Black Ice (BookStrand Publishing Romance) (9 page)

“Come closer to the fire. You’re shivering.” He made the pallet and waited for her to move.

Blake stood with the afghan wrapped around her and crossed the room to where he waited. She hated feeling hurt. She liked Ryder and wanted to see where their relationship could go. But something within her couldn’t make that first move.

She sat on the makeshift bed and shoved her legs beneath the top blanket. “Where are you going?” she asked when he turned away.

“I’m going to make me a pallet in the corner.”

“Get over here, Ryder.” She took a deep breath, realizing what popped out of her mouth. “I don’t know what I want, but I do know it isn’t to be alone.”

Ryder stood at her feet, hands on his hips. “You want me to sleep beside you?”

“Yeah. Just don’t ask me any more questions or bring up my past.”

He nodded, dropping to his knees to crawl toward her. After situating himself behind her, she reached for his arm underneath the blanket and pulled it over her. She’d never spooned with a guy in her life, and didn’t really know if she did it right but he responded, turning toward her.

“Do you want a relationship with me?” she asked, staring into the fire. Heat swarmed around them, and it wasn’t entirely because of the fire.

“Aren’t we supposed to be getting married? I’d kinda like to do the whole dating thing beforehand.” His fingers threaded through hers.

“You know what I mean,” she whispered.

“I didn’t know if I could do the committed thing. It hasn’t been my specialty in the past, but you’re different. In good ways.”

“How? I’ve avoided relationships my entire adult life. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what the norm is.” Her fingers ran the length of his forearm.

“You’re smart, Blake. You use your brain when most others use their body or their looks to get what they want. You baffle the guys at the station. We used to talk about you, not in a dirty way, but in amazement. You’re accomplished and very good at your job. You’re very pretty. I love the color of your eyes right before I lean in to kiss you. It’s slightly a deeper shade than normal.” He rested his chin on her arm. “I’m glad you’re my partner. But most of all I’m glad you trust me enough to let me get this close to you after all you’ve been through.”

She pulled his arm tighter around her body. “Please don’t break my trust in you.”

“I won’t.” He pressed a kiss to her temple.

Lying in his arms, she was unarmed and totally vulnerable. She felt safe though, which was something she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt before. Not completely anyway.

“Try to get some sleep, baby.” He laid his cheek against her ear. “Do you need me to take you home in the morning when I leave or do you want to stay here?”

“I need to go to the station. I’m taking off a few days and need to pick up my check.”

“If you’re taking off, you need to rest.”

“I will.” She pressed a light kiss to his hairy arm. “Goodnight, Ryder.”

“Goodnight, baby.”

A week before Christmas and Ryder couldn’t deny the fact that he liked coming home to Blake. She’d practically moved in with him, claiming to want to avoid her mother and the sister that practically moved in with her. But he figured it to be more. And most of all, he didn’t mind. He wanted her here. He’d worry himself sick if she stayed at her own house during the investigation of the case. Someone bailed Seth Cameron out the day before, and he supposedly ran free as a bird in the cold city of Grand Rapids. He knew Blake wasn’t very secure in that small fact.

“Okay, I’ve been looking at this all day.” She typed away on her laptop. “I’ve made a list of suspects, potential motives, and approximate location within the party. The tapes show two potential suspects in two different locations. The waiter is shown hovering over this food.” She pointed to the digital copy of the security cameras loaded onto her computer. “I haven’t the slightest idea what he is doing or why he stays that way for five seconds of real time, but it looks fishy to me. I’m anxious to get back the toxicology reports from the M.E.”

Ryder smiled. “Good work, detective. If something’s fishy, this gives us reason to question the ex-friend more.”

“Exactly. And the fiancé is shown here. At first I missed it, but if you look closely, he’s talking to someone off camera. He looks like he’s at a vending machine buying a bag of potato chips, but there is definitely someone standing off camera, chatting him up.” She looked up at him.

“Who buys a bag of potato chips at a fancy catered dinner? That should be enough to question what the hell he’s doing.”

Blake shrugged. “I know it’s a long shot, but this particular location, according to the map of the lodge the manager gave me, is close to the valet section. Could he be plotting the murder right there before our eyes?”

Ryder pulled his cell phone out and punched in the station’s number. “Detective McKenna, please.” He waited a few minutes until the switchboard operator connected him. After his “new” partner answered, words rushed out of Ryder’s mouth. “I need you to email me the statements we collected from the main potential suspects on the Sophie Stevens’ murder case.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because I think I may have a lead, and I want to double check the evidence.”

“What lead?”

“Just send me the damn information, and I’ll get back with you.” Ryder clicked the phone off. “Sophie Stevens got into the car around eleven-thirty that night. The video is paused at eleven-fifteen. The fiancé and the valet were the last two people to see her alive. If we can determine that other man in the video is the valet, we have reason to believe they plotted the damage, brought the wrong car out on purpose and intentionally killed Sophie Stevens.”

Blake smiled at him. “We have a lead.”

“I seriously don’t know what I’d do without you.” He wrapped his arms around her. “Those dickheads at the station don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. I think they couldn’t care less if we solved the case or not.”

She folded her arms around his neck. “We do make a good team.”

“Can you print those statements?” He pulled away and used her computer to access his email. “We don’t have a hard copy of the information, just notes on the case but it’ll help for reference.”

“Yeah, sure.” She grabbed her computer and clicked on the widow containing his email.

“Hey,” he said, brushing his knuckles against her arm. “What’s wrong?”

She leaned toward him, kissing his lips. “Nothing.”

She stood and grabbed her computer before heading to the spare room with Ryder following her. “I want you back on the case.”

