“She never told me she had a problem with Nathan.”
Beth gave him a sidelong glance. “It seems she didn’t tell you a lot of things.”
Now it was Jack who refused to rise to the bait.
She smiled at his silence. “Isn’t it funny the way things turned out? You and Anna were the golden couple. Everyone thought you had this grand, fairy-tale romance. Yet Tommy and I are the ones who stayed together.”
Was that something she really wanted to throw in his face? Jack wondered.
She cocked her head, giving him a long assessment. “Can I ask you something? What’s going on between you and Olive Belmont?”
Another alarm sounded, but Jack merely shrugged. “What makes you think something is going on?”
“I’m not blind. I’ve seen you together and I’m still very adept at reading people. The way you looked at her—the way she looked at you. There was a lot of tension on that dock yesterday. I just can’t help wondering why her, of all people?”
Of all people? The question grated and Jack frowned. “Do you have a problem with Olive?”
“A problem? No. I just never would have pegged her as your type.”
He didn’t at all like the direction of this conversation. He didn’t trust Beth Driscoll and he braced himself for what she might be up to. “How would you know my type?”
“I know Olive. We’ve worked together for several years now and I’ve always found her to be more than a little eccentric.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Not necessarily but when you put it together with her behavior in high school...” She shrugged. “Don’t you remember the way she followed us around all the time? The way she watched us.”
“She was just a shy kid,” Jack said. “I don’t remember her ever saying two words to any of us.”
“She was only three years younger than we were. Old enough to have a serious crush on you, Jack. It couldn’t have been more obvious.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
She lifted a thin shoulder as she turned back to the water. “I don’t know. I guess I thought you’d want to know. Maybe I thought you needed to know.”
Her pensive profile brought back a memory—not of Olive—but of Beth standing at that very rail in a shooter’s stance firing at a row of tin cans that Tommy had lined up on a log. Then another image danced into focus, the X-shaped exit wound in Jamie Butaud’s forehead.
As if sensing the direction of his thoughts, Beth said abruptly, “I should be getting back before Tommy sends out a search party.” She placed a hand on Jack’s arm. His first extinct was to shrink away from her touch. “You take care while you’re in town, Jack. This is not a good place.”
Was that a subtle warning he heard in her voice?
He watched her walk away, hands at her sides, head slightly bowed. When she got to the end of the bridge, she paused and glanced over her shoulder. She held his gaze for the longest moment and then she was gone, swallowed up by the deep shadows cast by the piney woods.
But a chill lingered and an omen niggled as Jack pondered the mystery of Beth Driscoll.
Chapter Eleven
“I had a disturbing encounter this morning,” Olive said as she and Jack stood on the dock enjoying a late afternoon drink.
“I had a pretty strange morning myself,” he said.
“Oh?”
“You go first.”
Olive nodded, but her mind had already started to wander. She’d never considered herself the flighty type—if anything, she was usually a little too rigid and structured—but Jack’s proximity threw her. She couldn’t organize her thoughts. She couldn’t concentrate on anything but the ruffle of his hair in the breeze and the sexy scruff that shadowed his jaw and chin.
Olive had gone straight home after work to shower and change, and her plan had been to settle in with her latest budget projections. But she’d soon grown restless and had gone out for a short stroll. A call from Jack had brought her all the way down to the lake. With every step she took, she’d told herself to turn back, to take this thing between them no farther. But here she was. Here he was.
They were both dressed casually for a relaxed evening on the water, but Olive was far from calm and collected. She was too acutely aware of the man beside her, too intensely aware of their last conversation.
She sipped her drink as she gave him a stealthy perusal. He had on sunglasses, which hid his expression so she fixated instead on his mouth. The tiny crease in the center of his bottom lip fascinated her. She studied the anomaly for a moment before trailing her gaze along his jawline, across his shoulders and all the way down his tanned arms to his hands, one of which was wrapped tightly with gauze and tape. The stark evidence of his memory loss gave her only a moment’s hesitation as she imagined those long fingers slipping down the small of her back, easing over her hips, gliding along the inside of her thighs...
Drawing a quick breath, she forced her attention back to the lake. The shadows cast by the pine forest crept slowly across the water, but the dock was still bathed in sunlight. Olive lifted her ponytail, allowing the breeze to cool the back of her neck as she watched a heron step daintily into the shallow water.
“Are you going to finish that story?” Jack prompted. “You had a disturbing encounter...?”
“Oh, right. I was working in my office on the second floor. The building was very quiet. My assistant had gone out for lunch and I had the whole place to myself. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in an old school building alone, but it has a strange vibe. More so at night, but even in broad daylight, it can be unsettling with all those odd sounds and old memories that seem to echo through the hallways.” She hesitated. “Does that sound crazy?”
“No, I’m with you. Odd sounds, old memories...”
“Yes, well, it started to get to me. A feeling came over me that I was being watched. The sensation was so strong, in fact, that I left my office to investigate.”
