Exposed (14 page)

Her stupid husband had gotten the bail from her, gotten out of jail, then started acting like a bastard again. She’d ignored him, and then divorced him. Better news was Sadie actually got sober, so the large sum of money that Jack spent on it was not wasted. Sadie divorced Jack nicely after that, not like old Dan.

“You know, I saw there was a ‘for rent’ sign on Dan’s business and his business sign is gone,” Jack said as they held hands walking to Jack’s pickup. They were going to spend the weekend at the hotel where they’d first made love, as it was their one-year anniversary.

“It is?” she questioned with surprise.

“It is, and is it bad to hope he got what’s coming to him?” Jack asked.

“I used to want to be a fly on the wall watching him mess up his life, but I forgot about it somewhere along the way to loving you every day.”

Jack swung her into his arms next to the passenger door of his truck. “Best day of my life was meeting Dan Cooper’s wife,” he said, making her laugh. “I love you, Nia,” Jack said, kissing her.

When their lips parted, she dared to whisper, “Will you marry me, Jack?”

His eyes darkened with such emotion she melted more into him. “Baby,” he whispered. “You’d make me the happiest man alive.” She jumped up and kissed him hard. Then he said against her mouth, “I’ve got the engagement ring in my pocket, so we are good there.”

“Jack!” she exclaimed. “You were going to ask me?” she asked in an excited whisper.

“Yeah, baby,” he replied with a smile.

“Love you so much,” she said, sighing.

The End.

A
xel began taking the tasteless prom dresses and throwing them none too gently into the boxes they came in. One part of him kept demanding an explanation, while the other part just kept calling him a fool for not seeing what was right in front of him. Maybe if his marriage were on solider ground, he’d not be jumping to the infidelity conclusion.

But he couldn’t disagree that Kiki and he were at odds. She wanted Houston and he wanted this little town. He wanted to give back to the aunt that had saved him off the streets from his drugged-out parents at the age of six. Lord, he owed her.

And everything his aunt had taught him in the years she’d raised him demanded he look after her, now she was in a nursing home. Kiki resented that. He knew she felt it was holding her back. He’d tried to love her out of it — that had been their signature fix-it for everything — hot sex.

“Damn it,” he cussed, tossing a chartreuse-colored gown into a box. That had been the one thing they were good at together. Up until about a year ago, when Kiki started avoiding sex.

Axel stopped rampaging through the dresses in mid-throw. “No,” he uttered, more like a snarl. She couldn’t have been having an affair for a year. “No damn way!”

But he knew there was a damn “way.” He threw down the dress and shoved a hand into his pocket, looking for his cell phone. He’d call her and fix these messy suspicions he had.

A few minutes later, he entered the front of the store with his cell phone in his hand. Useless, because Kiki wasn’t picking up. His eyes roamed the store, searching for Liv Dawson's tawny head when he saw she was no longer in the chair he’d brought out for her. His gaze finally found a bit of coppery-gold from her hair and he walked forward, seeing her leaning against the floor-to-ceiling window that wasn’t taken up by displays.

She had her cell phone hung uselessly in her hand and he was struck by how isolated she looked. He wanted to cuss at Dawson for causing his pretty wife even a moment of anxiety.

“I’ve tried to call Andrew on my cell, but ...”

Axel finished for her. “No answer.”

She turned her gray eyes, shot with silver, toward him. “It’s not so unusual for him to not answer.”

Axel wondered what that meant about them, because ... “It isn’t unusual for my wife either. And, she’s not picking up.”

Once again, the unspoken passed between them. She straightened from the window, lifting her cell phone toward her purse. “Well, I better stop bothering you,” she murmured. “Thank you for your help.”

He stuffed his cell phone into his pocket, feeling the anger that had been simmering inside him spike again, but he didn’t let it show as he nodded to her. What more could they say to each other?

“I’m sure it’s all been a mistake,” Liv muttered, then she stepped to the door and pushed it open. “I really like your display windows. They’re very creative.” She smiled at him.

