The man’s grip was strong and his attitude straightforward. “Eli Jervain. I’m new in the area, but I’m already a huge fan of your peach pie. I can’t wait to try some of the others.”
Ronnie grinned. “Hey, Safara, I like this guy.”
They quickly gave him their orders and waited in companionable silence until he brought their drinks. As Eli looked around, it was obvious that most of the people scattered around the diner knew each other. Back before his life spun out of control, he might’ve found the curious looks sent their way amusing. Now, with everything that had happened, he wished the whole damn bunch would mind their own business.
She must have picked up on his discomfort. “They’ll quit staring eventually.”
“You’d think they’d never seen a stranger before.”
“It’s not that. A lot of strangers pass through town on their way up and down from the pass.” Her eyes took on a teasing twinkle. “They’re not used to seeing me having dinner with a strange man, especially a handsome one.”
He liked knowing she found him attractive, but it was hard to believe she didn’t have every eligible man within fifty miles hot on her trail. “Why not?”
Her pale skin flushed rosy. “I don’t date much.”
It was tempting to press for details, but he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. He felt obliged to share a bit of his own past. “Me, either. Too many deployments and transfers, never spending much time in any one place.”
Ronnie was back with their dinners, and they concentrated on eating. It would’ve been a grave insult to the man’s culinary skills to let the food get cold. They were on their second cup of coffee and waiting for their desserts to arrive before they started talking again.
It didn’t take long to exhaust the usual casual subjects—favorite books, movies, and sports teams. Maybe it was time to move on. When he reached for the check, Safara grabbed it first. “It’s my turn to buy.”
“Fine, but I’m keeping score. I’ll buy next time. Think if we drove to the next town, we could eat without being stared at?”
She laughed. “Maybe, but I know quite a few people there, too.”
He held the door open for her. “Fine, then we’ll drive even farther. Make a day of it.”
And wouldn’t it be great if they also made a night of it? Not that he’d suggest taking that step quite yet. Eventually, though, he wasn’t going to be able to resist fanning the spark of attraction he saw in her eyes when she thought he wouldn’t notice.
The evening air felt good, cool without being too cold for comfort. “How far away do you live?”
“About a mile from here on the outskirts of town. Why?”
He rocked back on his heels to stare up at the night sky. “It’s a nice evening. I thought maybe we could walk.”
Safara joined him in admiring the stars above. “I’d like that, but are you sure? You’ll have to walk all the way back to get your truck.”
“The exercise will do me good.” He patted his stomach. “Especially after that giant piece of chocolate cream pie.”
He let her set the pace as they strolled. Other than the diner and the service station, all the other businesses were closed, which afforded them the closest thing they’d had to privacy all day. After the first block, he gave in to the temptation to snake his arm around her shoulders and tug her in closer to his body. He would’ve let go if she’d protested, but instead, she settled her left arm around his waist.
“Do you have to work tomorrow?”
Safara nodded. “No, but I’ll probably go in to cover so Dad can be with my grandfather.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t ask your deputy friend if you could join him and his crew when they head up to my place in the morning.”
She continued to walk right beside him, but there was new tension in the way she moved. They might still be physically close, but he could feel the separation anyway. “I trust Will to do it right. He’s good at his job and doesn’t need me looking over his shoulder. I’m sure he’ll share whatever he can with Dad. Either way, it’s his case, not ours.”
Eli wanted to call bullshit on her, but he didn’t bother. Maybe she really believed what she was saying, but more likely she hoped to throw him off the scent with her too-casual attitude. No way she or her father would be satisfied with someone else investigating her grandfather’s attack. He’d bet his bottom dollar that they not only suspected the perpetrator was the same guy who had attacked Safara, but they knew it was.
If he were them, he’d go by the book and let the county sheriff’s team do their job. Once Will finished his investigation up on the mountain, he’d go on the hunt himself. He’d give them twenty-four hours, forty-eight max, before Safara and maybe her father headed up to the ridge to do their own search. The only thing they wouldn’t expect was for Eli to be lying in wait to see what the hell was going on up there.
But that was a problem for another day. Right now, he wanted to enjoy the last few minutes of their time together.
They turned off the main drag. “I live just down the street.”
He wasn’t ready to say good night and head back up the mountain by himself, but his gut instinct said this wasn’t the time to press Safara for more than this quiet walk through town. There were too many secrets between them. He might wish that she’d trust him enough to tell him what was really going on, but he couldn’t fault her for playing her cards close to her chest when he was doing the same thing.
“This is it.”
Safara coasted to a stop in front of a small house set some distance back from the street. It was well maintained and gave off a warm and welcoming vibe.
“I’ll see you to the door.”
She took a step back. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I know. I want to.”
Because he just wasn’t going to walk away from her one second before absolutely necessary. She stared up at him for a long second or two and then slowly nodded. What had she seen that had her taking his hand and leading him toward her house? He couldn’t find the words to ask and wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answers.
