“Yes, dear,” Millicent said, looking up the stairs after her. “I was just wondering if you did.” With a satisfied little smile, she patiently waited for them to come back down.
Sharing.
Being independent is fine. More than fine, really. I’ve long realized it’s a good thing, knowing you can be good company all by yourself. Healthy even. But I’ve recently been made aware of how surprisingly fulfilling it can be to share your own good company with someone you care about. It really does magnify all the wonderful things. And the bad things? Well, as it turns out, a little comfort never hurt anybody. And if there’s big, strong arms involved, all the better.
Chapter 20
Don’t you think that one looks fine?” Riley sighed and trudged on to yet another pine tree. Frankly, he could give a rat’s ass about long needle versus short needle. “You know, for someone who’s never had a tree, you’re being awfully picky.”
The rain had ended and there was a brisk wind now. Tanzy brushed her hair back and tried to keep it out of her eyes. “Which is why this one has to be perfect.”
The color in her cheeks and the light in her eyes made him feel like the class A jerk he knew he was bordering on being. He didn’t want to be a wet blanket and normally would have jumped into this whole venture wholeheartedly. After all, he was the one who’d asked her to spend the holiday with him. The least he could do was get into the spirit and buy a damn tree. And he wanted to.
But he was worried about the note and hadn’t yet been able to look at it, much less tell her about it. He’d almost had a heart attack when he’d seen that the photo book had been moved and the stack of papers shifted. But neither of them had said a word, so he’d kept quiet about it, intending to deal with it immediately after seeing Millicent to her car.
Only somehow they’d ended up changing clothes and leaving when she did. Millicent had all but herded them into his truck as she left, wishing them well on their tree hunt. A hunt he hadn’t even known they were going on. Tanzy had explained how she’d been railroaded into it, which he had no trouble believing whatsoever, seeing as he’d somehow ended up promising to head over to Big Harry that very evening to move some furniture around.
To look at Tanzy now, you’d never guess she was doing this little chore under duress. She was all but glowing. Riley, on the other hand, was too busy watching everyone else wandering through the trees to pay much attention to her selections, much less offer his opinion. This had to be the worst place they could have come, with no clear sight paths and a possibly unrecognizable SoulM8 out there somewhere, having taken his stalking up close and personal.
She’d grabbed his hand more than once to drag him to this tree or that, and he’d carefully disengaged his hand each time, hoping she didn’t notice. Not that he didn’t want the contact. In fact, he rather liked how quickly it was becoming second nature to her to touch him, reach for him. But he didn’t want to incite SoulM8 to taking any additional action by making him think he had competition. Of course, just being with any man might do that, but he couldn’t do anything about that.
“Let’s take that one,” he said, pointing to the one she was holding. “It looks perfect.” And will get us the hell out of here. If he’d had any idea she was going to make this an epic journey, he’d have turned the truck around as soon as Millicent’s car was out of sight. The back of his neck was crawling and he wanted to get her home and behind locked doors. He was going to have another conversation with her about upgrading her security. It was a good idea anyway, regardless of the current threat. He didn’t expect he’d get much of an argument this time, after he showed her the most recent note.
“It’s got a huge gap in the back,” she was saying as she turned it around. “See? Riley, you’re not even looking.”
He shifted his gaze back to hers, shifting his body behind her as well. “I know, and I’m sorry.” He kept a running scan as he spoke. “Listen, I hate to ruin this, but I really think we need to get out of here. Now.”
“What’s—” She took one look at his face, then immediately followed his gaze. The color in her cheeks faded instantly. “Here? You think he’s here? But—”
He took hold of her arm from the back, where no one could see, and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Just humor me, I’ll explain when we’re in the truck.”
