Blame It on Texas

by Christie Craig

  “We earned these. What’s the use of getting a scar if we can’t brag a bit?” Tony leaned in and kissed his wife. “Besides, I thought you said it was sexy.”

  “It is, but you don’t have to tell everyone.” LeAnn grinned.

  Zoe realized that any thought of being judged by this group had vanished sometime between the laughter and the scar exhibit. How could they think she was the mental one, when it was so obvious they were crazy? Nevertheless, even as over-the-top as all these people were, the shared camaraderie was so vibrant that her life seemed dull and a little lonely.

  She watched Tony wrap his arm around his wife’s waist. Maybe a lot lonely, Zoe conceded. It had been a long time since she felt treasured, loved, even touched. Well, excluding her and Tyler’s little position tryout on the floor while being shot at.

  “Hey,” Dallas said. “There’s pizza in the apartment if getting shot didn’t ruin your appetite.”

  Zoe grinned. “Thanks, I always plan ahead. I ate right before I got shot.”

  Tyler walked into the office. “What’s up?” he asked Rick.

  “That’s what I want to know.” Rick dropped into a chair. “What’s the deal with the redhead?”

  “Did you find something else out?” Tyler walked to the back of the room and opened a closet where he kept some extra clothes.

  “I might have.”

  “Like what?”

  “Uh-uh,” Rick said. “You first.”

  Tyler pulled off the bloody T-shirt and slipped on a clean blue tee. He heard laughter coming from down the hall, and he hoped it wasn’t at Zoe’s expense. The riffraff crowd that hung around here these days was great but could be a handful.

  For a minute there, Zoe had looked like she’d wanted to bolt. He remembered that look on her face when he’d found her crouched behind his desk.

  Tucking in his shirt, Tyler looked at Rick. “It doesn’t go any further.”

  Rick nodded. Tyler sat down and told Rick everything, from the picture of a young Zoe that looked like Caroline Bradford to the picture of Nancy Bradford.

  Rick shook his head. “Just because she looks like someone doesn’t mean—”

  “Right,” Tyler interrupted. “Then you tell me why someone is shooting at her.”

  Rick paused. “I see why you might be checking into it, but—”

  “There you guys are.” Dallas walked into the office, followed by Tony. Dallas had three beers in his hands and passed one to Tyler and one to Rick. Tony had a folded piece of pizza in his hand and was busy eating.

  Dallas glanced from Rick to Tyler. “What’s wrong?”

  “I asked Rick to see if he could find anything out about Zoe’s visits to the Bradford place,” Tyler explained.

  “And you got something?” Dallas leaned against his desk.

  “I found her name and knew she drove a car with an Alabama license. But you got her.” Rick pulled the beer to his lips. “And she’s quite a prize.” He arched an eyebrow. “Is she single?”

  Tyler frowned. “Keep your dick in your pants, would you?”

  Rick grinned. “It is. I know because it moved when I looked at Red. But, hey, I don’t poach on another guy’s territory, so just tell me to back off and I’ll back off.”

  “I thought you had something to tell me,” Tyler said. He didn’t want to defend his position on Zoe Adams. Especially when he hadn’t decided what that position was. Was he interested in her? Hell, yeah, but considering he didn’t want anything serious—and would run from it if it came to that—he didn’t feel his position was worth defending.

  Not yet anyway. Tyler got up and was almost out the door when he heard Rick’s comeback.

  “I do have something,” Rick said. “The real question is, do you want to hear it or not?”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  TYLER TURNED AND faced Rick Clark. “Talk,” he said.

  “Remember when I told you I mentioned the redhead to the head honcho of security and he said she just disappeared?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, it seemed kind of strange that Windsor hadn’t run a check on her or anything. Then today I find out that Bradford’s daughter, Mrs. Daniels, had one of the guards who works for Glencoe PD follow Red—”

  “Her name is Zoe,” Tyler cut in.

  “Fine. Zoe. Anyway, Mrs. Daniels had the guy warn her off. Supposedly, Red—I mean, Zoe—was following Mr. Bradford’s limo.”

  “So you’re saying Windsor lied?” Tyler said.

