She narrowed her eyes at him. That was all the warning he got—and fortunately, it was about all the warning he needed.
She ended up stretched out under him on the floor, their bodies wedged between the coffee table and the couch. Her eyes snapping, her mouth twisted in a snarl, she glared at him. “Get off,” she ordered, bucking against him.
“Why, so you can take off into the woods again and maybe this time do something that really pisses the killer off so he comes after you?”
She bucked under him once more.
He pressed his hips against her, used his weight to keep her trapped.
“You son of a bitch.” She twisted against his hold and the fury in her eyes gave way to heartbreak. “Damn it, I can’t not do something.”
His own heart ached—damn near shattered as tears glittered in her eyes. Lowering his head, he pressed his lips to her cheek, caught a tear. “I’m not asking you to not do anything … I just don’t want you running off blind. I want you safe, Nia. Hell, I need that. I need you …”
I need you …
The words hung between them, but he didn’t take them back. Didn’t try to explain them away. He did need her. He couldn’t explain how it had happened this fast for him, couldn’t explain just what this was … he just knew from the time he’d laid eyes on her, he’d felt something, and it had been growing ever since then.
“You can’t need me,” Nia said, her voice quiet, sad. “You don’t even know me.”
His mouth twisted in a bittersweet smile. “You can’t tell me what I need, what I don’t need, baby. That’s kind of up to me.” He eased the grip he held on her wrists, fully prepared for her to try to slip away.
But all she did was ball up her fists, press them against his chest. Her head turned to the side and she blew out a breath.
“What do you want from me, damn it? I can’t just ignore this,” she said, closing her eyes.
“Not asking you to.” He caught one wrist, lifted it to his mouth and pressed his lips to the reddened flesh there. “I’m sorry.”
“You haven’t answered me.”
“I’m going to call Ezra, have him come over. We talk to him, see what he says.” He kissed her other wrist, wincing as he saw the angry red marks left by his grip. Damn it. He wasn’t sorry he hadn’t let her take off blindly, but he didn’t like seeing that he’d left marks on her either.
Easing back, he watched her face, wondered if he’d torn what he was just now realizing he needed from her.
She sat up and he reached up, stroked a hand down her face. She stared at him, scowling. “I ought to deck you,” she muttered. But she turned her face into his hand, rubbed her cheek against him. “Jerk. Most of the guys I know can’t take me down that fast.”
Law grimaced. “I … shit. I can’t even say I’m sorry straight up, because if you try to make for the door, I’ll do it again. But I didn’t mean to leave a mark on you. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“You didn’t.” Nia sighed and glanced at her wrists, flexed her fingers. “I just bruise easy. Only thing hurt is my pride. And I still ought to deck you. But I suspect you could stop me pretty damn easy.”
“I won’t.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s no fun if you let me.” Then she scooted back and stood.
Law remained alert, ready to grab her again. She wasn’t running off on him, damn it. He didn’t care if he had to tie her to a damn chair. But all she did was settle down on the couch, eyeing the map with a sidelong look. “Fine. Call Ezra.”
“Ah … okay.” He tugged his phone from his pocket.
“Wait.”
Lifting his gaze, he looked at Nia. Her golden eyes rested on his face, direct and serious. “If he brushes this off, I’m going back out there. I don’t care if you go with me or not, but you can’t stop me. You know that.”
“Yeah.” Law grimaced. “I know that. And you can bet your ass I’m going.”
“I said, not today,” Ezra repeated over Law’s insistent voice.
“Damn it, Ezra, would you just listen—”
“You need to listen,” Ezra snapped. “Look, it’s getting late and it gets dark damn early in those trees. Plus, I don’t plan on traipsing around in there and leaving Lena alone. Not today. Come over tomorrow—I’ll take a fucking personal day. I’ll call Remy, see if he can do the same—he’s one person I know isn’t involved in anything like this. He can stay with Lena. He and Hope can come over. You come over. Remy can stay here with Lena and Hope, we’ll go into the woods with Nia and look around, see if we can find anything.”
