Be With Me(55)

As she picked up her fork again, the phone rang.

O r a phone. It wasn’t the main line. Al three men looked around for their cel phones. Sawyer reached across the bar and snagged the offending phone, opened it and stuck it to his ear.

“Pritchard,” he said.

There was a long silence and Sawyer frowned.

Then it turned into a dark scowl.

“Fuck. Are you shitting me? No, don’t do anything.

One of us wil be over to take care of it. Just sit on it until we get there.”

He closed the phone and dropped it on the bar with a grimace.

“We have a problem.”

“Obviously,” Cam said. “What is it?”

Reggie stared curiously at Sawyer, waiting for his response.

“Job site’s been shut down by the city.”

“Which one?” Hutch demanded. Plans were Cam’s thing. But Hutch and Sawyer oversaw the construction.

“The art gal ery.”

“Why?” Cam asked.

“That I don’t know,” Sawyer said in a disgruntled voice. “That was Tom on the phone. Said someone from the city came out and cited three violations.

Pul ed the permit. Goddamn it. One of us is going to have to go down there.”

Chapter 21

Regina sucked in her breath as panic surged in her chest. She didn’t want one of them going off alone. It left the door wide open for whoever had a beef with her, or Hutch, or her father, or whoever the hel it was, to get to them.

“I can go,” Hutch said.

Sawyer sighed. “No, I wil . It’s my project. You and Reggie need to get her shopping done.” Shopping. Her brain worked overtime as she struggled to figure out how she was going to prevent them from splitting up. She couldn’t protect them if they were al in different places. Together, they posed a much more serious threat, and after two run-ins with the psycho trying to kil her, she’d had enough.

Her body had taken enough punishment, and she had no desire for the wack job to get to her, any more than she wanted the guys in his line of vision.

“We could al go,” she blurted.

Three heads turned in her direction. Hutch frowned, and Sawyer stared curiously at her.

Oh boy. She had to make this good. Going from avoiding them al the time to suddenly wanting to be around them twenty-four seven?

“Wel , I mean if you wanted to,” she finished lamely.

“I wouldn’t mind getting out of town for a while.” She scanned al their faces as she said the last.

Cam’s expression was thoughtful. Sawyer’s was more calculating, and she could see he liked the idea of removing her from the immediate vicinity of the danger she faced. Hutch looked more undecided.

“And I do have to get some clothes,” she added when no one spoke up. “Not that I want to do any hard-core shopping, but surely there’s somewhere close to your house where I could pick up some jeans and a few shirts.”

She sounded desperate. She sank further down and picked up her fork to shovel the remaining bite of cold eggs into her mouth. They were never going to buy into her sudden change of behavior.

She clutched the empty plate and backed off the stool. “It was just a thought,” she said as she rounded the bar to dump her plate into the sink.

“I like the idea,” Sawyer final y said. “This might take a couple of days to wrap up, and it gets you away from here. Hopeful y by then the police might have a suspect or even make an arrest.”

“I could finish up the plans at the office,” Cam offered. “Another hour or two isn’t going to make a difference.”

Regina turned to look at Hutch, who was stil regarding her rather curiously. She would have said suspiciously, but she was going to ignore that thought. Besides, she had decided to stay with them regardless of the danger they might be in, hadn’t she?

“Are you sure you feel up to this, Reggie?” Hutch asked. “I know you’re feeling better, but that’s not the same as being ready to run off to Houston and go shopping.”

She made a face. “Shopping here or shopping there. It’s stil shopping. Besides, I can kick back in your house there same as here, right?” A prickle of discomfort worked up her spine.

She’d al but invited herself, and while that would have never bothered her before a year ago, now she felt like she was assuming a lot.

“I, uh, suppose I should have asked if it was okay if I tag along and if you and Cam actual y wanted to go back to Houston with Sawyer.”

Hutch closed the distance between them and pulled her against his chest. “Don’t be ridiculous, baby. You’re welcome anywhere we are and that’s a fact. You’re just going to have to let us catch up here.

After a year of trying to pin you down in any one place long enough to exchange more than a few pleasantries, it’s a little hard to deal with the fact you’re here, and you want to be with us.” Her chest tightened, and guilt blasted her despite the fact that she knew she wasn’t using or manipulating

them.

Okay,

maybe

she

was

manipulating them, but it was for their own good, and she did want to be with them. She’d just have to wait until later to sort through her feelings surrounding the idea of having al of them. Preferably when there wasn’t someone determined to kil her and possibly them.