by Elise Noble
“The BMW was at my flat, and I didn’t go home that night. I slept in the office and came straight back to yours the next morning.”
He did? Now I felt terrible. He’d made it his priority to help me, and I’d just chewed him out for it. I turned to apologise, but he’d already got out of the car and was on his way around to open my door.
I was trying to think of the right words when he bent his head to whisper in my ear.
“Even if I had gone home, I’d still have brought the bike.”
My mouth dropped as he sauntered off to fetch a trolley. I couldn’t believe him! He’d deliberately manipulated me into wrapping myself around him.
And now my libido laughed. Who are you kidding? Nye would have only had to ask.
I sighed as I followed him into the supermarket. Judging by the ache between my thighs, my libido was right on the money.
I’d tried to write a shopping list before I left, but when I caught myself adding chocolate four times, I gave up. I’d just wander the shelves for inspiration. Fresh vegetables, fruit, chicken, and minced beef. Maybe I’d make a lasagne this evening. Pasta. Flour, eggs, sugar, and cocoa powder because I needed a cake. Nye wandered along, tossing his own items into the trolley.
“Pre-made microwaveable hot dogs?” I asked when I caught sight of one of the boxes.
What else had he chosen? Pop-Tarts, a ready-cooked omelette, individual trifles. I picked up a packet of burger “cheese.”
“You realise there isn’t actually any cheese in this?”
He shrugged. “It comes pre-sliced.”
“Have you ever cooked anything? Or do you just reheat?”
“I tried boiling an egg once, but it didn’t work out.” At least he had the good grace to look sheepish.
“Look, put that stuff back. I’ll cook for you.”
He brightened. “You will?”
“Of course, and for the teams outside. You’re all doing me such a big favour.”
“In that case…” Nye scooped his shopping out and dumped it on a shelf.
“You can’t just leave it there.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not in the right places.”
He put an arm around my shoulder and steered me away. “Look at it this way, babe—I’m keeping someone in a job.”
It still made me twitch, but I liked the feel of his arm too much to go back. Instead, we traipsed through the healthier sections of the store again and bought enough food for everyone.
Then we had our second disagreement when Nye got his credit card out.
“I’ll pay.”
“Liv, hardly any of that food’s for you.”
“But—”
“You can do magic things and transform it into something edible. That’s your contribution, okay?”
What could I do but nod? The lady behind us in the queue was already tapping her foot.
Back at Lilac Cottage, Nye checked in with the security team while I unlocked the front door.
“Nothing to report,” he said, picking up all the shopping in one go. I grabbed my handbag and scurried in after him. The dark gave me the creeps.
Now I had to find somewhere to put everything. Aunt Ellie’s kitchen was perfectly adequate for two, but three shifts of two guards who’d each eat one meal a day with us meant we’d bought a week’s worth of food for four plus enough snacks to feed an army battalion. According to Nye, his colleagues hoovered up food like stray dogs. Careful packing of the fridge would be required.
I took out the washing-up liquid and the packet of dishcloths and put them by the sink, but as I turned back to the bags, something outside the window caught my eye.
What was it?
I leaned forward to take a closer look, then wished more than anything that I hadn’t.
CHAPTER 25
NYE HEARD MY scream and caught me just before I hit the floor.
“Liv, what happened?”
I pointed with a trembling finger at the drooping cat duct-taped to the outside of the window, blood dripping down its fur from the gash across its throat. Narrow rivulets trickled down the glass, lit by the harsh light overhead, Twiglet’s life reduced to a few sorry streaks.
“It’s my cat,” I sobbed.
Nye hugged me against him, his heart steady as mine pounded. My ears made a strange whooshing noise, and I put my hands over them to make it stop.
“I’m so sorry, Liv.”
“Twiglet was just a cat. What did he ever do to anybody?”
“Nothing. The guy’s sick. Fucking sick.”
With his free hand, Nye fumbled in his pocket for his phone. “When did you last check around the back?”
A pause.
“Because in the last half hour, someone’s managed to kill Liv’s cat and tape it to the damn window.” He tossed the phone onto the draining board. “They’re going to check the grounds.”
“What if the man’s still out there?”
Nye narrowed his eyes. “Then he’d better watch his back.”
My ears worked overtime as they strained to hear what was happening outside, but all I got was the crack of twigs and an occasional shout. Nye’s muscles grew more rigid with each passing minute until the men came back empty-handed half an hour later. Talk about an anticlimax.
Nye stayed with me in the lounge while one of his team got poor Twiglet down and another found a set of gardening tools in the dining room. I chose a spot under the boughs of the old apple tree where I’d seen Twiglet sitting to watch birds on occasion, and Nye dug a grave by torchlight. An insignificant resting place for a cat who’d left tiny paw prints on my heart.
“I can’t believe he’s gone,” I said, choking on the words as Nye cleaned Twiglet up as best he could with paper towels.
“I’ll get the guy, Liv. I promise.”
We buried his tiny body in the box from a rice steamer that I’d liberated from the piles of peril. One of the other men made a grave marker with a Sharpie and a rock he found in the garden, and we held a makeshift funeral under the light of the not-quite-full moon.
