Chaos in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law Mystery/Romance Series) (20 page)

Taylor rose from the bed and headed for the shower.
 

Exactly. To hell with her.
 

###

Jadyn hesitated a second before stepping into Colt’s house. She knew leaving the hotel was the right thing to do, but wished there had been another option. Granted, Colt hadn’t downplayed the security system he’d installed, and given the remote location of his house, she was happy he’d gone to such lengths even though he probably never thought he’d need it.

“I can give you the grand tour,” Colt said, “or I can point to everything standing right here.”
 

Jadyn smiled as she glanced around the small but neat living room, which was open to a kitchen with a breakfast nook. Large windows graced the walls of both rooms. She figured it was probably quite bright and cheerful when the sunlight was streaming in on the cool blue wall paint in the living room and the bright yellow of the kitchen.

“It’s very nice,” she said.

“You sound a bit surprised.”

“I, uh, most guys’ places don’t look this nice. Unless they’re married.”

He laughed. “When I first moved in, I had this old sofa that I’d been dragging around since college and milk crates for end tables. My bed consisted of mattresses on the floor. It worked fine for me, but my mom wouldn’t have it. I think she was afraid women would see it and be scared off.”

“More likely, they’d see it and want to fix you.”

“Ha. You’re probably right, but mom didn’t give any the opportunity. She swooped down on the place and after a month of telling her I didn’t care about fabric and paint swatches, she was finally satisfied with the result.”

“She did a great job.”

“She thinks so too, but I thought it was painful. Do you have any idea how much furniture costs? I could have bought a really nice used bass boat.” He pointed to a hallway at the back of the living room. “There are two bedrooms at the end of the hall. Guest room is on the left. Only one bathroom—it’s the first door on the right. Laundry is on the left.”

“It’s perfect.”

“I think so. Mom keeps harping on me to add another bedroom and bath, but I don’t see the point as long as it’s just me.”

“I’d love to have something like this eventually.”

He looked around and nodded. “I would never admit it to my mother, but she did a great job.” He headed toward the kitchen. “I know I’m tired and starving, and figure you are too. I’m not exactly a chef, but I have a frozen pizza I can pop in the oven. You can take the shower first.”

“My mouth just watered at ‘frozen pizza.’”

“Always a sign that you’re working too hard.”
 

He stepped into the kitchen and opened the freezer. Jadyn clutched the strap of her duffel bag and headed for the bathroom. The thought of standing under a hot stream of water was heavenly. Even her hunger couldn’t surpass her desire to shed the layers of mud and salt water that covered her from head to toe.

The bathroom was done in a marine theme with white walls and navy accents, which looked both masculine and tasteful. Jadyn closed the door and turned on the shower. Colt’s mother had really good taste.

I wonder if she will like me.

The thought rocketed through her mind so unbidden that she froze in place. Where in the world had that come from? Colt had made some suggestive statements…a couple of advances that were never followed through. They’d never even been on a date. Certainly, they were nowhere near the meeting-the-mother part of things.

She shed her clothes and stepped into the hot stream of water, still pondering her odd thought. Never had she considered herself a traditional sort of woman. She had nothing against marriage, and always assumed she’d get there someday, but she’d never had the desire to pursue it like her contemporaries. Her career had always been more important.

That’s because you never met the right man.

She leaned back and let the water cascade through her hair. Maybe it was that simple—she’d never met a man who made her think long-term. But why in the world would the thought enter her head now when she had nothing to base it on?
 

Maybe because you’re naked in his shower.

Okay, so there was that. Her current situation was far from normal, and being closed up in an intimate space in an isolated area had her on edge for more reasons than the attempted attack she’d narrowly escaped.

Focus on the work.

She sighed. How come her mind always went back around to logic? The last thing she needed right now was distraction, and Colt was the biggest distraction she’d ever known. Her focus should be on Clifton Vines and why someone tried to poison her. That was plenty to think about. She didn’t need to cloud things with thoughts of Colt and possibilities that might never be.

She finished up her shower, slipped on shorts and a T-shirt, and pulled her long wet hair into a ponytail, then headed back to the kitchen. Colt was sitting at the breakfast table, typing on his laptop. He rose from the table as she entered the room.

“The pizza has another ten minutes. There are sodas, water, and beer in the refrigerator. Take your pick.”

He gave her a smile and headed off for the bathroom. Jadyn opened the refrigerator and stared at the selection. A cold beer was so tempting, but who wanted to stop at one, especially with pizza? Finally she settled on a diet soda, checked the pizza, then sat at the breakfast table.

Colt’s laptop was still open and she stared at it for several seconds before pulling it over in front of her. Surely if he were working on something confidential, he wouldn’t have left it open. She found herself somewhat relieved when she saw that he’d been checking the weather for tomorrow.

She accessed her own e-mail and cleared through the junk. The last one remaining was an e-mail from her mother. Her finger hovered over the touch pad, but she couldn’t bring herself to open it. Finally, she closed the e-mail page. With everything she had on her plate, she didn’t need aggravation, and contact with her mother was guaranteed to provide just that.

On a new page, she opened a search for Taylor’s client. It wasn’t any of her business, but she found herself oddly fascinated by a woman who would carry a torch for a man for so long. Thousands of hits returned from her search and she started reading. When the timer went off on the stove, she jumped.

Colt, who’d just walked back into the kitchen, gave her a look of concern. “You need to try to relax.”

One look at him and her heart went fluttering all over again. His hair was still damp and hung in a slight wave. His athletic shorts and T-shirt were modest but revealed enough of his ripped body to make her momentarily speechless.
 