  “I’m not sure. I guess Mrs. Daniels could have done this without telling Windsor. But why? As a matter of fact, I’m not sure why she’d get involved to start with.”

  “That’s interesting.” Tyler pulled his pad over and jotted down another question.

  “Wait a minute.” Tony spoke around pizza in his mouth. “You think someone in the Bradford family could have been behind the kidnapping?” He shook his head. “But if Zoe is the kidnapped Bradford kid, then we have a dead girl who was misidentified. That shit doesn’t happen.”

  “I know it’s unlikely,” Tyler said. “I did some Internet searches and read that the clothes and a toy of the kid’s were identified by the parents as belonging to Caroline Bradford. It never said anything about dental records, and DNA matches weren’t standard then.”

  “So you think someone planted those things to make it look like the dead girl was Caroline Bradford?” Dallas took another swig of his beer.

  “I don’t know,” Tyler said. “Until I saw the likeness between Zoe and Nancy Bradford, I believed Zoe was half-delusional. Hearing about the threatening calls she’d been getting—”

  “What phone calls?” Dallas asked.

  “Somebody keeps calling her cell phone, telling her to leave town while she still can. By itself, it means nothing. But when someone shot up her apartment, I changed my mind. Now, I’m betting there’s something to what she says.”

  “Or…” Rick said, “she set this whole thing up to convince you guys to help her get to the old man.”

  Tyler scowled.

  “He has a point,” Tony said. “She could be playing you.”

  “She didn’t know I’d be at her place this afternoon,” Tyler said. “And did I forget to mention she got shot? Besides, she… she’s not like that.”

  “Why? Because she’s beautiful?” Rick shook his head. “Believe me, the prettier the woman, the more conniving she can be. They lure us in with sex and use and abuse us.”

  Tony and Dallas both cleared their throats as if in a warning not to talk ill of all women.

  Rick looked at the three of them, frowned, and held up his hands in defeat. “Fine, I’ll admit it. You two,” he pointed to Dallas and Tony, “found the two in that tiny percentage of women who are the exceptions to the rule, but I’m talking generalities. You guys friggin’ lucked out and found decent women.”

  “We didn’t luck out, you fucked up,” Tony said. “I know Candy did a real bad number on you, but you can’t go blaming all women.”

  Rick frowned. “I’m not talking about Candy. I’m talking about Red.”

  “Yeah,” Tyler said. “There’s some bad ones out there. But I’m telling you, Zoe isn’t like that.”

  “Fine, I just wanted to point out all possible angles here,” Rick conceded again.

  They all took a few sips of beer. Tyler looked back at Rick. “Can you feel around and see if you get anything else? I’m sure we can compensate you for the added trouble.”

  “You got me the job,” Rick said. “You don’t have to add to it. Doing a little undercover makes babysitting an old man’s mansion less boring.” Rick looked at Tony. “Is there more of that pizza left? I’m starved.”

  “In the kitchen. But I don’t know if you deserve any. You didn’t move one finger to help me move my dad,” Tony said, and they walked out together.

  When Tyler started to follow, Dallas motioned for him to hang back. “What’s your plan?” he asked.

  “I’m still working on it.
Got a lot of questions to answer.” Tyler decided to voice some of his thoughts. “I got her birth certificate.”

  Dallas looked perplexed. “She has a birth certificate as Zoe Adams? But why do you think she’s… I don’t get it.”

  “She’d never seen it until a few years ago. After her mom died. Her dad died earlier. They had told her that she was born in Alabama. But the certificate says she was born in Texas. I figured I’d check it out tomorrow.”

  Dallas ran a finger over his chin, which he did a lot when trying to wrap his head around something. No doubt the birth certificate caused Dallas to doubt Zoe’s claim. Tyler couldn’t blame Dallas for questioning it; he’d felt the same way when he first learned about the birth certificate. But even before someone had started shooting at her, there was something about Zoe that had made him feel differently. And it wasn’t just how she’d felt under him, or on top of him. He felt a tightening down south and questioned if it was all her, or if he was just that long overdue for some female company.

