Positioning himself like a sentry by her side, Murphy reached for Kate’s hand and held it possessively.
Dylan began laughing glancing from Kate to Murphy. He winked deliberately at Kate as he thumped his fist against his chest. “Since this lovely lady appears to be unchaperoned,” he said, turning to Julie. “She’ll have to be my date for the rest of the day, now that Kate’s gone and broken my heart.” He reached for Julie’s hand, clasping it in his own.
Julie’s jaw dropped when Dylan began leading her away. Raising a hand in farewell to Kate and Murphy, she followed along as Dylan dragged her slowly across the room.
She felt like she was in a trance, and Julie couldn’t remember who they were even talking to as they made their way along the breezeway and outside through the sliding glass doors.
Dylan’s expression was becoming increasingly serious as he led Julie over the bridge leading out onto the gazebo. Soft music echoed from the speakers positioned overhead.
From the moment Dylan reached for her hand, Julie’s heart had been thumping madly in her chest. He’d taken her completely by surprise.
Dylan stopped, and pulled her into his arms, dancing her slowly around the perimeter of the gazebo. And, wow, was he a great dancer, Julie thought as he tucked her gently against his chest. His moves were so graceful. She wondered if he’d taken lessons?
All this time, neither one of them said a word. They moved, spun and swayed along with a couple of slow rock ballads. It was like magic for Julie, under the moon and the starlit sky. Never in her entire life had she experienced anything as romantic as this moment.
When Dylan stood still after the music stopped, she figured he’d reach for her hand and lead her back inside.
But, unexpectedly, his lips covered hers and she exhaled roughly. His mouth was hard and demanding but, oh, so warm and sweet.
Julie felt strength less, her body melting into his, yet for the first time in her life she felt wonderfully alive. She’d never known, never dreamed, that a kiss could make her feel like this because the pleasure of it was almost unbearable.
A gentle breeze blew in from across the lake, and as the incoming waves pounded beneath them against the shore, she felt like her insides held a sea of feelings, battling a beautiful storm, rocking her this way and that. But he was kissing her still, and his mouth moved from her lips to her cheeks and throat, and her tension melted under the gentleness of his lips.
Julie’s hands went to his shoulders, clinging to them for support. She inhaled deeply, loving the cool, clean scent of his cologne. She did what she’d been wanting to do from the moment they’d met; she measured the broadness of Dylan’s shoulders, her palms smoothing over the curves and joints, feeling the hardness of muscle. She ran her hands through his hair, thick and silky and short where it lay close to his skull, and laid her face against his, loving the feel of his stubble against her skin.
A small smile curved the corner of his hard mouth. “Julie,” he breathed softly. “I’ve wanted to kiss you from the moment I saw you.”
She smiled still wrapped within his arms. She thought about her day yesterday. Knowing Dylan would be here today had made her brave enough to finally try something new when she’d been staring in the mirror at the salon. She’d finally decided to have her hair cut. Kate’s mom, who ran the spa and salon, had been urging her for years. “Even before I had my makeover?”
“Oh, yeah,” he whispered. “I’ve always known how beautiful you are.”
She laughed softly, pulling away and leaning against the deck’s railing. “You mean my two hours at the beauty salon yesterday, and the other five hours with Danielle Loughlin this morning, trying on clothes and having my makeup redone, was all for nothing?”
Dylan laughed loudly. “It wasn’t for nothing if it made you feel better.”
According to Kate, Julie was too self-deprecating. “Ah. You’ve been talking to Kate.”
“It’s not so much that as it is that I totally understand what it’s like.”
Julie looked him over slowly and laughed. “You?”
Dylan gave her a toothy smile. “Yeah, hard to believe that a guy as handsome as me was ever anything other than self-assured, huh?”
Julie grinned, slapping him lightly on the shoulder.
“Seriously, though, Julie. You should’ve seen what I was like as a kid. I was short, skinny and wore glasses. I always got picked on.”
Julie kept staring at him doubtfully. “No way.”
