Secret Agent Boyfriend (8 page)

“The one you insisted on charming?” He hadn’t quite hit the point where he could be carefree about the morning’s events, but he could add a small bit of levity to what was going to be unpleasant territory.

“I did no such thing. I let it calm down.”

“You know, it’s funny but I remember our morning a bit differently.”

“One thing I think we both remember the same way. The bag it was delivered in.”

Derek would have found an excuse to get the bag away from Noah if he felt he could have learned anything off the material, but the canvas drawstring tote was a dead end. Bags like that were easily available and could have been purchased at any number of stores.

Landry continued. “What I don’t understand is why whoever did this left the bag behind.”

“To send a message.”

“It’s an awfully cryptic one. If you’re sick enough to send a snake and someone at Adair Acres was the target, send it to the house. Or put it in the car. Something.”

“And risk having a servant find it instead?”

At her sharp intake of breath, he saw the recognition light in her eyes. “Someone could have been hurt.”

“I think that was the general idea. But it’s not a targeted way to harm someone, which is why I think this was meant more as a message than an actual attempt at doing real damage.”

“I have to talk to Whit and Carson, and we need to talk to the staff. Tell them to be on their guard.” A hard laugh escaped her lips. “Won’t my mother be pleased to come home to half her staff having resigned.”

“No one will do that to you and your brothers.”

“How can you be so sure?”

He shrugged, the interactions he’d observed over the past few days more than obvious. “They love you. And they don’t stay because of your mother. They stay for you and your brothers.”

Her mouth drooped in surprise before she firmly snapped it closed. Although he’d only had a few days, it hadn’t been hard to size up the dynamics at Adair Acres. Patsy Adair might rule the roost, but her chicks held the true power.

Since he suspected that depth of knowledge would only make Landry feel more guilty about the danger to her staff, he pushed forward with more questions.

“How accessible is the stable?”

“It’s open. I mean, we don’t always lock it.” She pulled Pete up as they approached a long stretch of field and rose up in the saddle. “Want to walk for a bit?”

He dismounted from Diego and attached the horse’s lead to allow him his grazing reward after their hard run. Landry stood a few feet away, her voice gentle as she thanked Pete for the good ride.

A few strands had come loose from her ponytail and Derek watched, mesmerized, as they blew against the soft curve of her cheek. She was a vision. The long, firm body. The porcelain skin. And the innate care and awareness of others that was easy to overlook when she was pulling the princess-of-the-manor routine.

But he had seen it.

Had seen glimpses of the caring woman underneath.

Her love of the horse was one small example. He’d also seen it in her concern for the staff. Her fierce defense of her mother.

Landry Adair was a woman who, by all accounts, had made herself. Out of a loveless childhood and the rarefied air of wealth and privilege, she’d emerged, like Aphrodite on the half shell. Fully formed and fully lovely.

His stomach tightened on a hard knot of need and he willed it back, refusing to allow it any more control over his thoughts.

This was a case.

A
job
.

And he couldn’t afford to lose sight of that.

Voice gruffer than he intended, he returned to the morning’s incident. “Who knows the stable’s open?”

Landry’s eyes widened slightly, but if she sensed a shift in the conversation, she said nothing. “Everyone, I guess. But it’s not like the property’s open. You can’t just stroll through the front gates.”

“The ranch is nearly 200 acres. All someone needs is determination and a bit of patience and I’d wager they don’t need to use the front gates. An old line of fence or a thick copse of trees and someone could get through.”

“Which is why we keep track of the main perimeter of the house and stables, as well.”

“The stables, too?”

“Of course. We have hundreds of thousands of dollars of horseflesh in there, not to mention top-of-the-line equipment.”

“Do you have video equipment? Eyes on the stables?”

“Yes. It all feeds into the main security system in the house.”

He cursed himself for not thinking of it immediately. His thoughts had been so full of Landry while they were still in the barn that he hadn’t even looked at the situation through the eyes of a trained operative.

With a hard, swift slap, the same shame he’d known at his failure to protect Rena rose up to knock him down. He was already on leave for one failed attempt at protection. Would he fail Landry, too? And by default, her aunt Kate?

