But she almost couldn’t even remember to think about the creature that she had seen. Not when he had taken her out into the depths of the bayou and shown her a green dragon. A striking, incredible, awe-inspiring green dragon.
And he’d been that dragon. He had shifted into it, and then shifted back into his human form, and when he had touched her …the way his hands had felt on her arms were like nothing she had ever experienced before. She’d already been panicking from the shock, and then his touch had only made it worse.
“I shot at you.” The words came out of her mouth without her realizing they were going to. She looked up at Barrett, who was still awaiting her reaction with a wary gaze. “I shot you with a bullet. It did nothing to you.”
He shook his head. “No. Even if you shot me right now, like this, it really wouldn’t hurt me that much.”
“You’re supernaturally strong,” she said, “and resilient. And fast, probably.”
“I can smell your shampoo from here,” Barrett said, building on her list. “And I can tell that there is wisteria somewhere nearby. And I can tell that there will be rain this afternoon from the scent of the air.”
Victoria stepped closer to him, allowing herself to look him over from head to toe. She had been avoiding that because he was shirtless, his rippling muscles on full display were all too tantalizing. But now she really looked at him, noting for the first time that he wasn’t just tall, and broad, and muscular in a normal way. If you really paid attention, you could see that he was supernaturally big. She had never seen another man like him, and as she circled him carefully, her eyes roaming over his muscled back and down over the backs of his legs, she felt her body reacting to him as a woman instinctively reacts to a virile, powerful, gorgeous man.
“Come here,” Victoria said, rounding in front of him again. “Pick me up.”
He arched an eyebrow at her. “What?”
“Pick me up,” she said again, following her instincts. “With one hand.”
Barrett seemed skeptical, but he walked towards her and bent down, wrapping his arms around her thighs and lifting her up so that she sat naturally on the breadth of his forearm, and he supported her entire weight with just one arm. He looked up at her, using his other hand to push the hair out of her face as it fell into her eyes. “Well?” he asked. “Now what?”
There were too many dangerous answers to that question, and Victoria didn’t like that she was considering any of them.
“Put me down,” she said.
He promptly set her back on the ground and stepped back.
She was flustered. From his revelation. From his touch. From his presence, and his shirtless condition, and his story, and all of it. She didn’t know what to believe, and her gut wasn’t helping her at all. She needed time to process. Time away from him.
“I’d like you to drive me back, please,” Victoria said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I need some time to think.”
“I’ll drive you back,” Barrett said, “but what I’ve just revealed to you is a big deal, Victoria. I need some kind of reassurance that you’re not going to go telling anyone. I’ve taken a risk here, and if you choose to give up my secret, I’m not going to try to stop you. That was the deal. But tell me what I’m dealing with.”
Victoria gave him a look. “Do you think anyone would believe me if I did tell them? There’s a reason you showed me instead of telling me, Mr. Rockwell.”
“When are you going to call me Barrett? We know each other pretty well now.”
“When I figure out how I feel about the fact that there’s a body in your garage that I’m now helping you hide.” Victoria dragged a hand through her hair, trying to take a calming breath and center herself. “Look, I’m not going to talk to anyone. I just need to take some time. I have a daughter. She’s going to be off from school soon. I’d like to check in with my partner, and then be home when Olivia gets there.”
Barrett smiled slightly. “How old is she?”
“She just turned sixteen.”
“Wow,” Barrett said. “I wouldn’t have thought you were old enough to have a sixteen-year-old.”
Victoria pinned him with another look. “I had her when I was seventeen.”
“I wouldn’t have guessed you were more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “I’m thirty-three. Are you trying to flatter me, Mr. Rockwell? It won’t work.”
“I’m saying that you look younger than you are,” Barrett said, shrugging one muscled shoulder. “It’s not a crime.”
“Yes, I’m very clear on the fact that you don’t think you’ve committed any crimes,” Victoria said. But she was inwardly pleased with the compliment, and she wondered how much time he had spent looking at her. It was a ridiculous thing to contemplate under the circumstances, but the suggestion that he might find her attractive, or at least pleasant enough to look at, was nice.
Barrett walked over and picked up his shirt, pulling it over his head. He slung the duffel bag over his shoulder as well and nodded towards the path they had both walked down separately. “It’s going to rain sooner rather than later. If you’re ready, then let’s go.”
She was ready, and she followed him as he walked back down the path, keeping a reasonable distance from him but also watching him as he moved. Now that she knew his secret, she didn’t understand how she could have ever missed the fact that there was something not human about him. The way that he moved, the length of his stride, the breadth of his shoulders, the way that each step was so purposeful, his head held high and his vision focused straight ahead. He appeared almost regal, and he was radiating power and force.
It did something to her that she didn’t understand, and as she followed behind him, she knew that she was about to break more of her rules for him. She had started off this day determined to take down the arrogant, interfering, self-important Barrett Rockwell, so that he and his agency would stop meddling in business that belonged rightfully to the police. Now she was contemplating how to help him hide the fact that there was a body in his house until they could figure out a way to investigate it on their own.
