A Coldwater Christmas Read online

  She pulled back from Kace and frowned when she saw that she’d wet the front of his shirt. Realized, too, that the outline of her water-soaked bra, and her nipples, were highly visible. Great. Now she’d added nipples to this already awkward mix, and she didn’t have to guess that he’d seen them because he reached down, picked up the towel that she’d dropped, and handed it to her. Jana positioned it in front of her like a shield.

  The corner of Kace’s mouth lifted in a quick, short-lasting smile. “Bad day?” he asked.

  The burst of laughter left her mouth before she could stop it. Even though she appreciated his attempt to make light of this and put her at ease, it didn’t help. Jana was well aware that she’d cried and laughed all in the same minute. And she’d started this whole encounter wearing nothing but wet underwear.

  Kace didn’t say anything about what he’d obviously seen on the front porch. No needling questions or cop’s stares to spur her to a confession. He just stood there in that easy way of his and waited her out.

  Jana took a moment to try to find the right way to tell him this. “My ex-husband Dominick is a dickhead.”

  All right. Not her best effort, but she often found herself resorting to name-calling when it came to Dominick.

  Kace lifted an eyebrow. “He broke the phone and tore up the paper?” he asked.

  “No, I did that, but it was because of what he did.”

  Jana considered just leaving it at that since whatever she would add to the explanation would also add to her humiliation, but stuff like this didn’t stay secret for long. Kace and everyone else in Coldwater—heck, the whole state—would know soon enough.

  “FYI, I’d rather you not say wed in haste, repent in leisure when I’m done telling you this,” Jana said. “I’ve already gotten enough snark and judgment from my mother.”

  More pity came to his eyes, and Jana hated seeing it there so much that she considered doing something else rash and stupid. Like kissing him. Of course, that was probably fueled by that hug of comfort he’d given her. Best not to add the temptation of his mouth after her body was all stirred up from that.

  “Dominick cheated on me,” she started, since that was the easiest way to start all of what she had to say. Yes, that cut her to the bone and had made her feel like a fool, but it had only been the beginning of what Jana was now calling Dominick’s levels of hell.

  “I’m sorry,” Kace said, and that was washed in pity, too. Oh well. That was better than some other emotions he could have aimed at her. Like—why should I give a rat’s ass about your relationship with your second ex?

  “In addition to the cheating,” she went on, “Dominick had a bad habit of tapping into my bank account and investment funds. Some I knew about. Others I didn’t find out about until he’d drained them.” Here was the hard part, and she needed a long deep breath to continue. “Since his name was on the accounts, technically he didn’t steal from me, but that’s what he did. Now I’m going to lose my ranch.”

  She didn’t look at Kace but figured he was thinking she was an idiot to have let this happen. Owning her own ranch had been her dream, and she’d used nearly every penny of her savings and trust fund to make it happen.

  “The ranch is a profitable business,” she went on, “but I had to buy out Dominick’s half. I didn’t have a prenup,” Jana added in a mumble.

  Still no verbal condemnation from Kace, but she figured it was there on his face. That’s why she didn’t look at him.

  “I couldn’t prove Dominick’s adultery,” Jana explained, “so I had no choice but to split the assets. Then, today he called to say he’d sent me papers, saying that he wants to see Marley more than just one day every other week.” That required another long breath, and she had to tamp down the anger—no, the rage—so she could continue. “He doesn’t actually want to spend more time with her, but he figures I’ll pay him off to stop it from happening.”

  Now it was Kace who dragged in a long breath. “Yeah, he’s a dickhead.” She jolted when she felt his fingers on her chin, but he only lifted it to force eye contact. “I take it you called him after you tore up the papers, and that’s when you smashed your phone?”

  “Yes. Stupid, I know. Now I’ll just have to buy a new phone and clean up the mess I made on the porch.” In the grand scheme of things, those things were minor, but now she was without a phone for a while.

