Feeling The Heat

by Rhonda Nelson

  Linc grinned at her and shook his head. “Feel better now that you’re packing?”

  “I’m not going to feel good until I hit him with it.”

  He arched a single brow and winced. “You know that if he doesn’t resist, technically I’m not supposed to hurt anybody.”

  “Then I guess it’s a good thing you won’t be the one jolting him, isn’t it?”

  Linc merely chuckled and parked a few doors down. He surveyed the scene, then pointed to the door just to the left of where Carter’s car sat. “He’s in that one.”

  Georgia peered at where he’d indicated. “How do you know?”

  “Because the curtains are drawn. The two on either side of him are open, meaning that they’re vacant.”

  She smiled, impressed. And that’s why he was the bounty hunter, Georgia thought. “Okay, let’s—”

  “Uh-uh,” Linc told her. “There’s no let’s on this to start with. I’m going to get him, you can talk to him once I’ve got him.”

  “Linc!”

  “I mean it, Georgia. He could be dangerous. I’m not letting you go to the door.”

  “He’s a petty thief, not a murderer!” she said, her voice bordering on a scream. She couldn’t believe he was doing this. He knew how important this was to her, dammit.

  “And you’re a wedding planner with a stun gun in your pocket. People do strange things when they’re angry or cornered.” He pinned her with a glare. “I told you from the get-go that you’d have to follow my rules to the letter, follow my lead and that I was in charge. You agreed, right?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “But nothing. I’ll bring him out. Then you can take your shot at him. That’s how we’re going to do this. Understood?”

  Though she knew he was right, she still didn’t like being told to wait in the car like a kid who wasn’t allowed to go into the grocery store. She lifted her chin and glared mutinously at him. “Understood,” she all but choked out.

  “Good.” He consulted the picture of Carter he had once more, then morphed into bounty-hunter mode right before her eyes. He slipped into a multi-pocketed vest which was outfitted with everything he might need—flashlight, mace, handcuffs, gun.

  For whatever reason, the sight of the gun jolted her to her senses. He could get hurt, Georgia realized, suddenly feeling small and petty for arguing with him when he’d only been trying to protect her.

  He turned to go and she stayed him with a hand on the arm. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Be careful.”

  Something moved behind his gaze, then he leaned over and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Always,” he said.

  Georgia released an uneasy breath as she watched Linc walk up the sidewalk and rap on Carter’s door. “Pizza delivery,” she heard him call.

  Less than half a minute later, the thieving SOB opened the door. “I didn’t order—”

  “Carter Watkins?” Linc asked.

  Carter scowled. “Who wants to—”

  Without warning Linc slammed his fist into Carter’s jaw, sending him flying backward into the room. Georgia gasped, then squealed and pressed a hand against her mouth. He’d thrown that punch for her, she knew. It was a blatant act of masculinity on her behalf, and her giddy, bloodthirsty little heart absolutely soared as a result of it.

  Linc dragged him outside, pinned him against the wall and handcuffed him, then motioned for Georgia to come and join him. Adrenaline and nerves making her shake like a leaf in a windstorm, she hurried to Linc’s side and looked up at Carter. His lip was busted and blood spurted from his nose.

  The fool actually smiled when he saw her. “Georgia?”

  “Where’s the ring, Carter?” she demanded, her voice cracking with every bit of anger she’d been holding on to since she’d realized he’d stolen it from her.

  He paled. “Ring?”

  Linc shook him hard enough to rattle his teeth. “Don’t play dumb. Answer the woman’s questions and I won’t kick your ass all the way to two-oh-one Poplar.”

  Evidently recognizing the address to the jail, Carter’s wild-eyed gaze darted between them. “I don’t have it anymore,” he said. “I sold it.”

  Her heart sagged and she tried not to panic. It was a futile effort. Her throat clogged and she swore.

  “To who?” Linc asked, clearly sensing that she was on the verge of a breakdown.

  “I—I don’t know,” Carter said. “Just some guy.”

