Blood Blade Sisters Series by Michelle McLean Page B

stay.”
    Cilla’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t want you here, I need you here. There is a very big difference.”
    “So what’s your issue with me?” Leo stepped off the stairs, moving closer to Cilla who, predictably, refused to back up. “I stayed. I’m helping you with Frank. I’m even pitching in with chores. I’m doing everything you want, excuse me, need me to do. So what’s the problem?”
    Cilla fumed. “I don’t know you, Mr. Forrester. I don’t know anything about you except what your brother told us, and that was precious little. My sisters love you because they think you are just like Jake. Well, to me, that’s just one huge mark against you.”
    Leo moved even closer, anger burning a hole in his gut. He had no doubt Cilla was very capable of getting rid of anything or anyone she considered a problem. Is that what she’d done with Jake? “And what exactly do you have against my brother?”
    Cilla craned her neck to look up at him, refusing to back down an inch. “He’s gone. He disappeared. Maybe that was his fault, maybe not. Doesn’t really matter to me. Point is, he isn’t here.”
    Leo frowned, surprised once again. And confused. Cilla didn’t sound like she was a fan of Jake, but she also didn’t sound like someone who had something to do with his disappearance.
    “So you hate him because he’s gone?”
    “All I care about is this ranch and my sisters. And both are in trouble now because he upped and vanished. He better be dead, because that’s the only excuse I’ll take from him.”
    Leo’s heart lurched and Cilla must have seen something dangerous in his face because for the first time she took a step back and showed a twinge of remorse.
    “Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Forrester. I want to find Jake more than almost anything else in the world. Brynne loves him, and her baby needs its daddy. For that reason alone I’ll do whatever I can to find him and bring him back. But I promise you, if he purposely ran off…”
    “He didn’t.”
    Cilla nodded. “Then I guess he won’t have anything to worry about, will he, Mr. Forrester?”
    “Leo.”
    Cilla stared at him, the intensity of her gaze worming its way into his soul. He’d never met anyone so passionate, so alive. He was starting to truly hope she hadn’t killed his brother, and not just because he’d rather not have his brother be dead. Jake’s blood on her hands would make getting closer to her a bit of an issue. And for some reason Leo couldn’t fathom, he wanted to get much, much closer to the feisty little woman before him.
    He opened his mouth to speak but Cilla beat him to it. “Goodnight, Mr. Forrester.”
    Leo wasn’t sure what he would have said had she not spoken first. But he was glad he wasn’t going to find out. He needed to learn more about the enigmatic Priscilla Richardson. There was definitely more to her than she let on.
    “Goodnight, Priscilla.”
    He felt her eyes on him the whole way up the stairs.

Chapter Six
    Cilla watched anxiously as Brynne read the letter that had just come in the post. The hopefulness with which Brynne had opened the letter faded to despair within seconds.
    “They haven’t seen him or heard from him,” Brynne said, crumpling the letter.
    Cilla hugged her. “We’ll find him, Brynne. I promise.”
    Brynne shook her head. “Not here, we won’t. He’s not here. He didn’t go back to San Francisco, and no one they’ve contacted has seen him.” She threw the letter to the floor. “No one in or near town has seen or heard from him. And you’ve gone to every town within a couple of days’ rides. We need to go farther. With Leo’s daguerreotype, we actually have something to show people. Even if they didn’t speak to him, someone might have seen him.”
    Cilla doubted it. It just didn’t make sense. If Jake had abandoned his new family, there would have been no reason to stay in the area and every reason to get as far away as possible. They hadn’t heard back from