“Don’t thank me. I was trying to avoid running into you when I raced out into the parking lot last night and didn’t pay attention to my surroundings.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t owe me any apology for that. I’m the one who didn’t trust you. I’m sorry.”
“If I accept your apology, will you agree to accept mine?”
“I guess so.”
“Grudge holder, are you? Good to know,” he teased.
She answered seriously, “Actually, I’m the least grudge-y of all my siblings and me.”
He smiled warmly at her. “I’m glad the air is cleared between us. Now, I’m getting out of here so you can take a nap. You look exhausted.”
She actually was, but she said stoutly, “I’m fine.”
“Yvie.” His voice was reproachful. “We’ve been over this before. You don’t always have to be fine for me. You can show weakness or fear or sadness—or anything, really—and I won’t think any less of you. I’m not your brothers. More importantly, I’m not your father.”
And on that note, he turned and left the room, leaving her to stew in her own thoughts. He wasn’t her father? That was an astute observation. How did he know that Fitz only seemed to value strength in his children? Although, she supposed to meet Fitz was to recognize that about him.
She did wish her father had paid more attention to her when she was a kid. Maybe told her, or at least shown her now and then, that he loved her. She wished he’d been at least a little proud of her. Heck, Uncle Shep had told her more often that he loved her and was proud of her than Fitz ever had. Sigh.
She dumped a pain pill out of the bottle on the bed stand and swallowed it with several gulps of water from the glass. As the sweet relief washed over her, she closed her eyes and let the deep silence of Reese’s cabin in the woods envelop her.
CHAPTER 14
Reese cracked open his bedroom door to check on Yvette, but she was out cold. Good. She needed the rest. From watching her in the hospital, he knew she would likely sleep for several hours after taking one of her pain pills. He set an alarm for her next wake-up check and backed out of the doorway.
He went to his kitchen at the far end of the house and called the precinct. “Hey, Jordana. How goes the clean-up of your sister’s lab?”
“Slow. The intruder really trashed the place.” She added, “Oh, and speaking of which, we checked the logs, and it turns out Yvette’s ID badge was used to gain access to the forensics lab.”
“So the mugger knocked her out, stole her ID out of her purse and got into the lab?”
“Looks that way.”
“Anything missing?” he asked.
“Yeah. That big puzzle box Yvie’s been sweating over.”
His partner might as well have punched him in the gut. That box again? What was so danged important about it? Or rather that key hidden inside it. “And the key?”
“It is logged into Yvie’s database as being locked in her wall safe. Which, I’m pleased to report, the robber did not break into. So, the key should still be safe in there.”
That was great news. “Any luck figuring out what that key unlocks?” he asked his partner.
“Nope. I’ve got emails out to every bank within a three-hundred-mile radius of Wichita. If it’s a safe-deposit box, someone will respond.”
“Hopefully sooner rather than later.”
“Nobody except Yvette or Chief Hilton knows the combination to the safe. He’s at his hunting cabin this weekend, and Yvette has been unconscious, so nobody has opened the safe to verify that the key’s inside.”
“If her paperwork says it’s there, it’s there,” he replied confidently.
“How’s Yvie?” Jordana asked.
“Tired. In pain. Trying to be tough.”
“That sounds like her. Thanks for taking care of her. I’d have volunteered to take her to my place, but it’s in chaos right now.”
“Why’s that?”
“Packing for the move,” Jordana admitted.
He frowned. “I didn’t realize you were going so soon.”
“If you’d found the love of your life, would you mess around for long getting to her side?”
He envisioned Yvie, pale and beautiful against his pillow when he’d left his bedroom. “Nope. I’d get her as close to me as possible and keep her right there.”
“There you have it.”
“Holler if you need help packing,” he offered.
“You’re doing plenty looking out for Yvette. That’s an enormous weight off my shoulders.”
He disliked the idea of Yvie being perceived as a weight of any kind to her family. She was a lovely person and independent as all get-out. She hated being a burden to anyone. But it wasn’t his job to fix the Colton clan’s family dynamics.
Thoughtfully, he pulled out vegetables and a pot roast and got to work making a big pot of beef stew.
Surely, Markus Dexter was the intruder who’d bowled over Yvette in the attic of the Dexter home. There’d been no sign of forced entry to the house, which indicated someone with a key had been the intruder. Of course, Yvie might have left the door unlocked when she’d entered. He would have to ask her when she woke up.
If Dexter had been the intruder who’d gone looking for the puzzle box in his own attic, it stood to reason he was also the mugger in the parking lot and thief of the box from Yvie’s lab.
And, if that logic was correct, the attack in the parking lot also indicated that Dexter was not averse to violence against others. Now that he thought about it, the mugger had hit Yvette in the head…which was the same way both Olivia Harrison and Fenton Crane had died. Blunt trauma to their skulls. Was her recent attack further proof that Dexter was the killer of Harrison and Crane?
He woke Yvette at the two-hour mark after she’d gone down for her nap, disturbing her just long enough for her to mumble at him to go away.
