Whisper of Warning

by Laura Griffin

  Will turned the music down. “Did Fiona tell you someone trashed your house?”

  She glanced at him apprehensively, then looked out the window. “Yes.”

  “What were they looking for?”

  She didn’t speak.

  “And why would they come all the way to New Mexico to silence you?”

  She cringed at his blunt statement. “I guess because of Eve Caldwell. I can put her with David at the time of the trial. They were exchanging e-mails. That’s lawyer misconduct, or jury tampering, or whatever you call it.”

  “Both,” he said. “It’s grounds for the verdict to be overturned. That’s twenty million dollars in legal fees on the line. Not to mention disbarment, jail time.”

  “So I guess someone’s afraid—oh my God, I just thought of something.”

  He glanced over. Her eyes were huge. “What?”

  “Those e-mails,” she said. “I told you how I snooped through David’s e-mail? I didn’t have time to read them right then, so I just forwarded everything to myself.”

  “You forwarded his messages to yourself?”

  “What if he found out I did that? And maybe told someone, and that’s what they were looking for? They don’t just want me. They think I have his messages.”

  “Do you?”

  “I have no idea. Maybe. This was, like, seven months ago. Do they stay in your in-box that long?”

  “Depends.” Will was already thinking of how long it would take them to find a place where she could check. Where was her laptop? But then he remembered it had been searched already.

  “We ran your computer,” he said. “Nothing like that came up.”

  She shook her head. “It wouldn’t. This happened in the middle of the day, on my lunch break. David was in the shower while I was looking through his BlackBerry, and I didn’t have much time, so I forwarded his messages to myself at work. They’d be in my in-box at Bella, only that’s probably been shut down by now, since I left.”

  Will gripped the steering wheel, and not just because he didn’t like the image of her having a nooner with Alvin. “This is exactly why running was a bad idea, Courtney. We could have gotten to all this weeks ago if you’d just let us interview you.”

  “You mean arrest me and charge me with murder?” She scoffed. “No, thanks. Your lieutenant hates me. He’s had it in for me from day one.”

  “It’s different now. We’ve got video of a guy in a ski mask entering Alex Lovell’s workplace. He beat her up, trying to get to you. It corroborates everything you’ve been saying.”

  “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I’m telling you now. You’ve been a little hard to reach lately.”

  “Is she all right?”

  “She’s fine,” he lied, then felt guilty. “He tossed her office, gave her a bloody lip.”

  “Oh my God.”

  She was upset now, and Will regretted bringing it up. But she needed to know he wasn’t dragging her back to Austin to face charges. He was dragging her back to Austin to clear her name.

  And he was dragging her back to the place where someone was actively trying to kill her.

  Which was why he intended to be on her like her shadow. She needed protection, and he would provide it. He just had to get her to believe that.

  He pressed on through the darkness. She got quiet and leaned her head against the window. He wondered what she was thinking but didn’t want to ask. She might turn around and ask him the same thing, and then he’d be screwed.

  I’m thinking it’s so good to see you again it hurts. I’m thinking I love listening to you argue with me, and I thought I’d lost you, and now I never want to let you out of my sight.

  He glanced at her and saw that her eyes were closed. Maybe she was asleep. Or, more likely, ignoring him.

  The Suburban vibrated with its familiar hum. Yellow stripes flew past in a rhythm that threatened to hypnotize him. He shook off the feeling and turned up the AC.

  She turned it down.

  He turned it up again.

  “I’m freezing,” she said, rubbing her bare arms.

  “Yeah, well, I’m tired.”

  “Why don’t I drive? You can take a nap.”

  He snorted.

  “What?”

  “You’re not driving anywhere.”

  Her eyebrows arched. “What do you think I’m going to do, kidnap you?”

  “I have no idea what you’ll do. I just know that I don’t trust you. And you’re not driving my truck.”

  “Stubborn,” she muttered, and then shut up again.

  The minutes slid by. Then the hours. The mountains became foothills, and then the desert stretched out in all directions, the vast flatness dotted with lights here and there. The yellow lines kept coming, and Will’s eyelids drooped. He ran through baseball stats in his head in an effort to stay alert. Suddenly the tires buzzed over the shoulder, and he jerked the wheel left. Shit.

  “Why don’t you just shoot us both now? Get it over with?”

  He glanced at her. “Sorry.”

  “When was the last time you slept?”

  He trained his gaze back on the highway and didn’t answer.

  “It’s nearly one o’clock. Let’s stop for the night.”

  He shot her a scathing look.

  “What? Look, there’s a motel up ahead. I saw a sign a few miles back. We can sleep a few hours, then get back on the road.”

  It was about the sorriest plan he’d ever heard. Except for the sleep part. That part would be good. Problem was, he knew she had no intention of sleeping. She’d get him to pull over and then she’d take the first opportunity to make a run for it, which, in this middle-of-nowhereville location probably meant hitching a ride with some trucker.

  “Will?”

  He ignored her and kept going. But then he shifted in his seat when he noticed the gas gauge had dropped to a quarter tank. They’d have to stop at some point.

  An exit sign loomed ahead. Gas. Food. Lodging.

