Page 5 of The Risk

It was herhome.Her legacy.

And someone had violated it now.

The body straddled the property line.

She was on both Hiller and Fields land. No one knew if she’d been buried there on purpose.

Finally, her brother and her niece were cleared to drive her home. Chantal wanted that more than words could ever say. Being interviewed by the police—even her brother’s friends—had drained every bit of reserve Chantal possessed.

By the time her brother drove her up the drive to her home, she was exhausted and felt slightly sick. She would eat, shower, and then go to bed.

Forget the last five hours had ever happened.

Her head had just hit the pillow when her phone rang. Genny.

Her best friend in the entire world. The one she had always poured her heart out to since they’d become adults. Genny was freaking.

A nurse at Barratt County Gen, Genny had been freaking over Chantal for six months now. She had been invaluable, though,while Chantal was figuring things out.“I just heard. Gene told us everything. Are you okay? How are your glucose levels?”

“I’m okay. I am a little shaky, but I think that was from the stress. What did Gene say?”

“Just went all silent and broody in that way of his. But the police are interviewing all of my brothers first thing in the morning. Gia and Greer and me, too.”

“Chad and Charlie, too. And Dad and Mom. And me again. We have to go to the Finley Creek post and talk to the man in Homicide.” She definitely hadn’t liked that guy at all. Something about the way he had looked at her.

Almost with madness in his eyes.

She shivered. She didn’t know how her older brother could deal with that kind of life, those kinds of things, every single day.

She'd been to the Finley Creek TSP before—the grand reopening after the tornado had destroyed the TSP building—Charlie had invited Chantal and her parents. They hadn't known Charlotte was in the building that day, or they would have met her, too. Chantal didn't quite understand how Charlie could have kept Charlotte away from their family for the entire time her niece had lived in Finley Creek until recently, but she was glad they'd finally gotten to meet her.

Charlotte was not quite two years younger than Chantal, and they looked more like sisters than niece and aunt. Chantal had found she liked her wickedly funny and somewhat dramatic niece a great deal. Charlotte had a kind heart—even if she was a bit afraid to show that sometimes.

Charlotte was right there in the TSP lobby, waiting for Chantal when she arrived with her parents. Charlotte came right to her. She suspected Charlotte found her easier to relate to—she feared rejection from Chantal less than she did rejection from her grandparents. Charlie really had done a number on his daughter by keeping her from them for four years. Chantal wasstill a little angry with him for that, but losing his son Jayden at seventeen had broken Charlie inside for a long while. Rory was helping him heal—Rory and their three-month-old twins.

"Are you feeling okay?" Charlotte whispered when Chantal's parents' backs were turned. Genny and Charlotte knew about her diagnosis. Charlotte had figured it out one day when they'd had lunch together at the Value Cafe.

She looked at Chantal with a pointed expression, and Chantal had found herself spilling immediately. "I'm good. Just... stress, I swear."

"Good. If this gets too annoying—use it. Get yourself out of it. Pops threw a fit with the chief and got his pick of investigators to do your interview and Grandma's and Grandpa's. No one really expects they did it, anyway. But you… I asked Rodriguez to speak to you personally.” Charlotte gave a wicked grin. "Well, I didn't think you'd mind getting interrogated by him. He promised to be gentle…”

Chantal looked at the big muscle-bound cop in question. Wow. That was one of the most gorgeous, perfect-looking men she had ever seen. She… rather liked the sound of that. She looked at her niece. “I’m in. I am so, so in. And is he single? He is every woman’s fantasy, isn’t he?”

“Better than that. Much, much better than that. He’s gorgeous, he’s smart, he’s kind, hard-working, and… well… how do you feel about a sexy single father kind of deal? He has three under five that he is raising all by himself…”

He looked right at Chantal and smiled, as if he knew what they were saying.

Wow.What a beautiful man. Oh, yeah—Chantal liked children just fine.

That was one seriously attractive man.

4

He'd watchedChantal turn as brilliant red as her hair. All it had taken was the big asshole cop smiling in Chantal's direction. Seriously?

Gene fought the urge to say something to the guy, to get him away from Chantal, since the behemoth apparently couldn't focus on his job. Well, the jerk could just have Charlie's daughter instead. She was right there and obviously knew the detectives surrounding them really well. And she looked enough like Chantal...

The niece was keeping herself in front of Chantal and Chantal's parents, almost protectively. Chantal's niece was a fiery woman, he suspected, just like her grandmother, who would tangle with a tiger if she thought it necessary. They led Chantal into another room—two big, intimidating male detectives. Gene tensed.

---