“Right here. Doesn’t seem too much the worse for wear,” Kevin said as he shut the front door and held the two plastic grocery bags. “Nice to meet you, Shelly.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling away from the security of Dex’s hold. “Very sorry. Dex is right, but I’m more than just a little jumpy.” She pulled her glove off and held out her right hand to him.
“It’s okay.” This time his expression was softer, and the smile reached his eyes when he took her hand in his massive paw. “I’ll go get some plates.” He set the bags on the coffee table then walked through the swinging door into the kitchen.
As soon as Kevin was gone, Shelly’s shoulders drooped. She was so pathetic. “Oh, God, Dex. I’m sorry. I can’t believe—”
He held up his hand to stop her. “Get your coat and boots off. Then tell me what’s got you worked up.”
She peeled off her other glove, then her hat and jacket. The shock of finding the envelope crept back up on her. She focused on Dex’s face, willing herself to relate the story without breaking down. “I took a shower in the changing room at work, and when I came out there was an envelope on the floor right outside the door. He’d been in there while I was in the shower.”
Dex shook his head. “You need to start locking that room.”
“I know. I’m going meet with the chief of staff on Monday and discuss just that.” She hung her jacket on the hook by the door and slipped off her boots before turning back to him. “I’m sorry for intruding on you again, but Celeste and Paul weren’t home, and I can’t bring myself to stay at the motel.” She glanced toward the kitchen door to make sure Kevin couldn’t hear her, then back at Dex and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Last night should not have happened, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” Dex said softly. “I told you. What happens here, stays here. We’re both adults.”
She sat down on the sofa, pulled the afghan from the back, and tucked it around her. It was warm, and it smelled like Dex. Like safety.
“Here we go,” Kevin said, coming back into the room carrying a stack of three plates and three forks. “So, Shelly, you’re a doctor?”
She nodded.
“Private practice?” He sat down on the chair opposite the couch and opened the bags of food.
“No. I work at the hospital.”
“This smells great. Doctor of what?”
She clenched her teeth. What happens here, stays here. She glanced at Dex. Little town, big gossip. Would this stranger keep his mouth shut?
“She’s my physical therapist,” Dex answered. “She’s fairly new to town and doesn’t have anywhere else to stay. So I offered her one of the rooms upstairs.”
Kevin nodded and pulled the lid from a container of potato salad. “Cool. We’ll be neighbors tonight.” He grinned at her.
“You don’t live here? In Cooper Valley, I mean,” she asked, relaxing a little at his laid-back attitude.
“Naw. Just stopping through on my way to a job on the left coast.”
She glanced at Dex, unsure what Kevin just said.
Dex chuckled. “Dish me up, would you?” he asked. “Dark meat, please.”
She nodded and reached for a plate.
“Kev, why don’t you explain what you just said,” Dex said.
Kevin, plate laden with potato salad, chicken breast, and two biscuits, sat back and lifted his fork. “I worked deep undercover for a while. We finally made the big bust about three years ago, and I’ve been in hiding since then so I could testify without being picked off. The last of eight trials ended two weeks ago. My boss wanted me to take a sabbatical, but I’ve been sitting on my thumbs in an office for the last three years and wanted to get back to work. So, he’s sending me to some hick town on the Oregon coast to nose around.”
“Nose around for what?” she asked as she handed a plate and fork to Dex.
Kevin sighed. “We don’t know.” He made a face. “My boss is sending me on vacation, basically. He’s buddies with the town sheriff there, who thinks there’s some drug smuggling going on in his town. He’s got no proof, so the state police and other law enforcement aren’t really listening. So boss man said for me to go check it out, and enjoy myself while I’m there. Paid holiday.”
“Where in Oregon?” Dex asked.
“Some little town called Moonlight Cove. Population negative eight, I think.”
Shelly chuckled. “I adore the little Oregon coastal towns. An aunt on my dad’s side lived there when I was a teenager, and we visited once. It’s so pretty. But like all little towns, they seem very cliquish.” She dished up her own plate of food while she talked. “It’s hard to come in as an outsider and feel like you fit in. They’re friendly enough, but you always feel like they’re looking at you funny.”
