by Mandy Rosko
Maybe part of her had been hoping he would be the one to come for her. She had to admit that it did feel a little something like fate to be here with him, in a police station of all places.
What didn’t feel like fate was the way he’d brushed off what had happened between them.
It wasn’t important.
Those were his words. They’d slept together, quite a bit, back when he’d given off that sexy, tortured, bad-boy look.
That had been the thing to draw her to him, despite her first impression of him being that he was a total asshole and no different than all the rest of the idiots she was forced to spend her time with.
But he’d been the only guy to look a little bit sorry whenever he’d made a pass at her.
It had been a running gag with the group. A joke. Let’s see who can bang the frigid blonde first.
Alice had put up with a lot of hands pinching or slapping her ass, a couple of bad come-ons, and then the laughter that came after when she wasn’t in the mood to make up a good come back, or hadn’t been able to think of one.
Of course, Jake had been undercover then, but she hadn’t known that. He’d probably felt he had to make disgusting comments to her just to fit in with the group, so he did.
Then one day she just glared at him, and he’d immediately stopped laughing. He shut his mouth, his cheeks flaring, which, interestingly enough, made the other guys start laughing at him for being such a puss that he would actually blush.
Yeah, that had been the first time Alice had suspected he wasn’t what he said he was. No other street thug would look so ashamed for making wise-ass jokes around the poker table.
Alice only stole half of his winnings that night as punishment, and was even more interested when he didn’t call her out on it, or pick a fight with her or any of the other guys over the theft.
The way he’d looked at her, it had been obvious he knew she’d been the thief.
Which had soon led them to work a couple of jobs together under Bobby’s instruction as he tried to impress a local drug lord. Then he’d nearly eaten her, not realizing she was a squirrel, and she’d nearly stomped on his head, not realizing he was the snake who had tried to curl his body around hers.
Yeah, when that cat had come out of the bag, as not funny as it was, they’d both laughed.
It wasn’t important.
Alice swallowed her last bite of sandwich, and it went down her throat hard.
As unimportant as it had been to Jake, those moments with him were what kept her alive, what kept her going when she’d nearly given up.
Of course, it had been stealing some of Bobby’s pilfered stamps and leaving breadcrumbs behind for the cops, and Jake, to follow that had nearly gotten Jake killed. Maybe he was still mad at her for getting him shot.
Alice hardly slept that night, but when she woke up, her phone said it was a little past six in the morning. She’d gotten some hours in, and had there been a window in her cell, she might’ve seen some sunlight.
When she turned her head, Jake was already awake. He was sitting on his own cot, his clothes and jacket disheveled, but still on. His hair was all over the place, like he’d run his hand through it multiple times, and the shadow of a beard that he normally had was a tiny bit thicker than it had been last night.
The dark half moons under his eyes were also very telling.
“Did you sleep at all?”
He shook his head. “No, couldn’t.”
Alice sat up and stretched out her spine until she heard a soft popping noise then sighed, scratching the back of her head. “You want me to keep watch for a bit? You can still get a couple of hours.”
Jake shook his head and stood up. “No, I’m good.”
Alice noted the many Styrofoam cups that littered his cell floor. Some had little brown stains along the rim from coffee.
“So, you just stayed up all night to watch me sleep?”
She hadn’t meant it to come out like that, because she knew that wasn’t what he’d been doing, and Jake scowled. “I wasn’t watching you sleep. I was keeping you safe.”
“Right, right, sorry. That’s what I meant,” Alice said.
And she was touched by that, she really was. She was actually worried she might accidentally show off how touched she really was.
“I…I guess I forgot you can stay up a long time without sleep.”
Jake craned his neck to the side and rolled his shoulders. Alice heard the popping noise that it let off. “Haven’t done it in a while, but I should be good for another twelve hours or so.”
“You haven’t pulled an all-nighter in a while?”
“Two in a row.”
“Two?”
Jake smiled at her, a look that made her want to melt into a puddle at his feet. “I’m not exactly out of practice with just one all-nighter. I did plenty of those while I was looking for you.”
And now her body was warm and tingly all over. Alice had trouble swallowing. “You did?”
Jake’s smile melted away into something that resembled more of a scowl, and he turned away. “Yeah, and for other cases I’ve worked on. Not a big deal.”
It was a big deal. It definitely was.
The cops that were on the morning shift were different from the ones at night. They must be rotating. Jake didn’t seem shocked to see two different people in the station. They must’ve come in and introduced themselves when she was sleeping, and Police Chief Rickman was back, too.
Alice was glad to see him, probably the first time she’d ever felt such an emotion toward a cop, but he was a familiar face, and so far he hadn’t betrayed them to Bobby.
So far.
“Good news, I think,” Rickman said. “Had an officer spot the vehicles you described heading out of town. No telling if all passengers were on board, but it’s likely.”
Alice sighed at the same time Jake did.
“Good,” Jake said, and there was a glint in his eyes that Alice remembered from the old days.
