“I can’t believe you even remember Chance,” he said. “You two only met once or twice, right?”
“Hey, you never forget your first cowboy. Even if you just meet him in passing.”
Dane kept his gaze on the notebook, but he snorted. “He’s definitely something when it comes to first impressions.”
Rachel waited for him to say more. When he didn’t, she continued. “Remind me to ask Suzy if she’d be interested in being a personal shopper. She guessed my size perfectly. Did she shop for you, too?”
Dane snorted again. “She didn’t shop for us. James’s friend and head of security did. Yeah, I know. It blew Suzy’s mind that a man could find the—and I quote, ‘perfect pair of jeans.’ When she and James were in a tough spot a while back, he helped them out by buying some things she needed. Last I heard, Suzy was still begging him to help her out. Something about trying to find the perfect pair of boots to go with her jeans.”
The whole time Dane spoke, Rachel could see his eyes scanning the writing on the paper. He was trying to solve their current predicament while keeping her entertained. It made her feel useless and stopped any normal response from coming out.
Dane noticed the hesitation. He looked up.
It must have been the first time he really looked at her. His gaze swept across her face and stopped at her eyes. Like a match had been struck, a look of such acute concern blazed across his expression.
It wasn’t like she hadn’t known he’d notice that she’d been crying.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen it before.
Yet he didn’t say anything. At least, not about that. “Do you want some cookies?”
It was such an off-the-wall question that Rachel laughed. Dane’s expression softened and an almost-wicked grin appeared as he rose off the couch. “I may have laid on the ‘I’m a target’ thing a little too thick with Suzy when I asked if she could add Oreos to the shopping list for this place.”
“But the important question is, did you—?”
Dane held up his hand to silence her. She watched quietly as he opened the refrigerator. He pulled out a small jug of milk.
“My hero.”
Dane’s grin grew. “When it comes to dessert, always.”
She kept to her chair as he got out a plate and filled it with cookies. He placed it in front of her before fixing them two cups of milk. They didn’t talk until they both were seated and had one milk-soaked cookie in.
“So, did Chance find anything helpful?” Rachel asked. “Are there any new leads?”
Dane let out an exhale that was long but didn’t deflate his posture. He eyed his notebook before answering.
“Yes and no,” he said. “He found out what happened to Tracy Markinson’s van after he passed. Apparently it was given to a family friend who used it to help move a local construction company’s equipment for out-of-town jobs. They ended up not using it as much as they thought they would, so never bothered changing the tag. The owner ended up letting a friend use it to haul things around his farm and his acreage for a few years. He didn’t change the tag again, since the van only stayed on his property. Then one night it was stolen. It didn’t reappear until it was spotted on security cameras leaving the warehouse in Birmingham.”
“So, no lead but—”
“A mystery we can cross off the list,” he finished.
Rachel dunked another cookie. She twirled it thoughtfully over the cup so it didn’t drip. “Did he have any idea about why they took bubble wrap and dog crates?”
Dane shook his head. “He’s still looking into that, but I’m not convinced it wasn’t just a way to throw us off track.”
“And Tucker?” Rachel felt a wave of anger at the man for leaving Lonnie behind when he had tried to run. “Any word on where he went after he left the house? Any change on his condition in the hospital?”
Dane shook his head again and put an Oreo in his mouth. It was the most thoughtful she’d ever seen someone look while eating a cookie before.
“No and no. Tucker still isn’t conscious.”
They ate the remaining cookies in silence. Rachel recognized that the captain had retreated into his thoughts. She joined him, trying to answer something with the limited information they had, but it didn’t work.
“Have you ever had so many questions in your head you feel like you’re going to explode?” she finally said. “Can you combust because of confusion?”
Dane let out another long sigh. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “If you can, I think I would have by now.” He flipped his wrist up to check his watch. “Okay, so I wasn’t going to say anything, but I think it’s high time I took a shower. This place is too small for me to wait until tomorrow.”
Rachel stood with him and collected their dishes, waving him off. “Go on ahead. I’ve got it from here.”
Dane gave her a slightly stronger smile and disappeared into the small bathroom.
Rachel cleaned up the little mess they had managed to make. She paused as she folded the blanket on the couch.
Really, it was a love seat.
And it was much too small for anyone to sleep on.
Rachel turned to look through the open doorway that led into the bedroom. A single butterfly dislodged itself in her stomach and continued to flutter around until Dane was clean and back to his notebook. It stayed flying around while she excused herself to brush her teeth and it kept up its flight path as she padded back to that same open door, but now looking out from the room.
“Hey, Dane?” she called, trying her best to keep her voice from giving her nerves away. “I think I’m going to call it a night, if that’s okay?”
Dane looked up and nodded. The bags that had been beneath his eyes that morning had darkened considerably. Worry pushed aside her trying to remain nonchalant. She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. “And I’m here to tell you that it’s your bedtime, too, Captain. You look like you’re two seconds from passing out as it is.”
