“And Candice is her work nemesis,” Cassie added.
“Think of me as Luke Skywalker,” Kristen said, spreading her arms out dramatically. “And Candice as Darth Vader, who’s determined to steal all my clients out from under my nose.”
Henry snorted.
“Before you ask, yes, she’s seen all the Star Wars movies,” Cassie intervened. “She knows she just basically said her nemesis Realtor is her father.”
Henry laughed again but didn’t say anything as they made it outside. Even out of her periphery, Cassie saw his body tighten. Reality was closing in on them again. The next time they stepped foot in the same parking lot, everything could be different.
Cassie thought about Billy holed up in the hospital.
She rubbed her stomach again.
“You know, Kristen, call the Danvers back and tell them you’re on your way.” Cassie rallied. She focused on keeping all her fears and worries from her voice.
Still, Kristen started to shake her head. “I’m not leaving you, especially not after that man walked right up to your front porch! Banana house, be damned.”
Cassie pushed her thumb back at the deputy close behind them.
“He isn’t just here for show,” she said matter-of-factly. “He’s going to be my shadow for the next few hours, just in case. Nothing but a lot of just sitting around and being bored. Plus, you’ve already done your due diligence in getting me here.”
They stopped next to Kristen’s car. Cassie had already made up her mind. She wasn’t going to leave with her sister. No, she wanted her out and gone from Carpenter for now if she could swing it.
However, Kristen’s jaw was set firm. “Cassie, that man knows where you live. What’s to keep him from showing up again? No, I’m not leaving while you willingly go back like you’ve forgotten that fact.”
Cassie opened her mouth, though she didn’t know how to respond. Kristen was the only relation she had in the area, and her house was a stone’s throw away. Cassie wasn’t about to try to stay with friends, especially considering most were her colleagues or either their loved ones. If she was a target?
She would never forgive herself for willingly putting her friends and their families in danger.
“She can come stay at my place until you’re done.”
The certainty and surprise of Henry’s baritone sent a wayward shiver of feeling through Cassie. She hoped the smile she threw on covered it.
“Only a few people in the department even know where I’m staying. Not even my brother knows exactly where I’ve been laying my head. I doubt Michael, or anyone, could track me down easily.”
Kristen looked between them, uncertain.
“And if they did?” she asked, protectiveness clearly thronging through her voice.
Henry returned the feeling with some of his own. “Then I’d make sure they got what was coming to them.”
It was a promise.
One that Cassie believed with all her being.
One that Kristen seemed to believe in, too.
She nodded, but not before throwing her arms around Cassie.
“I want you to text me every half hour,” she said into her ear. “Got it?”
Cassie smiled into Kristen’s wild hair. “Got it.”
They shared another embrace before Kristen got into her car. Henry stayed at Cassie’s elbow, silent, as they watched her drive away. It wasn’t until they were sitting inside his personal car that he spoke again. “You don’t want to be around her just in case you’re a target.”
His gaze slid to her throat. Once again the scar at her neck burned. For the first time since she had met the man, Cassie realized there was a chance he had no idea where it had come from. After they’d gotten close, and she believed they were about to get closer, all those months ago, Cassie had almost told him.
But she hadn’t wanted his pity.
She hadn’t wanted to relive it, either.
Now, though?
Now she found she wanted him to know.
And not just because it would explain the grisly scar, but because it might show him the severity of what could happen when meaningless anger and violence were directed even at the places where they felt the safest.
Cassie slowly touched the circular scar and spoke around the lump forming in her throat. “Before Billy married his wife, she became the target of some really bad people. They didn’t play by any rules of decency and targeted Billy and Mara’s daughter. While everyone was trying to figure out what was going on, I offered to watch her. We were in the conference room when a shooter took aim at a witness inside the department.”
Cassie tapped the scar. The fear of that day threatened to burst through her defenses. She held strong. “The first shot found me instead of the mark. I managed to pull Alexa into a corner and cover her until Billy and Mara could get her to safety. I lost consciousness after that and almost bled out.”
Henry’s jaw hardened.
His eyes narrowed.
His nostrils flared.
It helped her continue.
“I made it through everything, and I absolutely don’t regret helping Billy and Mara. You see, I love them and the rest of the department. They’re friends. They’re family. But there is one thing I do regret about everything that happened.”
“What your family went through,” Henry guessed, surprising her.
Nevertheless, he was right.
“They won’t say it, but it nearly destroyed my parents. They stayed by my side for months while I recovered. My brothers and sisters weren’t far behind. They all tried their best to get me to move away from Riker County, even offering up their homes to me. But I didn’t want to move. I’ve made this place my home. One I want to grow old in. One I want to raise my family in.”
