Playing with Fire (14 page)

Tears pricked her eyelids. The last thing she’d expected from Griff was romantic language and gestures. She took the box from him, setting it on the bed, and threw her arms around him, almost knocking the rose from his hand. “Oh, Griff. I truly, truly love you.”

“Go get cleaned up.” He kissed her forehead. “ I want to fix this so it blooms for a long time.”

She was showered and dressed and they were outside ready to leave, when a car pulled into the driveway behind Griffin’s truck. Cyrus McLeod, Neil’s father, got out and came to her.

“Nice to see you, Cassie.” He kissed her on the cheek.

“What can I do for you, Cyrus?” She was sure he was the advance guard, and she wasn’t in the mood for him. “I thought you’d be in church.”

“I was hoping we could visit a minute, honey. Got a cup of coffee for an old family friend?”

“As a matter of fact, we were just leaving.” She noticed he’d ignored Griffin altogether.

Cyrus looked over at the man standing so protectively with her. “Griffin, you think you could give us just a minute here?”

“Stay where you are, Griff.” Cassie’s tone was firm, but polite. “Cyrus, if you have anything to say to me, you can say it in front of Griffin. And if it’s anything negative about him, you can save your breath.”

Griffin moved to stand behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders in a definite signal of possession. And maybe, she thought, protection. She leaned back into him, drinking in his strength.

“See, now, that’s the thing,” Cyrus told her. “There’s a lot of things you just don’t know, honey. You need to listen to me before you make a big mistake here.”

“Neil called you, didn’t he?” She spoke through gritted teeth. “He needs to mind his own damn business.”

“Now, Cassie,” he soothed. “He’s just concerned about you, like the rest of us. We all saw Griffin here yesterday and figured he was after you. No other decent woman will have anything to do with him.”

Cassie was so angry she found it hard to speak. She clenched her fists at her sides, trying for some control. “You listen to me. Seems the whole town decided to drive by my house yesterday and spy on me. I’m sorry that’s all you people have to waste your time on. I know everything I need, and, if you’re interested, Griffin wasn’t after me, I was after him. Now, if you could move your car, we have someplace to go.”

She brushed past the man and climbed into the passenger seat of the truck.

“Nice to see you, too, Cyrus.” Griffin inclined his head then went around to the driver’s side, fighting a smile.

McLeod stood at the edge of the driveway, face grim, watching the two of them. At last, he got into his car and backed out into the street.

Griffin burst out laughing, a good warm sound that rumbled up from deep inside him. “I’d give a month’s income to have a picture of the look on that man’s face when you blew up at him. But I’ll tell you, he won’t forget that for a long time. And the whole town will know about it before the day is out.”

“Forget the town.” Cassie pounded her fist on her knee. “I hate this town. Maybe I always have. My sister may have been the town tramp, but when she was murdered and they couldn’t pin it on you, they just brushed it off. When my father died, nobody seemed to care, and I’d guess my mother was just left to wither away in this house. Now, everyone’s on their high horse because you and I are playing house? Give me a break.”

Griff reached over and placed a warm hand on her thigh. Just the touch of his fingers on her skin sent shivers up her spine. “I don’t think I ever realized what a little spitfire you are.” He chuckled. “It’ll give me a whole new perspective tonight when we’re in bed.”

“It will for sure make it interesting when we’re married,” she teased.

“Cassie.” His tone turned serious. “I’m asking you again because this is important. It’s about a lot more than sex. Are you very sure this is what you want?”

“And I’ll ask
you
again.” She played with his fingers in her lap. “Aren’t you?”

“More than you can ever know. This isn’t something I take lightly. That farce with Diane notwithstanding, and my reputation aside, this is what I’ve always wanted. If you can believe that.”

“I believe it.” Lifting his fingers to her lips, she kissed each one in turn then turned his hand over and licked his palm with a delicate stroke of her tongue. “So stop asking me the same question over and over, or I might change my mind.”

He shifted in his seat. “Cassie, if you keep doing that, we’ll have a wreck for sure.”

