Something about the way they held on to one another even in sleep was terrifyingly hopeful.
He knew Sadie didn’t want to stay here, and he wasn’t sure he could leave for her. This cabin was his safety net. His place to hide. That’s why he was awake at three in the morning, instead of sleeping soundly with this woman’s body wrapped around his. Sadie had left the bathroom light on, since she was still unfamiliar with the layout of the room, and while what light made its way into the bedroom wasn’t much, it was enough for him to see Sadie sleeping beside him.
He hadn’t thought her beautiful in high school when she’d had that crush on him. He’d thought her pretty enough, and interesting, and different, but as a girl there had been a touch of awkwardness in her.
There was no awkwardness in her now, and she was beautiful.
While he watched she turned to face him, her eyes fluttered, and she reached across to rake her hand over his chest.
“You should be sleeping,” she whispered, her voice smoky with sleep.
“So should you.”
“I was. I was sleeping so good. And then I wake up and find you all the way over there on the other side of the bed.”
“I didn’t want to bother you.”
She scooted closer and laid her head on his shoulder. “Restless?”
“I guess so.”
“Me, too.”
She sounded more awake, now, and the hand at his chest that slipped lower was definitely alert.
He rolled onto his side to face her, and for a while they just touched, as if they were just now learning one another’s anatomy. Her curves; his contours. There was no rush in the way they stroked and aroused, no haste in the sighs or the way their bodies inched closer and closer until Sadie’s leg was cocked over his hip and her mouth raked across his throat.
Sadie rolled him onto his back and straddled his hips, rising up above him like a queen of the night or the woman of his dreams. Dark curls wild, breasts full and soft, waist curving into perfect hips… And he was so close to being inside her again.
She reached for the bedside drawer, opened it, and grabbed a condom. While she ripped open the foil package, he placed his hands on her waist and said, “Have you ever thought about taking the pill?”
She grinned. “Impatient?”
“Yes.”
She tossed the foil wrapper to the floor, but when he tried to take the condom from her she slipped out of the way and held it out of his reach. “I think I’ll do the honors this time.”
“Fine by me.”
Sadie sheathed him, much more slowly than he could have done himself, but then she was having fun with the job. Her hands brushed against him, and she studied her work with dark and intense eyes, that half smile never leaving her face.
Chore done, she once again moved to straddle him, with the head of his erection barely touching her. She guided him into her body, slowly. Again she moved without haste, though there was now anticipation in her eyes. Truman watched their bodies join, watched them come together. Sadie was pale perfection, all woman and softness and beauty. He was tough and scarred and tanned from days spent by the lake, and even in the near-dark the difference was startling.
He was a little old and jaded to be awed by the fact that men and women are so very different, but at the moment that thought grabbed his mind and held on.
Sadie rose and fell slowly, her rhythm almost languid. She didn’t thrust herself down to take all of him in, but teased them both with shallow strokes. They had all night for this, and she knew it and planned to take full advantage. Still, she wouldn’t remain mellow for much longer, not if she felt anything like he did.
Sadie enjoyed being in control. Even now. Especially now. He let her set the pace, and when she looked at him with those dreamy eyes he cupped one breast and teased the nipple. Her entire body reacted. No, she wouldn’t remain serene for much longer.
And she didn’t. Her movements gradually grew harder and faster. Her breath came in a different way, shallow and bordering on frantic. She quivered around him, tight and hot, on the edge of climax.
He grabbed Sadie’s waist in his hands and shifted his hips to plunge deeper. She cried out as she convulsed and quivered around him, her body lurched and grabbed him. His own climax came with hers, intense and complete.
Blinded by sex, he had the fleeting and frightening thought that he could love this woman forever, if she’d let him.
She collapsed atop him, warm and soft and slack, and made a noise of pure contentment into his shoulder. “I didn’t know it was possible to feel this good,” she said, her voice husky.
“The pill,” he said again. He wanted to be inside her without anything between them. He didn’t want to have to stop what they were doing to make sure there was no little Carter popping up to say hello in nine months or so. In the tub, in the middle of the night…wherever and whenever.
Sadie lifted up her head and looked down at him. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair was wilder than before. Her eyes had taken on a dreamy cast, and her lips were more full and sensual than he remembered. She looked like a woman who had been well-loved and didn’t mind letting it show.
“It takes thirty days for the pill to be effective, you know,” she said softly.
“No, I didn’t know.”
She didn’t say anything else, and neither did he. They both realized it was very unlikely that they’d be together thirty days from now.
Chapter 12
“I can’t, really…” Sadie said into the phone, not for the first time.
Lillian refused to listen. “Mary Beth is sick, Jennifer is taking care of the motel on her own, and the place is packed.”
“But…”
“Your uniform is on your bed, freshly washed and ready to go,” Lillian said crisply. “Please, Sadie Mae, I…”
“Okay,” Sadie said quickly. “I’ll be there as quick as I can.”
It was now common knowledge that someone had taken a shot at Truman and Sadie, but everyone—Lillian included—had come to the same conclusion as the sheriff. It had been a hunter’s wild shot, and nothing more. Given the limited list of suspects she and Truman had come up with last night, even Sadie had begun to think that might be the case.
