Chapter Eight
Breakfast dishes were a team effort, reminding Dalton what it was like to have family around. He’d gotten used to living alone. Too used to it?
After documenting the shoe imprint and filing it with his office, he read the crime scene report from Houston PD looking for nuggets of useful information.
The officer on the report had been wet behind the ears, barely in his twenties.
Not that Dalton was old at twenty-eight, but the officer had seemed younger than his years.
Besides, Dalton had grown up fast and never looked back.
Did it have to do with coming from a big family?
Probably. That, and growing up on a paint horse ranch where there was no shortage of work.
Everyone pitched in. Chores were a way of life growing up in a ranching community.
Dalton had been as wild as a young buck too. His feet rarely saw shoes in the summer unless he was far out on ranch property. When he was bareback on a horse, he didn’t see a need for shoes.
Looking back, it was a magical childhood even though he might not have realized it at the time. No. He’d taken it for granted. Like breathing. Walking. Getting out of bed every morning.
His grandparents’ conditions reminded him to slow down and take a look around. Was he afraid of what he’d see?
“Can we play?” Chase asked, bringing over a plastic horse that was sized for a Barbie doll.
“I’m afraid I can’t right now,” Dalton said. He regretted the words the second Chase’s shoulders rounded in defeat.
“I get it,” the boy said. “You’re too busy, just like my dad always says.” He turned to walk away.
“Do you have a baseball?” Dalton asked.
Chase spun around, his face lit like a tree on Christmas morning. “Do I?” He bolted upstairs to what was probably his room. Despite his small size, he made quite a racket on the stairs as he ran up then down.
“Outside with that,” Blakely warned, pointing out the back door. A second later, she realized that she’d just asked them to stay outside where Chase would be exposed in the open. “Or, maybe just go to your room to play.”
Chase let out a disappointed sigh.
“I just don’t want anything to get broken in the living room,” Blakely explained.
“We should probably listen to your aunt,” Dalton said.
“Will you go upstairs with me?” Chase asked, expecting Dalton to bail based on the kid’s expression.
“Why not?” Dalton reasoned. “Let’s go.”
“Yay,” Chase said, then chanted all the way up the staircase.
The little boy had a way of wiggling into even the coldest heart.
* * *
“Are you going to tell me what happened between you and Greg?” Blakely asked her sister as the two moved to the couch and then sat side by side.
“You go first,” Bethany countered.
“Not sure I have anything to discuss.”
“What really happened last night?” Bethany asked. “Who is he?”
“That’s a question for law enforcement on the case,” Blakely said. “Believe me, I wish I had an answer.”
“Are you going in to work tomorrow?” Bethany asked.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Bethany made eyes at her. “Oh, I don’t know. Because you were attacked in your driveway and could have been killed.” Her sister’s lips formed a thin line. Brackets formed around her mouth. Worry lines etched her forehead.
“I have twenty-four-hour protection,” Blakely pointed out. “The chances of the bastard returning, let alone getting to me, are almost nonexistent.” It was the crack in the sidewalk that allowed weeds to grow.
“Dalton will be staying over again?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “It’s his job, and he pulled the ‘lucky’ card to protect me.” She made air quotes with her fingers when she said the word lucky.
“That must be how you guys know each other,” Bethany surmised. “I should have guessed. The two of you probably run into each other at the courthouse.”
Not really. But Blakely had no plans to tell her sister the two of them hadn’t seen each other before the Galveston weekend. Clearly. What were the odds he would pull this assignment?
When you considered her luck, they were high, actually.
“I’m guessing there’s no word on a suspect yet,” Bethany continued.
“I would have heard something if an arrest had been made,” Blakely reassured. Which didn’t mean she would necessarily know if the officers had a suspect.
“It’s awful to think there’s a possibility that I might lose you too,” Bethany said.
Blakely put an arm around her younger sister. “I’m not planning on going anywhere.” A tear fell, leaving a stain on Blakely’s pajama bottoms. “Hey. I’m serious. I’m here, and I don’t want you to worry. Okay?”
“You and Chase are all I’ve got left,” Bethany said under her breath.
“Are you and Greg getting a divorce?”
Bethany exhaled a long, slow breath. Didn’t speak.
“Okay, you have to tell me what happened with him,” Blakely urged.
“He had an affair,” she stated before giving in to quiet sobs.
The fact Blakely had just been nice to Greg, comforting him, caused bile to rise in her throat. She should have given him a piece of her mind instead. Once again, she was reminded those closest to you would only end up hurting you in the end.
“I’m so sorry, sweetie,” she whispered to her sister as she stroked her hair.
“Someone from work,” Bethany said.
“He confessed this to you last night?”
“That would have been better,” she said.
“But, no, I found out because she texted him while he was in the bathroom.” A few sniffles quieted Bethany for several beats.
“She was sexting him while he was on a date night with his wife. How cliché am I now? Married young. Had a child young. Husband cheated. Divorced before thirty-one.”
“You two seemed to have it all,” Blakely said. “There’s nothing wrong with you wanting to believe the fairy tale.”
