The Risk

Chapter 1

 

​

There was a look in the woman’s blue eyes that had Gene Hiller hesitating before he said something to her that he probably shouldn’t. Chantal Fields got under his skin faster than any other being on the planet, but today... there was panic in those eyes. 

​

Panic that had him tensing and stepping closer to her. “Chantal, what in the world is going on with you now?” 

​

Her eyes met his. Big, extraordinary, dark blue. “Gene!” 

​

Wild panic. 

​

It was the panic that did it—had Gene doing something he didn’t normally ever allow himself to do with his sister’s best friend: he touched her. 

​

He wrapped his fingers around her arms and pulled her right in front of him. She rested her head on his chest, taking a gasping breath. It told him she’d been running. 

​

She had always been a small woman, taking after her mother. She felt delicate and fragile beneath his hands now. Made him feel big, coarse, and rough, in a way he didn’t like. 

​

She’d been irritating him since about the age of two. That hadn’t changed much in twenty-eight years. 

​

She was both his best friend’s little sister and his little sister’s best friend. Chantal had been in his life for decades. 

He knew when she was scared. “What’s happened, honey?” 

​

She used to hate it when he called her that—back before she’d stopped acknowledging he existed at all six years ago, anyway. He waited for her to snap back at him. But she didn’t. “Chantal?” 

​

He wrapped his fingers beneath her dark red braid, cupped her neck lightly. She felt fragile beneath his palm. He wasn’t used to that. Finally, she looked up at him again. Her pupils were dilated; she was shaking. Paler than normal. What in the hell was going on? “Talk to me.” 

​

“There’s a dead woman by the back fence.” 

​

“Like hell there is.” 

​

Her small hand entangled in the cotton of his shirt. “Like hell there isn’t. She’s back there. And I saw her. The dog—I was taking Lucy on a hike through the cliffs. Her hand... it’s sticking through the ground. Gene, she’s back there. Or I’m going totally crazy. I... your house was closer. I need to call Charlie. Now. Like right now.” 

​

The dog whined at her feet, terrified of something. Or picking up on her mistress’s distress. He stepped back, studied Chantal quickly. She wore a lightweight cotton shirt, the top two buttons open to allow for airflow or to tempt a man in his opinion, but it didn’t work on him and never had. 

​

One thing he could say for her, she was a practical woman, from her head to her toes. That thought had his trepidation growing. She was damned honest, this woman. That meant... if Chantal said there was a body out there, there was a body out there. “Show me.” 

​

“Call the police.” 

​

“Show me.” 

​

She sent him an incredulous look. “If you won’t call the police, then I will.” 

​

She moved away from him and did just that. Gene stayed right by her, one hand on the border collie that was with her, and listened.

​

 

Chapter 2

 

Chantal was holding on to her breakfast with as much control as she possibly could. She’d run as fast as she could from where she had been walking along the fence that separated her family’s ranch from the one owned by Gene Hiller and his brothers and sisters.

​

Chantal wasn’t entirely certain how she’d gotten there. 

​

Instinct, probably.

​

She’d hiked that fence every day since she’d been around eleven, and her parents had let her walk the quarter of a mile of fencing by herself to visit her closest friends in the world. Back when Gene’s parents had owned the place. 

​

She had been terrified no one would be there. But there was. Gene. Even if it had to be Gene, at least someone was there. That was the only reason she was holding herself together right now. 

​

Gene had always had a way of just looking at her that told her he found her completely lacking in everything that mattered to him in every possible way. She’d tried before to prove him wrong—when she’d been all of stupid and twenty-three and madly in love with the man in front of her now. 

​

That had lasted all of one week, until she’d seen him wrapped around some blonde in a crop top right there on a picnic blanket between the Hillers’ place and her family’s. 

​

Then he’d looked up and noticed her, on her horse, stunned at seeing his naked ass right there in the hot Texas sun. 

She’d stumbled out an apology and rode away. Chantal had never looked at him the same again. He and that stupid blonde had made it clear that, the next time she saw them, she was to keep her mouth shut. 

