The wind howled through the trees. Newspaper pages spilled from a nearby trash bin and whirled into the air above a park bench like multi-colored sails on a wild adventure.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chase remained steadfast, standing next to her door, waiting. His hands were deep in his jeans pockets. His arms pressed against his sides as if that would keep his body heat from escaping. Even though the temperature dropped and rain was imminent, he wasn’t going away.
Since the car battery remained cold, and the windows would not go down otherwise, she jerked open her door and looked up at him between the configurations of metal. His mouth was a tight line. She had a feeling that, like her, he wasn’t sure how their conversation would go. Yet, here he stood, taking a chance.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Are you having a problem starting your car?”
Her fingers slid free of the door handle as he inched the door open until he could bend down and look at her, seated behind the wheel. “Yes, if you must know.”
She shook her head, clearing her mind of the powerful cocktail of emotions his closeness caused. Just think of him as a stranger who stopped to help you, Emma told herself. Then she narrowed her eyes. “Wait. Have you been following me?”
“I was on my way out and saw you leaving the library. I happened to be headed in the same direction as you.”
An edgy scrutiny in his blue eyes caught her attention.
“You’re saying this is a coincidence?” Distrust heated her gaze. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“Neither do I. For the most part.”
“Either you believe in something or you don’t.”
“Agreed.”
His expression remained complacent. He wasn’t going to argue with her, and now, she felt foolish she had even tried to start a quarrel. Why had she?
Coward.
“So what’s the problem with the car?” he asked, studying the dash.
His question intruded upon her little world. She wished she could turn back the hands of time and not have had the disagreement with him earlier. She knew she should even want to turn back the calendar to before Tuesday, the day she first met him, but she didn’t really want that. She’d felt jealous, worried, and upset with her roommate and Chase had received the fallout as the messenger.
Although shadows crisscrossed his face, she saw his brow tighten with concern.
He jutted his chin toward the engine. Like every man she’d ever known, the idea of opening the hood, and getting into the motor up to his elbows, stirred his interest.
Relenting to his desire to help, she sighed and put her reservations aside for the time being.
“I don’t know. It worked fine this afternoon when the officers brought it back to me. I drove it to the apartment and then back here. It started both times with no problem.”
“Did you leave an inside light on?”
“No.” It had been cloudy all day, but she hadn’t needed extra light to grab her bag and exit the car. “Do you think it’s the battery?”
“Could be. Or, it could be something else: the alternator, something electrical, or a faulty starter…”
She knew enough about cars to ask, “Do you have cables in your car? We could try to jump it.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Sorry.”
What guy didn’t store an emergency kit in his trunk? She blew out her frustration and reached for her bag to retrieve her phone. “Then I’ll call Triple A.”
Chase’s hand on her shoulder made her stop. He gazed down at her.
“Do you really want to make some poor guy come out here, when the temperature is dropping and it’s about to pour?” he chided and then his voice turned tender, pleading. “Besides you might wait hours until they arrive. Why not let me drive you home? Then you can call them and arrange a time in the morning when they can actually see what they’re doing?”
As much as she hated to admit it, Chase’s suggestion made sense, was the thing to do. Her car would be safe in the parking lot overnight and she had a school permit in the window. She had to let go of her irritation over their earlier conversation.
She reached over and grabbed her bag. “I can walk.” She pushed on the door and stepped out of the car.
Stumbling backward, Chase’s arms thrashed the air a couple of seconds before he regained his balance.
Steadfast, he took up a position in front of her. His gaze flared with deep-seated determination.
“I won’t let you walk home. Not alone. Either I drive you wherever you want to go or I walk with you. Which means I’ll have to walk back here to get my car. By then it could be pouring.”
She was tempted to hurt him, just a little, but she didn’t want to spend any more time with him than necessary. It hurt too much each time it ended. Five minutes in a car versus fifteen with him, walking…? The choice was a no brainer.
“Ok. You win.” She hit her car’s locking mechanism and slammed the door. Probably a little harder than necessary, but she wanted to ensure Chase knew he remained on her wrong side, if he hadn’t already gotten that message.
“My car is right over there.”
At the sight of slight upturn of his lips, her neck muscles tightened. Did he think she was kidding?
“Thank you.” She jabbed a finger at his nose. “Just so you know… I’m not going to talk to you.”
“We’ll see.” He held a hand out, indicting the way to his car.
***
He had her.
When Emma squinted over her shoulder at him, Chase covered the grin he couldn’t help but wear as he walked a step behind her. His plan had worked. Thank goodness breaking into her car to release the hood had been a piece of cake. He’d had enough time to dismantle a component in her engine and close the hood before she appeared through the tunnel of trees lining the sidewalk that led to the parking lot. After he dropped her off at her apartment, he’d come back and reconnect the alternator. The reason her car hadn’t started would remain a mystery.
After closing the passenger door, assuring Emma was tucked inside, Chase rounded the front of his car and settled into his seat. He didn’t look at her as he backed the car out of its parking spot. Acorns crunched under his tires as he righted the steering wheel.
