Falling for Her (21 page)

No man had ever winked at her before, and Sugar decided it was the sexiest thing a man could do. It seemed such an intimate gesture, something meant just for her. Storing his gift in her treasure box marked
Jamie
, she snatched her purse from the floor, then walked to the couch and picked up Junior.

“You’re not taking him with us, Sugar. Close him up in your room. He’ll be okay.”

No way. If something happened, she needed Junior with her. She had her money and new identity on her, and the last thing she wanted was to have to find her way back to Jamie’s house to collect her cat. “I don’t want to leave him in a strange place alone. He’ll be fine if I hold him.”

A roll of his eyes and a manly sigh was his only response before he opened the front door and ushered her out. She gave him a cheeky grin as she walked past him, impulsively adding a wink. Maybe it’d please him as much as it had her.

It occurred to Jamie as he followed Sugar to the car that she was the first woman to ever wink at him. It was kind of cute. The last thing he’d expected when he’d chased after her was to bring her back home with him. As he’d followed her on the return drive, he’d finally accepted that he needed her in his life, and the best way to keep her safe was to keep her with him.

He glanced over at her, sitting with her cat standing on her lap, his paws on the window as they both looked out. She was giving Junior a running commentary of the sights they were passing, and it appeared the creature was paying close attention.

He shook his head at his whimsy. The woman messed with his mind. Like when she’d walked out after her shower, her hair damp, the leggings and T-shirt hiding none of her curves, her wet cat snuggled in her arms, and all his intentions had gone the way of . . . wherever. They’d just gone, and he’d found himself smiling and flirting with her. And kissing her. He’d meant to keep his distance until they took care of her problems, then they could turn their attention to whatever was going on between them. As soon as she walked into the living room, however, her cheeks pink from the shower, and a shy smile on her face, he’d known keeping his distance wasn’t an option. As usual where Sugar was concerned, things didn’t go as planned.

“Why are you scowling?” she’d asked.

Because I think I’ve had it all wrong the past ten years.
“Sorry, it’s been a long day, and I’m just a little tired.” The setting sun disappeared over the horizon, making the interior of the car dark. Although he couldn’t see her expression, her hesitation hung in the air between them and he knew, just knew what she was going to say.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to come after me.” Her gaze shifted to the window, and she peered out. “I didn’t want to involve you in this mess.”

Bingo. He held out his hand and waited for Sugar to put hers in it. Instead, he got a handful of fur as Junior scrambled over, arching his back under Jamie’s fingers.

“Mowwl.”

“Mowwl back atcha.” As if he’d just given permission in cat talk, Junior hopped over the console and curled up in Jamie’s lap. Amused, he chuckled. The cat was the ugliest thing he’d ever seen, but with his missing ear and bent tail, he had the marks of a warrior and was impossible not to like.

“He likes you.”

“And I like his owner.” He held out his hand again. She looked at it for a few seconds, then slid her palm over his and entwined their fingers. Such a feeling of rightness flowed from their joined hands that he almost jerked away. What if he truly did fall for her, and she wanted no part of him when everything was over?

“I never thought I’d see this place again,” she said when he pulled into her parking spot.

“Where did you plan to end up?”

“New Mexico. Arizona, maybe.”

That seemed a world away, and thinking of her on the run and alone sent a wave of relief through him that he’d found her. “You shouldn’t have to spend your life looking over your shoulder, sweetheart. Let’s get whatever you need, get our grocery shopping done, and not think about any of this tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll start planning how to put an end to it.”

“Okay. I’ll only be a minute.”

“I’ll come in with you.” He wasn’t letting her out of his sight.

Taking Junior, she draped him over one shoulder and her purse strap over the other. Once inside her condo, she set Junior on the floor. “Go get your toys,” she said.

Jamie watched in amazement as the cat scampered under the sofa, returning a few seconds later with a small ball in his mouth, which he dropped at her feet.

“Go get the rest.”

“Are you sure he’s not a dog?” he asked when Junior trotted off again.

Her beautiful eyes crinkled at the corners. “One sometimes wonders. If you’d get the cat food from the pantry for me, I’ll grab some clothes, and we can be off. You’ll see some plastic bags on the same shelf you can put the cans in,” she called over her shoulder as she headed down the hall.

