Page 46 of Shine On Oklahoma

The light flicked off, and the doorslammed.

Jack wasn’t sure, but he thought his arm wasbroken. He also thought Vester Caine was probably going to kill himin the morning, no matter what the newspaper had to say. Andregardless, his million dollar payoff was not going to happen.

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Dax was an early riser by nature, but it wasa ping from his cell that had stirred him awake this morning. Heread the text. Then he rolled over in bed, and went real still andjust looked at Kendra, lying there, her hair spread on the pillows,eyes closed, those long lashes on her cheeks. She was morebeautiful than the sunlight kissing her skin. Waking up beside herwas everything he wanted in life right then. It was perfect.

And it was a fantasy.

The text was from the accountant he had goingover Aurora Downs’ books. He said someone had been using the trackto launder money. Dax knew you didn’t launder money unless it wasillegal money. Drug money, weapons-trade money, sex-trade money,something like that. The accountant sent a file. Dax viewed it. Sawit right away. The expenses were ten times what they should be, andmany had, conveniently, been paid in cash. The accountant wanted toknow what to do.

He replied, “Follow the money. Find out who.”And then after an agonizing moment, he’d added, “Call if you findmention of Kendra Kellogg.”

So he knewwhat. He just didn’t knowwho. And he didn’t know how Kendra was involved, orifshe was involved, and he still had no idea how the hellto protect his mother.

He needed to get away from Kendra for alittle while. He couldn’t think straight when he was with her. Shewas like one of those hidden images you could only see when youlost your focus. He lost focus around her, and the illusion lookedreal.

Yeah. He decided to head home for a showerand fresh clothes, grab a bite and go to work. The day startedearly at Holiday Ranch.

He leaned in to kiss her cheek, and breathedher in. He hated to leave.

She stirred, smiled softly without openingher eyes.

“I’ve gotta go,” he said. “I’ll see youlater, though. Okay?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

She didn’t even wake up all the way. Heslipped out of bed, dressed quietly and headed for home. On theway, his phone chimed its incoming message signal, and he glancedat it. It was a text from the lawyer, with an image too small tomake out.

He pulled into his driveway before taking acloser look.

AURORA SPRINGS’ ONLY PRIVATE TRACK STAYSTHAT WAY

Dax had to make the screen bigger to read therest.

AURORA DOWNS’ new owner DaxRussell is the late Nealand Russell’s only son and heir. As hisfirst order of business, Russell has appointed Kendra Kelloggmanager. Background on Ms. Kellogg is a little hard to come by, butwe’ll know more right after the holiday, whenThe Free Timeswill have anexclusive interview with both her and Dax Russell about their plansfor our belovedAuroraDowns.

Dax stared at the image filling his phone’sscreen for a long time and read it twice, before he realized thathe was looking at a photo of the front page of theAurora FreeTimes.He could make out the edge of the lawyer’s coffeemug.

Did you do this?

He sighed at the phone, irritated, tapped inNOand hit send. Then he pocketed thething, and wondered where the reporter had got his information. Hethought about calling and asking the guy, but he probably wouldn’ttell him. That was some kind of reporter code, wasn’t it?

Besides he knew who’d done this. Kendra.

Others knew. Rob knew about Kendra’s“brilliant idea” to manage the track. Dax had confided in him. Andwhat Rob knew, Kiley knew. And it was common knowledge thatwhatever any member of the Brand-McIntyre clan knew, they all knew.They had a group text busier than the AP wire.

All those arguments came from the part of himthat loved her. That was a really big part.

But his thinking mind wasn’t dead yet. No oneelse had any reason to leak this lie to the press. He pulled intohis driveway and shut the car off, then lowered his head to thesteering wheel, not voluntarily. A wave of sadness washed over him,filled him, flooding in through a hole in his heart. It weakenedhis muscles. He felt heavy.

He pulled out his phone and saw three moretexts from the lawyer. He didn’t read them. He just typed “Don’ttell Mom…”Backspace, backspace, backspace. “Don’t tellCaroline and spoil her trip. I’m looking into this. Will get backto you.”

He needed time to work through this, thegrief of it. Because there was no question in his mind Kendra hadtipped off the paper. He didn’t know why, but why didn’t matter.She was playing him again. He’d known it all along; he just hadn’twanted to accept it. She was involved, somehow, with whatevercriminal had been using Aurora Downs to clean his dirty money. Hedidn’t know who or how, but did it matter?

He’d walked right into this with his eyeswide open, told himself he could keep his heart out of it. But hehadn’t.

The truth hurt more than he had everimagined. It hurt like hot railroad spikes, driven straight throughhis heart.

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