Chapter Thirteen
I watched out the back windows, the rising sun casting a warm glow over the pine trees lining the county road. Of all the times I’d thought about visiting my birth mother’s farm, I had never once considered going there in the back of an unmarked sheriff’s car.
I glanced at the front of the car and noticed the deputy was watching me in the rearview mirror.
He smiled. “It shouldn’t take much longer.”
“Thanks.” I leaned my head against the window.
“I’m Deputy Miller and I’ll be on watch today.”
“Nice to meet you, Deputy Miller. I’m Rose.” But he already knew that. I took another look at him. It was hard to get a full-fledged impression, since I could see little more than the back of his head, but his eyes looked kind in the mirror and he didn’t seem to hate me. Both were steps in the right direction.
Neither of us spoke as he drove for several miles on the two-lane road before turning onto another county road and driving for several more miles past a few farms and sections of untouched woods. Finally he turned onto a one-lane gravel road, the entrance nearly hidden by overgrown tree branches.
“So far, so good,” the deputy said, looking in his rearview mirror. He dropped his speed to keep from flinging gravel. “It’ll work in our favor that the drive is so hard to find.”
My stomach twisted into a knot as the tree branches thinned and a clearing spread out before us, a war of emotions stirring inside me. With all the commotion and stress, I hadn’t really had time to absorb the fact that this would be my first visit to my birth mother’s home.
A two-story, white clapboard, Victorian-style farmhouse sat at the end of the drive, the other sheriff’s car parked in front of it. A large red barn with a wooden fence enclosure was situated several hundred feet behind the house on top of a small hill. Several acres of overgrown fields lay to the left of the farmhouse and several acres behind the house was a gently sloping hill covered in evergreen trees.
The deputy pulled up next to the other car. I climbed out and shut the door, staring at the front porch that wrapped around the right side of the house. Mason was already standing on the porch, surveying the land, but he came down the steps and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “What do you think?”
I had wanted to hate it out of anger. Dora hadn’t chosen to die, but my childhood had been ruined after her death. I recognized the ridiculousness of my reaction, but that didn’t change the way I felt. Still, as I stared at the peeling paint of the Victorian-style house, my anger started to fade. “I’m reserving judgment.”
“Fair enough.” He spun around and took in the circular drive. “But this is an amazing safe house. We’re completely secluded here with open space all around the house. And from the looks of it, there’s only one way in and out. It couldn’t be more perfect,” he said and whistled.
Well, I was glad something was going our way.
When we walked onto the porch, I realized we had a problem. I turned to Mason, who was still looking all around, absorbing the details of the place. “I don’t have the keys.”
“I’ve got a couple of sets,” Deputy Miller said, walking up behind us. “Once we determined it was a safe location, we had a locksmith come out to change the locks.”
I got my first full look at him. He was young, but not as young as Officer Sprout, and he had an air of confidence and competence the other man had lacked. His dark hair was cropped short and his dark brown eyes still looked friendly.
Mason joined me on the porch. “Let’s check out the inside and then investigate the barn.”
The deputy swung the screen door aside and unlocked and opened the door. He moved aside so that I could be the first one to enter the house. I took a couple of steps into the foyer and stopped in my tracks, barely aware that Mason had followed me inside. The exterior of the house didn’t do the interior justice. We were standing in an entryway across from a large wooden staircase that led to a landing with a wood banister. To our left was a dining room with white wood paneling halfway up the wall, furnished with a long ornate dining room table and chairs, a buffet stacked with china, and a glass cabinet stuffed full of crystal. To my right was a living room filled with old Victorian-style furniture. A small baby grand piano resided in the back corner. A brick fireplace was flanked on each side by four-foot-tall bookcases with windows above them. Much to my amazement, books still filled the cases. Jutting off the living room was a library with wood-paneled walls, a large desk, and more bookcases crammed with books.
