She sliced him a look.
“At least not too soon.”
Carly managed a smile.
“I’m going to have your bedroom packed up and moved to the ranchhouse. We’ll put your stuff in a spare bedroom until your place is cleaned up and you’re ready to move back in. I’ll get one of the hands to drive your pickup out to the ranch, okay?”
She didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want to be completely under Linc’s control. But she didn’t dare stay in the house alone—not until they figured out what was going on.
“There’s a set of pickup keys on the hook next to the door.”
He nodded. “We’ve got to call the sheriff. They’ll need to dust for prints.”
“You think they’ll find any?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Probably not if it’s El Jefe.”
She just nodded. She felt numb all over as she went to the closet and picked out a sleeveless black linen dress with a matching short-sleeve pink and black jacket, a garment that could easily transition from day to evening. The bathroom wasn’t as bad as the bedroom. She changed, found a pair of strappy, mid-heeled Ferragamos in the closet, and slid them on her feet.
When she walked up to Linc, he caught her chin, bent, and softly kissed her.
“So far I’m doing a pretty rotten job of taking care of you,” he said.
Carly’s lips curved in a smile. “Oh, I don’t know . . . you did a great job last night.” Turning, she walked in front of him out of the bedroom.
* * *
Linc waited impatiently for a sheriff’s deputy to arrive. Deputy Rollins finally showed up, the guy Carly had talked to after the original break-in.
As the deputy walked into the house and saw the destruction, he lifted his cowboy hat and scratched his head. “Looks like those kids came back. Damn, they sure made a mess. My dad would have licked me good for doing something like this.”
“I don’t think this was done by kids,” Carly said.
“Maybe not. We got a fella in the office does the fingerprinting. He’s real professional. He’s on his way over now. Meantime, I need to get a statement from you.”
Linc sat next to Carly at the kitchen table while she told the deputy how she’d been away all night and had just returned home that morning. How they had found the house vandalized.
Rollins shifted his gaze to Linc. “So you two were together all night?”
“That’s right,” Linc said.
“But you didn’t stay here.”
“No,” Linc said, tamping down his irritation. “We stayed at my place.”
The deputy eyed him with suspicion. “You sure this wasn’t just some lovers’ spat that got out of hand? Insurance won’t pay if it was. But I guess you wouldn’t know about that.”
Anger snapped in Carly’s eyes. “The man you’re accusing of lying is Lincoln Cain. He probably owns the damn insurance company. No, we didn’t have a lovers’ spat. Someone broke in and destroyed my house. It’s your job to arrest whoever did it.”
Beneath the brim of his tan cowboy hat, the deputy’s face turned red. “Sorry, Mr. Cain. I should have known it was you when I saw that helicopter. I hope you understand it’s my job to get the truth.”
“I understand. In return for that understanding, I expect you and your department to do everything in your power to find the man or men responsible.”
“Oh, we will. You can count on that.”
“Good. Now if you don’t mind, Ms. Drake and I have business in Dallas. I hope you’ll expedite the results on any prints you find.”
“Yes, sir, I sure will.”
