Page 48 of The Undercover Cowboy

The seconds stretched, bending the moment into something brittle. Finally, Garrett turned toward Hector and nodded toward the door. “We should get going. Lots of preparations to make before Laredo.” They left, shutting the door behind them.

Shelby let out a shaky sigh. “He said he used to be your partner.”

“Yeah,” Nash said.

“He’s the one you blew the whistle on, isn’t he?”

“He told you that?”

“No, your face just did and the way you two acted together.”

Figures. “I won’t let him get in the way of our investigation. I’m going to find out what Blevins is involved in and get him kicked out of this company, if not arrested.”

Shelby bit her lip, worry etched in the lines of her face. “I know you will, but be careful. I can’t afford to bail you out if you get arrested. My credit cards are maxed out as it is.”

It eased the knot in his chest that she could still joke around with him. “I’m going to go and search Blevins’s office.”

“Good luck. They’ve already been through it.”

“They might have missed something.” Nash doubted it, but he wanted eyes on the office anyway.

“The coast should be clear. I sent his secretary on a bunch of busy-work errands.” Shelby rubbed at her temples.

“Why did you lead me to believe that this had something to do with Dad?” he asked from the doorway.

“When Miles first contacted me and said he was with the FBI, I had assumed it was about Dad. I had no idea it was really about the Jaripeo Ranch.”

“So he didn’t mention our father at all?”

She shook her head. “No.” Opening her desk drawer, she pulled out a bottle of Gentleman Jack whiskey.

“It’s ten thirty in the morning,” Nash said, sounding to himself like an outraged maiden aunt.

“It’s five o’clock somewhere.”

Chapter Fifteen

Dolly

Dolly sat ather desk, feeling shell-shocked. She stared at her computer without really seeing it. She hadn’t been looking forward to her morning chat with Blevins, but never, in her wildest dreams, had she thought she’d find him face down in a pool of blood. Things got weird after that. She remembered screaming, and people flying out of their offices.

Looking down, she saw that she still hadn’t drunk the cup of coffee someone had put in her hand. Taking a sip, she grimaced. It was cold and bitter.

She wondered if Nash was in the building yet. Enough time had passed that he could probably come in. After all, it wasn’t as if Blevins was coming back soon. She needed to see him. But he was probably in his meeting with Shelby and she didn’t want to disturb him.

Well, she couldn’t just sit here. She decided to go back to Blevins’s office and check things out for herself. If anyone asked her what she was doing up there, she’d just tell them that she dropped something this morning.

There had to be something—anything—that would prove that Blevins was up to no good. After all, he said he had been attacked by thieves this morning. She snorted. Yeah, right. Thieves who knew just where his office was and just when to find him. They could have simply jumped him in the parking lot. His ravaged office might hold some clue as to why he was targeted, what they were really after.

She pushed herself away from her desk and headed toward Jackson Blevins’s office.

The hallway felt eerily quiet compared to the earlier commotion. As she rounded the corner, she was surprised to see Nash about to let himself into Blevins’s office.

Nash looked up when he heard her bearing down on him. He looked up, a faint smile playing at the corners of his lips. “Why am I not surprised?”

Dolly swallowed hard against the knot of awareness blooming in her throat as their gazes met and held. “I’m here to help.”

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said.

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