​

Him, because he said he’d been protecting his girlfriend. 

​

His girlfriend because she’d been bullying Chantal for years anyway and had liked it. Had liked knowing Gene thought Chantal had done it on purpose. Had stood there watching, like a voyeur or something. 

​

Disgusting. 

​

If he had been with anyone but that particular woman... Chantal would have just gotten over her embarrassment, but Mandy? Even Gene could have done better than that. 

​

Gene’s sister, Chantal’s best friend Genny, had lit into him a week later, explaining exactly how that woman had treated Chantal through the years. And Genny vowed to make Mandy’s life miserable if she ever harassed Chantal again—Gene’s, too, while Genny was at it. 

​

Genny hadn’t spoken to Gene for over a month after that. 

​

That hadn’t exactly brought Gene over to Chantal’s side. The exact opposite. But she didn’t care. She’d gotten over Gene long ago. 

​

There was a dead woman out there now. 

​

That mattered more than Gene Hiller ever could. 

​

It was going to take hours for the Value sheriff to get someone to them—he and the deputies were at the bottom of the county helping the Garrity County sheriff with something major. They were stretched too thin. Chantal knew how it all worked. The dispatcher was going to send someone from Finley Creek. 

​

After she disconnected, Chantal called... Charlie. Her big brother would get there as soon as he could. Just like she’d known he would. 

​

Charlie told her to keep herself—and Gene—right there in the Hillers’ house until the police got there. Until he got there. No matter what. 

​

Charlie had trust issues where the TSP were concerned—not surprising, since rogue TSP officers or whatever they were had shot Chantal’s niece and almost killed her eighteen months or so ago. And people he worked with had been ambushed just weeks ago, and it wasn’t over yet. 

​

Charlie said not to disturb the scene any more than it already had been. And to lock the doors, and for Gene to grab a gun, just in case. That the killer might still be out there. 

​

Charlie was on his way to her now. He was going to stop and check on their parents first. 

​

She and Gene waited in silence. 

​

Chantal studied him for a long, long time. She hadn’t been alone with Gene in over six years. Nor had she been this close to him. Not since that day when he’d ripped her to shreds. At least she had never told him how she had felt back then—not that it had been anything more than a stupid, shy girl’s crush. 

​

Chantal had learned a lot about men since then. 

​

Enough to know what she wanted from the man she married. 

​

If she ever married. 

​

She wanted a nice man—a good man—one who looked at her like she was the center of his world. The way her brother Charlie looked at his new wife Rory now. The way her father had always looked at her mother. The way Gene’s dad looked at his mom, and the way his older brother looked at his wife Ronnie. 

​

Chantal wasn’t going to settle for anything less. The man she finally loved would be the exact opposite of the man in front of her. Period. 

​

But as he loaded a shotgun and locked the doors, she was just glad she wasn’t alone.

​

She wasn’t alone now.

 

 

Chapter 3

 

The sheriff of Value finally arrived and called in a forensics team from Finley Creek. It was a bit awkward; the Fields’ long-lost granddaughter Charlotte, Charlie’s daughter, worked the mobile unit sometimes. 

​

Gene hadn’t ever met her, but he’d heard her story. 

​

She was standing next to her father now—and her aunt. 

​

He studied the Fields’ granddaughter for a moment. She was around the same age as her aunt, but she had more muted red-brown hair than Chantal. Chantal’s hair was as red as fire and long. Thick. There was a strong resemblance, though. Especially from a distance. 

​

They were small women. It shocked him to see that they were both beautiful women, too. He’d never looked that closely at Chantal in recent years—not as a man looked at a woman, anyway. 

​

He did now. It shocked him when he did. When he really looked at her. 

​

Chantal was a beautiful woman now, who men would easily want. Even in the old jeans and thin sleeveless flannel shirt. 

They’d both draw male attention. Effortlessly. 

​

She wasn’t the awkward, extremely shy girl he remembered. 

