I was silent as Hendrix drove me back to my house. I was having trouble reconciling the fact that someone had tried to run me over. As if Ricky wanting to murder me wasn’t enough, there was someone else who had the same goals, too? It was too much. I let my head fall against the window in Hendrix’s truck multiple times because it felt better than trying to wrap my brain around my current reality.
I waited until we were in my house and Hendrix was checking to make sure it was safe to speak again. “I have to wonder just how awful I was in another life. I have not one, but two people trying to kill me right now.”
Hendrix walked back out of my bedroom and rolled his eyes. “Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because you stick your nose into peoples’ business.”
I crossed my arms under my chest and sighed. “I do it for a reason. It’s not like I’m just nosy.”
“I do think it says something about you, though. You weren’t satisfied with just one clusterfuck. You had to find yourself in two clusterfucks.”
I moved to the balcony at the back of the house and looked over the railing. “Should I just throw myself over and be done with it?”
“That’s not funny.”
“Maybe that’s why they want to kill me. My sense of humor sucks.”
Hendrix wrapped his arms around me from behind and held me pressed into his chest. “You breaking down a little bit there?”
A soft sob escaped my lips and I clamped my hand over them to keep everything else in. I didn’t want him to hear me cry. I didn’t want to cry at all.
“Don’t do that. Jesus, don’t cry.” He held me tighter and stroked his big hand up and down my stomach.
I couldn’t help the wild jerk that arched my body into his as he fingers accidentally tickled me. I gasped for air and then grabbed at his hands. “Ticklish!”
He grunted in my ear and tightened his arms around me until it was almost painful. “Stop wiggling, dammit.”
I froze as I realized that I was feeling his rock-hard erection digging into my back. I wanted to be offended, especially after the way he’d shoved me away the night before, but my body reacted like I’d never felt it react to anyone else. Heat scorched me and instantly I was aware of wetness slicking my core and my nipples poking into the suddenly scratchy lace of my bra.
“I’m going to let you go and then I’m just going to go find food for us, okay?” His voice was deeper, rough against the back of my neck as he exhaled.
Despite the shivers of heat I felt, I ignored the desire and shrugged. I was being dismissed again. “Sure.”
He groaned and pulled away and barely five seconds passed before I heard him opening and closing cabinet doors in the kitchen.
Even though being dismissed again felt like shit, it was a welcome distraction and just what I needed to find my footing again. I was tough. I’d faced down plenty of scary people while doing my job. None who wanted me dead quite so thoroughly, but scary, still. I could handle it. I could do more than handle it. I could help solve the cases and put the bad guys away. My very own bad guys this time around.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and called Harding. When he didn’t answer, I left him a voicemail to call me back and then headed inside to my computer. I’d gone over my notes about Ricky so many times I damn near knew them word for word, but it didn’t stop me from opening them and reading them all again. I pulled my notebook out and read over it, too. Then, I pulled up the footage I’d taken along the way. I didn’t usually video a lot, but in the beginning of the case, I had shot a lot.
“Hey, I can’t find any food to make. How about we order in?”
I knew I’d seen things in the fridge to make alfredo so I shook my head. “I’ll cook…”
I looked back at Hendrix and chewed on my bottom lip. I’d never shared my personal notes before without doing some serious editing. I had to do anything I could to try to get Ricky behind bars, though. “I have a bunch of notes here that I’ve been taking since I started investigating Ricky. I just reread them again and I still can’t find anything. Will you look through them while I cook and see if anything stands out to you?”
He nodded and practically pressed himself to the wall behind him to avoid brushing against me while I passed him. “Got it.”
I rolled my eyes and hurried to the kitchen, wanting to dive into everything instead of coming undone again. It wasn’t often that I had moments of hysteria. Being raised with so many men taught me to keep any emotional displays to a minimum. If I ever let myself get too emotional in an argument, they’d eat me alive. It was like tears made my arguments bullshit. So, I learned to keep things together. Fight without letting my emotions show. Overall, it’d worked well for me. It made me fight through things, even if I wanted to roll over and cry. It was a good skill to have when two different people wanted me dead.
I made quick work of dinner and within twenty minutes I had the alfredo sauce poured over a bowl of fettuccini and a couple of frozen breadsticks hot out of the oven. I poured a large glass of wine for myself and grabbed a beer for Hendrix. I brought it all to the table in the living room and then leaned into my room to get him.
“Hey, dinner’s ready. I thought maybe we could watch the tape from the set while we eat.”
He looked up at me with something akin to awe on his face. “Your notes are fucking impressive, Darby.”
Ignoring the heat that flooded my cheeks at the praise, I shrugged. “I’m good at my job. You just keep seeing me flub. That’s not normal. Now come on. The food is going to get cold and there’s no reheating alfredo sauce.”
He followed me into the living room and sighed. “This smells so good. I can’t believe you made this out of the stuff in the fridge. I couldn’t find anything.”
