Her Alpha Cowboys Page 8

  “Gotta admit I’m looking forward to tomorrow night,” Dade said, grinning. “I’m usually not nervous about going on a date, but… I’m maybe a little nervous this time. In a good way, though.”

  I laughed. “I know what you mean. It feels like this is sort of a make or break moment for us with her. I want to make sure we don’t fuck it up.”

  “Right. That’s a good way to describe it. Make or break.” He paused, then added, “So how long do you think we’re going to stay here?”

  “Here as in… staying at this ranch?”

  He nodded. “I don’t mind being here at all—I’m glad to help them out, but…”

  I knew what he was getting at. Of course, we were both happy to help out at the Triple J Ranch, but the real reason we’d been so quick to take them up on the offer was to stay close to Becca. To get to know her. To give her a chance to get used to being around us and see if there was anything there.

  “You’re ready to get back home and start fixing the place up, aren’t you?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I mean…” He gave me an uncharacteristically sheepish look. “I want the place to look nice, you know? Just in case…”

  “In case she ever wants to come over?” I couldn’t help but laugh. “I know how your brain works.”

  “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to make sure things are perfect for her,” he shot back. “You said so yourself. And besides, what if she decides she wants to stay with us for a while? Don’t you think she deserves someplace nice?”

  “Definitely.” I nodded. “She deserves perfection.” I grinned at my overly eager friend, knowing the wheels in his head were already turning. “But let’s save the longer-term plans until after tomorrow night, hm? We still have to pass that little test.”

  “Oh, we’re going to pass it. We’re going to pass it with flying colors.”

  As usual, I could tell that Dade was thinking with his heart more than his head. But this time was different. This time, my brain was telling me the exact same thing.

  I wasn’t worried about that test at all.

  Chapter 10

  Becca

  Getting Nora to admit there was something to the oil maps and her special friendship with Isaac had felt like a coup when it had happened, but now that we were standing in front of her door again it just felt… tiresome.

  No matter what her motivations had been, a man had ended up losing his life. And while the two things weren’t necessarily connected, it still begged the question of what Isaac had been doing at Nora’s house that morning in the first place.

  We were hopefully about to find out.

  “Ready?” Janessa asked, her finger poised above the doorbell.

  Daisy Lynn and I nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said.

  She rang the doorbell, and I held my breath as we waited. I couldn’t hear anything on the other side of the door, but it was easy to imagine Nora alone in that big house, probably feeling just as nervous and anxious as the three of us had been feeling about the meeting. Probably dreading the questions we were going to ask her.

  I just hoped it didn’t turn ugly. I wasn’t scared of a confrontation with Nora, but I wasn’t necessarily looking for one, either. Just a conversation. Just the facts. Just, for once, the truth.

  When Nora answered the door, I was more than a little surprised at her appearance. Her normally perfectly coiffed hair was disheveled. She wasn’t wearing any makeup. Her designer clothes were rumpled and wrinkled, like she’d been sleeping in them.

  “Are you okay?” I couldn’t help but ask. “We can come back another time if…”

  I wasn’t sure how to say that she looked like she could use some rest, but I didn’t have to.

  “I’m tired,” she admitted. “Tired and sad and just… ready for all of this to be over.” She stood aside and ushered us into the foyer. “So no, I don’t want you to come back later. I want to get this over with now. Come on in.” We followed her through to the living room and sat down on the couch opposite her armchair. “Can I get you all anything to drink? I have tea, coffee… gin.”

  We all declined, then Janessa and Daisy Lynn looked over at me. We hadn’t really discussed how we were going to handle our conversation with Nora, but they were clearly waiting for me to take the lead. Which made sense after I’d been the one to confront Nora in the first place, but still… it felt a little more intrusive now that it was just the four of us.

  “Tell us about the maps,” I said, hoping I sounded a little more confident than I’d been feeling. “I know they showed oil deposits in the area.”

  Surprisingly, she didn’t try to deny it. “That’s right. Zachary always told me he thought there was oil around here, but it wasn’t until after he passed away—after I’d had Isaac survey the land—that I knew for sure. Now I have proof of Zachary’s suspicions. We’re sitting on some of the biggest oil reserves in this part of the country.”

  Having already seen the maps, the news wasn’t exactly shocking. I looked over at Janessa and could tell she was putting the pieces together in her own mind as well.

  “Is that why you’ve been making the rounds, trying to get everyone to sell their land to you?” Janessa asked. “Me, Derek Winslow, Boone and Tate… that was the plan, wasn’t it? You weren’t even going to mention the oil deposits at all.”

  Nora stiffened in her chair. “It isn’t my responsibility to educate you on your own land. And anyway, it never came to anything. There’s really nothing else to tell.”

  “What about Zachary,” I asked, deciding to take the conversation in a different direction. I didn’t think the oil had anything to do with the other scandal, but I still didn’t know enough to draw any real conclusions. “I know he was involved in some kind of incident with some other guys and a local girl a long time ago.”

  “Zachary didn’t like to talk about his past,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “Not even with me. Why? What do you think you know?”

