Truth and Dare

by Candace Havens

  The men stared at him, but eventually backed away, mumbling as they left the café.

  Cade jumped up to grab an empty plate from the waitress, and ordered a sweet tea.

  Patience remembered the last time she’d seen him. He was like some kind of Jekyll and Hyde—a mind-bendingly sexy Jekyll and Hyde.

  “Thanks,” she said finally. “I could have handled them on my own.”

  Cade nodded. “I’m sure you could. But I don’t like aggressive types, especially ones who pick on beautiful women.”

  He called her beautiful. No one had ever said that about her. The man was a flirt.

  She cleared her throat. “What are you doing here?”

  Cade took her fork and knife and cut the hamburger in half. Then he scooped a handful of fries and put everything on his plate.

  “I’m taking your dare.”

  2

  THE SUN SHINING THROUGH the diner windows danced along Patience’s angelic locks giving the appearance of a halo, but Cade’s thoughts weren’t close to heavenly. The woman was more intoxicating than he had remembered and for the past week she’d been haunting his dreams.

  Twice while closing the merger deal he’d lost track of what he’d been saying thanks to sudden visions of her face flashing in his mind. More than anything he wanted to wash away that look of disappointment she’d given him just before he’d walked out of her office.

  He tried to convince himself that he’d been upset when they met and that he’d made her into much more than she was. But he was right the first time. He’d known that as soon as he walked into the café.

  Taking a bite of his half of their hamburger, he studied her as she concentrated on her fries. She was obviously surprised to see him, and he’d arrived just in the nick of time. If she had any inkling of how he really felt, Patience would run straight back to Austin and lock her door.

  If he had any brains at all, he’d do the same thing.

  “Thanks for sharing your food with me.”

  A slow smile crept across her mouth. “Uh, sure. So, you came to help me out?”

  “Thought it was the least I could do after being so rude to you the other day. I’m usually never rude to women.” It was true. Many in the business community thought him to be cutthroat and they weren’t wrong. Cade was driven and wanted to provide a solid company for his employees, most of them had been with him from the beginning and sometimes that meant making tough decisions. Combining his company’s resources with that of another would in the long run make both companies stronger.

  Patience pushed the stray hairs that had fallen from her ponytail behind her ears. “That’s sexist in a way, you know.”

  He nodded. “You can blame my mom, and after she died, my grandmother. Gentlemen are always supposed to speak kindly to the ladies.” He gave her his best sweet Southern accent. “I can honestly say I was in shock. All these years I thought my dad was some sorry bastard who ran off with another woman. Then I find out he’d been murdered.” Cade took a sip of his tea.

  “The sheriff explained as much, so I didn’t hold it against you—much.”

  Cade had to stop himself from leaning across the table and kissing her when she smiled at him like that.

  Whoa, boy, slow it down.

  “So what were you doing that got those boys’ attention?”

  She shrugged. “I was going through old property records in the courthouse. I didn’t find anything. If Moses had given me the chance, I would have told him he had nothing to worry about. And, well, there’s something I need to tell you. I’m not sure you’re going to like it, but I hope you’ll give me a chance to explain.”

  Now he was curious. “I can’t imagine anything you could say that would upset me, Patience.” He liked the way her name sounded on his lips.

  After glancing around the restaurant she leaned forward and put her elbows on the table. “I told you when we first met I’m a forensic anthropologist.”

  Cade had done some checking into her background before making the drive down to Phosphor. He’d discovered she was the best at what she did. She’d written several books, and universities around the world courted her and through the Stonegate Agency she consulted for law enforcement officials all over the world. She was the superstar of the forensic anthropology field.

  “Normally, in a case like your father’s, I identify the remains and then one of the detectives from our agency would take over the case to track down the murderer.”

  Cade had a feeling he knew where this was going. “You’re worried you don’t have the right skill set to solve this.”

  “Yes and no.” She twirled a fry. “I’ve been with the Stonegate Agency for some time now, and I’ve picked up a great deal from my friends. But I’ve never followed through on a case completely on my own.”

  “So why not assign the case to someone else?”

  Patience shook her head. “There is no one else right now. We’re short staffed in Austin as it is while some of our associates are away working around the world. It would be weeks, possibly months before one of the detectives could take on anything new. I felt like your father was long overdue for some peace, and I wanted to give that to him. And to your family.”

  Every time he thought of the word murder he had to pause to consider what it really meant. He had a lot of apologizing to do to the heavens for the many horrendous things he’d said through the years about his dad.

  “As far as I’m concerned we couldn’t have anyone better than you helping our family.”

  Patience sucked in a breath of surprise, her cheeks becoming a light shade of pink. “Why do you say that?”

  “You’re passionate about this or you wouldn’t have taken time away from your lab and other cases.” He wanted to ask her why this was so important to her, but something told him this wasn’t the right time. It was more a hunch than anything, but he also saw sadness in her eyes. “You mentioned at your office that the sheriff would be overseeing the investigation, so I’m not totally understanding the problem.”