Jack’s voice sharpened. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because I hoped it was just my imagination. But I’ve been experiencing that same sensation for a few days now. I chalked it up to being nervous about my new job and the coming school year. I tend to be a worrywart and I’m sometimes prone to panic.”
“You were steady as a rock behind the wheel of the boat,” he commented.
She smiled. “On the surface, maybe. Anyway, everything seemed fine at first. Then I heard a noise coming from Mona Sutton’s office. The sound was metallic, like someone banging into a desk or closing a file drawer. And I heard voices, one of them male. They were arguing.”
“Did you recognize the voices?”
“No, and by that time, my imagination really had gotten the better of me. I became convinced that someone had broken into Mona’s office to search through her files. Maybe even to destroy evidence.”
“Of what?”
Olive gave him a wide-eyed stare. “Murder, of course.”
He lifted a brow. “So you thought it a good idea to check things out on your own?”
“Well...yes. When I got to the top of the stairs, the door burst open and there was Mona, looking all flushed and disheveled. I don’t know how well you remember her, but Mona Sutton never looks anything other than perfect. And the way she so abruptly threw open the door made me wonder if she’d heard my footsteps on the stairs and wanted to head me off. She even stepped in front of the doorway to make certain I couldn’t see into her office. I kept picturing Tommy Driscoll inside, the two of them in flagrante delicto. You put that image in my head,” she accused. “You’ve made me very suspicious.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“It is,” she insisted. “It’s one thing to be cautious, but I hate thinking the worst of my friends and colleag
ues. I saw it coming, though. That morning in front of the coffee shop...the way you said these people... I knew things would get ugly once you started asking questions. Suspicions would flare. People would start to doubt one another. It’s already started. I experienced it firsthand this morning with Mona. She tried very hard to convince me that you’re a dangerous man, Jack.”
His lowered voice raised goose bumps along her arms. “What do you think?”
Olive’s heart thudded as she gazed into those dark glasses. She couldn’t see his expression, but she could feel the intensity of his stare. It made her feel anxious and excited and wary. She gripped the railing. “I think we need to be careful we don’t let anyone turn us against each other.”
“Agreed.”
“We’re in this together, right? That’s what you said.”
“We’re in this together.”
“Jack?”
“Yes?”
“Are you dangerous?”
“When I need to be.”
Olive swallowed. She knew only too well there could be many kinds of danger.
Jack reached up and removed his sunglasses, folding them and then tucking them into his pocket. All the while, his gaze never left hers. His eyes were as deep and dark as the lake and just as mysterious, just as perilous. Olive could feel the tentacles of their attraction weaving a sensuous trail along her spine, heating her blood and prickling her nerve endings. All she had to do was reach over and put her hand on top of his and the conversation would be over. They would go back up the steps to the cabin, disappear into the shadowy cocoon of his bedroom and live out the fantasy that had been teasing her ever since he’d rescued her from the top of the bridge.
Her fingers tightened around the railing so that she wouldn’t be tempted to touch him.
“It’s good to be cautious.” His words seemed to have a double meaning and Olive shivered. “With Mona Sutton, with Beth Driscoll, with everyone in this town.”
“Beth Driscoll?” Olive stared at him in surprise. “What does she have to do with anything?”
“I saw her on bridge this morning. I went back to have a look around and she was at the guardrail staring down into the water. She seemed distracted. So much so that she didn’t even notice my arrival. I get the distinct feeling she’s a very unhappy woman.”
Olive’s tone turned derisive. “She’s married to Tommy Driscoll. Of course, she’s unhappy.”
“Have you ever had any problems with Beth?”
The question stopped Olive cold. “How strange that you would ask me that now. A day ago I would have said no. We’ve always gotten on well. But Mona told me this morning that Beth was very upset by my appointment. She even threatened to resign. I knew there would be hard feelings, but I had no idea anyone wanted to quit, least of all Beth.”
“Maybe that explains the tension I sensed when your name came up,” Jack said.
“What did she say?” Olive demanded. “What did you say?”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “She said you had a crush on me back in the day.”
Had everyone in town known about her feelings for Jack? “She actually said that?”
His eyes gleamed. “Not true?”
“Yes, it’s true,” Olive admitted with a shrug. “But it was just a silly schoolgirl infatuation. It didn’t mean anything.”
“I never thought it did.”
“I was lonely and heartbroken when we first moved to Pine Lake. I’d just lost my dad. I didn’t have friends or anyone I could talk to. And I felt so horribly guilty. I’m the one who begged him to drive home that night in the middle of a terrible storm. For a long time, I blamed myself for the accident. And even though my mother would never admit it, I think she did, too. It was a very bad time and you were nice to me.”
“I’m glad.”
Her voice turned ironic. “I know how pathetic that must sound considering you barely remembered me that first night at the bridge. But your kindness meant a lot to me. It gave me something to focus on instead of my misery. So, yes, I had a crush on you for a while, but it didn’t mean anything.”