Thankfully she didn’t argue, and they made a beeline for the parking lot. Riley felt a lot better when they were on the road and he only had the cars behind him to scan. No one had pulled out from the lot after him, as far as he could see, but there was no use in taking chances. SoulM8 could have stayed in his vehicle, parked out along the main road, whatever. Or Riley could be completely overreacting. And he hoped to hell he was. Either way, he was going to err on the side of caution.
Tanzy folded her arms. “What’s going on? What’s happened? Something happened, didn’t it? Before we left the house. Did Ernie tell you something? Did you guys make a match or something?”
“First of all, I want to say I’m sorry. For ruining your tree hunt.”
She snorted. “Don’t. I was only doing it to humor Millicent.”
Riley kept his gaze split between the road and the rearview mirror. “It might have started that way, but you wanted a tree.” He spared her a glance. “And as soon as I think it’s safe, we’re going to go back out and pick the best damn tree there is. That’s a promise.”
She started to argue. He merely sent her a warning glance. She made a face, which made him smile. He caught her satisfied smile from the corner of his eye. They made a good team. He wondered how long that would last.
This all seemed so easy, so natural, when neither had ever been the case in the past for him. Maybe it was because they were a lot alike, the two of them. Both valuing their independence above all else, both struggling to put family issues in perspective, neither looking for someone else to make them happy.
How they’d ended up like this, he had no idea. And yet he had no plans on walking away from it. Scary, yes. But scarier still to run from it and wonder what it could have been like if he’d had the balls to stick it out. So he was sticking it out. He had no clue what he was doing, but staying was the obvious first step.
Apparently buying a Christmas tree was going to be the second. He smiled, feeling ridiculously happy, despite the threat they were dealing with. He’d been a kid the last time he’d really celebrated Christmas. He’d figured he’d merely outgrown the hoopla. Apparently he was wrong about that.
“Okay, you’re right. I guess I want a tree.” She pointed a finger. “But you have to be fully involved in the selection process. If we’re going to celebrate Christmas together, it’s going to be an equal-opportunity holiday. Meaning we both suffer the good with the bad. Now tell me what’s going on. This is the thing you wanted to talk to me about, isn’t it? About SoulM8.”
“I was planning to tell you when you first came downstairs. But then Millicent showed up and I wasn’t about to get into it in front of her.”
Tanzy dropped the defensive posture. “But that was before you got online, right after we—”
Riley slowed and pulled into the next public parking lot. He parked facing the street and the only lot entrance so he could monitor any comings and goings. He didn’t want to tell her this while trying to pay attention to the road and the rearview mirror. He looked over at her, held her gaze. “While we were in bed, or in the shower, someone put a note through your slot.”
She sucked in a breath, then swore. “Into my house? He put something in my house?”
He was glad her anger equaled her shock and fear. It would keep her focused. He didn’t bother with the I told you so’s. There was no point beating her up about the security measures she’d refused to take. The look on her face was punishment enough for them both. “I haven’t opened it yet, but the handwriting on the outside was consistent with that on the note we got at the dance. Ernie did email the employment lists from the charity ball, so we have those now, too. W
e have the guest list from Millicent, so we can compare them both with the FishNet lists. I need to run prints on the new note.” He looked at her. “And the figurine. It would help tremendously if we could also get a writing sample from Martin. We have enough now to do a good comparison.”
But Tanzy was only half listening to him. She was rubbing her arms, and although it was a chilly day in the city, with the wind and the damp from the rain still in the air, Riley didn’t think this had anything to do with her being cold.
“Come here.” He didn’t give a damn who might be watching. He tugged her close, silently cursing the huge console between the seats for keeping them too far apart. He smoothed a palm over her cheek. “We’re going to go by your place and pick up the lists and the card. You’re going to pack a few things, get your laptop. Then you can choose. We can go back to Big Harry. Or we can go to my place. Either/or. Both have the security systems I require in place.”
Tanzy merely stared at him, nonplussed. “I, uh—”
“Don’t argue with me about this, Tanzy.”
