by Katie Ruggle
“Will he follow you?”
Grace yanked her mind away from her real ex-boyfriend and refocused on her fake one. “No. He’s lazy, as well as a jerk. He’s a lazy jerk.”
Jules ducked her head in a way that made Grace think she was hiding a smile. For some reason, that, plus the affectionate hold Jules still had on the cop’s hand, eased a few of Grace’s fears. Jules wasn’t scared of him, and she wasn’t acting as if he was one wrong answer from hauling Grace away to her death, so Grace allowed herself to believe that this conversation would end well.
And that was when the second cop showed up.
Chapter 4
As Hugh drove away from the VFW, his discovery ate at him. The last few days, he’d just dismissed the feeling that he was being watched as paranoia, so finding evidence that someone quite possibly had been spying on him was deeply disturbing. Lexi whined from the passenger seat.
“It’s okay,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm. By the dog’s anxious expression, he wasn’t succeeding very well. “It’s probably nothing. After all, who’d want to stalk me? I’m just not that interesting.” Drumming his fingers against the wheel with frustration and pent-up adrenaline, he frowned and glanced at his injured leg. “Especially lately.”
His spare radio—the radio he was not supposed to have—beeped, and Hugh jumped. Immediately, he felt like an idiot. Since when did the radio startle him? He was normally calm and steady. This whole mess was turning him into a nervous, trembling Chihuahua. On the radio, Theo informed dispatch that he’d be taking his lunch break and gave his location as Jules’s address. Without hesitating, Hugh made a U-turn and headed in that direction. If Theo thought he’d be getting some alone time with his hot girlfriend, then he was in for an unpleasant surprise. Hugh needed to talk to Theo about the situation immediately. He smiled a little. For some reason, ruining Theo’s fun made Hugh just a little bit happier.
Lexi was staring at him from the passenger seat.
“What?” he asked defensively. “I need to talk to my partner about this whole potential stalker deal. Besides, I haven’t seen Jules’s rug rats in a while. I’m trying to be a good uncle Hugh, that’s all.”
The dog turned to look out the window.
“Whatever,” Hugh grumbled. “You’re always so judgmental.”
Lexi ignored him, her attention focused on a Lab playing in a yard they were passing.
After bumping across the extremely long and poorly maintained driveway that led to Jules’s house, biting back curses every time his leg was jostled, Hugh parked behind Theo’s squad car. As he turned on Lexi’s window fan, he saw Theo standing in the open doorway, facing in. Hugh bounded up the steps, ignoring the shooting pains in his thigh—as well as the unwelcoming glare Theo shot him—and tossed an arm over his partner’s stiff shoulders.
“Jules wouldn’t even let you in?” he asked in mock concern, taking great pleasure in Theo’s obvious irritation. This was so much more entertaining than he’d expected. “Well, we all knew it couldn’t last. I mean, look at her, and then…well…” Hugh dropped his arm so he could gesture at Theo’s unamused form. “There’s you. And you can’t even say you have a good personality.”
“Hugh, stop,” Jules scolded, although he could tell she was holding back a laugh.
Hugh winked at her and then glanced at the crowd of kids. His smile of greeting slipped away as his gaze locked on the woman standing on the stairs. He didn’t know her.
If he’d ever seen her before, he would’ve remembered.
She was gorgeous, tall and sleek and just Hugh’s type. Her hair was true black, the kind that showed blue highlights in the sun, and her tan skin emphasized the unusual light-brown color of her eyes. They were lioness eyes. Terrified eyes.
Eyes of a woman with a secret.
Hugh bit back a curse. Something wasn’t right. He’d only recently agreed to quit looking into Jules’s background, and now another mystery woman had landed in his town, with scared eyes and a gorgeous body and…no! The last thing he needed was to get sucked into this woman’s mess, whatever it may be.
Shaking off the strange spell that had come over him, Hugh mentally hunted for words, even as he marveled at his tongue-tied silence. Hugh didn’t do silence. Even in life-or-death situations, he’d never had words fail him before. Right now, though, with those lioness eyes watching him, he scrambled to find something to say until finally settling on the very lame “You’re new.”
