by Ava Miles
“I’ll get it,” Rhett called.
Dustin fell silent, as if sensing the mood between them. His gaze dropped to the floor. “It’s okay. I’ll grab a dustpan.”
“That’s my boy,” Rhett said as naturally as he had since Dustin was little. Today, it hurt. God, how she wished it were true.
“I don’t know how to tell him,” she whispered, the ever–present fear clenching her diaphragm.
“You’ll figure out what’s best. Aside from my mama, I’ve never met a better mama than you, Abs.”
She reached for a Kleenex. “Rhett, I don’t—”
“Before you start saying something about not knowing what to say, let me stop you. I think we’ve had a huge breakthrough today. I’m going to head out and celebrate. Unless you want to come with me?” He held his hand out to her.
The urge to go with him made her dig her heels in place. She shook her head.
“Another time then. Thanks for finally trusting me enough to tell me.” He turned and headed for the door.
“Rhett,” she called, her hand caressing her dry throat.
He stopped. Spun around. “Yeah, darlin’?”
The endearment blew through her like a gentle breeze through the orange grove at their hotel in Arizona. “Thank you, Rhett.”
His soft smile squeezed all the blood from her heart. “I’ll be seeing ya, Abs.”
She fell onto the couch as the front door clicked shut, raised her hands to her nose, inhaling the musky cologne that had rubbed off onto her skin.
She couldn’t deny the truth.
Rhett always found a way to linger with her.
Chapter 30
Peggy was sitting at her desk when the phone rang. Her files slid like the Tower of Pisa when she picked it up.
“Deputy McBride.”
“Hello, my dear,” Arthur said in his gravelly voice. “I hoped I might catch you, although I thought you’d be the one to call me after our agreement.”
Her brow furrowed. “Which one?”
“Remember how we agreed to tell each other if we found out anything about Mac?”
Her heart rapped against her rib. “What are you talking about?” God, he hadn’t discovered they were seeing each other, had he?
“He cancelled the reward he was offering for information about the person who made the bomb threat. I thought that might mean he’d found the bastard.”
She sat up in her chair. “He cancelled it?” Why hadn’t he told her?
“Yes.”
Surely there was a misunderstanding. “When?”
He coughed for a moment. “Jill told me this morning, so it must have happened yesterday. So, you didn’t know. Hmm…”
Her gaze fell to the hotel bomb file on her desk. Even the Feds hadn’t found anything. They were inclined to agree it had been a vague threat. Everyone was chasing their tale with no new news—except for Mac, apparently. And he hadn’t called her. She eyed the clock. It was only ten o’clock. Maybe he was busy.
And maybe she should just call him and ask without jumping to conclusions.
“Arthur, I need to go. Thanks for calling.”
“You didn’t forget our deal to share anything we found, did you?”
She hadn’t done a thing to dig deeper into Mac’s past since she’d started sleeping with him. “No, I haven’t forgotten. If I find something, I’ll share.”
“Let me know what you find out about the reward then.”
“You’ve got it,” she replied and said goodbye.
Hadn’t Mac told her he wanted to keep their personal and professional lives separate? She dropped the file, realizing she’d called him Mac in her head. No need to freak out about that now. So she called Aaron, her official point of contact, to maintain protocol. Aaron didn’t offer her any information. All he did was check Mac’s online schedule and secure a one o’clock meeting for the three of them.
When the hour dawned, she brought a shiny new pair of handcuffs with her, hoping to bust the asshole who’d made the threat.
She saw his hotel with different eyes now that she knew him better. This was his creation. This was what he valued. She eyed it like she would a crime scene. What did she see? Elegance. Order. Decadence. And friendliness. His worker bees rushed to open doors and escort her through the halls. Hell, she’d bet they’d even hand her toilet paper if she asked.
The place between her shoulder blades itched. It had been doing that a lot lately. She’d have to buy a back scratcher or something.
