Frank Morrel stepped up to the table near Seth, appearing to look over the items, but Riley saw the tension in his fellow agent, a tension that had him ready to spring should Seth try anything stupid.
“Is there something I can show you?” Riley asked Seth. He didn’t like the fact that the man had shown up here. Why drive all the way downtown for a piece of jewelry when there were jewelry stores on every corner?
“Maybe a necklace, something pink or red.”
Riley showed him several of the necklaces displayed while Lana remained safely behind him. Seth looked at several pieces, made some small talk but ultimately bought nothing.
“Is it just my imagination or was that odd?” Lana asked as he walked away. Frank also wandered away from the table and disappeared from Riley’s sight.
Riley stared after Seth and then searched the display tables to make sure he’d left nothing behind—like a sprig of baby’s breath. “It was rather strange,” he agreed, relieved that the tables bore nothing but Lana’s wares. “But the worst thing we could do is make too big a deal of it. We don’t know that he’s guilty of anything except having a creep for a friend.”
He looked at his watch, just wanting this day to be over. He couldn’t wait to get Lana back to her own house, where it would be easier to assure her safety.
He clenched his hands into fists at his side. She should have been safe in her own home, but he hadn’t forgotten that she’d been attacked there. He hadn’t forgotten that if he hadn’t walked through the front door when he had she would have been another murder statistic.
He wouldn’t let that happen again. For as long as the killer walked free, he didn’t intend to leave Lana alone in her home again.
“We can go ahead and start packing up,” she said, as if sensing his desire to call an end to the day.
“You’ve still got a little over an hour left,” he protested.
“I’m ready to call it a day and go get Haley.” She began to pack up the jewelry that hadn’t sold.
“I’ll help you in just a minute. I want to make a quick call to Frank Morrel. I want him to meet us at your place and give me an update of the investigation.”
With the call made it took nearly half an hour to get everything packed up and back in his car. As they began the drive back to Kerry’s house to pick up Haley, Riley once again felt a distance from Lana.
She was quiet and kept her gaze focused out her side window, and he wished he knew what she was thinking, but was afraid of intruding by asking.
“Regrets?” he finally asked, when he could stand her silence no longer.
She turned and looked at him, her expression unreadable. “No,” she said after only a moment of hesitation. “No regrets, but when we get back home it’s over. I can’t have you in my bed anymore.”
Somehow he wasn’t surprised by her decision. What did surprise him was how much he didn’t like her decision. He was well aware that he’d crossed the line in becoming personally involved with her, but he didn’t want it to end.
When they reached Kerry’s house, Haley exploded out the front door. “Mommy! Daddy! I missed you,” she exclaimed as they got out of the car.
Seeing her smiling little face only increased the depression that was slowly settling around Riley’s shoulders.
It took only minutes for Lana to thank Kerry and for Riley to get Haley loaded in the car. Haley entertained on the drive back to Lana’s, telling them everything she did with her friend Kim. “We played house. I just love Kim,” she exclaimed.
Playing house, that’s what he’d been doing with Lana, and his game of make-believe had the same results—he’d fallen in love.
Funny, before this particular operation began Riley had believed he didn’t have a heart. He now feared that when he walked away from this, from Lana, he was going to have a broken one.
Agent Frank Morrel was waiting for them when they pulled up in the driveway. He didn’t look like an FBI agent, dressed in his casual clothes and leaning on his sports car. Rather, he appeared to be a friend dropping by for a Sunday visit.
At some point in the last few minutes of the drive home Haley had fallen asleep. Lana got out of the car and moved to the back door to get the sleeping child.
“You go on inside. I’ll get her,” Riley said.
He unbuckled Haley from the seat and gently picked her up. Haley wound her arms around his neck and buried her head in his shoulder as if she belonged there, and Lana felt a wisp of unwanted heat in her stomach as she saw the two of them together.
They greeted Frank and together they all went into the house, where Frank sat at the kitchen table while Lana made coffee and Riley put Haley down in her bed.
As Riley came back into the kitchen Lana felt the sudden need to escape. The weekend had not only been exhausting on a physical level, but she felt as if she’d had too much Riley.
She imagined that his scent still lingered on her skin, that her skin still felt his intimate touches. His laughter filled her head, and she desperately needed to distance herself from him.
“I’m just going to let you two men talk. While Haley is sleeping I think I’ll go to my room and rest for a little while,” she said.
Immediately Riley’s face filled with concern. “Are you all right?”
His obvious concern for her weighed as heavy in her heart as the memory of their lovemaking. “I’m fine,” she assured him. “Just tired.”
She left them and headed down the hallway to her bedroom. When she reached her room she went directly to the bed and stretched out on her back. Her mind replayed the weekend in excruciating detail.
Fear, drama and exquisite pleasure. The past three days had contained them all. Her mind was having difficulty processing not only everything that had happened but also how she felt about it. How she felt about him.
She had to face the fact. She was falling in love with Riley Kincaid. She didn’t want to love him and she definitely didn’t want to need him.