​

When had that changed? 

​

The sheriff was asking him a lot of questions—pointed ones—as they walked to where the body had been buried. And asking the same of Chantal. Although no one was pushing too hard, considering her oldest brother was right there, and damned high up the food chain at the TSP. 

​

Her brother was hovering over her now. Glowering like he always was. 

​

And growling at the other cops out there if they did anything to upset his baby sister. The guy was intimidating, and he knew it, and with a sister twenty years younger, Charlie had always been extremely protective of Chantal. 

​

Gene could understand that—he had three little sisters of his own that were quite a bit younger than his own thirty-seven; the youngest, Greer, was twenty-four. There wasn’t anything Gene wouldn’t do to keep his sisters safe, no matter what the cost. 

​

As Gene watched, Charlie almost nudged Chantal toward a big guy in a TSP polo who was obviously in charge. Gene didn’t like the looks of the dark-haired guy at all, but it was obvious he’d met Chantal before. The man hugged her in front of everyone. The guy held her for a moment, like he was comforting her. Chantal hugged him back. Almost clung to the man like she needed the comfort. 

​

Hell, her own brother was there. What was she doing in that guy’s arms? 

​

She had to lead them to the body. As they got farther up into the hills behind his place, Chantal got a little jumpier with every step. Gene found himself at her side. Her brother walked on her other side. They were all suspects. He knew that. The body was too damned close to their properties, and the site was inaccessible. 

​

Or it should be. 

​

Yet there was a body right there. 

​

Gene fought a sudden rush of nausea when he saw... what was in front of him. A hand, obviously feminine, stuck up through the clay next to two large boulders. 

​

None of them could miss it. 

​

Chantal just stood and stared. 

​

“Who is she?” she whispered the question. Then she looked at him. “Where are Giavonna and Genny and Greer today?” 

​

His sisters.  

​

It hadn’t even occurred to him that it could be one of his sisters. Horror filled him for one too-fast moment as it occurred to him that Genesis lived with him, too. Then rational thought returned. He knew where his sisters were for once—all three of them. 

​

Gene stepped between her and the sight of the woman’s body. “They are all three with George’s family today, watching the kids while George takes Ronnie to the doctor. I dropped them all off with Calvin this morning. They are all fine, honey. I promise. I don’t know who that is there—but she’s not one of my sisters.” 

​

The forensics team got to work, minus Charlie’s daughter Charlotte, for obvious reasons. 

​

Sheriff Addy’s wife was one of the forensic supervisors. She was efficient, damned good at her job, and sweet as cotton candy. He’d known her for years. But it was strange to see his field turned into a crime scene. 

​

“Once we figure out how long she’s been there, there will be questions,” Chantal’s brother said. “For you, and your brothers. Even your sisters. And mine.” 

​

“Because of ease of access.” Gene understood it theoretically. But... he was a rancher, not a cop. “We fenced this section off months ago. Going to let it go for the next few years. Only ones that I know come through here at all are your sister and mine. They still walked along the fence line.”

 

“They’re going to have to take the damned car next time. Whoever did this... Chantal and Genesis would make damned easy targets.” And Charlie’s fury was hard to miss. 

​

Of course it was. 

​

Charlie’s sister... hell, all anyone had to do was look at her to see she wasn’t much of a threat. Gene’s hackles rose even thinking about that. 

​

She and Genesis were out here all the time. Greer and Giavonna, too. Now there was a woman buried in his field. And someone had put her there. Gene wasn’t going to let them hurt anyone else he cared about. 

​

He looked for Chantal, just to make certain she was okay now. 

​

Hell, he did care about her. Gene would never be able to deny that. He doubted she realized that.

​

What had happened between them had probably destroyed that years ago.

​

* * *

It took far too long for Chantal to wait for the police to remove the woman’s body from the field. Everyone was asking her so many questions, it made her want to scream. She didn’t do well with large crowds of people to begin with. This was a nightmare. But Charlie was there, and so was her brother’s daughter, Charlotte.

