“What if we don’t find anything? What if Kenny’s background doesn’t reveal anything, and Johansson is a dead end?” She flinched a little as the double meaning of her words played back in her head.
Rafe suddenly turned back to the console and tapped a few keys.
“What? What did I say?”
Mac’s voice came through a speaker somewhere a moment later.
“What’s up?”
“I’m just starting the research, but it occurred to me that maybe we should have someone tag along with Johansson’s body. See who else might be nosing around, asking questions.”
“One step ahead of you. I took care of that before leaving the scene.”
“Keep me informed. I don’t care what time it is.”
“Will do.”
He disconnected and shifted his attention back to her. “I might be at this for hours. I know you’re going crazy with nothing to do, but I want you to stay here. With me. Tonight. It’s the safest place for you…and I want you here.”
She hadn’t thought that far ahead, and her gaze went to his bedroom before she could stop it.
“I don’t have a spare bedroom, but I honestly want you next to me. I’ll stay more focused, rest better, if you’re right there.” He waited until she looked back to him. “Are you okay with that?”
Considering she was torn between the need to go leap in the nearest vehicle and go somewhere, anywhere, to start looking for Springer…and the need to go curl up in his lap and beg him to tell her he was going to find them some answers…his request was an easy one. “I’m very okay with that.”
His lips curved just a little, but his gaze remained serious. “Good.” For a moment she thought he was going to say more, but instead he turned back to his console and went back to work.
She paced some more, but he had a point—it wasn’t serving to calm her, it just made her worry more with each path she wore in his rug. She had to find something to keep herself occupied. She wasn’t remotely hungry, but maybe fixing him something to eat, or at least a pot of coffee to sustain them over the next who-knew-how-many hours, would be a start.
“Do you have a coffeemaker?”
“With my own grinder,” he said, not looking up. “And yes, I would dearly love some.”
“Then I’ll see what I can do.”
She went to slip through the screened panels, when he called her name. She turned back. “What? You take it black? Or do you have some complicated recipe you want me to follow?”
He pushed back and stood up, walked over to her, but rather than draw her into his arms, he simply reached out and cupped her cheek. “Thank you.”
“I should be the one doing the thanking. I’m feeling rather useless at the moment. The least I can do is make coffee.”
“I meant—”
“I know,” she said quietly, putting off whatever he’d been about to say. She was too close to being undone by the day’s events. She couldn’t handle much more, even if it was something meant to make her feel good. Her emotions were barely restrained beneath the surface as it was. “Let me—I need to—”
He dropped his hand. “I know.”
She nodded, silently thanking him. He did, indeed, get her. A rather profound gift, that. She slipped through the screens and wandered in search of the kitchen, fighting off tears of exhaustion while admitting she couldn’t imagine getting through this without him.
Hours passed and midnight came and went, with disheartening results. She’d made some soup in addition to coffee and they’d both managed a bowl and several cups, but their rejuvenating effects had long since worn off. Fatigue was rapidly replacing worry, and her eyelids were drooping as she sat on her perch in his office chair where she’d finally retreated an hour earlier.
It was the cessation of tapping fingers and a muttered oath that had her eyes fluttering open. “What? What did you find?” she asked, shaking off the cobwebs, or trying to.
“Nothing. That’s the problem.”
He’d finished digging on Kenny a while back, with nothing out of the ordinary coming from his search. The search on Johansson had revealed that he’d had a spotty work record and held a private investigator’s license in addition to being bonded to do work for Intrepid. Though he’d portrayed himself as an insurance investigator, Rafe had wondered in what capacity he’d truly been hired, given how things had gone. They’d had less luck digging up any information on any past clients he might have worked for privately. And the lateness of the hour precluded him from pulling more strings and garnering a few favors from well-placed insiders.
Calls to Mac had also not brought any enlightenment, as no one had shown up to snoop there, and his more exhaustive investigation of the property had yielded no new clues. He planned to do more once the sun came up, but at the moment, they were all pretty disheartened.
Silence from Aaron, Kenny, and no new information coming from the morgue completed their disgust and discouragement.
Rafe tapped a few more keys, and the screen went blank and the banked lights beneath his shelves winked out. He pushed back and stood, groaning a little as he arched his back.
She started to climb out of the concave-shaped chair, but he stepped over and offered a hand before she could stand.
He gently pulled her to her feet, then caught her against him as she wavered slightly. “We need some sleep. We’ll tackle this again tomorrow.”
She nodded, not trusting herself to say anything lest she break down completely. She didn’t want to feel hopeless, but nothing, not one tiny thing, had gone their way tonight. She was thankful that nothing obvious had popped up on Kenny, but beyond that, the night had been a complete zero.
Rafe wrapped his arms around her and held her for a moment, hugging her and accepting her arms snaking around his waist with a deep sigh and a kiss to her temple. “Let’s go to bed.”
He kept her tucked to his side, and they turned toward the screened panels that led to his bedroom. Any other time in her life, this moment would have filled her with anticipation and the kind of pulse-accelerating excitement she could only have dreamed about. Now, all she could think about was getting some rest, and praying to God she could sleep without the dreams haunting her. Not tonight, she prayed.
