by Jill Shalvis
been shot at by an invisible shooter.
Oh, and then there’d been all that wild sex on the floor of Shayne’s living room.
And in his shower . . .
And in his bed . . .
“Work’s been a little crazy,” she said weakly. She glanced inside her apartment. No sign of trouble. But still, she couldn’t bring herself to step over the threshold. “Alan?”
“Yeah?”
She looked at him. “Would you like to come in for coffee?”
“Is that just because you want to have coffee, or because you’re nervous about going in alone after the possible break-in?”
Damn it. He was adorably fumbling, yes. But not slow. Not by a long shot. “How do you know about the possible break-in?”
“I heard the police talking.”
Okaaaay. So he’d been eavesdropping last night. That was probably just normal curiosity, right? Because Alan wasn’t some kind of crazy stalker. But just in case, she shut her door and began walking back down the hallway toward the stairs.
Still extremely commando . . .
“Dani?”
“Going back to work,” she called over her shoulder. Please don’t follow me with a gun.
At the zoo, Dani let herself into her car and grabbed her cell phone, just as Reena drove up.
“Heard you had quite the night.”
“You heard?”
Reena nodded. “You okay?”
Dani sighed and filled her in.
Reena listened in awed silence to the events of the night before, interrupting a few times to either ask a question or to make Dani repeat a detail.
“Tell me about the sex,” she instructed.
Dani blinked. “I saw a murder, had someone break into my apartment, was shot at, and you want to talk about the sex? Are you kidding me?”
“Priorities,” Reena said, utterly unapologetic. “Because you’re okay.”
“Yes.”
“You’re absolutely sure, right?”
Actually, shockingly, after last night, she was more than okay. In fact, she was having some trouble controlling the urge to just grin for no reason. That’s what a few man-made orgasms did for her, apparently. “Yeah. I’m okay.”
“Then yes, I want to talk about the sex.”
“Reena.”
“Come on. Was he good?”
She failed at holding back the stupid grin. Most definitely good. Off-the-charts good. So good her body was revved up and aching for more just thinking about it. “Yes.”
“Nice way to celebrate your promotion.”
Some of Dani’s smile faded at that. “Reena, about that—”
“Look, I’m fine. I’ll get the next one, or someone’s going to have to die, but I’m fine. No biggie.”
“Uh.”
“Kidding,” Reena said. “Jeez, I’m kidding. Look, are you coming or what?”
“I’ll meet you in there.”
“Suit yourself.”
Dani looked at her cell phone, saw the missed call from Shayne, felt her heart squeeze, and put the phone in her pocket. She had work to get to.
Inside the zoo, Dani found no boogeymen, no dead bodies, nothing out of place. Just the elephants in their habitat, waiting patiently for her to observe them with their new addition—Bebo—the four-month-old baby fresh from the nursery.
So that’s what she did, she settled in to watch and record. As the hours passed, she decided that yesterday and all that had happened had been some really strange episode of The Twilight Zone. An episode she didn’t want to repeat. So when her cell rang again later, and then again, she ignored it, her gaze glued to the elephants, especially Bebo nuzzling her two-ton mama Ellie for milk.
So sweet, so simple. In the past, Ellie had pushed away the babies but today, when it was her baby, she nuzzled back in a show of unconditional love.
Dani watched, enraptured, awed. Touched.
All her life she’d been pushing people away instead of nuzzling, wanting, needing, to be independent. But now as she sat there, gaze glued to the beauty of mama and baby bonding, she couldn’t justify her actions. She’d hidden behind her independent excuse so long it no longer even made any sense.
But if a stubborn mammal like Ellie had changed, didn’t that mean she could as well?
Shayne flew his client to Santa Barbara, and while that client—a television producer—attempted to talk a reclusive actor into signing on a new sitcom, Shayne had a few hours to spare. Normally he’d have not wasted a single moment of that time, getting out on the waves ASAP, surfing as long as he could.
But instead he stood on the tarmac, the ocean pounding the shore in perfect five-footers, the wind rippling his hair, and tried calling Dani.
Again.
