Chapter 71

An hour later, it was just him and me. At Zane's insistence, he'd been the one to give Kayla a ride back to her car – minus the silverware or any paintings, for that matter.

As for me, I'd spent that time waiting at Zane's place, mostly playing with the dogs, who'd apparently just arrived home from their doggie vacation up north.

Of course, I spent some of this time rummaging through Zane's massive freezer in search of – yup, you guessed it – stray meatballs.

Did I find any?

I'll never tell. But I will say that two microwavable minutes later, along with a few bad throws, the dogs were in no mood to complain, and soon settled down for a nap in the shade.

I was in no mood to complain either. Somehow, after wandering from the kitchen, I'd ended up on the same exact rug that I'd been cleaning however many months ago.

In fact, that's where Zane found me when he returned from taking Kayla back to the gas station. With an amused smile, he asked, "What are you doing there?"

I was sprawled on my back, gazing up at the high ceiling. "Just thinking."

"About what?"

"My question." I gave him an impish smile. "You never did answer it, you know."

He sank down onto the rug beside me and pulled me into his arms. "What question?"

"Earlier, you claimed you were terrified when I showed up on your doorstep. But you weren't really, were you?"

"Hell yes, I was terrified."

I gave him a playful swat to his arm. "Oh, stop it."

"I was," he insisted. "And you wanna know why?"

"Why?"

He pulled me closer. "Because even as mad as you were, I still didn't want you to leave."

I laughed against him. "Wow, that is scary."

"Yeah. Tell me about it." He ran a hand along my back. "And it wasn't just me. It was the dogs, too."

"Now, I know you're joking."

"No joke," he said. "You should've heard them when you left. They howled for an hour." His voice softened. "You do know they're crazy about you."

I was still laughing. "They're not crazy about me. They're crazy about meatballs."

"Nah, they can get those any time. But you? You're something special."

His words made me feel warm and gooey all over, and I smiled against the cotton of his shirt. "So are you."

"Yeah?"

"Totally." Still, I had to tease him. "But I've gotta say, if you didn't want me to leave, you sure had a funny way of showing it."

"Hey, I did what I had to."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You want the truth?" His tone grew serious. "I didn't want you coming around."

"Why not?"

"Because I didn't know who I could trust, and I didn't want you on anyone's radar."

"But why?"

"Because I didn't want anything to happen to you."

That sounded ominous, and I just had to ask, "You're not still worried about that, are you?"

"No. Because I'm a lot better informed."

"About what?"

"Just between you and me?"

I nodded against him.

After a long silence, he said, "I know who killed my uncles."

"Seriously?" I pulled away and sat up. "Who?"

"They did."

"What?"

"Two hits," he said. "One on each other."

"Oh, my God." It was almost too terrible to contemplate. "How did you find out?"

"I got some hints, hired some people. Truth is, I just found out a couple of hours ago."

"Wow." I studied his face. "Was that why you were so worried about the alarm?"

His gaze met mine. "One of the reasons."

"Speaking of that house…" I hesitated. "Whose is it, really?"

"Mine." He smiled. "Legally, anyway."

I gave a confused shake of my head. "So, are you planning to keep it as a guest house or something?"

"Nah," he said. "I'm planning to let Teddy live there, well, whenever he pulls his head out of his ass."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Zane said. "After all, it's his house."

"But wait, you just said it was yours."

"Technically, it's part of the estate, but my grandfather wanted him to have it."

"He did?"

Zane nodded. "He hated what Bob and Kayla did, driving Teddy out like that."

Oddly enough, I hated it, too. "I can see why."

"And before he died, I promised to make it right."

"But I don't understand," I said. "If that's what he wanted, why didn't he deal with it?"

Zane looked away. "People are different, you know. The things I've had to do – well, I guess he didn't have it in him."

I knew exactly what he meant. But this posed another question. "Sorry, but I've gotta ask, why didn't just tell me what was going on, with the house, I mean?" I gave a shaky laugh. "I was so mad at you."

"Really?" he said. "I didn't notice."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, please."

"All right. You wanna know why? It's because you had dinner with Teddy."

"So, you were what? Punishing me?"

"No," he said. "I was trying to keep you from getting dragged into the mud. The whole thing, it's like this messed up freak show, and I wanted to keep you the hell away from it."

I smiled in spite of myself. "But what about Teddy? Why didn't you tell him?"

"You know Teddy," Zane said. "Let's say I give him the house today, how long before he's out again?"

I saw what he meant. I had to admit it, "Not long."

"Right. But if the house is mine, they're gonna have a lot harder time taking it."

"You mean, because…" I wasn't quite sure how to put this.

Zane flashed me a grin. "Because I’m a prick, and Teddy's not."

At this, I had to laugh, because it was so terribly true. Teddy wasn't an awful person, but the odds of him hanging onto anything? Well, they weren't great.

As for Zane, he was obviously willing to fight for the things that were important to him. And for whatever reason, this seemed to include me. My voice softened. "You're not always a prick."

"Yeah?" He reached up and pulled me back into his arms. "Well don't tell anyone."

His body felt hard and warm against mine. I couldn't help but say, "Speaking of pricks…"

"Yeah?"

I almost giggled. "Have you ever had sex on this rug?"