Chapter 9
“Are you upstairs, Adam?”
Sheriff Lawler’s voice cut into the moment happening between Adam and Prudence. With great effort, she pulled back first. He opened those incredible coral-sea blue eyes, and she knew she was in trouble.
“Coming,” he said, and his voice was gruff.
“Go on down and talk to him. I’ll be right there,” she said, needing a minute to pull herself together.
Adam leaned in for one more kiss and it literally curled her toes. Talking to him about her family had been so freeing, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
“I’ll fill him in on the medication combination,” he said. “Do you want me to take her downstairs?”
She nodded, needing time to catch her breath there too. Her mind had been filled with images of her, Adam, and Angel living together as a family, and that wasn’t going to happen. Angel already had parents out there. Prudence would never try to stand in the way of a reunion.
Adam disappeared down the stairs as Prudence tried to will her pulse back to normal.
Her heart beat against her ribcage, hammering out its own frantic rhythm.
Breathing was already difficult, so when she thought about the inevitable moment they would hand Angel over to Sheriff Lawler, pain tightened her chest.
Angel deserved to be with her parents no matter how attached Prudence was becoming. She needed to get a grip. Moving into the bathroom, she stopped at the sink to splash cold water on her face.
There, she was already feeling better. She teased a comb through her kinky hair as best she could.
Lot of good that did and there was no time to straighten it with an iron.
In times like these, it was best to embrace the curls.
She dabbed gel on her hand before rubbing her palms together. Slicking it through her hair helped.
She grabbed her small tin of tinted lip gloss. She tapped her pinky finger inside and then circled her lips a couple of times—lips that were still swollen from Adam’s kisses. The man was a good kisser. Beyond good. In fact, that was the most electric kiss she’d ever experienced.
Dating had been tricky given her background.
Prudence had powered through the first couple, checking her watch every time her dates looked away.
Just like anything, time and practice helped her improve.
Meeting new people had always been a trigger.
Maybe it was because she knew Fallon, but Prudence felt nothing but comfortable around Adam despite how the air crackled from their chemistry.
A few deep breaths and a little eyeliner made her feel human again. She resisted the urge to change clothes since the ones she had on were clean. She wanted to get downstairs and hear what Lawler had to say.
Lawler and Adam were standing in the kitchen when she joined them. Deputy Smithfield must have gotten what he needed because he was nowhere to be seen. Relief washed over her that none of her valuables were missing.
Except her car, purse, and cell phone.
With her laptop, her cell phone would be easy enough to track. If she were lucky, she’d hit the jackpot of locating all three.
“Morning,” Lawler said.
“Same to you.” Prudence didn’t like the look on his face. “Would you like to sit down? I can fix a cup of coffee.”
“No, thanks.” He held a shaky hand up. “I’ve had four cups already. Any more and I’m afraid I’ll cause an earthquake.”
She smiled.
“I’ll take you up on the offer to sit, though.” He walked over to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair. “Adam just filled me in about the medication interaction.”
“It’s such a relief to know and be able to stop the blackouts,” she admitted, taking a seat in front of her laptop. Was that also the reason for her new bravado? It was a bravado she planned to hang onto.
“I can imagine so,” Lawler said as Adam joined them.
She looked around. “Nothing seems to be missing. Except, of course, my cell, purse, and car. I’m guessing I had those with me. So, I doubt they had anything to do with the burglary.”
Lawler shook his head and gave an ominous look that caught Prudence’s full attention. She compressed her lips together and didn’t hide a frown.
“I don’t think this is a coincidence,” he started.
“Why not?” She had her own obvious reasons for questioning the timing too. She wanted to hear him out first.
“Burglars usually go the easy route. They’re in and out, stealing you blind before you know it,” he said and then paused. “I suspect this perp and his cohorts were waiting for you to come home.”
“Could he be someone I know?” Didn’t that make the hairs on the back of her neck prickle? Thinking someone familiar to her would break inside her home and wait for her return sent an icy chill down her back.
“I’m not ruling out the possibility. This person might know you from a distance, on social media, or through a work acquaintance,” he said.
“He came for her, right?” She motioned toward Angel.
