‘And don’t even think about trying to talk me out of it,’ Becky said, giving him a warning glance. ‘I’ve been looking forward to it all day.’
Jack didn’t trust himself to respond. Instead, he concentrated fiercely on driving home, his mouth set in lines of tension as his mind raced with a thousand gut-wrenching scenarios.
‘Jack, can you help me with my zipper?’ Becky came bursting into the lounge room half an hour later. ‘I think it’s jammed or something.’
Jack sucked in a breath at the sight of her. She was dressed in a close-fitting ice-blue sheath that brought out the sun-kissed perfection of her skin and showcased her cleavage a little too well. She turned her back and his eyes widened at the slim length of her back, his fingers aching to trace a pathway down the delicate vertebrae.
‘Can you see what’s wrong with it?’ she asked. ‘Matt will be here any minute and I haven’t even done my hair.’
‘Um…’ Jack’s normally rock-steady hands started to tremble as he worked on the zipper, his knuckles brushing against her warm bare skin.
‘I think I can see what’s wrong,’ he finally managed to say. ‘It’s caught on a little thread. Hold still while I unpick it.’
The doorbell sounded just as he slid the zipper up the length of her spine.
‘Oh, no!’ she gasped, spinning around to face him. ‘Will you be a honey and let Matt in while I rush upstairs to do my hair?’
Jack grimaced as she bolted for the stairs. He drew in a breath and made his way to the front door, suddenly feeling about a hundred years old.
‘Hi, I’m Matt Daniels.’
‘Jack Colcannon.’ Jack shook the other man’s hand and in doing so tried to assess his character. The cop’s grip was firm without being aggressive, his eye contact comfortably at ease, not in the least furtive or hesitant.
‘So you’re the family friend,’ Matt said pleasantly.
‘Yep, that’s me.’ Jack’s tone was wry as he closed the door once Matt had entered the house.
Jack waited until they’d both moved through to the lounge before asking, ‘Would you like a drink? Becky is probably going to be ages.’
‘No, no drink, thank you.’ Matt smiled and added, ‘You know her very well, don’t you?’
Jack found himself checking to see if the cop’s smile made it the full distance to his eyes. It did.
‘Yeah, you could say that.’
‘You know her brother?’
Jack couldn’t really tell from Matt’s tone if he’d stated a fact or asked a question. It was a little disquieting, but cops were cops and he’d seen the same trait in Ben a thousand times.
‘We were at the same boarding school,’ he answered after a tiny pause. ‘I used to spend a lot of holiday time at the Baxters’ property in the southern highlands.’
‘Mr and Mrs Baxter are currently overseas, aren’t they?’
‘Yes.’
The cop’s eyes never once wavered from his, making Jack feel as if he was being cross-examined.
‘What about her brother?’ Matt asked casually. ‘Any idea of where he is right now?’
Jack could feel his hackles rising and did his best to settle them back down.
‘No.’
‘So you haven’t had any contact with him recently?’ Matt’s gaze seemed very direct and cop-like.
‘No.’
‘What happened to your eye?’
‘I ran into a door.’
Jack could tell Matt didn’t believe him but was saved from having to continue the conversation by Becky’s arrival.
‘I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting, Matt,’ she said as she came into the room.
Both men turned to face her and she saw the male appreciation in both gazes as they swept over her, Jack’s eyes in particular widening as they came to rest on the upthrust of her breasts.
Good.
It gave her a delicious feeling of power to know she affected him even though she could see he was doing his level best to hide it.
‘Shall we go?’ She hooked her arm through Matt’s and turned towards Jack, sending him an arch look. ‘You don’t have to wait up. I’ll let myself in.’
‘I have some paperwork to see to anyway,’ he said stiffly. ‘I won’t be going to bed early.’
‘We won’t be late,’ Matt said. ‘I have an early shift in the morning.’
Jack stretched his lips over clenched teeth. ‘Have a wonderful time.’