  “Come on, Will. You look beat.”

  He slid a glance at her.

  “I know I am,” she said reasonably, “and I got a good eight hours last night. Let’s pull over.”

  “Gas and coffee. That’s it.”

  “And we can switch drivers. You can take a nap.”

  “Not happening.”

  He pulled off the highway and quickly found the gas station. The convenience store adjacent to it was dark, but the pumps were lit up like a stadium. Will pulled up to one and realized his mistake. He’d been so tired, he’d forgotten he needed to use cash, not credit. Credit would leave a trail. He had a wallet full of twenties, but that wouldn’t do him much good here.

  He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have a credit card, would you? That has some name on it that has nothing to do with you?”

  “What, you mean like an alias? That sounds illegal.”

  Her tone grated on him. Goddamn he needed sleep. “Don’t push me. Do you have a card or not?”

  “Not.”

  He muttered something particularly shocking, and she didn’t look shocked at all.

  “Let’s call it a night.” She nodded at the motel across the street. “We can gas up in the morning.”

  Will gazed tiredly at the Desert Dreams Motel. The neon sign announced a vacancy, and a light glowed in the front office.

  Fuck it.

  He was out of gas in every sense of the word. He needed a nap. Not to mention a shower and a few thousand calories to get his system cranked up again before he faced another ten hours behind the wheel.

  He drove across the highway and pulled into the motel. Courtney’s happiness at this turn of events was palpable.

  “Four hours,” he said firmly. “I want us gassed up and on the road by daybreak. And don’t even think about going anywhere.”

  She tipped her head to the side and pretended to be confused. “We’re in the middle of a desert. Where on eart
h would I go?”

  The tiny room smelled like cigarettes. Courtney sat on the edge of the bed as Will turned on the shower. After a few minutes, steam drifted into the room and she glanced over her shoulder just in time to see him step naked under the showerhead.

  He caught her eye in the mirror. “I’m watching you. And if you think I’d be embarrassed to go after you buck naked, you’re wrong.”

  She let her gaze drop to his bare butt, which looked even better than she’d remembered. She lifted an eyebrow.

  “Forget it. I don’t fall for the same shit twice.” He ducked his head under the stream, and she turned away so he wouldn’t see her expression.

  The same shit? What was that supposed to mean? Did he think she’d slept with him to…what? Distract him? Influence the investigation?

  Fuming, she stood up and flipped on the TV. Besides the predictable lineup of pay-per-view porn, she found infomercials and televangelists. She switched off the power and unlaced her boots. She kicked them to the floor and shimmied out of her jeans. Then she pulled down the tacky bedspread, stretched out on the bed, and closed her eyes.

  The water shut off. He stepped into the room, and she heard a towel being tossed over a chair. Next, she heard denim against skin as his jeans went on. Then there was the gentle thunk of something on the floor near his side of the bed. His gun? The mattress dipped, and she rolled into him.

  “Hey!”

  “Sorry.” He was sprawled out on his stomach, diagonal across the bed, with his feet hanging off. His right elbow was practically in her face, and his eyes were closed.

  He was going to sleep? No way. She was half naked here, and she’d seen the way he’d looked at her at the inn.

  Suddenly, he pushed up on his palms, reached into his back pocket, and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

  “Forgot something.” The cool metal clamped over her wrist just as she jerked backward.

  “Ouch!”

  He flopped onto his back and clamped the empty silver bracelet on his left hand.

  “What are you doing?”

  He closed his eyes and settled back against the pillows. “Combat nap.”

  She stared down at him, at his bare, perfect torso and the smirk on his face. She nearly bit a hole in her tongue to keep from screaming.

  “You have three seconds,” she said calmly.

  “To what?” He opened his eyes and reached for the lamp. The room went dark, except for the blue glow from the vacancy sign in the parking lot.

  “To take these things off or I will claw you to pieces.”

  He lifted one eyelid. “I’d love to see you try.”

  “Will—”

  “Go for it.” He rolled onto his side and flung his free arm over her, pinning her against the mattress.

  And then she got it. He was baiting her. He wanted her to start a wrestling match with him, which she’d lose, of course. This was revenge. This was him exerting control over her after she’d walked out on him without a word. What was it he’d said earlier? Nice exit? She’d hurt his feelings, and rather than admit it, he was doing this macho power play. What he really wanted was sex, obviously—the same thing every man always wanted. She glanced at his chest, rising and falling. There were those arms again, those arms she’d missed. Something heated inside her, and she knew sex wasn’t far from what she wanted, too.

  But the handcuffs pissed her off.

  They weren’t about preventing an escape, they were about his being a Neanderthal.

  Weren’t they?

  His breath came deep and even, and she frowned at him. Was he really asleep?

  No way he’d gone to sleep so quickly.

  But his arm was heavy on her rib cage, and he was totally, completely immobile, except for that breathing.

  She turned and stared at the wall, feeling angry and confused and frustrated all at the same time. She thought about all the lonely, restless nights she’d endured over the past month. She’d never minded sleeping by herself before, but that had changed recently. She’d felt so alone. All those endless hours in that cramped little room at the back of the inn. No TV. No friends. Nothing to keep her company besides books and yoga and her depressing thoughts.

