“I’m sure I can.” He hoped she didn’t pick up on the hesitancy in his voice. Not because of Julienne. Guilt over not telling Brenna the truth wracked his insides. How could he put the added burden of truth on Brenna now? She’d lost her entire family in less than two days. He doubted she handle the shock of hearing the truth about Kayden.
“See? You’re my knight in shining armor.”
Ace pulled into the alders by the side of the cabin and ignored Brenna’s teasing remark. Some knight he was. One who held the key to put an end to his lover’s pain, and he refused to hand it over.
Chapter Sixteen
“Wait here while I turn on the kerosene lanterns and fire up the stove.”
Brenna opened her mouth to argue, then changed her mind. Ace wanted to check out the place. Make sure no one had been here and all was safe. “Okay.”
“Lock the doors.”
She fidgeted, needing to be doing something—anything. For days, she’d been trying work out why someone would want to kill her. Now she had to consider why someone would want her mother dead, as well. A chocolate cream pie. Her favorite. But whoever made it had to know that anyone in the house could have eaten a piece. Who wanted her dead so bad that they didn’t care who else might die?
Smoke spiraled from the chimney. The full moon shone across the barrens with not a cloud in the sky. The storm had been one of those freak fall events that never lived up to the media hype. Dropped enough snow to make life miserable for a few hours before heading for Nova Scotia.
Snowmobile engines whined in the distance. Impatient Mainers who refused to wait for a solid base of snow to get out and cruise. Tomorrow, there’d surely be news reports of injuries or death. Someone would hit a rock, or drive across an unfrozen body of water and drown. More senseless deaths, like Colin’s and her mother’s.
Brenna wiped a hand across her eyes, brushing away fresh tears that fell in spite of her resolve not to cry and vowed to avenge her brother and mother.
Ace came around the corner of the cabin with a smile.
“All set. Come on in. It’s chilly, but the fire will have the place warm in no time.”
Brenna opened the lock and slid out, grasping Ace’s hand. Her lover, her friend. The one person who’d never betray her.
A nostalgic feeling of coming home hit her as she stepped inside. No bad memories here. The fire snapped and the tomato soup heating on the gas stove made her mouth water. How many cans of that soup had Ace bought? When was the last time she’d eaten? She couldn’t remember.
“Sit down and relax. The soup will be ready soon.”
Brenna pulled out a chair and sat on the hard seat. “You have a thing for tomato soup? What’s wrong with chicken noodle or vegetable beef?”
“Joe only carries tomato. Sorry.” He placed a small glass filled with an amber colored liquid in front of her. “Here, this will help you relax.”
“Ah, my friend Jack,” she murmured. “Thanks, Ace.”
“At your service, ma’am,” he said with a mock bow. “Drink it. After that you’ll have some hot soup and sleep like a baby.”
Brenna had her doubts about that. She’d need an entire freaking bottle of Jack Daniels.
They drank in comfortable silence. The pitch on the firewood continued to snap, long after the fire roared. Ace turned the damper down and the heat filled the small cabin.
The fire, along with the whiskey warmed her a bit too much. Sweat beaded on her forehead. She shed her jacket and hung it on the back of the chair.
When Ace placed a bowl of soup in front of her, she attacked it like she hadn’t eaten for days. Actually, she wasn’t sure she had. “Hmmm…it’s good,” she managed between spoonfuls.
“Have some crackers.” He pushed the package of crackers to her side of the table.
She ate every last drop of soup. “That was delicious. Now I’m sleepy.”
“Good. Go to bed. I’ll clean up.”
Too tired to argue, Brenna walked the short distance to the bed and lay on top of the covers, not bothering to undress. Her head spun from the whiskey. She welcomed the drowsiness and drifted off.
Brenna jerked awake, her heart pounding. She lay on her stomach for several seconds, listening. The cabin was warm, too warm. Ace’s arm lay across her back. He, too, had left his clothes on.
