One Night

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  He looked down at her and her bare toes sticking out from under the blanket. “Well, for now your apartment is a crime scene. You can’t go in. Besides, whoever did this, it would be a safe bet they could be back. Do you have someone you can call to stay with for the night?”

  “Looking like this?” she spat. Then she held out her hand. “Can I use your phone?”

  He pulled out his cellphone and handed it to her. “Make it fast,” he said, and it earned him another of her frosty glares.

  ***

  Chapter 9

  Kate could not believe this night. It was one of those nightmares that just seemed to go on and on, even though she was with that hot cop. She also needed to thank Mr. Harris. If it hadn’t been for him, she was sure the detective would have had her sitting in his car naked, with only a blanket around her instead of the Seahawks sweatshirt Mr. Harris had dug out for her. Maybe he had agreed it wasn’t okay that she couldn’t go back into her own apartment and at least grab a robe—not that she remembered where she’d stuck it, in the closet or the laundry. But even a pair of jeans and shoes!

  Here she was, still barefoot, sitting in the detective’s car as he spoke to someone on his cellphone. There had to be some law against this. As far as she was concerned, she was tempted to push it.

  Then there was her mother, whom she’d called and woken up. Added to that was the shock of hearing a man’s voice in the background of the call: her dad’s. Great, were they back together again, or was her mom just sleeping with him? She didn’t want to go there, and she rubbed the bridge of her nose. There was a tap on her window, and she rolled it down. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been in a car with manual windows. Everything these days was electric.

  “Yes?” she said to Detective Pruett.

  “I thought you might like a pair of shoes.” He not only handed her a pair of sneakers, the Reeboks she loved, but also a pair of jogging shorts and a tank top.

  “Thank you. I thought you weren’t going to let me have any clothes.”

  He was shaking his head, and his expression was pure mischief. Boy, talk about swallowing her heart. “No, I said you weren’t going back in. I didn’t say anything about me going in and getting you some clothes.”

  “So you ransacked my underwear drawers.”

  He was staring at her now with those deep green eyes, and she didn’t know what to make of it. She unfastened her seatbelt and stepped into her shorts, pulling them on, not missing how his eyes flared when they rose up a bit. Then she bent over to slip her bare feet into her shoes. She heard him clear his throat, and she had to smile to herself. She put the tank top on the seat, as she was wearing Mr. Harris’s sweatshirt. It covered her well, and she was warm, so she didn’t feel the need to take it off in front of the detective.

  “No, I found them in your front closet in a gym bag,” he finally said. “Figured it was a safe bet.”

  “Sorry, I don’t mean to be so—”

  “A pain in the ass?”

  “I’m not a pain in the ass! I just want what I want, and I didn’t expect to have my life turned upside down tonight. I’m trying to meet someone nice and decent, not a loser. I mean, I’m a great catch, right?” she said. Maybe it was the way he was watching her, but she was starting to question everything, including herself. She ran her hand over her hair and wondered how she looked. Okay, why did he have to look so intense while he watched her? “What’s wrong with me? Why are you looking at me like that?”

  He was leaning in through the window, and he finally broke eye contact and glanced away. “So where am I taking you?” he said.

  Talk about a change of subject. That worried her more. Maybe there was something wrong with her, and she was doomed to the same fate as her mother.

  “To my mom’s, which should be interesting, as my dad’s there,” she said. “I heard him in the background.”

  “And that’s not a good thing?” he asked.

  “No, it’s not, considering my dad’s cheated on my mom more times than I can count. My entire childhood was spent watching a revolving door of my dad leaving and coming back. They divorced five years ago, now…” She waved her hand and realized she was rambling again. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to go on and on. I’m sure it sounds pretty pathetic, but I’ve got to tell you it helps that you at least brought me some shoes and shorts, as my parents are going to want some answers about why their only daughter is showing up half naked this time of night.”

  Why couldn’t he say anything? It was becoming unnerving, the way he watched her.

