Chapters (40)
- Half Title Page
- Books by Mary Connealy
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Epilogue
- About the Author
- Back Ads
- Back Cover
He might start looking for a new housekeeper, because she was quite sure his intentions weren’t honorable, and if she had no interest in him, then he needed a housekeeper who was, but he’d never fire her until her replacement was at hand.
Molly might be here to investigate, but the house was a shambles, just as Wyatt said the ranch was. She’d been working hard to clean it, all the while wondering why. To pass the time and because she had a longing for order. That was the best she could figure. Wyatt said it offended him to see such a poorly run ranch, and the animals were being neglected, which he couldn’t abide, so he was trying to run it right, but he, too, wasn’t sure why he cared—beyond the livestock. They’d be gone as soon as they got into Hawkins’s second safe.
The first safe had held nothing much of interest, except stacks of account books. Wyatt had taken them to her room and gone over them for most of the night. He started with the most recent ones before it occurred to him that information about how Hawkins got the money from Win’s mother and how he spent it would be near the beginning.
Molly saw days, even weeks, of work to go through them all.
Wyatt said Hawkins had started with a fortune, but after twenty years of spending it down hard with a loss each year, the large balances in the accounts were dwindling.
It also looked as if Ralston had stolen a nice chunk of money, but Wyatt hadn’t gotten to the bottom of all that yet. With serious misgivings, he ended up putting the account ledgers back in the safe, afraid their absence might be noticed. He wanted to come back tonight, but Molly insisted he needed a night’s sleep between his investigative forays.
As these thoughts raced through her mind, she saw the way Hawkins looked. His gaze troubled and frustrated.
And beneath that, he was calculating. He didn’t like the line she’d drawn, and now he had to decide whether to fire her on the spot or find a new way to get what he wanted.
She hoped he at least gave her time to find and break into his second safe.