By the end of the week, Damian’s mind had been completely preoccupied with thoughts of Bethany. He reasoned that his unease about the area she was living in all by herself was because of his job, and it was in his nature to feel concern. He’d seen enough happen on that side of town to know he wasn’t exaggerating. But even with the cases in which he was involved, he could always detach himself from the possible victims. This felt a little too personal for someone he knew so little about, and that he didn’t quite understand.
He worked through most of the weekend, as he was pretty much accustomed to. So Sunday afternoon he took advantage of the time off and decided to give his car a much-needed wash. Like playing his guitar, waxing and detailing his cars was also therapeutic for Damian. He could lose himself in the fine lines and curves of the rims—waxing and polishing the intricate details of the moldings, headlights, and grille. He’d been out there for almost an hour and was about to get started on the inside when he opened the passenger door and something fell out. It hit his foot and bounced under the car.
“Damn it.” He got down on one knee and leaned all the way down. It was a weird shape, and he couldn’t make it out. Reaching for it, he knew what it was the second he touched it. By the time he pulled it out, he was smiling like a fat kid at an all-you-can-eat pizza joint. A woman’s hair clip—Bethany’s. It had to be. There’d been no other women in this car in at least a month, and he cleaned most of his cars at least once every other week.
Deciding to skip the inside detailing of the car, Damian jumped into the shower instead. He had a delivery to make. Would she be performing today? He’d find out soon enough, and if she wasn’t, he knew where to find her.
* * *
Thinking it’d be best if he dressed down, Damian threw on a pair of cargo shorts and a tank. It was his day off, after all, and besides, it was hotter than hell out. He wasn’t going to be in the audience again if she was performing, just making a delivery that he hoped would get him her number this time. He smiled as he slapped some aftershave on, remembering Bethany’s sweet laugh and bright eyes. Glancing at his shoulders and arms, he smirked. He’d bulked up before he’d even joined the force, but over the years he’d picked up a pretty impressive amount more. Figuring it wouldn’t hurt to show a little of what he’d worked so hard for, his choice of a muscle-revealing shirt was a good one.
Just as he was about to walk out, his phone rang. He frowned, staring at the caller ID—Jerry. For a second, Damian considered just sending it to voicemail, but his conscience won out and he answered.
“Hey, Jer, what’s up?”
“Damian! There he is!” Damian was glad to hear his friend sound upbeat. “Finally no tag, you’re it. What are you up to, man?”
“Not much, just getting ready to run some errands.”
“Errands? Really, on a Sunday?”
“Well, yeah, I need to pick up a few things and then maybe stop at the market.” He winced, because he felt like a jerk lying to Jerry like that, but what was he supposed to do? Tell him he was driving all the way downtown to take Bethany her fifty-cent hair clip? If anyone would see right through that, it would be Jerry. He started out the back door, slipping his wallet in his side pocket and pulling his sunglasses on.
“What are you up to?” Damian asked, in an effort to get off the subject of his errands.
“I got a date with my speed date girl.”
Damian stopped in his tracks. Jerry was going out with Bethany? Damn, he knew he should’ve said something sooner. “Really? Wow, so she’s giving you another shot?”
“What?”
“Bethany, right?” With his voice suddenly sounding a bit hoarse, Damian cleared his throat.
“Oh, no. No, no, no, this is one of the other girls I met that night.” Damian heard what sounded like a chuckle. “I’m a stud, dude. I got ’em coming at me from every direction.”
Damian thought about how it took Bethany a few seconds to remember Jerry and smiled. But this was too close and way too unsettling. Though the amount of time he’d spent thinking about her all week was bordering on the obsessive, he’d come to the same conclusion each time. Moving in on someone his best friend was actively pursuing was out of the question. And since he hadn’t had a chance to talk to Jerry all week, Damian wasn’t sure how serious his friend really was about it. He’d even begun to prepare himself for the possibility that he just might have to be around her with Jerry. Since nothing had actually happened between them, except the unspoken incredible thing he was certain she’d also felt during her show, he figured he could live with it if he had to. That it wouldn’t be so bad seeing her with Jerry. Each time he thought this, he ignored the memories of his insides warming when she’d sung to someone else and when he had to watch her sing with Simon. It wasn’t until he heard Jerry say he was going on a date with his speed date girl that he finally admitted this was bad.
