Nauti Deceptions

by Leigh, Lora

  She pasted on a smile after a careful application of makeup. Smoky eyes were sensual, and they hid the shadows of emotional catastrophe. Bronzed lipstick made her look seductive.

  She wore chocolate ankle-strapped stilettos and a matching slip dress that just barely hid the band of her bronzed stockings. She spent hours straightening her long curls until the mass of red gold strands hung to her hips like a shimmering ribbon. Parted on the side, it framed her face with rakish appeal and gave her a slight ego boost if nothing else.

  She didn’t ride the Harley into work but had Jonesy drive her in with a promise to pick her up later that night. He was silent, moody, and obviously not exactly happy with her style of dress.

  He approved of the leather, no matter how skimpy she got with it. He thought it was tasteful. To Jonesy, silk was a trick and her straight hair was a come-on. Go figure.

  She stepped into a full restaurant, took over for Tabitha, and kept a smile on her face. She fielded advances, she laughed at the flirtatious comments, but something inside her felt as though it was breaking.

  Okay, so it was pretty bad having your son walk in while you were getting a blow job. She could only imagine how horrifying that was. It was bad enough getting caught, period. He was shocked, needed to yell at Shane a little maybe. She excused that. She was pissed, hurt, but she understood.

  She understood all night. She watched the hands of the clock tick by and felt the knowledge that she didn’t matter enough to seek out growing heavier inside her.

  The dinner crowd moved through, in and out, until the doors were locked and she gave one last peek as she turned the sign to Closed and realized he wasn’t going to show up.

  Showing up would mean others would see him. It would be an acknowledgment that she was more than just a casual little fuck, she admitted.

  But how could she have expected anything less?

  Ignoring Janey and Alex’s concerned looks, she strode through the restaurant back to the office and started putting receipts together to begin the paperwork for the night.

  She often finished up in the office while Alex and Janey went on home. She called Jonesy and told him she would be late. She’d get a cab. He wasn’t happy, again. It seemed Rogue had lost the ability to please anyone who mattered to her that day, she thought with a scowl.

  Damn men. When had she started caring what any man felt?

  The day she’d met Zeke Mayes, she admitted to herself. God, she was such a fool for him. It was insane, completely pathetic actually.

  She looked up as the door to the office opened and Janey and Alex stepped inside. She knew that look on her friends’ face, and she knew that evidently she hadn’t hidden her emotions as effectively as she had hoped. Great, now Janey would have questions. And what Janey knew, Alex would know. What Alex knew, he would probably say something to Zeke about. And well, didn’t she just know how private Zeke was?

  “Everything okay, Rogue?” Janey asked casually as Alex closed the door behind them.

  “Actually, no.” Rogue pushed the receipts back as Janey looked at her in surprise. “Sheriff Mayes has no idea who killed Joe and Jaime. Grandma Walker hasn’t stopped crying, and Lisa won’t let me help.” She rubbed at her temples. Those were concerns, and they were heartbreaking, but that wasn’t what was digging gouges out of her soul.

  “Forensics hasn’t come back yet, Rogue,” Alex stated. “I’ve been checking on it, and the coroners haven’t finished their tests on the bodies yet. We should know something conclusive soon.”

  Rogue shook her head. “Grandma won’t be with us much longer.” Her lower lip trembled despite her battle to keep her emotions in check. Acknowledging that was a bitch. She would have to bury the boys with no one to comfort her, and she knew that soon she would be burying their grandmother the same way.

  How had she let this happen? How could she let herself care for a man she couldn’t even lean on in her grief?

  “Is there anything we can do to help?” Janey moved to the front of the desk and sat down gingerly in one of the chairs.

  Her forest green eyes were somber and filled with compassion, but there was an edge of suspicion in them as well. She knew when Rogue was hiding things, when she wasn’t talking. That was the risk you took when you let someone become your best friend.

  “Yes, there is,” she said softly. “Don’t ask questions.”

  It was the closest she could come to admitting anything.

