Page 46 of Lone Star Target

Murder.

That word pulsed through her, causing some of the tightness in her muscles to return.

Kit pressed her palms against the steamed-up glass and let the multiple jets continue to massage her body. Definitely no ordinary shower. Along with the six showerheads that were indeed giving her a massage and that endless supply of hot water, it was all glass.

Three of the sides faced the spa-like bathroom, and the fourth had a view of the pasture. That glass to the exterior of the house hadn’t gotten steamy so she guessed it had some kind of special coating to allow her to watch the horses.

The whole scene created a perfect picture. The setting sun glistening off the ponds. Beautiful horses grazing in the pasture. No wonder Jace had bought this place. It was like his own paradise. A sanctuary. And something he definitely hadn’t had when he was growing up.

She finally stepped from the shower and reached to take the terrycloth robe that she’d left on the wall hook. It wasn’t there. But it soon appeared when Jace held it out at her. He was there, leaning against the marble vanity, and his gaze immediately combed over her face.

He must have approved of what he saw because he seemed to relax a little. “Feeling better?” he asked.

While Kit put on the robe and tied the belt, she nodded. And it was the truth. She was feeling better at just seeing Jace. She wanted to step into his arms. Wanted to let him carry her off to bed. But he had probably gotten some updates about…everything, and she needed to hear them.

“My father is going for an insanity or diminished capacity plea,” she threw out there.

Jace nodded. “The first one.”

His jaw went tight, and she knew why. If Ramsey’s team convinced the legal system that he was indeed insane, then he’d be found not guilty of murder and attempted murder.

She wanted to curse. Along with a half dozen injured, two people were dead. Not the two that Ramsey had targeted—Marvin and her—but rather two innocent women who just happened to resemble her. Even though Ramsey hadn’t admitted it, he’d likely shot them because from a distance he had believed he was murdering his daughter.

“What about the woman who was up the hall from me?” she asked. Jace had mentioned hearing her moan, and he’d apparently believed it was her. It hadn’t been, but the woman, a notary public, had been only two rooms away. “Is she going to be okay?”

Jace nodded. “She was shot in the arm from one of the bullets Ramsey fired into the ceiling, but it’s not a serious injury.”

“Still, she was shot while trying to do her job,” Kit muttered.

No way had she been able to protect herself because the shots had gone through the ceiling of the first floor and through the floor of the second. Several had knifed through the wood where Kit had been, but thankfully, the shots hadn’t come close to her.

“Ramsey won’t get off,” Jace assured her. “Too much planning by setting up his own death. He had a high-end signal jammer with him and another device to lock all doors the moment he stormed into the courthouse.”

“A jammer,” she muttered. “That’s why I couldn’t text you when I heard the gunshots.”

He nodded. “No one could text or call, but Angel was in the process of breaking in and coming to help when I had the fight with Ramsey and stopped him.”

Yes, Jace had done that. According to the talk she’d heard, Ramsey had a broken nose, hand, and some cracked ribs. But Jace hadn’t walked away unscathed. The bruise on his jaw was proof of that.

“There was also planning in faking his death,” she added, lightly brushing her fingers over that bruise. She had a lot of good reasons for wanting to curse Ramsey, and his hurting Jace was just one of them.

“It doesn’t hurt,” he assured her, moving his mouth to kiss her fingers.

That gave her a nice jolt of heat. She would have acted on it, too, but there was something she had to know.

“Is Trevor the dead man found in Ramsey’s office?” she had to ask.

Jace was quick to shake his head, but he must have understood why she had thought he might be. Shortly after the attack at the courthouse, the cops had been unable to get in touch with either Deanna or Trevor. And with Trevor and Ramsey having such similar builds, the assistant could have believed she saw her boss when she was actually seeing his son.

“There’s no ID on the dead guy yet,” he explained, “but the cops are looking into it. They found a vehicle parked about a quarter of a mile away so it’s possible Ramsey arranged for the guy to come to the house. Maybe under the guise of hiring him for something. Then, Ramsey killed him to set up his death.”

“More planning,” she said on a sigh.

“Oh, yeah. And the cops have found what they think might be the tip of the iceberg. Ramsey was shifting around money, putting it in accounts that he could better access from overseas. He had also purchased a plane ticket to Morocco under an alias. An alias that matched a fake passport the cops found.”

Kit felt her mouth drop open for a moment. “Ramsey was going to flee the country?”

“Looks that way,” Jace verified. “I think it was his backup plan, that he honestly believed he could get away with murdering Marvin and you. With both of you dead, there’d be no one to testify or no plea deal to send him to jail.”

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