He wasn’t letting her go.
Rafe took the steps two at a time, never letting his eyes leave
those women. They turned as though sensing something was stalking
them. Two pairs of eyes widened. They were shocked and not a little
frightened. Rafe could tell that easily. Neither one moved, however.
They stood their ground. The redhead even firmed her stance as
though guarding something precious.
“Special Agent Kincaid,” the redhead said in a too-loud voice.
Holly, he remembered. Her name was Holly, and she’d just given
Laura away. Laura was obviously behind the curtain, and her friend
wanted to warn her of encroaching danger. Nice. He didn’t mind that at all.
“Holly, I was looking for Laura.” It was a leading question. He
wondered if Holly would attempt to lie to him.
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Guileless green eyes looked up at him. No lies in those eyes.
“She’s changing. I think she would appreciate it if you gave her a
moment. She wasn’t expecting people from her past to show up here
today.”
She’d placed careful emphasis on the word “past.”
“Yes, I doubt she ever expected to see me again,” Rafe murmured.
He wondered if she was changing clothes. He wanted to see her again.
She’d changed. She was softer, more round. She was a little older, but
it looked good on her. She was even more beautiful than he
remembered. Damn, he needed to get his head back in the game. He
couldn’t think about sex. He needed to stay in control or he would
lose her.
Nell, whose voice had disappeared again, patted her friend on the
back, and they seemed to have a whole conversation with a series of
looks and gestures. Finally, Holly turned back.
“She wants to know why you’re here.”
That was a question he needed to answer carefully. Especially
since he knew Laura was behind that curtain, probably listening.
What did he say? Well, he’d told Cam they needed to be aggressive.
“I needed to find her because I love her. I’ve loved her since the day I met her, and I have missed her every day she’s been gone.”
Let her stew on that for a while. Or, perhaps, she would come
barging out of her hidey hole, and they could have the fight they’d
needed to have for five fucking years. Yeah, he was looking forward
to that. He had the distinct feeling that they wouldn’t get anywhere
until they had that fight.
The curtain opened, and Laura stepped out, dressed now in tight
jeans that accentuated her new curves and a plaid shirt that opened
low enough to show off the slope of her breasts. Her hair had been
pulled back in a ponytail. She looked so different. Her beauty had
always been soul deep, but there was a strength in her eyes that hadn’t
been there before. It was apparent that she’d been crying.
Fuck, that hurt.
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“It’s good to see you, too, Special Agent Kincaid.” She stepped
into her heels. They were the only thing left from the outfit she’d been wearing.
The words were said with a flat cadence that told him she simply
didn’t care enough to lie. She was fooling herself. It was obvious to
Rafe that she still had some sort of feelings for them, whether good or
bad. She’d been crying. There was still something there. He wanted to
take her in his arms, but it wasn’t the time or the place.
“We need to find someplace where we can talk. Cam and I need to
go over a few things with you,” he said.
Laura glanced down at her watch. “Sorry, I have a lot to do today.
All week, actually. I have a friend who’s getting married on Saturday,
and I’m in the wedding party. Tonight is the Big Game Dinner. That’s
serious in these parts. So, if you want to talk, you’re going to have to do it at my place while I get ready.”
With that, she dismissed him. She gave her friends hugs and then
walked right past him.
Rafe felt his blood pressure rise as she walked away. He caught up
to her in two long strides and grabbed her by the elbow.
“I came all this way, searched for years to find you, and you can’t
give me an hour to explain things to you?”
“I think you made everything clear to me back in DC. I
understand that something has come up with the case, but I have a life
here now. I have a job.”
He knew about her job. Once he’d figured out what name she was
using, he’d found out everything he could about her. It had been very
surprising to discover that one of the most driven, ambitious women
he’d ever known worked at a place called the Stop ‘n’ Shop. “Yes,
you’re working at a gas station. I’m sure that degree in psychology
comes in handy when you’re using a cash register.”
She flushed, but stood her ground. “I make no apologies for my
life, Rafe. I do a damn good job. I like the people here. If you have a
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75
problem with it, the highway can take you anywhere you want to go. I
suggest you use it.”
“That would be easy for you, wouldn’t it, bella?”
“Nothing about this is easy for me, Rafe.”
At least she’d stopped calling him Special Agent. “I’m not going
anywhere until we talk, and I don’t mean about the case. I don’t care
that you’re involved with that man downstairs. I want an explanation
of why you walked out on me.”
“On us.” Cam stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up. He
appeared to have utterly dumped his coat, and Rafe prayed he hadn’t
actually tossed it out. The T-shirt Cam had been given was just the
tiniest bit too small. “You walked out on us.”
