by Livia Quinn
He took my moan as assent and latched onto my breast with the hot cavern of his mouth. “Oh, Jack…” My breath hitched as he drew away.
A lock of his hair had fallen over his forehead, his eyes were liquid silver in the moonlight, like some otherworldly creature. I’d torn the button on his shirt, and there was lipstick on his face.
He used his fingers to comb his hair back and smiled. “I didn’t mean to attack you—”
“I think it was the other way around.” I laid my fingers on his lips, “No regrets. Later, okay?”
“And in a better location,” he said, looking around at our cramped position in the cruiser.
“Oh, I don’t know. It would have been my first time in a police cruiser,” I said.
His brows lifted. “Well, I don’t want your first time with me to be in a car.” Was he worried that I would hold that against him?
I sobered. “I need to find my family, Jack. I know it seems like I’m all over the place emotionally. I’m not, normally…”
“Sweetheart, I’m not rushing you. Not on purpose anyway. As far as finding River and Phoebe goes, I told you, I’m going to keep the pressure on. This lake really comes together when you need them. I’ve got volunteers from as far away as Thunder Point and Larue putting out flyers and checking vacant houses.
“Let’s head over to Breaux’s. I’m hungry.” He winked, “But I’ll settle for pizza.”
My phone vibrated with a text at the same time Jack’s rang.
“It’s Aurora,” I said.
He nodded and put his phone to his ear. “Aurora, Jack. What’s up?”
Jack stopped smiling within seconds. He cranked the engine and spun around in the small gravel turnout, heading back toward town. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
My eyebrows rose when he flipped on the emergency lights. As we passed under the streetlight I saw the worry in his eyes and the hard set of his jaw. “What is it, Jack?”
“Jordie’s sick. Aurora took her home. She said her fever is already 103.”
By the time we turned onto Crystal Lane, Jack’s tension was palpable.
I’d tried to think of something to say to reassure him, but I know how I’d felt when River was sick. Nothing could keep me from worrying. That didn’t happen until he was feeling better, and I was certain he was going to live. Death always enters your mind, when they’re sick and helpless, especially when you’ve seen bad things happen; experienced death or loss. You’re always afraid it will revisit.
I admitted this to myself, even as I understood Jack’s fear. “She’s going to be okay, Jack.” I said with fervor and prayed it would be true.
He nodded as we drove across the manicured grass and into his driveway. Aurora was waiting on us at the door. “That was quick.”
In the hallway he brushed by Aurora, asking, “Is it just fever? Has she thrown up or anything?”
We both tried to keep up with Papa Bear, who was eating up the distance to Jordie’s bedroom as if a squad of terrorists were on his six. Aurora said, “Her tummy isn’t upset. It seems to be just fever and a rash. Maybe she brushed up against something she’s allergic to.”
We got to Jordie’s bedroom door just in time to see Jack throw his hat on the chair in the corner of the room and kneel by the bed. He bent over Jordie and, kissing her forehead, said, “Baby, Daddy’s here.”
A little moan came from under the cover about the same time as a low growl from the other side of the bed. Jack looked over his shoulder at us and moved his finger to his lips. As he reached for his gun, Aurora said, “Jack, don’t. I thought Jordie might enjoy the comfort of my big Beffie.” She called to the animal. “Beffie, up.”
A giant gray spotted dog, which looked like a cross between a Great Dane and a Catahoula Cur, rose over the other side of Jordie’s bed. His intelligent, soulful eyes looked from Aurora to Jack and me, then back to Jordie. He whined as he nuzzled her through the covers.
Jack looked at the dog and replaced the strap on his gun. “Hey, boy. You been looking after my baby girl?”
He reached out his closed fist, and the dog wagged its tail and licked his skin. “Good boy.”
He breathed out and turned to Aurora, removing his coat and tossing it on top of his hat. “She hasn’t been sick in years. How high was her temperature last time you took it?” He sat on the side of the bed stroking Jordie’s hair, I suspected more out of a need to comfort himself, the need to do something to combat the helplessness.
“It was 103.2 right after I called you. Which has only been ten minutes I think. She said she could take aspirin, so I gave her two.”
“It hasn’t had time to work then,” he murmured. Beffie whined again and looked at Jack. “What’s he want?” Jack asked.
“I think he wants to crawl up on the bed with Jordie. She coaxed him up there before but I made him get down.”
Jack patted the blanket beside Jordie. “You want to crawl up here, man? Come on then.”
The big dog jumped gracefully and landed gently on the bed, stretching out beside Jordie. In sleep, she poked a slender arm out of the cover and draped it across his back. His head angled up so that he could lick her chin a couple of times, then he breathed out a contented sigh.
“They certainly seem to have bonded quickly. You say this is your dog?” Jack asked watching his daughter and the big dog together.
“Actually, he needs a new home. His old owner moved on and left him here. I’ve been kind of his caretaker in the meantime.”
“Hmm. You mentioned a rash?” Jack asked.
“Yes, on her hip. I decided not to treat it or put lotion on it until later. It may go away on its own.”
“Possibly,” Jack said. “I’ll keep an eye on her tonight and if the fever gets much higher, I’ll run her to the emergency room.”