  Dallas cleared his throat.

  Tyler looked at him. “What?”

  “I asked you if you wanted to just take this to the old man and see what he says.”

  “Oh, I considered that,” Tyler said. “But if his daughter had something to do with the shootings, it might put Zoe in more danger. And there’s also the possibility that the old man will pull his security contract.”

  “I don’t care about the contract,” Dallas said. “It’s a lot of money, but we can get by without it.”

  “True, but if he fires us, he’ll probably fire the men we hired. A few of them need the job. And I think having Rick inside might help us. The longer we can keep our name out of this, the better.”

  Dallas nodded. “This is fucked up,” he said. “We’re investigating one of our own clients.”

  “I know,” Tyler said. “My head’s firing questions faster than I can take them down.” He moved to his desk and jotted down another one: What was Nancy Bradford’s relationship with her sister-in-law?

  “And you’re loving it,” Dallas said. “Nothing makes you happier than a good puzzle.”

  “Which makes me good at my job.” And it did. When he was younger, Tyler had been teased for his love of questions and solving puzzles. His brain just worked differently than everybody else’s. His questions were the best way to keep him from obsessing on some other, less important angle. He looked back at his list of questions. “Obviously the first order of business is making sure she’s out of harm’s way. The second is finding out for sure if Zoe is or isn’t a Bradford.”

  “Which means a DNA test,” Dallas said.

  An idea occurred to Tyler. “If Rick is as good as your brother says, maybe he can get us some DNA on the sly without the old man knowing.”

  Dallas nodded. “But first let’s check out the birth certificate. We should follow the paper route until we have something else to go on.”

  Tyler fought the need to insist Zoe’s claim was valid. Why he was so hyped on defending her, he didn’t know. He jotted that question down, too.

  When he looked up, Dallas had started to walk out. “Oh, one other thing.” Tyler spoke low in case anyone walked in. “I sort of lied about having a safe house she could stay at.”

  Dallas shrugged as if it was no big deal. “Just take her home with you.”

  “That had been my original plan, but I think she’d take it as me trying to… you know, get her to my place and into my bed or something, instead of an offer to help her.”

  Humor flashed in his partner’s eyes. “What’s wrong? You don’t want her in your bed?”

  When Tyler didn’t answer, Dallas’s grin faded, and he added, “Just get her a hotel room.”

  “She has financial issues and I think she’d frown on that, too. She wouldn’t accept our help gratis. I had to agree to a payment plan.”

  Dallas made a face. “Nikki was the same way. What is it with women who can’t accept a helping hand? I mean, someone wants to do something for me, I’m all for it.”

  “I think they’re scared we’ll want some of it paid back in trade.”

  “That would have been okay with me, too. With Nikki, of course.” Dallas laughed.

  Tyler grinned, but didn’t say anything about Zoe. He did, however, remember almost kissing her. Chasing that image from his mind, he finally moved to the question he wanted to ask. “Didn’t you tell me that you and Nikki were already staying at your new place?”

  “Yeah.” The reason for the question must have hit him for he said, “Oh, hell yeah. Just let her stay here. We’ve already moved the few pieces of furniture that we’re taking with us. So it’s mostly still furnished. We bought mostly new stuff. I was going to see if you wanted the bedroom suite and pink sofa, or I was gonna donate it to Goodwill.”

  “I have my own stuff when I move in, but hold off donating. I’ll let Zoe stay here for a while.”

  “Is she going to stay here alone?” Dallas asked.

  “Not alone,” Tyler said, thinking Dallas was worried about having a stranger in the office. They could lock the office door, but still…

  “I didn’t think so.” Dallas’s chuckle let Tyler know he’d been wrong about the motives behind Dallas’s question. “Who knows? She might change her mind about the trade.”

  “It’s not exactly like that.” Tyler wasn’t ready to publicly announce his interest in Zoe. Not that he wasn’t interested; he just needed to answer a few more questions. And go over the pro and con list growing in his mind. Zoe Adams was smart, unlike the type of woman he’d just decided to go after. She came across as the type who didn’t go for uncommitted flings. Then again, she’d mentioned something about just being here temporarily. The temporary status was a pro. A big pro, right?

