Beautifully Broken Pieces (Sutter Lake, #1)(55)

I relaxed into the knowledge. It helped me to keep from freaking out about his frequent lip touches and gentle caresses. It was just Walker. I didn’t need to read anything into it.

His roughened fingertips spread some sort of ointment across the scrapes on my back. I turned my head to the side, catching a glimpse of his shoulder. “Thank you.”

“I’ll be here to take care of you anytime you need.”

“You can’t promise that,” I whispered.

Walker squeezed my arms and placed a kiss on the back of my head. “I can promise anything I want to. But if it makes you feel better, I’ll just say, I’ll do everything I can to be here when you need me.”

A tightness took over my body. I both desperately wanted to sink into that reassurance and run as far away from it as possible. I settled for something in the middle. “How about I just thank you for taking care of me this go-around?”

“That works for now.” Walker rose from the bed and grabbed my hand so that I stood with him. “Now, why don’t I make us some breakfast before I have to head into work.”

I breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t suggesting I try cooking for him now. “That sounds perfect.”





29





Walker





A knock sounded on the doorframe of my open office door. “Were you just whistling?” Tuck asked, disbelief lacing his tone.

My head snapped up, and I forced the shit-eating grin I’d been wearing off and on all morning from my face. “Maybe.”

Tuck studied me intently as he crossed to one of the chairs opposite me at my desk. “You seem…chipper. Way too cheerful for someone who had his ex go missing, and the girl he likes shot at just yesterday.”

A muscle in my cheek ticked as a pang of guilt hit me at the reminder that we still had no leads regarding where the hell Caitlin was.

Tuck’s eyes narrowed. “You got laid!”

“Would you keep it down?” I gritted out as I stalked around my desk to shut the door. “I don’t think the entire office heard you.”

“You did. You sly dog, you. I find the girl, and you swoop in all hero-like and catch her when she almost faints. No wonder you got in there.” I smacked Tuck upside the head as I walked back around to take the seat behind my desk. “Ow. What was that for?”

I settled in my desk chair. “That was for being an idiot.”

“What? Your best pal in the world can’t be happy when his boy gets himself some? Especially some that is as smokin’ as Taylor.”

My jaw clenched. “Don’t talk about her like that.”

Tuck’s eyes flared. “Understood. I get it, I do. This one’s different.”

I scrubbed a hand over my jaw that was beginning to ache. I was trying really hard to do exactly what I had instructed Taylor to do: take things one day at a time. Not think about what the future might hold.

But what I did know was that I had never had sex like that before. A fire had licked through me that I knew might never get extinguished. So, I was going to do my damnedest to get Taylor to stay in Sutter Lake, to really let me in. It might be an uphill battle, but I never backed down from a fight.

I met Tuck’s stare. “It is different with her. There’s something…I don’t know…” I pulled at the collar of my shirt. “Something special about her.”

A grin split Tuck’s face. “I’m happy for you, brother. Really fucking happy.”

“Don’t get too excited. She’s slippery. Like a horse that’s been hurt. Skittish. No sudden moves, if you catch my drift.”

Tuck nodded, but before he could say anything else, another knock sounded on my door. “Come in,” I called.

Clark poked his head in. “Perfect. I was just about to call Tuck after I spoke with you, Walk.”

“What’s going on, Chief?”

Clark strode towards the empty chair, gripping the back of it so tightly, I thought it might snap. Shit. This was not good. “Some hikers found another body.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. It felt as if the air were made of tiny shards of glass that shredded my throat and lungs. “Caitlin?” I asked, my voice rough. We hadn’t ended well. She’d been a bitch to Taylor. But I knew she would’ve gotten over it, gone back to the sweet girl I had known growing up. My chest tightened when I thought of her parents.

Clark kept his gaze on me steady. “It’s looking that way. I know the two of you had history. I’m sorry, Walk.”

I straightened in my chair. “You’re not taking me off the case, are you?”

Clark shook his head. “No. Maybe I should, but you’re the best I’ve got. You’re not family, and you weren’t currently seeing her. I can bend the rules.”

I jerked up my chin. “I appreciate that, Chief.”

“You can thank me by catching this son of a bitch.”

I didn’t let my eyes move from his. “We will.”

Clark released his death grip on the chair. “Get on out to the crime scene.” He gave us the details of where the body was located, along with instructions to keep him up-to-date, and then headed back to his office.

What freaked me out the most was that the body had been found so close to where we had discovered Taylor. I roughly pocketed my phone and shut off my computer with enough force to send the machine rocking.