“Call me Cooper,” he said, flashing a grin that probably melted Rosie’s thick mascara. “And no, the recipe is a secret that only a few people in the company are privy to. You can’t be too careful nowadays.”
Jordan coughed to cover her laugh as Rosie flashed him an adoring smile that Jordan recognized as the one she used whenever there was a good-looking man on her radar. Despite the fact Cooper was twenty years her junior, Rosie looked ready to show him exactly how much she appreciated the free meal.
Cooper led them farther down the hall, stopping in front of a double stainless steel door. “This is the refrigerator. It’s frickin’ freezing in there, so we won’t stay long. Then I have a surprise for you.”
Jordan shivered as they walked down one aisle and up another. Rows and rows of boxes filled the shelves, all marked with the logo of North Texas Beef Distributors, Carole Anne’s company.
No surprise there.
“Come on.” Cooper beckoned from the door. “I had my cooks whip up their signature banana pudding for you. It’s all set up in the break room around the corner.”
He led them to the tables already set with bowls of the delicious pudding. No one mentioned they’d already pigged out on desserts back at the Greenville Avenue restaurant, all compliments of him.
“There are soft drinks and bottled water in the refrigerator, and coffee and hot chocolate over there.” He directed them to the corner where a huge beverage center lined the wall, the kind Jordan had seen at the car dealership when she took her car in for maintenance.
She headed that way while the others sat around the table. Even though she had on a sweater, she was still a little cold from the meat locker, and she hoped a cup of steaming hot chocolate might warm her back up.
As she reached for a cup, Cooper touched her shoulder, making her jump.
“Jordan, can you come with me for a sec?” he asked. “There’s something I want you to see. I promise it will only take a minute.”
She hesitated momentarily, wondering what he had to show her that the others couldn’t see. “Sure, Cooper.” She decided if he wanted to show off a little more, a little indulgence was a small price to pay, considering how he had just fed her friends. She followed him toward the door. “I’ll be back in a flash,” she said to Ray, who glanced up as they passed.
Cooper led her back down the hallway toward the meat locker.
“Please tell me what you have to show me isn’t in there.” She pointed to the big refrigerator they’d just left. “I’m just now feeling my fingers again.” She tried to sound playful, but the truth was, she was getting a little nervous and wished she had insisted the gang come with her.
Cooper stopped abruptly in front of an unmarked door. “It will only be cold for a minute.” He punched a code into the keypad, and the door clicked open. “This is where we store the really good cuts of beef that we use for special occasions. No one comes in here but Blake and me, so it’s the perfect place to keep my office.”
Jordan wrapped her arms across her chest and stepped around him into the room. Following him down the aisle, she glanced at the boxes lining the shelves, noticing they weren’t labeled with the same North Texas Beef Distributors logo as the cartons in the big refrigerator. She was still trying to process why that might be when Cooper opened a door at the back wall. The warm air hit her before she even walked through it.
“Much better.” Glancing around, she couldn’t help but think this hardly looked like the office of the man who ran a million-dollar barbecue empire.
Except for one picture that hung behind the massive filing cabinets, the walls were bare. A computer screen and stacks of manila folders covered the medium-size oak desk.
She walked toward the cabinets to view the lone photo. “Who’s that with you and Blake?” She pointed toward the picture taken in front of Buddy’s Barbecue Pit.
“Buddy Wilson, the owner.”
Jordan eyed him suspiciously. “Isn’t he your biggest competitor around the metroplex?”
“Not anymore. This year we kicked his butt in overall sales, and that doesn’t even take into consideration all the charity events we did.” Cooper snorted. “He thought we were just a couple of Yankee hicks without a clue when we mentioned we were thinking about opening a restaurant.”
“You and Blake are Yankees?” Jordan wasn’t as surprised as she tried to pretend, since she’d picked up on that fake southern drawl the minute Blake had opened his mouth.
“Yep.” Cooper leaned back against the desk. “Blake and I were executives at CLM for a lot of years.”
