Page 60 of Seaside Cowboy's Fairy Tale

Surely, Brady would hear the commotion and the shout and would call the police, then charge in here.

But nothing happened, and the chilling realization traveled to Tex’s core. “Brady is in on it with you.”

“Pick up the chair and sit down.” She twitched the gun at him. “Why didn’t you go to the police and tell them about Brady already?”

His heartbeat thundered in his ears as he slumped onto the chair again. He needed to stall and figure out what to do next. “I only realized he’s part of this seconds ago. Why would I hire him as a bodyguard if I suspected him?”

“Really?” Mrs. Tandy cocked her head, her watery eyes blinking. “When he saw your request for a bodyguard come in, he grabbed it, as a chance to find out how much you knew. But then he wondered if you hired him as a bluff, in order to gather proof on him. Ever since the ball, he’s been sure you and that woman who saw him take the necklace were onto him. When he saw her on the camera recordings, he thought it was Rachel, because they've worked together. When she asked me so many questions, I knew for sure it was her. You both needed to be eliminated.”

Tex’s hands clenched. So Rachel was the target as much as he was. He’d wasted all these days apart from her, in the vain hope he was protecting her.

What would she do in this situation? All he could think to do was keep Mrs. Tandy talking and look for a chance to disarm her.

He missed Rachel so badly, for more reasons than one. “So he shot at us?”

“Yes. And he failed twice. Such sloppy, amateur work on his part. I chose poorly when I hired him. But it wasn’t as if I could run away with a necklace myself or mess with the cameras, and the Patel’s insurance would need proof.” She shrugged and sighed again. “It’s so difficult to get decent help these days. Even a job as simple as shooting someone I have to do myself.”

“You can’t be serious!” He slapped the table. If he could find a way to distract her, maybe he could knock the weapon out of her hands.

“I’m dead serious.” She chortled. “Well,I’mnotdead—it’s you who’s going to be dead soon.”

Heat surged in his veins. “They’ll find out you did this.”

“Nobody will even look for me. I’ve got a suicide note you typed. Like father, like son, right? Plus, rumor has it that Rachel broke up with you. Your heart was crushed, and you took your life.” She tsked, a teary sheen glossing her eyes. “So sad. So very sad.”

Chapter Sixteen

AN HOUR EARLIER...

Rachel wasn’t the kind of person to mope around, unless it involved the mop and bucket in her childhood. Well,mopingaround was different frommoppingaround anyway. But her gut was still in knots as she’d busied herself with the investigation. Even if Tex wasn’t going to be in her life any longer—she suppressed a sniffle—she owed it to the theft victims to try to recover what they’d lost. While the jewelry had been insured, they were heirloom pieces and meant a lot to the families.

More importantly, she wanted to know who was behind the shootings so Tex would be safe again. Worry for him clenched her heart as she drove home in darkness from doing surveillance at Fred Sersen’s place. The hours of that stakeout yielded nothing so far.

The police had cleared the last suspect in the necklace theft case, and they’d found no leads for the burglary at Kennedy’s place. Rachel twisted her clenched hand on the steering wheel. Seriously, no leads? Talk about failing her friend.

For the last several days, as well as conducting interviews, she’d done surveillance, driving with her left hand on the steering wheel.

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