Smiling a little, he backed out of the room to let her sleep. About supper time and almost time for another two-hour check on Yvette, headlights coming up his driveway flashed through his front windows.
Who’d driven all the way out here after dark? He wasn’t expecting anyone. He shrugged into his holster and unsnapped the flap over his service weapon as the car parked in his driveway.
Standing to one side of his front window, he was startled when Lilly Colton got out of her car and headed up his sidewalk. He opened the door for her and she thrust a big deep casserole dish at him.
“What’s this?” he asked. “And please come in.”
“It’s my world-famous banana pudding. Yvette’s favorite.”
“It’s kind of you to think of her.”
“She is my baby,” Lilly said a bit tartly, sounding just like her daughter when Yvette was irritated. He grinned at the resemblance between mother and daughter.
“I’m glad someone remembers that,” he retorted.
“You don’t like us Coltons very much, do you?”
“I like most of you just fine. But to be brutally honest, I’m not a huge fan of your husband.”
“Neither am I. That’s why I’m divorcing him.”
Interesting. She was divorcing him and not the other way around? “I’m sorry about that—”
She waved a brisk hand. “No condolences necessary. I should have done it years ago. I waited until all the kids were grown and settling down into their own lives. But now I wonder if I should’ve done it long ago and saved them having to put up with an absent father—” She broke off. “I’m sorry. You didn’t ask to hear about my marital problems.”
“I don’t mind. You were my dad’s nurse a few years back when he had a heart attack, and my family credits you with whipping him into shape and convincing him to finally take better care of his health.”
She laughed a little. “Oh, dear. I hope I wasn’t to
o hard on him.”
“Not at all. You gave him exactly the kick in the pants he needed.”
“Mom? I thought I heard your voice.”
He whipped around to see Yvie standing in the doorway, her hair tousled, squinting at the bright light in his kitchen. “What are you doing out of bed?” he demanded.
“I’m not dead for crying out loud, and my legs aren’t injured. I can walk.”
Lilly threw him a commiserating look and said gently, “Sweetheart, you have a serious concussion. I’m sure Dr. Jones told you to stay in bed for several days and rest.”
“I can’t sleep twenty-four hours a day, Mom.”
“No, but you can rest twenty-four hours a day.”
“Thank you,” he chimed in. “You heard your mother. Back to bed with you, Yvie. I’ll bring you a bowl of my mother’s world-famous beef stew, and if you eat all of that, you can have a bowl of your mom’s world-famous banana pudding.”
“Banana pudding?” she exclaimed, and then immediately winced. Her voice much lower, she continued, “Thank you, Mommy.”
Lilly moved over to kiss her on the cheek and give her a gentle hug. “You’re welcome, darling. If you need anything, you call me, okay? And, Reese, if you need a break from her, I’m happy to come over and sit with her while you escape for a bit.”
“I’m not that awful a patient,” Yvette complained.
“Then what are you doing out of bed?” he asked wryly.
“Fine. I give up. I can’t fight both of you. I’ll go back to bed, if just to get some peace and quiet.” She called back over her shoulder as she disappeared down the hall, “And a bowl of my mom’s pudding.”
He took the opportunity to turn to Lilly and ask quietly, “How are you doing? I know it’s none of my business, but you’ve really been through the ringer these past few months.”
“It’s kind of you to ask, and I’m surprisingly good. I have more support than I ever knew I had, and I’m at peace with my decision to leave Fitz.”
Was Shepherd Colton part of that surprise support network? He was sorely tempted to ask Lilly why she and Shep hadn’t told Yvette that he was her actual father, but it was emphatically none of his business.
Lilly left quickly after that and Yvette called out that she was starving, so he put the matter of her parentage from his mind.
* * *
Yvette had a secret. She loved sleeping in Reese’s bed. Not only was it huge and comfortable, but it smelled like him. She could snuggle down under the thick comforter and feel completely surrounded by him even when he wasn’t there.
He’d wanted to send a patrol car out to watch the house when he had to go in to work, but she’d argued nobody except her family knew she was out here, and she was perfectly safe by herself for a few hours. Reese hadn’t liked it, but he’d eventually given in.
He made quick trips in to work after her first twenty-four hours of constant wake-ups ended, but he refused to talk about anything that was going on at the department with her. Which she took as a bad sign. He was avoiding stressing her out.
Gradually, her headache eased, and by day four it had mostly disappeared. She felt pretty good and was starting to get bored and housebound. When Reese went to the office on day five, she declared herself sick of being sick and got out of bed and dressed as soon as he left the house.
She picked the place up, raided the kitchen and discovered that he had all the ingredients for homemade spaghetti from scratch. She set to work pulling together a big pot of sauce and setting it over very low heat to simmer all day. Then, she built herself a fire in the fireplace. It was impossible not to remember the kisses they’d shared in front of it before. And yes. She wanted more.
To that end, she hunted around in his pantry and found some candles. She set the table for two and made a centerpiece of pinecones and some bright holly berries she brought inside. She stood back to observe her work. Considering that she was working within the limits of a bachelor pad to create a romantic atmosphere, she declared her efforts not bad.
