Chapter Ten
When Jess woke up at eleven, the house was quiet and birds chirped outside through the screen window. Wheeler was gone. She went to the bathroom and on to the kitchen, following the scent of percolating coffee. A note on the counter next to a clean cup confirmed he’d be right back.
After pouring a cup of coffee, she added a lot of milk and sugar. Even with the additives, she made a face. Coffee was not her thing anyway. This was sludge left over from an oil change.
She put the cup down and admired the kitchen. It was modern and yet not too fancy, with a farmhouse sink and what she thought might be concrete countertops.
“Nice.” She wandered the rest of the downstairs to discover that the house had male dominated décor but without a worn recliner or wall-sized TV in sight. “There has to be a man cave somewhere.”
Wherever the cave was located, it wasn’t on the first floor. Ever the PI, she headed for the stairs, determined to dig up a secret lair, but stopped when movement outside caught her attention.
Thinking that the sniper might be back for another try, she went for her gun and tiptoed through the kitchen. On the deck, seated on a woven mat, was a man, a very naked man. Not only that, he had a hairless body and he was seated cross-legged, his head tipped upward to the sky.
How had she missed him during her first visit to the kitchen?
The biggest point of interest—and it wasn’t his exposed you-know-what—was the fact that he was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen, so beautiful that it made her eyes ache. Yep, she experienced full-blown retinal aching.
Openly staring as a beam of light cut through the overcast sky and shined on his long golden locks, it took her a moment to realize that five women of varying ages, all wearing bathrobes and holding coffee cups, were loitering near the back fence.
When they saw her, two gave her enthusiastic thumbs-up.
She went back into the kitchen, shaking her head.
Keys rattled behind her and she turned her head. “You’re up.” Wheeler walked over and placed an overstuffed brown paper bag on the table. “You okay?”
“Other than a slight headache, I’m fine.” She turned back. “Do you know that you have a naked man on your deck?”
Puzzled, he joined her. “I thought he was with you. He said he was. I found him there when I got up.”
Her brows went up. “And you didn’t think it was odd that I’d invite a naked man to your house?”
Wheeler went for the sliding door handle. “He had clothes on then. Besides, weird follows you around. How am I supposed to know the difference?” He jerked open the door. Before he could step out, Jess slipped around him.
“I’ll handle this.” Besides, she had to get a closer look. At his face. He didn’t move as she approached. “Excuse me. Sir?”
One startling blue eye opened. “You must be Jess.”
“I am, but who are you?”
He held up one finger, mumbled something that sounded like the end of a prayer, and the second eye, this one green, opened. He smiled, and the vivid white of his teeth caused her to step back in surprise. The man had dropped down from Mount Olympus.
“I’m Calvin.” He unfolded and slowly rose to his feet. A collective sigh came from the women. Jess ignored them.
“Dear God,” Wheeler muttered behind her.
The guy was well over six feet, lean, muscled, and golden. When Calvin glanced at the ladies and grinned, Jess took a peek. No, she shouldn’t have, but she couldn’t help herself. His package was the largest she’d ever seen. All of it. He’d make stallions envious and mares weep. She snapped her attention back to his face before he caught her looking.
He looked down at her.
“Calvin, why are you here? Is there someone I can call for you?” she said gently, like a shrink. They had to get him out of here before he started a riot among the neighborhood husbands.
“I came because Alvin said you were in danger and needed a bodyguard.” He gave the detective a once-over and said out of the corner of his mouth, “I’m sure he’s competent, but I’m bigger.”
Wheeler, having lost patience, grumbled, “I’m having a donut,” and went back inside.
Jess rubbed the sides of her face. “How do you know Alvin?”
“He’s my brother. My twin brother.”
Had he said they were prison roommates, or college bros, or they’d once shared a crazy weekend in Vegas, she would have believed him. This explanation was completely unexpected. The two men were so dissimilar that they were almost different species.
“Explain,” she ordered.
He shifted from one foot to the other, causing his oversized part to sway in the breeze and a seismic reaction from the women at the fence. One actually fainted. The other four didn’t notice.
“There was a mix-up at the fertility lab and my egg was implanted in Mom along with Alvin’s. Since he has the same black unibrow and mustache as Mom, I assume I’m not her bio kid. We are not genetic brothers but brothers of our souls.”
