The Barons Of Texas: Kit. Fayrene Preston

to be a shovel, or any one of the implements used in that barn, your fingerprints won’t be on it?”

      “No. They probably will be—” Abruptly she broke off and swiveled back to the fire. “I don’t have my own silver-plated shovel, Des. At one time or another, I’ve probably used and touched everything in that barn.”

      She was electric, all fire and fury. But he also saw the fragility there. He had always been able to. He had often heard his adoptive father, William Baron, grumble about the stricter than strict way his brother Edward was raising his three daughters. He hadn’t seen Kit on a daily basis or even a monthly one, but rather over time and at various stages of her life.

      Living on the same ranch, he’d had a unique perspective from which to watch her grow up. As a little girl, she had tried in vain to battle against the tyranny of her father. As a teenager, she had become subdued and resigned to living beneath her father’s thumb.

      Her father’s death when she was twenty had finally given her the freedom to come into her own, but that had also been when her rebellion kicked in. It had seemed to him that during those years she had been all flash and fury, yet she had also taken the reins of the ranch. Now she had everything she ever wanted, including power. The problem was, she now seemed to be rebelling against him. Worse, he felt the effects much more than he should.

      He took a steadying breath, but it didn’t have the desired effect. He couldn’t seem to hold on to his objectivity. Deep down, he was frightened for her. Even more frightening to him, he was coming to realize he badly needed to keep her safe. Where had that come from? And when? “I’ll put an investigator on this Cody Inman and find out about him.”

      “Don’t be stupid. You won’t find anything unusual about him. He was just an ordinary ranch hand.”

      “He was a man who hurt his boss, a woman. He tried to force himself on you, or have you forgotten?”

      “Of course not.”

      “Odds are good that somewhere he’s got a bad history, and I need to find out what it is. It could make a difference in the trial.”

      “Trial?” she practically sputtered. Her hair flew out around her as she spun around. “There’s not going to be a trial—at least, not with me as a defendant.”

      “Calm down. I’m just thinking ahead. It’s what I do.”

      Her brow furrowed with anger. “Who asked you?”

      “Damn it, Kit—” He stopped himself and forced another deep breath through his lungs. He wasn’t going to be able to help her unless he could regain his composure. Unfortunately, his temperature was rising by the minute.

      She affected him way too deeply.

      For most of his life he had deliberately stayed away from her and her sisters. Their father’s will had stipulated that unless Kit and each of her sisters made his idea of a fortune within ten years of his death, they would lose their thirty-three and one-third percent portion of Baron International. Even though she was the youngest, Kit had already met the first condition of the will, earning that fortune plus more. Her sisters Tess and Jill had, too.

      In addition, they had all known that his step-father, their father’s brother, would leave his fifty percent of the corporation to him upon his death, which would essentially give him control of the company, unless the three of them voted together at all times, leading to a stalemate.

      The sisters had quickly come up with the theory that if one of them could obtain control of his fifty percent of the Baron empire through marriage, she could thus control Baron International. So, like her sisters, Kit became caught up in the mad game of trying to get him to succumb to her charms. She and her sisters had actually competed to get him to the altar.

      Most men would have reveled in the attentions of three beautiful women, but under the circumstances, he had decided reticence was the intelligent response. Fortunately for all concerned, the game had come to an abrupt halt when Tess and then Jill had married. In effect, they had given up everything for love and left the path to him wide open for Kit.

      But then, suddenly, she had started to shun him. It didn’t make any sense to him, and anything that didn’t make sense bothered him.

      She had always intrigued him, and now that he was no longer preoccupied with his father’s health or a trial, he had vowed that this was the trip home when he would find out why she was going out of her way to avoid him.

      But now, just when he had decided to seek her out, fate had stepped in before him. A murder had put her in peril, and he wanted, needed, to help.

      But she continued to confuse him.

      She made his mind veer away from the subject at hand and on to the fact that she was the most desirable woman he had ever seen. At the moment she was practically vibrating with anger at him, yet all he could think about was how much he would love to kiss her.

      The knowledge was a shock to his system.

      He shrugged out of his vest and carefully placed it on the back of a sofa. “Let’s go at this a different way. You told the sheriff that Cody had wanted to take your relationship farther than you did. What exactly was he to you?”

      “Just a guy to go dancing with.” She wrapped her arms around herself and began to pace. “I never meant it to be serious.”

      “Then why did you go out with him in the first place?”

      She fixed him with a straight gaze. “Do you plan to take every woman you go out with to the altar. Or even to bed?”

      “I’ve never dated a woman who ended up dead the next morning.”

      “Then obviously you’ve been lucky and I was unlucky. But believe it or not, I didn’t know Cody was going to be murdered.”

      He shook his head, frustrated beyond belief with her, with himself. And he knew what the problem was. He was letting himself get too involved, something he never allowed with clients. Yet even armed with that knowledge, he couldn’t stop himself. “Your flirtations have always been within inches of getting out of hand and you know it. It’s called playing with fire, and sooner or later it was bound to get you into trouble.”

      She made a sound of anger. “You know nothing about how I handle my personal life.”

      “I know enough. I’ve seen you on the dance floor with one guy after another, and, honey, let me tell you something. The way you dance is an invitation to every red-blooded male in the state.”

      “That’s not true.”

      She looked as if he had struck her, but at least she was finally listening. “It’s true all right,” he said, his tone grim. “The last time I saw you at a party, you were wearing a little nothing of a white dress, and every man in the place was salivating.”

      She stared at him, her green eyes wide and gorgeous. “You remember what I was wearing?”

      He frowned, as surprised at himself as she was. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s get back to Cody. What happened when you were out with him last night that made him think he could have a future with you?”

      Years ago, he’d had firsthand experience of how easily she could melt against a man. Even now, just looking at her made him want to grab her into his arms and make love to her. In fact, he couldn’t get the idea out of his mind. So he didn’t even want to think of her in another man’s arms. The very idea infuriated him.

      She made a vague gesture. “Nothing extraordinary happened.”

      Nothing extraordinary. She would probably classify the kiss they had shared in the barn all those years ago as nothing extraordinary, too. Hell, she probably didn’t even remember it. But he did. He always would.

      He crossed to her and gripped her arm. “That’s where your faulty thinking comes in. You are extraordinary. You turn those green eyes on a man, you press that sweet body of yours against him, and I guarantee a man’s