Waking Hearts (32 page)

“That is now my favorite sex-euphemism. Thank you.”

“I’m glad you approve.”

He laid his head on the pillow next to hers. “Tell me what you’re really scared of, Allison.”

Oh, he saw her. Saw right to the heart of her. It was glorious and terrifying, all at the same time.

“Don’t hurt me.”

His eyes softened and his hand came to her cheek. “Allie—”

“I never felt this way about Joe. I can admit that. I never… It wasn’t this big, overwhelming thing. I loved him. I was… content. Even happy for a while. But—”

“Am I a bastard again for admitting I’m glad?”

She shook her head. “I made my own bed and got four great kids out of the deal. But you…” She took a deep breath. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted. You’re steady and honest. Affectionate. Funny. If you hurt me, I’d break. Really, really break. And I don’t know how I’d put myself back together for my family. So yeah. You terrify me, Ollie.”

She could see him thinking, but his eyes never left hers.

“I can’t promise you I’ll never hurt you,” he said quietly. “’Cause… I’m a guy. And all this is new for me. Your being here. The kids. Everything. I’ll probably get impatient. Or get jealous of your time. I work too much. My family…” He let out a long sigh.

“You are kind of a pushover about fixing their problems for them.”

“Yeah. And I’m really bad about leaving laundry lying on the floor.”

“I noticed that.”

“But I’d never hurt you on purpose. I don’t know if I even could; I can’t imagine wanting to.”

“I’ll mess up too. I don’t know how to be with a good guy. I might walk on eggshells for a while. Overreact to some things.”

Ollie nodded. “Then like I said before, we’ll take as much time as you need. You know what I want.” He paused. “I guess I need to know if that’s what you want too. Eventually. When all this shit is over. When things are safe and you can go back home. I need to know you’re not gonna be done with me.”

She smiled, oddly relieved that he had his own insecurities about them when he always seemed so cool and confident. “You think I’d pass on the best man I’ve ever known? You’re stuck now, Ollie Campbell. I never was very good at turning down cake.”

He kissed her, and it was a promise. And that was all she needed right then. She’d still panic at times, but she knew that Ollie would be there to talk her down in his quiet, methodical way.

“Just so you know,” she said when they came up for breath, “I’m not sleeping in your bed when the kids are in the house.”

He groaned. “Please?”

“No way, mister.”

“Not even every now and then?”

“I have a teenage son. Forget it. We’ll figure something out.”

“Fine.” He rolled over on top of her. “Better enjoy the bed while you can, Allie-girl, because your back is gonna be feeling a lot of my desk at the bar from now on.”

She laughed and slapped his back, but Ollie just grinned.

“Time for cake.”

Chapter Twenty

ALEX, CALEB, AND SEAN ARRIVED at the bar just as Ollie finished the books for the week before. Tuesday always ended up being a catch-up day, which worked because it was the slowest night at the Cave. He heard the front door open and caught the familiar smells of his friends.

“He’s whistling,” Sean said. “It finally happened.”

“It better have,” Alex added. “Do you know what four kids did to my coffee table? Ted was no help. She just laughed at them. In fact, she might have helped.”

Ollie stood and walked to his office door.

“It’s disturbing that you two are even discussing this,” Caleb said. “Besides, we all knew—”

Ollie shut the door in their faces. Then he locked it and walked back to his desk.

Whistling.

“Hey.” Someone—probably Sean—pounded on the door. “This isn’t cool.”

“We watched all your kids, man. Where’s the love?”

“Ollie”—Caleb rapped his knuckles on the door—“I actually do have some new information I wanted to run by you.”

He stood and walked to the door, silently opening it and staring down at his three friends.

“Well?” Alex asked.

Ollie said nothing, just pushed his way past them, grabbed a bottle of water from behind the bar, and went to one of the larger tables to sit down.

“Seriously, man.” Alex sat down across from him. “So did you and Allie—”

“Do I ask you about your sex life with my cousin?” he asked Alex.

“No.”

“Then shut the fuck up.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Fine. But we all know why you’re whistling.”

Sean said, “I no longer have a sex life because I live in this town. Feel free to ask me anything.”

Caleb narrowed his eyes at Sean. “Can you really shift just enough so that you have fangs?”

“Yes, but I don’t know why and not even Ted can figure it out.”

“Are they poisonous?”

“If I want them to be,” Sean said. “Can you really turn into anyone you’ve seen?”

From one blink to the next, there were two Seans sitting at the table.

“Yes.”

Sean just stared at his mirror image, even when it spoke with Caleb’s voice. “That is
so
weird.”

Caleb shifted back and cracked his jaw. “You’re telling me. Are we done with gossip?”

“Men don’t gossip,” Alex said. “We discuss.”

Ollie laughed, and Caleb shoved a file folder across to him. He flipped it open to see Tony Razio’s mug shot looking back at him.

“You know these guys?”

Ollie flipped through the pages. Photos of Tony Razio and three of the Red Rock Drifters stared up at him, along with a couple of men he didn’t recognize.

“Yeah,” he said.

“They got picked up at a bar fight last Saturday. They were dead twelve hours later.”

Shit. Well, that explained why Razio wasn’t returning his calls.

Ollie’s eyes darted to Caleb. “Other prisoners?”

“No one’s talking. Whoever did it knew the county jail well enough to avoid the cameras.”

“Guards?”

“They got nothing. They’re writing it off as a scuffle between gangs.”

“It probably was,” Alex said.

Ollie turned to him. “What do you know?”

“I know there are certain people who are going out of business—voluntarily—and others moving in. And the ones moving in are a lot more brutal than the ones going out.”

“Mexican cartel?” Caleb asked.