Law blew out a breath and slid his gaze to Nia. She stood there, arms crossed over her chest, legs planted wide, a mutinous look in her eyes.
“Fuck.”
He could see the sense in Ezra’s plans. Could see it rather well.
But seeing it, and talking that sense into Nia? Two different things.
He disconnected without saying anything else and looked at Nia. She was already shaking her head. “Don’t even try to talk me out of going out there, Reilly. It ain’t happening.”
“I’m not going to try to talk you out of going—I just want you to wait,” he said. “Until tomorrow.”
“Wait.” Still shaking her head, she backed away from him, wisely keeping some distance between them. “You want me to wait. How long am I supposed to keep waiting, damn it?”
“Twenty-four fucking hours,” he snapped. “Less. Look, it’s already close to five. In another few hours, it will be getting dark and it gets darker earlier in the woods. We’d have a couple of hours—that’s not much and those woods cover several hundred acres.”
“You’ve got a damn map!” she shouted.
“Yeah, one that’s older than dirt and it’s not like they were exactly using GPS back when it was drawn.” Softening his voice, he shook his head and said, “Nia, it’s one day. Less. Plus, this way, Ezra is with us, and he’ll be able to have somebody there with Lena, too. Assuming there is somebody out there who we need to worry about, and I think there is, he can’t leave her unprotected.”
Nia opened her mouth, only to snap it closed. She groaned and covered her eyes, leaning back against the wall. “Why would he think she’d be in trouble?”
“Everything here all goes back to her,” Law said quietly. “I know, for you, it started with your cousin, but the crazy shit that started in this town, everything went insane the night she made that call about the screams. If it was your cousin, and if the killer is still alive … hell, Lena is the one who started the ball rolling on him—his problems started with her. He wouldn’t have to be insane to get pissed off at her and we already know he’s a sick fuck, right?”
He stared past her, toward the wall, but it wasn’t the wall he was seeing.
He was remembering a night. Hell, he still didn’t have his memories of that night. Not much more than seeing Hope’s face—the fear in her eyes right before he’d turned around … then nothing. His next memory was the agony, then waking in the hospital.
They’d all assumed it had been Joe.
But lately, Law was starting to wonder. Starting to wonder about everything. Had it been Joe? Somebody else?
Shit.
He didn’t know what crimes he could pin at the dead bastard’s feet and what crimes were actually the handiwork of a different, and possibly more dangerous, bastard.
Absently he flexed his arm, the remembered pain sneaking up out of nowhere, even though the actual pain had long since faded. Hearing the floorboards creak, he shifted his gaze to Nia’s face. For a second, he thought about keeping his admittedly paranoid thoughts to himself. But then he decided against it. If it made her think twice? Great. Of course, not that it mattered. He really didn’t give a flying fuck if it pissed her off. She wasn’t going gallivanting off into those woods tonight. He didn’t care if he had to have Ezra arrest her cute ass.
“You know, lately, you’re making me question all sorts of things,” he said, spreading the fing
ers of his right hand wide, rotating his wrist and listening to the bones pop. He didn’t look at her as he spoke—he studied his arm, the scars from the surgery that had been done to set the bones. “Shit like what really happened the night my arm was busted up—the night Hope was attacked. At first, people were thinking she did it.”
He looked up at Nia’s harsh intake of breath, smirking at the disbelieving look in her eyes. “I guess you didn’t find that bit of information while you were digging around, huh? Yeah, that was the story first floating around. People were assuming she’d lost her mind, attacked me, then slit her wrists.”
“That’s bullshit,” Nia said, her voice flat. “Who in the hell would think that?”
Law shrugged. “Well, at first, a lot of people. Even Remy had to consider it because it had been set up to look just that way. Her fingerprints were all over the bat that had been used on me. But then other evidence came up and I came out of the coma …”
“Coma—” Nia snapped her mouth closed, passed a hand over her face.
