Defending Serenty (10 page)

She yanks the door open and stalks into the
living room where Monroe waits. Hands in his pockets, he stands
beside the door as if he has all the time in the world. I want to
smash his face in, but maybe a demonstration will be more
effective. Without saying a word, I pick up Serenity’s coat off the
couch and help her shrug into it. Then I step around her and button
it up.

She fidgets in the silence and when the task
is complete, I take her face in the palms of my hands and kiss her.
It’s a slow deep kiss and I pour all my conflicting emotions into
it--my possessiveness, anger and desire. It only lasts a moment,
but it leaves us both breathless and when I look up and met
Monroe’s gaze, I know my message had been delivered.
My woman.
Back off.

“I’ll be here when you get back,” I say just
loudly enough to be sure Monroe hears. “Call if you need
anything.”

Looking dazed, she nods and follows Monroe
out the door. Jaw clenched, I watch from the open doorway until the
car’s taillights disappear down the road. Then I step outside and
swing the door shut. I need to do something, need to clear my head.
My walk to the garage is quick and I find Walker under the hood of
an old Chevy. I make enough noise that Walker hears me coming and
peeks out.

“Almost done here,” he says.

“Take your time,” I answer. “I’ll go grab us
a drink.”

I jog over to the house. I’d left my full
beer on Serenity’s dresser so I grab two new ones and return to the
garage. Walker closes the car’s hood and washes his hands in the
office sink. When he comes back out, he takes the beer I offer him
and twists off the top. Leaning against a worktop, he looks me up
and down.

“All right. What gives, man? You look like
you’re trying really hard not to look pissed.”

I shrug. “Serenity’s out on a date. Well, not
a real date. She’s with Monroe.”

I force my grip on the bottle to loosen, roll
my shoulders and watch Walker tense up. He’s worried about her too
and there’s a conversation, a question I’ve been avoiding. I’m
pissed off enough right to go for it.

“You watched her while I was gone,” I say as
casually as I can manage.

Walker sets down his beer and starts putting
away his tools.

“I kept up with what she was doing.” He
shrugs. “We both lived in Birmingham years ago when she first
joined the police department and I was on a fast track to nowhere.
We got to be good friends, odd as that seems.”

“How good?” I ask asked softly.
Have you
fucked her?
I can’t bring myself to ask.

I meet Walker’s gaze and see longing there.
Turning and gripping the workbench, I close my eyes, surprised at
the quick shaft of pain. Serenity had been with my brother? Anger
and confusion war within me. My jaw clenches and I straighten,
fighting the urge to pound on Walker. I won’t let a woman come
between us, but I’m damned if I’ll share her.

“How good was that friendship?” I ask again.
I have to know. Jealousy eats at me.

Walker snorts. “Why don’t you just ask me
what you really want to know?”

My eyes narrow. “Okay. Have you fucked
her?”

“Jesus. I can’t believe you’d think that.” He
rubs a hand over his head. “No. I haven’t. I wouldn’t. She’s not
mine. Never was. There was someone else for me. As fucked up as you
two being together,” he says with a snort.

The relief inside me is so strong I can only
nod in response. Walker takes a long drink of his beer and
continues.

“I moved up there after your trial.” He
grunts. “At first I told myself it was because I had to get away
from here, ya know? But I think really it was because I wanted to
make her as miserable as she had us.”

He pauses a long moment, staring into the
past. “She was pretty miserable without my help. She was about the
last person I expected to go to the police academy. The trial
changed us all, I guess. Anyway, she grows on you.”

He meets my gaze again before continuing.
It’s as if now that we’re talking about it, he wants to get it all
out.

“I stayed and watched her for a couple of
years. First because I hated her, and later because I knew, even if
you didn’t, that you loved her. When I was sure she was going to be
okay, I came home. She’s good at what she does, and this town never
stopped talking about her. Or that night. It was easy enough to
keep up with what she was doing.”