  “Did you pawn it, you miserable bastard?” Georgia asked. “Did you pawn my mother’s ring?”

  Carter’s eyes widened and he gave his head a small shake. “No, I d-didn’t pawn it. I tried,” he said. “But I couldn’t get anything for it. The guy said it was worthless.”

  Worthless.

  A year and half of her father’s time and effort, a testament to determination and unwavering faith, the eternal symbol of her parents’ love, a precious heirloom she’d wanted to pass along to her children…worthless.

  Gone, possibly forever, because of her. Her gaze narrowed on Carter.

  Because of him.

  A red haze of anger swam before her eyes, and before she realized what she was doing, she drew back and sucker punched him right in his soft gut.

  He grunted and doubled over in pain. “She hit me,” Carter wheezed, thunderstruck.

  Linc snorted. “Consider yourself lucky,” he told Carter. “She’d planned on hitting you with her—”

  Georgia withdrew the stun gun from her pocket and coolly zapped him on the chest. His eyes widened, then glazed over and spit dribbled from his mouth before he crumpled to the ground in a twitching heap at their feet.

  “—stun gun,” Linc finished, his gaze bouncing between the two of them.

  Drained, miserable and momentarily hopeless, Georgia stared at Linc. She pulled a small shrug. “It’ll be easier for you to get him in the car this way.”

  And that, she knew, was going to be the easiest thing they would do over the next hour, but at least it would give her time to prepare for the hardest. She swallowed tightly and put her game face on.

  Namely saying goodbye to Linc.

  “I’M SORRY, GEORGIA,” Linc told her, feeling as helpless as he’d ever been in his adult life. This was exactly what he’d feared, what he’d tried to prepare her for. “I was hoping I’d find it in his stuff, but he only had a couple of changes of clothes, some cheap cologne and twenty-seven bucks in his wallet.” Loser, Linc thought, disgusted. No doubt the twenty-seven bucks was what was left over from the sale of her mother’s ring after he’d paid for his hotel room.

  Though Georgia hadn’t shed a tear, Linc knew she was coming apart on the inside. It was as though she’d turned herself off, put everything in lockdown mode. She currently sat in the passenger seat of his truck, her hands folded primly in her lap, her face an emotionless mask that was distinctly unnerving.

  “Do you want me to take you to get something to eat?” he offered. It was lame, he knew, but he couldn’t think of anything else to say. They’d already returned Carter to the police station, and he’d picked up his body receipt to give to Marlene. Technically, he’d fulfilled his part of the bargain and yet the idea of leaving her…

  Christ, he just couldn’t. No, there was more.

  He didn’t want to.

  And he wouldn’t, Linc decided, knowing that he’d just gone from dangerous waters to completely in over his head. Oh, hell. Who was he kidding? He’d been in over his head from the beginning. Had known that she’d be the end of him.

  But he simply couldn’t leave her like this. He wanted to hold her and rock her and make it all better. Soothe the hurt, be her rock, her secret hiding place, her knight in shining armor. Her…everything, he realized.

  Mostly, he wanted to throttle the hell out of Carter Watkins for hurting her in the first place.

  A wan smile tugged at his lips. Of course, Georgia had done a pretty good job of roughing him up herself. He’d been alternately stunned and proud when she’d thrown that pun
ch at him a little while ago. He’d known she’d planned to use the stun gun, but had never anticipated that she’d deck him, too. For such a little person, she’d put a surprising amount of force behind the blow.

  “Thanks,” she said wearily. “But I’m not hungry. I’d really like to just go home.”

  Linc nodded. “Sure.”

  They drove in silence, her seemingly lost in her own thoughts, him unreasonably nervous, miserable and frustrated because he was so powerless to make things right. He reached over and grabbed her hand, then gave it a gentle squeeze. She looked at him then and the anguish in those tortured brown eyes—the pain she was hiding from him—slammed into him, making him feel even more helpless. A finger of unease nudged his belly, a premonition of dread he didn’t quite understand, but recognized all the same. Every sense went on point.