But she wasn’t sure. She hung up the phone and turned to Truman, who sat half-dressed at the kitchen table eating scrambled eggs and sipping coffee. He smiled at her and her entire body reacted. Heaven help her, she could get used to this.
“I have to go to the café for a while.”
His eyebrows lifted slightly. “Is that a good idea?”
She sighed as she walked toward the bedroom to get dressed. “Probably not, but Lillian is insisting that she needs me, and damned if I can make myself tell her no when she calls me Sadie Mae.”
In the bedroom she brushed out her hair and started grabbing things from her suitcase. “Mary Beth is sick again,” she called. “I need to get that girl some vitamins or something.”
Truman’s response came from very close. He walked into the bedroom and headed for his closet. “She’s pregnant.”
Sadie spun around, a wave of horror whipping through her. “Again? Is there something in the water around here? That’s two, count ’em, two employees coming up pregnant in a matter of months.”
A very laid-back Truman whipped a green shirt off a hanger and grabbed a clean pair of jeans off a built-in rack. “I don’t know the particulars.”
Sadie dressed quickly. “I’m going to have to find someone else to work for Aunt Lillian. Someone reliable.” Maybe someone past menopause, so maternity leave wouldn’t even be a possibility.
“You’ll find someone. Or else you can take over the café yourself,” Truman suggested. “I can’t see Jennifer doing it, and Lillian isn’t going to want to run the place by herself forever. She’s not getting any younger.”
“Oh, no,” Sadie said with a shake of her head. “Lillian has plenty of good years left in her, and besides…I can’t…I’m jus
t not…” The words stuck in her throat.
“You’re not sticking around that long, is that it?”
She turned to face Truman. He was dressed, and the happiness that had been so evident on his face all morning was gone. “You know I’m not,” she said in a lowered voice. “You don’t have to go to the café with me,” she said as she headed for the door. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
He followed her down the short hallway. “Remember what I said yesterday about sticking to you like glue?”
“Yeah.”
“Still stands.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Besides,” he said as he took the keys from her. “I’m not sitting around here with no vehicle.”
She had often experienced that same fear; the terror of being stuck somewhere without any mode of escape.
He leaned down and kissed her. Not a deep kiss that would lead to more, but a sweet, intimate kiss that rocked her to her toes.
She could definitely get used to this.
Truman took a booth in the corner and sat with his back to the wall. He could see Sadie and the parking lot beyond the wide window and every customer in the place.
She refilled his coffee cup often and smiled at him when no one was looking. Not that everyone in town didn’t know they were involved. Garth was the stereo-typical small town, where everyone knew everyone else’s business.
Usually. There were always secrets that managed to be kept. Apparently Hearn had had plenty of secrets and so had Davenport. If it had been just Hearn who’d been murdered, he might put his money on a spurned woman. But who would go to so much trouble to eliminate a witness and frame Sadie? That alone hinted at something bigger than a woman with a broken heart.
The lunch rush was almost over—there was less than half an hour left until closing time—when the two cars pulled into the lot. Alabama tags, but not from this county. Two men in each car. Fishermen? Maybe, but there wasn’t a boat-trailer hitch on either of the vehicles, and if they had fishing gear it had been broken down and stored in the trunk.
One of the men, a large fair-haired man, went into the motel office with a sense of purpose and haste. Lillian was manning the desk and Jennifer was cleaning a few rooms, while Sadie and Bowie kept the café afloat. Truman watched the door to the motel office, but he didn’t have to wait more than two minutes before the man came marching out, signaling to the others. Car doors opened, and the other three men stepped out. All of them headed toward the café, unsmiling and determined.
Lillian poked her head out of the office to watch the men cross the parking lot, but she soon poked her head back inside, like a shy turtle.
The big blond led the way. He was followed by a tall man with long black hair and too many tattoos, a slender dark-haired guy who looked like he’d been rode hard and put up wet and a slick fella in an expensive suit.
They all looked like trouble.
The door opened, and Sadie lifted her head and watched the men walk in. Her face actually blanched.
The blond glared at her. “Care to explain to me why the ABI is asking so many damned questions about you?”
“Not particularly,” she answered sheepishly.
Truman sat back and watched, relaxing a little since it seemed that Sadie knew these fellas.
The man in the suit looked her up and down and grinned. “Nice look for you, Harlow. Where’s the gun?”
“Bite me, Santana.”
The other two each took a seat at the bar. They searched the café, sizing up every customer in a matter of seconds and finding no immediate danger. The man with the shorter hair, his eyes stayed on Truman a few seconds longer than was necessary. He stared; Truman stared right back.
Too many people were talking at once, and even though Truman couldn’t make out every word, he could hear enough. The men teased Sadie for wearing pink and for pouring coffee like a pro. The blond, who was larger and older than the other three, didn’t tease the way the others did. He wanted to know what was going on in Garth that had the ABI asking questions about Sadie.
She kept trying to tell him that she could handle it.
