Banged Up (6 page)

She needed some uncomplicated loving, some tenderness and maybe even some hot, sweaty down-and-dirty sex. But sex wasn’t her priority.

Right now, she needed to survive. She needed to get out of the bedroom. “I’m going downstairs to start a roast.” She turned and fled down the hall.

In her haste, she barely heard Mace’s disgruntled question. “By the way, who’s Martin?”

Chapter Four

Mace was towel-drying his hair Monday morning when he heard the shrill ring of his cell phone. He could work highly technical surveillance equipment but he couldn’t even figure out how to change the damn ringtone. Not that he had given it any great effort, either. He limped into the bedroom and looked at the “private caller” which came up on the display. He reluctantly answered it before the voice mail could pick up.

“So, how are you feeling?” a very familiar male voice asked.

Mace sat on the bed and threw the damp towel over his naked lap. “Lousy. Are you calling for a reason?”

“Not really. I’m just checking on one of my best men. Did you shave that mess off your face yet?”

“No.” Mace rubbed a hand self-consciously over his bristly chin. “I like it. I think I’ll keep it for a while.”

“It makes you look—”

“Like a criminal. I’ve already heard. Flattery will get you everywhere. Hey, did you call the house phone yesterday?” It would be like his boss to hang up if a stranger’s voice answered. To avoid any questions, his superior would say.

“I have your cell.”

Yeah, that was the perfect answer to his question. But he was right. He had Mace’s cell, there would be no reason to call the house.

“Is there a problem, Walker?”

“No. No, nothing.” Nothing but some kiddies prank calling the house.

“If there is, I’m sure it’s something you can handle.”

“Yeah. In that case, I’m glad you waited until now to call. There’s a woman staying here. Fortunately, she’s at work right now.”

“I know. You’re speaking of Ms. Colby Parks.”

Mace gripped the phone tighter. “You know?”

“Of course. I wasn’t going to let you walk unknowingly into a situation which might be dangerous.”

“Don’t make me laugh. Everything I do, every situation you send me into, is dangerous.” Mace glanced at the full gun clip still sitting on his nightstand. He picked it up and studied it. Out of habit, he pushed the top round with his thumb, testing the tightness of the clip’s spring. It was a motion he’d done thousands of times, for some reason it gave him comfort. “Speaking of dangerous, she almost shot me thinking I was a burglar. It would have been nice if you’d warned me.”

He thought he heard a chuckle, or it might just have been choking, on the other end.

“It wouldn’t have been any fun, though. Maybe she’ll keep you on your toes, keep you from getting fat and lazy during your little recuperation.” His next response was dead serious. “I had her checked out.”

“Now why doesn’t that surprise me? Actually, you beat me to it. I was going to call the Bureau today.” He placed the clip next to his parents’ framed picture. “So you know my sister is married and on her honeymoon?”

“Yes. She married over a month ago. She told me, but I couldn’t inform you. It was sort of bad timing. First, you were too deep undercover. And then with your little mishap, well, I didn’t want you to be bothered.”

Little mishap.

“Right.” Mace gave a dry laugh. “Do you at least know who she married, where she went?”

No matter how many times he’d tried to coax the information out of Colby, she’d clam up and tell him to find out for himself. She believed if Maxi wanted him to know, she would have told him. It was untrue. He wanted to explain it had to do with the circumstances of his career, but Mace decided it wasn’t worth arguing over. He had to pick his battles and he preferred the one where he worked on getting Colby comfortable enough with him to get naked.

He smiled at the image. But his boss’ voice broke into his thoughts, ruining his fantasy.

“Of course. I know everything. She married the banker who backed Ms. Parks’ atrocious project, the one on Shady Lane. That’s how your sister met Ms. Parks. Do you like her?”

Mace ignored the question. “She’s horrifying with a gun.”

“Yes, a Glock…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know everything. You’re too thorough.”

“I have to be. Our lives depend on it, Walker. I assume you don’t want me to tell you everything about her. A mysterious woman is so much more exciting.” Mace heard papers rustling on the other end of the line. “I hope you’ll keep up your physical therapy—and I don’t mean naked romper room with Ms. Parks. Try to heal quickly. I might need you to replace another agent on assignment. He’s getting too personally involved.”