Her mind went to Alvin and Calvin both naked on the deck and unconscious women dotting the landscape with their prone bodies. They had to get him dressed.
“Why are you naked?”
He looked down. She kept her eyes on his face. “In order to reach the pinnacle of spiritual enlightenment, I must be one with nature. And nature doesn’t wear clothes.”
Point made, yet he was causing a stir and it was still early. “Do you have clothes, Calvin?” She looked around and didn’t see signs of any.
“I do. In the car.”
“Can you get them?”
“Yes.” He reached down for his mat. “Clothing blocks energy and keeps one from reaching a higher plane,” he said. “One must be naked in body and spirit as we pray to the holy land.”
“Mecca?” she asked.
“Jersey.”
* * *
As Calvin went to reclaim his clothes, wrapped in his mat at Jess’s insistence, she went back inside. Wheeler sat at the table, shoving a donut into his mouth.
“Did you get rid of him?” he asked and flushed the pastry down with a slug of coffee.
“We didn’t get that far. He’s dressing.” The big bag drew her attention. Curious, she pulled it over and looked inside. A dark blue hoodie lay folded on top. “You brought me clothes?”
“When I called Irving and told him what happened, he gave me Taryn’s number. The clothes are hers. She also wants you to stay with her, but I told her I’m keeping you.”
Keeping her?
“That’s pretty arrogant of you. I’m not a stray dog.” She lifted the hoodie and found two sets of sexy bras and panties with the tags still on them. Rick was going to miss out. “I never agreed to stay here for more than one night.”
“But you did invite me to sleep with you. I figured it would be easier to accomplish if you’re right up the stairs.”
“Hmm.” Beneath the undies was a white top and a pair of blue capris. Since she and Taryn were of a similar size—although Jess was taller—the capris should fit. “What was said in a moment of emotional trauma cannot be held against me.”
“So you don’t want to have sex with me?”
“Oh, I do.” She put everything back in the bag and made a mental note to thank Taryn. “But I might change my mind. Women can, you know.”
Leaving him to ponder her comments, she went to his bedroom and locked herself in the bathroom. No sense taking chances. She wasn’t sure if she could resist him naked and wet. Despite what she’d said, or her plan to take up with a groomsman, she wanted more than just emotionless sex.
Taryn had included travel-sized toiletries and a few makeup items, enough to get her to the store for clothes and supplies.
She sent her friend a thank-you text and climbed in the steaming shower.
* * *
The pipes rattled softly as Jess ran the shower, the old house reminding him he still had things to fix on his to-do list. He’d only owned the hundred-year-old property for two years but managed more than a few renovations in that time. What he couldn’t do himself, he’d hired an expert to complete.
Having a woman in the house seemed odd. He’d never brought a woman home, feeling like that was adding intimacy to a relationship he wasn’t looking for. He’d usually go to their place, keeping a sense of distance.
Now the brash PI was naked in his shower and he wondered if he’d made a mistake by asking her to stay.
He liked his privacy and coming home to an organized house. He wasn’t obsessive about cleanliness, but he preferred not having dishes piled up in the sink and makeup all over his bathroom vanity.
However, Jess was in danger and he wanted her close. For that, concessions had to be made.
“I love your rattling pipes,” she said as she came downstairs in bare feet and a towel around her head. “And your shower. Mine was barely big enough to turn around in.” At that, her smile faded. “I liked that little apartment.” She paused, took a deep breath, and whispered to herself, “No more crying.”
Sam could see her face redden. She did take pride in being tough. He pretended not to hear her.
She glanced around. “Where’s Calvin?”
“He’s not back yet. Maybe he left.”
“One could hope.” Dealing with Alvin was challenging. Having a pair of him would be too much.
The smell of baked goods drew her attention. She went for the bag and looked inside. “Yum. As long as there aren’t bagels with tofu cream cheese in here, I’m in.”
Sam glanced over his shoulder. “It isn’t real cream cheese if it’s made out of soy beans.”
The detective was alpha. It was hard to imagine him eating tofu burgers while perusing online shopping sites for hemp T-shirts. “Then I shouldn’t have you over for edamame stuffed tofurkey for Thanksgiving dinner?”
