“Trip? Where are you going?”
She rolled her eyes. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’ve been called to court in Miami on a case I solved earlier this year. A kidnapping that happened over two years ago in which the father took his son and faked their deaths. The mother never believed her husband and son were dead and hired me to prove it. I did. The father is going on trial, and I’m a witness.”
“When will you be back?” The expression on her face let him know she thought that information wasn’t any of his business, either, but she answered. “Friday. I’m due in court on Tuesday and figured I’d stay on South Beach for a couple of days to relax and take in the sun...something we haven’t seen much of around here recently.”
She took another sip of her wine. “Anyway, as I was saying, when I get back, I plan to check out information Manning will be working on while I’m gone. I’m curious to see whether that PI your father hired left any files around. Although I would think the killer would have been competent enough to make sure any files were destroyed, I’ve dealt with incompetent killers before. So who knows? A smart PI would have been working with two sets of files, sometimes three, depending on the intensity of the case. Most people don’t know that.”
“And there’s nothing I can do to sway you from wanting to do this?”
“No. Although you and your brothers haven’t hired me, I have a personal, vested interest in solving this case.”
Dalton didn’t say anything for a minute. “I’m reassigning Stonewall to guard you.”
She laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding.” When she saw from his expression that he wasn’t, all amusement left her face to be replaced with a deep frown. “Don’t you dare. I can take care of myself, and I don’t need any man following me around.”
“And you think I do?”
“Umm, I’m not sure. I admit I was impressed with the way you handled that Glock the other night.”
“No need to be surprised. I’ve been handling firearms since I was out of diapers. My grandfather and father were big on hunting trips.” There was no way he would ever tell her about his days working for the USN, when he’d learned to handle weapons she probably didn’t know existed.
“Then that explains things. But I meant what I said. Stonewall is your bodyguard, not mine. Whether either of us thinks you need him is irrelevant. Evidently, your father isn’t taking any chances.”
Exhaling deeply, a sudden thought entered Dalton’s mind. Neither was he.
*
The next morning, Jules opened the door to her office. She had enjoyed early-morning church service, and instead of accepting her father’s invitation to brunch, she’d decided to come here. Since she was going out of town tomorrow, there were a few things she needed Manning to take care of while she was gone.
The main thing was that today she needed to stay busy and not focus on last night with Dalton. The man had a way of wearing on her last nerve. Over their shared glasses of wine, he hadn’t asked to sleep with her, but all the nuances had been there. The way he had looked at her. The subtle things he said. The things he didn’t say. Even the way he sipped his wine and licked the rim of the glass a few times, reminding her of his T-shirt the other night and the words written across it.