  When Tyler looked up, he found Dallas studying him.

  “Define ‘exactly,’ ” Dallas said.

  Tyler shrugged. “You already said it. I’m mostly in it for the puzzle.”

  “Then you’re mostly an idiot,” Dallas said. “She’s hot, and I saw the way you looked at her. So a word of warning. If you keep playing it cool like you just did with Rick, she’s going to have guys like him and Austin all over her.” He walked out of the office.

  “I’m not an idiot,” Tyler muttered. As a matter of fact, he was so smart that he took Dallas’s warning right to heart. Sure, she was the same type of woman he always fell for, and as he’d finally realized that probably had led to his issues in the past, but she wasn’t planning on staying in Texas so… That’s when he made up his mind. There was no logical reason why he and Zoe couldn’t enjoy her time in Texas.

  If she was interested.

  A smile welled up inside him when he remembered how nervous she’d gotten when he took off his shirt. How her eyes had kept going to his chest. How her pupils had dilated and she’d become jittery. She’d even run into the wall.

  The smile led to a light chuckle. He wasn’t laughing at her, more like relating to her. Because, damn, if she’d taken off some article of clothing, he might have been the one running into walls.

  Recognizing attraction was something he knew about. As a geeky sixteen-year-old interested in getting laid, he’d done the only thing he knew how to do—research it. He’d read every book the library had on physical attraction—how to spot it and how to encourage it. A few of his friends, who thought sex education only meant eyeballing Marco’s dad’s Playboy magazines, had laughed their asses off at him. Until they realized Tyler wasn’t meeting them on Friday movie/magazine night because he had better things to do. Things that didn’t involve magazines.

  So he was pretty damn certain Zoe Adams was interested. On second thought, he grabbed his phone, surfed over to Amazon, found a few books on the psychology and social culture of interpersonal attraction, and downloaded two. He was up for some light reading anyway.

  He was about to walk out to find Zoe when his phone rang. Hoping it was Austin calling him back, he looked at the caller ID. He’
d tried earlier and Austin hadn’t answered his phone. Tyler frowned. It was his big sister, probably phoning to chastise him for not showing up for breakfast.

  “At least grab something to drink,” Nikki said to Zoe as everyone drifted out of the room.

  “Thanks.” Zoe motioned to the cat carrier by the door. “I just need to get some things out of the car for my cat.”

  “Oh,” Nikki said. “I didn’t realize you brought someone with you.” She started to walk to the cat carrier.

  “He’s a little skittish,” Zoe said.

  “Oh, well let him out in the room. Just shut the door. Bud’s in the backyard. We have to keep him there when a lot of people come over or he gets excited and makes happy sprinkles everywhere.”

  “Happy sprinkles?”

  “Pees everywhere.” Nikki smiled. “Just keep the door closed, in case someone accidentally lets him in. I’m not sure he’s a cat lover.”

  “Thanks,” Zoe said.

  While she was nice, Zoe could see the questions in her eyes. Who was the strange redhead who claimed to be a kidnapped kid who’d supposedly been found murdered?

  Nikki started out and then looked back. “Seriously, whatever is going on with you, Only in Texas will take care of it. Dallas and the guys are that good.”

  “Thanks,” Zoe said again, and she meant it.

  When Nikki left and shut the door, Zoe knelt down and tapped on the metal bars of the carrying case. “Hey, guy… you okay?”

  Lucky meowed and rubbed his forehead against the back of her fingers. Amazingly, he didn’t appear freaked out. The cat continued to prove his resilience. Maybe even more than she had, considering how she’d felt like a fish out of water in the crowd.

  She almost unlatched the carrier, but decided she should get a litter box set up first. “I’ll be right back.” She wiggled her finger against the side of his face.

  The door to the office swung open and Mr. O’Connor stood in the doorway. Beside him stood Nikki’s grandmother. “Us old folks are out of here,” said Mr. O’Connor. “It was nice to meet ya. I’m sure my son and his friends are gonna make things right.” He paused. “You do look just like your mom, you know?”