  “Do you want me to intimidate Dominick or something?” Kace asked. “Show the badge, threaten him?”

  Sadly, she actually considered it for a couple of seconds, but Jana shook her head, pushed her wet hair from her face. “No. But you can maybe see how all of this has played into my mother’s relationship with Peter. It’s hard for me not to think that he might be hosing her the way that Dominick did me.”

  Kace made a sound of agreement. Paused. “You’ll really lose your ranch?”

  “I already have.” She shook her head, cutting off what she thought he might ask next. “And no, I won’t ask my mother for a loan. It’s not a matter of pride. It has more to do with me not wanting her to rub this in for the next couple of decades.”

  Kace made a sound of agreement. Apparently, her brain and mouth took that as a signal to keep on blathering.

  “I’ve put my place in Blanco up for sale and will stay here for a while until I can find a smaller ranch. Maybe do something like Shelby.”

  No need for her to spell out that last part. His sister-in-law owned pastureland where she raised, trained and boarded horses. Something like that wouldn’t generate as much income as her Blanco ranch, but it would get her back on her financial feet.

  If only the rest of her problems could be worked out so easily.

  “And you could possibly have to give in to Dominick’s demand to see Marley more often?” Kace pressed.

  She didn’t trust her voice to answer with words. Her throat automatically clogged up with emotion, so Jana just nodded and took a moment to collect herself. “That’s another reason I had to sell my ranch. I’ll need money to hire the lawyers to fight Dominick. No way am I giving him that much time with our daughter.”

  “I don’t blame you. Eileen would help with something like that, though,” Kace quickly pointed out.

  “Yes, she would. She loves Marley, and she’s come to understand what kind of person Dominick really is. Ironic, since my mom’s the one who pushed me to start dating him. He has the right social pedigree,” she spat out.

  This time the sound Kace made was one of understanding with a tinge of sarcasm. According to Eileen, he definitely hadn’t had the right pedigree.

  “Being here under my mom’s thumb isn’t ideal,” Jana went on, “but this way I can keep an eye on Peter.”

  And maybe if she got lucky she could find out if he was up to anything before the wedding. That was on her to-do list along with reinventing her life and fighting her dickhead ex-husband.

  The silence came, and it was an uncomfortable one. Jana soon realized that might have something to do with the towel. It had slipped down, and she was showing the wet T-shirt nipple thing again.

  “Sorry,” she muttered, and she started walking toward the front porch. “I’ll pick up my mess and then go in and change. Thanks for letting me cry on your shoulder and vent a thousand vents.”

  Kace fell in step alongside her as she went to the door. “Seems to me you have reason to vent. Look, if there’s anything...”

  But he waved the rest of that off, and Jana knew why. Kace was already more involved with her than he wanted to be, and he was probably getting tons of internal signals and reminders that he should just back off and not try to fix her toxic life.

  Even though she probably should have gone to her room to change first, Jana went through the house and to the front porch, where she started picking up the debris and shoving it into the pockets of her wet jeans. Kace helped, gathering up the shattered bits of the phone case that had landed on the steps, and he handed them to her.

  “Got to get back to work,” he said, heading to the main house, where he’d left his truck.

  Jana couldn’t help but watch him walk away, and because she was watching, she saw him stop when he reached her SUV. But he didn’t just stop. He looked in the front passenger’s window, putting his face right up next to the glass. After, Kace didn’t say anything, but the way he stared at her let her know that he’d seen something that he hadn’t liked.

  Shoving the rest of the debris in her pockets, Jana hurried off the porch and went to him. “What’s wrong?”

  But there was no need for Kace to answer since she saw what had garnered his attention on the passenger’s seat of her SUV.

  A cardboard box.

  Jana shook her head. “What the heck is that? I moved some things from my ranch, but I didn’t use boxes like that.”

  She glanced around as if she expected to see whoever had left it. Kace did the same, even looking down at the ground. Maybe for tracks.