Rafe saw Laura soften for the tiniest moment, and then her
stubbornness set back in. “I was fired, Rafe. As I didn’t have a real
relationship with anyone outside of work, I didn’t think I had to leave
a forwarding address. And you should get your hand off me, you’re
hurting me.”
“Hey!” Holly said.
“Put the fishing pole down, Holly.” Laura sighed as she looked
over Rafe’s shoulder.
Rafe turned to see the redhead with a fishing pole in her hand,
apparently ready to defend her friend. Rafe released Laura’s arm.
“I don’t think that would have done a lot of damage.” Laura
smiled at the two women who had been coming to her rescue.
Holly shrugged as she reset the fishing pole. “Next time you get
assaulted, make sure it happens deeper in sporting goods. Then I
could have picked up a hockey stick or a baseball bat.”
“There won’t be a next time,” Laura promised. “I’ll see you two
tonight. Holly, you’re going, right?”
“Oh, yes, Stella’s is serving dessert. And Hal has come up with
something called venison tapas. I have no idea what it means, but
Zane made the sheriff promise to give it a try.” Holly pointed a thumb
back towards Nell. “Nell and Henry are protesting.”
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“Excellent. See you there.” Laura started down the stairs.
&nbs
p; “Laura, we’re not done here.” He wasn’t about to come all this
way only to be dismissed.
“I told you, I’m going home to change. I’ll be at the Big Game
Dinner this evening. It’s going to be on the fairgrounds. We can talk
there.”
“If you run, I’ll come after you.”
She stopped halfway down the stairs and turned those blue eyes
on him. “Why would I run? This is my home.”
“You left your last home.”
“DC was never my home. It was just a stop on the way to Bliss.
This is my home, Rafe, and nothing and no one is going to get me to
leave it.” She stepped down the stairs and nodded at Cam before she
walked out.
Cam turned as if to go after her. Rafe raced to stop him.
“We can’t just let her go,” Cam complained.
“She isn’t going anywhere.” Rafe understood Cam’s urgency.
Now that he was close to her again, the idea of letting her out of his
sight rankled. “I have it on the highest authority that this is her home.”
Cam smiled, his face opening in a way Rafe hadn’t seen in a very
long time. It made him look years younger. “Well, you’ve got to
admit, it is kind of cool.”
“I don’t have to admit anything.”
Cam slapped him on the back. He didn’t seem at all upset with his
too-tight T-shirt or the woman who spoke through interpretive dance.
“Come on, it’s gorgeous. It makes me miss Arkansas. Hell, I never
thought I’d miss Arkansas, but the mountains here are beautiful. And
the air is amazing.”
Rafe frowned. “The air is air, Cam.”
“Nah, it’s different in the mountains. It’s cleaner.” Cam turned
and stared after Laura. She almost walked out the door and then
seemed to remember that she had left something behind. Her fiancé.
She awkwardly returned to Wolf Meyer’s side. “What is she doing
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77
with that asshole? I don’t buy the whole ‘we’re getting married’ thing.
She hasn’t got a ring on. She doesn’t look comfortable when he
touches her. And did it seem to you like everyone was a little
surprised when they talked to her?”
Rafe hadn’t missed the store owner’s slight double take. He was
glad that Cam hadn’t missed it either. He might have been out of the
BAU for a couple of years, but Cam still knew how to read body
language. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I want to take a close
look at that guy. He was the only one who didn’t flinch. That makes
me interested in him.”
Cam held up his phone. “Already on it. I’ll run a search on the
fucker the minute I get decent access. We should have a nice size file
on him by the time night falls. I sincerely hope he’s got a record.”
“Well, we can hope.” Rafe started to walk toward the front of the
store. He would check out this place Laura wanted to go to tonight,
but he wasn’t going to let her shut him out for long. She was in
danger. If they had found her, it was a good bet that the Marquis de
Sade could find her, too. He wouldn’t underestimate the fucker again.
He’d gotten her once. He wasn’t getting a second shot.
Wolf casually looped an arm around Laura’s waist. He didn’t
seem uncomfortable with her at all. If it hadn’t been for that small
space she kept between them, Rafe might have bought that they were
a happy couple. Rafe was willing to bet that they weren’t sleeping
together.
Wolf leaned over to whisper in Laura’s ear, but something caught
his eye. He moved fast. One moment he was cuddling up to Laura,
and the next he was rushing out the door.
Laura turned to them, a stern look on her face. “Well, now you’ve
done it.”
“What?” Rafe asked. He felt like he hadn’t done a damn thing
right since the minute he’d stepped off the plane. It was unnerving.
