Page 85 of It Runs in the Family

Then again, that was a stupid question. This was Texas. They practically gave you a gun during your kindergarten registration. Over half the population of Chaffney carried guns. But it was the way Boone had so effortlessly slipped the gun out of his jacket had given me pause.

Boone didn’t just owe a gun. He had experience using it.

What if Boone was one of the bad guys?

It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. He had come to Sunday Dinner with Billy.

Either way, I didn’t plan to stick around and find out. I had my car keys. I could run down to my car and drive off before he came out.

But I underestimated how long he’d take, because he appeared in the doorway as he slid his gun into a shoulder holster hidden under his jacket.

“I cleared your apartment,” he said, studying me with a worried look. “No one’s in there, but someone was definitely there earlier.”

My gaze stayed on the barely noticeable lump under his jacket. “How can you tell?” I asked, my voice too quiet.

“Because I saw your apartment Friday night, and it wasn’t anything like it is now.”

I inhaled sharply, wondering what that meant, but at the moment, I needed to figure out how to get him to leave. “Thanks for checking it out,” I said, forcing my gaze up to his face. “You can go now.”

His eyes widened slightly, then his gaze darted to his chest before settling back on me. “Iris. I have a license for my gun.”

“Yeah. Okay.” I tried to sound breezy. “Thanks for checking out my apartment. How about we meet later to talk about Selena?”

He drew in a breath, a war waging in his eyes. He looked resigned when he said, “Iris, I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m a cop.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

I blinked, sure I’d heard him wrong. “What?”

“That’s why I have a gun. That’s why I checked out your apartment. It’s what I do.”

I wasn’t sure that made me feel any better. My mind raced over our encounter at T-Birds, his persistence in talking to me, then the way he’d sought me out at Granny’s yesterday. “Are you investigating my cousin?”

He held my gaze, his expression serious. “It’s like I told you. I’m looking for my brother.”

“And you think he’s with my cousin?”

“Yeah,” he said with a grim expression. “I do.”

“Is that why you came over to my table at T-Birds? Did you know I was Selena’s cousin?”

He shook his head. “No. That was pure coincidence.”

I wrapped my arms over my chest. That seemed too convenient to believe at this point. “But you saw her getting in that car.”

He made a face. “I did.”

God, how could I have been so stupid? “So, you spent the rest of the night with me, hoping to find out more about Selena.”

“No, Iris,” he insisted. “I really liked you. I wanted to get to know you better.”

“But it helped that the woman you think is with your brother is my cousin.”

He didn’t say anything.

I had a fuzzy memory of kissing him before I went to the bathroom, and how he hadn’t been eager to kiss me back.

Oh, God. He’d definitely been using me.