Page 17 of Homicide in Water Creek

“I was an adult, Jacks. How could I not see what was going on?”

“You didn’t see it because you weren’t expecting it. Who would expect something like that?” They fell silent for too many ticks of the wall clock. Finally, she rubbed his back twice more, roughly, and lifted her hand. “You said you had to tell me something about the ranch?”

King’s head came up, and his eyes shifted from those of a broken man to those of a lawman. “I already told Jackson, but you need to be aware. Chinos is definitely not who he claimed to be.”

Rolling her eyes skyward, Jacks leaned back on the couch. “Oh wow, a real bombshell. I hadn’t seen that coming. Thank you for your hard work, Sheriff.”

King turned and grabbed her arm tightly. Too tightly. With panic rising in her throat, she jerked it away as she scrambled for the other side of the couch. “Sorry,” he said, holding his hand up. “I forget my own strength when I’m dealing with someone as small as you are, especially when I’m scared.”

Jacks leaned forward and stuck her finger in his face, finally able to reach it since they were sitting down. “First, I’m not small. Second, why are you scared? Everyone knows that dude isn’t here to ride horses.”

He grabbed her finger in his signature move and held on. “First, you’re small in stature, but not in guts, okay? I’m a foot taller than you and one hundred pounds heavier. It’s important that I remember my own strength. Second, he’s definitely not here to ride horses. That’s what scares me.”

“Did you turn up anything in your background check?”

Shaking his head, she could see how frustrated he was. “No, and that’s the problem. Even my programs return him as Wade Owens. His life and work experience are as white paste as you can get for someone supposedly well into his 30s. I don’t buy it.”

“Then we have to get his thumbprints. He’s living and eating here. It shouldn’t be hard.”

“Maverick is still working on background programs while he tries to connect Chinos and Vonita. If he can’t break the persona soon, we’ll have to go that route.”

“It doesn’t make sense, King. We run a school for wannabe cowboys. There’s no reason to ‘infiltrate’ us.”

He tipped his head, and finally his shoulder rose and fell. “I don’t have the answers yet, but I do know he’s here for a reason other than rodeo school. I’ve got a murder on my hands, so I can only devote so much time to unraveling Chino's story. My manpower is seriously strained, but if we can tie Chinos to Vonita’s death, that might clear a few things up. They both showed up in Water Creek around the same time, and we know that Chinos is here to ‘get’ something. We haven’t found a connection, but I’ve got other programs running while I’m here.”

“What do we do now? Are we in danger?” Jacks asked, her throat suddenly dry.

“I don’t think so, but we can’t tip him off that we think he’s anyone other than Wade Owens until I have something concrete on him.”

“I would rather we just kick him out of the program and get rid of him,” she said, standing and pacing toward the kitchen.

“I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer the enemy we know to the one we don’t.”

Spinning carefully so she wouldn’t topple, she met his gaze. The dim light made his brown eyes look like milk chocolate. Warm and melty. Shaking those thoughts from her head, she dropped her hand to her hip. “What are you talking about?”

“If we kick him out, we won’t know why he’s here or whether he’s connected to Vonita’s murder. We also won’t know if someone else will show up instead. If he stays, we can keep an eye on him until we know his agenda.”

Biting her lip, she leaned against the island counter. “Good point. We can’t let him wander around here unchecked, though. That’s asking for trouble.”

“Jackson agrees. He’s going to make him his special project.”

“Oh boy,” Jacks laughed, finding a bit of humor in the whole situation. “I know what happens when Jackson Miles picks a special project.”

“I’m not in the know here, but my guess is that Chinos won’t have time for a bathroom break, let alone time to dig into any information about the ranch.”

Wearing a grin, Jacks nodded. “That. He won’t know what hit him. He’ll be begging to leave.”

“Well, we don’t want to push him that far. We just want him to think he’s been accepted into the fold and is getting special treatment because of his exemplary potential.” She couldn’t hold back a snort, but it made King laugh, so Jacks couldn’t hate herself for it. “It sounded equally ridiculous to my ears, too. Hopefully, I can figure out his reasons for being here and whether he’s tied to Vonita in the next few days. In the meantime, and here comes the part you won’t like, I need you to stay at the main house at night.”

“Absolutely not. Forget it. No.”

“Jacks, please be reasonable.”

“Be reasonable? Screw you, King. I know for a fact there’s no way you’d go stay with your granddaddy tonight!”

He stood and stalked toward her, his hair mussed and his eyes blazing with anger. There was something else there, too. Heat? Desire? She didn’t want to look too closely. Knowing which one, or both, would only make it that much harder to forget him again. “I’m not the one who needs to stay with someone tonight. I can take care of myself.”

Oh, hell no. He did not just say that. Her spine stiffened, pressing her chest against his rock-hard abdomen. “I am not some helpless ninny who can’t take care of herself, Sheriff King.”