“Tell, Lou, not me.” She sat down and hooked her computer to the printer at his desk.

He watched her profile for a moment before asking, “Will you go out with me? On a date?”

She clicked “print” and looked up at him from the computer screen. “I don’t know what to do on one of those.”

“Surely you’ve watched movies with couples dating? It’s practically the same thing though usually less glamorous.” He sat on the bed. “Or we can make up our own rules if you like. What do you say?”

“I say okay.” She looked scared to death. “Uh, what did you want to do?”

He chuckled. “Honey, I don’t care as long as I’m with you.”

Ryder watched her expression change. “I’m not ready for sex, Ryder.”

“No…that’s not what I—”

“I know. I’m telling you, because I don’t want any confusion between us. Truthfully, it’ll probably be a long time before I’m ready to go that far.” She grabbed the papers from the printer tray. “Here you go. Find a link and put your boys on it.”

He pulled her to him. “Friday night sound okay for our date?”

“Sounds fine.” She smiled. “If all goes well, you can accompany me to my family’s Christmas dinner. It’s Saturday.”

Ryder held back a groan. “You’ll owe me another date for that.”

She laughed and pulled away from him. “What? You don’t like your future in-laws? Mom called me today. She’s found the perfect chapel, the perfect place to get married. I tell her time and again that nobody’s getting married, but she doesn’t listen to me.” She closed her laptop. “She does like you though so that’s got to count for something.”

“What’s your father say about me?”

Blake disconnected the printer before facing him. “My dad died a couple of years ago.”

“I’m sorry, babe.” Ryder stood.

“No, it’s okay.” She smiled. “You’re stuck with three women and Lilly’s boyfriend if he’s not working. You think you can handle it?”

“It can’t be any worse than our time at the hospital when your mother thought we had sex in the hospital room.”

Blake chuckled. “You have no idea.”

* * * *

After Ryder left the house to go to the station around two-thirty, Blake settled in front of the TV with a bowl of popcorn in hand and a large glass of iced tea. He owned a vast array of action, horror, and comedy movies, so she chose the latter of the three to watch.

Her cell phone vibrated on the coffee table a few minutes into the movie, and Blake wiped her fingers before reaching after it.

“Hi, Mom.”

“You’ll never guess who I talked to a few minutes ago.”

Blake ate a couple of pieces of popcorn. “Who?”

“Levi Holmes. Willow said he planned on coming back into town for the holidays.” Lisa paused for a moment. “They asked about you. Willow said Levi wanted to see you.”

Blake sat the bowl aside as nausea came over her. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I thought it would be nice to invite them over for Christmas. Willow isn’t doing so great, health wise, and this is the first time Levi’s been home since high school. I thought instead of making her cook and clean up for Christmas, we could have her and Levi over.”

“No, Mom. I don’t want them to come over.”

“Why not?”

“Because!” She stood, pacing the living room floor. “I know Willow’s your friend, but I don’t want to be around Levi, Mom.”

“You can tolerate him for an hour or two. Besides, Ryder will be with you, right?”

“No, Mom.” Her hands shook. “I’m not coming if Levi is there.”

“What on earth has gotten into you?”

“Nothing. I’ve got to go.” Blake clicked the phone off and threw it at the couch cushions.

For seven years, she hadn’t seen him, thought about him, or even considered ever meeting him again. Within a week of telling Ryder everything, her worst fear had come to life. Not only did she admit to everything that happened, her biggest nightmare planned to walk back into her life. She wouldn’t let him. No matter what her mother decided, she wouldn’t allow him the satisfaction of seeing her again.

Her stomach quivered, and Blake found herself kneeling over the toilet seconds later. She needed to get out of the house. Being on bed rest and “taking it easy” had done more harm than good. She needed to do
something
.

The police station gave her the most comfort in dealing with her situation and the memory of Levi. She couldn’t count how many rounds she shot in the firing range or how many bruises her knuckles got from punching the practice dummies in the gym. Others might prefer a more civilized way of dealing with pain, but she preferred a physical approach.

She grabbed her keys and locked up the house. Ryder gave her the SUV while he drove the car. Maybe he was right about not keeping her relationship with Levi a secret from her mother, but Levi had no right to come to her mother’s house for the holidays. Even if her mother didn’t say it in so many words, she knew that Levi invited himself. It was how he operated. He couldn’t stand his prize trophy got away from him, though he never bothered to try and find her. Maybe he knew about the academy? Maybe he knew about her jurisdiction as an officer-turned-detective?

She pulled into the station and parked in the back, next to the gym. She didn’t bother speaking to anyone that gave her a polite “hello” when she entered, heading straight to the women’s locker room.

After changing, she went to the mats, snagged a dummy, and made it light up. Levi wouldn’t get the best of her. And if she ever saw him again, Ryder would be dragging her away in handcuffs while the coroner zipped up Levi’s body in a black body bag.

* * * *

“What’s the deal with Warren, man? I hadn’t seen her for a couple of days, and now she’s in the gym beating the shit out of our practice dummies,” Detective Bratman said.

Ryder glanced at his clock. He’d been working for two hours straight and lost track of time. “She’s here?”

“Yep. No one dares to go near here either. Did you piss her off?”

Ryder rubbed his eyes. “Not that I know of. I’ll be right back.”

He made his way through the building toward the back and pushed the double doors open that led to the gym. Sure enough Blake stood in the corner punching and kicking the practice dummy. Sweat poured from her body, and Ryder knew she barely noticed. He retrieved a bottle of water from the nearby cooler and crossed the room.

“I think you’ve beat the shit out of him, Blake. Maybe you should take a break.” Ryder held the bottle out, brushing her arm with the coolness of it.