Cold Evidence (Evidence Series Book 6)

by Rachel Grant

  She just wished the last item didn’t bother her so much. It was understandable to be shaken by seeing a fragment from the explosion that had killed five people and almost killed her. And Greg had been a source of unhappiness at work for a long time. But Luke… Dammit, she could have gone the rest of her life without facing his condemnation again and even longer without feeling an intense pull of attraction for a man who’d spent the last twelve years hating her.

  Luke paced the small house, wound tight and not sure why. Well, okay, he knew. He just didn’t like it. How could the hurt in Undine’s eyes gut him when he had every right and reason to say what he had and cut the ties between them? Thank goodness Carlos had gone to dinner, leaving Luke alone in the small house owned by NOAA, which was available to employees when they visited Neah Bay for work. He didn’t want to answer Carlos’s abundant questions about Undine Gray, and he definitely didn’t want to discuss the woman’s father with the starstruck NOAA ichthyologist.

  Carlos was totally jazzed about driving Undine home tomorrow, excited to have the chance to meet the big man’s daughter. Luke should be grateful he was willing to provide the service instead of disappointed in his decision to pass her off on someone else. He was in Neah Bay to work. Period.

  His cell phone rang, and he seized it like a life buoy. Caller ID showed it was the investigator from the Coast Guard returning his call. “Hey, Luke, thanks for your message. I contacted all the agencies that had a hand in the investigation of the Petrel accident, and no one’s dived on the wreck since the case was closed.”

  “Did you find out if anyone used a cable trencher to clear sediment during the search for pieces of the boat?”

  “No trenchers were used. Something like that would have tossed all the small pieces we were trying to find. I can see how it would be good for clearing the hull of a big submarine, but it would be useless for our investigative purposes.”

  “Does the Coast Guard have any concerns or jurisdiction over the recent digging?”

  “I’ll pass the info up the line, but given that the evidence collected indicated the explosion was an accident, I doubt it. There’s just not much we can do. The wreck isn’t within the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, so there aren’t any restrictions from NOAA or on our end. The Navy, however, will have issues. They retain sovereignty over all sunken vessels, and my understanding is Wrasse holds human remains. Ms. Gray will need to report it to her boss. They’ll take the lead on any investigation into the digging. But I can’t imagine they have the resources to do much right now.”

  Luke thanked the man and hung up. Undine had said she’d call her boss, but he needed to tell her the clearing was not part of the investigation into the explosion. It was unsettling that someone had been there so soon after the explosion. At a hundred and ninety feet, it wasn’t the kind of dive a person did on a lark. The digging made him uneasy about that “accident” determination.

  But what would anyone want with a US submarine built prior to World War II that had been stripped of everything nonessential and scheduled for SINKEX before accidentally sinking? At the time she went down, the sub hadn’t contained valuable technology or secrets.

  There was no logical reason for anyone to dig there, and even less reason for anyone to swim in that part of the strait. It wasn’t a recreational dive with pretty fish or corals to look at. It was deep, difficult, and dangerous. So why would someone go down there, and with a trencher no less?

  Something was going on, and he’d lay odds it had everything to do with the explosion.

  His phone rang and he answered without checking caller ID. Big mistake. “What the hell are you doing sniffing after my daughter again, Sevick?”

  Luke pulled the phone away from his ear and checked the number. Central California area code. Shit. “Stefan,” he said, with false cheerfulness. “How great to hear from you again so soon.”

  “Cut the crap, Sevick. Why are you demanding the Navy assign you as my daughter’s dive partner? Are you so hard up for work that you need to manipulate a woman who’s been through hell?”

  “What are you talking about, Stefan? I dived today with Undine as a favor to her, so back off.”

  “You dived with her, today?” Stefan paused. “You are a special kind of asshole to take advantage of her right now.”

  “I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. I dived with her after she begged me to take her down. She has PTSD and was afraid to dive again. She wanted a strong partner. I helped her. Period.”

