“You don’t have to do that,” I said, watching as Ruth set a chicken salad sandwich on the desk in front of me. It was a touch of perfection, that sandwich, the crusts cut off the bread and lovely slices of apple arranged beside it. “I can fix my own meals.”

“I was making one for myself anyway.”

I nodded, accepting the offering with what little dignity I had left. “Thank you.”

I sat back and picked up one half of the sandwich, biting deep into the soft bread. I could feel her still behind me, so glanced up and caught her reading the names displayed on my computer screen.

“Are any of those familiar?”

“All of them.”

“Can you tell me which ones belong to the Guardians?”

She pointed to the screen. Once, twice. Nine times in total.

Fifteen names and she’d narrowed it down by six. Great.

“I was kind of hoping you’d only identify one.”

“Who are these people?”

“Owners of cars similar to the one that drove Harry off the road the night he died.”

She stepped back as though I’d asked her to touch a spark of fire. “One of these people killed your friend?”

“Presumably. But identifying that person has proven to be difficult. I’ve gone around, trying to get a look at the cars, but half of them are kept in garages, and the other half have so many dings and scratches that I cannot tell which are new and which have always been there.”

“I know that this one recently took his car to the auto shop in Tucson.” She touched one name. “He said it was because the transmission was needing to be rebuilt, and the shop here couldn’t do it, but that seemed false to my ears.”

I read the name. Tyler Sanders.

“And he’s a member of the Guardians?”

“One of the first to sign up when Smythe came to town.”

“I’ll check him out.”

“Be careful, Jack. He’s intense.”

“You should be careful. I might begin to think you actually care what happens to me.”

Ruth had been staying with us for three days now. She’d kept pretty much to herself, spending much of her time in the office, reading the books Quentin had brought her after his shift at Alli’s that first night. She also spent a lot of her time cleaning, making that office shine like a new penny. Made the job I’d done look like a shoddy, half-hearted effort.

The sandwich was the first time she’d made any attempt to acknowledge me in all that time.

I lifted it and took another hearty bite, savoring the fat of the mayonnaise and the salty shock of the pickles. I didn’t even know we had pickles.

“I do care about you, Jack. More than I should.”

She said it very quietly, walking away as the words slipped from between her lips. I watched her go over to the teeny kitchen Patrick and Quentin had created near our cots, a kitchen that consisted of a mini fridge, a microwave, and a folding table. She settled in a cheap lawn chair and tucked in to her own food, her eyes downcast. It was like she was afraid to look at me.

I turned back to the computer, attempting to force myself to concentrate. I wrote a quick email to my investigating department back in Memphis, requesting that someone do a background check on this Sanders fellow. I wanted to know as much about him as I could before I approached him.

She was watching me when I glanced over at her a moment later. She quickly looked away, but it was clear she was interested in what I was doing. Or maybe it was just me in general. A part of me hoped it was just me in general.

Being around her these last three days had been a real test of my control. There were so many things I wanted to say to her, but I couldn’t just jump in and tell her how being around her was making me have thoughts I shouldn’t be having. I couldn’t tell her how desperately I wanted to taste her kiss again or see the pleasure my touch put on her face. I couldn’t tell her that I wanted to go right back to where we’d been before, and that I’d only told her I was playing games with her because I was trying to protect her. I couldn’t tell her that she was the last thing on my mind at night and the first in the mornings.

She wouldn’t believe all that. And, even if she did, it wouldn’t change the fact that it was my fault that she was in this situation. My feelings for her were destroying her life. She didn’t need the burden of knowing they were still a factor.

I turned back to the computer, telling myself it was better to let her go. When this was all said and done, she’d be accepted back into her church. Maybe. Or she could leave town and start new somewhere else. She could have a good life. She didn’t need me messing that up.

She came to retrieve my paper plate after a while, then busied herself cleaning up the little kitchen space. The next time I looked up, she was making the cots and sweeping out our sleeping space.

“You’re not a maid. You don’t have to do that.”

“I need to have something to keep myself busy.”

“I could get you a television.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to become one of those women who sits around watching soap operas all day.”

Patrick came in later while she was still cleaning. He smiled politely at her, then shot me a look when she asked if he’d be willing to go to the laundromat with her.

“Ruth, really…”

“I’m just trying to be productive.”

Patrick was more than happy to go with her, not the type to enjoy doing his own laundry. I sighed as they left, frustrated with the lack of control I seemed to have over everything.

“I think you might have something,” an email from the same anonymous account that had sent me the police reports on the accident informed me. “The video enhancement clearly shows the faces of William Adams and Curtis Daniels.”

I’d sent the person on the other end—presumably Willis—the enhanced video of the security footage from the outside of Alli’s shop on the night of the fire. I hadn’t known the names of the suspects, but now that I did, I had something more to go on. I grabbed my car keys and headed out, determined to get more information.

Willis came out of the sheriff’s office exactly at six fifteen, the same time he left every Wednesday afternoon. When he saw me leaning against his personal car, his expression tightened.

“I can’t be seen with you.”

“Then give me what I want, and I’ll disappear.”

He glanced at me. “What?”

“I need information on William Adams, Curtis Daniels, and Tyler Sanders.” I watched his face closely as I spoke each name, waiting for some indication that he was the source of the information I’d been given. But he was either a good actor or he had no clue, because he didn’t react at all.

“And what will you do with that information?”

“Get the proof I need to prove what they did to my friends.”

He was quiet for a moment, glancing over his shoulder at the hulking building behind us. “My wife belongs to the church. If anyone found out what I was doing…”

“They don’t have to find out.”

“They always find out.” He shook his head. “Okay. Give me two days.”

