likely wanted to know why Joelle’s ex-lover was in her dressing room at the church just—Dallas checked the time—fifty-one minutes before she was to become Owen’s bride.
“I’ll take care of this,” Joelle said, and she jabbed the end button. She whirled back around to face him. “You have to go.”
As if that would get him to budge. “You’re within days, maybe hours, of sending your report to the governor.” Who also happened to be her boss.
A report that could crush Dallas a thousand times over.
She huffed again and put her hands on her hips. The move caused the sides of her robe to open in a vee, and he got a glimpse of a lacy white bra and her right nipple that the lace in no way concealed.
Dallas felt that old familiar tug, deep within his body, and he told that tug to take a fast hike. Joelle was no longer a woman he wanted in his bed.
And he was almost certain of that.
Almost.
But just in case he had doubts about it, he didn’t have any doubts about the woman herself. Sexual stuff might still be lingering between them, but he didn’t want her in his life.
No way.
She’d made her choice sixteen years ago. A choice that had broken his stupid teenage heart. And yeah, that was a long time ago, but forgiving and forgetting weren’t what he saw himself doing when it came to Joelle. Actually, to anybody.
“The report?” he reminded her. Reminded himself, too. And he cursed that blasted nipple-peek for distracting him.
“My report is just that, a report of my observations. The local sheriff at Rocky Creek is already investigating the case, but the governor wants to know if he should request the Texas Rangers to go in and assist. So he’ll read what I’ve written and decide what to do.”
No. It wasn’t just a report. And as for the sheriff’s investigation, that wasn’t going anywhere. The sheriff had only been on the job a few months, had little experience in law enforcement. No. If anyone found anything incriminating, it’d be Joelle and her team of hotshot investigators that she had crawling all over the state.
Dallas aimed his index finger at her. “This report could destroy Kirby.” His foster father. And a man he darn sure wouldn’t see destroyed.
Joelle dodged his gaze, turned, and gave him another view of that blasted bra. The left nipple this time. Great day in the morning! He didn’t need this.
Nor the other thing he saw.
He’d missed it at first because the pendant was literally tucked in her bra, but it shifted, slipped out, and he spotted the gold heart locket. Not a flashy piece, this one was coated with fine scratches and even a little tarnish. It looked like the one he’d given her for her sixteenth birthday, but he had to be wrong about that. And even if he wasn’t, if it was indeed the same necklace, maybe it was the “something old” part of her bridal garb.
Dallas wondered whose picture was inside it now.
Definitely not his.
“This isn’t a good time for the cat to get your tongue,” Dallas reminded her.
Again, she opened her mouth to say something, but there was a knock at the door before she could get out even a syllable. Both of them groaned and cursed the interruption. At this rate, the day would be over before he got answers.
“Ignore it,” Dallas insisted.
Another knock. “Joelle, it’s me, Lindsey. Owen called and wanted me to check on you.”
Joelle did the opposite of ignoring it. She stepped around him, unlocked the door and threw it open. The tall, curvy brunette peered in, first at Joelle and then at Dallas.
“Are you, uh, okay?” she asked Joelle.
“I’m fine,” Joelle snapped. She followed the woman’s gaze to the lacy bra, cursed again and jerked the robe shut. “My friend was just leaving.”
“No. He’s not,” Dallas said. “Not until we get this straight.”
Lindsey volleyed concerned looks between them, and she handed Joelle the plastic cup she was holding. “Jack Daniel’s, straight up,” she told Joelle. “I figured you could use it.”
“I can.” Joelle took the shot in one gulp. “I won’t be long,” she added, sounding even more riled than Dallas was.
Joelle whirled around, put her back to the door and faced him head-on. “I can’t do this now. Please go.”
The please gave him a few seconds pause. She hadn’t said it in anger—something he knew firsthand that she was pretty good at—but rather in a breathy whisper. Still, he couldn’t let a breathy plea stop him.
“We settle this now,” he insisted.
She groaned and scratched her head, mussing more of that perfect hairdo. “If Kirby did something wrong all those years ago, then I can’t keep it hidden away.”
Something wrong? Yeah. More like something right. “I’m sure I don’t have to remind you, but sixteen years ago Kirby got me and my foster brothers out of that hellhole.”
In this case, the hellhole was the Rocky Creek Children’s Facility. A down-home name for a notorious orphanage that had nearly destroyed him.
“Kirby may have pulled strings to get custody of you,” she added, then swallowed hard. “Not just you, but the others. Clayton, Harlan, Slade, Wyatt. And especially Declan.”
All five of his foster brothers. Yeah, there might have been an irregularity or two in the paperwork that had given Kirby guardianship and then full custody. But if Kirby hadn’t gotten them out, none of them might be alive right now. They sure as heck wouldn’t all be deputy U.S. marshals and running a successful ranch.
“Kirby may have done some other things to make sure custody wasn’t contested,” Joelle added in a whisper.
Dallas knew exactly what she meant because he’d already gotten wind of her so-called report that the governor would use to determine if the Texas Rangers should open a full-scale investigation against Kirby. An investigation that could lead to some charges.
Including murder.
Now it was Dallas’s turn to swallow hard. He couldn’t let that happen to Kirby.
The photos of the dead man’s bones flashed through his head. They’d been found seven weeks ago, a little over a mile from the now abandoned Rocky Creek facility. A crew working on the power lines had uncovered it.
Jonah Webb’s body.
The devil of a man who’d once run Rocky Creek and someone who’d been missing for sixteen years.
“Jonah’s rib cage showed signs of knife wounds,” Joelle explained.
Something else he didn’t need to be reminded of. And that brought back another set of images that
