Deceptive Truth: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 4) by Olivia Jaymes (reading women .txt) 📕

tired. She may not have slept well last night. She has good days and bad. Today wasn't great."

"I am sorry I brought it up. I should have listened to you."

"It's not the first time," she said without thinking. The words came out before she could stop them.

His gaze didn't stray from the road ahead. "Can we not talk about that? I don't want to argue with you today. We need to work together."

"I don't want to argue either. Just forget it."

"I already have."

"Good. It's no big deal. I get it. I'm a terrible person. Case closed."

It hurt. She couldn't deny it.

"You're not– Shit, can we just change the subject?"

"I already agreed to do that. Where are we going next?"

"To talk to the detective that looked into your sister's disappearance."

Jenna laughed but it wasn't with happiness. "I think I should warn you right now that the detective definitely thinks that I'm a terrible person. All because I asked him to do his damn job."

"Then let me do the talking."

"Gladly."

Knox was going to find out that this trip to the police station was a grand waste of time. No one had helped them and no one had cared that Lori had disappeared.

They were truly on their own.

12

Despite what Jenna might think, Knox had modest expectations regarding his meeting with Detective Bauer in Douglas. It was already established that the police had decided not to pursue the investigation after the text that Michelle had received from Lori's phone. As far as Knox was concerned, he had enough doubt not to be completely sure that Lori was the author of that text. All these months later she hadn't attempted to get in touch with her family? It didn't make much sense to him.

The town of Douglas was about an hour drive away. Knox loved to drive so he sat back in his leather seat and turned on the satellite radio to his favorite country station. His fingers tapped out the rhythm on the steering wheel as the tires ate up the miles to their destination.

Jenna didn't say much for most of the trip, seemingly content to watch out of the windows and enjoy the scenery. That was something that he liked about her from the very first. She didn't feel the need to fill in all the silences with talking. She spoke when she had something to say. That was it. She was a good listener too. She didn't interrupt him, instead listening intently and only chiming in when he was finished. Anita had been like that too, letting Knox finish his thoughts before she spoke.

"I noticed that you call your adopted mom by her first name."

It was really none of his business but for some reason he wanted to know more about Jenna and her family.

It's because of the investigation. I need to know all I can. It's not because I want to know more about her specifically.

"Yes, I do. Anita and Tom always said that I could call them Mom and Dad, but...I don't know. I just never did. I think that I have some negative connotations to those designations because of my parents. I should probably seek therapy about it or something before I have kids."

Jenna would be a good mother. She had patience and kindness.

"How did Michelle and Lori feel about you calling their parents Mom and Dad?"

Chuckling, Jenna shook her head. "Still trying to find the family issues? They always encouraged me to do it, but once I explained they backed off. Honestly, we're not dysfunctional. We all get along really well."

"I wouldn't know a thing about that. I spend as little time with my family as possible."

"But you basically did the same thing I did. You created your own family."

"I don't know what you mean. How did I create my own family?"

Turning in her seat, Jenna faced him. "The way you talk about your co-workers is like a family."

"I hate that shit," Knox replied. "That whole this office is like a family crap. I have a family. They just suck. Well, most of them do. My younger brother Randy is pretty normal."

Tilting her head, she tapped her chin. "If your family is such a nightmare, how did you turn out so normal? Or at least almost-normal?"

"My grandmother. The one who named me. She was great."

She'd also passed on when Knox was a teenager. She'd made the best apple pies in the universe. He could still taste them in his mind.

"Did you spend a lot of time with her?"

"As much as I could, but she didn't live close by. What about you? Any grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins?"

"I'm sure that I have some but I'm not aware of where or who they are. My mom was an only child and my dad didn't talk to his family. Or rather, they didn't talk to him. For obvious reasons."

They arrived in Douglas, a small town that wasn't too small. It had a movie theatre, which was more than the little hamlet that Knox had grown up in. There hadn't been a damn thing to do on a weekend when he was a kid except go out to the woods and have bonfires with his friends. They'd drink beer and raise hell. Looking back, Knox hadn't been so much an asshole teenager as just unbelievably bored.

"Maybe I should just wait in the car," Jenna said when he pulled up in front of the sheriff's station. "I don't think the detective likes me."

"Did you do something that would make him dislike you?"

"Yes. I tried to make him do his job. He didn't like