I continued toward the back of the house, Mason trailing behind me. We passed through a swinging solid wooden door into a large kitchen. The walls were painted a pale yellow and white cabinets and appliances lined two of the walls. A large farmhouse-style table sat at the back of the room, beneath a pane of windows that looked out onto the backyard and barn. A door to the left led to a small powder room.
“When you said farmhouse, this isn’t what I was expecting,” Mason said.
“Yeah, I know.” I’d expected rustic, and although the house wasn’t ostentatious, it was far from a simple farmhouse.
We went upstairs next, and filed into the first bedroom on the right. A full-sized four-poster bed was pushed against one wall and a huge armoire filled another. The other two walls featured huge windows that looked out onto the land.
Mason parted the sheers, sending dust flying into the air. “Rose, I can see the county road at the end of the drive from here. This house really is the perfect place for us to hide out.”
I could only stare, trying to sort out my confused emotions. As if he could read my mind, Mason gave me a hug and said, “I’m going to give you a few moments alone while I check the other rooms.”
I nodded and he left me staring out at the acres and acres of land that belonged to me. While I’d used some of the money from my inheritance for the nursery, I’d ignored the farm until a shortage of liquid assets had made me consider selling it. But as much as I hated to admit it, I felt an immediate sense of belonging here.
“There are three more bedrooms and two bathrooms,” Mason called out. “You can pick whichever room you’d like to use, but there’s a bigger bedroom in the back that looks like it’s the master with a canopy bed.”
“Muffy would love it here,” I said, looking down at the overgrown bushes in the yard. I was already starting to come up with a landscape design.
Mason pulled me into his arms, searching my face. “What about you? How do you feel about being here?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
A car came down the gravel drive, sending dust flying into the air. I tensed, but Mason kissed my temple. “Don’t worry. That’s probably just one of the deputies with our things.”
I looked up at him in surprise.
“After I finished at my office last night, a deputy took me to my condo and your house to get some clothes and personal items. I called the sheriff’s department to ask you what you wanted but you were already asleep and I didn’t want to wake you. So I guessed.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure you did fine.”
“We’ll find out soon enough. Let’s go on down. There’s a surprise for you.”
I couldn’t imagine what it might be, but when we descended the stairs and I opened the front door, I saw a brown streak bolt from the car and head straight for an overgrown azalea bush.
“Muffy?”
I pushed the screen door open and ran outside, right past Deputy Miller. My little dog’s head popped up and she bolted to me, jumping onto my lap when I squatted.
Mason followed me and stopped at the bottom of the steps. “I knew you were missing her, so I asked Jeff to have someone pick her up from Violet’s house.”
Muffy licked my face and I stood, holding her in my arms. “Thank you,” I pushed past the lump in my throat.
His smile faltered. “Rose, you should know that the sheriff put Violet and her kids into protective custody.” He saw the panic in my eyes and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. “They weren’t threatened in any way, but he wants to be on the safe side.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “That’s good, right?”
“Yes.”
The new deputy opened the trunk of his unmarked car and lifted out a box. I noticed the car that had brought Mason was already gone.
Mason smiled down at me. “Why don’t you let Muffy learn her way around, and I’ll help the deputy take our things in?”
“Okay.” I put Muffy down and followed her around the entire perimeter of the house while Mason and the new deputy carried in boxes and a couple of pieces of luggage. I recognized one of them as my own.
Deputy Miller was still standing on the front porch, dividing his time between watching us and the drive. “Your dog is cute. What’s his name?”
“Muffy. And she’s a she.” I put a hand on my hip, wondering if he was making fun of her. “You really think she’s cute?”
“Well, yeah.” He looked confused by my question.
I was fairly certain he was the first person to ever have called her cute. I liked him already.
After Muffy had sniffed everything twice and run out of surfaces to pee on, I took her inside. Mason was in the kitchen with the man who had brought our things.
“Rose, this is Deputy Fitzgerald. He’s one of the five men who will be rotating on and off duty.”
“Good morning, Deputy.” I reached my hand toward him and he shook it. “Thank you so much for bringing my dog along with our things.”
