The Lone Star Cinderella

“Yep,” Sophie said, then added, “but Bill says Nathan assured Dave that he was officially not a suspect.”

Disappointment curled in the pit of her stomach. Not that she wished Dave Firestone arrested or anything, but she wanted answers. Soon.

“It’s not surprising,” Mia said, chewing at her bottom lip. “Dave Firestone is an important man around here. There would have to be serious evidence against him for Nathan to keep him as a suspect.”

“I know.” Sophie sounded as dejected as Mia felt.

“Tell the truth, Soph,” Mia said. “Do you really think Dave is involved in Alex’s disappearance?”

“Probably not.” Her friend sighed.

“Me, either,” Mia agreed.

“But he’s the only link we have, Mia. I think we should stick to our plan and you should find out anything you can about him. Even if Dave is innocent, he might still know something that he doesn’t even know he knows, you know?”

Mia laughed a little. “Sadly, I understood that completely.”

Sophie added, “And according to what Bill told Carrie, Nathan admitted that he doesn’t have a clue what happened to Alex.”

Her heart sank a little further at that news. Of course, she’d thought as much. Nathan Battle had been working this case for months and he’d kept her apprised of his lack of progress. The sheriff and Alex were good friends, so Mia knew that Nathan was just as much personally involved in the search as he was professionally.

And none of that had helped them find Alex.

In the time Mia had worked for Alex Santiago, she’d known him to be warm, generous and kind. But he also had secrets. No one was allowed in his home office, for example. He had only allowed Mia in to clean once a month and then only if he was present. And when she and Sophie had started comparing notes, Sophie had told her about the secret phone calls Alex had been getting.

Since Alex had been gone, Mia had searched his home office top to bottom and Sophie had gone through his emails and phone records, but they hadn’t discovered a thing.

Which told her that either Alex had taken whatever he’d been safeguarding with him—or whoever had taken Alex had also gone through that office and taken what they’d found.

There was that now familiar twist of worry inside. Where was Alex? Was he hurt? Was he...

“He’ll show up,” Mia said, cutting short a disturbing train of thought. “There’s a reasonable explanation for all of this and when Alex comes back, it will all make sense.”

“You really believe that, don’t you?”

“Absolutely.” Almost, she added silently. But Mia had spent so much of her life searching for the silver lining in dark skies that it was instinctive now. She wouldn’t give up on Alex and, until he was home, she would do whatever she could to help find him.

Even if it meant eating enough flavored noodles to sink a battleship.

“Oops,” Sophie said suddenly, “Zach’s at the door. He’s taking me to lunch at the diner. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

Mia said goodbye, wishing she were at the diner right now, too. What she wouldn’t give for a hamburger, fries and a shake. Sighing, she let the wish go and dumped her noodles into a bowl. Grabbing a fork, she took a bite and tried to swallow her disappointment along with the noodles.

A knock sounded at the front door and Mia took it as a reprieve from her boring lunch. She set the bowl down on the counter and headed through the house. Whoever it was knocked again, faster and louder this time, and she frowned. Did another reporter get past the gate?

At the doorway, she glanced through the glass panes on one side of the heavy door and gaped at the man standing on the porch. Before she could think about it, she yanked the door open and faced Dave Firestone.

He wore black jeans, a dark red collared shirt, a battered brown bomber jacket and scarred boots. He held his hat in one fist, and his dark blond hair ruffled in the wind. His gray eyes locked onto her and Mia felt a jolt of something unexpected sizzle inside her.

“Mia,” he said, his voice deep enough to rumble along her spine, “I think we should talk.”

Two

“What’re you doing here?”

Dave took a good long look at the woman standing there glaring at him. Her long, dark brown hair was, as usual, pulled back from her face and twisted into a messy knot at the back of her neck. She wore faded blue jeans and a long-sleeved, navy blue T-shirt. Her feet were bare and he was surprised to see her toes were painted fire-engine red. Mia Hughes had never seemed like the red nail polish type to him. She was more of a pastel woman, seemingly determined to fade into the background. Or so he’d thought.

Something inside him stirred whether he’d wanted it to or not. He lifted his gaze to hers and the strength of her even stare punched out at him. Her wide blue eyes were unenhanced, yet they still seemed to captivate him.

