by Jen Talty
An orange light filtered through the trees, then white lights turned into the driveway, and Blaine let out his breath as his mother’s car pulled in. He moved to the middle of the driveway and pointed to the front lawn, knowing the bullets couldn’t have gone in that direction. Dave’s pickup followed behind.
“Blaine!” Shima charged from the car. “Dave said you were shot at. Are you okay?”
“When did you talk to Dave?” he asked, glancing over his mother’s shoulder.
“I happened to be having coffee with him when Kaylee called.” She met his gaze head on.
“I see.” Blaine eyed his boss, who just smiled at him.
“Where’s Kaylee? She’s all right, isn’t she?” His mother pursed her lips, like she always did when she got worried about those she cared for.
“She’s making me a sandwich.”
“I’m amazed at the times you’re capable of eating.” Dave stood next to Blaine’s mother, his hand poorly hidden behind her back. “Dave, would you like a sandwich?” Shima asked.
“I don’t think he would,” Blaine said quietly.
“Blaine Dakota Walker, you behave yourself.”
“I think you’re the one who needs to behave,” he whispered.
His mother glared at him.
“Do you want a sandwich, Boss?” Blaine was just busting his boss’s ass, but his mother didn’t seem to be enjoying the poke.
“Actually, I wouldn’t mind one. Thank you.“ Dave flashed a wicked grin, and then kissed her cheek.
Blaine watched Dave eye his mother as she made her way up the stairs to his apartment.
“That’s my mother.”
“She’s also a beautiful woman.”
“You don’t deserve a woman like my mother.”
“I won’t argue with that.” Dave pulled out a flashlight. “You check out the tire marks?”
“Not yet, still looking for the bullets.”
Dave rubbed his jaw. “You’re just busting my chops when it comes to Shima, right? Or do you really have a problem with me dating her?”
Blaine continued to scan the ground where he thought the shots might have hit. “It doesn’t bother me.”
“I never thought I’d look at another woman and not feel like I was cheating on Sally, but your mother makes me think otherwise.”
“I’m happy to see her living her life again, but I never thought about her dating. I mean, it’s just weird.”
“Her dating? Or her dating me?” Dave placed a firm hand on Blaine’s shoulder. “We’ve been friends for years.”
“Yeah, and with my dad, too.” Blaine’s chest tightened. He’d never really had the chance to make his father proud of him.
Dave lowered his stare, his tone level but laced with emotion. “He was one of the best men I’ve ever known. If he or Sally were still here, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“That doesn’t make it less weirder.”
“I know. Shima and I have had the same conversation. For months.” Dave dropped his hand. “I like your mother.”
“I can see that.” Blaine smacked the flashlight against his palm.
“I’d like you to be okay with this.” Dave flashed his own light against the ground.
Blaine felt close to Dave. He’d known him most of his life. Dave was a good man. “I’m sure I’ll get used to it.” Blaine lifted his flashlight and aimed it right at Dave’s eyes. “But if you hurt her, you’ll have to answer to me, got it?”
Dave covered his face with his forearm, blocking the hurtful beam of light from his eyes. “Yeah, I got it. Now get back to work before I have to fire your ass.”
“It’s my night off.”
“Not when someone shoots at you.”
Blaine knelt down beside a shiny object. “I got a winner.” He took the bag and gloves Dave offered.“ I’d like to get some pictures of that tread and try to match it.”
“Already on it.” Dave pulled out a camera bag from the back seat of his pickup. “And once again, you’re ruining my night, and you weren’t even on the night shift.” Dave took a few pictures. “I’ll get these out first thing.” He tossed the camera in the back of his pickup.
“I think I’m going to call Toby and have him keep an eye on Kaylee while I’m at work.” Blaine ripped off the latex glove, tossing it in the wastebasket in the garage before closing it for the night.
“When you do, tell that lazy bastard to stop by and see his old man.”
“Why don’t you come up and get that sandwich,” Blaine offered.
“Thanks.”
His mom opened the door with a plate full of food wrapped in foil. “I think Kaylee’s tired. She needs her sleep, and I offered the spare, but she insists on staying on your couch.” His mother waved a finger under his nose.
“I’ll make sure she gets the bed,” Blaine said. He leaned in to give his mom a kiss and whispered, “Dave’s a good man.”
She smiled. “Good night.”
“Lock the doors and set the alarm,” Blaine said.
“I’ll call Jonesy and have him plant himself near here for the night,” Dave said as he looped his arm around Blaine’s mother.
“Good idea.” Blaine watched his mother and Dave glide arm in arm across the lawn and then disappear into the house before turning and closing his own door behind him.
“They make a cute couple.” Kaylee smiled as she put a plate on the counter.
“Oh, yeah, real cute.”
“They both deserve some happiness, and they’re still so young.”
“I know. It’s just my boss and my mother and I’ve known him forever.” He’d seen Dave go out on a few dates in the last few months, but nothing substantial, and he hadn’t known his mother even looked at the opposite sex. “But hey, if she’s happy, I’m happy.”
“Toss me a towel.” He pointed to his wet muddy feet.