The one thing that Victoria held in the highest regard, aside from her daughter, was her role on the police force. And now, with one sweep of his dragon’s wings, Barrett was undermining that. She didn’t know how to feel about that reality, but she wasn’t going to probe any further into it right now.
She was going to go with her gut.
“I’ll help you.”
Barrett glanced back at her as they walked and the first drop of rain fell from the sky, landing on her arm.
“I’ll help you,” she said again, her voice strong and firm. “I won’t inform the police of what I’ve found. And I’ll give you forty-eight hours of my time, working with you to figure out what’s going on. At the end of that time, if we don’t have a satisfactory answer and proof of your innocence, I’m turning everything over the police. If we’ve cleared you …then I’ll turn over the evidence of the true culprit. Is that fair?”
Barrett seemed unperturbed by the rain that was now falling steadily around them, making the wet ground beneath their feet even more sodden so that their shoes were sinking into it. His hair was dripping, curling into ringlets under the impact of the water, and plastering to the sides of his face. She didn’t even want to think about what her own hair was doing as she felt the strands begin to stick to her neck and arms and her clothes suction to her body.
“Are you sure, Detective?” Barrett asked, his voice low and his gaze intense. “There’s no going back from that decision. If you want to back out now, I won’t throw you under the bus with your bosses. I’ll tell them that you came to the house, found the body, and immediately reported it.”
Victoria looked at him warily. “This is what you want, no?”
“It’s what I want,” he said, nodding. “More than that. It’s what I need. But I don’t take your fate lightly either, you know. I’m not all bad, Victo
ria.”
She was beginning to believe that he really wasn’t.
“I’m sure,” she said, hoping the words would convince both him and herself. “But don’t blow this, Rockwell. Don’t make me out to be a fool.”
He smiled slightly, the quirk of his lips wry. “I would never do that, Detective Crenshaw.”
Chapter 13
Barrett
They were both soaking wet when they got back to the car, and the drive to his house was long, cold, and uncomfortable. When they arrived, they both went to the garage first and double-checked that the body was still in place in the freezer. It was. The woman’s skin was icy and pale, and her hair was matted around her face. Her eyes were the worst part, though, followed closely by the slackness of her mouth.
Barrett closed the freezer door and backed away, shaking his head. “Come with me.”
Victoria followed him into the house, and he went to the closet where he kept extra changes of clothes. Because he and his friends were always shifting in and out of dragon form, thus ruining their clothes, he kept plenty on hand—and clothes for Jordan and Hannah, too. He handed Victoria a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and nodded to the bathroom. “You’re going to want to change.”
“This is my uniform,” Victoria said, gesturing down at herself. “I …”
He waited, and she looked up at him, realizing that she was wearing a uniform that she was essentially betraying with what she was about to do. Victoria didn’t argue any further. She took the clothes from him and disappeared into the hallway bathroom.
Barrett went into his own room to strip down, and he turned the shower on in the master bathroom, getting the spray of water nice and hot before he stepped beneath it. As he stood there, washing the rain and the bayou dirt off his skin, he took his first easy breath all day. He had taken a huge risk, and he had convinced Victoria to work with him. He hadn’t meant for things to go that way, but he’d ended up not having a choice.
For the first time, he began to think about why he hadn’t had a choice. When Victoria had come back to his house, the garage door had been closed and the freezer door had been also. Then, without explanation, both had opened, revealing the body to her. He hadn’t done it, and nature hadn’t done it, which meant that someone else had done it. Or some force had done it. There was something or someone who was watching him, unseen, and he had a feeling that someone or something had been around for a very long time, following him in and out of the office and sabotaging his life. This was the most blatant sabotage, which meant that either the person or force was getting confident and therefore sloppy …or this was their final play and secrecy didn’t matter much anymore.
Barrett scrubbed his skin off and quickly washed his hair, then stepped out of the shower and wrapped himself in a towel. He walked into his bedroom and pulled out a fresh pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. He pulled them both on and scrubbed a hand over his hair to shake out any excess water. Then he walked back out to the living room, noting that Victoria was still in the bathroom, and he pulled out his phone.
With just a few quick calls, he had everyone on their way to his house to debrief what they had learned and to introduce Victoria as an ally.
“Hi.”
Barrett turned around when he heard Victoria’s voice behind him, and he couldn’t help but blink at her in surprise. He had known that she was a beautiful woman, but seeing her out of the bounds of her uniform only made that more obvious. She was wearing a pair of tight, black shorts that highlighted the curve of her hips and exposed her long, slim, toned legs. The t-shirt was a bit tight across her full breasts, and the fabric stretched, highlighting the fullness of her curves and contrasting it with the slimness of her waist. Her bare arms and her bare face made her look even younger than she had before, and if he’d had to guess her age he would have started somewhere around twenty-three. Her red hair fell down like a waterfall around her shoulders, and the light dusting of freckles across her cheeks and nose were more prominent now that the rain and the shower had washed away most of her makeup.
“Wow,” Barrett said, the word slipping out from between his lips.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. You look—I mean, the clothes work well. That’s good.”
