John opened the door, obviously surprised to see the three agents. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked.
“You mind if we come in?” Gabriel asked.
“Sure.” John opened the door to allow them inside the small cottage.
Gabriel’s first impression was one of surprise at the tidiness of the living room. Although the sofa and recliner were worn and the wooden end tables had seen better days, there was nothing out of place, and the air smelled faintly of orange furniture polish.
“What’s going on?” John asked as he gestured for them to sit. His eyes widened slightly. “Has something else happened to Marlena?”
“No, she’s fine,” Gabriel replied. None of them had taken John up on the offer of sitting. “Look, I’ll be straight with you, John. This is one of the places we haven’t checked to see if you have the Connellys shoved in a closet or locked in a room. So do you mind if we look around?”
John eyed him somberly. “I’d never do anything to hurt Sam and his family. There’s not much to see, but you’re welcome to search.” He sank down on the sofa as the three men moved through the rest of the two-bedroom cottage.
The smallest room was obviously a guest room, with a single bed and a dresser and no closet space. The bathroom had a stand-up shower, no tub and a sink and stool.
It was easy to tell which room John used. Not only did it contain a double bed, but on the nightstand was a horticulture book, and a small bookshelf held more books about flowers, bushes and landscaping.
The three men returned to the living room to find John still seated on the sofa. “I didn’t expect to find anything here, but I had to check,” Gabriel said.
“I get it,” John replied. “No stone unturned and all that. Don’t worry, I’m not offended.” He stood. “Is there anything else?”
“No, we’re finished here,” Gabriel said.
“Then I’ll head out with you. Most days I have to haul Cory out of bed to get him on the grounds.” John smiled and shook his head. “Kids.”
“You know he’s smoking pot,” Gabriel said as they all started up the trail that led to the walkway around the pond.
“I know he dabbles a bit,” John admitted. “I’ve been giving him hell about it. I think he’s found some guys in town who party.”
“Maybe it’s a good thing Marlena is planning a move,” Jackson said.
John shrugged. “If he wants to party, he’ll find the party people wherever they move. But Cory has a good head on his shoulders. I think, once he gets into school, he’ll buckle down to real life.”
“For Marlena’s sake, I hope you’re right,” Andrew said. “She definitely loves her brother.”
They came to the place where they parted ways, John heading to Cory’s small apartment around the back of the carriage house and Jackson, Andrew and Gabriel heading toward the car. It was going to be another long day of seeking clues to two crimes that had occurred at the cursed Bachelor Moon Bed-and-Breakfast.
Chapter Eleven
It had been two weeks and two days since the Connellys had gone missing, and five days since Marlena had been pushed down the stairs. The agents had spent the past couple of days doing what they’d been doing since their arrival—beating the bushes, walking the streets and coming up with nothing.
Gabriel had managed to keep his distance from Marlena, stepping into her room only when they arrived home after another disappointing day to keep her up-to-date. Her bruises had begun to change from the original violent purple to an ugly yellow, and he knew she was spending more time out of bed while they were gone during the daytime.
As usual, when he pulled into the parking lot just after six, a pall of frustration covered the three men in the car like a heavy old coat. Even Andrew’s easy smile had been usurped by a weariness of expression they all felt.
They were men used to action, to finding answers to the most difficult questions, and yet they’d spent the past two weeks spinning in place like hamsters on wheels going nowhere.
Gabriel was surprised when they walked through the front door and the scent of cooking filled the air. Since Marlena’s crash down the stairs, dinner duty had fallen on Andrew’s shoulders, but apparently Marlena was up and at work.
As the door closed behind them, she appeared in the dining room doorway. Gabriel tried not to notice how his heart gave a little jump at the sight of her.
“Should you be out of bed?” Jackson asked with concern.
She smiled. “If I spend another minute in that bed, you’re all going to have to lock me in a padded room because I’ll go out of my mind.”
Gabriel didn’t want to be captured by the warmth of her smile. He didn’t want to feel a rush of heat as his gaze lingered first on her face and then swept the length of her.
She wore a white-and-green-striped T-shirt that hid the last of the bruises on her torso, along with jeans, which hid those that had marred her hips and thighs.
“I’ve got hamburgers just about ready, so dinner can be served within the next ten minutes or so,” she said.
“Sounds good,” Andrew said. Together he and Jackson headed upstairs while Gabriel followed her as she turned and went back into the kitchen.
“Are you sure you feel well enough to be out of bed?” he asked as she removed a large pot of baked beans from the oven and set it on the stovetop.
“I’m still a little stiff and sore, but it’s past time for me to be up and around.” She didn’t look at him as she removed the hamburger patties from the skillet and set them on a plate already filled with burgers. “I think I needed to get up and work out the last of the kinks.”
She sidestepped him to open the refrigerator and pull out ketchup and mustard bottles, then set them on the counter. “I’m assuming there’s nothing new to report.”
She finally looked at him, her green eyes pleasant yet distant.