She did as instructed. “I can’t believe you’re not frozen.”
As he wiped the dirt off his skin, he realized he hadn’t even buttoned his pants or put on a shirt.
“I must be a vampire,” he said, looking across the room at a vision of pure beauty. She’d always had an ease about her, and he could tell that someone had chiseled away some of her resolve, but he was impressed at how she tried to cover it up.
“Can I ask you a tough question?”
She laughed. “Like you haven’t been doing that for two days.”
“Do you have any idea who your father could be?”
“Any man in this godforsaken town. My father said that Mom had shown some signs of schizophrenia before she got pregnant.” Kaylee slammed a cup of juice on the table, and the orange liquid sloshed onto the counter. “You think my biological father wants me dead?”
“I don’t know, but something doesn’t add up here.” He held her gaze for a long moment. “Tell me something that can help you. Something that can push me and my office in a direction that doesn’t include you as a suspect.”
She leaned against the high-back chair at the counter. “I’m broke, unemployed, and my ex-boss is a number one asshole, but I’m not sure that helps.”
“What really happened to you? Who gave you those scars on your back?”
“I already told you.”
“No, you didn’t.” He kept his anger and frustration in check. One thing he knew for sure, Kaylee, if backed into a corner, would fight her way out, but if he did that, she’d never tell him what he needed to know. “You said you were attacked.”
“I can’t tell you this.”
He studied her face. When they’d first fallen in love, he could read her every emotion. Then she got pregnant and the world decided to interfere, and she learned to cover her emotions. Hide them even from him.
All he saw in her face was determination and perhaps a bit of fear.
“If I really thought you killed your father, you wouldn’t be in my house. Around my mother. If Dave thought—”
“I get it, but I still ca
n’t tell you.”
Blaine let out a long, slow breath as he bridged the gap between them. “We once loved each other. We shared joy, and we shared pain. We might not have been able to make things work after we lost our baby, but I’m on your side. I always will be, no matter what.”
“No matter how bad?”
“Tell me,” he demanded.
“I worked for a lawyer whose clientele consisted of criminals. The mob to be exact.”
“One of his clients did this to you?” He ran his fingers across her cheek. She stiffened and pulled away from him. “I can’t figure this out and protect you if you’re going to keep things from me.”
“The man who attacked me said it was a warning.” Her voice trembled, but her resolve held.
“What kind of warning?”
“Shouldn’t my lawyer be present?” she said so quietly, he barely heard her.
“If I think you need one, I’ll let you know, okay?”
“You expect me to trust you?” Her eyelashes fluttered over her pale-blue eyes.
“I do,” he said. “Why were you attacked?” He leaned against the counter and broke off a piece of the egg sandwich and stuffed it in his mouth. His stomach growled even more. He’d missed her cooking.
“According to my boy…boss, the guy was just supposed to threaten me.”
“Your boss knew about it?” Blaine asked.
She nodded. “It was a way to get me to go back to him. I was hurt and broke, and he controlled me. So I went back. I played along until I could get away.”
“Played along with what?” Blaine dropped his sandwich on the counter. The shock of her tale registering deep in his core.
“Played the part of the devoted secretary until I could safely leave and get home. Dad had promised to help me.”
“Jesus, Kaylee.” He suddenly lost his appetite. “Name. Give me a name. Tell me who did this to you?”
“De Luca, Nino De Luca.”
Blaine rolled the name around in his brain and when he finally connected the dots, he thought he might be sick again. “You mean the De Luca family?”
“See why I didn’t want to tell you,” she said.
Blaine yanked his hair from the ponytail holder, letting it fall to his shoulders. He turned toward the big picture window that looked over the main house. The dry tree branches in the yard were still, and the world appeared to be calm. “Do you think he’d kill your father to get to you?”
“I…I—”
“Just say it.” He hated to be in the dark. When you don’t know things because of lies, or the omission of the truth, innocent people died.
“When we divorced, I kept your name. Legally, I’m Kaylee Walker. Nino may not even know my real maiden name, linking me to my father.”
“And I’m white.” He stepped out onto the porch and slammed the door. Dave’s car was still sitting in the driveway to the main house. Through the window he could see Dave and his mother. Blaine felt trapped. He couldn’t leave Kaylee alone, or ask her to leave, but he also couldn’t go intrude on his mother and Dave. But he didn’t want to go back in the house and continue to say things he’d regret in the morning. The Kaylee he knew was smarter than to become involved with the likes of the De Luca family.
When Blaine had fled his hometown, he thought he was moving toward his future. After he had moved back, he realized his problems had only followed him wherever he went. The same was happening to Kaylee.
Her father had been hurt in so many ways. His wife suffered from a horrible condition that led to sexual misconduct, and his daughter had turned out to be someone else’s. Blaine glanced at the sky. “Rutherford, I need your help. Speak to me, old man. Tell me something I don’t know.”
6
Kaylee stared at Blaine’S shirtless back through the window. His dark skin in direct contrast with the bright moon. It had always amazed her that his body was a solid mass of fine sculptured muscle, yet he had the worst eating habits of anyone she’d ever met.