The calming benefits of the hard ride vanished as reality came crashing back in.

His last case was still a disaster.

Adair Acres still held a wealth of secrets and sins.

And Landry Adair was still in terrible danger.

Chapter 8

L
andry fought the urge to ignore her work in favor of pacing the small room she used as an office. But she did give herself a moment to simply sit and stare at the wall. And brood.

The room had been her play area as a child, but she’d traded dolls and stuffed animals for bookshelves and a writing desk years ago. The soft cream-colored walls, dotted with vivid prints to add splashes of color, were her sanctuary. But not today.

Maybe because you’re hiding.

Her conscience rose up to taunt her and she resolutely ignored it. She wasn’t hiding. She was doing work. Good work if the letter she was drafting to the governor would ever get written. A thank-you note for his support and the confirmation that her children’s charity had received his promised funding.

So why was her mind filled with Derek? They’d worked as partners this morning. First in the stable and then after, helping Noah calm the horses and resettle them into their routine. Even their ride had been full of carefree moments as they flew over the grounds of the ranch.

Easy.

The moments had been easy, even with the danger of the morning hanging over them. Sure, they’d need to consider all the angles around the break-in to the stable and put together a suspect list of who might be interested in doing them harm. It was tension-filled work, especially since she couldn’t dismiss those she knew completely out of hand.

But they’d agreed to partner on investigating what was happening at Adair Acres. And they had a comfortable camaraderie that was friendly enough. Pleasant, even. If the sexual tension reached up and grabbed both of them every so often, well, she could live with that.

They were working in close proximity to each other.

And then he’d gone and checked out. She’d seen it happen, too. One moment there was a deep smile reflecting from those midnight-dark eyes of his, and then the next he was shuttered and terse. All business with an edge of annoyance.

Landry searched her memory for something she might have said or done, but knew she wasn’t at fault. Whatever was going on was his problem.

So why the hell was she upset about it?

Minimizing the window on her computer, she shifted into her email. A few notes from friends. Some names she recognized from another charity whose board she served on. And a note from David Asher asking if she wanted to accompany him on a date.

She tackled David’s note first. The decline was easy—she didn’t want to go, and the wedding was the same date they’d planned Elizabeth’s upcoming baby shower, so she had an easy excuse. Besides, it was obvious she was a last-minute choice if he was asking her for the following weekend.

“Jerk,” she muttered out loud as she hit Send on her politely worded email that dripped social niceties like a sieve.

“Was that directed at me?”

The moment of self-righteous indignation was short-lived as she glanced up to see Derek in the doorway.

“If I said yes would you know why?”

“I’ve got a pretty good idea.”

His admission of guilt was such a surprise she could only sit there, stunned.

“I suspect it has something to do with my grumpy-ass attitude while the horses were grazing.”

“What happened?” The question slipped out, and she cursed herself for giving him any leeway at all.

“It’s nothing you did, but it’s not something I talk about.” He moved into the room, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans. “Ever.”

So much for leeway.

She was used to being shut out. Her parents had no problem leaving their children to fend for themselves emotionally, and her relationship with her brothers had always held elements of the same. The fact that Carson was four years older and Whit seven had contributed, Landry knew.

In fact, it had been only recently that they’d begun to push back some of the walls that had always kept distance among the three of them. But despite their recent movement in a positive direction, the Adairs weren’t inherently close, and they weren’t particularly adept at sharing their thoughts with one another.

None of it changed the fact that they
were
a unit.

“Since we were talking about something having to do with me, my family and my home, I find it hard to believe I don’t have a right to know what set you off.”

“That’s not why I was upset.”

“Then why are you here? You clearly don’t feel the need to apologize, and I, for one, have had enough danger and sleuthing for the day. It’s time I got productive and got some work done.”

Dismissal rang in the air like a school bell, magnifying her guilt at her terse tone.

“When you do have a moment, please come down to the security room. I’d like to show you the tapes of the stables.”

“Fine.”

“Damn it, Landry—” He broke off and dragged a hand from his pocket to run it over his short-cropped hair. “I just wanted to say it wasn’t you this morning. That’s why I came in here.”

