Close To The Edge (Westen #2) (8 page)

Bobby glanced around then back at Gage. She could stand and argue with him and cause a bigger scene, but the intense anger rolling off him suggested she pick her battles with this man very carefully. Tonight, retreat seemed her best option. Straightening her back and holding her head high, she turned and marched out the door, heading to her car with all the dignity she could muster.

Stupid man.

Despite what he thought, she could’ve handled the situation just fine on her own. She slammed her car door shut and started the engine. For a split second she considered driving right over his motorcycle as she pulled out, but she’d enjoyed riding on it so much she hated punishing it for its owner’s overbearing treatment.

She did let a little gravel spin out beneath her tires as she left the parking lot onto the county road once more. With a quick glance in her rearview mirror she saw Gage leave the bar and climb on his Harley. At least he left the bar before anyone got hurt. Well, almost anyone. Humiliation was never her strong suit.

How dare he treat her like some inane child who’d been caught drinking in a bar by her daddy? She’d been on her own since she was nineteen and raised her younger sisters without his or anyone else’s help.

The streets of Westen were deserted as she drove through them. Good thing. Her mind swirling in a jetty of anger, she wasn’t quite sure when she pulled onto the highway and headed west toward her motel room.

Just as she turned into the parking lot, the rumble of a motor sounded behind her. She looked in her rearview mirror once more to see Gage’s motorcycle arriving right behind her.

Now what?

Why was the man following her? She certainly didn’t need an escort to her motel. Didn’t he trust her to go there? The man’s arrogance knew no bounds.

She pulled to a stop in front of her room door, grabbed her purse and climbed out of the car. She slammed the car door and stalked around the rear just as Gage pulled the motorcycle to a stop.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she said, punching him on his shoulder with her finger.

“I’m making sure you weren’t followed from the tavern.” He twisted around, dismounting and forcing her to take a step back or get knocked to the ground.

Crossing her arms over her chest she waited for him to turn and face her. “Exactly who did you think was going to follow me?”

“Your dinner buddies for one.” He grasped her by the elbow and tried to turn her toward her room. “And any crazy out on the road this late at night for another.”

She dug her heels in and jerked her arm free. “Quit that. You’ve been manhandling me all day. And quite frankly I’m a little tired of it.”

He turned and took a step forward, pinning her between her car and his body. “Look, I know you’ve come from the big city to a small town and think nothing bad can happen to you. Open your eyes and look around you.” He waved his arm toward the parking lot filled with big rigs. “You’re in a dark and secluded area. Most of these truckers are hardworking guys who won’t bother you. But there may be someone like the two guys back at the tavern who might just decide to take more than you’re willing to give.”

“I don’t think they meant to harm me.” She leaned back, the feral look in his eyes warning her she’d crossed the line with his patience.

“You don’t think so?” He loomed closer. “His hands all over your ass seemed harmless to you? You didn’t mind him forcing you up against him? Or maybe you’d rather he’d done something like this?”

Gage grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her hard against his body. He hesitated a moment. “Oh hell,” he growled out before capturing her lips with his.

The fierceness of his embrace and kiss startled her. She gripped his arms and tried to push him away. What happened next completely confused her. He changed tactics. His lips softened against hers, his tongue slipping out to tease her. He slid one hand down her back to press her closer, while he let the other slide into her hair to hold her head still.

Heat started in her chest and spread outwards. She clutched his denim jacket to pull him closer. Never in her life had she wanted a man as much as she suddenly wanted this man. She wanted him to claim her and keep her. She wanted to strip him naked, and taste every inch of him.

“Yes, baby,” he moaned against her mouth. Slowly he slid his lips to her jaw and over to nibble on her ear. The grip in her hair tightened as he turned her head to the side, arching her neck and skimming his teeth against the sensitive flesh he’d exposed.

She bent one leg and curled it around his jean-clad thigh, pulling him in tighter. Was it possible to get any closer? She didn’t know, but the hard bulge in his jeans felt delicious rubbing against her. A moan escaped her.

