Somewhere in Texas

by Eve Gaddy

  “Now what? I know I wasn’t speeding,” she said, watching the officer get out of the prowler. Great, just her luck. Maggie Barnes came up to the window.

  She looked nothing like she had the last time Delilah had seen her. Wearing her crisp navy uniform, her clunky cop shoes, and with mirrored dark glasses covering her eyes, she looked every inch the cop she was.

  “Officer Barnes, hi. I wasn’t speeding, was I?”

  “Ms. Roberts.” She nodded. “No, not speeding. Can I see your license and registration?”

  Her license. The one with a different name than the one she was going by now. If Maggie Barnes ran it through the system that license could lead Avery right to her. “I don’t have my license with me,” she lied.

  Maggie said nothing but Delilah could feel that sharp gaze lasering in on her from behind the dark shades.

  “In fact, I, uh, I lost it.”

  “You lost it.” Her tone held no inflection.

  Delilah resisted squirming, barely. “I know I shouldn’t be driving without it, but I was just running to the cleaners for Cam.”

  “Uh-huh. What about the registration?”

  She looked in the glove compartment. At least that was where it was supposed to be, she thought and pulled it out.

  “This isn’t my truck. It’s Cam’s.” Which, of course, she’d know. But Delilah felt compelled to say something to break the awkward silence.

  Maggie was writing down the information from the registration onto a paper on her clipboard. “I’m aware of that. That’s why I pulled you over. Does Cam know you’re driving his truck?”

  “Of course he does. Why else would I have it?”

  She looked up, and Delilah didn’t need to see those eyes to read the distrust in them. “That’s what I want to know. Cam never lets anyone drive his truck. Especially not women.”

  Her stomach sank. “Well, he let me. He asked me to go to the laundry for him. Their truck broke and he needed the linens for the restaurant.”

  Maggie Barnes still didn’t say anything. She just stood there, her skepticism patent.

  Her irritation getting the best of her, Delilah snapped, “Look in the back if you don’t believe me.”

  “Thanks, I will.” She glanced at the back seat where the neat pile of plastic-covered linens sat. “Looks like laundry, all right.”

  She pulled her glasses off and stuck them in her pocket. Pinned Delilah with the cop look common to every police officer she’d ever run into. And since the age of sixteen, she’d run into a lot of them.

  “Sure you want to stick to that story?” Maggie looked at her with unfriendly eyes.

  Anger clawed at her but she held it back. “Why don’t you ask Cam? I doubt you’ll believe anything I say.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, Ms. Roberts, I will. You do know grand theft auto is a felony?”

  “I didn’t steal Cam’s truck.” Wouldn’t that be ironic? she thought. She hadn’t stolen a car before, either, but that hadn’t saved her from being arrested. Still, she wasn’t really worried about getting thrown in jail for auto theft. She didn’t want a cop digging around in her background. Avery had too many connections with the Houston police for her to feel safe with any kind of official inquiry. Which was why she’d refused to give her license. But one look at Maggie Barnes’s grim face assured her the lady wouldn’t be cutting Delilah any breaks any time soon.

  “You’d best hope not.” She went to her car and talked on the radio, then came back to the truck and pulled out a cell phone. “We’ll just give Cam a call and see what he has to say about all this.”

  She’s just doing her job, and looking out for a friend of hers, Delilah thought, struggling with her temper. Watching her, she knew there was more to it. Maggie Barnes didn’t much like her, and Delilah had a hunch she knew why. Especially after walking in on that little scene between Cam and his good friend Maggie the other morning.

  “Cam, it’s Maggie. I’ve got Delilah Roberts pulled over. Did you know she was driving your pickup? Claims you gave her permission.” She glanced at Delilah as she listened. “All right,” she said after a minute. “What the hell did you expect me to do? I’m a cop, remember? I thought she’d stolen it. You never let anyone drive your truck.”

  She frowned at Delilah as she listened some more. “She may not have boosted your truck, but she’s driving without a license. I could take her in for that.” She paused again. “I don’t care if you saw it, I haven’t seen it.”

  She turned her back and walked away but Delilah could still hear her. “No, I don’t have to, but I should. I’ve got a feeling this girl’s not on the up-and-up. Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Cam?”

  Finally, she hung up and came back to the truck. “He asked me not to take you in. Which by all rights, I should do. But since Cam asked me, I’ll let you go with a warning. Don’t let me catch you driving without your license again, because none of Cam’s sweet talk will save you next time. Understand?”

  “I understand.” Delilah clenched her jaw hard to keep from saying anything else. She wanted to say something rude so badly she could taste it. But if she’d learned anything since her mother died, it was not to smart off to a cop. It tended to piss them off, and once that happened, being run in was inevitable.

  So she said nothing. She drove off carefully, making sure she obeyed the speed limit all the way back to the restaurant. By the time she got there, some of her anger had faded and fear had set in.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CAM EXPECTED DELILAH to come see him when she got back from the laundry and was a little surprised when she didn’t show. So he went looking for her. He found her in her bedroom, sitting on her bed and stuffing things into her backpack. “What are you doing?”

  “Leaving.”

