Page 42 of Cowboy Breaking Point

He almost spit out his coffee. He lowered the mug. “The magazine?”

“Yup.” Pride infused his buddy’s tone.

“Damn, that’s great. I knew she was a journalist, but I didn’t know the scope of her talent.”

They sipped in silence for a moment.

“So…” Clay arched a brow.

“Don’t even say it—” Quaide began.

“You and Dove were a thing,” he finished.

He groaned. “You just can’t let it go, can you?”

“How did you get away with it? Weren’t you her boss?”

“Aren’t you old enough to be Lark’s father?”

Clay grinned. “Hardly her father.” He didn’t seem in the least bit concerned about the gap in their ages.

Love didn’t know walls, and both of them were proof of that.

“When the brothers get here, we need to hold a meeting.” The caffeine seemed to be hitting Clay’s system.

Quaide sipped. “Is that what we’re calling Julius and Jennings now? It makes them sound like they’re mafia.”

“They might as well be. You know I’m sending them into that recovering addicts support group at the church.”

He stopped. “The church…”

Clay caught on fast. After all, Lark had gone undercover to dig deep into the case involving a bomb.

“Shit—you think there’s a connection to Tretorn?”

“We already suspect that something shady is going on at the church. Plus, he’s a drug dealer and they run a group for substance abusers.”

“We’ll need to fill the brothers in after our meeting today. We’re going to nail down the plan to get Rain out of Colorado.”

“Dove and Rain should be involved in the meeting.”

“I thought you said Dove’s not going to Montana.”

Quaide set the mug down on the countertop. “She isn’t.” Actually, over his dead body was he letting her out of his sight. “But she will want to contribute to the discussion.”

“You mean give you hell.” Clay’s eyes creased with amusement.

He chuckled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ll make sure the ladies are up and around before the ‘brothers’ show their faces.”

After dumping the last swallow of coffee dregs down the drain, he climbed the stairs to the bedrooms. With each step he ascended, he got a vision for how to refinish the old, dinged-up wooden stairs and polishing the carved railing. When he reached the top, his shoe dragged on the old carpet that was bubbled there after years of use.

He really needed to start on some of these projects. In this case, before somebody tripped on that loose patch of carpet and pitched down the stairs to their death.

He started toward his own bedroom and then stopped. As soon as he walked in and saw Dove, he wouldn’t be able to leave her until he’d at least kissed her good morning, which could take a while because he wanted to kiss more than her lips.

He backtracked to knock on Rain’s door.

Her voice projected through the wood on the second knock. “Uh? What is it?”

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