He moved her hand away from his face and held it. “I consider you moving in with me the beginning, Moore, not the end.” This game could easily blow up in his face. McKenna was right about one thing. He could have wagered anything. Could have had her washing his car for the rest of her life or getting him coffee every morning before work. But moving in with him? The idea hadn’t fully formed before it was out of his mouth.
A smile split across her face, the kind he hadn’t seen since they were kids. The acceleration of the organ in his chest had nothing to do with exercise. She pulled her hand from his grasp. “Keep dreaming.”
McKenna jammed the ball into his gut. “It’s all yours.”
Focus, buddy. Figure out the rest later. He plowed his way down the court. Five feet from the hoop, he shot. She knocked the ball away and tried to shoot from the right side of the basket. The ball hit the backboard and circled the rim several times before dropping to the floor without the gratifying swish he knew McKenna wanted.
They reached the ball at the same time. Both of her hands clasped it, but he jerked it from her grasp, recovered it and faked a shot. She jumped to block him, but he ducked beneath her and raced a few feet from the hoop. He could hear her breathing, feel it on his neck as he turned and lifted the ball over his head.
She tried to punch it from between his hands. Dodging the lethal fist, he raced to the other side of the hoop, managed to throw the ball. It sank through as the netting as McKenna plowed into him.
One of her ankles gave way. A hand procured a portion of his shirt. The sound of tearing material filled the air as she continued toward the gym floor. He moved in to catch her and tripped on one of her shoes, which sent him flying downward as well. He ended up on the floor on top of her, her body cradled in his arms. Her head rested on his forearm.
“If you wanted my shirt off that badly, you could have asked.”
McKenna didn’t move.
His chain necklace, her ring—the one her parents had given her around her sixteenth birthday, along with his mother’s ring, rested on her throat.
She clamped her eyes shut, tighter than they already were. “Please, tell me that didn’t go in.”
“It did.” He tried to take a deep breath and forget she was beneath him, albeit a little tangled. “You okay?”
McKenna grabbed his necklace, which pulled his face closer to hers. She noticed her ring and dropped it as if it had flames coming from it. “Get off me, Bening.”
After untangling himself, he stood and offered a hand. “Looks like I won.”
“It looks that way, doesn’t it?” She swatted his hand away and stood, but didn’t put her full weight on her left ankle. A cobra, ready to attack, looked more inviting she did.
Jordan hadn’t seen her so pissed off and crushed all in one heartbeat since, their neighbor, Sam Richardson showed up twenty minutes late to pick her up for their prom—a prom she hadn’t wanted to go to in the first place. “Let me see your ankle.”
Before he could touch her, she backed away, toward the double doors leading out of the gym. “It’s fine.”
“McKenna, come on.”
She wouldn’t meet his eyes. “We’ve got work to do.” She turned and walked out, taking what little forward progress they had made with her.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The perfect end to a not-so-perfect day—a stolen car and a finicky cell phone.
McKenna couldn’t even begin to see the positive after sabotaging her life with a game. Being angry with Jordan didn’t help. He played fair, won fair, but she wasn’t ready to admit that to him yet.
The stolen car was the cherry on top of the sundae.
“You should have parked inside the gates.” The big, burly guard said from his booth outside the building. “We haven’t had many problems around here that I know of, but, still, it’s safer.”
McKenna rubbed her temples. “Got it. Thanks for calling CMPD, Lenny.”
He nodded. “Why’d you park on the street, anyway?”
Sarcasm threatened to spew out of her mouth. She bit it back. “Ran a little late this morning.”
“You, young kids.” He shook his head, a grin on his face as if all she had lost was a silly hat. “Always in a hurry to get somewhere. Bet you won’t do that again, huh?”
“Nope.” She shook her cell phone hoping to jostle some life back into it. Nothing. Not even one measly bar of service.
McKenna glanced toward the building that held her office. Running up there to call her dad for a ride held the possibility of dealing with Jordan and his attempts to make light of their situation.
She would rather walk home than see Jordan try so hard. It only solidified the facts. In her head she knew, he wasn’t the heartless monster who left without a backward glance to the people who treated him like family. The whole idea opened the door to unanswered questions. Most of which had rejoinders she wouldn’t like.
“McKenna?”
She jumped, then spun around, one hand instinctively on her SIG. Jordan walked toward her, half in the shadows, the other in the light. “I didn’t see you when I left.”
He nodded toward the guard as he approached. “How long have you been out here? Why are you out here?”
“I like seeing the sunset.”
He stuck his hands in the pockets of his pants. “The real reason?”
She sighed. “Unless my car has turned into Knight Rider’s sidekick, someone stole it.”
Surprise covered his face. “You parked it on the street?”
“Yeah. Spare me a lecture.”
Jordan glanced toward where she’d left her silver Audi that morning, then scanned the area. “You could have called me.”
McKenna waved the hunk of plastic and circuits she was tempted to throw. “My cell phone’s not working.”
“Right.” He unclipped his phone from his belt, and handed it to her. “Not that I would have been first on your list to call if it had been working, right?” His eyes drilled into her. Gone was the guy who’d been trying, all day, to make her forget their game. Perhaps, ignoring him hadn’t been wise.
