by Devney Perry
I’d made sure Bryce Slater was at the garage, where most of the wives seemed to congregate during the week. Then I’d gone down and met a very nice man named Art, who’d logged me on to their local electronic archive because I was a grad student writing my thesis about the evolution of small-town media outlets.
He’d offered to call Bryce and her father, Lane, into the office so I could interview them. I’d politely declined.
Sequestered away in a tiny room at the newspaper, I’d scoured every piece I could find on the Tin Gypsies. There hadn’t been many.
Bryce Slater and her father were owners of the paper and as Dash’s wife, I couldn’t imagine she’d incriminate her husband.
Except, Bryce had moved to town after the Tin Gypsies had disbanded. The owners before her had had no connection to the club, at least not one I could find. And the tone of their articles from the time when the club had been fully functioning didn’t suggest there was much love between the general Clifton Forge populace and the Tin Gypsies.
But people and businesses and reporters could be bought off—my father had most likely bribed the Ashton newspaper to keep the Arrowhead Warriors off the front page. The startling lack of news about my dad or the club, even after their arrests, was indication enough. Maybe the Tin Gypsies had done the same, because there wasn’t much news about their club.
If there was mention about them in the archives, I’d read it. Nothing had screamed Emmett Stone is a liar.
I needed evidence to show that Emmett was fooling me. If I could just prove he was a monster, then I could shove these feelings aside and get back to my plan.
Police reports would do the trick, but it wasn’t like I could pull them from the county courthouse. Requesting reports would be like shooting a flare into the midnight sky. It would call way too much attention to myself, especially given that Luke Rosen, Clifton Forge chief of police, was so deeply connected to the Tin Gypsies.
He’d probably been at the barbeque Emmett had invited me to.
My heart twisted and I closed my eyes, willing sleep to come. Willing the guilt to loosen its grip.
I knew what I had to do. The only way for me to move forward was with information. Facts that I could use to make a decision. So far, I was going solely off my father’s opinions and while that had been good enough at the beginning, it wasn’t enough now. Not now when I knew Emmett.
I’d been wrestling with my next step for weeks, trying to find a semblance of inner courage.
I knew what I had to do.
Starting tomorrow.
“Hey,” I said when Emmett answered the call.
“Hey, baby.”
“How’s your Thursday morning going so far?”
“Good.” There was the clank of metal in the background and the thud of boots. He must be walking out of the garage for some privacy. “You?”
“Busy. The owner of the rental just called me and needs to come over to blow out the sprinklers. He said it’s going to be loud for an hour or so and my afternoon is totally slammed with calls. I’d go to a coffee shop, but they can be loud too, and a couple of my clients can be really touchy. Would you mind if I went to your place?”
“No, not at all.”
The air rushed from my lungs. He trusted me. I was betraying him, but he trusted me. Just that thought made my eyes flood with tears. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Just go through the garage.” He rattled off the keycode to open the door, then the code to the alarm system.
“Thanks,” I said through the lump in my throat.
He never should have trusted me.
“See you later?” he asked.
“I’ll be there. Bye.”
“Bye.”
My heart was heavy, the phone a hundred-pound weight in my hand. My chest heaved as I tried to lift it from my side.
Do it, Nova.
I squeezed my eyes shut, gave myself three long breaths, then called Hacker.
“Are you on your way?” I’d called and woken him up while Emmett had been in the shower this morning.
“Yeah.” He yawned. “About an hour out.”
“Good. There’s a Town Pump gas station on Central. I’ll meet you there.” I ended the call and forced myself to move.
I wanted information and it was time to collect. With my purse over a shoulder, I locked the rental up and climbed in the Nova. Then I raced to Emmett’s, using the codes he’d given me to get into his house.
It smelled like him, wind and cedar and spice. I drew in a long breath as I marched down the hallway toward the office.
It was bigger in the daylight. There were no cameras inside that I could see, not like the exterior, where I’d noticed some mounted on the corners of the house and garage.
If he was taping the movements in his house, I’d have to risk it.
There were two laptops on his desk, both plugged in to display monitors and charging stations. I swept up both, casting one glance at the safe in the corner.
I paused, walking over and pulling the knob. Just in case he’d opened it this morning and hadn’t closed it all the way.
Locked.
“Worth a try,” I muttered, then hurried from the room and straight outside.
With a white-knuckled grip, I drove back into town to the gas station where Hacker was parked.
His window was open and a plume of smoke streamed out as I walked over, a cigarette pinched between his fingers.
“Here.” I handed him the laptops.
He nodded, flicking his cigarette butt out. It landed beside my shoe. “Give me some time.”
“You don’t have much.”
Emmett would be at work all day, but knowing I was at his house, he might decide to leave early.
“I’ll hurry,” Hacker promised, setting Emmett’s laptops in the passenger seat. Then without another word, he reversed out of the parking lot and drove away.
I had no idea where he’d go to do whatever it was that he was going to do, but I couldn’t stand in the gas station’s parking lot all day, so I returned to Emmett’s and waited for Hacker’s call.
