Page 4 of Lone Star Christmas Mission

Her gaze met Cash’s, and while she saw plenty of concern in his stormy gray eyes, she also saw something else. Something bad. Not the old forbidden heat that was always between them. This was something else that Kayla was absolutely certain she wouldn’t want to hear.

“No,” she muttered, making another attempt to steel herself up. “Other than the obvious, what’s wrong?”

A muscle flickered in Cash’s jaw. “The dead guy in the Santa suit is Alvin Parker. He’s Virgil Parker’s brother.”

“Shit,” Kayla blurted, and she bolted off the exam table, ready to run. Where exactly she didn’t know. But just hearing Virgil’s name gave her a jolt of pure, raw panic.

And memories.

“Cash filled us in on your history with Virgil Parker,” Anderson said, the tension loud and clear in his voice. “He attempted to kidnap you and your twin, Kira, when you were fifteen.”

“Virgil killed my sister,” Kayla heard herself say. Her voice sounded thin, as if it’d come from far, far away.

Both cops nodded. “I pulled up the case file on my phone while you were being examined,” Anderson explained. “Virgil was a handyman at your father’s construction company in San Antonio. He developed an obsession with you and your sister, but Cash stopped him from taking you—”

Kayla held up her hand. “Uh, I’d rather not hear the details repeated. I’m barely hanging on here,” she admitted.

“Of course,” Anderson muttered. He put away his phone and shifted his attention to Cash. “You’ll bring her to the station in the morning so we can get official statements from both of you?”

Cash made a sound of agreement, and added a thanks and a goodbye as the deputies walked away.

“Just sit here for a moment,” Cash told her, helping her back on the exam table. “We have to wait for some paperwork anyway, and that’ll give you some time to catch your breath.”

Good. Kayla wanted to wait. Wanted to do anything that prevented her from moving. Or thinking. Too bad there was nothing she could do about the latter. The thoughts were coming.

Mercy, were they.

They were coming right at her, slamming into her and weakening that fragile hold she had on the rising panic.

“Did Virgil put his brother, Alvin, up to coming after me?” she asked, trying to anchor herself with the question. And the sound of Cash’s voice.

“No. While you were being stitched up, I learned that Virgil died yesterday from injuries he got in a fight at the prison.”

Despite everything, the relief came. The wonderful relief of her knowing that her sister’s killer was finally dead. Virgil had at last paid for what he’d done. Of course, that hadn’t stopped more violence.

In fact, maybe it had caused just the opposite.

“Did Alvin come after me because his brother was killed?” Kayla had to know.

Cash sighed. Nodded. “Yes. I think that’s what triggered him.”

She laughed, but there was absolutely no humor in it. “Well, Alvin has harassed me over the past twenty years. His son, Harvin, too.”

Though Harvin’s harassment had only happened with a few ugly social media posts and not the phone calls and in her face visits that Alvin had made to her store. Those had been extreme enough for Kayla to buy a gun and get a restraining order against the man.

Her gaze whipped to Cash again, and Kayla felt yet a new round of the fresh alarm. “Harvin,” she managed to say. “Will he come after me now that I killed his father?”

Cash didn’t give her a BS assurance about that not happening. Because he couldn’t. “You’ll take precautions,” was what he said instead. “Ruby’s trying to track down Harvin now.”

Ruby, his boss, as in Ruby Maverick, the kickass leader of an equally kickass Maverick Ops team of security and protection specialists. She would have the resources to find Harvin, maybe before he could arrange an attack against her.

“I know that you being around me triggers the nightmares,” he said. “And the panic attacks.” Cash pulled in a long, weary breath. “But until we know Harvin’s intentions, I need to stay close to you.”

Yes, being around him had, and did, cause those things. And more. That blasted heat for one thing.

That heat had started from the moment her body had made her aware of such things when she was thirteen. It had continued the next two years, building and building as Cash and she had their first kiss. Then, more kisses, which had led to making out. They hadn’t gone all the way, but they’d been heading in that direction before their lives had been ripped to pieces.

The nightmarish memories and flashbacks had survived for almost twenty years. And so had that heat. Normally, lust was a fun, exciting thing, but not in their case. Because every momentwas a reminder of that godawful night. A reminder of losing Kira.

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