{Nauti Boys 5} - Nauti Deceptions (14 page)

“I need to talk to you, and to your grandmother if she’s up to it,” he told Lisa. “Are you up to that, Lisa?”

She nodded against his chest before moving back. “Whatever it takes to find whoever did this. Joe wouldn’t have killed Jaime. It just wouldn’t happen, Zeke. And now even our memories of them are being stripped. What the hell happened to their home?”

Yeah, that was what everyone else was telling him, too. As for the mobile home, he just didn’t have the answers he knew she needed.

Lisa turned away and led him into the house. To face Rogue. He stared into violet eyes and damned if he knew what to do. He wanted her in his arms, he wanted to lower his head and kiss those shimmering lips, and at the same time he was aware of the dangers that lurked there.

Zeke Mayes hadn’t publicly claimed a woman since his wife had died. He kept his affairs hidden and his desires carefully controlled. And controlling them had never been as hard as it was now.

As he stared at her, the heated wonder in Rogue’s gaze seemed to dim when he did nothing. She turned away, her spine stiff beneath the white T-shirt she wore, her hips twitching angrily beneath her jeans as she moved toward the back of the house.

All those long, fiery curls were restrained in a braid that fell below her shoulders. She looked younger than her age, but that did nothing to cool the fire burning in his dick.

“I’ll check on Grandma, Lisa, then make coffee. You talk to Zeke,” she called back.

Zeke nearly followed her. He almost moved to grab her, to pull her back, and give her what he knew she needed. What he needed. A touch, an affirmation that there was more between them than the simple friendship he had claimed for so long.

“She’s not going to wait on you forever,” Lisa said behind him, her voice quiet.

Zeke turned and narrowed his eyes on her as her lips curved into a sad little smile.

“That’s the hazard of living where everyone knows everyone.” She shrugged. “People start seeing things when they see you every day. And Rogue’s not nearly as good at hiding what she wants as you are.”

He rubbed at the back of his neck, blowing out a hard breath.

“I need to talk to you about Joe and Jaime,” he told her, ignoring her advice. “I’m sorry, Lisa, but if I don’t get some evidence to the contrary soon, then I’m going to have to rule their deaths as a murder-suicide.”

Her lips trembled, but she nodded in acceptance. “I don’t know much, Zeke. I know they were seeing some girl. They fought over her at first. Joe was angry with Jaime for a couple days, then . . .” She blushed and shrugged. “You know how they were. When they argued over something like that, they either ended up both doing without it or sharing it.”

He moved to the threadbare though clean easy chair as she sat on the matching couch.

“So they were sharing a woman? Do you know who it was?” he asked her.

“I don’t know if it had gone that far yet.” She shook her head. “And they wouldn’t tell me who the girl was. They just said her daddy would have a stroke if he found out. That was a couple of days before you found them.” A tear slipped down her cheek.

“You were close to your brothers, Lisa,” he stated. “You’ve always known what they were doing.”

“And who they were doing,” she said mockingly, bitterly. “But they weren’t talking this time. They did that sometimes though, if their lover didn’t want anyone to know, then they didn’t tell, Zeke. You know how it is around here. Joe and Jaime knew how to keep their secrets, even from me. Most of the time I only found out by accident when they were dating someone together.”

“Did they say anything more about the father?” he asked.

“They didn’t say anything more, period.” She shook her head. “The next day I was at the hospital with Grandma. There was no time to question them, and I was worried about Grandma. I didn’t think.” Another tear slipped free. “I just didn’t think to question them about it.”

Another damned dead end and a secret that had killed. The story of his life for too many years to count.

“Were Joe and Jaime involved in anything else?” he asked her then. “Any kind of drugs?”

A flash of anger darkened her eyes. “Joe and Jaime didn’t do drugs, Zeke.”

“We found evidence of pot in the house, Lisa; could they have been involved with anything stronger?”