“A woman?”

“Mmm. Unfortunately, she’s on the wrong side.”

“A fatal mistake,” Mace said. “But, of course,
you know that.
If possible, I’d like to stick around for a couple months.”

“Until your sister returns from abroad?”

“Is that where she is?”

“Yes, her new husband has family in England. They decided to tour Europe.” The man laughed. “It has to be you want to wait around to see your sister. I can’t imagine you’d want to stay just to help Ms. Parks fix up her ugly, old house.”

“It really isn’t so bad.” Did he actually just say that?

“And she’s worth it even if it is, right? Maybe she’ll help you feel better. Have her help with your leg exercises.”

Mace heard him chuckle. Perhaps a couple months around Colby would make him feel better.
If
she was willing. “Does Maxi even know what happened?” There was a telling silence. Of course not, otherwise his baby sister wouldn’t have gone off to Europe.

She would have been worried sick. She would have put off her wedding, put her life on hold. Maybe it was better Maxi didn’t know.

The man cleared his throat. “I’ll keep in touch.”

Mace stared at the cell for a moment before snapping it shut and throwing it on the bed.

Now that he knew his boss hadn’t called yesterday, he thought about Colby’s reaction. Why was she all shook up from one hang-up? Okay two; there had been one later in the evening. But he had gotten to the phone first and it had been just a quick click and a dial tone.

Mace had played the second one off as another wrong number since Colby had been in earshot. He ended up telling her someone was trying to order Chinese food and had misdialed. Whether she believed him or not, who knew, but at least she hadn’t freaked like the last time.

When he’d asked her whether the hang-ups had been a reoccurring thing before he’d come home, she changed the subject. He had let it go. For now. But he was going to get to the bottom of it one way or another.

———

Late in the afternoon, Mace heard a car drive up and opened the front door to see who it was. He surprised himself; he never even looked out the peephole first. It felt good to be able to open a door without fear of some thug blowing holes in him. Three days home and he was starting to relax.

He was pleased to see it was Colby. She parked a bright red, but older, convertible next to his not so bright, old Ford truck. He spotted the groceries in the back seat and went to help her.

“Sharp,” he said, snagging a couple of the brown paper bags.

Colby handed him a third and grabbed one herself. “Me or the car?”

“Both. I didn’t think you had a vehicle.”

“It was at the garage. Needed a water pump.”

He followed her into the house. “Yeah? Too bad I didn’t arrive sooner. I’m great with cars.”

“And women?”

“Them too.”

“Did you learn your mechanical skills at—”

Mace dropped the grocery bags on the kitchen table in time to cover her mouth with his hand. “Don’t. I’ve had enough of your jailhouse wisecracks.”

His fingers against her warm, moist lips immediately sent a shock wave down to his groin. He wanted to run his thumb along her bottom lip and then dip it into her mouth. In and out. Until it was wet. He would follow his thumb with his tongue. And other things.

Or just one other thing: his aching, swollen cock. His eyelids lowered with need until Colby stepped away from him, breaking his contact. Breaking into his thoughts.

“Too close to home?” she asked, her voice a little shaky.

Good. Maybe he was getting to her like she was getting to him. “No.”

“So tell me what you do for a living.”

He broke eye contact first, because if he hadn’t he would have pushed her Miss Proper skirt up and slammed his cock home very improper-like against the kitchen cabinet. Frontward, backward, he wasn’t going to be picky.

He concentrated hard on the subject at hand. “You first. What do you do with your days, Ms. Parks?”

“I think you’re avoiding the question. Finish carrying in the groceries while I unpack them, and then, and only then, I might play your little game, Mr. Walker.”

If she only knew what game he really wanted to play with her…

He behaved himself and brought in the rest of the bags. Settling into a chair, he regarded Colby while she started dinner.

“Are you a chauvinist? Don’t you cook or clean or do laundry?”

Mace smiled. “I try to avoid it at all costs.”

“So who normally does all your domestic duties?”

“Here we go with the questions again. You still have to answer mine.”

She gave a little shrug. “Fine.”

Mace moved behind Colby and saw her start when she turned around, finding him so close. He was close enough to feel her heat. It was almost enough to make him lose his mind.

“What are you doing?”

