“I never thought I’d see the day you showed up at the Dry Gulch Ranch again,” Leif answered.
“Couldn’t miss the wedding of my favorite brother.”
“Your only brother.”
“Yeah, probably a good thing you don’t have competition now that you’re building a house here on the ranch. On the bright side, I do like that I get to wear my cowboy boots with this rented monkey suit.”
Travis rocked back on the heels of his new boots, bought for the conspicuous occasion of Leif’s wedding to Joni Griffin. He’d never seen his brother happier. Not only was he so in love that he beamed when he looked at his veterinarian bride, but his daughter, Effie, would be living with him for her last two years of high school.
The Dry Gulch Ranch was spiffed up for the ceremony and reception. Lights were strung through the branches of giant oaks and stringy sycamores. A white tent had been set up with chairs, leaving a makeshift aisle that led to a rose-covered altar where the two lovers would take their vows.
Most of the chairs were taken. Leif’s friends from the prestigious law firm from which he’d recently resigned to open his own office nearer the ranch mingled with what looked to be half the population of Oak Grove.
The women from both groups looked quite elegant. The Big D lawyers were all in designer suits. The ranchers for the most part looked as if they’d feel a lot more at home in their Wranglers than in their off-the-rack suits and choking ties.
In fact, a few of the younger cowboys were in jeans and sport coats. Travis figured they were the smart ones. Weekends he wasn’t working a homicide case he usually spent on a friend’s ranch up in the hill country.
Riding, roping, baling hay, branding—he’d done it all and loved it. A weekend place on the Dry Gulch Ranch, just a little over an hour from Dallas, would have been the perfect solution to Travis. Except for one very large problem.
Rueben Jackson Dalton, his father by virtue of a healthy sperm.
“Time for us to join the preacher,” Leif said, jerking Travis back into the moment.
He walked at his brother’s side and felt a momentary sense of anxiety. He and Leif had been through hell together growing up, most caused by R.J.
It had been just the two of them against the world since their mother’s death, and they’d always been as close as a horse to a saddle. Now Leif was marrying and moving onto R.J.’s spread.
Oh, hell, what was he worried about? R.J. would never come between him and Leif. Besides, the old coot would be dead soon.
The music started. Leif’s fifteen-year-old daughter started down the aisle, looking so grown-up Travis felt his chest constrict. He could only imagine what the sight did to Leif. Travis winked at Effie as she took her place at the altar. Her smile was so big it took over her face and danced in her eyes.
Travis looked up again and did a double take as he spotted the maid of honor gliding down the aisle. She damn sure didn’t look the way she did the last time he’d seen her, but there was no doubt in his mind that the gorgeous lady was the same one he’d rescued in Georgio’s sleaziest strip club four months earlier.
He’d spent only a few minutes with her, but she’d preyed on his mind a lot since then, so much so that he found himself showing up at Georgio’s palace of perversion even when his work didn’t call for doing so.
All in the interest of talking to her and making sure she was safe. In spite of his efforts, he’d never caught sight of her again.
Travis studied the woman as she took her place a few feet away from him. She was absolutely stunning in a luscious creation the color of the amethyst ring his mother used to wear. She’d given the ring to him before she’d died.
It was the only prized possession Travis owned—well, that and the belt buckles he’d won in bull-riding competitions back when he had more guts than sense.
The wedding march sounded. The guests all stood. Travis’s eyes remained fixed on the maid of honor. Finally, she looked at him, and when their eyes met, he saw the same tortured, haunting depths that had mesmerized him at their first meeting.
Travis forced his gaze away from the mystery woman and back to Joni and Travis. He wouldn’t spoil the wedding, but before the night was over he’d have a little chat with the seductive maid of honor. Before he was through, he’d discover if she was as innocent as he’d first believed, or if the demons who’d filled her eyes with anguish had actually driven her to the dark side of life.
If the latter was the case, he’d make damn sure she stayed away from his niece, even if it meant telling Leif the truth about his new wife’s best friend.
The reception might have a lot more spectacular fireworks than originally planned. Travis was already itching for the first dance.
Chapter Two
So far, so good, Faith decided as she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. She had to hold it together and not let her emotions careen out of control. Any tears shed tonight should be ones of joy.
Unfortunately, she’d forgotten what joy felt like. Cornell had been missing for ten months now and she seemed no closer to finding him. Her nerves were ragged, her emotions so unsteady that the slightest incident could set off the waterworks.
Had it been anyone else who’d asked her to be maid of honor in her wedding, Faith could easily have said no. But she couldn’t refuse Joni, especially after the way Joni had stood by her when Cornell first went missing.
Joni was still concerned, but as the weeks had turned into months, she—like Faith’s other friends—had moved on with their lives. Faith understood, though she could never move on until Cornell was home again and safe.
As for the cops’ theory that Cornell had left home by choice, she was convinced it was pure bunk. Sure, she could buy that Cornell had gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd. He was extremely vulnerable to peer influence.
And she wasn’t so naive as to believe it was impossible that he might have experimented with drugs. A lot of kids had by age eighteen. But never in a million years would Cornell have left home and shut her out of his life—not of his own free will.
Wherever he was tonight, he was being held against his will or—
Here she went again, working herself into an anxiety-fueled meltdown.
This was Joni’s big night. Surely Faith could hold herself together for a couple hours.
Her glance settled on Leif Dalton. A boyish grin split his lips, and his dark eyes danced in anticipation. A sexy, loving cowboy waiting for his beautiful bride. Joni was a very lucky woman—if it lasted.
For Faith, marriage had been one of life’s major disappointments, enough so that she had no intention of ever tying the knot again.
She switched her concentration to Leif’s brother and best man. Tall. Thick, dark hair that fell playfully over his forehead. Hard bodied. Ruggedly handsome.
And familiar.
She struggled to figure out where she’d seen him before as she took her place on the other side of Leif’s daughter. Faith had missed the rehearsal celebration last night and arrived at the ranch only minutes before the ceremony tonight.
But she’d definitely seen him somewhere.
The tempo of the music changed and a second later the bridal march filled the air. Sounds of shuffling feet and whispered oohs and aahs filled the air as the guests rose to their feet for their first sight of Joni in her white satin-and-lace gown.
Adorable twin girls, their curly red hair topped with pink bows, skipped and danced down the aisle in front of Joni, scattering rose petals. Lila and Lacy, Leif’s three-year-old half nieces, whom Joni bragged about continuously. Faith wouldn’t be surprised