I gave up trying to hold back my tears. Twiglet had survived months on his own after Aunt Ellie died, and just as he’d got his home back again, someone took everything away from him. I was shaking as we walked back inside, not just from fear, but from fury.
“How dare he? How dare some psycho come into my home and scare me? If I ever get my hands on him, I’m going to rip his testicles off and put them in my blender.”
The three men all winced.
“Why would he do this? I mean, why would someone want me out of Lilac Cottage that much? I tried so hard to fit in. Even though the pub only serves weird food, I still ate there, and I used the local shops.”
I didn’t realise Nye had stopped walking until I heard his voice from a few feet behind.
“Fuck me.”
Gladly, but that wasn’t the sentiment his tone expressed. We all turned to look at him as he ran forward, pausing only to scoop me up on his way into the house.
“Uh, boss? Is there anything we can do?” one of the men asked.
He waved them off. “No, go back to your patrol. I need to think.”
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked, too nervous to move from the chair he deposited me in.
“We’ve been all wrong on this,” Nye said as he paced up and down between the half-empty grocery bags, running one hand through his hair.
“Wrong in what way?”
“What this bastard wants. It’s not you that he’s after at all.”
“I don’t get it.”
“He wants the house.”
CHAPTER 26
I TWISTED IN my seat to look at Nye. “What do you mean, it’s the house?”
He paused in his pacing for a second. “It has to be. Whoever’s doing this wants the house, not you. Think about it—apart from the initial burglary, everything that’s been done wasn’t only designed to scare you, but to scare you away from here.”
>
The brick through my window, the message on the lounge wall, the eggs, my bike tyres, and now Twiglet. Nye’s idea definitely had some merit. “But I wouldn’t leave.”
Was that a smile or a grimace? Hard to tell, but he still looked sexy. Oh boy, was I in trouble.
“I bet he didn’t expect you to be so damned stubborn. What’s the value of this place?”
“I don’t know. I inherited it, remember?”
“And it never went on the market?”
“No.”
“So, somebody could want it for themselves, and they just never had the opportunity to buy it?”
It was possible, but I couldn’t really see it. “I guess, but it’s not in great condition, or even in the best part of the village.”
“Has anyone made you an offer for it?”
“I had one of those ‘we sell any house’ cards through the door from an estate agent, but apart from that, no.”
“So, that leaves us with option two.”
“Which is?”
“There’s something in here that somebody wants.”
I looked around the dilapidated kitchen. I’d done my best with it, but the whole place was still…tired.
“What could possibly be in here? It’s full of junk.”
“The first burglary, nobody took anything, right?”
“Not that I could tell.”
“They just made a whole lot of mess. I reckon they were looking for something, and they clearly didn’t find it, because everything since then has been done to terrify you into leaving.”
Which could be the case if not for one massive flaw in his logic.
“Why now? The place was empty for months. If somebody wanted to search it, why didn’t they turn the whole place over then? Nobody would even have noticed.”
Nye stopped and leaned against the sink. “I can’t answer that. Yet. Maybe they didn’t know the thing was here? There must have been a trigger for all this. Who else knew your aunt left you this place in her will?”
“Nobody. She didn’t have one. I was her only surviving relative, and one of those heir-hunting companies tracked me down from the Bona Vacantia list.”
“I’ll need their details.”
“Mickey wouldn’t have done anything. He’s harmless.”
“No such thing. And even if it wasn’t him, he might have tipped someone off when he started digging into your aunt’s life. Eleanor Rigby. Like the old Beatles song?”
“That’s right.”
“This started with her—I’m sure of it. You need to tell me everything you know about her.”
“But I don’t know anything. I only met her a couple of times when I was a child. She and my mother fell out, and I never saw her in later years.”
“Well, we’ll need to come at this from a different angle. Someone must have known her.” Nye talked at a hundred miles an hour, no doubt mirroring his thoughts. I’d never seen him so animated. “What was the argument with your mother about? Do you have any other family who might be able to help us?”
“Only my father.”
“Can you call him?”
Could I call him? Nye made it sound so easy. Like I could just pick up the phone and dial the man who’d shattered my childhood.
“Liv, what’s up? You’ve gone white.”
“I haven’t spoken to my father in a decade,” I whispered.
Nye crouched beside me and took my hands in his, making me feel dainty yet insignificant at the same time. Pluto to his sun.
“What happened, babe?”
“He ran off with his secretary when I was twelve, and I haven’t seen him since. I don’t even know where he is.”
“What about other relatives?”
I shook my head, fighting back tears. “There’s no one.”
He enveloped me in his arms, and that hug took some of the pain away.
“Shit always happens to the sweetest people. Sometimes, I think karma’s playing a joke on us.”
Sometimes, yes. I nestled into Nye and breathed in his scent—a woodsy cologne over musk that was all man. His warmth seeped into me, and I never wanted to move again. Sometimes, karma came through.
“We can ask in the village about Eleanor,” Nye said into my hair. “Are you up to paying Carol another visit?”