  “What is it?” she said. “Is there something in my hair? What’s wrong with me? Why are you looking at me like that?” She ran her hands over her hair again.

  “Kate, there’s nothing wrong with you. You just picked the wrong dude to try to get to know. Your parents, I don’t know what to say. Your mom really keeps going back?”

  She shrugged. What could she say? That was probably why her mom hadn’t said anything to her, considering the last time her dad cheated and her mom left, Kate had sat her down for a heart to heart, asking if she had finally figured out that her and her dad would never work. “I’m not my mother,” she said. She didn’t know why she needed to say that, but she did.

  He was about to say something when his cell phone rang. “Hold that thought.” He stepped away from the car and barked, “Pruett.”

  She noticed the moment he stiffened and his expression changed, his eyes landing solely on Kate. The way he was watching her had the hair on the back of her neck prickling. Whatever was going on wasn’t good, and it had to do with her.

  “Well, why the hell would you let her go?” he snapped and turned away. She couldn’t make out what else he said, and she went to open the car door and step out when he put his hand on the door and shut it again. Every part of his body language was tense—angry, too. From what she’d gathered from the little she knew of him, he was not a man anyone wanted to go up against.

  “Shit.” He pocketed his phone. “You stay in there,” he snapped, pointing at her.

  “Is everything all right?”

  His hand was resting on the edge of the open window. He seemed to need a minute to collect himself. “The woman who drove through the restaurant, the one your date knew…well, she was just released.”

  For a second, Kate didn’t know what to say, which was unlike her. “Let me see if I have this right. Psycho bitch drives through the front of a restaurant, and you guys just let her go. What am I missing here? I’m not a detective, but I’m smart enough to realize that woman is a lunatic. Even you said she drove into that restaurant heading right for me.” She could feel herself getting wound up.

  “She claimed she lost control of the car, that she felt faint, that it was an accident. She had a lawyer show up, and we couldn’t hold her. She’s been charged with reckless endangerment and will have to appear before a judge in court tomorrow.”

  “Excuse me? She drove a car through a restaurant, which almost killed me, and wrecked a dress I spent a small fortune on, not to mention she wrote on my wall, which I’m now going to have to clean and possibly repaint—and I hate painting. She has two screws loose, and I’m the one being inconvenienced while you just let her go. What the hell is it with you—”

  It happened so fast. His lips were on her, stopping her midsentence. If she’d wondered before whether Detective Pruett could kiss well, she didn’t have to wonder anymore. This man knew how to kiss a woman, and she had no doubt he knew exactly what to do with one, as well. It was something she just knew when a man touched her. He was a man who’d need no instruction in the bedroom. She imagined, in that kiss, that it would be him directing her.

  ***

  He told himself the kiss was only to shut her up, but he hadn’t expected her to be so damn responsive. She matched his kiss, parting her lips so he could taste her as he held her head, running his teeth over her lower lip and sucking as she gasped. Then he caught himself and slowly let her lip go. She w
as breathing heavy—so was he—and the flickering heat in her eyes told him how much she wanted him. She was so damn responsive, and he imagined she would be like a wildfire in bed. He started to lean closer again, and she parted her lips when someone cleared his throat behind them.

  He jumped and banged his head on the door. When he licked his lips, he could taste her on him, and something about it reminded him of peaches and cream. It was a summer fruit that he couldn’t get enough of.

  “What?” he snapped at the officer—Kramer, he thought his name was—who was standing there with a look of surprise. He even raised his eyebrows in humor. Of course he hadn’t missed the fact that Walker had been kissing Kate, a woman who was the victim of a crime and the only interesting part of this entire bizarre night.

  He didn’t dare look down at Kate as he heard her sigh and then clear her throat. “And?” he added a little sharply when the officer said nothing, just looked from Kate back to him.

  “Sorry,” Kramer said. “The techs finished dusting for prints. They just scanned them in and got a match.”

