by Brenda Novak
“You don’t have to worry about Callie. I can protect her.”
Levi felt like dropping Stacy right where he stood. He knew he could do it before Stacy could draw that damn gun. But he also knew he had enough problems. In the past, he’d been far more reckless than he was now, because back then he hadn’t cared if he lived or died. “The way you protected her from the fire?”
“That won’t happen again. Denny and Powell are gone.” He puffed out his chest. “Problem solved.”
Levi couldn’t believe it. “They’re what?”
“You heard me.”
But they’d been around just a few days ago. And they were supposed to be in Whiskey Creek for the entire summer. “Where did they go?”
“Let’s just say...they suddenly found it in their best interest to rent elsewhere.”
So that was it. “You mean you invited them to move on, too.”
“They were better at taking a hint. No way did they want to be run up on charges for that fire.”
“There was no physical proof linking them to the fire. All you had on them was motive,” Levi pointed out.
“That was enough. No one else around here would do something like that.”
Now he was a mind reader? Levi had no love for Denny and Powell, but he liked Stacy even less. “I’m pretty sure duress falls outside the scope of legitimate police work.”
Stacy’s eyes narrowed. “Who the hell are you to tell me that? Anyway, I’m thinking we’ve been too friendly, made you too comfortable here.” He pulled out his citation book. “So maybe it needs to start getting a little uncomfortable.”
Levi clenched his teeth in an effort to control his temper. “That’s why I’m getting a ticket? Because you don’t want me here?”
Stacy didn’t answer. “License and registration, please.”
“You know my ID got burned in the fire.”
“Your registration, too?”
“Destroyed with my wallet.”
He made a tsking sound. “That’s unfortunate,” he said as he shoved the citation book back in his pocket. “I guess that gives me—well, you—two choices.”
“And those are...”
“You can agree to leave Whiskey Creek by tomorrow. Or we can head over to the station, where I can fingerprint you to get proper ID.”
Levi didn’t bother hiding his disgust as he shook his head. “Neither one will get you what you really want.”
Stacy seemed taken aback by this statement. “How would you know?”
“Because Callie’s not interested in you.”
“You think you’ve got more to offer her than I do?” He chuckled. “Get in the car.”
Before Levi could move, the sound of tires crunching on the gravel shoulder to their left drew his attention. It was Joe.
“Hey, Chief,” Joe said as he climbed out of the cab. “Something wrong here?”
Stacy pointed to the logo on Levi’s shirt. “Your new grease monkey ran a red light.”
Joe’s eyebrows knitted. “Sucks for him. Which one?”
“Does it matter? That one right there.” The police chief pointed at the closest traffic signal, only a block away.
“Are you sure it was that one, Chief?”
Stacy seemed bored when he answered. “Positive.”
Joe stretched the muscles in his neck as if he’d put in a hard day’s work, and Levi knew he had. “Then you must have the wrong guy.”
“I know what I’m doing here, Joe.” Stacy waved him off. “You can get in your truck and go on your way.”
Levi could tell the police chief was irritated by this unexpected intrusion. Joe could tell, too, Levi thought. He assumed Joe would do as Stacy suggested. But he didn’t.
“I’d be happy to head home, Chief,” he said, “except when I came out of the hardware store right there, I saw Levi sitting at that light. Maybe he could’ve run through the intersection if he’d swung around all three cars that were stopped in front of him, but he was trying to make sure he had that helmet secured to the seat.”
Red suffused Stacy’s face. “You must be mistaken.” He jerked his head toward his cruiser, indicating that Levi should get in the car, but Joe thrust his hands in his pockets and stepped between them.
“No, sir. I’m positive about what I saw.”
What Joe said was the truth. Although Levi hadn’t seen Joe, he’d been fiddling with Callie’s new helmet while waiting for that light. Still, Levi was surprised Joe would contest what Stacy said, especially for his benefit. Levi got along well enough with his boss, but they’d both been so busy they hadn’t talked much. It wasn’t as if they were best friends.
For the first time, some uncertainty entered Stacy’s manner. No doubt he realized he’d have to push the issue if he wanted to arrest Levi, and then Joe might still stand in the way. Ultimately, the police chief decided it wasn’t worth the backlash he could receive because of it. “Hmm,” he said, “must’ve been another guy on a bike, I guess. Imagine that.”
“Must’ve been,” Joe said, letting him out of it gracefully.
Stacy turned to Levi. “Looks like there won’t be any need to haul you down to the station. But—” his eyes narrowed again “—you might want to consider that other alternative I mentioned.”
Levi said nothing.
“What other alternative?” Joe asked as soon as Stacy got in his car.
“He’s invited me to leave town.”
Joe gaped at him. “Seriously?”
“Apparently, he doesn’t want any disreputable characters in Whiskey Creek.” He gazed down at his arms, at the pink lines that remained now that the stitches were gone. “My presence might cause another dog attack, or a barn-burning.”
“Those things weren’t your fault. And it’s a free country. He can’t ask you to leave. That doesn’t happen in this day and age.”
Levi put his helmet back on. “It just did. But thanks for your help.”