The cans were easy to find, and he also added the bag of dry cat food. Noticing a wine rack on the floor, he grabbed a few bottles. Just because he didn’t drink didn’t mean she couldn’t relax with a glass or two. With two plastic bags in hand, he turned toward the living room.

The only warning he had was Junior crouched under the coffee table, his tail twitching, the pupils in his green eyes dilated, and the fur on his back standing straight up as he stared intently down the hallway. His low growl sent a chill down Jamie’s spine.

He gently set the bags on the counter and reached for his gun.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

S
tupid
.

She was so damn stupid. Hadn’t she felt his evil coming closer? Because she’d ignored all the warnings, she’d put Jamie in danger, and she’d rather die than see him hurt.

“Who is he, Hannah?”

The slick-as-oil voice sent a shudder of revulsion through her. It was impossible to answer with Rodney’s hand covering her mouth, and the gun poking into her back did nothing to help calm her nerves.

“If you’ve fucked him, I’ll kill you both.”

And he would. OhGodOhGodOhGod.

Snap out of it, Sugar. You’re not Hannah. Think!

Yes, she needed to think, to figure out how to keep Jamie safe. That was all that mattered. Rodney was crazy, but he was crazy like a fox. Somehow, she had to outwit him. Tugging on the hand covering her mouth, she muttered against his fingers, hoping he’d let her talk.

“If you scream, I’ll put a bullet through your spine. You won’t die, but you’ll be paralyzed for life. All the better to make you stay put.” His hand loosened, although he still kept it over her mouth.

“He’s just a friend,” she whispered. “Someone I work with.”

“If he’s only a friend, why is he here? Where were you last night?”

The unmade bed caught her attention, the one she’d carefully made up for what she’d thought would be the last time. Oh, just gross. He’d slept in it. Her mind trailed off to a vision of burning it. If he were in it, all the better when it went up in flames.

“Where were you, Hannah?”

She snapped back to her current predicament. Where had she been? Think. Where? Somewhere she’d read that when telling a lie, one should keep it as close to the truth as possible. “At a weekend away in New Orleans that the people I work for hold every year. Everyone was there, all twenty-six of them. My car quit on me and had to be left at a repair place. Ja . . .” Sugar almost bit her tongue off when she heard herself about to say Jamie’s name. “He gave me a ride back, that’s all. He only came in because I have a book he wants to read.” Lame, Sugar. So freakin’ lame.

“I want to believe you, Hannah. I really do. But you’ve given me no reason to. Let’s go meet this friend of yours.”

“I’ll come home with you, Rodney, if you’ll leave him alone. I was going to anyway. I thought I wanted to be on my own, but it wasn’t what I expected. I missed you. Let’s just go home, okay?”

The man who’d claimed a fifteen-year-old girl as his—the man who’d beat her, made her steal money from a kind woman, and laughed at her tears when that woman had been murdered—spun her around and lowered his Bradley Cooper handsome face to hers.

“You’ll come home with me whether I let him live or not, Hannah. And you’ll tell me where my money is.”

It took every fiber of her being not to vomit all over him. Swallowing her bile, she nodded. “I will, I promise.”

Please God, keep Jamie safe, and do your God thing, and make him take Junior home with him.

If the man and cat she loved were together, she could accept her fate. And some day she’d escape again, but when she did, she’d cross some ocean or other and disappear somewhere he’d never find her. Rodney pushed her ahead of him, the gun still digging into her spine.

“Where is he?” Rodney said, pulling her to a stop when they reached the end of the hall.

“Probably left. I told you, he just wanted a book.” Where the hell was he?

“I’m right here, behind you.”

She’d never heard Jamie’s voice sound so cold and deadly. Hope exploded inside her. Jamie had somehow known Rodney was there. If Rodney thought he was a badass, he didn’t have a clue. The K2 men expected the worst, trained for the worst, and could show a small-town, bully cop who thought he was a badass the true meaning of the word. She exhaled a slow breath, but tensed again when Rodney pressed the gun hard against her back.

No, Rodney played dirty and she didn’t want Jamie involved; she couldn’t bear to think of him being hurt.

“Go home, Saint. This isn’t your concern.” Please, Jamie, go home.