‘We will,’ Becky said, and ushered her date to the door.
Jack waited until they were in the car before slipping out to the garage to his own, starting it as quietly as he could and nudging it out to follow the cop’s car at a discreet distance.
‘I can’t believe I’m doing this,’ he muttered as he shifted through the gears. ‘You owe me, Ben Baxter. Big time.’
As Matt drove to the restaurant strip of Glebe, Becky yet again couldn’t help noticing the similarities he shared with Ben. He drove exactly the same way, his eyes repeatedly flicking to the rear-view mirror before darting to the right-hand driver’s mirror.
‘Jack seems to take his family friend status quite seriously,’ Matt observed as he checked the mirrors again. ‘Are you two involved in any way?’
‘No, not really.’ Becky fiddled with the strap of her evening purse.
‘But you’d like to be?’ Matt guessed, swinging a quick glance in her direction.
Becky gave him a shamefaced look. ‘You must think I’m awful, accepting a date with you when I’m in love with someone else.’
Matt gave her a reassuring smile as he parked the car. ‘You are one hell of an attractive lady, Becky, but to tell you the truth, every time you bat your eyelashes at me, you remind me of my kid sister.’
‘That’s really spooky,’ she said. ‘I was just thinking of how much you remind me of my brother.’
She stepped out of the car onto the pavement as he opened the door for her. ‘So you don’t mind if we just have dinner?’ she asked.
He gave her another one of his easygoing smiles. ‘That’s fine by me. Come on, I’m starving.’
Once the waiter had left with their orders Matt leaned forward in his chair so that his forearms were resting on the table.
‘So what did you want to tell me when you called yesterday? I’m sorry I couldn’t speak to you right there and then but I was in the middle of something a little tricky.’ His mouth tilted upwards in a dry little smile as he explained, ‘I was handcuffed to a suspect, actually, and he wasn’t too keen on being up close and personal with me.’
‘Oh.’ She recalled the scuffling sounds and gave a mental grimace.
‘You said some weird stuff had happened,’ he prompted.
Becky gave the straw in her glass a little twirl as she told him what had happened at the beach and later at the flat when the rock had come through the window.
‘So both notes were handwritten, right?’ Matt queried.
‘Yes, black felt-tip pen, sort of smudged as if it had been scrawled in a hurry.’
‘Do you still have both items?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you’re positive you didn’t see anyone loitering around your bag on the beach?’
‘I was too busy with the woman who was having the hypo. There were people everywhere—you probably know what it’s like when something like that happens. Swarms of people hang about, getting in the way.’
‘Yes, unfortunately, I’m all too familiar with the pattern.’ Matt took a sip of his drink before continuing, ‘What about Jack? Did he see anything?’
‘No.’ She gave her straw another twirl, her eyes downcast for a moment. ‘Actually, he didn’t even want me to call the police.’
‘Oh, really?’ Matt’s tone had gone all cop-like again. ‘Do you have any idea why he would react in that way?’
She shook her head, raising her eyes to his once more. ‘No. He’s been acting so…so…’ She hunted vainly for a word to describe Jack’s behaviour of l
ate.
‘Weird?’ Matt offered.
‘Not really, just sort of more uptight and edgy than usual.’
‘Have you considered the possibility that Jack might be in some way involved in the things that have been happening to you?’ Matt asked.
Becky gaped at him for a moment. ‘You can’t be serious! I admit Jack doesn’t like me all that much but I hardly think he wants to bump me off.’
‘He was the one who found the note on the sunscreen, right?’
She nodded.
‘Where was he when the rock came through the window?’
‘He was in the next room.’
‘Are you absolutely sure about that?’
She gave another nod.
‘He could easily have slapped the note on the sunscreen and arranged for a local kid to send that rock through the window,’ Matt said.
‘But why?’ she asked. ‘What possible motive could he have?’
‘Maybe he fancies you. You’d be amazed at the lengths some men will go to get the woman they want to move in with them if other attempts have failed.’
