The Touch

by Lisa Olsen

  “Onto.”

  “What?” she blinked.

  “I invited you onto my bed; you’re the one who wants to get into it.”

  “Okay mister exact words, have it your way,” she laughed. “I’m the one who wants to get into it.”

  “I have absolutely no problem with that,” he smiled, reaching out to brush a strand of hair away from her forehead. His fingers hovered just a hair breadth from touching her cheek. “Are you sure it’s okay if I touch your bare skin?”

  Lexi nodded, pressing her cheek to his palm. “As long as you don’t touch my hands, it should be fine.”

  “I can definitely work with that.” Gabriel’s hand sank into her dark tresses to cup the back of her neck, drawing her closer until their breath mingled. Lexi’s fingers slid up the smooth contour of his chest to rest on his shoulder, her thumb stroking the side of his neck as he pulled her close. More than ready for his kiss this time, her tongue darted out to moisten her lips before his mouth brushed against hers, tentatively, as though he expected her to pull away at any moment. Pulling away was the last thing Lexi was thinking of. Scooting closer, she let him know without words that this was what she wanted. He was what she wanted. Growing bolder, his tongue swept out to beg entrance and her lips parted to accept him, a soft sigh of pleasure escaping her at the intimate contact. Making out like a couple of teenagers, Lexi let her hands roam over the contours of his back while she explored the dark secrets of his mouth.

  This part she was completely comfortable with and Gabriel was a good enough kisser to make her forget about what came next. Consequences… none of that mattered when he kissed her like that. All there was for now was the feel of his hands skimming over her body almost reverently, the rasp of his cheek against her skin and the unique taste of him that mingled with her own to make something new. Something that drove her to chase after his mouth when he shifted position, not wanting to lose this new feeling.

  But inevitably, through no fault of his own considering the signals she was giving him, he pushed her outside of her comfort zone. A ribbon of panic went through her when his touch moved to the strip of bare skin at her midriff, and she clamped her hand on his, breaking the kiss.

  “I thought you said it’s okay if I touch your bare skin?”

  “It is...”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  That was a good question, and for the life of her Lexi couldn’t figure out what on earth made her stop him. Deciding to go with honesty, she relaxed her hold on his hand. “I don’t know. But maybe we should try that dinner together, before we skip to the making out on the bed part?”

  “I could send out for pizza if you want to eat first,” he smiled lazily, his eyes half lidded.

  “You look like you’re about to pass out, maybe we should save this for a night when you aren’t so tired? You don’t want to disgrace yourself, do you?” Lexi couldn’t help but tease a little; he looked like he could easily fall asleep at the drop of a hat.

  “Disgrace myself?” Gabriel pulled back to give her a disgruntled look. “Bite your tongue woman; I’m not that tired.” To illustrate his point, he buried his face into her neck with a growling kiss. Lexi squealed as his whiskers tickled her sensitive skin, giggling as he nibbled his way up to her ear. Her hands found his equally sensitive sides and she discovered something very, very dangerous.

  Gabriel was ticklish.

  Now it was his turn to trap her hands, convulsing as she tickled him mercilessly. “Okay, okay, you’re right. We should table this for now,” he agreed, doing his level best to keep a dignified expression. “How about we order that pizza?

  “Oh, now you want to stop, huh? Talk about a sore loser…” Lexi shook her head with a disgusted sigh even as she relaxed her hands. “I could eat though.”

  “Great, I’ll order the pizza, you find something good to watch on TV.” Releasing his hold on her, Gabriel held out his hands to pull her up off the bed.

  “How about Cops?” she asked, figuring he might enjoy that kind of show.

  “I said something good to watch on TV,” he chuckled, picking up the phone. “Anything you don’t like on your pizza?”

  “No onions, no bell peppers, no sausage, no anchovies, no pineapple, no ham, no salami…”

  “Christ, I should have asked if there’s anything you do like on your pizza,” he muttered.