She sensed that in the couple of weeks he’d been in her life he’d somehow transformed, become a different man than he’d been when he’d swept through the door on that very first day.
The changes she saw in him frightened her. He’d become softer, more open. She remembered how he’d told her that he’d stopped caring about everyone after his mother’s murder but had started caring again with her and Haley. That admission had terrified her.
She didn’t want to fall victim to him. She didn’t want to believe what she saw shining in his eyes, what she’d felt in his kiss, in his touch.
Once upon a time she’d believed in happily-ever-after with a man like Riley and it had been the biggest mistake of her life. She’d be a complete fool to make the same mistake again.
She rolled over on her side and squeezed her eyes closed, and within minutes she had fallen asleep. She awakened to the scent of his wonderfully spicy cologne and the touch of his hand against her cheek.
“Lana, it’s almost eight-thirty. I thought you might want to get up and get some dinner,” he said softly.
“Almost eight-thirty?” She shot to a sitting position. “Where’s Haley?”
“Back in bed. I fed her and got her into her pajamas and she went right back to sleep,” he replied. “I’ve got a sandwich and chips ready for you.” He backed away from the bed. “I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
When he left the room Lana swung her legs over the edge of the bed and gave herself a minute to fully awaken. She must have been more exhausted than she’d realized. She’d slept deep and hard.
He’d taken care of Haley while she’d slept. He’d fixed her a sandwich and taken care of things for her. These weren’t the kinds of things a bodyguard did. These were the kinds of things a man did for somebody he cared about.
Stop overthinking everything, she commanded herself as she went into the bathroom to wash the sleep from her face. He’d probably just made an extra sandwich when he’d made his own. And as far as taking care of Haley, i
t might have just been easier for him to deal with it than wake her up.
She left the bathroom and went into the kitchen, where a plate with her dinner sat on the table and Riley stood at the window staring out into the deepening night.
“I can’t believe I slept the evening away,” she said as she sat.
He turned from the window and offered her a smile. “It’s exhausting being an entrepreneur.”
“I guess.” She picked up the ham-and-cheese sandwich and took a bite as he joined her at the table. “What did you find out from Frank?”
“Seth Black owns a car-repair business. He’s married and has no children. He also has no alibi for either the attack on you and at least two of the murders.”
“Any history of violence?” she asked. “Any bedwetting, animal abuse or fire starting in his background?” He looked at her in surprise and she smiled. “I watch those crime shows on television, and they always talk about the fact that those things are precursors for serial killers.”
“There’s nothing specific in Seth’s background that we could discern that might indicate he’s our man.”
“So, you’re back to square one.” She set her sandwich down as she realized she really wasn’t that hungry.
“Not necessarily. I really believe that it’s possible that either Trent or Seth is the partner we’ve been looking for. As we speak, I’m sure their lives are being dissected by every agent available.”
“Greg and his partner are overdue for a kill,” she said. Even after all that had happened it felt strange to say such a thing, strange to even think such a thing. “The baby’s breath that was left on my table was their reminder to me that I’m still the intended victim.”
“I refuse to let that happen,” Riley exclaimed. He reached across the table and grabbed her hand in his. His eyes radiated with a fierce intensity. “Nobody is going to hurt you again while I’m on duty.”
“You won’t be on duty forever. Eventually the FBI is going to pull you out of here,” she replied and extricated her hand from his.
“That doesn’t have to happen. They can tell me the assignment is over, but that doesn’t mean I have to leave. I’ll stay here as long as you need me, Lana, as long as you want me.”
She stared at him. There was something in his tone of voice that made her think he wasn’t talking about his job as her bodyguard. She didn’t want anything personal from him. After the weekend they’d shared she felt far too vulnerable.
Leaning back in her chair she averted her gaze from his. “I’m sure you’re as eager as I am to get this matter resolved so we can both get on with our own lives.”
The air felt pregnant with thick emotion as she waited for his reply.
“I’m not eager to get back to my own life.”
His words hung in the air and she lifted her gaze to meet his once again. Instead of the ferocity that had marked his expression when he’d talked about protecting her, there was that inviting softness that urged her to melt into him.
He leaned back in the chair and his gaze went out the window where the darkness of night had fallen. “You know, it’s funny, for the last eighteen years whenever I thought of my mother, I could only focus on the last time I saw her, dead on the kitchen floor. Somehow it became the only memory I could summon. But in the last couple of days I’ve been thinking about her a lot and I realize I’ve got some wonderful memories of her.”
Lana remained silent, unsure where the conversation was going. She relaxed slightly as she recognized that he was in the midst of pleasant memories. When he looked at her again a small smile curved his lips and his eyes were the inviting green of lush grass.
“My mother loved to bake,” he continued. “Cookies and cakes, pies and tarts. Whenever she had a day off she’d spend it baking. She gave cookies to neighbors, took cakes and pies to the church. On those days when Mom was home and I came home from school, I’d walk in and the whole house would smell. It smelled like home. And that’s the way I feel when I walk into this house, Lana. It feels like home.”
He’d blindsided her. She hadn’t seen where he was going with his story, nor was she quick enough to avoid the physical contact when he reached across the table to take her hand. His words thundered in her head.