But he grinned at her wryly. “Way.”
“Really?”
He nodded firmly. “Really.”
CHAPTER
SEVEN
According to Kate, Julie had struggled with inadequacy her entire life, feeling like she’d been abandoned by her mother. Dylan wanted to tell Julie about his father and how much he really understood what she was going through. But this wasn’t the time or the place. They’d just shared their first real kiss, and it’d been even more incredible than he’d anticipated. He’d be better off focusing on their romance for the rest of the evening.
In fact, as much as Dylan wanted to kiss her again, if they went any further it would be too much of a struggle to let her go. He needed to take his time and be careful with Julie so she’d realize his intentions were serious.
There wasn’t a single doubt in his mind that she was the only woman for him.
“As much as I wouldn’t mind kissing you again, I think we should go inside and spend some quality time together, and see how it goes.” Dylan hesitated. “There’s a lot going on that I can’t really talk to you about Julie, concerning my job and Jim Dupree.”
Julie looked puzzled, but not too disappointed. If her head was spinning even half as much as his was, she needed some time to think about what was happening between the two of them. He’d been crazy about her for so long now, that he’d been totally unprepared for the load of feelings that would accompany their first romantic encounter.
Tenderness, protectiveness and, yes, love.
Definitely.
He took in a deep shaky breath. “Hopefully, what’s going on between Jim and me will be cleared up within the month.” It’d better be, anyway, Dylan thought irritably. He hadn’t expected Julie to cave in as quickly as she had.
She was caving in, wasn’t she? He studied her intently. Julie was looking a little dazed. As soon as the situation with Jim was resolved, he would tell Julie everything, Dylan decided—not just about his role with Jake and the FBI as well as his real name, but he’d fill her in on the details of his investigation of his father’s murder. Heck, he’d even come right out and tell her about his feelings for her.
He was still looking down at her when she suddenly had a mischievous smile on her face.
Unexpectedly, Julie threw herself into his arms and Dylan was so taken aback, he made a choked sound as his mouth crushed into hers. Her lips opened under the force of his kiss and with luxurious slowness he let his tongue invade her mouth and explore. He desired her and he was saying so with every subtle lure a man could use.
She tasted of champagne, rich and luscious, when her mouth answered his, all hot and needy.
His heart began hammering and desire began drowning all reason.
Breaking away from her was one of the most difficult things he’d ever had to do.
“Rrrrooww,” he growled pressing his forehead again hers. “Truthfully Julie? I’m shocked at your behavior.”
She giggled. God, he loved the sound of her laughter.
Dylan grinned, reaching for her hand. “C’mon. We’d better get in there and eat.”
“Oh, no. We couldn’t miss that.”
Dylan chuckled. “Hey. We’re having prime rib.”
But when they were nearly ready to go inside, Dylan halted, becoming serious. “As much as I want to rush you away and take you home with me, I want you to know that this isn’t going to be some kind of fling I’m having with you.” Bending down, he kissed her forehead. “Besides, your
dad is here and he’s been glaring at me the entire day. I want him to know that I have only the deepest respect for you,” he whispered softy.
Julie stared at him in consternation before her gaze seemingly transformed to wonder.
He pulled her into the breezeway through the doorway, laying claim to her by wrapping his arm over her shoulders.
As they made their way together inside, walking toward the banquet room where the reception was being held, Julie pressed herself against him, looking at Dylan with a huge smile on her face.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
Dylan was distracted. It’d been two weeks since he’d connected with Julie, and it was time to put his plan in place and do something about Jim.
So he’d shown up unexpectedly at Kate’s tonight. Murphy had been staying with Kate since they’d reconnected at her parents’ renewal of vows two weeks ago, and Dylan wouldn’t be surprised if Murphy was here to stay.
Every time they’d run into each other, Murphy had been eyeing him irritably out of jealousy, Dylan figured, so it was up to him to make sure they became friends. Murphy didn’t have any reason to be jealous since Kate had revealed to him that her relationship with Dylan had remained platonic for the last few years.
