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fifties? he asked unexpectedly.
I dress like a professional on the state attorney general s staff, Josette said, refusing to be
baited.
What s your next move? she asked.
I m going to see Mrs. Jennings, and then I m going to try to get a line on the hit man.
Josette raised an eyebrow. Have a good relationship with Jake Marsh and his local stable of bad
boys, do you? she drawled in a good imitation of his own sarcastic tone.
Brannon stood up. I have informants, which is probably about the same thing.
Did anybody question Marsh about the body being found near his nightclub? she asked.
The very day we found the body. He s out of town. But his assistant manager seemed shocked!
He said that with a disbelieving expression. He studied her quietly. An impulse had brought him back
into her office, when he d meant to go straight to the airport. Two years, and she still haunted him.
Did she hate him? Gretchen said she didn t. But Josette had learned to hide her feelings very well.
He d thought to surprise her into a reaction. The one he got wasn t what he was expecting. Or the one
he was hoping for.
Brannon watched her rise from her chair with that same easy grace he d admired so much when
she was still in her teens. She wasn t pretty, not in a conventional way, but she had a sharp intelligence
and a sweet nature& . Sweet nature. Sure she did. He recalled the vicious things she d sworn to about
Bib and his expression closed up.
Josette came around the desk and right up to him, unafraid. I m not prejudging. That means you
can t, either, she said deliberately. I know what that she indicated his Ranger badge means to
you. My job means just as much to me. If we re going to work together, we have to start now. No acid
comments about the past. We re solving a murder, not rehashing an incident that was concluded two
years ago. What s over is over. Period.
His gray eyes narrowed so that they were hidden under his jutting brow and the cream-colored
Stetson he slanted at an angle over them. Until he d seen her again, he hadn t realized how lonely his
life had been for the past two years. He d made a mess of things. In fact, he was still doing it. She held
grudges, too, and he couldn t blame her.
All right, Brannon said finally.
She nodded. I ll keep you posted about anything I find, if you ll return the courtesy.
Courtesy. He turned the word over on his tongue. There s a new concept.
For you, certainly, Josette agreed with an unexpected twinkle in her eyes. I understand the
Secret Service tried to arrest you when your sister came home to your ranch in Jacobsville the last
time, and they threatened to charge you with obstruction of justice for assaulting two of them in the
yard.
He straightened. A simple misunderstanding, he pointed out. I merely had to mention that I
was related to the state attorney general to clear it all up.
That sounded like the dry humor she d loved in him so many years ago. Simon uses his new
cousin-in-law, the Sheikh of Qawi, to threaten people.
He leaned down. So do I, he confided with a grin.
That grin was so like the old Brannon, the one she d loved with all her heart. She let the smile
she d been suppressing come out. It changed her face, made it radiant. His breath caught at the warmth
of that smile.
If I run into any uncooperative officials, I ll use it myself. He s my cousin-in-law, too, Josette
recalled.
Brannon cocked his head and smiled quizzically. I forget that we re related.
By an old marriage way back in our family tree, she agreed. And it s a very thin connection
with no blood ties. She turned away and walked ahead of him to her office door. I ll make
arrangements to see Mrs. Jennings day after tomorrow.
He gave her a long scrutiny, remembering her at fifteen, shivering in a blanket at twenty-two,
passionate and breathless in his arms. Then he remembered what he d said to her, afterward. He hated
his memories.
She glanced at him and saw the resentment and bitterness on his face. I don t like you, either,
Brannon, in case you wondered, she drawled.
He shrugged. Doesn t bother me, he lied.
Not much does.
He nodded curtly, closed the door behind him and she stood in the middle of the room listening
to his footsteps die away down the hall. She hadn t realized until then that her heart was doing a
rhumba in her chest. She moved back to her desk and stared blankly at the stack of file folders. When
her heart threatened to break, there was always work waiting to divert her attention. At least, there was
that.
That evening, she curled up with her cat, Barnes, on the sofa and tried to get interested in a
popular detective show, but her mind wouldn t cooperate. She stroked the big cat s fur lazily while he
nestled against her and purred. She d have to board him at the vet s while she was in San Antonio. She
didn t like the idea, but she didn t have anyone she could ask to keep him for her.
As she stared blankly at the screen, she remembered the fateful party that had cost Dale Jennings
his freedom.
She d met Dale at a coffee shop around the corner from the college she d attended. Dale drove a
fancy late-model sports car, and he was personable and charming. He also knew Bib Webb, and was
helping him with his campaign for the lieutenant governor s race in his home district, which was San
Antonio. Webb was in partnership with Henry Garner, a wealthy local man who d made a fortune
selling farm equipment. Webb and his wife, Silvia, shared a palatial mansion on a private lake with
Henry Garner in San Antonio, in fact. Garner was a lonely old man and welcomed the companionship
of Webb and his wife.
A number of influential voters and members of high society were invited to the Garner home for
a party on the lake two months before the election. Dale, who was keeping Josette company since
Marc had quit the Rangers and left town, invited her to attend the party with him.
It didn t occur to her at first that it was odd for someone like Dale, with rough edges and only a
high school education, to be invited to a high society party. In fact, she asked him bluntly how he d
been invited. He d laughed and told her that he was old Henry s chauffeur and bodyguard, and he d
been invited by nobody less than Silvia Webb to the party. Henry wouldn t mind. Silvia didn t care if
he brought a friend, either. Josette had a passing acquaintance with Silvia Webb, whom she saw
infrequently at the same coffee shop where she d met Dale. There was a tall, shady-looking man who
came there to meet Dale occasionally, too. She d never known his name.
Josette was grateful for an opportunity to go to the party, expecting that Brannon would be there,
and she could parade in front of him with Dale. It would have helped her shattered ego, because
Brannon had dropped her flat after their last, tempestuous date. But when she and Dale arrived at the
palatial lake house, Brannon hadn t been there.
Silvia Webb s reaction to Dale s date had been less than flattering. Her beautiful face had
undergone a flurry of emotions, from amusement to calculation and then to polite formality.
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