All too quickly they were standing on the porch. He waited while she dug out her keys and unlocked the door. “I don’t suppose you want me to come in and look around. You know, to make sure everything is okay.”
Rather than take offense, she huffed a small laugh. “While I appreciate the gentlemanly thought, I wouldn’t inspire anyone with my ability to be a police officer if I’m afraid to walk into my own house by myself.”
He couldn’t argue with her about that. “Well, then I’ll say good night, but there’s one more thing I need to do before I go.”
“Which is?” she asked, but from the way her dark-lashed eyes slowly drifted down to focus on his mouth, she already knew the answer.
He caught her jaw with his fingertips to tilt her head to the exact right position. “I’ve wanted to do this from that first night.”
She lifted her hands around his neck and leaned in closer. “What were you waiting for?”
“The perfect moment.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “And you think this is it?”
“Guess we’ll find out.”
He brushed his lips across hers. Soft. Welcoming. Enticing. Perfect.
On the second pass, she protested. “Quit teasing.”
Eli smiled and kicked the intensity up a notch. He tasted the corner of her mouth with the tip of his tongue, loving it when her lips parted long enough for her own tongue to dart out in invitation. He tightened his hold on her, pulling her flush against his chest as he deepened the kiss. She tasted like coffee with a hint of rich, dark chocolate. She was a perfect fit in his arms, her body lean and womanly. He pressed her against the door and rocked against her, letting her feel the hard evidence of how much he wanted her.
The small sounds she made drove him crazy. It was so damn tempting to carry her inside and follow this to its logical conclusion. To strip them both
down to the skin and discover all of each other’s secrets. To learn what she liked from a lover and then give it to her over and over again. His breath caught in his chest.
Secrets. His. Hers.
That thought dragged him back from the edge, and he banked the fire that threatened to rage out of control. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—take Safara to bed when he couldn’t even tell her his real name. How could he ask her to trust him with her truth until he was willing to share his own? And what if those men from the crash site found him? By their choice or his own, he might have to disappear with no explanation. It wouldn’t be fair to Safara to let her think they could have a future together until he could lay his past to rest.
While he waited for his pulse to slow, he tucked her head under his chin and simply held her close. “I was right. That was perfect.”
He felt her smile against his chest. “No arguments there.”
Time to leave. It took a surprising amount of strength to step back from the precipice. “Keep me posted on how your grandfather is doing, and thank you for dinner, not to mention the dessert.”
“We both know how much you love Ronnie’s pie.”
“True enough,” he said as he traced her smile with his fingertip. “But for the record, I wasn’t talking about the pie.”
Then he gave her another quick kiss, one meant to be friendly, before walking away. He liked that she stood watching him until he was halfway down the block. She waved one last time before disappearing inside her house. He kept walking because it was the right thing to do, even if he hated every step that took him farther away from her.
THE NEXT MORNING, her father wasn’t at the hospital when Safara stopped by to check on her grandfather, but her aunt arrived shortly afterward. Bitti offered to sit with Halder during the day, leaving Safara free to work. Since Jakes had spent most of the night at the hospital, he was still home in bed asleep.
Not needed at the hospital, Safara headed over to the police station. She wasn’t scheduled to be out on patrol, but she could answer phones while catching up on paperwork. An hour later, she was still staring at the same report. Her mind kept wandering back to last night—or at least certain parts of it.
Eli Jervain sure knew how to kiss. If he hadn’t slowed down their headlong rush, she wasn’t sure she would’ve found the strength to step back on her own. The press of that big body against hers, rock hard in all the right places, had felt amazing. Historically, she’d always been a bit skittish when it came to sex. Letting someone get that close was not something she took lightly. It was hard enough to protect everyone caught between two worlds when she kept outsiders at arm’s length. It became nearly impossible if she dropped that barrier. Most of the time it wasn’t worth the effort just for a little hot sex.
Maybe it was how they’d met and everything that had happened since that made it next to impossible to maintain any distance with Eli. Admittedly, she had a thing for tall men with broad shoulders, but it was more than that. It meant something.
Or maybe she was fooling herself.
The sound of the office door opening jarred her out of the endless circle of doubts she’d been trapped in. She recognized the footsteps. Without bothering to look over her shoulder, she held up her empty mug and said, “Hi, Dad. The coffee is fresh.”
She saved the still unfinished report and sat back in her chair while her father poured them each a cup and carried them over to sit down beside her desk.
“I stopped to see your grandfather on my way here. He’s awake and asking when he can go home.” He offered her a wry grin. “Those nurses have no idea what they’re in for if they think they’re going to keep him down for long.”
The news that her grandfather was already stirring up trouble eased the knot of tension she’d been carrying in her heart since she’d first listened to Eli’s terse phone message. “Was he able to tell you what happened?”