“Yeah.” He crooked a grin at her. “You said you’d done some digging around … didn’t you read up on that night?”
She looked away. “Not so much about that night. I skimmed some things, but reading about you and Hope … well, not exactly what I wanted to do.”
“Shit. There is no me and Hope.”
“Yeah. I get that.” She glanced back at him. “What exactly are you getting at? Other than trying to distract me?”
“Like I said, I’m wondering now. About everything. First people thought it was Hope. Then we started wondering if it was whoever had put your cousin’s body here. But then Joe Carson shows up and it looks like it was him—everything circled back to him, and it was like people almost forgot about the weird shit going on before. The screams Lena heard. What happened out there. Everybody just assumes Joe was the problem.”
“And you’re thinking otherwise.” Nia tilted her head to the side, studying him.
He jerked a shoulder in a shrug. “I’m thinking it’s a damn clever way to distract everybody.”
She was no longer shooting glances at the front door—no longer measuring the distance between them, like she was trying to figure out if she could get to the door before he got to her. Although she didn’t have a car. And she hadn’t grabbed any of his keys—he’d made sure of that.
Hoping that meant she was cooling down, he took a few steps closer, watching her face, staring into pale gold eyes. “What’s it going to hurt to wait another day, baby?” he asked softly. “This way, you got the sheriff with you, and he’s not worrying about his wife. Plus we can let Remy know what’s going on, too.”
She sighed, shoved her fingers through her hair. “I hate waiting,” she muttered.
“I get that. But a day …? And I know this is killing you, but whether you like it or not, if all this shit really is happening the way you think, this is tied to all of us now. This bastard pulled all of us into it—Lena could be in danger, Hope could, you could.”
“Just the women, naturally,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Or have you forgotten somebody beat the shit out of you?”
Law scowled. “Beat the shit out of me, busted up my arm—and tried to kill my best friend? No. Haven’t forgotten that. But on a scale of one to ten? What happened to me is a zero compared to what happened to Hope. What could have happened to you the other night. And hell, Lena would kick my ass, but if she’s left alone? She’s too vulnerable. All it takes to get to her is getting Puck out of the way.”
The look in his eyes tore Nia’s heart up. And then she realized just why he was so worried about Lena being alone.
“Oh. Oh, shit …” Rubbing the back of her hand over her mouth, she wanted to kick herself. “Yeah, no wonder Ezra doesn’t want her alone. Damnit, does she even know what’s going on?”
Law shrugged. “I don’t know what he’s told her. I figure he’s probably told her some stuff, but how much? I don’t know.”
She saw him reaching for her and while a huge part of her still wanted to tear out of there and find what she’d come here for, she held still. As his fingers laced with hers and tugged her close, she stared into his eyes, waiting. Yeah. One day didn’t matter much … and it was getting late. It had been about this time, maybe a little later when she’d gone into the woods the other day. If they really wanted to do some digging around, they needed more daylight.
He cuddled her close. “Will you wait?”
“You’re bossy,” she said on a sigh. But she slid her hands around his waist and tucked her body against his. “Why am I even putting up with this?”
“Hmmm.” He skimmed a kiss down along her neck, murmured in her ear. “Maybe because you know I’m right. Because you agree. You just don’t feel like you should?”
Scowling, she poked him in the ribs.
He laughed. Then he caught her wrists, loosely braceleted them with his fingers. “Well, would it help if I told you I’m not letting you out of this house? You could pretend you had no choice?”
Nia rolled her eyes and lifted her head from his shoulder. “Yeah, the Neanderthal act will really help.”
She went to pull away but there was a look in his eyes, one that was dark, troubled. He rubbed a thumb over the bruise on her inner wrist, lifted it to his lips. “I don’t want to pull a Neanderthal act or anything. But I really don’t want you leaving … not when we don’t know if it’s safe,” he said.
