Protecting His Brother's Bride. Jan Schliesman

the cemetery. Her reaction to the city’s name was far from normal and he should probably push harder to find out why. But something in his gut was telling him to wait. Never mind the fact that he couldn’t come up with a plausible reason for Josh to be in Missouri.

      The click of her seat belt buckle announced that she was no longer focusing all her attention on him. As rain splattered against the windows, he swallowed the remaining questions and waited for her to make the next move. She was quiet so long that it was killing him not to look at her.

      After five full minutes of driving in silence, he heard the tires finally connect with the highway asphalt. His passenger chose the same moment to speak.

      “What will it take to convince you that Josh was my husband?”

      During their brief drive Dalton had replayed the hours connecting them in this day, apparently, without end. The arguments in his mind centered around one simple fact. His brother was a liar. Had always been a liar. Which meant the logical thing for Dalton to do was give his sister-in-law the benefit of the doubt. And he wanted to make the decision without looking too closely for a motive.

      “You want to convince me? Then tell me what you planned to do once you tracked down my brother.”

      * * *

      Kira wanted to know the answer, too. “After all this time, maybe I haven’t given up on him. I hoped Josh would have a reasonable explanation for everything and save the day.”

      She felt pathetic admitting she secretly wanted her miserable almost ex-husband to save the day. Now his brother knew.

      Why didn’t she have a better plan from the start? She’d had plenty of time to herself lately. Enough sleepless nights since her arrest that skipping bail to track down Josh had seemed like a good idea. The FBI refused to listen to any of her theories, and wishing the money in that Denver account was Josh’s way of apologizing for all he’d put her through was a total waste of time. Instead, he was somehow connected to everything. The missing money and fraudulent documents kept looping back to Geoff Griffin. Except for that damn bank account.

      Or bank accounts. The Feds produced sworn statements from the banking officials in the Cayman Islands, stating she’d opened an account with them. Kira had never realized there were so many liars in the world. At the arraignment, she’d been ordered to surrender her passport. After searching her apartment, she’d finally found it in a box of Brandon’s baby clothes.

      Clothes he’d never worn and a baby she’d never held. The death of a dream. That’s what angered her most about Josh’s abandonment. They should have weathered the storm together. And now, he’d left her not only once, but twice.

      Josh was a first-rate liar and she’d loved him without conditions. In return, he’d ignored their marriage vows and caused her the worst pain of her life. Sympathy for him was out of the question.

      She looked at Dalton and tried finding any resemblance between him and Josh. Wrong eye color, darker hair and she’d guess a good thirty pounds heavier than Josh, who had more of a runner’s body.

      “So you and he were always close?” The word always had a way of tripping people up. At least it did during an insurance investigation. It took tenacity to get to the bottom of a story and expose the scammers who earned a living by being dishonest. One bogus claim could cost Midwest Mutual tens of thousands of dollars and raise premiums for every client. If Dalton Matthews really was Josh’s brother, then maybe he’d help her clear her name.

      “We kept in touch. But getting the bachelor boy to the altar would’ve been monumental news in our family. Unlikely it would’ve slipped under the radar when he came to Christmas dinner last year.”

      Another lie. Kira noticed Dalton used unlikely instead of impossible. “So your family’s into marriage?”

      “Most of us.” His eyes darkened and sadness etched his features. She knew the look very well, having loved and lost someone. She faced the mirror every morning wishing she’d find it gone. She also knew they were no longer speaking of Josh.

      Dalton’s emotions were barely concealed, much like hers. She could eventually give him a pass for the stunt he’d pulled at the cemetery. But if his outward appearance was the opposite of Josh’s, did it automatically mean his motives were anything but selfish?

      But a selfish man would have left her lying in that damn shed full of lumber. He would have immediately called the authorities and had her arrested for trespassing. Dalton hadn’t. He could have let the thug kill her instead of trading punches with the man. And once he found the other man’s phone, he should have called the police and reported everything. But he didn’t do that, either.

      He kept doing the opposite of what she expected. Or maybe the opposite of what she’d been trained to expect. And if for no other reason than to prove her dead husband wrong, she was going to expect more from his brother.

      “My name’s Kira.” She offered her hand before she could change her mind.

      His surprise was evident as they shook hands. “Dalton. I see you’re a fellow member of the unusual-name club.”

      “The answer to the age-old question of Kimberly or Rachel equals Kira.”

      “Nice.”

      “And you?”

      “My mom was a Dalton.”

      “Gotta love creative mothers.” His touch was warm, much like the eyes working their magic on the rational part of her brain. She could tell he sensed the attraction between them and also wished it was absent. It would complicate matters, especially if he was her brother-in-law.

      He released her hand, but not the hold he had on her common sense. She liked to think she could distinguish between lying eyes and simple infatuation. Josh had had lying eyes that sparkled mischievously. Dalton’s eyes held a mixture of wisdom and determination.

      “You really don’t look anything like your brother.” She couldn’t hide the skepticism lacing her tone.

      “Different as night and day since we were kids.”

      “A possible reason why you didn’t know about me?”

      “I said different, not estranged. I assure you, we have the same mother.”

      “You’re very precise for someone who’s been hiding out in the woods.”

      Dalton Matthews drove the car and didn’t offer an explanation. Yeah, she could definitely extend him a bit more trust. As for Josh, how many lies had he told her? The entire time she’d been searching the internet for any sign of him, she’d been using Joshua Kincaid, when it appeared he’d been just as comfortable as a Matthews.

      A twinge of guilt scurried up her spine.

      Seeing proof of Josh’s death didn’t hurt as much as it should have, as it might have if she’d been a real wife grieving for a real husband. A real wife wouldn’t have wished her husband dead and then tried to erase him from her memory.

      Then again, a real husband wouldn’t have hidden his wife from his family or purposely deceived her from the moment they’d met. A real husband wouldn’t have blamed her for losing their baby and then disappeared before she could recover from the shock.

      Tears filled Kira’s eyes and she quickly swiped at them before they trickled down her cheeks. A real kick-ass heroine wouldn’t shed a tear over a man who’d done her wrong. She’d work twice as hard to settle the score, regardless of the cost.

      “Look, I can understand why you don’t trust me.” Her voice wobbled, but she quickly recovered. “I have proof at my apartment that Josh is my husband.”

      “I’m guessing your apartment isn’t in Denver.”

      She picked up on his sarcasm and nailed her monotone response. “I live in Kansas City.”

      “Of course you do.” His head bobbed