could tell by her quivering voice that she was holding onto her composure by a slippery thread so he changed the subject. “I need background information, Miss Preston. What do you think prompted this ambush?”
“Julia. Call me Julia.” She managed a watery smile. “When a woman bawls her head off in front of man and exposes all her weaknesses she should be on a first-name basis.”
When she glanced sheepishly at him he caught sight of her features. He felt another thud of unnamed emotion thump him in the chest. Lone Wolf fiercely resisted the unfamiliar sensation and turned his attention to the business at hand.
He watched Julia inhale a restorative breath and gather her thoughts. His traitorous gaze dropped to her breasts and he hurriedly jerked his attention back to her face. Which didn’t help much because, damn it, he found himself studying each enchanting feature.
“We have been involved in a feud with our nearest neighbor for three years,” she stated, her voice growing steadier with each word. “It began when my father and our neighbor’s wife were found dead in our wrecked wagon at the bottom of a ravine. Our neighbor was as overwrought as Adam and I were.”
Or did her neighbor simply pretend to be overwrought because he was the one who’d orchestrated the murders to repay his wife’s infidelity? Lone Wolf wondered.
“The scandal turned him bitter and vindictive,” Julia continued. “He swore our father had humiliated and cuckolded him. He wanted to buy our ranch, sell every head of cattle with the Preston brand on it and wipe away the family name, along with the ugly memory of the supposed affair.”
“You don’t sound convinced that something sordid was going on between your father and your neighbor’s wife.”
Julia shook her head emphatically. Moonbeams glowed in the curly cascade of red-gold tendrils. Lone Wolf looked the other way when another jolt of unwanted awareness shot through him. This woman was too distracting.
“My father was devoted to my mother,” Julia maintained. “After my mother died from cholera, Papa spent the next four years until his death devoted to raising Adam and me. He showed no interest in other women.”
She shrugged helplessly. “I can’t explain why Papa and our neighbor’s wife were together that night. Neither do I know why her buggy was left beside the road after she had ridden into town to be a midwife for her friend. But I do not believe for one minute that my father was romantically involved with Rachel.”
Lone Wolf didn’t comment. He couldn’t say for sure but it sounded as though Julia’s undying loyalty and love for her father had clouded her judgment. He thought there was a strong possibility that a clandestine affair might have been going on, whether Julia wanted to accept it or not.
“Adam and I were determined to hold the ranch together, but it hasn’t been easy. Incidents of rustling began not long after Papa died. We had no substantial proof that our neighbor was involved, but he was our prime suspect. He seemed to hate us.”
Julia continued. “To complicate matters, our neighbor’s daughter was our childhood playmate, and he refused to allow her to associate with us. Still the affection between his daughter and Adam remains. She grew up loving my brother and he has always felt the same way about her.”
It sounded to Lone Wolf as if history was trying to repeat itself. Julia’s bitter neighbor, however, was having none of that. Not after he had lost his wife to another man. The prospect of losing his daughter to the son of his wife’s lover was obviously intolerable. Especially if Adam was using his charm on the neighbor’s daughter to retaliate.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she surprised him by saying.
“Do you? Then you would be the first,” he countered drily. “I try very hard not let anyone know what’s running through my mind. It’s bad business when dealing with cutthroats who like to get the drop on you.”
“You’re thinking Adam is trying to get back at our neighbor by turning his charms on his daughter,” Julia guessed correctly. “But you couldn’t be more wrong. Maggie and Adam were childhood friends, and then they became sweethearts. That was long before the hint of scandal.”
“Maggie?” Lone Wolf grew very still. His focus settled intently on Julia.
“Maggie Griffin. Sol Griffin’s daughter,” she explained, unaware of the suppressed emotion roiling through Lone Wolf.
Tormenting memories flashed through his mind, then exploded like fireworks. Old hurt and the raw pain of rejection threatened to swamp him. For a moment he was transported back to a time when he had been a weak, desolate and vulnerable teenager.
“Despite Sol’s unfair decree, Maggie and Adam continued to see each other secretly,” Julia reported. “Maggie has rejected every marriage proposal that Sol approved. When she stood up to him and informed him that if she couldn’t wed Adam then she would never take a husband, Sol sent her to Saint Louis to stay with his cousin’s family. She has been home for two months and she and Adam have gotten very good at sneaking away so they can be together.”
“Maggie must have a great deal of determination and gumption,” Lone Wolf remarked.
Julia bobbed her head and smiled fondly. “She does, in her own ladylike, dignified way. Which is why we are steadfast friends and always have been.”
“And Sol Griffin is one bitter, obstinate man,” he murmured.
When Julia stared curiously at him, Lone Wolf shrugged as nonchalantly as he knew how. “I know of Sol Griffin.”
Know of him? Hell, he was Sol Griffin’s blood kin, a fact that he would not acknowledge or accept under the circumstances. Sol had made that known eighteen years ago.
“If you know of Sol, does that mean you won’t help my brother and me because you don’t want to get on his bad side?” she asked anxiously.
“I was born on his bad side,” Lone Wolf muttered under his breath.
“Pardon?”
He clenched his teeth, stifled the onrush of resentment, and said, “I don’t allow personal sentiment to get in the way of business. If I decide to take an assignment, then I represent the client who is paying me. No one else.”
“You will be exceptionally well paid if you agree to take this assignment,” Julia assured him. “I want that sniper brought to justice for the murder attempt on my brother’s life. If the man I saw firing his rifle at Adam is remotely connected to Sol, I want to see them both locked in jail with no chance of parole— Oh, God… Maggie…”
Her voice trailed off and her shoulders slumped in frustration. “I can’t get word to her about what happened to Adam. And though she resents Sol’s demand to keep her distance from Adam, I doubt she will believe her father would go so far as to have Adam shot to end their courtship.”
She raked her hands through her hair and sighed. “I’m sorry. I feel as if I’m telling you all my problems. It’s bad enough that I practically bled tears on your shirt. I don’t expect you to figure out how I’m going to break the bad news to my dearest friend.”
“Not a problem,” he said with a casual shrug of his broad shoulders. “I get paid to solve other people’s dilemmas. That’s difficult to do without all the facts.”
