2
Rob pressed the yellowing plastic bell on Ally’s
battered front door and waited. As a kid, he’d simply jumped over
the rickety fence, run through the backyard and into the
kitchen—until he’d figured out that Ally didn’t like him being
anywhere near her mom. It wasn’t until they were teenagers that he
realized Ruth Kendal was an addict who had no compunction about
stealing and lying to get her drugs of choice. But by then, he’d
been glad to stay outside.
There was no sound inside the house, so
he knocked instead. Eventually, the door opened to reveal Ally,
with a paintbrush in her hand and an aggrieved
expression.
“What?”
“You have paint on your cheek.” Before
she could reply, he stepped inside and shut the door behind him.
“It’s in your hair too.”
“Thanks.”
She balanced the paintbrush carefully
on the windowsill and crossed her arms over her chest.
“What do you want?”
He ignored her, his attention having
drifted to the stacks of boxes that filled the hallway, dining
room, and as far as he could see. Last evening, on a whim, he’d
pulled the old files for the Susan Evans case. Unconfirmed reports
had placed Susan, the dead girl, in this house on the night of her
death.
After the judge decided there wasn’t
enough evidence to obtain a search warrant, Ruth Kendal had refused
to let anyone on her property even for an unofficial search. A
quick verdict of suicide on the teenager had shut the case right
down. The investigator in him yearned to take a closer look at the
boxes. He’d always wondered whether his gut instinct about that
night had been right, and now he was finally in a position to find
out.
“What’s with all the
boxes?”
Ally shrugged and the spaghetti strap
of her worn black top fell down. Rob’s fingers twitched as he
resisted the urge to fix it for her.
“All my mom’s work.”
“Why?”
“How should I know? You saw her more
than I did in the last ten years.”
“Yeah, but . . .”
Rob turned around, noticing the dirt
and the smell of neglect, the torn drapes and netting, the filthy
carpet.
“I didn’t realize she’d let things get
this bad.”
“Neither did I.”
Ally picked up the paintbrush and went
down the hallway toward the kitchen. Rob followed her, inhaling the
scent of fresh paint. To his relief, the kitchen looked a lot
better than the other rooms. He nodded at the gleaming sink and
scrubbed linoleum.
“Did you do this?”
“Yeah, after the bathroom it was the
first room I cleaned.” She shuddered. “It’s not great, but at least
it’s sanitary.” She swung around to look at him and leaned back
against the sink. “So, what do you want?”
She wore frayed denim shorts that
showed off the endless length of her legs, and her feet were bare.
Drips of white paint splattered her from head to toe.
“I came to update you on your nuisance
reports.”
“Really?” She stared pointedly at his
khaki shorts and black T-shirt. “You don’t exactly look
official.”
“I’m just on my way in to work. I
thought I’d drop by and give you the news firsthand.” He shifted
his gaze to the door. “If I’m bothering you, I can come back
later.”
“And disturb me all over again? Did you
find out who was responsible?”
“No, but we’re going to increase our
patrols in this area, and I’ve asked the local Neighborhood Watch
organization to put you on their at-risk list.”
She clasped her hands to her chest.
“Oh, wow, I feel so much safer now. You know that most of the
people who live here hate me, right? Do you really think they’re
going to waste their precious time worrying about graffiti on my
walls or broken glass?”
“If I ask them to, yeah.”
“Oh, right, because if the town’s star
quarterback, homecoming king, sheriff, and jilted wonder guy
forgives me, everyone else will too? Get real.”
Anger churned in his gut, but he tamped
it down and took two steps closer to her.
“I haven’t forgiven you.”
“Exactly, and they’ll understand that.
In fact, they probably think that scaring me away is good for the
town and good for you.”
Determined not to let her rile him, Rob
took a deep breath. “Now it’s your turn.”
“To what?”
“To talk to me.”
“You haven’t caught anyone
yet.”
