“Keely said she saw a human skull.”
“You know she probably took off screaming the second her shovel hit it,” Danny said jokingly. “You know how women are. Could’ve just been another animal digging around since she’d uncovered bones.”
“I still don’t like the sound of this whole thing,” Howard said. “I’d rather Keely was staying here now.”
“I don’t think we need to overreact until we have more information,” Tom said. “Let the police do their job.”
Lise popped her head out of the kitchen. “Tom! Phone.” She spoke over her shoulder to her husband as he headed past her to the phone inside. “Do not give him any money! It’s Jud Peterson again. I’m tired of his freeloading and now he’s tracking you over here, for Pete’s sake. Used to, he’d at least do a half-ass drunken odd job for a few dollars but now he just wants handouts.” Tom was already gone with the phone. She turned to Howard. “Tom is such an easy touch. We’ve got a new house and bills to pay and he’s financing Jud Peterson’s binges. Anyway, dinner’s ready.”
Done venting, she disappeared in a huff.
“Come on, Jake, don’t be shy,” Roxie called from the dining table. “There’s plenty, so eat up,” she went on as Jake lined up where directed and picked up a plate. The crowd filled the dining room and one by one they carried full plates outside. Everyone seemed to talk at once.
“We’ve got spice cake with whipped cream frosting, Keely’s favorite, for dessert,” Roxie said, “and then we’ll open presents.”
“Have you opened that present from Ray?” Lise asked Keely as she sat down next to Jake in one of the plastic chairs.
“No.”
Tom came back out to the deck with his plate, having finished his phone conversation. Jake noticed Lise gave him the cold shoulder when he sat down beside her.
Roxie did a double take. “What present from Ray?”
“It’s nothing,” Keely said. “I found a little box, all wrapped up, with happy birthday written on it, from Ray. I’ll open it when I’m ready. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay, honey.” Roxie Bennett’s fork froze over her mashed potatoes for a beat before she went on, turning to Jake. “Keely says you two are just friends.”
Keely didn’t look any happier with this topic. “Mom—”
“Good plan,” Mary quipped to Jake. “She’s shy. You don’t want to scare her off.”
Keely seemed focused on her plate, determined to ignore her family.
“Why don’t you join us at church on Sunday?” Roxie invited Jake. “It’s the Haven Community Church on the main highway west of town.”
“I bet Tom can get you a line on some work,” Lise said. “With the damage in the county, there’s going to be a lot of reconstruction. You look like you could handle a hammer.”
What was he now, a charity project?
“People really don’t need to wait a year after they’re widowed to start dating,” Roxie said. “I keep telling Keely that went out of style a long time ago. It’s fine.”
“Especially since Ray was such a cheating, lying bastard,” Lise added.
Keely’s jaw tightened. “We’re not dating.”
Mary’s head swiveled to her friend. “Then why did you sleep with him?”
Keely went beet-red.
The whole deck went silent. A bird chirped in the woods.
Mary clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God,” she breathed into the charged air. “I really am psychic.”
“That went well.”
Jake backed the car up the dark driveway. Keely didn’t respond for a moment. She felt shy and embarrassed, and the even-keeled way he’d dealt with everything from the earthquake to dinner made her both more attracted and more scared.
“I’m sorry. That was awkward for you. I don’t know what made Mary say that. I never said anything to make her think that. Thank God everyone seemed to take my word for it that she was wrong. She’s not psychic, you know. She does this palm-reading and tarot card thing, mostly at local carnivals, sometimes out of her house, private readings. But even she doesn’t take it seriously. It’s her home business, she calls it.”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
“Thanks. No wonder my family likes you.” How could they help liking him? “They don’t even care that you made it sound as if you were out of work.” Hot, that’s what Mary had called him.
“I tried to help you out,” Jake said, sliding her a grin she could barely make out in the lights from the dash. The night was dark and still. Electricity was back on tonight in most of the county and as they drove, lights twinkled from the occasional farmhouse.
They reached the highway and headed into Haven proper. Businesses were closed except for the small gas station. The community building was dark, whatever emergencies remained being shuttled up for care at the hospital. The peak of the crisis had passed. Haven could return to normal now. The Foodway was dark inside, the lighted sign illuminating the front.
“Thank you,” Keely said as Jake pulled up in front of the store. She gathered up the bag of presents she’d brought back—some new and now desperately needed clothes, some of the homemade candles her sister made, some pottery she’d admired at the fair in Cedar Lakes last year when she’d gone with her mother.
“I could walk up with you, make sure everything’s all right.” Jake regarded her seriously. “I’m worried.”
“You don’t need to be. I’ll be fine.” If she couldn’t even walk into her apartment without someone holding her hand, she was going to have a hard time getting through the rest of her life. “Maybe Tom is right and all I saw were animal bones.”
The intensity in his look didn’t flinch. “I’ll wait out here until I know you’re inside and everything’s okay.”
“Whatever you want to do.” She frowned. “That didn’t come out right. I appreciate your concern. I just don’t want to be a bother.”
“You’re not a bother. I’m your friend, remember?”
