When Reese returned to his bed, he picked up his phone and saw it was after midnight. He snorted at the text from Rupert.
Mati is seeing someone?
Rupert was making a perfectly logical assumption. Reese was going to enjoy disabusing him of that assumption more than he should. Even half asleep, he was grinning as he typed his reply.
Yes. I am too. His name is David.
When Reese got up at three o’clock to soothe David again, there was another text from Rupert.
You cannot possibly mean what I think you mean.
Reese considered confirming it was, in fact, what Rupert thought he meant, but instead fell asleep enjoying how it would drive Rupert absolutely batshit crazy for a while.
By morning, Reese had a series of messages involving every punctuation mark and special character on the keyboard, and some he didn’t even recognize. This was followed by a series of emojis that appeared to be violent things happening to eggplants.
Reese had no idea.
“What are you smiling at?” Matilda asked as she dragged herself upright and perched her glasses on her nose.
Reese tilted the phone and scrolled so she could see the entire exchange.
He’d happily listen to her throaty early-morning laugh every day of his life.
He kissed her, because how could he not? Her lips curled and his heart skipped at the laughter and sleepy happiness in her eyes. He drew his thumb over her eyebrow and down to her cheek, tracing the familiar shape of her beautiful face.
The buzz of David’s phone on the coffee table interrupted the heady silence.
“Sorry,” David muttered from the couch, sitting up. He didn’t sound as though he’d just woken up.
Reese wondered if David had been listening to them. If he had heard them kiss.
If he’d wanted to join them.
David answered his phone, “What’s up, Chance?” His hand scrubbed through his thick hair, leaving it sticking up in all directions. Reese’s fingers twitched with the desire to smooth the silky strands back into place.
Then David jumped to his feet and spun to face them. Reese clutched Mati’s hand, alarmed, though he didn’t fail to notice the skin-tight, black boxer briefs barely containing David’s massive thighs, or the bulge between them.
“Mati,” David said carefully, “did you take a restraining order out against your ex-boyfriend?”
Reese felt like he’d been punched in the chest.
Mati bolted upright. “What? No.”
David listened to Chance, his frown growing fiercer by the second.
Mati waved her hand to get his attention.
“Hold on,” he said, taking the phone from his ear.
“Okay, this has to be because I asked the RCMP about a peace bond once, but I never filed. And, god, that was over a year ago.”
“So, you did see the need for a restraining order at some point,” David clarified.
She sighed. “Yes. Briefly. And it’s not called a restraining order in Canada. That’s for family. We have peace bonds and they don’t work the same as they do here in the States.”
David looked singularly unimpressed by the semantics lesson. He brought the phone back to his ear. “Hey, I’m going to call you back. Thanks for taking care of that other stuff. Let me know when it gets here.” He listened for a few more seconds before hanging up.
Mati wilted against the pillows. “Fucking Frankie.”
Reese vaguely recalled that name. He had a long-standing policy not to ask too many questions about Mati’s love life, since the answers had made him crazy, but Frankie had come up a few times. And then he’d been gone.
Apparently, not gone enough.
“I didn’t know,” he said.
Mati eyed him. “Don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad. You had no obligation to tell me.”
“No, I mean, don’t be mad that Hodges was the one who took me to speak with the RCMP.”
Reese thought about that. “Actually, that makes me feel better.”
“Me, too,” David said from the foot of the bed, his arms crossed over his chest.
Reese would bet anything David, like Reese, was battling the urge to drive to Canada and punch Frankie in the face.
Restless, Reese threw off the covers. The only good news was that phone call had totally killed his morning wood. “Let’s order breakfast, then you can tell us what happened,” he said before realizing he was being presumptuous as hell. “Or you’re welcome to ask me to leave, if you’d rather.”
“No,” Mati said. “I want you to know.”
“Okay,” Reese said, relieved.
“Yeah,” David agreed. “Also, I’m not letting either one of you out of my sight.”
David barely tasted his breakfast, and not just because it was more flavorless hotel garbage. His brain was stalled on the idea of Mati having an asshole ex-boyfriend. It wasn’t like it was an uncommon affliction, as his work had proved time and again. But usually, it wasn’t someone he knew. Someone he cared about—even if he shouldn’t. Not yet, at least. But he kept picturing her last night, snuggled into his chest, making Reese come in his pants and falling apart with complete abandon.
He sat across the table from her and Reese, his legs tangled with theirs. He’d done it to show support, to make it clear he wasn’t judging. And to make Reese stop bouncing his damn knee.
That it also comforted David was beside the point.
He surreptitiously checked his phone, reading Chance’s texts as they came in. They already knew a lot about Francisco Ribeiro, and within the next twenty-four hours, Chance, along with Reese’s investigators, were likely to dig up everything from his tax returns to how many cavities he had on his last visit to the dentist.
The messages weren’t doing much for David’s blood pressure, or his appetite, but Frankie also wasn’t popping as the next Ted Bundy.
David managed to hold his tongue until Mati had eaten most of her breakfast. “You ready to talk about this?”
