The Maverick: The Maverick / Magnate’s Make-Believe Mistress

He nodded. “Oh, yes. Every bit.”

Harley pulled at his collar. “Could you stop talking about children, please?” he muttered. “I’ll break out in hives.”

“Allergic to small things, are you?” Alice chided.

“Allergic to the whole subject of marriage,” he emphasized with a meaningful stare.

Her eyebrows arched. “I’m sorry, were you hoping I was going to ask you to marry me?” she replied pleasantly. “You’re not bad-looking, I guess, but I have a very high standard for prospective bridegrooms. Frankly,” she added with a quick appraisal, “if you were on sale in a groom shop, I can assure you that I wouldn’t purchase you.”

He stared at her as if he doubted his hearing. Cash Grier had to turn away. His face was going purple.

The hardware-store door opened and a tall, black-haired, taciturn man came out it. He frowned. “Jones? What the hell are you doing down here? They asked for Longfellow!”

She glared back. “Longfellow hid in the women’s restroom and refused to come out,” she said haughtily. “So they sent me. And why are you interested in Sheriff Carson’s case? You’re a fed.”

Kilraven put his finger to his lips and looked around hastily to make sure nobody was listening. “I’m a policeman, working on the city force,” he said curtly.

Alice held up both hands defensively. “Sorry! It’s so hard to keep up with all these secrets!”

Kilraven glanced at his boss and back at Alice. “What secrets?”

“Well, there’s the horseless cowboy there—” she pointed at Harley “—and the DB over on the Little Carmichael River…”

Kilraven’s silver eyes widened. “On the river? I thought it was in town. Nobody told me!”

“I just did,” Alice said. “But it’s really a secret. I’m not supposed to tell anybody.”

“I’m local law enforcement,” Kilraven insisted. “You can tell me. Who is he?”

Alice gave him a bland look and propped a hand on her hip. “I only looked at him for two minutes before I realized I needed to get more investigative supplies. He’s male and dead. He’s got no ID, he’s naked, and even his mother wouldn’t recognize his face.”

“Dental records…” Kilraven began.

“For those, you need identifiable teeth,” Alice replied sweetly.

Harley was turning white.

She glanced at him. “Are you squeamish?” she asked hopefully. “Listen, I once examined this dead guy whose girlfriend caught him with a hooker. After she offed him, she cut off his…Where are you going?”

Harley was making a beeline for the interior of the hardware store.

“Bathroom, I imagine.” Grier grinned at Kilraven, who chuckled.

“He works around cattle and he’s squeamish?” Alice asked, delighted. “I’ll bet he’s a lot of fun when they round up the calves!”

“Not nice,” Kilraven chided. “Everybody’s got a weak spot, Jones. Even you.”

“I have no weak spots,” she assured him.

“No social life, either,” Grier murmured. “I heard you tried to conduct a postmortem on a turkey in North Carolina during a murder investigation there.”

“It met with fowl play,” she said, straight-faced.

Both men chuckled.

“I have to get to work,” she said, becoming serious. “This is a strange case. Nobody knows who this guy is or where he came from, and there was a serious attempt to make him unidentifiable. Even with DNA, when I can get a profile back from state—and don’t hold your breath on the timetable—I don’t know if we can identify him. If he has no criminal record, he won’t be on file anywhere.”

“At least we don’t get many of these,” Kilraven said quietly.

Jones smiled at him. “When are you coming back up to San Antonio?” she asked. “You solved the Pendleton kidnapping and helped wrap up the perps.”

“Just a few loose ends to tie up,” he said. He nodded at her and his boss. “I’ll get back on patrol.”

“Brady’s wife made potato soup and real corn bread for lunch. Don’t miss it.”

“Not me, boss.”

Alice stared after the handsome officer. “He’s a dish. But isn’t he overstaying his purpose down here?” she asked Cash.

He leaned down. “Winnie Sinclair works for the 911 center. Local gossip has it that he’s sweet on her. That’s why he’s finding excuses not to leave.”

Alice looked worried. “And he’s dragging around a whole past that hardly anybody knows about. He’s pretending it never happened.”

“Maybe he has to.”

She nodded. “It was bad. One of the worst cases I ever worked. Poor guy.” She frowned. “They never solved it, you know. The perp is still out there, running around loose. It must have driven Kilraven and his brother, Jon Blackhawk, nuts, wondering if it was somebody they arrested, somebody with a grudge.”

“Their father was an FBI agent in San Antonio, before he drank himself to death after the murders. Blackhawk still is,” Cash replied thoughtfully. “Could have been a case any one of the three men worked, a perp getting even.”

“It could,” she agreed. “It must haunt the brothers. The guilt would be bad enough, but they wouldn’t want to risk it happening again, to someone else they got involved with. They avoid women. Especially Kilraven.”

“He wouldn’t want to go through it again,” Cash said.

“This Sinclair woman, how does she feel about Kilraven?”

Cash gave her a friendly smile. “I am not a gossip.”

“Bull.”

He laughed. “She’s crazy about him. But she’s very young.”

“Age doesn’t matter, in the long run,” Alice said with a faraway look in her eyes. “At least, sometimes.” She opened the door. “See you around, Grier.”

“You, too, Jones.”

She walked into the hardware store. There at the counter was Harley, pale and out of sorts. He glared at her.

She held up both hands. “I wasn’t even graphic,” she said defensively. “And God only knows how you manage to help with branding, with that stomach.”