“CLM?”
“Computerized Logistics Management. We were based in Washington, and Blake was my boss.”
“So how did two computer geeks from DC end up in Texas running a successful barbecue franchise?”
“Blake only does the programming for me. He owns a very successful computer software franchise.”
“Why did you leave DC?”
Cooper grabbed her hand and pulled her to him. “Shit happens—and then you move on. When the military budget was sliced in half, we lost a lot of accounts.” He tightened his grip on her wrist. “Best thing that ever happened to us.”
“What are you doing, Cooper?” Jordan tried to twist away but couldn’t.
He leaned in until his head was so close she could smell the Listerine on his breath. He must’ve gargled right before they’d arrived.
“I never really got a chance to tell you how sorry I was about Rusty.” He leaned closer and closed his eyes.
“Cooper!” she yelled. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You’re engaged and I’m seeing someone.”
He opened his eyes, never letting up on his grip. “I think you and I could have some fun together, that’s all. I dig you and think you feel the same. Carole Ann doesn’t have to know. Hell, I’m sure she has”—he waved one hand in the air—“little indiscretions of her own.”
In that second when he held her with only one hand, Jordan managed to catch him off guard and wiggle out of his grasp.
“Cooper, I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression.” She stepped backward. “Right now, I’m in a committed relationship.” She crossed her fingers behind her back before continuing. “But you’re right. I do like you, and if my status with the other guy ever changes, you’ll be the first one I call.”
She wondered if this was what he’d wanted to talk to her about and chided herself for not seeing it coming, especially when he’d maneuvered her away from her friends.
He eyed her suspiciously before a slight grin turned up the corners of his lips. “I could be your rich benefactor—open a lot of doors for you. Ever think of that?”
She pursed her lips, trying not to gag. “It’s tempting, but right now we need to get back before the others wonder what we’re up to.”
“How about one little kiss to make you forget that other guy?”
She took a deep breath hoping he wouldn’t realize she was lying or that standing this close to him disgusted her. The niggling thought that even if the gang came looking for her they’d never find Cooper’s office forced her to rethink her strategy. She had to get out of there.
Trying a different tactic, she batted her eyelashes as she’d seen Rosie do earlier and tried to look seductive. “Oh, no, big boy, I want you to think about how good that first kiss will be.”
She licked her lips, nearly cracking up at his reaction. She must be better at this than she thought. “Come on, sugar, you know anything this good is worth waiting on.”
The victory smile spread across his face faster than a water stain on a paper towel. “I’ll be waiting,” he said, stepping in front of her to open the door, making sure to brush against her chest on the way.
As she walked past him, he patted her behind. When she turned to confront him, he held up his hands. “Just a little taste of what’s to come.”
“Of course,” she said before nearly sprinting down the aisle past the rows of boxed meat.
Almost to the door, her arm caught on one of the boxes sticking out, and she nearly got clobbered when it fell to the floor.
Cooper rushed over and grabbed it. “That would’ve hurt.”
She was glad he needed both hands to put the box back on the shelf because she was sure he would’ve used the opportunity to cop another feel.
When he lifted the box up, Jordan noticed the handwritten word on the top. “This is Wagyu?”
Cooper stopped midway and turned, his eyes questioning. “How do you know about Wagyu?”
She decided the faster she got out of the room and away from him, the better, and a conversation about what she had learned from Danny might mean more time alone with Casanova.
“Only from the business card Brenda Sue Taylor gave me.”
He slid the box into the slot and gave it another push toward the back. “How do you know Brenda Sue?”
“I met her at Rusty’s memorial service when I went to give his mother my condolences.” She shivered. “Come on, Cooper, I’m freezing.”
He opened the door slightly, then turned to her and undressed her with his eyes. “I can warm you up in a hurry.”
“I’ll bet you can, but now’s not the time.” She pushed into him so the door opened, allowing her just enough room to squeeze under his arm and take off for the break room.
