Page 2 of Lost Truth
“In the flesh.” He exhaled, sucked in more air, and holstered his weapon.
She lowered her hands and propped them on her hips, jutting one out in the familiar way she had of standing. “Never mind why I’m here. What’re you doing here?”
Say what?She thought she could demand his reason for being at the cottage when she was the intruder. “I have a right to be here. You don’t. This is private property. I could charge you with breaking and entering.”
“Um, Hayden.” She cocked her head. “You’re not a law enforcement officer anymore, and you can’t charge me with anything.”
Good point.“Maybe not, but I can hold you here and call the sheriff. Mina wouldn’t be happy to arrest you, but she would do it.”
For several months, Sheriff Mina Parks had been dating the LLL team founder, Nolan Orr. Hayden and the rest of the team had gotten to know her in that time, and Hayden was certain she wouldn’t want to arrest Cadence.
Cadence sighed. “Why don’t we sit down and talk about what’s going on instead of trading barbs like this?”
No thanks.The last thing he wanted was to turn on the lights. See her face. Look into her chocolatey warm brown eyes. Swirly, crazy emotions that hit him every time he saw her would leave him feeling out of control, pushing his hot buttons, and he would have to struggle to remain in charge. Not how he wanted to spend his night. Not at all. But she didn’t deserve for him to be rude and not explain what was going on.
He backed away and pointed at the dining room table. “Have a seat. I’ll get the lights.”
She crossed the room, her steps pointed and urgent as she rushed to pull out a chair. Heading in the other direction, he flipped on the overhead light, flooding the room in brightness.
His eyes were blinded by the sudden glare. Fine by him. Stopped him from looking into her eyes and sinking hopelessly under her control again.
He remained in place until his vision cleared enough to cross the room without face-planting. At the table, he turned a chair around to straddle it, but avoided looking at her full on. “So start talking, Cadence.”
She waved a hand. “I thought we’d resolved that by now. Cadence is my byline for the paper, but everyone calls me Cady.”
“Okay,Cady,” he said. “What’s going on?”
“Sounds like you’re here on official business,” she said not answering his question.
Fine. He would answer her and hope she would reciprocate. “Our team has been hired to find the cottage owner.”
“Find the owner?” Her voice rose sharply. “Kai Nakoa is missing?”
He looked directly at her then. “He’s been gone for a few days. I would think if you knew him that you would’ve heard that.”
“I’ve never met the man.” Her firm tone was almost a challenge.
Was she telling the truth? No reason to ask. He hadn’t known her for long, but heknewher and had no doubt she was speaking the truth. “Are you doing a story on him for the newspaper?”
“Story?” She shook her head. “No. No. No story.”
“Then why are you here?”
“My dad. A few weeks ago. He… he… even now it’s almost impossible to say.” She looked up at the ceiling and shook her head. “He passed away.”
“Oh man, Cady.” Hayden wanted to put his hand over hers to offer comfort, but they didn’t have that kind of relationship, and even with the strong attraction between them, he would never act on it.
He finally met her gaze head-on. The light caught the shimmer of tears in her eyes. He shouldn’t have looked. It was like watching someone tear a chapter from his own book of sorrow. Her tears didn’t just move him—they struck with the force of a punch.
He paused just long enough to steady himself, careful not to reveal how deeply her grief shook him. “What happened?”
She drew in an agonizing breath. “He was poisoned.”
“Poisoned? No way.” Hayden shook his head as he tried to come to grips with more shocking news. “Who would want to poison your father?”
“That’s what I’m here trying to find out.”
Okay. This was getting weirder and weirder. “You think your father’s death has something to do with Kai?”