“No trouble, ma’am.” Muffy sniffed at the deputy’s feet and he gave her an annoyed look before returning his gaze to me. “Well, I need to get going. This is the biggest manhunt in Fenton County history since the horse thief ring of 1884 and we need all available men.”
Mason shook his hand. “Thank you, Deputy. With any luck at all, he’ll be captured before you’re scheduled to report for duty here at the farm.”
Deputy Fitzgerald grimaced. “The way Crocker’s hidden, I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
I shivered and Mason wrapped an arm around my waist as we watched the deputy leave.
“Don’t listen to him, Rose. Sheriff Foster himself assured me they were following up on several solid leads.”
Maybe so, but I was inclined to believe Deputy Fitzgerald. “What’s in the boxes?”
“Food.”
My eyebrows rose.
“We have a working kitchen.” We both took in the dusty mess. “Well, almost working, so I figured we could cook.”
“Good idea.”
The refrigerator wasn’t working so we pulled it away from the wall and I squeezed behind it, searching for the electrical cord. After I plugged it in, I shimmied out of the space, dusty but grateful to hear the humming of the motor.
“I feel like I’ve stepped back into the mid-twentieth century,” Mason mumbled, gesturing to the vintage cabinet and the laminate counters.
“That’s because you have. No one’s lived here in over twenty years.”
“I can’t believe all of this is yours and you just found out a few months ago.”
“Uncle Earl told me I own the house and over a thousand acres.”
“This place is amazing, Rose.”
I couldn’t bring myself to agree out loud, but I was getting there. The back part of the house faced southeast and sunlight poured through the windows, giving the room a cheery feeling despite the grime clinging to everything. “Uncle Earl has the house cleaned a couple of times a year, but it looks like it’s due for another cleaning. I think I’ll start with this room. We’ll need to eat, after all.”
He grabbed his laptop out of his bag. “I need to get some work done and then I’ll help. But there’s something I’d rather do first.” He leaned down and kissed me until my knees were weak.
Deputy Miller walked in and cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Mr. Deveraux.”
Mason looked up with a wicked grin, keeping his gaze on me. “Yes?”
“I think I’ll walk around the property to make sure everything looks all right.”
“Sounds great.”
I pushed on Mason’s chest and moved around the table to look in the boxes. “Did you bring a lunch, Deputy Miller? I’m going to make something after I clean up a bit. I’m not sure what’s in here, but I’ll come up with something when lunchtime rolls around.”
“That’s mighty kind of you, ma’am, but not necessary.” His eyes darted to the boxes on the table.
“How about you do whatever you need to do and I’ll save you something. And please call me Rose.”
A grin spread across his face. “That would be great…Rose.”
“Good. I’ll be in here cleaning when you get back.”
He disappeared through the door to the front of the house.
“Feeding the sheriff’s deputies isn’t part of your job,” Mason said with a chuckle. “Or perhaps you think you can sway them to like you if you feed them. I suspect it will take more than canned soup to do that.”
I swatted his arm. “I’m perfectly capable of cooking. I used to cook for Momma all the time, but after she died, I kind of rebelled against it because it had been expected of me for so long.”
“If you plan to feed the deputies too, I suspect we’ll need more food.”
I grabbed the kitchen rags and turned on the water, waiting for the stream to get hot. It didn’t. “We don’t have hot water.”
“It’s probably been turned off. No sense heating water that’s not getting used. I’ll see if the hot water heater is in the basement.” He left the kitchen and disappeared through the door under the staircase.
While I was surveying what needed to be done in the kitchen, I noticed a long bag on the table. I unzipped it, gasping when I saw the shotguns and handguns inside.
Mason came back up a few moments later, brushing dust off the shoulders of his light blue dress shirt. “Just as I suspected. The pilot light was out. I got it lit, so we should have hot water in about an hour. Also, there’s a washer and dryer down there. They both seem to work, so we’re set if we need to do laundry.”
I looked up at him. “Why is there a bag of full of guns on the table? Where did they come from?”
“They’re mine.” His faced tensed. “Just in case.”
