Eight
Tom was dead. She’d been ushered away from his lifeless body and open, empty brown eyes thirty minutes ago and still, that was all she saw. Tom sprawled on the floor, limbs at an unnatural angle, eyes open and unseeing.
Blood.
She was in the back of a police cruiser, moving through Austin at a steady clip. Daisy Delaney. America’s favorite country bad girl. Until she’d filed for divorce from country’s golden child, Jordan Jones. Now everyone hated her, and someone wanted her dead.
But they’d killed Tom first.
She wanted to close her eyes, but she was afraid the vision of Tom would only intensify if she did. So she focused on the world out the window. Pearly dawn. Green suburban lawns.
She was holding it together. Even though Tom’s lifeless eyes haunted her. And all that blood. The smell of it. She was queasy and desperately wanted to cry, but she was holding on. Gotta save face, Daisy girl. No matter what. Never let them see they got to you.
It didn’t matter the name her mother had given her was Lucy Cooper. Daddy had always used her stage name—the name he’d given her. Daisy Delaney, after his dearly departed grandmother, who’d given him his first guitar.
She’d relished that once upon a time, no matter how much her mother and brother had disapproved. Today, for the first time in her life, she wondered where she might be if she hadn’t followed in her famous father’s footsteps.
She couldn’t change the past so she held it together. Didn’t let anyone see she was devastated, shaken or scared.
Until the car pulled up in front of her brother’s house. He was standing outside. She’d expected to see him in his Texas Rangers uniform of pressed khakis, a button-up shirt and that shiny star she knew he took such pride in.
Instead, he was in sweats, a baby cradled in his arms.
“You shouldn’t have brought me here,” she whispered to the police officer as he shifted into Park.
“Ranger Cooper asked me to, ma’am.”
She let out a breath. Asked. While her brother was a Texas Ranger and this man was Austin PD, Daisy was under no illusions her brother hadn’t interfered enough to make sure it was an order, not a request.
When the officer opened the door for her, she managed a smile and a thank-you. The officer shook hands with Vaughn, then gave her a sympathetic look. “We’ll have more questions for you, Ms. Delaney, but the ones you answered at the scene will do for now.”
She smiled thinly. “Thank you. And if there’s any break in the case—”
“We’ll let you and your brother know.”
The officer nodded and left. Daisy turned to Vaughn.
“You shouldn’t have brought me here,” she said, peeking into the bundle of blankets. She brushed her fingers over her niece’s cheek. “It isn’t safe having me around you guys.”
“Safety’s my middle name,” Vaughn said, and there wasn’t an ounce of concern or fear in his voice, but she could feel it nonetheless. Her straitlaced brother had never understood her need to follow their father’s spotlight, but he’d always been her protector. “You didn’t tell me you’d come back to Austin.”
She’d thought she could keep it from him. Keep him and Nat from worrying when they had this gorgeous little family they were building.
Daisy had been stupid and foolish to think she’d be able to keep anything from Vaughn. She couldn’t afford to be stupid and foolish anymore. Though she’d lived in fear for almost a year now, she’d believed it would remain a nonviolent threat. Her stalker had never hurt her or anyone she’d been connected to.
Now he’d killed Tom. The man Vaughn had hired to protect her. It wasn’t her own failure. Rationally, she knew that, but kind, funny Tom, who’d done everything in his power to protect her, was dead.
“Come inside, Lucy.” Vaughn slid his free arm around her shoulders and the first tear fell over onto her cheek. She couldn’t let more fall, and yet her brother’s steadiness, and the name only he and Mom called her, was one of the few things that could undo her.
Well, that and murder, she supposed. “Tom...”
“We’ll handle the arrangements,” Vaughn said, squeezing her shoulders as baby Nora gurgled happily in her daddy’s arms. “He was a good man.”
“He shouldn’t have died protecting me.”
“But he did. He signed up for that job. You’ll have time to mourn that. We all will, but right now we need to focus on getting you somewhere safe.”
She wanted to say something snotty. Vaughn could be so cold, and though she knew it was his law-enforcement training, it grated. Except he held his baby like the precious gift she was, and Daisy had watched years ago as his voice had broken when he’d made his vows to his wife.
Vaughn wasn’t cold or heartless. He just had control down to an art form. And his concern was her. Daisy felt like such a burden to him, and yet there was no way to convince him this wasn’t his problem.
“Nat’s got coffee on and Jaime is on his way over,” Vaughn said, locking the door behind her then leading her up the stairs of his split-level ranch.
“What’s Jaime got to do with this?” Daisy asked warily. “You can’t get the FBI involved. I—”
“I’m not getting the FBI involved. I’m using my FBI connections to find a safe place for you while we let the professionals investigate.”
“And by professionals you mean you.”
“I mean anyone and everyone I can get on this case. With our connection, I’m not legally allowed to be part of the official investigation.”
Which meant he’d launch his own unofficial one. No matter how by-the-book Vaughn was, he’d always break