“Nothing.” He held out a thick file folder that he’d carried in with him. “I finally decided to go back to when Daniella was kidnapped and look at everything Sheriff Thompson had on file about that crime.”
“Surely you can’t think what’s happening now is tied to that. The man responsible for Daniella and Macy’s kidnapping is behind bars.”
“I know.” He heard the frustration in his own voice. “We’ve gone over everything with a fine-tooth comb. We’ve interviewed and reinterviewed most all the people in Bachelor Moon and we’ve come up empty-handed.” He dropped the fat file on the nearby table. “This is my last gasp, my reaching for straws in an effort to gain some answers.”
“I hope you find something.” She pulled a platter of sliced tomatoes from the refrigerator and then faced him again. “I’ve been meaning to ask you when Cory and I can leave here. We can’t just wait around forever for something to happen. We have to get on with our lives.”
“You’re still part of an ongoing crime,” he replied. He hated the distance he felt emanating from her even as he recognized he’d been the one who’d put it there.
She tilted her head slightly, her eyes confused. “So what does that mean? Can we leave or not? I would think if somebody is trying to kill me here, then probably the best thing I could do is leave.”
“But what if the person follows you? Then you’ll be vulnerable.” Gabriel had no idea if he spoke from his head or his heart; he only knew he didn’t want her alone in some big city without closure as to what was happening here in Bachelor Moon.
“Then is that a no? We can’t leave yet?”
“Give us one more week,” he finally relented, and knew it was more than a professional request. He didn’t want to see her go. He didn’t want to be here without seeing her smiling face, basking in the warmth of spirit that wafted from her.
“One week,” she agreed. “Now you better go get washed up while I get the food on the tabl
e.”
He left the kitchen with a sense of something lost, something that might have been precious if he’d allowed it. But he couldn’t allow it. It would be foolhardy for him to pretend that he could be the man for her, that he was capable of giving her what she wanted, what she desperately needed in her life.
He didn’t want her to go, and yet he needed to get her away from him. As he washed up and headed back down the stairs, he was determined to continue maintaining the almost painful distance he’d created between them.
Dinner was a silent affair. The three agents had run out of things to say to each other and so they ate without conversation. Gabriel was about halfway through the meal when he realized Marlena was humming in the kitchen. It was an old standard song about love, and her pitch was perfect.
The sound wrapped a chord of desire around Gabriel’s heart and stole away the last of his appetite. He could imagine himself next to her in bed after they’d made love, her soft humming lulling him to sleep. The pleasure of the vision pulled a visceral response from him, one that he’d never felt before.
With a murmured excuse, he left the table and went upstairs to his room, needing to be alone, the way he had always been.
He sat on the bed, cursing the fact that he’d left the file on Daniella and Macy’s kidnapping on the kitchen table. He could have holed up here for the rest of the night if he had the file.
Instead he stretched out on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, his thoughts so scattered he couldn’t focus on any one thing.
Somehow during the past two weeks, he’d realized at his very core he was a lonely man, afraid to reach out to others, having grown comfortable in his isolation. It didn’t feel as comfortable as it used to.
Marlena had banged against the armor of his heart over and over again, denting it to unrecognizable properties. He couldn’t let her pierce through the steel that had been forged so many years before.
He didn’t know how long he’d been on the bed when a soft knock fell on his door and Jackson peeked his head in. “You okay?”
Gabriel sat up on the bed. “Sure, I’m fine. Why?”
“You scooted out of the dining room pretty fast.” Jackson eased down in the chair next to the bed. “She’s gotten to you, hasn’t she?”
Gabriel didn’t even try to pretend to play stupid. “Maybe a little,” he admitted. “But it’s not going anywhere.”
“Why not? It’s obvious she’s into you and you’re into her. Why not take a chance, Gabriel? Aren’t you tired of being alone at the end of each day?”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “I could say the same thing about you. You’re a good-looking guy. Why aren’t you married?”
“Thanks for noticing that I am rather hot,” Jackson replied with an easy, facetious grin. The grin lingered only a moment and then fell away. “The problem with you is that you don’t love. The problem with me is that I love all women. I haven’t found the single woman I want to share my bed with every night and wake up with every morning yet. But I know eventually I will. I think you’ve already found yours, but you refuse to acknowledge it even to yourself.”
“Jackson, I appreciate your concern for my personal life, but I figure within a couple of weeks, we’ll be out of here. Marlena had her own life planned and I’ll go back to mine. It’s best that way. She deserves more than I could ever give her.”
“You sell yourself too short, Gabriel,” Jackson said as he rose from the chair.
“I’m fine with my life, but I do appreciate your concern.” Gabriel got up from the bed.
Jackson cast him his legendary lazy smile. “Hey, that’s what partners are for. Are you coming back downstairs?”
“Actually, I think I’ll take a little walk before it gets dark. Maybe some fresh air will help clear my head.” He followed Jackson down the stairs and as he sat down on the sofa, Gabriel walked out the front door.