And besides, Murphy had recently been engaged, so who was Murphy to be jealous anyway?
Both Kate and Dylan were leaning against the railing of the deck, watching Murphy while he was busy grilling some burgers.
Jim Dupree had been running Dylan ragged during the last few weeks, and he almost wondered if Jim suspected he was being watched.
“Is something wrong, Dylan?”
Luckily, Dylan wasn’t having too much trouble convincing Kate that she was coaxing the information out of him. He grimaced. “Work is really getting to me, Kate. Something must be going on with Jim Dupree in his personal life. He’s been acting even more wacko than usual, lately. I was getting ready to patrol my regular route yesterday, when Jim insisted on switching up with me for the entire day. Usually we alternate on a weekly basis. I just can’t figure out his motives for shaking up our schedules all the time. And now he even makes me check in at the office before I’m allowed to take the boat on the lake. It wastes a lot of time, when one of us should be out patrolling.”
“Is there anyone else in charge you can talk to about Jim and his behavior?”
Dylan shook his head. “Not really Kate. He’s got seniority. But I’ve come to a decision.” Dylan sighed. “I probably won’t be hanging out with you guys as much for a while.” He grinned, before staring at Murphy while he flipped the burgers on the grill. “Why do I have a feeling that you’re probably not going to be missing me too much?”
Kate rolled her eyes, grinning too. But then she grimaced. “So, what are you planning on doing, Dylan?”
Dylan shrugged. “I’m just going to keep an eye on Jim, when I have time off. Maybe follow him around and see what he’s up to. If I can figure him out, I might be able to understand why he behaves the way he does.”
Kate stared at Dylan, not bothering to hide her concern.
Abandoning the burgers on the grill and taking a sip from his beer, Murphy approached them, apparently seeing the worried frown on Kate’s face. “What’s the problem?”
“It’s Jim Dupree—Dylan’s boss. He’s been causing Dylan a lot of grief at work. Dylan’s decided he’d going to follow him around on his time off, to try and discover what Jim’s up to.”
“Jim Dupree. That name sounds vaguely familiar.” Murphy frowned. “Didn’t I meet the guy once?”
Kate nodded. “Yeah, I think. Remember years ago, when we discovered that missing lumber at the campgrounds?”
Murphy brushed his hand across his jaw. “From what I can remember, the guy is really strange.”
Dylan agreed with a brusque nod. “I’m tired of always arguing with him. Plus, I never get any sleep or real time off cause he’s constantly changing my schedule. Maybe if I can figure out why he’s so hostile, I might be able to get along with him better.”
Kate laughed outright. “Yeah—right. Good luck with that.”
* * *
As Dylan drove away from Kate’s place about an hour later, he heaved a sigh of relief. These last few weeks had been driving him ragged. He’d been spending as much time as he could doing research, but Jim had been worse than usual with switching up his schedule.
Jake and Dylan had wanted to find out exactly what was going on in Jim’s life before deciding their next course of action.
The office was a mess. But Dylan had had the sense over the last few years to make sure paperwork and reports were filed on a timely basis. He wasn’t quite sure why a secretary had never been hired, but Jim had claimed the office was too small and they didn’t have the budget.
That could be true. Wardens working out of different counties each operated on their own schedule.
And he and Jim technically patrolled the lake only, while calls for hunting violations, camping restrictions, or even sighting of brush fires were handled by another much larger office until the winter months when their division of duties changed.
Yes, Dylan could report Jim, but the problem with that was, as an undercover agent, Dylan would bring himself under scrutiny with a huge chance of blowing his cover. His credentials were tight, but if Dylan were to be looked at too closely…well, no one would actually know who he was because of his forged identification. That’s why Jake Loughlin had placed him undercover here in the first place.