Jamie laughed, but it wasn’t really a laugh. It was a sound that would’ve scared her into handing him her gun, and agreeing to anything he asked.

“Saint?” Rodney echoed. “Who the hell wants to be a saint? I’ll put a bullet through her if you don’t step in front of us. Like right now.”

The air sizzled with determined male testosterone as the two men refused to give way. “Please, Saint. Please.”

“I don’t think so, Sugar. He won’t shoot you cause he knows I’ll end his sorry-assed life before his finger’s off the trigger. You do know that, don’t you, Mr. Vanders.”

Rodney’s fingers dug into her arm at hearing his name from Jamie. “It warms my heart to know you’ve talked about me to your
friend,
Hannah.” He poked her again with his gun. “Tell him if he doesn’t step in front of us right now, I really will shoot you.”

What she’d dreaded telling Jamie might be the only thing to make him leave, the only way to keep him safe. She’d just hoped after she explained, he could forgive her, but any chance of that had been stolen by Rodney’s appearance. Blinking back tears of regret, she took a deep breath and willed herself to say the one word she’d hoped to never hear pass her lips again.

“Please do as my husband asked, Saint.” Rodney’s thumb made a slow caress over her skin as if in approval. She really was going to vomit.

Time seemed to stop, the air seemed to leave the room, and her heart seemed to cease its beats. No one moved, no one spoke, yet through the dead air, she could sense Jamie’s shock.

Any second, if something didn’t happen, she was going to either faint or lose the contents of her stomach. Then Jamie was standing in front of her, his gun pointed at her. Was he going to shoot her? Not that she’d blame him.

Ice-blue eyes lasered onto hers. “Is that true?”

She resisted lowering her eyes in shame. She was still Sugar, still had balls Hannah had never dreamed of possessing. Sugar could look the man she loved in the eyes and do whatever it took to keep him safe.

“Yes, it’s true, so you should go now.”
Please, go.
“Rodney . . .” She glanced up at her husband, aiming for a softness she would never feel in this life or the next for bad cop, and fearing she’d failed miserably. How the hell was she supposed to go all soft for a man who’d raped Hannah and murdered her only friend? “Um, Rodney’s my husband, and I’m going home with him.”

Whoever said things got easier with repetition lied. Saying
my husband
made her want to vigorously scrub a Brillo Pad over her tongue. Jamie’s hard gaze speared through her, and she gave up trying to pretend anything.

The wood floor at her feet could use a good wax, something she’d meant to get around to doing. Thinking about failing to wax her floors was damn easier than meeting Jamie’s gaze and seeing what a disappointment she was to him.

“Go home, Jamie,” she whispered, the fight having gone out of her. “Just go home.”

Rodney laughed, the absurd sound of it grating over her skin like the feel of fingernails over a blackboard. “You really should listen to my wife, Saint . . . or should I call you Jamie?”

Oh, shit. She’d called him Jamie. She did not want Rodney to know his name, not even his first one.

“You’re still hesitating, Saint Jamie,” Rodney said. “Maybe it’ll make a difference if you knew my wife killed a nice old woman just to steal money that wasn’t hers. Smothered her with a pillow and then slept through the night like a baby.”

Sugar jerked her gaze up to Jamie’s and opened her mouth to deny she could do such a thing, that she’d spent the entire night crying for her friend.
I didn’t,
she almost screamed, but the cold-as-glaciers blue eyes stopped any protest she might have uttered. It was better that way. Let him believe she was pond scum so he’d take himself safely away.

“Makes all the difference in the world, Mr. Vanders. I assume you’re here to arrest her?”

Never having the brains God gave even a goat, Rodney took an agonizing full minute to consider the excuse Jamie had just given him. Nor did it occur to him to wonder how Jamie knew he was a cop. But Sugar knew her husband. Unfortunately. Knew he’d latch onto the excuse Jamie had handed him to justify his right to her.

What was Jamie up to? During the long seconds she could almost hear Rodney’s small brain making an effort to engage, she stared at Jamie. He stared back with an expression devoid of any clue to his feelings, and she wondered if she knew him at all. She’d wanted him to walk away, to not get hurt by anything she or Rodney did. She guessed she was about to get her wish.

