your house.” His strong hand on her back quickly turned her and headed her back to the car.
“Wait a minute!” the Sheriff yelled. “Ms. Baron, I’ll need to ask you to come down to the office. We’ll need your fingerprints, and I’ll want to question you further.”
“She’ll come in later,” Des said, raising his voice, but not stopping until he had her in the truck and they were driving away.
Two
Kit slammed the front door shut in Des’s face.
Damn the woman. A muscle clenched in Des’s jaw as he opened the door and went in after her. He found her in the living room, lighting a fire.
“What were you thinking about, talking to the sheriff like that?”
She wheeled on him. Her green eyes flashed, vivid with anger, and her long red hair curled like flames against her shoulders. “Don’t ever do that again to me.”
“Do what? Save you from incriminating yourself?”
“Don’t ever again tell me what to say or not to say. And don’t ever give me an order in front of my men. You may own fifty percent of this ranch, but I run it.”
“Listen to me, Kit. You can’t tell the sheriff everything you did without expecting to be arrested. Not in this case. Why didn’t you do as I said?”
The logs began to burn behind her but she barely noticed. “Do as you said?”
All of his career, he had faced hostile clients, lawyers, judges and juries. Part of his success was that he was always able to remain cool under fire. Staying calm and above the fray was one of his trademarks. No one ever got to him.
Kit got to him.
He wanted to shake her. Worse, he suddenly realized, he wanted to kiss her. Lord help him, where had that come from?
“Whether you realize it or not, Kit, you’ve gotten yourself into a serious situation. And just because it was me who gave you the advice, doesn’t mean you had to go against it.”
“That’s not what happened.” She stripped off her coat and threw it across a chair.
“That’s exactly what you did. Admit it. You hate for anyone to try to tell you what to do, but this case is different, and you need to realize it. In this case, you don’t know what’s best. I do. And believe me when I say, you told him entirely too much.”
She threw up her hands. “For heaven’s sake, get over yourself. The women you go out with must not have any brains, but I do.”
“You’re not hearing what I’m saying. Dealing with men like that sheriff is what I do for a living, and I know what I’m talking about. Let me do my damn job.”
“This isn’t a job you need to concern yourself with. Whatever happened, happened in my realm. I’ll take care of it.”
He shook his head. “Trying to defend yourself is the worst thing you can do.”
“I’m not trying to defend myself.”
“Then tell me what you think you’re doing.”
“Telling the truth about what actually happened.”
He gave a sound of disgust. “Prisons are filled with people who told the truth. At this stage of the game, everything you say is important. Even how you say it. You have to be careful, and you weren’t.”
“What are you talking about? The sheriff didn’t indicate he suspected me.”
“If you believe that, you weren’t listening.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Cody’s body was just found. It’s way too early for the sheriff to suspect anyone.”
“Granted, it’s early, but have you ever heard of quick arrests?”
“Of course, but—”
“Ideally, authorities like to make an arrest within the first twenty-four hours of a crime. After that, witnesses can go foggy, crime scenes can be tampered with, or any number of other things can happen. Kit, face it. That’s exactly what may happen here, because, unfortunately, it looks as if everything so far points to you.”
“That’s not true. They haven’t even found the murder weapon yet.”
“Are you telling me that if the murder weapon turns out to be a shovel, or any one of the implements used in that barn, your fingerprints won’t be on it?”
“No. They probably will be—” Abruptly she broke off and swiveled back to the fire. “I don’t have my own silver-plated shovel, Des. At one time or another, I’ve probably used and touched everything in that barn.”
She was electric, all fire and fury. But he also saw the fragility there. He had always been able to. He had often heard his adoptive father, William Baron, grumble about the stricter than strict way his brother Edward was raising his three daughters. He hadn’t seen Kit on a daily basis or even a monthly one, but rather over time and at various stages of her life.
Living on the same ranch, he’d had a unique perspective from which to watch her grow up. As a little girl, she had tried in vain to battle against the tyranny of her father. As a teenager, she had become subdued and resigned to living beneath her father’s thumb.
Her father’s death when she was twenty had finally given her the freedom to come into her own, but that had also been when her rebellion kicked in. It had seemed to him that during those years she had been all flash and fury, yet she had also taken the reins of the ranch. Now she had everything she ever wanted, including power. The problem was, she now seemed to be rebelling against him. Worse, he felt the effects much more than he should.
He took a steadying breath, but it didn’t have the desired effect. He couldn’t seem to hold on to his objectivity. Deep down, he was frightened for her. Even more frightening to him, he was coming to realize he badly needed to keep her safe. Where had that come from? And when? “I’ll put an investigator on this Cody Inman and find out about him.”
“Don’t be stupid. You won’t find anything unusual about him. He was just an ordinary ranch hand.”
“He was a man who hurt his boss, a woman. He tried to force himself on you, or have you forgotten?”
“Of course not.”
“Odds are good that somewhere he’s got a bad history, and I need to find out what it is. It could make a difference in the trial.”
“Trial?” she practically sputtered. Her hair flew out around her as she spun around. “There’s not going to be a trial—at least, not with me as a defendant.”
“Calm down. I’m just thinking ahead. It’s what I do.”
Her brow furrowed with anger. “Who asked you?”
“Damn it, Kit—” He stopped himself and forced another deep breath through his lungs. He wasn’t going