Careful not to wake him, she wiggled her way off the bed. She walked to the window. Clumps of snow dropped off evergreen branches. Since they’d gone to bed, the temperature had risen above freezing.
She toyed with the idea of having another shot of Jack Daniels. Her mother’s alcohol problem changed her mind. Steam slowly rose from the teakettle sitting on the woodstove. She removed it. The less heat in here, the better. Other than the familiar creaks of the old structure and a soft moaning wind outside, all was quiet.
Panic slowly built in her chest. Fear for her life? Fear of the unknown? Or an unknown fear? She rested her head on the table and took slow deep breaths to calm her racing heart.
Rational thought fled. Run, run, run. The words thrummed over and over inside her head. A claustrophobic sensation set her feet in motion.
She grabbed her boots from the floor beside the bed. With nothing in her mind but the need to get outdoors, she slipped out of the cabin. With long legged-strides, she ran towards her sanctuary, a place that never failed to give her peace of mind.
Ace opened his eyes and concentrated on the silence. Other than noise from the fire, all was quiet. Too quiet. Where was the sound of Brenna’s breathing? He bolted upright, saw he was alone in the bed.
“Shit!” He jumped out of bed, not surprised that Brenna wasn’t at the table drinking a cup of tea. Fear warred with anger that she’d taken off in spite of knowing someone was trying to kill her. How the hell had she left the cabin without him hearing her?
He yanked on his hiking boots, grabbed his denim jacket and ran out the door.
The temperature had to be near forty. Although damp and raw, the snow had already begun a steady melt. He easily tracked her footprints for several hundred yards. After that it became near impossible. The snow had disappeared in many spots. He knelt on the ground, trying to pick up foot indentations in the blueberry plants. Think, damn it! Where would she have gone?
Their secret place. He should have guessed right away. With a quick stride, he moved toward the thicket of evergreens he could barely make out in the distance.
He stopped in the moonlight, a few steps into the clearing. Twelve years ago, he’d towered over the spruce and hemlock. Now they topped his height by at least eight feet, their branches wide enough to completely hide the opening.
Heavy snow brought some of the boughs almost to the ground. Others had shed the cold, white stuff and bounced back to normal. The moss underneath his boots was as cushiony as he remembered. Softer than a feather mattress. He closed his eyes and inhaled the balsam scent swirling though the cool night air. So familiar, yet so different.
“I knew you’d find me.” Her voice didn’t startle him. Somehow he’d known this was where she’d run to. Would have been terrified if he’d been wrong.
He squinted in the darkness and saw her beneath a low hanging branch. Brenna hugged her knees to her chest, making herself as small as possible.
He moved slowly across the moss until he stood in front of her. “This is the last place I want to be,” he whispered. “Too many memories.”
“I know.”
He barely heard her response. His breath caught at the tears that clogged her throat. “I’m so sorry, Ace. For everything. For what my father did. For dragging you into this mess. First Colin, now my mother. You came back to town to put a stop to a heroin problem. Instead, you get tangled up with the crazy McKenzie family. As if they hadn’t wronged you enough in the past.”
He sank to his knees beside her. “Hey. You didn’t need to run out here. Why didn’t you wake me up? We could have talked. I’m here for you.”
“I didn’t want to wake you.
You needed your rest.”
“And you don’t?” He chuckled. “I’m embarrassed that you walked out the door without me hearing you. Doesn’t say much for my survival skills.”
“I’m most sorry that you never knew what happened to your daughter. God, when I think about you living all these years thinking I’d given her away. How you must have hated me. Then to hear she’d died.”
A cold fist squeezed his heart when she insisted on dragging up old hurts. Bile rose in his throat. He was afraid he’d lose her when he confessed. “Brenna, there’s something I need to tell—”
She turned and wrapped her arms around him, tumbling them both to the ground. “Don’t say anything. I know the emptiness you must feel. I’ve been there…still go there too often.”
He stiffened in her arms and sat up, breaking her hold. “No. You don’t know.”
