He flashes another handsome smile that churns my insides even as it sets my heart racing.“Riley Hunt,” he replies.“And as I said, I’ve been hired to take you home.”
Chapter4
Riley
Okay, so she’s either an excellent liar, or she’s innocent.Honestly, I’m not entirely sure which side she falls on.On the plane ride here, I’d had plenty of time to look into Jules Landers.
Thanks to a deep background dive my computer whiz younger brother, Tucker, did, I know that she’s twenty-eight, never been married, and has no friendships to speak of.At least, not close ones.
As far as social media goes, she’s a ghost, except for the rare occasions she showed up in articles alongside her grandfather.They did appear close, but she was never happy to be photographed; that was easy enough to see.
She was a party girl for years and even spent some time at a few different rehab facilities in Northern California and Arizona.But over the course of the last ten years, it seems as though she’s gotten her act together.
And Tucker foundnothingfor the years her brother claims she was missing.It was as though she just vanished on her sixteenth birthday then popped up two years later.
She takes another step back toward the window.
“I really don’t want to have to do this the hard way, Miss Landers.But I will.”
“And what’s the hard way?”she asks, taking another step back.There’s a challenge in her green gaze.Part of me hopes she runs just so I can track her down again.She was honestly a bit more difficult to track than I expected her to be, and I’ve been desperate for a challenge.
But that would mean more time away from the ranch and more resources.At least we’re being paid for this job.Odie insisted on it.Probably because he’s used to throwing money at a problem and thought it would motivate us to work harder.
It doesn’t.We offer the same amount of work and dedication of time to people whether they pay us or not.We do what we do to reunite families and find the truth.
Romeo is still sitting in the same place he’s been in since we came into the room, his ears perked forward as he waits for a command.
“I’m not letting you take me home.Not until I’m sure Odie will be safe.”
“Why wouldn’t he be?Have a dangerous side, do you?”
She glares at me, murder in her eyes.“The killer is after me.Which means, if I’m near Odie, it puts him at risk.He’s all I have, and I’d rather die than put my brother at risk.”
I feel a sting of understanding.The last thing I would ever want to do is put my brothers at risk.So, the fact that she’s so willing to die for hers is something we have in common.
Because I know I appear a bit more threatening than I probably should, I move away from the door and take a seat at the small dinette table.“I have brothers too, Miss Landers, so I get it.”
She doesn’t move.I know she’s sizing me up, trying to decide whether or not she trusts my motives or my story.“Then you understand why I can’t go home.”
“There are people far more capable of tracking murderers than a red-carpet princess.”
Her cheeks turn crimson.“I amnota red-carpet princess.”
“And I’m not interested in letting you leave, only to wind up dead in a day or two because you tried to take on a killer.”
“Akiller?So, what?I’m no longer at the top of your suspect list?”she asks, venom dripping from her sweet tone.
“There were bloody handprints trailing down the side of your grandfather’s home.Then there’s the fact that the top of his car was dented in from your fall.Blood was smeared all over it, and a large set of prints followed behind your bare ones.It had just rained, so the mud left an impression.”
“You’ve been there?”she asks.Her tone shifts completely, and for a moment, the armor she’s so clearly adept at wearing vanishes.
“No,” I say.“But I have photographs of the scene.”
“And you saw boot prints from photographs?”
“I’m very good at what I do, Miss Landers.”It also didn’t escape me that Odie Landers failed to mention the clear trail leading into the woods.Any officer worth their salt would’ve noticed the second set of prints.
She crosses her arms.“If that’s true, then you knew coming in here that I wasn’t the killer, yet you threw it in my face.I stand by my earlier assessment of you.You’re an arrogant jerk.”