she muttered. “Listen, I’ve got some food, if you’re hungry. We can discuss next steps.” She started walking toward the house.
“You don’t want me to eat with you.”
She didn’t respond for a moment. “No, I don’t, but it’s the polite thing to offer.”
Something about that really amused the hell out of him. That she was honest enough to admit she didn’t want him there, but had a belief that politeness should trump what she wanted. Ridiculous.
But kind of sweet.
He should get the hell out of here. What was he doing being intrigued by sweet? Not his MO.
But he couldn’t deny he was curious to see what the inside of the house looked like. What Audra’s dinner might look like. How exactly this woman, who claimed no one would be mad at her, lived.
“Then I guess it’s the polite thing to do to take you up on it.”
He didn’t miss the way she sighed regretfully. In fact, it made him grin. But she didn’t try to get out of it, just trudged toward the house in the dark, with him close behind.