Startled, Jewel glanced at her. On her other side, Reba elbowed her. “I think he likes you.”
“Me, too,” someone else put in.
“He’s single, too.” Grinning, Reba fluffed her unruly curls. “Of course, if you’ve a hankering for him, you’d better get in line behind the rest of us.”
Everyone laughed.
“I wonder who he’s meeting,” a petite blonde named Charlene drawled. “It better not be Sue Ellen Wellman. She just got engaged to Ross Marin.”
Several minutes passed while the others dissected Sue Ellen’s recent engagement.
The bell jingled again. This time the man who entered sent alarm bells pealing in Jewel’s head.
He looked exactly as though he could be one of Leo’s lieutenants. Tall, dark and overly muscled, he had the flat, dead eyes of a man who had seen and done too much.
Jewel fought the urge to flee. She knew that type.
“Will you look at that?” Reba breathed. “Who’s the hunk?”
No one knew. They all watched with open interest as he was shown to his seat, the booth in back where Colton waited.
Jewel wanted to dive under the table and hide, or better yet, make a blind dash for the door. She did neither, watching with narrowed eyes as Colton stood and greeted the man, shaking his hand before they sat.
“I’m guessing you like Colton, too.” Reba’s amused purr brought Jewel back to her senses. She tore her gaze away from the two men, focusing on Reba.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“Colton Reynolds.” Reba gave her a knowing smile. “Our favorite local reporter.” Lowering her voice, Reba leaned forward. “Since you seem so interested in him, I think I need to tell you his story.”
Jewel shook her head. “I’m not sure I want to hear.”
“Sure you do. Why wouldn’t you? It’s a great story and adds to his general air of mystery.”
“Yeah, and once you hear it, you’ll understand his remoteness,” Charlene put in with a wry smile, stabbing her enchilada with her fork and chewing slowly.
They all watched Jewel with the avid eagerness of a flock of vultures waiting for a wolf to finish a meal of rabbit.
“I don’t like gossip.” Jewel softened her words with a smile. “Really, I don’t.”
“You’ll like this. This is big.”
Since Jewel knew Reba would tell her anyway, she stabbed her last bit of fajita meat and waited.
Reba grinned. “His ex-wife is in prison. And, even better, Colton made sure the woman was brought up on charges and stood trial. He refused to hire a lawyer, though she hired the best in Houston anyway. She got twenty years and her own husband put her there.”
Confused, Jewel looked from Reba to the others. “I don’t understand. What did his wife do?”
“He accused her of murdering their daughter. When she denied it, he set about proving she’d provided the drugs that ended the girl’s life.”
“Drugs?” Jewel repeated, not sure she’d heard correctly.
“Yes. The daughter died of a drug overdose. And Colton has made it his personal mission to make sure anyone involved in any way with drugs is taken down.”
“Maybe that’s who that other guy is,” one woman put in. “A DEA agent or something. He sure looks like one.”
Jewel nearly groaned out loud. Though better than one of Leo’s goons, if that was the case, she knew for certain that Colton-the-local-reporter would soon identify her. Because Leo’s arrest had made national news. He’d run one of the biggest drug cartels on the East Coast.
And she had been his wife.
