McCullen's Secret Son (The Heroes Of Horseshoe Creek Book 2) by Rita Herron Read Free Book Online Page B

then hurried to his truck before he went inside and crawled in bed with her.
    Tension thrummed through him as he drove back to the farmhouse and parked.
    Just as he let himself inside the house, Maddox was jogging down the steps. His gaze roved over Brett’s dirt-stained clothes, a disapproving scowl stretching his mouth into a thin line.
    “We just buried our father, and you went out partying, huh?” Maddox muttered. “Some things never change, do they?”
    Brett bit his tongue to keep from a retort.
    Unable to tell him the truth, he let his brother believe the lesser of the evils, pasted on a cocky grin like he would after an all-night drunk and climbed the steps to his old room.
    If his brother knew that he’d buried a murdered man on McCullen land, he’d lock him up and never talk to him again.

Chapter Six
    Too on edge to sleep, Brett showered, anxious to wash the stench of Leo’s dead body off him.
    But all the soap in the world couldn’t erase the memory of what he’d done.
    He envisioned the headlines—Rodeo Star Brett McCullen Arrested for Covering Up a Murder, for Tampering with Evidence in a Homicide...
    The list could go on and on.
    If—no,
when
—it was revealed that he and Willow shared a past, people might think that the two of them had plotted to kill her husband so they could be together.
    Perspiration beaded on his neck as he buttoned his shirt.
    The only way to make sure the two of them weren’t charged was to find out who had killed Leo. Then they could recover Willow’s little boy and turn the situation over to Maddox.
    He dressed in jeans, fastened his belt and yanked on his cowboy boots. Then he packed a duffel bag of clothes in case he needed to stay with Willow and stowed them in his Range Rover.
    His eyes felt bleary from lack of sleep, but he couldn’t rest right now. He had to find some answers.
    Willow and her little boy were depending on him.
    The first place he would start was Leo’s truck. It had been left in Willow’s drive. Maybe there was something inside it that would give him a lead.
    The scent of strong coffee and bacon wafted through the air as he entered the dining room. Mama Mary was humming a gospel song in the kitchen, but she had set out coffee and juice along with hot biscuits, bacon and eggs on the sideboard.
    He poured himself a mug of coffee, then made a breakfast sandwich and wolfed it down. She ambled in just as he was finishing, her eyes probing his.
    “How you doing this morning, Mr. Brett?”
    He and his brothers always said Mama Mary had eyes in the back of her head, and a sixth sense that told her when one of them had been bad. She was giving him that look this morning.
    He shrugged. “Okay.”
    “Hmm-hmm.”
    If guilt wasn’t pressing against his chest so badly he would have chuckled. “It’s hard being back here without Dad,” he said, hoping she’d think his grief was all that was eating at him.
    “I know. We’re all gonna miss your daddy.” She patted his shoulder and poured him another cup of coffee. “Best remember that and take care to make up with the ones still on this side of the ground.”
    He understood her not-so-subtle message.
    Unfortunately his actions the night before would only create a bigger chasm and garner more disapproval from his older brother. He never could measure up to Maddox.
    She cleared his plate. “Maddox wanted to check the fence on the west side before he went to the sheriff’s office.”
    How Maddox handled being in the office and the ranch was beyond Brett. But then again, Maddox was the one who
could
do it all and make it look easy at the same time.
    Hadn’t his father told him that a million times?
    “You know Maddox got engaged to this pretty lady named Rose?” Mama Mary said with a sparkle in her eye.
    Brett nodded. “Is that her name?”
    “Yeah, she’s a sweetheart. Owns the antique store in town where Willow sells her quilts. Poor Rose had some trouble a while back, but Maddox handled it for