“Thanks,” he answered stiffly. He couldn’t smile back. Then she was gone with the door swishing shut, while his eyes trailed her walking to a black SUV.
Was there an explanation?

Liv walked to her car, slowly. Her mind was working anxiously on all the explanations there could be for her husband’s car to be parked where it was. She shook her head; she must have small town soap opera syndrome.

“What if he’s just broken down and he’s gotten a ride with someone?” she muttered, with her gaze looking across the highway. There was a bar over there. One she’d never paid much attention to before. Her eyes squinted against the morning sunlight. Was the place even open this time of day? She couldn’t tell by just looking at the building, but two motorcycles were parked out front.

She got into her car, nearly as if she was reluctant, while looking at Axel’s store, wishing he had the answers to all the questions taunting her. Throwing her purse on the seat beside her, she reached and caught the door, slamming it shut.

Then she attacked the ignition with her key, muttering. “Damn you Andrew for making me even think this.” But she’d been ignoring other signs as well. Andrew’s constant trips to Houston ... and being out of touch for days at a time. “What husband acts like that?” she demanded to know from the steering wheel as she turned on the ignition.

When she pulled out of the parking lot of Savvi’s Rental, she was torn. So torn, she only made it a short distance down the highway before she turned her car around. She didn’t want to believe it, but she just
had
to find out. The only way she could find answers was to wait for Andrew to return to the scene of the crime ... his red Roadster.

“If I don’t do this now,” Liv muttered, pulling her car into the parking lot of the questionable bar across the street from Savvi’s. “I’ll never have another chance like this to catch him.”

Maybe she was looking for the worst but this was her best chance, on her own, to either exonerate Andrew or catch him in the act. Because her husband was the type of man who would try to make her look crazy for thinking he could be fooling around. He was that good at twisting things like that.

Actually, she’d feel empowered, if it was true and she could catch him so concretely he couldn’t deny it. Liv pulled her car behind the bar. She didn’t want there to be any chance of Andrew noticing her SUV across the street. That left the only place she could really watch for him was inside the bar.

After she parked, she used her cell phone to put off her appointments and work for the day. Her crew at the rose farm, Carlos and Fran, could easily handle the day’s chores without her. The full-blown rose season wasn’t on them yet. That time of year, from June to October, was crazy busy.

Liv grabbed her purse and got out of her car, feeling nervous about going into the bar alone. When she walked around the side of the building, she mentally prepared herself to walk into the bar. While she wasn’t a prude, she was a married woman who hadn’t walked into a bar alone in years.

“I’ll just order a glass of wine.” God, it was only ten-thirty in the morning. But whatever. “I’ll just order the wine, and get a seat by the window to watch.”

Yes, nothing could be simpler, she assured herself, looking over the massive motorcycles as she walked by them toward the front door of the bar. She’d have to remain aloof inside so none of the motorcycle guys got any ideas. But she was probably being overly crazy and they wouldn’t even pay attention to her.

“Who has a bar open this early?” she muttered, pushing the door open past any hesitations she felt. A single thought did pass through her mind.
She wished Axel Savvi was with her.

Going from light to dark blinded Liv for a second and she blinked, while stepping inside the bar. She heard the door swinging shut behind her just as a man’s voice boomed in a masculine tenor. “Oh
mama,
look who just came in. Pink is my new favorite color.”

Liv felt a blush creeping up her cheeks as her gaze focused on a large man walking toward her. He had a red bandanna tied across his forehead and a long beard that rivaled his big belly covered in a ratty blue tee shirt. There were chains hanging from the pockets of some type of leather pants he wore, and more alarming, there was another man just like him standing at the bar.

“Come on, babe, we’ll buy you a drink.” She was startled and a quick comeback did not flip to her lips fast enough. “Are you looking for a walk on the wild side, baby?” he roared at her.

The man’s alcohol-laced beer breath washed over her as he entered her space and tried to grab her behind. She did squeal then, damn it, like a girl and she hated the sound as she twisted away from his beefy hand, noticing the other biker was leaving the bar and lumbering toward them.