She recovered quickly from the anger in his voice. “Everyone grieves in their own way. I understand.”
She rose to her knees and trailed her lips over his cheek and nuzzled her face into his neck. The heat radiating from her body warmed his chilled skin. “We can comfort each other,” she whispered.
The time had arrived to come clean. First, I’ll love her one more time. He’d imprint this moment in his memory to drag out in the future if she didn’t forgive him. “Let me show you how much I love you. For a short while let’s forget the past.”
Tears trickled down her cheeks. “Yes.”
He brushed away her tears. “Sweetheart, I never could stand to see you cry.” He tugged her between his legs, nestled her close. For long moments he held her, enjoying the steady beat of her heart against his chest. He breathed in her clean scent to store in his memories forever.
She pressed closer, sliding her hands inside his shirt. She urged him backwards until he lay on the damp moss, then straddled his hips. His eyes never left her face. He didn’t give into the temptation to glance down when he heard her unzip her jeans. She stood and kicked off her boots, then stepped out of the denim. Off came the panties.
Brenna lowered his zipper and tugged his jeans down his legs.
“Such busy hands,” he murmured.
She smiled. “They’ll get a lot busier.” She sank on his thighs, until his erection pushed against her stomach. With hands soft as a feather she caressed him. He couldn’t swallow a groan of pleasure. “Let’s go back to the cabin where it’s warm. We’ll catch cold here.”
Brenna threw back her head and laughed. He loved the carefree look on her face, as if all was once again right with the world. “We’re hot enough to melt the snow. I want you here, now—in our own special place.”
Leaning forward, she licked his lips. Ace cradled her face and captured her lips with his mouth to stop her teasing tongue. He wanted to kiss her forever, to prolong their coming together. Wanted to forget what he had to do once they lay spent and replete.
He flipped her onto the ground and rolled on top. “Hey!” she squeaked.
“If you insist on making love on the cold moss, then I’ll be the one in the saddle.”
Her giggle turned to a sharp gasp when he thrust into her moist warmth. “Oh, God, Ace. You feel so good. I’ve missed you so much. You are a part of me. Now and always.”
“No more talking,” he muttered.
Tongues dueled for several minutes before he withdrew from the warmth of her cocoon and rose to his knees. Grasping her hips he pulled her toward him, until his bone hard erection found her greedy opening.
Through half-closed eyes, he watched her head thrash from side to side. Silky black hair against the patches of white snow brought to mind an erotic black and white photograph. Her hands dug into the moss. He ran his hands up her body, cupped her breasts and thumbed her puckered nipples. Filed all of it away in his memory bank.
“Ace, please,” she sobbed but not with tears this time. Her vaginal muscles tightened. He felt her heightened tension…knew she’d climbed to the point of no return. He picked up the pace of his thrusts and exploded on the heels of her climax.
Exhausted, he collapsed on her belly. Sex was the one thing that hadn’t changed over the years. It had been good back then, and it was even better now. He slid down and swirled his tongue in her navel. She squirmed beneath him.
“Get dressed,” he rasped. “The next time will be on a bed in a warm cabin.” If there is a next time. Deep in his soul he feared he’d just had Brenna for the last time.
He got to his feet, reached down and helped her rise. They dressed in silence and walked out of evergreen stand hand in hand.
Her long silence got him worried. “Want to talk about it?”
She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “What? I’m just tired.”
He stopped and forced her to face him. “Hey. It’s me you’re talking to. Don’t think you can hide anything.” Unlike me who’s doing a great job of hiding the most important thing in the world from you.
“I’m thinking about Julienne. You were going to contact DHS tomorrow. Maybe it’s best to let things stand as they are. Realistically, there’s no way DHS will consider me suitable to adopt her, even if you’re part of the equation. And to be honest, I don’t blame them. Besides, I have to arrange my mother’s funeral.”
“And?” he prompted, sensing there was more.
“I’m going to rise above this tragedy, Ace. And I won’t rest until we find the guilty party.”