He expected Emma to complain as he turned left and exited onto the artery that circled the campus and linked the different sections, but she didn’t. Turning right would lead directly to the housing section. Turning left, gave him a few more minutes with her.
He tapped the steering wheel with his thumb, thinking. In order to keep Emma safe, he needed her to trust him and he knew the only way to do that was to be as honest with her as he could be. He couldn’t give up his cover yet, even though he felt the case was about to blow apart. Still, he could be honest about his feelings.
“I’m sorry about this afternoon,” he said.
Silence.
He glanced at the mute form sitting next to him. Emma just continued to stare straight ahead. Her feet rested flat on the floorboard. Her hands lay across the bag she held on her lap.
“I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She remained quiet, like she said she would.
Mentally he shook his head and smiled. She was a woman of her word. Well, the only way he would get through to her was with honesty. “When I heard Nanette might be using, I became concerned, for both of you. Over the past few years, I’ve seen too many guys get strung out on the stuff.”
He kept his eyes on the road, trying not to call up his haunting devils. “I never used drugs myself. It tore me apart seeing what their use did to guys I considered friends, and their families. Senseless destruction of lives. Made me sick.”
“I’m sorry for what you’ve been through,” she said.
His sincere words had broken through Emma’s defense shield. She shifted on her seat toward him. In the headlights coming at them, he saw her soulful eyes were filled with compassion.
�
��I can’t begin to imagine,” she continued. “But you can’t think the worst of people you don’t know just because someone said something about them.”
He wished he could tell her all he knew, but he couldn’t. However, he could try to warn her. Hopefully, Emma wouldn’t shut down again after she heard what he had to say. “I know. And you’re right. I wouldn’t have said anything if I’d heard it from one person, but when several people said—”
The enunciated word “several” caused her to cut him off.
“Who?”
“Who, what?”
“Who were these people, Chase?”
“Why does that matter?”
“It just does. If they’ve accused Nanette of doing something illegal, they shouldn’t expect to hide behind someone else’s integrity to keep the secret. Who were they?”
“I don’t know them well. A bunch of guys.”
“A bunch of guys?”
“Yeah.”
She looked at him with suspicious eyes. “And where did this conversation take place?”
“At the gym.”
“And how exactly did the subject of drugs and Nanette come up?”
He hadn’t expected to be grilled. His mind whirled, thinking up a plausible scenario. “I know what you’re thinking.”
She wound her arms across her chest and even though she was seated, she took a stance. “What am I thinking?”
“That I was lying about taking drugs, maybe that I was trying to get hooked up. I didn’t. I don’t. I worked out and couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between two guys next to me. They were talking about some of the girls on campus who apparently were taking some new drug to lose weight and how hot some of them were. The girl that died was one.”
“Denise?”
“Yeah. Her name came up along with Nanette’s. Nanette isn’t a common name. I assumed she had to be your roommate but if you say she’s not taking anything, I believe you. Maybe they were talking about another Nanette. Do you know another one on campus?”
Emma shifted in her seat. She chewed her thumbnail and stared into the distance.
He paused at a stop sign and scanned the deserted street behind them. “Is something wrong?”
“No.” She shook her head without looking at him. “It’s just…” She didn’t finish.
“It’s just what?”
“Nothing. Can we go?” She jabbed her index finger forward. “I’d like to get home.”
He could tell by her expression something he’d said had made Emma believe his made up story.
He eased his foot down on the gas. It was time to face Nanette.
***
The gentle movement of the vehicle, the soft hum of the tires on the tarmac and the entrancing wave of streets lamps, would’ve drawn the tension from Emma’s muscles if Chase hadn’t dropped a bomb on her. Now she couldn’t relax if she wanted to.
Outside the vehicle, northern blasts ripped leaves from their branches and swirled them in the air like dark fairies doing an elaborate dance. Inside, Chase’s earthy scent floated on the warm air streaming from the vents. His scent tempted her to lean over and nuzzle his neck, but she wouldn’t.
Emma stole a glimpse of Chase’s profile. His strong jaw and cheeks were now covered in light stubble. She had no doubt that if she brushed her skin against its roughness the sensation would send charges of excitement throughout her body. Her nipples budded under her sweater as a mental picture of Chase hovering over her filled her mind. This Chase pleasured her breasts with his whiskers, his tongue, his teeth. The daydream became so vivid, warmth pooled between her legs. She gasped under her breath.
“Is something wrong?” Chase’s narrow gaze, like blue lasers, scanned her face.
Emma blushed but found the concern furrowing his brow, endearing. She had never thought of a man with such clarity and awareness of passion. She wanted to hitch a finger over the scarf wrapped around her neck and pull it loose to allow cooler air against her body, but if she did, surely Chase would guess her thoughts.