Kevin nodded. “Well, that’s my specialty. And my cover…get this.” He laughed. “Lighthouse keeper.”
She looked up from the container of potato salad. Surely he was teasing. “Serious?”
He nodded. “The one there is a fishing buddy of the sheriff. He’s getting a vacation somewhere warm and sunny on the town’s dime, while I come in and cover for him for a few weeks and poke around.”
“I thought all lighthouses were electronic now,” Dex said around a bite of chicken. He licked his thumb. “And you are so technically inept you can’t even send email.”
Kevin laughed. “Apparently the sheriff knows what needs to be done. And you’re an asshole.”
“I’ve been telling him that for months,” Shelly piped in, then laughed when Dex tossed a chunk of biscuit at her.
“She’s the worst drill sergeant I ever had,” Dex said with heat.
“You like taking a beating from a woman,” she threw back.
Kevin and Dex laughed, and Shelly’s face warmed at her un-thought-out comment. These two put her too much at ease. Made her too comfortable. She needed to watch her tongue.
“Sounds like you met your match, Dex,” Kevin said.
“Not even,” Dex said and narrowed his eyes at her, but a smile tilted his lips. “I know her soft spots.”
“I have no soft spots,” she said defiantly and turned back to Kevin. “You grew up in Cooper Valley?”
“Yep. We lived across the street.” He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. “Dex and I grew up together, beating each other up, fighting over girls, and taking CV High to state championship our senior year.”
“Championship in what?”
“Everything,” the two guys said together, then laughed.
“Basketball, football, and baseball,” Kevin said.
She raised her eyebrows. “Impressive.”
“When there’s only forty kids per class year, the best gotta do what they can,” Dex bragged.
She snickered and shook her head. “And so very modest, too. I suppose you dated the head cheerleader?”
Kevin raised his hand. “That’d be me. Dex liked the nerdy girls. His date to prom was the head of the debate team. Maybe that’s why he’s after a doctor now.”
Shelly started shaking her head.
“Shelly’s just a friend, Kev,” Dex said.
“Oh. Sorry. Just the way you two look at each other…” He stood up. “Beer?”
“Please,” Dex said.
“Yes, please,” Shelly said softly. She nibbled on her biscuit, amazed at how easily she’d relaxed with Dex and his friend.
“Shelly,” Dex said softly. “It’s okay. He’s a friend, and he’s leaving town tomorrow. It’ll be fine. I swear.”
She nodded, but the fear still ate at her. She’d seriously considered resigning from the hospital, but then she’d spent the day with the kids and couldn’t imagine leaving them. And then she looked at Dex sitting there, and she couldn’t really imagine never seeing him again, either.
She bit her tongue. What the hell was she going to do? “I need to tell the chief of staff about—”
Kevin came back into
the room carrying three open bottles of imported beer. He passed them out.
“You don’t have to tell anyone anything you don’t want to,” Dex said firmly.
Kevin sat back down and took a swig from his bottle. “Whatever is going on here, I see nothing, and I hear nothing, okay? I dropped by uninvited. In fact, I’m not really here. I’m supposed to be hauling ass across the country since I refused to fly.”
“Thanks,” she muttered. The truth of the situation was that it was her guilt eating at her, not fear of being found out. She’d broken rules.
She never broke rules.
Ever.
But looking at Dex, she’d be very willing to break them again right here, tonight, if he’d hold her once more.
“So, Kev,” Dex said, setting his empty plate on the coffee table. “Why don’t you tell Shelly some of your war stories? How about the one where you busted that guy who was into BDSM and hid his drugs in the sex toys…”
Chapter Eight
For the next few hours, Kevin regaled them with the more humorous of his years in law enforcement, starting out as a traffic cop in Chicago, making detective by the time he was twenty-seven—practically unheard of—and then making the move to the DEA not long after that.