When he got no answer, he called Patrick, who also had absolutely no answer. “You’re a cop,” Shayne told him. “A detective. A big, badass detective. You’re supposed to know all.”
“Look, some things can’t be explained. Stop worrying about this, Shayne.”
“Stop worrying about this? The woman I was with last night was shot at!”
“Maybe you should give up the whole party-life thing, and this shit wouldn’t happen.”
Shayne grated his teeth. “I don’t do the whole party-life thing anymore.” Ah, hell. Who was he kidding? Patrick wasn’t going to believe him. “If anything comes up, call me.”
“I said I would.”
Shayne resisted the urge to pick a fight—see that, Mom, progress—and did end up surfing, hoping it’d clear his head, but his mind remained a hundred miles away, back in Los Angeles with Dani, wondering what the hell she was doing and if she was safe.
After he flew the producer back to Burbank, Shayne stood in Sky High’s lobby, getting a soda from the vending machine and once again calling Dani.
Still no answer.
He walked to the front counter, listening to Dani’s voice mail message for the tenth time as he flipped through the messages Maddie had left for him. “Damn it.”
“Flight go okay?” This from Noah, who waltzed in the front door with an easy grin on his face. The grin of a man who’d gotten lucky very recently.
Shayne had been wearing a grin like that earlier. Much earlier.
But the smile had faded in the light of day. He’d always wondered how in the hell Noah could settle down with one woman. In fact, just the thought of it boggled. But now he could admit there might be something to the notion. “You’re still smiling.”
“Am I?”
“I’d think you’d be tired of having sex with the same woman.”
Noah laughed and patted Shayne’s shoulder with mock sympathy. “Dude.”
“Seriously.”
“Seriously?” Noah laughed again. “Sleeping with the same woman is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. No more wondering if she likes me, if she’s going to go out with me, if she’s going out with someone else. No more waking alone on a Sunday and having no one around, just to hang with.”
“You had me.”
“Okay, no one to cuddle with.”
“You want to cuddle? I can cuddle.”
“Have you seen Bailey, by any chance?”
Yes, yes, Shayne had. She was a leggy, gorgeous blonde. A former model, in fact. Extremely cuddle-able.
“Trust me, it’s all good,” Noah assured him.
“There’s got to be a way to get all the good stuff without the ball and chain.”
“You mean the ring.”
“I mean the ring,” Shayne confirmed.
“It’s hard to explain, but the ring is like the icing on the cake.” Noah grinned. “It’s the best part.”
This was news to Shayne, who’d spent years cultivating his carefree playboy reputation. Dani had known this about him. She’d known there wouldn’t be icing on the cake. It’s why she’d held back, why she didn’t want to date him, and he respected that. He did. But suddenly he wanted icing on his damn cake, too.
B
rody came down the hall, commandeered Shayne’s soda, and drank deeply.
“Hey.”
He slapped the now-empty soda can back to the counter. “What are you girls gossiping about?”
Shayne searched his pockets for more change, but came up empty. “Damn it, Brod.”
Noah put a hand on Shayne’s shoulder. “We’re discussing why the laid-back surfer dude is as uptight as a guy who hasn’t gotten off in a year.”
“He got laid last night.” Brody eyeballed Shayne. “So that means . . . huh.”
“What huh?” Noah asked curiously, eyeing Shayne like a bug on a slide.
“He must have gotten dumped. Again. Jesus, you’re on a roll, huh?”
“I did not get dumped again,” Shayne said, shoving free of Noah and glaring at Brody. “Go buy me a fucking soda.”
“Yeah, he got dumped again,” Noah said, nodding. “Was it the crazy chick?”
“She’s not crazy.”
“Yeah, it was the crazy chick,” Brody decided, watching Shayne carefully. “Go figure.”
Damn it. So he’d spent most of his life fighting off women and wasn’t used to having to talk a woman into wanting him. Whatever. He’d live.
Maddie came out of the storage room wearing a leather miniskirt and two lace tops layered over each other, looking sizzling hot. She moved around the counter to sit in her chair, pulling out her keyboard, her fingers typing away.
Sizzling and effective.
“Don’t you boys have work to do?” she asked without looking up from her work. “Planes to fly? Clients to kiss up to?”
