Cold Hearts (17 page)

Even after she’d collapsed beside him in a silent, quivering heap, neither of them spoke. His heart was still hammering too hard for him to breathe and talk at the same time, and Lissa was so sated she couldn’t move.

“Am I still breathing?” she asked.

He felt the rise and fall of her breasts and groaned. With little coaxing, he could do that all over again.

“You’re not only breathing, you’re smokin’. That almost made up for the ten years without you.”

Lissa threaded her fingers through his hand and then rested it on her belly.

“We have a lot to make up for,” she said, and waited for the blood rush of her pulse to settle.

Finally she got up and went back to the bathroom, only to return with a warm wet washcloth. She climbed back on the bed, and proceeded to remove the condom and clean him up.

He watched the intensity on her face without knowing what to say, and then she left again. This time when she came back she was carrying a robe, which she tossed on a chair by the bed.

“I can sleep on the sofa if—”

“No. With me,” Mack said, as he scooted over to give her access.

She crawled in and rolled over to face him.

“Do you remember calling me every night after you went to bed?” she asked.

He smiled in the dark. “Yes, baby, I do.”

“Remember what you always said?”

He was glad for the shadows that hid sudden tears. “That I loved you more than all the stars in the sky, and one day I’d say that when you were lying by my side.”

“It’s taken us a long time to get here, hasn’t it?” she asked.

“We were together countless times in bed, but never to sleep, but as long as we draw breath, it’s never too late,” Mack said. He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it.

Lissa laid her cheek against his shoulder and closed her eyes. The last thing she thought as she was falling asleep was that she would never sleep afraid again.

* * *

The killer was standing at his bedroom window, nursing a nightcap and thinking of how close he was to finishing what should have been done years ago. From where he was standing, he could see the outline of the mountains surrounding Mystic against the backdrop of the night sky. High up on the eastern slope he caught a glimpse of an occasional light flickering through the trees, probably a security light from someone’s home.

He knew the general direction of Betsy Jakes’ place, but it was on the flatland at the base of the mountain, and there were too many miles and trees in between to see it.

She was the one remaining witness between him and the success of which he dreamed. Something had to be done about her, and soon, but getting to her would require a little finesse. She was bound to be wary now, and while no one had the faintest notion of his identity, it wasn’t as if they traveled in the same social circles. At the least, his appearance at her place would be viewed as strange.

He downed the last of his drink, and then took off his robe and crawled into bed. As he did, he could hear footsteps in the hall outside his room. He wasn’t in the mood for conversation, and quickly rolled over and turned out the light. He would figure out some way to make this work. He always did.

* * *

Reece waited until Louis was asleep before he slipped the keys out of his brother’s pants pocket and sneaked out of the house, for once leaving Bobo behind. Yes, Louis had told him Melissa Sherman was gone, but he wanted to see for himself. He’d gone online and found the address of Paul Jackson’s house with the intention of seeing for himself that she was really with Jackson’s son.

When he drove past her place and saw the house in darkness and the car missing from the driveway, it made him mad all over again. He thought about a little more vandalism just to make a point and then opted against it. Too risky now that he’d upped his game.

It took him a little longer to find the Jackson residence in the dark, and even though the lights were off inside, the front porch light was on and there were motion-detector lights beyond that. He knew because he saw them come on as a cat ran across the yard.

He frowned as he drove past. This house would be more difficult to get into, and she would no longer be alone. It was only luck that he’d gotten away from that guy the first time, and he wasn’t willing to try it again. His best bet would probably be catching her out of the house, but that would entail using the truck in the daytime. Louis would have himself a small fit, but he would get over it.

He certainly wasn’t going to let it go. The relationship between him and Melissa Sherman had gone from sexual thrill to payback. She’d made him look bad, gotten away and holed up with another man. He intended to watch her beg and then kill her. Women like her didn’t count.

A couple of hours later he was home with a take-out burger and fries from an all-night truck stop a few miles out of town. He let Bobo out and then got a plate and a bottle of ketchup, and sat down with his food. The steel-trap memory for facts and figures that kept him on the high side of investment profits was spinning. He was curious to see how his latest investment was faring and ate quickly.

Bobo began scratching at the door to come in. Reece grabbed a fry as he got up and then tossed it to the dog as he trotted inside.

“All for you, little guy,” Reece said, and then laughed when Bobo caught it in midair.

He cleaned off the table, tossed the trash and headed for the computer with the dog at his heels. It was almost 4:00 a.m. He could get in at least two or three hours of good work before Louis woke up, maybe more, since today was Sunday.

* * *

“Run, Lissa. Storm’s coming. Get in the cellar. Run, baby, run!”

Lissa’s feet were flying, barely skimming the ground as she ran, her gaze fixed on her granny, who was standing at the top step of the storm cellar.

Mack was running beside her, shortening his stride so he wouldn’t pull ahead.

The wind was blowing so hard. There was so much debris in the air she could hardly see, but she could hear the terror in her granny’s high-pitched voice.

All of a sudden her feet left the ground and she thought it was over, that she was going to die, only to realize Mack had picked her up, trying to save their lives.

He swung her around and into his arms as he lengthened his stride, holding her fast against his chest. Lissa wrapped her legs around his waist for balance and held on for dear life. Moments later they were in the cellar, the door locked fast, and her granny was hugging them both and crying as the tornado’s roar was upon them.

