The Heat Is On

by Jill Shalvis

  Would he? Would he get down on bended knee and beg her not to leave here when the time came, simply because he needed her?

  “Because I’d never ask you to change who and what you are, Jacob. Never.” With that, she went up on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth to his temple. “’Night.”

  “Bella—”

  “It’s late,” she murmured, pressing her lips to his other temple, his jaw, and then far too briefly, his lips. “Gotta get some sleep. You’re starting work tomorrow, you should get some sleep, too.”

  And then she was gone.

  TWO DAYS LATER, BELLA and Willow were just closing up the kitchen when Jacob came in the back door with two cops, one on either side of him. He thanked them and they went back to their perch outside.

  One look at Jacob had Bella’s heart taking a good, hard leap. She could tell herself that she was good and fine and well with everything that had happened until she was blue in the face.

  But she was one big, fancy liar.

  She wasn’t good and fine, not when every muscle in her body tensed with the urge to run across the kitchen and throw herself at him.

  He’d gone back to work, and for two days had been buried under by the backlog, hardly coming up for air. Or so he claimed when he called her at night.

  As for her, she’d been…well, she’d been thinking entirely too much.

  But no matter how much she’d been remembering and reliving, the reality of Jacob in the flesh was so much more potent than the memories.

  He wore a dark suit and tie and his splint, and he looked disturbingly…hot.

  “Wow,” Willow murmured, leaning back against the sink, looking him over with heated eyes. “You clean up nice, Detective.”

  “Thanks.” He didn’t take his gaze off Bella. And those eyes were filled with frustration, temper, hunger and so much bafflement that Bella didn’t know whether to laugh or get rid of Willow so she could have him right here in the kitchen.

  “You hungry?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  Not for food.

  Those words went unspoken, but they shimmered in the air between them.

  Willow had a bag of popcorn, her favorite lunch, and was dividing a curious stare between them as if they were the latest number-one movie at the box office.

  Finally, Bella looked at her, brow raised.

  “Oh!” Willow let out a little laugh and grabbed her purse. “I’m out.” She looked back at them. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do and just so you know, that doesn’t cover a lot of ground.”

  Jacob smiled at her, then turned his attention back to Bella, not saying a word, just giving her that look that never failed to make her nipples hard and her panties wet. “So,” she murmured. “A suit?”

  “I was due in court this morning, had to testify on a case.”

  “Did it go well?”

  “Yes.” His eyes never left her face as he reached out and slowly pulled her in. “Missed you, Bella.”

  Her heart took another hard leap against her ribs. At this rate, she’d be in heart-attack territory in under five minutes. “You did?”

  He pressed his forehead to hers. “Yeah. I’m hot and starving. Come with me, let’s get a pizza and go to my house. It’s going to be a full moon. We can take the horses out on a moonlight ride.”

  “The moon doesn’t come up until late.”

  He slid her a long look that said this again? “So stay, instead of driving back.”

  Her throat tightened. No. No, dammit. She wasn’t going to go through this again. She couldn’t. Not when she knew she was hopelessly, pathetically falling for him. “I can’t.” It took her another extremely long minute—where she pressed her nose into his throat and just inhaled him as if maybe it was going to be the very last time—before she forced herself to pull free. “I can’t tonight.”

  “But—”

  “I can’t,” she repeated. “Listen, I have to go. Let yourself out.” And grabbing a wet cloth, left him to go wipe down the tables in the front room, even though they were perfectly clean since they still didn’t have walk-in customers.

  She ended up just standing there, staring sightlessly at nothing.

  When, finally, she heard the back door close, she sagged into a chair and covered her face.

  The front door opened and Trevor popped his head in. He was wearing surf shorts and a weather-guard tee, and his usual contagious smile. “Hey, what are you doing? I’m going sailing. Come with, it’s gorgeous outside—” He broke off, looking her over. “You okay?”

  “Yes.”

  “Liar.” He took the towel out of her hands, crouched at her side and cupped her face. “You know what you need?”