  Linc pulled up behind her car and shifted into Park. He turned to get out of the SUV and felt her hand land upon his arm.

  “You don’t have to stay.”

  He frowned, the sinking pit in his stomach becoming a yawning hole that threatened to consume him. “I—”

  She squeezed her eyes tightly shut. “Linc, it’s okay. You—You don’t have to stay.” She gave a little unnatural laugh. “Consider yourself dumped. I’ll, uh—I’ll inform my brother, per our agreement.” She chuckled again, as though doing so would make this funny. “You did what you said you would do for me—you found Carter—and for that I thank you. I’ll be getting in touch with Gracie soon so that we can start planning her wedding.”

  “Georgia,” Linc sighed, her name more of a plea than anything else. His gaze searched hers, looking for any sort of foothold and finding none. “We’ll keep looking for the ring. I’ll help you. I’ll talk to Carter and see—”

  “Thanks, but no,” she said, her voice pleasant but firm. No doubt that was the tone she used with her mothers-of-the-brides and moody grooms who didn’t want to be fitted for their tuxes, Linc decided as something in his chest rattled around and broke. “I can handle it from here.”

  A bark of dry laughter erupted from his throat and he stared at her for a minute, wondering if she’d change her mind, if this was a joke, or a bad dream. Surely she wasn’t doing this to him. Surely she wasn’t kicking him to the curb simply because he could no longer be of service to her. Surely the past few days had meant more to her than that?

  Apparently not, Linc decided as Georgia gathered her purse, opened the door and slid out of his truck.

  Out of his life.

  She paused, offered a tentative smile, but didn’t meet his gaze. “I’ll, uh—I guess I’ll see you around.”

  “So I’m disposable now, eh?” he asked, the irony not lost on him at all.

  A sad smile shaped her lips and those dark, dark eyes finally found his. “You can’t complain, Linc. I’m just following your lead.”

  And with that parting comment, she turned and walked away.

  14

  THOUGH IT TOOK every ounce of strength she possessed. Georgia made it into her back door before she fell apart. She dropped her purse onto the counter, pushed her hands into her hair, then slid down the wall and let the sob she’d been holding back for the past hour and a half rip out of her.

  Between the ring being gone—probably forever, though she’d keep looking—and “dumping” Linc, she felt like her insides had been put through a stump grinder, then dumped into a gristmill.

  In short, shattered.

  The instant the call came in about Carter, she’d known she was going to have to face this, but somehow knowing it and being prepared were two completely different things. She’d used the looming rendezvous with Carter to suspend thinking about the inevitable “break up” with Linc, but the minute Carter had told her that he no longer had the ring, saying goodbye to Linc had taken prominence.

  She’d known, hadn’t she, that this would be the inevitable outcome? She’d known from the minute she’d laid eyes on him that he wasn’t the type to settle down, that he saw love as a weakness, not a blessing to be nurtured and cherished.

  That’s why she’d insisted that she break up with him. That’s why every time he did something that made her silly heart melt, she’d reminded herself that he thought fools fell in love and only complete idiots got married. Hell, he was so commitment-phobic he wouldn’t even go back to her store.

  That, in and of itself, was enough to set off every warning bell in the known universe. Or at the very least, hers.

  She’d known…and yet that hadn’t stopped her from falling head over heels in love with him.

  But what good was love if it wasn’t returned? If you never got it back? Georgia wanted her own wedding, her own happily ever after. Her own children running around and tugging on her pants’ leg. She wanted an affectionate hug, a partner for her tub, someone to share the dawns with her. She wanted a guy who wanted more than just her, but to share her life with her. She wiped the tears from her eyes with the edge of her shirt, drew her knees up to her chest and leaned her head against the wall. Another whimper shook her chest. Bogey and Bacall rubbed against her legs and Stitch licked her hand, making another sob rattle loose.

  She wanted what her parents had. She knew it was out there somewhere. She knew she deserved it and more importantly, she knew she wasn’t willing to settle for anything less.

