Dark Legacy by Jen Talty (reading books for 4 year olds .txt) 📗

“I don’t like the voice of reason.” He cocked his head and frowned.

“You’re a nice man, and I do enjoy your company, but—”

He hushed her by pressing his soft lips to her mouth.

She leaned in to his strong frame and moaned. She couldn’t believe she caved so quickly to his tender touch. She’d never met a man who had such a physical and emotional effect on her, and she wasn’t used to it. She didn’t know how to control her emotions.

She pressed her hand against his chest. “You’re really good at that.”

“You’re not so bad yourself.” He winked.

“It’s getting late, and I have early appointments.”

He took her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Can I cook you dinner tomorrow after work?”

“I’d like that.”

“Good night, Shannon.”

“Good night.” She turned on a dime and scurried across the yard. She didn’t glance over her shoulder. After closing the door and locking it, she leaned against the wooden frame, fiddling with her necklace.

Her cell buzzed in her back pocket. She pulled it out and smiled at Jackson’s smiley face text.

Her life was really finally coming together.

Chapter Six

Jackson’s phone rang out, jostling him from a deep sleep. He stretched, rolling to his side.

At two in the morning, it had to be Katie, even though he wished it was Shannon asking him to sneak over for the night.

He snagged the cell and tapped the screen. “This’d better be good. I was right in the middle of an amazing dream.”

“Belinda Montgomery is dead,” Katie’s voice boomed across the room, bouncing off the walls. “They found her body on Long Island.”

He bolted to an upright position. “No fucking way.”

“Yep. I’m on my way to get you by boat.”

“You don’t own a boat.” He shoved the covers to the side and searched for his jeans.

“I borrowed Jacob’s. Be at the dock in fifteen.”

“On it.” He hiked up his pants, found a sweatshirt, and made his way down toward the dock, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He glanced over his shoulder. Shannon’s cottage was dark. He thought about texting her, but he’d wait until he knew more.

Breaking other people’s rules was something Jackson rarely thought twice about. Breaking his rules, well…he created them for a reason.

But Shannon Brendel and her sexy legs that went on forever had been torturing him in his dreams for months. Their early-morning conversations hadn’t been anything deep. More like casual chatter one would expect between neighbors. But they affected him to his core, making him willing to toss caution to the wind.

He stood on the dock in front of his cottage, staring at a white light moving across the lake.

The boat engine got louder. He glanced over his shoulder. Hopefully, he’d be back before Shannon left for work in the morning.

Katie pulled up to the dock in a small Boston Whaler. Jackson stepped aboard and then pushed it from the dock.

“Wow. That sailboat is something else,” Katie said as she pushed the throttle forward. “I still think you should send a picture of it to your ex-wife and tell her you bought it with the money from the divorce settlement.”

“I’d rather not have any contact with her, thank you,” Jackson said. His marriage ranked right up there as the biggest mistake of his life, and one he didn’t like discussing.

With anyone.

It was over, and she was out of his life.

“You could be sipping tropical drinks in the Bahamas had you gone after her.”

“Life isn’t always about money. Besides, if you’d met her, you’d be wondering why the hell I married her in the first place.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “What do you know about this case?”

“A young couple found Belinda’s body under a picnic table at the campsite next to them. I guess they were a little intoxicated and went to the wrong site. Took Lake George patrol fifteen minutes to get there.”

“So, State is taking point?”

“Don’t know. Westerfield is on-site now, and I’m sure he wants jurisdiction, but it doesn’t affect us one way or the other.”

Jackson stood next to the center console on Katie’s side of the boat. Katie pulled back on the throttle as they approached the five-mile-an-hour buoys between Long Island and Assembly Point. “They aren’t going to let us anywhere near the scene.”

“Probably not,” she agreed. “But just driving by, we’ll be able to tell if they are considering it a suicide, overdose, or murder.”

“You already think it’s murder, don’t you?”

“I don’t know what to think. This case gets weirder and weirder by the second. But once we get confirmation that she’s dead, our case is technically over.”

Katie navigated the boat through the buoys and then pulled in tight to the shoreline of the island. Jackson could see the lights about twenty campsites up ahead. There appeared to be two LG patrol boats, a sheriff’s department boat, and a fire rescue boat. A helicopter buzzed overhead with a spotlight—they were looking for something...or someone.

“Call Westerfield,” Katie said. “He’s knows we’re out here.”

Jackson pulled up his contact information.

“Westerfield here.”

“What’s going on?” Jackson asked.

“Hang on,” Westerfield said. A brief moment passed. “Treating it as a homicide. There are a ton of bruises on the girl’s body, and we don’t think this is where she died.”

“What about the new boyfriend we were told she was with?”

“No sign of him, but we have people looking.”

“What’s going to happen if we drive close?” Jackson asked.

“As long as you stay a good fifty feet from the island, we won’t do anything. I’ll call you when I wrap up here.”

Jackson tapped Katie on the shoulder and made one gesture toward the patrol boats and then indicated for them to go out a little ways. “All right,” Jackson said. “Talk to you soon.”

“So?” Katie asked.

“Increase speed to about ten miles per hour and drive out about fifty feet from shore. I get the feeling Westerfield is keeping something from us. Not sure what, but whatever it is, I bet we’ll see it if we look hard enough.”

Katie