Earth Enchanted (12 page)

Liv waited for half an hour thinking he’d drive around and cool off then come back. He didn’t. She paced and cried. When she finally had to block it out and dwell on something else or go crazy, she went into his office. She found a copy of
The Devil’s Due
there and sat down to read. After all, she didn’t think he could get angrier with her than he already was.

A fresh burst of tears swamped her when she saw he’d signed it for his wife. His first book. The first copy. She read the inscription. “For you, Serena, though I’ll never be able to return all you’ve given me in our life together, you’ll live in my heart forever. So will my love for you.” It broke her heart into pieces. He’d always belong to Serena.
Never yours, Liv, Jack will never be yours and you’ll never be able to love another
. If she didn’t set it aside, she’d never be able to get through the mess she’d gotten herself into. So to clear her mind, if for only a few minutes, she turned the page and read, throwing herself into the horror of Jack’s imagination.

Chapter 10

Jack had his badge back. Sam hadn’t been happy when he’d woken him up and demanded it be returned. Even now it was burning in his pocket just by being there. He had to bank down the urge to toss it out the window. He didn’t want it. Wanted or not, it was a necessary evil, and he was going to put it to good use.

Jack drove around for what seemed like forever just trying to cool off his temper. What else had she kept from him? They’d always been able to tell each other anything. Had she been involved in something illegal? No, he wouldn’t think it. It had been easy between them, comfortable. Loving Sissy had required no effort. It was just the way things were. Now Liv was a different story. He could tell she’d be a lot of work, for the man who fell in love with her, for any man. When he pulled up to Ryan’s house, all the lights were burning. Ryan was pacing in front of the study windows. The door was unlocked. Without even bothering with a cursory knock, Jack walked on in. It was one o’clock in the morning.

“I had a feeling she’d go to you. Funny, isn’t it? I’ve never known Liv to get in over her head so fast, but a word from you and she’s being led around by the nose like a puppy.”

Jack snatched him up by the collar. Ryan had a good six inches on him in height, but he didn’t care. He locked down the urge to punch him. Oh, but he really, really wanted to. If he didn’t have that damn badge, he could have.

“Don’t speak of your sister that way. What’s between me and Liv isn’t any of your business. You let her out of your sight, knowing there is a contract out on her. How would you feel if she were dead? What if I hadn’t been there that night? Or tonight? What would you have done?” He tossed him into the elegant leather chair with such force it almost toppled over with Ryan’s weight. “It would have been your fault.” The fierce need to protect and something stronger flashed into him, and with that, the regret. What if those had been the last words he had told her? They could get to her while he was gone. “I want to know everything. You better talk fast.” The man had put his own sister in front of a rifle, so to speak, just by bringing her here. The rage flew all over him.

“I’m sorry about your wife.”

This time Jack didn’t bother to buckle down the temper, and he let his fist fly into Ryan’s mouth.

“Don’t talk to me about Serena. I don’t want condolences, especially from you. Talk, or I’m dragging your ass down to the station.”

Ryan wiped the blood from his mouth. “Ah, so it’s Detective Roarke, back from the ether. I’ve put up with enough, mainly because Liv is so taken with you. That was the last free one you’ll get from me. On what charge? I’m working with the FBI. As long as I’m their snitch, I’ve nothing to worry about.”

“How about withholding information on the open homicide of a police officer? That’s more than enough to warrant the trip. You think they are going to bother to save your hide after a charge like that? We all tend to get a little more personal when it’s one of ours that has been killed. There’s always another snitch, for the right price.” A well-aimed dart intended to knife Ryan, and would have if it were possible.

“They know all of that already and more. I have immunity, Detective. If you’re surprised at what I know, you and Agent Spiller should have a chat. You don’t know anything.” He got up and poured a drink. “Want one?” He waved the snifter at Jack, who snarled in return.

“No, I don’t drink without a reason. You’re stalling and I’m not a patient man.”

“If you’ve a mind to spend any length of time with my sister, you had better learn to have patience. I’m sure Liv told what she overheard as well as what I told her. I met with Serena a lot over the few months that I knew her. I didn’t get into this by choice. She wanted to help me, and understood. She was in trouble, too. They knew about her being a cop. She told me her cover had been undermined.”

“You’re a lying bastard, Corrigan. She couldn’t have. Cap would have pulled her.” She’d never said a thing about that to him. Nothing. How many more secrets?

“Just because you love someone doesn’t mean you know them. Sometimes it blinds you so that you can’t see what you’re looking at.

“She made it work for her. She played the dirty cop. Not only did she help lift the jewels, but kept her part of the payment as well. Fortunately for you, they thought you were her ignorant dupe of a partner. She kept you safe that way, you see. Very noble of her by my way of thinking. You’d be six feet down if they had thought otherwise. She played both ends and got burned.”

Jack actually heard something snap and break inside him. He couldn’t stop it and didn’t want to. “I don’t believe you. You’re trying to tell me she lifted the diamonds and never said a word to me about it. She wouldn’t have known the first thing about being a thief.”

Before he could stop, Jack realized his hands were around Ryan’s throat, and they were waiting to kill. “Who was she taking orders from? I want a name. Who was she stealing for?”

“Christophe LeFleur. It’s all I know. I really am sorry, Jack.”

The red haze that had washed over him was beginning to clear. He eased back and stared at his hands. He had almost strangled Liv’s brother. When this was over, he’d never be able to be a cop again. He didn’t have the control he once had. He’d kill and he’d enjoy it.

“My wife is dead and her killer had a free year on you. You’re trouble, Corrigan, and Liv isn’t going to be in it anymore. She’ll be staying with me until this is over.”