No girl had ever inundated his thoughts like this. And certainly never this quickly. He’d convinced himself that it was just temporary infatuation—nothing but physical attraction. But judging by how overwhelmingly relieved he was to hear Jerry wasn’t going out with Bethany tonight, he knew it was more than just a physical thing.
Obviously things between her and Jerry weren’t serious yet. As far as Damian knew, Jerry hadn’t even seen her again since the speed date. Filled with a sudden urgency, he gripped the phone and bit the bullet. He had to before it was too late. “Listen, Jer, so you and Bethany haven’t gotten real close, have you?”
Jerry was quiet, then he spoke up. “Uh, no, why? Did she say we had?”
“No! I mean,” Damian backpedaled from his overzealous answer, but the last thing he wanted was for Jerry to get the idea she was interested. “I didn’t ask her, and she didn’t mention anything. I was just wondering.”
“No, I haven’t had a chance to even chat with her. We’ve only emailed. That night was going to be my first chance. And, well, you know what happened.”
Not about to give him a chance to say he was still interested in trying, Damian went in for the kill. This was the last thing he thought he’d be doing when he got up that morning, or five minutes ago, for that matter, but he had to now even if it meant embellishing a bit. “’Cause, uh, I think she and I hit it off that night.” He paused, holding his breath for a moment, but Jerry didn’t say anything. “So I was thinking since you’re obviously still shopping around, that it might not be a big deal if I asked her out.”
His friend’s continued silence unnerved him. But moments later, hearing Jerry’s sudden laughter had him letting out a heavy sigh of relief. “You dog, you! Hit it off? Really? Knowing you, that could mean anything.” He laughed some more, and Damian rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure, I’m cool with it on one condition.”
“What’s that?” Damian asked, getting into his car and knowing that at this point there’d be nothing he’d object to so long as he and Jerry were cool about this, and he wasn’t breaking that unspoken bro code between them.
“You gotta tell me exactly what you hit and don’t leave any of the gory details out.” Jerry laughed again. “And you said that speed date thing was stupid.”
“It was stupid,” Damian insisted, slipping on his earpiece and switching the call over before starting the ignition. “And I didn’t hit anything. What kind of friend do you think I am to try anything before checking with you first?” Damian decided he’d keep his hair clip delivery trip all the way downtown to himself. “All I did was give her a ride home, and we stopped to grab something to eat. She hadn’t eaten all day.” He made sure to add that last part since he was supposed to have been eating the steak Jerry paid for, but he wasn’t about to admit why he hadn’t. “She just seems like someone who might be cool to hang out with, that’s all.”
“I told you she was intriguing,” Jerry reminded him, sounding a little too smug. “And I don’t care what you say, that speed date landed us both future wife prospects. I was thinking about emailing Bethany again, but aft
er talking to Janis for over an hour last night, I’m really excited about hanging out with her in person now. She may be the one—my soul mate.”
Damian couldn’t help but shake his head as he hopped onto the freeway. The one? Soul mate? After just one call? And future wife prospects? Damian didn’t know about all that. All he had said and was thinking was that it might be cool to hang out with Bethany. As usual, Jerry was way ahead of himself. “Easy now,” Damian said, smiling. “I’m just looking to hang out with her, not marry her.”
“Well, you know what they say.” Damian could hear the silly smile in Jerry’s voice already. “Love strikes when you’re least expecting it. When are you asking her out?”
Having just come up with the idea of taking Bethany her hair clip, Damian hadn’t thought this through, but since he did make it sound as if they hit it off, he couldn’t tell Jerry he didn’t even have her number yet. “Not sure, sometime in the next few weeks maybe.”
