Energized

by Mary Behre

  Still she frowned.

  “Something wrong?” he asked, automatically standing at parade rest.

  “This looks like your bedroom.” She glanced around. “Not that I mind, but where are you going to sleep?”

  “It is my room. Unlike you, I slept last night. I’ve got errands to do and a business to run. I’m going to help you get settled. Then head out.” He strode to the bed and turned down the light blanket and top sheet. Then he pulled his favorite Marines T-shirt out of a drawer and handed it to her. “Here, this will be more comfortable to sleep in.”

  She took it and hugged it close to her chest.

  What he wouldn’t give to see her wearing it.

  And that evoked a physical reaction that was totally inappropriate since he was only interested in helping her.

  Right. Lie some more, dickhead.

  She glanced around the spacious room nervously, then up at him. The wariness and exhaustion in her eyes made him want to reach out and hold her again. Help her out of her wrinkled clothes and into his shirt.

  The blood in his head flooded south. He had to stop thinking about taking off her clothes.

  “There’s soda and tea in the fridge. Help yourself.” He straightened and backed to the door. “I’ll be back tonight.”

  “My shift starts at three.” She followed him to the door.

  “You don’t need to work it. You’ve had a hard day.” He stopped moving and tried to make her understand. “You need rest. And you don’t have any clean uniforms.”

  She yawned again. Wider this time. “Then what I need to do is to wash my uniform before I take a nap.”

  “Are you always this stubborn? You’re wiped out. You need sleep.”

  “Yes, I’m always this determined. And I need to work more. I have to pay to replace everything I lost. No insurance on the hotel room. I don’t even have a cell phone.” She smacked herself in the head. “Holy fracking schmoley! I need to call my folks. They’ll worry if they don’t hear from me today. They were worried enough when I told them about the fire. If they don’t hear from me, my dad might just show up at the Boxing Cat.”

  “Holy fracking schmoley?” Niall tried not to laugh, but failed.

  “Yes.” Hannah’s lips twitched. “Although, I’ve been known to switch fracking for fucking, but only when I’m really stressed out.”

  “Fracking for fucking?” His cheeks burned, but damn, she was turning him on more and more. “Who says that?”

  “I do.” Hannah laughed. A full-body, throaty, buoyant, beautiful laugh. Her eyes twinkled. “God, I so needed that. Thank you.”

  “Oh.” Something loosened in his chest at the sight of her smile. He wanted to see her like that forever.

  Odd. Two days ago he’d been upset that she’d come to town after giving him a bogus number. Now he didn’t want her to leave. But he did want an explanation.

  “Hannah?”

  She’d been in the process of walking toward his bathroom. She turned to face him. “Yes?”

  “About Fincastle—”

  “Yeah?”

  “Why’d you give me a fake phone number?”

  “What?” Hannah blinked and laughed again. “I didn’t.” Her laughter died as quickly as it started. “I don’t think I did. I mean, I was bummed you never called. But . . . Oh my God! Did I write down the 3228 one? It was my number when I was on my parents’ phone bill. I got my own cell a few days before I met you. All this time, I thought you hadn’t called.” Her eyes widened. “And all this time you thought I’d blown you off because you had called.”

  A slow smile spread across her face.

  And she yawned again.

  “Sorry. I’m really sleepy. I want to continue this conversation. Assuming you do,” Hannah quickly added.

  “Later.” Niall turned her by the shoulders and gave her a gentle push to the bathroom. “In the meantime, get some sleep. I’ll be back tonight.”

  She turned again. “No, I’ll be at the Cat for my shift. I’ll wash my uniform, assuming you don’t mind me using your washer and dryer. Then I can call a cab.”

  “I could stand here and argue with you about coming to work—”

  “Please don’t. It’s the one place I don’t feel quite so freakish.”

  “—But I won’t.” Niall fingered her pink braid. “I’ll pick you up in time for your shift. Get some sleep. Don’t worry about the clothes. If you take them off, I’ll put them in the wash for you.”

  There was no missing the heat that flared in her eyes. And oh, yeah, he wanted to get her naked in more ways than one. But she needed her rest.

  “I’ll be just a minute.” She stepped into the bathroom and shut the door.

  True to her word, she was back in under sixty seconds wearing only his T-shirt. He’d never looked that good in that shirt. He might have it framed and hang it on his wall after today.

  Accepting her laundry, he left the room. What he wanted to do was tuck her into bed.

  No, what he really wanted was to tuck himself into her in his bed. And dammit, he would. Later.

  But he’d seen that smile on her face when she realized he’d tried to call her. She wanted him. And he wanted to give her a reason to keep smiling.

  Suddenly, he had a mission.

  * * *

  MERCY KEPT HER head down. She did her job. She was friendly when she needed to be. A bitch when warranted. And completely in-fucking-visible. No one knew her. Not the real her.

  She’d worried last night when the cops showed up. How? How had they tied the death to the restaurant? She’d been careful. Meticulous. No one she selected had any reason to associate with the Boxing Cat. But those cops had known. Or thought they had.

  They’d taken that stupid out-of-towner hippie into custody.