I don’t hear anything past
you loved
her
. Did I? Then or now? I thought I’d strangled the life out
of whatever I felt for her when she dropped off the face of the
earth. Now I want to keep it strictly about sex, want to make her
need me and then cut her out of my life the way she’d done me.
Except our relationship is already complicated as hell. I don’t
think I’m going to be able to let her go, but I’m an ex-con and
she’s a cop. Well, not for much longer thank God. I shake myself
free from that train of thought and turn my attention to something
I’m better prepared to deal with. Anything at all will do.

“Who was it? The woman you wanted?”

Walker stares at me a long time and I don’t
think he’s gonna answer but he finally answers. “Grace Monroe.
Honor’s sister.”

“What went wrong?”

He shrugs. “She joined the Army. Got married.
Last I heard she’s a private investigator in Atlanta.”

He makes it sound like it wasn’t much and is
no big deal but I see that longing back in his eyes and I get it
now.

“Not like you to give up,” I say.

He gives me a steady look. “Let it go, man.
It was a long time ago.”

He hasn’t let it go though and who the fuck
am I am to cast stones? I never let Serenity go and now she’s out
with someone else. I turn to leave.

“Wait. Where are you going?” Walker asks.

I don’t really know. I can’t just walk into
the country club to retrieve my woman. They’d never let me in. The
place is surrounded by woods, though. I can get close enough to see
her, at least.

“To make sure she’s okay. Don’t worry, no one
will see me.”

“Shit. At least take your phone.”

“I left it at her house.”

I don’t want to take the time to go back for
it. Walker hands me his cell phone and I tuck it in my pocket. I’m
walking out the door when I hear Walker call out behind me, “Watch
your back!”

I laugh.

“Always do, brother,” I whisper. “I always
do.”

Parking the car in a wooded area off the
country club’s maintenance road, I grab a jacket from the backseat,
get out and look around. The club has left it undeveloped, probably
in an attempt at privacy, but the roadside is littered with beer
cans and cigarette butts. Still used the same by the locals.

I thread my way through half a mile of dead
undergrowth and tall pines to stand in the wood line and observe
the back of the brightly lit ballroom. It is in the club’s main
building, an old mansion built to look like Tara in
Gone with
the Wind
. It’s been remodeled so many times over the years that
only the front still resembles the mythical Southern house. The
back wall is all glass--with French doors and six-foot windows. The
work on them had just started when I went to prison.

White and red Christmas lights frame the
doors and a tall tree stands in the middle of the patio. I can see
several smaller trees inside. Despite the lighting, there are deep
shadows outside the windows. I pick my way through the gloom until
I find a spot close enough to see inside.

A band plays on a dais at the far end, and
the dance floor is packed with couples moving softly to a slow
beat. Others lounge at circular tables around the edge. I search
the crowd for Serenity, and am surprised at the changes to many
familiar faces. I’ve avoided going into town until yesterday, so
the only people I’ve seen since returning are at the gym or have
sought me out. Here is the cream of Madison and many of them have
not aged well. I get a certain gloating thrill from that. I may
have been in prison, but I’ve at least taken care of myself.

I finally spot Serenity in the middle of
floor. She takes my breath away. She is a woman who’s definitely
taken care of herself. My woman. Smiling up at Monroe. Before all
is said and done, I’ll punch that smug son of bitch. My eyes
narrow. And I have just cause. Each time Monroe tries to pull
Serenity closer and she takes a subtle step away, I add another
infraction to a growing list. It will be much more satisfying to
deal with Monroe’s transgressions than my anger at Serenity. She is
another matter.

I thought that whatever possessive or jealous
instincts I have were beat out of me over the last ten years, but
I’m wrong. It’s one thing to consider her mine, which I do--so sue
me. But the fine rage that thrums through me whenever anyone else
dares touch her is dangerous. I know what I am, and what I’m
capable of doing. And still I stand and watch, letting it build
within me.

