Page 42 of Lone Star Secrets

Of course, the cops could do the same to Birdie since it’d been her blood on the knife. But Roger was likely calling in favors and doing other outright illegal shit to keep her out of jail.

He dressed and made his way to the kitchen. Yeah, breakfast all right. Bacon, omelet, and toast. All served by the woman that he…

Angel stopped. Because the l-word had nearly flown into his head. Unlike some, he wasn’t opposed to it, but Mia and him simply hadn’t gone there when they’d been teenagers. They’d spent plenty of time together. That had included lots of sex. But there had never been an exchange of them saying I love you.

Best to keep it that way.

Just being with her was distraction enough without adding falling in love to the mix.

Smiling a smile that made him want to do the same, she went to him, and still holding a spatula, she kissed him. She tasted of coffee and smelled far better than anyone should.

“Morning,” she greeted, kissing him again.

Angel was about to forget everything he’d just thought about distractions and deepen the kiss, but his phone rang. He scowled but knew he’d have to take it because the video call was from Ruby. As he’d done the night before, he put in on the monitor.

And he immediately cursed when he got a look at Ruby’s expression. “What’s wrong?” Angel asked.

“Dwight is on the other line and wants to talk to you. Actually, he insisted on meeting with the two of you face to face, but I assured him that wasn’t going to happen.”

Good. Because Angel didn’t intend for that shitbag to be anywhere near Mia.

“Why does he want?” Angel pressed.

Ruby sighed. “Dwight claims he remembered something about the night Kenton disappeared, but he refuses to tell me. He says he’ll only spill to the two of you. Personally, I think this could be a total time waster.”

“Yeah,” Angel agreed. “Or he might want to try to hit us up again for money.” He paused. Then, cursed again. “Still, he might have something useful. Did he say why he didn’t take this revelation to the cops?”

“Said he didn’t trust the cops. That might be true,” Ruby muttered. “Might be. But my bet’s on the money. He could even work it as a blackmail angle, in that he remembered something that he’ll spill, or forget, for the right price.”

Angel could definitely see it playing out that way, and he almost wished he could see the man’s face to try to figure out if anything he said was the truth. But even a video call could be risky since Dwight might use it to determine something about the layout of the house.

Hell, he could use it as a distraction to launch another attack.

And that had Angel debating if he should just tell Dwight to go straight to hell. Still, there was that slim chance that the man could indeed give them some new information that would help with the investigation. There was an equally slim chance that Dwight might say something to implicate himself in Kenton’s death and the attacks.

Not intentionally.

But sometimes, if the right emotional buttons were pushed, a person could end up saying the wrong thing.

And that was the reason he gave Ruby the nod. “Transfer the call. No video. But I’ll put it on speaker so Danno can record it.”

“Okay,” Ruby said, “and if it’s all right, I’ll be listening in as well. So will one of the techs. I want the call traced in case…well, in case Dwight is somewhere he shouldn’t be.”

Yes, somewhere like near Angel’s house.

He wanted to know that as well.

“Listen in,” Angel assured her. “Do the trace. Danno,” he tacked onto that, “record the call and make sure the house is secure.”

Of course, that last part was overkill since Angel knew the place was already as safe as it could possibly be. Now, he had to hope it would be safe enough to prevent someone from coming after Mia and him again.

After Ruby signed off, the monitor went blank, and a couple of seconds later, Dwight came onto the line.

“Angel,” the man greeted, and just the sound of his voice set Angel’s teeth on edge.

“What did you remember?” Angel demanded. He didn’t want to waste time dealing with this asshole.

“I, uh, wanted to talk to Mia and you about that in person.”

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