He tucked a stray hair behind my ear. “We can find out for certain. You can have a DNA test.”

“I think I have bigger fish to fry right now. A whole school of them.”

“Maybe, but you’re still entitled to have feelings over this news. It’s life-altering.”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t change a blessed thing. I still grew up with my hateful mother. I was still abused. Even if Hattie claims she and Daddy only left me at Momma’s mercy to protect me.”

“Why would she think that?”

“She said they were trying to hide me from Beverly. Henry Buchanan thought Dora was pregnant with his son’s baby, and he changed his will to include me. Or at least some secret third beneficiary. Hattie’s convinced that it’s me. She thinks the documentation is in a secret safe in the old factory. And she’s certain the combination is in the journal.”

“You think proving your true parentage will help your case somehow?”

“No. But I figure if Dora kept evidence on J.R. in a secret journal, Henry Buchanan, the owner of the plant that was ultimately screwed over by Joe’s father, would have kept his own evidence of how the man had wronged him.”

Excitement filled his eyes. “Rose. You could be right. But we don’t have the journal.”

“Let’s go see if there actually is a secret safe. Honestly, Hattie seemed a little crazy. She could have been completely wrong about the whole thing.”

Mason climbed out of bed, grabbed his underwear off the floor, and stepped into them. “Make a map of the plant as you remember it.”

“What are you talking about? Why would I make a map? I’ll just show it to you.”

“No.” He walked over to the closet and opened the door. “You heard Hale. He thinks you should stay in the house and let things die down.”

I got out of bed and followed him. “Just a minute ago you said you weren’t so sure you trusted Carter. Why listen to him on this? I’m goin’ with you.”

He turned to me in exasperation. “Rose, it could be dangerous.”

“Exactly. So why would I let you go alone?”

“I didn’t just watch you get out of jail only to turn around and put you in a dangerous situation.” His eyes widened. “In fact, we still need to investigate who this Glenn Stout person is.”

“I thought Carter’s receptionist was doin’ that.”

“Like I trust him to tell me the full truth.” He snorted and pulled a pair of jeans from the closet. “I’ll head out to the plant. You stay here and research the man who bailed you out.”

“I have a better idea. We’ll go out there together, and I can start lookin’ him up on my smart phone while you drive.”

He shot me a look of frustration.

“I’m goin’ with you, Mason Deveraux, so do us both a favor and just accept it.” When I noticed the worry in his eyes, I softened my tone and grabbed his hands. “You have to know by now you can’t treat me like some china doll. You’ve trusted me to do some behind-the-scenes investigations before, and you yourself have said I’m good at it.”

“But this is different. This is physically dangerous, Rose.”

“So why should you take the risk alone? I know you want to protect me, but this involves me too much for me to hide from it. So please just accept that we’re in this together and treat me as an equal.”

His eyes widened. “Of course I see you as an equal. I’m just scared. If something were to happen to you …”

“You’re in just as much danger as I am. Probably more so, since someone wants you dead. J.R. just wants me in prison. So no more bickering about it. From this moment forward, we’re doin’ this together.”

He searched my eyes, then his gaze drifted down to my naked body. A grin lit up his face. “You know it’s hard to argue with you when you’re so damn sexy without clothes on.”

“I’ll be sure to remember that piece of information for future negotiations.”

His smile turned slyer. “Why do I think I’ll regret admitting to that?”

“Because you, Mason Deveraux, are a very intelligent man.” I stood on my tiptoes and gave him a kiss.

“If you’re going with me, you’d better get dressed. I’d prefer for you to use your naked wiles on me alone.”

“Me too.” I couldn’t hide my smile. Mason wasn’t going to fight me on being an active part of his investigation.

Too bad he had no idea how useful I could be.

Chapter 5

Before we left, I grabbed my phone and hid in the bathroom. There were several missed calls from Violet and Bruce Wayne and—just as I’d expected—a message from Skeeter. Rather than leave me a possibly incriminating voice message, he had sent a vague text.

Take care of yourself. Before everyone and everything else. Go to J if you need help. I’ll be back as soon as I can.

Was he hunting for a way to bring down J.R. or had he fled to save himself? The answer was most likely both. Still, he needed to tell me what he was up to instead of flying solo. We had a better shot of succeeding if all of us pooled our resources, but I suspected I’d have a hard time convincing him of that.

I needed to call Jed, but this was not the time for a long chat, particularly if I wanted it to be private, so I settled for sending him a quick text telling him I was fine and I’d call as soon as possible.