  Alex snorted as Janey’s lips compressed. “That’s not fair, Rogue.”

  “It’s very fair,” she told her friend. “I have to deal with family right now, Janey; I don’t have the strength to deal with more.”

  “Aren’t you telling the wrong person that?” Janey asked her.

  “No.” Rogue shook her head, her voice roughening. “I’m telling the one person that should understand I need time right now. And I need a chance to figure things out on my own.”

  Janey stared back at her for long, silent moments.

  “You know we’re here,” she offered. “For family things or anything else.”

  She couldn’t risk it.

  “Rogue?” Alex spoke then. “I can leave the room. Anything you tell Janey would go no further, you know that.”

  No, she didn’t know that. She knew men. She knew they talked and gossiped worse than women. And she knew Janey. Before she knew it, the entire Mackay clan would be privy to Zeke’s secrets, and that whole privacy rule he had would be shot to hell and back. Hell, she felt sorry for his former lover now.

  “Not a problem, Alex.” She smiled tightly. “I just want to get these receipts finished and head home to bed. It’s been a damned long day and it doesn’t look as though things are going to get any better for a while.”

  They were likely to get worse. It was normally not a good thing to threaten or attempt to commit bodily harm on an officer of the law, and she knew one she wanted to shoot with his own gun.

  Janey sighed. “You’re sure there’s nothing we can do?”

  Rogue looked down at the receipts, then back up to her friend. “I need a few days off actually. The bar is going to hell right now and I need to straighten a few things up.”

  The bar was the one place she knew Zeke wouldn’t enter. He may have that first night to question her, but he wouldn’t do it again. Too public, and of course, no one could know he was trying to fuck the little bar whore.

  Fucking Nadine Grace and Dayle Mackay. God, she had never hated them as much as she hated them now.

  “How many days?” Janey asked carefully, causing Rogue to smile.

  “I need at least four days, maybe five,” she told her. Long enough to get the need eating her alive out of her system. Long enough that when she returned she wouldn’t be watching for him, waiting for him. Long enough to find her balance again and get her heart straightened out. Long enough to avoid prison because of her homicidal tendencies toward one man.

  “Five days.” Janey nodded. “But you promise you’ll be back after that?”

  “I’ll be back after that,” Rogue promised. “I just need to get things squared away. That’s all.”

  She could feel Alex’s stare, it was like a laser that cut straight through the lies she was telling.

  “Fine. Five days.” Janey sighed as she stood up. “You can leave tonight’s receipts. I’ll harass Natches and make him get them in the morning. He can work for his share of the profit for the next few days. But don’t think I don’t know what’s going on, Rogue.”

  Rogue’s head jerked up to stare back at her. “What’s going on?”

  Janey leaned forward. “The plague. A plague known as redneck male stupidity. Want to know the cure?”

  Uh-oh, Janey’s smile was all teeth. It was a Mackay smile and never boded well.

  “There’s a cure?” she asked warily. She was intrigued now.

  Janey’s smiled widened.

  “Janey,” Alex said warningly, which only made Rogue more curious.

  Her
brow arched as she stared back at her friend. “A girl can never have enough cures for redneck male stupidity. Just in case she runs across it.”

  Janey leaned closer. “When you get your hands on him, Rogue, and you will get your hands on him, remember one thing. He’s rumored to have stamina, but you have something that can bring him to his knees.”

  “Do tell.” Rogue replied mockingly. Oh yeah, she definitely wanted to hear this one.

  “The word ‘no.’ ” Janey pulled back, her expression tightening in anger. “Tell him to go to hell and walk away.”

  “Like you did?” Rogue arched her brow, remembering well just how effective that had been with Alex.

  Janey pouted. “That was Alex. He’s different.”

  “Uh-huh.” Rogue nodded. “Do tell how different, Janey.” Her gaze flickered to Alex. He was looking less than comfortable with the direction of this conversation.

  “Yes, sweetheart,” he drawled then, his voice silky, curious and warning at the same time. “Do tell us the difference.”