By eleven that night, Shelly’s stomach hurt from laughing so hard, and for once in a very long time, she felt at peace for the moment. Relaxed.
She yawned yet again, her eyes watering. “I’m sorry to bag out on you guys, but I’m beat.” She stood up and went for her boots.
“You’re leaving?” Dex asked.
She smiled and shook her head. “My suitcase is in the truck.”
“I’ll get it,” Kevin said, rising from his seat. “I want to grab a quick smoke anyway.”
“Thank you.” She dug into her coat pocket and pulled out her keys. “Please make sure it’s locked.”
“Of course,” Kevin said, pulling on his jacket. “Be back in a few.”
A cold draft flowed over her feet as he went out the door. Turning back toward Dex, she smiled. “Thank you for letting me be a part of tonight. I haven’t had such an enjoyable time in…” She shrugged. “Well, probably forever.”
Dex nodded. “I told you you’re welcome here.”
“I know. But you probably would have preferred more private time with your friend you haven’t seen in years.” She sat back down on the sofa a couple of feet from Dex in his wheelchair. It was safer to keep her distance. She wanted so badly to sit in his lap again, wrap her arms around him, and rest her head on his shoulder.
“Nope. Tonight was good. I’m glad you were here. I’m happy you could let go and laugh.”
She ducked her head and grinned. “You laughed pretty hard yourself, you know.” Looking back up at him, she said, “I’m guessing his twenty years in law enforcement aren’t all a barrel of laughs, though.”
“No. He’s seen some bad shit. He’s just very good at compartmentalizing everything.” He sighed. “Something I need to learn better.”
She liked that he didn’t try to hide his vulnerabilities from her any longer. Another reason to keep her distance. He was too easy to like, to care for. “Takes time, I’m sure.”
He nodded. “Did you let Paul know about the latest envelope?”
“Yeah.” And like a bucket of cold water, he splashed reality in her face. “He came by the hospital this afternoon and picked it up.”
“What’d it say?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t read it. I’m done reading them.” Clasping her hands together, she said, “He’s getting way too close. He could have easily walked through that door to the shower. Realizing that was scarier than having him in my home when I wasn’t there. I’m not an idiot. I watch 20/20 and Dateline. I know what stalkers do. It escalates until it explodes—till he explodes. The notes are coming more often. He broke into my home. He was literally feet away from where I was naked in a shower…” She shook her head and pressed her lips together. “But he’s a goddamn ghost.”
“He seems to have pretty easy access to the hospital. Do you think it’s someone who works there?”
She shook her head. “All health care workers, the janitorial and kitchen staff, everyone who work at the hospital are fingerprinted and given thorough background checks. He doesn’t work there. But there’s really no security in the hospital either, because it’s so small. The entire town is so small. It’s not like a downtown Chicago medical center where you have to worry about gangs and guns and stuff. The last gunshot wound in Cooper Valley Memorial was Paul.”
“Paul was shot?” Dex asked, his eyes widening.
She nodded. “Yeah, a couple of years ago, before he and Celeste got married. I’d just moved here, in fact. Some guy killed a little old lady in town during a robbery gone bad. Paul and Liam, his partner, tracked the guy to some shack in the woods. He shot Paul through the door. Then Liam shot the bad guy. Biggest news story around here in fifty years, from what I could tell.”
“No shit. Wow. I’m surprised Mom and Dad didn’t tell me about it.”
The door opened, and Kevin came in holding her suitcase. The slight scent of tobacco followed him, and she was surprised she hadn’t noticed before. She had a very sensitive nose, and the smell of cigarettes was usually easy to spot.
“Here you go,” Kevin said, handing her back her keys. “Both doors are locked. Everything seems normal out there. Colder than all hell, but normal.”
She stood up to take the keys and put them back in her jacket. “Thanks. Again.” Lifting her suitcase, she said, “I’ll see you both in the morning.”
“G’night,” Kevin said.
“’Night, Shelly,” Dex said.
