Descended (The Red Blindfold Book 3) (24 page)

“Or smell more
incredible,” he said.

I watched as he took
his first bite, chewed, and swallowed. At first he had no reaction,
and my stomach sank. Then he lifted his eyebrows and nodded. “I
think we should add ‘professional cook’ to the list of possible
careers in your former life,” he said.

“Oh, come on,” I
said, relief blooming in my chest.

“I’m serious,” he
said, frowning. “This is amazing. And I say that as a guy with a
chef on staff.”

“It must be my secret
ingredient,” I said.

“Which is?”

A terrifying
four-letter word danced on the tip of my tongue. I wouldn’t say it.
I didn’t dare. “Um…pink peppercorns.”

“I didn’t know pink
peppercorns existed,” he said. “Which goes to show how much time
I spend in the kitchen.”

After finishing a
heaping plate, he had a second helping of shrimp and finished the
roasted asparagus. I couldn’t have felt more flattered, or happier
that I’d taken a risk and cooked for him.

“Everything was
delicious,” he said, pouring more wine into our glasses. “I mean
it.”

It was only dinner, but
I was so flattered I flushed. “Thank you. That’s quite a
compliment, coming from a local hero.”

He stopped still. There
was a moment of tense silence. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, Danny helped
me up with groceries this afternoon, and he said you found a missing
girl.”

“Did he?” Drex
suddenly looked drawn, his eyes cool and distant.

“What happened?” I
asked. “You’ve never mentioned it.”

“I’m sure he made
too much of it. It was no big deal.”

I gave him a confused
frown. “A girl went missing and it was no big deal?”

“The media went nuts
over my part in it, that’s all, the way they always do.”

“Well…what was your
part in it?”

Drex sighed and flashed
a strained smile. “You really want to hear about this?”

“Yes,” I said.
“Please.”

Gaze cast down, he
swirled his wine in his glass. “I had a good friend from high
school, John. He lives about ten miles outside the city in the
suburbs. Nice area, upscale homes, good schools. A couple of years
ago his daughter, Grace, disappeared. She was only four then.”

I shook my head. “How
awful. He must have been scared out of his mind.”

“He and his wife
both. They were basket cases. They needed all the support they could
get.”

“So you helped them
look for her?”

“We all did. We were
on the lacrosse team together in school, and all of us who still
lived in the area came out to search.”

“I’m sure they were
so grateful.”

“Yeah,” he said,
shrugging.

I reached out and put
my hand over his. “That must have been terrifying, looking for a
child and not knowing what you’d find.”

“I’ll admit, it
didn’t look good. It was summer, there was a heat wave, somebody
thought they saw her getting into a strange car.”

“Oh, no. How awful.”

“Yeah,” he said.
“So to see her still alive – it was a pretty amazing feeling.”

“You were the one who
found her?”

“That’s right,
about a mile away in this kind of undeveloped rocky area. She’d
crossed three roads to get there. I couldn’t believe she was all
right.”

“Why did you look
there?”

The corners of his eyes
tightened as he thought back. “I don’t know. It was a little out
of the search area, but I had an instinct and I followed it.”

“Her parents must
have been so grateful.”

He winced. “Not
exactly.”

“What do you mean?”
I said. “How is that possible?”

“Somebody – one of
their friends, I didn’t know her – thought it was strange that I
was the one who found Riley.” His voice was cold, almost
mechanical.

“Strange how?”

“I was by myself, out
of the search area…and I’d been one of the last people to see her
at a barbecue a few hours before she disappeared.”

I gasped. “God,
Drex.”

“I know. I don’t
think my buddy ever believed it, but his wife – well, she wanted
somebody to blame. Other than herself, of course, for not keeping a
closer eye on her daughter.”

“But why choose you,
of all people?”

His face was rigid with
disappointment and anger. “She knew my background, that I hadn’t
exactly been upstanding my entire life. It was easy to make me the
scapegoat.
Too
easy.”

“I hope the police
didn’t think you did it.”

“Not in the end, but
they questioned me for a long time. Sometimes suspicion is all it
takes. Everybody treats you like a criminal, and you start feeling
like one, too. You wonder if you brought it on yourself.”

I swallowed down the
knot in my chest. “I know that feeling well.”

