Easy Little Lick (Copperline #3) (23 page)

“Max…” she started, staggering towards the back door to head inside.

I was so angry, so fucking hurt. The rage had me by the balls. The dreadful feeling in my chest began to filter throughout my body.

“I didn’t believe it until now. I didn’t think you’d lie to me, but you did, didn’t you?” I growled, catching her by the arm as I pushed her up against the wall. “
Didn’t you?!
”

That
got her attention.

In fact, she looked completely terrified of me all of a sudden. She whirled away and fell back, dropping to her knees and shielding her body. Sheer panic lit her eyes, like she thought I was going to hit her.

She gave no excuses or explanations.

Just shrank before me in pure terror.

“Jesus, Ils,” I said, my fury began to give way to concern as I reached for her to help her stand up. Her reaction didn’t make any sense to me.

“No!” Ilsa gasped as she lurched away from me. I got a hand on her arm and tried to pull her back, but her voice rose, bordering on hysteria. “I have to go!” she almost screamed and attempted to jerk free.

“Tell me what the fuck is going on,” I demanded, trying to keep the confused frustration out of my voice.

She sort of emotionally exploded, jerking back and slamming her body into me. Trying to work free. She clawed at my hand and slapped at my chest. In my own surprise at this reaction, I stepped back. I let go.

She ran through the back door and down the hall towards the office. I followed, watching in angry confusion as she ripped her coat and purse from the hooks on the wall. With a frantic sob, she dug through her purse for her keys. Just as I was about to say her name, she turned to see me standing there blocking the door.

“Ilsa, what the fuck is going on?”

She seemed to be fighting off her panic, trying to appear calm, as she looked at me for a minute.

“I have to go.”

“You’re not going anywhere, not until you talk to me.”

“I have to go,” she repeated.

“Jesus, Ilsa, fucking talk to me!” I growled, blocking the door with my large frame as she tried to push past me.

“
Cody, I have to go
!” she exclaimed. She looked away biting her lip, closing her eyes and shaking her head before glancing back up at me with tears in her eyes.

I was completely blindsided. My senses were all off-kilter. She sounded so desperate, and for a second, I almost let her go. Yet, I had a feeling… if I let her walk away from me right then, I would never see her again.

I took a few steps closer, and she backed up against the wall behind her.

“Please, Cody,” she begged in a ragged breath. “I just have to go. I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “That’s not good enough. I can’t accept that.”

“Let me go,” she whispered.

“Let me help you.”

“You can’t help me.” Tears streamed down her cheek, and I reached up to wipe them away with the pad of my thumb. My fingertips brushed against her ear, and she slammed her eyes shut, causing more tears to fall.

“Let me help you,” I repeated. My hand feathered down from her cheek, over her neck and shoulder.

“Please…” she lifted her hand to my chest, trying to push me back with a weak shove. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Then don’t fight me on it. I’ll drive you.” I ran my hand down her arm, slowly making its way to the tight grip she had on her keys. Exerting a little pressure with my thumb digging gently into her palm, I coaxed her hand open, slipping the keys from her grasp with my other hand. I interlaced my fingers with hers, gave a slight tug, and pulled her along behind me. Whatever was wrong, whatever she needed, I was going to be there for her. And then she was going to give me some fucking answers.

She followed me out of the bar, slightly numb and dazed by some unknown threat.

I saw Brannon and Sophie on my way out the back.

“Dude,” I told him, “tell the guys we had an emergency. And tell Doug that Ilsa had to leave. We’ll explain later.”

“Do you need anything?” he asked as both he and Sophie glanced over at Ilsa in concern.

“Not right now,” I said over my shoulder as we left through the back door. We stepped out into the darkness. “Where are you parked?” I asked.

“Over there,” she nodded off to the side of the lot. We neared her car and I unlocked the passenger door, motioning for her to get in. She hesitated for only a second before she did as I indicated, and I closed the door behind her. I rounded the front while she buckled her seatbelt. As I climbed in behind the wheel and fired up the engine, I looked down at her sitting beside me.

“Where we going?”

“Butte,” she whispered. “I have to go get Max.”

“Where in Butte?”

“Myrna’s… the babysitter. She lives on the edge of town.”

I nodded, remembering the night I essentially stalked her before, the night I found out about Max. I still wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, but she was clearly terrified.

So, not having a clue what I would be facing when we got there, I turned onto the highway for Butte.

It was just getting dark, but the outside light was on when we pulled up, dimly illuminating the little porch on the square house.

“I’ll go in and get him,” she murmured as she opened the passenger door. I clapped my hand over her thigh, holding her in place for a second.

“I’m going with you,” I said.

She hesitated, but gave a faint nod, and climbed out of the car.

She quietly rapped on the door, waiting for a few moments before knocking just a little bit louder. Finally, we could hear someone moving on the other side and the door opened to reveal an older lady wrapped in her bathrobe looking out at us with confusion.

“Ilsa?” the woman asked. “I wasn’t expecting you until morning. Are you okay?”