  “You didn’t put that in there?” he asked, sounding like a cop, and he definitely wasn’t doing any nipple peeking now. He was still looking inside the SUV. Or more specifically, inside the box.

  Jana shook her head and moved in to have a closer look. And on a garbled gasp, she staggered back.

  That’s because the box was filled to the brim with unopened Smelly Bobs stink bombs.

  * * *

  KACE SAT BACK in his chair at the Gray Mare Saloon and read while he waited. Not fun reading, either. This was the job.

  He had been a cop for over a dozen years, and during that time he could count on one hand how many lab reports he’d needed for an investigation. Heck, he could count on one hand how many actual investigations he’d had as a small-town lawman. But here he was again for the second time in a week reading a report—this one from the box he had taken from Jana’s SUV.

  No prints. Not even Jana’s.

  That was a red flag because it meant the person who’d put it there had worn gloves. Jana would have hardly done that, only to leave a smoking gun—or in this case a box of Smelly Bobs—in plain sight where anyone could have seen it.

  And that meant someone was setting her up.

  Going with the obvious, it could be Peter. After all, he was right there on the grounds of the estate, and maybe he wanted to smear some mud on Jana to ensure that she didn’t convince her mother not to marry him.

  That theory was a stretch though because the bottom line was that Peter could have gotten hurt in the car wreck. Still, he could have risked it. Too bad Peter hadn’t shown any odd behavior when Kace had told him about what had been in Jana’s SUV. Peter had seemed to dread the prospect of the culprit being Jana. He’d gotten enough of a pained look on his face to be believable, and he hadn’t pressed Kace to arrest Jana.

  Or tell Eileen.

  In fact, Peter had said that he wouldn’t mention anything to Eileen until Kace had gotten back the lab report or uncovered any other evidence. Even then the man hadn’t thought Eileen should know unless there was another instance. Maybe he was doing that to give Jana the benefit of the doubt, or he could be worrying that his bride-to-be would call off the wedding if he accused her daughter of stockpiling Smelly Bobs.

  Kace would keep Peter on the suspect list and try not to wince that he actually had such a list. For him being a small-town cop was smoothing out the bumps that happened in a community, keeping everyone safe and making Coldwater a decent place to live. Suspect lists seemed something more suited for a place where folks didn’t know their neighbors.

  Or their neighbors’ business.

  He’d keep his ear to the ground and try to pick up any gossip about the person who could have done this. If it was someone from out of town, then somebody would have likely seen him or her.

  Kace was still contemplating who would have done something like that when the front door of the Gray Mare opened, and his brothers came in. They were right on time, and Kace had chosen this table all the way in the back of the saloon so they could have a somewhat private chat along with a pitcher of beer. Kace had already ordered the beer and Judd’s usual Coke. Of course, there’d been no trouble with the service since Judd’s soon-to-be wife owned the place.

  Cleo was doing paperwork in a small office behind the bar, but she likely wouldn’t join them for this conversation. Even though Kace hadn’t spelled it out for her, she knew this was sort of a wellness check he needed to do as the big brother.

  Nico, Callen and Judd took their seats, each of them giving Kace the once-over. Apparently, he was being subjected to a wellness check, too. Kace wanted to assure them that he was fine, and for the most part, he was. Except for the dreams. He’d wrestled with them for years and had won—until Peter’s return. Now he was back to the nightmares that snowballed, not only because of Peter’s abandonment but the shit times in foster care.

  Kace figured his brothers were battling the same damn thing.

  To get business out of the way first, Kace handed Judd the lab report, and he read through it while Callen and Nico poured themselves beer.

  “Someone’s setting up Jana,” Judd concluded, and he passed the paper to Callen. Several moments later, Callen made a sound of agreement, and then he gave the report to Nico.