She touched his shoulder as she passed him, and he smiled. Toting her suitcase, she went up to the room she’d picked out the night before, and realized she was wearing what she’d slept in last night. Good God. Scrounging through the myriad of clothes she’d haphazardly thrown in her bag, she found her pair of pajamas—flannel shorts and button-up top—and changed into them. The taste of beer was still strong in her mouth, and not something she cared for, so she headed for the bathroom and brushed her teeth. After, she decided to go downstairs and get a glass of ice water.
She’d just stepped onto the top stair, when she heard Kevin say, “So, are you gonna tell me what’s up with the gorgeous doc, or what?”
She stopped moving and waited for a response from Dex.
“She’s alone and needed someplace safe to stay for a couple of nights.”
“I don’t buy it. If you two aren’t doin’ the nasty, you ought to be. You two can’t keep your eyes off each other. Shit, she’s gorgeous. I’d do her in a heartbeat.”
“Enough.” That one word was a hard command from Dex.
Shelly held her breath, waiting. After a long pause, Kevin said, “So, is it one-sided? You want her, but she just needs a roof to crash under?”
Again, another long stretch of silence. Shelly thought it might kill her if Dex didn’t answer. “I don’t know what’s inside her, Kev. I wish to God I did. Up until a week ago, I couldn’t stand her. She’s my therapist and fucking tortures me three times a week, yells at me. Hell, she even calls me names…”
Shelly bit her lip to keep from laughing.
“…but this past week, she let me see a whole other side of her. She’s fucking amazing. I fell, and I fell hard. Faster than I ever thought possible. But the fact is, I’m her patient, and if anything, she’s dedicated to her profession, going way above and beyond what’s asked of her at that hospital. Everyone knows the rules about doctors and patients. Besides…” He cleared his throat. “Besides, I’m stuck in a damn wheelchair and might never get out of it. It’s not like I have anything to offer a woman, especially a career woman who’s got more brains than anyone I’ve ever known. No job, living in my parents’ home...”
Shelly shook her head, wanting to argue with him. He had everything she’d ever sought in a man. He was a hero in every sense of t
he word, even if he covered it with attitude and a potty mouth.
Kevin scoffed. “Oh fuck, man, get off the pity-me train. I know what your trust fund looks like. No, scratch that. I knew what it looked like twenty years ago, and if I know you, you haven’t touched a damn dime, which means even though the economy tanked, you could happily retire, buy a fucking yacht, and waste away the rest of your days cruising around the world.”
Her mouth dropped open. Dex was rich?
“Yeah, that sounds like me, doesn’t it?” He chuckled. “No, I haven’t touched much of the money, though it’s paying for my rehab. The one luxury I did afford myself was getting the hell out of the VA hospital. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but since I had the funds, I decided to leave what little there is for the government to use on vets who need the help.
“So sweep the pretty doctor off her feet, fly her to some tropical island, and show her you still have all your working…parts.”
“How the fuck do you know my parts work when my legs don’t?”
Kevin laughed. “Because, old friend, you got a boner at one point while you were gazing at her longingly during one of my stories. I’m a cop, remember? It’s all about body language observation, and your body was doin’ a lot of talking right then.”
“Shut the fuck up and get out of my house,” Dex said, but there was no heat in his words.
Shelly turned around to go back to her room. She didn’t want Dex knowing she’d heard any of that conversation. She doubted he’d think highly of eavesdroppers, and she was sure he’d never want her to know that he’d fallen for her.
Kevin laughed raucously. “Don’t sell yourself short, Dex. She’s got the hots for you, too.” He grew quiet for a moment, and Shelly stopped moving away from the stairs. “Don’t let her go,” he said softly. “If she’s the one, grab hold of her and never fucking let go.”
Dex’s voice dropped, and she couldn’t hear whatever he murmured in response, so she headed back to her room, shut off the light, and climbed between the sheets. Kevin’s last comment sounded so very heartfelt, she was sure he spoke from experience.
Dangerous Intentions Page 8