“You didn’t look very well.” I scooped a plateful for him and then a smaller one for myself. “Do you cook for yourself at home?”
“No, Kate does most of the cooking.”
My stomach soured and I looked over at him. He’d mentioned going home to his family before. Was he married? I dropped my plate onto the table and turned up my wine. I finished half of the glass before I came up for air. “Kate?”
He looked over at me, a noodle hanging out of his mouth. He slurped it up, sending sauce flying all over his face. With a grin, he wiped his mouth. “Oops. Yeah, Kate works for my older brother more than the rest of us, but she takes care of all of us. She’s like a mom to us.”
I deflated into the couch cushions and sighed. “I thought she was your wife.”
He choked on a drink of his beer and looked at me like I’d grown another head. “You thought I was married?”
“Not until just now. I wouldn’t have been kissing you if I thought you were married.”
He turned back to his plate and made a big deal of scooping food onto his fork, like it took all of his attention. “Let’s not talk about kissing.”
I grabbed my plate and shoved a bunch into my mouth. Sauce spilled down my chin but I apparently didn’t have to worry about being cute. I washed it down with a big drink of my wine and tore off a big hunk of bread with my teeth.
Hendrix looked back at me and laughed. “I’m just going to push play on the tape and pretend like none of this is happening.”
I snarled at him around my bread and curled my feet underneath me. “Lovely.”
The tape started and I half watched as I finished my dinner and wine. By the time I was done, I was tipsy and feeling lighter than I had in days. “I should’ve been drinking this whole time. I feel great. Look how dumb Samford looks. He just picked a huge wedgie.”
Hendrix snorted. “I wouldn’t talk too much if I were you. I saw you adjusting, too.”
I scoffed at him and looked down at my leggings. “You try wearing full coverage panties with skin tight leggings.”
He looked at me over his shoulder and furrowed his eyebrows. “Don’t talk to me about your panties.”
“Yeah, wouldn’t want to gross you out.” I stood up and tried to scoot around him so I could get more wine. His long legs were spread out wide in front of him, though, and I nearly tripped over one of his big feet. “Are you trying to kill me?”
He reached up and grabbed my hips to steady me. His thumbs moved over the lines there, the lines of my full coverage granny panties. “I could ask you the same.”
I flushed and moved out of his grip. “Want another beer?”
“Bring two, please.”
I refilled my glass and grabbed two bottles from the fridge from him. “Drinking to forget your day, too?”
He took the beers from me and laughed, humorlessly. “Nope. Just trying to dull my awareness.”
I plopped into my seat beside him and nodded towards the TV. “Of that?”
He turned and gave me an annoyed look before redirecting his focus back to the screen. “There’s a clear shot of Laster staring at your ass. Cute.”
I had no interest in seeing that. Instead, I pulled a notebook off the table and opened to a blank page so I could scribble some notes. I wrote down all of the places I’d trailed Ricky before, all of the places I knew he worked out of, and all of the places that he was listed as owning in the city. I’d memorized all of his public businesses before, but I still wanted to see them on paper.
I drank as I made lists and before I knew what I was doing, I was making a list of reasons why sleeping with Hendrix was a bad idea. A snicker caught my attention after a while and I glanced up to find him leaning over, reading it. I quickly covered it and then hit him with the notebook.
“Mind your own business, you.”
He grinned, transforming his face into something softer and way more dangerous for my libido. “You forgot the main reason.”
“What? That you don’t actually want me?”
“You’re an idiot.”
I scrunched up my face. “That’s the main reason? You’re a real jerk sometimes, Hendrix. I hope you”
He cut me off by grabbing the back of my neck and yanking me closer to him. He slid his lips over mine in a hot kiss and I swooned into him. His hand tugged lightly at my hair and I gasped. He took advantage of it and slid his tongue into my mouth, deepening the kiss.
My brain turned fuzzy and warm, shutting up for the first time since the last time he’d kissed me. I ran my hands over his arms and chest, using the peace to just feel. Hard muscles, soft cotton t-shirt. Hot skin, rough beard.
Hendrix kissed down the column of my throat and my eyes fluttered just long enough to catch an image on the screen. I shrieked as another realization slammed into me. Hendrix jerked away and looked around wildly, like he expected someone to be in the room with us, posed for attack.
I didn’t think his reaction was overly dramatic anymore.
“What is it? Jesus, what?”
I stumbled when I tried to stand and caught myself on the coffee table. I grabbed the remote and hit rewind. It went back a few seconds and then I paused it when the face appeared in the corner again.
Hendrix stood up and cursed. “That’s the main reason we can’t sleep together. You distract the fuck out of me. I almost missed that.”
Ignoring him, I moved closer to the TV. “I’ve seen this person before, Hendrix.”
“You mean the mask?”
I ran my fingers over the screen and nodded. “Yes. He called me a little rabbit and told me to run.”