When they didn’t answer, she did glance up.
“Don’t you ever dress like a secretary?” Brody asked.
Maddie arched a brow while Noah and Shayne inwardly winced. “No need, since I’m not a secretary,” she said with glaciers in her voice.
“Shayne got dumped,” Noah said, clearly trying to change the subject so Maddie didn’t kill Brody with her eyes.
“Can’t get dumped when you weren’t available in the first place,” Maddie noted, and when all three men blinked in confused unison, she sighed as if they were idiots. “Look, Shayne was never really available to her, right? He’s never been available to any woman.”
“And why is that?” Noah asked. “Seeing as you’re the resident female expert?”
Maddie smiled. She liked the title. “Because he’s the screwup.”
“Hey,” Shayne said.
“I mean that’s what you’ve been told all your life.” She stopped typing to squeeze his hand before going back to clicking the keyboard with dizzying speed. “You’re the black sheep, the youngest, the fuckup in a large family of overachievers. You were always told you were never going to amount to anything.” She shrugged. “So you decided to live up to that reputation, yadda yadda.”
“Which is why you got yourself kicked out of all those schools before you met us,” Noah said, ever so helpfully.
“And why you became a pilot instead of a brain surgeon or a big-shot attorney or detective,” Brody added, also ever so helpfully.
Shayne stared at them. “Thanks for the trip down memory lane.”
“Look, long story short,” Maddie went on. “You’re a commitment-phobe, hiding behind the free spirit, easygoing, laid-back bullshit persona.”
“Bullshit persona?”
Maddie smiled sweetly. “Don’t worry, boss. I have a bullshit persona too.” She gestured to her own magenta-tipped blond hair. To her eyebrow piercing. Then, turning her back, she peeled down her already extremely low-rise leather skirt to reveal the small tattoo of a Chinese symbol, high on a first-class ass cheek.
Shayne stared, and Brody slapped him upside the head. “Don’t look!”
“She said to look. And ow.”
Maddie straightened her skirt. “It means dream big. Be whoever you want.” She looked at Shayne. “Even when you’re told you can’t. Don’t let your shortsighted family dictate your life.”
“They aren’t.” But as he stared down at the cell phone in his hand, he shook his head. They were. Unbelievably, he was still letting what they thought of him matter enough to pretend it didn’t bother him.
“See,” Maddie said very gently. “The problem with being the black sheep just to spite them is that when the right woman does come along, you’re not going to be able to snag her up. Because you’ll be busy doing that whole no-commitment thing. You know, to prove that what your family thinks of you is true.”
Noah was nodding. “Exactly. That’s exactly what he’s doing.”
“You’re all fucked up, man,” Brody said.
“Bite me.”
Noah took Shayne’s cell phone and flipped it open.
“Hey!”
Brody leaned over Noah’s shoulder as they accessed his dialed calls. “Yeah, look at that. He’s tried calling her six times. Dude.”
Shayne snatched his phone back and shoved it in his pocket. “It’s nothing. This is nothing.”
“It’s definitely something,” Noah said. “It’s all over your face.”
Shayne grabbed the schedule. He needed a flight. Now. And perfect, Brody had a flight to San Luis Obispo. It would get him out of here for four hours minimum. “I’m taking your flight.”
“No, you’re not.”
“So maybe she’ll call back while you’re gone,” Noah said.
“No. She’s . . . working. She’s busy.”
Noah, Brody and Maddie exchanged a look of pity.
“Goddamnit, she is.” Shayne tossed the schedule back to the desk. “That, or . . .” Hell. “Or she’s in trouble.”
“Trouble, as in . . .” Brody mimed the action of hanging a noose around his neck and jerking on the end, complete with tongue and eyes bulging out.
Maddie smacked him upside the head. “Don’t you make fun of mental illness.”
Shayne pivoted on a heel and walked away. It was that or kill Noah and Brody, and their investors might balk at that. On the way to the Learjet, he made one more attempt to reach Dani, but couldn’t. “Fuck it,” he said, and whipped around, heading back inside—
Only to plow into Brody.
“You want me to take my flight back,” Brody guessed.