I couldn’t explain it.
I didn’t know how long I sat staring at him, watching his dark hair drip down his face. His wet clothes were ruining my couch. His body shivered, and I let out a lengthy breath at the realization that this problem wasn’t going to go away.
Shoving to stand, I carried the gun with me while I gathered blankets and other things I was going to need. If this guy died under my roof from hypothermia, my sisters would never quit teasing me how I’d killed the man they considered my Mr. Right.
Mr. Right. Ha. As if. Just one look at the guy, and I knew that wasn’t true. He was shot and bleeding and leaving himself vulnerable to an unknown woman.
I pulled off the guy’s boots and socks before reaching for the button of his jeans. That struggle left me winded while I tried my best to undress him. Without messing with the wound too much after his first moan of pain, I swaddled him like a six-foot-three baby to try to keep him from catching a cold or worse.
His wallet fell out of his pants, and I picked it up and opened it. There was no ID, nothing except a one-hundred-dollar bill with my first name written on it in black marker and a piece of paper with my last name and the address.
Chapter Four
I stirred the spaghetti sauce at sunrise using my new-in-the-box camping gear to cook with. The rain was still pelting down hard and didn’t look as though it would slack off anytime soon.
Most people ate breakfast at this time, not me. Not when I’d be going to bed in a few hours, depending on my house guest situation.
If the phones would come back up, I could call an ambulance or at least a cop, or worst case, my sisters. Someone. Anyone who could help with my predicament.
I grabbed my soda and turned to find the house crasher leaning against the doorframe with the blanket wrapped around his waist. His face was flushed as he stared at me.
“You should be lying down,” I said, setting my drink down and hurrying to his side.
“Where’s my gun?” he growled as I lifted his arm and wrapped it around my shoulder to guide him back to the couch.
“Put away,” I answered as he plopped down onto the couch into a sitting position, almost taking me with him. “Who are you?”
His brows dipped, but he remained silent.
Silence wasn’t going to work for me.
“Don’t tell me you have amnesia,” I said, grabbing his wallet and tossing it onto his lap. He didn’t make any move to open it.
“Hugh.”
“Hugh, what?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and trying hard not to unconsciously look toward where I was hiding the guy’s weapon.
“Hugh is all you need to know right now,” he said and began to cough. Holding his side, he grimaced as if in pain while trying to stifle the movement.
“You stay put,” I said, pointing to the couch and walking backward toward the kitchen to get him a glass of water and some pain medication.
When I returned, I found him across the room with the gun in his hand, and yet he didn’t even look strong enough to lift it. He stumbled back to the couch and sat down. “You should think of a better hiding spot next time.”
I handed him the glass of water and watched while he drank. His cheeks lost the sallow, drab appearance of an invalid.
“You aren’t going to kill me. I saved your life,” I said, sitting on the fireplace hearth again, out of his reach.
“You’re right,” he said, trying to stand again, only this time he almost fell over and caught himself with the couch. “I’ve got to get out of here.”
I gestured to the weather radio on the table. “Afraid that’s not possible. We’re kind of in the middle of a tropical storm flooding the area. Phone lines are down, too, or I would have called you an ambulance.”
The guy’s eyes started to roll in his head, and sweat beaded his brow. I crossed the room and reached to touch his forehead.
He caught my hand before I ever touched his skin. His grip tightened, biting into my wrist.
“I’m just checking to see if you have a temperature,” I said.
His jaw clenched. His eyes slightly narrowed when he loosened his grip, letting go of his hold.
I rested my knuckles on his forehead. It was burning hot to the touch.
“We need to cool you down,” I said, pulling him from the couch. “Can you make it up the stairs with my help?”
He didn’t answer. He panted, shallow and labored, but we made it upstairs. I drew him a bath. Only I was hesitant to leave him should he pass out and drown.
He didn’t give me a choice. His grip locked around my wrist, and he stared down into my eyes. His blue eyes darkened to the color of a stormy sea. “Death is coming for you, Honor Bennett, and I don’t know how to stop it.”
“Oh well. I can handle death. I’m not scheduled to die until I’m old and gray,” I said, helping him over the lip of the tub and holding him steady as he lowered into the water. I wouldn’t explain to this stranger how I knew my death wasn’t imminent. Not if it meant outing my sister, Mercy. That was her talent. She could tell when people were going to pass. She’d touched me when we were younger and told me I’d die an old woman.
Nope. I’d be keeping my family secrets intact.
He hissed at the lukewarm temperature, and I helped him down.
I tried hard not to stare at his wet boxer briefs and instead rose to stand and got him one of the many men’s toiletry kits I kept beneath my sink.
He met my gaze. “You have a lot of sleepovers?”
“My ex-boyfriend was kind of OCD about never using the same items twice. He was weird and wasteful that way, but lucky for you, I have a supply. Otherwise, you’d have to use my floral-smelling stuff.”
“I always figured Teddy wasn’t right in the head.”
I froze, and my heart skipped a beat as I slowly turned. “How do you know his name was Teddy?”
“You think that me being here is a coincidence? Honor, I wasn’t kidding when I said you’re in danger. Teddy used to talk about you all the time.”