He got that look whenever he was excited about something, having an adrenaline high, or when he got his way.
“I think he’s gone. He can’t risk staying now that the heat’s on.”
Rickman nodded. “I also gave a very special call to his parole officer, asking if the man knew Robert Hammer was in my neck of the woods.”
“What did he say?”
“That he’d handle it. Not too sure about that one. I think there might be something going on.”
Alice spoke up. “He’s been known to have a couple of cops in his pocket from time to time.” Jake and Rickman looked at her. Alice tried not to feel so damned small. “What? He has?”
Rickman smiled and shook his head. “Sorry. If we talk like you’re not here, it’s nothing personal.”
“I know. You’re just talking about a case. It’s okay.”
Jake lifted a brow at her, which reminded her of his lack of sleep.
“Now that he’s gone, you can get some sleep,” she said.
Jake shook his head. “No, I’m good.”
“You didn’t sleep?” Rickman asked.
“I’m used to it. I think I’d rather see this fine town of yours. Never been to a place quite like this,” he said quickly.
Alice glared daggers at the back of his head. He knew perfectly well what he was doing, and it wasn’t good for him. The stupid idiot was going to make himself collapse, and Alice didn’t want that happening because of her.
Rickman seemed more than happy to go along with it, however. “All right, we can arrange that. Might be better for the both of you to have an escort around town for a while, just in case Miss Grey here actually is still being tailed.”
Jake smiled at her, that stupid, asshole, smug smirk he got, another of his looks that came whenever he got something he wanted and knew someone else didn’t want it. “Couldn’t agree more.”
She would punch him if she weren’t surrounded by police. She really would.
*****
> Police Chief Rickman offered to buy Jake and Alice breakfast, taking them out with a couple of his officers as a welcome to the town sort of deal, which was nice.
Breakfast in Woodland Creek was just as delicious as dinner, and Alice wasn’t kidding anymore when she thought about coming to live here. It would be the perfect place to live if Bobby wasn’t so damned close.
Because the officers Rickman had brought with him were also aware of shifters, they were able to talk openly about their pasts, and what had put them in Bobby’s line of sight.
Alice was always torn between shame and pride when it came to stories like these. Shame for having a history as a thief, and pride for how well she’d pulled off some of her heists.
It wasn’t like she’d stolen anything from poor families, either. Her targets had all been the too-wealthy-for-their-own-good kind. The sort of people who had so much money and so many fine things that sometimes they didn’t even notice when Alice had taken a valuable stamp, coin, or piece of jewelry.
Sometimes the police weren’t notified until weeks later, and by that time, Alice had been long gone. It was why Bobby had favored using her, and why she and Jake had worked so well together when it came time to bring him down.
One of the cops even asked to see the bullet scar in Jake’s stomach. His gaze had turned to Alice very briefly before he shook his head. He almost looked bashful about it. “Ah, no, I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“Why? Oh, yeah, sorry. Never mind,” said the officer when he realized why Jake would decline to show him his scar.
Didn’t stop Rickman from kicking the man under the table, however. At least that was funny.
To be honest, Alice wouldn’t have minded seeing the scar. Actually, if she was perfectly honest with herself, she wanted to see it. She really wanted to see it. The last time she’d been aware of it, it had been an open hole that had gushed blood between her tight fingers.
Jake had been so pale as he’d clenched his teeth. She’d thought he was going to die.
She’d thought he had died. For months, she’d thought he was gone. Maybe she only wanted to see the scar, because it would show her that he had, in fact, healed. He’d already proven he wasn’t exactly fragile.
“So, what do we do, now that Bobby is gone?” Alice asked, looking to Jake.
She hadn’t realized right away that she’d used a we in that sentence. Luckily, Chief Rickman spoke up before Jake could answer.
“To be honest, that’s all entirely up to you,” he said. “You can stay in town for a bit, and we can help give off the impression that you left. I wouldn’t recommend leaving right away, since being here currently affords you some measure of protection.”
“So that’s out,” Jake said, crossing his arms and making himself comfortable in his chair. He looked like he was settling in for a long conversation. At least he didn’t look so tired anymore.
Then she was reminded of something. “Wait a minute. Didn’t you say you were a private detective?”
Jake lifted a brow. God, why did he have to be so cute when he did that? “Yeah?”
A small measure of panic rushed through her. “So, how can you stay here? If you own your own business, don’t you have, I don’t know, clients to take care of?”
That was usually how it worked, from what Alice knew of the business, and there was a time in her life when she did have to keep track of these things in order to keep a low profile. Since Jake found her so easily, she probably needed to bone up on her knowledge of the business.
Jake grinned at her. One of the cops whistled. “Private dick, huh? That’s cool. We don’t have one of those around here.”
“There, you see?” Jake asked. “I can open up a practice right here.”
Alice did her best to keep from clenching her fingers on the table; she really did. “What about your current clients?”
She was trying to give him a reason to get out and go. Didn’t he see that?