Again with the just in case. Just in case made my stomach churn. “I thought Jeff asked you to leave our protection to his men.”
“If it comes to a gun fight, there’s no way in hell I’m willing to sit back defenseless. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you’re safe.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Does Jeff know?”
“Rose—” He hesitated and his voice softened. “Sheriff Foster is the one who suggested it.”
“Oh.” That piece of knowledge made this all the more real. We were in so much danger we needed multiple lines of defense.
He cupped my cheek and tilted my face up. “It’s just in case. Crocker won’t find us here.”
“Okay.”
But he pulled a handgun out of the bag and put it on the table next to his laptop.
I spent the next two hours sneaking glances at his gun, trying to keep my mind off what would happen if Crocker did find us. I needed to stop borrowing trouble. It made me anxious and never came to any good. Instead, I focused on cleaning and unpacking the boxes the sheriff’s department had sent, which, I was grateful to discover, contained all the staples I’d need to make several meals. Mason sat at the table with his laptop and legal pads, lost in his work. I leaned against the counter to study him. It wasn’t the first time I’d watched him work, but I’d never seen him like this outside of the courtroom. The way his brow lowered when he was concentrating on something was incredibly sexy.
He glanced up from his computer, his gaze landing on me with a hungry look that made my knees weak.
Sitting back in his chair, he glanced around the room. “Rose, you don’t have to clean it all at once. You’re making me feel bad about not helping.”
“You’re working. And don’t worry. I want to do this,” I said, surprised by how true it was. Cleaning made the house seem more mine.
I found the ingredients to make three turkey sandwiches and put them on the paper plates from one of the boxes. I handed Mason his. “Would you prefer to work in the room that looks like an office? It’s pretty private.”
“I’d rather be in here with you.”
I grinned, lifting my eyebrows. “Now what kind of work are you talking about?”
He groaned and shook his head. “It’s going to be next to impossible to be alone in this house with you without taking you upstairs to one of those beds.”
A shiver of excitement shot up my spine. “So why wait?”
“I still think you need some time. Especially in light of what’s going on.”
“What does that have to do with it?” I rested my butt on the table in front of him.
He reached for my waist, pulling me so close I was standing between his legs. “It has everything to do with it,” he said, looking straight into my eyes. “You’re under duress, Rose. Now is not the time to make a decision about sleeping with me.”
“But I wanted to sleep with you two nights ago, and I wasn’t under duress then.”
“Then there’s the fact that I’m supposed to be here guarding you. If I’m in bed with you, I’ll be too preoccupied to keep you safe.”
I sat on his lap, straddling him. “I thought you said this was the perfect place to hide.”
He groaned, shifting beneath me. “You’re not making this easy.”
I grinned. “Good.”
He reached a hand behind my head and pulled my mouth to his. When he finally stopped kissing me, I leaned back and stared into his eyes.
“If this is any indication of what’s to come,” he said, his voice husky, “I’m close to saying to hell with it and making love to you right here on the kitchen table.”
A fire raged in my blood and I kissed him again, pressing my body to his.
Mason pushed me to my feet, still kissing me as he lifted my shirt over my head and tossed it to the floor, breaking contact with my lips for less than two seconds. I sat on the edge of the table and wrapped my legs around his waist as he unclasped my bra and pulled it down. His hand found one of my breasts and I gasped as I threaded my fingers through his hair, clinging to him. His mouth skimmed down my throat and over my chest as his arm wrapped around my back, pinning my pelvis against his. I closed my eyes and arched my back to give him better access.
“Um… Mr. Deveraux.” Deputy Miller’s voice cracked.
Mason’s head shot up and he swiveled me around so the deputy couldn’t see me, not that he was looking. He was standing with his back to us.
“Chief Deputy Dimler wanted you to call him. He said he hasn’t been able to reach you on your phone.”
Mason’s hold tightened. “Thank you, Deputy.”
“I… uh…I didn’t mean to interrupt. Ms. Gardner told me to come back to the kitchen.” The back of his neck was as red as a radish.
