Page 93 of Family Jewels

Igrabbedmy phone and stuffed it into my front pocket. Heading toward the entrance, I glanced around to see if anyone was lurking in the darkness. “Raddy!” I called out. “I’m here and alone, and I got here before your deadline.”

The only response was silence.

“Raddy Dyer, I’m tired and cranky, and I really want to go back to bed, so get your booty out here and tell me what you want.”

“Did you bring him with you?” Raddy called out from the shadows.

“Bring who?” I turned toward the direction his voice had come from—the front door of the small office building.

“Malcolm. Your bodyguard.”

“You told me to come alone, so I came alone. Now what do you want?”

“Come inside and I’ll tell you,” he said.

“No way. I have no idea who’s in there, and I’m not stupid. I don’t owe you a thing other than to help you find your stupid necklace. So if you want to talk to me, you’ll have to do it with me standin’ out here.”

“I ain’t comin’ out there,” he said in a belligerent tone. “I’m not stupid either.”

I groaned. “I came alone, Raddy, just like you asked. Now tell me what in the Sam Hill you want from me, or I’m goin’ home.” I pointed my finger toward the door. “And you won’t tell a soul a blessed thing about Skeeter Malcolm. You said you’d talk if I didn’t come. Well, I’m here, so you better keep your trap shut unless you want me to hunt you down myself—if Skeeter doesn’t get to you first.”

He stepped into the doorway, his face beaming. “So I was right? You and Malcolm are a thing.”

“No. We arenota thing.”

“Then what’s going on between you two?”

“That’s none of your cotton-pickin’ business. My personal life is none of your concern, Radcliffe Dyer. You have no right to be snoopin’ and pryin’.”

“And I want to keep my personal life private too, but people are snoopin’ and pryin’ like crazy. All my skeletons are fallin’ out of the closet.”

“Then you shouldn’t have shoved so many in there,” I snapped back, getting good and ticked. “Now what do you want?”

“Malcolm really does have feelings for you. I’m right, huh?” He seemed pretty pleased with himself. “That’s why you showed up.”

Something about the way he kept hounding on this topic felt off. “What happened tonight at the Trading Post?”

“How would I know?” His hasty response didn’t fool me one bit, but I could circle back to that question. First I needed to understand his fascination with my relationship with James. It wasn’t idle curiosity. I suspected he planned to use it as a bargaining tool. “Why ask justmeto come out? And why couldn’t I bring Neely Kate?”

“Because you’re the one with the ties to Malcolm. Better to leave Neely Kate out of it.”

I had to agree with him on that. “All right. You got me here, so tell me what you want. We keep beatin’ around this bush, so justtell me.”

He paused. “I want you to put in a good word for me. Tell Malcolm that last night was a misunderstandin’.”

“Why?”

“Because I need him. He’s the man who rules this county. I want an in with his men. I want his protection.”

“Sorry to bring you bad news, but Skeeter Malcolm doesn’t respond well to blackmail.”

“He doesn’t have to know about the threatening part. Just get him to help me.”

“You’re plum crazy if you think Skeeter Malcolm is gonna help you just because I asked him to. I’m nothin’ to him.”

“He didn’t act like you were nothin’ last night. Men only act possessive like that when someone’s threatening their woman. You’re his.”

“You are so far away from the truth you might as well be in Antarctica. We’ve worked together asbusinesspartners. If you want to work out a deal with Skeeter Malcolm, you’ll have to negotiate it yourself.” I took a step backward. “Because you’re wasting my time and yours. I’m goin’ home and goin’ back to bed.”