Come Back Home Again (Hope Valley Book 2)

by Jessica Prince

  “Hello? Tempie, you there?”

  Carl’s voice pulled me back. Brushing off the feeling, I started for my car again. “Yeah, sorry. I’m here. What were you saying?”

  “Does El Toro sound good?”

  El Toro was the Mexican restaurant off the interstate just outside of town. Hayes had taken me there one evening for dinner, and I immediately took to the place and had demanded more than once that we go back. They had some of the best enchiladas I’d ever had, and my stomach immediately began to rumble in anticipation. “Sounds perfect. I’ll meet you there.”

  We disconnected, and I made the drive from the hospital to the restaurant, but the whole way there, that eerie feeling kept pricking at the base of my skull. Part of me wondered if I should call and tell Hayes about the feeling, but he already had so much on his plate. I didn’t want to add to his stress all because of a silly feeling, when the fact of the matter was, it was probably nothing. So I went about my drive, forcing myself to push it from my mind.

  Carl was already at a table when I arrived, and offered me a friendly smile as I made my way to him. “I haven’t ordered yet, but I made sure the chips and salsa were on the table before you got here.”

  I leaned in and gave him a hug in greeting before hooking my purse on the back of the chair and taking my seat. “You’re a godsend. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until you mentioned Mexican food. Now I’m starving.”

  He laughed as I dug into the chips like I hadn’t eaten in a week. “So how’s it goin’?” he asked after we gave our orders to the waitress. “How’s life in Hope Valley treating you?”

  “It’s good.” I smiled, thinking of Hayes. “Actually, it’s pretty great.”

  “That’s good to hear, sweetheart,” he replied with a genuine grin. “Don’t suppose the fact that you and Hayes having finally pulled your heads outta your asses has anything to do with things being so great,” he questioned with a small chuckle.

  “So you heard, huh?”

  He shook his head good naturedly. “It’s Hope Valley, Tempie.”

  I let out a little laugh. “Yeah. There’s no such thing as a secret here.”

  One side of his mouth quirked up. “Not unless you work really, really hard at it.”

  “He’s moving in with me.” My chest expanded as giddy excitement coursed through me and filled me nearly to bursting. “It’s like all those years never existed. I’m just so glad I’m back home.”

  “I’m happy for you guys, darlin’.”

  Reaching across the table, I placed my hand on Carl’s. “Thanks, hon. What about you? What’s new? I wanna know everything.”

  He laughed and told me about his job and the house he was thinking of buying, and I told him about my meeting at the hospital. It was really nice to catch up with an old friend, and I’d been able to relax after that weird feeling back in the hospital parking lot, but as we settled the check and got up to head out, that prickling on my skin started up again. I looked toward the windows in search of whatever was giving me that feeling, but there was nothing there.

  “Everything okay?” Carl asked.

  I shook the feeling off and let him guide me from the restaurant. “Yeah. I’m good. It’s just a weird feeling I started having a little while ago.”

  His face pulled a frown as he studied me. “What kind of weird feeling?”

  I scanned my surroundings again, but there was nothing there. “I don’t know. It’s almost like... I’m being watched or something.”

  Carl’s entire body seemed to go on high alert as he joined me in looking around the restaurant parking lot.

  “It’s probably nothing,” I assured him. “I think maybe I’ve just been watching too many of those Investigation Discovery shows.”

  I knew I’d appeased his concern when he turned back to me with a smile. “You might need to lay off all those murder shows for a while,” he teased.

  My head fell back on a laugh. “You’re probably right.”

  We said our goodbyes, and I headed back to the farmhouse. My man was coming home tonight... for good. And I needed to prepare to give him the best welcome home imaginable.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Hayes

  Friday nights at The Tap Room had live music, and when Tempie told me she wanted to go dancing, I’d been all over it. It had been over a week since I officially moved into the farmhouse. That shitty old apartment was a thing of the past, and my girl was in the mood to celebrate just how amazing things were going in our lives.