  “A one-way ticket to the South Pacific?”

  “A sail,” he said gently. “With no worries, no plans, nothing but a few waves. Come on, baby, let me show you a good time.”

  It was such a cheesy line that she managed to laugh, as he’d intended, and he smiled into her face. “Attagirl.”

  JACOB WENT HOME AND stared at his empty house. He looked at his living room and pictured Bella standing before the huge windows, eyeing the view. He saw her sitting on the couch with that light of wicked intent in her eyes. He saw her sitting on his kitchen counter.

  He couldn’t even look at his bed.

  Or his shower…

  Her presence was here in every room of his house, and in every part of his heart.

  He was such an idiot. He wasn’t just messing around with her. Why hadn’t he told her that?

  He could say this was casual until he was blue in the face, he could pretend with the best of them that he was okay with her walking away from Santa Rey, away from him, but he wasn’t okay with it and he never would be.

  And he owed it to her to at least have the balls to say so.

  Undoubtedly, he’d get his stupid heart broken for the effort, but hell if he’d let her go without at least putting it all out there on the line. That decided, he whipped out his cell phone and called her. It went right to voice mail, and he absently rubbed his aching shoulder as he left her a message. “Call me, Bella. I’m coming back to the shop, I need to see you, we need to talk.” He paused, wondering if he’d sounded too scary and would maybe cause her to bolt before he could get there. “I told you that I miss you,” he said, drawing a deep breath. “But what I should have also said was that I love you.” Hoping that would cover everything, he started to close his phone, then added, “I’m on my way. Please—” He closed his eyes. “Please be there.”

  BELLA’S PHONE WAS ON SPEAKER, so both she and Trevor heard the message.

  “Sweet,” Trevor said. “A little too little too late, but very sweet.”

  She was driving, but she took a quick look over at him. How had she never seen the menace just beneath his surface before? And now that she had, how the hell was she going to get out of this without getting hurt? Or worse. “If I don’t call him back, he’s going to come over.”

  “Yes. And find you already gone.” He affected a regretful expression. “So sad.”

  “He’ll look for me.”

  “No, he won’t. He’ll see that your duffel bag is gone—thanks for staying packed, by the way, I’ve got your bag in my trunk. Face it, Jacob is going to assume you’ve done what you’ve been talking about, that you’ve left town. Which you are doing. He won’t try to come after you. He has far too much pride and testosterone for that.”

  She’d have thought so, too, until that phone call. In his voice had been bare, heart-wrenching emotion. For her.

  “Turn right at the marina, Bella.”

  She didn’t want to.

  She wanted to turn left and get back on the freeway and head north to Jacob’s house. She wanted to reverse time, to the time before she’d told Jacob to let himself out, the implication being that he should let himself out of her life while he was at it.

  She wanted to plant both her feet in the ground and make roots. She wanted to tell him she loved hi
m, too, so very much.

  Why hadn’t she told him?

  “Turn right,” Trevor repeated softly, and gestured with the gun he had pointed at her.

  She turned right.

  16

  WHEN JACOB GOT BACK to the shop, it was empty. He went upstairs and knocked on Bella’s door.

  Across the narrow hallway, Willow’s door opened and she poked her head out. With tears in her eyes, she shook her head. “She’s gone.”

  “What?”

  Willow handed him a note. “This was taped to my door.”

  Thanks, Willow, for the lovely memories. I’ll never forget you, but it’s time to move on.

  Willow sniffed. “Lord, I’m going to miss that girl.”

  Jacob’s heart had pretty much stopped at the “she’s gone” but he read the note again, looking at the hand writing. Neat, and legible.

  His heart started again, with a dull thudding that echoed in his ears.

  “What is it?” Willow asked.

  “It isn’t Bella’s writing.” Or if it was, she was trying to tell them something. He ran down the stairs and found Tom in the lot. “Did you see Bella leave?”

