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Or maybe it was the fact I was sixty pounds heavier than anyone else in the place. As I waited, standing against the wall by the door, my thoughts shifted to Lily. She’d only stopped crying after I’d read her a story, falling asleep on my lap. I hadn’t left her side after that, sitting against the headboard as I listened to Princess snoring. And all I’d thought about during those few hours was Harlow.
The sound of her laugh.
Her feisty attitude.
The way she looked at me while I was driving my cock deep inside.
And the damn playfulness that had turned me on like nobody’s business.
I’d seen the fear and hurt in her eyes through the shimmer of moonlight banking off the pool water. She’d been disgusted with what I’d told her. She had every right to be. Besides, I’d checked her background, realizing her father had been in the Army his entire life. The disgrace for her family would be too much to bear.
I wasn’t good for her, but my conclusion wasn’t just about the discharge. I’d admitted I was a killer. How could any woman accept that? But the truth was that I wanted her in my life more than I knew how to say. It didn’t make any damn sense. Maybe I was just fooling myself. I sure as shit wasn’t good with women, had never allowed myself to become attached to anyone, at least not for longer than a couple of weeks.
Sighing, I folded my arms, staring down at the ranger tattoo a few of us had gotten over the years. We’d pissed off our commanding officer, who’d threatened to kick us out. Ink was a serious infraction, which all five of us had found laughable. At least now tattoos were accepted. How things changed.
After dropping off the roses, Lily riding shotgun, and taking her to preschool, I’d spent some time looking for the contracts for both resorts. While searching Galen’s office, I’d realized he was meticulous in his organizational skills, more so than I remembered. Every sales receipt, warranty for the appliances, computer equipment, the boat and the vehicles he owned had a file, labeled and in alphabetical order. That included the file on his Lexus. Every service record had been kept as well.
But no contracts, at least not in the same location. I’d found them in a fireproof, locked file in his bedroom closet. I’d snapped the small combination lock with my hand, finding the contracts and other important documents like Lily’s birth certificate and Galen’s marriage license inside. What I’d read wouldn’t have caused any red flags for anyone who wasn’t familiar with the world of advertising. I’d seen several of the typical contracts to know the numbers had been severely inflated; however, that wouldn’t account completely for the change in Galen’s lifestyle.
Then I’d found what I knew Galen had considered a smoking gun, the information he’d gathered taking some balls. The last item I’d seen had been his wife’s accident report. I continued to try to process the information, but it had confirmed what Matt had told me.
Marissa Masters had been murdered in cold blood.
I noticed an officer moving toward the front desk, the officer behind the counter pointing in my direction. As the first officer turned around, he narrowed his eyes as people did sometimes when I walked into a room, swaggering toward me as he allowed his gaze to fall to my boots. By the time he reached me, he was wearing a sneer.
“You must be Hunt Masters.”
“Officer Cambridge.”
He nodded. “I understand from your message you wanted more details regarding your brother’s death.”
I nodded, noticing that another officer had entered the room, the man staring at us intently. “Why don’t we talk outside?” I didn’t wait for him to answer, heading out the door into the sun. I grabbed my sunglasses, tossing them on before he followed me outside.
“I don’t know what more to tell you. It was an accident. His brakes failed.”
“Were they checked?”
“Standard procedure but requested by the man’s attorney as well as the insurance company.”
It was funny Matt hadn’t been up front with that information. “And?”
“A leak in the reservoir tank. At least that’s what I heard. That’s what allowed me to close the file. There’s nothing else to tell you.”
There were several things I didn’t like about his attitude.
In finding the file on Galen’s Lexus, I’d flipped through every maintenance and service record. He’d had the fluids checked, the oil changed, and the tires rotated two days prior to his accident by a reputable mechanic.
“Interesting.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning according to the service report from two days before, his car was in perfect working order.”
He snorted. “Shit happens. This is the desert. You might be a newcomer here, but today’s heat is on the low end of the scale.”
I looked away, trying to control my temper. “Officer Cambridge, I might not be a certified mechanic, but I’d spent my life around vehicles that never spend a single day out of excessive heat. Every component is designed to withstand an engine’s excessive heat. So what you’re telling me is bullshit.”
He laughed at first then removed his sunglasses. “Are you suggesting his car was tampered with?”