Charlie didn’t let anyone get too close or pushy with her. He’d told the men from Homicide and from Major Crimes to cool it when they got too intense. They hadn’t realized she was Charlie’s sister until then. That was all that had them backing off.

​

And… Gene.

​

Gene was there and was somehow always between her and the police. Not that he was doing it on purpose. Not Gene.

He wouldn’t protect her from anything. Not even a viciously poisonous spider. Not Gene. He despised her. One bad incident—that she hadn’t even caused—and he had treated her like dirt ever since.

​

Of course, mostly they just avoided each other now.

​

Finally, the rest of his family arrived. Gene, Grady, and Gunn lived on the family ranch. The Hiller Ranch was almost as big as the Barratt Ranch about forty-five miles north. Their property even bumped against the Barratt Ranch in a few places. They worked hard to make the Hiller Ranch one of the best in the state. Sometimes, the Hiller brothers even came over and helped her father with whatever they needed done there on the much smaller Fields Ranch. And they paid her father a fair rent for the fields he couldn’t tend now, too. The money came in handy.

​

They had started off with more land than the Hillers, but through the generations, that had shifted. Now, she helped her father with the two hundred twenty acres Chantal’s father still possessed. They’d sold off all but three head of cattle years ago—enough for them to have beef each year, with some left over for Charlie and his little family. They’d buy three calves from the Hillers every year to keep it stocked.

​

Most of what they ran on the place was Angora goats and rabbits. Her mother had gotten involved in goat milk products years ago and still made soaps and things. When her father had gotten to the point where he didn’t want to ranch so heavily, he’d sold two-thirds of their land to the Hillers and invested more into her mother’s herd of goats. Chantal had expanded that into Angora rabbits three years ago.

​

Then she had learned to weave and had found her true passion. Now, she took special commissions and sold other pieces online for what, to her, were exorbitant prices.

​

They didn’t make much, but combined, they had enough to pay the bills. Like her father had said, when he was gone, he wanted her and her mother to have a way to support themselves, so they could keep the ranch that meant so much.

To Chantal. Her brothers helped when they could, but ranching was not something Charlie or Chad were interested in doing at all. But Chantal… she loved the ranch. And she would do whatever she had to do to keep it.

It was her home. Her legacy.

​

And someone had violated it now.

​

The body straddled the property line.

​

She was on both Hiller and Fields land. No one knew if she’d been buried there on purpose.

​

Finally, her brother and her niece were cleared to drive her home. Chantal wanted that more than words could ever say. Being interviewed by the police—even her brother’s friends—had drained every bit of reserve Chantal possessed.

By the time her brother drove her up the drive to her home, she was exhausted and felt slightly sick. She would eat, shower, and then go to bed.

​

Forget the last five hours had ever happened.

​

Her head had just hit the pillow when her phone rang. Genny. Her best friend in the entire world. The one she had always poured her heart out to since they’d become adults. Genny was freaking. A nurse at Barratt County Gen, Genny had been freaking over Chantal for six months now. She had been invaluable, though, while Chantal was figuring things out. “I just heard. Gene told us everything. Are you okay? How are your glucose levels?”

​

“I’m okay. I am a little shaky, but I think that was from the stress. What did Gene say?”

​

“Just went all silent and broody in that way of his. But the police are interviewing all of my brothers first thing in the morning. Gia and Greer and me, too.”

​

“Chad and Charlie, too. And Dad and Mom. And me again. We have to go to the Finley Creek post and talk to the man in Homicide. Detective Wright.” She definitely hadn’t liked that guy at all. Something about the way he had looked at her. Almost with madness in his eyes. She shivered. She didn’t know how her older brother could deal with that kind of life, those kinds of things, every single day.

​

***

​

She'd been to the Finley Creek TSP before—the grand reopening after the tornado had destroyed the TSP building—Charlie had invited Chantal and her parents. They hadn't known Charlotte was in the building that day, or they would have met her, too. Chantal didn't quite understand how Charlie could have kept Charlotte away from their family for the entire time her niece had lived in Finley Creek until recently, but she was glad they'd finally gotten to meet her.