Maybe sooner if things went his way today. He wasn’t like Jerry. He’d feel her out for a while. Get to know her before deciding if he was ready to plunge into anything at all.
“Well, let me know if you go back to where she works. You may not like dinner shows, but I do.”
“Yeah, I’ll let you know.”
Like hell he would. His second encounter with Bethany had gone a hell of a lot better than his first, but the fact remained she’d hit the big fat Reject button on his ass at the speed date. She’d at least given Jerry her email and the possibility of another date. Damian hadn’t even been able to get a name out of her that first night. And while this time around she’d been far more amicable, neither one of them had addressed the connection he felt during her performance. He hated to even think it, but there was still the very real possibility that she did that at every show.
The last thing he needed was to go back with Jerry and for her to put on a similar show for him. Jerry might not be a ladykiller, and no one would be getting rich putting out sexy insurance salesmen calendars anytime soon, but he was a nice guy with a kind of charm some women might be into, including Bethany. Damian would pass on bringing Jerry around Bethany until he was sure he’d gotten past the Reject button.
“So anyway,” Jerry said. “I was calling to tell you it looks like I’m gonna be a dad.”
“What?”
“A full-time dad, that is.” Jerry exhaled loudly, then explained about Ashlynn hating Shannon’s boyfriend, who had just moved in a few weeks ago. She’d also been getting bullied at her current school. “She’s really miserable, so Shannon and I agreed she can move in with me and go to school out here until she goes away to college.”
Damian didn’t know whether to laugh or head straight to Jerry’s place and try to knock some sense into him. “You have any idea how hard it’s going to be to raise a sixteen-year-old girl all on your own, Jerry?”
“I won’t be totally on my own. My mom and my sister are already excited and have agreed to help out with the girl talk and shopping and all that. She’s already spending the night at my mom’s house tonight. They’re having girl movie night with my sister.” Jerry paused for a second before continuing with a sigh. “I gotta do it, man. In sixteen years this’ll be the first time I’d be stepping up to the plate and being a real dad.”
“It wasn’t your fault you couldn’t all this time, Jer,” Damian reminded him.
“I know. But it wasn’t her fault either, and I guess now that we have the chance to bond, I think it’s the right thing to do.”
“Yeah, I guess it is.” Damian smiled. “Let me know if you need me to help out in any way. Not that I know the first thing about raising teens, but remember I do own guns. Uncle Damian would be more than happy to come over and clean them at your place if she ever invites a boy home to meet you.”
Jerry laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I’m serious, Jer.”
“I know you are, man. Don’t worry, Uncle Damian and his guns will be the first to greet any boys sniffing around her.”
After getting off the phone with Jerry, Damian did his best not to let his nerves get worked up. He’d drop off the hair clip with Bethany, make some small talk, and perhaps get her number. He still didn’t know a whole lot about her except that she had the ability to make him visualize taking her every which way he could think of one minute, and in the next minute have him grinning silly, feeling all kinds of craziness only twelve-year-old girls were supposed to feel in their stomachs. Most important, and it surprised him that he’d even be thinking so much about this—she was single and looking to make a connection with someone.
Damian thought about it for a moment as he pulled off the freeway, taking the exit toward the dive she worked at. Was he looking for a connection with her? He’d told Jerry she seemed like someone who would be fun. But clearly there was more to it. There were plenty of girls he could have fun with. And he hadn’t made time for anything more than just the sexual kind in a while. Damian wasn’t sure what he was looking to have happen with her. All he knew was that only a week after really meeting her for the first time, he was already craving to hear her laughter and get caught in those eyes that could go from lustful to bright and sweet in an instant. But soul mate—the one? That was going a bit too far, even for Jerry, but especially for himself.
He parked his car in the same spot he’d parked it in the last time he’d been to this dive. Glancing around, he noticed there were a lot fewer cars here than last Friday. Maybe Vintage Soul was only on Fridays and for obvious reasons was more popular than any of the other shows he’d seen posted on the walls. The thought of guys lining up to be the one at the front table had him clenching his jaw already.
