Be Mine(32)
“I did!”
“You did not! Last night, you came to the saloon about my driving. Today, you came here about my ex-husband. Well, let me reassure you, Deputy Hendricks, you don’t need to worry about me anymore. I called about the class. I start next month. And Ellis Stone is starting a landscaping operation, so there’s everything I know. I hope all this important information was worth going that deep undercover!”
He reached for her again, and she shook off his hand, looking frantically around for a sweater that seemed to have disappeared. But Nate was still naked, and though she tried to avoid his eyes, she couldn’t avoid the feel of his skin against hers when he finally caught her and pulled her close.
“I’m asking about those things because I’m trying to figure you out.”
The feel of his hands on her naked back infuriated her. Because they felt good. So damn good, even while she was pissed and humiliated. She felt such a rush of fear and hate at the thought that she was able to shove him hard enough to get free.
“Then there’s something seriously wrong with you. If you want to get to know me, try asking me about myself. You know, the old standards. ‘What’s your favorite movie? What do you do for fun?’ Most men find that more effective than ‘Can I see your license and registration?’ or ‘How’s your ex-husband these days?’ or ‘Tell me all about your f*cked-up childhood.’”
The silence that rang through the room after her last words made clear just how loudly she’d shouted. The shock on Nate’s face was another clue. Jenny pressed her fingers to her mouth as if she could erase the echo of her own voice. “You should go,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve handled this really badly. I wanted to talk to you about it. Christ, Jenny. I meant to talk this out with you, and then I saw you, and I forgot what I was worried about.”
“So you f*cked me and then got right back on the job?”
“That’s not... I just wanted...”
She felt a brief moment of triumph that she’d reduced him to stammering, but that was the most pitiful, stupid victory she’d ever embraced in her life, and it threw a little water on her fiery rage. “I don’t know what this is about, Nate. I don’t know what Ellis has done to draw your attention, aside from pissing you off, but I can’t help. He showed up to see me after ten years, and I sent him on his way. End of story. Now please go.”
“Jenny, I’m sorry. My brain wasn’t working right after I came. I mean, after we made love. You were just so... God, I couldn’t f*cking think.”
She wanted to melt into the floor. Disappear. Cease to exist. Yes. She’d been so. For him. She retreated into the living room and tugged her sweater roughly over her head, desperate to cover herself. “You need to go. Please.”
“I’m sorry,” he said again, but he dressed quickly. “I’ll call you tonight.” When she didn’t answer, he left without another word, closing the door carefully behind him.
There was that ringing silence again. Jenny turned in a slow circle, taking in her apartment in a daze. What the hell had just happened? She’d invited a cute guy over for lunch, and less than an hour later, she’d been f*cked within an inch of her life and then treated like a witness to a crime. Or an accessory.
Oh, Jesus, what was she was an accessory to?
She raced to her bedroom to snatch her phone from the table, then call the number she’d entered just last night. She should have checked inside the boxes he’d brought over.
“Hey, Jennybug,” Ellis said.
“Ellis, what the hell is in those boxes?”
“I told you. Landscaping stuff.”
She slammed her door open and rushed down the stairs. “Where are you? I need you to get over here right now and get these boxes out of my garage.”
“What? I just unloaded them last night! What in the world is wrong with you?”
Jenny stomped over to the old building that was fronted by four dented, beat-up garage doors. It wasn’t attached and it wasn’t fancy, but in a mountain ski town, garage space was a treasured luxury. One she shouldn’t have so easily ceded to Ellis. “Get over here, Ellis. I’m not kidding. I want them out. You’re involved with something. I know it.”
“It’s landscaping,” he said with a firmness that betrayed him. As if he was trying to convince himself. As if he was bolstering an argument. But if it was the truth, why would he need an argument?
“Damn it, Ellis! I was trying to help you.”
“You are!”
She grabbed the handle and pulled the heavy door up. “Not anymore. Come get these boxes or I will put them out in the parking lot.”