  “So they know who was in my apartment,” Kate said. The car door opened, and Walker held the edge of it as she slipped out. She brushed against him so close that he couldn’t help letting his hand slip to her lower back.

  The officer looked over at Walker. “It was Cindy Schmidt, the lady who drove through the restaurant.”

  “God dammit,” Walker said. He wanted to punch something. He stepped back, jamming his fingers through his hair. Kate was watching him, looking to him for answers, for anything. She ran her hands over her elbows as if she needed to hold herself together. Shit, she now looked scared.

  “How could she know about me?” she said. “I just met Ryder tonight. This isn’t possible.”

  “I hate to tell you, Kate, but I’ve seen a lot of things. I’d like to say I’ve seen it all, but I haven’t come close. Anything is possible—more than possible. You met him through online dating. You exchanged emails?”

  She nodded. “We talked on the phone too, once, and then we met for a date, which was tonight.”

  “I want to know everything about Cindy: where she lives, what she does, even what she had for breakfast,” he told Kramer. He watched the officer walk away to another squad car that had pulled up, and MacDonald climbed out.

  “I’m not liking this too much,” Kate said. “What’s wrong with this chick? I mean, how pathetic can you be? A guy says no, go away. End of story. Move on. Have some pride, will you? And what the hell is wrong with him that he didn’t see this? If he’s being stalked by some psycho bitch, what the hell is he doing going online to look for more prey? I don’t know who’s worse, psycho babe or Ryder, who cheated on his wife with this woman. Do you know he stuck his profile up on the net when he was still married? I mean, what kind of guy does that? Creeps, that’s who. It’s almost as if he deserved getting saddled with a crazy woman who won’t leave him alone.”

  He rested his hand on her shoulder, more to steady her than anything, and she stopped talking. He could tell she was getting ready to lose it again. He was starting to recognize that when Kate got scared, she hid it with a bitchiness that could make his head spin, and she would go off on these tangents that could make a sane man crazy. But he saw it: it was all an act to cover up how terrified she was of a situation she had no control over.

  “Oh my God, I have to work!” she said. “How am I going to get there? And I need my clothes. You know what? I’m done with psycho bitch. She’s not chasing me out of here. I’m going up to my place and getting my clothes, and to hell with all of you.” She pointed to her apartment building, and Walker could feel how tight she was. He had no doubt she was ready to race up there and scream at everyone to get out of her place.

  “Stop!” he shouted at her.

  She actually jumped, her eyes widened, but she didn’t move a step from where she’d pulled away from him. She started pacing.

  “You’re scared, I get it, but stop being such a bitch about it. You can’t go in, and until further notice, you can call in sick. Tomorrow, anyway. One day at a time, Kate.”

  “What? I can’t miss work. I’ve worked so hard to get where I am. I’ve never missed a day. Just because I picked the wrong guy to go out with, why the hell am I being punished—”

  “Kate.” He touched her cheek, and she stopped. Maybe it was the way he spoke, so softly, that had her lip trembling. She was close to tears. Yeah, she was all bark. “It’s going to be okay. Let’s just get you out of here and off the street.”

  “Detective,” MacDonald said, striding over to him. “Kramer was just saying you wanted the background information on Cindy Schmidt. Well, I already did that. Thought it would be wise to know everything about her before she left, so I did some digging.”

  “And what did you find?”

  “Well, you’re not going to believe this. She’s an IT tech—or was—for a pharmaceutical company here in Portland. She was let go after a harassment complaint was filed against her by a man who turned out to be her boss. She had somehow put a virus put on his computer and had accessed his emails, all that shit. She was fired, signed a nondisclosure, and has been working as a programmer for some distributor.” He looked up at Walker, but he didn’t need to say it, as they both looked down at Kate.

  “Where’s your computer?” Walker asked.

  “My MacBook? It’s in my apartment, in the living room. Why?” But it only took her a second to figure out what he already knew. “He was hacked, and she tracked me through him,” she said, pissed again. He could tell she wanted to kick something. “Son of a bitch!”