Forcing her gaze from him, she finished doing the dishes and started thinking about what to do next. But the situation seemed hopeless. She knew she needed to run. More like disappear. Otherwise something bad would happen, and it would happen to the wrong people.
Her eyelids drooped and her body ached, demanding a peaceful rest, but tonight she’d sleep on the couch. She wouldn’t be beholden to him for anything. She grabbed his sweats and her top and padded to the bathroom.
A shower before bed had become part of her routine, and the hot water helped soothe her cramped muscles. When she stepped out of the bathroom, she saw Blaine, leaning against the front door, his legs crossed at the ankles. Considering his heritage, she couldn’t understand why she’d want to throw a cowboy hat on him. But sexy or not, he was dangerous and out of the question. She swallowed, forcing herself to move across the hardwood floor.
“Does De Luca want you dead? Or back?” No mistaking his harsh tone.
“I don’t think he cares one way or the other.” She tried to shrug it all off as she eased herself onto the couch and succumbed to the comfort of the soft leather.
“Do you trust me?”
“It’s not that simple.” She wrapped herself in the flannel throw blanket.
“I can’t help you unless you fill me in on a few things. Like why would Nino De Luca want to hurt you?”
Because he thinks I belong to him, and he’s a psycho. “The longer I worked for him, the more I found out about the criminals he had for clients. And I made the mistake of questioning him.”
“What kind of criminals?”
“Mostly the white-collar kind—computer hackers, tax evaders.”
The couch shifted when he sat down at the other end. “That doesn’t sound like the kind of man who’d come after a secretary with a knife for a warning.”
“Doesn’t matter what it sounds like, it only matters that whoever shot at me tonight, works for De Luca. So I need to go.”
“I’m not letting you go.” Blaine arched a brow. “You were more than his secretary.”
“Doesn’t matter what I was to him. I know things about his business. He doesn’t like that.”
“Did you take anything from him? Files, reports, a damn pen?” he asked.
“No,” she lied.
“He had someone stab you. Knowledge is one thing. Proof is something entirely different.”
“I made a mistake by getting involved with my boss, but that was it.”
Blaine’s already dark eyes turned nearly black. “He had someone stab you. Could have killed you.” He threaded his hand through her hair, focusing on the softness of the strands versus his building anger.
“Let it go.” She swatted at his hand. “The guy was just supposed to ransack my apartment. I wasn’t even supposed to be there, and when I caught him, I hit him over the head with a frying pan. According to Nino, the guy he hired was just fighting back.”
“Stabbing you in the back multiple times is simply fighting back?” The intensity of Blaine’s hard-as-stone face brought back those frightening moments. She had thought she was going to die—had almost wished for it. “I saw the scars.”
“I don’t work for him anymore,” she managed under a ragged breath. “And I won’t ever go back. Problem solved.”
“You know your problems are far from solved or you wouldn’t have come back here,” he whispered. His gaze dropped to her lips, and he cursed softly. He lifted his hand to her chin and tilted her head before brushing his lips against hers.
“Stop it,” she said, bolting from the sofa, then clutching her back. “Shit,” she slumped down in pain. “See what you made me do.”
“I didn’t make you jump,” he said as he gently turned her body, then pushed her forward. With both hands, he began the most incredible massage she’d ever had, even from a professional.
“Oh, God.”
“Feel good?”
“Unfortunately,” she managed between heavy breaths. His touch was too sensual
to ignore.
“I’ll make some phone calls and bring Toby in. He’s a good P.I., and if this guy’s around, which by this evening’s events I’d say is the case, we’ll find out and we’ll deal with him.”
“Why do you want Toby?”
“I can’t be here to protect you and out there trying to find whoever killed your dad.”
“Oh.” She hated to admit it, but the idea of having someone around, watching her, did make her feel better.
“You’ve always loved a good backrub,” he said, running his fingers down her spine.
“You’ve always been great with your hands.” She laughed, although she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to remember what it felt like to be loved by Blaine.
“Do you remember the first night we got together in the woods by your house?”
“You asked me to meet you and then I found you slumped over. I thought you were drunk and that I’d have to carry you home.”
“I had a migraine.”
“Yeah, well, I was already mad at you.”
“Why?” His hands lifted her shirt, smoothing down her spine in a slow, torturous stroke.
“You have any idea what it’s like to have the entire town make comments about the size of your boyfriend when you hadn’t even had the chance to see it for yourself?” She bit down on her lip. The absurdity of the conversation was almost as funny as his little jaunt about town.
“I lost a bet with Toby. I had to do it.”
“That’s pathetic.”
“It got your attention, didn’t it?”
“You had my attention fully clothed.”
“I know,” he said. “I enjoyed making up.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“A lifetime ago,” he whispered. “You must be tired, and I insist you sleep in the bed.”
“I’ll be fine on the couch.”
She gasped when he lifted her into his arms. “Like I said, you’ll take the bed.”
“Put me down.” She stared into his deep, stubborn eyes. “I won’t put you out.”
“Okay.” He winked.