He walked in and immediately knew she was most likely not there, because he could hear the classical piano music coming from the showroom. The hostess smiled at him. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m looking for Bethany. Is she working today?”
Amos walked out from the back hallway and smiled when he saw him. “Detective Santiago. Are you here to enjoy another show?”
“Actually, no.” Damian smiled at the heavyset man. “I was hoping to catch Bethany here.”
Amos’s forehead pinched. “She didn’t tell you?”
Feeling a little alarmed, Damian shook his head. “Tell me what?”
“Her show will be on hiatus for a while.”
“Why?” Damian asked, suddenly feeling concerned. “Did something happen?”
Amos peered at him. “You and Bethany close?”
“Yeah,” Damian said, stretching the truth.
“Then how come she hasn’t told you herself?”
“I haven’t talked to her in a few days,” Damian countered immediately. “I’ve been out of town,” he added. Technically he hadn’t been on this side of town all week. “Is she okay?”
Amos stared at him for a few more annoying seconds before responding. “She’s fine. She just won’t be coming in to work for a few weeks. But you’ll have to get the rest from her. I’m sorry.” He shook his head. “But I’m not at liberty to be giving out her business, son.”
“Thanks.” Damian rushed out, feeling an agitation he didn’t understand. He knew so little about Bethany, and yet here he was jumping into his car and skidding out of there as if he needed to save her now. He squeezed the steering wheel, reminding himself that Amos had said she was fine. Instinct, however, told him otherwise.
He didn’t even realize how fast he’d been driving until he had to swerve to miss hitting the car that swung into the lane in front of him. Fuck!
Turning onto the street she lived on, he looked up as he neared her apartment building. The window she’d popped her head out of when he’d dropped her off was wide open. With his air conditioner on, he couldn’t feel the Vegas desert heat, but the temperature display on his phone read 103 degrees. He seriously doubted any of the air conditioners in her run-down building were in working order either, so her open window was a good ind
ication she was home.
Feeling a little relief seep in, he parked across the street from her building and got out of his car.
Chapter 6
Even sitting on the sofa with a sheet over it, in thin running shorts and an even thinner tank top with the fan pointed right at her, Bethany still felt the sweat trickle down between her breasts. This was torture. Of course the ancient air conditioner in her apartment and every other apartment in the building was out of order, and of course Mr. Hadley had cackled loudly when she asked if he was going to have someone come out and fix it.
Putting her laptop aside, she got up to grab another bottle of water from the icebox. It was the only part of that old refrigerator that kept anything as cold as she liked it. Bethany grabbed the coldest bottle, opened the top, and took a long swig, then ran the water in the sink and splashed a generous amount on her face, neck, and cleavage area. She went and stood in front of the fan, feeling the tiniest bit of relief as the fan blew on her wet upper body.
Just as she took a deep breath¸ the knock at the door made her stop dead and hold it in. Waiting for Trinity’s whistle, she didn’t move an inch. No whistle, but another knock—this one a little louder. With her heart speeding up and, in her panic, looking around for anything to use as a weapon, the water bottle in her hand hit the fan, knocking it over. “Shit!” she muttered as it fell loudly to the floor.
There was an even louder, more demanding knock on the door this time. “Bethany? Are you okay in there?”
Bethany held her breath again, deliberating whether that was who she thought it was.
“Bethany! It’s Damian, from last week. Are you all right? Do you need me to call someone for you?”
Gasping in relief and ignoring the other unacceptable emotions she was now feeling as her excited heart began beating, Bethany exhaled before responding. “I’m fine. Just give me a sec.”
She picked up the fan, frowning when she noticed a part of the cage around it had broken off. Luckily it turned on when she plugged it back into the socket where the cord had pulled out with the fall. With a harsh huff, she headed to the door. She peeked out the window just to be sure, chastising her already fluttering heart from just the sight of him.
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