He released his hold on her hair and reached down with both hands to cup both her butt cheeks. As he pulled her in tighter, he sank his lips into the juncture of her neck and shoulder. For a minute he ground himself against her as he nipped at her pulse, sending wave after wave of heat coursing through her.

Slowly he eased his mouth from her sensitive flesh. Her heart pounded so hard in her chest the people in the next county could probably hear it. She gulped in air and turned to stare at him. Passion filled his eyes and he seemed to be having trouble controlling his breathing, too. He hadn’t released his grip on her bottom. In fact, he’d begun kneading each cheek with his hands.

“I wanted to knock that trucker on his ass when he grabbed you here. I didn’t want to see another man’s hands holding you like this.”

The anger and possessiveness he implied with those words both thrilled and surprised her. No man had ever shown any jealousy over her, especially not one she’d known less than twenty-four hours. The reality of the situation hit her. She was standing in a motel parking lot, making out with a man she barely knew, and he was mauling her like some common streetwalker. Worse, she was enjoying every second of it.

She dropped her leg, and pushed with all her might against his shoulders. “Let me go.”

He released his hold on her and braced both hands on either side of her against her car, virtually trapping her between them. He leaned in until they were practically eye-to-eye. “Scared, aren’t you?”

All she could manage was a swallow and a nod.

“And you should be. You don’t know me any better than those truckers in the tavern tonight.” He reached up and smoothed a loose strand of her hair from her cheek. “This isn’t the safe little classroom, Bobby. There are all kinds of dangers out here in the real world. You’d better open your eyes and pay attention before you get hurt.”

Before she could say anything else, he pushed himself away from her, waving his hand at the parking lot filled with both cars and big-rig trucks. “See all these vehicles? Every one of them belongs to a stranger. Most of them are innocent people just looking for a place to rest before continuing on their journey, but any one of them could be a potential killer traveling the back roads looking for an easy victim to prey upon. You picked a spot where no one knows you, no one knows the people here and it’s isolated from any sort of help. This is the worst place for a woman alone to spend the night.”

Okay. He’d already made his point. He didn’t have to make her feel more stupid. She stepped to the side and fished her keys from her purse. “Well, it’s a little late to get a room in town, isn’t it?”

She looked around a minute before trying to unlock her door. Her hand shook so badly she couldn’t fit the key in the lock.

“Here, let me.” Gage took the key, unlocked the door and opened it. Then he walked in and checked out the bathroom and the small closet. “No one’s here.”

Still scared, she stood just inside the doorway. She should be angry he’d frightened her, but was glad he’d checked the room out anyway. “Thank you,” she managed when he handed her back her key.

“Hey. You’re going to be okay tonight. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Whoa. Wait a minute. She hadn’t invited him to stay. “You aren’t staying with me.”

The corners of his lips turned up in a slow smile and he swept his gaze from her eyes down to her toes and back up again, sending sexual awareness sizzling over her once more. “Tempting as that might be, you’re right. I’m not. I’ve got the room next door.” He pointed to the wall behind her bed. “You need anything, or hear anything, you pound on that wall. I’ll be here in a flash.”

He started out the door, then paused. “And Bobby?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t forget, my office first thing tomorrow morning. Sleep tight.” He winked at her and closed the door behind him.

She hurried over, clicked the dead bolt and slipped the chain in place. Pressing her back against the door, she breathed deeply. Sleep tight? The man just kissed her senseless, scared the living daylights out of her and he expected her to sleep at all? And he thought
she
was delusional.

***

The lights off and the engine as quiet as fog rolling through the low Ohio hills, the black sedan pulled out of the motel’s parking lot without disturbing even the gravel on the semi-paved surface and headed back toward town.

Damn that man.
With the sheriff in the next room it would be impossible to get to the snooping woman.  For some reason she’d been rifling through the bank’s trash today. Her curiosity could ruin everything.

For months the sheriff’s apathy for his job had played right into his plans. One wrong move or one slip of the tongue and everything could collapse. He’d have nothing. And worse, his partners would demand payment—in either cash or his blood.

