Texas Stakeout by Virna DePaul

Author:Virna DePaul
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Morning dawned bright and cheerful, a far cry from the dark mood that had settled over the house because of the poisoned alpacas. By the time Dylan had woken, stretched his aching back and taken a shower and dressed in faded jeans, cowboy boots and a white T-shirt, Rachel had already commandeered the kitchen, cooking up a hearty breakfast and brewing tar for coffee.

He’d half expected her to spend the morning in bed, grieving what had happened to her animals. The fact that she hadn’t reminded him that while she might be felled low for a while by bad news, she never stayed down for long. In that way, she was very different from his mother. Watching her carefully, he poured a cup of coffee, swallowed, then grimaced.

Catching his expression, Rachel snorted. “Need cream with that, city boy?” she asked, turning away from him and busying herself at the sink.

He snagged a strip of bacon from the fry pan and brushed past her, coffee mug still gripped in his other hand. “Nope. I promised to be your handyman. And I’m assuming Texan handymen drink their coffee black.” He paused and gazed at the liquid sloshing in the cup. “Maybe I should get a fork, though,” he added under his breath.

“It’s not that bad. A little dark, maybe....”

“Rachel, if you think this coffee is a ‘little’ dark, you and I definitely don’t see things the same way.” As soon as the words left him, her face fell and he regretted what he’d said. Somehow a veiled reference to how she viewed her brother had wormed its way into what he’d thought was going to be a casual statement.

“I’ve checked on the sick alpaca several times. She’s about the same. I’m not sure what time the vet will be coming by, but I’m thinking I’ll take a drive and go see Peter afterward.”

He cleared his throat. “Rachel, I’m not sure that’s a good idea right now.” Not when he and his team thought George Evans was after Jax and bent on using Rachel to get to him. “We need to talk.”

Speaking around a clenched jaw, she said, “About my brother. You think he poisoned the alpacas. You’re wrong.” She kept her back to him even as she said, “But I want to thank you for what you did last night. Both for me and my alpacas. I—I was worried about the other one, or I would have taken care of it myself. I should have taken care of it myself.”

God, he hated it when she blamed herself, considered herself weak, when she’d just been accepting help. He stepped up to her and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. He frowned when he realized she was shaking, holding her spine straight, her shoulders stiff. The woman had been through a lot in her life—and even though sometimes she succumbed to tears, in no way did he see that as weakness.

No, Rachel Kincaid was one of the strongest women he knew.

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