  “I can see that. Why?”

  She flashed him an angry glance. “Because I can’t afford to stick around while your girlfriend runs me through the system.”

  “I told you, Maggie’s not my girlfriend. And since you didn’t give her your license, I don’t see how she’ll run you.”

  “She’ll be over here asking you for my social security number or something. Which you don’t have and she’ll want to know why. I don’t think she’s going to let this go. She doesn’t like me, and I know why.”

  He crossed the room and sat beside her on the bed. “You are way overreacting. Nothing happened.”

  She stared at him. “Overreacting? Your friend thought I’d stolen your truck. She wanted to take me to jail and throw away the key. And the worst of it was, I couldn’t say a word because if I had, she would have done it.”

  “No, she wouldn’t. Not without cause. And not after she talked to me.” Maggie was a fair person, and a good cop. But Delilah didn’t look like she was buying that. “Maggie was just doing her job. It didn’t occur to me she would stop you. It should have, but it didn’t. So if you’re upset, blame me, not her.”

  “It doesn’t matter who’s to blame. What matters is that I can’t afford to do anything that might lead A—might lead him to me. Don’t you get it?”

  “I get that you’re terrified of this guy. But he’s the one who should be worried. It doesn’t make sense to me that if you’re so scared of him you won’t go to the cops. Why don’t you just tell them what he did to you and let them handle it? Assault and kidnapping are pretty serious charges. Maybe he’s cut his losses and written you off.”

  “He won’t do that. You don’t understand.”

  “No, I don’t. But I understand that you can’t keep running. You don’t have the resources. At least here you’ve got a job. And a place to stay.”

  She fiddled with her backpack, then looked up at him. “Why do you want me to stay?” She said it quietly with a hint of huskiness in her voice.

  It surprised him how badly he wanted to comfort her. To touch her, hold her. “I want to help you.” He wanted a lot more than that, but he wasn’t going to say it. Or do it. He looked into her eyes and saw a
bone-deep weariness. And something else. Something that had nothing to do with comfort but everything to do with the heat between them. Because it was there, no matter how much he tried to ignore it.

  “Maggie won’t give you any trouble. I’ll make sure of that.”

  “She means a lot to you, doesn’t she?”

  “I care about her, yeah. I told you, she’s an old friend of mine.” One of his oldest friends. Or she had been until she’d taken it into her head they needed to be more.

  “I think she was more than that. You hooked up, didn’t you?”

  Hooked up. That wasn’t what he’d have called it. “What does that have to do with anything?” he asked, a little annoyed.

  “I knew it. There was something going on that morning when I walked in on you two. She still has a thing for you.”

  He frowned at her. “No, she doesn’t.” He hoped. “What happened between us was over a long time ago.”

  “Right. You don’t mean a thing to her. Which is why she hates me and wants to throw me in jail.”

  “She didn’t throw you in jail. And she doesn’t hate you.” He said it to reassure himself as well as her.

  “You are so clueless sometimes.”

  Maggie had called him dense. “If I promise to fix things with Maggie will you stay?”

  She gazed at him a long moment. “I’ll stay. I probably shouldn’t. But I will.”

  “You’re safe here, Delilah.”

  “I hope so.”

  “There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about,” he said. “I’ve got another job for you, in addition to waiting tables. If you want it.”

  “What is it?” she asked suspiciously.

  God, didn’t she trust him yet? “Payroll. It means a pay raise if you take over doing payroll for the restaurant.” Cat had suggested it, because she knew how much Cam disliked doing it. And according to her, Delilah might not have an accounting degree, but she did have some experience. Enough to do his books. She’d be perfect to do it for him. Especially since, as his unsubtle youngest sister had put it, “You suck at it and I don’t have time.”

  Delilah looked stunned. “You’d trust me to do payroll? To have access to your books?”

  “I just said I would, didn’t I?” Besides, he would be keeping an eye on them. But whatever secrets Delilah was keeping, and he knew there were some, he didn’t believe she was a thief. “So, how about it?”

  “I—I don’t know what to say.”

  “Try yes. I have a small business payroll program on my computer.” He got up. “Come on and I’ll show you.”

  “What about lunch?”

  “We’ve got time. Martha’s here and so is George.” George was one of the other bartenders. The two of them could handle business while he showed Delilah the program.

  They went downstairs to his office where he pulled up the software. She came over to stand behind him. He ran through it and as he’d expected, she didn’t have any problems with it.

  “There’s one thing we haven’t talked about,” she said after he finished.

  “What’s that?”

  “Where are you going to put me? You’re paying me in cash. What do you want me to do about that?”

  He turned in his chair to look at her. “Since I’ve listed you as part-time help, you don’t have to go anywhere.”

  She frowned. “But you’re paying me for full-time work. Won’t you get in trouble if you ever get audited?”

  “Probably. But I don’t expect to get audited.”

  “But you might.” She bit her lip, worried it for a moment. “I don’t want to get you in trouble because you helped me.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “I can’t help it, I do worry.”

  God, she tempted him. She was close. All he had to do was lean forward an inch and he could taste her. Put his lips on her mouth, drink in the taste of her. He saw her mouth in his dreams, tasted her during the long, endless nights. Woke up hard and aching for her every morning.