He must have heard the enormous rattle of the door, because his voice lost its helplessness and turned serious. “Don’t put my stuff outside. Please. You’re the one who said I could leave it there.”
She moved into the shadows of the garage and stared down at the boxes stacked next to her car. “I changed my mind. I’m hearing rumors. Whatever the hell you’re up to, I can’t be involved. This isn’t a bluff, Ellis. And it’s not a tantrum. Come get the boxes now.”
“Fine. Just shut the door, all right? I’m down at Hoback. It’ll take me a few to get there.”
“Okay. You’ve got one hour. And whatever you’re doing, stop it. Just stop it and leave.” Jenny hung up and glared down at the first box. The flaps were folded over each other to secure the top, but it wasn’t sealed. She reached toward it to free a corner and peek in, but changed her mind before she’d exposed the contents. Better if she didn’t know. Better to have deniability. She jerked her hand back and wiped it on her sweater.
The cold hit her then. Her feet came alive with a twist of pain that shot up her legs. She’d forgotten to put on shoes and the cold was seeping from the cement into the soles of her feet. And the air snuck beneath her skirt to chase away every last vestige of sated relaxation. It whisked away even the memory of pleasure and left her with ice.
“Shit,” she cursed, crossing an arm over her chest as she bit back a shiver. She reached up and pulled down the garage door, wincing when it landed with a crash. It sounded as if the day had broken in two, and that was exactly what it had done. One part had been searing and delicious and frighteningly good. The other part? Well. The other part was a jagged, broken stump. Jenny put her head down and raced up the stairs on numb toes.
* * *
NATE WATCHED WITH weary eyes as Jenny ran back to her apartment and slammed the door. He let his head fall back and stared at the roof of his truck, too stunned to do more. A gust of wind shook the vehicle, rocking it on its axles.
When she’d come out, he’d thought she was coming after him, and he was glad he’d hesitated. Glad he’d sat in his truck in the parking lot like a fool, trying to plan an apology. He’d screwed up, but she would forgive him. This thing between them was too damn good, and she could feel it, too. This strange urgency to be near her. To get closer. After what they’d just done, it was even more powerful. An unseen tattoo glowing beneath his skin, pressing him toward her.
She’d see him waiting, and she’d ask him to come back, and he’d try to explain what he felt, and what he’d meant to say.
But she hadn’t looked up when she’d reached the parking lot. Instead, she’d been talking on the phone, and Nate had eased his door open and shamelessly listened.
The cold had wiped that hot tattoo from his skin, thank God, because it was the mark of a fool.
Jenny Stone wasn’t a sweet, innocent bystander to a criminal operation. She was involved. At the very least, she was actively protecting her ex-husband. Warning him. Tipping him off. At worst, she was participating in this whole operation. Maybe even orchestrating it.
But no. He had good instincts. Good enough that he’d managed to collect his wits even after a bout of the most intense sex he’d ever had. He’d asked what he’d needed to ask, clumsy as he’d been. And now he had his answer.
He was a fool, but he wasn’t an idiot. Jenny Stone was lying to him. Hell, she might even be playing him. But she was only on the edges of this. And if she wasn’t, then she’d pay the price, and this time it wouldn’t be only a suspended license.
But the investigation wasn’t the least bit interesting to him anymore. He didn’t want to pursue it further, and now that he’d slept with one of the players, he couldn’t. He’d call Luis and give him the rundown, and then he’d go to his supervisor. If there was going to be a stakeout tomorrow, it’d be done by another deputy. Nate couldn’t damage the investigation by putting himself in the middle of it. Plus, he had his hands full with damaging himself.
CHAPTER SEVEN
JENNY DRAGGED HER sorry ass into the saloon to pick up an extra shift out of pure pitifulness. She’d moped around her apartment for hours, feeling sorry for herself, and furious with Ellis, and hurt by Nate.