Safety in Numbers. Carla Cassidy

minute to realize it was her hair.

      Where before it had hung without rhyme, without reason in various lengths, it now feathered around her face, emphasizing the classic beauty of her features. She carried with her a large file folder bound with several rubber bands.

      “Wow,” he said when she was close enough to hear him.

      Her cheeks reddened slightly and she reached up to self-consciously touch a strand of her hair. “It’s just a haircut,” she said with a touch of belligerence.

      “No, it’s more than that. It’s a total transformation,” he replied.

      “It’s not a big deal,” she replied, obviously not wanting him to make it a big deal. “You ready for lunch?”

      He nodded. “What have you got there?”

      “Just some paperwork I want to read.” She opened the car door, set the papers on the seat, then locked the doors and gestured toward the café;. “Shall we?”

      The Sunny Side Up Café; was in full swing serving a surprisingly large lunch crowd. They found an empty booth toward the back and settled in, but not before Meredith was greeted by half a dozen people.

      She’d been attractive before, but with the new hairstyle Chase was having trouble keeping his gaze from her. “Is the food good here?” he asked as he opened a menu and forced himself to look at it. But it couldn’t hold his attention the way she did.

      “Excellent,” she replied. She looked ill at ease, her gaze darting around the room then back at her menu.

      “Is everything all right?”

      Her bright green eyes met his gaze in surprise. “Yes, everything is fine.” Once again she made a quick sweep of the room with her gaze.

      “So, tell me about your work,” Chase said after the waitress had departed with their orders. “It must be fascinating to be a bodyguard.”

      “It has its moments,” she replied, then frowned. “Although lately there haven’t been as many moments as I’d like.”

      “What do you mean?”

      She picked up her napkin and placed it in her lap. “Business has been slow. None of us are working as much as we like.”

      The conversation halted momentarily as the waitress appeared to serve their drinks. “You mentioned that before. What’s made things slow down?” Chase asked when they were once again alone.

      “Who knows? I’ve talked about it some with Tanner, my oldest brother, and even he isn’t sure what’s caused the slow down. I guess people not needing bodyguard services doesn’t necessarily translate to lower crime rates in the city. You must stay very busy.”

      Chase grinned ruefully. “Definitely. In the war on crime, the bad guys still seem to have the upper hand.”

      Her gaze held his for a long moment. “Speaking of crime, did Dalton tell you that our mother was murdered years ago?”

      She had the kind of eyes that could swallow a man whole and make him forget his surroundings. At the moment they radiated a soft vulnerability, a wistful need he immediately wanted to fulfill, no matter what it entailed.

      It was he who broke the eye contact, disconcerted by his own reaction. “Yeah, Dalton told me about it.”

      “Those papers I left in the car are copies of the reports concerning her murder. It was never solved and lately I’ve been thinking about it, about her a lot.”

      There was an unspoken question in her gaze as he looked at her once again. “I thought maybe by looking at the files I might see something that was missed in the initial investigation. I’m not telling my father or my brothers that I’m looking into Mom’s death. I don’t want to upset anyone.” She paused a moment, then continued, “How long have you been a homicide cop?”

      He suddenly knew what she wanted from him. “You want me to take a look at those files?”

      She flashed him a grateful smile. “Would you mind? Maybe you’ll see something important, something that I’m not trained to look for.”

      “Sure, I don’t mind.” He’d take a look at the files. It was the least he could do.

      A few minutes later, the waitress delivered their food and Chase’s mind worked to process his thoughts and impressions. And the one thing that kept coming back into his mind was the fact that business was slow at Wild West Protective Services.

      Somebody in Cotter Creek had worked with the men at MoTwin to identify the weak in town, the ranchers without family, the men who could easily be killed and their deaths look like accidents. Money had certainly changed hands…a lot of money. Had Meredith or one of her brothers panicked about the financial status of Wild West Protective Services and made a deal with the devil?

      Yes, he’d look at the file concerning her mother’s murder and hope that in the end he didn’t take another family member away from her.

Chapter 3

      Dinner was chaotic. It always was when the entire West family broke bread together. Meredith let the conversation swirl around her, grateful that for the moment nobody was focused on her.

      She’d had enough attention when each of her brothers had arrived at the ranch. They’d teased her unmercifully about her new haircut until her father had insisted they stop picking on her.

      Red West had gazed at her for a long moment, a softness in his eyes. “You look exactly like your mother did when I fell in love with her,” he’d said, then hugged her. “She would have been so proud of you.”

      His words had merely renewed her desire to get to the bottom of the crime that had stolen her mother. She and Chase had agreed to go over the file that evening, after her family had left and her father went to bed.

      She cast a surreptitious glance across the table at Chase, who was in the middle of a conversation with Zack. There was no denying the fact that she was attracted to the Kansas City cop.

      It had been over a year since Meredith had enjoyed any kind of relationship with a man. At that time she’d been working in Florida and had fallen into a relationship with a local man. It had lasted over two months, until her job in Florida had ended.

      Todd Green had been a terrific guy and she’d hoped when it was time for her to return to Oklahoma that he’d beg her not to go, that he’d tell her he couldn’t live without her.

      But he hadn’t. Instead he’d told her he’d had a lot of fun with her, but when he finally decided to settle down for a long-term committed relationship it would be with somebody softer, somebody less capable…a real woman who needed him.

      She’d been devastated. Not so much because she’d been head over heels in love with Todd, but rather because his hurtful words had pierced through to a well of doubt and insecurities she’d secretly harbored.

      How could she know what it meant to be a real woman when there had been no woman in her life? She’d learned martial arts and self-defense like her brothers. She’d been taught how to shoot a gun and how to assess a situation for danger. But nobody had taught her how to be a real woman.

      Since Todd there had been nobody else. Until Chase McCall with his piercing blue eyes that for some reason made her feel oddly lacking whenever he gazed at her.

      The talk at the table turned to the Fall Festival dance in three days. “The whole town shows up for the dance,” Tanner said. “Except Meredith, she always heads home before the band starts to play.”

      “We’ve all decided she must have two left feet,” Zack added with a teasing grin. His wife, Kate, elbowed him in his side.

      Despite the teasing, there was no denying the sense of