by Anita DeVito
She waited until they were alone. “Jeb? Are, uh, you really going to tell your parents that you love me?”
“Absolutely.”
“Don’t you think you should say it to me first?”
Warning bells went off. “I, ah, I told you last night.”
She shook her head, her hair moving in waves of silk. “You said you were trying not to love me.”
He tunneled his fingers in all that silk, holding her face in his hands. “I did try not to love you. You’re Nate’s sister. You’ve just been through a horrible trauma. Traumas. If I were any kind of man, now is not the time to tell you that I was half in love with you before I ever met you. Those pictures. Nate’s stories. I knew you long before I met you. Now that I really know you…I love you, Carolina.” Her lips pursed, the serious look made him doubt the mutual nature of the feeling.
“I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about love at first sight. It talked about how three things have to exist for a person to fall in love.”
He held in the smile that wondered where she was going with this.
“First, you have to like the other person’s physical appearance.”
“Sure. That makes sense. So, do you like my physical appearance?” He lifted his arm to show off a bulging bicep.
She laughed, running her fingers over the curved muscle. “Yes. I very much like your physical appearance. Second, you have to like the other person’s personality.”
“Naturally. And what isn’t there to like about witty, charming, and funny me?”
“Don’t forget bossy, arrogant, and sometimes loud.” Her laughter faded, replaced with something soft and gentle. “But, yes, I really like your personality. Finally, you have to feel that the other person likes you. That they make it safe to love because you’ll be loved back. Almost since we first met, you’ve been making me feel safe, in every way.”
He drew her against his body, forehead to forehead, hand in hand. “I’m three for three.”
“One of the women in the article had a phrase that, until I met you, I hadn’t really understood. Soul recognition. I don’t know if it’s enough to get us to forever, but here, today, I know…I’m falling in love with you.”
“Thank God. I didn’t think you would say it.” He sealed it with a kiss, dipping her back until he was the strength that held her up. Her arms wrapped around his back, her warmth melted every cold corner in his soul. He fed on her goodness as he offered his strength in every stroke, every nip, every taste. He lifted his head. “It’s not enough. Upstairs. Now.”
He led her up the stairs, moving as quickly as she could. He locked his front door, pulled her through to his bedroom, where he locked that door, too. They weren’t being disturbed. Period. His hands went to her blouse. “You are the most beautiful woman in the world.”
Her hands tugged at his shirttails. “You certainly make me feel like it.”
Buttons flew off her shirt. “I need to be skin to skin.”
His belt flew across the room. “Now.” She took his mouth and kept them connected as a pile of clothing grew at their feet. Gloriously naked, she broke the kiss. “I need us to be together.”
He lifted her off her feet, loving that she told him what she needed. He wanted her open to him, ensuring both of their happiness. He set her gently on the bed, his arm beneath her back, arched her breasts to his mouth where he happily feasted. Her undulating body and little mewlings said she enjoyed it as much as he. Her arms wrapped around his head, keeping him at her breast.
His fingers blazed a trail down the soft skin of her stomach to the blond silk. He pushed between her clenched legs, giving a little reminder for her to open. She took his cue, and he rewarded her with copious attention to her most sensitive spot.
“Jeb. You need to do something.”
He lifted his head and looked into the face of a very aroused woman. “Baby, I am doing something.”
“More. Something more. Where is the condom?” She tried to sit up.
He chuckled as he turned to the bedside table, retrieved a foil package, and dressed himself. “We’re going to have to consider other options. I want to be inside you. Just me and you.”
“Once I’m settled again, I’ll see a doctor.” She spread her legs and encouraged him into the position she needed.
“Honey, you are settled. Aren’t you paying attention?” He slid into her, pushing against her resistant folds. Carolina’s hot and tight body bathed him, enticing him in. It was glorious torture to move slowly and give her body time to accommodate him. “Take all of me.”
“That’s the way I want you. All of you.”
