She bent at the waist to search for what had fallen. When she spied the object on the tiles behind the toilet, her heart lurched, and bile rose in her throat.
She crouched, and with a trembling hand, she picked up Wayne’s prized possession. His grandfather’s watch.
Deputy Strozier might not think Wayne would come back to the house, but Lilly was now certain he would.
Chapter 18
Lilly clutched the new phone, debating. Did she call Dave? She didn’t want to be an alarmist. She had the deputy out front watching the house. But the empty house reverberated with frightening memories, too fresh in her mind to dismiss. The one thing that had helped her survive the past few days’ ordeal without falling apart had been Dave’s presence. Even tied up, as he was through most of it, his company, his courage, his level-headed thinking had been a balm. Sharing their grief over Helen had been healing, helpful.
Yes. She wanted him there with her, and she wouldn’t examine too closely all the reasons why. She tapped in the phone number Dave had scribbled on her palm, then her finger stopped, hovering over the call icon.
No. She couldn’t let herself be dependent on him or any man. Men had let her down too many times in the past, and if Helen were to be believed, Dave was just as bad, just as unreliable. She had to cope on her own, no matter how difficult it was.
Besides, Dave was injured and needed time to sleep, to heal. She couldn’t drag him back over here to be her security blanket. She had to figure out her future, find a way to cope the way she always had. Alone. She just wished alone wasn’t so...lonely.
“Hello?” Dave’s voice. As if conjured by her desperate wish that he were near.
She gasped and looked down at the phone. At some point while she’d been wishy-washing, her trembling finger had hit the green phone icon and completed the call. She pushed the disconnect icon quickly, embarrassment flushing her face. The phone rang within seconds. Dave calling back.
She could ignore his returned call and pretend she knew nothing about the hang-up. But as if by its own volition, her thumb nudged the screen to answer. Her heart thumped against her ribs as she lifted the phone to her ear. “Hi.”
“Lilly? Is that you?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you all right? What’s happened?” He sounded anxious, and his concern touched her. When was the last time a man had cared about her well-being?
“I shouldn’t have called. You need rest.”
“If you need something, I’m happy to help. Tell me.”
She said nothing, mentally fighting the urge to beg him to come over.
“Lilly?”
She heaved a deep sigh. “I’m all right. The house just felt so...empty. And—” She caught herself. If she told him about the watch, he’d take the choice from her and rush over. She knew he would, and she wanted him to. But...
“And what? Damn it, Lilly. Talk to me!” he said, not unkindly. His tone was pleading, sympathetic.
Tears prickled her eyes and stung her sinuses. “He left his watch.”
“What?”
She cleared the emotion from her throat and explained how she’d found the watch before her shower. “I took it out to the officer watching the house. It’s evidence. But—”
“You said he freaked when you tried to move it while you treated his wound. We know it’s a prized possession.”
“Yeah.”
Dave was only quiet for a couple seconds, but she knew where his thoughts were traveling even before he said, “I’m coming over.”
* * *
Dave borrowed his elderly neighbor’s car, citing an emergency and promising to have the vehicle back in the morning after he picked up a rental. He hightailed it to Lilly’s and identified himself to the officer in the patrol car sitting at the end of her driveway.
She was watching for him and met him on the porch as he labored up the stairs with his crutches. He’d no more than topped the last step before she fell against him, hugging him. Trembling. Her breath shuddering.
He dropped his crutches to hold her, realizing he needed her close as badly as she seemed to need him. “It’s okay, Lil. I’ve got you.”
Her hair was damp, and she smelled of floral shampoo and clean pajamas. Like a bit of heaven. Like home.
His breath snagged when the thought flitted through his mind. As much as he liked Helen, enjoyed her company, he’d never experienced the sense of belonging, the absolute rightness with her that he felt with Lilly. Was that what his gut had been telling him all along with Helen, the reason he’d been so slow to commit to her? Helen hadn’t been his destiny, and deep down his soul had known it.
“I didn’t want to call you. I hit the call button by accident,” Lilly rasped.
He angled her back to peer at her freshly scrubbed face in the porch light. “And the other numbers? Did they dial themselves?”
She scowled at him, a pink flush staining her cheeks. “Of course not. But... I shouldn’t have called. I shouldn’t have...wanted you here.”
He dipped his eyebrows as he studied her. “But you do. So when are you going to quit beating yourself up for the way you feel?”
She pulled free of his embrace and turned away. “Please, let’s not rehash this. I didn’t call you so that we could argue.”
He sighed and bent to retrieve his crutches. “I don’t want to fight with you either, Lil. Far from it. And if you’d listen to what I know your instincts are telling you, we’d never have to have this discussion again.”
She opened her mouth, her expression conflicted, but said nothing as her internal battle played out on her face.
“Lil, I could see your indecision when you left the hospital. You kissed me because your heart told you it was right.” When she shook her head, he placed a hand on her arm. “Okay. For now we’ll agree to disagree, because I’m not going anywhere. Not when we both know Wayne will be back to get that watch. You may have turned it over to the cops, but he doesn’t know that.”