“Your dad called the office. You might want to call him back.”
McKenna grabbed the phone from him. Their fingers brushed. Current shot up her arm, before he released the device. “Did you say anything to him?”
“Yeah.” A sardonic laugh came from Jordan. “We had a great conversation. I especially liked the part where I told him all about us. It’s okay. He’s totally cool with it.”
She couldn’t stop the frantic beat of her heart or the sick feeling in her stomach. “Nobody has that kind of a death wish.”
“Call your dad back.” He walked over to the guard stand and inquired about their surveillance cameras. Like a true gentleman. Oh, boy.
His jaw remained clenched while he talked with the guard in clipped tones. His gaze never wavered far from the spot where she stood. And he kept shaking his head as if she’d left the doors open and the key in the ignition.
Even if she had, it was her car. Her problem, not his.
McKenna dialed her parent’s number.
“Moore residence.” Her dad’s deep voice soothed her frayed nerves.
“Hey, Dad.”
“McKenna, is everything okay?”
Define everything. “Besides a stolen car? Yeah. Why?”
“The bridal shop called when you didn’t show up for your fitting. I couldn’t reach you on your cell phone and then you weren’t in the office. I was afraid after our conversation this morning something might have happened to you.” He blew out a breath. “Wait? Did you say stolen?”
“Yes.”
“You called the police? Never mind. Dumb question. You okay? Need me to come get you?”
“No, thanks, Dad.” There was no way Jordan would let her wait alone for any type of ride. It wasn’t in his DNA. And she wasn’t about to have her dad come down here and figure out the truth with one glance. “It’s under control.” McKenna eyed the ma
n still talking with the guard and wondered if control was the right choice of words.
“Where are you calling from? An unknown number came up on the caller ID.”
McKenna swallowed. There wasn’t any harm in telling the truth. “It’s Jordan’s phone.”
“He is back then? I didn’t get to talk to him for very long when I called the office. He seemed in a hurry. And I was too busy worrying about you.”
“He’s the new Assistant SAC.”
A laugh hit her ear. “That should be interesting.”
“Sure.” Interesting was a mild description.
“Put him on the phone.”
She licked her lips. “Why?”
“He’s helping you, right?”
“Yes.” Though she couldn’t decide if that was bad or good.
“I want to thank him, McKenna.”
Sure, he did. She thrust the phone at Jordan. “My dad wants to talk to you.” She sat down on the edge of the curb and brought her hands to her temples. Today proved a bad day could always get worse.
“Hello, Mr. Moore,” she heard Jordan say. He’d always been respectful of her parents. And her.
She rolled her eyes. Sirens howled in the distance.
“I’m good, thank you. How are you?” Jordan said into the phone and then paused. “I wouldn’t be too happy either.” He glanced at her. “She’s a little cranky anyway. She lost a good game of basketball, today. And you know how she can’t stand to lose. Especially to me.”
McKenna popped up off the ground and ran to grab the phone. A few more sentences and he’d spell it all out.
Jordan dodged her attempts as if she were nothing more than an annoying younger sister. “Yes, sir. I don’t mind waiting for the police, but I don’t want to impose.”
As she reached for the phone again, she faintly heard her father say, “Impose? You’re family. Alexis and I would be upset if you didn’t come to dinner.”
McKenna stopped struggling. He couldn’t accept their invitation. Her parents would figure out the truth two seconds after they walked through the door. She mouthed the word ‘no’ and shook her head.
Couldn’t he understand the day she’d had? That she needed a little space.
“I would love to come to dinner.” He grabbed her and crushed her against his side. “McKenna had actually, mentioned that I should some time. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” He ended the conversation.
“Forget it. I’m a big girl. I can handle this myself.” She dug her elbow into his side. “Call him back right now and tell him you’ve changed your mind.”
“Sorry. No can do.” Jordan crossed the street as a squad car pulled up. “How else did you plan on telling them you’re moving in with me?”
Oh, boy. Yes, the day had gotten much, much worse.
###
Separating stubbornness and McKenna was like scrubbing a one-hundred-year-old stain out of an antique rug.
When you finally realize the rug’s irreplaceable and the stain isn’t going anywhere, you buy a couch to cover the problem.
Jordan knew shaking some sense into McKenna wouldn’t be near as easy. Her mind had targeted him as the enemy and nothing short of a miracle would change that. And, until said miracle happened, he could forget warning her about Birmingham. He’d waste his breath.
Not to mention the fact that he hadn’t come up with a subtle enough way to bring it up. A way that would make McKenna believe him when so many people hadn’t—didn’t.
“You don’t want me to move in with you.” McKenna’s hand rested on the doorknob to her parent’s house, her back toward him.
Jordan didn’t have any idea what he wanted. Maybe a return to the easy conversation of Las Vegas. “You agreed to our terms and we shook on it. I won the game fair and square.”
She whirled around. “That proves it.”
“Proves what? Am I supposed to beg you to move in with me?”
“No.”
“So, what’s the problem?”