“You saved her, son! You saved the both of you!”

“I had to, Ms. Daisy. I can’t live without her.”

* * *

Lissa sat up in bed, her heart pounding, tears running down her face as she looked at the man asleep beside her.

She hadn’t thought of that day in years. A picnic at her granny’s pond had almost ended in tragedy. It had been her sixteenth birthday, and if it hadn’t been for Mack she wouldn’t have lived to see her next.

Still rattled by the memory, she slipped quietly out of bed, putting on her robe as she walked down the hall and into the kitchen, then parted the curtains and looked out in the backyard, wondering where the security guard was hidden. Because of the overcast sky there was no visibility between her and heaven, but she knew in her heart her loved ones were there.

“Can you see us, Granny? He did it again. He saved me. Tell Mama and Daddy it’s going to be okay. We’re figuring it out.”

All of a sudden she felt hands around her waist and for a heartbeat relived that same feeling of weightlessness when she thought the storm had taken her. Then she turned around. “You’re awake,” she said.

She laid her cheek against the middle of his bare chest as his hands slid beneath her robe.

“I woke up and you were gone,” he said.

“I had a dream...no, a nightmare. Remember the picnic at Granny’s pond and the tornado?”

She felt him shudder. “Hell yes, I remember,” Mack said. “I thought we were both dead.”

Lissa leaned back enough to see his face. “You saved my life that day.”

He shrugged. “I had no choice. I had promised your daddy I’d bring you home for supper, and my daddy taught me to never go back on my word.”

Her eyes welled. “I wish they were still here so I could tell them how special you are.”

“As long as you’re okay, I’m okay,” Mack said. “I’d kiss you right now, but it hurts to bend down.”

“For you, I’ll grow taller,” Lissa said, and pulled him to the kitchen table, then climbed up on a little step stool.

The robe slipped off her shoulders as her breasts flattened against his chest.

When she locked her arms around his neck, he groaned.

“How’s this?” she asked.

“As beautiful a thing as I have ever laid eyes on,” he whispered, and then centered his mouth across her lips.

Outside, the sky toward the east was beginning to turn from black to a smoky gray. The sun was less than an hour from the horizon. If Mack had been able, he would have carried her back to the bedroom and made love until sunrise.

Lissa heard the catch in his breath and knew it was pain and not passion.

She pulled away from the embrace with one last lingering kiss and jumped down.

“You need your pain pills.”

“I need
you
,” he said.

“No, you
want
me. You
need
the pills,” she said, and got a glass of water, then walked him back to the bedroom.

The room was dark, but the night-light down the hall by the bathroom shed enough light for them to see.

Mack eased down on the side of the bed as she set the water on the nightstand and shook two pain pills into his hand. He downed them gratefully and then stretched out on the bed as she began looking for clothes.

“It’s a damn shame to put clothes on anything that beautiful,” he said.

She paused and looked up. He was flat on his back with a growing erection.

She pointed. “Are you referring to all that?” she asked. “Or all this?” she added, as she turned to face him.

“Come to bed with me, Lissa.”

The deep rumble in his voice made the ache in her belly deepen. She wanted him. There was no question about that.

“Same rules as before?” she asked.

A smile spread across his face. “You work? I watch?”

“Exactly,” she said.

“I can do that,” he said.

She dropped the underwear from her hand, got into bed with him and then got up on her knees. She stroked him until he was hard and pulsing, and then rolled a condom down onto his erection.

Mack’s heart was pounding as he watched her mount him, joining them in one slow, sensuous stroke, then sitting with her head back and her eyes closed as her body adjusted to his girth.

He ran a hand down the length of her leg, wanting so badly to hold her, but she was still motionless. “Lissa?”

“You feel so good,” she whispered, and then started to move.

Those words—the same words she’d said to him once before—rolled him backward in time.

* * *

Mack was laughing as he pulled her from the creek. She was wet from her hair to the water running out of her shoes.

“Are you okay, honey?” he asked.

She pushed the hair out of her eyes and then pointed at the three flat stepping-stones just beneath the surface of the water.

“Moss. That stuff is slick as snot.”

Mack nodded, but he was already noticing the fabric clinging to her curves.

“Yeah, and you have one smokin’ hot body under that wet T-shirt, girl.”

“Mack,” she sputtered as she tried to pull the fabric away from her skin, but to no avail.

“Hey, baby, you don’t have to fuss on my account,” he said.

He smirked, and that started it. She grabbed the tail of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head, then unfastened her bra and let it drop at her feet.

The smile died on his face as his nostrils flared.

“Strip and lie down, smart-ass,” she said. She gave him a little push in the middle of his chest.

Mack didn’t know what was about to happen, but from his standpoint, it couldn’t be bad. He stripped out of his clothes in seconds and stretched out on the ground, waiting to see what happened next.

She pulled off the rest of her clothes then knelt, straddling his legs and cupping his penis. It was already hard and straining. When she touched him, he jerked, then shuddered.

She glanced up at him. His eyes were glazed and fixed on her face. They’d never done this before, but he’d wanted to. She leaned down and licked the tip, and when she did, he groaned.

“Not laughing anymore, are you, Jackson?”

He watched as she closed her eyes and just held him. “Lissa?”

She sighed. “You feel so good,” she said, and then she shook her head from side to side, water flying from her curls like rain.