Dangerous Lover

by Maggie Shayne

  “And then?”

  She lifted her head, stabbed his eyes with hers. “And then he’s going to find out what a huge mistake it is to piss off a Witch.”

  “Damn. Remind me to make a note of that.”

  “I’m not kidding, Cory.”

  “I don’t think for one minute that you’re kidding Selene. Not when your eyes are practically burning holes in my skull.”

  She turned and stared straight ahead, visualizing her friend’s killer in her mind’s eyes, and began to chant;

  I invoke the Law of Three

  What you did returns to thee

  I invoke the Law of Old

  Return the pain to you threefold

  I invoke Diana’s Wrath

  Disaster rains upon your path

  I invoke the Dark God’s Sword

  Sever now your silver cord

  I become the hand of doom

  Murderer, you’ll meet me soon

  With good to all, except for thee,

  And by my will, so mote it be!

  Her chant sent chills racing up and down Cory’s spine. He literally shivered in the car. It wasn’t just what she said, but the way she said it. The icy-cold, dead-calm tone of her voice. And the steely, faraway look in her eyes—as if she were staring into the face of the man she addressed with her curse. As if he could hear her.

  Hell, maybe he could.

  Cory reminded himself that he didn’t believe in Witchcraft. Or at least, he was pretty sure he didn’t. But right now, he thought, he would hate like hell to be on the receiving end of whatever kind of magic she was working. Because he had a feeling it was going to do something. And he didn’t think it would be good.

  Selene was moving at warp speed through the tiny cabin, gathering items up and shoving them at him while he stuffed them into the car. A pair of sleeping bags she’d found in the closet. An armload of Chet’s clothing for him. Her backpack and a bag of food from the kitchen. A twelve-pack of bottled water. A pair of walkie-talkies. He loaded it all and came back for more.

  She stood motionless in the middle of the living room, a pair of flashlights in one hand and binoculars in the other, her eyes wide and fixed on nothing.

  “Selene?”

  She blinked out of her stupor, shook herself. “Go. Go, go now!” And before she finished speaking she was running for the door.

  He didn’t have time to do more than follow and dive into the passenger seat even as she was slamming the car into gear. The tires were spinning before he got his door closed, and then they were in motion.

  “What’s wrong?” he shouted.

  “They’re coming.” At the end of the driveway he expected her to turn left, and head back down the dirt road as they had earlier. But she didn’t. She veered right instead and took off as if the devil were behind her. She sped over the dirt road, heading uphill, swooping around sharp curves as they moved higher. And then she jerked the car into a bare spot on the shoulder, yanked the binoculars off the seat, and turned to aim them through the side window.

  He followed her eyes and saw the cabin spread out below them, giving them a perfect view. A second later, she handed the binoculars to him.

  Frowning, he took them and looked. “I’m not sure what I’m looking for…holy hell.” As he focused on the cabin, he saw two vehicles skidding to a stop in its driveway. A red sports car and a green Jeep. Men got out of the cars—he counted five of them—all of them carrying weapons. Shotguns, he thought. They fanned out, surrounding the place and moving in.

  His shoulder slammed against the seat as she jerked the car into motion again, then he lowered the binoculars and turned to face forward. “How did you know?” he asked without looking at her.

  “I don’t know. I just did.”

  He turned to stare at her as she drove. Her face was intense, her entire being, focused. “Where are we going?”

  “Away.”

  “From here?”

  “From everything.”

  “Don’t you think we should call someone?”

  “No signal from here. Check if you want.”

  He didn’t bother, because he was beginning to believe her. To trust her. More than that, he was beginning to believe she really had…something.

  He reached around her, then, to fasten her seatbelt, which she hadn’t taken time to do herself. When he did that, she sent him a look that was so tender he knew she’d read way more into the act than he’d intended. He didn’t want her to get herself killed. Hell, that didn’t mean he was buying into her soul-mate delusions. Sighing, he buckled his own and settled in for the ride. She didn’t slow down for miles, but eventually she seemed to relax, though she still kept jerking her gaze between the rearview mirror and the road ahead. He had no idea where the hell they were. She took winding back road after winding back road, twisting, turning log trails that cut from one to the next. And then, finally, she pulled the car right up to a barn in the middle of nowhere that looked on the verge of collapse. Its paint was long gone, its boards a deep shade of aging gray. Its theme was broken boards and half a sagging roof. The other half had collapsed. The door, or what had once been a door, was barely hanging from its rusted track.

  She stopped there and looked at him for the first time since he’d fastened her seatbelt for her. “We can stash the car in there. No one comes here. It won’t be spotted.”

  “And then what?”

  “We hike to those woods where you were attacked.” She pointed. “This road borders the woods that are north of the falls. Other roads cut down to the eastern and western sides of the trees. So we check these out. See what we can find out here.”

  “You think it’s safe?”

  “No.”

  He frowned at her. She held his gaze. “But I don’t think anywhere is safe for us right now. And it won’t be. Not until we solve this thing.”

  Lowering his head, he frowned. “You know, Selene, it’s me these guys are after.”

  “Not if Jimmy’s theory is true.”