​

Charlotte was not quite two years younger than Chantal, and they looked more like sisters than niece and aunt. Chantal had found she liked her wickedly funny and somewhat dramatic niece a great deal. Charlotte had a kind heart—even if she was a bit afraid to show that sometimes.

​

Charlotte was right there in the TSP lobby, waiting for Chantal when she arrived with her parents. Charlotte came right to her. She suspected Charlotte found her easier to relate to—she feared rejection from Chantal less than she did rejection from her grandparents. Charlie really had done a number on his daughter by keeping her from them for four years. Chantal was still a little angry with him for that, but losing his son Jayden at seventeen had broken Charlie inside for a long while. Rory was helping him heal—Rory and their two-month-old twins.

​

"Are you feeling okay?" Charlotte whispered when Chantal's parents' backs were turned. Genny and Charlotte knew about her diagnosis. Charlotte had figured it out one day when they'd had lunch together at the Value Cafe.

​

She looked at Chantal with a pointed expression, and Chantal had found herself spilling immediately. "I'm good. Just... stress, I swear."

​

"Good. If this gets too annoying—use it. Get yourself out of it. Pops threw a fit with the chief and got his pick of investigators to do your interview and Grandma's and Grandpa's. No one really expects they did it, anyway. But you… I asked Rodriguez to speak to you personally.” Charlotte gave a wicked grin. "Well, I didn't think you'd mind getting interrogated by him. He promised to be gentle…”

​

Chantal looked at the big muscle-bound cop in question. Wow. That was one of the most gorgeous, perfect-looking men she had ever seen. She… rather liked the sound of that. She looked at her niece. “I’m in. I am so, so in. And is he single? He is every woman’s fantasy, isn’t he?”

​

“Better than that. Much, much better than that. He’s gorgeous, he’s smart, he’s kind, hard-working, and… well… how do you feel about a sexy single father kind of deal? He has three under five that he is raising all by himself…”

He looked right at Chantal and smiled, as if he knew what they were saying.

​

Wow. What a beautiful man. Oh, yeah—Chantal liked children just fine. That was one seriously attractive man.

 

 

Chapter 4

 

He'd watched Chantal turn as brilliant red as her hair. All it had taken was the big asshole cop smiling in Chantal's direction. Seriously? Gene fought the urge to say something to the guy, to get him away from Chantal, since the behemoth apparently couldn't focus on his job. Well, the jerk could just have Charlie's daughter instead. She was right there and obviously knew the detectives surrounding them really well. And she looked enough like Chantal... 

​

Come to think of it, the niece was keeping herself in front of Chantal and Chantal's parents, almost protectively.

 

Chantal's niece was a fiery woman, he suspected, just like her grandmother, who would tangle with a tiger if she thought it necessary. They led Chantal into another room—two big, intimidating male detectives. Gene tensed. 

​

He wanted to follow, to be in there with her. He had visions of her being intimidated as they questioned her. First to find a body was the first suspect, he'd heard before. 

​

"Relax," a male voice said behind him. Charlie Fields. Chantal's much older brother. He was a good dozen years older than Gene, equally tall, equally muscled. And he had always been a cranky asshole. He and Charlie Fields understood each other, Gene couldn't deny that. He’d always respected Charlie. "Rory will be in shortly. She's bringing the babies up to see my parents while they are in town. I think she's worried. And she wants to check on Chantal herself." 

​

Gene just nodded. He could see Chantal sitting at a table in the interview room. She was smiling at the dark-haired man in front of her. To see him that close to Chantal looked wrong. "Who is that?" 

​

"That's Commander Rodriguez. Head of Homicide. The other guy is Jarrod Foster. Rodriguez will be heading the investigation, working with the Value sheriff. The rangers are leaving it up to us to make the decision." 