  “I like the classics, pepperoni, cheese, mushrooms, olives, garlic…”

  “Okay, okay, I can work with that,” Gabriel started dialing and Lexi found the remote, clicking on the flat panel TV. Paul would have killed for a TV like his, it was sleek, black and thinner than it had a right to be for all the things it could do. Not really knowing what his preferences were, she settled for the sci-fi channel where a prehistoric lizard was gobbling up campers like there was no tomorrow.

  “You really do like the classics,” Gabriel gave his seal of approval when he came to join her on the couch, a couple of beers in hand. “This is a good one, wait until the cheerleading squad arrives, that’s when the real fun begins,” he grinned.

  “A real connoisseur of the arts, I like it,” she smiled back, taking a sip of her beer as she settled in beside him. Truth be told, Lexi watched him more than she watched the movie. Despite his interest in the cheerleading fodder, Gabriel’s eyelids started to droop before the first commercial, and by the second, he was slumped in the corner of the couch, fast asleep with the cat curled up on his lap. Lexi turned the volume down a little, watching him for a while before disengaging herself from the couch.

  Not wanting to disturb him, since he obviously needed the rest, she wandered into the other room to stare up at his murder board again. All of those threads connecting them together… somewhere among those threads was the answer to who had killed Neil and taken Chloe. But no answers came as she stared at his cramped handwriting; not a glimmer or spark of inspiration. How many nights had Gabriel stood right there staring at the same board? No wonder he was frustrated with their progress; it would drive her batty inside of forty-eight hours if she tried such a thing herself. Admittedly, despite her inquisitive nature, Lexi wasn’t well suited for investigative work; she was more of an abstract thinker. But it was that inquisitive nature that led her back to his bedroom, unable to resist the chance to take a deeper look at the detective.

  Not that she wanted to dig through his drawers or anything, but he had been the one to say he had no secrets, after all. Unfortunately the room provided little in the way of personal items, not visible at any rate. In the end she chose a small picture frame with a nice looking middle class couple, probably his parents she guessed. But as she stood with the picture in hand, glove caught between her teeth, Lexi decided against it. Just this once, she wanted to learn about a man the old fashioned way. Setting the frame back on the dresser, she returned to the living room in time to see the head cheerleader running through the jungle in her cheerleading skirt and little else.

  Gabriel shifted in his sleep at the sound of her screams, and Lexi turned the sound down another notch. It was tempting to reach out and touch him to see what she could pick up from the man directly as she sat back down on the couch beside him. He’d offered to let her touch him before, hadn’t he? And when would she get a chance like this again? Her bare hand hovered over his face, fingers fairly itching to brush aside the hair that flopped over his brow. It would be so easy, just another inch or two and she could tap into whatever he dreamt about. At least she thought so. It had been years and years since she’d touched another living soul, but she hardly expected the ability to have faded over time. She’d almost decided to throw her good intentions out the window and go for it when a knock sounded at the front door. His eyes snapped open and Lexi froze like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “Um, hi… nice nap?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Gabriel startled awake, not quite sure if he imagined the knock or if someone was really at his door. Blinking up at Lexi, he registered the fact that
her glove was off and she looked guilty as hell. “What’s going on?” he asked mildly.

  “The um, pizza’s here. I was just waking you up.”

  Experience told him there was more to it than that, but he let it go, not wanting to make her uncomfortable when they were making such progress. “How long have I been out?” he rose to his feet, digging out his wallet.

  “Ah… the cheerleaders have come and gone and there are only three people left on the island,” she reported, tugging the glove back on. “I’ll get us some plates.” Lexi disappeared into the kitchen while he paid for the pizza, still trying to clear his head. She returned with a pair of plates, napkins and a knife and fork, presumably for herself. Gabriel imagined it would be difficult to eat pizza with white cotton gloves.

  “Did I miss anything else?” he asked gently, setting the food down on the coffee table where he ate most of his meals. For a moment it looked like she might actually tell him what had her so rattled, but they were interrupted by the shrill ring of his cellphone. “Excuse me,” Gabriel frowned when he saw Cooper’s picture on the screen. “What’s up?”