She looked into his eyes, and finally nodded. “Okay. We need to go to Millicent’s tonight anyway. Besides, I don’t want to put you out.”
“You wouldn’t.” Not ever. Besides, now that he’d said it, he couldn’t stop picturing her in his bed. “And I know you don’t want to worry your aunt. Why don’t we go to my place first, deal with the card and the figurine, let me make some calls. Then we’ll go to Big Harry, help Millicent with the furniture, and if you want to stay there, fine. With everything going on getting ready for the shower, we can make some excuse about staying there without getting into details about why you don’t want to be at home for the time being.”
Tanzy shook her head. “I don’t want to lie to her.” She sighed. “But you’re right. I don’t want to worry her.” She drew her fingertips over his cheek and along his chin. They were a bit shaky, as was her voice, and he hated that anything had ever made her feel that way. “And if you don’t mind too much, I’d really rather not sleep alone tonight.”
Something fierce and primal uncoiled inside of him. There was no denying the power she’d conferred on him by turning to him in her time of need. But there was more at stake here than her safety. And he discovered he wanted her turning to him for . . . everything. He shifted his head, just slightly, and pulled two of her fingers into his mouth. Her eyes widened and she gasped, both in surprise and in pleasure. He let them slide out, then claimed her mouth. Slowly, with the intent to seduce, to claim, so that she wanted him in her bed every night.
Not as a big watchdog, but because she couldn’t imagine him anywhere else.
“Come home with me, Tanzy,” he murmured, rubbing his lips over hers.
She merely nodded, then deepened the kiss again.
Riley had to force himself to pull away, to not let his need for her cloud every last ounce of judgment he possessed. “We should move on,” he said.
“Yeah.” She pressed one last lingering kiss to his lips, then another one on the curve of his chin, before settling back into her seat. She sighed and when he looked at her as he backed out, he was happy to see the edge of fear in her eyes was gone. Replaced by need. For him.
“We’re getting pretty good at this necking in the car thing,” she said finally, “but I have to tell you, I’m feeling sort of old, because I’d really prefer a nice soft bed somewhere.”
Riley grinned and pulled back out on the street. “Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s hell being a grown-up, isn’t it?”
He pulled into the alleyway behind her row house and tucked his SUV in behind her little sports car. “I want you to stay with me, but let me go in first.”
To her credit, she didn’t shudder or hesitate to follow him. She’d gotten herself together on the short ride home and Riley knew he could count on her to keep a cool head. “Okay. Let’s roll.”
They moved swiftly. Thankfully there were no new notes, or any other surprises, waiting for them inside. Tanzy packed with surprising speed and Riley collected the papers and envelope—the figurine was already in the truck—and slid them in a big padded mailer that Tanzy got from her office. They were back in his truck and pulling out in under twenty minutes.
He checked the dash clock. “I’m about twenty-five, thirty minutes south of here. We’ll still have plenty of time to make it back to Millicent’s by eight.” He glanced over at Tanzy, who’d gotten very quiet. “You hungry? Want to stop and pick something up on the way in?”
She shook her head.
With an eye on the road, he reached over and took her hand. “It’s going to be okay. It will end at some point. Maybe even today, depending on what we get from the note and figurine. I know you don’t want to hear that, but we can’t ignore that Martin has access to your email, he was at the dance, and he has your home address. I know you’re feeling hunted and I’m not ruling out the FishNet angle. But I wouldn’t uproot you if—”
“Actually, I’m pissed,” she said, her voice all but vibrating. “I hate giving him even this much power, to run me out of my own house.” She turned her hand palm up, wove her fingers through his, and squeezed. “But I won’t feel comfortable sleeping here, knowing he was right on my front porch.” She swore. “Whoever the hell he is.”
It was the closest she’d come to admitting her own mentor might be stalking her. Riley said nothing more. She was dealing with enough at the moment. He decided maybe he’d take the scenic route down the coast and cut across town. Then, just on the outskirts, he saw the small hand-painted sign and smiled. He slowed the truck and turned off the main road.
