Her P.I. Protector

by Jennifer Morey

  Corbin glanced at Julien, who continued to stay out of this brother-sister talk. But he felt for the guy. Julien knew what it was like to strike out in love.

  “I thought I had that with Ambrosia. She really threw me when she asked me to leave.”

  “I’m surprised, too,” Francesca said, sipping some tea. “She’s quite beautiful, and I never had any trouble with her.”

  Julien saw no resemblance between Skylar and her mother, other than some physical features. Clearly the woman couldn’t see what made for a good person.

  “I always knew it was a matter of time.” Skylar went to the table and took the seat beside Corbin. “Never mind that. I don’t mean to be insulting, but I warned you when you announced you were going to marry her.”

  “You didn’t know her,” Corbin said.

  “You can do so much better, Corbin. Is it going to take losing half of everything you have to learn that?”

  “Skylar, don’t start that again,” Corbin said.

  She placed her hand atop his. “All I’m saying is that you have a second chance to find someone genuine. Don’t settle for the gold diggers.”

  That must have been why Skylar had come here, to impress upon her brother not to make the same mistake in the future, Julien thought.

  “Skylar does have a point, Corbin,” Francesca said. “If you keep ending up with women who divorce you for money, you’ll end up poor.”

  Corbin didn’t say anything, just lowered his head and stared at his cooling cup of tea.

  Julien watched Skylar observe her brother with a mixture of sympathy and disappointment. She cared about her family, which Julien found interesting given all Cal had told him, and Skylar herself, for that matter.

  “Have you told your father yet?” Francesca asked.

  “No.”

  “He’s going to blow up,” Skylar said.

  “He’ll also find you an excellent lawyer,” Francesca added.

  Abruptly, Corbin stood. “I shouldn’t have come here.”

  Skylar started after him but Francesca stopped her. “Leave him alone, Skylar.”

  Skylar faced her mother, concern and anguish etched in her face. Julien had a feeling something else had to be fueling her emotion. The way she had rushed to her brother’s side and the passion she’d showed over his situation, suggested a more personal motive. Julien had a hunch that she had been burned in a similar way.

  “He’ll be all right and he won’t make the same mistake,” Francesca said. “He’s a lot like your father that way. He can’t stand being made to feel like a fool.”

  Sitting back down, Skylar fell into thought, looking away and out the patio window. Julien took the seat Corbin had vacated. Skylar didn’t turn from the window, so engrossed in whatever plagued her. He became transfixed by her profile, her sloping nose, those long eyelashes and stunning blue eyes so filled with somberness. He almost reached over and put his hand on hers.

  “Cal leaves and I see you more than ever, Julien,” Francesca said, diverting his attention.

  Seeing her changed expression, he knew she had been observing him keenly just now.

  “You’re spending a lot of time with my daughter.”

  That brought Skylar out of her melancholic stare.

  “She’s been attacked. I don’t want her to be alone,” he said, thinking that ought to be plenty of an explanation.

  “Yes, I do see the need for that, but you two must be getting to know each other,” Francesca said.

  “Mother...” Skylar protested.

  “I’m just curious, that’s all. You haven’t dated anyone in a long time. You’re long overdue. And I’d like more than Cal to be working on giving me grandchildren.”

  “Mother, please. Since when do you care about my personal life?” Skylar snapped, sounding defensive, which told Julien her mother had struck a nerve.

  “I’ve always cared, and you watch your tone with me.”

  Skylar averted her head, once again taking refuge in the view through the patio window.

  “Have you found the man who shot at my daughter?” Francesca asked Julien.

  “No, unfortunately. I had a missing person case I needed to wrap up. Now that that’s out of the way, I can focus more.”

  “There’s talk that Wes McKann is a suspect.”

  “He’s a person of interest,” Julien said. Wes did look guilty but, in Julien’s line of work, he had learned wait for the evidence.

  “No one likes him. He’s so grouchy all the time, and a lone wolf. If he didn’t kill his wife, then Charlotte must have finally left him. We all thought she should have left years ago. They never had any children. From what I hear, Wes works the ranch from dawn until dusk. That can’t have been good on their relationship.”

  “You’re getting interested in gossip as you age, Mom,” Skylar said. “You used to prefer people talk about you, how fortunate you are.”

  “I still enjoy that attention.” Francesca laughed lightly. “I don’t deny it. I love your father, but I wouldn’t have married him if he hadn’t had a lot of money. There’s security in money.”

  “Up until an apocalypse, I suppose,” Skylar quipped.

  “Even then.” Her mother waved her hand dismissively.

  “There’s also a lawyer’s wife who is missing. I’m looking into both cases.” Julien didn’t say he had a hunch the alleged body Skylar had seen was one of those women.

  “Who’s the lawyer?” Francesca asked.

  “Benson Davett,” Julien said.

  “Aren’t the police investigating that and Wes’s wife’s disappearance?”

  “Yes, but I’m doing my own private investigation.”