“Where were you?” Danny asked, glancing up at her with a sheepish grin. “You’re too late, Jordan. I ate your pudding.”
Ignoring her brother, she tapped Ray’s shoulder. “Let’s go. I have a lot of things to do tomorrow, and I want to get an early start.”
“Hey! I thought you said we were sleeping in tomorrow?” Danny blurted.
Jordan shot him a look that screamed, Don’t argue or you’ll be sleeping on the sidewalk.
“Okay, then,” Ray said, obviously picking up on what she wasn’t saying. He turned to Cooper. “My friends and I want to thank you for your hospitality. Anytime we can repay the favor, let us know. Rosie here cooks a mean beef—ouch!” He flinched, then turned to Jordan and shrugged.
“I just may take you up on that,” Cooper said, focusing on Jordan. “I’d like to get to know you all a lot better.”
Jordan rolled her eyes, then turned back and pasted a phony half smile on her face. “Take me home, Ray. I’m tired.”
Somehow they managed to make it out the door without Cooper getting close enough to say anything else to Jordan. Climbing into the backseat of the Suburban, she wondered what it was about her that sent totally different vibes than she intended. Why had Cooper acted like she was some love-starved girl desperate enough to fool around with him?
Maybe he’d gotten the desperate part right, but he’d sure missed the mark about her agreeing to play hanky-panky with someone she hardly knew. Even if she were that kind of girl, she hadn’t met anyone yet who even tempted her to go down that road.
Leaning back into the Suburban’s plush seat, she closed her eyes. Okay, that was a lie, she admitted to herself, thinking about Rusty Morales’s smoky black eyes. As his face popped into her head, she opened her mouth to tell Danny about seeing the Wagyu in Cooper’s secret meat locker, then decided to wait until they were home alone. She had no idea what it meant or if it was even important.
“So, Jordan, why were you in such a hellfire hurry to get out of there?” Victor asked. “I saw another bowl of pudding in the refrigerator.”
“Yeah, she kicked my ankle so hard, I’ll probably need ice tonight,” Ray added.
“Oh, honey,” Lola said, patting his shoulder. “What you need is heat, not ice.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek.
“Geez, you two are going to steam up the windows,” Michael said, turning around to face Jordan. “Why the mad dash to get out of there?”
Jordan blew out a loud breath. “Cooper made a pass at me,” she said, deciding not to tell them the whole story.
No way she wanted to think about that again. Besides, Danny would tease her and say she misread the guy. He still saw her as his little sister with braces and a flat chest and couldn’t imagine anyone else viewing her any differently.
“Thought you said he was engaged?” Lola said.
“He is. I met his fiancée at the Cattlemen’s Ball that night with Rusty and—”
“Speaking of Rusty,” Danny said, slapping his thigh. “I knew there was something I wanted to tell you earlier. They found out what killed him.”
“What?” Jordan asked, hoping it wasn’t something she should’ve picked up on.
“Poison.”
CHAPTER 10
“Poison?” Jordan shrieked before lowering her voice an octave. “How could he have been poisoned? I sat right next to him the whole night.” She gripped her throat. “I may have been poisoned, too, since I ate exactly the same thing he did.”
“You and the other fifteen hundred people at the party,” Danny interjected. “Don’t be so dramatic, sis. If I were you, I’d be more worried about the cops looking at you as a suspect.”
Jordan twisted 180 degrees in the seat, straining the shoulder belt until it dug painfully into her skin. “You’re kidding, right?”
A slow grin crossed Danny’s face—the same kind of grin she recognized from the past when he knew something and wouldn’t tell her. She half expected to hear, “It will cost you,” as she had so many times back in Amarillo.
“The cops are taking a look at everyone who was at the table with Rusty.”
Jordan let out a deep breath, trying to remember who all was there that night. Lucas and Bella, Carole Anne and Cooper, Blake and his teensy-tiny date, and she and Rusty.
She shook her head. “Everyone at the table was a friend of Rusty’s.”