  “Jimmy. Your sister mentioned him on the phone. He’s a cop, right?”

  “And my brother-in-law. He thinks these guys are looking to eliminate any eye-witnesses to that attack on you. He thinks they believe me to be one of them. And my friends, the women who were with me in the woods that night, they’re in danger, too. As soon as we finish here, we have to get to where we have a signal and phone them. Warn them. I’m in this, Cory. And so are they. Nothing to be done about that.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry. I really am.”

  It surprised him when she touched his chin, lifting his head until he met her eyes again. “It’s kind of pointless to apologize, Cory. This was fated.”

  “I don’t believe in fate.”

  “Well, I predict that before this is over, you will.” She was beginning to doubt her own words, though. If he were going to feel anything for her, ever, wouldn’t he have started to by now?

  “Do you think we should go now, find a spot with a signal and call your friends first?”

  “It does seem like the logical thing to do, but my gut is telling me this has to come first.”

  “You always trust your gut?”

  “Always.” Until now, she thought. He was making her begin to doubt herself for the first time. “Now let’s see if we can get that barn door moved, okay?”

  He nodded and got out of the car. Damn, he hated that she was still so convinced there was some universal force at work, throwing them together. Women and their romantic notions. He reminded himself of what she’d told him earlier. That she wasn’t going to get all obsessed about him, that they should enjoy whatever happened between them for what it was, and let the chips fall where they would. And that they were going to have sex tonight.

  That was, of course, before she’d learned about the murders of her best friends. Maybe that would cancel it out. Probably, he decided. She wouldn’t feel like having sex when she was clearly in mourning, much less scared half out of her min
d that she would be the next victim. Though she seemed far more concerned about her friends’ safety than her own.

  He got out of the car, and so did she. They moved to the barn door, which was hanging by one rusted roller. “I think if we pick up this side we can—yeah, that’s it.” She helped him lift the door and they pushed and shoved the stubborn thing open until there was enough room to allow the car to pass. It wasn’t easy, but she did her share. She was stronger than she looked.

  They went inside the dark barn to make sure nothing was in the way. Old hay was scattered on the floor, and the air smelled musty and stale. As if it hadn’t seen the sun in a very long time.

  “Looks good,” he said.

  She nodded and went back to get the car, then drove it inside while he waited there. She flicked the headlights on when she got to the barn door, pulled in slowly as he kept watch for any hazards. He signaled her when she’d cleared the doorway, and she cut the engine, shut off the lights, but didn’t get out of the car. When he glanced inside to see why, she was removing clothes from her backpack, and putting other items into it. A couple of the water bottles, the flashlights and some other things.

  Then she got out, slung it over her shoulder, and headed for the door. They managed to close it again with no little effort. Selene handed him her backpack, then snapped a branch off a nearby evergreen, and whispered a thank you—to the tree, he thought.

  “What’s that for?”

  “Covering our tracks. We flattened the grass out here when we drove in.” She used the branch to sweep through the flattened grass, fluffing it again as best she could. She was thorough, and she was good.

  When she finished she tossed the limb into a thick pile of brush, and reached for the backpack.

  “I’ll carry it,” he said. “So we’re within walking distance of the falls, then?”

  “Yeah. If you’re used to walking.”

  “I am.” He said it without forethought, and then wondered why. She only smiled knowingly, and led the way. He was surprised again when they emerged from the thick woods onto yet another dirt road.

  “This doesn’t look like the falls,” he said.

  “It’s not. But this road borders the stand of forest that ends at the falls, about three miles that way. The woods are triangle-shaped. The road near the falls forms the base, and this is the left side. Another road angles back to the falls road, five miles south.”

  “So you figured we’d walk the boundary first.”

  She nodded. “You’re from out of town. You must have been in a vehicle at some point and you couldn’t very well drive the car into the woods.”

  “If it were sitting along the roadside, somewhere, the cops probably would have found it by now.”

  “Probably. But I’m better at finding things than most people are. I’ll see things—sense things—they might have missed. Trust me on this.”

  He did trust her. More and more with every moment that passed.

  “Before we go on, I need to do something,” she said. “If you can bear with me for a few minutes.”

  He frowned, gave her a nod of assent, took a seat on a nearby tree stump. Selene came behind him and took something from the backpack. A pouch on a string. “What is that?” he asked.

  “It was Tessa’s. She left in such a hurry that night, she forgot it. The police got most of the things left behind, but this…I don’t know. Somehow they missed it. I grabbed it before they took me in for questioning. I guess now I know why.”

  “I don’t.”

  She sighed, gave him a soft smile, and turned to walk a few steps away into the woods. Then she stood in absolute silence for a long, long time. Her eyes were closed, her body still, the pouch cupped in her hands and held close to her heart. He watched the wind moving through her gleaming silvery blond hair. He thought he saw her lips moving now and then, but he couldn’t hear anything she said, and knew it was private. Eventually, she knelt down, and using her hands, scooped away some topsoil and mulch. She brought the pouch to her lips and held it to them for a long moment. Then she placed it into the hole she’d made, covered it reverently, and patted the filler down.

  He expected her to get up again, to tell him she was finished. When she didn’t, he went to her, knelt beside her and put his hands on her shoulders. “You okay?”

