Page 18 of Lone Star Rescue

Rafe didn’t point out that she had been partly in shock from the explosion, that she’d had a dozen other investigative balls in the air. And at that time, they hadn’t known for certain that Gavin would turn out to be a key player. Because pointing all that out wouldn’t do anything to relieve what she was feeling.

Hell, what he was feeling, too.

He knew they’d missed their chance to learn something important. That bridge was burned now though, and they just had to find other info that would make sense of this situation. What wouldn’t make sense was what Rafe felt himself doing, and what he was doing was unhooking his seatbelt.

And pulling Bree into his arms.

Oh, yeah. Big mistake.

That didn’t stop him though. He just pulled her to him, drawing her closer and closer until there was some contact with their upper bodies.

Good contact.

The kind that notched up this heat he’d been feeling for her since that dance two years ago. Even before that, Rafe had always felt the attraction. Of course, he’d kept that stomped down for a very long time because of Tessa. Because they were all friends. But it seemed like too much to try to stomp right now.

Much to his surprise, Bree didn’t jolt away from him and tell him how inappropriate this was. Just the opposite. She stayed there in his arms, not stiff and defensive either. She sort of melted against him.

Oh, this was trouble.

No doubt about it. He already had the potential loss of focus, what with Tessa’s body maybe being found, but it was double dangerous to add this heat to the mix. Still, he stayed there, doing his own melting, until they finally eased back from each other.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “That shouldn’t have happened.”

Rafe sighed and wanted to curse. He didn’t get a chance to do either because his phone dinged with a text.

“It’s from Wade,” he relayed. “The gate alerted him that we were out here, and he sent me the security code.”

Rafe glanced at the gate and then at the discrete metal box next to it. And he saw the tiny camera.

Well, shit.

If Wade had witnessed that hug, he might have questions. Then again, there were plenty more important things to discuss than Bree and him in an embrace.

The text seemed to snap Bree back to cop mode, and she drove up to the box. Rafe rattled off the code, she punched it in, and the gates immediately started to open. They drove through onto a pristine private road lined with stately oak trees. All very impressive. As was the house.

Correction, the mansion.

The three-story Georgian sprawled across the landscape like some English manor. Which had been Wade’s intentions. His mother had been born in England in such a house, and he’d wanted to recreate it. He’d succeeded and clearly poured a lot of money not only into the mansion itself but into the gardens.

Bree pulled to a stop in the circular drive, but as they were getting out, Rafe’s phone dinged again. “From Ruby,” he told Bree as they made their way toward the front door. “The forensic anthropologist now has the recovered bones and will expedite getting the DNA from them.”

“How soon will we have results?” Bree asked.

“Probably not until morning. The anthropologist can’t use what’s called Rapid DNA,which would give results in a couple of hours because she has to extract the DNA from the bones. But once she has the DNA, she can compare it to Wade’s, which will in turn prove if it’s Tessa.”

Bree didn’t have a chance to react to that because Wade threw open the double doors. “I need an update,” he blurted right off. It was obvious these past couple of hours had been hell on the man. “Please. Just tell me anything you know.”

Bree nodded, and Wade moved out of the doorway so they could go inside to the foyer—which was larger than most living rooms.

Rafe knew this wasn’t Bree’s first visit here to the estate. She’d come here often with Tessa, but like Rafe, she still glanced around the way one might if they’d just stepped into a museum or art gallery. Like the yard and the tree-lined drive, Wade hadn’t spared any expense inside the house either.

“I can fill you in while I try to get the fingerprints,” Bree explained.

“Right. Yes, that,” Wade said as if he’d forgotten all about the reason for the visit. “This way. Like I said, I left nearly everything in her room as is. I didn’t want things changed too much for when she came back. If she came back,” he added under his breath.

Even though there was an impressive staircase at the end of the foyer, Wade led them toward the elevator tucked into an alcove at the side of the stairs. This was a new addition, Rafe noticed, maybe because Wade had grown tired of going up three flights to reach the top floor where he had his bedroom suite.

Tessa’s room was on that floor as well, and while Rafe had been to the house plenty of times, he’d only made it to Tessa’s bedroom once. And that’d been under the careful eye of a housekeeper while Tessa grabbed her purse as they were leaving on a date. Wade’s rules were that Tessa wasn’t allowed to have boys there.

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