She heard his truck pull into the garage, and she checked her makeup and hair in the bathroom mirror quickly. Thankfully, her mother had brought over a bag with some of her clothes and toiletries the day after she brought over the pudding.
She swept out into the living room just in time to see Reese step into the kitchen and stop cold. “What have you done? You’re supposed to be resting!”
“This was restful. I’m bored to death, and cooking a nice dinner was relaxing. Think of it as therapy for me.”
He hung up his coat and came over to kiss her leisurely. He confessed, “I like coming home to you like this every day. I look forward to seeing you the whole time I’m at work. Is that weird?”
“Not weird. No weirdness at all.” In fact, it made her insides jump with pleasure and little warm fuzzies skitter across her skin.
He held her chair for her at the table. “You sit. I’ll serve us.”
She smiled when he set a plate heaped with a giant pile of spaghetti and sauce in front of her. “Fattening me up so no other guys will look at me?” she murmured.
He slipped into his seat, grinning. “What if I am?”
“Then I’d say we’re getting serious with each other.” Whoops. All of a sudden, the light humor of the moment evaporated, leaving the two of them staring awkwardly at their plates.
“Forget I said that,” she mumbled. “I’m an idiot and my mouth frequently gets ahead of my brain.”
He smiled a little. “In my experience, your brain moves at light speed most of the time.”
They dug into the meal and didn’t talk much for a few minutes. But then Reese said, “If you’re bored, maybe I could bring home something from your lab for you to work on a little? Nothing strenuous. If you promise not to overdo—”
“That would be amazing!” she exclaimed. “My laptop, maybe? That way I could get emails and keep up with correspondence on various pieces of evidence I’ve sent out for analysis.”
“I’ll bring it home with me tomorrow.” He added carefully, “Seeing how you’re feeling better, maybe now would be a good time to tell you that whoever mugged you in the parking lot also stole your ID badge and broke into your lab.”
She gasped. “Was anything stolen?”
“The puzzle box was taken. And, umm, your lab was, well, trashed.”
“What? How bad?”
“Jordana and a couple of the other guys have spent this week putting it back together as best they can. The department’s insurance is paying for replacing the lab equipment that was damaged.”
“What equipment? How damaged?”
“It’s a few machines. You’re safe. That’s what matters.”
She sat back, staring at him. The wreckage must have been bad, given the way he was avoiding her questions. “Was any other evidence taken?”
“Unknown. Jordana has been going through your database of logged evidence and trying to match it to stuff in the lab. But she’s no forensics expert. I’ve been helping out where I can, but some of what you do is beyond my training.”
“Gee. I’m glad you finally admit that maybe I know more about my job than you do.”
He rolled his eyes.
“When can I go to the lab to check it out? Will you drive me in tomorrow?”
“The doctor said to rest.”
“The doctor said three days after a day of bedrest. It has been five days since the incident. I’m fine.”
Reese raised a sardonic eyebrow at her. “If I could erase the word fine from your vocabulary forever, I would do it in a minute.”
She rolled her eyes back at him. “All right, then. I’m fully recovered, have no headache and am sick of being marooned out here in the middle of nowhere. I want to get back to my work. My important work that will help nail a murderer.”
�
�You don’t like it out here? I thought you’d find my cabin restful and quiet.”
Darn it. He sounded hurt.
She sighed, her indignation broken. “I love it out here. I love the quiet and the trees, and your place is incredibly comfortable and pleasant. But I have a job to do, people depending on me. I need to get back to it. How would you feel if you were in the middle of a murder investigation and had to stop working on it for a week?”
“Which is pretty much what has happened this week,” he said with a sigh. “I ought to be putting in sixteen-hour days on the Harrison-Crane case, and instead, I’m going into work a few hours a day in and around making sure you don’t overdo it. Which I wouldn’t have any other way, mind you.”
She stared at him in dismay. “I don’t want to keep you from your job. What you do is important.”
He looked up quickly, meeting her gaze with surprising intensity. “You’re more important. Hands down.”
She stared back, stunned. More important to him than his precious career? Wow.
“And you’re not mad about me taking you away from your work?”
He frowned. “Of course not. Family always comes before work no matter how important the work might be. It’s not even an issue for me.”
Oh. Huh. Maybe it was an issue for her because her dad had always put his work above his wife and kids. “You’re sure about that?” she asked in a small voice.
He leaned forward and took her hand in his. “When I saw you in that hospital bed unconscious, my world…ended. And it didn’t begin again until you woke up and spoke to me.”
“I… You… We…” It wasn’t often she was at a complete loss for words, but she was now. She reached out and laid her hand over his on the table. He flipped his hand over beneath hers and twined their fingers together.
“Yeah. That,” he muttered in response to her stammering.
“We haven’t even…we hardly know each other…it’s too soon…” she tried.
“I know.” He finally lifted his gaze to hers. “But there you have it. I fell for you like a ton of bricks.”
Panic at how fast he’d fallen for her and she for him roared through her. “I have all kinds of quirks and flaws you don’t know about. I’m a basically terrible person.”
Harlequin Romantic Suspense December 2020 Box Set Page 42