Once in his room, he opened a panel next to the door and pushed a series of buttons. Lights throughout the pool house dimmed and a soft voice said, “Security, activated.”
Elena lifted her head from his shoulder, but said nothing about the state-of-the-art system. Frankly, it didn’t surprise her, and knowing it was there made her feel safer.
“There is a bathroom through there,” he said, motioning to the opposite corner. “I’ll grab you one of my t-shirts if you’d like.”
“I’d like,” was all she said. “Will I set off an alarm if I get up and wander to the kitchen in the middle of the night?”
“It already is the middle of the night. But no, the system keeps unwanted intruders out, it doesn’t trap you in.”
She gave a shaky sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
“Thank Mac. He designed it. I only wish I could be doing more.”
“You’re doing an amazing amount,” she told him, never more honest. “It’s at least eliminating suspicion and telling us we need to look in a new direction.”
He shuffled her toward the bed and quietly popped the clasps of her overalls. “In the morning.”
She could only nod as he let the bib panel fall forward and undid the buttons at her hips. She stepped out of the pool of worn denim, left only in her long underwear shirt and panties. It seemed like three lifetimes ago that she’d dressed and met him for an early morning class that had ended with an almost-tryst in the tack room.
Her thoughts drifted there and clung to those moments like a lifeline, helping her to block out the reality of the moment and spend some time in another place. A place where people weren’t being shot dead and her beloved horse and family friend weren’t in danger.
She tu
gged his shirt loose and lifted it over his head. He raised his arms, accommodating her, and soon she had his bare chest at her disposal. To do with what she wanted.
And, beyond the bone-deep fatigue, beyond the sheer terror and almost debilitating fear…there was a wealth of desire.
In some recess of her mind, she wondered if this was what they meant by life-threatening situations acting like some kind of sudden aphrodisiac. Her sudden voracious hunger for him was limited only by her lack of available energy. So she took it slow. Sweetly, deliciously slow.
He’d tasted her, taunted her, teased her, on several occasions. Now it was her turn.
Her entire world narrowed down to the smooth expanse of honeyed skin wrapped oh-so-tautly across his chest. She dipped her head and drew her tongue slowly from his collarbone down the valley between his pecs, and then teased her way over to his nipple.
He drew in a sharp breath when she flicked her tongue across the sensitive tip. His hands came up to her hair, which he slowly unwove from its heavy braid as she continued her exploration.
“Elena,” he said, his voice barely more than a rough whisper.
“Rafe,” she said, making his name a vow.
He cupped her head and slowly drew her mouth up to his, his eyes on hers as their lips met.
She took his kiss, letting her eyes drift shut as sensation after sensation poured through her. He slowly lowered them both to his bed, where he rolled her beneath him, and continued his sweet seduction. Their clothes didn’t come off in a frenzied hurry, but with slow deliberation. As if they both needed to offset the harsh reality of what they’d been through the past twenty-four hours, with something pure and honest.
They took turns slowly exploring each other, delighting in discovering what made them gasp, what made them moan. It was a slow but complete capitulation, where nothing was held back, nothing was hidden.
When she finally rolled to her back, taking his weight fully on top of her, it was as if she’d reached a golden point, a place she’d been trying to get to for a long, long time but could never quite find. That place where life suddenly became more complete and took on even greater meaning.
Without a word, they locked gazes and he slowly pushed into her, not stopping until she’d taken him fully inside of her. She wrapped her legs around him, holding him there, taking a moment to wallow, to revel a bit, in the supreme pleasure and contentment of being joined to that person who was meant to be hers.
And, in that moment, despite all the fears, all the work yet to be done, and the very precarious future that lay ahead, one thing she was certain of: her time spent with this man was going to mean something to her for the rest of her life.
The rest she let go, and willed herself just to feel, to truly live purely in that moment and that moment only. She moved first, pressing her hips up into his, then wrapping her legs around him. He began to move inside of her, so deep, filling her so perfectly. It wasn’t wild, it wasn’t frenzied; it was powerful and necessary. He slid one arm beneath the small of her back and lifted her hips even higher so he could sink into her even more deeply. Their gazes caught, held, and their thrusts came faster, deeper. She watched him climb, watched as his need for her strengthened, felt his muscles gather and bunch as he drew ever closer. She tightened around him, needing to know she could take him to that place, give him that sweet bliss that he so effortlessly gave her, and found herself shuddering, too, in intense satisfaction as he growled through a pulsing release.
He kissed her, pressed another kiss to her temple, then dropped another one just below her ear, before rolling to his back, pulling her with him, and settling her body alongside his.
She’d never spent the night fully with anyone. It should have been awkward, at least momentarily, trying to figure out how to align her body with his, but it all fell into place as effortlessly as she’d fallen for him. She didn’t question it. Her eyes were already drifting shut as she shifted enough to press a soft kiss over his heart before tucking her arm across his body. Then she draped her leg across his, wanting him to feel as cosseted and taken care of as he made her feel.