  Janey’s smile was satisfied, sensual, alluring as she gazed at her lover before turning back to Rogue. “His condom broke the first time.” She laughed, ducking as Alex reached for her with a laugh. “I had to have mercy on him. You know, just in case I had to make an honest man of him.”

  Janey’s laughter was filled with happiness as it echoed around the office. Her lover caught her in his arms, lifted her against him, and gave her a kiss that was filled with his smile.

  “And on that note.” He turned to Rogue. “We’ll give you a ride to the bar.”

  “That’s not necessary,” Rogue began.

  “Well, you could ride with us or with him.”

  With him? Rogue started back at him with a rising sense of dread.

  “Meaning?”

  “There’s a certain sheriff’s Tahoe parked out front, most likely ready to turn away any cabs. My truck is out back.” Alex’s smile was tight. “We could sneak you right out.”

  Rogue swallowed tightly. She couldn’t face Zeke, not tonight, not yet. If he was waiting outside for her, then she knew exactly what would happen before they managed to get out of the parking lot.

  She picked up her purse casually, each move deliberate.

  “I appreciate the offer of a ride, Alex,” she said as she stood to her feet. “I think I’ll take you up on it after all. It’s rather cold to wait outside for a cab in this weather.”

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “I thought you’d see it that way.”

  Zeke was fucking up.

  Alex led Janey and a rather silent Rogue to his truck, helped them in, then moved around to the driver’s side with a quick look to the side of the street. The sheriff had gotten sneaky over the past weeks as he watched for Rogue to leave. Tonight, he wasn’t being sneaky at all, and that was telling.

  He grinned as he started the motor and pulled out of the back lot, easing slowly down the street, just to make sure that they were seen. He had no doubt Zeke was watching, and he didn’t mind tormenting his friend a little here and there. Hell, sometimes, a man had to be pushed to follow his heart, and Alex didn’t mind pushing Zeke any more than Zeke had minded pushing him when it came to Janey.

  As they drove past the front parking lot, he timed his good friend, holding back a smile and counting off the seconds until his cell phone rang. He let it ring a time or two before taking it from the clip on his belt and answering with a brief, “Yes?”

  “Rogue’s with you?” Zeke didn’t sound pleased, and Alex considered that encouraging.

  “Yes,” he answered shortly.

  There was a brief silence. “You’re taking her back to her apartment?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  It was all Alex could do to keep from laughing. He could hear the sheer frustration in the other man’s voice, and he sympathized, he really did.

  “It just seemed like the neighborly thing to do,” Alex answered. “Is there a problem with it?”

  That silence again. He could almost feel Zeke glaring at his back. And he probably was, considering the sheriff’s Tahoe had pulled out behind him after he passed the parking lot.

  “No problem,” Zeke finally answered. “Tell her I’ll talk to her soon.” And the line disconnected.

  Alex’s brows arched. Give her a message? Now wasn’t that uncharacteristic of their private sheriff?

  He closed the phone and glanced to the backseat where Rogue sat silently, watching him.

  “Zeke said to tell you he’ll talk to you later,” he told her. “You two been talking a lot?”

  “Or something,” she muttered, turning to stare out the window and keeping her lips pressed together firmly.

  Alex grinned, looked at Janey, and wagged his brows. This was very interesting. Zeke had never been known to chase after any woman.

  “Wonder why he didn’t call your cell phone?” he mused after a few minutes. “Seems odd he’d call me.”

  “Mine might be turned off,” she answered.

  He almost had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. As though that was going to keep Zeke off her ass. She just had no idea. Once a man like Zeke decided what he wanted, nothing would hold him back. And Alex had a feeling Zeke knew exactly what he wanted.

  “Why is he following us?” Janey asked then, her voice smooth, and so genuinely curious as she glanced behind them.

  “Maybe I have a taillight out,” Alex suggested. “Should I pull over?”