“You might give Montana a call if you get worried,” I suggested.
“Okay, do I have her number?”
I gave it to him.
“Now that you’re here, I’ll get going. Call me, though, if I can do anything else.” Aurora said.
Jack rose and took her hands in his big ones. “Aurora, thank you.” Those three words spoken with so much sincerity made the normally pragmatic Aurora smile warmly.
“I’m glad I was able to help. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Tempe, if you can still help me at the shop.”
“Absolutely.” I’d do whatever pricing and tagging she needed as long as I could work it around looking for Paige.
I walked Aurora out. On my way back to the bedroom, I took a detour through the dining room to get a chair. I bumped it into the doorframe, and Jack looked up from his post by the bed. “Here, let me get that for you.” He got up and swung the chair one-handed into the center of the room across from him where we could both view his teenager.
“Why don’t I get us a cup of coffee and make you a sandwich?” I asked.
Jack stared at Jordie. He sighed, “Coffee would be good, but I’m not hungry.”
Hmm, that’s what a sick child will do for you, I thought. Make you forget you were starving just twenty minutes ago. I went to the kitchen and started rummaging around for filters and figuring out how to use his coffee pot.
I’d recognized the grey spotted dog. Aurora had spoken correctly when she said it needed a new home. The beast wasn’t really a dog. Oh, it looked like a dog and acted like a dog, and possibly even smelled like a dog. But in fact, it was a Befanas, a creature be-spelled to protect a certain household. And Aurora had hooked him up with the Langs.
The question was why.
Chapter 35
Tempe
Jordie’s temperature dropped a couple degrees and we moved into the living room where our conversation wouldn’t awaken her.
We sat down on the couch and he rubbed the back of my neck absently. “Did you do the decorating?” I asked softly. The autumn tones were warm and made the atmosphere as comfortable as Jack’s soft olive overstuffed sectional.
&nb
sp; “My mom and dad found the house for us and she furnished it.” He rolled his head to the back of the couch. “I know what you’re doing.”
“Me?” I laughed, “I was—”
“You were distracting me.” His eyes had warmed to the color of moss. Mesmerized, I stared at his lips as they descended toward mine.
He pulled me to him, deliberately giving me time to pull away. His eyes flicked closed and he dragged his bottom lip across mine. He urged my lips open and the kiss became a flurry of passion. I ran my fingers through his hair as his tongue tangled with mine. The man could kiss. My hands explored the strong muscles of his back until a quiet, “ahem” interrupted. Jack’s hand stalled on my breast, and discreetly eased back to my waist.
He looked over my shoulder at Jordie, who’d just come out of her bedroom. “How are you feeling, sweetheart?” he asked the girl, holding me still. I knew if it hadn’t been for a certain incriminating presence between us he would have leaped off the couch to check on her.
He didn’t seem embarrassed. He didn’t jerk away, or stumble over his words. I relaxed against him. The last two weeks had taken a toll on me. Anxiety, revelations, lack of sleep, the job—had all been stressful. I tilted my head back toward Jordie.
“I heard a commotion—” she grinned. My face heated, but I didn’t move away. “I’m going back to bed.” Before she closed the door she said, “Carry on, father.”
Jack laughed long and hard, probably as much from relief as mirth. He let me go and wiped his eyes, he looked at me, “That girl is always surprising me.”
His eyes shown with so much love and pride that I gulped, tamping down the anguish I felt at the loss of that relationship between me and my own father. “That young lady,” I corrected, “is so lucky to have you.”
For that, I got a ferocious hug and a kiss that left me wishing I hadn’t stopped him earlier.
As I’d told Aurora Sunday morning when we priced gifts and masks and gowns and shoes and an untold mass of other stuff—retail was definitely not my calling—number one on my list was locating River’s old college girlfriend.
Paige is a minor, make that negligible Tempestarie, meaning her hair gets frizzy when rain hits the city limits. She works for Aladdin’s Rub, a housekeeping service with both commercial and private customers, and at the Red Carpet Inn in Alliance part-time.
I called Aladdin’s Rub first. Her boss said she’d be returning around two. I looked at my watch. Thirty minutes. I might as well get something to eat while I waited. I dug a pack of stale peanut butter crackers and a too-ripe banana out of my lunchbox from Thursday and parked behind a big live oak at the edge of the lot. I didn’t want to miss Paige, or give her boss a chance to warn her.
Twenty minutes later she drove into the parking lot in one of those square shaped cars. Ugly but extremely practical I guessed for carrying mops, rugs, vacuum cleaners and whatever other cleaning supplies she needed.
She was bending over the back seat when I approached. “Paige?”
She whirled around, a startled look on her face. “Sheeit, Tempe, you scared me to death. What do you mean sneaking up on a person like that?”
I hadn’t been sneaking. “Sorry, Paige, I just wanted to talk to you for a minute.”
She smoothed her hair back with nervous energy. “Oh? About what?”
She seemed a little wary of me. We hadn’t really gotten along when she was dating River in college, but River had never said why he broke it off with her.
“About my brother,” I said, monitoring her reaction.
“River? What about him?”