“That’s my hunch,” he said. The thought made her skin crawl.
“So, they figured out where I live,” she whispered, stating mere fact. “Does that mean they’ll come back?”
“It’s possible.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “Probable.”
“My aunt and uncle sold their place a couple of years ago to be close to her sister in Houston, so that’s not an option. I can stay in a motel or something until this is cleared up.” This was nothing like the crime against her parents, and yet that same dark-cloud feeling engulfed her.
“You can stay with me at the ranch. Hell, the main house is empty. You could have it to yourself,” Adam interjected.
“That might be a good idea,” Lawler said.
Letting someone cause her to run away from her own home burned her from the inside out. She wouldn’t be stupid, though. She’d grit her teeth and take the safest action. “Okay.”
Lawler nodded, like he understood the sacrifice she would be making before turning his attention toward Adam. “There’s more.”
Adam picked up a pencil sitting on the table and rolled it around his fingers. “She needs a security system and—”
“It’s about your ex.” Lawler shot an apologetic look toward Prudence like he’d picked up on the attraction running between them.
She had no designs on Adam. He was helping her through a rough patch.
That was all. They’d kissed a couple of times.
Their emotions were most likely heightened since she’d been in danger.
An annoying voice in the back of her mind called her out on the oversimplification.
Her heart disagreed with the assessment despite logic trying to intervene and convince her their chemistry was circumstantial.
“What about her?” Adam let go of the pencil. It tumbled onto the table and rolled before coming to a stop against the saltshaker.
“I checked on her to see where she was and how she was doing,” Lawler said.
The implication sitting in the room was that he didn’t trust Adam’s story. He reached for the pencil, this time keeping a firm grip on it. Adam’s gaze narrowed and his lips thinned. Was he over her?
“I apologize for being the one to have to tell you this,” Lawler hedged. Hemming and hawing only served to increase Adam’s tension. She could see it in the taut muscles of his face.
“Spit it out. I’m a grown man and we broke up almost a year ago,” Adam said. It occurred to her that he was expecting to hear engagement or marriage news. He tensed like a prizefighter preparing to take a punch.
“Her parents identified her body.” Lawler stopped there as though taking a lighter approach might somehow soften the blow.
The pencil cracked under Adam’s grip.
“How did it happen? When?” A mix of anger and shock laced his tone. There was another emotion present too. Disbelief?
“According to the coroner’s report, she was strangled sometime between four and six days ago,” Lawler said. He lowered his head before adding, “I’m sorry for the loss.”
Murder?
A gasp escaped before Prudence had a chance to bring her hand up to cover. Half a dozen questions sprang to mind. Was Libby in an abusive relationship? For how long? Had she been forced to refuse Adam’s proposal in some way?
Prudence reached across the table to touch Adam in a show of support. He immediately withdrew. The broken pencil slammed into the table as he smacked his hand down.
Angel started fussing as realization rammed Prudence like a head-on collision. One question floated to the surface…was Adam a father?
This news changed everything for Adam.
“Does Angel belong to her?” he asked.
“Yes,” Lawler said.
Adam knew what the sheriff’s next question would be. “I still don’t believe I’m the father.”
“I know,” Lawler said. “And we don’t have to take a sample or do any tests. The most important one is seeing if we can tie the little girl to Elizabeth.”
“Libby,” Adam corrected.
“She went by Libby. Her full name is…” Lawler flashed eyes at Adam, “was Elizabeth Sue Warrington.”
“Warrington? Isn’t that a prominent Houston family?” he asked.
“Yes,” Lawler responded.
“She told me her last name was Daniels.” He was certain he’d seen identification as such. “I was never told that,” he conceded, wondering what else she’d hidden.
“There are signs when someone’s had a baby,” Prudence chimed in.
“Obviously,” Lawler agreed. “It’s the reason I’d like to run the test.”
Prudence compressed her lips in a frown. She looked at the baby with the most tender expression.
Despite the breakup, hearing Libby was dead hit him in a dark place.
She was too young, too vibrant. Looking back, she might not have been right for him and she seemed to have sense enough to know it, but he didn’t wish this on her.
Losing his grandfather was difficult, but the Marshall had lived a full life.