  “Your hunch paid off at the cab company, we’ve got a positive ID on the wife.”

  Gabriel froze, not expecting to hear anything of the kind. He’d only asked as a long shot in the first place, just to see if there were any pick ups in the area on the night of the murder on the off chance that any passengers could possibly be involved. But to find that Allison herself was there that night? “Are you serious? What do we have? Credit card trail? Finger prints?” It was too much to hope that the cab had any kind of video surveillance in it.

  “Well… no. She paid cash, but the cab driver picked her picture out of the stack. He says he picked her up in front of the apartments at one seventeen am and brought her back to her home address. I’d say that’s enough to bring her in, wouldn’t you?”

  That would do it alright. “Yeah, good work Cooper; bring the cab driver in and get a signed statement from him, would you? I’ll meet you at the house.”

  “Already done, and I’m about halfway to your place to pick you up. I’ll see you in a few.”

  Gabriel stood with the phone pressed to his ear for long seconds after Cooper hung up, wondering how in the hell he was going to break this to Lexi. “I have to go,” he swallowed uncomfortably, shoving the phone away in his pocket.

  “So much for pizza… Oh well, new case developments huh? That’s exciting. Hey, how about you let me tag along? You can tell people I’m an assistant or a student or something. I can photograph the scene,” she offered, a light of excitement coming into her eyes.

  “No Lexi, you can’t come along.” She obviously didn’t think it had anything to do with her sister’s case or she wouldn’t have been so eager to volunteer to help with what he had to do. Gabriel walked away to wash his face and comb his hair, trying to shake himself back into work mode before he did or said something that might jeopardize the case, or his burgeoning relationship with Lexi.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?” Lexi frowned, following after him.

  “I can’t talk to you about it,” he dodged her questions, leaning down to splash water on his face. “There are certain subjects that wouldn’t be appropriate for me to discuss with you.”

  “About Neil’s case?”

  “Yeah.” Damn, he’d already said too much.

  “Oh, come on Gabriel, what do you think I’m going to do, tamper with evidence? You know me better than that. If something is wrong, you have to tell me, I have a right to know.”

  “No actually, you don’t. It’s privileged and confidential information.”

  “You’re starting to scare me,” she added in a small voice and he caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

  God he hoped he didn’t regret this… “If I tell you this, you have to promise to keep it to yourself.” Gabriel caught up a towel, pressing it to his face.

  “I will, I promise.”

  “No, I mean it Lexi, if you call her to warn her and she runs, it’s just going to make her look all the more guilty. You know that don’t you?”

  Lexi blanched at his words, “You mean Allie? You found some evidence linking her to Neil’s death?”

  “I have a witness who placed her at the apartment complex Neil’s body was found in on the night of the murder.” Gabriel kept it simple, but even that was more than he should be saying.

  “That’s crazy,” she scoffed. “You know she didn’t have anything to do with that. She’s the one who reported him missing, for God’s sake.”

  “I have to take her in to question her about it though, Lexi. It’s my job.”

  “Then I’m coming with you.”

  “No way,” he shook his head, brushing past her as he left the bathroom. “Not a chance in hell.” Captain Bristol would love that… not to mention the fact that Cooper would never let him live it down.

  “She’s my sister.”

  “I know, and she’s a good person. But sometimes good people snap; you’d be surprised.” Some of the shit he’d seen over the years taught him that anyone was capable of murder. Anyone. Which was exactly why he shouldn’t be talking to Lexi about this, but even his skeptical gut refused to let him believe that she had anything to do with Neil’s death or a cover up. She was way too gung ho on helping out to be guilty of anything. That, and she was a terrible liar.

  “What are you saying? Are you saying you think she did it?” Lexi stared at him coldly.

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Gabriel pushed past her to pick up his sports coat and strap on his gun.

  “So what are you saying then?” she chased after him.

  “I’m saying I have a job to do, Lexi, that’s all. New evidence came up, I have to pursue it. It’s not my job to decide if she’s guilty or innocent, that’s a whole other ball of wax.”

  “But you think you have enough to charge her?”