Work, for a change, saved my sanity. I didn’t really enjoy it but being busy was better than fretting. I sat at the kitchen island, my body jittery for hours, until finally at two o’clock, Hacker’s name flashed on my screen.
“Are you done?” I answered, already moving through the house for the door.
“Yeah.”
“Meet you at the same gas station.” I raced into town, finding Hacker parked in the same place.
The moment I approached his door, he had the laptops stuck out his window. I hauled them into my arms as he held out a simple black box. The receiver. “Put this within two hundred feet of the laptops.”
“Okay. Anything else?”
“Nope. Just wait until he logs in.”
“And when you get into the hard drive, what will that get me?”
“Emails. Files. Documents. I’ll put it on a flash drive for you. Whatever that son of a bitch saved, you’ll get.”
I tensed at him calling Emmett a son of a bitch. “He won’t know you opened these, right?”
“Probably not.”
My heart dropped to the cigarette butt he’d tossed out earlier on the ground. “ ‘Probably not.’ That’s not giving me a lot of confidence.”
“Look, like I told you before, this is mostly undetectable. But . . . there’s always a chance. If I were you, I’d be thinking about my exit strategy.”
No.
Just like that, my departure date had been set. My heart broke. Right there, in the oil-stained parking lot of a gas station, my heart broke.
Time was up.
“You’ll call me when you have the flash drive.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“And you’ll make one and only one copy. Understood?”
“Understood.”
I blew out a long breath, then reached into my purse for the envelope of cash I’d picked up at the bank this
morning on my way home from Emmett’s. “Three thousand. Per our agreement.”
He snatched it from my hand and plucked a cigarette from its box. Then he rolled up his window and was gone.
I turned, hustling to my car. My hands were shaking as I started it up and pulled onto Central. Sweat beaded at my temples and I rolled the window down, gulping the early-October air, hoping it would cool me down before I got to Emmett’s.
Please don’t be home.
I broke every speed limit as I tore down the country road to his house. When I parked and keyed in the garage code, the door opened and the space was empty. Thank God. I ran to my car, my heels accentuating every rushed step, then swiped up the laptops and the receiver and scurried inside.
The rumble of an engine echoed from beyond the house the second I reached the office.
“Shit.” I put the laptops in their places, reconnecting power cords and aligning them as best I could with how they’d been. Then I searched the room for a place to hide the receiver.
The safe caught my eye. There looked to be enough space to hide the box between it and the wall. I doubted Emmett moved the heavy piece regularly. Flying across the room, I stretched an arm in the gap between the safe and the bookshelf beside it.
The box fit. “Thank God.”
I wedged it in as best I could, wishing for more than a minute to make sure it was secure. But the sound of Emmett’s Harley cut off and I was out of time.
There was no way I’d get to the living room before he came into the house and the closest door was to the basement, so I yanked my arm free and scrambled out of the office, bolting down the stairs. Emmett’s bootsteps sounded on the floor above me.
“Nova,” he called.
I hit the bottom step and ran for the couch, flinging myself over the back and plopping down. I whipped out my phone, holding it above my lap and doing my best to relax. “Down here!”
His footsteps grew louder as he thudded down the staircase.
My heart was pounding. I wiped at the sweat beaded at my temples. I sucked in a long breath and tried to calm my body.
Emmett rounded the corner too soon, a smile on his face. “Hey.”
“Hey.” I smiled through the sharp lance of guilt that slashed through my body. “I hope you don’t mind I decided to take my calls down here. This couch is cozy.”
“Not at all.” He rounded the edge and sat down beside me, leaning in for a kiss.
My heart was still beating too hard but he didn’t seem to notice. “Are you done working for the day?”
“Yeah. Since you were here, I left early.”
“I’m done too.” I set my phone on my lap. “I didn’t get through all of my to-do list but what I didn’t finish will have to wait until Monday.”
“I need to run a lease renewal to one of my tenants. Want to come along?”
“Sure.” I stood and started toward the stairwell, ready to get out of this basement. When we hit the main floor, I took a step toward the kitchen, but Emmett went the opposite direction, toward his office.
I held my breath, my body so still I could have given a marble statue a run for its money. Did I stay? Should I run now?
I inched toward the office door, watching as he went around his desk and took his seat. My knees buckled and I leaned on the frame to hold me up as he opened both laptops.
“I just need to print a few things off.” His fingers flew over the keyboard in front of the monitor. Then he twisted to the other laptop, typing there too.
“Okay.” Could he hear my entire body trembling? I held my breath, waiting for him to notice something wrong, but he simply printed off a document from one computer and a different document from the other.
Then he stood and swiped up the papers before striding my way. My breath exploded from my lungs as I turned, trying to hide the relief on my face as we retreated to the kitchen.
“You okay?” he asked, leading the way to the garage.
“Yeah.” I let my shoulders fall. “Just a long day. A long week.”
