Deadly Deception (SCVC Taskforce) (21 page)

He eased them out, lingered, rubbed her sex. Teasing her? Of course, he was. Damn man. She shouldn’t be surprised.

“Thomas,” she begged on a ragged breath.

He chuckled, caught her nipple with his warm mouth and sucked hard. Bit gently.

Oh, yes. This was what she needed.

And two could play the teasing game. She slithered a hand between their bodies, enjoying the feel of his solid chest, the ridges of his abs. Sinking lower, lower…

Jackpot
.

Thomas tensed as she cupped him through his jeans. “Easy there, partner, or I’ll be forced to take you right here.”

Her pulse skipped at the threat. Easy wasn’t her way. Life had never been easy, so why expect it now? “I don’t want to take it easy,” she said, unbuttoning his fly. “And we may not get another chance.”

He sighed and murmured against her skin, “Always the hard way.”

Her fingers slipped past his zipper. Ah, yes, everything was hard. Rock hard and straining for her touch. She wished she could see him better, naked and at her mercy, but for now, the shadows inside the car were her friend. He couldn’t read the need on her face. Wouldn’t force her to slow down and stop using him to blot out the voices in her head.

The soft cotton of his briefs got in her way. Skin to skin. That’s what she needed.

Easing back, she gave her fingers room to work their magic, gliding under the waistband and…

A hiss from Thomas told her she’d struck home. He was warm and so, so hard. He pushed forward and she wrapped her fingers around him, tightening, releasing. Stroking, base to tip. Base to tip.

He caught hold of her wrist, dragging her hand away. She started to protest, but he silenced her with a kiss. “Not here. Not like this,” he murmured against her lips.

The Boy Scout was back. “Yes,
here
. Exactly like this. I
need
you.”

His eyes were half-lidded, his chest rising and falling, but his hand tightened around her wrist. “And even though I know you’re using me, and we’re in the middle of a case, I’ll give you what you want.” His voice was a soft growl. “But not here where we’re so exposed. Not tonight when we’ve only just started to make headway on this case. “

He was always in control.
Always
.

And he was right. What was she thinking? Her first field assignment in months and she was about to risk it all for a quickie in the front seat of a rental car. With her partner of all people.

Brilliant
.

Still she wondered what it would take to make him lose that tight control he kept over his emotions. The real emotions lurking under the carefree attitude and flippant charm.

Sitting back, she extracted her hand from his hold, began fixing her clothes. “Where and when, Mann. Name the place and the time, and don’t think I won’t hold you to it.”

“Give me two days to finish my recon of this place. If I don’t find the evidence we need, we’re out of here. You can have me any way you want me then.”

Two days? She needed pleasure now. Needed
him
now. “Meet me tomorrow night on the east side of the orchard around midnight. I’ll expect an update on your progress.”

With that, she left him sitting in the car, embarrassed heat stinging her cheeks. Once she was around the backside of the house, she stopped, took a couple of deep breaths to clear her head.

Everything with Thomas was happening too fast, and at the same time, not fast enough. It had been so long since she’d felt such heat, such passion. Murphy, of Murphy’s Law, laughed inside her head. Of course she’d feel that now for Thomas. Her partner. The man who’d let a killer get past him and nearly cost her her life.

Not his fault.

Slumping to the back porch steps, Ronni dropped her face into her hands and scrubbed her eyes. Yeah, old Murphy was having a good laugh at her expense right now.
Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. And for Ronni Punto, it will go wrong in spades.

She’d found nothing to confirm her accusations against Adam, and she’d fallen into heavenly lust for her partner, a man she couldn’t quite bring her damaged psyche to trust. Her potential career with Dupé and his taskforce was over before it had even gotten off the ground.

Two days. She had two days to get Thomas out of her system and prove Adam was planning an attack against the agents who’d been at Wrightsville.

Ronni pushed herself upright and snuck back into the house.

Chapter Twenty-one

The best of intentions
…Thomas shook his head as he sat in the dark car, waiting for his erection to deflate. Had he actually just blown Ronni off
again?

Stupid is as stupid does, Forrest Gump.

God, he couldn’t help it. She was emotionally off the charts over her brother, and even though he knew she was tough inside and out, he also knew he was fucked. She wasn’t fuck-buddy material, and he wasn’t white picket fence material. If he screwed her brain outs like he wanted to, it would lead to more. Her emotions were riding just under the surface.

She’s too vulnerable
.

But holding back, trying to get her to see what she was doing before she crossed a line she’d always regret was screwing him.

The scent of her lingered on his fingers. He could still smell her perfume on his skin. He was fucked all right. Him and his good intentions.
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t
.

And now I’m a walking cliché
.

After adjusting himself and righting his clothes, he left the car, made his way back to the men’s quarters. A couple of the men were night owls, but no one noticed him slip past their doors and into his room. For the next few hours, he tossed and turned. A cold shower might have worked, and yet, he didn’t want to wash off the smell of Ronni’s perfume on his skin.

In the morning, Thomas ate with the men and was escorted by Jacob to the house to look at Melly’s oven. She met him at the door, like usual, with a huge smile on her face and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice in hand. “From our own crop,” she said, handing him the glass.

He accepted the juice under Jacob’s intense watch, and was glad when Melanie asked the goon to help her find a box of plastic bottles for some lotion the women were preparing that day.

His head was inside the oven when Ronni walked into the kitchen. “One of the heating elements is out,” she said, and he jumped so hard at the sound of her voice, he nearly knocked himself out.

Sliding out of the compromising position, he sat back on his heels. Ronni was dressed in black jeans and a white blouse, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Her hair was smoothed back into a tight bun, her makeup barely there but applied with a precise hand. Her eyes met his for a minute. All business.