He wasn’t the guy who fucked up. He was cool and smooth. He took
care of things. Cam was the guy who unraveled from time to time. It
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was the way their partnership had worked for years. Cam screwed up,
and Rafe smoothed it over.
But Cam had been taking the lead since they crossed over the
Bliss County line.
Now he wondered exactly what he’d screwed up this time. Laura
stomped out of the store.
“Come on,” Cam said. There was a bounce in his step as he
jogged after Laura.
Rafe followed, but with trepidation. He really hoped no one was
naked. There was no way he would be able to unsee that. He had
really thought a nudist colony would be filled with hot women. Nope.
Middle-aged men. With their dorks hanging out.
Rafe pushed through the door and saw what had Wolf and Laura
up in arms. A tall, thin man was walking around Rafe’s rented black
SUV, an odd instrument in his hand. It was shaped like a small
satellite connected by a wire to a box that beeped like mad.
“Now, you see here, Wolf, it only beeps like that in the presence
of extraterrestrial materials.”
“Mel, it beeps like that all the time.” Wolf spoke in a long-
suffering tone.
The older man was dressed in a mechanic’s jumpsuit. He had a
trucker’s hat on, but there was a glint of thin silver peeking out from
the cap. Was that tinfoil?
“Well, of course it does, son. You’re full of all kinds of alien stuff.
Half your DNA is alien,” the man named Mel said with a fond smile.
Rafe heard Cam snort beside him. It was pretty funny. Wolf
Meyer was an enormous, badass-looking man being called a “good
boy” by a man half his size.
Laura’s foot tapped against the sidewalk, her pretty face masked
in an irritated frown. “Mel, they aren’t aliens. They are worse than
aliens.”
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“Ain’t nothing worse than aliens, Laura,” Mel argued, running his
instrument over the hood of the SUV.
“They’re feds.” The word dropped like a lodestone.
Mel backed up. “Well, hell. That is worse.”
Cam covered his mouth, but walked forward. “We’re very sorry to
disturb you, sir. We just got in from DC to talk to a former special
agent about a very important case.”
Mel’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve given the FBI at least fifty important
cases, and they ain’t never called me back. You ain’t with The X-Files are you?”
“The X-Files is a TV show.” Rafe was at a loss.
Mel nodded. “Yes, sir, that’s what they want you to think.”
“My momma loves that show,” Cam said, his southern accent
suddenly thick. “Now, I’m not an agent any more, but I still have
contacts. I can call and ask about where your cases have gone.”
Mel’s eyes narrowed. “You would say that if you were an alien.”
He held out his beeper. It went off, but weakly.
“I spent all morning in that car,” Cam explained. “We rented it out
in Alamosa.”
“You got the rental agre
ement?”
“It’s in the glove box. I assure you, I am one hundred percent
southern boy. And self-employed. I left the FBI years ago. You just
can’t trust big government.”
Now Mel was all smiles. “Well, hell, I came from the south
myself. I was from Georgia until the mothership picked me up and
dropped me just outside of Denver. Now they don’t usually do that.
They’re usually real good about dropping you back off right where
they took you. But they were sneaky with me. You see, I managed to
stay awake through my probing. Now, that wasn’t all unpleasant. I
mean, first you’re real scared and all, but there are times when it feels nice. I just wish they wouldn’t play so much Britney Spears. Those
aliens really like that Britney Spears. Come on, son, let’s go get some
lunch at Stella’s, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
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Cam turned his head and gave Rafe a helpless smile as he allowed
himself to be walked off. Mel started in on what alien lubrication was
like, and Rafe just stood there feeling like the biggest idiot in the
world.
Laura had a grin on her face that would have made the Cheshire
Cat proud. “Guess your brand of charm doesn’t work here in Bliss.”
She placed her arm through Wolf’s and walked off after Cam and
Mel.
The cell in Rafe’s pocket buzzed. He was grateful for the
distraction. He looked down at the number. His chief. Joe’s voice
cracked over the line.
“You ma…okay?”
Yeah, well it was far too much to ask for good cell reception.
“Joe, I can’t hear you.”
“Wha…can’t…where?”
“You’re cutting out.” He raised his voice, somehow hoping that
louder would be better.
“On his…Bliss. New information.”
“What information?” He was screaming now, frustration taking
over. Was it on the case? Was it about Laura? His hand tightened on
the worse-than-useless phone.
There was a click and a buzzing sound as the call disconnected.
Someone slapped him on the back. Rafe turned and saw a man
with a cowboy hat on his head. He was dressed in khakis, and there
was a gold badge on his chest.
“You know yelling at it doesn’t fix things. If you want to yell at
someone, yell at the Farley twins. They had the brilliant idea to turn