Speaking of backs, she hadn’t seen him since she’d washed his. Her mind immediately went into the gutter. How many times could the man make her come? They were reaching new records. The woman inside her craved more. The deputy and mother kept putting the brakes on, only responding to his text messages two or three hours after he’d sent them.
Mac and his head of security stood when she entered his office. She shook Aaron’s hand, but only nodded to Mac, not wanting to utter his first name outside of the bedroom. It felt weird.
His brow winged up as if sensing her distance. “Thanks for coming, Deputy. You don’t mind if I call you Peggy now, do you?”
Her mouth flattened. Well played. She paused for a moment to consider her reply. Aaron’s regard made her want to fidget like a rookie. “Fine.”
“Please call me Mac then.” His hand gestured to a chair.
No wonder the man had won the World Series of Poker. He’d boxed her in nicely. She only nodded. Two could play that game.
After they sat, Mac picked up a crystal paper weight. “What can I do for you, Peggy?”
Hadn’t Aaron told him why she was here? She crossed her arms when she couldn’t figure out where to put them. “I heard you cancelled the reward. I came for an update.”
He turned the paper weight like he would a baseball. “I see. Well, we all agreed that the bomb threat was vague at best, but we did our due diligence. Your folks haven’t found anything. After reviewing everything on our end, we concluded there was nothing more we could do. Right, Aaron?”
Aaron’s granite jaw dipped in accord.
“We’ve never had a threat against one of our hotels, Peggy. This has been a unique occurrence. We’ve decided to stop wasting my security team’s time checking out bogus reward calls.”
His logic made sense. He stared her straight in the eye when he said it, but she could tell something was wrong. He had his poker face up. After watching him play the game, she knew what it looked like.
“Aaron, will you give me a minute alone with your boss here?”
He stood when Mac nodded. After the door clicked shut behind him, she leaned forward, her hands on her knees. “I don’t buy it. You’re like a lioness with her cubs about your hotel, and you’re certainly rich enough for your security team to follow up on bogus charges until the cows come home. What aren’t you telling me?”
Prisms flashed on the wall as he set the paper weight aside. He looked her straight in the eye. “There’s nothing here,” he said. “I won’t waste my time or my staff’s.”
She waited for him to say more. He only folded his arms.
Anger tore through her stomach in a burning sensation. She played a hunch like she would with a suspect in interrogation. “Bullshit. You know who did it.”
Mac’s mouth flattened. He stood. “Let’s drop this, shall we? I detest beating a dead horse. No one found anything.” As if to punctuate that statement, he picked up the report with her department’s logo on it and waved it in the air. “Now, why don’t you take a breath and have a drink with me?” he asked, laying the report down again.
“Don’t try to distract me. I know you. You’re lying to my face.” Part of her died saying it.
“Stop this right now. You know I only have the highest respect for you.”
“And yet you don’t deny lying to me. You’re choosing your words very carefully. And do you think I don’t know most of the shades of your voice by now?”
“Under other circumstanc
es, I’d be encouraged by that knowledge. Peg, you’re reading too much into this. We all concluded it was a vague threat. I don’t believe in wasting anyone’s time. I want to thank you and your department for everything you did, but this is over.”
Her legs shook as she rose. She wanted to lunge across the room and shake him. Instead she walked up to him until her boots touched the tips of his fancy shoes. “I want you to deny it to my face. Then I’ll know what kind of man you are.”
Those stoplight green eyes didn’t blink. “Don’t do this. Driving a wedge between us over something like this is stupid. If you’re scared of how you feel about me, at least be honest about it.”
“You’re avoiding the real issue. Do you think this is my first rodeo? Right now you’re acting like a person of interest who’s hiding information that’s critical to my case. Tell me again. Do you know who did it?”
He took a long moment, sweeping his gaze from her jaw to her eyes. “I stand by what I said earlier.”
She almost punched him. “Then you’re a goddamn liar.” When he didn’t respond, her hands fell to her hips. “Have it your way. We’re done. All the way. ”
And she meant it.