  “I know he was involved with something pretty awful. Something that I’m sure he would have been ashamed of.” I shrugged. “If you don’t know anything, that’s fine. But I’m sure there are still some people around here who do know.”

  She sighed. “I don’t know what you’re after. Zachary told me once that he did some pretty shameful things to try and impress an older boy he used to be friends with, but I honestly don’t know any details. He only ever mentioned it a couple of times, and that was after he’d been drinking.”

  I was pretty sure we were talking about the same incident, but if she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—give me any new details, there wasn’t really anything else I needed from her.

  I turned to Janessa and Daisy Lynn. “Do either of you have any other questions while we’re here?”

  Daisy Lynn shook her head.

  Janessa shot a scowl in Nora’s direction. “I think I’ve heard enough.”

  I nodded. “Me, too.” I turned back to Nora. “Thank you for your time. I’ll be in touch if there’s anything else we need to know.”

  “I’m sure you will,” Nora said under her breath as she stood up and walked us back to the door. “Just… keep this conversation between us, okay?”

  We turned and left without answering. As far as I was concerned, we didn’t owe her any favors. Not after she’d taken every opportunity to be underhanded and shady.

  I was glad to be out of there. Now I just had to figure out if I could use any of the information she’d given us.

  “You’re sure you don’t want us to stay with you?” Daisy Lynn asked as she and Janessa dropped me off at the small library on Main Street. “I was going to meet Cole and Prescott for lunch while we were in town, but I can call and let them know I can’t make it.”

  “I don’t mind staying, either,” Janessa said. “It will get me out of a few chores at home this afternoon.”

  “Thanks, but I’ll be fine,” I said, stepping out of the car and waving them away. “I’m just going to poke around
in the archives a little. Judging by the size of this place, I doubt it’ll take me very long.”

  Janessa laughed. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure you can get the entire history of Bliss onto a couple of pages.” She waved as they started to pull away. “Just call me later and I’ll come back to pick you up.”

  I watched them drive away then turned to go inside the library. It was a little bigger on the inside than it looked from the street, but not by much. But it was well-lit and the bookshelves looked organized and orderly—and that was all I really cared about.

  The building didn’t need to be big and fancy, as long as I could find my way to the archives and start digging for information.

  After a brief conversation with a nice librarian, I sat down with a few rolls of microfilm and started going through the local newspaper headlines from thirty years ago.

  I didn’t have much to go on. I knew Karrie’s name and the names of the boys who had attacked her, but none of those names would have shown up in the papers if there really had been an orchestrated cover-up.

  Still, maybe I could find out a little more about the victim. More than just a first name, at least.

  It was tedious, meticulous work, but I finally found an article that listed a girl named Karrie Hofstadter. According to the article, she was a senior at the time and a National Scholar student who had planned on attending an Ivy League college after graduating from high school.

  Abe hadn’t told me Karrie’s age, but the girl in the article would have been within a few years of her attackers, and the timeline matched up. Karrie Hofstadter had to be the girl I was looking for.

  Now that I had a name and a year, I found the library’s collection of old high-school yearbooks and cross-referenced what I knew to try and find a photo of Karrie.

  Except… she wasn’t listed in what should have been her senior yearbook. I double-checked to make sure I hadn’t missed her somehow, but no. She wasn’t there.

  Checking the other yearbooks, I found her junior picture, then others as a sophomore and a freshman… but it was as if she’d dropped off the face of the earth her senior year.

  Returning to the microfilm, I skimmed the National Scholar article until I found a quote by her father, Murray. Okay. Now I felt like I was starting to get somewhere.

  “Excuse me, ma’am?” I called out to the friendly librarian. “Have you lived here in town for very long?”

  She smiled. “My whole life, dear. Nearly seventy years.”

  Perfect.

  “Great, thank you. I’m looking for some information about a gentleman named, um, Murray Hofstadter? Is there any chance you recognize that name?”

  She gave me a curious look but nodded. “I do know that name.”

  “Is he…” I paused, unsure of how to ask without being insensitive. “Do you happen to know if Mr. Hofstadter is still, um… alive?”

  She nodded again. “He is. Or was, last I knew. He’s been at the Oak Village Center for years. Why do you ask?”

  I put the microfilm away and gave what I hoped was a disarming smile. “Oh, just a… a genealogy thing. Thank you so much for your help. This will save me tons of research.”

  That part wasn’t a lie, at least. And she looked a little more at ease at the mention of genealogy. Which technically hadn’t been a lie, either. I was definitely interested in this particular branch of the Hofstadter family tree.

  I gathered my things and thanked the librarian again as I left. I checked the time and frowned. I didn’t know where the Oak Village Center was, but it couldn’t be too far away, right?

  Still, I didn’t have much time before I needed to start getting ready for my date with Dade and Cordell. I didn’t want to be late for them, and I also didn’t want to be rushed when and if I got the chance to speak with Mr. Hofstadter.

  As tempting as it was to try and set up a meeting with him right that minute, I decided to wait until the next day. If Murray Hofstadter did have any secrets to tell, he’d been holding onto them for nearly thirty years already.

  Another twenty-four hours wouldn’t change anything.