“Riley, please,” she said, unsure what she was asking of him as she tried to pull her hand from his. But he refused to let go, and fear suddenly increased the rhythm of her heartbeat. It wasn’t the kind of fear that Greg inspired, but rather the fear that somehow, someway he’d make her love him more than she already did.
“Lana, I’m in love with you.”
“No, you aren’t,” she protested. “That wasn’t part of the deal. I’m just supposed to be another one of your hook-ups.” She finally managed to pull her hand free from his. “It was a wonderful weekend, Riley, but that’s all it was, a single weekend.”
“I want more, Lana. I want a thousand weekends. I’m ready for a lifetime of weekends with you.” His eyes shimmered with emotion.
She wanted to yell with joy and weep with sadness at the same time. She had to admit to herself that she was falling in love with him, but she wouldn’t repeat her past mistake. She refused to ever consider a relationship with Riley.
“Riley, I told you I wasn’t ready for a new man in my life,” she said softly as she tamped down her irrational desire to throw herself into his arms.
“Lana, I know you care about me and I know you loved your husband. But Joe is gone and I’m here. Let me in, Lana. I’m a good man. I can be good for you and Haley.”
Be strong, she told herself even though she felt as if her heart was breaking. You have to be strong. Don’t let history repeat itself.
“Of course I care about you. You’ve been a big part of my life lately. But this isn’t real life, Riley, and I imagine once you get back to your real life you’ll realize that what you’re feeling is pretend love generated by our pretend marriage.”
“This isn’t pretend for me, Lana,” he protested.
She scooted back from the table, needing to get away from him before she did something stupid, before she made the mistake of believing him—and in him.
“I’m sorry, Riley. It has just been pretend for me.” She got up from her chair. “I think I’m going to go back to bed. I’m still really exhausted.”
Tears burned behind her eyes and a rising emotion filled her chest. “Good night, Riley. And I’m sorry.”
He nodded and shifted his gaze to the window, and his shoulders slumped forward slightly. Her last vision of him before she left the kitchen was of a slightly broken man.
Once she was back in her room she threw herself on the bed and buried her face in her pillow, fighting against the deep sobs that threatened to erupt.
This mock marriage with her bodyguard had become far too real for both of them, although in Riley’s case she had a feeling love unrequited wouldn’t cause too much of a heartache.
Surely there would be plenty of women standing in line eager to console him. A month from now, if he was gone from her house, then she was certain she’d be gone from his mind.
Unfortunately, she knew instinctively that it wouldn’t be so easy for her to dismiss him from her mind. He’d reminded her of everything she’d once dreamed of, everything she’d ever hoped for in a marriage. He’d fit perfectly into the mold of her ideal mate, a man who desired and cared about her and loved Haley as well.
She loved the sound of his laughter and that sparkle of humor that so often lit his beautiful eyes. She loved that sometimes when he gazed at her a delicious shiver worked through her.
She could love him like she’d never loved a man before if she’d allow herself. But she couldn’t allow that to happen.
In the beginning she’d loved Joe with all her heart, but by the time of his murder she thought she might have hated him more than a little bit. Joe had insisted he loved her, but he’d had one affair after another and each time promised that it would never happen again.
She feared that any long-term relationship with Riley offered the same kind of ending. She couldn’t—she wouldn’t—put herself through that twice in a lifetime.
Chapter Eleven
“Daddy Riley, it’s time for our tea party,” Haley announced. She was clad in a pink princess costume complete with hot-pink plastic heels and a glittering crown on top of her tousled blond curls.
In the two days since he’d confessed his love to Lana, he’d done his best to distance himself not only from her but from the little girl who had also captured his heart. He’d tried to get her to stop calling him Daddy and instead call him Riley and she’d finally compromised by renaming him Daddy Riley.
It was just after seven in the evening as he followed her down the hallway to her bedroom where she’d arranged her little table and chairs in the center of her room.
It had been a gray, cloudy day with heavy clouds threatening rain. About an hour ago a thunderstorm had rumbled through, and when Haley got frightened, Lana had told her to plan a tea party.
The house smelled of baking chocolate. Lana’s contribution to the tea party was homemade cupcakes with rich chocolate icing.
“Teddy is already here,” Haley said, and pointed to the big stuffed bear sitting in one of the chairs. “You sit next to him and I’ll go get Mommy.”
She disappeared out of the room as Riley folded himself up to sit in the small chair. The last two days had been an aching form of agony for him. He and Lana had steered clear of each other. He’d spent most of his time in the living room trying to be as unobtrusive as possible as she went about her daily routine.
At night he lay in the guest room and fought against the depression that threatened to consume him. A broken heart—that’s what he had, and he knew the only things that would help it were time and distance from the woman he loved.
His coworkers were beginning to believe that Greg and his partner were now just playing with them, pretending that Lana might be the next victim while they set their sights on somebody else.
Riley wasn’t willing to take a chance on them being wrong. He was determined to stay here until Greg and his partner were behind bars or until he went insane with wanting Lana.
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