Love and lust combined into a need the size of Mt. Everest, the depth of the Grand Canyon. He pulled slowly out and thrust back in. She dug her fingers into his triceps, then moved to meet his hips, encouraging him to get a move on. Jeb pressed his mouth to hers, filling demands. The long, smooth strokes became fast and urgent.
“More, Jeb. More.” She wrapped her legs around his waist, breaking the kiss to satisfy a need to nip at his neck. “Yes. Yes. Oh, I love you.” Her words came out in a crescendo as her body clenched down on his.
“That’s it, baby. All you want. All you need.” He raced for the edge that was just out of reach. “I love you, too.” His body shattered with his declaration. His hips bucked, pushing deeper into her. So deep, he might never come out again. He rested his head on the pillow next to her, careful to keep his weight on his elbows.
She pulled him down until he blanketed her. “I like you this way. I’m not going to break.” Her fingertips ran up and down his back, chasing away the last bits of tension.
He sighed contentedly, wanting to drift off with her hands on his bare skin. But he saw the clock. He needed to act if he was going to give Carolina the safety she craved.
…
Carolina worked on the files for hours. James Hooker and Thomas Cooper were nowhere in her research files. She was certain. There were no obvious connections between the minor league career criminals and the nursing homes in D.C., land contracts in Florida, or a Texas reverend who lobbied on the side of stirring the pot. She didn’t really expect there to be but still it would have been nice. Jeb would have come home and she would say, “Ta-da! Solved the case.” Then she’d seduce him.
She lifted her coffee cup. It was empty. Again. Needing to stretch her legs, she went to the kitchen. Somehow, their coffee tasted so much better than hers.
Butch was in the kitchen, filling a tall silver to-go cup. “Can I warm you up?”
“Please.” She set her cup on the counter. “I don’t usually drink this much but…”
“Addicting, isn’t it?” He exhaled noisily. “Yeah, it’s why I married that little spitfire.”
She laughed as he intended. “When I tell her that, you’re gonna be in so much trouble.” She laughed harder when the smile fell off his face.
“You making progress on your research?”
Her turn to get serious. “I suppose. I definitely know they are not directly connected to my research. So the connection is indirect.”
“Well, that’s something.”
“Yes, but it’s like I finished searching the haystack. Now I have to search the hayfield. And not having my phone is making it harder. I didn’t realize how spoiled I was, having all the numbers programmed, newsfeeds, and whatnot.”
He leaned against the counter. “What happened to it?”
“I broke it. Threw it at somebody.”
“Jeb?”
She couldn’t help grin. “No.”
“Didya hit ’em?”
She shook her head, not trusting her voice when the last thing she’d done was throw her phone at Derrick Jenkins.
“Well, that does add insult to injury. My phone is like another appendage. More like another brain. It holds the stuff that doesn’t fit in my head. Do you have the old one? We can take it into Nashville and get the card transferred into a new phone.”
A break
sounded good. A trip into Nashville sounded better. A new phone? “Sold. But don’t you have a business meeting?”
He pushed off the counter. “You’re welcome to sit in, seeing as you’re practically my sister-in-law.”
She was glad she decided to go to Nashville. Butch was a talented musician, a kindhearted, generous man who knew absolutely nothing about contracts. Seriously. What those producers were trying to lock him into bordered on fraud. She knew it. They knew it. And…she knew they knew, because they turned green as month-old egg salad when she called them on it. Butch had tipped his hat and walked out. No fuss. No scene. No deal.
Now she gawked through the windshield as he parked the truck in front of a grand hotel. She’d seen pictures, but they hadn’t done it justice. “The Opryland Hotel?”
“My way of saying thank you. By the way, you are now officially in charge of reading all my contracts. Finch used to do it, but now he spends all this time playing with Jeb.” He pulled a cowboy hat low over his eyes and got out of the truck. “Well, let’s go.”