  “Looks that way. Get her computer to the lab, and let’s find out what else this Cindy knows about Kate,” he said to MacDonald, who glanced at Kate and then nodded before going into her apartment building.

  “All my personal information is on my computer. What am I supposed to do now?” she asked. “And how am I going to explain this to my mom and dad? Oh my God, what if she shows up at my mom’s?”

  She really was smart, too smart for her own good. He’d already thought of the same thing.

  “You’re not explaining anything,” he said. “You’re coming home with me.”

  ***

  Chapter 10

  Going home with Detective Walker Pruett could have been one of the most exciting things she’d ever done if it weren’t for the fact that she had a psychotic woman on her trail, a woman who had somehow figured that Kate was the one thing standing between her and Ryder Connelly—a man she didn’t know, had met once, and wasn’t dating! Kate hadn’t argued with Walker about going with him, because the fact was that she felt much safer staying with the hunky detective than with her parents.

  He parked outside an older two-story house with a small porch out front. It had a tree in the neat front yard and a lone straight-back chair sitting outside the front door. She followed him up the stairs in the dark and waited while he unlocked the door. It squeaked as he opened it and then flicked on a light. It was quaint. A sofa and chair and a sixty-inch flat-screen TV greeted her from the living room. A pool table was in the dining room instead of a table, and the art on the walls consisted of various Native pieces, completely clashing with this entire man-cave thing he had going on.

  “So no missus here?” she asked, because it would have been just her luck.

  The look he gave her answered that question. “Seriously, Kate?”

  “Okay, just checking. With my track record, it wouldn’t surprise me if you had some Big Love thing going on with a couple of sister wives.” Now she was being ridiculous, she knew that, and she wondered what it was about Walker that made her say things she’d never say to anyone else.

  “Do I look like the type of guy who has women stashed away? Good God, one woman is a handful. Now you think I have a harem.”

  “Sorry, my experience with men is somewhat jaded.”

  He grunted and allowed his gaze to linger on her breasts before meeting her eyes. �
�I’ll show you the bathroom upstairs if you want to shower.” He was already on the stairs, going up. If she didn’t follow, she was pretty sure he was going to just leave her there, so she trotted after him, up the stairs, until she was right behind him. He didn’t look back, though. “I’ll get you a T-shirt to sleep in, and you can take my bed.” He was giving orders suddenly, so cold, changing from a man who’d stopped her with one of the most breathtakingly hot kisses she had ever had to a man who was all business, who couldn’t get away from her fast enough. What had she done now?

  The stairs squeaked. She figured the house had to be sixty years old, give or take a decade or two. It had dark wood and white walls. Even the floorboards creaked when she walked. The bathroom was dated but surprisingly clean, for a guy.

  “There’re extra towels in the cupboard in the bathroom.” He pointed at the door as if giving a tour and kept walking.

  She followed on his heels, past one of the two bedrooms upstairs. The first door was open and had boxes on the desk and other junk piled in it.

  “And this is my bedroom,” he said. It was small and had a four-poster bed, neatly made, covered in a dark blue quilt, with one pillow. He opened a chest of drawers and pulled out a white shirt. She didn’t miss how neatly folded his shirts were—a far cry from hers. Most things were jammed in her drawers, and she could barely close them.

  “Wow, it’s surprisingly clean. I would have expected something not so neat.”

  He gave her an odd look, the expression on his face almost unreadable. “Really, you mean like the trail you left at your place? First your red dress—which, by the way, is a work of art on you—then your lacy black bra and underwear. What did you do, step out of everything and drop them as you walked to your bedroom?”

  How had he known? She swallowed, because that was exactly what she’d done. She gripped his T-shirt closer, feeling her bare nipples brush the inside of the sweatshirt. Even though she was wearing shorts, as well, she felt absolutely naked in front of him. And, right now, she didn’t want to be anywhere else.