Best Kept Secrets

for Alex's crying in the night. Those walls had heard her

 

mother's whispered vows of love to her baby girl.

 

Alex didn't remember, of course. But she knew that's how

 

it had been.

 

Tamping down the stirring emotions, she picked up the

 

conversation they had been having when they had left the

 

B & B. "Why is this proposed racetrack so important to the

 

Mintons?"

 

He glanced at her as though she'd lost her senses.' 'Money.

 

Why else?"

 

"It sounds like they've got plenty."

 

"Nobody ever has enough money," he remarked with a

 

grim smile. "And only somebody who's been as poor as me

 

can say that. Look around." He gestured at the empty stores

 

along the main thoroughfare they were now traveling. "See

 

all the empty businesses and foreclosure notices? When the

 

oil market went bust, so did the economy of this town. Just

 

about everybody worked in an oil-related occupation."

 

"I understand all that."

 

' 'Do you? I doubt it," he said scornfully.' "This town needs

 

that racetrack to survive. What we don't need is a wet-behind-the-ears,

 

blue-eyed, redheaded female lawyer in a fur coat to

 

come along and screw things up."

 

"I came here to investigate a murder," she lashed out,

 

stung by his unexpected insult. "The racetrack, the gambling

 

license, and the local economy have no relevance to it."

 

"Like hell they don't. If you ruin the Mintons, you ruin

 

Purcell County."

 

"If the Mintons are proven guilty, they've ruined themselves."

 

"Look, lady, you're not going to uncover any new clues

 

about your mother's murder. All you're going to do is stir

 

up trouble. You won't get any help from locals. Nobody's

 

gonna speak out against the Mintons, because the future of

 

this county is riding on them building that racetrack."

 

"And you top the list of the loyal and closemouthed."

 

"Damn right!"

 

 

 

"Why?" she pressed. "Do the Mintons have something

 

on you? Could one of them place you in that horse barn well before you 'discovered' my mother's body? What were you

 

doing there at that time of day, anyway?"

 

"What I did every day. I was shoveling shit out of the

 

stables. I worked for Angus then."

 

She was taken aback. "Oh, I didn't know that."

 

"There's a lot you don't know. And you're far better off

 

that way."

 

He whipped the Blazer into his parking slot at the courthouse

 

and braked, pitching her forward against her seat belt.

 

"You'd do well to leave the past alone, Miss Gaither."

 

"Thank you, Sheriff. I'll take that under advisement."

 

She got out of the truck and slammed the door behind her.

 

Cursing beneath his breath, Reede watched her walk up

 

the sidewalk. He wished he could relax and just enjoy the

 

shape of her calves, the enticing sway of her hips, and all

 

else that had immediately captured his notice when she had

 

entered Pat Chastain's office yesterday afternoon. Her name,

 

however, had robbed him of the luxury of indulging in pure,

 

masculine appreciation.

 

Celina's daughter, he thought now, shaking his head in

 

consternation. It was little wonder that he found Alex so

 

damned attractive. Her mother had been his soul mate from

 

the day in grade school when some snotty kid had hurtfully

 

taunted her because she no longer had a daddy after her

 

father's sudden death of a heart attack.

 

Knowing how ridicule about one's parents could hurt,

 

Reede had rushed to Celina's defense. He had fought that

 

battle and many others for her in the ensuing years. With

 

Reede as the bearer of her colors, no one dared speak a cross

 

word to her. A bond had been forged. Their friendship had

 

been extraordinary and exclusive, until Junior had come along

 

and been included.

 

So he knew he shouldn't be surprised that the assistant

 

D.A. from Austin had churned up such emotions inside him.

 

Perhaps his only cause for alarm should be their intensity.

 

 

 

Even though Celina had borne a child, she had died a girl.

 

Alexandra was the embodiment of the woman she might have

 

become.

 

He'd like to pass off his interest as purely nostalgic, a

 

tender reminder of his childhood sweetheart. But he'd be

 

lying to himself. If he needed any help defining the nature

 

of his interest, all he had to do was acknowledge the warm

 

pressure that had developed inside his jeans as he had watched

 

her lick sugar off her fingertips.

 

"Christ," he swore. He felt as ambiguous toward this

 

woman as he'd felt toward her mother, just before she had

 

been found dead in that stable.

 

How could two women, twenty-five years apart, have such

 

a pivotal impact on his life? Loving Celina had almost ruined

 

him. Her daughter posed just as real a threat. If she started

 

digging into the past, God only knew what kind of trouble

 

would be stirred up.

 

He intended to trade his sheriffs job for one that would

 

generate wealth and status. He sure as hell didn't want his

 

future shadowed by a criminal investigation.

 

Reede hadn't worked his butt off all these years to let the

 

payoff slip through his fingers. He'd spent his adult life overcompensating

 

for his childhood. Now, when the respect

 

he'd always wanted was within his grasp, he wasn't about

 

to stand by and let Alex's investigation remind folks of his

 

origins. The sassy lady lawyer could wreck him if she wasn't

 

stopped.

 

The people who said material possessions weren't important

 

already had plenty of everything. He'd never had anything.

 

Until now. He was prepared to go to any length to

 

protect it.

 

As he left his truck and reentered the courthouse, he cursed

 

the day Alexandra Gaither had been born, just as he had on

 

that day itself. At the same time, he couldn't help but wonder

 

if her smart mouth wouldn't be good for something besides

 

spouting accusations and legal jargon.

 

He'd bet his next win at the track that it would.