He didn’t want to be captivated.

“I think we should talk. About Alex.”

“How did you get in here? The gate guard should have called me.”

“I asked him not to.” He shrugged. “He knows me, so it wasn’t a problem.”

“Well, it should have been. He never should have let you in here without contacting me.” She folded her arms across her chest.

Dave scowled. He wasn’t used to being kept cooling his heels outside. But Mia Hughes was guarding Alex Santiago’s front door like a trained pit bull. “I think it’d be better if we went inside to talk.”

“First, tell me what this is about.” She cocked her head and the toes of one foot began to tap impatiently.

“I’m not your enemy.” He took a step closer and noticed that she didn’t move back but held her ground. He could admire that even as she frustrated him.

He’d come here to compare notes. To see if she knew anything that might shed a light on Alex’s disappearance. But damned if he was going to have this conversation on the porch.

“No,” she conceded. “You’re not.” Her stance relaxed just a fraction. “And I was going to call you later anyway...”

“Is that right?” Surprised, he took another slow look at her and he noted that her eyes were gleaming with something he could only call interest. “About what?”

“About Alex, of course,” she told him with a shake of her head.

“Well, it’s good that I showed up today, isn’t it? Because that’s just what I want to talk to you about.” He glanced over his shoulder at the empty, meticulously kept grounds before looking back at her. “I want to know if there’s anything you know about Alex that you haven’t told Nathan Battle.”

“Of course there isn’t,” she said, clearly insulted. “Do you really think I haven’t been helping the police? I’ve done everything I can think of to find Alex.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said, cutting her off before she could erupt into a full-on rant. Hell, Mia Hughes was usually so quiet he hardly noticed her. But apparently on her own turf she wasn’t so reticent.

“It better not be,” she countered, and those blue eyes of hers flashed dangerously.

“Look, you don’t have to be so defensive. Alex and I weren’t exactly friends...”

She laughed shortly.

He frowned and continued, “But that doesn’t mean I wish him harm. Hell, right now I want to find him more than anybody in this town.”

A second or two passed in tense silence before she sighed and her stance relaxed. “Okay, I can understand that.”

“Thanks,” he muttered. “So can I come in and talk to you about this now?”

“I guess—” She stopped, looked over his shoulder at the yard and said, “Don’t!”

Instantly on alert, Dave whirled around and saw a young man, somewhere in his early twenties, aiming a digital camera at them and clicking away.

“Hey,” Dave said, stepping off the porch toward the man.

The guy jumped backward, shaking his head and grinning. He held out a digital recorder and shouted, “Great pictures! Chester Devon from All The News blog. Care to comment?”

“The only comment I have is one you can’t print, Chester,” Dave told him as he stalked toward the reporter, who had somehow slipped past the Pine Valley gate guard. “And no pictures, either.”

“Free country, man,” Chester countered, still grinning. “I think my readers will be interested to see Santiago’s housekeeper and a suspect in his disappearance looking so cozy...”

His readers, Dave thought. All ten of ’em. Still, if this guy posted pictures to his blog, they would eventually get around and make for more of the kind of scandal he was trying to avoid.

“Cozy? Oh, for—” Mia broke off, then spoke up again, louder. “I’m calling security.”

Just what he needed, Dave thought grimly. Not only a reporter but security coming over, too. More food for the local gossips. He couldn’t do anything about Mia’s call to security, but maybe he could head the reporter off at the pass.

“I’ll give you a thousand dollars for your camera.”

“Are you serious?” the kid asked with a laugh. “No way, man.”

Great. A budding reporter with morals. Or maybe Dave just hadn’t hit the guy’s price yet. “Five thousand.”

Chester wavered.

Dave could see it in the kid’s eyes. He was thinking that with five grand in his pocket he could buy a better camera, maybe get a job at a real newspaper.

“I don’t know...” Chester ran one hand across the chin sprouting a few stray whiskers. “With this kind of shot, I could maybe get a job at a paper in Houston.”

Dave understood the kid’s dreams. He’d had a hell of a lot of them himself once. And he’d worked his ass off to make sure they all came true. Didn’t mean he was going to be the rung on the ladder beneath Chester’s feet, though.