Dane opened his mouth. Rachel wasn’t having it. “You stayed up all last night to make sure I was safe. If you don’t sleep here, it will only make me feel like even more of a burden. And you said it yourself. Not many people know about this place. Plus, I’m a light sleeper. If someone comes and breaks in, I should hear them.”
Rachel fully expected to keep arguing. However, Dane surprised her.
“Okay.” He put his notebook down and ran a hand across his face. “I guess sleeping a few hours might do me some good. Which might do this case some good. Who knows? Maybe some clue might shake loose in a dream.”
Rachel laughed. “That’s the spirit.” That butterfly began an even more sporadic dance. She swallowed and pasted on a smile. “You can sleep in here with me,” she said. “There’s more than enough room and you’ve more than earned a comfortable place to rest your head after the past two days.”
Dane must have been more tired than Rachel thought. After only a moment or two of hesitation, he stood.
“Okay,” he said. “Thanks.”
“It’s nothing,” she told him. “But let it be known, I get the right side. Otherwise that’s a nonstarter.”
Dane gave her a look that made the heat in her body start to pulse. When he answered, it was a deep, smooth sound.
“Yes, ma’am.”
* * *
THAT HEAT OF the shower had pulled out whatever alertness Dane had had left. What made him sharp in the field or behind the desk at work must have dulled because of it. Not to mention, he was tired and not just physically. Trying to pull together the several threads of what was going on to make one cohesive piece had been draining. Especially when he had realized Rachel wasn’t as okay as she had let on. Her swollen eyes were testament to that. But the heat of the shower, exhaustion and frustration couldn’t account for why he was now in bed with the same wom
an.
No, that was something else.
Something Dane shouldn’t have given in to. No matter how small the couch was.
“It’s not like we’ve never slept together before.”
Dane opened his eyes. He was on his side, facing Rachel. He hadn’t wanted to sleep on his wound. The soft light from beneath the closed bathroom door was bright enough that he could see the shine of her eyes and the outline of her side beneath the covers but not much more. “When you helped me pick up that bed frame from my mom’s house up north? And we had to stop in that crummy motel and spend the night because of the storm on the way back? Remember?”
Dane did. It had been almost a year after David had passed. Rachel had decided to get a smaller mattress and her mother had offered her a bed frame for it. Dane had offered to use his truck to help her haul and move it.
“Calling it ‘crummy’ is a lot more generous than what I would have described it as,” he said. They had almost slept in the truck, but Rachel had been too nervous with the storm raging outside. So they’d slept in their clothes. Jackets and shoes, too.
“My point is, you don’t have to be so tense,” she added. “We’re just two tired adults who have had one helluva weekend. Got it?”
Dane smiled even though he doubted she could see it.
“I’ll try to loosen up,” he promised. “Just as long as you try not to snore like you did last time.”
A soft fist landed against his shoulder.
“Hey, now. I told you, I don’t snore.”
“Whatever you say.”
Rachel laughed but didn’t try to deny it any further. Dane closed his eyes as they both lapsed into silence. Slowly he tried to let himself relax, but their small trip down memory lane had had a polarizing effect on him. On the one hand, it brought back memories of the two of them before he’d decided to distance himself. Just like they had been earlier, back when they were good friends. Comfortable around each other and able to enjoy even the most mundane things together. On the other hand, it highlighted the differences between their impromptu motel stay and the impromptu sleepover they were having now.
Back then Dane hadn’t noticed the freckles on Rachel’s cheeks.
Now he could see them with ease just from memory.
Back then he had fallen asleep talking to her.
Now there was a silence that felt heavy in the room around them.
Back then there had been layers of clothes and jackets between them with a king-size bed giving them distance from each other.
Now?
Now Dane was doing his best not to think about Rachel’s body so close to his that he could feel the heat from her pressing against the front of him. How she was so close he could smell the soap from her skin and the shampoo from her hair. How, even though his mind was saying no, his arms wanted to be around her, pulling her against him so that he could protect her even in sleep.
How another part of him pointed out he also wanted to not sleep with her at the same time.
Dane wrestled with his body and mind for what felt like hours, trying to figure out which was stronger, until finally something made his decision for him.
The sound of Rachel’s even breathing filled the bedroom. She was asleep.
“Good night, Rach,” Dane whispered.
And just like that, Dane followed her into unconsciousness.
Chapter Fourteen
Rachel awoke with a start. Not because of any noise or some other terrifying thing that had pulled her from sleep. No, instead, she’d figured something about the case out. Or, rather, remembered it thanks to a stress dream about being back in high school.
She opened her eyes as a jolt of excitement started to push the fog of sleep from her head. Even though she’d had a breakthrough, it still took her a few seconds too long to remember she wasn’t in her bed. Not even in her house. Instead she was somewhere foreign. A pleasant heaviness surrounded her. It was soft against her cheek and radiated warmth down her front.