Jake shrugged again. “All either pains in my ass, or jobs I could finish online. The ones who want me to follow their daughters around to make sure they’re not dating the wrong boys…well, those jobs made me look like a creep anyway. I didn’t much like parking outside of high schools and watching the kids.”
She blinked at him.
Rickman chuckled and shook his head, but the other officers with him just stared at Jake. “Are you serious?”
Jake nodded. “Oh, yes. Those were the worst.”
He went on to share some other horror stories about the honors of owning his own practice. Following cheating spouses, daughters who were dating boys their fathers didn’t approve of…Jake made it sound like getting away from all of that would be a blessing.
It probably was.
At least Alice knew she was more preferable in comparison to following around teenage girls. She at least had that to be proud of.
And so, Jake made the decision for her. They were going to stay put in Woodland Creek, at least for now.
“We won’t be any trouble, either,” he added. “We’ll be sure to mind our own business and cooperate whenever you might need something.” He looked at Alice when he said that, and she got the hint. She nodded. She’d cooperate, too.
“Good to know,” Chief Rickman said.
“Just one other thing,” Jake said, leaning closer to Chief Rickman as he spoke. The man tilted his head to the side so that he and Jake could start their whispering to each other.
Alice stared down at her plate. She didn’t need to look at them to know they were talking about her, though she could still hear some of what was said.
“I don’t want it getting around about Alice’s past, if that’s okay. Mine neither. We’re just two normal people.”
Her heart stopped in her chest for at least two seconds when she heard that. She swore it was at least that long.
Alice glanced up, and Chief Rickman shrugged. “Can’t make any promises as a whole, since most of the town will be aware by now that you are under police protection, but we don’t like to gossip in the precinct. I think it should be easy enough to keep quiet. At least for a little while.”
Alice tuned out the rest of what they were saying without meaning to. She was…shocked. That was the only way to describe it. She didn’t even notice the way her egg yolk dried up on her plate.
Did Jake say he didn’t want her past getting out, because he wanted to protect her? Or did he make that request, because it would be harder to hide their own personal history if it got out to the townsfolk that Alice was a reformed thief?
It could go either way. There weren’t too many people who would put it together that she and Jake had slept together, numerous times, just because she was a former thief and he used to work undercover, trying to bring down the people Alice worked for. She had her suspicions that Chief Rickman knew, but he seemed like the type who wouldn’t spread that around if it was only a hunch.
The rest of the town, however…that was something else entirely. Chief Rickman might not approve of gossip among his officers, but Alice knew most other people in the world to be exactly the opposite. Everyone wanted to be entertained, and if they could be entertained at someone else’s expense, of course they were going to do it. It was the same with the very rich, to the middle class, and all the way down to those living at or below the poverty line.
And what would make a better story than the undercover cop turned private detective, who had tracked down the woman who had saved his life in order to save hers? It sounded kind of romantic, actually, the very sort of thing that would spread like wildfire among the housewives and barmaids.
Alice looked around, suddenly feeling like every eye in the place was locked onto the back of her head.
One woman turned away quickly when Alice looked at her, but that was it. It could have been just an innocent glance, curiosity about the two new people who had spent the night at the police station.
This was definitely going to get out. People might
already think she and Jake were a thing, just because they were new in town.
With the way Alice’s mind had conjured up the potential romantic story that would be floating around the town in a couple of days, at the very latest, she wasn’t so sure they weren’t a thing.
It actually was kind of romantic. She and Jake, their history together, and everything they’d gone through…and then he just shows up to her rescue after all these years, having tracked her down for so long…
He either had Superman-quality honor, or maybe he did feel something for her. Why else would he come for her?
Alice’s face warmed up. A lot. She could feel it climbing her neck and turning her cheeks molten hot. She glanced up at Jake. He was in a conversation with the chief and other officers, making them laugh over the stupid cases he’d taken on and some of the things he’d had to do in order to get evidence for his clients. There was a lot of laughter. Apparently, Jake was a popular guy.
A popular, well-liked guy with a lot of honor, a good education and career, and movie star gorgeous on top of it all.
Alice had…well, she still had her looks, so she wasn’t doing too badly there. But she also had nothing going for her. No traditional education, no skills aside from cat burglary, and a history most people would turn the other way and run from.
Oh, yeah, and a couple of really bad people wanted her dead.
She wasn’t even close to being on the same level as he was, and yet there she was, contemplating the chances he might actually be interested in her. That he might even love her.
If this was a movie, his feelings would be easier to read. She’d have the guts to just flat out ask him what was going on, and now that Bobby was out of the picture, the credits could roll.
But it wasn’t a movie, and Alice was nobody’s idea of a heroine. She wasn’t heroic, she wasn’t brave, and she definitely wasn’t bold enough to ask Jake if he liked her, let alone loved her. She still had enough pride to keep from doing that. At least, for now.
It wasn’t important.
Something was different about her. Maybe it was the way her shoulders seemed to slouch as she scraped her fork across the last of her hash browns, but she seemed almost…depressed.