  She didn’t want to run.

  She didn’t want to spend every day looking over her shoulder.

  In Austin she’d felt terrified, but in Silver Creek she’d felt isolated beyond belief. Alienated from everyone and everything around her.

  Empty.

  And when Will had shown up, she’d felt a deep, drowning sense of pure relief that someone cared enough to come. She’d felt wanted, for the first time in her life, and now she was terrified for a new reason.

  He’d come for her.

  He was angry, and hurt, and probably humiliated, but he’d come anyway. And it wasn’t about his job. She knew that. If this were official police business, he would have come with a local sheriff or maybe sent a bounty hunter.

  But he’d come by himself. For her. And now he planned to force her back to Texas to face all her worst fears.

  He must know about Walter.

  Fiona had said she thought that’s what the arrest warrant was about—Walter’s unsolved murder and her presumed involvement. If she’d killed one man, why not two?

  And if Will knew about Walter, he knew about her past. And if he knew about her past, he knew about her record, maybe even the juvenile stuff that was supposed to be sealed. And if he knew about all that, it was even more astonishing—and more terrifying—that he was here now, conked out beside her in some dumpy motel room.

  “Hey.” His voice was husky.

  She swallowed the lump in her throat and glanced over at him. “Hey, what?”

  His eyes were dark and luminous in the bluish light. His brow furrowed. “Are you crying?”

  She turned away and pressed her cheek into the pillow. She was crying. She didn’t know why. She didn’t want to try to explain, either.

  His arm tightened around her waist and pulled her closer. He pressed a kiss against her shoulder, and she tensed.

  A kiss. It was almost like a truce. It was a peace offering. She turned toward him, and then his mouth was against hers, and it tasted so good, she wanted to drink him in. His cuffed hand was pressed awkwardly between them, but his free hand reached for her cheek and slid into her hair. She wedged her leg between his and scooted herself closer, close enough to feel that hard body from her thighs to her breasts.

  He wanted her.

  He didn’t want to sleep; he wanted her. The knowledge made her thrilled and scared and giddy all at the same time. Whatever had happened, whatever she’d done, this man wanted her, right here, this instant. She kissed him and pressed into him. She breathed in his warm, male scent until the pain in her chest eased and the loneliness of the past four weeks faded away.

  He rolled onto his back and sighed. He muttered a curse under his breath as he dug something from his pocket, and then she heard the snick of the handcuffs coming off. She was free again.

  “I’m going to regret this,” he said quietly to the ceiling.

  She propped on her elbow and gazed down at him. “Why?”

  Instead of answering, he reached over and hauled her on top of him. All her breath whooshed out, and she barely had time to catch it before he reached up and pulled her head down to his.

  He made her dizzy. One hand tunneled into her hair and the other gripped her bottom, pulling her against him while he kissed her until there was nothing but his mouth and his steely body beneath her. He tasted like him, and she hadn’t known how much she’d missed it until just this moment.

  And then he sat up, and she started to fall back, but he caught her around the waist. She nestled onto his lap, and his eyes went black, and he pulled her cotton tank top over her head and tossed it on the floor. And then he was kissing her again, taking away all her breath and all her thoughts except him. He felt so good—his mouth and his hands, even the scrape of his beard against the tender swel
l of her breast was like heaven. She tipped her head back and shivered at the pleasure of it. They were here. Together. It still didn’t quite feel real, but it was real. Her fingers in his hair were real. His palms sliding over her thighs were real. His mouth against her throat was good and hot and very real.

  “I missed you,” she whispered, and then he pulled back and looked at her, and she felt a rush of panic. She shouldn’t have said that. It was too close to what she wanted to say, and he knew.

  But then everything shifted suddenly, and she was on her back with him staring down at her. She wrapped her legs around him and arched against him, and he groaned, and she knew he wasn’t thinking about words anymore.

  And then it was a wrestling match, only not really because it wasn’t a contest, but a frantic race to the same finish. There was something fierce about him, and even angry, as they pulled and clutched at each other, jerking and yanking on clothes until everything was a heap on the floor, and their skin was slick against each other’s and they were fused together in every possible way.

  “Look at me.”

  His voice was like a growl, and she opened her eyes and gazed up at him, wondering at the tension in his face and his shoulders as he rocked into her. He was trying to say something, something with his body, something he didn’t have the words for, as he drove himself into her. And then she was shaking and shattering, her whole world breaking apart, as the full, brutal force of it hit her.

  CHAPTER 22

  He rolled off her, onto his back, and she stared at him in the darkness as reality sank in. He loved her…or something. That’s what this was about. That’s why he’d come all this way. His chest rose and fell in the dimness as his breath came back, but he didn’t look at her. Finally, he got up and ducked into the bathroom.

  She gazed at the ceiling. Her heart hammered, and her lungs seemed to shrink, like she was having a panic attack, only she didn’t know for sure because she’d never had one before. She glanced at the nightstand, where he’d left his keys. She glanced at the door, where he’d secured the chain. She bit her lip and wondered how long it would take him to drift off again.