“A little. I didn’t want to discuss it with Bitti there, and we only had a few minutes alone while she went downstairs to grab a quick bite.” His expression turned grim, his gaze angry. “He was visiting a friend who lives not far from the crossing. As he was heading back to where he’s been staying, he ran into Tiel’s gang. Everything seemed normal until they suddenly grabbed him by the arms and dragged him into the cave.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched as he spoke. “Tiel told him they wanted him to take a message back to us. Dad agreed to tell us whatever they wanted him to, but they laughed and said he was the message. Then they had fun cutting him up and then threw him across the barrier. I don’t know if they meant to hurt Dad or kill him, but that doesn’t matter. Once Will is finished with his investigation and gets his people out of our way, we’ll end this threat for good.”
His pronouncement wasn’t a surprise, but she hated that it had come to that. The problem was tracking the culprits down. “They’ve obviously been slipping back and forth across at that spot for a while now.”
Her father pinched the bridge of his nose as if fighting a headache. “Yeah, that’s what I think, too. At least one of the bunch must be able to control the barrier. To make matters worse, I’m going to be tied up for a while taking care of your grandfather. Bitti will help out as much as she can, but she has a job and her own family to look after.”
“I can help, too.”
“I know, sweetheart. One way or the other, we’ll manage.”
They lapsed into silence for a short time. He obviously had something on his mind but was reluctant to bring it up. She had no doubt what—or actually who—the subject would be when he finally corralled his thoughts.
With a deliberate show of casual interest, he finally asked, “So, how was dinner last night?”
She wouldn’t make it easy for him. She wasn’t some teenager subject to her father’s dictates about who she could date and who she couldn’t. “Good. It was fried chicken night at the diner.”
By this point, his mouth was a straight slash of frustration. “When I drove Bitti back to my house, the cruiser was parked here at the station.”
She walked over to the honor bar and bought a candy bar for each of them. As she opened her own, she sat back down. “I dropped it off for one of the guys to use since I wasn’t scheduled to patrol today.”
“Good thinking. About Eli, did he . . . did you—”
Okay, it was time to end this discussion once and for all. “Dad, stop right there. For the last time, we are not having this conversation. What Eli and I did or did not do last night is none of your business.”
Her father’s hand slammed down onto her desk. “You’ve already made that perfectly clear. I told you my concerns about him. Now it’s up to you to make the right decision.”
Enough was enough. “And if my definition of ‘right’ doesn’t match up with yours? What then, Dad?”
“Then you put all of us at risk.”
She threw her candy bar across the room and lurched up to her feet. “Don’t you dare lay that guilt trip on me. I’ve spent my entire life protecting our secrets. If you want to point fingers at the ones who’ll most likely bring the Paladins down on all of our heads, then Tiel and his friends are the ones you should be talking to, not me and not Eli.”
It was time to get out of there before the two of them did irreparable harm to their relationship. “It’s my day off. I’m going home.”
He caught up with her before she made it out of the door. “Look, I’m sorry. Maybe I was out of line.”
She glared into gray eyes that matched her own. “Seriously, Dad? Just maybe?”
“Fine. I was out of line.”
That was when she realize how tired he looked. It was easy to forget all he’d been through in the past week, starting with her being attacked and then his father being almost killed. “What can I do to help?”
His shoulders slumped in relief. “Once Will and his people are done poking around up on the mountain, we need to set up a schedule of people to stand watch to figure out how often Tiel
and his friends are crossing over and where they hole up when they do. Once we know that, we can organize a group to end this threat before it gets out of hand.”
“Good thinking.” She paused to run through her own schedule in her head. Other than work, there wasn’t anything she couldn’t reschedule. “I’ll take first watch. When should I start?”
“Will’s expecting me to call later to see what they found up there. Once he gives me the all clear, I’ll let you know. But for now, plan on starting the stakeout late tomorrow afternoon or early evening.”
That made sense. Oddly enough, the people from Kalithia who were afflicted with the light disease preferred to cross into this world at night. It took time for them to acclimate to the bright light of the earth’s sun.
“All right. I’ve got a few things I need to get done if I’m going to spend tomorrow night up on the mountain.”
Her father clearly wasn’t happy with the situation. “I hate the idea of you up there alone, but right now I don’t have anyone else I can send. Maybe I’ll join you if your grandfather is doing better.”
“One way or another, we’ll get through this, Dad.” She gave him a quick hug. “I’ll park the ATV in that same spot. It’s far enough from Eli’s cabin that he shouldn’t hear me coming. I’ll skirt the clearing where he saw Tiel and me fighting. I don’t want to risk drawing him into this mess any further than he already is.”
“Good thinking. I’ll talk to you later.”
Once again she started to leave, but then turned back. “Do you ever wish we were human, Dad, and didn’t have to deal with all of this? I love our people, but life would be so much simpler if we didn’t have to watch every word we say. I know we came here to make sure I didn’t end up like Mom, but sometimes I swear I think we should’ve taken our chances in Kalithia.”
“Don’t talk like that. Your mom wouldn’t have wanted you to suffer like she did.” He grimaced. “Like I did.”
Like Tiel’s family would when they ended his violent rampage once and for all. Her heart hurt for all of them. No one took any pleasure hunting their own kind, but this last attack left them no choice.
In Darkness Transformed Page 9
