Mosquito Chase (12 page)

Caleb allowed me to enter first. The house was warm and welcoming. The layout was almost identical to Caleb’s place; a living room with the kitchen off to the side. A fire roared in their stone fireplace, flanked by bookshelves; a flat screen TV on one side of the room, and a bar on the other. A few toy trucks lay abandoned on the beige carpet in front of the fire.

“We have the guest room set up for y’all,” Paul said, closing the front door. Caleb and I followed him down the hall. “We added this room a year back for the parents when they came to visit. It’s actually bigger than the master, so Caleb should have enough room on the floor when you kick him out of bed.”

Caleb scowled. “Shut up, asswipe.”

I could only nod and take in the surroundings. It was like I was at some sort of bed and breakfast; a large room with a closet, and another door leading to a private bathroom that would come in handy during the night. A queen-sized bed anchored to a dark wooden headboard was covered with a heavy patched quilt, flanked by two nightstands, a simple lamp standing on each one. A green armchair nestled in the corner, with a reading light overhead. A flat screen hung in between the closet door and the bathroom.

Caleb tossed the duffle bag onto the bed while Paul left my bag in the middle of the floor. I walked over to pick it up. Caleb grabbed the handle before I could get to it.

“Bed rest, lady.”

“I don’t need to physically be in the bed at all times, Caleb.”

“Oh, but he wants you to be,” Paul joked.

Caleb and I both shot looks in Paul’s direction. He cleared his throat and shifted his gaze, realizing the words that had just come unfiltered from his mouth. The front door slammed making me jump. My eyes widened, I looked up at Caleb knowingly. He tried to keep the smirk from his face but failed.

“Uncle Kay-lup!”

Caleb’s eyes lit up and he left the room. I followed him until the doorway, watching him lift up a running toddler. This image proved even more unsettling for my hormones.

“Hey, big guy. Did you have a good day?”

Teague’s response was an exaggerated head nod as he traced his fingers along the pointed edges of the badge on Caleb’s chest. I heard cabinets opening and closing, plastic bags rustling in the kitchen. Heels clicked on the wooden floor just before Ellie appeared at the other end of the hallway. She shrugged off her white coat and hung it inside the closet. She still hadn’t made eye contact with me. In fact, she seemed to be looking everywhere but my direction, trying to ignore the pregnant elephant in the room.

Her hair was a little shorter than it once was and her hips were a tad curvier than her pre-baby figure. Of course, it only made her more attractive. I pressed my eyes closed for one second, trying to shake off the jealousy.
It was years ago.
She’d offered her home to me, allowed me to intrude on her family, the least I could do was stop blaming this woman because of a man neither of us were with now. It felt like it was time to grow up and let the past go.

“Hey, are you okay?”

I blinked open my eyes to find Caleb standing in front of me, Teague in his arms. I nodded my answer as I heard her heels clicking closer to me.

“I picked up some steaks and peanut butter. Caleb said those were the foods you enjoyed the most, and I know how tricky food can be.” Ellie approached. Her mouth was a straight line. Our eyes finally met. “There’s a body pillow in the closet. The case for it is in the dryer now. I also bought some decaf single serve cups. We have one of those one-cup coffee machines. You can dig into Teague’s hot chocolate stash too.”

“Uncle Kay-lup, who’s that?”

“This is our friend, Angie.” Caleb looked up at me. “Angie, this little guy here is Teague. Teague, is it okay if we stay for a while?”

“Is Angie staying too?”

My eyes darted to Caleb’s, then to Paul’s, and then to Ellie’s.

“For as long as she’d like,” Ellie answered with a small smile. A ten-year weight was lifted off my shoulders. I relaxed and exhaled. Exhaustion crept over me. Caleb handed Teague over to Ellie and stepped toward me.

“Why don’t we get those steaks ready, El?” Paul winked at me. Ellie smiled as their little family headed back up the hall.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I’m just exhausted. This has been an eventful day.”

“Do you want to lie down for a while?”

I nodded.

“Do you want me to lay down with you?”

I stared into his eyes. Hope covered his face. I should say no. I really wanted to say no.

I nodded.

I turned around and headed back into the carpeted room. The door eased shut behind me. I took off my shoes and sank into the bed as I watched Caleb take off his shirt and kick off his shoes. He snuggled close, wrapping his arm around me. I stared up at the ceiling as the room darkened with the sun’s decent. I breathed a sigh. I couldn’t keep this up.

“Caleb, I can’t do this.”

“I know,” he whispered in my neck.

“You shouldn’t get too close.” The crack in my voice was filled with lies. He moved his head to look down at me.

“I’m not done trying yet.”

“You should stop.”

He shook his head and resumed his spot in the crook of my neck.

“I don’t think I can stop.”

“I’m going to hurt you, Caleb.”

He breathed against my neck sending goosebumps down my spine and curling my toes. He lifted his face again; his lips inches from mine.

“I don’t care.”

His fingers traced my cheek. His eyes shifted to my lips and back to my eyes. I shook my head pleadingly.

“I don’t care,” he whispered. His lips gently pressed against mine, shattering my heart into a thousand pieces. I wrapped my hand behind his head and my parted lips welcomed him. He groaned as my tongue swirled with his. My other hand grazed his chest.

I can’t do this. God, I want to, but I can’t.