She followed him, spinning in circles to take it all in. He put his hand on her lower back to steer her through the parking lot and into the building. “Oh. Look at this,” she said, bending eye-level with a plant. “It’s called a flytrap. It’s one of the most predatory plants. Did you know some plants began developing the ability to digest insects when they weren’t getting the nutrients they needed from the soil?”
Butch bent down and looked into the brilliant mouth. “It does look hungry.”
“What vivid colors in this lily. Did you know that there are over two thousand species of plants in the lily family? Tiger lilies are my favorite. My mother had them in a bed against the house. I wonder if they’ll grow back. I’m sure they didn’t survive the fire.”
Butch took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. “You know a lot about flowers.”
She shrugged. “I read it in a book once. Or a magazine. It might have been a magazine.”
“Oh my God. Oh my God! You’re Butch McCormick, right?” The pretty young woman in tight jeans and tall heels looked about to wet her panties. “I love you.”
Carolina looked away from the flowers to watch the woman put her hands on Butch’s arm while she jumped in place and made the sound of a donkey braying. The high-pitched wail shot across the gardens like a bat signal, snagging the attention of every celebrity-gazing person within a mile radius. Young, old, short, tall. They all made a beeline for the handsome man with the gray eyes.
She watched the scene in horror. They swarmed Butch. They just swarmed him. They had no respect for his personal space. No respect for his person. He smiled and took a step back but came up short against a wall of soft bodies. A Sharpie pen came out and buttons flew as the women exposed their breasts for a signature.
Carolina gasped as she lost sight of him behind the C cups and hairspray. She reached into the oversized planter for the watering hose.
Enough was enough.
Chapter Ten
Jeb pulled into the truck stop early. His destination boasted fuel, a convenience store, and a fan-favorite fast-food joint. A Tennessee twist on Grand Central Station, the stop serviced everything from VW Beetles to International rigs hauling double trailers needing a respite from the endless interstate. He circled the parking lot twice, parked, and then scouted the sprawling restaurant/store. He ordered a coffee at the counter and took it to a booth in the back, sitting so he faced the circus.
Walker came in through the restaurant entrance wearing civilian clothing and a battered ball cap low on his head. The clothes fit right in with the truckers and wouldn’t be noticed by the tourists. His walk gave him away. Everything about that cocky stride said, “I’m your worst nightmare.”
He spotted Jeb and slid into the booth. “I know who you are.” He waited, but Jeb didn’t respond. “You could have told me. I would have—hell,” he said, taking a deep breath. “It doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t have believed you.” The sheriff lifted his hat and ran a hand through his hair. “Derrick Jenkins was murdered. In cold blood. He was followed after hours. He called it in, then disobeyed orders and turned the tail. A patrol car pulled up and caught the shooting on camera. Derrick knew he was dying.”
Walker took the hat from his head and then snapped it against the tabletop. When that did nothing to take the edge off, he ran both hands through his hair and pulled hard. “God damn it. Derrick told the patrolman, a rookie, that the suspect was after Carolina. The bastard asked where she was and when Derrick wouldn’t give her up, he shot him again.”
Walker looked at Jeb with wounded eyes. “Derrick was a good man. I always hoped he and Carolina would get together. He seemed to take a liking to her. When Carolina moved back home from D.C. and complained about being followed, I had Derrick look into it. He did me a favor, spent weeks, after hours, on his own time, seeing if it was real. He didn’t find anything, but I got the idea that…”
Jeb shook his head. “Carolina didn’t feel that way. She’s upset he died but she never felt that way, especially recently.”
“Since you came along.” Walker sneered the accusation.
“This isn’t the time for that conversation. Did he say anything else?”
Walker nodded. “White, mid-thirties. Dark hair. Scar on his left cheek.”
Jeb opened the file and tossed the photo in front of Walker. “James Hooker, a.k.a. Sid Perry, a.k.a. Dennis Laslo. He broke into Carolina’s house Thursday.”