He closed the gap between them and
stared down into her defiant face. “That’s not what our agreement
was.”
She smiled. “Are you sure? Did you
write it down?”
He cupped her chin. “No, did
you?”
Her breathing was as fast as his, and
the tips of her breasts grazed the front of his T-shirt. He inhaled
her familiar butterscotch scent and let it flow through him. It
reminded him of the past. She licked her lips, and he was instantly
hard.
“Rob, I really do want to sit down with
you and clear the air.”
“Clear the air? Sure. Then let’s
fuck.”
Her eyes widened but she didn’t look
away. “I’m covered in paint, you hate me, and yet you still want to
fuck me.”
“Yeah, I’m a man. That about sums it
up.”
He bent his head and took her mouth in
a hard, unforgiving kiss, then winced as she bit his lip and pulled
away.
“I didn’t say you could kiss
me.”
“I didn’t ask.”
She retreated to the sink, her nipples
now showing through the thin fabric of her top. He waited while she
looked him over; doing nothing to hide his erection, he let her see
it and think about it thrusting between her legs.
“I don’t hate you, Ally. But I don’t
understand why you did what you did. You fucked up four lives. Was
it really worth it?”
She rinsed out her mug in the sink. “I
had to leave. I was too young and too stupid to know how to do it
any other way.”
“Hell, you could’ve just talked to me,
told me how you felt.”
“And would you’ve listened? You weren’t
real good at that back when we dated.”
“At least you could’ve
tried.”
She moved restlessly to the newly
painted window, presenting him with her back.
“What do you want, Rob? An apology?
Because I’m quite happy to give you one.” She hesitated. “In fact,
it’s one of the reasons I came back.”
He smiled, even though he knew she
couldn’t see his face. “I told you what I want.”
She turned slowly to face him. “To fuck
me. Why on earth would you want to do that? Is that your perverted
idea of revenge?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You know that makes no sense,
right?”
He kept on staring at her. Hell, he
knew that, but until he got rid of this itch to have her, he
couldn’t move on, couldn’t let go.
“And why, exactly, would I let a man
who hates me make love to me?”
Rob leaned back against the wall. “You
fucked me over big-time.”
“So you’re going to fuck me right
back?”
“Works for me. And I know you, Ally. I
know what you want in a man.” Rob caught something on his radio,
which he always carried with him, and glanced down at it. “I’ve got
to go. I’m on duty in ten minutes. I’ll keep you informed about the
troublemakers, and you let me know about the sex.”
She looked away from him, her arms
folded over her breasts. “Go away, Rob. I have a lot to
do.”
“I can see that.” He glanced around the
room again. “How come you don’t get someone in to do it for
you?”
“I can’t afford it. In fact, I might
have to get myself a job to cover the costs. I didn’t realize how
much my mom had let it go.”
Her blunt statement made him
pause.
“You’re a supermodel—of course you can
afford it.”
“Not anymore. I haven’t walked a runway
or shot a fashion spread for years.”
“But you had savings, right? And a
manager and a modeling agency to protect your ass?”
“Had, yeah. Not
anymore. They all dropped me.”
He continued to stare at her.
“Why?”
She walked away from him, back toward
the front door, her posture rigid and her chin in the air. “That’s
none of your business.”
“I suppose it isn’t, but I’m still
asking.”
Ally flung open the door, flooding the
dirty hallway with sunlight.
“Good-bye, Sheriff. Come back when you
have something useful to say.”
He stopped next to her, his shoes lined
up with her bare feet so that she had to look up at him to see his
face.
“I’ll come back when you decide about
the sex.”
She sighed. “I don’t need to decide
anything. I just want to talk things through with you properly, not
have sex.”
He slid his hand in her hair and kissed
her, ravaging her mouth until her whole body pressed against
his.
“You still want me.”
She licked her now-swollen lips. “I
don’t.”
“Liar.” He kissed her again, pulling
her tight against his erection and rocking into her. “You still
taste the same, you know. You still turn me on.”