He threw an arm around my shoulders, hauling me close. Then he dropped a kiss to my hair. “We’ll run this errand, then come back and chill. Eat dinner. Watch a movie or something.”
“That sounds great.”
Or it would except for this gnawing shame and the fact that I had to tell him I was leaving. Tomorrow.
I pulled in a long breath of his scent, feeling his warmth. How long would it take before I forgot both?
“Bike or truck?” he asked.
“Bike.” If this was the end, I wanted one last ride.
He grinned, happy with my answer. I stole a jacket from the hooks on the wall, then we set off for town.
Never had I held him this close on a ride. Usually I’d let go and put my fingers to the wind, but not today. I hugged him tight through the whole ride, the sting of tears threatening the entire time.
We stopped in front of a charming steel-blue house with white shutters. The front door was painted a teal green. It stood out from the other homes on the street, the others a shade of taupe or gray.
“This is cute,” I said as Emmett parked his bike and killed the engine.
“My renters wanted to paint it. They’ve been such great tenants that I didn’t care what color they picked.” He held out his hand and I handed over the papers that I’d kept in between us on the ride over. “Be right back.”
I stayed in my seat, watching as he strode up the small sidewalk. Before he made it to the door, it flew open and a small boy with curly brown hair ran out, his mother close behind.
She smiled brightly at Emmett, standing on the small stoop with her hands on her pregnant belly.
He handed her the papers, spoke for just a moment, then gave the boy a high five. The kid smacked Emmett’s palm as hard as he could and Emmett pretended it hurt, shaking his hand out as the boy beamed.
I caught myself smiling at the scene.
Emmett was good with kids. It didn’t surprise me in the least, because he was a good man.
How much more proof did I need?
My smile faltered. Apparently more because at that moment, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Hacker had texted.
That was fast. Got the passwords. I’ll have the flash drive for you tomorrow.
I tucked the phone away and stared at Emmett.
How was I supposed to say goodbye? How was I supposed to look at that flash drive tomorrow? The moment I opened it, everything would change, of that I had no doubt.
Later.
It would all wait until later. If this was the last night, I wouldn’t think about the flash drive until I was gone.
Emmett laughed at something, the sound echoing across the yard. He really was a good man.
But that didn’t really matter anymore, did it?
Because my time with him was up.
Chapter Fourteen
Emmett
“So . . .” Nova turned to face me from her seat on the chaise beside mine. The expression on her face made my stomach drop.
Damn. I’d known this was coming. I’d been waiting for it. “So.”
It had been almost two months since we’d first met at The Betsy. Two months since we’d been having sex and sharing meals and spending time together. Two months, and dread of the end clung to the air like the autumn mist in the forest.
Nova had brought out a blanket tonight to ward off the chill. She had it pulled around her shoulders and her legs tucked beneath her. She’d stolen one of my hair ties to pile her tresses in a messy knot on her head. Her cheeks were rosy. The tip of her nose was a matching shade of pink.
Beautiful. Unforgettable.
I’d told her we could sit inside but she’d insisted on the deck. She seemed to love it out here as much as I did.
Hell, it was going to be lonely sitting out here without her.
“I have to go back to Missoula tomorrow.”
Damn. Damn. Just because I’d known it was coming didn’t make it easier to hear.
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her not to go, but the words would be wasted.
The past two weeks had been some of the best in my life, and I’d be a fool not to admit it was because of her. Ever since that night at The Betsy when she’d found me after the barbeque, we’d spent as much time together as possible.
Part of me knew it was because we’d been barreling toward the finish line. No amount of pumping the brakes would stop its fast approach.
And now we were here. The end.
“Okay.” There wasn’t anything else to say. Just . . . okay.
“I need to get my life back together there before Monday. Do laundry. All of that.”
I nodded. God, I wanted to beg her to stay through tomorrow and the weekend. Tonight couldn’t be our last night together. I wasn’t ready to let her go yet.
“But I was thinking . . . maybe I could come back next weekend.”
“Yes.” No hesitation. “Come back. Except . . .”
“What?”
“My friends are throwing me a birthday party. Here.”
“Oh.” Her body sagged.
“Just think about it.”
“Okay,” she whispered, sadness in her gaze. She didn’t want this to end either.
Not yet.
One more weekend wouldn’t make it any harder. It wouldn’t make it any easier, but it wouldn’t make it any harder, and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye for good.
“Will you miss me this week?” she asked.
“Yes.” Again, no hesitation.
“Good.” A smile tugged at her mouth as she stood, shuffling to my chair and bringing the blanket along with her.
I shifted, making space for her to sit between my legs and lean against my chest.
The smell of her perfume enveloped me, sensual and deep and complicated, like the woman herself. I drew it in, holding it for a long breath, then wrapped my arms around her and held tight.
“Tell me something,” she said.
“What?”
“Anything. I just want to hear your voice.”
I kissed the top of her hair, then relaxed and stared off into the trees. The sun was setting earlier and earlier these days, but we sat out here regardless, staring into the trees as they were swallowed up by the night.