The air certainly wasn’t fresh but rather the usual hot and humid blanket that had been unrelenting for the past two weeks. At least out here he couldn’t hear the sound of her melodic humming as she cleaned up the kitchen, and he couldn’t smell the scent of her that made an aching need throb inside his veins.
He didn’t want to take a chance with her. He didn’t want to be another man who let her down, another man who broke her heart. He cared about her enough not to be that man.
He waved to Cory and John, who appeared to be storing their shears, hoes and landscaping equipment in the shed. Sam and Daniella must have been special people, because everyone who worked for them continued to keep the place in pristine order.
Gabriel didn’t believe they were coming back. In his heart, in the depth of his soul, he’d already realized they had to be dead.
What happened to the bed-and-breakfast after he and his team left wasn’t his problem. Eventually it would be in the hands of lawyers and probate courts to decide what to do with the business and with the property.
Marlena and Cory would also be long gone by then, living a new life in a new city. He was certain that she would meet the man she’d dreamed about, a man who would not only be her best friend but also her lover, her husband. He wanted that for her, and yet he couldn’t halt the pain that pierced his heart.
He paused at the end of the walkway and stared into the murky, dark pond water, the sun at an angle where he couldn’t see his own reflection.
He wasn’t sure how long he stood there lost in thoughts when he gazed again at the water, this time not only seeing his own reflection but that of Marlena standing just behind him. He jumped in surprise and turned to face her.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” she said. She held out a tall glass of lemonade. “I just thought you might find this refreshing.”
He frowned even as he took the drink from her. “You’ve got to stop doing things like this.” He started up the walkway toward the porch, aware of her following close behind him.
“Doing things like what?” she asked, looking genuinely puzzled.
He didn’t reply until he sat in one of the chairs on the porch and set the drink on the table beside him. She sat next to him.
“Doing things like what?” she repeated.
“Nice things. Thoughtful things. And I wish you wouldn’t hum when you worked in the kitchen.”
She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind, and perhaps he had. “My humming bothers you?”
“Yeah, it does. It sounds nice, but it’s irritating.” He knew he was being a jerk, and yet he couldn’t help it.
“Does my sitting out here next to you bother you?” she asked, her eyes narrowed slightly as if in thought.
He looked out at the pond again, unable to watch her features when he replied. “Yeah, actually, it does.”
“Then I’ll just head back inside.” She jumped out of the chair and disappeared into the house before he could form the words to stop her.
He turned and stared at the glass of lemonade she’d brought him. Damn her for making him want her, and damn him for wanting her. He didn’t just want to taste her lips again, feel her naked body moving against his own. He wanted her thoughts, her dreams. He wanted to be her best friend and her lover. More than anything, he wanted to be strong enough to reach out for love, but the truth was that when it came to matters of the heart, he was nothing but a coward.
* * *
MARLENA STOMPED BACK inside and sank down at the kitchen table, her feelings stinging from his words. Her humming bothered him? Tomorrow night when she fixed dinner, she’d sing at the top of her lungs, and the next time she made him a glass of lemonade, she’d pour it over his handsome head.
She finally decided to take her hurt feelings and go to her own rooms. She would watch a little television and then get a long night of rest. Although her bruises were starting to fade, she still felt as if s
he’d been run over by a truck. She’d stopped taking the pain pills during the day, but took a couple at night to help her sleep.
Maybe tonight the pills would not only ease the ache of her muscles but also banish the pain in her heart. Loving Gabriel wasn’t hard. Realizing he didn’t have the capacity to love her back was devastating.
She settled onto the sofa in her private sitting room and tuned the television to one of the few sitcoms she thought was funny. But tonight no laughter escaped her lips. In fact, she found herself drifting off in thought rather than watching television.
One week.
She only had to see his handsome face, to smell his familiar scent and to be around him for one more week, and then she and Cory would be free to leave here.
The sadness that she would pack in her suitcase would make a heavy load if it had true weight. She would carry with her the ache of absence for the loss of Sam and Daniella and Macy. And she would take with her a heart filled with love for a man incapable of loving her back.
Her love for Gabriel had been formed by a hundred different elements. While their lust for each other had certainly been undeniable, over the past two weeks she’d also fallen in love with his dry sense of humor and the soft vulnerability he certainly didn’t realize occasionally shone from his eyes.
It was impossible to dissect why she loved Gabriel. She just did. It was as simple and as complicated as that. She was about to go to bed when she heard a soft knock at her door.
“Come in,” she said.
Gabriel stepped into her room. “Mind if I have a seat if I plan on offering up an apology?”
She wanted to be angry with him, but he truly looked contrite, and she just couldn’t summon any emotion except the love that threatened to bubble out of her.
“Sounds like a fair trade,” she replied and made room for him on the sofa.
He sank down as if he weighed a thousand pounds. “I’m sorry. I acted like a jerk earlier.”
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