“Why wouldn’t you?” She was prying, and she knew it. But they had forty-five-minute drive ahead of them back to the Della precinct. She didn’t want to talk about Pauline Beise the entire way. She’d rather talk to the man next to her and figure out just who he was. On the drive down, they’d had Max to talk to.
Now it was just them. He couldn’t escape.
He shot her a pointed look. “Nosy much?”
“Hey, it kind of goes with the job description. Talk to me, Knight. Let me figure out who you are.” She shifted to where she could study the long, tall, muscled form of the man as he drove.
Well, maybe they grew them well wherever Knight had actually hatched from, too.
“What for?”
“Personal edification. That’s all.”
“You’re wasting your time. There’s nothing interesting about me.”
“Now you’re just being modest.”
Talley sent a guileless grin right at him. Knight just grunted. If he didn’t answer, the woman would just keep pushing. He had no doubt about that. Stubborn-as-a-mule was probably her middle name. “Is it any of your business?”
“Maybe. I have to say I’ve always enjoyed working cold cases. They can be challenging in ways fresh cases aren’t.”
“You like to be challenged, don’t you?” No doubt. She might have the down-home, farm-girl thing going on, but he had no doubt the woman was highly intelligent and quick. And persistent.
“Sometimes.” Her fingers drummed against the passenger door. “So do you.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve been studying you. Observing, so to speak.”
“And what have you learned about me so far?”
“Well…You have a hard time not taking control, for one thing.”
He snorted.
“You do. Look at you right now.”
“Hard to do. I’m driving, remember?”
“Exactly. You just proved my point completely.”
Talley apparently enjoyed talking in circles, too. Or maybe that was just a thing she did to get under his skin. “How so? I’m afraid I don’t know what’s going on inside that brain of yours underneath all that wild hair.”
Her hand went to her hair immediately. She touched the braid. “My hair isn’t wild. At least, not today.”
He’d seen Talley unbraiding it in the entrance to the private hall last night, as she’d stood talking to her cousin, Daisy, or Dusty, or something. She’d been running her fingers through it absently.
He’d wanted to do it for her.
The hair had almost reached her waist when it was down. Highly impractical for a woman in law enforcement, but he had to admit it was exactly the kind of hair he’d always found attractive. It had looked soft, silky, and sexy.
He just grunted again.
“We really need to expand your repertoire, Allan. You can’t just go through life grunting at everyone. Especially on the job. PAVAD kind of frowns on it in group discussion, you know. It’s unproductive.”
“I wouldn’t be working directly with a team of ever-evolving PAVAD agents. Definitely not the Complex Crimes unit. It would be my own unit. With my own team.” That was one of the biggest draws. Control. He had to admit—she had pegged him correctly in that regard. “I’ll get to pick my team. Whichever agents I want from whoever submits for the positions.”
“Hmm. Maybe I’ll submit for one. Just for a change of pace. I’m always up for a challenge. But then we’d have to work together on a regular basis. I’m not sure you’re the kind of boss I want just yet.”
He barely managed it, but he was able to bite back the instinctive grunt. The last thing he would do was pick Miranda Talley to work with him so closely. Not with the way she clouded every bit of his better judgment.
He made himself a resolution in that moment as he braked for what had to be the Della County single stoplight. There was no way he was ever going to let these inconvenient feelings for her influence his behavior in any way, shape, or form.
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Why not? Wouldn’t you want me on your team? I’m a good agent, and I’ll be a good profiler when I pass the testing.”
“I have no doubt about it.”
“Then why?”
Knight had never been much of a liar. “Because you, Dr. Talley, are too much of a distraction.”
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said about me.”
Knight couldn’t help it. He just grunted.
“Allan, I said something to you. You say something to me. It’s called conversation.”
“Screw conversation. Conversation is drastically overrated.”
“Have you always felt this way?”
“Want me on your couch, Dr. Talley, for a fifty-minute session?” That had been the wrong thing to say. Images of her long, curvy body stretched out on his couch slammed into him.
He almost groaned aloud. He was almost ready to call and request an appointment to the most remote posting possible.
Just to get away from her.
“Do you feel you need a session with a psychiatrist? Want to do a Rorschach test?”
“Did your grandmother ever spank your ass as a child?”
“Of course not. Grandma doesn’t believe in corporal punishment. Why do you ask? Did your father spank you?”
“Which one? I grew up in foster care.” It slipped out before he thought it through. “Not something I’m going to talk about, doc.”
“Of course not.” She turned serious. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“Sure you didn’t. You have questions. It’s written all over your pretty face.”
“Is it?” She shot him a quick grin.
“Will you stop doing that? Anyone ever tell you that you are annoying?”
“I’ve heard that before. But…you’ve met my sisters and cousins. I’m the only normal one in my family.”
He grunted. None of the Talleys of Masterson County were all that normal. Tall, beautiful, intelligent, and kind, they drew men. Especially in an area like Masterson, Wyoming, where the women obviously were grossly outnumbered by single men. That brought up one thing he had wondered about. “Why aren’t any of your cousins or your sisters—or you—married? There’s obvious interest. You and Gunderson seem to be…close.”