She’ll have to pay for testing my patience
like this. The question is how. Because this depth of feeling goes
way beyond lust, beyond want. Standing there in the shadows, I
realize I’m never going to get her out of my system. My brother is
right--I love her. I close my eyes and lean against the wall. Ten
years. I’d thought I was waiting for revenge, but I have really
been waiting for her. It pisses me off that I’ve chosen to love a
woman who is so wrong for me, and that she doesn’t love me back.
Too damned bad. I stare out into the night. I’m not letting her
go.

I straighten and turn back to the doors, all
the while indulging in a brief fantasy of going in and dragging her
out. I might have done it an hour ago, but now I have too much to
consider. As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t want to trash her
reputation. Plus, I know she is with Monroe trying to get dirt on
him. I understand but I wish she’d turn the case over to someone
else and ride out her last few weeks. But she is a cop. A good cop.
The litany replays itself over and over inside my head. Whether I’m
trying to convince myself she’s safe or that good cops really
exist, I’m not sure.

While I’m thinking about our future, the
dance breaks up and Serenity moves to a set of doors a few feet
from where I stand. She turns and stares out wistfully into the
night, and she jumps a little when Monroe comes up behind her
holding a cup in one hand. She must have seen his other hand
reaching for her ass in the glass’ reflection, because with a deft
movement, she steps sideways and takes the drink. I smile. That’s
my girl.

The move positions her so she has a clear
view of both of Monroe’s hands, and I get a good look at her face.
She hides it well, but her eyes are tight with anger. I waffle
between going in after her and letting her handle it, when she
takes the choice away from me. She stops a passing waiter, hands
him her glass and opens the door. I hear her speak to Tim.

“It’s fine really. I just need to clear my
head a minute--it’s hot in here--and you said you want to catch the
mayor before he leaves. I’ll only be a second.”

She steps through the door and closes it
behind her with a firm tug. Then she wanders over to look at the
Christmas tree in the middle of the patio. She circles it, and I
meet her on the backside of it, pulling her against me and kissing
her hard before she can say anything. She struggles a moment before
grabbing the edges of my coat and pulling me closer. I soften the
bruising kiss. When I finally loosen my hold on her, she doesn’t
pull away but leans back to look up at me. She arches an
eyebrow.

“What are you doing here?”

“Checking up on what’s mine. Monroe needs to
keep his hands to himself. You’d better remind him of that,
detective.”

Serenity

It’s more a growl than a statement. His eyes
flash at me, and his face is sharply profiled in the white and red
glow of the Christmas lights. He obviously means what he says and
since I agree with him--that touchy feely crap gives me a major
case of the squicks--I nod in agreement. Not that I’m going to let
him push me around either. No way. But I understand where he’s
coming from. Maybe. Could be I don’t have a clue. One minute I
think we have something real and the next I think it’s just sex. I
have to figure this out.

“He is pretty creepy,” I say.

“Then why don’t you drop this before you get
hurt?” he demands. “You’re quitting in a few weeks. Let someone
else deal with Monroe.”

I bite my lip and wonder how to answer him. I
don’t think he’ll understand. “Justice,” I say. “He killed a man in
cold blood. You and I both know that. And his drugs are slowly
killing God only knows how many other people. This is my last case.
I have to see it to the end.”

I can see he doesn’t understand.

“I thought you didn’t like this work? That
you’d decided it’s not for you.”

“After you went away, I…floundered. That was
a serious miscarriage of justice. You should never have gone to
prison. I thought maybe I could make a difference from inside the
system. I’m good at the work, but…it’s not a drive in me the way it
should be and sometimes I hate it. I hate constantly seeing the
worst in people. People like Tim Monroe.”

He stares at me a long time and I can’t read
him. I have no idea what he’s thinking.

“How much longer are you going to be here?”
he asks.

“I’m not getting any information out of him,
so I’ll be going home soon. I think I’ve done my family duty
tonight.”

I’d come to the party mainly because Mom
expected me to, and she would understand my wanting to cut out
early. Since Honor isn’t here tonight, Mom is the only one in the
room who agrees with me on Tim’s creep status. She also knows
something is up with me and has subtly questioned me all night.
Certain it has something to do with a man other than Monroe, she
seems determined to get answers.