Her poor, deluded heart, however, had thought he just might step up and be her hero.

“Arrest her? Exactly. That’s why I’m here. To take Hannah back where she can face her crime.”

Jamie almost snorted at the blatant lie. How had Sugar’s father justified to himself putting his young daughter into the man’s hands? Sugar . . . He tried to think of her as Hannah, but it just didn’t work. She was Sugar to him and always would be. The woman he’d come to know would chop off her fingers before she’d hold a pillow over an old woman’s face.

But she had neglected to mention she had a husband. Stupid him, it hadn’t occurred to him to ask if she was married. Biting down his disappointment that she still hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him everything, he focused on the situation at hand. Later, when she was safe, they’d have another
little
chat.

With a gun pressed to her spine, his options were limited. If he put a bullet through the middle of the man’s forehead as he longed to do, there was too great a risk of Vanders’s gun going off. The smartest thing to do would be to convince her bad-cop husband that he couldn’t care less about her well-being and make his exit.

Vanders would be anxious to get back home where he felt in control, and Jamie would be waiting for them to walk out of the condo. It wasn’t the greatest plan, but it was the best under the circumstances.

“You know what, I knew the minute I met her she was trouble, and as far as I’m concerned, she’s all yours.” Trusting the man wasn’t fool enough to shoot a stranger, Jamie stuck his gun in the back of his waistband. “I’ll just leave you two lovebirds with best wishes for a happy life.”

“You can go, Saint Jamie, but your gun stays.”

Jamie snorted. “Not happening.” Forcing himself to ignore the desperation in Sugar’s eyes, he backed toward the door, hands held out in front of him.

Then all hell broke loose.

Out of nowhere, a hissing, spitting cat flew through the air, his back feet landing on Vanders’s shoulder as his claws dug into the man’s face. Vanders screamed and punched at the cat. Jamie reached for Sugar to pull her away.

“Junior,” she cried when he pushed her toward the door.

“Damn it, Sugar, just go.”

Upon hearing his name, Junior sprinted to Sugar, and she snatched him up.

“Go,” Jamie urged.

“He’s going to shoot you,” she cried, then tossed Junior onto the sofa before stepping in front of Jamie just as Vanders fired.

Jamie had seen the crazed look in the man’s eyes and was reaching for his gun even as he knew he’d be shot before he could get to it. He had expected to feel the pain of a bullet slicing into him, and had even had enough time to hope it wouldn’t hit a vital organ.

He had not expected Sugar to take a bullet meant for him.

Vanders stared in shock as Sugar crumpled to the floor, then he took off, heading for the back door. Acting on instinct, Jamie fired at the fleeing man. Vanders let out a yell and clutched his arm, but kept going. As much as Jamie wanted to chase him down, Sugar was hurt and needed him.

“Stupid woman,” he murmured, swallowing past the lump of fear in his throat. As he searched for where she’d been shot, his heart felt like it had tripled in size and no longer fit in his chest.

“Not . . . not stupid. Ha-have an IQ of over one forty.”

“We’ll debate that later.” Her weak voice worried him. A circle of blood grew on her T-shirt near her stomach, and he lifted the shirt. “Thank God,” he said upon seeing the bullet had gone through the skin at the edge of her waist. He gently probed her back, relieved to feel an exit wound.

“H-hurts.”

“I need to get some towels, sweetheart. I’ll be right back.”

She grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry.”

“Hush, my love.”

My love.
He backed away from the pain-filled eyes that were welling with tears. He’d never used those two words before with any woman. Hadn’t wanted to. Ever. People he loved died. Hadn’t he just proved that all over again by almost getting her killed?

Unable to face what was in his heart, he turned his attention to summoning help. Hanging up after calling for an ambulance, he dialed Jake’s number as he pulled a bath towel out of her linen closet.

“Sugar’s been shot,” he said as soon as Jake answered, praying he and Maria had returned from New Orleans.

“Where are you?”

“Her condo. Are you home?”

“Just walked in the door. We’re on our way.”

Jamie stuck his phone into his pocket as he hurried back to the living room. Curled next to Sugar’s neck, Junior blinked green eyes at him as he gave a cry that Jamie fully understood. He could easily curl up on the other side of her neck and cry, too.