He wrapped his arms around her shivering body and kissed the top of her head. “I know you will, sweetheart. I’ve never doubted it.
“Thank you.”
Other than a couple of owls hooting in the distance, the night remained still. The kind of quiet that made some people uneasy. Ace had always been thankful that he and Brenna found peace and comfort in the night noises.
“Do you own a house in Maryland?”
Fear rumbled in his chest. Until he ‘fessed up, talking about his life could be dangerous territory. “A small farm, actually.”
She stopped walking and faced him. “Really? What kind of farm? Do you raise vegetables? Where is it?”
“A horse farm…in Damascus. I run a small thoroughbred breeding operation. Picked up a proven stud a few years back. Now he just stands around in the pasture waiting for the mares to start arriving. He’s got it made.”
Brenna laughed and punched his arm. “Men.” She reclaimed his hand and continued walking. “You don’t own any mares?”
“Nope. Thought about it a few times, but I’m called away from home too often.”
“Who…” She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “Who takes care of your…Kayden when you’re away?”
“My mother.”
“She lives with you?”
“Yes.”
If Brenna found his short one-word answers suspicious, she didn’t let on. Regardless of what she’d said earlier, Ace sensed she hadn’t quite digested the fact he had a daughter. He blocked the thoughts. “You always got on well with my mother.”
She squeezed his hand. “I like Naomi. She was always more of a mother to me than my own.”
He stopped and pulled her close. “Look.” He pointed. “Over there.”
A snowy owl sat atop a big boulder, waiting for an unsuspecting rodent.
“They’re early this year,” Brenna said. “It’s going to be a bad winter.”
“Every winter’s bad here, if you want my opinion.”
“Turned into a southerner, have you?”
After a few minutes they moved on. They had almost reached the cabin when Brenna sighed. “I’d like to stay here forever. Make this cabin our home.”
“Nice fantasy.”
“It’s just that I dread going back to the farm.”
“I know. Remember, though. The horses and Sheba are there.”
“Sheba! I forgot all about her.”
“Not to worry. I left plenty of food and water in the barn. She’ll be fine until tomorrow.”
“Seems like I’m alw
ays saying thank you.”
“About tomorrow. You can’t arrange a funeral until the preliminary autopsy report is complete. I’d like you to come with me while I talk to the locals.”
She scuffed her toe in the snow, dragging her feet the nearer they came to the cabin. “Sure. Don’t know what good it’ll do.”
At least it will keep you safe. “There’s something I haven’t mentioned—about Julienne.”
Now he had her attention. “What do you mean?”
“I think it’s possible she might be able to identify whoever sold the heroin to her parents.”
“You’ve got to warn someone.” Brenna opened the cabin door. “Her life could be in danger.”
“I know. I’ve got to get in touch with the social worker. They need to be made aware of the situation. She needs to be kept under constant supervision.”
Brenna kicked off her boots and paced the floor. “This nightmare keeps getting worse. Will it ever end?”
“It will.” She knew he hoped to reassure her. “I promise. I’ve been concentrating on new people in town. I may be searching in the wrong place.”
She stopped her pacing. “You have a suspect?”
“Just a hunch, no concrete facts.”
“Who?”
“John Gar, for one. Perhaps even his wife, Grace.”
Brenna’s mouth dropped open. “The Gars? I told you earlier. They could pave the road through Spruce Harbor with their money. They have no need to sell heroin.”
“Ever wonder where they get their money?”
Her forehead puckered. “I assumed they inherited the Gar fortune. That and the Oriental rugs John sells. Those go for a ton of money.”
“Mighty convenient to slip some heroin into rolled up rugs coming to the States from the Orient.”
“Hmm…I suppose. He doesn’t fly commercial. He has a private jet.”
“Have you ever talked to either one of them?”
“Not really. We don’t run in the same circles. Tell me everything that’s going on. Everyone you suspect.”
The chair scraped across the floor as he pushed back from the table, the noise grating on her already frayed nerves.
Bed of Lies Page 15