  Rory was slinging drinks as Tempie let loose on the dance floor with Eden, Gypsy, and Nona. The guys from Makin Hardware were playing classic rock covers, and by how the girls were cheering and whooping it up, you’d have thought they were at an actual rock concert instead of a bar in a small, nowhere town in the middle of the mountains.

  I let Tempie have time with her girls, choosing to hang back at the bar with Lincoln and Trick. Leo and Micah showed about thirty minutes early, and our buddy Carl shortly after.

  “So, Tempie tells me you’re all domesticated now,” Carl said, taking a pull of his beer.

  My eyes went back to the dance floor. Tempie was totally in her element, and I could’ve watched her all night long. “Yep.”

  “I’m happy for you, man, but you couldn’t have waited another week? I’m out fifty bucks.”

  My head swiveled his way. “What are you talkin’ about?”

  Leo laughed, clapping me on the shoulder. “We had a pool goin’. See how long it took you to pull your thumb out and claim your woman.”

  “You’re shittin’ me.” I looked around the group. “You assholes bet on me and Tempie?”

  “I had the fifteenth of last month,” Lincoln grumbled into his whiskey glass. “Clearly I put too much faith in you.”

  “So who won?” I asked after everyone quit laughing, curiosity getting the best out of me.

  “Me.” We turned to Rory as she sat a pint in front of Leo before looking at me and winking. “Easiest grand I’ve ever made.”

  “That was bullshit,” Micah griped. “You’ve known both of ’em all their lives. You had an unfair advantage.”

  She shrugged, propping her hands wide on the bar. “Don’t hate. Not my fault all those cop instincts failed you. For Christ’s sake. Trick’s his partner and wasn’t even close.”

  Trick shot Rory a withering look, and I let out a chuckle and shook my head as the song came to an end and the band announced they were taking a short break.

  My gaze trained on Tempie as she and the girls started pushing through the crowd back to the bar. The second she got close enough, my arm shot out and wrapped around her waist, yanking her into me.

  I could tell by her eyes that she was working on a nice buzz, and my dick stirred to life. My Tempie was always wild in bed, but when she had a few drinks in her, that ratcheted up to something fucking spectacular, and I was the lucky bastard who got to reap the benefits.

  “You havin’ a good time, angel?”

  She smiled lazily, leaning deeper into me and pressing her tits against my chest. “The best.”

  “Who wants shots?” Gypsy called. Tempie and the others threw their hands up and cheered.

  Rory lined four shot glasses along the bar and filled each with tequila. The girls downed them in record time, wincing and pinching their faces together as the liquor’s burn traveled down their throats.

  “Careful, baby,” I muttered, my arm around her growing tighter. “I wanna be able to have fun with you tonight, and I can’t do that if you pass out on me halfway home.”

  I nearly growled as the blue in her eyes heated and her eyelids dropped to half-mast. “Nothin’ but water from here on out,” she said to Rory, letting me know she was just as excited as I was for what was to come.

  The band hit the stage a while later, and Carl hopped off his stool. “All right, bud. If it’s cool with you, I think it’s time to take your woman for a spin on the dance floor.”

  “Have at
it, man,” I replied with a smirk. “Just don’t wear her out too much. We got a long night ahead of us.”

  They took off, and the rest of our crew broke off into their own conversations. Linc leaned in to me, his expression growing serious as he lowered his voice so as not to be overheard. “Been meanin’ to get with you but wanted to give you time to settle in with your woman before shit went south.”

  The hairs on my arm stood on end. “You find somethin’ in Chicago?”

  “That’s the thing. I’m not sure. Turns out Tempie had a boyfriend a few years back, guy by the name of Lance Marcum. Relationship only lasted a couple months. Turned out he was a loser with a capital fuckin’ L.”

  Hearing about a relationship from Tempie’s past didn’t exactly fill me with joy, but I managed to force my irrational jealousy back so I could ask, “How do you mean?”