Goosebumps broke out over her flesh at the feel of his mouth on her skin.
And as he stared at her from under his lashes, her heart bumped against her ribs, did a crazy little dance. “If I ask you to stay, will you?” he said quietly.
“Depends on why you’re asking.” Oh, hell … was that her voice? That breathless little gasping voice?
“I’m asking because I want you safe,” he said, pulling her close again. Then he dipped his head and nipped her lower lip. “And I’m asking because I’d also like you to spend the night with me … all night.”
“Hm. Like a sleepover? Popcorn and movies?”
His grin was quick and hot. “No. Like you in my bed, under me, while I taste every last inch of you … and then you do the same to me. Or you can go first … I’m a gentleman, you know.”
Heat, hot and fast, hit her low in the belly even as her heart skipped a few dozen beats. Feeling more than a little breathless, she curled her arms up around his shoulders, rose onto her toes so that they stood eye to eye, mouth to mouth. “Well, that sounds like my kind of sleepover. Yeah. I guess I can spend the night. In the name of safety and all.”
“Sure. In the name of safety.” His hands stroked down her back, cupped her butt.
As they got busy on her ass, she nipped his lip. “And sex. The sex is important, too.”
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
THERE WERE SOME THINGS A GUY JUST DIDN’T WANT to tell his wife.
Now Ezra was perfectly fine telling Lena almost everything … even the fact that he’d been speaking with a beautiful woman on the job. After all, it was related to the job.
The one thing he didn’t want to tell her, though, was how this beautiful woman was somehow connected to her. It was, he knew, something he should have already told her. He hadn’t, though. For months, it hadn’t been much of an issue. After all, the case had been closed.
But then, Nia Hollister had shown up in town and as much as he would have liked to brush her off, he hadn’t been able to. Every instinct inside him had started to scream when she told him why she was there.
Joe Carson had been too easy. Part of him had suspected it all along. Which was why he’d quietly been poking into things on his own. Although he hadn’t let anybody know, he’d been doing just that for months.
But granted, there wasn’t much he could do when no crimes were being committed, when there wasn’t really any evidence, no reason to open a case that had been closed.
Not until Nia Hollister had shown back up. The hair thing�
�that was something, but not enough. The jewelry thing, too. Then her little nighttime visitor. Yeah, things were adding up.
And he needed to talk to Lena. But hell, he wasn’t looking forward to it.
As he made his way into the kitchen at the Inn, he saw Roz Jennings in the hallway, talking animatedly on the phone, her blue eyes bright with either amusement or irritation—sometimes with her it was hard to say. She saw him and gave him a distracted wave. He smiled back and kept walking. His leg was hurting like a bitch, but he ignored it, knowing it was more stress than anything else.
A way for his brain to focus on something else.
Like the fact that after he’d hung up the phone, he hadn’t been able to hang around the house and wait for Lena to get off work.
Of course, he could have waited outside the Inn, but if he’d done that, somebody would have said something and it would have gotten back to Lena, and she would have come looking for him. So he might as well get it over with and let her know he was here, that he’d drive her home.
And when she asked why he was doing that, he’d just tell her he was a paranoid son of a bitch and he didn’t plan on letting her out of his sight for the foreseeable future …
“Yeah, that’s going to go well,” he muttered just before he pushed open the door to the kitchen.
Puck was lying in front of the island, his head resting on his paws, but as though he’d known Ezra was coming, the retriever’s tail was already wagging. Lena’s head turned to the door. Black lenses shielded her sightless eyes. She always wore them when she wasn’t home.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said.
A grin curled her lips. “Hi, gorgeous.”
It hit him, even after all these months, a punch in the gut—love, lust, need, amazement. She was his. He was hers. She loved him … he’d found her. The woman meant for him, only him …
Shaking his head at the direction of his thoughts, he made his way to her.
If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense Page 18