  The big man was silent for a moment. “My daughter has PTSD?”

  “Of course she does. Five of her coworkers died. She could have died. What sort of rock do you live under?” Luke would never understand Stefan Gray.

  “I just got a call from Greg Mulholland, her boss at NHHC. Greg wants me to use my connections at NOAA to get them to assign you to work with Undine until they know what’s going on with the Wrasse wreckage. Clearly, Greg doesn’t know shit about your history with Undine or he wouldn’t have asked that of me.”

  “My history with Undine doesn’t matter anymore. It’s time for you to catch up, Stefan.”

  “Your history with Undine matters to me.”

  “You can bitch all you want, but your opinion is irrelevant in this equation.” Luke decided he’d had enough and hung up on the man he’d once worshiped.

  He stared at his phone.

  Shit. Stefan Gray had just called him. The man ranked number one—even ahead of Undine—on his list of people he’d hoped never to speak with again. It appeared that, because Luke had said no, Undine was pushing for NOAA to force him to dive with her again. He hadn’t expected that of her, but then, what did he know about Princess Undine, except that she was used to getting her way?

  It was a sad fact of his life that she always got what—and who—she wanted.

  Well, Luke had no intention of being jerked around by the princess. He would never again be one of her subjects.

  Chapter Nine

  The cabin was too small to pace, and if she stayed inside much longer, she might lose it. The day had been an emotional roller coaster that included Luke’s flirting and resentment. She was wound up, frustrated, depressed, and angry—the full spectrum of her least favorite emotions. It was dark out, but Neah Bay was the kind of town where a woman could safely run at night. She grabbed her running shoes. She needed the exercise. To move. To feel the burn. Anything to shut down her thoughts. Physical pain to replace mental.

  A gust of wind slapped her as she stepped onto the porch to stretch. The storm was ahead of schedule. She was lucky they’d completed the dive without being hampered by the weather. At least the storm would buy her a few days to find a dive partner.

  She took off down the sidewalk that paralleled the main road, running full bore with the wind at her back, saving nothing for the return trip. She decided to run the length of town, then head down the spit access road. She could run along the beach on the other side of the breakwater. This time of year, she’d have the entire north coastline to herself.

  She couldn’t run away from her anxieties, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try.

  She was as graceful on land as she was in the water. Luke shut off the engine of his SUV and watched Undine disappear down the road, her sleek, lithe body moving in perfect synchronicity. It was a cold night to run in yoga pants and Lycra top, but she ran with speed that would generate enough heat to see her through.

  He hated that he found her sexy, even now.

  He hadn’t wanted to see her again—ever—but his calls to her cell phone had gone straight to voice mail. She probably didn’t have the right service provider for Neah Bay, leaving him with no choice but to drive to her cabin. He’d arrived just in time to witness her taking off down the sidewalk.

  Follow, or wait?

  She had a head start and was fast, but he was faster. And he too could use a run.

  He put his SUV in gear and pulled out onto the main road. She’d alr
eady reached the small waterfront playground. He watched to see if she would turn toward the breakwater or away, into the town’s small residential area. A mutt that was at least half black lab approached her and sniffed at her hand, keeping pace as she passed the senior center. The rez dog was one of two that hung out on the waterfront. The friendly hound had joined Luke on a few runs in a similar fashion, giving up only when he realized Luke wouldn’t toss him a stick while running.

  Undine turned for the breakwater access road, and Luke made his decision. He pulled into a parking space next to the playground. He would catch up to her on the spit.

  He slipped on his running shoes. After a token stretch, he took off down the road after her. She was too far ahead for him to catch sight of her along the dark curve of the access road.

  He finally came out of the woods at the start of the breakwater, but she was nowhere to be seen. She wasn’t running down the spit. She must have dropped down onto the beach outside of the protected zone.

  He turned left, crossing over sea grasses to reach the beach. A thin strip of sand hugged the hillside. The rising tide covered the majority of the jagged rocks that littered the sand, giving the beach a deceptively friendly appearance.

