Page 20 of Cold Case Discovery

“Try. For as long as it takes to figure this out, give it your best shot. We can keep you busy. We can help in whatever ways you might need that don’t include substance abuse. But I need to know you want to try.”

Ry’s frown was frustrated but not belligerent exactly. “I just like to have a little fun and get carried away sometimes.”

“You’re an addict, Ry. First step in helping your sister would be admitting that to yourself.”

The frown turned into a scowl, with some pointed anger thrown in. “I didn’t have anything to do with those bones, man.”

“I don’t think you did.”

Ry looked up at him suspiciously. “Really?”

“It takes time for bodies to decompose, Ry. I can’t imagine you were more than seven when those bodies were put in the ground. Even if they were newer, you don’t strike me as mean enough to kill anybody.”

“I’m not.”

He did not say those words proudly. He said them almost as if he was ashamed of it. Jack couldn’t say he liked that take on the matter. It gave him a different kind of worry—that Ry mightwantto be capable of murder.

But he could only handle one problem at a time. “Your dad, on the other hand...”

“It does sound like something my dad would do,” Ry agreed. “I mean, I never heard about him killing anybody, but he sure liked to beat people up.”

Jack knew this. He’d arrested Mark Brink for a domestic assault his first year working as a county deputy. But the girlfriend he’d beaten up had refused to press charges. And Jack never liked to think about what that might have meant for the childhood Chloe endured, even if her parents had divorced early on. But she’d bounced between the two—neither one upstanding, reliable or good parents, clearly.

“You ever see him get close?”

Ry sighed, not nervous or fidgety so much now. Bored. Craving a hit. Who knew. “The cops already asked me all about Dad. I don’t have like some secret memory of him killing someone and burying them at the ranch, man. And there isn’t anything in it for me if I protect him, so I ain’t lying.”

Jack nodded. Fair enough. And he’d told himself he’d stay out of it. He could hardly ask his siblings to do what he told them if he was investigating.

He had to let Bent County take care of it.

He squinted across the yard, saw Cash and Carlyle making their way from the main house. When they reached the fence where Jack and Ry were, Jack made introductions, even though Ry and Cash knew of each other.

Jack knew Cash and Carlyle could handle this, but still he hesitated leaving them with Ry. It felt a little bit too much like foisting his responsibilities off on someone else.

But he and Chloe had work, and this was the best-case scenario in keeping Ry out of trouble.

“You do as you’re told, or I kick your ass. Got it?” Carlyle was saying to Ry after she’d explained their opening procedures with letting the dogs out.

Ry’s eyes were wide, but he nodded. Carlyle flashed Jack a grin.

It did a lot to assuage his worries about leaving Ry here with them. Enough so that he headed back to the main house and Chloe. He wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t wait for him, but he stopped by his bedroom and changed into clothes he could run in.

If it was a bluff, he’d call it. But when he returned to the living room, she was there—bending over, touching her toes, stretching out before her run, he assumed. And she was wearing skin-tight running gear, which did support her previous story. Yet he was having trouble thinking about anything but getting his hands on her.

He didn’t know what it was about her that tested all that hard-won control he’d always been so proud of. He’d been attracted to other women before, hadlikedother women before, but something about the package of Chloe Brink made him feel like an entirely different person than the one he’d so ruthlessly crafted over the years.

She stopped stretching, looked over her shoulder at him. She didn’t say anything, didn’t voice her concerns, but he saw them in her eyes.

“Carlyle’s in charge of keeping him in line,” he said. “I think he’s afraid of her.”

Her mouth quirked. “Well, that does ease my concerns about going to work later. Carlylecanhandle him. For a while, anyway.”

“He’ll be okay.”

Chloe shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. But I can’t twist my life around him. Learned that one the hard way.” She blew out a breath. “Thought my cat would be trailing after you, per usual.”

“Tiger found someone he likes better than even me.” When she raised an eyebrow, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling. “Izzy.”

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