She avoided his gaze by staring at his shoulders in the darkened car. He had very broad shoulders. His arms had felt so good wrapped around her last night when she’d been scared. She couldn’t look at Jake Malloy without him arousing tender, hungry feelings that had no place in her life. He made her think of the type of man she’d wished she’d married. Someone not at all like Ray.
“Then I’m just bothering myself,” she said and pushed the car door open. “Maybe I don’t know how to be your friend.”
Oh, damn. Now she’d gone and said something more stupid than ever.
“Hey—”
“Good night.” She wrestled with her purse, thank God finding her keys immediately, and was in the door and had it shut behind her before Jake could think twice about coming after her. If he was thinking about coming after her. He was probably starting to think she belonged in an asylum the way she ran hot and cold on him.
If she wasn’t confusing him, she was definitely confusing herself.
Night-lights lent enough illumination for her to find the stairs that led to the apartment and antique/consignment shop. She unlocked the apartment and reached for the switch beside the door.
She never knew what hit her.
Chapter 11
Jake leaned against the car, the engine turned off, waiting to see the light flick on inside the upstairs apartment. Movement from inside the darkened store caught the corner of his eye. A shadowy blur raced through the store, knocking down a display near the register, heading for the back.
A blur that was way too big to be Keely.
His heart kicked into overdrive. He leaped the few steps to the front of the store. Locked! He rattled the door then banged on it, swore roundly and raced for the back, toward where he’d seen the shadow heading. He reached for his gun as he tore through the pitch-black around the side of the building.
Keely. Dammit, if anything had happened to her—The rush of emotion was so fierce, it nearly stopped him. He charg
ed on, pushing away the mindblowing fear he felt for her.
He heard a crash from the back of the building as he reached it and a shadow dashed between two Dumpsters, heading for a high chain-link fence. Breath seared Jake’s lungs as he leaped, grappling at—
Air.
A thud from the other side of the fence told him he’d been too late. The shadow was gone, in a split second, into the trees behind the store. And he could either chase after him, and most likely lose him in the twist of residential streets and woods that whoever the hell that had been probably knew way better than Jake did, or he could find Keely—
There was no second thought to that one.
He whipped around, raced for the open rear door of the store. He found himself in the kitchen, stumbling against what he realized was a stove. The short-order kitchen.
The store was dark, dimly lit by low night lights near the front counter.
“Keely?” he shouted, hoarse from running, as he tore up the stairs to where he knew the apartment would be. It was even darker here. No light at all. He found a doorway, open, and reached for what he hoped would be a light switch—
Bright light from an overhead fixture temporarily blinded him. Then he saw her.
Soft, tangled hair. She lay on the floor, still. Blood pounded in his veins. He didn’t even feel his feet move the steps it took to reach her.
“Keely.” He bent down, pushed the hair from her face. There was no blood that he could see, but she was so still—“Keely!”
Her lashes fluttered. His heart nearly exploded in his chest. She blinked, her eyes dark in her pale, shell-shocked face. She stared at him for an agonizing beat, as if trying to figure out what had just happened.
“Someone was in my apartment,” she whispered raggedly. “They hit me. Oh, God.” She pushed up on her elbows, slowly, painfully, edged backward, struck the edge of a coffee table.
“He’s gone. I saw him run through the store. I went after him, saw him run out of the back of the store.”
Dammit, he wished he hadn’t lost him. Whoever had done this to Keely, he could kill him with his bare hands right now. He wouldn’t need a gun.
“Are you all right?”
She didn’t look all right. She looked terrified, and she’d been hit. He could see a bruise blooming on her temple.
“He slammed me to the floor. I think. How long was I out? I don’t understand what happened.” She sounded so confused, it hurt to hear her speak.
“Just a few minutes.”
“How could he have gotten in? Everything was locked.”
“The back door was open, through the kitchen. Either he had a key, or he broke in, or someone left it unlocked. I’m calling the police.”
He saw a phone on an end table and grabbed for it, punched 911 as he went back to Keely. He wasn’t leaving her side. He made the report quickly then put the phone down. Her quiet devastation broke what was left of his restraint. He placed his hand on her head, stroked the tangled hair there.
Thank God. Thank God she was alive.
“They’ll be here soon,” he said. “And I’m not leaving.”
Sobs shook her suddenly, and there was no question in his mind. He wrapped his arms around her, just held her. She’d wanted him to go away a few minutes before, when she’d gotten out of his car, but she wasn’t asking him to go away now.
She burrowed her face into his shirt and the urge to pull her even closer blindsided him. She was shaking and he realized he was, too.
“Thank you,” she choked out through tears. “Thank you for watching out for me.”
His chest wound tighter. “I told you it wasn’t a bother. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.” He meant it. He wasn’t going to let any arm come to her, not if he could help it.
She lifted her face to him, her mouth a mere whisper away, and he moved, just so, and touched his lips to hers. She made a sound in her throat, needy, aching, and he forgot all about self-discipline. He kissed her, needing to taste her, hot and sweet and alive. And she was responding. She wanted him just as he wanted her.