  “Well, the asshole was a druggie. I’m talkin’ pretty much anything he could get his hands on. From what I was able to gather, she booted his ass as soon as she uncovered the truth. And she uncovered it when he started takin’ money from her wallet and pawnin’ her shit to score.” Found a police report where she pressed charges on him for stealin’ her shit, but the guy up and disappeared after that. Got what he needed and bailed to seedy parts unknown.

  My hands clenched into fists. Hearing that some asshole stole from my woman set my teeth on edge, but I could tell by Lincoln’s expression that he wasn’t done yet. “So how’s this tie in with her life here?”

  “Usually I’d say it doesn’t, but about a year after she ended it and he took off, Marcum’s body was found in a crack den.” His eyes pinned me to my stool. “Stabbed to death.”

  Fuck.

  “Cops chalked it up to a bad drug deal. Marcum had a rap sheet about as long as my arm, and considering where he was found, it wasn’t hard to jump to that conclusion. But that makes four deaths, all tied to Temperance Levine in one way or another, all killed in the exact same fashion, stabbed. Not to mention, it was total overkill. Guy was stabbed twenty-six times.”

  That was another thing Marcum’s death had in common with the others. Tempie’s mom and dad were both stabbed multiple times, and Martin Henderson had so many stab wounds he was nearly unrecognizable. The deaths never matched with a typical robbery. That kind of brutality was usually always personal, but the detectives on the Levine case had run into the same problem Trick and I had with the latest murder—the leads had dried up, and there was nothing in front of us but a solid fucking brick wall.

  “You didn’t happen to get your hands on the police report, did you?”

  “I didn’t. But you tell me what you’re lookin’ for, and my boy Xander’ll be all over it.”

  “Find out if anything was missing. Somethin’ he always carried with him that wasn’t found on his remains.”

  His face fell, the unhappiness and concern clear as day. “I’ll have him look into it, but you know that like tryin’ to find a needle in a stack of needles, right? Man was found in a known crack house. Odd are, he’d been picked over about a hundred times before cops found his body.”

  “I know,” I replied unhappily. I’d been a cop long enough to understand that wasn’t just a long shot, it was damn near impossible. “But it’s all I got for now.”

  “All right then. If there’s somethin’ to find, Xander’ll find it.”

  Christ,” I grunted, sitting up and raking a hand through my hair. “What the fuck is goin’ on?”

  “I don’t have a clue, brother. But I’ve got a bad feelin’.”

  He wasn’t the only one.

  Temperance

  I threw my head back on a laugh as Carl whipped me out before spinning me back in. The only reason I managed to stay on my feet was because of how good a dancer he was. The people around us backed up to make room, watching and clapping as he twirled me around the floor like he danced for a profession.

  By the time the song came to an end and started into something slower, we were both laughing so hard that we struggled to catch our breath. “Damn, Carl, who know you could move like that?”

  “Oh, I’ve got many talents, darlin’.”

  He gave me a break, choosing to move slow and casual to the new beat instead of letting loose. I rested my free hand on his shoulder as we moved, smiling up at my dear friend, and counting all the blessings I’d received since returning to Hope Valley.”

  “You look happy, sweetheart,” he stated as we turned on corner and started on another straight away.

  “I am. For the first time in forever, I’m really happy.”

  “Thank god for that, Tempie. I never wanted to say anything when I’d visit you in Chicago, but there was always something... I don’t know. Always something missing from your eyes.”

  I let out a long breath and turned my head, resting my cheek on his shoulder as we continued dancing. “I know. I didn’t realize it until I came back, but you’re right. I was missing something.”

  We lapsed into silence for a minute before he eventually asked, “You tell Hayes about that weird feelin’ you had last week?”

  I lifted my head to look back at him. “No. Like I said, it was nothing. The feeling went away right after and hasn’t come back.”

  “Well that’s good.”