“We are. If you’re all that interested, I dated Levi in high school and Clint when I was in college.”
“Why didn’t it work out with either of them?”
“Levi and I were never that serious. But he was a great first boyfriend. Kind, caring, respectful. Fun and daring, but very, very hardworking. He was always focused on staying in Masterson and running his father’s ranch. In building his own enterprise. He’s really doing well at it, too. His wife, Pan, is perfect for him. She does the books for the restaurant now. She’s been talking to several people in town about starting her own bookkeeping business when she’s finished with her degree. I guess she’s doing online classes again.”
He didn’t care about Levi Masterson or his wife. They were just more people in this town he hadn’t yet figured out. Everything seemed so perfectly bucolic and down-home wholesome around here. They probably hadn’t even seen a foster kid in Masterson County, Wyoming before. “And Gunderson? What’s your deal with him?”
A soft sigh came out. Knight looked at her quickly. Her expression had softened. It told him all he needed to know. “You loved him.”
“I did. Do. It just…I wanted more than Masterson County. Unlike my sisters, I loved moving around from military base to military base. Don’t get me wrong, I love it in Masterson County, too. It will always be home to me. And if I ever move back here, I could be very happy. But Clint…he’s seven years older, did a two-year law-enforcement degree at the community college an hour away from where he lived, and was planning to just stay here. He is the one who ended it between us. Not me.”
“You want to change that? Get back with him?”
She laughed. “No. We’ve grown apart, and I do know that. I’m not the type of woman Clint needs, and he’s not the type of man I need. Not now.”
“Oh?”
“Don’t tell, but I suspect I may be a tad too independent for Clint now. And I strongly suspect he may be half in love with someone else. Or still in love with his late wife. Either way, he’s not emotionally available.”
“Too bad.”
“Maybe. He’s always been that way, though. Closed off. I think that’s what attracted us to each other in the beginning.”
“Opposites attract?” He could understand that. He’d just found himself identifying with Clint Gunderson, after all. He was the exact opposite of the woman next to him. “Was that what it was?”
“I think it might have been. Clint was the hot, sexy loner, older, dangerous, exciting. I came from the inn and the high school that had one hundred fifty-eight kids, grades seven through twelve. Not to mention that it seemed like most of those kids filtered through my living room at one time or another. They even had my high school prom in the event center that used to be behind my house. At one time, it was my great-grandfather’s barn. It burned down when I was seventeen. Now, events are held at the community center, but my prom was in my barn, Knight. Combined with the diner, I was always in the public light, it seemed. With my cousins and sisters, we were at the center of everything chaotic.”
“And he was your escape from that?”
“Yes. More than Levi. Mastersons also tend to draw attention, and Levi wasn’t that much older than I was. Not like Clint. Clint was the antithesis of attention-seeking.”
“So what did you have to offer him? Besides the obvious?” She would have been considerably younger then. Seven years between her and Clint. Clint was a few years younger than Knight was. She was a good ten years Knight’s junior, then. That could explain it. The woman just wasn’t seasoned enough yet—that was why she was sunny all the time. “You were too young for him back then.”
“Hardly. I might have been young, but Grandma ensured the eight of us—I have one cousin you haven’t met yet who lives in Texas—weren’t naive where men were concerned. I was nineteen when I started dating Clint and twenty-one when he broke it off.”
Knight did the math. He suspected he knew what Gunderson got from being with a young innocent—and despite what she said, he suspected she’d been all rosy-cheeked and gullible—affirmation that he was a man. Someone to protect. Someone to help him fight the jaded cynicism the man no doubt suffered from.
He and Clint did have a lot more in common than he’d first thought.
No wonder Knight was attracted to her. There was some basis for opposites attracting. At least, he’d seen it before. Many times.
Knight wasn’t going to fall for it himself, though.
“So why did Gunderson call PAVAD?”
“Conflict of interest, I think. He’s been investigating some internal affairs issues within the Wyoming State Police. Clint’s stepfather Clive was the former sheriff of Masterson County before Joel. He also almost killed Perci Masterson. She’s the wife of Nate Masterson.”
“He’s the one who did the autopsy.” Needed a score card around here. Small towns. He really hated small towns.
“Yes, that’s him.”
“Because of that, Gunderson asked for PAVAD?”
She nodded. “He is covering his bases. Apparently, his stepfather and Luther Beise were close friends for years. Distant cousins, I believe.”
“Probably a smart bet around here.” Clint was definitely not well-liked in Masterson. “Have the townsfolk always been so against your boyfriend?”
“Not always. His father was an asshole, and many people thought that. But people respected him because of his position. There was a lot of cronyism around town back then. Certain men—most have died, moved away, or been imprisoned—who often bullied others. Most in town probably didn’t see it, but Grandma did. She and the Masterson brothers’ parents have always been close friends. She saw a lot that others didn’t. Clint mostly stayed to himself at his own grandmother’s place. He inherited her ranch about the time I turned twenty, I think. But it needed a lot of work.”
“He going to try ranching?”