  He laughed as Janey pinched his thigh. In the rearview mirror he caught Rogue’s glare. Whatever was going on, he was sure he’d hear about it soon. Until then, he’d drop his passenger off and head home to be with his own woman. Zeke would learn what Alex already knew. There was nothing as satisfying as holding your own woman in the still of the night and greeting the next day with her. He had confidence in the sheriff’s abilities to figure that out. And if he didn’t, well, Alex just might have to help him along a little.

  NINE

  Spring was in full flush in the mountains, the trees were greening out, the evenings were mildly cool, the days pleasant, and the Bar, better known as the biker haven in the Lake Cumberland area, was hopping.

  For a Thursday, it was packed. The winter country tunes were replaced by harder, driving music. Leather and denim rubbed shoulder to shoulder, thigh to thigh, and cycles filled the parking lot along with a heavy share of pickups and SUVs.

  Dressed in her customary black leather pants and sleeveless vest, a lacy violet camisole peeking over the top, Rogue surveyed the crowd. Four-inch stiletto-heeled boots gave her barely enough height that if she strained, she could almost see over the writhing mass.

  Mainstream hard rock and metal was pounding through the PA system, drinks were flowing, bouncers were alert, and Rogue was in her element. She loved the pulse and pound of the music, the laughter, and sometimes, she even enjoyed the fights.

  It had been two nights since she had last seen Zeke, and she had used the time to regroup and reassess the damage she had allowed in her life.

  Rogue had remade herself after the debacle four years before. She hadn’t let that night destroy her, she hadn’t let it beat her. She was bitter at times, but only because she had once believed that Nadine and Dayle had taken away her chance with the man who fascinated her. She no longer believed that was the truth. There had never been a chance, because Rogue knew, even then, the “good girl” image wouldn’t have changed anything. And in time, she would have matured and stepped out of that more submissive role anyway.

  She had moped the past two days. She had pouted. She had even shed a tear or two and watched outside her apartment window as Zeke drove through the parking lot each night before he went off duty. And she had had a spark of realization.

  Rogue didn’t hide. She wouldn’t be a closet lover, she wasn’t going to be one of the women Zeke kept hanging on a string, always worrying, always wondering when or if it would be over on any given night. She wasn’t a submissive litt
le lapdog content to wait on the pillows for his attention.

  That was her realization. It didn’t change the fact that she still dreamed about him, and it didn’t change the fact that she still woke wet and wild, reaching for him. But there were other things in life to occupy her.

  For the moment, Grandma Walker, Lisa, and Lisa’s twin boys were a concern. She had friends, she had family. She had, over the years, become content with her life.

  “Hey, Rogue,” Jonesy called from behind the bar as she moved through the crowd in front of it. “Get your luscious ass back here and help me.”

  Jonesy and his assistant ’tender, as he called her, were working frantically to fill orders as customers lined up around the wide bar.

  Rogue worked her way to the entrance behind the bar, moving quickly to take orders and fill them. Thursday night wasn’t usually this heavy, but the unseasonably warm days and evenings had spring fever in the air. Bikers mingled with farmers and tourists, fishermen and hikers. The Lake Cumberland area had something to tease the imagination and interests of a wide variety of people.

  “Hey, beautiful. I wondered where you’d been.” Hank Gentry was from Virginia. He and his small group of friends made the trip several times a year from their homes to the lake where they rented one of the available houseboats.

  Hank was handsome as hell. Very accountant neat, and biker wild. He liked to say he pretended he was revisiting his twenties when he made his trips.

  “Hank, you’re early this year.” She laughed as she pushed a mug of draft beer his way and turned to pour more for the friends standing behind him. “I see you have your misfits with you,” she yelled over her shoulder.

  The other four men laughed, obviously pleased that they were being called misfits at forty-something.

  “You saving me a dance?” Hank’s wide grin met her as she turned back, handed over the beers, and took the cash.

  “My dance card is full, sugar.” She cast him a wide grin. “Jonesy keeps me leashed to the bar or serving drinks.”

  Jonesy glowered at her. He’d been doing that for two days now. His temper was getting testy, and she was getting ready to take a bite out of his butt for it.