“I survived the first one, so why not?”
He pulled back and gave me a lopsided smile. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m the one who’s gonna be in trouble. I’ll have a flak jacket sent over.”
Nye found Carol’s number and tried calling her, but there was no answer.
“She’s probably gone out to a gossip session,” I said. “WI meeting, knitting society, that sort of thing.”
“Let’s go tomorrow morning. She’ll be around at breakfast if she’s got guests in.”
“What do we do now?”
“I’ll get the geeks in the office to search in the meantime, but for you, I’d suggest dinner and an early night. Want me to order takeout?”
“No, I’m fine to make dinner.” After all, that was what I’d promised.
Even though I felt jittery inside, I knocked out a quick spaghetti bolognese with a chocolate fondant for dessert. Nye cleaned his plate and had seconds.
“You weren’t kidding when you said you could cook, were you?”
“Baking’s more my thing, really, but I’m glad you liked it.”
“There’s only one thing more delicious in this room, and I’m looking at her.”
Was it possible for feet to blush? Because I’m pretty sure mine did. I flushed from head to toe. Nye got up and walked towards me, and I waited in anticipation, every nerve ending aflame.
He carried on walking.
When he got to the sink, he put his hands on the edge and stared through the window at the darkness.
“Shit, I shouldn’t have said that. Not to you.”
I stood up. “What do you mean? Why not?”
Desperation tinged my voice, and I hated myself for that.
“I shouldn’t be leading you on.”
Words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them. “But I-I-I really like you.”
I’d never bared my feelings to a man like that before, but when Nye turned, his stony mask told me my effort had been in vain.
“Liv, if I thought you were the type for a fling, I’d have you moaning underneath me upstairs by now. But you’re not. You need a white knight.”
“But what if I’ve fallen for black?” I whispered.
Because I had. The timing couldn’t have been more wrong, but the man was right. Nye might have made my insides churn and my legs tremble, but it was more than that. He also made me feel secure. Nye was no Edward, and no Tate either.
He backed me up against the counter and leaned forward, one hand either side of my hips. Stormy eyes looked down into mine.
“I’m not the man you’re looking for.”
“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”
“Stress does funny things to people.”
“I didn’t say that because I was stressed!”
Nye stared at me, and I pushed his hand away and sidestepped. Okay, I did sound just a little stressed.
He closed the gap between us again and cupped my cheek in his hand. “I’m going to save us both from future heartache and walk away. One day, you’ll thank me.”
“You arrogant—” I started, but he’d already left the room.
How dare he assume he knew what was best for me? A few seconds later, the living room door closed behind him. Not closed. Slammed. I eyed up the bottle of red on the table and got halfway through pouring myself a glass before I gritted my teeth and threw it down the sink.
No, I wouldn’t resort to alcohol this time. If nothing else, I had to thank Edward for preparing me for this. Although my heart hurt worse for a man I’d never even kissed than it did after the demise of a two-year relationship.
I washed the dirty dishes on autopilot, then climbed the stairs alo
ne. How did I misread things so badly? I’d dreamed of having Nye beside me in bed, and now I didn’t even have a cat.
The cool expanse of cotton seemed to taunt me as I closed my eyes. Sleep wouldn’t come easily tonight. Life would have been so much more straightforward if I’d liked Tate or Warren in the same way as I did Nye.
Why did my heart crave the one man I couldn’t have?
CHAPTER 27
ANOTHER NIGHT PASSED with little sleep. I kept thinking of Nye on the floor in the lounge and wishing I could turn the clock back. Why hadn’t I just laughed off the “delicious” comment? I should’ve known he wouldn’t have wanted to get involved, but no, I just had to lay my cards on the table and make a complete fool out of myself.
My only consolation was that when I got downstairs, bleary eyed and dopey from lack of rest, Nye looked the same.
“Sleep well?” he asked.
“Nope.” I couldn’t be bothered to put a brave face on things anymore. “You?”
He shook his head. “Coffee?”
“Make it strong.”
After two cups of liquid caffeine, Nye pulled a sports jacket on over the top of his customary black jeans and T-shirt instead of his usual leather one.
“What?” he asked when he caught me looking. “I can do smart.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Sort of.”
“I’m not wearing a tuxedo to visit Carol.”
“Do you even own a tuxedo?”
He flashed a smile. “Of course. Every man should own a tuxedo. I tie my own bow ties too.”
It surprised me, finding out those little things. Nye didn’t seem the type to go out to posh functions, although that hardly mattered to me now. Not after last night.
We rode to Carol’s in silence, but not the comfortable silence we’d shared on the trip back from the supermarket yesterday. No, this was a yawning chasm of awkwardness that stretched between the two front seats.
At least Carol didn’t seem to notice. As with last time, she only had eyes for Nye as she served up coffee and Danishes. Plural for Nye, singular for me.
“I ground the beans myself,” she told him as she put his cup down.
He managed to muster up a “terrific.”
“So, what can I do for you today? I still haven’t managed to get to the bottom of those awful rumours, but I’ve started a few of my own.” She gave me my first smile. “All complimentary, of course.”