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herself working with women she'd known only by name a few months earlier. Now she was suddenly
in the cream of society, but with women who didn't snub her or look down their noses at her social
position.
Libby was delighted to find herself working with Violet, who'd come straight from her job at Duke
Wright's ranch for the meeting.
"This is great!" Violet exclaimed, hugging Libby. "I've missed working with you!"
"I've missed you, too, Violet," Libby assured her. She shook her head as she looked at the other
woman. "You look great!"
Violet grinned. She'd dropped at least two dress sizes. She was wel -rounded, but no longer obese
even to the most critical eye. She'd had her brown hair frosted and it was waving around her face and
shoulders. She was wearing a low-cut dress that emphasized the size of her pretty breasts,
and her small waist and voluptuous hips, along with high heels that arched her small feet nicely.
"I've worked hard at the gym," Violet confessed. She was still laughing when her eyes collided with
Blake Kemp's across the room. The expression left her face. She averted her eyes quickly. "Excuse
me, won't you, Libby? I came with Curt. You, uh, don't mind, do you?" she added worriedly.
"Don't be silly," Libby said with a genuine smile. "Curt's nice. So are you. I think you'd make a lovely
couple..."
"Still happy with Duke Wright, Miss Hardy?" came a cold, biting comment from Libby's back.
Blake Kemp moved into view, his pale eyes expressive on Violet's pretty figure and the changes in the
way she dressed.
"I'm...very happy with him, Mr. Kemp," Violet said, clasping her hands together tightly. "If you'll
excuse me..."
"You've lost weight," Kemp said gruffly.
Violet's eyes widened. "And you actually noticed?"
The muscles in his face tautened. "You look...nice."
Violet's jaw dropped. She was literally at a loss for words. Her eyes lifted to Kemp's and they stood
staring at each other for longer than was polite, neither speaking or moving.
Kemp shifted restlessly on his long legs. "How's your mother?"
Violet swallowed hard. "She's not doing very well, I'm afraid. You know... about the exhumation?''
Kemp nodded. "They're still in the process of evaluating Curt and Libby's father's remains, as wel , at
the crime lab. So far, they have nothing to report."
Violet looked beside him at Libby and winced. "I didn't know, Libby. I'm so sorry."
"So am I, for you," Libby replied. "We didn't want to do it, but we had to know for sure."
"Will they really be able to tell anything, after all this time?" Violet asked Kemp, and she actually
moved a step closer to him.
He seemed to catch his breath. He was looking at her oddly. "I assume so." His voice was deeper, too.
Involuntarily, his lean fingers reached out and touched Violet's long hair. "I like the frosting," he said
reluctantly. "It makes your eyes look...bluer."
"Does it?" Violet asked, but her eyes were staring into his as if she'd found treasure there.
With an amused smile, Libby excused herself and joined her brother, who was talking to the police
chief.
Cash Grier noticed her approach and smiled. He looked older somehow and there were new lines
around his dark eyes.
"Hi, Chief," she greeted him. "How's it going?"
"Don't ask," Curt chuckled. "He's in the middle of a controversy."
"So are we," Libby replied. "We're on the wrong side of the election and Jordan Powell is furious at
us."
"We're on the right side," Cash said carelessly. "The city fathers are in for a rude awakening." He
leaned down. "I have friends in high places." He paused. "I also have friends in low places." He
grinned.
Libby and Curt burst out laughing, because they recognized the lines from a country song they'd all
loved.
Calhoun Ballenger joined them, clapping Cash on the hack affectionately. "Thanks for coming," he
said.
"Even if it is putting another nail in your coffin with the mayor."
"They mayor can kiss my..." Cash glanced at Libby and grinned. "Never mind."
They all laughed.
"She's lived with me all her life," Curt remarked. "She's practically unshockable."
"How's Tippy?" Calhoun asked.
Cash smiled. "Doing better, thanks. She'd have come, loo, but she's still having a bad time."
"No wonder," Calhoun replied, recalling the ordeal Tippy had been through in the hands of
kidnappers. It had been in all the tabloids. "Good thing they caught the cul-prits who kidnapped her."
"Isn't it?" Cash said, not giving away that he'd caught them, with the help of an old colleague. "Nice
turnout, Calhoun," he added, looking around them. "I thought you invited Judd."
"I did," Calhoun said at once, "but the twins have a cold."
"Damn!" Cash grimaced. "I told Judd that he and Crissy needed to stop running that air conditioner all
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night!"
"It wasn't that," Calhoun confided. "They went to the Coltrains' birthday party for their son his
second birthday and that's where they got the colds."
Cash sighed. "Poor babies."
"He's their godfather," Calhoun told Libby and Curt. "But he thinks Jessamina belongs to him."
"She does," Cash replied haughtily.
Nobody mentioned what the tabloids had said that Tippy had been pregnant with Cash's child a few
weeks I earlier and lost it just before her ordeal with the kidnapping.
Libby diplomatically changed the subject. "Mr. Kemp said that you can put up campaign posters in our
office windows," she told Calhoun, "and Barbara's willing to let you put up as many as you like in her
cafe," she added with a grin. "She said she's never going to forgive Julie Merrill for making a scene
there."
Calhoun chuckled. "I've had that sort of offer all week," he replied. "Nobody wants Senator Merrill
back in office,' but the city fathers have thrown their support behind him and he thinks he's unbeatable.
What we really need is a change in city government as well. We're on our second mayor in eight
months and this one is afraid of his own shadow."
"He's also Senator Merrill's nephew," Curt added.
"Which is why he's trying to make my officers back down on those DWI charges," Cash Grier
interposed.
"I'd like see it. Carlos Garcia wouldn't back down from anybody," Calhoun mused. "Or Officer Dana
Hall, either."
"Ms. Hall came to my assistance at the courthouse this week," Libby volunteered. "Julie Merrill
slapped me. Officer Hall was more than willing to arrest her, if I'd agreed to press charges."
"Good for Dana," Cash returned. "You be careful, Ms. Collins," he added firmly. "That woman has
poor impulse control. I wouldn't put it past her to try and run somebody down."
"Neither would I," Curt added worriedly. "She's already told Jordan some furious lies about us and he
believes her."
"She can be very convincing," Libby said, not wanting to verbally attack Jordan even now.
"It may get worse now, with all of you backing me," Calhoun told the small group. "I won't have any
hard feelings if you want to withdraw your support."
"Do I look like the sort of man who backs away from trouble?" Cash asked lazily, with a grin.
"Speaking of Duke Wright," Libby murmured dryly, "he's throwing his support to Mr. Ballenger, too.
But he had, uh, reservations about coming to the meeting."
Cash chuckled. "I don't hold grudges."
"Yes, but he does," Calhoun said on a chuckle. "He'll get over it. He's got some personal problems
right now."
"Don't we all?" Cash replied wistfully, and his dark eyes were troubled.
Libby and Curt didn't add their two cents' worth, but they exchanged quiet looks.
The campaign was winding down for the primary, but all the polls gave Calhoun a huge lead over
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