“Hell, that’s like finding a beer in the house,” she exclaimed. “Come on, Zeke, pot’s not that big of a deal around here and you know it. Sure, they smoked a little of it, but never a lot. And Joe and Jaime didn’t do the hard stuff.”

He tightened his jaw for long moments, staring back at her, hating the questions he had to ask.

“Lisa, I need you to think for me, to be very sure. Now’s not the time to try to protect Joe and Jaime, not if you want me to figure out what happened to them. Did you ever know of them doing heroin or anything stronger than a little pot?”

She stared back at him as though he were a stranger now. As though he were accusing her brothers of some heinous crime.

“Never, Zeke,” she finally answered. “And I would have known. Plain and simple, they didn’t have the money or the personalities for that junk. Joe and Jaime liked to play, they liked to have fun, and they didn’t consider hardcore drugs as fun.”

He nodded at that. Joe and Jaime didn’t do hard drugs. That was what everyone said. But someone was trying to make it look as though Joe at least had done something a lot stronger than a little pot.

“Zeke?” He turned to Rogue’s melodious voice, his body tightening, his cock giving an eager jerk at the pure, sweet sound that wrapped around his head. “Grandma Walker wants to talk to you. She said you can come in here and discuss her boys with her or you can face her once she’s strong enough to get to your office. It’s your choice.”

He grimaced at that. Callie Walker was hell on wheels when she was pissed off. If she made it to the sheriff’s office, it would be an event no one was likely to forget for a while. Callie Walker would flay the hide off a man at twenty paces with a look alone.

He rose from his seat. “I’ll talk to her.” Turning back to Lisa, he felt a senseless frustrated anger filling him. They were expecting him to fix this. To figure things out and make someone pay. He couldn’t make anyone pay without proof, and proof was sadly lacking.

Rogue watched Zeke as he moved into Grandma Walker’s room. She could hear his voice, low, deep as he talked to the old woman. It was gentle, soothing. Grandma Walker wouldn’t be with them much longer, and she knew it, ached because of it. The death of her two favorite grandsons hadn’t helped anything.

She wasn’t Rogue’s grandmother, though the old woman had all but adopted her. The relationship was distant—she was a cousin to Rogue’s father—but Rogue couldn’t have loved her more if she had been her own grandmother.

“He’s crazy about you,” Lisa said softly as Rogue moved into the room. “He couldn’t take his eyes off you.”

Rogue snorted at that. “Not hardly, Lisa.”

Lisa shook her head. “He’s always watched you just as hard as you watch him,” she said. “He likes to deny it just as hard as you do.”

Who said she was denying her part of it?

Rogue let a soft smile tilt her lips as she sat down on the couch and drew Lisa down with her. The other girl was exhausted. She’d been trying to take care of her grandmother and her two twin boys at the same time for months. Divorced and on edge, the pressure was beginning to show on her pretty face.

“How are the boys doing?”

A small sparkle lit Lisa’s eyes. She loved her boys. “They’re with their dad tonight.” She finally sighed. “With Joe and Jaime’s deaths and Grandma’s illness, I had to beg him to help me with them. There’s just not enough hours in the day.”

“If you need anything, you’ll let me know?” Rogue asked.

“I will,” Lisa murmured, but Rogue knew her. Lisa wouldn’t tell her if she was starving; Rogue had to guess at it. She had to buy groceries and get someone else to deliver them or face Lisa’s anger. She had to slip in when Lisa wasn’t around and pay home health for Grandma Walker’s medicines and hospital bills. Lisa was proud as hell and she hated taking money from anyone, especially family.

Her head turned as Zeke moved back into the room. She fought her response to him, fought to keep her expression clear of the need and the hunger that burned inside her.

He was dressed in jeans again and his uniform shirt. A black official sheriff’s hat perched on his head. His badge was clipped to his belt and he looked so damned sexy it made her mouth water. Her hands itched to touch him, her lips felt swollen, inflamed for his kiss.

