He began gathering up the unpaid bills he’d been tossing on the gazebo floor, making a pile of them in the middle of the yard.Since the grass was damp, he had no qualms about what he did next.
He struck a match and gave it a toss.The papers were damp as well, but finally one caught—then another—then another, and while he watched, the ugly reminders of his past went up in smoke.
* * *
The folder from Childers Investigations lay on Casey’s desk unopened.The private investigator was gone—had been for over twenty minutes, and Casey hadn’t been able to bring herself to read the report.Fear overlayed curiosity as she stared at the name beneath the Childers logo.
Ryder Justice—Confidential
Right now her world was just about perfect.But when she opened this up, it could reveal a Pandora’s box of despair that no amount of money could buy, sell or fix.
She walked to the window overlooking the downtown area of Ruban Crossing and stared out onto the street without seeing the traffic or the flow of people coming and going into the Ruban Building itself.And because she was so lost in thought, she didn’t see Ryder drive up and park, nor did she see him getting out of the Lincoln with her briefcase—the one she’d left in the kitchen chair during breakfast.
She glanced back at her desk, then walked to the far side of the room to refill her coffee cup.Another cup couldn’t hurt.And it was as good an excuse as any to put off reading the report.
Her intercom buzzed, then Nola Sue’s voice lisped into the silence.
“Mrs.Justice, your husband is here with your briefcase.He’s on his way in.”
A smile of delight broke the somberness of Casey’s features as Ryder came through the doorway, dangling her briefcase from the ends of his fingers.
“Hi, darlin’, sorry to interrupt, but I thought you might be needing this.I’ll just lay it on your desk and get out of your hair.”
Casey gasped.The report!It was on her desk!Before she could think to move, Ryder was halfway there.
Hot coffee sloshed on her fingers as she shoved the cup on the counter and made a run for the desk.“Ryder, wait!”
Startled by the urgency of her shout, the briefcase slid across the desk and then onto the floor, taking everything with it as it felt.
“Sorry about that,” he said quickly, and knelt, intent on gathering up what he had spilled.But he froze in the act, unable to ignore the fact that his name was on every sheet of paper he picked up.
“It’s not what you think,” Casey said quickly, as she grabbed at the papers he was holding.
The look on Ryder’s face had undergone a frightening transformation.The sexy smile he’d worn into the room had been replaced by a grim expression of disbelief.He stood, his words thick with anger.
“What does this mean?”
“I…uh—”
“You had me investigated?”
“You don’t understand.”
“So—you’re telling me youdidn’thave me investigated.”
Casey couldn’t look him in the face.“I didn’t say that.”
“Then…what you’re trying to say is that file is not a dossier of my life story.”
Because she was so afraid, she took the defensive.“What I did was—”
“What you just did was stand there and tell me a lie.”
She paled.The cold, hard glitter in his eyes was scaring her to death.Dear God, what had she done?
“I did it for you,” she said.“For us.”
He pivoted, then picked up a cup full of pencils from her desk and flung them against the wall.They shattered and scattered like so much buckshot against a tin barn.Moments later, Casey’s secretary burst into the room.