  “No,” Tom said. “I just got here. Hang on, I’ll check with Scott, who I relieved.” He pulled out his cell.

  So did Jacob, and immediately called Ethan. “We have a problem.”

  “That’s okay, being as I’m the solution king today,” Ethan said. “Did you know that the marina started fingerprinting people to store their boats? The chief told me just today. He found out when he went to store his new boat. It’s a new security system, letting people in the gate by their prints.”

  “Fascinating, but—”

  “So the chief puts his fingerprint in, and starts to think. The first shooting, we found that tread, with the marina sand. We canvassed the docks, all the hotels and motels on the marina, ran the boat owners, and found no one connected to Bella. But the fingerprint list doesn’t just include the owners, but anyone they allow to use their boat. I’m only half way through the log and I’ve already found two of the Edible Bliss’s regular customers, the coffee shop guy who was Bella’s fourth date, and her coworker, Trevor Mann.”

  “Trevor,” Jacob repeated slowly, just as Tom hung up his phone.

  “Yeah, his stepfather owns a thirty-two-foot Morgan,” Ethan said.

  “Trevor and Bella left twenty-five minutes ago out the front,” Tom reported. “We were watching for unauthorized people going out only—”

  “Tom says Bella left with Trevor,” Jacob told Ethan. “And there’s a note here from her saying she’s leaving town.”

  “On Trevor’s sailboat?”

  “Doesn’t say, but I can tell you if the note was written by Bella, it was written under duress.”

  There was a beat of silence. “You sure?”

  “I’d bet my life on it,” Jacob said.

  “Okay, so she’s a missing person.”

  “Yeah. I’ll meet you at the marina.”

  BELLA WATCHED AS THE MARINA came into view, and her stomach cramped. This wasn’t going to be good. “I still don’t get why you’re doing this.”

  “Don’t you?” Trevor asked.

  “No!”

  “You were meant for me, Bella.”

  She stared at him. He looked so normal. How could someone who looked so normal be so insane?

  “Breathe, Bella,” he reminded her gently.

  “Look, if we go back now, I’ll talk to the police for you. I’ll help explain that you need help, and that—”

  “I don’t need help. I got what I wanted, and that’s you.” He stroked a finger down her jaw and she shuddered.

  “Don’t worry,” he said very softly. “It’s going to be okay.”

  She sincerely doubted that. She really wished she’d finished those self-defense classes. If she had, she’d probably have been able to come up with a better escape plan then having an overdue panic attack.

  “Turn here into the parking lot,” Trevor told her.

  She wondered if she could slow down enough to jump right out of the car. Maybe. But an older man was walking along the sidewalk. What if she jumped out of the car and it ran him over?

  “Ten points for the old guy,” Trevor said lightly, a small smile in place. “You’re sick.”

  “Aw. I’m just a guy in love.”

  “I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “This just doesn’t make sense. If you wanted me so badly, why didn’t you ask me out?”

  “I did.”

  “No, you joked about it, I never thought you were serious.”

  “Your mistake.”

  No kidding! “Why did you stop the shooting spree? You only hit three out of eight.”

  “I shot Seth because you liked him. A lot.”

  Oh, God, Bella thought, sorrow nearly choking her.

  “I shot B.J. because he kept calling you and asking you out. I tried to shoot Tyler just because he was bugging the shit out of me with all that snooty talk. How could you stand him?”

  When she didn’t answer, he went on, unperturbed. “None of the others posed a threat until Jacob. Goddamn perfect Jacob.”

  Bella took her eyes off the road to stare at him with a mirthless laugh. “He only started coming around because you started shooting people! How did you get the information on my eight dates?”

  He shrugged. “I know one of the coordinators, and he let me get on his computer to let me do some research. I neglected to tell him the research was you. And later, Jacob.”

  “Oh, my God. If you would have stayed sane, I’d never have seen him again.”

