Page 70 of Family Jewels

“Checking up on you,” he said in a low growl.

“By scaring the bejiggers out of me?”

“You’d be more than scared right now if I were Buck Reynolds.”

That blew the indignation right out of me.

He rested his hands on the top of the front seat. “What the hell areyoudoin’, Rose? Why are you looking into Rayna Dyer’s death?”

He’d just asked two very good questions, and I didn’t have an answer for either one. “I didn’t set out to look into it.”

“Then why the hell are you doing it?”

I released a groan as I turned to face the road. “I don’t know. I had a vision of Rayna yesterday morning. There was a woman in the hot tub with her, and she was helping Rayna plot her revenge. When I saw her in the bar at Jaspers, I had to talk to her. I had to find out who she was and what she’d seen.”

“Why?”

“Because Rayna died in her hot tub, so I wondered if Trixie had gone over the last night after all. If she’d seen anything. The sheriff’s department probably wouldn’t know about her intended visit, so they wouldn’t know to ask her anything.”

“Butyoudid. Why not just tell the sheriff’s department and let them handle it?”

“Because I didn’t know her name until Buck showed up. I didn’t even know Buck and Trixie were connected.” I turned to look over my shoulder at him. “Buck’s the man Raddy lost the bet to.”

“I’m well aware of that fact,” he said in an even voice, his impassive eyes holding mine.

“I couldn’t go to Deputy Miller. There’s no evidence, but my gut says Buck’s involved and Trixie knows what he’s doin’.”

“Rose, why do you care?” he asked in exasperation. “Rayna Dyer’s murder has nothing to do with you.”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

His gaze held mine for a good two seconds before I remembered I was pissed at him—not just for hiding in my backseat, but it was a good place to start. “I can’t believe you! Did you have to hide in my truck and scare me? I almost ran off the road!”

“You should check your backseat before you even get in a vehicle,” he grunted, his face a mask again. “You’re smarter than that, Lady. Your head was addled by your date with that vet.”

I gritted my teeth. I hadn’t told Jed who I was out with, but James must have seen him in the truck. “My head wasn’t addled.” Not quite true considering how much of a hurry I’d been in to get away from him, but it wasn’t a total lie either.

“If you’re gonna keep messing around with bad guys, you need to start doing a better job of protecting yourself.”

I thought about hislessonin my barn the night before. “You should have warned me about that last November,” I snapped.

His jaw tensed and his eyes narrowed. “Seems to me I warned you plenty.”

Headlights appeared in my rearview mirror, and a vehicle pulled up behind us. A jolt of fear hit me until I realized it was Jed’s sedan.

“Pay more attention to your surroundings, or you’re going to get yourself killed.” James opened the back door but hesitated before getting out. “If you’re going to keep picking at this sort of thing, you need more training. Jed’ll call you tomorrow.”

“What’s your hurry? One of your bimbos waiting to get you naked?” I asked in a snotty tone, then instantly regretted it.

Surprise washed over his face, but it vanished in an instant, and he looked furious by the time he climbed into Jed’s car. I twisted in my seat, and pulled back onto the highway, trying to figure out why I was so angry.

But that was the easiest thing in this whole mess to figure out.

Chapter 14

Neely Kate was watchingTV on the sofa with Muffy, but she grabbed the remote and turned it off the moment I walked through the door. Jerking upright, she said, “Well? How’d it go?”

“First tell me what happened with Homer Dyer.”