“How—”
“This is one of the others. Thomas Cooper.” He continued, ignoring Walker. “Both have done time. A third man hasn’t. The other two are known for using their fists.”
“Three of them?”
“Could be more. Carolina thought there were four, but she isn’t sure. There were definitely three water bottles drank by three different individuals.”
Walker’s face reddened; the pulse in the jaw throbbed. “You found water bottles? Why the hell didn’t you call me in? You know none of this—none—is admissible in court.”
He didn’t react because Walker was right, and he didn’t care. He closed the file and slid it across the table. “You’re gonna want to find them before I do.”
Walker accepted the file, putting it on the bench next to him. “I talked Emmaline into spending time at her daughter’s house in St. Louis. There’s no one else.”
He raised an eyebrow. “There’s you. Your family.”
“I can take care of my own. You take care of Carolina. Keep her safe. Whatever she’s gotten herself into, these guys are going to extremes to get to her. We don’t know the limit to what they’ll do, who they’ll hurt.”
He nodded, his game face hiding the terror that grew in his gut. Walker slid out of the booth and left without another word. Jeb sat for a moment, battling to get his feelings under control. He’d been in serious, dangerous situations before, and he’d always been cool, always been calm. This heart-in-a-vise-grip feeling terrified him. He felt like he wanted to tear—literally tear—someone limb from limb.
He would never have associated the violent rage with love.
Until he loved Carolina.
Time truly was of the essence. There was no doubt the perpetrators would strike again. The question was when and where. He needed manpower. With a few phone calls, he rearranged assignments and had two of his best men on his most important case. He stopped, as promised, at the grocery store but also the electronics store. Carolina needed a computer of her own to work on. He ordered a desk, two screens, and a chair, all of which would fit in his office. It was late afternoon when he pulled into the garage.
Butch stalked through the garage carrying his gun case and a box of ammo. He wore a rare expression of frustration and spoke without breaking stride. “Clyde, women are a pain in the ass.” He walked out the open door toward the far field where they’d built a shooting range. It was a good half mile away, and it looked like Butch was walking.
Jeb wondere
d what Katie had done this time. He pitied his brother, not being in lockstep with his woman. Not like he and Carolina. Now that they understood each other, it was like hand and glove.
He saw her through the kitchen window, standing at the sink, looking like she belonged there. He watched her for a moment, a small smile on her face. The kind you wear when you’re happy for no particular reason. She looked up then and saw him. Her high-wattage smile blinded him.
She pushed open the door for him. “Let me help you with those bags.”
“I got ’em. Got everything on your list.” Jeb emptied his arms of the bags and then filled them with Carolina. He dipped his head and kissed her like it’d been a year since he’d felt her lips on his. She kissed him the same way.
“Welcome home,” she said breathlessly. “I’d better get dinner started. The meatloaf takes an hour to bake.”
He let her go, content to watch her make his home, her home. “Did you have a good day?”
She began unpacking the plastic sacks. “I did. I made some progress on the files, but don’t get your hopes up. All I was able to do was confirm where they didn’t come from.”
“I guess that’s something.” He put the onions and potatoes in the pantry.
“That’s just what Butch said. Do you know your brother knows nothing about contract language?”
“Yes, but how did you know that?” He opened the bag of beef jerky. It was the lunch he missed eating.
“I went to his meeting with him. Those men should have been ashamed of themselves. Well, they were when I was done with them.”
“Is that why he’s in a mood? I passed him in the garage.”
“No. He was fine with that. Walked away like no skin off his nose. He took me to replace my phone.” She held up the latest model. “So I’m connected again, and then he took me to the Opryland Hotel. That’s where we ran into a little problem.”
Oh, he did not like the sound of that. “Tell me.”
“Well, we were looking at the most interesting plants. Flytraps and lilies. Did you know that there are over two thousand species of plants in the lily family?”