Page 32 of Deadly Evidence
An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of Dante’s stomach. The driver’s face had been hidden by sunglasses and the brim of his hat, but there had been something eerily familiar about the guy. Threatening.
Across the road, a woman in front of Saint Mary’s had turned to watch, and he could see an old guy scowling outside thegrocery store, with a hand shading his eyes as he stared down the street. Did they sense it, too?
Mia tugged on his arm, her mouth open and eyes round. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Why would he even think I’d be interested?”
Dante rubbed the tender knuckle of his right hand and gave her a cursory glance. “Maybe those clothes of yours made him think you would be.”
That brought her old fire back. “A skirt? Top? Are youinsane?”
“Take a good look. See any other women in this town dressed pretty as you?”
Actually, a lot of the teens wore clothes like hers when they weren’t in jeans and boots, but they didn’t look nearly as good. “No wonder those guys thought you were hot.”
She flounced away from the door and sat on the bench next to her suitcases. Dante leaned against a light post a good ten feet away, where he fully intended to ignore her until the bus came.
After a few minutes of silence, she cleared her throat. “Thanks for staying with me. And...thanks for dealing with that creep.”
He hitched a shoulder.
“Look, I know you don’t like me much. But it really wasn’t my fault yesterday.”
He didn’t even bother to respond.
“I tripped over the dog. That’s all.”
The defensive tone of her voice set him off.
“Not your fault, maybe, but you’ve upset an old man, and now he’s hurt, and you’re taking off without a care in the world. What’s gonna happen now?”
“At least Vincente didn’t break anything. He just has to rest and he’ll be better soon.”
“No, he’s got badly strained muscles in his shoulder, and he’s in awful pain. He can’t use that arm forweeks.He might even need physical therapy.”
“Oh.” Her face fell.
He lowered his voice to a growl. “And now we’re a man short.”
“It was Mojo who—”
“Yeah, yeah. Ran withyourstupid hat. Who wears a hat like that out here?”
It was unfair to rant at her, really, but he’d been frustrated and angry since the day she showed up, and he just couldn’t stop.
“Vicente’s seventy. He helps some with the horses and cattle, but mostly he helps take care of Jonah. He cooks. Cleans. He keeps the home place going so Anna can concentrate on the ranch. Now she hastwoold guys to care for, plus everything else.”
“But Brady—”
Dante snorted.
“And you’re there.”
“I don’t know ranching like she does. And I sure don’t know how to take care of two old guys and cook.”
“My great-aunt Dominga said she’d heard Anna has a cousin coming for the summer. A woman. Maybe she can help.”
“Anna says she isn’t coming.”
Mia braced her hands on her thighs and studied the tips of her flimsy little red sandals. “I’m sorry. I never would have come here if I’d known how badly everything would turn out. I only—”
