Extreme Danger (McClouds & Friends #5)(51)

He didn’t speak. He didn’t nod. Wow. Breathtaking. It took balls to be that rude. But balls he had, in abundance. No doubts there.

She cast around for another starting place, wrapping the robe more tightly around her quaking body. “Aren’t you cold like that?”

He shook his head, took a last drag on the cigarette, and ground it out. “My body temperature is a couple notches higher than normal,” he said, his voice distant. “Like I’m always running a mild fever.”

Then why are you so cold? She wanted to scream the words.

She didn’t. Dignity was all she had to cling to, but anger bubbled beneath the surface of her rationalizations and justifications.

“Did you hear anything those guys said to each other when you were serving dinner?” he asked abruptly.

She winced. “Do I have to think about it now?”

He turned, stared at her. “Yeah,” he said. “Right now.”

She closed her eyes, trying to remember. “Lots of general chitchat, about economics. And then the country club guy said—”

“Country club guy?”

“That was how I thought of him. Rich, handsome, privileged, Ivy League type. He said something about the structure being outfitted and the waiting list growing. That he wanted to conduct more testing. Then the Spider interrupted him, and told him they’d talk business later.”

He nodded, and turned away.

She was sick of being dismissed. She grabbed a handful of his hair. “You look like a caveman, with your hair snarled up,” she said.

He took a gulp of coffee. “I am a caveman,” he said.

She rolled the matted lock between her fingers. “You might want to rub some conditioner into that before you try to comb it.”

“I’m not going to bother combing it,” he said. “I’ll just buzz it off. I’m sick of looking like a St. Bernard anyhow.”

She was startled. “I can’t imagine you with short hair.”

He shrugged. “Got to change how I look. The more change, the better.” He looked back over his shoulder at her, eyes narrowing. “So do you. Go blonde, maybe. Go short for sure. Get colored contacts. Today. Better yet, leave town for good. That’s the best idea of all.”

She was startled. “I can’t do that! I work! I have responsibilities!”

“Who cares? Re-order your goddamn priorities. If you want to stay alive, anyway. You can’t fulfil your responsibilities when you’re dead.”

“Oh, great. So we’re back to the inspiring theme of how I’m destined to die a horrible death? Early in the day for that.”

He glared back through the tangled caveman hair. “I’m not trying to bum you out,” he said. “I’m trying to make you face reality.”

Face reality, her ass. She snorted, thinking suddenly of Justin and Kaia in the hospital. “What is it about men wanting to make me face reality these days? Justin told me a bunch of stuff about myself that I didn’t want to hear, either, but I think you take the prize, Nick.”

“Justin?” He made the connection. “Oh, yeah The *. The one who was banging the other girl. The one whose photo you just tossed. So I’m worse than him.”

She choked on a sip of coffee. “Ah, not exactly,” she said, coughing. “I take it back. He was worse.”

He looked perplexed. “Worse how? He was banging two chicks at one time?”

“No!” she snapped. “He—”

“Was doing a guy? Switched sides on you, huh?”

“Would you shut up and let me talk?”

He made a silent zipping motion over his mouth.

“You have to promise not to laugh,” she told him.

“I don’t laugh much,” he said. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Besides, you told me some of this already.”

She pressed her hands over her cheeks, which were heating up, despite the goose bumps on the rest of her body. “Not in detail. The night of our engagement party,” she began, “there was this girl there. Kaia. I didn’t know her. One of Justin’s college friends. Tan legs that reached up to her chin, cornrowed blond braids, pierced nose, tie-dye, Barbie goes to Woodstock. The daring adventuress. She wowed the crowd with her tales of trekking in Nepal and crewing on a yacht on the South Seas. Justin told me he’d never been involved with her—”

“He lied,” Nick interjected.

She glared at him. “I figured that much out all by myself. So anyway, I was mixing up a round of daiquiries, and Justin asks me, can he use my car to give Kaia a ride to the train station. And I thought nothing of it. Until the hours started going by.” Her voice trailed off. They listened to the wind swishing the tree boughs below the porch.

“Fucking cheating weasel,” Nick said, meditatively.

“Yup,” she agreed, her voice demure. “Well, anyway. Turns out Kaia was giving him oral entertainment in the car. As he drove.”

He twisted against the railing, his face full of wary fascination. “How did you find out? Don’t tell me he was dumb enough to confess.”

She gave him a lofty, disapproving sniff. “No, he did not. I found out when I got the call. From the hospital.”

“Hospital?” His eyes widened. “What the hell happened?”