She watched him as if she could garner the truth and beyond in one glance. “Why are you here? Why now?”
He gave her a small truth. “I’ve got a job here, a house. I should have come back, permanently, sooner.”
Those beautiful, blue eyes watched him. “You’ve been back in Charlotte for a while, haven’t you?”
Uh-oh. “I’ve been in and out of town.”
“For how long, Jordan? Five years? Two? Six months?” McKenna’s features were perfectly neutral, now. She didn’t seem to have one eyelash out of place.
He knew better than to believe her façade. Seeing her with obvious hurt slashing her features would have made him feel like less of a heel. “Our paths almost crossed professionally a few months back.”
“I must have just missed you every time you stopped by to say hello, huh?” She shook her head. “Change your mind about dinner. They will understand.”
For a split second, guilt made him contemplate letting her off the hook. “A deal’s a deal.”
“Dinner with my parents wasn’t part of it.”
“Get over it, McKenna.” After the minor scare she’d given him back at the office, he had half a mind to lock her inside his house and throw away the key. Raphael Moore’s frantic voice on the other end of the phone had nearly given Jordan a stroke. All he could think about was finding her lying somewhere, pushed from a third story window, bleeding out and left for dead.
It didn’t take a visit to the shrink for him to know the response wasn’t rational, but he didn’t care. He would like to see a shrink live through his mother’s death the way he had. Then they would talk about rational.
“You know anybody who’d want to steal your car?”
McKenna rubbed her face. “We already went over this with Char-Meck PD. No.”
“Not even Rupert?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, tapped her left foot.
They were back to McKenna-cobra mode. Did they have schooling for snake-charming? “The idea isn’t that far-fetched.”
“You’re reading more into this than there is. Char-Meck agreed that the theft was probably random. They’ve been having problems nearby.”
“I’m here to help despite what you believe otherwise.”
She gave a frustrated sigh. “Look, I don’t have time for this.” She pointed between them.
“What is this?”
“I should be focusing on Mrs. Gaidies’ murder. I should be speculating on why Mr. Gaidies, VP of the major medical supplier on the East coast, went to work the day after he found his wife murdered. Instead, I’m thinking about you.”
Okay. That, he could live with.
“It doesn’t even make sense.” She poked her finger into his chest. “You are not supposed to be here, because you are not a part of my plans.”
He backed up a step. She’d taken out the big guns. “Your plans?”
“Yeah. You know, hunting down criminals.” She crossed her arms again. “Saving people.”
“And you don’t need me, right?” He shook his head. “There are no lone gunmen in the Bureau. This is a partnership. I see what you don’t and vice versa.”
“I wish it were that simple.”
“It is. You’re a professional. Learn to look past what’s happened, at least while at work.”
She clenched her fists. “So, what, you want to just pretend it never happened? Pick up right where we left off as kids?”
“I didn’t say anything about pretending.” He rubbed a hand across his ensuing five o’clock shadow. “We’re arguing in front of your parent’s house. And, if it were up to you we’d continue arguing all night—or until we came to an arrangement that suited you.”
McKenna huffed.
“Has it occurred to you that your parent’s could be watching and listening?”
Her eyes traveled from the ground up to his. A look of sheer panic crossed her face. It vibrated through her body and jump into his and they weren’t even touching.
He should be thinking about something else.
Her lips looked soft, with a slight pout, and kissable. Maybe if he kissed her, she’d realize how much she needed him. Then again, the opposite was just as likely to happen. She had one thing right, not a whole lot between them made sense right now. “McKenna?”
“Yeah?”
He reached for the door handle and opened it before he could change his mind and do something stupid. “Your parents are waiting for us.”
“Right.” She dashed into the house. He followed.
The Moore residence was as he remembered it. A creamy tan color filled the foyer decorated with various paintings. Antique furniture and shelves filled with knickknacks and family pictures gave the space an inviting glow. Some houses were nothing more than wood, sheetrock and shingles. This place could have been made of cardboard, filled with bird’s nests and he would have had the same sense of euphoria upon entering. He’d never had to try to belong here. He just had.
Jordan might have enjoyed that thought a while longer if McKenna hadn’t sent him a don’t-mess-this-up glare before walking off in the direction of the dining room. So, he belonged here ten years ago. It didn’t mean he did now.
He hung his jacket on the brass coat hanger.
Alexis spotted him first and hugged him. Her dark hair, now peppered with strands of gray, was as different from his mother’s blonde hair as it came. Not a lot about the two women had been similar, but they’d treated each other like sisters and Alexis Moore treated him like a son.
“Look at you,” she said. He thought he saw moisture gather in her eyes before she blinked. “All grown up and handsome. What have you been doing to keep yourself busy?”
“Working.” And digging a hole he couldn’t climb out of in the best conditions.
“Nothing else? No fun vacations?”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’d be bored within twenty-four hours.”
“You sound just like McKenna.” Alexis smiled at her daughter. “She went to Las Vegas with Amanda this last weekend, but before that she was always saying she’s too busy to take a break.”
LINKED (The Bening Files Book 1) Page 6