And Cullen’s mind began to play with that connection. Had Jamie brought Alexa here tonight? Cullen could see her being able to talk Jamie into doing something like that.
Maybe.
Jamie wasn’t exactly a soft touch, but he was young. Barely twenty-one. And Cullen was pretty sure Jamie had been somewhat dazzled by Cullen’s former girlfriend. Then again, Alexa could do lots of dazzling until you got beneath the surface and saw, well, a woman who could be obsessive and vindictive. Still, that didn’t explain why Alexa was dead or why Jamie was lying there, clinging to life.
Rocky moved out onto the patio, peering down at his boss and the ranch hand. “Whoever did this musta killed the woman in the bathroom,” the deputy concluded—which, of course, was stating the obvious. It was also obvious when Rocky turned an accusing gaze on Cullen.
The deputy thought he’d done this.
He doled out one of his hardest glares to Rocky, and Cullen knew for a fact that he was good at it. However, he didn’t get a chance to add anything to the expression he knew would intimidate. That’s because something caught Cullen’s eye.
One of the small shrubs that rimmed the patio had been trampled down. He went closer, and while he didn’t see any footprints, it appeared that someone had stepped on it. Maybe the someone who’d attacked Alexa and Jamie.
Leigh stood and moved closer to him, her gaze following what Cullen had spotted. “Rocky, get some photos of this with your phone. Once the EMTs arrive, they’ll come rushing back here and might destroy possible evidence. Make sure you don’t step on any prints.”
The deputy followed her instructions just as Rosa came hurrying to the doorway. She didn’t come onto the patio and didn’t look at Jamie, but she did plug in the heater that she then set out on the tiles. She also handed Cullen a coat. He certainly hadn’t forgotten about how cold it was, but he hadn’t wanted to go inside, not with Jamie out here.
Leigh’s phone rang, and because Cullen was right there next to her, he saw the name that popped up on the screen. Jeb. And he found it interesting that she hadn’t listed him in her contacts as Dad but rather by his first name.
Frowning, she took the call but stepped away from Cullen. However, she continued to volley her attention between Jamie and Rocky, who was already snapping some pictures.
Cullen watched her take the cop attitude up another level and wondered if she even knew she was doing it. Probably not. It might be her go-to response when dealing with her dad. He hadn’t had to hear rumors to know there was tension between Jeb and Leigh. Or at least there had been fourteen years ago when Jeb had convinced her to cut Cullen out of her life. It obviously hadn’t been that hard for her to do, either, since she’d made the break and hadn’t looked back.
But Cullen had.
There were times, like now, when he wondered if he should have pressed Leigh for something more. Even if thatsomething morewould have put even greater strain on her relationship with her father.
“Rocky shouldn’t have called you,” Leigh replied in response to whatever her father had just said to her. She smoothed her hand over the top of her dark brown hair that she’d pulled back into a sleek ponytail. The gesture seemed to be a way of steadying herself or maybe giving her fingers something to do other than tighten and clench. “I can handle this.”
There was a long pause where Leigh was no doubt listening to Jeb’sadvice. Something that a lot of people did. Many folks still thought of Jeb Mercer as the voice of authority.
The law in Lubbock County.
It didn’t matter that Jeb had been the sheriff of Dark River, a small town within the county. His lawman’s reputation was legendary throughout this part of Texas.
Cullen just thought of him as a hard-nosed, bitter man who’d never gotten over his toddler son, Joe, being kidnapped twenty-seven years ago. Jeb had devoted a big chunk of his life to finding the boy, who’d now be a grown man if he was still alive. And Cullen wasn’t the only one who thought that Jeb’s search for his son had come at the expense of his daughter, Leigh, and his estranged son, Cash.
“I’m nowhere near ready to make an arrest,” Leigh snapped a moment later, and it was definitely a snap. Judging from the quick glance she gave Cullen, he figured Jeb was already pressuring her to arrest anyone with the surname Brodie.
Hell. Old wounds and bad blood were definitely going to play into this.
“I have to go,” Leigh insisted, and she hit the end call button. Cramming her phone in her pocket, she stooped back down beside Jamie and looked up at Cullen. “I’ll have to bring you in for a formal interview. And not because Jeb’s pressuring to do that, but because it has to be done.”
Cullen stared at her, and a dozen things passed between them. Memories. Heat. The past. Yeah. The old wounds were already surfacing.
In the distance, Cullen could hear the wail of the ambulance, but he kept his attention on Leigh. “A formal interview,” he repeated, following that through. “Something you’ll have to do with anyone who attended the party.”
She nodded. “In the meantime be thinking of who’d want Alexa dead.”
At least Leigh hadn’t saidOther than you, who’d want her dead?Though Cullen was certain Jeb would be trying to put that bug in her ear. But it wasn’t true. Cullen hadn’t wanted his ex dead.
“Before tonight, it’s been weeks since I’ve given Alexa a thought,” Cullen admitted.
“She didn’t make any threats against you?” Leigh pressed. “Or say anything about someone threatening her?”
“No,” Cullen could honestly answer. She’d made threats, yes. But they’d been verbal and none were recent. Of course, that was in part because Cullen no longer took calls from her and had refused to see her.
Leigh probably would have continued to push for info if there hadn’t been the sound of hurried footsteps. She immediately rose, laying her hand on her gun. Cullen did the same to the snub-nosed .38 that he always carried in a slide holster at the back waist of his pants. But it wasn’t the killer who’d come to finish off Jamie. It was two more of Leigh’s deputies. Vance Pickering and Dawn Farley.