Golden Trail (10 page)

Layne tore his eyes off Rocky and looked at
the desk next to Merry’s, separated by a three foot aisle, where
Rutledge was sitting, his eyes glued to Rocky’s ass.

Fuck!

In the second she’d bent over, she’d cast
her net and, even with Merry one of the prime suspects of who’d
pegged Rutledge as dirty and sicced Layne on him, Rutledge wasn’t
struggling even a little bit against the net.

Layne looked back at Raquel and saw she’d
turned her head toward Rutledge and then she straightened. She
smiled at Rutledge and moved toward him.

The instant she did, Layne made a
decision.

“We’ll finish later,” Layne told Drew on a
mutter and he strode, fast and with purpose, right to Rocky.

She had her back to him and didn’t hear him
coming, was intent on what she was doing or intended to ignore him
having no idea what he was about to do.

He heard her saying, “…not answering his
phone so it’d be a big help if you could tell him…” when he got up
close. Without hesitation, he swung his arm back, hand open and
then smacked her lightly, but the sound carried, right on the
ass.

Her body jolted and she whirled as he said
loudly, “Sweetcheeks.”

He looked down at her stunned face, wrapped
an arm tight around her neck and yanked her right into his body.
Again without hesitation, his head came down and his lips hit hers,
hard, where he kissed her, just as hard. Then his head came up and
he tried to ignore her soft body pressed to him, her tits crushed
against him, the scent of her perfume and the fact that the vibe in
the room had electrified.

He also tried to ignore the fact that her
face showed she was openly struggling against being dazed and being
really,
really
pissed.

“What you doin’ here, baby?” he asked before
she could speak.

She blinked.

Then she asked back, “What?”

His arm around her neck tightened and she
was forced to press closer. His other hand hit her waist and slid
around to the small of her back, pulling her even closer.

“You didn’t tell me you were comin’ to the
Station,” he informed her.

“I –” she started, belatedly struggling by
pushing her neck against his arm.

Before she could say another word, he looked
at Rutledge.

“Best thing that happened to me, gettin’
shot, man, I
cannot tell you.
” He grinned at Rutledge as
Rutledge’s mouth dropped right open, Rocky’s body turned to stone
and then he looked back down at Rocky who was now glaring at him,
her eyes full of fire. “Reunited me with Roc,” he muttered to her
then looked back at Rutledge. “Take another three bullets if I knew
that was what I was gonna get.” He kept grinning. “Luckily I didn’t
have to.” He again looked at Rocky and asked softly, “Did I,
baby?”

“You –” she began, her eyes sparking, beyond
pissed and he dipped his head again and brushed his mouth on
hers.

He lifted his head and saw the fire in her
eyes was muted and she had fallen silent.

He looked back at Rutledge. “Never know what
life’s gonna bring. Lyin’ there, blood oozin’ out of me, thinkin’
that’s the end and, weeks later, I find out it’s actually the
beginning. You get what I mean?”

Rutledge kept staring at him, seemingly
frozen, then his eyes darted back and forth between Rocky and Layne
and he nodded.

“Holy fuck,” Layne heard muttered and he
looked beyond Rutledge to see Sully had arrived, coming up the
backstairs, he was standing just beyond Rutledge’s desk and he was
staring at Rocky and Layne.

“Yo, Sul,” Layne greeted and Sully’s body
jerked. Then
his
eyes darted between Rocky and Layne.

They finally stopped before he gave himself
a seizure and then he greeted back, “Layne, buddy, Rocky, um…
hey.”

Rocky moved in his arms like she was trying
to turn toward Sully but his arms locked tighter and she was
interrupted when they heard Colt coming.

“Yeah, Feb, honey, do me a favor and…” Layne
heard and his eyes moved to see Colt walking toward Sully, his
attention diverted, he was on the phone with his wife,
February.

Colt’s head turned, he caught sight of Rocky
and Layne and stopped so abruptly he looked like he’d hit a
wall.

Layne stifled a laugh.

Rocky’s body got even tighter in his
arms.

“Shit, Feb, I’ll call you back,” Colt
muttered into his phone and immediately flipped it shut, his eyes
never leaving Rocky and Layne. “Tanner, hey, what’s up?”