“Haven’t you heard, kid? Newspapers are dinosaurs.”

“True...”

Dave had the kid now. This guy wasn’t enough of a poker player to hide the avarice in his eyes. Everyone had his price, Dave reminded himself. All he had to do was find the right number and this guy would cave. “Call it ten thousand and I want your recorder, too.”

“Seriously?” Chester’s eyes lit up. “You got a deal, man.”

The kid followed while Dave went to his car, grabbed a checkbook from the glove compartment and wrote out a check. He signed it, then held one hand out.

“Let’s have ’em,” Dave said. The kid laid his camera and the recorder on Dave’s palm, then snatched the check. He stared at it for a couple seconds, a slow smile spreading on his face.

“This is seriously cool, man. With this, I can get out of Royal and move to Houston.”

“Good.” The farther away the better, as far as Dave was concerned. “You should get moving before security gets here and starts asking you uncomfortable questions.”

The kid looked up and grinned. “I’m practically gone.”

A second later, Chester was sprinting off across the yard, and then lost in the scrub oaks and pines defining the edge of Alex’s lot. Probably scaled the fence to get in here, Dave thought and had to give the kid points. He approved of determination. He also approved of getting rid of the kid as easily as possible.

Ten thousand was nothing. He’d have paid twice that to keep Chester quiet. As that thought moved through his mind, Dave realized that his problem might not be completely solved. Just because Chester didn’t have photographic proof didn’t mean he’d be quiet about Dave’s visit to Mia.

So it was time to put a different spin on this. His mind raced with possible solutions and almost instantly, he came up with a workable plan. And if he worked it right, this could actually solve all of his problems. He glanced toward the house, where Mia was again standing in the open front doorway.

A Pine Valley security car pulled up to the curb and a uniformed guard stepped out. Before he could speak, Dave pointed and called out, “He ran toward the ravine.”

The security guard hopped back into his car and went in pursuit, but Dave knew that kid was going to evade the guard. He’d gotten in to the gated community without being caught, hadn’t he?

“What’s going on?” Mia stepped out onto the wide, brick porch. “How’d you get him to leave?”

“Made him an offer,” Dave said as he walked toward her.

She blinked at him. “You paid him off?”

“I did.” Dave took the porch steps and stood directly opposite her. “Bought his camera and recorder.”

She looked up at him and he could see disdain in her eyes. “It’s easy for you, isn’t it? Just buy people if you have to.”

“I didn’t buy him,” Dave corrected with a smile. “I bought his stuff.”

“And his silence,” she added.

“In theory,” Dave agreed. “But there’s nothing to stop him from spreading this around, despite his lack of evidence.”

She wrapped her arms around her middle. “Then paying him off accomplished nothing?”

“It bought me some time,” he said, mind still racing.

“Time for what?”

“That’s something we should talk about.” The more he considered his idea, the better he liked it.

When Alex had disappeared, Dave had hired an investigator. He’d seen the writing on the wall and had known that sooner or later, people would start suspecting him. As always, he’d figured it was better to be prepared. The investigator hadn’t turned up much information on Alex, but Dave now knew enough about Mia to convince him he could get her to go along with his plan.

“But first,” he said, meeting her eyes, “tell me. Do you think I should be a suspect?”

She looked at him for a long, silent minute. He knew she was thinking that over and it irritated him more than a little that it was taking her so long to make a judgment call. “Well?”

She slumped one shoulder against the doorjamb. “Probably not.”

His mouth quirked. “A resounding testimonial.”

“I don’t know you well enough for that.”

“Right. Well. That’s something else we should talk about.” He glanced over his shoulder at the empty yard and scanned the tree line looking for another sneaky reporter. He’d learned over the years that reporters were like ants at a picnic. First you saw one. Then two. Then the picnic was over.

“Can I come in?”

“All right.” She stepped back, allowing him to pass by. Dave caught the faintest whiff of a light, floral scent that reminded him of summer.

Once in the house, Dave headed for the living room. He’d been here before, to meet with Alex. It was a nice house. Plush but tasteful. Cream-colored walls, bold, dark red-leather sofas and chairs and heavy dark tables. The windows looked out across the yard and were tinted, making it easy to see out but almost impossible to see in.

