Tall, Dark, Texas Ranger / Once Upon A Christmas Eve: Tall, Dark, Texas Ranger

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Santos continued to stare at him. “Next time be more careful.” He turned and marched off.

Noah dropped his arms from her and she swung around. “Okay, what’s going on?”

Coop refused to put Lilly in any more danger. “I’m not sure. Santos has been acting strange and I followed him out here. He met up with some men. I didn’t want him to know I was watching him, and when you came …” He looked at her. A mistake. Her lips were still swollen from his kisses. She was killing him. “Why were you looking for me?”

“Wait! That kiss was to distract Santos?”

He started to nod, but then confessed, “Okay, I might have gone a little overboard, but you’re a very tempting woman. I apologize for taking advantage of the situation.”

This time she seemed flustered. Hell, didn’t she know how appealing she was? And that was something he couldn’t let tempt him again. “Why did you want to see me?”

She shook her head. “Stephanie cornered me in the hall. She insisted I look for a box with Mike’s tax papers. Then when I told her I didn’t know anything about a box, she got irritated again.” Her gaze met his. “It’s not tax papers is it, Noah?”

He tried to act innocent. “What else could it be?”

“I don’t know.” Lilly was worried. “The way Mike had been acting the past year … and Stephanie’s boyfriend … Could it be something illegal?”

Coop shook his head. “There’s no proof.”

“I didn’t ask that. There’s something going on. I know it. Ever since Rey Santos started working in the business it’s been different.” She tried to swallow her panic. “Oh, God, was Mike involved, too? That has to be it. I know this is Stephanie’s fault. I’m going to give her a piece of my mind.”

Lilly started to walk off and Coop caught her by the arm. “No, Lilly. If what you suspect is true, it could be dangerous to confront them.”

Her gaze met his. “Then what do I do, just let them keep threatening me?”

“Maybe we can find what they’re looking for. Do you think that your husband might have left something with you?”

She’d been trying to rack her brain. “I can’t swear to it. I know, I told Stephanie I didn’t have anything of Mike’s. And I didn’t take anything from his home office, but that doesn’t mean things didn’t get mixed up.”

Coop was grasping at anything that might trip her memory. “Would he leave anything important behind?”

She hesitated. “All the important documents and papers went into the wall safe at our house.”

A wall safe? “Well, whoever lives there now has probably already looked inside.”

She shook her head. “The house is empty. Besides, the safe is well hidden. Mike had it put in himself.” She sighed. “Maybe I should remind Stephanie about it and she can look for herself. Then she’ll leave me alone. No! I should go. There could be other important papers in the safe.”

If there was proof of Santos’s or Delgado’s illegal activity, he didn’t want to hand it over to him. He was pretty sure Mike Perry died because of this. These guys weren’t taking any prisoners. It wasn’t safe for any of them. “I don’t think it’s safe for you to go into that house. Not alone.”

“Then come with me.”

Three hours later, Coop didn’t want to think about the rules he was about to violate. Lilly was going to break into her old house. Since nothing he said or did had changed her mind, his only choice was to go along as her accomplice.

Once the kids were shipped off to friends’ houses for a sleepover, and Beth and Sean left the Casali barbecue for an evening of dancing, it was only the two of them heading back to town.

“Do you still have a key?”

“Yes,” she said, digging through her purse. “I haven’t been able to take it off my key ring.” She glanced across the dark truck cab. “How pathetic is that?”

“Not pathetic at all. It was your home, where you raised your kids. More than likely the bank changed the locks.”

“Probably. After Mike’s suicide there was an investigation for a few days.”

The night sky didn’t allow him to see her face, but he could hear the pain in her voice. “Did he die at the house?”

“Yes,” she said in a soft voice. “The garage. He died of asphyxiation from carbon monoxide.”

Coop knew all this. “God, Lilly I’m sorry.”

Lilly nodded, trying to keep it together. “Not many people want to live in a house where someone has died.”

“Then you shouldn’t go back there, either.”

“Yes, I should. I need to end this once and for all. If Mike did something illegal, I need to know. I have to protect my kids. If he didn’t and we find these papers, Stephanie will be out of my life for good.”

When Coop reached across the truck console and took her hand, it gave Lilly the strength she needed. It was wonderful to get comfort and reassurance, but she felt something else was happening between them. It had been since the kiss. If she was truthful, it had been since the moments he met this man.

“At least you’ll know,” he said.

They were silent as they reached town. Lilly gave him directions to the house. Since it was after ten the neighborhood was quiet. They didn’t take a chance of being noticed and parked in the alley down the street.

With the aid of a penlight, Lilly led him through the gate and the backyard toward the one-story, ranch-style home.

Silently she took out her key and attempted to work the lock. It didn’t fit any longer.

“Darn. I guess it was too much to ask to make this simple.” She glanced around. “There’s only one other way to get inside.”

“How’s that?”

“The window in the garage doesn’t lock. And if they hadn’t changed the door to the house, it can be easily shimmied.”

She started to go and Coop stopped her. “I can’t let you go there. I’ll go through the window.”

She nodded.

He took off, found the window and with a couple of whacks on the frame, it gave way. After raising it, he climbed inside and across the empty double car garage to the door leading to the house. It wasn’t locked. He went inside, and quickly searched for a security alarm. There was none. He then unlocked the back door for Lilly.

Lilly didn’t want to look around. She didn’t want to remember her time here. The months she and Mike had spent remodeling the kitchen. How the kids had sat at the bar eating breakfast, doing their homework. All the wonderful times in this house. Then it was gone.

She made her feet keep moving down the hall to the den. Mike’s office. She opened the door to find it empty, too, but it didn’t stop the flash of memories. The big old schoolteacher’s desk she’d found and sanded and stained for this area.

No! She wouldn’t give in to the memories. That life was over. With the aid of the light, she took Noah to the wall with built-in bookcases that now were empty.

“Where is the safe?”

She handed him the light. “Hold up the light.” She reached for the middle shelf and unlatched a hook, then swung it out to reveal a safe built into the wall.

“This would be hard to find.” Coop felt hopeful. But were they going to hit the jackpot this time? “Do you know the combination?”