The marshal turned, pretending surprise to see his son there. “I just came for the champagne.”
Brick laughed. “Sure you did. Seriously,” he said, lowering his voice. “What are you doing here?”
“It has nothing to do with you.”
“Right.”
“But I do wish that you and Mo would get out of here soon,” his father said, glancing around.
Brick felt the hair prickle on the back of his neck. “You’re here for a bust? And arrest? Is it—”
The marshal shot him a look that made him swallow back the words. He thought about what Mo had said to Jeffrey Sr. Did she really have some kind of evidence on him that would be worth killing to keep secret? Or had she been bluffing? The woman could craft a lie faster than anyone he’d ever met and yet...
He met his father’s gaze. “I’ll find Mo and we’ll go.”
AFTER BRICK LEFT to talk to his father, Mo had started for the doors out to the patio when she’d heard a voice directly behind her. She’d instantly tensed as she’d recognized it.
“We should step out on the patio.” JP had placed his hand in the center of her back, his touch gentle but insistent.
Mo didn’t put up a fight as he’d pushed open the patio doors and they exited the cocktail party. The patio was large, hanging over the side of the mountain, and the view was spectacular. The patio was also empty since the breeze was a reminder that the mountains around them were still snowcapped. Or maybe she felt the chill because she suddenly found herself alone on the edge of a precipice with a man who very possibly was a killer.
Jeffrey steered her to the edge, as far from the party as possible. “What are you doing here?” he demanded. He was dressed in formal attire and couldn’t have been more handsome and distinguished. Her heart ached at the thought that if Tricia had seen him like this, she would have fallen instantly in love with him. He would have been everything she didn’t have in her life with Thomas, everything she’d apparently yearned for and maybe hadn’t even realized it.
Unlike Mo, her sister wouldn’t have seen beyond the veneer and the money and prestige. “I wanted to talk to your father.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“To tell him that I knew what was going on at your nonprofit animal shelter and probably all you and your father’s other businesses—and so did Tricia.”
“What are you talking about?”
Did he really not know? No, Tricia would have told him, wouldn’t she? She would have given him a chance to explain.
“I’m talking about the reason the woman you say you loved is dead.”
He shook his head, looking confused. “You think it has something to do with the shelter?” He raked a hand through his blond hair. “You can’t possibly think that I... I loved her,” he said with both conviction and what sounded like pain. “I would have done anything for her. Anything.”
“You said that before. What did you do for her?” Mo asked as she hugged herself against the night chill and the knowledge that she was taking a chance with her life being here with him. She glanced toward the house. She doubted anyone but Brick knew she was coming out here.
“What are you trying to accuse me of?” he demanded, some of that anger she’d seen before surfacing.
“You said she wouldn’t leave Thomas, or was it the baby that was the problem?”
He stared at her as if in disbelief.
“What happened between you and Tricia at the end?”
He shook his head. “I told you. She broke it off.”
“And you never saw her again. You never tried to change her mind. You never went by her house.”
His gaze narrowed as he settled it on her again. “The nanny saw us, didn’t she?” He let out a bitter chuckle. “I thought at least she would have told you or Thomas what she’d overheard, but I guess she was busy with her own...problems.”
“I know you were angry, much as you are right now.”
He seemed to catch himself and draw back, pulling in his ire as he dropped his voice again. “She did break it off, but then she changed her mind. We were going to raise Joey together. She was going to tell Thomas but then Joey was killed, Natalie was arrested...”
“She never told Thomas.”
Jeffrey shook his head. “You know Tricia. She was devastated by all of it, but Thomas was inconsolable. She couldn’t do it. She begged me to give her time.”
“And when you didn’t—”
“Why are you so determined to make me the villain?” he demanded. “I told her she could have all the time she needed. I was a mess, too. I’d been looking forward to us being a family. With Joey gone...” He looked away. “She wasn’t sure she wanted to risk having another child. I told her we could adopt. We were planning a future together. Why would I kill her?”
Mo studied him in the faint light coming from the house and realized that he at least believed every word of it. And she believed that he’d loved Tricia as she saw his eyes fill. He hastily wiped at them as the glass doors into the house opened and his father called his name.
“I have to go,” he said and cleared his throat. His watery gaze met hers. “I loved her. If I’d had any idea that she might...” He shook his head, reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I miss her so much.”
With that, he walked back toward the house and his waiting father.
Mo stood at the edge of the patio, looking out across the mountaintops into the darkness beyond. Lost in her thoughts, she started when she felt a hand on her arm and spun around to find Brick.
“We need to get out of here.”
ON THE WAY off the mountain, Mo told Brick what Elroy had told her.
“Money laundering?” He shook his head. “And