  Gabriel let go of adjusting his collar and stopped to face her. “Stay here, have some pizza and just sit tight. I’ll know more after we bring her in for questioning.”

  “I can’t just stay here; I have to be there for her.”

  Reaching out to brush the hair from her shoulders, he offered what little comfort he could. “You wouldn’t be able to spend any time with her anyway. She’s not going anywhere tonight, I can guarantee that. If we have enough to charge her, she’ll be arraigned tomorrow.”

  “Arraigned… that’s where they decide if she can go home on bail?”

  “That’s right. I’ll even make a point of speaking to the ADA; I’ll let him know that I don’t consider her to be a flight risk.”

  “Thank you,” she replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

  Gabriel tipped her face up by the chin up to meet his gaze. “It’ll be okay. One way or another, we’ll get this straightened out.” One way or another. He left out the part where her sister might go to jail for the next twenty years or more. If Allison had anything to do with Chloe’s disappearance… Christ, he couldn’t think about that. The phone buzzed in his pocket and Gabriel knew his time was short. “Cooper’s outside waiting for me. Look, if you don’t want to wait here, why don’t you take my car home? I’ll be back for it later and we’ll figure something out to pick up your car afterward.”

  “Let me come with you,” she asked plaintively and it took everything he had to resist those expressive eyes.

  “I can’t.” Leaning down, he covered her mouth with his, unsure if she would still let him kiss her, but after a moment’s hesitation she kissed him back. “We’ll figure it out Lexi, I promise.” With that, Gabriel left her in his apartment, hoping he wasn’t making a terrible mistake in trusting her.

  ***

  Cooper was waiting in his Charger, the music blaring loud even with the windows up. “Finally, I thought I was gonna have to send out a search party for you.”

  “You could have come up, I ordered a pizza.” Gabriel regretted not taking at least a slice of pizz
a with him for the road, but he’d been distracted at the time. His eyes went up to the light visible from the kitchen window, wondering if she’d be there when he got home. He hoped so.

  Tim scowled at the belated invitation. “Maybe if I’d known there was delicious pizza waiting up there I might have done so. But seeing as how you were hoarding it all to yourself… wait… you weren’t all by yourself, were you?”

  Damn his sharp eyes. “No, but if it makes you feel any better I didn’t get any delicious pizza either.”

  “Who did you have up there?”

  Time had taught him that it was better to ignore questions like that or it would just breed more. “Let’s get moving, the sooner we get this over with the better.” Not that Gabriel was looking forward to the confrontation, but it wouldn’t get any easier putting it off.

  “No seriously, who’s up there?” Tim’s brows drew together as he puzzled it out for himself. “Not the hot sister?” Gabriel looked away, busying himself with the seatbelt. “Dude… if you want another fifteen minutes for a last slide in the sheets, I’ll wait. As long as you bring me down some pizza when you’re done,” he snickered.

  “Let’s go, Cooper.”

  “She’s not gonna give it up after you arrest her sister, tonight’s pretty much your last shot.”

  Gabriel’s jaw worked as he bit back the reply that sprang to mind. “Cooper… start the car.”

  “Your loss,” he replied cheerily, pulling away from the curb.

  ***

  The Travers’ house was dark when they pulled up the driveway, save for a single light in the back from the kitchen. The detectives strode up to the front door and rang the doorbell politely, but there was no sound of movement from inside.

  “Maybe she’s not home?” Tim shrugged, peering in through the sidelight window.

  “Her car’s still here,” Ryan pointed out, knocking on the door. “Why don’t you go around to the back, make sure she doesn’t try to skip out.”

  “I thought you said she wasn’t a flight risk.”

  “People have been known to rabbit before when they know the jig is up, do you want to take that chance? I don’t. Just go on back and check if you can see her in the kitchen.” Ringing the bell again, Gabriel debated whether or not to try the door. For just a split second, he wondered if Lexi could have called and warned Allison that they were coming. But not long after Cooper left his side, the door opened, and a bewildered looking Allison stood there, hugging her cardigan tight to her body.