  Chapter 11

  Dade

  Becca was always beautiful—the kind of girl who had that sort of fresh, glowing look even when she wasn’t wearing any makeup. Every single time I’d seen her, I’d stopped to take another look.

  But tonight? Sitting across from me at the steakhouse a half-hour outside Bliss?

  She looked… amazing. Like, on a whole other level.

  Maybe it was the way her hair was pulled up. Maybe it was how her black, silky, strappy top was just sexy enough to give a hint of what was underneath while still leaving plenty to the imagination.

  Maybe it was her long, tanned legs that I couldn’t stop staring at as she sat there eating.

  Whatever it was, it made my heart thud every time she looked over at me with those beautiful blue eyes.

  “I’ve never seen you eat steak so slowly.” Cordell nudged me. “You feeling okay?”

  “Perfect.” I grinned. “Better than I’ve been in a long, long time.”

  Becca looked up at me and blushed a little. “I’m glad you guys brought me here. The food is delicious, and I can’t believe it’s so close to town. Wait until I tell Daisy Lynn that she could’ve been eating steak all this time.”

  I laughed. “Thank you for coming with us—for even inviting us. But I have to say you’re making it really hard for me to eat anything.”

  Cordell shot me a puzzled look, and Becca’s brow furrowed. “I don’t get it,” she said with just a hint of a smile. “Should I be offended?”

  “I think he’s trying to say you’re distracting him with your good looks tonight.” Cordell raised a brow in my direction. “At least that’s what I hope he’s saying.”

  The flush in her cheeks deepened as I nodded. “Cordell called it. You look beautiful tonight, Becca.”

  Some of her embarrassment melted away and was replaced with a genuinely sweet smile. “Thank you. I wasn’t sure what to wear since you guys wouldn’t tell me where we were going, but I think this outfit worked out fine.”

  “Worked out really fine from where I’m sitting,” Cordell said under his breath as he tossed her a wink. “Seriously, though, you’re the best-looking woman in here by far. Pretty sure every guy we passed on the way to our table was giving Dade and me dirty looks.”

  “All jealous,” I confirmed. “Not that I can blame them.”

  “Well, not to change the subject,” she laughed, obviously about to change the subject. “But I think it’s really nice how you’ve both agreed to stay and help out at Janessa’s ranch. Do you know how much longer you’ll be there?”

  It was the thousand-dollar question, wasn’t it? The same thing Cordell and I had discussed just the night before. But I had to wonder… was she just making conversation, or was she asking because she wanted us to stay? I’d mentioned to Cordell that I wanted to fix up our place so Becca could visit, but was that something she’d even be interested in doing?

  Maybe it would depend on how this date went.

  Cordell answered first. “We’re not sure how long we’ll be there, to be honest. We like Janessa and Justin, but it’s obviously not going to be a long-term situation. And I don’t think that’s what either of them intended, either.”

  “Right,” I agreed. “I think it had more to do with the fact that they didn’t mind having a couple of extra eyes to watch over the place, which I completely understand. We do want to get back to our own ranch and finish fixing it up sometime soon, though.”

  No harm in putting the truth out there, right? I didn’t see any reason to pretend otherwise even though I honestly wouldn’t be in a huge rush to leave the Triple J Ranch as long as Becca was still there.

  “How much longer are you going to be staying with Janessa?” Cordell asked as if he’d been reading my thoughts. That was why we meshed so well, though. Like gin and tonic or peanut butter and jelly. We were just better together.

&
nbsp; She hesitated for a moment before answering, then shrugged. “I… don’t know. I never meant to stay as long as I have—and especially after Daisy Lynn started spending most of her time with Cole and Prescott. But now that I’m sort of invested in figuring out what’s going on with all these crimes around town, I don’t really have any plans to leave in the immediate future.”

  “I hope you’re being careful when you go out and do your investigating,” I said, frowning before I could catch myself. “I’m not trying to lecture you or anything, but I just… we just…”

  “We worry about you when you’re out there by yourself,” Cordell finished for me. “And it’s not because we don’t think you can take care of yourself, but… we like you, Becca. We couldn’t stand it if anything bad happened to you.”

  I wasn’t sure how she would receive what we were saying. I really didn’t want it to come across as a lecture because that wasn’t my intention and it wasn’t my place to tell a grown woman what she should or shouldn’t be doing.

  But yeah, we cared about her. And too much crazy shit had gone down around Bliss for me to be okay with the thought of her out there by herself.

  “I do appreciate what you guys are saying.” She smiled and there wasn’t even a hint of annoyance in her tone, so that had to be a good sign. “And I appreciate that you’re both worried about me. But I hope you know that I wouldn’t intentionally put myself in a dangerous situation. Like today, I was with Janessa and Daisy Lynn while we talked to Nora, then I was at the library in town—which isn’t exactly a hotbed of danger. And tomorrow I’m going to a retirement home to ask some questions. I mean, this is pretty tame stuff in the scheme of things.”

  “Who do you need to see at the retirement home?” Cordell asked. “Is there some connection to the poisoning and the fire that I’m not seeing? Has one of the senior citizens gone rogue?”