“Yes.” Even her voice was beautiful. Husky and low and hinting of late-night, sexy things.
Hugh cleared his throat. Focus. “That was a hint. For you to tell me your name.”
“Grace Robinson.”
Lie. He’d always been good at sniffing out lies. It was a useful talent to have as a cop. For some reason, though, when the lie came from her mouth, it stung. His eyes narrowed. If she wanted a battle, he’d give her one—and he’d win. “And where are you from, Grace?”
“Lots of places.” She pushed her thick fall of hair over her shoulder without dropping eye contact, and Hugh had to fight not to get distracted. It was just that her hair was so shiny. It was like she’d stepped out of a shampoo commercial, all gloss and attitude. With a huge effort, he kept his gaze locked with hers and focused on the fact that she had just dodged his question.
Propping a shoulder against the doorframe, he gave her his best shark’s smile. “That sounds fascinating. Tell me more. You can start with details, specific details.”
She leaned her hip against the railing with an impatient huff. He wasn’t sure if she was imitating him unconsciously or mocking him. Either way, the movement made his skin prickle with awareness. “Why do you care?”
“I’m a curious guy.”
Grace cleared her throat while muttering, “Stalker.”
“I prefer the term ‘future friend.’” He smirked, getting a strange charge from the way she narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re making this get-to-know-each-other phase much more difficult than it needs to be. Let me show you how it should be done. I’m Officer Hugh Murdoch, and I live in Monroe, Colorado.” He held out his hands in a ta-da! gesture. “Now you go.”
“My name is Grace Robinson.” She bit off the end of each word. “And you can kiss—”
“Okay!” Jules interrupted in a loud, fake-cheery voice.
“Can I go next?” Dee asked. “I’m Dee—”
“Nope. Remember, we don’t play Hugh’s games. They always end in tears.” Jules shot a warning glance at Grace, who offered her an apologetic grimace in response. Hugh watched the interplay with interest. Whatever Grace’s secrets were, he was sure that Jules was fully aware of them. From the expressions on the kids’ faces, they were in the loop, too. If the children knew, then surely Hugh could figure it out. “Now that introductions are done, maybe we should move this out of the doorway?”
“We could,” Hugh said, turning back to Grace. Every time he looked at her, her beauty kicked him in the face. “We could also continue sharing time.”
Grace’s shoulders drooped in a sigh as her gaze shifted to Theo. Hugh was instantly annoyed, and he opened his mouth to say something, anything that would bring her attention back to him. When that desire registered, he snapped his mouth shut. Why did this woman bring out the third-grade boy in him? What was he going to do next to get her attention? Tackle her in the sandbox?
The thought of tackling her, of feeling her under him, made his skin heat.
“As much as I’d love to do this whole interrogation thing again, could you just fill him in about me?” she asked Theo, sounding cranky. “I’ve been traveling for what feels like an eternity, and I’m tired. Jules, if you could just point in the direction of my room, I’d be forever grateful.”
“I’ll show you,” Jules said, turning toward her. When she started heading Grace’s way, Theo’s grip on her hand brought her t
o a halt. With a gentle smile that Hugh knew Theo, the prickly bastard, did not in any way deserve, Jules squeezed his fingers before pulling free and heading up the stairs with Grace in tow. Hugh couldn’t pull his eyes away until Grace was out of sight.
“What’s the story?” he asked, when the most perfect rear view he’d ever seen had disappeared.
“Why are you here?”
“That’s not the story.” Hugh sighed with exaggerated patience, and he heard one of the twins give an amused snort. Ty, most likely. “I’m talking about Grace’s story.”
Although Theo still didn’t look too happy, he relented. “High-school friend of Jules. Ex is a”—he glanced at the watching kids—“dirtbag.”
“No accent.”
“Moved a lot as a kid.”
“Military?”
“Flaky parents.”
