Chapter 10
Prudence put two-and-two together, realizing what Adam seemed to be in denial about. He and his ex broke off their relationship less than a year ago. There were fifty-two weeks in a year. It took forty to have a baby. His fatherhood depended on the timeline of their breakup.
Her heart went out to the little girl who would never know her mother. The writing was on the wall about Libby. She had possibly even scribbled the note for someone to get her baby to Adam moments before dying.
How awful was that?
Other inevitable questions followed. Was she trying to get her baby to a man who she knew would protect her? Or was she simply trying to unite a baby with her father?
As Prudence gazed at the sweet little girl who seemed so content taking down her bottle, her heart literally bled at her loss.
At least she’d had nine years with her family.
It might not be much, but she had a couple of memories she clung to and a box of family photos in the attic she didn’t have the heart to bring down.
Prudence’s mind reeled. She knew what it was like to grow up without a mother.
She’d been so young when she lost hers that she barely remembered her.
Her aunt and uncle rarely spoke about Prudence’s parents.
Now, she realized it had probably been hard on them too.
They were good people and it had been such a tragedy.
Prudence had developed a stutter, that had taken years to overcome, and it had been part of the reason she’d kept to herself during her school years.
Her aunt had had a cat named Percy. Percy was a fancy Himalayan with more white fur than Prudence had ever seen.
The cat would sit at the foot of Prudence’s bed while she read out loud, her aunt’s idea.
It had been a stroke of brilliance too. Reading to Percy didn’t make Prudence feel self-conscious when the words wouldn’t come out right.
She’d developed two loves during those years, animals and reading.
Even now, Prudence preferred a quiet night at home or with other people’s pets to going out to some splashy restaurant or loud bar. She’d always been a solitary person, long before the tragedy.
There’d always been enough in Lone Star Pass to keep her active and busy.
The move to Austin had been harder on her.
First of all, living downtown was like being locked inside one of those ant farms. Everyone seemed to be crawling on top of each other, trying to climb somewhere…
anywhere else. A memory that stuck out was being on Lake Travis over Memorial Day weekend.
Her parents had rented two double kayaks but the wake from passing boats made it next to impossible to go anywhere.
Ten minutes into the hour rental, they’d returned to shore.
She glanced down at Angel. Right then and there she promised to be there for the little girl much in the way her own aunt and uncle had been there for her. Without them, Prudence had no idea how she would have turned out.
But then, being a Firebrand would give Angel all the family she could handle.
Prudence couldn’t help but muse there was a lot of testosterone over there on the family’s ranch.
She knew of Adam’s mother even though she didn’t know the woman personally.
Was he close to his parents? Based on what he’d said so far, she didn’t think so.
There was so much the two of them didn’t know about each other. And yet, she could have sworn she saw her entire life flash before her eyes when they’d first met. A life together. A future.
How wild was that?
She chalked it up to residual effects of the medication.
Real love developed over time, between two people who knew each other.
Yet what she felt with Adam was stronger than anything she’d experienced.
An attraction like a planet pulling the sun toward it.
And, yes, she’d thought about how amazing he must be in bed considering how well he knew how to work his tongue.
But that was physical. This was so much more than that.
There was no way she could ignore how much she was drawn to the man.
Bottle finished, Prudence burped the baby before excusing herself to change her diaper in the living room.
At this rate, they would run out of diapers soon.
At least the feeding would buy them a few more hours to figure out their next move.
She looked around, thinking how much she hated that jerk who’d broken into her house, for violating her safe haven.
Most folks in town left their doors unlocked.
She’d always been careful. Seeing how easy it was to violate her home caused a streak of anger a mile wide to course through her.
No one got to take her sense of security away from her again. No one, she repeated to herself for emphasis.
Looking at Angel, she couldn’t help but think she’d go to the ends of the earth to ensure the baby never experienced that kind of fear. Prudence caught herself. She was being overprotective over a child that wasn’t even hers.
When had this little girl wiggled her way into Prudence’s heart?
From Adam’s vantage point in the kitchen, he kept one eye on Prudence and Angel as he waited for Lawler to return with a DNA test kit. He sat there, tapping his fingers on the table, an uneasy feeling gripping him.
It was impossible to imagine Libby dead.
His hands fisted, anger surged, and he scanned the room in search of an easy outlet.
Their relationship might not have worked out, but damn.
He didn’t wish death on his worst enemy.
He searched his brain for the timing of their breakup sex.
The time period was a still fuzzy considering it had been during calving season but had to be at least a few weeks after she walked away.
They’d been together roughly eight weeks shy of a year.
Again, he smacked the flat of his palm on the tabletop.
The back door opened, and Lawler walked in. There were two kits in hand. He sidestepped a patch of broken glass on his way over. Adam figured he could clean up the shards once Lawler joined Prudence and Angel in the living room to collect her sample.
It didn’t take two minutes for the sheriff to take Adam’s DNA.
Adam glanced in the next room and his chest squeezed at watching Prudence play with the baby. Angel was on top of her blanket on the floor, her arms and legs kicking and punching. The sounds of her cooing nearly did him in.
So, the kid was cute. Didn’t mean she belonged to him.
He stood up and grabbed the broom leaning against the back door.
The perp could have used it to break the window.
He reminded himself to tell Prudence not to leave anything outside that could be used as a weapon.
Folks forgot about things like brooms, ladders, and gardening tools.
All of which could be used to smash a window without the perp getting so much as a nick.
After sweeping up as many of the big chunks as he could, he located a paper bag to use as a dustpan. He folded it over and swept up as much of the debris as he could. One thing that stood out about growing up a Firebrand was that each one knew how to be self-sufficient.
