Grayson by Delores Fossen Read Free Book Online Page B

my life?”
    Grayson looked her straight in the eyes, too. “Eve, what I understand is this killer knows you took his picture, and he’ll do anything to get it back. I can keep you safe here in Silver Creek until we can get the picture printed in tomorrow’s paper. That way, the killer won’t have a reason to come after you because thousands of people will have seen his face, along with the woman he probably murdered.”
    She tried to shrug. Eve wasn’t immune to the fear, but she wasn’t giving in to it, either. “Then print the photo, and tomorrow I can celebrate both my insemination and my safety.”
    He didn’t answer that and just kept glaring as if searching for the right argument to change her mind. There wasn’t an argument that could do that.
    Eve adjusted her cell again, ready to make her call. “I’ll get a car rental, and on the drive to Austin, I’ll phone clinics and start begging. One way or another, I’m getting pregnant today.”
    Now, he cursed and shook his head. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll drive you to Austin myself.”
    Eve hadn’t thought the day could have any more surprises, but that was a big one, and she knew just how massive a concession that was for Grayson.
    “You can’t,” she argued. “You have too much to do to babysit me.”
    “Save your breath,” he growled. He grabbed his coat and put it on as if he taking his anger out on the garment. He also snatched the rodeo photo of the dead woman. “You’re not the only hardheaded person in this room. And if you can make calls on the drive over, then so can I. If I have to, I’ll run this investigation from my truck.”
    He brushed past her and headed for his door, and she heard him tell the dispatcher that he had to leave. Eve didn’t want to think of what kind of complications this might cause for Grayson, but she knew it would. She also knew this was another huge compromise for him. Maybe Dade and Mason could find this gunman today so this would all be over.
    She gathered up the pictures and stuffed them into the equipment bag. Her hand knocked against another photo. The only framed one on Grayson’s desk. It was of his maternal grandfather, Sheriff Chet McLaurin.
    Despite her own horrible circumstances, she smiled when she saw the man’s face. Eve had known him well, and he’d become like her own grandfather. When he’d been murdered twenty years ago, Eve had grieved right along with the Ryland clan.
    She wondered if Grayson and his brothers realized that the man in the photo was the reason they’d all gotten into law enforcement. An unsolved murder could do that. It was a wound that would not heal.
    Eve spotted another wound.
    The silver concho hooked on to the top of the frame. She recognized it, as well. Grayson’s father had given all six of his sons a concho with the double R symbol of their family’s ranch. He’d done that, and then less than a week later, he’d left Silver Creek and abandoned the very family that he claimed to have loved.
    No wonder Grayson didn’t want kids of his own.
    He’d witnessed firsthand that parenthood could cut to the core. Eve swore she would never do that to her child.
    “Ready?” Grayson said from the doorway.
    She’d been so caught up in the picture of his grand father and the concho that she hadn’t noticed Grayson was there. He had also noticed what had caught her attention.
    “Yeah,” he mumbled as if he’d known exactly what she’d been thinking.
    Eve silently cursed the legacy that Grayson’s father had left him, and she stuffed the rest of her things into the equipment bag.
    “You kept the concho he gave you,” she commented as they went to his truck.
    He didn’t answer until they were both inside the cab of his truck. “Sometimes, it helps to remember how much I hate my father.”
    She stared at him. “How could that possibly help?”
    “It’s a reminder that sometimes the easy way out can hurt a lot of people.”
    He didn’t look at her when