Page 108 of Family Jewels

“This whole house is personal. It’s my refuge. But there’s not a single thing to tie it to myname. Not even the title.”

He’d told me once that no one knew he owned several properties, including the recycling business, around town. A dummy corporation in Texarkana owned it. But I wasn’t up to discussing his properties at the moment. “Did you have Raddy Dyer killed?”

He slowly closed his laptop and looked up at me, his face a blank slate. “Doyouthink I killed Raddy Dyer?”

“So you’re not surprised to hear he’s dead?”

His eyes darkened. “Are you insinuating that I know he’s dead because I ordered it?”

Criminal or not, my gut told me to trust him, and my instincts had served me well in plenty of dangerous situations. Sometimes it was all I had to go on. “No. You know what’s goin’ on in this county, and if you knew there was a fight at a bar last night, you’d sure as heck know about the murder of a man you were talkin’ to at three a.m.”

His shoulders relaxed—not much, but enough for me to notice.

“So this means I’m safe,” I said. “I can go about my business.”

“It doesn’t mean shit. My man found him dead, lying face down on the hood of his car with a bullet to the back of the head. Who knows what they got out of him before he was shot?”

“They were lookin’ for the necklace.” But even as I said it, I wasn’t so certain.

“What if he offered them information in exchange for his life? Just like he did with me?”

I pushed his legs to the side of the wicker ottoman, and he swung them to the floor as I sat in front of him. “Let’s think this through,” I said.

“What the hell do you think I’ve been doin’?”

I shook my head. “Stop blowing your stack and listen.” When I was sure I had his attention, I said, “Look, it wasn’t any secret that you and I were working together last winter. Shoot, I woke up in the hospital and found you sitting in a chair next to my bed. Not a single person has bothered us about that. Why is this any different?”

He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his thighs, his face a foot from mine. I tried—and failed—to ignore the butterflies in my stomach.

He shook his head. “No one knew I was in your hospital room. I paid a nurse handsomely to keep her mouth shut. And as far as working together, it was business, and we made sure to spread the word that you’d played your part and were done.”

“And the criminals in this county believed that?”

“The fact that you and I were never seen together confirmed it. So did the disappearance of the Lady in Black. We let it be known that you were working as a free agent to bring down J.R. Simmons and help your boyfriend. As far as everyone in this town was concerned, you meant nothing to me. You were a means to an end. I had no further purpose for you, so to take you and use you as a bargaining chip would be an exercise in futility.”

My eyes widened as the truth hit me. “Oh my word. The very act of showing up yourself last night . . .”

“Proved you meant far more to me than anyone would have suspected.”

“So why come yourself? Why didn’t you send Jed like you usually do? He might have asked you to shift him to a different duty, but you know he would have come. You could have pulled him off the bar fight for a half hour.”

“Because I didn’t trust anyone else.”

That was new. I’d spent far more time with Jed last winter than I had with James.

“What are we gonna do?” I asked quietly.

“My men are trying to find out what Wagner and Reynolds know.”

“Your men know about me and you?”

“No.I have them snooping into what Dyer said before he was snuffed.”

“So I’m hiding out here?”

“No. I need you to go about your life as though nothing’s happened. If you disappear, it will confirm that I’m protecting you. If you go about your business, it will give them a moment of pause, because if you were mine, I’d never risk letting you gallivant in public at a time like this.”

The air stuck in my lungs. Was he trying to convince me that I meant nothing to him? But there was no way he’d let me loose unless he was practically guaranteed I was safe. “So who’s watchin’ over me?”