“What’s this about?” Mia asked.

Dave turned to look at her. “I’ll come right to the point. Alex being missing is hard on both of us.”

“Is that right?” she asked. “How are you suffering?”

“Gossip.” He tossed his hat onto the nearest couch, then shoved both hands into his jeans pockets. “The whispers and rumors about me might screw up a deal I’m working on.”

“A deal?” Her eyes widened. “Alex is missing and you’re worried about a deal?”

“Life goes on.” He said it flatly. Cold and hard. He saw reaction glitter in her eyes and he could appreciate that. He admired loyalty. “I didn’t have anything to do with Alex’s disappearance and I don’t think you did, either.”

She laughed shortly. “Well, thanks very much. I didn’t know I was a suspect.”

“Why wouldn’t you be? You’re his housekeeper.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Why not?”

The look on her face was pure astonishment. And no, he wasn’t serious. No one would ever suspect Mia Hughes of anything illegal. She was quiet, shy—or at least she had always seemed so until this morning—and she didn’t exactly come off as a femme fatale. First, she was too skittish to be involved in any kind of plot. She’d blow the whole thing in minutes if it came down to it. And secondly, she was just too all-American-girl-next-door.

Shiny red toenails notwithstanding.

But throwing her off balance was just what Dave needed. Because he needed her. In fact, she was damn near perfect. The plan that had occurred to him while he was dealing with the would-be reporter actually depended on her. If she agreed—and she would—then he had a way to explain him being here—should the kid decide to go ahead and post to his blog anyway. And it might also appease Thomas Buckley and his narrow view of life. What Dave needed was a wife. Not a real wife, mind you. But something temporary. Something that would buy him the time he needed to clinch the deal he wanted. But the women he normally went out with would never convince Thomas Buckley they were the home-and-hearth type.

Mia Hughes, on the other hand, was just the woman for the job.

“I’ve got a proposition for you.”

“And why should I listen?”

“Because it benefits both of us,” he said simply. “And you’re too smart to say no before you’ve heard me out.”

Her lips pressed together and her eyes narrowed. “Flattery?”

“Truth.”

She took a breath and blew it out again in a huff. “Okay, I’m listening.”

He rubbed one hand across his face, then waved at the big red-leather sofa. “Have a seat.”

Obviously still on guard, she walked to the couch and perched on the edge, clearly ready to bolt the moment he said the wrong thing. Well, Dave wasn’t about to blow this. He had never once gone into a negotiation blind and today was no different. Didn’t matter that he hadn’t come here with this plan in mind. He was flexible enough that he could turn any situation around to his favor.

Dave stood in front of the couch, looking down at Mia. “I need a wife.”

“Excuse me?” She started to rise but he waved her back down.

“Relax,” he said. “I’m talking more of a fantasy wife than the real thing.”

* * *

Fantasy? It was laughable, really. In what parallel universe would Mia Hughes be anyone’s, let alone Dave Firestone’s, fantasy? This was either some bizarre joke or he really was nuts.

“Relax?” Mia jumped to her feet, unable to sit still a moment longer. She and Sophie had wanted to check Dave out, which was the main reason Mia had allowed him into the house in the first place. But if she’d known what he was going to say she’d have left him on the porch and thrown the deadbolt to keep him out. “I really think you should go.”

He shook his head and stood his ground. He was so tall that even with Mia on her feet, he was looking down at her.

“Not until you’ve heard me out.”

“Oh, I think I’ve heard enough,” Mia assured him. She tried to move past him to lead him to the door, but he laid one hand on her arm and stopped her.

She felt the burn of his hand on her skin and told herself to get over it. To pay no attention. But inside, her hormones were concentrating on that rush of heat. This was so not good. He was too tall. Too gorgeous. Too sure of himself.

He smiled as if he knew what she was thinking, feeling. Well, she’d wanted to know more about Dave Firestone. Now she knew just how formidable he was. And she was worried he was just a little crazy.

His hand fell from her arm and, despite her best intentions, Mia missed that blast of heat from his fingertips. Okay, maybe he wasn’t nuts. But he was...distracting.