“Came to talk to you and Sul but Roc showed
so now I’m gonna take my woman for a coffee. I’ll come back. You
gonna be around?” Layne answered.

“Your woman?” Sully whispered but Colt
didn’t speak. His brows shot up and his eyes shot to Rocky.

“Yeah,” Layne answered Sully like a kid
would say, “Duh”. “You gonna be around in an hour?”

“Um… sure,” Sully replied.

“Great, be back,” Layne said and then he
nodded to Colt then to Rutledge then he turned Rocky toward the
stairs.

She yanked her neck out of his hold on the
stairs but surprisingly didn’t pull her hand from his when he
captured it. She stayed stiff but silent and unresisting as they
walked out of the Station and down the two blocks to Mimi’s Coffee
Shop.

He knew she was pissed but he didn’t know
the intensity of it until they hit Mimi’s and he started to stop
them but she tugged his hand and kept walking.

Layne wanted her in Mimi’s. Mimi’s was a
public place where he had the possibility of keeping her under
control.

Rocky, however, had no intention whatsoever
of going to Mimi’s and unless he wanted to drag her in there
kicking and screaming, he had no choice but to follow.

She didn’t go far. She stopped outside the
door to his office, the brass plaque next to it saying “Tanner
Layne Investigations”, yanked her hand from his and lifted her
other hand. Her eyes cut to him and they were scorching. Opened
palmed, she slapped the door and then jerked her head at the
knob.

He watched her thinking he’d forgotten this
too, though, seeing her face he wondered how the fuck he did. She
didn’t get pissed often but when she did, she got
pissed.
Sometimes, he’d be pissed too, because they were fighting. But if
he wasn’t pissed, and she was, he invariably made her
more
pissed because she was cute as hell when she was angry and he
didn’t shy away from informing her of that fact.

Like now.

“Jesus, Roc, forgot how cute you get when
you’re pissed.”

Her eyes narrowed and her shoulders
jerked.

“Open the door, Layne,” she bit off.

He grinned, turned to the door, pulled his
keys out of his pocket and unlocked it. He opened it, swung his
torso in and punched in the code to the alarm.

He was still doing this as she was on the
move. He felt her push the door open wider and he felt her move in
behind him. Then he heard her heels hit the steps. He moved in, the
door closing behind him, and stopped at the bottom so he could
watch her ass as she climbed the stairs. When she got to the top,
turned, looked down at him while she crossed her arms on her chest,
he figured he probably better move.

He jogged up the steps, unlocked that door,
walked to the alarm panel and punched in that code too. She walked
in behind him, again he could hear her heels on the wood floors. He
heard her stop and slam something down on the receptionist’s desk
that no receptionist sat at, probably her purse, and he turned to
her.

She stood several feet inside the room,
facing him, and he could feel the heat from her eyes even at a
distance.

“Roc –” he started but she moved.

Coming right at him, she did it smart, not
making her intention clear until the last second so he almost
didn’t deflect the punch she threw. But he got his hand up, his
forearm catching her wrist, he pushed it back, using the momentum
of her arm and his strength, he whirled her so her back was to his
front at the same time he captured her arm and wrapped it around
her belly.

She yanked back her other elbow and caught
him in the ribs hard enough to make him grunt at the shaft of pain
through his midsection before he caught that wrist too and wrapped
it around with her other arm.

That was when she lifted a knee and he knew
he’d either have a high, thin heel in his shin or his foot and he
didn’t hanker after either so he bent sharply backward, taking her
off her feet. She let out a strangled, angry cry and twisted in his
arms but he kept hold of her, righted himself and swung her lower
body to the side as he took two strides to his couch. He was
sitting and he’d maneuvered her in his lap when she pressed back,
her hips and legs flying up to power kick out of his arms but he
went down with her and rolled over her so she was on her back on
the couch and he was on top of her.

He gave her some his weight, tangled his
legs with hers to incapacitate them and caught her wrists, which
were at his chest, her hands shoving up, and he pulled them out
from between them and pressed them into the couch at the sides of
her head. This gave her his full weight. He knew he was heavy but
he was making a point.