She averted her eyes for a second. Was Henry now included in that family? Did he want to be? Cassie sighed and finished her story. “It wasn’t until Kristen moved to Carpenter that everyone backed off. If you ask why she moved here, she’ll tell you that she wanted a change and had fallen in love with Carpenter when we were young. That she’s too self-involved to uproot her life to keep an eye on her baby sister since everyone else is married or has careers that they can’t just leave. But the truth is, after I nearly died, something in my family changed and she’s had the hardest time dealing with it. I don’t think she’ll ever leave my side.”
She straightened in her seat and cleared her throat.
She had finally made it to her point, even if she hadn’t known what it was when she’d started. “People can do awful, awful things sometimes and within the space of a moment everything can change. Whatever it is that Calvin, Michael and whoever else might be out there has planned, I won’t let it hurt the ones I love. If that means keeping them in the dark and keeping a low profile? Then so be it. You won’t get any resistance from me.”
Henry started to speak but Cassie cut him off.
“But I’m here to tell you that I’m not some pregnant damsel in distress,” she added, words heated. With them she felt a surge of adrenaline and decisiveness. Cassie looked into the true-blue eyes of a man who had given her the best gift she’d ever received in her entire life and gave him her ultimatum. “Whatever you choose to do in regards to being in my child’s life, I will support. If you want to be a part of his life, I will be on board. If you don’t want to be a father, then I can make that work, too. But only if you help me do one thing. Help me figure out why Calvin Fitzgerald is in my town, why he wants you dead, and how the sheriff’s department plays into it all before anyone else gets hurt. Deal?”
Henry’s face was blank. She couldn’t read his thoughts let alone any feelings he’d had at her words. It didn’t matter. What she needed now was his word.
And she got it.
“Deal.”
Chapter Thirteen
/> “You’re staying here?”
Henry pulled into the hotel parking lot and followed it around back, the Eagle in his rearview mirror. Cassie’s lips settled into a frown. Even without lipstick they were a luscious red. The same lips he’d gotten acquainted with in the very same hotel he was parking behind.
“I liked it well enough the last time I was here. I figured why roll the dice on trying to find a new one?”
Cassie didn’t respond. In fact, after giving her grand speech at the department, she hadn’t said a word during the drive over. It wasn’t like he had, either. The blonde had a way of throwing him off his game.
First, she’d opened up about the scar he’d always wondered about. That alone had his blood boiling—when everything settled down, he’d make sure to pull that report and read it personally—but then she’d switched gears on him so fast he’d barely been able to keep a straight face.
If you want to be a part of his life, I will be on board. If you don’t want to be a father, then I can make that work, too.
Just like that, she’d given him a choice. Two, actually. To be in his son’s life or not.
Was it that simple?
He knew which way his heart was leaning, but then there his brain was, pulling the other way.
He’d led a dangerous, mostly solitary life for the last several years. One that already had consequences threatening his new home.
Calvin.
Henry fisted his hand as he got out of the car. Cassie was right. They needed to figure out the now before he could even think about the future. That was his choice. Protecting the beautiful woman a few feet away and the child she was carrying, and stopping whatever Calvin intended to do.
The hotel was a five-story box. No pool, no mints on pillows and a small staff. Nothing fancy. However Henry enjoyed it. Mainly for its proximity to the Eagle and several restaurants and shopping farther down the block. At night the sounds of pleasant chatter rose to his window. It was a far cry from what he’d been used to undercover.
Cassie followed him like she had blinders on. She didn’t look at Mike as they passed through the lobby. The potbellied day manager had his favorite classical music station playing from a small Bluetooth speaker underneath the front desk. He gave them a friendly wave, which only Henry returned. Like the staff of the Eagle across the street, Mike made it no secret that he was a fan of local law enforcement. He’d even gotten Henry a deal on his room.
Which Henry realized might have been one of the reasons Cassie’s brow was furrowed deeper than her frown. Something that was confirmed when she took one look at the sign across the elevator’s closed doors.
“Out of order,” she deadpanned. “Does that mean I have to walk up five flights of stairs?”
She placed her palm over her stomach. Her cheeks took on a rosy tint. Henry wasn’t sure if it was from the weather or something else.
“I’m not staying in the same room as last time, if that’s what you’re asking.” Memories, hot and sizzling, soft and sweet, all threatened to come back as he thought about Room 504.
Not the time, Ward, he thought to himself. A second later he found himself wondering if she was struggling with the same thoughts.
Or, judging by her tone, maybe her memories of their time spent there hadn’t been good ones.
That was another thought that didn’t sit right with him.
“I have a bigger room this time,” he said, steering her toward the stairs in the corner of the lobby. “It’s a suite on the second floor.”
Cassie nodded. He chanced a look her way. The lines across her forehead began to smooth.
“Good. Because if it was on a higher floor I might just stay down here.” She made a grunt and kicked out one of her feet. “One perk of pregnancy that has stuck with me has been swollen feet. They’re trying to break out of my shoes like a pair of inmates wanting to flee prison.”
Henry stifled a laugh.
