If You Hear Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense (37 page)

He reached out and hooked an arm over her shoulders, tugging her close in a hug. “It’s not good enough, sweetheart. It’s just not. I swear, I want to kill him. I want him dead so bad, I can taste it.”

“Don’t.” Hope eased back, shaking her head. “Don’t. Don’t think it. Don’t try for it, don’t plan it. Don’t do it.”

He could. She knew that. He was more than capable of killing, and that mind of his? It could probably come up with a very clever way—one that might never be traced back to him.

She caught his face in her hands, staring into hard hazel eyes. So often, those eyes were distracted, distant, focused on worlds that existed only in his head. But now they were cold, brittle as glass.

“He deserves to die for the shit he did to you.”

“I won’t lie and say I disagree,” Hope said. “But if he dies, it would come back on one of us. He’s already destroyed half of my life and I have to start over. If you do anything to him, he’s going to do the same to your life. He isn’t worth it.”

“But my friend is.”

Her heart broke a little. Rising on her toes, she pressed her lips to his cheek. “Why in the world couldn’t I have fallen for you?” she asked, her voice cracking.

Law blushed. But he stroked a hand down her hair and gave her a sheepish smile. “You’re like a sister to me, Hope.”

“I know. And you’re like a brother to me.” She reached down and caught his hands, twined their fingers together. “You are a brother—in my heart, even if we’re not related by blood. You’re the only real family I have left. And because of that, I’m asking you … let it go. If anything happened to you because of him, Law, it would tear me apart.”

His eyes narrowed. “That’s playing dirty.” Then he squeezed her hands. “Fortunately for you, I’d already come to that conclusion.” Letting go of her hands, he tugged on her hair once more and said, “But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to spend a lot of time thinking about painful, slow ways I could make him die.”

“Okay.” As long as he didn’t try to put that twisted imagination of his to use, she was good.

She didn’t want her ex dead. Well, she did. But she didn’t need him dead. She didn’t. She just needed peace. Closure.

And clothes. Glancing down at her worn, thin T-shirt, she stepped back and circled around the desk. “Okay, boss. Time’s a wasting. I’ve got money to burn and clothes to buy.”

Law lifted the box before she had a chance. “I’ll carry it.” On the way out, he said, “Have I mentioned that I don’t like this?”

“Yes. You were pretty clear about that.” She shot him a narrow glance. “Law, I can’t stay inside all the time. I can’t. I’ll only be gone a few hours. Promise. And I’ve got your phone, I’ve got the GPS.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Doesn’t matter. I still feel really wrong about you being out by yourself right now.”

“Well, maybe Lena might come …?”

“S
HOPPING
,” E
ZRA REPEATED
.

Law swore and muttered, “Shit, don’t give me a hard time. I kept trying to talk her out of it, but she won’t listen.”

“I didn’t realize I was giving you a hard time.” Heaving out a sigh, Ezra pinched the bridge of his nose. “Law, you can’t really expect her to stay trapped inside your house for the next six weeks … six months. Six years.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone. “So, you don’t think it’s a problem. I’m being an idiot to worry.”

“Lena went to work on Thursday—we ended up getting into an argument over it.” Ezra stared out the window at her front yard, brooding. Things were still a little too unsettled between them, and he had no idea how to handle it. None. Unsettled. But not just because of the fight.

He’d told her he was falling in love with her.

“I fucking hated every second … but I can’t make her quit her job, man. And you can’t expect Hope to spend the rest of her life hiding in your house.”

“It’s not the rest of her life. It’s just until this is taken care of.”

“And what if he isn’t caught?”

“Shit.”

“That about sums it up,” Ezra agreed. He shot a glance toward the ceiling. Lena was still sleeping. The nights she’d worked, she’d come home in a dark, bitter mood—while they were still getting used to each other, he was pretty sure this wasn’t routine for her.

Something was going on at work, but she wouldn’t talk about it.

Whatever it was, she was pissed off about it, though.

She’d been burning hot with fury when he’d picked her up late Saturday night, and that fury had remained just as hot, just as bright throughout the drive back to her house and once they’d gotten there … well, he wasn’t going to complain about that.

Hot, edgy sex had finally let her sleep, but it hadn’t eased her misery.

Sunday, they’d gone to his place and she’d sat outside with a book while he worked on the deck. At the rate he was going, he wasn’t going to be done by fall—hell, he’d be lucky to be done by next fall.

Lately, he was at Lena’s more often than he was home, anyway.

She wouldn’t talk to him—tell him what was bothering her. He didn’t like that. Part of him worried it had something to do with the bomb he’d dropped on her, but his instincts said otherwise.

He’d almost called out to the Inn and asked Roz, but decided against it. If they were seriously going to try the relationship thing here, he needed to be getting the information from Lena … not her friends.

Besides, he had a feeling Roz was part of the problem. He didn’t know the woman, at all. But he knew Lena and Roz were friends, and nobody could piss a person off as well as a friend … or a lover.

Jerking his attention back to the phone, he listened as Law finished up a rather long, disjointed monologue.
“So you really don’t think there’s any reason she can’t drive to Lexington?”

Ezra rolled his eyes. “She’s got a license, right?”

“Yeah, she’s got a license, but that’s not why I’m asking,” Law snapped. “What if …”

“Shit.” Pinching the bridge of his nose, he leaned back in the chair and focused on the ceiling. “There’s no reason to think Hope’s in any danger, Law.”