He needed to find out just what she knew and silence her. He also needed to tie up some loose ends to be sure she didn’t get any answers to her questions. Starting tonight.

Miles from the motel, the sedan’s lights came on, resembling a dark predator prowling the lonesome highway.

Chapter Five

F
ootsteps sounded hard and fast behind him. His warm breath puffed into the winter air as he ran.

The corner. Turn the corner. Find a spot to hide.

One step.

Two.

Just a little farther.

Pain seared into his chest like a bolt of lightning as he cleared the brick wall. The impact swung him around
.

Bells rang.

A second wave of pain hit him in the belly. A third, in the other side of his chest. He fell to the ground, his face pressed into the snow. The smell of his own blood mixed with the leftover remains of someone’s fish dinner.

Bells rang.

Gage came awake with a lurch, sweat pouring off his body. He landed back onto his pillow, wiping one hand over his face. The nightmare again. Hadn’t had one in a month. Three years ago in the hospital, he’d had them nightly. The doc said the culprit was post-traumatic stress.

The phone by the bedside rang again.

Gage grabbed it. “Yeah?”

“Sheriff, you wanted a wake-up call?”

He rolled over and squinted at the glowing red numbers on the clock. Six-forty-five in the friggin’ morning. No sane person woke up voluntarily at this hour of the day. He looked around the room. He wasn’t home.

The motel. Walt was on the phone.

“I’m up. Thanks, Walt.”

After he’d left Bobby for the night, he’d walked over and paid for his room and asked the motel owner to make sure he was up this morning. It had taken him a while to calm down the erection kissing her had caused. Now he was awake before the crack of dawn.

He grabbed his jeans, pulled them on, stepped into his boots and headed out the door. Passing Bobby’s door, he knocked once, loudly.

“Don’t forget. My office, first thing,” he said through the door.

Climbing on his bike, he gunned the engine. He needed to get home to shower and shave before his meeting with Bobby. Coffee. He’d need lots of it if he meant to be civil with the woman this morning.

At his house, he threw his keys onto the kitchen table and shoved his hands through his freshly cut hair. He hated keeping it this short, but it was part of the image he now had to display—clean-cut, all-American town sheriff. What he wouldn’t give for a cigarette right now. Tasting the woody, sweet tobacco on the tip of his tongue. Inhaling deep to let the smoke fill his lungs, exhaling slowly as the nicotine calmed his nerves, woke his senses and allowed him to think clearly. Every morning for the past six months he’d craved that first smoke of the day, and mornings like this were the worst.

Lying in the hospital gasping in his last breath, his dying father had asked only two things of him. He’d sworn to the old man he’d stay in this rinky-dink little town to finish out his dad’s last term as sheriff, and he’d promised to quit smoking so he wouldn’t die of lung cancer, too. So no matter how much he craved a cigarette, he hadn’t touched another from that moment on. He wouldn’t break either promise.

“Damn, this is going to be a long day.”

Upstairs, he stripped down to his boxers then saw the blinds in the house next door close.

Dammit!
He’d forgotten his voyeur neighbor.

The first morning he’d come home to stay with his dad, nearly two years ago, he’d gotten a rather rude reminder of small-town etiquette. If you didn’t want your neighbor, the widow Munroe, getting a bird’s eye view of you in the buff, you closed your shades at night before taking off your clothes. You didn’t open them again until at least your underwear was on in the morning.

He smiled and shook his head at the memory. Dad had gotten quite a kick out of that, especially since every time he saw Mrs. Munroe from then on, the elderly lady blushed and gave him a sly smile.

That was one thing he missed about living in the city—anonymity. Your neighbors didn’t try to get to know you, didn’t want to know you. And they certainly didn’t get a good look at you completely naked, unless you wanted them to.

He stalked across to the bathroom and turned on the shower. He stood beneath the hot water, letting it run over his body. The hot-water heater in this old house gave out quick. Pretty soon the water temperature would turn cold, so he enjoyed the few minutes of near-scalding water pounding over his muscles.