  A smile tormented the corners of her mouth, but Mercy knew better than to let any real emotion show. Not here. Not where others might see. And mock.

  But the question wriggled in her brain like a feasting worm.

  How had they known about the Boxing Cat? Had it just been dumb luck?

  Around her, the place was abuzz with excitement about catering tomorrow’s wedding. Wondering why the boss had decided to take off today, when he hadn’t taken a single day off since he’d been back. The news of the dead body on the television. The whispers that the hippie might have done it.

  The back door swung open. Sunlight poured in, temporarily blinding Mercy. Then he was there.

  Smiling as usual. This time his long blond hair hung loose around his shoulders. He wore a green Hawaiian shirt that brought out the green in his sexy eyes. He tucked his hands in his cargo pants and audibly jangled his keys.

  Something he did when he was nervous or excited.

  Mercy averted her gaze and pretended to work. No one could know of her attraction to him. No one could guess that one day very soon, she would make him hers.

  She would grant him a bliss-filled weekend.

  Then she would set them both free.

  Forever.

  * * *

  NIALL OPENED THE garage door out of habit, then cursed himself. If Hannah had still been asleep, the noisy creaking door would have definitely put an end to that. With no hope of surprising her now, he collected the bags from the truck and headed into the kitchen.

  He was greeted by the sound of the shower running.

  Images of her naked and soapy under the steaming water sprang to mind. He wanted to join her. So bad he had actually walked halfway down the hall with the bags in his hands before he caught himself.

  Sure, she’d confessed that she hadn’t intentionally given him the wrong number. But that wasn’t a blatant invitation to come get sexy, slathery naked in the shower.

  Dammit!

  Making a U-turn, he arrowed for the kitchen table, dropped the bags on
it, then headed toward the living room. Pushing the coffee table aside, he dropped to the floor and started a rep of push-ups. Maybe he could get through fifty and get the blood flowing to other parts of his body before she came out.

  He did fifty and fifty more before she appeared with a bath towel wrapped around her voluptuous body and a second one around her head. Niall straightened and she jumped.

  “Oh God!” Hannah said, clutching the towel. “What were you doing there, Marine? Push-ups?”

  “As a matter of fact.”

  “Oh. Really?” She took another step toward him, her hand still holding firmly to the bath towel. “You do that a lot?”

  Niall glanced at her body, her face, and the floor again. “Uh, yeah.”

  Hannah cocked her head to one side. “Are you embarrassed? It’s not like you haven’t seen me naked. And I’m covered. I’m not going to drop the towel and jump you or anything. Well, unless you call me ma’am.”

  Niall whipped his gaze to her twinkling eyes. “Feeling better after your nap?”

  “I feel like a new woman.” She glanced at the bags on the table. “Uh, you shop at Victoria’s Secret a lot, Marine?”

  “Wha—? No. That’s for you.” He strode to the kitchen table. “Actually, all the bags are for you. You said you needed clothes. I had to guess your size. There are two uniforms in there. I also bought you two pairs of gloves. One white and one black. You can wear them when serving, so you don’t have to touch the silverware.”

  “You bought me gloves?”

  “I figured you didn’t need any more visions today. I thought you’d had enough. I also picked up a pair of rubber gloves for when you do the dishes. I know they’re not recyclable, but you said skin contact with the metal caused visions. These should help prevent that, right?”

  “Y-yes.” The look on her face was a cross between astonishment and adoration.

  Niall kept going through the bags. “There are also jeans, tees, shorts, some pajamas, and a couple bras. You should have seen the look on the woman’s face at the store when I tried to describe your—well, you know.”

  Hannah blinked. She glanced at the bags, then back at Niall. “You bought me clothes and gloves?”

  “You needed them.” Niall shrugged. “Oh, and here. Use this until your cell is replaced. It’s got a month of pre-paid minutes on it. The instructions are in one of the bags.” He handed her the burner phone.

  “What happened to earth dog and we’re just employer and employee?” She delivered the question with wonder in her voice.

  Niall closed the distance between them. “Hannah, I didn’t mean the earth dog comment the way you took it. You’re a tree hugger. Is that better?”

  Hannah stared up at him, her eyes round with surprise. “Yes. And the other thing?”

  Goddamn, he wanted to kiss her. To sink into her and lose himself.

  So he stepped back instead.

  “You’ve had it rough for a few days. You needed clothes. I have the money. It’s no big deal. It’s nothing I wouldn’t have done for any of my employees.”

  Damn his lying ass.

  “Oh.” Hannah sighed and shrugged. “Well, then I’ll pay you back, Mar—Niall.”

  She’d been about to call him Marine. Her pet name for him. But she stopped herself. How many times had he thought she was trying not to call him Mr. Graham? She hadn’t been forcing herself to sound casual, she’d been distancing herself.

  Fuck. He just gave her another reason.

  “Hannah—”

  “I’ll be ready to go to the Cat in fifteen minutes.” She collected the bags. “Thank you for these. I promise, I’ll pay you back.”

  Then she was out of the room and racing up the stairs.

  “You don’t need to,” he said in the silent room.

  Truth was, he owed her so much more than she had ever owed him.

  And he just kept fucking it up.