“I know that.” The words spilled forth and she knew them for what they were. A deliberate attempt to pick a fight. “What I don’t know is this great, huge, magnificent secret you’re determined to keep but which you use as an excuse to act like a sullen bastard the moment you get uncomfortable.”

“That’s not true.”

“Oh, no?” She shoved off her office chair, the movement hard enough to push the rolling piece against the wall. “You arrive here at the ranch and you do nothing but ask me questions. Personal questions that are absolutely none of your business and have nothing to do with investigating my family.”

“I’m here to help—”

She shut him down, pressing her point. “Then you toss back some excuse about an issue in your past that you don’t ‘discuss.’”

She made exaggerated air quotes around the word
discuss
, absurdly pleased when the motion acted like an accelerant to the anger already sparking in those midnight eyes.

“Pain and hurt don’t give you a right to act like a jerk with a get-out-of-jail-free card. So the hell with you!”

The air stilled around them, her words hovering like a storm cloud. Oddly, all she could think of was their moment earlier in the barn, as they waited for the snake to make its move.

Strike or retreat.

Stay or leave.

Fight or flight.

Derek reached out, his hands fisting over her shoulders as he dragged her close. His mouth came down on hers and his large frame simply consumed her.

And as she lifted her head, accepting the powerful crush of his lips against hers, Landry knew the sweet victory that Derek Winchester stayed to fight.

* * *

Late-afternoon sunlight slanted through the room, highlighting the golden hue of her hair like a halo. It was the last thought Derek had—the last coherent one, at least—before the overwhelming need to consume her gripped him with mad, desperate need.

The barely pent-up anger she’d wielded like a weapon channeled into a different sort of battle as they fought each other for control of the moment. Need shimmered around them in thick, humid waves. He tried to catch his breath, but he couldn’t seem to drag his mouth away from hers; the urge to devour—to consume whole—was a living, breathing fire inside him.

Derek knew he needed boundaries—knew pushing this mind-numbing attraction for Landry Adair was a mistake—but he could no more walk away than he could stop breathing.

“I want you.” He whispered the words against her lips, his hands roaming over her skin, seeking the heated flesh under her blouse.

She smiled up at him, her eyes filled with a wash of feminine power. “You don’t say?”

Before he
could
say, her hands were at his waist, dragging his T-shirt from his waistband and up over his stomach. Her hands splayed over his flesh, a sensual brand that had his skin on fire wherever she touched while she ran a series of nipping kisses over the line of his jaw.

Her hands drove him crazy. Her mouth drove him wild. Hell, the woman drove him out of his ever-loving mind.

“Landry—” A hard knock and a strange voice broke the moment.

A wash of awareness slid over Derek and he dragged himself away from the temptation of the woman before him.

“Oh. I’m so sorry to interrupt.”

“Elizabeth.” Landry smoothed the hem of his T-shirt back into place. She then kept her hands on his waist an extra moment, as if she were ravished in her office every afternoon, before she turned toward the woman in the doorway. “Come on in.”

A light blush colored Elizabeth’s cheeks, and Derek suspected if the woman could redo the last few moments, she’d have run for the hills. As it were, she made a quick recovery, her voice brisk and all business.

“Whit wanted to do a family dinner this evening. I was stopping in to make sure you’d both be home.”

“Of course.”

“Good. I’m going to leave a message for Rachel to join us, too,” Elizabeth added.

The thought of a family dinner, him and Landry pretending to be a couple, struck Derek as a strange sort of torture. Despite his misgivings, he was obviously in, prepared to see their charade through.

It would also give him an opportunity to observe how the conversation swirled around their near miss in the stables that morning.

“Noah volunteered to be on grill, but I think he may need to fight Whit off for the spatula.” Elizabeth’s eyes twinkled as her hand hovered over her rounded belly. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to fight them for a spot at the grill, as well, Derek.”

“My talents around food extend to microwaving water and putting bread in the toaster. Whit and Noah can duke it out.”

Elizabeth smiled, her grin going wider as she looked at the two of them. “I’ll see you later then. Seven on the back porch.”