The four of them—obviously men Sadie worked with—sat at the counter and drank coffee and ragged on her. There was an easy camaraderie, and Sadie was a part of it. Truman didn’t want to wonder exactly how close she was to these men…but he did. He couldn’t help it. The one in the suit, Sadie had called him Santana, was much too familiar with her.
Truman didn’t like it.
Sadie glanced back at him once after her cohorts arrived, but she didn’t wave him over or smile. He got the distinct feeling she’d like to keep him far, far away from the men she worked with. When she refilled the coffee cup sitting before the slender man who looked like he’d lived a rough life, she stared into his face too intensely. Even from here, Truman could see her reaction. Her hands jerked a little and began to tremble. She put the coffeepot down hard. A little too rough or not, he was the kind of guy some women went for. Dangerous and crude, rough around the edges, he surely wasn’t Sadie’s type.
Was he?
Again, Truman had to admit that he did not know the woman Sadie had become.
Sadie felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under her. Literally. Her heart lurched, her stomach flipped.
Oh, those eyes. Green and sad and beautiful…
“Cal, I need to talk to you,” she said, turning and walking toward the kitchen. She heard as well as felt Santana rise from his seat. “Alone,” she added.
She sent Bowie to the front to see to the job of refilling coffee and taking payment from customers, and when Cal walked into the kitchen to join her—alone, as she had asked—she prayed that maybe, just maybe, she was wrong.
“Do you still have that picture of Kelly in your wallet?”
“Sure,” he reached for his back pocket. “A trucker recognized her picture and said she’s working in a bar outside Raleigh, North Carolina, or was last week. That’s where Mangino and I are headed, once Benning is satisfied that you’re not in serious trouble.”
She was definitely in serious trouble, but not the type the guys were worried about.
Cal removed the old photo from his wallet and handed it to Sadie. The picture had been taken in the junior year of high school. She’d lost weight, lost her innocent smile, and dyed her hair, but it was her.
“Your sister’s not in North Carolina,” Sadie said softly.
“What do you mean…”
“She couldn’t have been in Raleigh last week, because she was here.”
“Here?” His voice turned sharp. “Are you sure?”
Sadie returned the photo to Cal, and he blindly slipped it into his wallet and the wallet into his back pocket.
“I knew she looked familiar, but I could never put my finger on what it was. She doesn’t look much like this photo anymore, but Cal, she has your eyes. That’s what I kept seeing and recognizing. The eyes…”
“How long has she been gone?” he asked, with the stoicism of a man who was accustomed to being disappointed.
“Since Saturday,” Sadie said. Kathy—Kelly—could be anywhere by now. This had happened so many times, it was downright frustrating. They’d get a lead on Kelly’s whereabouts, a sighting, but either it turned out to be another woman who bore a resemblance, or by the time they got there she was gone.
At least now they knew why Kelly was running. Sadie’s heart twitched. No, she knew. Nobody else. She didn’t want to tell Cal, heaven above, she didn’t want to tell him. But what choice did she have?
“What are you two doing back there?” Benning bellowed.
“We’ll be out in a minute!” she replied in kind. She wasn’t going to deliver this news in front of a crowd.
“Cal, I talked to her.”
There was a touch of hope in his eyes. “Is she okay?”
Sadie started to nod, but Cal was her friend. A good friend. She didn’t want to lie to him. “Listen to me.” She took his hand and squeez
ed it. “And don’t say anything until I’m finished.” If he interrupted her, she didn’t think she could ever finish.
“Okay.” He squeezed her hand, much as she had just done to him, as if he knew that what was coming would be bad.
“Your stepfather raped her,” she said softly.
Tears immediately sprang to Cal’s green eyes.
“When he tried it a second time, she hit him over the head with a cast-iron skillet, and she ran.”
“That’s my girl,” he muttered, his voice shaking a little.
“She thinks she killed him.”
Cal shook his head. “He had a heart attack a few days after she ran away. Son of a bitch, I should’ve killed him myself.” He got a dangerous glint in his eyes, one Sadie recognized. “I should’ve been there. He should’ve suffered…”
“Focus, Cal,” Sadie said calmly. “Focus on Kelly and getting her back.”
He nodded, but it wasn’t easy for him to bury his outrage.
“She thinks you’re dead and the cops are looking for her so they can charge her with murder.”
“But…”
“I know it doesn’t make any sense,” Sadie interrupted. “But remember that Kelly was a kid when she ran.”
A kid, violated and scared and on the run.
Tears ran down Cal’s cheeks. He’d been tortured, shot, stabbed… She didn’t even want to contemplate all the terrible things that had happened to Quinn Calhoun. And he’d never cried.
He swiped a hand at the tears that wouldn’t stop. “I swear, Harlow, if you tell Livvie or the guys that I boohooed like a baby, I’ll have to shoot you.”
“It’s okay.” She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug. He needed a hug, even though neither of them would ever admit such a thing. He held her tight, and rested his head on her shoulder while he let a few more tears fall.
“It’s not fair,” he said against her shoulder.
“I know.” She raked her hands up and down his hard back.
“I should’ve been there. I never should’ve let that nasty, dirty old man lay a hand on my little sister.”
Truly, Madly, Dangerously Page 17