  She shook her head side to side.

  “You going to be?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m sorry I got your friend killed.”

  “You didn’t, Cory. The man who shot her did that.”

  She started to get up, and when she lifted her face, he saw the tears on her cheeks. It drew a reaction out of him, one he didn’t expect. A sharp pain lanced through his chest, and his stomach knotted up, just briefly. Hell. If he didn’t know better, he might think he was starting to care about this odd little creature.

  “Goodbye, Tessa,” she whispered.

  Something skittered, and drew his gaze sharp and fast. But it was just a squirrel, fat and gray, scrambling through the undergrowth with its lush tail sailing behind it. As he watched, it paused and turned to look back at them, chattered loudly, then turned again and darted away, out of sight, leaving only silence in its wake.

  He looked at Selene again. She was staring at where the squirrel had been, tears streaming. “She’s okay,” she whispered.

  “Huh?”

  “Tessa. Squirrel was her personal totem. He was letting us know that she’s okay.” She turned toward him, but her knees buckled a little, and he instinctively gripped her around the waist to keep her from falling. He wound up standing face to face with her, his hands on her waist, her eyes wide and wet and full of pain, staring up into his.

  And the next thing he knew he was kissing her. Just that quick. Just that sudden. He was kissing her, drawn to her as if she were gravity itself. She moaned, twined her arms around his neck and opened her mouth wide beneath his. Her body arched into him, and he pressed back, even though he was so much taller he was pushing into her belly. She pushed, too, rubbing her center against his thigh, her body silently asking for more. And she held him so hard he felt her desperation, her heat, and her hunger. Everything in him wanted to fill every last one of those needs, and then some.

  And then she was sliding her mouth from beneath his and resting her head on his chest, and panting. “I want you so much, Cory.”

  “That’s good to know.”

  “But I can’t focus on what I want, not now. We have work to do. And I think my friends’ lives—and our lives—depend on it.”

  Right then, he felt as though his life depended on having her, naked and writhing underneath him. And he was pretty amazed that he felt that way, given everything else that was going on. He knew she was right. So he took a deep breath, and told himself he would have her. Clearly he’d been wrong earlier when he’d thought her grief would delay their mutual gratification. Instead it seemed to intensify her need.

  He had to stop thinking along those lines, though, or they would never get anything done. Reluctantly, he let one arm fall away, but kept the other around her shoulders and held her tight to his side as they returned to the dirt road and began walking.

  Chapter 8

  She walked beside him along the winding dirt road’s edge, close enough to the dense forest that they could scramble out of sight should anyone come along. Her senses were attuned, alert, her chakra centers wide open. She wanted to feel everything, sense any danger, any clue. Like a doe during hunting season, she moved with every sense at high focus, eyes wide and constantly darting, almost scenting the air with every breath.

  But that made for a bad situation when she was walking with this particular man. Because having her senses so open, so receptive, made everything about him even more apparent to her, and more irresistibly arousing. How tall he was; she loved his height, even though it made kissing him awkward as hell. She had to stand on tiptoe, and balancing became precarious—particularly when having his mouth on hers made her head spin.
She loved kissing him. Her head only came up to his shoulders. Damn, he was tall. To her. Maybe six one, six two.

  She loved six one, six two, she decided. When he held her she felt small. Protected. And yeah, that wasn’t a very ERA type of thing to find attractive. But she did. She liked that he made her feel small and delicate, while he seemed big and strong as he held her. Never mind that it wasn’t PC. It was hot.

  She noticed everything about him, and she tried to fight it too hard, because it kept her from focusing on the pain gnawing at her heart over her friend’s death. And it didn’t distract her enough that she thought she would miss anything she needed to find. So she indulged herself just a little. She watched the way his body moved, how comfortable he seemed in it, the easy way he walked, and how close he stayed to her.

  She’d wondered, for a moment, if it really was so one-sided, this burning attraction. Okay, she knew he wanted her sexually, but was there anything more? He walked so close he had to brush up against her side now and then, and every once in a while he put a hand to the small of her back as if to steady her or help her along. He looked down at her often, and sometimes when he did, if she glanced up quickly enough, she would catch this look in his eyes that was almost…dreamy. Kind of a bedroom look, but also one that seemed to border on awestruck or even adoring.

  Maybe she was reading too much into that look. But when she’d first glimpsed it, it had made her suck in a gasp of surprise. For a guy who wasn’t into romance, he sure as hell could melt her heart with those eyes of his. Was there a chance that maybe he cared, just a little? Or was it only wishful thinking on her part?

  She wanted him, and there was an urgency about it that she was sure had something to do with the death of her friend. Grieving over death made her want to embrace life with everything in her. And sex with him would surround her in the very essence of life. Tessa would totally understand that. Would cheer her for it, she knew that.

  “Hey, look at this,” he said.

  She was staring at him, and he was staring at something else, slightly ahead of them and apparently at ground level. His face was shadowed with beard, and it was so incredibly sexy she couldn’t stop checking it out. The skin beneath the dark bristles. She imagined running her palms over it. Her cheeks over it. Her lips.