“Apparently not everyone,” Danny said, pointing at Jordan. “You said you’d only met him that night. Maybe everyone else did, too.”
“That’s absurd. You were with me at the memorial service, Danny. You heard Farley say Rusty and Lucas were really tight when he drove us from our car to Santana’s house that day. Blake and Cooper also had some kind of relationship with him. I could tell. And I got the impression Carole Anne and Rusty had been an item at one time.”
“Is Carole Anne the blonde I met at Santana’s with a figure that could stop a train and boobs that…” He paused and turned to Sandy. “Sorry.”
“That was her,” Jordan said. “Remember how upset her dad was? Said Rusty was like a son to him.”
Danny leaned forward. “Yeah, I remember, but didn’t he say Carole Anne screwed up the relationship?”
“Holy crap! What kind of father says that to his daughter?” Rosie asked.
“A bad one,” Jordan said before turning back to Danny. “It was obvious she still had feelings for Rusty.” She slapped her forehead.
“What?”
“While Cooper was trying to talk me into a ‘you squeeze mine and I’ll squeeze yours’ thing, he implied that Carole Anne played around, too.”
“Sounds to me like she’s the perfect candidate for dropping a little arsenic into Rusty’s water glass,” Ray commented from the front seat. “A scorned lover can be deadly.”
“Oh, baby, that sounds like it came right out of a romance novel,” Lola said, snuggling closer to him.
“My kind of romance novel,” Victor said, forming a gun with his finger and thumb. “Pow! Love ’em, then kill ’em. That’s kinda like a praying mantis, right?”
“Girlie praying mantises don’t just kill their mate after sex. They eat the dude’s head off,” Rosie said. “I could rattle off the names of a few men who should be counting their lucky stars that I’m not an insect.”
Deep in her own thoughts, Jordan ignored the joking that followed. “Do they know what kind of poison killed Rusty?”
The laughter stopped abruptly as everyone turned to the only person there who could answer that question.
“I shouldn’t be telling you this, but it will be in the paper in a couple of days, anyway. Initially, the autopsy
suggested asphyxia, as if he’d been strangled—which, obviously, he couldn’t have been. After rechecking the stomach contents, they didn’t find any evidence of anything that could have killed him.”
“So why do they think he was poisoned?” Jordan asked impatiently.
“From your description of his symptoms moments before he died and the fact that the autopsy showed no definitive cause of death, the ME concluded that’s the only thing it could be. They’re bringing in a forensic toxicologist from Dallas next week. He’s supposed to be an expert on poisons.”
“And I’m really a suspect?” Jordan realized for the first time that she’d been the closest one to Rusty all night and had a better opportunity than anyone else to throw a little poison on his sliced beef.
She covered her mouth in time to stop the audible gasp as she remembered that wasn’t entirely true. There was someone else sitting on the other side of Rusty. Her mind raced back to less than an hour ago when she’d been locked in a hidden back office with that someone.
She shivered as the realization hit. There was a distinct possibility that very same someone just might have had a jealous streak.
Watching the gate slide open at the entrance to Santana Circle Ranch, Jordan glanced down at the clock on her dashboard. Twelve thirty. Bella had called earlier that morning to tell her how excited she and Lucas were that Jordan had agreed to do a piece on Santana Circle.
Yeah. She’d agreed all right—more like she’d had her arm twisted.
Okay, so she sold her soul for fifty-yard-line Cowboys tickets, and now she was paying the devil with an afternoon she wasn’t looking forward to. She figured they’d eat around two, and she could be on her way home by three thirty. In essence, she’d be giving up only three hours of her Sunday afternoon in exchange for getting four hours off on a busy Friday. When she looked at it that way, it didn’t seem so bad.
Plus, she would be collecting recipes that would take care of the next few weeks’ entries for the Kitchen Kupboard. She hoped her boss had explained to Lucas that she wasn’t a big fan of steaks, thanks to all those years of watching her dad and four brothers eating theirs bloody.
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