“So, it’d be okay if it was rotgut off the shelf at the fillin’ station?”
“No. It wouldn’t be fucking okay. This behavior is not you. You’re a fucking Holt. You’re better than this.”
He hung up. Pain shot through my fist up my arm to my shoulder. The dash of the rental cracked where my fist hit it.
“Fuck!”
I spun the big ass SUV around and headed back to Chief Carter’s house. Shame fueled the lead foot pressing on the gas pedal, and when I pulled into the driveway, I had a tail with flashing blue lights.
I pulled my Sig out of the holster to drop it out the window, but stopped when the chief and Walker came out the front door.
The chief was pissed. Rightly so, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him know.
Walker came to the driver’s side window, and the disappointment on his face doused the inferno of embarrassment and shame swilling in my guts with gasoline. He didn’t say a word.
Over his shoulder, Hayden stood leaning against the corner of the house. His tree trunk legs crossed at the ankle, and the heavily corded arms folded together over his broad chest. Seeing him made my heart sing and my soul weep, and I didn’t think it would ever change.
“Well, now that’s handled, can we get back to figuring out who’s after my daughter?”
Walker looked at me, and I opened the truck door, glancing back to where Hayden stood, only to be disappointed when he was no longer there.
Dropping to the ground, I asked, “We’re questioning the manager and the assistant, right?”
“Yes.”
“And why are we questioning them?”
“Did Foster not fill you in?” Walker asked.
“He did, but that info came from Jackson, through the Admiral, and lastly through Foster. So, I wanna hear it from the two of you because you were there.”
“We don’t think they’re involved, but we don’t know. Not for certain anyway.”
“Alrighty then. Let’s go see what they know.”
We made our way into the house to the dining room, and an older man sat at the table next to the luscious specimen who tried running me over a while ago. Cato’s remark about trusting the chief replayed in my head. A police chief should know you didn’t leave possible suspects together unsupervised. I knew Walker did. Yet here they were. I held my tongue. They’d mentioned not suspecting either individual of anything untoward, but I still wouldn’t’ve left them alone together.
Turning my attention from the faux pas, I let my eyes roam over the pair. The guy was of average height and weight for his frame. Graying light brown hair covered his head, and his lined face seemed friendly and open. If he were involved and people didn’t know him, they’d never be able to pick him out of a line-up, and a sketch artist would be useless because he looked like a hundred thousand other middle-aged Caucasian men.
The woman, though… whew. She was nowhere near as nondescript. With her sitting before me, I had the opportunity to take in more than the tits and ass that stirred my dick.
She was a beauty the likes of which I’d not seen in a long damn time. Waves of long, thick, dark caramel hair lay in loose curls over one shoulder. Bright blue eyes stared back at me from under the heavy fringe of her equally dark lashes, the color of her eyes reminding me of a cloudless Texas sky in July. Soft pink tinted her lips, and her cheeks were pinking up as she looked at me with interest.
Not that I would act on it, but having not felt the weight of an interested stare in so long, I had to admit it was nice. It was nice knowing my dick still worked too.
Walker and the chief pulled out chairs and sat at the table across from the pair, reminding me what we were here for. Shoving everything else away, I focused on their behaviors and demeanors. Neither appeared worried, or outta sorts, but people could fake that with practice.
The chief cleared his throat before starting, and I dropped my gaze to the floor to hide my surprise. A man of his rank in a department the size of his shouldn’t be nervous questioning two people whom he didn’t suspect of a crime.
“Marcie, you’ve met me and Walker,” he said with a twitch of his head to indicate Walker, “but you’ve not met Declan.”
She smiled. Lord, it was as pretty as a rainbow and warm as the sun’s rays.
“Hi, Declan.”
Not trusting my voice, I bobbed my head.
“Glenn, my name is Conrad Carter. I’m Katie’s dad, and Walker is Jackson Holt’s father.”
