paused, waiting for her to process that. “Is that when you were naked in bed with me?” she asked, setting the baby bottle down beside her.
Of course she would remember that. But then, if the baby was his, she probably had it etched in her memory. Landon had it etched in his for a different reason. Because of the white-hot attraction that’d been between them.
But that wasn’t something he needed to remember now. Or ever.
“Yes. The following morning, you told me you couldn’t get involved with me,” Landon continued. “And then your scummy boyfriend showed up. Joel Mercer. Remember him?”
She repeated the name, shook her head. “If I had a boyfriend, why did I sleep with you?”
Landon had asked himself that many, many times. “You said he was an ex, but he sure didn’t act like it.” He stopped, huffed. “Look, are you sure you don’t remember simply because you’d rather not be talking about this with me?”
“I’m not faking or avoiding this conversation. Now, tell me about Joel. Why did you say he’s scummy?”
“Because he is. He’s a cattle broker—at least, that’s what he calls himself, but it’s really a front for assorted felonies, including gunrunning and money laundering. That’s why I was surprised when he showed up and said you two were together.”
Judging from her expression, Tessa was surprised, too. But it wasn’t the same kind of surprise that’d been on her face that morning seven months ago. Landon had seen the shock, and then she’d changed. Or something. She’d become all lovey-dovey with Joel and told Landon to leave.
But Landon hadn’t forgotten the look that’d gone through her eyes.
After he’d walked, or rather stormed, out, he’d gone back to Houston and hadn’t seen her since. And apparently neither had any of his cousins. Tessa had closed her PI office, and while she’d kept her house in Silver Creek, she rarely visited it.
That was maybe why no one had known she was pregnant.
Because if his cousins had known, they would have told Landon. Plenty of people, including a couple of his cousins, had seen him leave the Outlaw Bar with Tessa that night.
“What does Joel have to do with Emmett?” she asked.
Everything inside him went still. Until now he hadn’t considered they could be connected.
But were they?
Landon decided to try something to jog her memory. “Four nights ago, someone murdered Emmett in your house.” Man, it was still hard to say that aloud. Just as hard to think about his cousin dying that way. “Your cleaning lady found his body. He’d been shot three times, and there was a note left on his chest.”
“‘This is for you, Landon,’” she whispered.
“How the hell did you know that?” He hadn’t intended to raise his voice, and the baby reacted. She started to whimper.
“I’m not sure. But I saw your reaction when Dade showed you what was on the boulder. I guessed it must have been something to do with Emmett since the majority of your questions had been about him.” She rocked the baby, kissed her forehead. “And her.”
Yeah. And he would have more questions about her when he was finished with this.
Landon took out his phone, and even though he knew the picture was gruesome, he searched through his pictures and found the one he’d taken at the crime scene.
Emmett’s body in a pool of blood.
There’d been blood on the note, too.
“Does this look familiar?” Landon asked, putting the phone practically in her face.
She gasped, turned her head and closed her eyes for a moment. “No.” And she repeated it in a hoarse sob.
Landon didn’t have a heart of ice. Not completely, anyway, and whether he wanted to or not, he was affected by that look on her face. Affected, but not to the point where he was stopping with the questions.
“Why was Emmett there at your house, and how did you know he was dead?” he pressed.
She shook her head. “I honestly don’t know.” Tessa paused, swallowed hard. “There’s something about that photo that seems familiar, but I don’t know what.”
Good. Because if it was familiar, then it meant she was possibly there and might have seen who had done this.
Landon went to the next picture. A mug shot this time of Quincy Nagel. “Recognize him?”
Tessa moved closer for a long look and gave him another head shake. “Who is he?”
“A person of interest.” Too bad Landon hadn’t been able to find him yet. “A thug I arrested who might have wanted to pay me back by killing my cousin.”
Tessa kept her attention on the baby, but because Landon was watching her so closely, he saw the small change in her. Her mouth tensed. A muscle flexed in her cheek. He hoped that was because she was concerned for the baby rather than because she was withholding something about Quincy. The little girl went beyond the whimpering stage and started to cry.
“So I slept with you, got pregnant.” Tessa stood and rocked the baby. “Or maybe you believe she’s Joel’s daughter? You’re not sure, but you’ll demand a test so you can be certain.”
He nodded. Though he would be surprised if she was Joel’s. Yes, Tessa had been more than just friendly with Joel, but Landon didn’t think she was the sort to go from one man straight to another. But he’d been wrong about stuff like that before. He didn’t think so this time, though.
“Or maybe she’s not my baby at all,” she added. Tessa shuddered, dodged his gaze.
Landon lifted her chin, forcing eye contact. “Are you remembering something?”
“No.”
Her answer came much too fast, and Landon would have jumped right on that if his phone hadn’t buzzed. It was Grayson, which meant it could have something to do with the investigation. Since the baby was still crying, Landon stepped just into the hall so he could hear what the sheriff had to say.
“We found something,” Grayson said the moment Landon answered. “A car on a ranch trail not far from the barn. The plates are fake, the VIN’s been removed, but it has some baby things in it. A diaper bag and some clothes.”
Tessa’s car.
Or one that she’d “borrowed.”
“We’ll process it, of course,” Grayson went on, “but something really stuck out. The GPS was programmed to go to your house in Houston.”
Landon wanted to say that wasn’t right, that there’d been no reason for her to see him, but if the baby was indeed his, maybe Tessa had been on the way to tell him. Of course, that didn’t explain the other things: the dyed hair, the hit on her head, fake tags, no vehicle identification number on the car. Those were all signs of someone
