Read Online The Sheriff's Secret Wife by Christyne Butler - Free Book Online

make out the words. Good thing, too. He was probably damning the entire Dillon family to hell.

The moment she stepped into her living room, she froze. Gage bumped into her, grabbing her upper arms and she found herself leaning into his strength. The furniture had been around since Racy's childhood. The end tables, lamps and television cabinet were yard-sale finds. Former sheets made up the curtains and long-ago-pilfered milk crates lined one wall as bookcases. It'd never be on the cover of a home decorating magazine, but it had always been clean and in order.

Until tonight.

Empty pizza boxes and beer bottles littered the tables and floor. Her paperbacks lay scattered, as if they had been thrown against the wall and then left where they'd dropped. Her college textbooks made a makeshift table for an open case of beer, and a fifth of whiskey lay tipped over, its contents creating a dark puddle in the aged shag carpet. The living room opened into the kitchen, which looked like a disaster zone with dishes and pans covering every inch of counter space. A pungent odor of beer, burnt eggs and smoke filled her nose.

"Hey, sis!" Justin Dillon sat on the couch, his arms around two blondes who looked like they came straight from a city street corner. "Aren't ya glad to see us?"

Racy slumped. He was drunk. They both were and her home was trashed. Embarrassment heated her face. The tightening of Gage's hands on her shoulders, in sympathy or anger, only made it worse. She pulled in a deep breath and wrenched from his grasp.

"I think she's mad," Justin said, grinning like a loon. "Sorry for the mess. Don't worry, we'll clean it up."

"Like hell we will. That's what she's here for." Billy strolled back into the room and hit the power button on the old stereo, cutting off the noise. He shoved the paperwork at Gage. "It's all legal. There ain't nothing you can do about it."

Racy ignored her brothers and walked farther into the room. She couldn't believe the damage they'd done in a matter of hours. She and Gina had left—

Gina! Her stomached clenched. Oh, thank God she hadn't been here when they'd shown up. But someone had been. Someone who'd waited for her every night for the last couple of months.

"Ohmigod, what have you done with Jack?"
    * * *
    The panic in Racy's voice made Gage look up.

"Where is he? I swear if you've done something—" Racy ran into the kitchen and headed for the back door. She yanked it open and yelled into the night. "Jack! Jack, come here, boy!"

The clicking of nails on the floor came from what Gage guessed was a back hallway. He'd never been farther inside the Dillon house than the living room. Not even nine years ago when he'd come to tell them about the deaths of their father and Racy's husband.

He still remembered that night.

The loss of his own father the summer before had been a fresh, pain-filled memory when he'd driven here after finding no one at the shabby apartment where she'd lived in town. He'd stood on the front porch and tried to keep his eyes off the long, sexy legs of another man's widow as he'd delivered the news.

Racy cried out, bringing him back to the present. She dropped to her knees as the golden retriever staggered into the kitchen. The animal wagged its tail when it caught sight of her, then sprawled to the floor, his legs giving way.

"Oh, Jack!"

The fear in Racy's voice created a hard press of empathy and anger in Gage's chest. She crawled across the linoleum to the dog and cradled its head in her lap.

"What have you done?" Her eyes were hard as she focused on Billy Joe.

"Relax." Billy Joe spoke around the cigar he shoved between his teeth. "He just wanted to join the celebration. All that barking when we arrived got him a bit thirsty."

"You gave him alcohol?"

"You broke in here?" Gage's question overlapped Racy's. He handed the paperwork back to Billy Joe. "Breaking and entering is a good way to make these null and void."

"Y-you're crazy, Steele," Billy Joe sputtered.