Had Adam developed a habit of depending on himself? To the extent he’d stopped letting others in?
Libby had told him she couldn’t envision living her life on the ranch, waiting around for him to come home every day, no matter how much she loved him.
And she’d used the word, loved. His heart had been wrecked and his judgment clearly had gone down with it when she showed up at his door, her cheeks stained with tears.
She’d told him how much she missed him and wished things could be different.
Still nursing a bruised ego, he’d taken her by the hand and led her inside. They didn’t make it two steps in the door before her raincoat tumbled onto the floor and she stood there wearing nothing but a silk bra and panties.
Those details were etched into his mind, but the timing… The days ran together that time of year on a cattle ranch. He could rack his brain all day and still come up empty.
He walked over to the kitchen sink and wet a half dozen paper towels, a trick his mother had taught him to get all the shards. Growing up the oldest in a house of nine boys meant plenty of broken glass, be it someone dropping their drink or a ball through a window.
His childhood had been a good one despite all the fights that came with too much testosterone under one roof. Don’t even get him started on the conflict that came with nine cousins, also boys, living on the same property.
Adam had claimed the fishing cabin for himself the day he’d turned eighteen, and there’d been no objections to him moving in on the last day of high school.
His mother’s only requirement was that he graduated.
Sitting in a classroom for another four years sounded about as appealing as peeling wallpaper off walls with his thumbs, so he’d forgone the athletic scholarship waiting for him in favor of going straight into the family business.
He’d taken two years’ worth of online classes, enough to get an associate’s degree in business.
“I’ll take these samples in. It’ll be anywhere from two to five days before I get the results from the lab,” Lawler said.
This was going to be the longest few days of Adam’s life.
“There any way to speed up the process?” Adam figured it was worth a shot to ask.
“I’m afraid not. I’ll be calling in a favor to make a play, but I can’t guarantee anything. I have no idea how backed up the lab is,” Lawler explained.
“I’d appreciate a call the minute results come in,” Adam said mostly for his own benefit. Lawler would call.
He nodded his reassurance.
“My deputy is filling out the report on the break-in here,” he said. “I have a few phone calls to make and a full inbox to attend to back at my office. I haven’t been there at all since yesterday morning.”
“Thank you for everything you’re doing on the investigation,” Adam said. Part of him wanted to ask to see Libby, to confirm with his own eyes she was gone. “How are Libby’s parents taking the news?”
“They’re shocked, of course,” he admitted.
“Said they hadn’t seen her much since she moved to Austin.
Needless to say, they weren’t able to help much in the investigation.
They couldn’t say for sure who she’d been hanging around, who her friends were.
She stopped posting on her social media page months ago. ”
“Could she have gotten herself in some type of trouble?” he asked.
“Time will tell,” Lawler supplied. “When the two of you were together, did you get the impression she was mixed up with anything that might get her in a bad position?”
“No,” he admitted. “But then, I didn’t see her walking out on me when I asked her to be my wife either.”
He’d misjudged the situation, thinking she was as happy as he’d been.
Funny thing about it, though. Now that he’d spent time with Prudence, he didn’t hold his relationship with Libby in as high a regard.
Prudence was changing the kind of attraction he should feel with the person he wanted to spend his life with.
Not that he was saying Prudence was the one.
That ship had sailed when his chest had been split in two.
But if he was going to go head down that road again, it would be for someone like her.
The revelation caught him off guard. He chalked it up to his overwrought emotions over the Marshall dying coupled with the news he might be a father. A father, he repeated, trying it on for size.
He couldn’t say it fit, but he would want a sweet girl like Angel if it was forced on him. An annoying little voice in the back of his head pointed out that he’d been natural with her so far. Was there an invisible bond between father and daughter?
Adam decided he wouldn’t get too far ahead of himself.
The paternity news could come out different.
The chances Libby had gotten pregnant after having sex one time while using contraception had to be damn small.
Except wasn’t that how it always seemed to work out?
When folks weren’t trying or when it was the worst possible timing?
Rather than put too much emphasis on the thought, he tossed the paper bag remnant that was still in his hand. As he opened the trash, he saw something that caused his heart to thump wildly against his ribcage. A handwritten note with familiar writing.
Lawler extended his hand before leaving.
“Hold on a second, Sheriff. There’s something in here you should take a look at,” he said.
“Is it safe in here?” Prudence stood at the entrance to the kitchen with the baby in her arms.
Adam couldn’t but think her question was loaded with the discovery. With his thumb and forefinger, he plucked the grocery list out of the trash. He shook the glass off before holding it up in the air.
“Is this yours?” he asked her.
Lawler’s eyes widened as he got a close-up of the writing. He cleared his throat and took a step back, turning his full attention toward Prudence.
“What?” she asked, walking over to examine the specimen for herself. Her lips pursed together and a wrinkle creased her forehead. “That looks like my grocery list. Why?”
“I still have the sample in my SUV. Hold on,” he said.
A mix of anger and disbelief rocked Adam to the core. He didn’t want to accept what was plain as the nose on his face.
“What’s going on, Adam?” Prudence crossed the room to get a closer look.
How could she not see it?
“I don’t understand,” she said. “What’s happening here?”
“This doesn’t look familiar to you at all?” He couldn’t believe she would stand there and lie to him or pretend she didn’t know. She couldn’t use the excuse of not being able to remember with this one.
“Yes. I already said so. It’s my grocery list,” she said. “I just don’t know what the big deal…”
Recognition seemed to dawn as Lawler re-entered through the back door. He held out the piece of paper from yesterday. The handwriting on the grocery list might be neater, but the letters were obviously written by the same person.
“What the hell, Prudence? Why is this your handwriting?”