She glanced at Beau, whose eyes looked bleaker than she had ever seen them, no longer a beautiful blue but more a faded gray. “Why don’t you drive the Honda, Nate? I’ll drive Beau back to the house in the Lambo. You can follow us—if you can keep up.”
Beau’s head jerked in her direction. He stared at her and something shifted in his features. A slow smile spread over his lips. “The lady’s driving the Lambo. You’ve got the address. We’ll see you back there.”
Nate smiled and just shook his head.
* * *
A soft buzzing sounded on his desk. Mal leaned over and picked up his cell phone, pressed it against his ear. “I’m listening.”
“Two birds with one stone—just like I said. Milford won’t be flapping his mouth and Reese has more trouble than he can handle.”
“I doubt they have enough to convict him, but at leasthe’ll be out of the way for a while. What about the woman? You think she’ll back off or try to dig deeper?”
“She won’t quit,” Cliff Jennings said. “She’ll press even harder. But with Milford gone, she’ll just run into a bunch of dead ends.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“We handle it.”
“We can’t afford another murder. Sooner or later someone will find a way to connect the dots.”
“So we make it an accident, just like you said.”
“Maybe it won’t come to that,” Mal suggested.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Make sure there are no unexpected complications.” Mal hung up the phone.
Chapter Fourteen
Beau sat down across from Nate at the table in the kitchen of the main house. Since no one had eaten all day, Cassidy fixed ham and cheese sandwiches from food she found in the fridge and made a pitcher of iced sweet tea.
Beau picked at his meal. He should have been hungry, but his appetite had vanished. As they sat around the table, Nate explained what might or might not happen over the next few days and warned them not to speak to anyone outside their immediate circle, especially not the media.
“They’re going to be after you like bloodhounds on the scent of fresh meat, Beau. Just stick tono comment.”
He sighed. “I plan to avoid them as much as I possibly can.”
“It won’t be easy,” Nate said. “You might want to hire some security.”
Beau just nodded.
After Nate had answered his questions, the Tex/Am chopper landed on the golf course to pick the attorney up and whisk him back to Dallas.
“What’d you think of him?” Beau asked as he padded back into the kitchen and returned to his seat at the table.
Cassidy took a sip of iced tea. “I like him. He doesn’t waste time or words, just tells it like it is.”
“Linc knows him better than I do. He says he’s one of the best criminal lawyers in Texas.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe this is happening. I keep thinking I’m going to wake up.”
Cassidy reached across the table and set her hand over his. It was warm and soft and he remembered how smooth her skin had felt when he’d touched her last night. It made him want to touch her again. Arousal slipped through him. He wanted more of her, way more, but he couldn’t think of that now.
Cassidy squeezed his hand. “We’re going to find the killer, Beau. We’re going to prove you’re innocent.”
“How? Where do we even start?” He scrubbed a hand over the beard stubble on his jaw. “We only had three leads to begin with. George Larson has an alibi and Jess Milford is dead. We don’t even know if the same person killed both of them or if it was two different people. Hell, my father was stabbed. Jess Milford was shot in the head.”
“We have a third lead, Beau. Charlotte Mercer Reese—your stepmother. She was your father’s partner in Alamo. I’m surprised you didn’t tell me.”