  She grinned.

  Cade shifted in his seat like a nervous schoolboy with a crush.

  “I promise you I will do everything I can to find who did this. They have to pay for what they did to your family.”

  Cade was grateful someone cared enough to even try. It couldn’t be easy solving a twenty-year-old murder. “Well, I’ll be here to help you, so we can cover twice the ground at the same time. I do have to run out to the ranch every once in a while to see how things are going.”

  “The ranch?”

  “Yeah, a couple of months ago I hired a foreman to run my family’s old place. We bought some cattle and he’s got the barn on the east side up and running. I promised to help him with the fences while I was here, and fixing up the old barn near the house. But my dad comes first. That is if you want me.”

  WANT HIM? PATIENCE WANTED to tie him up in a bow like a present and feast on him for weeks. She couldn’t remember the last time her libido had been this fully engaged. He wasn’t her normal brand of “man candy,” as her friends liked to say, but then what was normal? She hadn’t been on an official date in years.

  Technically he was a client and she had to behave.

  Katie broke the rule and she survived quite nicely.

  Katie, one of Stonegate’s best detectives, lived in London with her hot professor boyfriend. They’d met when Katie was protecting him. So maybe the rule wasn’t so hard and fast after all.

  The last thing Patience needed was romantic complications. It would take all her concentration and resources to find the murderer. Her gut told her it would be best to stay away from the handsome cowboy.

  “I don’t want you to take time away from the ranch, it sounds like it’s important to you.” She popped another French fry in her mouth. She’d have to run two or three miles to keep half of her lunch from landing on her hips.

  “Oh, it’s no problem. I’d planned on spending as much time as I can with you.”


  Patience’s head snapped up. Did he say he wanted to spend time with her? From the moment they’d met in her office she’d experienced an inexplicable pull toward him. Had he felt the same?

  “Helping with the case that is,” he finished.

  Her hopes sank. “Of course.” She waved a hand to the waitress for the check.

  “Ah, honey it’s on the house,” the waitress told her. “You got our Cade back to town, so I feel like we owe ya one.” She leaned down and kissed Cade’s cheek, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  Something strange came over Patience and it took a second for her to realize her clenched fist might be a sign of jealousy. It wasn’t an emotion she knew. There had never been anyone in her life to feel jealous about.

  Interesting.

  The scientist part of her brain wanted to explore the implications, but the woman in her was freaked out by her response.

  Cade stood and gave the waitress a big bear hug.

  Patience’s stomach twisted into one huge knot.

  “Charli, you are the best cousin ever, but I told you that’s no way to run a business.” He plopped a twenty down on the table. “You can’t be giving the goods away for free.”

  “That ain’t what you told all those girls in high school.” She let out a loud laugh, but she didn’t give him the money back.

  Cousin? They were family.

  “You keep this one,” she said, pointing to Cade, “on the straight and narrow. Don’t get his temper up or he’s ornery as a hornet’s nest on the first day of spring.”

  He made a ring motion above the top of his head indicating a halo. “Don’t listen to her. I’m a complete angel.” He fluttered his eyelashes angelically. “She’s the one with the temper. Just ask her brother Jason. He woke up bald one morning because he said her boyfriend looked like a bean pole.”

  Charli slapped him on the hip with the rag. “Now don’t you be tellin’ tales.” The other woman smiled at Patience. “But trust me that boy deserved it.”

  They all laughed. This man was the exact opposite of the one she had met at her office. She couldn’t believe she thought him so cold and calculated. He was down-to-earth and relaxed. And she could see he had a great respect for his family.

  Over at the courthouse, everyone seemed to have kind words for Cade. There were many cheerful hellos and pats on the back welcoming him to town. When she’d entered the first time she’d been completely ignored, except for the occasional curious glance.

  “They’re so much more friendly toward you,” she said as they walked down the long staircase to the basement.

  “What do you mean?” He helped her push open the large wooden door protecting the old records.

  “When I first arrived, some of them looked at me like I was an exhibit at the zoo.”

  “Ah, well, they’ll warm up to you soon enough. Everyone around here is cautious of strangers,” he said as he held the door open for her.

  “Like those men at the diner?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure what’s going on with them. I’ll have a talk with them later.”

  There was no sense making more trouble. “Don’t bother. That was probably their way of protecting their town from an outside threat. Though why they see me that way makes no sense.”

  “With those three there’s absolutely no tellin’.” Cade waved a hand in front of his face as they reached the dusty records room. “I’m guessing the spotless housekeeping upstairs doesn’t make its way down here very often.”

  “From the looks of it, they pretty much use this as a storage room. Evidently no one in Phosphor ever has to do any research, because I found at least three inches of dust on most of the boxes. I wonder if they understand how much of their history is down here.”

  “What do you mean?” Cade took a deep breath and blew the dust from the top of a box they’d moved to the table.