He shifted his weight, nestling her closer against him, kissing her deeper. She pushed herself snugly against him and he knew this was a mistake, a bad, bad mistake. She wasn’t a one-night-stand woman, he knew that, and two nights wouldn’t make it any more right. He’d leave Haven before long and she’d be left with a broken heart.
Pulling back, he stared down at her, desperate need fighting with his better sense.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, low, fierce. “I don’t want to take advantage of you. I’m sorry.”
Keely held Jake’s gaze, wishing—Oh, God, she was wishing for more. Wishing for last night all over again. And he was afraid he was taking advantage of her. He didn’t really want her, not beyond a physical intersection between their two lives, what they’d had last night in the farmhouse. It was abundantly clear.
“You’re not taking advantage of me.” She tipped her chin, pain shooting through her temples at the movement. “It’s no big deal. You don’t have to explain.” He’d just been comforting her, that was all.
“Just…don’t go anywhere yet.” She sounded pathetic and she hated that.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
She blinked, swallowed hard over the lump of uncomfortable, confused emotion in her throat. What she really wanted was for him to hold her again and never let go. What happened to never wanting a man in her life again? Yeah, that had always been a lie. She was just the cowardly lion, like always. Afraid just because Ray had been a bastard she’d never do any better, so she’d stuck with him, and once he was gone, she’d figured she’d rather be alone than risk getting hurt again.
It wasn’t what she really wanted. Not if she had any guts.
“Maybe I should see if anything was taken.” Yeah, that would keep her occupied, she thought desperately. She started going over the apartment.
“If they were here to steal, why would they be up here when there is a store full of anything they could want right down the stairs?” Jake asked.
She looked back him. His gaze was unreadable, dark. If he was as moved as she by that kiss, he wasn’t showing it.
“They wanted something from you, Keely.”
She shivered, froze.
“What?”
“The present from Ray?” he suggested. “It’s just a thought. Where is it?”
Her purse. It was there, by the door, where she must have dropped it.
“It’s in my purse. Maybe they didn’t even see it. I was carrying that bag of stuff with me.” The presents were scattered and she saw the pottery her mother had given her—in pieces on the floor. “Aw, hell.”
Emotion welled up again. She didn’t care that much about the pottery even though she’d admired it at the fair. It was just—
Everything. She was losing everything lately.
Even things she’d never had. Like Jake.
“They were probably in a rush to get out of here when you came in,” Jake theorized. “But what else could they have been after?”
“I don’t know.” She blinked harder, willing back the tears that kept threatening.
The phone rang. She hurried toward it, pressed a hand to her temples as pain seared her head again. She grabbed the phone.
“Hello.”
“Hey. I just wanted to apologize again.”
“It’s okay, Mary.”
“It’s not okay. I can’t believe I said that in front of your whole family! I don’t know where it came from. It just burst out of me. I feel terrible. I just want you to know that.”
“It’s okay. Really. It’s okay.”
Her friend was silent for a beat. “Are you okay? I keep having this awful feeling. I don’t like this. I don’t like these feelings I’m getting about you. I really don’t want to know anything! I swear to God, I liked being a fake psychic. You are sleeping with that guy, aren’t you?”
“Mary…” She didn’t want to have this
conversation. Usually, she told Mary almost everything, but she was too tired right now. “Someone broke in. There was an intruder in my apartment when I got back to the store. I have to go. The police are on the way.”
That distracted Mary.
“Oh, no! What happened?”
“I walked in and someone knocked me out. That’s all I know. Jake was here. He’d just dropped me off. He tried to chase after him but he lost him.”
“Is he still there? You shouldn’t be alone.”
“Yes, he’s here.” She turned, saw Jake still standing there, looking so dangerous and protective all at once. “I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure? Are you all right? Maybe you have a concussion. Maybe—”
“I’m okay, I promise.”
“You shouldn’t stay there by yourself tonight. I can come get you.”
“No, don’t do that. I’ll figure something out. If I need someone I’ll call you back. Okay?” There was a sound from the front of the store, downstairs. “I think the police are here. I have to go.”
“I’ll let them in, if you’ll get me the key to the front,” Jake said.
She took her purse and got out the key. Her knees felt wobbly and she was grateful for the help. In a minute, he was back with a uniformed trooper, the same trooper who’d come out to the store earlier to take her statement about the skull in her garden.
Briefly, Jake explained about the shadow figure he’d chased, and the trooper asked Keely if anything was missing. She hadn’t had time to look around much, but she did now while the officer watched. She hadn’t brought much personal to the apartment so far. If anything was missing that had been here before, she had no way of knowing.
“I had a bag of gifts with me,” she said, pointing to the mess on the floor. “And my purse. But he didn’t take any of that.”
“Looks like you took him by surprise and he just wanted to get away,” the trooper surmised. “I’ll need a list of everyone who has a key to the building. I’ll take some prints here, then downstairs at the back. We’ll see what we can find out behind the building where you saw someone.” He looked at Jake then back to Keely. “He’s long gone by now, I’m sure.”
Secrets Rising Page 10