Millionaire's Last Stand

Reluctant curiosity flitted across his face. “You’re a city girl then?”

“Charlotte, born and raised.” She smiled. “Small towns are usually my idea of hell. Boring, quiet, judgmental.”

“Right about the last one,” he grumbled.

She noticed that his shoulders were more relaxed, his deep voice lacking the bite it contained before. Which meant it was time to go in for the kill.

Meeting his dark eyes, she leaned forward in her chair and said, “What happened the night Teresa died, Cole?”

Chapter 2

Cole wasn’t caught off guard often, but Jamie Crawford’s question succeeded in making him flustered. The sudden determination in those gorgeous violet eyes threw him for a loop, and he realized she’d played him like a fiddle. He’d let her in because, as he’d told Ian, he wanted to take care of this mess. So if this FBI agent was willing to hear what he had to say, and hear it with an open mind, then what did he have to lose?

But she’d lured him into a false sense of security. Used her easygoing smiles and the complete lack of reproach in her voice to get him to open up, and then bam! Threw out a curveball before he saw it coming.

He drew in a breath, swallowing the animosity rising up his throat. Fine, so he’d let down his guard and had actually been enjoying the conversation with this intelligent redhead. He quickly raised that guard back up, knowing that everything he said from this point on had to be treated with caution.

“I’m sure the sheriff filled you in on what I told him,” he said, eyeing her with newfound suspicion.

“He did.” She paused. “He said you admitted to getting into an argument with Teresa the night she died.”

“We did.”

She sighed. “You can tell me what happened, you know. I’m not going to arrest you.”

He arched one dubious brow. “No?”

“I didn’t even bring my handcuffs, I swear.”

Cole fought a grin. The idea that she even owned handcuffs didn’t surprise him. Jamie Crawford had tough girl written all over her. He got the feeling she was very good at her job, that she wouldn’t bat an eyelash if she had to take down a suspect. Yet there was also a sense of harmony that radiated from her slender body, as if she knew exactly who she was and was completely at home in her own skin. Not even an iota of insecurity emanated from her. He found that oddly refreshing.

“I went to see her at Sully’s Bar that night,” he admitted. “We were due in court in a couple of weeks, and I wanted to convince her to stop contesting the prenuptial agreement. She didn’t have a leg to stand on, and to be honest, the thought of going to court was a huge headache.”

“I take it she didn’t agree with your point of view.”

“Greed always trumped common sense when it came to Teresa. I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn’t listen. She yelled at me, said some things that were intended to hurt me, and when I tried to get into my truck to leave, she slapped me, then grabbed my arm.”

He left out a few important details. Like the sheer rage he’d felt when Teresa yet again taunted him about her infidelities. The disgust that clamped around his throat at the mere sight of the vile woman he’d once loved.

“And then?” Jamie prompted.

“I went home.” His tone was hard and even. “And I have an alibi.”

“I only briefly glanced at the statement Finn faxed me this morning. It said something about running into a neighbor?”

“Joe Gideon,” Cole confirmed. “He lives about half a mile east of here, in an old fishing cabin.”

“Okay. So you saw Joe.”

He gave another nod. “I couldn’t sleep—I was still riled up over the argument with Teresa—so I went for a walk. It was around two o’clock in the morning, which is when the medical examiner claims Teresa died. I ran into Joe near the creek, we exchanged some heated words—”

“Heated?” Jamie interrupted.

“Joe Gideon isn’t exactly my biggest fan.” Cole sighed. “He blames me for losing his job and wife.”

Jamie’s tone remained utterly neutral. “Now why does he think that?”

Cole curled his fingers over the ceramic mug as he leaned back in his chair. “Did you notice the hotel at the edge of town when you were driving in?”

“Yeah …”

“That used to be Serenade’s paper mill. Two years ago I bought the property, shut down the mill and built the hotel in its place. All the workers lost their jobs, including Gideon. He blames me for that.”

“Do you believe it’s your fault?” Jamie asked.

He shook his head. “Real estate development isn’t a crime. The hotel has brought some much-needed revenue to this town and created even more jobs than the mill. But Gideon doesn’t see it as a plus. He lost his job, started drinking heavily, and then his wife divorced him.”

Frustration bubbled in Cole’s gut. “Look, I might be to blame for Gideon losing his position at the mill, but I’m not responsible for his drinking. Apparently he was hitting the bottle long before I showed up.”

“Gideon claims he never saw you that night,” Jamie said bluntly.

Cole was equally blunt. “He’s lying. Like I said, I ran into him by the creek. We exchanged words, and then he stalked off.”

“So you maintain that he’s lying to the police.”

“Yes, the son of a bitch is lying.” His voice came out harsher than he intended. He turned his head, willing his body to relax, the muscles in his face to loosen. Just thinking about Joe Gideon made his blood boil. He wouldn’t even be in this mess if that old bastard would just tell the truth.

When Cole turned back, he saw Jamie rising from her chair. She got to her feet and said, “Okay. Well, thanks for your time.”

Surprise jolted through him. “That’s it?”

“For now,” she replied, yet there was nothing ominous about her tone. “Let me follow up on some things, and if I need to speak to you again, I’ll call ahead next time.”

Cole resisted the urge to shake his head in bafflement as they left the kitchen and headed back to the front door. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that the top of Jamie’s head came a couple of inches above his chin. She was a tall woman, unlike Teresa, who had to fully tilt her head to meet his eyes.

He opened the door for her, but she didn’t make a move to step outside. “Thank you for speaking to me,” she said.

“Will you be in town for a while?” he asked gruffly. “Helping the sheriff with the case?”

“I’ve got three weeks of vacation time, so yeah, I’ll stick around.”

He opened his mouth to say something in return, but nothing came out. For some reason, he didn’t want her to leave just yet. She was the first person since Teresa’s death who’d spoken to him like he was a human being instead of a cold-blooded monster.

She was also the first woman since Teresa to evoke this strange sense of longing inside of him, but he decided not to dwell on that disturbing notion. Instead, he stuck out his hand and said, “Thanks for the visit.”

After a beat of hesitation, she shook his hand. Almost immediately, a current of electricity sizzled from her palm to his, making them both jump.

Well, that was strange. Though she’d taken her hand back, his fingers continued to tingle, a rush of heat moving from his palm, up his arm and circling his chest. He was just wondering if she’d felt that odd spark too, when she pinned him down with an eerily insightful look and said, “Did you kill her, Cole?”