She turned her face away from him. “So
what? It doesn’t mean I have to do anything about it.”
“That’s true, but I’m not giving up.
I’ll even help you out with the house, if you want.”
“Why?”
“I told you why.”
“Rob, there are probably hundreds of
women in this town who would jump at the chance to fuck you. Why
are you so fixated on having me?”
He drew back a little, propped his hand
on the door frame above her head, and considered her. She was tall
for a woman, just under six foot in her bare feet, only three
inches shorter than him.
“Because you’ll be gone soon?” He
thought he saw a flash of disappointment in her eyes, but she
quickly masked it. “What, you thought I was going to make you a big
speech about still being in love with you and wanting you back? I
haven’t been pining for you for ten years.”
“Then why do you still want
me?”
“Because we used to burn up the sheets,
and I can give you what you really need.”
She angled her head to one side.
“What’s wrong, Rob? Are you trying to recapture your youth because
you can’t get it up anymore?”
He took her hand and placed it over the
swell of his cock. “Does that feel like I have a problem to
you?”
She wrenched her hand away and tried to
turn toward the door.
“As I said, I have a lot to do, so can
you go now?”
“Run out of insults for the day, have
you?” He blew her a kiss. “It’s okay. I know you’ll come
around.”
He stepped back as the door slammed in
his face and strolled back to his truck. All things considered,
that had gone well. Was it wrong that her anger simply turned him
on more? And, dammit, he was turned on and so was she. Had their
relationship always been like that?
He stopped walking. No, she’d adored
him, would’ve done anything he asked until he’d scared her into
running. He’d been so sure he knew her, but had he ever really
bothered to listen to her opinions? And now she wanted to clear the
air, whatever the hell that meant.
He frowned as he started the engine.
The idea of asking her to fuck him to make amends had come out of
nowhere. It wasn’t really about the fucking anyway; surely she knew
that? He’d expected her to turn him down flat, but there had been a
hint of interest behind her denial that had turned him on and kept
him insisting that was what he wanted.
Rob wanted to bang his head on the
steering wheel. Ten minutes with Ally and he was already behaving
like a teenager. And he didn’t need that right now. He had to meet
Jackson, who was due back from a training course today, and tell
him about the return of the town’s infamous black
sheep.
Through a crack in the dirt-encrusted
net curtain, Ally watched Rob leave. His arrogance continued to
take her breath away. He thought she’d be good for a quick fuck
while she was in town, did he? The trouble was, her hormones agreed
with him. She hadn’t had sex with a real person for over a year,
and she was slowly dying of frustration.
Rob, of course, had always been able to
turn her on, and nothing had changed there. He’d ruled her world
when she was a senior in high school and he was a college
sophomore. She wanted him big-time, and somehow her body still
trusted him to make it good for her. She picked up her paintbrush
and retreated to the kitchen. He kissed like a god—that slight hint
of power, of menace, of compulsion she always craved was still
there. It made her want to do what he said, when he said it, and
not regret a single thing.
“He’s dangerous, Ally.”
She glanced around the empty kitchen,
aware she was talking to herself again. If she stayed, she should
definitely get a cat. With a sigh, she washed the paintbrush out in
the sink. But she wasn’t staying, was she? And a cat would only be
something that depended on her, and she couldn’t handle that
responsibility yet.
She really shouldn’t argue with Rob,
either, but it was so hard to resist. It had been so long since
she’d reacted so fiercely to anyone, cared enough to even fight. On
some deep level, she knew he wasn’t the kind of guy who would hurt
her, even though she’d walked out on him. She couldn’t decide if
Jill, her good friend and AA sponsor, would be pleased or horrified
with her thought process.
There was so much work to do in the
house; she could do with some help. But could she be alone with Rob
for five minutes without jumping him or letting him jump her? She
slowly shook her head. “Uh-uh, missy.”