24
Levi had been feeling so...normal for a change. It was almost as if everything in Afghanistan hadn’t happened, as if it had all been nothing more than a terrible dream.
But now the past felt real again. The same resentment, the same deep-seated anger, simmered inside him, making him want to smash someone’s face in. Not someone’s. Stacy’s. The police chief wasn’t going to leave him alone. He’d badger him and badger him until he eventually figured out who Levi was, and then he’d make sure Levi went back to stand trial in Nevada, where he’d be facing the same odds he’d been facing a few minutes ago. If not for Joe, Levi would be at the station getting fingerprinted for a traffic violation he didn’t commit.
What had he been thinking the past few days, anyway? He couldn’t grow complacent. It wasn’t as though he could settle down in Whiskey Creek and pretend he was someone else forever. Callie didn’t own the farm, and her parents would be selling it soon. Then where would she go? Back to the apartment she’d told him she’d once rented above her studio? And what would he do—go with her?
That wasn’t very realistic. Not with Stacy making trouble for him at every turn. Callie didn’t know what she was getting into, didn’t even know his real name.
He needed to move on, to get out of Whiskey Creek before he did something else he’d live to regret.
“Levi?” Callie shouted above the roar of his engine.
He blinked. He’d reached the farm but was still sitting astride his bike. She stood next to him, waiting for him to notice her.
Putting down the kickstand, he cut the engine.
“You coming in?” She gestured at the door she’d left open.
Her beautiful smile made his chest tighten with the kind of emotion he hadn’t felt, hadn’t been willing to feel, in a long time. “Yeah,” he said. But he couldn’t stay.
God, she was going to be hard to leave.
* * *
Levi was hungry. His stomach rumbled at the smell of the food Callie had prepared. But eating suddenly seemed like a terrib
le waste of time. As soon as he crossed the threshold of the living room, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her as if he hadn’t seen her in weeks.
“What is it?” she asked, startled by his intensity.
He shook his head. There was no point in telling her. She couldn’t stop Stacy because she couldn’t change what Levi had done. No one could. As much as he wished he could go back and live that night in Nevada over again, he couldn’t. It was the same with Behrukh.
Why did mistakes always have to be so...final?
Anyway, even if Callie could do something about Stacy, Levi wasn’t willing to hide behind her, refused to have a woman do battle for him. She’d had no problems with the people in her hometown before he came. He wanted to be sure there’d be no problems after.
“Levi?”
“Nothing,” he breathed against her neck as his mouth moved lower. “I just missed you.”
She held his face so she could look into his eyes, but he allowed that for only a second before stripping off her shirt and kissing her breasts. He was driven to possess her in a way he hadn’t possessed her before, couldn’t wait to escape into the completeness she’d begun to offer him.
“I missed you, too,” she said, “but—”
But nothing. He wanted her. Now. She seemed to understand that when he interrupted her with a demanding kiss, then removed the rest of her clothes.
If she was surprised by his sudden aggression, by the urgency in his touch, she didn’t complain. She gasped as he claimed her with two fingers but arched into him as if she completely trusted him, and that made him grow even harder.
Although he was afraid she might press him for answers about his behavior, continue to question him about whether something had happened, she didn’t. She was already panting and moving against his palm, getting as swept away as he was.
“What do you want?” he whispered.
“I want you,” she said, and peeled off his shirt. Although he’d washed his hands at work, his clothes were no cleaner than they’d been earlier in the week, when he’d insisted on washing up before touching her. But a shower, or any other kind of delay, was out of the question. Today nothing seemed to matter except feeling her naked body against his, her softness yielding to his hardness, skin on skin.
“No one’s ever made me feel like you do,” she murmured.
Levi derived more satisfaction from the passion with which she’d said those words than the words themselves. It was exactly what he was looking for. But he refused to let the momentum carry them away too fast. This time their lovemaking wasn’t going to blow out in a gust of energy and enthusiasm. This wasn’t about meeting his needs. He wanted to make Callie shiver and quake and come apart in his arms again and again.
Even as that thought went through his mind, he recognized it as a juvenile, misguided attempt to ensure that she remembered him. But being able to give her pleasure seemed important, regardless.
“Again,” he said after she’d already climaxed several times. He urged her to roll on top of him, in case she was getting carpet burn, but she shook her head.
“I’m done,” she gasped, her chest rising and falling from exertion. “I’m too exhausted.”
That was the signal he’d been waiting for. She was satisfied. Pinning her arms above her head, he enjoyed the sight of her bare breasts, completely open to his view, with the necklace he gave her resting at the base of her throat.
“That was wild,” she whispered when he finally slumped over her.
He didn’t answer. He was exhausted, too. Mentally exhausted, more than anything else.
Shifting to one side, so he could bear his own weight, he laid his head on her shoulder and felt her hand cup his cheek.
“Levi?”
He was breathing deeply, enjoying the scent that was so uniquely her. “Hmm?”
“Please tell me that wasn’t goodbye.”
He closed his eyes. He hated this part. He’d never thought he’d feel so strongly about a woman again. “I’m sorry,” he said.
