Page 21 of Waiting in Wyoming

He had more than enough money in the bank for that, too. Thanks to the littlejobshe had taken around the country for the last ten years. Linda and the girls wanted for nothing now. Exactly as Wayne had always intended.

There was nothing he wouldn’t do for his girls and his wife. Nothing.

His second task had been to see if he was recognized by Geena and Arthur Talley, their daughters, or others in their family. So far, so good.

That daughter at the front desk hadn’t recognized him. He was certain of it. She was a sweet little thing, adorable. Very young. He had one around her age; his girl had that same sort of sass, too.

But she wasn’t Talley’s daughter that Wayne was actually worried about. There had been the one Smith-Morris had abducted. Had nearly killed, actually.

Shehad been in the car with Wayne long enough to have gotten a good look at him. And that concerned him. It necessitated the disguise he was currently using.

He’d dilated one pupil using eye drops and deliberately slurred his speech. He’d kept his head turned slightly. He’d brushed in dark hair chalk over the gray to give himself a salt-and-pepper look.

When he walked upstairs, he made sure to have a slight shuffle in his gait. To mimic weakness on his left side.

Wayne had utilized many disguises before.

He would say he was a master of it, actually.

He needed to know what was going on in Masterson County now.

16

Meyra foundherself wandering around the inn after she and Daisy left Dylan’s b-attic, as she was calling it now. Bentley had helped Dylan make construction paper bats to hang up on her rafters after she’d told him a story about adventurous bat-boy halflings or something. Dylan had hung them up everywhere. Her nephew and Dylan got along really well and had a lot of fun together. Dylan was great with kids.

Meyra had told Dylan and Daisy what had happened back in November. And showed them the ceramic flowers from February. And asked them what they would do in her place.

Dylan had said she would chase that gorgeous man creature to the ends of the earth and demand answers. Daisy had just sighed and said that it was really romantic.

Neither had been much help.

Meyra was still confused.

She wandered down to the vending machines. Most times, she liked homemade food best—she really didn’t understand the need for so many chemicals in prepackaged food or anything—and she had just had cake, but maybe something salty would help.

She just wasn’t ready to be in her room, thinking. She knew what she would be thinking about, too.

Or rather, who.

Brandt had been watching her almost constantly. For days. Since he had first come out of his suite with his brothers beside him to sit in the lobby with his family. Whenever he could, he had watchedher.And she just didn’t understand what she should do about him.

She punched in the number for her favorite chips and waited for the vending machine to spit it out. She’d grab an ice cream bar, too, and have Marin put it on her tab when she went by the desk.

“Can’t sleep?”

Meyra jerked around at the question. She hadn’t even realized someone had come into the basement behind her.

She looked up into the bluest eyes she had ever seen.

“Brandt! I…oh. I’m not sure what I should say to you now. I am very confused.”

There was only so mucha man could take. He had been waiting for the right time with this woman foryears.Of course, six months of that, he’d been practically useless while he recuperated. Then he had to rebuild the strides he’d been making in his business empire before that asshole Jasper Grady had shot him.

But now? Now he was at the point he wanted to be. And she was right there, looking so damned innocent.

The woman was twenty-five years old. She wasn’t a child.

And he knew she’d kissed men before. That asshole Calloway Grady, for one. Thoughts of that asshole and the way he’d lookedat Meyra the last time he’d been in the damned diner had Brandt doing something he probably would regret.

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