She gave a rueful little smile. ‘Jack would rather die than admit he needs someone. I don’t think he’s ever had a relationship that lasted longer than a month or two. He just won’t allow anyone to get close to him.’
‘So as far as you know you’re the first person who has ever moved in with him?’
‘Yes…although he doesn’t want anyone at the hospital to know about it, which kind of dismantles your theory,’ she said.
‘I’m just trying to look at this from a few different angles,’ he said. ‘But as you say, if he’s not the commitment type he’d hardly go to those sorts of lengths. It does seem strange he didn’t want the police to be involved.’ He gave his fingers a quick drum on the table. ‘Very strange.’
Becky thought so too but didn’t voice it. So much of what had happened over the last few days seemed totally surreal, she hardly knew what to think any more.
After they’d finished their meal Matt began the drive back to Jack’s house, his eyes doing the whole mirror routine all over again.
‘Can I ask you something, Matt?’
‘Sure.’ He flicked his gaze to the right-hand mirror and frowned.
‘Why do you keep looking in your mirrors all the time? My brother does it, too.’ She rubbed her hands up and down her arms a couple of times, suppressing the urge to shudder. ‘It gives me the creeps. It always makes me feel as if we’re being followed.’
Matt’s gaze met hers for a brief but disquieting moment.
‘We are being followed,’ he said.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BECKY felt her heart leap from her chest to her mouth and drop back down again.
‘I’m going to pull over,’ Matt said.
She swivelled in her seat, her eyes wide with alarm. ‘Are you completely nuts? What if he’s got a gun?’
He gave her a little smile as he killed the engine. ‘Of course he’s got a gun. He’s a cop.’
‘A cop?’ Her heart did another somersault, this time with relief.
‘Unmarked police car,’ Matt said. ‘He’s been on our tail for several blocks. I’ll go and see what he wants.’
Becky turned in her seat and watched as he got out and spoke to the plainclothes officer who had pulled up behind them. The streetlight partially illuminated the officer’s face, which Becky found vaguely familiar. Perhaps he’d been a patient some time in the past—it wouldn’t be the first time she’d come across someone she’d anaesthetised at St Patrick’s. Literally thousands of patients came in and out of a hospital during the course of year, so it was reasonable to expect to run into one on the street occasionally.
Matt returned a short time later and got back behind the wheel. He snapped on his seat belt, his eyes checking his mirror as he did so.
‘What did he want?’ she asked. ‘You weren’t speeding, were you?’
He started the car and re-entered the traffic before answering. ‘He gave me a caution about my brake lights. Apparently one of them isn’t working.’
‘Nice to know even cops get pulled over by the more petty members of the force,’ Becky said, thinking of the array of minor traffic offences which had trimmed the points scale of her licence to an all-time low.
‘He’s just doing what he’s paid to do.’
Becky turned to look at him as he brought the car to a halt in Jack’s street. ‘Are you sure you haven’t met my brother? Or is there some sort of police handbook with a list of stock phrases all cops have to learn off by heart?’
He gave her an unreadable smile as he opened her door for her. ‘There are some things the handbook can never teach you. You have to learn as you go.’ He closed the door and escorted her up the path. ‘Call me if you’re worried about anything suspicious. I’d better take the sunscreen and the note for Forensics to examine, but they might not be able to tell us much.’
Becky led him to where she’d left them on a shelf in the laundry, giving him a plastic bag to put them in.
‘I’ll let you know if we come up with anything like a match on the handwriting, but the sand on the sunscreen bottle will make fingerprints hard to trace,’ Matt said at the door.
‘Thanks for tonight,’ she said. ‘I really appreciate the way you’re taking a special interest in this.’
‘Just doing my job,’ he said with a grin. ‘By the way, you might want to tell your friend he needs to brush up his skills on surveillance.’
Becky gave him a puzzled look. ‘What are you talking about?’