One thing she’d learned from all this was that it was okay to take. It made giving all that much sweeter.
She had no idea what time it was when her eyes flew open. Nor could she say what had woken her from such a deep sleep. She went to move, then felt the weight of Rafe’s arm tucked across her back, holding her against him. She didn’t want to disturb him, but she was struggling to orient herself, and her still-muzzy brain took a moment or two to remember where she was, and what she was doing there.
There was a dull throb of a headache beginning as she lifted her head, willing her eyes to adjust to the dark so she could seek out a clock. The time didn’t matter—it was still before dawn—but it would help her get her bearings. Bearings put in complete disarray by the man whose bed she was presently sharing.
She thought about that for a moment, partly because it pushed the return of fear and panic to the edges of her mind for a few more precious seconds, and partly because she couldn’t help but wonder what, in fact, did come next for them. She realized that the events currently unfolding could end up robbing her of finding out, but that didn’t stop her from thinking about what she’d want, if it were up to her.
Slowly, cautiously, she slipped out from beneath his arm and gently shifted her weight off the bed, her eyes adjusting just enough to keep her from stumbling on her way to the bathroom. She took the time to splash cool water on her face, debating whether it was worth turning on the bright lights to search for some aspirin.
There was a small, diamond-shaped window high on the central wall between the vanity and shower. She stepped over to it, thinking the familiarity of the farm would lend some much-needed normalcy to this moment.
The waning moon was just strong enough to light the tips of the apple trees to her left, and lightly gild the roof of the stables, down the hill past the edge of the pool. She wasn’t sure when she made the decision; she only knew there was a sense of relief just in the thought of doing it. She didn’t question it beyond that, and found herself moving silently back through his bedroom, slipping on the two garments she groped first. His shirt and her overalls. He’d said the house kept intruders out as opposed to keeping them locked in. She could only hope that was true as she slowly turned the knob to the door leading to the pool, and the path that led to the stables.
It was closer to dawn than she realized. As she skirted the pool and stepped onto the path, she wished she’d scrounged for her shoes. But the late-night, or very-early-morning, air felt too good brushing against her skin to turn back now. She just needed some fresh air, a few moments to herself to get her head on straight and mentally gear up for what would likely be the most difficult day of her life.
Once on the path to the stables, she couldn’t help but look beyond, out to her stables, to her place. She paused, looking back up at the pool house. In her haste to get some air, she hadn’t thought to leave a note, not thinking she’d be gone more than a minute, and not planning on going past the pool’s end.
But there was a golf cart right there, beckoning to her. The thought of fresh clothes and her own personal surroundings were a balm to her battered soul in a way that even Rafe couldn’t provide, though he’d been a lifesaver. She promised herself she’d make a quick run of it, over there and back, then slip inside to make him a fresh pot of coffee before he woke up and missed her.
The cart moved almost silently through the predawn moonlight, and she quickly slipped inside the barn and up the ladder to her loft rooms. She hadn’t realized how fully and completely she’d turned her life over to Rafe for safekeeping until seeing her own jumble of belongings made her eyes go glassy for a moment.
She wouldn’t have traded a moment of his help, and she was supremely thankful for his arrival in her world—his confidence, his knowledge, his comfort. But there was something to be said for taking command of a part of her world again, even if j
ust for a moment, to rejuvenate her spirit and her will to push on.
She’d just pulled on fresh overalls and a long-sleeved t-shirt when she heard what sounded like the creak of the big barn door. It often did that on windier days, but the air had been cool and still on her ride over.
Her heart caught as the creak came again, and she realized it must be Rafe, come to find her. She felt awful for giving him even a moment of panic and was all ready to deliver a heartfelt apology when she hit the top of the ladder and froze.
There was a dark silhouette at the base of the ladder, the only entry and exit to her loft. And when he looked up, she stared down into a pair of familiar eyes. But they didn’t belong to Rafe.
Chapter 26
“Hola, Elena. I’ve been waiting for you.”
“JuanCarlo.” It was all she could get out, because she’d looked past his face now, and discovered the gun in his hand.
He gestured with it now. “Come down, we have much to talk about.”
She couldn’t move, couldn’t think clearly, couldn’t decide on any course of action, because too many things were racing through her brain all at once. Where was Springer? What happened to Kenny? And how in the hell was JuanCarlo involved in all this?
“I can see by your expression you have questions, too.” He gestured again. “Come, we will both learn many things.”
She hesitated, not wanting to get within arm’s length of him, debating for a split second whether to step back, slam the trapdoor shut, and shove something heavy over it as fast as she could.
“The bullet will reach you before I do,” he said calmly, as if reading her mind. “It will also be less painful.” Once again, he gestured for her to come down. “Don’t test my patience. I’ve already used this twice, so it will not hasten my journey to hell if I use it again.”
“Twice?” Johansson and—her gaze flew to the end of the barn, and beyond.
The Black Sheep and the Hidden Beauty Page 32