“Most recent location?”
“Bangor, Maine.”
“None of that’s true.”
Theo shot him a look that told him to shut it, reminding Hugh of their fascinated audience—their fascinated, scared audience. His jaw tightened. If the kids knew what was really going on, that meant Not-Grace was involved in whatever mess Jules and her family had escaped, which meant it all fell under the same no-digging rule as Jules. When Theo had told him to stop investigating Jules, Hugh had let it go, despite his inner cop’s objections. He already knew that he wouldn’t be able to do the same with the beautiful woman who called herself Grace. Their hostile, yet intriguing, encounter had lasted just a few minutes, but that had been enough. Hugh’s interest was caught. He wouldn’t be able to rest until he knew who she really was. “Nope,” he said. “Not happening.”
“A word.” Theo jerked his head toward the door.
They descended the porch steps in mutual silence, as Hugh tried to hide the way pain shot through his thigh with each downward step. For whatever reason, going down stairs was even more painful than going up. They ended up next to Hugh’s pickup, out of earshot of the kids, who were now watching from the doorway.
“C’mon.” Hugh tried to keep his voice low. “How are we supposed to ignore that every word out of that woman’s mouth was a big, fat lie? She’ll be living with Jules and the kids. We need to know what her real story is.”
“Agreed.”
“Oh.” He’d expected Theo to fight him on it, and the lack of resistance destroyed his momentum. “So, why’d you shut me down just now?”
“We were in front of the kids.”
“Right.” Hugh paused. “I’m going to go do some research.”
“Let me know what you find.”
“Will do.”
Climbing into his truck, Hugh sent Lexi a grin. His blood buzzed with excitement, sweeping away the feelings of boredom and uselessness that had plagued him since the bullet had burrowed into his thigh. “We have a case, Lex.”
* * *
“I’m so sorry about that,” Jules said as soon as she closed the door behind them.
Grace looked around at the room. It was tiny, with a neatly made twin bed and a battered dresser filling the space, but it was just hers. The house might be a wreck on the verge of being condemned, but at least it was a big wreck. Jules shifted, drawing her attention back to the other woman. “Are you seriously dating a cop? If your situation was anything like mine…”
Jules winced. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. He was just so…sweet.”
“Are we talking about the same guy who was at the door just now?”
Pressing her hands to her flushed cheeks, Jules let out a puff of laughter. “Shockingly, he is. Although I have to admit that I noticed his hotness first. Then he was so helpful, and kind, and saved my life a bunch of times, and is wonderful with the kids…” Her expression became dreamy as she trailed away.
“Huh.” In a contest of hotness, Grace would’ve crowned the second cop over Theo. From the top of his shaved head all the way down his massive form to the tips of his shiny boots, Officer Hugh Murdoch was gorgeous. Too bad he acted like he knew it. “Aren’t you scared of being caught?”
“Terrified.”
Confused, Grace frowned at her. “So why are you with him?”
“Oh, he’s not what worries me.” Jules waved her hand, as if dismissing the fact that dating a cop while on the run was a really, really bad idea. “I trust Theo. If it came down to it, and our secret came out, then he’d help us. The only reason I didn’t tell him our story is that I don’t think it’s fair to make him have to hide that information. It’s everything else that freaks me out. What if she… I mean, what if we’re found? What if we have to run again? Worse, what if we don’t have time to run, and we’re dragged back…”
Grace stared at her, feeling tendrils of panic creeping back in to strangle her again. For a while, fatigue and quiet rage had muffled her fear, but now it was returning, as strong as ever. “You don’t think we’re safe here, then? Mr. Espina promised—”
“Sorry,” Jules interrupted her. “Of course we’re safe here. Well, as safe as we can be anywhere. It’s just hard not to lie awake at night and think of all the very worst possibilities, especially when I’m responsible for my sister and brothers.”
Grace’s mind rewound the past twenty-four hours, trying to imagine how much more horrible things would’ve been if she’d had kids to worry about. She shuddered, feeling a dawning respect for Jules. “I don’t know how you managed. Doing this myself was bad enough.”
