Cowboy to the Rescue

She nodded. “It is. But it’s nothing from your father’s personal things. I’ve not started going through them yet. Before I drove down from San Antonio, I gathered some general information about the company he worked for—Coastal Oil. It’s a huge conglomerate now. They’ve expanded several times during the past few years.”

The button just above her breasts had been left undone, and if he angled his head just right, Lex could see a tiny silver cross dangling in the shadowed cleavage. Strangely, the sight was both erotic and prim. Like a good girl hiding a naughty tattoo.

“I don’t know of any oil company nowadays that isn’t making a killing. Yet that wasn’t quite true eleven years ago. Coastal Oil was close to going bankrupt.”

Her expression thoughtful, she said, “The economy ebbs and flows on cyclical tides. Could be that was simply a downtime for raw crude. Or perhaps the problem was poor management.”

“Yeah. Or corrupt management,” Lex replied.

Her brows arched. “Why would you make a remark like that? Do you know for a fact that someone was stealing from the company?”

“Not at all. I was just speculating. Nowadays white-collar crime seems to be rampant.”

The curiosity that had been marking her face swiftly disappeared. “That’s true.”

Feeling restless now, Lex walked over to a window that looked out upon the ranch yard. At the moment, he could see Gabe, the Sandbur’s horse trainer, down at the horse pen, riding a red roan filly. The animal was trying to get her head low enough to buck, but the man was doing his best to change her mind. His brother-in-law was a genius with horses. And women, too, apparently. He’d certainly made Lex’s sister Mercedes happy.

Lex glanced over his shoulder at Christina. She’d removed the glasses from her face and was eyeing him with easy anticipation. Just to look at her, Lex found it hard to imagine her working on a police force, putting herself in dangerous situations.

“What makes you do what you do?” he asked.

“My brother. When he disappeared, the police were useless—or so it seemed. I truly believed that I could do better. Later, after I finally learned how things really worked on the police force, I could see that finding a missing person wasn’t as simple as I’d first imagined.” She leaned forward and folded her hands together on the desk top. “Working with the Rangers was more than great—it was the chance of a lifetime to garner the experience I needed.”

“Why didn’t you stay there?”

One slender shoulder lifted and fell. “Because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life sitting behind a desk.”

Lex gestured toward her. “Looks like you’re still sitting behind one.”

She appeared faintly amused as she rose to her feet and walked over to a wall lined with book-filled shelves. Lex hoped she stayed there. If she drew near him, he’d be able to smell her rose-scented perfume. He’d want to look at places he shouldn’t and touch even more. He’d find it damned hard to remain a gentleman.

“But you see, I can get up whenever I want,” she pointed out. “I don’t have a superior telling me what to do or how to go about doing it. If I need to bend the rules a bit, I can take that risk, because I’m the only one who might get hurt.”

Where was all her confidence coming from? Lex wondered. Or was it more like determination? The question lingered in his mind as his gaze wandered discreetly down her slender curves. Most of the women he’d dated were attractive, but none of them were nearly as interesting as Christina. He realized there were many things he’d like to ask her, but they were all so personal, he decided he’d better keep the questions to himself. At least, for a while.

“You obviously like being your own boss,” he stated.

She glanced at him and smiled, and Lex felt a spurt of desire as he watched her pink lips spread against very white teeth. She was like a field of spring wildflowers. A man couldn’t ignore all that vibrant color.

“Don’t you?” she countered.

Her assumption made him chuckle. “If you think I’m the boss around here, you’re mistaken. Matt Sanchez, my cousin, is the general manager, but even he doesn’t consider himself the head cheese of the Sandbur. No one does. We’re family, and we work as a unit—makes us stronger that way.”

His words sent an odd little pain through Christina’s chest. To be a part of a family, and to have that family whole and strongly webbed together with love, was all that she’d ever wanted. But her parents had never known or learned how to love themselves, much less each other or their children, as deeply as they should have. They’d split apart when she and Joel had been young teenagers. Then to add to that messy wound, Joel had gone missing, ripping away what little family she’d had left.