Was it my imagination, or did she stiffen at the mention of his name? “Have you seen him lately?” Damn, I’d meant to ask that a different way so I could judge whether she was lying or not.
“No, why?” Zeus’ primed fist! It was like pulling teeth getting answers from her. Was this why River broke up with her? Was she the jealous type, or just suspicious by nature?
“I haven’t heard from him since Sunday—”
She snorted and shook her head. “Tempe, River’s a big ole boy, and you are not his mother. That’s part of the reason we broke up.”
Really.
“I got tired of being constantly compared to you.”
I was the one startled now. Both by the venom in her comment, and that she was jealous of me. Granted, I was more of a motherly sister—I’d had to be, but I’d never tried to tell River what to do in his relationships.
“Gee, Paige, why don’t you tell me what you really think of me? Better yet, just answer the question, and I’ll leave. When was the last time you saw River?”
She glared at me, arms crossed, foot tapping. “I haven’t seen him since we broke up two years ago.” Then she tempered her response, almost as an after thought, “I hope you find him, but stay away from my jobs.” She slammed the back door and grabbed her purse.
“Right. And Paige?” As she turned toward me, I said, “They give anger management classes at the outpatient clinic.”
The gesture she made was not one of agreement.
The gesture I made created a perfectly square thundershower directly over her head, complete with thunder. As rain saturated her hair and clothes, she just stood there glaring at me, her hate nearly piercing the wall of rain.
“Just sayin…” I closed my hand leaving her once again standing in sunshine. The training thing was working. I fist pumped, Yes.
I turned and squeaked to a stop when Jack stepped out of his cruiser and strode over to me.
Tempe
“Did you see that?” Jack asked as Paige pulled a jacket from the car, and scurried off toward the building.
“What? So you had the same idea.” While he scratched his head and tried to make sense of what he’d seen, I created a distraction. “She says she hasn’t seen River in two years.”
“You don’t believe her.”
“I’m not sure if it’s because I dislike her so much or what, but no, I don’t.”
“She’s not blonde…” Jack reminded me.
“And we both know how easily that’s remedied.”
“True.”
“How’s Jordie?” I asked. Jack looked tired, as if he’d slept little in addition to the stress of the murder investigation.
“She’s better, except she’s got this strange rash on her back and thighs. Her fever is going down, and hopefully she’ll be ready to go back to school by morning.”
“I’m so glad.” My hand went for his forearm and I felt the steady thrum of energy beneath my hand.
“The funny thing is that big dog Aurora brought has slept right next to her all night, and though he hasn’t threatened any of us, I get the feeling he’d be a forbidding protective presence. I felt better having him in the house.”
I’d asked Aurora about Beffie. Somehow she’d managed to change the subject. She knew that I knew Beffie was no ordinary dog, and there was a reason she’d placed it in Jack’s home. Obviously, she wasn’t ready to explain, and when Aurora slammed the lid down on a subject, it was both a mark of how important it was and how strong an immovable object she could be.
Jack
It must have been the mention of the vision Tempe had when I kissed her that made me run back over some of the things that had happened since the day I met her; the weirdness surrounding the scene at the clubhouse. Her actions, which had made her seem guilty; the half truths, omissions, absurd explanations and the outright lies she’d told me.
And still here I was, on her side, believing her, practically attaching myself to her like a lapdog. I didn’t like the image, but ever since that dog had crawled up onto the bed and curled up next to Jordie, I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind that I needed to stick close to Tempe. That something was going to bust loose, and I was not going to be the same.
Personally? Professionally? I didn’t know, but I didn’t seem to have any choice in the matter. That’s not true. We always have choices. So…mine was to watch Tempe’s
six.
She was impulsive, loyal, hotheaded, and fierce. There was no telling what might happen when we found River. I’d been reluctant to be completely honest with her, like I usually am in similar situations because...
Damn. I scrubbed my face, trying to wipe away the fatigue and worry. On the heels of the nerve-wracking fear of losing Jordie last night, now I was experiencing a more insistent kind of worry for Tempe. About how she would cope if we didn’t succeed in finding River alive. How it would affect our relationship.
And there it was again. I wanted a relationship with Tempest Pomeroy. I cared about her, even with all the craziness, her little “talents”, and the outrageous fib she told about being able to smell River’s bottle in another room when the overwhelming stink of the body made that impossible.
I remembered her devastation when I’d found her at Phoebe’s, felt the ache right now when I remembered her breaking down in my arms. Last week when I’d first met her, I’d thought she was a nut case; and now, when I knew her, and still wasn’t convinced she wasn’t at least a little crazy, I could no longer walk away.
“I’m screwed.”
My phone vibrated, and I saw Jordie’s name on the screen. “Hey, sweetie. How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay. Just wanted to remind you to stop for some dog food for Beffie.” She sounded tired, but much improved. The dog hadn’t left her side, and he never seemed to drink or eat. Jordie was certainly enamored with him. Whatever helped her feel better was okay by me.
“He seems like a well trained dog. I wonder why his owner didn’t want him.”
“He says it’s because he’s here to take care of us,” Jordie said.
I laughed, “He told you that did he?”