“It’s okay,” I said, breaking away from Mason’s arms and scanning the floor for my bra. “If you’ll wait just a minute, I’ll bring a sandwich out to you.”
“I’ll be on the front porch,” he said, bolting from the doorway.
“We’ve traumatized that poor boy,” I murmured, picking my bra up off the dusty floor. I had to admit I was slightly traumatized myself.
“We can’t do that again,” Mason said, his face strained.
“In the kitchen?”
“At all. At least until they’ve caught Crocker.”
My smile fell. “You’re serious.”
“Rose, neither one of us even heard him come in! He could have walked in and shot you, and I wouldn’t have even realized it until you were already dead.”
A shiver ran down my back. “Mason, don’t you think you’re overreacting?”
“No. I’m not.” He grabbed his gun off the table.
This was the closest I’d seen him to being furious with me since Bruce Wayne’s trial.
He stormed toward the back door.
“Are you really so angry with me that you have to leave?”
He already had his hand on the doorknob when he spun to face me, his eyes wide. “You think I’m angry with you? Why would I be angry with you?”
“I…” My face blazed with embarrassment. “I pretty much pushed myself on you just now.”
“God.” He leaned his head back and took a deep breath before meeting my gaze. “Why would I be angry with you for that? To have you come on to me after months of wanting you…” He shook his head. “I’m angry at myself, Rose. I can’t lose you to that psycho now that I finally have the chance to be with you.”
I stood still, unsure of what to say.
He opened the door, turning his attention to the yard. “I’m going to go call Jeff. Go ahead and take Deputy Miller his sandwich, but please don’t leave the house.”
Tears burned in my eyes, but I blinked them away, not even sure why I was upset. I hated that Mason had waited so long to be with me. I hated that he felt like my safety was his responsibility, but mostly I hated that I wanted to be naked with him right now. If kissing Mason was this passionate, what would it be like in bed with him? Guilt washed over me. Mason was outside berating himself and feeling miserable and here I was thinking about him naked and on top of me, staring into my eyes as he—
Stop! I squeezed my eyes shut.
Miss Mildred was right. I was wicked.
But my traitorous mind couldn’t banish the image of him naked. I’d never seen him with his shirt off. What would he look like? What would his skin feel like against mine?
No one other than Joe and my doctor had ever seen my naked breasts. I wasn’t flat-chested, but I wasn’t particularly well-endowed either. What if Mason had been disappointed?
That thought cooled me off. I took the deputy his sandwich, then went back into the kitchen and channeled my sexual tension into cleaning the counters and the table so we’d have somewhere to eat for dinner.
I decided to go upstairs and figure out the bedroom situation. The beds appeared to have been made, which meant we had bed linens, but judging from the dusty state of the entire house, they would needed to be washed.
As I passed the front living room window, I spotted Mason sitting on a tree stump in the middle of the front yard, watching the gravel driveway as he talked on the phone.
With a sigh, I climbed the stairs. Muffy followed me, her tail wagging. I was pretty sure Mason would want his own room. And given his excitement over the view of the road from the front room, I suspected that was the one he’d choose.
I stripped the bed and carried the sheets and blankets down to the basement, starting the first load. The powdered laundry detergent was hard as a rock, but I broke off a small chunk and tossed it in, hoping some of it would dissolve. Heading back upstairs, I searched the rooms to figure out where I wanted to sleep. I examined two bedrooms with full-size beds and antique dark wood furniture. I also found a bathroom that looked like it had been modernized in the 1970s.
Muffy was waiting for me in the fourth bedroom, curled up in the middle of the canopy bed Mason had mentioned earlier. A small attached bath was off to the left, with a toilet and a giant claw-foot bathtub that I suddenly ached to climb into. The back bedroom wall was covered with huge windows and I was about to turn and leave when something caught my eye through the gauzy curtains. There was a deck or maybe a porch outside the room.
I found the door and opened it, nearly falling to my knees when I realized what it was.
A baby’s nursery.