​

The TSP worked in conjunction with the Texas Highway Patrol, local law enforcement, county law enforcement, and the Texas Rangers. Gene wasn’t sure which agency would do what. He just wanted answers—to know his ranch was safe for his family. 

​

"From what I understand, she was just walking by and the dog went crazy." 

​

"I know. And the idea that she could have walked right into something just pisses me off." 

​

"I'm going to have the hands keep a better eye out for her." 

​

"She's already been told no more hiking that way. Period," her brother said. 

​

"Like anyone can tell her anything?" The Chantal he remembered had been able to argue with a stump. If she wanted to do something, she’d just do it—usually behind her brothers' backs. 

​

But Charlie shot him a confused look. "She's not stupid. I don't think she'll want to go that way again. Not for a very long time, anyway." 

​

Still, Gene wasn't going to take any chances. Not with Chantal, or any of the girls. 

​

Speaking of... his three sisters had just rushed in, anxiety on their gorgeous faces. Genesis came right to him. "Where is Chantal? What's happening? Is she feeling okay?" 

​

Chantal’s brother Chad wrapped his hand around her arm and pulled her closer. "Chantal is in with the detectives now." 

Genesis scowled up at Chad. She didn’t like Chantal’s brother much, either. Genny had made that known thousands of times in the last decade. "Why is she in there alone?" 

​

"She's going to be fine, Genesis,” Charlie said. “Jarrod and Miguel are good guys. Friends of mine—and Chantal dated Jarrod a few times several years ago. She knows him, likes him. They aren't going to push her too hard. We just need to find out what she knows, what everyone knows, actually, since the body was found on both properties." 

​

"Technically, it was found on Chantal's property, your parents' property, and my brothers’. I don't know why the rest of us need to be here," Giavonna said. She was drawing attention from some of the men in the bullpen area where Charlie had directed them all to wait. No surprise—more than the rest, Giavonna drew male attention. 

​

And his oldest sister never seemed aware of that. Or rather—comfortable with it. He’d always wondered why. But Giavonna didn’t share secrets with him. 

​

A pang of regret at that hit him out of the blue. He didn’t know what went on in his sisters’ lives lately. What they thought about things, what they wanted out of life. 

​

Maybe he didn’t know his sisters all that well anymore. He didn’t like how that thought settled at all. 

​

Finally, Chantal came out. The big linebacker stayed at her side. The guy looked at Charlie. "I am personally returning your baby sister to your care, Fields. Take care of her." He smiled at Chantal, then at Gene's sisters. "Ladies, sorry to inconvenience you today." 

​

Every last one of them got red-faced and almost gawked at him. Even Giavonna. Seriously? Over this behemoth? The guy had to be six-eight, at the least. The girls were all just staring like he was Hercules personified or something. He smiled at Genny, and damned if Gene’s sister’s face didn’t turn red instantly. 

​

The guy patted Chantal on the shoulder, right next to where that red braid hung. Gene couldn't help himself—he wrapped his hand around her elbow and pulled her toward him. And away from that asshole.

​

Chantal just looked at him like she didn't have a clue what Gene was doing. Hell, even Gene didn't know what he was doing now.

​

He hadn’t touched her in years.

​

* * *

The questions had been just like what Charlie had told her to expect. There had been a few she hadn't expected, but Chantal found the experience of being questioned by the Major Crimes division—her brother's division, of all things—relatively uneventful. She didn't have much she could tell them, just that she walked that way almost every day, and she didn't think she had ever seen anyone who didn't belong up there. It wasn’t exactly easy to get to.

​

Genny and her sisters were after Chantal. Their interviews were just as quick—Major Crimes split them up. Then it was Chantal's parents' turn. But everyone knew that was just a formality. Most of her time waiting for her parents was spent with her sister-in-law and the babies.

​

Her infant niece and nephew were beautiful. Chaz looked like a redheaded version of his mother, but Charis looked like Chantal had as a baby. Well, Chantal and probably Charlotte, but with light strawberry hair. Chantal adored them both.