He stopped walking. “You can carve anything into the shape of a bird and call it whatever you want, but it doesn’t make it a turkey…or edible.”
Jess laughed and followed him into the kitchen. “It’s easier to pass something off as comfort food if you give it a familiar name. I don’t think most people would want to serve holiday guests food packaged as a poultry-flavored bean roll. It just doesn’t have the same appeal.”
“Tofurky, to-ice cream, to-fish is not food,” he said. “I’d rather eat rocks and sticks.”
“I’ll have to Google the recipe,” Jess teased.
When he passed her to take his cup to the sink, he smelled his body wash on her skin. Though spicy scented for men, it was kind of a turn on. Everything about her was a turn on.
Despite agreeing to eventually have sex with her, he hoped to have the case solved quickly and Jess out of his life. He was too busy for a relationship, and she had white picket fence written all over her.
Jess ate a fritter on a napkin. “These are good,” she said, taking a second one. “The sugar in these, and the sludge you call coffee, should keep you awake all afternoon.”
“Don’t knock it until you try it.”
She looked at the cup and shuddered. “I’d rather drink a raw egg and kale smoothie.” She pushed the cup away. “Have the investigators discovered the reason for the fire?”
“Nothing firm. They do think it was deliberately set.” He wondered how much he should dump on her all at once. She did look back to fighting form so he went on, “There were no batteries in the smoke detector.”
“Bastard.” Anger flashed across her face as she headed out of the kitchen to collect her duffel bag.
Sam went for his keys. “The strange part was that the fire was started on top of the window air conditioner like the arsonist wanted to keep it contained.”
Puzzlement darkened her expression. “Like he didn’t mean to kill me, just to smoke me out?”
“Something like that.” Sam collected his jacket off the coat rack by the door. “Sparks from the fire appeared to have lit the old wooden siding and caused the fire to spread.”
They walked out and he locked the door behind them.
“I’m seriously confused here,” she said, and started down the porch steps. “Why would a sniper/arsonist play these games?”
Sam skipped the sidewalk and crossed the lawn to the driveway. He paused by the driver’s side door. “That’s what we’re here for. To find out.
That didn’t seem to satisfy Jess. Her eyes narrowed. “Whatever his motive is doesn’t really matter. When we find this guy, I’m going to make him wish his parents had never met.”
* * *
Wheeler drove her home and they both walked around the garage. The small building was a complete loss. The only item still recognizable was the old couch she’d purchased at a garage sale—the frame anyway—and the kitchen appliances. Her anger grew. She’d been saving for a house, so her stuff was inexpensive odds and ends she’d picked up here and there. But it was her stuff and her temporary home. Now it was all gone.
Done with tears, she closed her fists and took strength from the setback. “The sniper is going to prison for a long time.”
“He is,” Wheeler agreed. “We’ll get him.”
The detective left and she walked to her SUV. After heading to the mall, she picked up enough items to get her through the week: clothes and shoes, bras and panties, and a new pair of killer boots to replace the ones she’d lost. Taryn and Summer teased her about wearing heels on the job, but she liked this brand and they were comfortable. Besides, they could serve as weapons in a fight.
Just in case, she also bought a halter sundress off the end of summer clearance rack and a sweater to go with it, in case she had to dress up for some reason. She still had an old profile up on an online dating site and several men looked interesting. Maybe one of them would ask her out.
Even if she did have sex with Wheeler, he didn’t appear to be the settling down type, so she’d keep her options open.
Dropping her purchases in the back of the SUV, her conversation with Taryn came to mind and tangled with her current situation. Maybe Wheeler and her friend were right. She did need to protect herself. A gun was lethal force. A Taser could bring a perp down. But both only worked if she had time to reach for them. This psycho liked sneak attacks.
Something small hit her in the back. Damn! She spun around, looking for a clue to the reason. All she saw were parked cars and a woman in the aisle over pushing a stroller, with a small girl holding her free hand.
Was she losing her mind? Did she have some sort of nerve condition that left her with phantom pains?
Whatever was happening was not about to be solved today. She didn’t have time to see a doctor, and she didn’t know enough about nerve disorders to rule those in or out as her issue. But there was one thing she could do to keep the sniper at bay.
Rather than head to work, she got on US 23 and headed north. She had a stop to make.