“Great,” Knight grumbled.
Miranda resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She was home; she wasn’t going to let Knight suck the joy away from her.
That’s what he was. A joy-suck vampire.
Well, she didn’t have to be his victim. Let him hate everything, then.
“Hello?” she called as soon as she stepped into the foyer. It smelled like Grandma and women and home.
There was no other feeling like this in the world.
A woof was her only greeting. The sound of dog nails on the hardwood echoed through the entryway. Miranda laughed quietly. It was one of the most welcoming sounds in the world.
A fluffy, tri-colored border collie limped into the foyer from the private kitchen off the back of the lobby. Her tail was down now from the arthritis, but it was going ninety miles an hour. Miranda’s heart melted, seeing the love in the clouded eyes.
The man beside her tensed. “A dog in a hotel?”
“It’s an inn. Relax,” Miranda said, kneeling down. “She’s actually not supposed to be in here, but she knows how to unlatch the door when she wants. Chloe doesn’t bite. Hey, baby. I have missed you. Chloe is my dog. Well, mine and my cousin Dusty’s. It was best for her to stay here when I went to school, and then Quantico and St. Louis. Masterson is all she’s ever known. I couldn’t take her to St. Louis and lock her away all day. She’s used to being free, here at the inn.”
She ran her fingers through the long hair and brushed a kiss across a doggie forehead. The eyes were cloudy, and Chloe was frailer, but the spirit was still right there. Chloe would always be her first love. “Where’s Grandma, baby? The rest of the inn-mates?”
The dog just pushed against her hands.
“If you’re finished…Dr. Talley?”
Miranda stood. Before Knight had a complete meltdown. “I suppose I am.”
She went through the process of checking him in. Her room was unused by the inn and was always just waiting for her to walk in. “You’re in room twelve. It’s just down from the private hallway that leads to mine and my family’s rooms. I’m right on the other side of the wall. So I hope you don’t snore too loudly. This place has been in my family since this town was less than five years old. It was rebuilt in 1925 after a fire gutted the original. Isn’t it gorgeous?”
He just grunted.
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes like a teenager. Obviously, grunting was his favorite sound.
Miranda carried her bag to her room and was ready to roll in five minutes. After one last snuggle with Chloe, she waited for her companion.
When he returned, she stood. She’d changed into jeans, western-style boots, and a plaid shirt out of her closet. Miranda tried to make it home at least one weekend out of the month when she could. She had plenty of supplies in her suite.
Knight was even more severe and buttoned-down than he’d been before, even though he wore the same suit he’d traveled in. It was the eyes that did it. He was going to stand out like the proverbial sore thumb around here.
Miranda kept her opinion quiet.
He’d have to figure it out himself. “You ready? Grandma runs the diner in town. I suspect my sisters and cousins are there to help with the weekend rush. The Talley Inn and Flo’s Diner are town institutions and are definite family affairs.”
“I see.”
“Agent Knight, I’m not certain you can.”
Anticipation filled her. She’d been away from her family long enough.
He got his first look at the town of Masterson as they walked. It did resemble the fictional perfect small town. Picturesque, quaint. People even waved.
Knight bit back a snarl.
He didn’t know why this place pissed him off so much, but it did.
It most likely had something to do with the woman walking at his side.
Constant cheer had always grated on his nerves. The world he lived in wasn’t exactly a cheery place. It never had been, even before he’d been shot.
It irritated a man, especially when he was trying to think. Knight looked at her again, unable to stop himself. The woman looked good with the town as a backdrop. Too good. That just irritated him even more.
She was the type of girl he’d always despised on principle. Wholesome, sunny happiness that wasn’t realistic at all.
His scowl deepened.
People stared at him as he passed. Miranda got hellos and waves. Even a hug or two. Like she fit, like she belonged.
He supposed she did. Some people just had places in their souls in a way Knight had never fully understood.
The diner, Flo’s, was just up ahead. She sped up as they got closer. Anticipation was in every step she took. She was practically skipping with joy.
Knight stayed on her heels, biting back his irritation with every step.
6
Normally, Jim avoided Masterson County as much as he possibly could. It was probably best that people had forgotten all about him and what he’d been like as a twenty-one-year-old punk kid fourteen years ago. But he needed to see. To know what was going on.
He hadn’t meant to follow Gunderson around today. But he’d seen the man’s truck go by, and he’d just put his own squad car in gear. Just followed him.
Jim wanted to see the FBI in person.
The previous nine weeks had been utter torture for him. He’d probably drunk more beer in the last nine weeks than he had in the nine years before. Not to mention the whiskey he’d chased it down with. All trying to get Helen’s smirking face out of his head. To keep Clint’s know-it-all ways from pissing him off.
Well, Clint wasn’t doing so hot at getting to the bottom of who’d killed Helen, now,