She wished she had children of her own. She was only thirty, but the possibility of having children became less and less of a reality each day that passed—not only because of the potential complications from being diabetic, but mostly because finding a man to have those children with just hadn’t happened. And in a town of eight hundred, most of them her father’s age or very young children, she didn’t see that happening any time soon.

​

She went to church—Genny’s brother Gunn was the minister, and they’d had dinner together three or four times in the last five years when he’d needed someone to go with him to a pastoral function in Finley Creek—but the congregation wasn’t exactly filled with young, single men.

​

Well, not ones that weren’t Hillers, anyway.

​

Someone sat down next to her while she held a drowsy Charis on her lap. She looked up—into eyes the same color as her own. Chad was watching her now.

​

"Talk." Her brother could be a bit demanding. Arrogant and bossy. "I know you are hiding something from everyone lately. What is it?"

​

Chantal shook her head. She wasn't exactly hiding anything. She was doing fine.

​

They didn’t need to worry about her.

​

"Nothing, Chad. I'm good. Dad isn't feeling well." Her father was eighty-two. Chantal had been a very big surprise when he'd been fifty-one. Chad had been six years earlier. Her father was eleven years older than Chantal's mother. And he looked it now. "I'm afraid for him."

​

Chad surprised her when he slipped an arm around her shoulder. Her brother hugged her close for a moment. He could be a troll sometimes, but he was her brother and she loved him. "I know. But he's in reasonably good shape for his age. We have to remember that."

​

Chantal just nodded. She looked up when the door to the interview room opened and Giavonna came out, an annoyed look on her face. Gia had gotten that jerk guy for her interview, not the extraordinarily hot Commander Rodriguez. "I don't think it went well for Gia."

​

"No. She doesn't look happy, does she? This is a bunch of bunk. Bringing us all in like this."

​

"I know. But... Charlie knows what he's doing." Her eldest brother was next to the man who had been in the interview room with Giavonna.

​

And it was obvious Charlie wasn't happy.

​

The man looked toward Chantal. Stared.

​

Chantal snuggled the baby closer as the hair on her arms stood on end. That guy was seriously creepy. Someone sank into the chair on her left.

​

Every instinct went on alert when she met Gene's hazel eyes. She immediately forgot about the cop who had obviously been watching her and focused on Gene instead.

​

What was he doing next to her?

​

* * *

Chantal snuggled the baby close, looking beautiful. He didn't think he had ever seen her holding a child before. Until this moment, he wouldn't have thought she even knew what to do with a kid. Then again, he hadn't interacted much with her since... that incident with Mandy Kirby five or six years ago. What did he really know about the woman next to him?

​

Gene hadn't meant to overreact that day, but he’d had a few beers—something unusual for him—and Mandy had made it clear Chantal had been saying things she shouldn't. He'd wanted to make a point to Chantal that gossiping and lying weren't to be tolerated.

​

And he’d been embarrassed she’d seen him out there with Mandy like that. No denying that. Only to find out it hadn't been Chantal who had lied at all.

​

Genesis had said he'd really hurt Chantal with what he’d said. Gene honestly didn’t remember all of the words he’d spewed at her.

​

He remembered her face, though.

​

He probably had hurt her, then. That had been the last thing he had wanted to do. She'd been just a kid. His best friend's kid sister, at that. He’d owed her better than that. Far better.

​

He'd tried to make amends, but... well, Chantal had spit fire right back at him the next day, saying things herself. Things that had stung. Mostly because they’d been true. He didn’t much like the man he had been becoming back then, and she had told him exactly what she had thought about him and the company he had chosen to keep.

​

Chantal had latched on to his greatest weaknesses that day and thrown them right back at him. He'd overreacted again, probably because he’d known he’d deserved the words she’d said. And it had just spiraled from there. Over months.

​

Until the very sight of her had reminded him of what she had said, what she thought about the man he had been becoming. She’d told him he’d disgusted her. That had stung. He had never really forgotten.