To hide her dark, unsettled thoughts, she quickly pretended an interest in the books in front of her. “Anything whole is always stronger than something divided.” She darted a glance at him. “You’re a lucky man, Lex Saddler.”

He didn’t say anything to that, and though her head was turned away from him, she could feel his thoughtful silence, his warm gaze traveling over her.

“So where do you plan to start this morning on Dad’s case?”

Bracing herself, she turned to face him. “Right now I have copies of the police and coroner’s reports, so-called witness depositions and general information about the company Paul worked for. Your mother has given me pertinent data as to where Paul grew up, how they met and a general idea of their marriage, especially around the time that he died. For the next couple of days, I’m going to delve into all that.”

“So what do you need from me? I mean this morning.”

No doubt he was itching to get outside, and she couldn’t blame the man. From the few open spaces between the live oak limbs shading the window, sunshine was streaming through the panes of glass, slanting golden stripes across the hardwood floor. Out on the lawn, dew glistened on the thick Saint Augustine grass while mockingbirds squawked angrily at a pair of fox squirrels. It was a lovely morning. One that needed to be taken advantage of.

She looked at Lex speculatively. He was a man who needed to be doing. Sitting and talking about the past would only make him tense again.

Smiling tentatively, she walked toward him. “I’d like for you to take me on a horseback ride.”

Chapter Three

Like an idiot, Lex felt his jaw drop as he stared at the lovely woman in front of him. He’d been expecting a taped question-and-answer session or, at the very least, to help her go over stacks of his father’s personal papers.

“Riding? For pleasure?”

She laughed softly. “Why, yes. That’s the only sort of riding I’ve ever done. Don’t you ever ride across the hills just for the sake of riding?”

He stroked a thumb and forefinger against his chin. “Not since I was about ten years old. After that, I got on a horse to go someplace or to herd cattle. And as for hills, the only kind we have around here are fire-ant hills.”

Dimples appeared in both her cheeks, and Lex felt the middle of his chest go soft and gooey. What was the matter with him? he wondered. A woman’s simple smile had never affected him this way.

“Well, perhaps this morning you could pretend you’re herding cattle, and we could talk a bit about your father’s case along the way? It’s a shame to waste the sunshine, and I’d enjoy seeing some of the ranch.”

She was making spending time with her easy, Lex thought, way too easy.

“Then you’ve got a date.” He glanced at her strapped sandals. “Do you own a pair of boots? Not the kind you wear down a fashion runway, either. The cowboy kind that will hold your feet in the stirrups?”

“I do. Give me five minutes to change. Where shall I meet you?” she asked.

“In the kitchen. Cook will give us some cookies and a thermos of coffee to take.”

“I thought you didn’t know how to ride for fun,” she reminded him.

Feeling unexpectedly happy, he laughed. “I’m a quick learner.”

Ten minutes later, the two of them were out the door and walking toward an enormous white wooden barn. At the nearest end, and along one side, wooden corrals separated groups of horses, some of which were munching alfalfa hay from portable mangers.

Inside the barn, Lex saddled a gentle mare named Hannah for Christina and, for himself, a paint gelding called Leo that he most often used as a working mount.

While he readied the horses, Christina used the time to look around the inside of the cavernous barn. Besides the outside horses, there were at least thirty stalled inside the structure, and though she was far from an expert on horse flesh, she recognized without being told that some of the animals were worth a small fortune. Their stalls were pristine, and their coats, manes and tails groomed to perfection.

A number of wranglers and stable boys were already hard at work, and she could easily see why the Sandbur was one of the largest and wealthiest ranches in the state of Texas. But whether that wealth had played into Paul Saddler’s death was yet to be seen.

“We’ll take them outside and mount up there,” Lex told her. “Can you lead Hannah?”

“Sure. I’m not a complete greenhorn around horses.” He handed Hannah’s reins to her, and as they headed toward the open barn door, the gray mare fell into obedient step behind her. “One of my best childhood friends owns horses and keeps them stabled at the edge of the city. We’ve ridden together since we were small girls,” she told him. “Only lately, I’ve gotten out of practice. She has to fly back and forth to California to care for her ailing mother.”