Rising to her feet, she watched him expectantly. She wanted him until she was consumed by it, but she also remembered why he was there.

“Had the boys told her anything?” Rogue asked as Lisa stood beside her.

He shook his head, his eagle-fierce gaze going between her and Lisa.

“Nothing,” he breathed out roughly. “If forensics or the coroner’s investigator doesn’t come up with anything, I’m going to have to close this case.”

He knew something, she knew he did. She knew that closed little look, that official expression, and she hated it.

“I need to head out,” he told them, heading for the door. “If the two of you think of anything, then don’t hesitate to let me know.”

With a slight little nod of his head he walked to the door. Rogue let him get outside before she gave Lisa a quick good- bye, grabbed her backpack, and followed him.

“Sheriff?” She kept her voice casual, composed.

Show no weakness, she warned herself. No familiarity. Stay distant. Zeke didn’t like public displays of anything from women, and she knew it.

He paused by the Tahoe, watching her curiously as she moved toward him.

“We need to talk,” she told him, keeping her voice low despite the fact that there were no neighbors.

“About what?” he asked carefully.

“Joe and Jaime.” She propped her hands on her hips as she faced him. “What have you really learned?”

His arms went over his chest, his gaze became hooded. “Nothing conclusive,” he said.

“What do you have that isn’t conclusive?”

His eyes narrowed, his jaw bunched, and for a second she saw lust blaze in his eyes.

He grimaced as he glanced over her shoulder to the house. “Are you busy this afternoon?”

Surprised, Rogue shook her head. “I’m off the rest of the day. Why?”

“Follow me to the house,” he stated, opening his door and stepping into the Tahoe. “We’ll talk there.”

Follow him? To his house?

Rogue knew his farm wasn’t far from Grandma Walker’s. It was sheltered, private. Hidden. Just as his relationships and his women stayed as hidden as he could manage.

She nodded slowly before moving away. He started the Tahoe as she moved away and was backing out of the drive as she straddled the Harley and started it with a flick of her wrist.

The rumble of power filled her senses, reminding her of Zeke.

Kicking the stand up, she maneuvered the cycle back, turned, and hit the gas as Zeke’s vehicle moved ahead of her.

Why his house? she wondered. Her heart was racing in her chest through the drive, her palms sweating. She could feel the wind against her breasts, her nipples peaking in anticipation, and she knew why. It wasn’t because they couldn’t talk in the Walker driveway; it was because Zeke had no intention of talking.

What were her intentions though? God, she didn’t want to become one of his hidden little secrets. One of the women that he kept behind closed doors and never claimed in public. But her body was raging. The memory of his touch, the need for more was building inside her like a volcano ready to explode.

She dreamed about him. She ached for him. She was the biggest fool living if she allowed him to do that to her.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, another part of her argued. She would never know if she didn’t try.

He was going to break her heart, her head warned her, but she was damned if she could stop it from happening. Zeke was her weakness, and she knew it.

She made the turn onto the farm behind him. The graveled road was long and winding, moving through the valley and angling up and around to another smaller, clear valley where the two-story wood-sided house sat beneath the blazing sun. It was surrounded on three sides by forests, and in the back led directly to the back-waters of Lake Cumberland.

A glimmer of water could be seen through the trees; the scent of it surrounded her as Zeke drew the Tahoe into an opened two-car garage and then motioned her in beside him.

The doors slid closed as the engines shut off. Rogue closed her eyes for a second, realizing what he was doing. Hiding her Harley, hiding her presence.

Breathing in deeply, she kicked the stand into place before swinging from the cycle. Pulling the small backpack from her shoulders, she looped it over the bar on the back of the seat, all the while watching as he moved toward her.

His expression was predatory. It was hungry.

“Hiding me, Zeke?” She couldn’t keep the question inside as he came abreast of her.

He paused, stared down at her as some shadow of emotion flickered in his eyes.