* * *
Although Levi had packed his few belongings and put them in a bag by the door, Callie had talked him into staying one more day. They’d gone for a ride on his bike this morning, had stopped in the mountains and gone skinny-dipping in a stream. Now she was getting ready while he surfed sports sites on her laptop. According to Baxter’s latest text, her friends were on their way. She just had to get through their “intervention.” Then she’d have the rest of the day with Levi before their time came to an end.
She couldn’t believe that she’d managed to keep her condition from him, despite his proximity. Just yesterday, she’d been kicking herself for not telling him the truth. She’d been positive he was going to find out and then hate her. But now there was no reason to think anything would change before he left. She was feeling pretty good, overall, so she was glad she’d stuck to her decision. Thanks to her silence, they’d had two incredible weeks together, something that probably never would’ve happened otherwise. And just as she’d planned from the beginning, he’d go on with his life, untouched by what she was about to undergo.
“How do you know they’re coming?” Levi asked.
She fished her mascara out of her makeup bag. “Baxter tipped me off.”
“I don’t get it. What do they think is wrong?”
“I haven’t been returning their calls and showing up at coffee on Fridays.”
“Because...”
“I’ve been busy. First the farm. And then you. But they’re convinced I’ve been acting strange.” No doubt she had been acting strange. She’d been struggling to cope with her own mortality, no easy thing at thirty-two. So this was one more lie...to him and to them. But after he left, she was ready to tell her friends and her family. Having Baxter’s support at the hospital had been wonderful. She was ready for more of that—even if it came with a cost.
“So...you’re going to blame it on me?”
She laughed. “Basically. Do you mind?”
There was a shrug in his voice when he responded. “No.”
He was leaving, anyway, but neither of them wanted to talk about that. “I’ll be sure to tell them you’re good in bed. Will that make up for it?”
“It might preserve a bit of my male pride.”
“Consider that pride preserved. So—” she paused to put on some lip gloss “—do you want to meet them?”
She assumed he’d say no....
“Why not?”
Surprised, she poked her head out of the bathroom.
When their eyes met, he said, “I’m going to miss you.”
* * *
Cheyenne fidgeted nervously with her purse strap as she stood on Callie’s porch with Dylan, Eve, Riley, Noah, Baxter and Kyle. They’d met at her place and taken two cars so they could all arrive at once. Ted was still on deadline for his next book and couldn’t come, and no one had been able to reach Sophia.
“I hope this doesn’t make matters worse,” she muttered to no one in particular.
Eve was closest to her, but she probably would’ve been the one to respond. The guys tended to favor less intervention rather than more. Eve had all but twisted their arms to get them to participate in this. “We have to do something,” she’d argued. “What’s our other option? To just...let her drift away?”
Cheyenne didn’t like the thought of losing Callie’s friendship. Callie meant too much to her. But she had to admit that getting married had required her to pull back from the group just a little, to make room for Dylan and the privacy being a couple required. Maybe Callie was going through something like that, something tied to maturation and changing needs.
Before she could mention this idea, the door opened.
Cheyenne caught her breath in case Callie wasn’t pleased, but Callie seemed so genuinely happy to have them all on her doorstep that Cheyenne was no longer sure they had a problem.
“It’s good to see you,” Callie said as she gave each of them a hug.
“Maybe she really has been preoccupied with getting the farm up for sale,” Cheyenne whispered back.
When they were all inside, Cheyenne glanced around, hoping to see the mysterious drifter who’d come to stay with their friend, but he wasn’t in the room.
“I made coffee,” Callie announced while they sat down. “And that brown-sugar cinnamon cake I served at Ted’s birthday.”
Noah wrinkled his nose. “Sugar so early? You don’t owe us anything, but what’s wrong with fruit or yogurt or oatmeal?”
“Oh, brother,” she replied. “You eat those things every day.”
“I gave up smoking not long ago,” Dylan piped up. “That’s my concession to the healthy life, so I’ll take his piece.”
Cheyenne squeezed his hand. “Getting off nicotine isn’t easy. I’m so proud of you, honey.”
He grinned at her, but Cheyenne scarcely noticed. Callie’s wistful expression made Cheyenne remember what Eve had said about her wanting to get married. But whatever she was thinking didn’t seem to dull her delight in the moment. “We’re not watching calories or fat grams or carbs or anything else today,” she said. “So forget about clogged arteries and living past a hundred. This is a celebration.”
Noah propped his feet up on the coffee table. “What are we celebrating?”
Cheyenne had been wondering the same thing, but since Noah had asked, she didn’t have to.
Callie’s gaze moved over the group. “Friendship.”
“Wait a second.” Noah put his feet down again and sat up. “You just happened to have a coffee cake on hand?”
Baxter flushed so brightly, Cheyenne knew he’d told Callie they were coming. “What?” he said, spreading his hands when everyone turned to look at him. “It was only polite to let her know we were about to descend on her!”
Callie laughed more freely than Cheyenne had seen in some time. “It’s okay. I’m glad you’re all here. I’ve missed you.”
“I’d say this is a pretty warm welcome.” Riley nudged Eve, who was sitting next to him on the couch. “I guess we can’t really accuse her of treating us funny now.”