​

He hadn’t meant this rift between them to last for six damned years, though. Maybe he should have tried harder to make things right with her. He'd just got caught up in his own life since then. He'd broken it off with Mandy and gotten involved with Carly almost right after. Only to have Carly take off and leave Gene holding the bag. The diaper bag, to be exact. His son Calvin hadn't even been four months old at the time.

​

Gene had focused on his son for the last five years. He'd barely looked up in all that time. If he had... maybe he would have fixed things with Chantal by now. He hated the divide between them. She was a part of his world. Always had been.

He didn’t know how he’d missed that.

​

He just couldn't help feeling that it was a little bit too late now. And that maybe he should at least try to do something about it. Someone called his name, and he looked up. At her eldest brother.

​

Charlie was waiting. It was Gene's turn now.

 

 

Chapter 5

 

Detective Trace and Officer Miller were decent cops, Gene decided. But the man glowering at everyone behind the pretty blonde Miller was a total asshole. Detective Wright had a real ax to grind. 

​

But was it against the Hillers or the Fieldses? Gene couldn’t tell, but he answered the questions to the best of his ability. 

The woman had been killed around thirty hours before she’d been discovered. He’d been at kindergarten roundup, signing his son up for his first year of school to begin in August. That had been confirmed easily enough. All of his brothers had alibis, as did Chad. The girls had all four been together somewhere, including Chantal—with her niece and sister-in-law. Since that sister-in-law had been with TSP until she’d left to stay home with her twins, and Charlie’s daughter was still TSP forensics, the girls had been cleared rather quickly. 

​

That wasn’t good enough for Detective Wright, who just kept pushing. Gene just answered the guy’s questions as honestly as he could, but he didn’t give extra. Not with that guy’s attitude. Finally, Charlie called enough, after Gene had answered the questions a good fifteen times, at least. 

​

Charlie looked at Gene. “You can go ahead and go, Gene. And take your family home. Lake and I’ll calm George and Giavonna down in a minute. Before they sue Major Crimes for everything we have in the budget.” 

​

Gene stood. “I’ll do that. How is Chantal getting home? Your parents?”

 

“Rory and Charlotte are going to follow them home. Chantal is driving our parents. They’ll have questions about what will happen next. Call me if you think of anything else.” 

​

He would. But Gene just wanted this taken care of so life could get back to normal. And so whoever had hurt that girl got what they had coming to them. 

​

She hadn’t deserved to be left there like that. 

​

Gene followed the Fieldses to the parking lot. Chantal was talking to her sister-in-law nearby. His eyes were drawn straight toward her. Hard not to be, with the fire that was her hair. 

​

Gene had noticed that before. He’d always known when Chantal was around. 

​

Chantal turned, and the sunlight shot straight through all that red fire. Beautiful. 

​

She smiled—the most perfect smile he had seen in a long time. 

​

His body tightened with masculine interest in a woman for the first time in years. Since his wife had left him, after telling him that the baby he loved so much wasn’t even his, and Gene could just go ahead and keep him so she could be free. That he wasn’t much of a man, after all. 

​

He just stopped and blinked. This was crazy. 

​

This was Chantal. 

​

The woman who had also told him he wasn’t much of a man, in her opinion. Spitting fire right at him, telling him he wasn’t even half the man his brothers all were. Of course, from her... he’d known it was true. That was why it had gotten under his skin so damned quickly. 

​

He wondered if six years had possibly changed her mind. 

​

He was different now. He wasn’t the same asshole he’d been becoming back then. Not at all. He wanted Chantal to see that. 

​

Gene didn’t know why that mattered so much to him now, but it did. Maybe because... the dead woman in his field had reminded him of one thing. 

​

Life was fleeting. 

​

All they really had were the people they cared about, and who cared about them in return. He’d let Mandy drive Chantal away. Now, he regretted that. It was time to fix that regret. 

​

Maybe by fixing this one thing, he could get started on fixing everything else that still hurt so much...

​