“What about one?” Her fist came up to her left hip.
“Are you currently dating anyone?” he continued, pushing forward and doing his best to distance himself from caring about her response. It was good old-fashioned pride that caused the reaction. His ego had taken a hit and never recovered when it came to Audrey.
“No,” she said. “And I’ll save you the trouble of asking the next question.” Her gaze bounced around from the ground to the trees to the sky and back. “I’m not currently seeing or interested in anyone. As far as I know, no one is planning to ask me out. So there’s your answer. No need to waste time going down that line of questioning.”
“I apologize for the necessity of asking,” he said and meant it. His relief must have to do with getting her personal life out of the way and not because he still cared.
“You’re just doing your job,” she conceded.
He also noticed she gave away as little information about herself as possible. Meaning, nothing had changed.
“Are you divorced?” he continued.
“Never married.”
“Your last name is different,” he continued.
She flashed eyes at him. “You’re a US marshal. Surely, you can figure out why.”
“WitSec?”
“Not exactly but someone called in a favor,” she said. “So, I was treated similarly. You do remember what your grandfather used to do for a living years ago to fund the paint horse operation.”
Duke should have put two-and-two together a long time ago. At least some of his questions were answered for now.
The sunglasses came off, and those green eyes widened as they looked at him, which felt a whole lot like she was looking through him. “Why did you stop by instead of calling my boss?”
“SHERIFF ACKERMAN IS next on the list.”
Audrey could scarcely make her mouth work. “Is there any additional intel?”
“These tracks could be kids,” Duke reminded her after shaking his head. “A lot of teens come through these trees to get to the lake, like you pointed out.”
“Right,” she said. “Of course. However, you wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t a perceived risk.” She of all people knew Duke Remington would rather poke his eyes out with branding irons than stand anywhere near her.
Begrudgingly, he nodded. “We should check this area thoroughly to see if the suspicious person left anything behind other than a boot print,” he said, gripping his cell phone. “In the meantime, I’ll send these pics to Crystal to see if they match up to anything.”
Matching a boot print to another case would be the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.
“What do you know about my background?” she asked, wondering if he still hated her for breaking off their relationship the way she had.
“Nothing,” he said with enough fire in his voice to set the woods ablaze during this awful drought.
She cocked an eyebrow at him. The man was drop-dead gorgeous. He could best be compared to Ryan Reynolds, if he had dark-roast hair and espresso-colored eyes—eyes that she’d gotten lost in as a sixteen-year-old while briefly living at his grandparents’ ranch. At six feet three inches even back then, he’d already reached what looked like close to his full height. But, boy, had his body filled out since then. Even when he was young, he’d been solidly built. Now, it was obvious he was sculpted underneath his black long sleeve T-shirt and camo cargo pants—pants that looked a little too good on him from the back side.
Audrey mentally shook off the attraction that was still strong after all these years. One look at the face made of hard angles and planes was all it took to stir a desire to touch him. The word off-limits didn’t begin to describe his vibe toward her, which was fine. She wasn’t trying to rekindle a summer fling, even if the kisses they’d shared had been the best in her life up to this point. She still had a lot of life left to go, or so she hoped, and figured the right person for her would knock those memories far out of reach.
Carefully stepping around the tree, giving a solid perimeter so as not to disturb the boot prints, she crouched down to see if there was anything else they were missing. The clay soil made it easier to see where someone had been standing. Another creepy-crawly feeling made her shiver, thinking about being watched from a distance.
The invasion of privacy stung. Thankfully, she had a habit of closing her blinds when the sun went down. Even in a safe town like Mesa Point, she never knew where danger might be lurking. She chalked it up to her line of work as well as her background—a background she didn’t go into with anyone except for the sheriff’s office during the hiring process.
J.D. Ackerman had taken a chance on her three years ago. She’d managed to put herself through school for a degree in criminal justice while working nights as a waitress at a honky-tonk. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d been hit on by drunks. Enough to be convinced she needed to take self-defense classes at the local rec center for more reasons than the nightmares.
Despite those lessons and the training she’d received at the academy, knowing someone had been in her woods watching her took her back to a vulnerable place. Audrey, however, was no longer a kid who couldn’t defend herself against violent parents who...
She couldn’t even go there in her thoughts, except to say she vowed never to be so helpless again. Her gaze caught what looked like more boot prints. “Hey. Over here. I got something.”
A few seconds later, Duke was by her side. His spicy male scent filled her lungs as she breathed. Why did he have to smell so damned good?
“Tracks,” she managed to say as her mouth dried up with him standing so close. Her pulse raced, too, as a warm flush crawled up her neck to her cheeks.
“Where do these lead?” Duke asked, his question rhetorical as he followed them.
The trail stopped at a spot off the road where folks parked their vehicles so they could go fishing in the lake. “I guess this is the end of it,” she said.
“Tracks here are mixed together,” he said on a sharp sigh.
Audrey glanced around. “Maybe we can set up a camera. Catch the bastard if he heads through the trees here.”
“It’s worth a try,” Duke stated. “I have to head out to the hospital soon, but I could swing by on my way home and mount something up... Let’s see.” He walked over and tested a couple of angles before finding one that seemed to satisfy him. “This is a good place.”
“I can do it,” she countered. “Don’t worry about this anymore. In fact, you should probably get going to see your grandparents. I’ve taken up too much of your time already today, and they need you more than I do.”
Duke shot her a side-eye before nodding. “All is calm there right now and the nurses’ station has my number taped to just about every monitor if anything changes. I’m on my way home to rest since I haven’t slept in too many hours.”
“I appreciate you for the warning, and for stopping by to investigate,” she offered. He’d been tense the entire time, and she knew instinctively his reaction had a lot to do with their history and not just the current threat. “And I’m so sorry about your grandparents. Thank the stars I happened to be driving down the farm road to check on them.”
“You’re the one who found them?” he asked, shock widened his eyes to near saucers.