“The big boss is,” Alex said. “North of the border doesn’t sound quite as organized. Smuggling weapons. Moving people. Drugs, obviously.”

Sean leafed through the black-and-white mug shots. “These are the guys that Maggie set Joe up with for a poker game? I’m gonna kill her.”

“No,” Alex said, pulling out his phone. “This is the guy—I think—that played with Joe.” He handed the phone to Ollie first, and he peered at the small picture of a dark-haired man in a business suit.

“He looks like a lawyer,” Ollie said. The man even wore wire-rimmed glasses.

“He’s not. This, according to Cam, is the Lobo guy everyone seems to be avoiding. He’s very well funded. Very smart. And very cool.”

“What’s his real name?” Caleb asked.

“Don’t know. Neither does Cam.”

Caleb reached for the phone. “Is this someone San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office is going to know?”

“You can ask Dev the next time you see him,” Alex said. “But I’m guessing no. The FBI might know about the people backing him, but he sounds very new and very brutal.”

Sean plucked the phone from Caleb’s fingers and studied the photo. “Joe was nothing to him then. Why even bother?”

Caleb shrugged. “Ego? Maybe he just wanted his money back.”

“His name is Lobo,” Ollie said, staring at Alex. “Is that a coincidence?”

“You mean, could he be one of us?” Alex asked. “Not likely.”

“But not impossible.”

“I’ve never met any others,” Sean said quietly. He passed the phone back to Ollie. “Everywhere I’ve traveled. Europe and South America. Asia. Africa. The Pacific. I’ve never met any others like us. And I’ve looked.”

Caleb said, “Lobo is not an uncommon nickname in Spanish. Hell, don’t they call one of the Leon boys Lobo? The sophomore on the varsity team?”

Ollie ignored the question. He was staring at Alex’s phone again.

If Cameron Di Stefano was right, this was the bastard who’d killed Joe over a lost poker game. He couldn’t picture the cool, urbane man on the screen even holding a gun. But maybe others did that for him.

“Alex,” Ollie asked, “do the Di Stefanos have anyone in county right now?”

“Probably.”

Sean stood abruptly. “Hey, Caleb. I have to go take a piss, don’t you?”

The police chief stood too. “Hate it when that coffee catches up with you.”

The two men walked down the hall, and Ollie leaned toward Alex.

“Tell Cam to find out who killed Razio, and I’ll owe him a favor.”

“You think it’ll be the same ones who killed Joe?”

“Probably not. But it could be the people who broke into Allie’s place. That’s who Razio was looking for.”

“So they’ll be Lobo’s men.”

He nodded.

“I’ll ask,” Alex said. “I can’t guarantee.”

“Give me somewhere to start,” Ollie said. “I can take care of the rest.”

“Just take care of yourself,” Alex said. “I don’t even want to think about what it would do to Allie and the kids if something happened to you.”

It gave him pause. Ollie’s clan had always depended on him, but not like Allie and her kids. He might get his cousins out of trouble, but he didn’t tuck them into their beds at night.

With that realization, personal safety took on a whole new meaning.

“I’ll be careful.”

“What you’ll do is you’ll call me before you do anything. No lone-wolf moves, okay?”

He sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Do I look like a wolf?”

“No, you look like a stubborn-ass bear, which makes you even worse than a lone wolf. I know you’re pissed at me. Call me anyway.”

“Fine.”

“And Ollie? You hurt Allison Smith by being stupid brave, I’ll tear you limb from limb.”

“I’m sure you’d try, puppy.”

“I’m sure I have a whole pack behind me, and every single one of them adores that girl.”

“She doesn’t belong to your pack,” Ollie said quietly. “She belongs to me. Don’t forget it. I’ll let you know when your people are needed.”

ALLIE was panting and sated on his lap, her head resting over his heart while Ollie drifted, somewhat mindless, musing over how he’d mark her on his skin. It was no question Allie would be added somewhere, he just had to decide what. A fox? Most of his ink tended toward Native American designs, so he’d have to look for something that captured the brightness of her.

Whatever it ended up being, he wanted it right over his heart so her cheek would rest against it when they made love like this.

They’d managed to sneak in a few kisses throughout the night, but Ollie tugged her into his office after the bar closed, his need for her too overwhelming to resist. She’d come to him eager and laughing, kissing his face and chest despite her own exhaustion.

She owned him. Completely.

Allie was light and laughter. Even when his arms were around her, he still wanted to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Because… she was everything he’d ever dreamed.

And she was also exhausted. He could feel her breathing change on his chest and knew she was minutes away from sleep.

“Darlin’?” He stroked her back. “Come on, Allie-girl. Need to get you home.”

“Hmm?” She sat up and Ollie forced his eyes away from her chest.

Her clothes were scattered around his office, so he stood and turned, setting her on the couch before he started to gather their things. She rubbed her eyes, looking more like a girl than the grown woman she was.

“What?” she mumbled. “Sorry, I should help.”

“You got up early and you didn’t get a nap this afternoon,” he said. “Relax.”

He had to figure out a way to get her more sleep. If he gave her a raise at the bar, she’d refuse it. He wanted her to stop working at her dad’s store—there were more than enough people moving back to town who could take her place—but he knew she needed the money.

If she found Joe’s stash, she’d have it. Maybe the idea of searching for it wasn’t so bad after all.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to ride herd on Alex to get him the name of whoever had killed Razio and his men. He was getting nervous about the kids’ safety. So was his pop. He’d upped the number of bears around his house while the kids were alone at night. Allie and the children might not realize it, but there were four bears patrolling the property every night, including one camped out in the tunnels between the house and the outbuildings.