  “I’ve heard of Ben Davett. I’ve seen him and his wife at a lot of the same social events Newman and I attend. He’s a corporate attorney. Audrey is a lovely woman. Very beautiful and poised. She was in her element at the most prestigious gatherings. I can’t imagine he’d do anything to harm his wife. Is he the one who called the police?”

  Julien really couldn’t imagine a man like Davett hurting his wife, either. Benson had called the police the night Audrey hadn’t come home. He had said it wasn’t like her to be gone all day, much less not be home in the evening unless they had something planned, like a dinner party. She had gone shopping earlier in the day and wasn’t there when Benson had arrived home from work. He also said she hadn’t answered her phone the two times he had tried.

  “Yes, he did,” he told Skylar’s mother.

  Francesca pointed her finger and bounced it up and down a couple of times. “Now, that Wes character? I can completely imagine him harming his wife.”

  “So can I.” Skylar pulled her phone from her back pocket when it dinged with an incoming text. “I need to get to work.” She got up, went around the table. “Bye, Mom.”

  “See you soon, Sky.”

  Julien caught her smile and speculative look she aimed at them.

  Once outside, Julien couldn’t wait any longer to ask Skyler the question that had been echoing in his mind. “I think there’s more to your avoiding having a family of your own. Am I right?”

  She snapped a quick glance his way and stopped at the driver’s door of her truck. “What brought that on?”

  “The way you got on your bother about his choice in women.”

  “He has bad taste.”

  Julien didn’t know Ambrosia, but he, personally, would know if a woman didn’t have feelings for him. Maybe that didn’t matter to Corbin. His passion was business.

  “Yes, but you went over the top on him,” he said.

  She looked off to her left, where the rolling landscape was bathed in sunlight. Then, responding to his previous comment, returned defensive eyes to him, saying, “I wouldn’t say I avoid.”

  He smiled. “Okay, ‘not consider it.’”<
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  Her head cocked slightly and she turned to him. “What makes you say that?”

  “The level of worry you had in there, rushing over as soon as you heard he was having a problem, and then that heartfelt conversation. I mean, I get that he’s your brother, but I had the sense that you had a personal investment.”

  After several seconds just looking at him, she nodded her head. “Yes, something like that did happen to me. It was a man who worked for my father as a manager. When I first met him, I didn’t know he had his sights on a VP position and even a chief position. He was looking for a fast track and must have decided I would do.”

  Julien put his hand on the door frame, part of him desiring to be closer to her. “Quite the charmer, huh?”

  She looked over at his arm and then back to his face, her eyes considerably more aware of him.

  “Yes, Bryce was definitely that. We were together a few months when he told me he had feelings for me and thought we made a good couple. I agreed because we did get along and he was always so nice and funny and intelligent. I thought I had feelings for him, too. I certainly hadn’t felt that way with anyone else before. When he proposed, I was taken aback, but I said yes.”

  Wow. She had nearly gotten married? Julien didn’t understand the flash of jealousy he experienced just then.

  “But when he said he wanted to get married in a month, I began to question why. Why the big rush? I told him we should wait. He let it drop that night but he kept bringing it up.” She fell silent and he could tell she had felt significant betrayal over her discovery of the guy’s true motives.

  “How did you find out?” he asked. And what, exactly.

  Skylar seemed reluctant to talk in any detail. “Let’s go.”

  Disappointed and more curious than ever, Julien let her get in and went to sit on the passenger seat.

  After she drove a while, he asked, “Are you going to leave me in suspense?”

  She glanced over and surprised him with a slight smile. “I don’t like talking about it.”

  “I don’t like talking about my past relationships, either.” But after this, he was sure that was coming.

  Skylar bit her lower lip. “I heard Bryce talking with his mother. She asked him if he was sure he wanted to go through with the marriage and he answered yes, that he wasn’t in love with me but he liked me enough. He said, ‘I can move up in the company faster and, with all the money those Chelseys have, I can take care of you so much better.’” She sighed. “I will never forget hearing that—the sound of his voice, the words. He didn’t sound the same as when he spoke with me. I realized the man I had agreed to marry wasn’t the one he had been presenting to me all those months.”

  Clearly upset recalling the memory, Skylar turned her eyes toward the window and then back to the windshield.

  He had to ask. “What did you do?”

  “After I heard him?” Skylar sighed again. “I left without saying goodbye.”

  That sounded like something she would do, with all her spunk.

  “I didn’t answer his calls or answer my door. I told my father what he’d said and my father fired him. That’s how Bryce found out I was on to him. He stalked me for a while, but stopped after my father sent someone to deliver him a message.” She glanced over at him. “Bryce wasn’t hurt much, just sufficiently threatened.”

  Julien whistled. “Don’t mess with the Chelsey offspring.”

  “He was told we would go to the police if he didn’t stop stalking me.”

  And what else had been done to him? She said he hadn’t been “hurt much.” That might be something. If anyone had stalked his sister, he probably would have done the same.

  “Did the two of you talk about having a family?” he asked.

  Her fists tightened on the wheel and one of them ground a little. “I know why you’re asking.”

  “I would be disappointed if you didn’t.” He was enormously amused and unwillingly drawn to her as a person—as a woman.

