Page 21 of Tracking Down the Lawman's Son

Luca and she were halfway up the stairs when she heard a flurry of movement on the ground floor. She turned to see Duncan and Slater moving fast toward the front door.

“What’s wrong?” Luca asked.

“One of the hands alerted me that Nathan just drove up,” Duncan explained.

Bree’s first reaction was to groan. Or curse. She was beyond exhausted, but Duncan needed to question Nathan about the lease on the burned-out cabin. She hadn’t figured though that the interview would happen here but rather over the phone or at the sheriff’s office. Still, since he was here, she’d be able to listen while he gave his statement.

The nanny, Beatrice, appeared at the top of the stairs, and she’d obviously heard they had a visitor. “Joelle and your mom are with Izzie so I can take Gabriel if you like,” she offered.

Bree glanced down at her sleeping baby and then over her shoulder out the sidelight windows of the front door. Nathan was pulling his car to a stop in the driveway.

“Yes, thank you,” Bree said, and she eased Gabriel into the nanny’s arms.

“You don’t have to deal with Nathan,” Luca let Bree know after Beatrice had taken Gabriel upstairs.

Bree nodded. “But I might be able to tell if he’s lying.” Of course, that was a long shot. She certainly hadn’t picked up on any overly possessive behavior until it’d started to happen.

“Still,” Luca said, “you don’t have to put yourself through this.”

“I never had sex with him,” she blurted out and then immediately wanted to take it back. Good grief. Luca didn’t need to know that.

Luca didn’t seem pleased. Or surprised. Then again, Luca and she had dated for nearly four months before they’d had sexthe first time. Nathan and she had only gone out for a couple of weeks.

“I think that’s why his possessiveness was such a shock,” she went on. Since she’d launched into this uncomfortable subject, she might as well get some things clear. “We weren’t lovers, and I certainly hadn’t made any kind of commitment to him. I never mentioned anything about being exclusive. I was just testing the waters, that’s all.”

He nodded. “That happened when I was dating Shona Sullivan. And, yes, I know your dating Nathan had nothing to do with that,” he was quick to add. Maybe because he saw the flash of annoyance in her eyes. “I mentioned it because of the timing. Nathan might have thought Shona and I were in a ‘together forever’ kind of deal, so that could have been why he thought he had a clear path to a long-term relationship with you.”

The annoyance vanished because Luca was right. Everyone knew Luca and she were an item. Heck, they even thought it now. Bree could see theahalook in people’s eyes now that Luca and she had a child together.

She pushed all that aside for now when Nathan knocked at the door, and Duncan opened it. “I got your message that you needed to talk to me right away,” Nathan said. “I went by the sheriff’s office, but the dispatcher told me you were home.”

Nathan looked past Duncan, his gaze settling on Bree as she came down the stairs.

“Are you hurting?” Nathan asked her. “Is that why Duncan called me?”

“This isn’t about anything medical,” Duncan was quick to say. “Come in.” He stepped back, his cop’s gaze focused on Nathan as he came in. Like Luca and Slater, Duncan was probably checking to see if there were any signs Nathan was about to try to attack them.

Bree certainly didn’t see anything like that. If she had to put a label on his expression and body language, it’d be moony-eyed. Nathan always managed to seem as if she held his heart in her hands. She definitely didn’t want that or the look he was giving her.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Nathan asked her. “I called the pharmacy on the way over, and they said you hadn’t filled the prescription I wrote you for the pain meds.”

She certainly hadn’t forgotten about the pain but didn’t intend to fill the prescription. She didn’t want her mind to be numbed. “I’ll take something ‘over the counter,’” she settled for saying.

Nathan opened his mouth, probably to advise her to get the prescription, but Duncan motioned toward the living room. “In here. Slater, will you turn the board around while we talk to Nathan?”

Slater nodded, hurried ahead of them, and she heard the movement as Slater did as Duncan asked. There wasn’t a lot on the board at the moment, but Duncan still probably didn’t want to display an investigative road map to someone who was still technically a suspect.

“Is this about Bree’s accident?” Nathan asked, looking and sounding very concerned.

“Not exactly,” Duncan said once they were in the living room. “I need to ask you some questions, but I’m going to read you your rights first. It’s just a formality,” he insisted when Nathan snapped back his shoulders. He didn’t give Nathan a chance to voice his defensiveness. Duncan just proceeded to Mirandize him.

“You can’t possibly think I’d have something to do with Bree’s car accident,” Nathan said when Duncan had finished.

“Are you familiar with a hunting cabin about twenty-five miles from here?” Duncan asked, obviously not addressing Nathan’s comment. Duncan then provided the exact address.

Nathan’s forehead bunched up. “No. I don’t hunt, so I don’t usually go to places like that. Why?”

“Because it was leased in your name,” Duncan supplied while he watched for Nathan’s reaction. Bree, Luca and Slater did the same.

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