He saw the shiver that chased through her. While he’d rather believe she wanted him there for him, he’d settle for being her protection. Staying bought him time to figure out how to reach past her defenses and destroy the wall that stood between them.
Finally Lilly gave a small nod and led the way inside. She stopped in the middle of the living room floor, hugging herself and casting her gaze around at the clutter Wayne and the police had left. Crumbs, beer bottles, dirty dishes, wadded wrappers and, over it all, a fine layer of black powder. The man was a pig and had left behind a sty. The fingerprint powder only doused the trash, reminders of their ordeal, with a dark sense of macabre.
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I decided to leave this to clean later. I can’t stand to even look at it right now.”
“So don’t.” He hobbled closer and raised a hand to her shoulder. “Let’s go to another room.”
She sent him a sad look. “The kitchen’s just as bad. The only room that doesn’t give me the heebie-jeebies at the moment is the guest bedroom, and only because I have no memories of him there.”
He bobbed a nod. “Then that’s where we’ll go.” He started down the hall and paused at the bedroom door, when he noticed she hadn’t followed. “Lilly?”
She grunted and stalked past him into the room, her bare feet silent on the hardwood floor. “I can’t sell this house fast enough. It’s a morass of bad or bittersweet memories.”
“You have none that are good?” he asked, and she gave a dismissive shrug.
A parade of his own good memories in the house with Helen walked through his brain, leaving his heart feeling bruised for the loss. Yet for all the time he’d spent here with Helen, his thoughts zeroed in on the most recent moments spent here, especially of huddling against Lilly on the bed so she could sleep without choking. They’d shared confidences, exchanged dry humor
and bolstered each other during the long hours of captivity.
“Truth is, I rarely visited Helen here. She usually came to my place. There’s more to do in Denver.” Lilly hugged herself and stared blankly at the floor, her expression bereft. Weary.
Dave squeezed the foam handgrips of the crutches, knowing he had a choice to make. He could risk looking like a reprobate and fight for the woman he’d fallen for, despite his history with Helen...or be discreet and walk away, forever wondering what could have been.
A cold disquiet settled in his bones. He hadn’t been able to do anything about losing his job due to his injury last December. Hadn’t been able to do anything about losing Helen. Had spent excruciating hours tied up and unable to do anything to stop Wayne’s reign of terror. But he’d be damned if he’d let Lilly slip through his fingers, when he wanted her more than his next breath. He was through with feeling helpless, with being unable to change the crap that kept coming at him. He firmed his jaw and set his mind. But...
He also needed Lilly to want him. He wouldn’t shove his way into her life if she had any regrets or reservations. Helen had left him with a reputation for being unfeeling, unavailable, uncommitted, despite his best efforts to make her happy. Was that why Lilly fought her feelings for him? Because he could see her confusion and tangled emotions as clear as day when she looked at him. Her attraction to him was in her kiss, and her appreciation for him in her smiles. But doubts still lurked in her haunted eyes.
“Lilly, we both need sleep. Come to bed.” Sighing his fatigue and consternation, he sank down on the guest bed, which he could tell Lilly had recently remade with clean sheets. The fact that a cell phone was plugged in charging on the nightstand gave further credence to his theory she’d already planned to spend the night in this room. Setting his crutches aside, he propped his injured leg at an angle on the mattress, and within seconds, Maddie jumped up next to him and head-butted Dave’s hand.
Dave scratched the cat’s cheek and stroked her back. “Hey, Maddie. Glad to see you survived unscathed.”
Lilly began pacing, her fingers twining and untwining as she fidgeted restlessly.
Dave stroked the cat, sending loose tufts of her long fur flying, but kept a keen eye on Lilly for the next couple of minutes. When it became clear she wasn’t about to quit pacing and fretting, he nudged the cat aside and patted the mattress. “Lilly, come on. Sit. Talk to me.”
She faced him but shook her head. “Dave, I’m just...tired of talk.”
“Then we won’t talk. We’ll sleep. I know I’m exhausted.” He pulled back the sheets, and after taking off his shoes, he carefully moved his injured leg under the covers. He wasn’t lying about his fatigue. While at his house, he’d cleaned up, brushed his teeth and shaved, then dressed in comfortable athletic shorts and a T-shirt in preparation for bed before her call came in. Now the comfy mattress and fluffy pillow beckoned to him.
She gaped at him. “You’re sleeping in here?”
“The better to protect you, my dear,” he said in his best Big Bad Wolf voice.
Her scowl and lifted eyebrow challenged him. “Mmm-hmm, and who is supposed to protect me from you?”
He gave her a mock-startled gasp. “Wha—little old me? Why, I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “You know what I mean.”
Setting aside the teasing, he narrowed his eyes on her. “Lilly, nothing is going to happen in this bed that you don’t want. If all you want is sleep, then we’ll sleep.” When she continued to stare at him with a conflicted expression, he added, “We’ve done it before. We slept next to each other the other night without it turning sexual.”