“Yes,” she said, putting her fork down and falling silent.
David stifled his rising impatience.
Mati frowned at her coffee, as if it might tell her what to say. “Frankie and I dated for about six months. I met him at my parents’ church, which should have been the first clue he was a bad idea.”
David cocked his head. “How so?”
“They go to St. Anna’s,” she said. “It’s very, very conservative. I stopped going when I left for college, but I still end up there for family events, like christenings and the children’s pageants, which is how I met Frankie. He seemed nice, attentive to my parents, and flirted with me every chance he got when they or Father Anthony weren’t looking. I foolishly thought that daring said something about him.”
Reese slid his hand over hers, giving her a reassuring squeeze.
“He asked me out to dinner, and it went from there. It was fine. Fun, even. For the first time in a decade my parents approved of a man I was dating, while he seemed delighted by what he called my outrageousness.” Mati rolled her eyes. “That should have been another hint. But he seemed into it, and after a lifetime of being told that was what was wrong with me, I admit I was enjoying it.” She shrugged. “I hadn’t dated much for a while. I had a serious boyfriend in Ottawa when I was in school, and he was kind of…” She waved her hand, apparently struggling to find the right word.
“A jerk?” Reese guessed.
“No. Nothing like that. He was…”
She looked to David for help, but he had no idea what she was going to say.
She sighed. “Kinky.”
Reese twitched in his seat like he’d stuck his toe in an electric socket. David sucked on his teeth to keep from laughing.
“Anyway,” she continued, “the few guys I’d dated since coming back to Sydney hadn’t worked out, and none of them had seemed remotely…um…adventurous. Which is fine,” she hastened to add, looking at Reese.
Reese shook his head
quickly, as if trying to ward off the implication. Of course, last night notwithstanding, David would also bet Reese wasn’t all that kinky.
Yet, anyway.
“After a few months of sleeping together, I got fooled into thinking it would be okay to explore some stuff with him. And he was all for it, always bringing it up and encouraging me to take charge.” She looked between them. “I didn’t push, I swear.”
David took her hand. “You don’t have to worry, okay? Just tell us what happened.”
Mati nodded. “I knew something was wrong right away. Usually, it was…I don’t know, normal after sex. We’d shower, he might go home, or he occasionally spent the night. Only this time he was shifty. Wouldn’t look at me, showered for a really long time, and went home with hardly a word and no kiss goodbye. I thought it was weird, since he’d definitely enjoyed himself, and we hadn’t really done anything all that kinky. I asked him about it on our next date, and he snapped at me. Said some nasty shit and made it sound like I’d done something wrong. So, I left. No great drama, I just put down some cash for my half of the bill and left. I told him he could call me later in the week in the hope that he’d calm down and find a way to talk about the real issue. The next night he was at my door, begging for forgiveness. I invited him up to talk about what went wrong. He wouldn’t speak of it, and when I pressed, he snapped at me again, this time worse. Dragged up all this religious shit and suggested I needed to come back to the church. To repent.”
David’s instincts prickled, his teeth clenched. That sounded ugly and cruel, no matter how calm Mati sounded.
“I asked him to leave and he did,” she continued, “but that started a pattern of him showing up on my doorstep, and a couple times at my parents’ house, when he knew I’d be there.”
“They must have been furious,” Reese said.
Mati smiled sadly. “To this day they’re pushing me to get back together with him.”
Reese’s brows lowered. “You should tell them how he treated you.”
“I have. Not the details, but I told them he was unkind and that he wasn’t to be trusted. That he wouldn’t leave me alone. But they believe Father Anthony is a better character reference than I am.”
David knew better than to badmouth someone’s family, or their priest, but that fucking sucked.
“What made him stop?” David asked.
“Father Anthony, actually,” Mati said. “After a couple months, when I couldn’t take it anymore and Frankie showed no signs of letting up, I told Hodges what was happening and asked what he thought I should do. He took me to the RCMP and introduced me to an officer there so I would feel comfortable coming back with the paperwork. In the meantime, I told my brothers what was going on and one of them told Father Anthony. The next thing I know, Frankie isn’t showing up anymore and Father Anthony tells my brothers to tell me that Frankie will let it go.” She shrugged. “And he has. I haven’t seen him, except for the rare occasions I have to go to church for my nieces and nephews.”
“Does he say anything when you see him?” David asked.
“Not really. Just hello when he chats with my parents. He isn’t rude, and I give him a wide berth.”
“So, you think he’s moved on,” David concluded.
“Well…” Mati scrunched up her nose. “My sister-in-law says he asks her about me all the time and that he watches me in church when I wouldn’t notice. She also says that if he’s dated anyone since me, she hasn’t heard about it.”
David did not like the sound of that. He didn’t give a shit if Frankie spent the rest of his life as celibate as a monk, but if the guy was still pining after Mati, he was sailing in the wrong direction and needed a serious course correction.
“Do you think he had something to do with the break-in?” Mati asked.
David rocked his head back and forth. This guy sounded like a problem, but not necessarily the kind of problem that would break into Reese’s house and search it. “We don’t know. We’re looking into everything.”