“Something’s come up,” Ilsa explained. “I need to get Max.”

The woman glanced up at me as though she was trying to see the answer to Ilsa’s strange behavior in my eyes. I was just as in the dark she was, though.

“He’s sleeping but—”

“That’s okay,” Ilsa interrupted, and the older lady led us back to the bedroom where Max lay snuggled in his blanket. Ilsa gathered up a few things, stuffing them into a bag that she hefted over her shoulder. I lifted Max and settled him against my chest.

Quietly leaving the room and heading towards the front door, Ilsa reached into the pocket of the bar apron that she still wore. She pulled out a wad of bills and flipped through it, straightening and counting them before handing the whole stack over to Myrna. The woman frowned, evidently concerned by the desperation emanating from Ilsa, and she clasped her hand over Ilsa’s fingertips.

“Do you need that?” she asked.

“I know I owe you more, but this is all I have on me.”

“That’s not what I asked, honey,” Myrna said.

“I’m not sure when I will be back—”

“Ilsa—”

“—so please, just take this.”

The older woman still didn’t move to take the money, so Ilsa finally sighed and set it on the table beside her. She reached forward to give the woman a quick hug, then turned towards me.

“Let’s go, Cody.”

Outside, Ilsa opened the back passenger door for me to put Max in his seat, then reached inside to buckle up the sleepy little guy. With a soft brush of her fingertips over his rounded cheek, she gently shut the door and slipped into the front seat while I walked around the car and climbed in behind the wheel.

She was still fearful, but some of the initial panic had faded. Her breathing had slowed, and she wasn’t shaking quite like she had been before.

“Do you want me to take you home?”

“No,” she whispered quickly, shaking her head. “We need to go back to the bar so you can get your truck.”

“I can get one of the guys to take me to it in the morning.” I glanced at her again. She didn’t move. It was almost like I hadn’t even spoken. “So, your place?”

“I can’t…”

“You say that a lot,” I noted.

“I really can’t. I can’t go back to my apartment, Cody,” she whispered.

“Why, Ils?”

She looked out the window into the darkness for moment, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Finally she spoke again.

“Just go back to the Copperline.”

No fuckin’ way was I going to do that.

The way she’d gone apeshit out behind the bar. Watching her give the sitter her entire night’s worth of tips. This whole situation, all the unknown, was ripping me to pieces. I needed some answers. I looked at her long and hard, then started the car up and turned back on the road towards the Copperline… but also towards Ophir.

“You’re coming home with me,” I stated after we’d driven a couple miles in silence.

“Cody—”

“You’re coming home with me, and you are going to tell me what the fuck is going on.”

“I can’t do that. I need to go.”

“Where? Because you’re not going home, so where are you going?” She didn’t answer, but only turned her face away again. “Why are you leaving in the middle of the night? Was that fucker on the phone really your husband? Are you really married?”

She looked over at me, her eyes luminous with unshed tears that reflected in the dashboard lights.

“Yes.”

One little word. It answered my question, but it was not good enough.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I couldn’t.”

“Why?”

She turned back to face the passenger window.

“You’re coming home with me.”

“Cody, I can’t.”

“You are.”

“Why?” she asked. “You should hate me for keeping something like this from you. I’m married, Cody.
Married
. Why would you even want me anywhere near you now?”

I looked ahead of me down the stretch of road illuminated by the headlights. It was actually a good question. She was right. I shouldn’t give a fuck. I should take the fact that she lied to me, tell her to fuck off, and put it all behind me.

Ultimately, though, even considering that I really felt pretty damn fucked over, she was in some sort of trouble. I knew she needed someone. She needed some kind of help. Her reaction to being caught in a lie wasn’t guilt or regret.

The expression on her face when I’d confronted her was pure fear.

I was bullheaded, and that old constant need to protect those around me took over, even as disillusioned by her as I suddenly was. I knew what it was like to live with the guilt of not acting, and it killed me to think of something happening to her and Max.

There wasn’t any choice really. I was going to help her… whether either of us liked it or not.

“You need me,” I finally said.

“I don’t want to involve you,” she explained quietly.

I looked over at her, her face barely visible in the dashboard lights.

“Little late for that, don’t you think?”

“Don’t, Cody, please,” she whispered, and I could hear something breaking in her voice. God only knew what the outcome of this would be, but the fear she exuded…

We neared the Copperline, and I felt her tensing up the closer we got. Right up until we blew right past the bar. I didn’t even slow down.

“Cody, you missed the turn.”

“I didn’t miss shit.” I looked over at her, glaring at her, daring her to say anything else. “You’re coming with me to Ophir, and we’re gonna have a talk.”

The house was still dark when we got there. As Ilsa grabbed the diaper bag, I unbuckled Max from his car seat and carried him upstairs, choosing to put him in the spare room that had been Denny’s when he lived there. There wasn’t much in the room, but there was an extra bed. I flicked on the closet light to spread the dim glow across the room while Ilsa tucked his blanket around him.

Married… she was fucking married.

I clenched my jaw and shook my head.

What had I done?