Page 24 of Lone Star Secrets

“Happy tears,” Melanie assured them, but Mia suspected that was only partly true. She had to be as worried as they were. “It was horrible what happened to RJ, Angel, and you yesterday. A shooting. You could have all been hurt. Or worse.” She pressed her hand against her chest. “I hope they catch the person and lock him away so he can’t do that to anyone else.”

“A lot of people are looking for him,” Angel assured her.

“Good. Maybe they’ll find him today.” Her forehead bunched up for a couple of moments. “Look at you,” she went on, inching back and giving them long once-overs. Her smile returned. “Are you two together?”

“Uh, no,” Mia managed. Then, she got a flash of another memory. Of those two scalding kisses just an hour earlier.

Angel and she might not be together together, but there was still plenty of the old feelings between them. Well, one feeling away.

Lust.

It apparently had no expiration date when it came to Angel and her.

“Oh, well,” Melanie muttered. “You two just look so right as a couple, and I assumed you’d found your way back to each other.”

Mia settled for a shrug. Angel went with a grunt.

“The military,” Melanie went on as if she’d had a light bulb moment. “That’s why you two drifted apart. I remember Mia telling me that when she visited while she was in college.”

Angel’s leaving for the military had indeed been a big reason. After his extensive training, he’d gone on back to back deployments to classified locations. However, the biggest factor that had torn them apart was Kenton. The secrets they’d kept about that godawful night had eaten away at them until it’d made it feel impossible for them to be together.

Now, here they were, poking at old wounds and trying to get to the truth.

“Birdie’s not here yet, but I’ll leave the front door unlocked for her. Ruby and RJ are waiting for us upstairs,” Melanie muttered, motioning for them to follow her. “Presley has been catching me up with what’s going on in your lives. Maverick Ops. Impressive! Though Ruby is a little intimating,” she added in a whisper.

Mia had to agree with that.

“But what a stellar operation,” Melanie went on. “I’ve heard nothing but good things about them. Good things about the company you work for, too, Mia,” she tacked onto that with significantly less enthusiasm.

Angel and Presley cleared their throats at the same time. Hardly resounding endorsements for Sentron.

“My boss sometimes cuts corners,” Mia admitted. “Who knows, one day I might get lucky and work for Maverick Ops, too.”

The idea of that had just flashed into her head, but she liked the sound of it. Too bad Ruby might consider her unacceptable employee material because of how she’d handled the situation with Kenton. She had basically destroyed evidence that she had taken from a crime scene.

Yes, Ruby wouldn’t approve of that.

Melanie’s pace slowed considerably when they reached the top of the stairs, and as they started down the hall. Once again, Mia got hit with another slam of memories. Specifically, of that night when she’d made this trip to what was called the boys’ wing. The girls’ rooms had all been on the third floor, with RJ and Melanie’s bedroom on the main floor.

Mia was trying to tamp down her racing heart when she felt something. Angel. His hand brushed against her, and she turned to him, their gazes connecting. He definitely wasn’t smiling or sporting a TLC kind of expression, but the TLC was there all right. She could feel it. And just that touch steadied her.

They stopped outside the open door to Kenton’s room, which had been directly across from Angel’s. Presley’s had been on the other end of the hall where the boys’ breakroom was located.

Mia immediately saw Ruby standing back against the far wall, typing something into a tablet. RJ was next to her, and he was looking down at the floor.

At the blood.

God, there was blood.

Mia felt as if she’d been hit by a Mack truck, but then she realized it wasn’t blood at all but some red fabric spread out on the floor next to the bed. There was also a Spurs’ hat and a pocketknife.

It was like stepping into a nightmare.

And it took all of Mia’s resolve not to turn and run. She forced herself to remember that she was no longer a frightened teenager. Nor was this real. The blood and the “props” weren’t real, and Kenton was dead. He wasn’t going to come rushing in to try to assault her again.

“Birdie should be here soon, but we can go ahead and get started without her. Feel free to adjust the placement of things,” Ruby offered, glancing at Angel and her. “Is this how it looked the night of Kenton’s disappearance?”

“The knife wasn’t here when I saw it,” Mia managed to say, and she gave the hat an adjustment, moving it further away from the fake blood.

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