She got his point so she switched to verbal
battle. “Get off me!”

“Not until you calm down.”

Her eyes caught his, her back arched and she
hissed, “Get…
off
… me!”

“Calm down, Raquel.”

“Fuck you, Layne!” she screamed.

Layne went silent. He rarely heard much from
Mimi’s downstairs but, then again, people weren’t usually screaming
at the top of their lungs while ordering coffee.

She stayed silent too for five very long
seconds.

Then she accused, “You’re crushing me.”

“And I’ll keep doin’ it, sweetcheeks, until
I know you won’t take another swing at me.”

“Stop calling me sweetcheeks,” she
hissed.

He put his face in hers and whispered,
“Rocky, you got two sets of cheeks. One of them has one dimple, the
other has two and you gotta know I remember both bein’
sweet.
”

He’d meant to shock her or at least knock
her off guard.

He did neither.

“I don’t
believe
you!”

“Rocky –”

“You are
unbelievable!
” she repeated
with a slight amendment.

His hands tightened on her wrists. “Listen
to me –”

“No!” she cut him off. “No way, you jerk.
Get off me!”

“Listen!” he barked in her face, she fell
silent and stared up at him. “You stop and think for a second, what
just happened was good.”

“Oh yeah? Which part? You walking all over
my plan? You
slapping
my
ass
where
my brother
works?
Or you freaking out Colt and Sully which means Merry
and Dad’ll hear about this if they haven’t already?”

“None of those. The part where Rutledge, who
thinks he knows what’s goin’ on, now isn’t so damned sure.”

That shut her up for a second before she
asked, “What?”

“You order a hit on a man, six weeks later,
he isn’t gonna tell you he’s thrilled he got bullets drilled into
him and he’d take more.”

That shut her up too and this time she
didn’t speak. And she didn’t speak long enough for Layne to realize
this wasn’t just good, it was
good.
Because now they had
Rutledge guessing and instead of Merry, Dave and Layne being
cornered and forced to watch while Rocky did whatever the hell she
intended to do, Layne had her cornered and she had to do whatever
the hell he
told
her to do.

It would keep her safe. She could make
friends with Rutledge and he’d never suspect she was up to
something and it was unlikely he’d share anything that would put
Rocky into danger. And it would keep
him
safe because, while
Rutledge was trying to figure out what, if anything, Layne or Merry
were doing, Rocky would deflect attention so Layne could do what he
needed to do. And lastly, it would mean Rocky would feel she was
doing something when she actually wasn’t doing much of anything
except innocently providing cover.

So he made a decision.

“We’re gonna work this,” he informed
her.

“Work what?”

“You and me and Rutledge.”

Her eyes grew big and her lips parted.

Fuck it all, that was cute as hell too.

Then she repeated, “You and me and
Rutledge?”

“Only thing less likely than a man tellin’
the man who ordered him to be whacked about his newfound joy at
bein’ reunited with his ex is that man’s woman doin’ it too.”

Her wide eyes narrowed. “We are
not
reunited.”

“Rutledge doesn’t know that.”

“This is –”

“You cozy up to Rutledge a different way.
I’m at that Station all the time. Merry works there. You start
hangin’ there, with Merry or with me. You strike up a friendship
with him. You start to confide in him. You convince him all you
know is he’s a cop, you’re a cop’s daughter and sister. You
convince him that to you, he’s in the family. You confide in him,
no way he’s gonna think Merry’s his man. Hell, he’ll start
wondering if I was close as I was. I was investigating who got to
him, whose payroll he’s on. I feed you what to say, we can turn his
mind off us thinkin’ he’s dirty to us just lookin’ into his boss
and havin’ no clue he’s got ties. You can also turn his mind onto
the fact that I’m not doin’ that anymore.”

“But you’ll be doing it,” she surmised.

“Yeah, but I won’t go in hard, I’ll go in
easy.”

She stared at him and he knew he hadn’t
convinced her.

So he kept at it. “Same plan, Roc, except
with this one, you don’t have to put yourself out there.”

“I have no problem putting myself out
there,” she returned.

“Yeah? You can let a dirty cop stick his
tongue down your throat?”