  Considering all that—point A to point B in the most efficient fashion—she also knew cutting Linc loose was the most practical thing for her to do. He’d never commit and she’d never settle, and that put them at opposing goals.

  She managed a watery smile, closed her eyes and let the tears fall.

  And that was the height of inefficiency.

  “YOU’RE AN IDIOT.”

  Gritty-eyed and unshaven, Linc looked up from the newspaper he’d been reading and stared at is brother. “Piss off, Cade. I’m not in the mood.”

  “I don’t give a damn whether you’re in the mood or not. You can’t keep on like this. Just go find the damned ring already and quit trying to pick up skips, too. Martin and I can handle it.”

  Thanks to Georgia’s team-up-with-a-politician idea, their previously lagging business had suddenly boomed. In fact, though it had always been a family-run business, taking on another bounty hunter to help with the slack was becoming a very real possibility.

  He passed a hand over his face. “I’m fine.”

  “You’re not fine.”

  “Leave it,” Linc growled.

  “Do you want me to go have a chat with Carter? Scare a little more information out of him?”

  Linc sighed. That was Cade, always looking out for him. Always at his back.

  Unfortunately, there was nothing his brother could do for him this time.

  This time he had to straighten out his own mess and fight his own fight.

  “I threatened to tell everybody in his cell that he was a cross-dressing pedophile,” Linc said flatly. “He’s been in jail enough to know what happens to men who hurt kids. Believe me, I’ve scared everything out of him that can be scared. The bastard has told me everything he knows.” He sighed, massaged the bridge of his nose. “All I can do is keep looking. Keep canvasing. At some point, I’ll find who he sold it to.” The bastard had duped a suit on Union Avenue. Unfortunately he didn’t remember exactly where, but after a little persuading on Linc’s part, had managed to narrow it down to a several-block stretch.

  Cade frowned. “Does Georgia know you’re doing this? That you’ve been at this for two weeks nonstop?”

  “No, she doesn’t, and I don’t want her to. I’ve told Gracie to keep her mouth shut and I expect you to do the same. When I find it, I’ll tell her myself.”

  “Little brother, I know this is none of my business, but I hate to see you get hurt.” He hesitated. “Are you sure she’s worth this?”

  Linc felt a tired smile roll around his lips. “Cade, I have never been more certain of anything in my life. She’s a lot of trouble, but she’s my Trouble.” Immediately a
vision of sweet brown eyes, lush lips and a heart-shaped rear end invaded his thoughts, sending a pang of regret into his chest and a dart of heat into his loins. He paused, then looked up at his brother and uttered a helpless laugh. “You’re not going to believe this, but I’m—” He shook his head, still not quite able to make it process. “I’m in love with her.”

  Cade’s eyes widened and he guffawed. “I’m not going to believe it? I’m not going to believe it,” he repeated. “You moron, the only two people who haven’t realized you’re in love with her are you and Georgia Hart. The rest of us knew the minute you suspended the rest of your caseload and spent every waking minute with her.” He laughed again. “Why don’t you just go tell her how you feel? Why are you putting yourself through all of this?”

  Linc shared the story behind the ring. “A year and a half, Cade. A year and a half. I’ve only been looking for the damned thing for two weeks.”

  Cade inclined his head. “Martin would have done that for Mom, you know. He loved her that much.”

  Linc snorted. “And it almost destroyed him. I swore I’d never let myself do that, that I’d never be so dependent on someone else for my own happiness and yet here I am, canvassing Union freakin’ Avenue—one of the longest damned streets in the city—for a worthless ring with priceless sentimental value.”

  “Because you love her.”

  He nodded, letting the weight of the sentiment wash over him. He swallowed tightly. “Because I love her.”

  “What are you going to do when you find it?”

  Linc grinned. “What the hell do you think, fool? I’m going to propose.”

  Two and half months later…

  Her mouth dry, her heart racing, Georgia stood next to Karen at the counter near the bathroom sink in her store and stared at the little white stick which had the potential to completely change Georgia’s life forever.