“Good. Because she’s heading your way. She wants Lena to go with her.”

Ezra managed to bite back the automatic “Hell no” that sprang to his lips. But just barely. Hearing the soft pad of Lena’s footsteps on the stairs and the rhythmic click of Puck’s claws, he spun around in her office chair, waited for her to appear in the door. She had an unerring radar, it seemed, able to figure out almost exactly where he was with very little effort.

“Morning, sleepyhead.”

She gave him a tired smile. “Did I hear you talking?”

“Yeah. Law’s on the phone. Apparently, Hope’s got a wild hair to do some shopping in Lexington and she wants you to go with her.”

Lena yawned and leaned against the wall. Puck came up, nosing at her legs. “Shopping?” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not usually much for shopping.”

“I think it’s more because she needs to get out of the house than anything,” Ezra said. She stretched her arms over her head and he tried not to stare at the pale strip of flesh exposed as her shirt lifted.

Under the fabric, he could see the darker circle of her nipples, stabbing into the cotton. Now his mouth was starting to water.

On a sigh, Lena said, “Getting out of the house doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” Then she grimaced. “As long as it doesn’t involve going into town. Sure. I’ll go shower.”

Irritated, aggravated, and now sexually frustrated, he
stared at her ass until she disappeared around the corner. “She’ll go,” he said, his voice rough.

Law laughed. “You sound about as thrilled about it as I am.”

“If we try to follow, think Hope would notice?”

“Probably.”

A few seconds later the shower came on and Ezra said, “Besides, while they’re out of town, maybe you and me can poke around a little.”

“Poke around. Where exactly?”

Ezra slanted a look out the window. “Lena’s woods. That’s where the weirdness started, right?”

“We already tried that.”

“So we try again. They’ll be out of town, and together—plus, they’ll have Puck. Whoever it is, Puck’s got a nose for him, and he doesn’t like him. If he starts getting that Cujo growl going on, Lena’s going to haul tail … but, I don’t think anybody would mess with the two of them together. And nobody’s going to risk getting around that dog. He’d take a bite out of a crocodile if it got too close to his lady.”

“Puck’s not bulletproof.”

Images of blood flashed behind Ezra’s eyes.

Blood … blood on my hands
 …

Fuck. Lena’s blood. Nightmare—that was nightmare material, there. And something he didn’t need to be thinking about.

His throat constricted. For five seconds, he didn’t think his heart beat at all. “Neither is Lena. Neither is Hope. We want them out of this mess, we need to start looking around, because frankly, I don’t think Nielson has a clue.”

“You’re a cop. Aren’t you supposed to be saying the police will handle this?”

Absently, Ezra massaged his thigh. “I’m on leave.”

Besides, from where he was sitting, this wasn’t exactly being handled.

“I’m not much help when it comes to trying on clothes,” Lena said dryly, sitting in the corner of the dressing room. Puck had his head on her lap and she didn’t have to see him to know he was giving her puppy-dog eyes and sending her subliminal messages along the lines of,
Can we leave, please please please …?

Stores were not his favorite place. At all.

Hope grumbled under her breath.

“What?”

“I hate trying clothes on. Stupid jeans. They barely cover my butt,” she snapped.

“That’s the style.” Lena shrugged.

“Stylish—for people to see my butt hanging out when I bend over? That’s not style—that’s trashy.”

She grumbled a little more under her breath and then sighed. “I’ll just order some longer shirts online or something.”

Lena listened to clothes rustling as Hope methodically went through and tried on more jeans, shirts, and a few sweaters. “Can I ask you a nosy question?”

The wariness coming from the other woman was almost palpable. “Ah … it depends,” Hope said, her voice slow, reluctant.

“It’s about Law. Just wondering what the story is between you two.”

“Story?” She sounded puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you two seem pretty close.”

Hope sighed. “We are close. I’ve known him my whole life. We were best friends in elementary school, middle school, right up through high school.”

“So it’s a friend thing?”

“What does it matter?” Hope hesitated for a second and then said, “I’m not trying to be rude, but you’re pretty involved with Ezra. Even a blind … oh, shit, I am so sorry. I can’t believe I just said that.”

Lena laughed. “Hope, I am blind. And yes, even I can see that I’m pretty involved with Ezra. But that’s not exactly why I’m asking. Law is a friend of mine. He has been since he moved here … he’s one of my best friends. Mostly, I’m just being nosy. Law doesn’t talk about himself a whole lot. I’ve never seen him have company, he’s never mentioned his family, doesn’t talk about them. As far as I know, he doesn’t even date and if he had, I would have heard something, even if he didn’t tell me. Then you show up. There doesn’t seem to be any romantic interest going on there, but … well, like I said, I’m nosy.”

“There is nothing romantic between us. Law is kind of private. That’s just him. We’re friends, best friends, but just friends.”

There was sadness in her voice, Lena noticed. A lot of it. Sadness, pain, a reluctance to talk.

“So, if there’s not much of a story between you and Law, maybe you can tell me your story.” Rising, Lena took one step forward and reached out a hand. Her fingers grazed Hope’s arm and she moved her hand up, rested it on the other woman’s shoulder. “Now this isn’t me being nosy. Really. Although you might have a hard time telling the difference. But I get the feeling you haven’t ever really talked about it, whatever it might be. Maybe you need to.”

“Thanks for the offer,” Hope said, her voice faint, unsteady. “But this is one of those things you just can’t talk about. I think if I tried, the words might choke me.”