Whit’s wife vanished as quickly as she’d arrived, leaving the two of them.

“Why don’t we go down to the security room and look at that footage.” Landry wrapped her arms around her waist. “I’m sure the snake incident will be a topic of conversation this evening.”

Not for the first time, she surprised him with just how in tune with him she was. “I was thinking the same. Tonight will be a good opportunity to observe.”

“Noah’s already spread the word, and whomever he missed, the staff has caught up by now.”

“I’m not so sure about the staff. I think Noah’s playing it a bit closer to the vest than that. He pinged me earlier to see if I’d called the police.”

“Hmmm.” Her vivid expression grew thoughtful. “He sees more than he lets on. He always has. Maybe he’s waiting to see what type of response he’s going to get from my brothers.”

“He also doesn’t know why I’m really here. Or that I’ve got investigative skills of my own.”

A haze of worry dulled those vibrant blue eyes. “That part still feels awkward. We all know why you’re here, and he doesn’t.”

“We could tell him I’m investigating your father’s murder. Would that make you feel better?”

“No,” she said. “Whit, Carson and I agreed how to approach this, and we’re all in. My brothers know because they need to. I’m sure Whit told Elizabeth because he tells her everything and the woman is the equivalent of a human vault anyway.”

“She was your father’s secretary?”

“Yes.” Landry hesitated, her voice faltering. “She found him, too.”

“She seems to be doing okay with it.”

“Day by day. That’s what Whit keeps saying, and it appears to be working. Their focus on the baby is probably helping, too.”

“The first Adair grandchild.”

“For my father’s line. Kate’s got grandchildren and so does my father’s sister Rosalyn.”

“Kate’s crazy about that baby. I think it’s one of the things that helped her survive the shooting attempt on her life.”

Landry’s gaze grew thoughtful. “What if they’re related?”

“What’s related?”

“The attempt on Kate last year. The issue now with my father.”

Derek thought back to those dark days. The call from Kate’s son, Trey, telling him about the attempt on his mother’s life. He’d kept close tabs on her touch-and-go situation in the hospital and had followed the news of the case and the ultimate capture of her shooter through his counterpart in the Raleigh field office.

“Kate’s shooter was caught.”

“But it is strange, don’t you think? The danger she and her family faced last year? The problems we’re having here?”

“Landry. I know you want to believe this situation isn’t that dire, but I can’t promise you that. And I won’t placate you to make you feel better and inadvertently put you at risk.”

“I know.” The light still shone through the oversize windows in the office, small dust motes swimming in the air. Only instead of highlighting her hair in a halo, all he saw were the twin expressions of fear and disappointment that filled her face in the afternoon sun.

He owned putting the disappointment in her gaze—there was nothing to be done about it. But he’d be damned if he’d rest until he caught the bastard who’d marked Landry Adair with fear.

* * *

The rich scent of cooking meat wafted toward her, and Landry gave herself mental permission to enjoy dinner that evening. A juicy steak, an oversize baked potato and a piece of Kathleen’s cream cheese–frosted carrot cake was in her future, and she couldn’t wait.

“Another?” Georgia waved a bottle of wine near her glass, her sharp green eyes bright with merriment, and Landry nodded for the refill.

Landry took a moment to swirl the pretty Cabernet before taking a sip. Although she usually preferred light, crisp whites in summer, the anticipated steak and the fact that Whit had invested in the vineyard made it an easy decision.

“This is amazing. Whit chose well.”

Elizabeth smiled at the compliment before shooting her husband a warm, adoring smile. “He did.”

“He chose well with you, too.”

Elizabeth’s eyes widened on the compliment, a light sheen of moisture coating her warm brown gaze as her hand instinctively rested against her expanding belly. “That’s lovely.”

“It’s true.”

“Hear, hear,” Georgia added with a lift of her glass.

And it
was
true, Landry realized as she and Georgia clinked glasses with Elizabeth’s flute of sparkling water. Elizabeth and Whit’s relationship had started under the most extraordinary circumstances, but love had found its way. The bond between them was strong, forged even deeper as they awaited the birth of their first child.