With a shrug, Jules said, “You do what you have to, I guess.”
“Yeah.” Grace looked around the small room, taking in the spare furnishing and the itty-bitty closet, thinking about the sad, lone bathroom, her five roommates, and her newly conjured GED—about Penny, sunny California, the job she’d loved, her light-filled condo, and Noah, who’d been so very close to perfect. “I guess you do.”
Chapter 5
“Ready?” Jules asked, in what seemed like her perpetually happy Southern drawl. Dee was leaning into her side, watching Grace with her usual mix of fascination and caution. Jules’s brother Sam’s expression, on the other hand, was pure wariness as he hovered over his sisters.
Ready to return to my old life? Yes, please. It had only been a day, and Grace had already had several moments when she’d been almost willing to face a whole army of Jovanovics if it meant she could return to her old life. Then she’d remember her terror when Martin had dragged her toward the house or when Logan had marched her through the empty hallway at the police station, and things in Monroe didn’t seem so bad. “Ready for what?”
“To experience the wonder that is Monroe, Colorado.” Jules spread her arms dramatically and then let them fall again. “There’s actually not that much wonder. There is a thrift store, though, and a furniture store. Don’t you want a bigger bed?”
As much as Grace disliked the old house, the idea of leaving it was surprisingly terrifying. It seemed too silly to say out loud, though, so she mentally hunted for excuses. “Will a bigger bed fit in my room?”
“We’ll make it fit.” There was so much determination in Jules’s voice that Grace had a feeling she’d find a way to cram in a king-size bed if that’s what Grace wanted. “Even if it takes the whole room. The bedroom next to yours is empty if you want to turn it into a closet.”
Dee’s eyes grew huge. “I want a bed that takes up my whole room,” she said with breathless wonder.
Unable to hold back a smile, Grace said, “Let’s wait on the walk-in closet. All I have are the clothes I arrived in.” A quarter of the way through her trip to Colorado, she’d stopped by a Walmart in a flying visit to grab a pair of ill-fitting jeans, a T-shirt, and a pair of flip-flops. She’d changed in the bathroom on her way out, and ended up stuffing her bloodstained dress and the LAPD sweatshirt in the trash container. She kept the shoes, though. They were one of her favorite pairs, and she needed to h
ave something from her old life besides her underwear.
“Any closet can be a walk-in,” Tio said as the twins slipped past where the women and Dee were standing in the entry and flung open the front door. “If you try hard enough.”
Ty laughed, shoving the back of his twin’s head as he ran outside. “Bet you can’t walk into Dee’s closet.”
His expression turning thoughtful, Tio asked, “Does it count as walking if I’m not fully upright?”
“Yeah,” Ty said. “But you have to stay on your feet. No crawling or slithering.”
Jules watched with a fond expression as the boys ran toward her SUV, pushing at each other to try to be the first one in. “Guess we’re all going to town.”
With a weak smile, Grace resigned herself to leaving the safety of the house. Jules was right; she did need new clothes and toiletries and some furniture—all sorts of things, really—but she could barely force herself to walk to Jules’s SUV.
Her head swiveled from side to side as she looked around. Despite the sunny day, there was a feeling of menace that she just couldn’t shake. The house was isolated, the property surrounded by trees that blocked the view of any neighbors or nearby roads, but that almost made her paranoia worse. Anyone could be crouched in the shadows between the evergreens, watching her. Her legs shook with the desire to run back into the house, to tear up the stairs to her new room, close the blinds, and hide.
She paused by the SUV, debating what to do, but all the kids were watching her. Jules hadn’t moved toward the driver’s seat. Instead, she was hovering behind Grace, as if she could sense Grace’s need to run back to the house and was ready to block her escape route—for her own good, no doubt. With a silent groan, Grace resigned herself to going into town. As tempting as it was, she couldn’t hide in her room forever, and she did need more than one outfit…and toothpaste. She desperately needed toothpaste.