  “Peter came to see me,” Nico said as he read. That got Kace’s, Callen’s and Judd’s attention. He didn’t say anything else until he’d finished with the report. “Yeah, a setup. I’ll bet she’s pissed about that.”

  Despite the other thing—Peter came to see me—that Nico had tossed out there, Kace couldn’t help but think about Jana. She had indeed been pissed but not just about the setup. Also about her slimy second ex.

  Kace also thought about her.

  Specifically, his body’s reaction to her. But there was no time for him to relive that now. Correction—no time to relive that ever.

  “What the hell did that dickwad want when he came to see you?” Judd asked Nico.

  Nico lifted his shoulder. “To tell me he was sorry for what he did. I got the feeling that he thought I’d be the easiest of the bunch to sway.”

  That was a wise move on Peter’s part. Nico was the youngest and the least likely of them to judge.

  “I told him to go to hell,” Nico added.

  So, his kid brother had judged after all. Good. Nico was a nice guy, and Kace didn’t want Peter trying to get into his good graces until they’d figured out if the man had any graces that qualified as good.

  “I got the feeling that he’s worried,” Nico went on, and he looked at Kace from across the table. “Worried that Jana will convince you to do something to turn Eileen against him.”

  Well, Jana had wanted him to try to stop the wedding, but that clearly hadn’t worked. However, she had said that she was still working with a PI to locate her father. Kace considered that well past the long shot stage. Though, if he’d been in Jana’s shoes, he might have done the same thing.

  “I told Peter to back off Jana,” Nico went on, “that she had enough troubles in her life without him slinging accusations at her. I mean, she’s lost just about everything because of her divorce.”

  Nico had obviously been keeping up with Jana, but Kace couldn’t say the same for Callen and Judd because they both looked at him. And scowled.

  “Not her divorce from me,” Kace clarified. “Her latest divorce.”

  “The guy took her to the cleaners,” Nico verified. “After she’s sold her ranch in Blanco, she wants to buy my place here in Coldwater.”

  Clearly, Kace hadn’t been paying enough attention to gossip. Unlike Judd and Callen, who nodded in agreement over what Nico had said. “Jana wants to buy your place?” Kace asked, and he sounded dumbfounded enough to get stares from all three of his brothers.

  “She does. Eden and I want a bigger place so it could work out for all of us,” Nico explained.

  Kace did know about Nico and his significant other wanting a bigger place so he could expand his rodeo bull business, but this was the first he was hearing about Jana possibly being in on this.

  “But your ranch is right next to mine,” Kace pointed out. “We share not only the creek but plenty of fence.” He cursed the tone of his own voice when he heard it. It sounded whiny.

  “I remember catching Jana and you bouncing in the hayloft in Buck’s barn,” Callen pointed out. “Sharing a fence line and creek water won’t require you to get bare-assed naked with her.”

  And judging from Nico’s snicker and Judd’s “good one” knuckle bump, they thought this was a joke. It wasn’t. He didn’t want to live next to Jana. Hell, if he was thinking about her this much when she was out of sight, he didn’t want to know how much worse it’d be if they became neighbors.

  “I was just wondering why she didn’t mention anything about this to me,” Kace grumbled. He’d just seen her a couple of days ago, and they’d talked about plenty of things. She could have worked this into the conversation since she’d had no trouble spilling everything else.

  Kace’s phone rang and he cursed when he saw Eileen’s name on the screen. He considered letting it go to voice mail, but he got a bad thought. Maybe something had happened to Jana or Marley.

  “Kace, you need to get out here to my place right now,” Eileen blurted out before Kace could say a word. “It’s horrible. Just horrible.” She made a hoarse sob, then coughed. “Stink bombs are going off everywhere.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  EILEEN HADN’T EXAGGERATED the everywhere.

  The moment Kace stepped from his truck, he realized that. There were clumps of debris in the yard, by the bottom step of the front porch, under trees and even chunks of something on the plastic Rudolph and several of the other reindeer.