“You can’t keep her under lock and key. I’ll not have my sister shacked up with any man, especially not you!”

He whirled on Ryan. “I know you half-raised her, but you aren’t her father. Unlike you, I care about her. What she does or doesn’t do isn’t your problem anymore. She’s safe with me.”

Jack came home to a dark house. His heart stopped beating for a minute with fear. Had they taken her? Was she dead? He frantically searched downstairs, calling for her. She didn’t answer. He took the steps two at a time, panic already painting graphic images in his mind. It was then that he saw the reading lamp on in his office. He found her there, curled up in the corner chair, eyes closed.

She was sound asleep, his book held delicately in her hands. She had her little reading glasses perched on her nose, of course by now they’d slid crooked and were resting on her cheek. How could someone sleep like that? Well, he had no idea, especially not after reading a book like his.

He would have been insulted if he hadn’t known his work, and how drained she was. He’d seen it when she’d come to him, but then it had been covered with temper. He carefully took the book, so as not to wake her, and marked her place with a yellow sticky note. Two chapters left and she’d fallen asleep. Had he been gone that long? Then he took the glasses, folded them and slipped them into his t-shirt pocket. He gently picked her up, using his good arm to bear most of the weight, and not without a little effort he carried her to his room.

Jack was grateful he hadn’t had to climb the stairs with her, even though she was light. His shoulder was still giving him fits, though he’d gotten rid of the sling. He tried not to think about it when she stirred in sleep and snuggled into his shoulder. He laid her on the bed. She didn’t wake, not even when he slipped off her shoes, not even when he draped the fuzzy throw over her.

Jack watched her sleep, and tried to puzzle out why he’d become so attached to this woman he had known so short a time. Liv Corrigan had something over him. Lust? While he rubbed the twisting knots out of his stomach, he answered his own questions. Yes, he was definitely in lust with Liv. He didn’t have a problem with that. He was human after all, he thought, and she a beautiful woman. Affection?

Certainly, he cared, but he didn’t need her with him, wouldn’t love her, not like he had Serena, but he’d wanted to curl up behind her while she slept. He’d wanted to snuggle her close and just slip off to dream with her. That was what gave him the uneasy feeling in his chest.

So tired and exhausted from the worry, stress, the pain of loss, Liv made him feel happy just to be alive. Closing the door, Jack double-checked the security and all the locks, stretched out on the den sofa. “Think about it later,” he mumbled and fell asleep. When he dreamed, it was Liv who haunted him and not Serena.

* * * *

The room was filled with sunlight. She felt it warm and bright on her face. Liv could hear birds singing, water swishing, but that couldn’t be right. She was at Ryan’s house, not home. Slowly she opened her eyes, questioning at first. Jack’s bed? Jack’s bed. She automatically yanked what she thought was a sheet, and only succeeded in cold feet. Had she come up here and waited on him? She could only remember reading in his office then…nothing.

The alarm clock on the bedside table proudly displayed 1:30 on the digital dial. Where was Jack? What if he hadn’t come home? Was he in jail? Maybe he’d been hurt? What if he and Ryan were lying in a bloody heap in the middle of the floor? It chilled her to the bone. She should have tried harder to keep him from leaving. Well, she’d returned to the land of the living. Now she’d have to find him. She went to the door and turned the knob. She screamed as glass and water flew everywhere, but on the breakfast tray Jack held.

“You scared the wits out of me.” She still didn’t have all them all back. Had she heard him outside the door, or had she sensed him unconsciously?

“Sorry, I thought you’d still be sleeping. Hungry?” He held a tray—bacon, eggs, toast, and orange juice. A pink rosebud lay in a puddle of wet and glass on the floor.

“You cooked for me?”

“I’m sorry for what I said. I was upset and angry. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. I’ve come to beg your forgiveness. So, you’ve been cooking for a week now, I thought I’d return the favor. Peace offering? Don’t you ever let people take care of you?”

“Probably not.”

She picked up the rose off the floor. She twirled it around her long slim fingers. “It’s okay. How did I get up here, anyway? I was reading, after that I can’t remember anything else. I enjoyed the story, by the way.”

“I carried you. You were dead to the world and happy about it.”

“You shouldn’t have. Your shoulder still needs to heal.” She brushed her fingertips over his shirt where a scar would rest underneath.

“It’s healing fine. Why don’t you eat your breakfast?”

Her irritation with him forgotten, she stood on her tiptoes. Lightning struck her, as it always did, every time she kissed him.

“I’m sorry I made you angry. It looks like you got your way after all. I stayed.” She started to kiss him again, and frowned when he pushed her gently away.

“Don’t just yet, Liv. I’m not so steady on my feet right now. You’ll be back on that bed in two seconds flat. I don’t think I have to tell you it wouldn’t be to sleep.”

“Wow, this is good. I didn’t know you could cook.”

He took a sip of coffee. “Serena taught me, so I wouldn’t starve if she… I shouldn’t talk about her.” He cleared his throat. “I went to your brother’s house last night. He told me some things I’m not sure I can deal with right now, but I know he’s telling the truth.” Jack prowled the room, gesturing with the coffee cup in his hand.

Liv winced at what he was doing to the carpet.

“What could he have told you about your own wife that you yourself wouldn’t know?” She caught herself. “Sorry.”

“This is a big nasty business, Liv. They’ll try again. I want you to stay here with me.”

“Ryan would never intentionally hurt me. I won’t go into hiding. Your man has detectives watching my every move. If I blink cross-eyed the whole world will know.”

“It’s not enough. These people are dangerous.”