  Letting my eyes wander, I spotted something near the bar that caught my attention. Nona was sitting on a stool, gabbing with Eden and Gypsy, but her attention was fixed right on Trick where he stood a little further down with Hayes, Linc, and the other detectives. There was something about the way she was watching him that nearly took my breath away, a longing in her eyes I hadn’t noticed until just then.

  Well that’s interesting.

  First Rory, and now Nona.

  From what I’d learned from Hayes, Trick was married and had been for a good long while. But recently, things in his marriage had turned sour, thanks to his wife being a selfish cow. Nona had recently gone through a nasty divorce of her own, and if there was anyone who deserved a happily ever after, it was her.

  The song finally came to an end and I sent up a silent prayer that my friends got all the good they deserved. Carl put his hand to my back and we started toward the bar when I caught sight of Harley Madison. She was currently shooting me the evil eye as she roughly shoved through a group of people on her way back to the pool tables.

  Carl must have spotted her too, because I felt him move in closer, almost protectively, like he was getting ready for a show down, just in case.

  Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the fact that I was having an incredible night out with my friends and my man, or maybe it was just the fact that she hadn’t won after her attempt to humiliate me, but whatever the case, seeing her right then didn’t even faze me. Lifting my hand, I smiled brightly and gave her a finger wave.

  She looked ready to spit acid as she flipped her hair back and disappeared into the crowd.

  “Christ, that woman’s somethin’ else,” Carl grumbled.

  “I think the word you’re looking for a bitch. But I’m done letting her affect my life.”

  “I get you, but women like that? They don’t stop, Tempie.”

  “She wants to make her life miserable and keep up with her petty shit, that’s on her, but she’s not gonna get the reaction she wants out of me anymore.”

  “Level-headed, beautiful, and can keep up with me on the dance floor.” I looked over at Carl to find him giving me a friendly smile. “Hayes is a lucky guy.”

  I bumped my shoulder against his playfully. “Thanks, Carl. You know, you’re pretty amazing yourself. One of these days you’re gonna find a girl who’s actually worthy of you.”

  He winked, and the fingers on my back pressed deeper. “Thanks, darlin’. Hope you’re right.”

  “I totally am. Just you wait. I’m willing to bet come this time next year you’ll have met the love of your life and are looking to settle down.”

  We reached the bar and I stepped away from Carl to move into Hayes’s sid
e. He smiled up at me, and my heart swelled. “You about ready to get outta here?”

  A shiver of anticipation worked its way down my spine, making my nipples hard before settling right between my thighs. “If your earlier promise for what’s to come still stands, then hell yeah.”

  He turned and waved to get Rory’s attention. “Close us out, sweetheart.”

  Damn, I loved my man.

  “Mmm, Hayes.”

  His fingers at my clit circled faster and the ones at my nipple pinched harder as his cock drove in and out. I was on my side with Hayes’s big, strong body behind me, his arms circling me to hold me in place. My top thigh was thrown over his, and he was fucking me so slow that I thought I might go insane.

  “Say the words, baby.”

  I didn’t need to ask what words he was talking about. “I love you,” I breathed as the pressure in my belly began to build.

  We’d had the talk days ago and had decided to ditch the condoms since I was on the pill, so now there was nothing between us. I loved feeling him inside me with no barriers, just me and him, skin against skin, connected in the most intimate way. It was incredible.

  I tilted my ass, taking him even deeper with each inward slide as the tension inside me grew to near overwhelming heights.

  “Yeah, baby,” he grunted into my hair as his pace picked up, and I knew he was getting close too. “Fuck yeah, Tempie. Take all of me.”

  A whimper crawled up my throat as I lifted one arm to reach around and slide my fingers into his soft hair. Digging my nails into his scalp, I twisted my head and pulled his lips to mine, driving my tongue against his as everything inside me came undone.

  Hayes swallowed down every noise I made as I came around him. Wave after wave rushed over me until I had to jerk my lips away in order to breathe. It was the most exquisite torture.