Rocky Mountain Dreams & Family on the Range by Danica Favorite (summer beach reads txt) 📕

eyelid again. He blinked and held on as the streetcar slowed to its next stop. The Silver place loomed across the street. Lou got off with a few others and separated from them.

Time to don his “agent” hat and get to work. Worrying about where Mary might be could wait for later. But as he made his way up the walk, opening the gate, and taking the stairs two at a time, his stomach clenched.

“Focus,” he muttered, then rapped quick and hard on the front door.

Almost immediately it swung open. A man with eyes bordering on purple faced him. His hair was slicked in the fashion of the day. He wore a neatly pressed suit and his face was clean-shaven.

Lou disliked him immediately.

“Langdon, I presume?”

Langdon’s brows rose, but he quickly recovered and stepped outside, closing the door behind him. “What can I do for you?”

He flipped his badge open. “Special Agent Lou Riley with the Bureau of Investigation.” He put the badge away. “Would you mind going to my office to answer a few questions?” His tone brooked no argument.

Langdon bared his teeth. “I’ve business to attend to.”

“We can talk here.” Lou gave him a look designed to get his point across.

“I really must go, but here is my card. You may call me.” The man’s voice was slicker than a politician’s on election day.

Lou scowled and closed the gap between them. They stood head-to-head. His instincts roared that something was wrong. “What were you doing in Burns?”

“Business.” Langdon’s cheeks bunched in a mocking manner. “I stopped by your place.”

“I heard.” This guy didn’t get to own the conversation. “Also heard you murdered someone.”

Langdon’s eyes flickered. “Really? How odd.” He moved back and bumped the front door. “Isn’t that business for the police, though? I thought the bureau dealt with other, more important, things?”

“You saying you did it?”

“I’m saying the sheriff has himself the murderer. Go talk to him.” Langdon pulled out a pocket watch and made a point of looking at it before stuffing it back into his overpressed suit. “I really must say goodbye.”

“Don’t think so.” Lou cocked him a smile that froze most men. He propped a hand against the door and leaned forward. “You see, Langdon, I’m here unofficially. Your trail... Let’s just say it’s putting off an odor.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’m going to fix that. You might think you’re slick, but I’m onto you. With the murder and with your niece. You won’t get away with anything.”

Langdon inclined his head, a smirk plastered to his lips. He casually brushed off his right shoulder, as if Lou’s words had landed there and stuck. “Since you’re here unofficially, I believe I might have something that belongs to you.”

“That a fact?” Unease skittered up his spine.

Langdon turned and opened the front door. “Someone’s here for you. Come, come, don’t be frightened.” He cast Lou a smile that chilled him to the core. “I’m afraid I might have been a little too...harsh with her.”

Confused, Lou’s gaze darted to the entryway. Movement, and then Mary emerged, eyes wide and lips pale.

Lou snarled and yanked Langdon up by the sleeve. The man’s cologne reeked. “What did you do to her?”

Chapter Nineteen

Langdon tried to shrug out of Lou’s grasp, but he tightened his grip and jerked him against the wall of the house. Mary gasped, but Lou ignored her. His pulse hammered through him, and his fingers moved to the scoundrel’s collar.

Langdon made a choking sound but didn’t try again to get out of Lou’s hold. Rather, his lips tilted. “You should take better care of your property.”

Lou released him abruptly and turned to Mary, who edged through the doorway in a pained way. A sound like a train filled his ears and his vision blurred. Whirling, he pushed Langdon up against the door.

“You better talk, and fast,” he said.

“Release me or I’ll have the police arrest you for assault.”

Lou’s jaw hurt. He ground his teeth and forced his fingers to unlock from Langdon’s arms. “You’re done for. Don’t forget it.”

Langdon sniffed and readjusted his shirt. “Have a pleasant life, Special Agent Riley.” He turned and pushed into the house. Silence ensued.

Mary gazed off the porch, her face unreadable. A bird twittered. Streetcars rumbled past, casting long shadows against the street. He stalked to Mary.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded but didn’t look at him. He couldn’t help himself. He touched her shoulders, gently moving his hands down her arms, looking for any bruising or indication that Langdon had physically mistreated her.

She didn’t flinch.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Absolutely sure?” He grasped her shoulders, searching her eyes for something, anything, to take away the worry that was cleaving into him.

“I’m sure.” Her smile was calm as she backed out of his grip.

Clearing his throat, shoving his hands into his pockets, he asked, “Do you want to walk back to the hotel?”

“That’s quite the walk,” she murmured.

“I have an appointment at ten.” He glanced at his watch. “That’s in forty-five minutes. We can be to the office by then and you can wait. The agent in charge of escorting you has been reassigned, so it looks like—”

“I don’t need an escort, Lou.” She looked at him, her eyes earnest. “I’m a grown woman, quite capable of traveling home.”

“I wish that was true, but times are troubled.” He thought of the papers in his briefcase.

“They seem fine to me. Prohibition has things a bit topsy-turvy, but the war is over, our economy is recovering... What do you find to be the problem?”

“Let’s walk,” he suggested as he debated how much to tell her. She held her head high beside him, and if she noticed the stares of those they passed, she didn’t let on. He rubbed the back of his neck for a moment and then gave in to his gut. “Our office has received some disturbing information. The Ku Klux Klan is reorganizing. Strategizing. We’re expecting to see some integration of their policies and beliefs in the coming year, we’re