She pretended to pet her imaginary cat
and returned to sorting out the kitchen cupboards. Rob was too much
of a temptation; she’d have to get a job and pay someone to do the
heavy work instead.
“Ally’s back.”
Rob braced himself for Jackson’s
reaction, but his deputy kept eating his fries as if he hadn’t a
care in the world. Spring Falls’s only sports bar was half empty
this early in the afternoon. The regular patrons would turn up
later to fill the place and give it some much-needed
buzz.
“Did you hear what I
said?”
“Yeah.” Jackson stopped eating to stare
at him. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Rob recoiled. “What am I, a girl? What
do you want me to say?”
“I dunno, something, I
guess.”
“I knew she’d come back one
day.”
“You did?”
“Yeah.” Rob drummed his fingers on the
red and white checked tablecloth. Jackson wasn’t known as a
chatterbox, and since his aborted army career, he’d clammed up even
more. But he still had this disconcerting habit of expecting Rob to
tell him stuff, embarrassing stuff Rob
really didn’t want to share. “You’ll probably see her around town.
She’s planning on fixing up her mom’s old house and selling
it.”
“Yeah?”
Rob set his jaw as Jackson went back to
eating his fries. “Is that all you have to say?”
Jackson sighed. “What are you worrying
about?”
“I’m not.”
“I’m okay with it.” Jackson fixed Rob
with a hard stare. “You’re the one who seems to have a
problem.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Ally coming back?”
“Yeah, it stirs up stuff I thought I’d
forgotten.” Rob took a gulp of his beer and refused to look at
Jackson.
“Like the fact that I fucked your
girlfriend?”
“I hadn’t forgotten that.”
Jackson rubbed the side of his face.
“Neither have I. You almost broke my fucking jaw.”
“You fucking deserved it.” Rob glared
at Jackson for a long moment. “Sometimes I wish I could just sort
it out like that with Ally. But you can’t have a knockdown fight
with a girl.”
“That’s the truth,” Jackson agreed.
“You’ll have to think of some other way of telling her what an
asshole you were.”
Rob decided not to answer that.
“There’s other stuff that bothers me about that last night Ally was
in town. Susan’s death and all that.”
“Why that?”
“Jesus, Jackson, don’t you think about
Susan too? She was your fucking girlfriend.”
Jackson glared at him, his dark eyes
smoldering like coals. “Susan killed herself after she found me and
Ally in bed together. Of course I think about her. I’m just not
sure why Susan is the first thing you think
about.”
Rob leaned closer and lowered his
voice. “Don’t you think it was weird the way Susan was seen at the
Kendal house that night?”
“Not really. She probably wanted to
confront Ally. That’s what girls do.”
“But this was later, after Ally had
supposedly gone.”
“So?”
“There were reports that Susan left the
Kendal house with someone that night. After
the suicide verdict came in, the authorities had no legal means to
search Ruth Kendal’s house, and she refused point-blank to help
them. What if Susan didn’t throw herself off that bridge after all
but was helped?”
Jackson angled his chair back from the
table. “And you care about this because . . . ?”
“Because I’m a cop and no case is ever
completely closed, is it?”
Jackson got to his feet and leaned over
the table. “Fuck that, Rob. This is all bullshit. You want a reason
to get into Ally’s house, into her pants, and back into her life.
Don’t use Susan’s death as an excuse to reexamine the
past.”
Rob stayed put as Jackson threw some
cash on the table, grabbed his jacket, and headed out the door. He
let out his breath and finished his beer. Damn, that hadn’t gone as
he’d wanted it to. Jackson was pissed and maybe he had a point. But
Rob didn’t need a way back into Ally’s life. She’d already said she
wanted to “talk” to him.
With a curse, Rob ordered another beer
and turned his attention to the baseball game on the big-screen TV.
Jackson would get over himself; he usually did. And Rob would
continue to investigate Susan’s death in whatever way he damn well
pleased.