Always A Lawman

It was possible they were or had been lovers.

Jodi didn’t look away. She met his gaze head-on. “I’m stating the obvious here, but when I was recovering from my injuries, my father was charged with murdering your parents. For a while, my brother was a suspect as well, and you and Jameson were looking to put someone—anyone—behind bars for what happened. It didn’t seem like a good idea to see you and cry on your shoulder. Plus, you had your hands full with the investigation.”

“So, you cried on Hector’s instead.” Gabriel didn’t bother cursing himself that time, but it was definitely something he shouldn’t have thrown out there. He hadn’t brought her in here to dig up the past, but they were certainly doing just that.

“I cried but not on anyone’s shoulder,” she informed him. “Wait. You’re not thinking I turned to Hector because of some romantic feelings?” She cursed, made a face and didn’t wait for him to respond. “It’s not like that between Hector and me. Or any other man.”

Her mouth tightened as if she also had said too much. Now, she looked away, dodging his gaze, and everything in her body language signaled to him that this part of the conversation was over.

Good. It was time to move on, and he tipped his head toward Billy. “There was no blood on his clothes. Nor any visible on any part of his body.”

It didn’t take her long to process that. “That’s why you don’t believe he killed the man.”

Gabriel nodded. “There was blood everywhere in that pantry, and the guy had been stabbed multiple times. An organized killer could have possibly avoided spatter, but I’m not sure Billy’s anywhere near organized.”

She stared at the teenager on the other side of the glass. “He could have changed his clothes and cleaned himself up after the murder.” But Jodi quickly waved that off. She huffed, but it wasn’t exactly a sound of frustration. There was something else mixed with it, too. “You really do know that I wouldn’t do something like kill a man, don’t you?”

“I know.” There was something else mixed with his response, too. Empathy. Hell. More than that. Sympathy. Something that she darn sure wouldn’t want him to feel. “And you do know if I’d had any suspicions ten years ago about what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have let you leave my house?”

She nodded, sighed. Jodi looked up, their gazes connecting, and for just a split second, it seemed as if the last decade melted away. He caught a glimpse of the girl. The very one who’d had a thing for him. That thing was still there; Gabriel could feel it, but it was buried beneath the scars and the pain.

He got another flood of memories then. The heat in his own body. He’d never told Jodi that he’d wanted her that night. Wouldn’t tell her, either. Because it wouldn’t help. In fact, it could make things worse with them going through the “what could have been” scenarios.

Their eye contact continued, and Gabriel could feel that old attraction becoming a simmer again. Thankfully, the simmer turned chilly when he heard voices in the hall.

“I need to see the sheriff and my client now,” a woman demanded. It wasn’t a shout but close enough so that Gabriel had no trouble hearing her.

She was no doubt Billy’s attorney. Good. That meant Gabriel could get on with the interrogation.

Gabriel threw open the door and came face-to-face with Cameron and a brunette who was dressed to the nines. She had a briefcase on the floor next to her pricey shoes. She certainly didn’t look like someone who worked cheap, and that piqued his interest, and suspicions, even more. There was no way Billy could pay someone like this.

So, who was footing this bill?

“I’m Mara Rayburn,” she said. Her voice had lowered a couple of notches, but she didn’t sound very happy about this visit. “You’re Sheriff Beckett?”

Gabriel nodded, but before he could say anything, she took his hand and slapped some papers in his palm. “That’s a court order to transfer my client to a psychiatric facility where he belongs.”

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