“I thought you said you lived south of the city.”
“I do. We have one stop to make first.”
She merely nodded and stared out the window, but he knew her thoughts were focused inward. On SoulM8. On Martin. On what impact it might have on her entire future. He hoped to change all that. At least for a little while.
He went a few hundred yards, then saw another hand-painted sign. He turned off just past it into a small, makeshift lot. A lot dotted with rows of fir trees.
Tanzy turned to him, and the light in her eyes went a long way toward assuaging a bit of the guilt he felt for putting her through all this.
“You didn’t have to do this.”
Oh, if she could see her face, she’d know that he absolutely had to do this. “Come on. Let’s go find a tree.”
“Where are we going to put it? Don’t you already have a tree at your place?”
He shook his head.
“God, we’re a pair, aren’t we?”
He smiled. “I’ve been thinking about that, and you might have a point.” He came around to her side of the truck, but she’d already slid out. This time when she grabbed his hand, he didn’t slide his back out again.
One hour later and leaving no Christmas tree unexamined, they pulled back out of the lot, a nice Douglas fir tied to the top of Riley’s SUV.
“I don’t suppose you have a stand,” she mentioned. “And I guess I shouldn’t mention that we have absolutely nothing to decorate it with.”
“I don’t have a stand. But . . . I do have some decorations.”
Something in the tone of his voice must have alerted her; she glanced over at him. “Aha,” she teased. “So you have put up a tree before. You’re not as pathetic about the holidays as I am after all.”
“In my own defense, I’ve been known to carve a pumpkin or two. But no, I haven’t put up a tree in years.”
“Then . . . ?”
He sighed, but instead of feeling embarrassed or, worse, emotional and sad at the memories he was dredging up, he smiled, warmed by them, by sharing them with her. It was a pleasant surprise, a welcome one at that. “When my mother died, my dad stopped putting up trees. Claimed it was silly since we were both grown men. I was still in high school, but I know he stopped because it was her favorite time of the year and he simply couldn’t bring himself to deal with it. He sold the house right after
I went to college, but he let me put into storage whatever I wanted for after graduation. So I . . . I kept them. The decorations.”
All of them. Boxes full of memories. All good, he realized now, wondering why he’d let his father’s grief, his own grief, keep him from enjoying something he could still share with his mother. It seemed almost silly now, all these years later. And yet, maybe it was the fact that he wouldn’t be sharing them alone that had finally made it okay. “They’re packed away in a storage shed.” He grinned, that ridiculous sense of happiness filling him again. “Somewhere.”
“Are you sure you want to go digging them out?”
He glanced at her. “Yeah, positive.”
Tanzy didn’t know what she’d been expecting. Some small bachelor pad or something. A few rooms over a storefront that housed their business, whatever. Nothing would have surprised her. Or so she thought.
It was an admitted shock when they wound their way up a semiprivate road above Pacifica, into the hills, to a small house perched at an angle on the side of a mountain. It wasn’t anything fancy; in fact, it was a sort of odd patchwork of rooms sticking up and out at various angles, with a long deck jutting off around the back. She didn’t know that much about real estate down this way, but she did know that, regardless of its rather remote location and less than spacious size, the view of the valley and ocean alone would put a pretty price tag on the place.
He glanced over at her, must have seen something in her expression. “It was a good investment from my playing days. It’s the one thing I kept. For the equity. And the view.”
She looked out over the treetops as he swung into the short gravel drive and parked in front of the garage and a small outbuilding that was probably the shed he’d referred to earlier. Then she looked back at him and found him looking out past the trees, too, to the valley and ocean beyond. This place was a whole lot more than an investment. It radiated from his eyes, from his expression, even his body language. “You kept it because it’s home.” She smiled. “You love it up here.”
The Big Bad Wolf Tells All Page 27