  It took a few moments for him to catch sight of her pale, skintight top in the moonlight as she jogged the narrow stretch of sand. He put on a burst of speed and closed the distance between them as she neared the end of the beach, where cliffs met rocks and sea.

  He didn’t want to scare her by appearing in the dark without warning, so he shouted, “Undine!”

  She glanced back and saw him, then dug in for more speed, heading for those treacherous rocks. “’Deen! It’s Luke!” he shouted, just in case she hadn’t recognized him in the darkness, but he figured she knew exactly who chased her. She probably didn’t want to deal with him, given that she’d screwed him over yet again.

  He let her gain for a moment, then released a burst of speed of his own, quickly catching up to her. He was on her heels. “’Deen,” he repeated, a sharp edge to his voice.

  Her body tucked to release more speed, but she didn’t have any left, and she slowed with a small stumble. He was close behind her, and his toe tapped her heel. He caught her waist to prevent her fall, but he was forced to slow too soon and couldn’t recover. He went down, taking her with him, but he rolled, his arm around her waist. Cushioning her as his shoulder hit the sand.

  They tumbled sideways, coming to a stop inches from the high water line of the unfettered surf, his body on top of hers. Exhilaration coursed through him. His senses ran high. The hard, fast run. The unintended tackle. Having Undine’s sleek body pressed against his as he sheltered her from the chill wind. The threat of the rising tide and crash of waves that lapped at the shore just feet away.

  He was angry and turned on, and Undine Gray was the cause of both. He straddled her waist and grabbed her arms, pinning her wrists above her head with one hand. Her body paralleled the shoreline, and the slow, reaching wave threatened to soak her.

  She stared up at him, her big, beautiful eyes wide with shock. Her chest rose rapidly as she panted from her hard run. Then her breathing changed, and the moonlight showed dilated pupils.

  She was as turned on as he was.

  “I hate it that you said something to me today that made me question my judgment of you, then you turned around and did exactly what the old Undine would have done.” He wanted to lean down and dip his tongue into the hollow of her collarbone, to taste the salt of her sweat. “I hate even more that even after you’ve screwed me over again, I want you. I hate that I want to slide deep inside you. To taste you. To feel your heat.”

  “Yes,” she said in a whisper. Her hips bucked upward, pressing herself to him in the only way she could.

  He buried his face in her neck, taking in the scent of her as his heart rate kicked up. It had been a ridiculously long time since he’d been this ramped up for someone, and he’d never ridden the fine line between anger and lust before.

  It was intense, this feeling. An adrenaline rush very different from what he’d experienced in combat. Her swimmer’s body turned him on in a way he’d never expected from a purely physical attraction. And that was all this could possibly be—straight-up physical lust—because there was no way in hell he was falling for Undine Gray again. Ever.

  “Either kiss me, or let me up,” she said. “The sand is frigging cold.”

  He grinned and leaned over her. Pinning her chest with his, trapping her under his weight. “It’s about to get a lot colder,” he whispered.

  The slow, reaching wave licked her side and his leg, and she squealed at the shock. “Oh my God, the water is liquid ice!”

  He laughed and rolled her, planting himself in the surf with her above him. No way was this ending before he got his kiss, even if it meant he was the worst sort of fool. “Is this better? Now my ass is the one freezing.”

  She straddled him. Further copying his action, she took his hands and pinned his wrists above his head. A wave crashed, and from the roar of it, he didn’t have to look to know this one would climb the sand and swamp them. She waited until the frigid deluge was a certainty, then flashed a wicked grin and pressed her mouth to his. The water reached him as her tongue slipped inside his mouth. He couldn’t help but gasp at the shock of the cold even as the kiss filled him with heat.

  She laughed against his mouth as water splashed over them both. Salt sprayed his eyes and seawater seeped past the seal of their lips. He ripped his hands free from her grasp to capture her face, preventing her from ending the scorching, ice-water-invaded kiss.

