Page 25 of Shadow Sabotage
Sugar. Her personal form of truth serum for me. I eyed her, waiting for the questions to start. But she hummed to herself, putting two more trays into the oven to bake without saying a word.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked, unable to keep the edge of suspicion out of my voice. We all ate our breakfast earlier than the guests, since ranch life didn’t give us the luxury to sleep in the way people on vacation preferred to. Every morning, the sprawling family kitchen was the meeting ground for the wholeHawkins crew as we filled our bellies and our thermoses and divided up duties for the day.
“You just missed the guys,” she said, referring to Dad, Travis, and Jonathan. “They’re moving cattle from the summer pasture to the winter lot today, so they needed to get an early start. The rest of them are around here somewhere.”
“Uh huh.”Somewhere.Mom probably told them to clear the kitchen so she could talk to me.
I went to the cabinet and pulled out a thermos to fill with coffee.
“So,” Mom said, “you’re working the homicide case.”
I closed my eyes and counted to ten before turning around. “I never said it was a homicide.”
She waved me off. “They called in DCI for a body in the woods. Of course it’s a homicide. But that’s not the point. I think you should take some time off from working here. With Rhett still helping out, we can cover things and keep you free to devote however much time you need to this.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” I admitted. I only worked for the ranch part-time, and my responsibilities had gone way down with Rhett back. But she was right—I could be clocking some crazy hours over the coming weeks.
“Your Agent Weston seems nice,” she said, giving me a little smile.
Here we go.“Don’t even think about it.”
She lifted her hands in protest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just glad that you have someone nicer than Trey to work with. Nicerandnice to look at.” She winked. “Is he single?”
“Gotta go,” I said, giving an exaggerated look at my watch. “Thanks for breakfast.”
“Here,” she said, grabbing a paper bag off the counter. “I made up breakfast to go for Agent Weston, in case he needs toget an early start, too. Can you drop it off at his cabin for me? You know, it just hit me that you guys could carpool. I mean, you’re going to the same place after all.”
“Mom. Stop.”
The look she gave me was pure innocence, but I’d watched her play matchmaker with Rhett and Cheyenne and I knew exactly what she was doing. I pointed my finger at her in warning as I stalked out.
I didnotdropAgent Weston’s muffin off at his cabin, but I did take it with me so I could give it to him at the office. As I drove into town, I felt a glimmer of excitement about work that I hadn’t experienced in a very long time. I was working on an actual homicide case. I was doing something thatmattered.
On top of that, Agent Weston was actually kind of nice.
Last night had been fun. Outside of the office, he’d been more relaxed, easy to talk to. The teasing between us had been…
Unexpected.
There was a spark there. Chemistry between us that seemed to surprise him as much as it did me. The way he’d looked at me… It was like the way I looked at the mountains, captivated by their beauty and power.
It had been a long time since someone had looked at me like that.
I wasn’t silly enough to think that anything might actually happenbetween us. We were colleagues. But I was looking forward to doing some real work with someone who might actually have my back. Someone who would treat me like a partner.
And maybe I looked forward to a little flirtation on the side, too.
But Agent Weston wasn’t around when I got to the office. No one was, except Andrea and Trey, who scowled and didn’t speak to me before storming out for his shift on patrol. I shrugged it off. He’d be butthurt for a while over losing the assignment to me, but there was nothing I could do about it. It wasn’t like I’d volunteered for the gig.
I settled in at my desk to wait. An hour later, Agent Weston still hadn’t shown up, and my good feelings toward him had slid back to annoyance.
I was itching to dive into this investigation. But I knew better than to go out on my own and start asking questions. Until we had an official ID and Sheriff McGrath gave a press conference, I had to keep Katelyn’s name quiet. And Agent Weston hadn’t given me anything else to do in the meantime.
Another hour passed by.
By that point, I was pissed off. I couldn’t just keep sitting there waiting for him to show up.
So I started digging.Quietly.