  “We did,” she said at last.

  He waited. And waited. Waited some more.

  “He asked me if I wanted children,” she finally said.

  Julien did not comment. He did not have to be told Bryce had asked and she had said no, making her the perfect candidate for his endeavor of securing wealth without earning it on his own.

  “Have you been with anyone since Bryce?” He couldn’t be sure if she had or not and didn’t really know why that was important to him.

  She wrung her hand on the wheel. “Enough about me.”

  Why was it so difficult for her to talk about her love life? Had she been betrayed more than once?

  “You don’t trust anyone, is that it?” he asked, hoping to help her out.

  “I would like to find a man not out to take advantage of me,” she said, “but I don’t waste my time trying.”

  She wrung her hands on the wheel again. “Why are you asking anyway? What about you? You haven’t mentioned anything about your past relationships.”

  So, love was a touchy subject? Skylar had already alluded that she hadn’t dated much due to work anyway, so he didn’t push her. “I came close to marriage once. Similar to your experience, she ended up being someone different than she presented.” Thinking of Renee, her duplicity stung with its usual potency, but luckily, over the last few years, Julien had thought of her less and less. He hadn’t thought of her at all since meeting Skylar.

  When they arrived at the ranch, Skylar came to a stop in front of her house and turned to look at him. “What did she do?”

  “It’s not so much what she did as what she said.” He remembered when he’d first met Renee. It had been so natural and unplanned. “I went to a baseball game with another P.I. and she was sitting next to me with her friend. We hit it off and started dating. She owned an art gallery. I found her earthy and real.”

  “When really she was worldly and fake?” Skylar said with a wry smile.

  “Yes. Or, more plainly, a liar. Turns out, she had a fantasy of being with one of the infamous Dark Alley Investigators. She couldn’t have Kadin, so she took whatever she could get her hands on.”

  “You, I take it.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, until I found out she was sleeping with my friend Joe, the one who went to the game with me.”

  Skylar inhaled sharply. “You lost both her and your friend.”

  “That’s when she told me about her fantasy and how Joe made her realize she was fooling herself.”

  She met his eyes and he could feel her empathy. “Well,” she said at last, “we’re both in professions that consume large quantities of our time and we’ve had our hearts ripped out by people who wanted us for something other than love.”

  “Everything in common but our addresses.” He chuckled.

  She laughed lightly and they passed a few minutes in silence. Finally, she turned to him. “I still have to go out and check the fence. I never did get the chance to finish that job.” She didn’t have to tell him why. Neither of them had forgotten the body and the gunman she’d encountered on her last venture out there.

  “I’ll go with you. Can we drive?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  Chapter 6

  With everyone hard at work in various parts of the ranch, Skylar saddled up Bogie and a gentle spirited brown quarter horse named Willow. Julien leaned against a stall door, one leg bent and the holster of his gun peeking out from his spring jacket. He looked like he could be on the cover of Horse and Rancher magazine. Be still her beating heart...

  Leading the two horses from the stable, she took them outside the corral and handed him Willow’s reins. He stood there motionless as she mounted Bogie, not bothering to hide how closely he watched her.

  Putting his foot—thankfully he had on boots—into the stirrup, he drew a little momentum by bouncing up and
down a couple times, then propelled himself onto the horse. He adjusted the reins.

  “You look like you’ve ridden before,” she said, meaning it.

  He sent her an unappreciative glance.

  Smiling, Skylar guided Bogie toward the pastures. Willow would follow. She and Bogie had a thing for each other.

  Riding side-by-side, Skylar took in the beauty of the rolling hills and the cluster of trees flanking the river, too aware of Julien. He sat atop the horse straight and tall, sunglasses hiding his eyes, wisps of blond hair fluttering in a soft breeze. His head turned and he caught her glance. They shared a long look before Skylar faced forward again.

  Then she saw him scanning their surroundings and knew he had not stopped being vigilant. She felt safer and more at ease with going out riding. Still, she glanced around herself, eerily reminded of her frantic run from flying bullets.

  Many parts of the ranch held memories of her youth but this was one of her favorites. She had loved riding here, along the river and fence line. She hadn’t thought of this before, but she had a lot of good memories of growing up. Not just out here, on horseback, but at home, as well.

  But her good mood didn’t last long. Once they came upon the area where she had seen the man digging, she sobered. She felt her stomach tense as they rode closer. Memories bombarded her. Who was the person wrapped in plastic? She was certain it had been a body. She stopped Bogie and stared, feeling her skin crawl as she imagined someone had been killed. And she envisioned the gun aimed at her.

  Julien drew his horse up beside hers. “There’s nobody here now, Skylar. I’m watching.” It was as if he’d read her mind again. “I’d like to go question some of the workers at Wes’s ranch. You’re going to have to come with me,” he said.

  For her protection, he meant. “All right. Let me get some work done today and we can go tomorrow.”

  They resumed their ride, checking the fence as they crested a hill and headed down the other side. The sound of a rattle preceded Julien’s horse rearing up with a whinny.