The tremble in her voice caught his attention, and threw a little cold water on his steaming hot libido. “Helping. I assume that’s what you wanted when you started in on the chauvinist crap.”

Colby looked relieved.

Three days had gone by. They’d eaten meals together, watched TV and he had even helped her paint her yellow kitchen. Not to mention the make-out session in the hallway yesterday.
But she still hasn’t relaxed around me yet.

Thinking about their up-close and personal time on Sunday made his libido snap right back up to attention. But he had to watch his step. He wanted to get down and dirty with her, discover all her secrets, but he couldn’t push too hard. Not yet. He didn’t want to scare her away. Hell, if he wasn’t careful the sexual tension was going to kill him.

“You’ve read my mind. You can make the salad.”

If they were reading each other’s minds, he was in trouble. Because right now his mind was dirty, dirty, so fucking dirty. He imagined digging his fingers deep into her fireball mane of hair while she sucked him off. She would be on her knees and he would be guiding her head back and forth, back and forth. The wet mouth around his cock, little moans escaping her lips…

Mace bit off a groan and removed the rinsed vegetables out of the colander, where they’d been drip-drying. He grabbed a cutting board and sat back down at the table to chop them up. He had to concentrate on something else. Like lettuce.

“Can’t you chop them here at the counter?”

“No. Sometimes, I can’t stand on my leg too long.”

Mace felt her eyes on him, studying his legs. Damn. He wished it were her hands following the lines of his jeans instead. She was not helping him get his mind out of the gutter. Although she didn’t know what he was thinking, thankfully. Or not.

“Why?”

He raised an eyebrow in her direction.

“Okay, I’ll tell you about me first, you big party-pooper.” After Colby placed two thick steaks on the broiler pan and got some baby red potatoes boiling, she turned to face him, leaning back against the counter. He was glad to see she seemed a bit more comfortable.

“I’m a biochemist.”

“Wow, that’s impressive.” Mace clumsily peeled a carrot, attempting to keep the long orange strips in a pile. Concentrating on the vegetables was helping to relieve some of the tension within him. “What’s that?” He looked up from his detested work when he heard her laugh.

Hands planted on her hips, she looked at him in astonishment. “How could something impress you when you don’t know what it is?”

“It’s why I’m impressed. I never said I was smart.”

“I thought all inmates had a right to an education.” She raised her arms up in surrender at his grimace. “Sorry. I promise, no more digs.” She grabbed the dishtowel which hung over the oven door handle and wiped her hands. She drifted over to the table and snagged a stalk of celery to munch on. “I specialize in the chemical composition and behavior of living organisms. I work for Malvern University.”

If she was trying to dumbfound him, she succeeded. He couldn’t have felt dumber.

“Can you elaborate a little more? I think you lost me.”

“I study the effects of food or hormones, or even drugs, on living things.”

Ah, clarity.
“Like people?”
I could tell you about the effects of drugs on people.

“People, animals, plants. Whatever.” Colby pointed the ragged stub of celery in his direction. “Whatever the University wants me to do, I do. They’re the ones paying my salary.”

“I bet it’s a pretty nice salary too.”

“It could be better. I only have my masters. To earn more I’d need my Ph.D.”

Only
has her masters.
Shee-it.
“Are you considering it?” He took the two salad bowls Colby handed him and filled them with the unevenly chopped veggies. “Going back to school, I mean.”

“No. I enjoy working in the lab and in the field. I don’t want an administrative position. No matter how much they earn.”

“I can understand. I wouldn’t want to be stuck behind a desk either.” Mace caught the towel Colby tossed to him and wiped his hands. “How did you get to work this morning? I would have given you a ride. The University isn’t very close.”

“Martin, my assistant. He was kind enough to pick me up this morning and drop me off at the garage after work. He’s a nice guy.”

“Just nice, huh?” Mace wondered if there was more. He waited, but she said nothing more on her co-worker.

Malvern University. He truly was impressed. It was a prestigious school and he was sure her job paid well. His parents had moved to this college “town” when he and Maxi were young. Their professor father taught there until he died. Maxi also ended up going to school there. Mace had different ideas when he went to college; he found the farthest college from home in the lower forty-eight to go to. Like he could have gotten into Malvern in the first place…