“How do you know him?” I asked, hugging the towels protectively against my chest. Teddy was a loner when he wasn’t at work. He didn’t have many friends and no family. That was probably one of the reasons he liked me best. We both enjoyed a peaceful life. Hell, I had enough family for him to feel smothered in the event we ventured into town.
“We shared a cell together.”
“Of course, you did,” I said, backing out of the bathroom.
“Wait, that came out wrong,” Hugh called out, holding out his hand even though I was out of reach. “I was tasked with turning him into a confidential informant.”
I stopped. “The police paid you to turn him into a CI?”
“I am the police. Well, sort of. I’ve been undercover for the last three months trying to take down the organization that used Teddy to launder money. And it’s ringleader, Victor Simmons.”
Teddy was an accountant, a white-collar criminal, and he’d been arrested for stealing money from his clients. He was doing time. He’d claimed to steal in order to make ends meet, and I’d believed him until he’d stolen from me, too, and was believed to have a million dollars stashed away.
We’d broken up, and he’d gone to jail. He was the first and last man I gave my heart to.
“You’re an undercover cop?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Where’s your badge?”
“I’m undercover,” he said, opening the toiletry bag and tearing into the bar of soap. He winced when the sharp movement must have pulled on his wound. He continued, “Teddy wasn’t the brightest tool in the shed, and I wasn’t the only one that he told about you.”
I tilted my head. “What about me?”
“That you’re his ex-girlfriend. You still have his things, don’t you?”
I snapped my mouth closed. “I have them in storage until he gets out of jail.”
“It’s good that you don’t have them here. You’ll have leverag
e.”
I stepped back into the bathroom. “What else did he tell you?”
Hugh’s lips twisted at the corner. “He told me about your telepathy and that you can use astral projection to spy on anyone you want.”
Chapter Five
My mouth parted, and I snapped it closed again before narrowing my eyes. “That little shit.”
A sexy grin slipped onto Hugh’s lips. “You can’t be too hard on the guy. He loved you. That’s the reason I’m here. I promised to keep you safe in exchange for you giving me his ledger.”
I shook my head and dumped the towels on top of the toilet. “Looks like you’re the one who needed to be saved.”
I spun on my heels and stomped out of the bathroom.
“He claimed you’d make the perfect spy one day, and I might have to agree,” he called out after me.
With each step I took down the stairs, blood boiled stronger in my veins. Teddy had shared my secrets with a complete stranger, and for all I knew, he might not be the only convict who knew about my abilities.
Maybe I was in trouble.
I walked back into the kitchen and started the noodles to go with my dinner. I lifted a worried gaze out the window to consider the rain falling outside. If the weather didn’t stop soon, I’d be stuck battling to stay awake and alert with a unwelcome guest under my roof.
I glanced at my cell phone again. No signal.
The weather radio updates were my only company. The rain wasn’t scheduled to stop until tomorrow evening on Faith’s wedding day. Even then, my sisters might need to find a boat just to come get me. No way would they let me miss the wedding just because of where I chose to call home.
Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting down to a bowl of spaghetti and a glass of tea when Hugh emerged in the kitchen doorway. A new pink sheet was strapped around his hips.
“I see you found my linen closet.”
His gaze landed on the place setting across from me.
“Have a seat before you fall,” I said, gesturing to the bowl. “I put your jeans in the dryer. They should be done soon. Sorry, I couldn’t do anything for your shirt, but I might have one of Teddy’s still around here somewhere.”
“Thanks,” Hugh said, sliding his big frame into the seat and pressing his palm against his shoulder as he eased down.
“Who shot you?” I asked, unable to stop myself. Shaking my head, I rose, and fixed Hugh a bowl of spaghetti and a drink.
He was frowning as I set them in front of him. “The same guys that will be here when the rain stops and the flooding goes down.” His gaze lifted to the window. “We need to be gone before the water recedes.”
“I hope you have a boat.” I twirled my fork in the noodles on my plate.
He didn’t reply; instead, he was shoving food into his mouth as though he hadn’t eaten in days.
“What do these guys think that I have?”
Hugh finished chewing and swallowed. “They think you have Teddy’s ledger and access to the cash he stole from them.”
I raised a single brow and shook my head. “I don’t remember packing a ledger. I would have turned it over to the police had I found anything resembling that; besides, Teddy didn’t trust me.”
“Teddy swears he left it in his things. Is there somewhere he could have hidden it?” Hugh asked.
He’d hidden it well if I hadn’t spotted it. Granted, there had been a lot of emotions rolling through me at the time a search warrant had been served on me and Teddy had been dragged out in cuffs.
I’d hit all the emotions in a single day until there were none left inside. Maybe that had been the final tear in my damaged heart.
“So what are you? Fed? You aren’t local. I’d know if you were.”
He raised a brow. “You get in trouble that often?”
I sat back in my chair and grinned. “My soon-to-be brothers-in-law make up half the force.”
“Looks like your sisters have better choice in men,” Hugh said, silently watching me.