  “Yeah.” Trevor let out a long-suffering sigh. “Maybe I made a mistake there. But it wasn’t necessarily his feelings for you that got him shot.” He paused. “It was your feelings for him. With Jacob around, screwing you senseless, you didn’t give me the time of day.” He looked at her solemnly. “You’ll have to forget him now, Bella. He might be the big, strong, silent type, but there’s a limit to a guy like that. He’ll never be romantic and sweet and loving. I’ll be that guy for you, I swear it.”

  “No, you won’t,” she told him. “I love him. I love him for exactly who he is. You can kidnap me and force me to be with you—” Only until she got a chance to run like hell. “But I will not stop loving him.”

  “Yes, you will.”

  Resisting the urge to thunk her head into the steering wheel and put herself out of her misery, she pulled into the parking lot, brain racing for a plan. Maybe she could keep him talking until…until what? No one was going to save her. She’d been seen leaving with Trevor, who no one had ever considered a threat.

  But maybe…maybe if Jacob went back for her like he said and saw the note that Trevor had made her write, maybe he’d realize that she was trying to leave him a clue…

  “We’re going to go sailing on a nice, long vacation,” Trevor said. “And live the way you’ve always lived, taking each day at a time. It’s how you love to do things, right? No ties, no hold to anyone or any place.”

  That was true, that’s how she’d always lived. But that no longer made her happy—not that she planned on sharing that life-altering epiphany with Trevor. “You can’t make me stay with you.”

  “We’ll be out on the open sea, you won’t have a choice. If we stay out long enough, you’ll fall in love with me the way I love you.”

  The way he loved her was koo-koo crazy, but she kept her mouth shut.

  “Park here,” he said, pointing to a spot. “Out of the car.”

  She got out of the car, and extremely aware of the gun, she kept silent.

  For now.

  Trevor stepped out, as well, his eyes on her. His hand was in his pocket.

  On the gun. “Slowly, Bella,” he said. “We’re going to walk to the building. No funny stuff, we don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

  She bit back a sharp laugh that probably would have sounded hysterical anyway and tried to appeal to reason, assuming he had any left in hi
s addled brain. “Trevor, this is ridiculous. Jacob isn’t going to believe I just up and left without a goodbye.”

  “He’ll move on to another woman easily enough. He wasn’t looking for anything permanent, remember? You were just a quickie, a one-night stand that extended a few extra nights, that’s all.”

  Only yesterday she might have been willing to believe that, but she’d seen the look in Jacob’s eyes this morning. She’d heard it in his voice, and when it counted, he’d given her the words.

  He loved her.

  “I’m never going to love you, Trevor. I’m going to escape at the first opportunity and you’re going to go to jail for murder and attempted murder two times over, not to mention kidnapping.”

  His jaw tightened. “You need to be quiet now.”

  “Murder, Trevor,” she repeated. “You’re going to sit in jail and—”

  “Christ, I said shut up!” He accompanied this by putting the gun right in her face.

  She gulped and closed her mouth, hoping that someone would notice the insane guy with the gun, but naturally there wasn’t another soul anywhere to be seen.

  Trevor shoved his gun back in his pocket and took Bella’s hand. “Better. Now we’re going to walk into the marina, smile, then get on my boat and sail away. You’re going to behave.”

  “I don’t tend to ‘behave.’” Well, actually, there’d been that one night, when Jacob had handcuffed her to the bed and they’d spent some fun role-playing bad cop/bad girl, but she was pretty sure that wasn’t what Trevor meant.

  Surely there would be someone inside that she could recruit to help her…

  They walked into the marina building, hand in hand like lovers. The large reception area on the right was filled with open seating facing huge wall-to-wall windows that revealed the docks and the ocean beyond. Another wall was lined with vending machines, and a third was wallpapered with a map of the planet.

  The place was empty except for a teenage girl sitting behind the reception desk. She was reading Cosmo and texting at the same time, her thumbs a whirl of motion.

  Bella looked at her and felt the first wave of despair. She couldn’t involve this girl and risk Trevor getting trigger happy with her, not when he’d proven how easily he could kill.