He had zero experience with pregnant women, but he had a feeling laughing at their pregnancy pains was a big no-no.
So instead he kept quiet and pulled out his key.
The smell of lemon cleaners and fabric softener filled his senses the moment they stepped into the second-floor hallway. Another reason he’d chosen to stay at the hotel while he searched for a place to live was in part how clean the place was. After spending years doing undercover work and staying in less than desirable locales, Henry found how much he valued a well-kept place to rest his head. Not to mention a relatively safe place. The simple layout of one long hallway with rooms off to each side and another stairwell at its end was also a bonus in his eyes.
Hard to be ambushed when you could see everything in one glance.
Room 201 was on the corner and because of that fact gave them three sets of windows instead of the two that all the suites had. The living area had one over the TV and its stand that looked out at the employee parking lot and the offices next door and another on the connecting wall that showed a clear view of the Eagle across the street. The third window from the small but efficient bedroom had the same view. Cassie took a moment to look through each but stopped short of the open door that led to the third. Instead she redirected herself to the couch.
When she looked back up at him, her expression was expectant.
“Now let’s talk about Calvin,” she said.
Henry caught himself smiling.
“You want anything first?” he asked, motioning to the minifridge next to the TV stand. “All I have is bottled water, but I was thinking about calling in some food to the front.” On cue his stomach groaned. He patted it, hitting muscle. “I don’t think I’ve eaten today, to be honest.”
Cassie perked up a little. She mimicked his stomach-patting. “I already ate but I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t do it again.” Her cheeks flushed rosy once more. “Do you think you could call in some pizza?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
* * *
CASSIE DECIDED NOT to push on about Calvin until after their pizza was delivered. In truth her ultimatum had caught even her off guard, especially when she’d been ready to pull the trigger the moment they’d stepped into the hotel suite. Then again, she hadn’t been prepared to be back at the scene of the crime, so to speak.
The room might have been plain, small and on a different floor, but Cassie felt like she was surrounded by hot spots of memories. The elevator had been the first one. The pale blue room door had been another.
The bed, with its king-size frame and white linens, was like something someone had stuck a blinking, neon marquee light over with an arrow pointing at its top.
She’d had to sit to ground herself, her thoughts. Her body.
Because, no matter what her mind said about Deputy Henry Ward, her hormones were steadfast in their thoughts about him.
He was a tall drink of sexy.
With and without his clothes on.
Though Cassie found herself almost drooling about the latter. Running her hands over the flat, muscled stomach as it hovered over her. Moaning while his lips caressed the side of her neck, moving down across her exposed skin. Feeling the hardness behind his zipper, pressing against her own desire.
“They said to give them about fifteen,” Henry said, coming back into the living area. “Mike will call me down when they get here. I told him I didn’t want anyone knowing where I was staying. Old habits, but I guess they’re working out for us so far.”
Cassie felt the scorching heat flash up her body and into her cheeks. She’d gone and let her hormones get the better of her and, boy, had they done a dang good job! Just remembering the start of their night months ago had put her entire body in a state of lust.
One that was holding even as her brain was shouting that this was a different situation. A different time.
“You okay?” Henry asked before she could
even fumble together a response to what he’d said before. Every part of her seemed to be warring between reaching out to the man a few feet from her and the idea of running right out of the hotel and never looking back.
“Oh, yeah, I’m just a little warm.” She scrambled for words, standing quickly. “You know I used to be good with the summers here and...well, I’m not anymore. If you excuse me, I think I might go to the bathroom for a moment.”
Henry’s eyebrow arched and then his expression was covered in concern.
That same concern only started to ignite more fires within her.
She wanted him to hold her. To soothe her. To touch her.
Which was why she nearly ran to the bathroom. Shutting the door with a little too much force, Cassie rounded to the sink and turned the water on high. She splashed the coldness on her face for a good minute.
Yet it barely made a dent in the sheer amount of desire coursing through her.
“Pregnancy hormones,” she whispered to herself. “That’s all this is. Biological. Normal. That’s it.”
Her words and rationale did little to settle the swell of her chest. Her heartbeat was starting to gallop just at the thought of Henry’s fingers moving along her body, stopping only to tease her. How her nipples had hardened into pearls as his tongue had followed behind, sending her nearly to the brink without even getting to the main event yet.
How the warmth of him had moved against her, both swollen with desire.
How he’d captured her mouth when she bowed up against him, wanting—needing—more.
Cassie could still remember how she’d balled fistfuls of the sheets in her hands as he’d pressed against her opening, teasing.
Then, slowly, he’d moved inside enough for them both to feel the beginning of what could be fantastic before pulling back out.
“Not yet,” he’d said, voice thrumming low and heavy. Cassie had moved her hands up his biceps and wound them in his hair. She had gotten a good grip and pulled his mouth down to hers, hungry.
It had been a move he clearly hadn’t anticipated.
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