She grinned at him then dropped his hand back in her lap. “I’m saying this for the last time, Griffin Hunter. This was the last thing I expected when I came back here. I came prepared to hate you for the rest of my life. But I love you, I want to marry you, I want to have your children. If I have to live in this cesspool of a town to do it, so be it, but it would be nice if we could both get out of here.”

“Then maybe you’ll be interested in what I have to show you. If you’re determined to do this, our little trip becomes even more important.”

“So mysterious,” she teased. “How about a hint?”

But, try as she might, she couldn’t pry any more information out of him. The more she asked, the less he told her, fending her off in a joking manner.

“Just wait,” he said. “I want you to see this without any preconceived notions.”

Their closeness in the truck filled the air with snapping sexual tension, and they forced themselves to use restraint. They stopped for lunch at a roadside diner that served the best hamburgers she had ever eaten and dawdled over chocolate shakes. But, even there, they took every opportunity to touch hands or brush against each other. Even just sitting across from one another, heat smoldered in their eyes, and they shared unspoken promises of the night to come.

The dashboard clock read three thirty when they pulled into a town about twice the size of Stoneham.

“Where are we?” Cassie peered through the side window, trying to catch a familiar sight.

“Marble Hill.”

“But I mean, where
exactly
are we?”

“About an hour from Austin. Just keep your eyes open.”

As Griff eased through town, she took in the limestone buildings lining the main street, an eclectic mix of businesses and offices. On the side streets, he pointed out where the schools were, the clinics, all the things that make up a town.

As they headed out the far side of town, Cassie noticed a large nursery on the left, just out on the highway. “Do you buy any of your stuff there? It looks like a pretty big place.”

“Sometimes.” A tiny smile tipped up the corners of his mouth. “I’ll show it to you on the way back.”

They had driven another ten minutes when he turned off on a narrow road. On both sides, pasture land stretched to the horizon, dotted with oaks and sycamore and the mountain cedar so prevalent in the Hill Country. On one side of the road, cattle grazed, on the other, horses gamboled in the sunshine. The scene was a picture suitable for painting.

Griff pulled up and stopped next to a
For Sale
sign set at one corner of the fence. “Come on.” He took her hand and led her along the fence line. “So? What do you think?”

Cassie was bewildered. “I think it’s beautiful. There’s a big hill back there that would be perfect for a house, and all this land for livestock. Why? Who owns it? Is someone building a house here? Do they want you to do the landscaping? Is that how you know about it?”

He turned her to face him. “I hope I am,” he told her. “No, that
we
are. Dewdrop, I’ve been wanting this for a long time. The old home town is nothing but a dead end for me, and I’m ready to kiss it good-bye. Besides everything else, no matter what anyone ever finds out, I’ll always be linked to Diane’s death.”

“You’d really move?” She wished he’d take off the damn sunglasses hiding his eyes.

“In a heartbeat. That nursery you saw at the edge of town is also for sale, and I’ve been talking to them, trying to see what kind of capital it would take to buy it. I’ve been wavering on this for months, waiting to see if either the land or the nursery sold. If they did, that could be my convenient excuse for failure.”

She tilted her head, one eyebrow cocked. “Did you want to fail?”

He wiggled a hand back and forth. “Maybe before, but not now.”

“Why not now? And why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?”

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “I had to make sure you meant what you said. You don’t know how afraid I was you were just getting me out of your system. Or maybe getting back at me.”

“Oh, Griff.” She swallowed the tears clogging her throat.

“If there’s going to be any you and me, it isn’t going to be in Stoneham. We’d be two outcasts, and that’s not what I want for you.”

“How would you manage this? It’s a big financial commitment.”

“I could get a decent price for my house if I put it up for sale. The business, too. And I’ve got enough saved for escrow to hold everything until I have the rest of the money.” He tipped her face up to him. “I love this kind of area, but what about you? Think you’d like living out here in the hills?”

“Are you kidding? It’s beautiful. The town looks great, and the schools are probably terrific.” She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight then stepped back, looking up at him again. “But do you know enough about running a nursery?”

He laughed. “All the upright souls in Stoneham would be shocked to hear this, but remember me saying I took a couple of courses at the junior college in San Antonio?”

She nodded.

