Don't Mess With Texas (43 page)

“And you think this has something to do with Jack’s murder?”

“Yes,” Tyler and Dallas answered at the same time.

“How do I know you’re not here to rob me blind?”

“By just having access to your computer?” Dallas asked.

“Oh, I could do it,” Tyler said.

Dallas shot him a what-the-hell look, but he didn’t flinch.

“But that’s not my plan. We’re here to help someone,” Tyler said.

“Who?”

“Nikki Hunt,” Tyler answered.

“Jack’s ex?” Sterns asked.

Dallas nodded. “Yes.”

“Look, I don’t think she did it, but I can’t turn over my computers to you without talking to someone.”

“Then talk.” Dallas passed him a business card then stood up. He and Tyler left the man to think over their offer.

As they walked out of Sterns’s office, Rachel Peterson stepped in front of them. She looked angry, and ready to bench-press a couple hundred pounds, which was about how much Dallas weighed.

“Is this him?” she asked.

Oh shit
.

“Is this your boyfriend?” Rachel demanded.

Tyler’s mouth fell open. “Say what?”

Dallas answered, “I never said that. You assumed—”

“What?” she asked Tyler. “You haven’t come out of the closet yet?”

“Oh, honey,” Tyler said, getting into the story. “I came out of the closet, but sometimes I like to take this sweet hunk of man back into the closet. You wouldn’t believe the toys I keep in there.” He gave Dallas’s butt a quick smack, and then dragged him away from Rachel.

As they walked outside, Dallas looked at Tyler. “I’ll give you a thousand dollars to never repeat that. But if you do tell anyone you touched my ass, I will shoot you.”

“Please,” Tyler said. “You know me better than that.” Reaching the car, Tyler continued, “It would have to at least be ten thousand. And you might as well load your gun.”

Monday evening Tony watched LeAnn walk out of the kitchen with a lump of disappointment in his gut. Every night they ate dinner together, laughed, and talked about their day. She’d even started helping with the dishes.

And then she’d leave him.

It hadn’t stopped him from trying, though. Every night, he’d use the shower, ask her to join him, but she never did. As he tossed the dish towel on the counter, he heard a door open.

He turned, hope filling him. “Change your mind about…” His heart stopped. Somewhere between his brain and lips the words got lost.

“Change my mind about what?” She sounded completely innocent—as if she wasn’t standing there wearing nothing but a towel. As if her hair wasn’t hanging around her bare shoulders, as if the towel didn’t give him a generous view of her cleavage.

“About…” His gaze lowered. The slit came way above her thigh. He swallowed, and let himself enjoy the view. “About a movie.”

“Nah, I’m taking a bath.” She walked past and grabbed a wineglass. “Wine and a bubble bath.”

His pulse doubled. She smiled and walked away. He stood there like a fool and watched her leave. Why hadn’t he made a move? Tried to kiss her? Told her she looked sexy?

But damn. It had been so long since he’d seen that much of LeAnn’s skin. He missed her skin. More than skin, he’d missed that smile. Missed the flirty way she looked at him. He suddenly realized what he hadn’t seen just now on his wife’s face. He hadn’t seen the pain, the constant grief that had filled her eyes for so long. Were they finally moving on? Hope so intense that it almost hurt swelled in his chest.

He walked to the bathroom door and heard the water running. He smelled the scented bubble bath she used. His mind went back to the skin. He knocked. “Need someone to wash your back?”

“Nah. But thanks for the offer.”

He leaned his forehead on the wood door that wasn’t nearly as hard as he was. Then he grinned. Okay, so LeAnn wasn’t quite ready for sex, but not only was she on to his game, she was playing right along with him. And that had to be good news.

“Bring it on, baby,” he whispered. “Bring it on.”

Later that night, Dallas watched Nikki get up and head toward his bedroom. What had seemed like a brilliant idea now suddenly felt foolish. A desperate attempt to fix something when he didn’t even know what the hell was wrong.

She came to a sudden stop at his bedroom door and glanced back at him. “You do this?”

“Would you believe me if I said I opened the window and they just blew inside?”

She grinned as he approached her. “I’ve never made love on rose petals.”

“I read it in a magazine and I thought…”

“It’s sweet.” She turned and kissed him, but it ended too fast.

He ran a finger across her wet lips. “What’s going on inside that head of yours?”

“Nothing,” she said.

He couldn’t force her to tell him. And he didn’t know what to say to change something he didn’t understand. So he did what he did best. He undressed her, laid her back on the bed and brushed a rose petal over every inch of her soft skin.

When she came the first time, she called out his name, and that, Dallas decided, was the sweetest sound in the world.

Tuesday afternoon Dallas was at the gallery with Nance and Nikki when Tony walked in. Dallas saw Nikki look up and for a second she looked scared.

“It’s okay,” he whispered in her ear. “I think he’s here with good news about Nance.” He felt her relax against him and when she leaned on him, it felt so damn good. For some crazy reason, he recalled his dad telling him the thing he missed most about losing Dallas’s mom was the feeling of her leaning on him. He said her weight balanced out his life. That without her occasional weight against him, he didn’t feel grounded. At the time, Dallas thought it had been a sappy thing to say. Not anymore.

Dallas looked at Nance who now wore the expression
Nikki had moments earlier. Then Tony smiled and Nance’s shoulders relaxed.

“How you doing, kid?” Tony asked.

“I’ve been better,” Nance replied hesitantly.

“What if I told you it was over? All charges dropped.”

Nance looked at Dallas. “Is he for real?”

Dallas nodded.

“Oh, damn!” Nance swung around and grabbed Nikki in a big bear hug.

Dallas watched the two embrace. “Remember, she’s mine.”

Nikki smiled and, for a flicker of a second, she looked at him without reservation.