Then he was talking again. “I’m working on a deal with Texas Cattle—the best company in the state for beef buying—but the head of the company is a pretty conservative guy. He only deals with family men. Thinks they’re more stable or something. Anyway, the upshot is, I need a temporary wife—or at the very least a fiancée. Just long enough for me to seal this deal. Once that’s done, we’ll ‘break up’ and it’s over.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Just determined,” he assured her. “I know money’s got to be tight with Alex gone.”

She stiffened and lifted her chin.

“With him wherever the hell he is, you’re not being paid and,” he paused to let that sink in, then added, “the household account you have access to is almost dry.”

Stunned, she whispered, “How do you know that?”

“Same way I know you’ve got school loans to pay off, tuition due in a month and that your debit card was declined at the diner last month.”

Embarrassment roared to life inside her and she felt heat crawl up her cheeks to flood her face. Bad enough that her friend Sophie knew how little money she had. Having Dave Firestone know it was almost too much to take.

The question was, how did he know it?

“Are you spying on me?”

He laughed. “Hardly. I had an investigator looking for Alex and, since you’re the man’s housekeeper, you got checked out, too.”

A wave of outrage crested over the embarrassment, smothering it completely. “You had no right.”

“Whether I did or not, it’s done,” he said easily, as if invading her privacy meant nothing to him. And, it probably didn’t. “The point is, you need money. I need a wife.”

“What?”

“I think you heard me.”

“You can’t be serious.” This was, hands down, the most bizarre conversation she’d ever had. A wife? He wanted to pay her to marry him?

“I don’t joke when I’m making a deal.”

He stood there, tall and gorgeous and completely at ease, as if he owned the world—and from what she knew of him, he did own a good chunk of it. But his attitude was so confident, so...superior. As if he knew absolutely that she would agree. Well, he had a surprise coming.

“No deal,” she said and instantly felt a sense of righteous satisfaction. Sure she was out of money and eating Top Ramen and daydreaming about hamburgers. But she wasn’t so desperate that she was willing to sell herself to a man who already thought far too highly of himself. “I’m not interested in being your wife...real, temporary or fantasy.”

“Sure you are,” he said easily and gave her a half smile that tipped up one corner of his mouth and flashed a dimple at her. “You don’t want to be interested but you are. Why wouldn’t you be? Mia, this is a good deal for both of us.”

She hated that he was right. She didn’t want to be interested but she was. The whole situation was too strange. His offer was crazy. And yet...she looked around the empty living room. This place had been her first real home in too many years to count. She had cared for it and watched over it in Alex’s absence. But the truth was, if he didn’t come home soon, she didn’t know what she would do.

The money was almost gone. Soon, she wouldn’t be able to pay the monthly bills. She had no idea what she’d do then.

People in town were already speculating about Alex’s disappearance. This couldn’t possibly help the situation.

“What about the local gossips?” She shook her head. “Don’t you think they’ll be a little suspicious of your sudden engagement plan?”

He frowned. “Hadn’t considered that,” he mumbled. “But it doesn’t matter. In this town, the gossips love a good romantic story better than anything else. They’ll glom on to our whirlwind romance and let go of suspicion.”

He was probably right, she told herself. The main gossip chain in Royal was female and they were more interested in fairy-tale romantic stories than anything else. This might actually take the heat off them where Alex’s disappearance was concerned.

Oh, God, she didn’t know what to do.

“Think about it, Mia,” he said and she could only imagine the snake in the Garden of Eden had sounded just as convincing. “This would solve both of our problems.”

“I don’t think so,” she said, though her grumbling stomach disagreed. Still, she wasn’t starving. She had a roof over her head and noodles in the pantry. And she had her pride, right?

Oh, God. Her pride was already shattered. Dave Firestone knew she was out of money. Knew how desperate she was. And he knew just what kind of temptation to use against her.

“You’re considering it.”

“I’m considering lots of things,” she told him. “Like throwing you out, finishing my lunch and then maybe polishing the kitchen floor. Lots of options.”

“So I see,” he said, a slow, knowing smile curving his mouth. “Any idea which one you’re going to go with?”