Texas Showdown

His first thought was most likely the same as hers based on her knowing expression. He rubbed the scruff on his chin. “I locked the door when I left and opened it with the key when I returned.”

“Were there any signs that it had been tampered with?” she asked.

“Nothing that was obvious to me. At least, I thought it was locked. I’m not certain.”

Her brow shot up.

Yeah. I know. He was giving away the fact that he wasn’t familiar with the loft. All this pretending was for the birds. The only thing he didn’t have to fake was his very real attraction and need to protect her. Even after all this time and heartache, that magnetic force still made the earth shift under his boots when she was close.

“There’s a chance the door could’ve already been unlocked and I didn’t catch it,” he admitted. Austin held his hand up in defense of her reaction. The place was new to him and he’d been carrying a bag of takeout, so he hadn’t listened for a click. He’d stuck the key in the lock, turned it a couple of times and walked inside. He hadn’t been sure of the direction he needed to twist in order to unlock the door and now he was cursing himself for his carelessness.

“Let’s assume it was locked for a minute,” she said. “Who else would have a key?”

“Building maintenance, for one, which is obvious.” Austin sidestepped the other apparent answer...her fiancé. Surely, the guy wouldn’t want to hurt the woman he planned to marry.

He started to make a move for the long table near the door to see if there was a list of neighbors or friends inside a drawer but Maria’s reaction stopped him from leaving the bathroom.

“Please stay right there until someone comes to pick that thing up.” She motioned toward the basket with a shiver.

He nodded.

“I find it hard to believe that Dave would sneak inside our house and slip a snake inside the bathroom while I was taking a bath.”

Austin tensed at the reminder of her being in this room a few minutes ago naked and in the bath.

“What’s wrong?” Maria’s forehead crinkled in the cutest way when she was concerned.

“It’s nothing worth saying out loud.” His focus needed to stay on the deadly snake and not drift where it didn’t belong, like thoughts of Maria with nothing on.

She shot him a look but he had no intention of explaining.

“We’ll canvass the neighbors. See if anyone saw anything,” she said.

“What about security cameras? Are there any in the building?” He hadn’t thought to check earlier, but then he hadn’t needed to know before now.

“Yeah, but I’ve never had luck with the images from security footage, so I wouldn’t be too hopeful. Based on the age of the cameras in the hallway I can already tell it’ll be too grainy.” Maria had regained her composure as she seemed to switch gears into investigative mode. Her ability to close off her emotions had made her great at doing her job. And now he could see that it had contributed to the undoing of their relationship, too.

Austin was beginning to have doubts that any event in the past week had been random. And that meant talking to her fiancé given that a woman’s biggest threat was the people closest to her. He would have access to her apartment. Could he want to harm Maria? Maybe he just wanted to scare her into remembering him.

Austin’s mind was going places he didn’t like. The list of people who had access to Maria’s apartment had two names on it... Dave from maintenance and the fiancé he wasn’t supposed to talk about.

A knock at the door came two minutes after the call to Dave ended. Maria checked the peephole before letting him in, confirming it was building maintenance. Austin was keeping an eye on the basket in the next room or he would’ve been the first one to the door.

“What happened?” Dave asked, sounding concerned as his voice trailed behind Maria. He was in his late thirties and stood at the same five feet seven inches in height as her. He had sandy-blond hair and light eyes. His distress seemed genuine based on the worry lines creasing his forehead.

It could be an act, though, so Austin planned to keep a close watch.

* * *

“ANIMAL CONTROL IS on its way.” Maria involuntarily shivered just thinking about what had just happened after filling Dave in. The investigator in her had asked him to rush over without giving him a heads-up about what was going on. She’d wanted to gauge his reaction to the news in person. She glanced at the top drawer of her dresser where she kept her service revolver.

“What kind of snake is it?” he asked.

“Viper,” she responded.

“What on earth?” he asked, stopping before the bathroom door. He sounded as freaked as she felt. “It’s in there?”

“Yes,” Maria said.

She appreciated the vigilant watch Austin kept on the basket as he introduced himself to Dave. But why the need for introductions? Austin had said that he spent most of his time on the ranch but wouldn’t he and Dave already know each other? She’d lived here for a year. Wouldn’t they have crossed paths at some point?

Maria made a mental note to ask Austin what that was about later. Right now, she had a deadly snake to get rid of...

“Are you sure it’s still in the basket?” Dave asked, dropping down to one knee in the doorway to get eye level with the basket.

Austin nodded and Maria could tell that her husband was sizing up the maintenance man. Austin was huge by comparison. His features darker and his expression far more serious.

“You have any idea why a saw-scaled viper would be in the building?” Austin asked.

A knock at the door sounded before Dave could respond.

“Hold that thought. I’ll be right back,” Maria said, excusing herself to answer the door. A quick peek through the peephole revealed a man wearing a City of Austin shirt. She let him in.

“Good evening, ma’am.” The guy was barely out of his twenties. His hair was already thinning on top and he was a little shorter than Maria. “Name’s Mark Tailor and I’m from animal services. We got a call about a snake at your residence.”

“Yes,” Maria said, opening the door wider. “It’s in the bathroom.”

She motioned toward the door as another round of heebie-jeebies rocked her. The sooner he got that thing out of her home, the better.

Mark put on a thick set of gloves and made a beeline toward the bathroom. He wore a hunter green shirt with a lighter shade pant. She didn’t want to be anywhere near that room when the snake was disturbed. She had no idea if it could run out of venom and had no plans to be anywhere near it to find out.

Austin stood guard at the bathroom door. Dave joined her in the adjacent room.

Mark walked out less than three minutes later with a captured viper making a lot of noise from the bottom of a very thick bag. “This should take care of it.”

“Thank you,” Maria said as she showed him to the door. She’d breathe easier now that thing was out of her house.

Dave’s hands were on his hips when she returned and Austin was moving around, checking behind pillows and pieces of furniture.

“I think I know who that snake belongs to,” Dave said.

Maria looked at him expectantly.

“Your downstairs neighbor,” he said. “Tyson Greer.”

“There’s one way to find out if it’s his,” Austin said, already tracking toward the exit, Dave at his heels.

“If that’s the case then I need to have a little chat with this Tyson.” Maria wasn’t far behind. “And file a complaint. I didn’t know tenants were allowed to keep dangerous pets in the building.”