Libby’s had barely even begun. The unfairness of it fisted his hands.
No life should be cut short from senseless violence, especially not someone with her whole life ahead of her.
Angel wiggled in his lap and he could have sworn the little girl could sense his mood shift. She’d gone from happy and contented to fussy and agitated in a matter of seconds.
“I can feed her,” Prudence offered.
Adam nodded.
She took a turn fixing the bottle and he handed over the baby, still reeling from the news. And what if Libby was Angel’s mother? What then? What would happen to the little girl?
“She was secretive about her family,” he said to Lawler after reclaiming his seat. “Told me they didn’t get along and she rarely spoke to them. Was that true?”
“I have a deputy over there speaking to them right now. You know I can’t comment on an ongoing murder investigation,” Lawler said.
“I’m just trying to figure out how much of our relationship was a lie.
” To think he’d planned to spend the rest of his life with someone who’d kept her identity from him.
It seemed like something out of a TV show, not real life.
Not his life. How did Libby get one over on him for almost a year of dating?
Job hazard, he thought. He worked long hours on the ranch.
Animals needed care seven days a week. He’d been covering for Casey during his wife’s pregnancy, so they could spend more time together.
And then there was his aversion to all things social media.
The only reason he ever turned on a screen was to watch an occasional game.
It was easy to have as background noise when he was at his home.
He wasn’t much on surfing the internet and Libby had almost always come to him after the initial few months of dating.
There’d been a dinner out when he’d almost gone face-down at the table during calving season.
Looking back, he realized it took a special person to want to be a rancher’s wife. She would have to be real comfortable being alone for long periods of time, and happy to stay in rather than go out much of the time. Libby had come to him, but he’d sensed she was getting bored with staying in.
Considering he didn’t know her real last name, he couldn’t take much of their relationship on face value.
Was she spending time with him to hide out from an ex?
Was she seeing someone else during their relationship?
What about her folks? Did they know about him as she’d said?
Or had she kept him a secret from them too?
Adam stood up and paced around the room as anger surfaced. “What do you need for a DNA test?”
He didn’t believe he was Angel’s father. However, he needed to put the question to rest.
“Swab of the inside of your cheek,” Lawler said. “And hers.”
“Simple enough.” Adam made another lap. Now, he needed to know who had targeted Prudence. Was it the same person who’d killed Libby? The coincidence would be…
Right. The only connection was him. Libby lived in Austin where they’d met on a weekend when he’d gone to hear his favorite low-key country band play, Bottoms Up Red, featuring a local girl done good, Raleigh Perry.
Libby had caught his eye. She was a beautiful woman with her long blonde hair and green eyes. She’d put on more makeup than he thought she needed, the complete opposite of Prudence who barely wore any.
The pink gloss on her lips called attention to her creamy skin.
But he was supposed to be thinking about Libby.
She had always been dressed to the nines.
Hair done up and always wearing heels. She’d been a little too slick for him in the beginning with her bronzed skin and California beach body.
In fact, he’d nicknamed her California in the early days.
It had taken a month for her to finally pluck up the courage to ask him not to call her by that name.
Strange thinking about it now, considering she’d lied about the very thing she was upset about. He didn’t know her last name.
“She had a fake ID with a different last name on it,” Adam told Lawler.
The lawman perked up at the news.
“Oh yeah?” he asked.
“Daniels. Her ID said Libby Daniels,” Adam supplied.
He couldn’t help but think about Prudence’s raw honesty.
Her simple beauty had drawn him in. She didn’t feel the need to cover up her true self.
He’d liked that about her instantly. He also never would have described a pair of sweatpants as sexy before, except that was what he thought when she had them on.
Still, he had no plans to act on his attraction to Prudence. The couple of white-hot kisses they’d shared were the end of it. Period. Whatever was going on between them needed to be cut off right then and there before someone got hurt.
His job required all of his attention. His grandfather had just passed away. His time was already committed to the family and the ranch.
Speaking of being so tired he could barely remember his name, it dawned on him that Libby had stopped by after the breakup. Once. They’d had breakup sex. He’d insisted on using a condom, like always, but the possibility Angel was his child could no longer be denied.