“Except for the fact the traditional fairy tale is as outdated as I feel,” Bethany said. “I didn’t finish my degree. What kind of job am I going to be able to get to support myself and Chase?”
“Greg will pay child support,” Blakely reminded. “He might not have been around for Chase, but Greg loves his son and trusted that you were taking care of Chase’s needs. There’s no way he’ll leave you in a bad situation. Besides, the last time I spoke to him business was thriving.”
“Can I trust anything the man says?”
Good question. One Blakely didn’t want to touch. “The love you shared with Greg was real. And he obviously doesn’t want to lose you. I’m not saying you should forgive him or go back. Those are your decisions, and I’ll support you no matter what. But he’ll take care of you either way.”
“Yeah?” Bethany asked with no sign of hope in her voice. Then, she added, “Who takes care of you?”
Blakely didn’t have a good answer to her sister’s question.
Until recently, she hadn’t given it a thought.
Milestone birthdays had a way of sneaking up on you.
Turning thirty had caused her to assess her life.
Career was on track. Actually, she was doing better than she’d expected there. Personal life?
No one had it all. Right?
Except maybe someone like Dalton. The man was sharp, had a sense of humor and looks that could kill.
Thinking about last night, she regretted the last word.
“It doesn’t sound like Greg to cheat,” Blakely said. How well did she know her brother-in-law?
Bethany shrugged. “People change, I guess.” She blew out a breath. “I should have seen it coming. All those late nights at the office, ‘working.’” She hooked her fingers in air quotes.
“Did he offer an explanation?” Blakely asked. As awful as this was, it was taking her mind off her own trouble.
“For cheating or working late?”
“Working late,” she confirmed.
“There was always an excuse.” Bethany leaned her head to one side, resting it on her fist as she propped her elbow up on the back of the sofa.
“I thought he hired someone to be his right-hand person last year,” Blakely continued.
“He did,” her sister said. “Except that Greg said he had to be the one to deal with customers to ensure they had a good experience, or they’d take their business elsewhere.
” Bethany sank into the sofa. “It’s probably my fault too.
I mean, I kept asking for a bigger house and nicer cars.
” She tapped her wrist, which held several expensive bracelets.
“I loved when he gave me presents.” She gasped.
“I think I started loving the gifts more than Greg.” Another deep breath.
“What if I walked him straight into the arms of someone else who would put less pressure on him?”
“You didn’t.”
“We don’t know that,” she said, shaking her head for emphasis. “It could be my fault too.”
“First of all, I don’t like hearing you blame yourself,” Blakely said calmly.
Relationships were complicated, and she didn’t have a leg to stand on personally.
But she’d witnessed the deterioration of many once-blissful unions.
At least from the outside, the couples seemed happy.
“You aren’t the one who violated your marriage.
Don’t let Greg off the hook so easily. He could have talked to you first. Told you how he was feeling.
Brought you into the workplace more. I’m sure you would have rolled up your sleeves and pitched in. ”
“What if I told him that I was too tired when Chase was a baby, so he never asked me again?”
“Again, not exactly your fault,” Blakely pointed out. “When Chase had colic, you didn’t sleep for what felt like months. You could barely keep your eyes open while we were in the middle of a conversation.”
“Funny how Father Time steals your memories,” she said.
Some memories stuck with you forever, etched in the scars on your body as much as the ones in your mind.
“Don’t tell me you forgot,” Blakely teased.
“Honestly, that whole time was a blur,” Bethany admitted. “If I didn’t have pictures and videos, I wouldn’t even remember Chase as an infant.”
“Even that fresh-from-the-bath smell?”
“I could never forget that,” Bethany said with a rare smile.
“Don’t make any decisions about your life or your marriage while you’re this tired, okay?”
“That’s probably good advice.” Bethany bit down on her bottom lip like she used to when they were teenagers and she couldn’t decide what to do next. “It’s just that I never see going back home and pretending nothing happened.”
“I’m not telling you what to do, so don’t take this the wrong way,” Blakely said. She wasn’t sticking up for Greg so much as making sure her sister played this smart. “But couples do work through infidelity.”
“I never thought we were just like other couples, though.”
If something like this could happen to Bethany and Greg, no one would be immune.
The crack of a bullet split the air. For a half second, she worried Chase had gotten hold of Dalton’s gun. Impossible. Dalton would not be that careless.
Blakely shoved her sister to the floor and followed, crouching low. She risked a glance. The family room window leading out to the backyard was cracked and had a bullet hole dangerously close to where Blakely’s head had been while seated on the couch. Wild shot?
Not a chance.
Blood pressure through the roof, she didn’t hear Dalton until the lock snicked in the front door and then again when he locked it after leaving.
The thought of anything happening to him caused her chest to squeeze as she reached for her cell to call 911.
Blood on her arm sent waves of panic through her as she checked her body to see where she’d been shot.
But it wasn’t her.
Bethany.
“Oh no,” Blakely said as her sister’s body went limp. “Bethany. Stay with me. You’re going to be okay.” She could scarcely get out the words through blinding tears and the frog in her throat. “Wake up. Please.”