“Not full time, I don’t think. He’s always said there isn’t much money in it. And it’s a really small place. I don’t think he had any stock there eight years ago. Everything needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. But it had been in his mother’s family since Masterson was first founded. He wasn’t willing to give it up back then.”
“Good for him. Something from his family like that, I can see where that would matter to some men.”
Knight had nothing from his family, except for his name. He had long ago resigned himself to that. Even his name wasn’t all that unique, either. He’d met another one in his teens—a teacher in his eighties. There were more out there, he was certain.
“It does. And Clint is fiercely protective of his ranch. It’s what remains of his family. His brother is dead, as is his mother. His stepfather is in prison. Clint was the one to arrest him, Grandma said. It was all over town when it happened. Perci Masterson came very close to dying. It was a big deal around here.”
“I’m sure it was. Seems like everything is a big deal in Masterson County.”
26
Sheriff Karr was a nice guy. Rough and rugged, but with a core of honor that Miranda sensed ran deep. Sheriff Karr had an easy way about him. He’d welcomed them into his tiny precinct immediately, while having his deputy process Pauline Beise. She’d apparently turned into a real problem in the squad car, clawing at Max’s neck through the metal grate. The woman was still ranting and raving when they’d pulled her from the vehicle once they’d arrived in the Della station parking lot.
What had taken the cake though, was when Pauline had sunk her teeth—both upper and lower dentures—into the flesh on Max’s left arm.
Max had a real problem with biters—he’d probably never read a vampire novel and enjoy it, that was for sure. Pauline was lucky Max hadn’t charged her with attempted murder or something. Assault with deadly dentures, maybe. If that was a thing. She’d bet Max would make it a thing, if he could.
Even hero-type men like Max had their weaknesses. His was biting. And Jac. Always Jac.
Well, first Pauline had been a person of interest in the murder of her mother. Now, she had attempted assault charges. Followed by resisting arrest. Some people just didn’t think things through. Miranda figured Pauline was going to be more difficult as time went on. They needed to come up with a game plan for that.
But her attack changed Miranda and Knight’s plans. Max would have to have the bite checked out at a hospital per PAVAD protocol. He wouldn’t be able to process Pauline like they’d originally thought.
Miranda and Knight were going to handle her—right there in Della.
Miranda looked at Knight when he strolled into the small conference room—Della had a bigger sheriff’s station than Masterson by a factor of one-and-a-half—a bag of trail mix in one hand and a soda in the other. He handed them to her without asking; she’d used him to fetch and wasn’t ashamed of it one bit.
PAVAD helped each other out—even if it was just with snacks. He’d have to get used to it. It had been a test. Miranda wouldn’t lie about that. Knight didn’t exactly have team player written all over him. “Has she settled down yet?”
“Didn’t you hear her cursing Jones’s antecedents a few minutes ago? The woman has…problems.” He shot her snack a look of disgust. “You need more to eat than that.”
“Well, it’s just about all we have until we make it back to Masterson.” She deliberately popped the top on the soda can. She was a closet junk food addict, but she usually worked it off. “Didn’t you grab you something?”
“No. Nothing appealed. I prefer a healthier menu than chocolate and nuts.”
“Hey, there’re raisins in here. That’s a fruit. Fiber, too, I think.”
&
nbsp; He just blinked at her like she was out of her mind. “Let’s get back to it.”
“Whatever you say, sir.” Miranda deliberately popped a piece of the chocolate in her mouth and let it melt. She closed her eyes to appreciate it. When she opened them and looked back at him, there was a heat in his eyes she most definitely had not expected to see.
Every thought she’d had just a moment before flew right out of her head.
The expression on her face when she had eaten the candy had been what had done it to him. That image would be burned into his mind forever.
Miranda Talley enjoyed life. Sensations. The sensual.
He had no doubt she’d be the same way in bed. One hundred percent. He forced his body to relax—he hadn’t realized he’d tensed—as her eyes opened and met his.
Heat hit her cheeks. She had nothing to say.
For the first time in his presence, he’d disconcerted the enigma in front of him. Knight bit back a smile. He rather liked having the upper hand with Dr. Miranda Talley for the moment. “So how are you going to play this with Pauline-slash-Paula?”
“I’m not sure yet.” She paused for a moment and leaned against the desk she stood next to. She was quiet, picking out the chocolate candies and eating them first. “Her children.”
“What do you mean?”
“Pauline is a mother of seven. According to Luther, our best bet to figuring her out is through them.”
“So what exactly does that mean?”
“Simple. Let’s leave her stewing for a bit and work on finding the rest of the Beise brood. Where’s the list from Luther?”
“Jac Jones has it, I believe.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I knew that. So let’s call Jac. See where she’s at in finding the rest.”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit odd that Luther didn’t know the exact locations of his children?”
“Yes…and no. I’m not so certain Luther is capable of that kind of executive functioning.”
“You think he has a lower IQ?”
“I think so. Jac said she found records of him receiving a traumatic brain injury—” Her gaze slipped toward Knight’s scar before darting away. “In a tree-cutting accident eleven years ago.”
Buried Secrets: PAVAD: FBI Case File #0005 (PAVAD: FBI Case Files) Page 10