Her boots pounded on his shiny hardwood floor as she headed for the door.
“Peggy. Stop.”
She slammed it, not caring who heard. It clicked open seconds later.
“Peg!”
She powered down the hallway past the dressed–up monkeys in uniforms.
Jill was waddling up the stairs as she thundered down them.
“Hey!” she called.
She passed in a blur. “Gotta get back. Talk later.”
Full sentences had deserted her.
She made it to her car, her vision as red as her police siren. When she turned on the engine, Maven—never Mac again—emerged from the door to the lot. His jog caused people to stare.
She hit the gas, speeding faster than was safe in a pedestrian zone.
Her lip throbbed. She realized she’d bitten it hard enough to leave a mark. Tears filled her eyes. She wanted to blame it on the pain.
It was over.
She was stupid to have ever let it start. What had she been thinking? He had no respect for what she did, and she felt the same way about his profession. Other than sex, they had nothing in common. Another dumb infatuation for the record books. Didn’t she function better alone?
She’d go to the firing range. Put fourteen rounds in a paper target. If no one was there, she’d tape a head–shot of Maven up and then fire until the paper disintegrated.
No one had ever made her want to cry like a girl.
The man was going to pay.
Chapter 31
When Mac and Dustin arrived at Peggy’s house, her lawn was freshly mowed on the shortest setting. Like a buzz cut on a kid, her yard looked like shit, bald dirt patches peeking out like knobby knees. They weren’t scheduled to do any yard work today, but he’d decided to come to her house nonetheless. After struggling with himself all afternoon, he’d decided he couldn’t lose her. He was going to risk it all.
He hadn’t been this nervous since he’d stepped into the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City hoping to win enough money to cover Abbie’s hospital bills.
“Jeez, what happened to her yard?” Dustin declared.
“Maybe something ate it,” he supplied, wondering how much bullshit he could dole out in a day. No need to say she’d pulverized her grass wishing it were him.
“Must have been a butt–load of deer. We were here three days ago, and it looked fine then. I’ll have to ask Keith.”
Their little friend came through the back door when they parked and broke into a full run when he realized who his guests were. Mac scanned the house for Peggy, but didn’t see her.
“Hi!” he hollered. “Mom was really mad when she got home from work, so she mowed the yard. There was dust everywhere.”
Dustin gave him a fist bump. “Glad a lawn mower did this. Uncle Mac thought it might have been a flock of deer.”
Keith put a hand on his little hip and shifted his weight. “They aren’t flocks, silly. That’s for birds. It’s a herd of deer. I learned that in school.”
“Right,” Dustin replied.
Mac might have sent Keith a smile if his hands weren’t so damp. His sweat glands hadn’t worked like this in more than a decade. It was gross. He walked to the trunk to grab his tools. He’d brought them in case the shed was locked and decorated with a Will Shoot Trespassers sign. He wouldn’t be half surprised if she appeared with a shotgun and ordered them off her property.
“Your bushes need a trim. Do you want to help?”
Keith lunged in the air like he was receiving a high–five. “Sure! How’s soccer going, Dustin?”
“Great,” his nephew answered, sounding bored. He hadn’t been exactly thrilled with Mac’s unscheduled yard work plan, but the kid knew he was in the crapper, so he hadn’t complained—much.
“Where’s your mom?” Mac finally asked.
“She’s upstairs. Talking to Grandma. My Uncle David is coming for a visit.”
The trimmers slid a few inches in his sweaty grip until he clenched his fist around the handle. “That’s nice.”
Keith shrugged. “I don’t know. Mom’s upset. I haven’t seen him since I was a baby. I don’t remember him, but Mom says he’s nothing like Uncle Tanner.”
Sounded like a family drama there. Great, Peggy didn’t need any more personal dynamite today.
“Let’s show these bushes we mean business. She’ll find us when she’s done talking.”
“Can we make the bushes into funny shapes like on Looney Tunes?”