He drove away, leaving me in a cloud of dust. I watched him go, wondering just what would happen when the Guardians found out he was helping. I selfishly hoped they wouldn’t find out before I had the information I needed.

I headed back to the office, sending the same request to the investigators back in Memphis. The guys in Memphis could give me important financial and criminal record type of information, but Willis could give me church-related information. Both were important at this point in the game. I needed everything I could get my hands on to take these people down.

 

 

I lay on my back on the cot, staring up at the high ceiling as Patrick snored a few feet to my left. Quentin was on Alli duty, so we were the only two out here. Ruth was in the office, the lights having gone off almost an hour ago. I imagined I could hear her snoring softly, but in reality, the office was fairly soundproof from this distance.

A plan was slowly forming in my head. I had an idea of how I wanted to go about attacking the Guardians, but there were still blanks in my knowledge bank that would make the plan impossible at this point. What I needed was someone on the inside, but Ruth was the closest I had, and I couldn’t ask her to help. She was already in too deep, staying here with us. Then again, they probably already suspected that she’d given us everything she had to offer.

I threw an arm over my eyes, regrets dancing so quickly through my head that I couldn’t keep track of them all. How had I ended up in this situation? And how had I dragged her into it?

“Jack?”

I almost imagined her voice in the darkness. I moved my arm and sat up, surprised to find her kneeling beside the cot in nothing but a thin nightgown that revealed just a hint of the dark ring around her erect nipples.

“What are you doing?”

“I can’t sleep.”

I frowned, not sure why she had come out to tell me that. But then she leaned forward and kissed me ever so softly on the lips. I pulled back, as confused as I was touched by that sweet offering.

“Ruth, you should go back to bed.”

“I don’t want to be alone.”

I took her wrist in my hand as she reached for me, stopping her from resting her hand on my chest. “You can’t do this. You can’t expect me to turn it off and on like it doesn’t mean anything.”

“I miss you,” she said softly. “And I see the way you look at me. I know you miss me, too.”

For such an innocent, she’d suddenly turned into an expert seductress. I pushed her back, but I didn’t let go of her. I swung my legs over the side of the cot and pulled her forward, trapping her with my legs wrapped around her upper thighs. I kissed her, a hard kiss that made it very clear that I wasn’t playing games anymore. I wanted her. If she wanted this, she was going to have to accept that reality.

She melted against me, her lips, her tongue, responding to me like a woman with years more experience might have done. I let go of her wrist and slipped my hands over her back, drawing her even closer to me. She did the same, pressing her hands to the sides of my face, pulling me into her like she couldn’t possibly get close enough to satisfy the need inside of her.

“Stop,” I whispered against her lips. “You can’t do this and expect me to just walk away tomorrow.”

“I don’t want you to.”

I touched the side of her face. “But what’s changed?”

“Nothing.” Her eyes sparkled in the dim light coming in through the windows high on the warehouse walls. “I just…I know you care about me, knew it the moment I walked out of here that night. I know you weren’t lying about those pictures. But you were lying when you said it was just fun for you. I heard it in your voice.”

“You think you know me that well?”

“I think we’ve always known each other. It’s just taken this long for us to find one another.”

I grunted. “And what if it is just fun? What if all I want from you is the one thing you won’t give me?”

“I guess then I’m in for a serious heartbreak. But not tonight.”

I brushed the hair from her face. “What are you saying, then?”

“I’m saying I want to be with you. I’ll do anything you want, just…not that. I still believe in my faith, and I still believe that is something I can only share with my husband on our wedding night.”

“Even after everything they’ve done?”

“What the Guardians have done. Not God. Not the church I still believe in.”

I nodded. I’d found it hard to separate the Guardians from the church at first. But the longer this went on, the more I got to know the locals, the more I could see the difference. There was this look on the faces of the pious in town that told me they knew the Guardians were wrong. They were just too frightened to do anything about it.

I helped her to her feet, sneaking a glance at the sleeping form of Patrick. Her hand in mine, I led the way to the office, carefully shutting and locking the door behind us. When I turned again to Ruth, she’d tugged her nightgown over her head, the cold teasing her nipples better than any touch I could have offered. She was naked save for a pair of long-legged, simple cotton shorts that covered the soft mound of her sex. She came to me, her hands sliding over my chest and lower as she whispered, “Teach me.”

I groaned, anticipation taking away my voice.

I led the way to the bed, laying her down as I stole her lips. We kissed like we’d done before, but there was a difference this time, a desperation in her touch that hadn’t been there before. Her hands were like the tentacles of an octopus, touching me everywhere all at once. I grabbed her wrists and pinned them to the mattress, my mouth moving from her lips to her chin, sliding slowly down over the tender flesh of her throat. When I took a nipple into my mouth, she sighed in a deeply satisfied way.

We moved to a music only our ears could hear, my lips exploring her soft, gorgeous skin, her body undulating to remind me of all the places that desperately needed ministering to. When my hand slid into those shorts, she groaned, her wrist spasming against my hand.

“Please,” she groaned near my ear.

I led her hand down to my jeans, showed her how to touch me. I expected some tentativeness, some hesitation, but there was none. She took me in her hand and followed my unspoken direction, her touch like the sweetest taste of water to a man lost in the desert. Her touch, my touch…we moved in rhythm together, her breaths coming in quick gasps that matched the soft moans I couldn’t hold back. Our lips found one another again, but only for little pecks. I finally buried my face against her shoulder, taking in every sweet breath of her smell, allowing her to surround me like a cloud of pure desire.

She reached her peak first. I followed not far behind. And when it was done, she curled up against me with a satisfied sigh, an unstoppable smile on her full lips.

“No matter what happens,” she whispered to me as sleep finally began to descend, “I will never regret knowing you, Jack Stone.”