Matt nodded towards the garage where the sound of Jack’s car could be heard as he parked it. ‘He’s been tailing us all evening, and doing a pretty amateur job of it.’
‘Jack was following us?’ Her mouth fell open in shock. ‘You mean, along with the other guy?’
‘Tell him he should keep his day job,’ Matt said.
‘I will,’ she said. She waved to him as he left but it was only as he braked at the corner that a little flutter of unease settled in her stomach. As far as she could tell both of his brake lights were working…
‘How was your date?’ Jack spoke from just behind her.
‘What?’ She looked at him for a blank moment, while her brain tried to make sense of Matt’s deliberate lie.
‘Your date with the cop,’ Jack said, adding with a curl of his lip, ‘Did he make a move on you?’
She glared up at him. ‘Why don’t you tell me?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You were following us. Matt saw you.’
‘So?’
‘So you’re a lousy private eye.’
‘I don’t trust him and neither should you,’ Jack said.
‘Oh, really?’ She put her hands on her hips and faced him. ‘Well, here’s the irony—he doesn’t trust you either.’
‘What?’ He frowned down at her.
Becky tilted her chin at him. ‘He thinks you put the note on the sunscreen and organised for someone to toss the rock through the window to convince me to live with you.’
Jack stared at her for several moments. ‘Well, that just shows what a dumb cop he is.’
‘Meaning?’
‘If I wanted a woman to live with me, I’d just ask. I wouldn’t have to terrorise her into it, for heaven’s sake.’
‘But you don’t want me here.’
‘I didn’t say that,’ he said.
‘I don’t get this.’ She gave him a long contemplative look. ‘You do the whole rescuing knight routine but you act as if the armour’s choking you. What is it with you?’
‘You aren’t the easiest person to have around,’ he said.
‘You have such a way with words,’ she sniped resentfully. ‘No wonder you have no social life, not to mention any sex life.’
‘You know nothing about my sex life.’
‘There’s nothing to know,’ she said. ‘You haven’t had a date in months. What did Marcia do to you, make you feel s
omething you didn’t want to feel?’
No, that’s your job, Jack felt like saying, but he couldn’t get his mouth to work. He could already feel the stirring heat of his body at her close proximity, the flash of her angry brown eyes reminding him of how much fiery passion her small body contained, a passion he’d experienced twice too often, making him want more and more.
‘I really don’t understand you, Jack,’ Becky said. ‘As soon as I get in from my date you’re making nasty little cracks about me being involved with someone else, as if you’re jealous.’
‘I am not jealous.’
‘Yes, you are. I saw the way you looked at me tonight. I can recognise attraction when I see it and you had it written all over you. Why else would you follow me all evening?’
‘All right,’ Jack said stiffly. ‘So what if I’m attracted to you? It doesn’t mean it has to go any further.’
‘Why don’t you want it go any further?’ she asked.
‘You know why,’ he answered. ‘Neither of us are long-term people. You flit from relationship to relationship and I…’ He paused, searching for the right words, but couldn’t come up with anything at short notice. The truth was he wanted a relationship with Becky, but on his terms, not Ben’s. Ben had asked him to keep her safe, even if he had to pretend to be in love with her to do it. It seemed ironic to be doing the opposite—pretending to not be in love with her, in case she ever found out the promise he’d made to Ben.
In love with Becky. The words rattled inside his brain, looking for a place to settle, but he wouldn’t allow them to. He didn’t want to be in love with anyone and certainly not Becky, who drove him nuts most of the time. How long would such a relationship last—a few days, a few weeks, maybe a few months? What then?
‘And you what, Jack?’ Becky prompted when he didn’t finish his sentence.
He met her eyes once more. ‘I don’t want to get involved with anyone just now.’
‘All right, then,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you prove it?’
‘I don’t have to prove any—’
She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him closer, her soft, warm breath brushing over his face as she issued him a challenge. ‘Kiss me and let’s see who’s telling the truth here.’
A Surgeon Worth Waiting For Page 12
