Leaving Liberty, a Western Romance (Book 5) (Texas Hearts) by Lisa Mondello Read Free Book Online Page B

When he got there, my father was dead.”
    Tears spilled over her eyelids and fell down her warm cheeks.
    “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
    “Cole feels responsible.”
    “Why? As you say, it was an accident. That being the case, why did he leave town? And why did you show up at the police station with bail money?”
    “Oh, come on, Jackson. What was he supposed to think? What was I supposed to think for that matter when you come down here asking all kinds of questions? Do you really blame him for leaving?”
    “Yes. He left you with this ranch to deal with on your own. Why kind of man does that?”
    “The way you came at him, interrogating him like he purposely killed a man he’d spent years working with, a man who treated him like the father he never had, well, you just about killed him, too. He loved my father.”
    “Does he love you, too?”
    She blinked hard, thrown by the question. “What?”
    “It’s a simple question, Libby. Do you really need me to spell it out?”
    “You’re out of line.”
    “That’s what I thought, too. Until Cole disappeared.”
    Libby stalked to the faucet on the other end of the barn, yanked a clean bucket from the stack by the door and started filling it with water. When she turned off the water, she straightened up and turned to him, pushing an errant stand of hair away from her face with back of her hand.
    “Tell me the real reason you went after him the way you did.”
    “I told you. The accident details didn’t add up.” He gave her a hard look, but kept his eyes fixed on hers. “Tell me the truth. You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
    # # #
     
     

Chapter Six
     
    He’d done it again. Libby didn’t owe Jackson an explanation of her relationship with Cole Rivers outside of the investigation he was charged to do. And yet, that burning desire to know her answer coiled in his stomach as he waited for her to respond.
    She laughed so loud Skittish bobbed his head.
    “You’ve got to be kidding,” she said. “He’s practically my brother.”
    “That’s not exactly an answer, is it? Besides, he wasn’t too happy having me around you either.”
    “Do you blame him?”
    Libby walked over to Spirit and began to undo the straps of her saddle. When the straps were free, she slid the saddle off Spirit’s back. It wasn’t the weight in her arms that Jackson noticed most. It was the way Libby winced when she lifted her arms.
    “Give that to me,” he said, taking the saddle from her hands. He carried the saddle to the tack room and laid it on the makeshift sawhorse where she’d retrieved it earlier. She followed with the blanket.
    “It’s been over a month since my father died. I’ve got to move on. I can’t keep having this hashed out. My father died from a stupid accident. I wish to God it hadn’t happened, but it did.”
    “You didn’t answer my question.”
    “Does the answer really matter? It doesn’t change your investigation. It doesn’t change the fact that there is more work here than I can handle. I just want to move on.”
    The tears in her eyes broke his heart. “It matters to me.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I like you. And if you weren’t so damned stubborn, you’d admit that you like me, too.”
    She heaved a heavy sigh. “I won’t start what I can’t finish. I don’t have time to like anyone. And by the way, don’t you have family and a life somewhere else? You’ve been stuck in Liberty for weeks. When is this investigation going to end?”
    “I’m not comfortable with the fact that someone has been breaking through your fences.”
    “That’s my problem. Not yours.”
    “I’m making it mine until you can get Deputy Bancroft involved. The local law should be aware of this. And you shouldn’t be here alone. But…”
    “But what?”
    “Unless there are any new developments, the investigation into your father’s accident is closed.”
    “Really?”
    “Based on what you just told me, the explanation of how Buck