The Debutante by Elizabeth Bevarly

Author:Elizabeth Bevarly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2005-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Eight

Ryan Fortune looked down at the crowd that had gathered to see him receive his award from the governor this evening and wished he could feel as sociable and festive as they obviously did. Barely an hour after beginning, the party was in full swing, but the merriment and laughter and congenial conversation was barely a blip on Ryan’s radar.

He’d done his best to put on a good front, though, had greeted everyone as warmly as he could and had accepted their congratulations and good wishes with what he hoped was at least a genuine-looking smile. Already, though, he’d needed to retreat for a bit and get his bearings, to try to sort through the numerous and conflicting emotions that had been ricocheting in his head all day. Hell, not all day. For weeks now. Maybe months. So he’d grabbed a beer and made his way up the stairs, ostensibly to follow a group taking a house tour, then had slipped out of the bunch unnoticed to fade into the shadows of the second floor.

Now as he gazed down into the crowd, he did his best to put his troubling thoughts on hold. Steven’s new house outside of Austin was awash in golden lighting for the party; the honey-paneled walls and floor of the living room seeming to almost glow in the amber light. Partygoers dressed in a riot of festive colors and sparkling jewelry ambled through open French doors on the far side of the room into and out of the cool night air outside. Virtually all of them held drinks, and many, Ryan noted, held hands. He smiled in spite of himself at that, marveling at how many of the young people mingling below him seemed to have hooked up lately, many of them permanently.

Hell, even the two detectives who were investigating Ryan as a suspect in Christopher Jamison’s death had decided to tie the knot. Not that Ryan had anything to do with killing anybody, suspect or not. But try telling that to the Red Rock cops. Just because the dead man bore the Fortune birthmark, detectives Gabe Thunderhawk and Andrea Matthews were just so certain it must be a family member who had committed the crime. Though there had been times when Ryan wouldn’t have put it past one Fortune wanting to murder another one, when all was said and done, they were now a loving, close-knit bunch who could no more harm one another than they could stop the sun from rising in the morning. Lately, what with all the love running around the family, he couldn’t think of a soul who’d want to harm anyone.

So many of the younger Fortunes were engaged or married now, he reflected further, focusing on a happier subject matter and pushing thoughts of the investigation to the back of his brain. The youngest of the triplets had been the most recent to go, having just declared his intentions to marry. Ryan shook his head at that. Never in his life had he thought he’d see the day when Miles Fortune would tie the knot.

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