Finally she recovered use of her mouth. “I am relaxing. I mean, I will. The buzzer just startled me is all. I was caught up in what I was reading.”

Colt pulled the tray with the pizza on it out of the oven and grabbed a knife to cut it. “And what was so interesting that you attempted to burn our dinner?”

“I was reading up on Taylor’s client.”

“Any particular reason why?” He pulled two large slices of pizza onto plates and slid them onto the breakfast table.

Jadyn shrugged as he took the seat next to her. “I guess I just wondered what kind of woman would still be looking for her missing husband almost three decades later.”

“It’s definitely a level of dedication you don’t see often today. Did you find anything interesting?”
 

“No. Just more detailed information of the things Taylor already told us. Sophia Lambert is a very wealthy woman who inherited the family empire and by all accounts, runs it with a firm grip. She’s clearly intelligent, has more money than Donald Trump, and recent pictures show her to be quite a beauty. I guess I wonder why she never remarried.”

“Probably no man could handle her,” Colt joked.

“True,” Jadyn said as she reached for the slice of pizza. Her mouth started to water as she lifted the slice to her lips. That first bite was pure heaven. A tomato sauce and melted cheese heaven.
 

Colt frowned. “I would say maybe she’s protecting her money, but she was already set to inherit when she married Perkins. Who knows? Maybe she loved her husband so much she doesn’t want to replace him. Maybe no other man ever measured up to her standards—I’m betting they’re high.”

She swallowed her bite and chugged some of her soda.

“Maybe,” she said. “The only takeaway I got was that Taylor’s probably going to have her hands full dealing with her, especially if she decides to tell her about the Clifton Vines situation.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to make that phone call. What about the water bottle situation? You have any breakthrough thoughts on that?”

“Nothing that really stands out. If we assume I got on someone’s shit list while we were trying to identify Clifton Vines, then that limits the suspects to the shrimp house owners and workers that I spoke to. For now, I’m leaving out people we talked to together since no one came after you.”

“That we know of. I’ll be checking the tabs on my water bottles pretty closely until we figure this out. But yeah, we should probably focus first on the places you visited alone. You mentioned before that something seemed off at one of them, right?”

Jadyn sat her slice of pizza back on her plate. “I think I arrived in the middle of a disagreement between the owners. That could be all there was to it, but something didn’t feel right. And then there was the situation with the fish.” She described in detail what had happened at Vincent Brothers Shrimp House from the time she arrived and including helping with the scattered fish. She left out Helena’s part in it all.

When she finished, Colt nodded. “Might be something. Might be nothing. But it’s as good a place to start as any. I’ll get Shirley and Eugenia started checking backgrounds on the owners and the two dockworkers.”

“Do you think they could have had something to do with Clifton’s boat sinking?”

“At this point, I’ve decided that anything’s possible.”

“If someone deliberately sank Vines’s boat, that would be all the more reason for him to stay hidden in the swamp, assuming he’s still alive. But how long could he survive out there?”

“Plenty of camps are empty most of the time. He could find shelter and probably enough food to keep him going for a month or more if he moved around. Lots of people leave fishing tackle at their camps too. Worst case, he could fish after dark.”

Jadyn nodded, remembering her and Colt’s impromptu stay at one of the camps during their last investigation. “Bottom line is he probably wouldn’t starve.”

“No. If he’s not injured, he could survive quite well for a while.”

“Do you think we should let the rest of the search party cover the bayou and we should start checking the camps in the area?”

“It sounds like a plan.”

Jadyn polished off her piece of pizza and leaned back in her chair.

“You want another piece?” Colt asked.

“Nah. That was practically a third of the pie.”

He glanced at the remaining pizza. “I admit, I’m tempted, but I shouldn’t load up this late.”

“I hear ya,” Jadyn said, although she didn’t think for a moment that the additional calories would hurt one perfect inch of Colt’s body. She rose from the table and put her plate in the dishwasher. When she turned around, Colt was right behind her. She took his plate and put it beside hers in the rack. When she straightened back up, she expected that he would have moved, but he was still standing there, not six inches from her.

His gaze locked on hers and she felt a tingle run through her body. She knew that look. She’d seen it when they were trapped in a camp together, hiding from a shooter. And she knew the kiss that had followed—had thought about that kiss a million times since then.

He was also hesitating, which she supposed made sense. Colt was a good guy and probably felt he would be taking advantage of the situation if he made a move. But Jadyn couldn’t help wishing he’d abandon logic and simply go with instinct. She had no way of knowing what the next day would bring, but right now she knew someone was out to get her.

You can heal a broken heart, but you can’t heal regret.

Before she could change her mind, she took a tiny step toward him. That step was all the invitation he needed. His hands clasped around her and he drew her in for the kiss. His lips brushing against hers set her heart beating so fast it felt as if someone were beating a drum in her chest.
 

The kiss deepened and Jadyn pressed her body against Colt’s, running her hands across his body and leaving him no doubt what her intentions were.

He paused for a second. “Are you sure?”

“Right now, this is the only thing I’m sure about.”

Chapter Fourteen

The security alarm’s sounding startled Colt out of a deep sleep and a great dream. In a split second his trained mind processed everything—the attempted attack on Jadyn, her staying at his cabin, the alarm blaring. In that split second his mind processed the situation, his body went on autopilot. He bolted out of bed and grabbed his pistol from the nightstand, then hurried to the security panel next to his bedroom door.