Out of desperation to disguise her desire, she reached down and rubbed her calf. “I have a Charlie horse. I usually get them if I’m on my feet too long. The administration should really consider buying mats for the professors. The concrete floors are murder.” She knew she rambled but she couldn’t seem to shut up. “In the long run it would save them money, instead of paying for time off when instructors have back issues.”
Chase simply nodded before directing his attention back to the traffic ahead.
Emma planted her feet on the floorboards and pledged she’d keep all provocative images of Chase out of her head, but before she had time to seal the vow in stone, her gaze drifted sideways again. His strong hands gripped the steering wheel as he drove the vehicle. In the light cast upon him from a street light, she noted the scars on his knuckles, and for the hundredth time since she’d met the man, she wondered about his past.
The night before, over dinner, and after Bart had left them, their conversation had been light and fun. They really hadn’t divulged a lot of their past to each other. Chase hadn’t seemed to want to talk about his and she wasn’t about to bore him with how tediously normal hers had been. Not that a normal childhood was a bad thing to have experienced; but normal wasn’t the slightest bit exciting.
The cluster of administration buildings loomed in front of them and then slipped by. This campus had been her home away from home for the last five years. In a few months, after her dissertation, someone else would take over her position in Professor Lawson’s inner circle and someone new would move into her apartment. She’d join the ranks of alumni who were welcomed back one weekend a year. But what about Nanette?
She sighed.
“What are you thinking?” He glanced at her with those blue-bonnet eyes that made her blood run hot.
She lifted her shoulders and realized how light they felt. She didn’t want to think about Denise or Nanette or the events of the past few days or what could happen tomorrow. She wanted to think about the man whose hand she desired to hold. “Nothing really.”
“Good.”
Shifting on her seat, she arched her brow. “Why is that good?”
“Because I think you think too much.”
He was right. Her mind always hummed with possibilities. Right now, tracing Chase’s full mouth with her eyes, she longed to have his lips pressed against hers again.
“Maybe you need to change the direction of your thinking for a little while,” he said. His kissable mouth curled up.
She bit down on her bottom lip. Oh, she wanted to say What do you suggest? but before she could, Chase said, “It looks like something is going on up ahead.”
Chapter Twenty
Emma’s lighter mood deflated quickly, like a pricked balloon. Her steps faltered as she and Chase hurried around the corner of the brick building. Mist cloaked the tree tops and the red-hot beams from emergency vehicles sliced the gray mass like swords forged in fire.
Twice in a span of a few days the police and EMT’s were summoned by someone to this location. Sunday, she’d made the call. Who had contacted them tonight? And why?
Under Emma’s sweater, cold beads of apprehension coated her skin and she hugged herself tighter. Several police cars blocked the entrance to her building.
“What’s going on?” Chase asked a few people who milled around on the sidewalk, watching the scene with intense interest.
“Some woman was attacked in her apartment,” a young girl said, only glancing at them for an instant. She nervously tugged at the collar of her jacket and then went back to chewing on her thumbnail.
Her throat suddenly tight, Emma croaked, “Do you know who?”
Chase looked at her and by the way his brows sort of met each other he knew what her sharp intake of air had meant. It was likely someone she knew had fallen victim to yet another horrendous crime.
A man shrugged in reply to her question and the other onlookers either followed suit
or didn’t respond at all.
Her hands began to tremble and she quickly curled them into fists. Having lived on campus for nearly five years, she knew a lot of people, especially those in her building which was reserved for graduate and certain exchange students. At the very least, she knew them well enough to call them by name and to chat about the weather. So no matter who the victim was, this felt personal.
“Let’s go.” Chase grasped her by the elbow and shouldered them through the crowd until they were halted by a state officer.
“Sorry. No one is allowed beyond this point. You have to stay back.” His shoulders were nearly as wide as a yard stick. He held out an arm and glared down at them with a stare meant to stop a trained Doberman Pinscher dead in its tracks.
Fully displaying her angst, Emma shouldered her way in front of Chase. “I live in the building. On the second floor. Apartment 212.” Her voice shook, despite her attempt to keep it in check, and by the way the officer’s gaze softened slightly, he’d heard it too.
“Sorry, mam.”
His tongue skimmed his lips.
Her lungs gripped her last breath.
“I can’t let anyone in there until I’m told the crime scene is secure,” he stated calmly.
“We understand,” Chase answered for them.
She glared over her shoulder at him. What was he saying? She had to get inside. Hadn’t Chase seen the flicker of sympathy in the man’s eyes? Something was terribly wrong.
Emma shifted her bag on her shoulder and dug her cell phone out of her jacket pocket. “I’m going to call Nanette. Maybe she can tell us more about what is going on.”
Their apartment was on the court side of the building and not in view from where they stood. The phone rang once, twice, three times before she received a masculine hello.
Her eyes darted to Chase who studied the entrance to her apartment building.
“Hello.” The voice demanded attention, but she couldn’t utter a sound.
She grabbed Chase’s hoodie. Its material filled her fists. He glanced down at her. And then again.
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