  The sea retreated, and still he kissed her. His tongue slid against hers, the hot, salty kiss worth every discomfort and chill.

  He felt her chest shake against his, recognizing the laugh she held in as she sucked on his tongue. With his cradling hands, he lifted her mouth from his as he rocked his hips upward, pressing his erection into her straddling crotch.

  “Wow, Sevick. That was pretty damn hot for being so fricking cold.”

  Shit. What was he doing? And why did he want to keep on doing it? “I don’t know what’s worse, that you’re steamrolling me into working with you, or that your dad is getting up in my business trying to prevent it.” And then, because he was a dumbass masochist, he pulled her head down for another kiss.

  His tongue stroked hers as he rolled her again. He pressed her back into the sand, and another wave splashed against them. She gasped at the cold even as she wrapped her legs around his hips, locking him in the cradle of her thighs, kissing him with matching fervor.

  The water retreated, and he felt her body shiver with cold that finally exceeded the heat of their mouths. He ended the kiss.

  “I’m n-not trying to f-force you to work with me,” she said after catching her breath.

  Luke stood and pulled her from the sand. “Then explain to me why my boss called me right after I hung up with your dad and said I might be relieved of my duties for NOAA so I can work with you and NHHC?”

  She was drenched and trembling. He pulled her into his arms to block the wind. This was wrong on so many levels, but he’d started it, and he could hardly leave her exposed to the chill air.

  It didn’t help that she felt so damn good in his arms.

  “Th-that was my boss. I told him n-no. Not to ask you. He insisted, but I asked him to give me a few days t-t-to line up a different dive partner.” She pressed her face into his chest. “M-my dad called you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Shit, Luke. I’m s-sorry. Really. I told Greg no.”

  He wanted to kiss her again and warm her with his body. Instead he said, “Let’s get you back to my SUV. We can run the heater and talk.” And he could use the walk in the cold wind to get his head on straight, as far as she was concerned.

  If it were light out, they’d be quite a sight, coated as they were in sand and salt, their clothes flecked with bits of decaying bull kelp and eelgrass.

  She was so
aking wet, and the wind was cruel. They had a half-mile trek to his SUV, and he had no coat or anything dry and warm to offer her. “You up for a run?” he asked.

  She nodded, her teeth chattering. “Yeah.”

  “Good. You set the pace.”

  She took off. Her muscles quickly heated, and she gained speed as she ran down the wooded roadway. Again, he trailed behind her, watching her lithe form, baffled as to how he could want her even now.

  They reached his SUV, and he turned on the heater. He stared out over the bay as she settled, shivering in the seat next to him. “Let’s get one thing straight,” he said, keeping his gaze on the water because he didn’t seem to have control when he looked at her. “Your lie fundamentally changed the direction of my life. I had to own my part in it—I was twenty-two and had sex with a sixteen-year-old girl. I wanted you, and I acted on that desire, but after I knew the truth, I wanted to bleach my brain of the memory. I was horrified and ashamed. I never would have touched you—never would have even wanted you—if I’d known the truth.”

  She rubbed her arms. The vent blew out cool air, making the cab even colder. “I know. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I’ve always, always been deeply sorry.”

  “Dammit! I don’t want to hear your apology. I’ve never wanted to hear your apology.”

  Because then I might have to do something about it.

  She reared back at the anger in his voice. She’d be shocked to know how much rage simmered inside him.

  What was wrong with him that he wanted to screw her, but he still wasn’t ready to hear her apology? He’d been so caught up today in the thrill of being with someone who shared his passion for the sea, who was smart as hell, and who made him laugh. Deep down, he’d probably always carried Undine in his mind as the type of woman he wanted…if only she were older.

  And now, here she was, older.

  And damn him for being a chump, but he wanted to fuck her. “I won’t dive with you again. Sorry, but Princess Undine won’t get her way this time.”