Settling an Old Score - Delores Fossen Page 0,15
“The place looks like Jack.”
It didn’t surprise him that she would realize that since she knew his brothers as well as she did him. Almost as well, he mentally corrected, since she hadn’t been around them much lately. However, Ashlyn had been Eli’s girlfriend in high school.
Now he mentally cursed.
Because he had to add an asterisk to that girlfriend label. She’d lost her virginity to him when she was seventeen, a memory that was certainly etched in his brain. His body wasn’t going to let him forget it, either.
Once, they’d been as close as a couple could be, and while Eli hadn’t exactly been planning their future when he’d been in high school, it had stung when they’d drifted apart after Ashlyn had gone off to college. Then there’d been other relationships, both his and hers, and the timing hadn’t worked for them to get together for even a round of ex-sex.
Then Marta had died, and everything had gone to hell in a handbasket.
He’d never been thankful for the bad blood between them, but it would stop the old heat from rising now. He hoped. Because that wasn’t a distraction he needed when he already had enough of them.
“Will we really be okay here?” she asked, and even though he’d purposely kept the light dim, he had no trouble seeing the fear that was still in her eyes. “I want the truth. Don’t tell me something just to ease my mind.”
He thought about that a moment, then nodded. “No mind-easing then. The security system will alert us if anyone tries to break in. Both Gunnar and I will be here, and we’ll both have our guns ready.”
Their gazes met. Held. “Will that be enough?” she asked. Ashlyn pulled the baby even closer to her. “Because nothing bad can happen to Cora. I can’t lose her.”
The fear was in her voice, too. And the love. Eli recognized it because his brother Owen had a daughter as well, and he got an up close and personal look at that parental love whenever he visited them.
“It’ll be enough,” Eli assured her. It wasn’t a lie. He hoped. And because he didn’t want her to see any doubts in him, he tipped his head to the hall. “As soon as Gunnar’s done checking the place, I’ll show you to the guest room. You’ll feel better once you’ve gotten some rest.”
She nodded, almost absently, and with the baby cuddled in her arms, she went to the bookshelves on the sides of the fireplace. Her gaze combed over the framed pictures, some of Eli and his brothers. Others were of the champion horses that Jack had raised and trained.
Her attention lingered on the one that was on the center shelf. It was a shot of Kellan and his now fiancée, Gemma, and they were standing next to Jack and his then-lover, Caroline Moser. It had obviously been taken during happier times, because they were all smiling.
“Caroline Moser,” Ashlyn said. She looked at him. “How is Jack?”
Eli knew that was a Texas-sized question with a couple of layers. Their father had been murdered a little over a year ago, and his killer still hadn’t been caught. Ironic, since Eli and all his brothers were lawmen.
“Jack’s okay,” Eli answered, but he had no idea if that was even true. That’s because the one person who could tell them their father’s killer was Caroline, and a head injury prevented her from remembering.
Ashlyn’s glance was more of a flat look to let him know that she didn’t buy the part about Jack being okay. Or any of them, for that matter. They’d lost their father and couldn’t bring his killer to justice. That ate away at all of them. Eli liked to think that he had less in the eating away department because he was still feeling lower than dirt about Marta’s murder. Both deaths, though, had left plenty of holes in him.
“It’s all clear,” Gunnar announced when he came back into the living room. He tipped his head to the sofa. “I’ll crash in here for a while. That way, I can hear if anyone drives up.”
Eli had been about to make the same offer, but since Gunnar got to it first, he’d crash on the floor outside where Ashlyn would be. Jack wouldn’t mind if Eli slept in his bed, but the master was at the end of the hall with the office in between it and the guest room. Until Eli was certain there was no longer