Page 61 of Lone Star Hostage

That might have worked, too, because of Hattie’s connection to Presley and her. It could have looked as if the kidnapping was merely a way to draw them into a dangerous situation so they could be killed.

“Did Jesep happen to say anything about hiring Joe’s stepsons to do his dirty work?” Angel asked Presley.

Presley nodded. “He did mention the two birds, one stone adage. I guess he figured it would crush Joe to learn the stepsons had murdered Victoria. And he would have learned that because while Jesep didn’t admit it, he would have had plans to eliminate Craig, Ellis, and Damon.”

“Definitely,” Billie agreed. “No way would he want to leave three loose ends like that.”

“None of this makes sense,” Ari howled. But it seemed to make some sense because he groaned, and he pressed his hands to the sides of his head and squeezed hard.

“It does if you understand your father was flat-assed broke,” Ruby spelled out. “Because of some bad investments Jesep made, Wessington Diamonds was within a month of going under.”

“No,” Ari insisted. But that was sinking in, too.

“Yes,” Ruby insisted. “You would have lost everything. The business, your home, and certainly your reputation. So, Jesep arranged for Victoria to be kidnapped, and she was supposed to die at the ransom drop at the creek.” Ruby glanced at Presley. “So were you.”

Billie filled in the blanks on the rest. With Victoria and Presley and Olivia dead, Jesep would inherit Victoria’s estate. All of it. No pesky next of kin kids to stake a claim on it.

She could also understand why Jesep had wanted her in on the ransom drop. Along with her being a distraction to Presley, having the two of them would have added more suspicion to Hattie’s guilt.

Billie mentally cringed as to how close Jesep had come to getting away with all of this.

“But he left everything to Victoria in his will,” Ari argued. He seemed to catch onto that as a lifeline, a hope that his father wasn’t the asshole killer that everyone else in the room knew him to be.

“He was hoping by doing his will that way, he wouldn’t be implicated in any way in her death,” Ruby explained. “And if he’d somehow died first, then Victoria would have gotten saddled with all his debt.”

“And the diamonds?” Victoria asked. “Where are they?”

“Apparently, in a safe deposit box in San Antoino,” Ruby supplied. “Someone from SAPD is on the way there now to retrieve them.”

There it all was. The answers to this nightmare that Jesep had started. Had started because of money. Yes, he would be locked up for the rest of his life, but he’d left so much misery in his wake.

But he had left a bright spot, too.

She looked at Presley. “If Jesep hadn’t insisted we be in on this ops…” She stopped, figuring that was best said at a different time.

Presley obviously didn’t think so though because he leaned in and brushed a kiss on her mouth. He didn’t stop there. He stood, taking her by the hand and pulling her to her feet.

“Excuse us a minute,” Presley said to no one in particular.

He led her out of the living room, through the kitchen, and into the adjacent laundry room. Presley shut the door, putting his back against it to stop anyone from coming in. Then, he pulled her to him and kissed her.

Really kissed her.

It was foreplay on steroids, and Billie welcomed every bit of the scalding heat. It was a wonderful change to dodging bullets and shooting bad guys.

Presley didn’t cut the kiss short. He went in deeper, notching up the heat even more. Making her need him. And it was truly need.

It was also love.

She didn’t want to think about that now though. She wanted to get lost in this heat. Lost in him.

But that didn’t happen.

Presley pulled back, meeting her eye to eye. “I figure we’ve got five minutes tops before someone comes looking for us, so I’ll make this quick.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Five minutes isn’t enough time.” Billie winked at him.

He smiled, kissed her. And then got a very serious expression on his incredible face.

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