I gently pushed him away and shook my head. He nuzzled his face into the crook of my neck again and remained still for a long time.

“I’m not done trying yet.”

Parker stared at me across the conference table. We were the only ones in the room, waiting for the meeting to start. I looked outside the window, at the chipped paint on the sill, the scratch on the edge of the table, anything to avoid his eyes.

“Are you going to elaborate on Angela Butler or am I going to have the kick the shit out of you? Because I will, you know.”

“Yeah, I know,” I breathed as I finally focused on his face. He eased his head forward, widening his stare and egging me to proceed. I stood up from the table and walked over to the coffee station. “She wound up on my doorstep in the middle of the night almost two months ago.”

“Caleb, is that your child or not?” he interrupted.

“No.”

A pang of regret flowed through my veins. I wished that her child was mine. I wanted to spend every day with her and our little family, but I still wouldn’t admit that I had fallen for her. I didn’t understand how it had happened. When she called me in a panic and told me two men were outside the house, I knew right then that my mission was her. I wasn’t sure if I loved her. I had been fighting back those feelings, unwilling to allow myself to get that close to someone again. I’d always imagined that Tabitha took those feelings away from me, but the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about her, that I wanted to be with her every second of the day, proved I was failing on an emotional level.

“Okay, since the important question has been answered, you can continue with the story.” Parker leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. I took a mug of coffee back to the table and sat opposite of him.

“She came to me saying she’d witnessed a murder. She fled to Alaska, but they figured out where she was, or she got suspicious that certain people knew where she was, so she left. She said she was on her way to Florida, but she landed on my doorstep instead.”

“Whoa, back up. A murder?” He leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbow on the table.

“She saw her fiancé get shot in the head by two drug dealers.” Parker’s eyes widened as I continued, “Her fiancé was all wrapped up in that business.”

He fell back into his chair. “What did she get herself into?”

“It wasn’t like that,” I defended. “She stripped at his club.”

“A stripper?”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Dude, take the emotion out of it. I get you have a thing for her now. I knew you had a thing for her years ago, but seriously, what did she get herself into?”

I rested my elbows and leveled my tone, looking Parker directly in the eye so he would have no choice to but to accept my objective sincerity. “She was in school and worked as a bartender at Simon O’Reilly’s club. She was dating him before she started dancing. Who cares what she did? It doesn’t make her a bad person. And neither does the fact that her fiancé was a drug dealer. She had no clue about it.”

“So she says,” Parker sneered. “Did she say anything helpful about the murder?”

“The only name that stuck out to her was Mateo. He seems to be the man Simon’s killers were working for.”

Parker’s eyes looked like they would pop out of his head. “Did you say Mateo?”

I nodded.

“As in, Mateo Vargas?”

I stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate.

“As in, the Mexican drug lord?”

I leaned back in my chair as the realization overcame me.

“Could it really be him?”

Parker shrugged his shoulders as if to say anything was possible.

The room began to fill in with the whole of Olde Town’s police force. There were twenty of us in total, ranging from detective to building security. As a force, we’d never dealt with anything other than routine police affairs, and the action on Sigmon Road was getting us excited. We could all feel it; something big was coming. The kidnapping of Jordan McCloud a few years back was huge, but that had been an open and shut case. She had sorted it out on her own. I had a feeling this one would not be resolved so easily.

Sheriff Harmon entered, ready to go over the Sigmon Road case. He stood at the head of the table and cleared his throat.

“We need to find out what’s going down on Sigmon Road. The only way I can think to do that is with another bust, but we have no reason to orchestrate a bust. We have no evidence it was Miguel Santos at the house.”

“It was him, Sheriff,” Parker interrupted.

“Again, we’ve got no evidence. That’s why we’re going to watch. They never have to know we’re there if we don’t want them to. If anyone knows this land, it’s us. No one knows the hills and fields like we do. Not the Lucas brothers and certainly not Miguel Santos. This isn’t some festival on Main Street. This isn’t a car wreck. You may think this is too big for us and it very well may be, but do you know what I think? I think we might be small town cops, but we’re not stupid. We’ve broken up enough meth labs by now to know what to look for. But first, we need to find out who owns that black Audi. We need the names of the two men Officer Harris saw getting out of that car, and we need to know if one of those men was Miguel Santos. I posted a watch schedule out on the board in the hall. We’ll work in shifts, day and night. You are required to be on watch on time, no exceptions.”

His eyes scanned the room, coming to land on me. “Everyone’s dismissed except Harris and Abernathy.”

Parker and I sat back and waited for the room to clear. Once it did, the sheriff sat down at the head of the table and looked at the two of us.

“You’ve told him, right?” The sheriff motioned to Parker. I nodded. “Strange coincidence, y’all meeting one of the Lucas brothers right before Angela Butler witnesses two men surrounding your house. Angela’s description of the man she saw fits that of Nathan Lucas. He bootlegged with his brother Neil back in the day but didn’t get caught. Given the situation that Angela is in, though, it’s probably best for y’all to stay with your brother for the time being. She shouldn’t be left alone, I don’t reckon. This is a small town, and it won’t be too hard for the Lucas brothers to find you.”

“I’m aware of that, but I can’t hide her out of town. She’s going to have that baby any minute. She needs to stay close to the hospital. I don’t know how to deliver a baby, and unless one of you do, she’ll need access to doctors and medical facilities when the time comes.”