Page 12 of Fatal Deception
Which he supposed was fine and dandy when someone was used to it. She was used to it. She’d grown up here. Been taking care of herself for years, clearly. Even if Rosalie had lived with her before, her private-investigator life probably had necessitated leaving Audra alone here plenty of nights.
And Audra had plenty of people who cared, so why the hell did he need to? He didn’t.
“You guys have security?” he demanded, irritated with himself. With her. With the whole damn situation.
She studied him from where she stood still leaning against the doorframe. He didn’t know what she found in that study, but he didn’t like it. Still, she responded. “Yeah.”
“Lock the doors and use it.” He barked it out like an order, when he probably should have softened his words. But he wasn’t a soften-it kind of guy anymore, if he ever had been.
She hugged herself, but she nodded. “Yeah, I will.”
He stomped off the porch to his car and got in. Drove down the lane. All the while he kept glancing into his rearview window. What was she doing living out here by herself? So far from any help. It was reckless, that’s what it was.
He should turn back and tell her so. Insist she head into town to stay with Thomas and Vi. Hell, get a hotel room if she didn’t want to put her pregnant cousin out.
But she didn’t want to worry the Harts, and he understood that in spite of himself. She probably couldn’t stay in a hotel with running a ranch solely on her own. And what other alternatives were there? What washegoing to do?Stay?That hardly solved her problem.
Solving the case was the only way to do that. So that was just what he was going to do. And he was damn well going to trust the adult woman who’d spent her whole life on that isolated ranch to handle herself.
Because it was none of his business.
No matter how it scraped at him.
Chapter Five
Audra woke up the next morning with sunlight streaming on her face. She flew into a sitting position, glanced at her clock and swore.
It was almost nine o’clock. How had she overslept? She went over last night as she hurried to throw on some clothes and put her hair back into a tie. She’d cleaned up after her…very odd dinner with Copeland, then taken a shower, and…
She’d been so worked up about all the embarrassing things she’d said, and that stupid stumble in the stables, that she’d forgotten to set her alarm.
“I so do not have time to be so careless,” she muttered to herself, hurrying down the stairs. She didn’t have time for breakfast. She didn’t have time for anything.
It was bitterly, bitterly cold even with the sun shining, but Audra shoved out into the freezing bright and went through another day of relentless work, with few breaks, and definitelynottreating her body like a temple. She knew something had to give, and yet she couldn’t find it.
But she made it through the day without incident. Got all the absolute necessities done just before darkness fell completely, then trudged home in the cold again and warmed up canned soup for dinner.
“I’m going to have that damn wine,” she announced to the quiet kitchen. She puttered around, ate her soup and drank a glass of wine with it. She read an email from Rosalie, smiled at the adorable pictures attached. Rosalie and Duncan in front ofthe Colosseum. Rosalie with a giant plate of pasta. A selfie, in which Duncan pressed a kiss to Rosalie’s scrunched-up cheek, some glittering Italian city in the background.
Audra brushed a tear off her cheek. She was so happy for her sister. Rosalie absolutely deserved a loving husband, a fancy honeymoon and to look just that happy. Ninety percent of the tears were happy ones. But about ten percent were the aching from missing having her sister in this house, as a partner.
Everything kept changing. Everyone kept leaving.
Except her.
She blew out a breath, set down her phone and went about doing the dishes. She wouldn’t leave. This ranch was in her bones. It was her heart. Maybe some days it felt like a trudge, but the idea of leaving was too awful to bear.
So she’d weather the changes, be happy for her sister and take a long, hot bath withonemore glass of wine. Because she deserved it.
Before she headed into the bathroom, she set her alarm for tomorrow. She couldn’t afford any more mistakes. A bath. One glass of wine. Then bed.
She made it scalding. Dawdled in the water. Sipped the wine until it was gone. Closed her eyes and relaxed until the water had chilled too much to stay in any longer.
She almost felt human, she decided, as she got ready for bed. The extra hours of sleep that morning had been perhaps abitof a blessing in disguise. Now she just needed to find some time to go to the grocery store tomorrow and she just might be back on track.
Shewouldbe back on track. Unless something else happened, like an urn with her name on it, or property damage or—
“We arenotthinking about that tonight. We are getting a good night’s sleep.” She backtracked through the house andmade sure all the doors were locked and the security system was engaged.