Dylan took the crossroads veering off on his way towards Pebble Lake in his truck. Jim’s place was tucked away at the far end of the lake in an isolated inlet and Kevin Wyatt would be waiting there, ready to put their plan into action. It was a Saturday night, and Dylan had been watching Jim carefully enough over the past month to know Jim was never at home. He’d even gone as far as following Jim a couple of times and had ended up at a casino located over a hundred miles away.
Kevin was parked along the side of the road near the edge of Jim’s property, and when Dylan approached Kevin, he stepped out from his van.
Dylan rolled down the window of his truck. “How’s it going Kevin?”
“Good, I think. Hopefully, I’ll be able to jam up the security long enough for you to get onto the property and take a look around.” Kevin frowned. “I think he has multiple measures in place and a generator, so it’s tricky to know if what I’m doing is working since I can’t get up close. And then there’s that massive boathouse down on the lake. I didn’t even try to mess with that. He might have an entirely different system hooked up with the house too. It’s all pretty high tech, so it does make me wonder.”
Dylan frowned. “Well, for now I’d just like access to that huge storage shed. What the heck could he have in there? I shouldn’t need more than thirty minutes.”
“We should be okay. The way I read it is he has electronic video surveillance on the shed, and I can feed back the loop from my computer, even from here.”
After Dylan parked further down the road in a clearing he’d discovered when he’d first begun following Jim, he gathered his gloves and flashlight before stepping out from his truck and walking back to Kevin’s van. Dylan peeked inside the van and saw that Kevin had the surveillance camera sights from Jim’s shed on four of his system screens.
“It’s a mini-version of the surveillance we have at Dragonfly Pointe. If I didn’t work with such an advanced system there, I might not have been able to give you access,” Kevin said, wearing a worried frown. “What do you want to do if he shows up?”
Kevin had made sure the exterior of his van was adorned with a power company decal, Dylan had noticed.
Dylan paused, before walking onto the property. Turning back to Kevin, he answered, “That would be just the way things would go, even though I’ve been watching him drive away from town every Saturday night for the last month.”
Kevin grinned. “Never fear. I’ve got just the thing.” Reaching into the van, he pul
led out a pair of clear lensed glasses. “Put these on.”
Dylan slipped them on over his eyes while Kevin reached into the van and pressed a button.
A dim led light mounted inside the frames flashed before Dylan’s eyes. “That’ll work,” Dylan said.
Trying to be as quick as he could, Dylan rushed across the property toward the shed. He couldn’t believe it when he tried the door handle alongside and it actually opened. He held his breath, half expecting an alarm to ring out when he went inside.
No alarm. Dylan breathed out a sigh of relief, switching on his flashlight.
Whoa, Dylan thought as he glanced around inside the shed. What a shit load of construction supplies. If he weren’t seeing it for himself, he would’ve never believed it.
Just like that, it looked like he’d discovered the thief behind all the robberies of the Callahan Construction materials. Truthfully, it’d never even occurred to Dylan that it might be Jim. Harping at Dylan, Jim had still been a stickler about following the rules, but obviously it’d only been for show.
That’s how arrogant Jim had become, Dylan realized, studying the tags that were still attached to the lumber. He hadn’t even bothered to remove the destination labels that’d been wrapped around the lumber and supplies.
Dylan shook his head, taking one final stroll around the shed. The place was packed. He pulled out his phone, and took a few pictures for insurance, even though he wouldn’t be able to use them. Technically, he was trespassing.
So the next question was, where was all this stuff going? No way was this a one-man operation.
Dylan made his way outside, closing the door of the shed behind him. Should he try to check out the garage? What the heck. He wouldn’t need to go inside. There was a long window inserted into each of the three garage doors as well as another one on the walkthrough, so stepping up to the door, he peered inside.
Shit. Why was Jim’s truck parked inside? It figures the one time he hadn’t waited for Jim to leave town would be the night he wouldn’t. Dylan had watched Jim pull his truck out of the driveway before he’d driven over to Kate’s to set the plan into motion hours earlier. He was vaguely aware of another car parked inside the garage that looked expensive, but now he was in a hurry.
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