“I do the work and she reaps the rewards,” Dallas said to Tony.

“What’s wrong?” Nance asked when he released Nikki. “You’re jealous? You want a hug? Come here. Hell, I could kiss you for what you’ve done. But I’m not slapping you on the ass like Tyler did.”

Dallas held out his hand. “A handshake will do.”

“Whoa,” Tony said. “Tyler slapped Dallas’s ass? First a pink sofa and now this.”

“He used the gay card to get out of sleeping with someone,” Nance said.

“Did not. She assumed it. I just let her assume.”

Nikki laughed. “I’ll attest to Dallas’s masculinity.”

Dallas pulled her against him. “Thank you.”

Nikki looked at his brother. “Maybe you’re not so bad, after all.”

Tony grinned. “I’ve been thinking the same thing about you.”

Later, when Dallas walked Tony to his car, Tony’s
body language changed. “I thought we were working together on the Leon case. On the same side—isn’t that the way you put it?”

“We are.”

“So would you like to share with me what you’re hoping to find on Brian and Sterns computers? Mr. Sterns mentioned it during his interview.”

“I was going to tell you if I hadn’t heard anything by this afternoon.” Dallas explained about the disk.

“Christ. I could’ve had those computers yanked yesterday.”

“And they’d go into your CSU unit for a month before any one got to them. You know I’m right.”

Tony’s grimaced. “You could have told me.”

“I told you about the busboy,” Dallas said. “Have you located him yet?”

“No.”

“Have you tried?”

“I sent a guy out. But that’s not a viable lead. That kid probably just up and quit. We have no connection between him and Brian.”

Dallas knew his brother had a point, but his gut said differently. “Did you question Brian?”

“Yeah. He swears he’s innocent. Says he never left the office that night.”

“And you believe him?”

“No, but I need to prove it. The Leons are getting impatient. They visited my boss yesterday.”

“You can’t arrest Nikki with other leads still pending.”

“I still have two people willing to testify she told them she was going to kill him.” Tony sighed. “I’m going to fight this. I’ve already pissed off my boss over it. But I
need something concrete.” Tony pulled out his keys. “Are things serious between you two?”

“Define ‘serious.’ ”

“Dad thinks you’re as good as married,” Tony said.

“Married? Hell, no. Did that once. Didn’t care for it.”

“That was Serena.” Tony opened his car door.

“Believe me, I know the difference. Nikki and I… we’re good together. I like her… a lot. And if I can convince her, she’ll be around for a long time.”

“Convince her?” Tony asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing wrong,” Dallas said. “We’re just… just in this weird relationship place.”

“Maybe because you can’t admit what you want.”

“I know what I want.” And he did. He’d spent a lot of time thinking about it these last few days. He’d finally made sense of it all.

“And what do you want?”

“For her to stick around a while.”

“Wow, with an invite like that I don’t see why she’s isn’t chomping at the bit to say yes.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dallas asked.

Tony just looked at him. “Not a damn thing. Good luck, brother.” He got into his car.

“Everything is going to be fine,” Dallas said. He watched his brother drive off and then reached up and touched his eyebrow, which kept jumping up and down. “Shit!” he muttered, wondering what his fucking eyebrow knew that he didn’t.

The next day, Nikki poured herself a cup of coffee. Dallas was getting dressed to go to the cemetery for his mom’s birthday. Dallas hadn’t asked her to go. She
respected that this was a private event, but it was another clue she longed to be a bigger part of Dallas’s life than he wanted.

Nursing her cup of coffee, petting Bud with her foot, she tried to figure out her exit strategy. A knock came on the door. She opened the door and Tyler stormed in, picked her up and swung her around in his arms.

“I’m so damn good,” he said.

Nikki laughed. “I don’t think I can attest to that.”

“Good thing, too, or you’d dump the gay guy with the pink sofa.”

Nikki laughed. When she’d first heard the story, she’d felt jealous that another woman had approached Dallas. Though it felt good that he’d turned her down, she and Dallas didn’t even have an exclusive agreement. Wasn’t that her number-one rule? Get an exclusive before sleeping with a guy? How did things move from puking on the guy to being a breath away from blurting out “I love you” when they made love?

Pretend we’re on vacation or something
. His words played in her head. Vacations were fabulous, but temporary. Vacations always ended.

“So exactly how are you good?” Nikki asked, shoving her problems aside.

“I don’t care how good he is. He needs his own woman.” Dallas moved in from the bedroom.

Nikki looked over her shoulder at Dallas. “Tyler has good news.”

Dallas smiled, but he eyed Tyler’s hands at her waist with what looked like jealousy. Would a guy who didn’t want an exclusive be jealous?

Maybe she should stop guessing and start asking.
Soon, she promised herself. Instantly, she heard Ellen’s voice of warning.
I’m not so certain he’s the only one with a commitment problem
. Was Ellen right?

Tyler must have noted Dallas’s look, too, because he dropped his hands from her waist. “Hey, I’m the one who should be jealous. You just up and went straight on my ass.”

“Don’t you think that story stopped being funny the third time you told it?” Dallas asked.

“I’m still laughing at it.” Dallas’s dad walked through the door.

Dallas nodded a quick greeting at his dad, whose phone rang, so he stepped back into the hall.

Watching his dad leave, Dallas frowned at Tyler. “Is there anyone in the state of Texas you haven’t told?”

“If so, it wasn’t intentional,” Tyler said.

Dallas, in navy slacks and button-down light blue oxford shirt, turned Nikki’s heart into a big gooey pile of emotion. How long could she let this vacation last? Was it wrong for her to draw it out?

“What’s the news?” Dallas asked Tyler. “Did Sterns call and want us to check the computers?”

“Nope,” Tyler said.

“Then what?” Dallas hooked a hand around Nikki’s waist. It felt good to be close.