  CHAPTER 16

  THE CLOSED SIGN was up. Finally.

  Hannah helped Michael and Karma clear the last of the dishes from the front while Dawn and Sadie set the tables for the next day.

  “Why are we wasting our time setting the tables in the restaurant? We need to be getting ready for tomorrow night’s wedding,” Dawn said, her Brooklyn accent pitched and whiny. The mascara she’d put on this morning was smudged under her eyes. She looked tired and a decade older than her twenty-eight years.

  “Because we’re still serving brunch in the Master Room in the morning. Get over it, Dawn. It’s not like you have to work on Saturdays.” Sadie slammed plates down on the table hard enough that it seemed to defy the laws of physics because they didn’t break. “Doesn’t your kid have basketball or something tomorrow?”

  “Soccer.” Dawn blew her pink-tipped bangs out of her eyes. She appeared ready to continue the argument the two waitresses had been having for hours. “What’s your problem? Aren’t you getting like double time or something to work the wedding? Why do you always have to be such a—”

  Hannah didn’t wait to hear the argument escalate but pushed the dishpan full of dirty dishes through the swinging door into the kitchen.

  “Will you trust me for once in your miserable existence?” Ross hissed out the last word.

  Hannah stepped back from the doorway to the office. The whole night had been busy. While the Cat had been markedly slower than the night before, everyone was hustling to make sure all of the arrangements for the wedding were in place.

  Several times she caught Ross going over a list or signing off on a document only to find Niall double-checking him. Yikes, the Marine was a major control freak.

  A control freak who had bought her lightweight cloth gloves to wear while working so she wouldn’t accidentally get another vision. A control freak who spent his own money to buy her clothes. Nice ones in her size. A control freak so bent on keeping their past relationship a secret from the staff that he held her close with one arm and pushed her away with the other.

  Well, that wasn’t going to happen.

  Yes, she’d lost her way after spending the night at the police station. She shivered at the memory. But then she’d slept in his house. In his bed. His headboard was a very nice black metal. That she purposely did not touch. She came to understand the universe brought her into his life to help him connect with his brother. Why else would she have had the vision about Ross if not to help them?

  She might have originally come to Tidewater to find Jules and Shelley but the universe had bigger plans for her. Bigger even than helping Niall and Ross. She needed to find the killer.

  It had come to her in the shower this afternoon.

  The cops didn’t believe her. They didn’t know how. But she had already established a connection with the killer. If she could reconnect, she might be able to glean enough details to get TSS on Mercy’s trail. The question remained, was there anything left in the restaurant that the killer had touched?

  Probably not. But maybe the other silverware Mercy had touched hadn’t been touched by anyone else. Odds were slim that the customer who did the murder would come back. Hannah considered asking Karma for the knife that had sent her into the vision, then changed her mind. Her friend would likely try to talk her out of searching for another vision, especially while they were working.

  Hannah had spent most of her shift surreptitiously touching every piece of metal she could. Both wishing she would and wouldn’t see anything. Oh, she got visions all right, just none related to the cruel Mercy.

  “This isn’t about trust.” Niall’s words were calm, cold, and lowering with each syllable. “If you’d actually listen to me, you’d know that.”

  Ross’s response dropped to a muffle but the tension in the air was palpable.

  Virgil and Paulie cleaned their stoves for the night, both glancing intermittently at the door. Neither spoke.
<
br />   Hannah carried the tub of dishes to the dishwasher around the corner and slipped off her gloves. This was the last set of dishes left to be washed for the night.

  With a deep breath for courage, Hannah reached into the tub and grabbed the silverware propped up in a glass. A myriad of images slipped through her mind. Images of sunsets, flashing lights at a nightclub, a perfect golf swing, a sick baby cuddling as it nursed, a handsome young man with laughing eyes, and more zipped through her mind. Scents of magnolia perfume, menthol cigarettes, baby powder, and cigars floated through her senses. There wasn’t a single image stronger than another. Nothing to mentally grab on to. Too many to decipher but there was a distinct lack of violence in the overlapping visions.

  No blood.

  No death.

  No Mercy.

  “Hannah? I thought Niall gave you gloves,” Karma said from behind.

  Hannah jumped, dropping the cutlery. Forks, knives, and spoons clattered against the concrete floor. Her breath whooshed out as the tenuous connections snapped in an instant.

  “Whoa! Sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.” Karma bent to retrieve the flatware.

  “He did. I, uh, just forgot to put them on.” Hannah tugged the rubber gloves from the sink counter and jammed her hands in them before helping Karma pick up the scattered utensils.

  “You know your aura is this brilliant shade of orange,” Karma said conversationally, after they cleaned up the mess. She laid a hand on Hannah’s forearm. “Except when you lie. It turns a funky brownish color. Not very pretty.”

  Hannah glanced at the demi-wall to make sure no one was nearby. “Sorry about that. I was trying to see if I could get another reading on . . . you know, Mercy.” She whispered the name.

  Karma pulled her by the arm into the corner, fear on her face. “Are you nuts? After everything that’s happened, why would you do that? I saw what it did to your aura. You weren’t you. Not when you had the vision.”