  She moistened her lips and whispered, “Cam?”

  He pulled back abruptly. “We’d better get to work.” He got the hell out of there before he blew every resolution he’d made into radioactive dust.

  CAM WOULD HAVE LIKED to give Maggie another day to cool off, but he knew the sooner he talked to her, the better. He found her at the police station. It wasn’t ideal, but he figured he could get her to take a coffee break. If she wasn’t still ready to cut out his gizzard and fry it.

  She looked up when he came in, but she didn’t smile. She didn’t look angry. She looked inscrutable. He was reminded that she’d always been a hell of a poker player.

  “Hey, can you take a break?” he asked her.

  Still unsmiling, she considered him for a moment. “All right.” She got up and spoke to the other policeman. “I’m going for coffee.”

  Busy with paperwork, he waved her away. “Bring me some,” he called after her. “And a doughnut too.”

  She waited until they were seated at a booth at the doughnut shop before she spoke. “What do you want, Cam?”

  He opted for the direct approach. “Are you still mad at me?”

  She frowned, then took a sip of coffee. Shrugged and said, “I guess not. You were right, it was a stupid idea.”

  “I wouldn’t say it was stupid. Just not right for us.”

  “I feel like a fool.”

  “You shouldn’t.”

  She lifted a shoulder. “I’ll get over it.”

  “Do you want to tell me what that was all about?”

  She sighed. “Lorna’s pregnant again.”

  Her sister was younger than Maggie and already had two kids. This would be her third. “So what, you felt your biological clock ticking?”

  She shot him a dirty look. “No. I heard her telling my parents that they’d better enjoy her kids because they’d probably never have any grandkids from me.”

  “Why does she think that? You’re not exactly ancient.”

  “Hell, Cam, I haven’t even had a date in months. It’s not like there are men lined up dying to take me out.” She snorted. “Much less marry me.”

  “You could date if you wanted,” he said shrewdly. “You just don’t want to.”

  “True. But I’m thinking about changing my mind on that. Let’s not talk about it, okay?”

  “Whatever you want.”

  “About the other day, can we just forget it ever happened?”

  “Sure.” He held out a hand. “Friends?”

  “Friends,” she echoed and shook it. She drank more coffee, watching him over the rim of the cup. “That’s not all you wanted, is it?”

  He’d thought long and hard about just how much of what he knew or suspected that he could tell Maggie. He didn’t want to betray Delilah’s confidences, but he didn’t believe he could get Maggie to back off unless he told her something. “It’s about Delilah.”

  “Surprise, surprise.”

  “I think she’s in trouble.”

  “With the law?”

  “No. She’s running from an abusive boyfriend.”

  She studied him a moment. “And you think that because?”

  “She told me. And I saw the bruises when she first got here.” It still made him sick to think of those marks marring that beautiful skin.

  “Does she want to press charges?”

  He shook his head. “I tried to get her to do that, but she’s terrified of the guy. She says she can’t go to the police because then he’ll find her.”

  “Which is why she wouldn’t show me her license.”

  “Yeah. She’s afraid he’d find out if you ran her through the system.”

  She drummed her fingers on the table. “How sure are you that she’s telling you the truth? I know you said you saw the bruises but could they be explained another way?”

  His gaze hardened. “The bastard tried to choke her. His fingerprints were on her neck.”

  “So, what are you asking m
e to do?”

  “I’m asking you to do nothing. I don’t want you to try to find out her background. At least until I can convince her to trust the police.”

  “It’s not easy to find out much about her without a driver’s license or social security number. I already ran her name and nothing popped.”

  “I’m asking you not to try to find out any more about her. For now.”

  “I don’t like it,” Maggie said, holding up a hand when he would have spoken. “If her story is true she should be in a shelter.”

  “Women aren’t always safe there, are they?”

  “Usually—” Maggie began.

  “But not always. And she’s scared to death. I know there’s more to it but she won’t tell me the whole story. Not yet. But she will.”

  Maggie’s eyes widened. “My God, Cam, are you in love with this girl?”

  “No.” He denied it automatically, uneasily aware that lust wasn’t the only thing he felt for Delilah. “I just want to help her.”

  Maggie looked unconvinced about that. “Be careful you don’t get hurt while you’re helping her.”

  “Will you do what I asked you?”

  She hesitated, then nodded. “For you. But I still don’t like it.”

  “Thanks, Maggie.”

  “The best thing you can do for her is get her to press charges and go to a shelter.”

  “I know. I’ll try.”

  Now to tell Delilah that Maggie wouldn’t be a problem. He had an idea that she wouldn’t be happy with what he’d told Maggie, but he didn’t see that he’d had any other choice.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “GOT A MINUTE?” Cam said.

  Delilah jolted at the sound of his voice. She’d been folding napkins and daydreaming and hadn’t realized he’d returned from his errand. “Sure.” She followed him into his office.

  “Have a seat.”

  Uneasiness prickled along her spine as she did as he’d suggested. “Why am I getting a bad feeling about this?”