“You cannot just accost people like that,” she hissed at him, glaring as hard as she could. “I’m not interested,” she stated flatly. That should put him in his place, she thought, trying to walk around him.

“Aw, come on, babe, how about a dance. Get to know each other.”

Liv’s eyes widened. The man was filthy drunk and not paying any attention to a word she said.

“Hey, lady, dance with me instead. He’s too drunk, he’ll smash your pretty toes,” his partner said overly loud as he drew nearer.

“I don’t want to dance,” Liv stated a bit loud herself. Then she sidestepped them both, moving around a table, looking for the bartender. Someone needed to get these men in line. Then she added, for good measure, in an even louder voice, “My husband will be here any minute.”

She stayed on the other side of the table, not going toward the bar or leaving, because the two burly bikers could catch her either way she went from where they stood. One was scratching his belly and the other was drinking from a bottle of beer, while they peered at her through their red eyes.

“Well, babe, we better dance fast if your old man’s coming. I’ll warm you up for him.” The drunkest man started around the table, which backed her toward the wall. It was ridiculous, and she was becoming concerned. And what if Andrew showed up while all this was going on and she missed him?

“Liv?”

Liv glanced up at her name, shielding her eyes from the morning light glaring off the windows into the darkened bar. She saw a large masculine silhouette, but she couldn’t make out any features.

By voice recognition alone, she whispered, “Axel?”

Some shuffling movements sounded and she saw the burly biker in front of her stumbling backward. “Hey man, your wifey was just looking for a man to dance with.”

“I was not,” Liv exclaimed.

At the same time Axel, who she could see better, moved next to her and grasped her around the back of her waist. “Buy these men a drink on me.” Axel nodded toward the bartender, then he looked at the men. “See you around.”

Axel’s strong arm moved her toward a window seat as the bikers grumbled, but eventually staggered back to the bar. “I guess we had the same idea,” Axel’s low voice said next to her ear.

Liv felt a blush heating her cheeks — it was a little embarrassing. Then he reached forward to pull out a chair from a small two-person table in front of the window. As she sat, she could see the view was perfect to see the Roadster.

Axel guided her chair in, and then he leaned down. The smell of his cologne tugged her closer to him. “I’m going to go pay for their drinks and I better get us something.” He hesitated and she could see the amber shots in his irises.

She leaned closer, and murmured in his ear. “Just white wine. It’s so early and I can’t think of anything else to order.”

His eyes seemed to look over each of her features slowly, and she couldn’t guess what he was thinking, then he said, “I’ll be right back.”

She watched him straighten and walk toward the bar and she realized he had changed his clothes. She should be keeping a vigilant eye on Andrew’s sports car, but she didn’t. Instead she watched Axel. His broad shoulders bunched as he leaned on the bar to speak to the bartender, while his butt looked masculinely tight in the jeans he was wearing.

She sighed. He had on a blue collared shirt with a black vest and his shirt sleeves were rolled up his well-developed brown forearms. The bikers were eyeing him, but they stayed on their half of the bar. He just looked powerful; like a man that could take care of himself in any situation.

Her darn eyes got misty and she turned her gaze away from him. It should be her husband shoeing away men that were giving her unwanted attention and it should be him up there buying her drink and looking after her. And it
should
be her husband making her heartbeat flutter and her gaze drink up his masculine body.

“Liv, are you alright?”

Liv blinked back the telltale moisture in her eyes, looking up at Axel as he set a steaming mug in front of her. “I’m fine,” she replied automatically.

He nodded, pulling the chair out opposite her, and she saw he had a mug too. “I took the liberty of getting you coffee with some Baileys in it.”

It smelled so good. Her eyes lit with thanks and that brought a wicked smile to Axel’s full lips. Inside her, a small gasp sounded. It had been years since she’d sat with a man she barely knew in such an intimate situation. She couldn’t help feeling a little excited.

Axel watched Liv sip the drink he’d brought her. She obviously enjoyed it and her pretty eyes and curved lips showed her pleasure. The difference between Liv and Kiki was so plain, he couldn’t ignore it. Maybe being married for four years had dampened Kiki’s kindness toward him.