“For what it’s worth, I’d be shocked if he knew how to hack a digital lock. He’s a bright guy, but he’s not into technology at all.”
“That’s good to know,” David agreed, but the whole thing had him on edge. He didn’t like the idea of some asshole up in the middle of nowhere waiting for Mati to come home.
He felt twitchy, and foolish, since he wasn’t about to go charging up to Canada, was he?
David stood, taking a deep breath and stretching his arms above his head, trying to pull the tension from his body. Mati and Reese both eyed where his shirt rode up and exposed his belly. He hadn’t yet bothered with pants this morning.
That uneasy feeling wasn’t going away. His head was too full of what they knew about the break-in, and Frankie, and Reese’s father, to consider getting back into bed. Even with these two. Maybe especially with these two.
At least, not right away. He had every intention of ending up there eventually, but first, he needed to get out of this hotel room for a few minutes and clear his head.
Mati and Reese couldn’t go with him, but they were safe here in the hotel, particularly since, thanks to Frankie, Chance had stationed someone in the hotel lobby full-time, and his techs were getting jacked into the hotel’s perimeter security cameras.
And if they were going to be trapped here for a while, there were a few ways he could make it a lot more pleasant.
“If it’s okay with you guys, I’m going to go for a run. I can hit the local market and get us some supplies while I’m out.”
He was relieved when they agreed that would be great.
“Make me a list of whatever you need or want, okay?”
Mati was reaching for a pen before David had made it to the bathroom. When he came back out in his running clothes, he took a slip of paper from Mati, which he noted was green. This was personal, apparently.
Why was that so fucking charming?
He read the list and pretended he didn’t notice Reese leaning over the corner of the table to get a better look at his legs. His lips twitched when he saw Mati had included condoms and lube, in her curling, elegant script.
“Okay, I’ll be back with all this. Any food allergies?”
They shook their heads, clearly curious why he would ask. They’d learn soon enough.
He gave them a long look. “I don’t need to tell you not to leave, right?”
“And we won’t let in anyone but Chance or Kieran,” Mati promised.
“Okay,” David said, hovering by the table.
He had the weirdest urge to kiss them goodbye.
So he did.
Chapter Ten
David was only gone for an hour, but Mati still let out a sigh of relief as soon as he stepped through the door.
When he moved to the side to drag in a loaded down luggage cart, she didn’t know what the fuck to think. The bulge and ripple of his muscles in his running shorts and thin long-sleeve t-shirt as he unloaded the cart was a sight to behold, no doubt, but it was the contents of the half-dozen boxes that really captivated her.
“You did not buy all that at the grocery store and carry it back here,” she said, poking at the growing collection of food and kitchen implements on the table.
David laughed. “No. Chance raided my apartment for most of this and left it for me downstairs,” he said, indicating the fucking pots and pans in one box, and a laptop case leaning against it. “I only got the fresh food and what you two asked for at the store.”
Reese hefted a very large, very fancy skillet in the air. “Well, this makes perfect sense, then,” he observed dryly.
Mati fished a bottle of wine from a different box. “Did Chance choose the vintage, or did you tell him what to bring?”
“I told him,” David said as if this were obvious. “He doesn’t know what I’m planning to cook.”
Mati and Reese exchanged a look. She bit her cheek to keep from smiling.
“So, you’re planning to…cook us dinner?”
Reese asked.
David stood up straight, a whisk in one hand and a corkscrew in the other. “Is that weird?”
Mati lied. “No, not at all. It’s just...that’s not much of a kitchen to work with.” She gestured at the kitchenette and its two-burner stove, mini-fridge, and four square feet of counter space.
“I like to keep busy,” David said with a nonchalant shrug while pulling a cornucopia of produce from a grocery sack. “And it’s big enough.”
She resisted the cliché that’s what she said joke and picked up a plump, deep red tomato. “Nice. Fresh, not hydroponic, and in the dead of winter. What are you making?”
David plucked the tomato out of her hand. “You know your produce. And it’s a surprise.”
Mati didn’t point out it was going to be hard to keep it a secret when they’d practically be in his lap while he was cooking it. Hell, if given half a chance, she would literally be in his lap while he was cooking it.
“My father owns a produce distribution company,” she said. “I’ve been slinging tomatoes since I was a kid.”
David raised his voice to be heard while his head was in the refrigerator. “That’s cool. How come you don’t work for him?”
There was an awkward pause. Reese flashed her a concerned look.
David turned around, perhaps sensing he’d struck a nerve.
“My brothers run the business,” she said in an even voice, long-practiced at making it sound nicer than it was. “And thank goodness. I much prefer working for Reese.” Which was true.
Reese flashed her a smile. Mati shoved aside thoughts of her family and picked up a package of fresh dried pasta.
“What if the meal is something we don’t like?” she asked.
Reese held three more bottles of wine aloft. “What if we don’t drink?”
David smirked. “There’s always room service if you don’t like it, and I can drink the wine all by myself.”
Breaking Out Page 11