Rachel blinked several times until what she was looking at filtered in. It was Dane. And not only was it Dane, it was his collarbone she was staring at. Her cheek wasn’t just on something soft, it was resting on top of his biceps.
Rachel froze as she took stock of the rest of her position. Not only was she lying on top of his arm, she was fully tucked into his sleeping embrace. As if she’d been drawn directly into his chest after falling asleep, forcing him to put one arm beneath and around her while the other was slung over her hip. Her hands were against her chest, but that did little to diminish the rest of their bodies’ closeness.
Rachel’s breath caught as Dane shifted the arm over her slightly. From one butterfly in her stomach the night before, hundreds had multiplied. Dane was just so warm, a detail that started a different surge of excitement within her.
Rachel tipped her head up as slowly as possible, trying to get a glimpse of his face. All she could see was the stubble beneath his chin and along his jaw. So she listened to his breathing to confirm he was still asleep and decided to take a moment to calm down.
And that was what being in Dane’s arms was doing.
It was a place of comfort, of safety.
It was a place of longing.
It was unexpected.
Rachel closed her eyes and focused on the heat of his skin against her cheek. It was nice, sure, but it wasn’t real. Just two people in a confined space who had gotten tangled together in their sleep.
It wasn’t real.
Carefully, Rachel detangled from the man. Dane didn’t wake up, so she retreated to the bathroom. Sunlight peeked around the blinds. Rachel sighed.
Now it was time to get back to their reality.
One where she’d hopefully come up with a new lead.
Suzy’s personal shopper/head of security had done it again. Rachel slid comfortably into a pair of blue jeans and a long-sleeved blouse. Both were flattering but sensible. Really, she had half a mind to ask Suzy for the man’s information when this was all over.
Rachel hurried through brushing her teeth, washing her face and rebraiding her hair before going back into the bedroom. To her surprise, Dane was awake and sitting on the edge of the bed. His head was bent over his phone.
“Anything new happen while we were sleeping?” she ventured, trying to keep the burn of a blush from crawling up her neck. Just thinking about how warm the man had been against her was toeing the line of keeping her cool and becoming obviously distracted.
“No. Everyone is still following leads.” He cursed then apologized. “I was hoping sleep might help but—”
Rachel clapped her hands, cutting him off. Before she’d lost her mental footing by waking in Dane’s arms, she had been on to something.
“It did,” she exclaimed. “At least, I think it did. The man from yesterday who still hasn’t been identified—Knife Guy? Right before Overalls showed up, when he was talking to Tucker, he mentioned that Tucker buckled under pressure. Especially at—”
Dane’s eyes widened.
“Every football game,” he finished. He jumped up, closed the gap between them in one fluid motion and picked Rachel up. She gave a surprised laugh as he spun her around, put her down and kissed her on the cheek. “They went to school together and played on the same football team. You’re brilliant!” He dialed a number and was in the next room talking to whoever was on the receiving end in a flash.
Rachel touched her cheek.
It was a good thing Dane couldn’t see her.
She had no doubt she was as red as a cherry.
* * *
CHANCE SHOWED UP just after lunch. The rest of the department was spread thin, and if Dane was being honest, he preferred working with the freelancing cowboy. At least, when he wanted to do something that Billy and his friends might shoot down. Chance rarely said no. He was more
of a “how can we minimize the damage?” kind of guy.
Not that Dane believed their plan was all that dangerous.
“We checked every place we could think of online to see if we could pull up a yearbook of Tucker’s graduating class,” he explained again. “Nothing from that year has been digitized that we can tell and the principal was less than helpful over the phone.”
“We also looked through the social media accounts of people graduating around the same time to see if they posted any throwback pictures, but came up short,” Rachel added. “Tucker isn’t that much older than us, but for whatever reason, finding even a candid photo from his class has been hard.”
“We did find one picture of the football team from the same year, but it’s from a newspaper and you can’t make out many of the faces. Plus, no names.”
Chance nodded between them. “So we’re taking a field trip to...?”
Dane passed him a piece of paper with an address on it.
“Kipsy South Academy,” he answered.
Chance whistled low.
“Not a cheap school back in the day,” he said. “Heck, not even now for that matter.”
“Which is probably why the principal is giving us a hard time over the phone,” Rachel pointed out.
Chance looked between them.
“Okay, you’ve got me sold,” he declared. Chance thumbed back at the front of the cabin. “I switched to an associate’s SUV so we can all fit. How long a trip is it?”
Dane and Rachel had already plotted the route out. The private school wasn’t familiar to Dane, but he’d been there once before. “Forty-five minutes give or take.”
Chance tipped his hat down. “Add a half hour of making sure no one is following us and we’re square.”
Dane smirked. “You sure you aren’t interested in joining the department? You’d definitely fit in.”
Chance waved him off. “You couldn’t pay me enough to be stuck inside as long as you all are. Plus, I aim to never be pinned down.” The cowboy sent a wink to Rachel. “I’m what you might call a rolling stone.”
The Negotiation Page 11