She lifted a brow, and took a long pull on her straw. After she swallowed, she said, “I was going to say that I don't want to be trouble for anybody, but that's not true.”
Well, he very much appreciated open communication. “Who do you want to be trouble for?”
“Whoever's behind the animal buying and selling.”
“The Andersons are involved with the animals?”
“Yes.”
“Is that in the documents you have?”
She hesitated. “Yes.”
Zander narrowed his eyes. “Caroline. What do you know?”
She sighed, took another drink of tea, then rested her head against the back of the chair. “Not enough.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I was planning to be engaged to him for at least another six months. I was hoping to stretch the whole engagement to a year. I know gathering this kind of information takes time and the slower I take it, the easier it is to get it all. But…I don’t know what happened.” She frowned off into the distance. “I don’t know if someone got suspicious or what. Why did they decide to do a surprise wedding?”
“Because Brantley was madly in love and didn’t want to chance losing you?”
Now see, that was the kind of shit that Spencer and Wyatt and Theo would never say. Because they didn’t read romance novels. Spence and Wyatt were Landrys, so they had some of that romantic predisposition, but they would never say that out loud.
But Caroline just snorted softly. “Don’t think so.”
“Brantley isn’t in love with you?”
She looked over. “Brantley thinks he is. He’s had a crush on me since he was about twelve. But he would have waited. Long engagements are the norm in our circle. Gives everyone the chance to throw multiple parties and the bride-to-be gets to show off her ring and her doting fiancé and have at least three showers and fuss over everything from the flowers to the exact shade of the ribbons around the centerpieces at the reception.” She rolled her eyes and tipped her head back again. “It’s all ridiculous. But everyone revels in it. So, I figured I easily had nine months, if not twelve.”
“You weren’t eager to be married and start living your life of wedded bliss?” Zander asked dryly.
He recognized that being jealous of Brantley Anderson was the stupidest thing he’d ever felt. Feeling sparks with Caroline was dangerous, but not stupid. But being jealous of a man he’d never met, over a woman he’d never have—and didn’t want—was stupid.
Caroline looked over again. “Oh, I never intended to marry him.”
Zander frowned. “What?”
“The engagement was just my way to get closer to the family and get into the house more often. I was going to call the whole thing off as soon as I had the information I needed. Long before the wedding day.”
Okay, he needed to focus here. She’d said something about information before. What the fuck was he doing?
It had to be the bare legs. And the fact that he was not only ninety-nine percent sure she wasn’t wearing panties now that the dress had shifted again and he could see a whole lot of hip, but he was one hundred percent sure she didn’t have a bra on. The dress dipped low in front and he’d seen no flashes of anything but silky skin. And yeah, he’d looked.
So what? He didn’t like it, but it hadn’t happened before and as far as he knew from Landry family lore and the fucking romance novels, he was a little bit powerless to resist all of this.
And yeah, her nipples were showing through the bodice of the dress.
“Look,” she said. “I know you didn’t ask for this. It's not like I came here to tell you all about it. But I don’t really know who to tell about it. I was going to tell Max. I always tell Max everything. But I just feel like this is something a little bigger.”
Well, who the fuck was Max? Zander sighed. So she wasn’t in love with Brantley and was somehow just using her engagement to him to spy on his family. But now there was a Max? And she told him everything?
Yeah, Zander didn’t like Max.
“Usually Max takes care of it. I turn the info over and that’s it. But this is something that’s happening now and needs to be stopped. The animals are being hurt and exploited and…I guess it was seeing one of them that really got to me. Usually I have some distance. And it’s all business and politics and it doesn’t bother me that it takes time to uncover it all. But this feels so much more immediate. Someone needs to do something. So when I got the cub, after I recovered from my shock, I immediately thought of Donovan Foster because I’d seen the stuff online that he’s been doing down here and that just recently they brought a rescued tiger here to take care of. And I thought, okay, so that’s something I can actually do. And then you—” She looked over at Zander again. “You walked out of the bar with your badge and uniform looking all big and strong and confident and concerned and asked if you could help and…I just felt this feeling.” She laughed softly. “I mean, obviously I felt a feeling. But I had this sense that I could tell you and trust you and just turn it over to you. And then Chris showed up and tried to take me back and you stepped in and I just knew that you were someone who would step in and do the right thing and help and—”
“Caroline.”
Zander stopped her with that firm, simple use of her name.
She looked over at him.
“Take a breath,” he ordered.
She did.
“We need to back up.” He needed to know who Max was.
No, you don’t. You need to focus on her, right now, right here, and then get her the hell out of this town.
She nodded. “You’ll help me?”
The thing was, he would probably say yes to anyone in this situation. She’d landed in his town. The minute someone crossed the city limits into Autre, for however long they were there, Zander took responsibility.
If they were here to cause trouble, he was on their ass. But if they needed help, whether it was a flat tire, directions, transport, care because of heat exhaustion, or protection from some guys who were illegally buying and selling exotic animals, he was going to say yes.
Still, in that moment, with Caroline Holland’s beautiful turquoise eyes on his, and that question hanging between them, Zander knew that she could ask him for anything and he would say yes.
Though that was information that he was going to keep very much to himself.
“I am going to help you. If I can do something directly, I will. If I need to pass this on to someone else, I will.” Exotic animal transport and possession was outside his jurisdiction. But, of course, he knew people who would want and need to know about it. All about it. Everything Caroline could give them.
But now that he knew Caroline was mixed up in this somehow, if she needed to be extricated from it, he was going to be involved.
It was a truth that he didn't exactly welcome, but he accepted.
“I would very much like for you to not be sitting outside on the porch, though,” he said. “Some of these people probably aren't exactly the nicest guys. Your own brother already came down looking for you and said that everyone was pissed. I'd really like to make sure that you stay safe. And sitting out here, looking gorgeous in a bright red evening gown with a tiara on your head is maybe not the best way to be inconspicuous.”