So screwed.

“Heating element, huh?”
Smooth, Mann. Real smooth
. He could still feel her fingers teasing him. Taste her skin. Good thing he was sort of sitting down.

Melanie burst back in at that moment, greeting Ronni. “Good morning!”

Thomas adjusted his knees and leaned back into the oven as if confirming Ronni’s diagnosis to keep either woman from seeing his woodie.

“Did you say heating element?” Melanie bustled around Thomas to pour Ronni a cup of coffee. “Can you pick up one of those at the hardware store in town?”

He didn’t know a damn thing about ovens. “Uh, sure.”

Ronni accepted the cup from Melanie and thanked her. Then she snagged an orange from the bowl on the table and headed for the back door. “Tubular heating elements on old ovens like that are hard to find, but I ordered one off eBay this morning. It’ll be here in two days.”

She looked over her shoulder and met Thomas’s eyes.
Two days
. Message sent.

Thomas watched her hips swing with confidence as she walked out the back door and left him and Melly staring after her.

His woodie jumped.
Message received
.

He had two days. And then, if she didn’t come to her senses, he was going to fuck her blind.

Melly turned to him, a hesitant smile on her lips. “Well, I guess I’ll do the baking in the women’s quarters for two days. Can you fix a vacuum?”

“Sure,” he said, smiling to himself and tamping down his lust. Any excuse to stay in the main house was a good one. He had to stay close to Ronni. “Let’s see it.”

The vacuum was as old as the house and the oven. It needed to be trashed.

Instead, Thomas dinked around, taking it apart, cleaning all the components and filters. He located a can of silicone lubricant in the toolshed and oiled all the metal parts, cleaned and fiddled with the motor and belts. As he worked in the back yard—the old machine was far too dusty to tear apart inside—Melly hovered.

Fine with him. Melanie was a goldmine of information, so he made conversation with her to see if she’d proffer anything useful, while he kept an eye out for Ronni. It sounded like Melanie had big plans for the farm and its business, so if Adam did believe Armageddon was around the corner, Melly either didn’t know it or didn’t believe him.

Several times, one of the other women would stop by to say something to Melanie. The way they kept their heads down and eyes averted reminded him of the local Mennonites, but they all seemed happy and content. Many reported in on progress in the work rooms on various products and samples.

Ronni and Adam went walking. Thomas kept an eye on them for as long as he could, but they soon disappeared and didn’t return until lunchtime.

Since he was covered in dirt and grime, Melanie offered to bring him a sandwich outside. He accepted. A few minutes later, she drove off, headed into town for her salon.

Thomas didn’t miss the fact that the men took turns keeping an eye on him. Jacob, the doctor, Wreck-It Ralph and a couple of others. Lance hurried to and from the orchards and beehives, sometimes with his beekeeping gear on and other times without it.

Once he finished putting the vacuum back together, Thomas took it inside and found Kristine and Lance whispering in the kitchen. Their heads whipped around when the back door banged closed and Thomas held up the vacuum. “I need to plug this in and see if it works.”

Lance’s face was a storm cloud. Kristine was pale. Thomas didn’t have to wonder what he’d just interrupted.

Kristine nodded and motioned for him to follow her to the main living room. A formal room with dark drapes, a huge fireplace, and a big antique rug covering a good percentage of the oak floors. Thomas plugged the vacuum in and pushed the on button. The vacuum fired up and he started to run it across the rug when Kristine took it out of his hands and swept the rug herself.

She seemed to need the distraction from her kitchen discussion with Lance, so Thomas moved furniture out of her way as she walked the machine back and forth across the rug. Parts of the rug were so threadbare, he wasn’t sure the vacuum was actually picking up much, but at least the motor was running.

Lance appeared in the doorway and took over the moving of furniture. Thomas took that as his cue to disappear.

He ran into Adam on his way out back to clean up his mess and return the silicone to the toolshed. The man was dressed in khakis and a polo, a bible in one hand, and a briefcase in the other. “I’m off to the bank,” he said, heading for the front door. “Wish me luck!”

“Good luck,” Thomas called, wondering what the guy was talking to the bank about.

Outside the screen door, Jacob brought up a car for Adam. The Caddie he and Ronni had seen the night outside the shooting range. They drove off down the gravel road, raising dust.

“I talked him into asking for a loan,” Ronni said from behind Thomas.

She stood halfway up the stairs, strands of hair pulled loose from her tight bun. “A short-term loan to purchase a used tractor I saw on one of the organic farms machine sites. Adam let me use his computer this morning to look for the heating element and once I found that, I suggested he let me find him a used tractor. He can get the one I located for a song from another farmer near San Fran, and repay the bank when the holiday profits come in.”

Thomas frowned. She sounded like she thought Adam would still be there at Christmas.

“Recognize the car Jacob was driving?”

“I do. Adam mentioned earlier that people and families often donate cars and other items to him when they join the community.”

“You really think that’s where that car came from?”

“What I think is irrelevant.” Her voice was steady. “I’m only suggesting there could be more than one reason Adam has a car registered to a dead man here at the farm.”

Lance had closed the living room’s pocket doors and he and Kristine’s voices had raised enough, Thomas could hear them. Melly was gone. Adam and his bodyguard were gone. Kristine was distracted. Everyone else was in the work barns, fields, or orchard.

Thomas climbed the stairs and dropped his voice as he stopped one stair down from Ronni, putting his face near hers. “Good time to check his office.”

“That’s what I thought,” she said. “I stole the key to unlock the door and double checked everything for cameras. None anywhere.”