“I agree,” I said, rising from my chair. After rinsing out my bowl, I turned to lean on the counter. “So, listen, here’s the thing. My sister is getting married, and if I miss the wedding, it won’t be your bad guys who scare me. My sisters will hunt me down and skin me alive.”
“They’ll be walking into danger if they come out here. I hope they know how to shoot.”
I wasn’t about to reveal all of our family secrets. Not to a total stranger who claimed to be an undercover cop.
“I can’t really help you except to show you the storage area, assuming we get out of here without drowning. My astral projection only works when I know the person.” Or, in Hugh’s case, a body acted like a magnetic pull to mine. “I don’t know your bad guys, so there’s no chance of me going to spy on them, and they aren’t here for me to use my telepathy.”
“I was kidding about you being a spy.”
My brows dipped. “Why is that?”
He took a long sip of his tea. “If you could read minds, then you would have already kicked me out.”
I didn’t respond, even though I really wanted to know what he was thinking.
“Then it’s settled. I’ll take you to the storage shed, and then we part ways.”
“Actually,” he said, leaning back in the chair, watching my face, “you’re in danger until we stop Victor. So, I’m afraid you’re stuck with either me or another cop I trust. Once I check in with the brass we’ll get you squared away.”
That’s what he thought. If and when my sisters found out what was going on, heads were going to roll, and the bad guys would be history. I wasn’t worried. Not in the least.
Until the rain still hadn’t stopped and I could hear a boat motor in the distance.
Chapter Six
The noise forced me from my chair and I hurried to the window to find a little boat at the end of the drive. The water had risen another two feet, almost reaching my porch.
My wedding escort, Deputy Jimbo Jones had arrived wearing a bright orange life jacket.
I yanked the door open just as I felt the bite of metal shoved into my side. Hugh stood behind the door, holding it from opening any further and keeping out of sight. “Get rid of him unless you want to make him a target too.”
“Hey, Jimbo,” I called out and leaned against the doorframe.
“Hey, Honor, you doing okay?” he called out, trying to stand and almost tipping over in the boat.
“I’m fine, but you look like you need to dry off,” I called back.
Hugh cursed beneath his breath, something about being a crappy friend.
“Wish I could, but gunshots were called in a couple of hours ago, and we found a car that had been shot up about three miles from here with blood in the drivers seat. You haven’t seen anyone injured or unusual around this place, have you?”
“No, but maybe you should ask Mercy to help you track the guy, from the sounds of there being gunshots involved, you might want to bring Gwen with you if Mercy can get a bead on the guy’s location.”
“Smart thinking,” Jimbo called back and tilted his head. “You sure you’re okay?”
“They’ll kill him and won’t think twice,” Hugh whispered, and I almost turned my head to look at him.
“I’m good for now,” I called back. My heart sank while I watched Jimbo ease back down into his seat and lower the trolling motor back into the water.
“I’ll check on you again after we find the injured guy and figure out what’s going on. We have other officers searching through some rubble from where a tornado touched down. Stay safe, Honor. We’re in for a long day,” Jimbo said with a wave and turned in the driveway heading farther into the woods toward the lake.
Even though my house wasn’t on the lowest land near the lake, the rising water told me there were downed trees holding the water in like a dam somewhere nearby. The window for evacuating was nearly shut. As it was, we’d probably need to swim and wade through waist-deep water.
Th
e water was still rising and had almost reached my porch even though my house was built higher than any flood zone in case the lake was every breached.
I eased the door closed.
Hugh shut it the rest of the way and flicked the lock. “You did good.”
“Let me guess, your car is the one Jimbo said was all shot up?”
“Yeah. I think I left it far enough away that if Victor’s guys do find it, they won’t come in this direction and they’ll follow the rest of the decoy trail I left,” he said, walking back into the kitchen.
He grabbed his bowl and fixed himself a second helping while I watched.
“What makes you think they haven’t already looked up my address and are headed here? That’s the logical thing, right?”
“Teddy told them his girlfriend’s name was Lizzie.”
Tension gripped my neck and shoulders like a vise. I gave a slow nod. Teddy had called me by Lizzie since my middle name was Elizabeth. I’d thought it was endearing at the time. Now it just sounded dirty.
“But he gave you my full name and address?” I asked.
“Well, yeah. He trusted me, and he knew his time was running out.”
My heart thundered against my rib cage. “Are you saying…”
Hugh glanced up, and his eyes softened as if realizing what he’d implied.
“Teddy is dead, Honor. They got to him in jail and killed him.”
The wind was knocked out me as if I’d been sucker-punched. I slowly slid down to my knees, unable to hold myself up anymore. Everything tunneled around me as my thoughts clouded with visions of the past. Teddy couldn’t be dead, could he?
I shook my head. I’d have known if he was dead, right? I’d feel him, or one of my sisters would have seen him. Something. Right?
I swallowed around the knot in my throat as tears formed in my eyes. No. He wasn’t dead. I’d know it.
I swiped hard at my tears and lifted my gaze to Hugh’s. It would be to his advantage if I believed the lie. I’d be less worried about giving away Teddy’s ledger. Still…was there a chance?
Train Wreck: Bennett Dynasty Book 6 Page 2