“So you said.”
Olive lifted her gaze to his. “How I felt then has nothing to do with the way I feel about you now.”
Jack straightened from the rail, placing his bandaged hand on her shoulder. “How do you feel about me now?”
She stood on tiptoes, taking his face in her hands as she drew his mouth to hers. It was a slow, lingering kiss. Languid and easy with the breeze rippling through her hair and the sun still warm on her skin. She slipped her hands to the back of his neck as his arms came around her waist. Their tongues touched and mingled as he pulled her into him.
The dock swayed beneath them and Olive drew away, shaking her head as if to clear her senses. “Jack?”
“Yes?”
“Let’s go up the cabin.”
His gaze deepened with awareness. “Are you sure?”
“Unless you’d rather do it here on the dock.”
“The cabin will be good.”
* * *
THE LATE AFTERNOON sunlight shone through the long windows in the living room, but the bedroom was cool and shadowy. They were both barefoot and shirtless, having left a trail of discarded clothing down the hallway. Jack pressed Olive against the wall, cupping her breasts through the lace of her bra as he kissed her again and again. She arched into him, wrapping her arms around his neck and running her fingers through the hair at his nape. His lips skimmed downward, tracing her jawline, tickling her lobe, finding the pulse point in her throat. Shivering, she fumbled with the button on his jeans and then the zipper and they laughed softly at her struggles.
“I can’t seem to make my fingers work.”
“They’re working for me,” he murmured and Olive’s laugh grew breathless and throaty. There was no awkwardness between then, not even a momentary reluctance as they finished undressing.
He lifted her and she wrapped her legs around him, tunneling her fingers through his hair with a deep sigh. They fell back against the bed, Olive on top and they laughed some more as a feather floated up from the pillows and clung to her lashes. Jack tenderly plucked it away and then their expressions sobered as their gazes collided.
He rolled them, so smoothly Olive was barely aware of the motion until he was suddenly staring down at her, smiling and knowing. Her heart pounded, her every nerve ending tingled as he lowered his mouth to her breasts and then trailed his lips down her abdomen, lower and lower until she felt his tongue skim along her inner thigh.
He lingered there, kissing and teasing, until he felt her tremble and then he moved up and over her and she cupped his face, drawing his mouth to hers as she rolled him, not as smoothly, but just as eagerly. She slid down his body, her lips whispering over his abdomen, her hands stroking, her tongue exploring.
The sun had set by this time and the room had grown dim. Jack was little more than a silhouette as Olive moved back up, positioning herself over him, taking him in with a gasp. She smiled down at him as she began to move, and then losing control all too soon, she fell forward, hands splayed against the headboard as Jack grasped her hips. The sensations intensified as their soft moans mingled. He pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her, holding her close as they both began to shudder.
He didn’t release her when it was over. If anything, his hold on her tightened. Olive buried her head in his shoulder, drinking in the scent of him, luxuriating in the intimate bond that still kept them joined.
“Jack?”
He stirred. “Yes?”
“Don’t let go, okay?”
“Not a chance.”
* * *
DARKNESS HAD FALLEN by the time Jack drove Olive home. He parked in her driveway and cut the lights, but kept the engine and air condition
er running as he took a quick survey of their surroundings. It was still early, just after ten, but the neighborhood already slumbered. Curtains were drawn, blinds were closed and there wasn’t another car on the street. The town seemed deserted and haunted.
Olive, face scrubbed clean of makeup, hair still slightly mussed, sat watching him. In the glow of the streetlight, her freckles stood out starkly on her pale skin. Jack had never seen anything so sensuous. He wanted to trail his knuckles along her cheek, to trace her slightly parted lips with his thumb. He could still feel her against him, warm and pliant and quivering.
He draped his arm along the back of her seat, teasing the hair until he felt her shiver.
“Sure you don’t want to change your mind?” he said. “You could stay with me at the lake tonight.”
“You’ve no idea how tempted I am. But I’ve still got work to do and I think a little distance and perspective might be good for both of us.”
“You’re probably right.” But his fingers continued to tease.
She sighed. “Which is why I’m not going to invite you in for a drink.”
“That’s a shame.”
“But in case you couldn’t tell, I had a really good time tonight.” Her expression suddenly sobered. “Jack?”
“Yes?”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Ask away.”
“Why did you really leave the police department? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. Your past is none of my business and I know I shouldn’t pry. It’s just... I’d like to get to know you better. Is that wrong?”
His fingers stilled in her hair. “It’s not wrong, but the answer may shock you.”
Her eyes widened. “Now you have to tell me.”
“I shot and killed my partner,” he said with stark brevity.
She was silent for a moment. He could tell she was trying very hard to keep her expression neutral. “What happened?”
He dropped his hand to the seat. “I don’t talk about it much. I can’t even remember the last time the subject came up. I’ve always thought some things are best left in the past.”
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