LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter Four

      Wyatt dropped them off at the ranch so Christina could get her truck and they could set to work. She sent a quick glance over at Waylon. His copper-toned skin glistened in the midday sun, and she couldn’t help the little wiggle of attraction that rose up from her core.

      Seeing him in his element, working over the car and finding what the rest had missed, had made some of the anger she had been carrying for the man fall to the wayside. He was good at his job, and he looked even better doing it.

      This would have been so much easier if she could just stay firmly planted in her dislike. It made it easier to compartmentalize and keep him as an enemy. Yet every time he joked around, she was tempted to think of him almost as a friend.

      He turned to her as Wyatt drove off. “You sure you don’t mind driving me around? I could just borrow one of the ranch’s trucks. You don’t have to keep me company.”

      She appreciated the out, but her whole body pushed her to stay with him. “I’m doing this for Alli. I can’t stop looking just because you’re here.”

      “Have you been looking for her nonstop since she went missing last week?” he asked. A frown crossed over his face, like he was surprised she had not given up.

      “Of course. She’s my sister. I don’t have to agree with what she does, or the choices she makes, but I love her and I want to make sure that she’s safe.”

      “If she called or you found her, do you think you’d be able to turn her in to the authorities—or Wyatt?”

      She chewed on her lip. She’d already thought about that question, but she had pushed it to the back of her mind. “I need to know she’s safe first, then I’ll make that choice.”

      “Does that mean you would let her stay on the run?”

      Alli deserved to pay for her crimes. She had murdered, but Christina had to think about Winnie, too. The girl was already bearing the weight of her mother’s choices. If Alli went to prison, Winnie would have to visit that terrible place, but if Alli stayed on the run, things could be kept from Winnie until she was old enough to understand a bit better.

      “Like I said, I’ll make that choice when I’m faced with it,” she said. “All I want now is to know that she’s alive and well.”

      Waylon glanced down at his hands. “You know what? I get it,” he said, looking at his tanned and calloused fingers. “Your sister has a good heart. I don’t know why she acted like she did, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about her and what happens to her. I want her to be safe—just like you do.”

      The way he spoke about Alli was endearing and completely unexpected. Alli had never spoken of him with anything close to the same warmth. In fact, if Christina had to guess, regardless of what Alli had told her, it was not a breakup he had instigated. If anything, it seemed like he might still have had feelings for her sister when they had split and maybe even now.

      Which made the feelings Christina was starting to have for him all that much more wrong. How could she possibly be attracted to her sister’s ex-husband? There was something so daytime gossip show about the whole thing.

      She chuckled at the thought.

      “What’s so funny?” Waylon asked.

      “I wasn’t laughing at you,” she said, trying to backpedal from her bad timing. “It’s just that...” She couldn’t tell him she was laughing about the way she was starting to feel about him.

      “What?” he asked, spurring her on.

      “It’s just that I think we’re one step away from being asked to be on the Maury show.” She covered her mouth as she laughed and, as she did, the look of pain on Waylon’s face disappeared and he smiled. It was filled with a jovial warmth, and there was even a look of something else in his eyes...something that resembled attraction.

      Nope. She had to have it all wrong. There was no way he could be attracted to her.

      “I...er...” she said. There was a faint warmth in her cheeks, and she tried to keep it in check. She walked toward her truck with him at her side. “I don’t mean your family. Your mom and dad are great. It’s just with the murders and everything...you know.”

      He motioned that it was okay for her to stop her rambling. “It’s okay. I get it. And though my parents’ lives are in order, you and I both know the same can’t be said for the rest of us. That’s without even mentioning this thing with Alli.” He paused. “I can’t even begin to imagine what she told you about me over the years.” He glanced over at her, as if trying to gauge her reaction.

      She bit the inside of her cheek. Alli had made a personal habit of ripping her ex-husband to shreds. Alli hadn’t done it in front of Winnie as she had wanted to keep Winnie’s father’s identity a secret from her, but that didn’t change the fact that over the years, some of the things she had told Christina had begun to wear her down and made her dislike him on principle.

      “Yeah, I thought so,” he said, as though he could read her mind. “Listen, Alli and I had a tough relationship.” He said the word like it tasted of spoiled shellfish. “We never should have gotten married. I just thought that what we had was what love was supposed to be. I supported her—emotionally, mentally, even physically sometimes. It only made sense that we took the leap and made things official. But as soon as we got married, it was like a switch flipped. She went from bad to worse.”

      Christina should have been offended that he was saying her sister was bad, but she really didn’t have a platform to argue anything different. Alli made poor choices on a regular basis.

      “I thought I could handle her mood swings, but in the end—when she started sleeping with other men—I just couldn’t have her in my life anymore. We weren’t good together. We never were. It was just time that I left. She’s the reason I went back to active duty. And you know what? I’m glad that I left. It was far better than letting your sister rip my soul apart.”

      His candor came as a surprise, so much so that Christina didn’t quite know how to react. She should have stood up for her sister, yet at the same time, she could feel for Waylon. Her sister had a way of tearing down the people she loved. It was just a part of her personality, as if by pushing away the people she loved the most, she could protect herself from being vulnerable or at the mercy of others’ feelings. It was almost as though she wanted to hurt them before they had the chance to hurt her.

      It undoubtedly came from their childhood. Their parents had been emotional train wrecks—a world of constant cheating and berating. It was the reason Christina had sworn off men for the last few years. She had come too close to following in her parents’ footsteps. Not loving was just so much easier than living a life like that of her childhood.

      “Alli had her fair share of problems, and maybe a few extra, too,” she said, giving him a knowing smile.

      “I have mine, too,” he said, making the desire she was feeling

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