He didn’t add that just because he hadn’t made any sexual overtures toward her the night she slept propped against him didn’t mean he hadn’t entertained erotic thoughts about her. Her scent, her softness and her breath on his skin had been a sensual feast that teased his imagination.
She scoffed. “The other night, our hands were shackled. That hardly counts.”
He opened his mouth to counter her argument, but snapped it closed again when she flipped off the lights and returned to the bed. Whipping back the sheets, she climbed into the bed and sent a waft of air to him that smelled deliciously of fresh sheets, floral shampoo and toothpaste. Normal domestic scents that made him think of building a home with Lilly and being surrounded by her sweet aroma every day.
Whoa, wrangler! he scolded silently. He was really getting ahead of himself there. But it didn’t escape his notice that he’d never had those sorts of daydreams and longings with Helen.
Lilly cut a side glance to him. “We sleep,” she said firmly as she settled and drew the covers up to her chin.
“We sleep,” he confirmed. “Good night, Lilly.”
“’Night.” She rolled onto her side, her back to him, and Maddie crawled up to sleep atop the covers in the bend of her legs, still purring.
Dave lay on his back, staring at the ceiling, one arm folded behind his head. Sleep dragged at him, but he kept an ear tuned for strange noises in the house that might indicate a prowler. Wayne. His gut roiled knowing their captor was still out there.
He wasn’t usually a heavy sleeper, but as tired as he was tonight, he feared he might fall into a deep slumber and not hear trouble. He debated his options, even as his eyes drifted closed and his limbs relaxed.
He woke again some undetermined time later to a subtle noise. He tensed, immediately wide awake, and strained to listen for a repeat of the muffled sound that had roused him.
When the quiet noise came again, it wasn’t what he expected. Not a thump of footsteps or creak of a door, but a sniff. A tiny sigh. A tremulous indrawn breath.
Lilly was crying.
Chapter 19
“Lil?”
Lilly stilled when she heard Dave’s voice. She held her breath, certain she couldn’t exhale without him hearing her tears. Or had he already heard her? She’d been sure he was asleep, but—
“What’s wrong, sweetheart? Why are you crying?” His sympathetic tone crumbled what little reserves she had left.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. She wiped her nose and gave an indelicate sniff. Now that she’d been discovered, she saw no point in being discreet.
She felt the bed jostle as he turned to her and pulled the hair back from her face. “Please, Lil. Talk to me. What’s upset you?”
“I don’t know. Truly. Nothing...and everything. Stress and relief. Helen, Wayne, you, Alan... Everything kind of boiled up all at once, and I couldn’t stop the tears.” She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes and groaned. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“Don’t apologize. I understand. It’s a lot to process.” He rubbed her arm, and his kindness dug deeper into her raw soul.
A fresh wave of tears filled her eyes. “Yeah.”
“It’s my recent understanding that sometimes crying can simply be for the catharsis. Is that it?”
She blinked damply, surprised at his insight. “How—?” She stopped herself. Helen. Of course.
“I paid attention, even if she said I didn’t.”
Lilly believed him. She was seeing a man who might not always get things right, but he always tried. Her sister had sold him short.
He stroked her hair and spoke quietly. “Can I do anything for you?”
“No. I—” Her voice cracked. Damn it, why did he have to be so kind? He only made it harder to push him away.
Dave tugged on her shoulder, turning her onto her back. Her movement rousted Maddie from her position against Lilly’s legs, and the cat jumped down from the bed.
Braced on one arm to lean over her, Dave dried her cheeks with his fingers. “You’ve been a rock the last few days. You deserve a good catharsis. Don’t shove it down on my account.”
A pale sliver of moonlight filtered in through th
e window over the bed and lit his chiseled face. Even with the bruising from his scrap with Wayne, he looked so handsome, it made her heart hurt. Lord help her...
“Go back to sleep.” She patted his chest near his shoulder. “I’m okay.”
He tipped his head, peering at her with a skeptical frown. Putting his arms around her, he drew her close as he settle back against his pillow. “C’mere.”
“Dave, I—”
“Shh. Close your eyes and relax. I’m just going to hold you.”
She should have used the hand she had against his chest as leverage to push him away. But as he snuggled her close and began massaging the muscles at the base of her skull, her tension dissolved, along with her resolve. Her loneliness and fear evaporated. Her tears dried.
The comfort he offered was a welcome balm that easily lulled her into a state of anoetic bliss.
Her achy limbs relaxed. Her scampering pulse slowed. And the lethargy she’d been fighting for days, as she’d needed to stay alert to dangerous shifts in her situation, permeated every cell.
Until...
Dave moved his massaging fingers from her nape to her shoulders, then let his palm stroke along her spine. As his hand traveled down her back, his touch, intended to soothe, sent sparks of heat crackling through her veins. He gave the small of her back a deep rub, and a sweet hum radiated along her nerves like plucked guitar strings. Her body sang with every caress as he trailed his fingers back up to her neck, where he buried his fingers in her hair and massaged her scalp. She heard a soft moan, and when Dave’s attentions stilled, she realized the erotic sound had come from her own throat.
Rancher's Hostage Rescue Page 19