Dustin tapped Keith on the back in a guy pat. “That’s an awesome idea! What would you—”
“No way,” Mac interrupted. Peggy might have mucked up her yard, but he didn’t need to add to the destruction.
“Party pooper,” Dustin whined.
“We can sign you up for a landscaping class anytime, kid. Just let me know.”
His nephew glared at him.
“I’d like that,” Keith began and then proceeded to chatter nonstop.
He trimmed Peg’s west–side bushes, keeping the back door in his line of sight. He clipped the dead, knotty twigs from their undersides. His nerves niggled at him, but he still thought this was the best approach. She couldn’t avoid him forever if he was at her house. Plus, she wouldn’t kill him if the kids were around. Keith was picking up twigs while Dustin sat on his knees, pulling weeds.
“Oh, that is totally gross!” Dustin whined again, flicking a translucent cut worm in Mac’s direction—his new game.
Keith’s squeal pierced his ears.
Mac stomped it with his work boot. “Well now, I say, well now, you aren’t afraid of a little ol’ bug like that, are you? ” he asked in his best Foghorn Leghorn voice.
The kid’s giggling eased the tightness in his chest a fraction. Dustin fell back on his haunches and grinned. His nephew might be sixteen, full of moving rage and hormones, but he was still a good kid.
Mac pointed his finger at Dustin. “And if you think this ol’ chicken is going to stand for any more bug throwing, you’ve got another thing coming. This chicken doesn’t do bugs. He prefers the fancy stuff like caviar.”
His impression made Keith fall to the ground in a laughing fit. It wasn’t as funny as all that, but kids had a weird sense of humor.
“Keith? What in the world are you laughing at?” Peggy called, stepping through the back door. Her mouth slammed flat at the corners.
Keith sputtered, “He’s doing…the chicken voice, Mom. Your favorite.”
All the moisture dried up in his mouth at the sight of her and her bad–ass body language. He almost gulped. “Well now, I know I’m her favorite. Who doesn’t like a big rooster? ” he continued, hoping like hell his act might soften her up a bit. He tucked the clippers out of view, a new patch of sweat making him wipe his hands on his cargo shorts. “Well now,
I say, well now, your mama’s looking a tad under the weather. ”
Fire brimmed in her eyes, hot and punishing.
Well, it was worth a shot. He walked toward her steadily. “Maybe she swallowed one of those nasty grubs Dustin found. Perhaps that’s what ya’ll eat for dinner around ‘ere. ”
Keith clutched his stomach, guffawing. Dustin joined the fray. Peggy just crossed her arms, looking at him like he was the grub—one she’d gladly rub into the dirt.
“Why don’t you come inside and see?” If words held liquid, acid would have dripped from her mouth. She jerked her chin to the house.
He followed. “Well now, I say, that’s a mighty fine offer. Dustin and Keith, you two keep on workin’. This chicken doesn’t like slackers. ”
When he entered the house, she clicked the door closed lickety–split. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing here?”
Like a nervous teenager stuck sounding like a tenor in an all–boys' choir, he realized he couldn’t stop doing the chicken’s voice. “Well, now…”
“Answer me.”
His imitation fled for cover at the ice in her voice. “Don’t use that tone with me. Like I’m some suspect to you. It demeans everything between us.”
Her hands gripped the back of a chair, her knuckles white. “There’s nothing between us. In case you missed that earlier, let me be clear. We’re done. Dustin’s completed enough yard work around here. I don’t want you to ever step foot on my property again.”
Well, he’d nailed her dialogue. The only missing piece was a faded leather holster around her waist like a cowboy.
“I came by to explain, and after what we have shared, why don’t you be adult enough to listen?” he fired right back.
She rocked on the balls of her feet, pointing at him. “I am an adult. You’re the liar.”
“Fine, then why don’t you hear me out?”
“I don’t want to listen to anything you have to say.”
His stomach dropped like it always did when he shoved his chips forward, going all in. “You’re right. I wasn’t giving it to you straight earlier. I was trying to respect your duty as an officer of the law.”