Victoria nodded, shrugging a shoulder, as she smoothed a hand self-consciously down her t-shirt. “I heard you talking to some people. I guess there’s a meeting. I know that I imposed the forty-eight-hour limit, and we need to use every minute of it wisely, but I do have a daughter.”
“Oh,” Barrett said. “Of course. What time is it? God—it’s probably dinnertime.”
“Getting there,” Victoria said. She looked oddly hesitant. “I’d like to tell Olivia to come here. I can text her the address and get her some dinner, then send her over to her best friend’s house for the next couple of days. They often take her when I’m working on a case around the clock. It’ll be easiest that way. But under no circumstances do I want her to know about you and your friends or the body in the garage.”
Barrett nodded. “Yeah, of course. I would never involve her. She’s welcome to come over. I’ll order some food in because everyone will need to eat, and while she’s here, we’ll keep talk to a minimum.”
Victoria smiled, slightly. “Thank you. I appreciate your flexibility.”
He held up a hand. “Listen, you’re the one doing me a favor, and I don’t take that lightly. You’re more than welcome.”
Victoria nodded to him, then pulled out her phone and began to text.
Barrett went to the kitchen, scanning the takeout menus he had on hand and thinking about how surreal it was that he was now throwing a sort of casual party with his friends and Victoria and her daughter, all while a body lay frozen in his garage and someone—or multiple someone’s—were out to ruin his life. Nonetheless, he ordered a variety of Chinese dishes from one of his favorite takeout places and texted Ryan that he and Angela should pick them up as they drove in.
As he got Ryan’s affirmative reply, Barrett heard Victoria talking, and his ears naturally picked up.
“Hey,” Victoria said, speaking quietly. “No, I’m fine. I’m sorry I’ve been out of contact all afternoon.”
Barrett slid his phone into his pocket and moved closer to the kitchen doorway, listening.
But Victoria was quiet for a long moment before speaking again.
“No, Iz—everything really is fine. But listen. I need some time off. Just a couple of days. I’ll call the chief and let him know. He’ll be on board. You were right earlier that I was way out of line with this …dogmatic need to take down the Rockwell’s. That tells me that I need to clear my headspace a little bit.”
There was another silence.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Victoria said. “It will definitely be good. Any progress this afternoon on our missing woman?”
Barrett felt himself tense, just knowing that the missing woman was likely the woman in his garage.
“That’s good,” Victoria said. “Look, even though I’m going to take a few days, send me updates on her, okay? Let me know what evidence you get from the car.” Another pause. “Yeah. Okay. No—Olivia is on her way to me now. We’re going to do dinner. Yeah. Definitely. Okay, thanks, Iz. Sorry to bail on you.”
Victoria hung up the phone, and Barrett wandered out of the kitchen, watching her.
She didn’t look up at him as she wiped her phone screen off and slipped it into the pocket of her shorts. “I’ve arranged for things at work. That was my partner, Izzie, who you met earlier. They found Annie’s car this afternoon.”
“Is that her name?” Barrett asked, his muscles tensing. So much had been happening that he’d had little time to respect and appreciate the fact that a woman—a real woman—had lost her life, and that her family had lost her. “Annie.”
Victoria nodded. “I think so, yes. She matches the description that I have for Annie. She disappeared around the right time. I would have to run a DNA test
to be sure, but, yes—I think so.”
“What happened to her?”
“She went missing about three days ago now,” Victoria said. “She works the night shift, and she left for work one night, except her husband didn’t realize that she never showed up there. They’re on such different schedules that a couple of days went by before he got worried enough to report her. He thought she might just be busy or ignoring him.”
“She’s married.”
Victoria nodded. “She is. Rather, she was.”
Barrett shook his head, looking away. “Goddamn it. I didn’t kill her, but I’m the reason she’s dead. I’m the reason he’s lost his wife.”
It was nice that Victoria didn’t offer any empty words of comfort. Nor did she try to make him feel any worse than he already did, and a few hours ago, that might not have been the case.
“Izzie is going to let me know what they find in relation to the car,” she said. “If they come up with any evidence that might lead to her abductor, then we’ll know shortly. In the meantime, I think we need to focus on things from your end rather than her end, especially since I’m not even entirely positive it’s the same woman.”
Barrett nodded and started to speak, but there was a knock at his door, and from the hesitant sound of it, he suspected that it was Victoria’s daughter, Olivia.
He nodded towards the front door. “Go ahead. My friends should get here soon, but that’s Olivia.”
Victoria walked over to the front door and opened it, her entire demeanor changing when she interacted with her daughter. She relaxed, and smiled, and hugged the girl as she brought her inside. Barrett couldn’t help but notice how much Olivia looked like Victoria, and he smiled at the interactions between the two.
“What’s going on?” Olivia asked, setting her backpack down and looking around. “It’s weird that you told me to come here. I was going to go hang out at Charlotte’s house.”
“You’ll be spending time enough at Charlotte’s house,” Victoria said, closing the door and stepping back. “I brought you here because I won’t get to see you much for the next couple of days. I’m working on an unusual case.”
Rockwell Agency: Boxset Page 103