“Well, as a matter of fact, I got a degree in landscaping with a minor in business management.” He blushed. “Pretty surprising for the town hellion, right?”

“Griffin! My God!” Cassie was astounded. If someone had told her she would go back to her old hometown, fall into bed with the man who broke her heart, and promise to make a new life with him, she’d have sent them for therapy. Yet here she was, doing just that.

“I know. I have trouble believing it myself.”

She was speechless.

“Well, say something,” he said, his tense posture signaling his nerves. “You love it? You hate it? What?”

For an answer, she pulled his face down to hers and kissed him, mouth open, tongue searching. She thought she’d never get enough of the taste of him. “I love it. And I’ve got some ideas, too.”

“Then let’s do this right.” He pulled off his sunglasses, a serious look on his face. “Will you marry me, Cassie? Will you risk the rest of your life with me?”

“Yes. Yes, yes, yes.” She planted another kiss, this one quick. “Now, let’s go home and talk.”

The euphoria of the afternoon lasted until they reached her house and walked up on the porch. Griffin had taken her key and was about to open the door when he stopped, hand frozen.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Cassie, it looks like our housebreaker has been at work again.”

“What do you mean?” Cassie shook.

“There are scratches around the lock.” Griff squinted at it. “Like someone tried a key that didn’t work and played around with it. Stay here while I check the other doors.”

She waited on the porch in a fit of nervous impatience, twisting her hands in agitation. Why was this happening? What was going on?

He was back in five minutes. “Whoever it was tried every door. I guess we’re lucky they didn’t break a window or anything. Cassie, I think you should call the police.”

“No.” She was emphatic. “I can just see Dangler looking at us suspiciously and forming his own ideas. We’ll take care of things ourselves.”

“Darlin’, whoever it is could be dangerous.”

“Then you’ll just have to protect me.” She gave him a shaky smile. “Let’s go on in.”

Griff unlocked the door then went back to his truck, opened the lid on the bed, and took out two suitcases.

“Griff?”

“Yeah?” He carried the luggage up to the porch.

“I want you to know how glad I am you’ll be staying here with me.”

“
Living
with you, sugar. And not a moment too soon. Someone wants inside this place in a bad way, and I’m not leaving you unprotected.” He set his suitcases down and framed her face with his hands. “I can’t let anything happen to you. Not now when we’ve finally gotten this thing right.” He placed a soft kiss on her lips. “Okay, let’s get a move on here.”

She helped him put his things away in her room. Then she brought her laptop to the kitchen and made him sit at the table with her. Booting it up and opening a blank page, she slipped into reporter mode with ease, firing questions at him as she would interview someone for a story.

“We have to figure this out,” she insisted. “Nobody else is going to do it, so I guess it’s up to us.”

“I’m just not sure we can find out anything.” He rubbed his jaw. “God knows, no one would like it better than me, but after six years, the trail has to be ice cold.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him and jutted out her chin. “I’m a reporter. I may write sports stories now, but I cut my teeth on everything under the sun. It doesn’t matter what you’re looking for, the questions are still the same: who, what, where, when, and why.”

“All the same, Miz Reporter,” he warned her, “you need to be careful. People don’t like anyone digging into things around here.”

“I guess not,” she told him, “since they didn’t do much digging into Diane’s murder.”

“And someone is after something in this house,” he went on. “Something that might have to do with Diane’s death.”

“Okay, I’m not arguing with you about that. I was the one who thought something was out of sync to begin with, remember?” She nibbled at her lower lip. “Besides, what else here could be of possible interest to anyone? So come on. Let’s get started.”

In full reporter mode, Cassie took him through every detail of the night Diane was killed, pulling things from his brain he didn’t even know were there. Under her experienced prodding, a picture emerged for her.

In three months of marriage, Diane had done little to alter her pattern of living. She still worked during the day, a make-work job at their father’s office he’d created for her. Anything for Diane, Cassie thought, tamping down the shreds of resentment. And, each night, when Griffin got home, she was already dressed, primped, and perfumed, eyes flashing, urging him out to enjoy the night life. She blew off his argument that all her running around wasn’t good for the baby. If he wasn’t willing to show her a good time, there were plenty of people who would.