  “From an anthropological point of view, when people migrate to an area and when they leave can be based on a variety of factors. You can find information about certain eras where the town may have been booming because of river travel, or the railroads. From some of the mortgages and contracts I saw earlier, there seems to be an influx of ranchers buying up land around here over the last five years.

  “Possibly they’ve had some good years without drought and the pastures are greener than normal. I don’t know that for a fact, but it’s something that can be found out with a little study. I find it fascinating.” She coughed from the dust. “I only wish other people found it as interesting as I do.”

  “Huh. I never thought about it that way. My cousins and I have all bought up land, or have come back to town to rebuild our family ranches that have gone to pasture.”

  “My first question would be why in the last five years?”

  “I don’t know about my cousins, but for me I finally had the income to do with the place what I always wanted. My plan is to have at least three hundred heads of longhorns in the next twenty-four months. I’d also like to fix up the old family house and make it a weekend and summerhouse. Somewhere I can get away from Austin and my life there.”

  “Makes sense. Do you feel a need to reconnect with your past and possibly spend time with your family? I find that is the motivation for most people when they return to their old homes.”

  Cade was scrutinizing her. “I guess so. I’ve been so caught up with my business I realized I hadn’t spent Christmas with my grandmother in five years. She put her foot down when I forgot her birthday in February, and I guess that’s when I started thinking about the ranch.”

  Patience knew there was more to his story, but she wasn’t sure he was ready to examine that yet.

  “Well, I guess we better get started opening these boxes. They aren’t going to research themselves.” He grinned at her.

  “What I wouldn’t give for a modern-day courthouse with computer records.” She smiled back at him. “But I guess this is why my friends call it grunt work.”

  Cade searched through twenty-year-old property deeds. Patience took on the task of reading through the more recent files. They hoped to meet in the middle somewhere.

  “Hmm.” She heard him murmur.

  “Did you find something?” She peeked over the edge of the box she was going through.

  “It’s not so much about what is here, as what isn’t. There are six months’ worth of files missing.”

  Patience stood. “Maybe no one filed deeds during that time,” she offered.

  “No, it wouldn’t matter. There were years when nothing was filed, but there were still file folders for those months. But it’s the dates that really have me wondering.”

  “Why is that?”

  “The missing files are the ones six months before my dad died.”

  3

  “I SHOULD CALL THE SHERIFF with this information.” Patience drew the box toward her and replaced the documents. “For all we know, he may have the files in his office. He said he’d do some preliminary work before I arrived.”

  She slammed a box lid down. “I didn’t even let him know I was in town. I probably could have saved myself a lot of trouble by going to see him first.”

  She pushed her hair out of her eyes and twisted it back on her head. Cade had the urge to touch the wayward strands, but he made himself pack up the rest of the boxes.

  “Don’t beat yourself up. You were excited about getting started.” Cade did his best to be encouraging.

  “Don’t pander to me, Cade. I made a mistake. A rookie one, I’m sure. Now I need to backtrack and do what I should have done this morning when I got here.”

  “That’s a good idea.” Cade ignored her comment about pandering. He had a feeling she wouldn’t believe him if he tried to explain that wasn’t what he meant to do. “If he didn’t take the files, then that’s a clue for us. Don’t you think?”

  Patience pursed her lips. “Definitely. I’ll stop by the station and ask him, but first I need a shower. I feel like I have ten layers of du
st on me and I haven’t even checked into the B and B yet.”

  The image of Patience naked with warm water and soap sluicing down her body was almost more than he could take. Cade returned the boxes to where they found them. “You said you were staying at the B and B?”

  “Yes. Staying at a B and B takes me into the life of the townspeople, which is helpful when you’re trying to understand the local culture. You said you were hanging around for a few weeks, where are you staying?”

  “Same place, just around the corner from the diner.”

  A small smile turned up the edges of her mouth. Could she possibly be happy about staying in the B and B with him? “If you want to follow me, my truck is across the street.”

  “Sure.” She glanced up but there was no trace of the smile he’d seen there.

  As they rolled up in front of the B and B, Cade jumped out to help her with her bag.

  “It’s okay,” she said refusing to let go of the suit case.

  “Trust me, I need you to let me do this. When we get inside you’ll understand.”

  She gave him a curious look but relinquished the bag. “Why?”

  Holding open the door, Cade ushered her in carrying both of their bags.

  “My stars, if it isn’t my errant grandson come home, and with a woman.” His grandmother held her hand to her heart. “Are there any great-grandbabies out there for me to hold?”

  Dressed in her jeans, denim shirt and cowboy boots, GG hadn’t changed a bit. Her long white hair was tied in a ponytail, and she wore the silver belt buckle she’d won bull riding forty years ago. She’d always been a woman before her time.

  Cade scooped her up in a big hug, and she planted a kiss on his cheek. “Missed you,” he said as he put her down.

  After his mom died, his grandmother was the one person in the world who kept him grounded. She was the reason he went to college and why he didn’t give up when the chips were down. He owed everything to her.