“That’s why I kept
giving in when you wanted to avoid the police,” he said, squeezing
my hand. “I’ve been there. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”

“So…did they
believe you? Are you still friends?”

His eyes were somber.
“I tried to stay in touch. My buddy tried. But it was never the
same. He knew I had nothing to do with Riley’s disappearance, but
too much happened. We couldn’t pretend we were the same people
anymore, and his wife wouldn’t let it go. To this day, I think she
might actually believe I’m responsible for everything.”

My stomach clenched at
the thought of him being blamed so unfairly. “That must make you
furious. It makes
me
furious.”

“It wasn’t the
first time I’ve been screwed trying to help somebody. All the times
I’ve come to the rescue with my brother and Elijah, never even
getting a thank you. The people I’ve given jobs and second
chances…after the Grace incident, I decided I was done. No more.”

“Then…why did you
stop for me?”

He gave me a slight
smile. “I wish I knew, Blue Eyes. You just broke me from the start.
I saw you and I had to get out of my truck. I had to make sure you
were safe.”

“Safe?” I said, my
heart withering. “So you rescued me. It’s what you do, just like
Pierce said.”

A muscle twitched in
his jaw. “It’s
not
what
I do. Not anymore.”

“But it’s an
instinct. You take in sad cases.”

“Jane, no. That’s
not why you’re here.”

I dropped my napkin on
the table. “Then why
am
I here? Does it make you feel strong, knowing I might not have made
it without you?”

“I don’t like where
this conversation is headed.” His voice was very calm, but emotion
simmered underneath.

“Neither do I, but
after what Pierce told me –”

Drex rolled his eyes.
“Oh, well, if Pierce said it, it must be the truth.”

“What am I supposed
to think? What should I believe?”

“Believe this,” he
said, putting his hand to his chest. “Believe what you feel. Your
body doesn’t lie. It knows what’s real.”

“It doesn’t know
anything, Drex, anymore than my mind does.”

“The hell it doesn’t.
What we do together – that doesn’t happen every day. If you had
your memory, you’d know how rare it is.”

I took a breath to
speak but the words wouldn’t come. He was right, and I knew it.

This wasn’t just
another fling – it was a lot deeper than that. And it had happened
so quickly, I’d hardly had time to think.

“It’s all so
confusing,” I said. “I can hardly get my mind around it.”

“I know,” he said,
coming around the table and squatting in front of me.

“I just need time to
get used to this. It’s a lot to process.”

“Of course you do,”
he said. His face brightened and he took my hands in his. “Listen –
it’s a long weekend and I have Monday off. We should take a break
and get the hell out of here.”

“And go where?” I
asked.

“Where nobody can
find us. Where there are no phones, no TVs, nothing but open space.”

“What about Diesel?”

“She’s spending a
week with the dog trainer. He picks her up in the morning.”

I was dying to be with
him, but I couldn’t ignore reality anymore. “We can’t run away
from what’s happening, Drex. You said that yourself.”

“We’re not running
away. We’re taking a long weekend, that’s all.” He squeezed my
fingers. “Think about it. Just us, a tent, and the stars. You’ve
got to admit, it sounds pretty tempting.”

“It does,” I said,
feeling a little kick of excitement. “Very.”

He smiled. That sexy
grin alone could convince me to do anything. “Then pack a bag,”
he said. “I want to be outta here first thing tomorrow.”

The next morning, Drex
packed our food and clothes as if we were leaving for a month. “No
cell phones allowed,” he said, leaving his and mine on the bedside
table. “But sexy panties are encouraged.”

“Are eight pairs
enough?”

He grinned. “Pack two
more, just in case.”

Just before noon, we
got into the truck and drove until we turned off a winding asphalt
road onto dirt. We were officially in a different world now. All
around us were high red cliffs and cottonwood trees, and a sky so
sharply blue it almost hurt to look at it.

No one would find us
out here. No one could if they tried.

It was easy to think we could go on
like this forever if I never made my story public. If we let sleeping
dogs lie, for years on end. I didn’t know who I’d been before,
and I almost didn’t care. All I wanted was to belong to the man
beside me.

We set up camp by a
river in a picturesque, grassy valley dotted with purple wildflowers.
This wasn’t camping as I’d imagined it, with a tiny tent and a
few sticks of wet, smoky wood. This was roughing it Cougan-style, and
that meant luxury.

“I like spending time
outside,” he said, laying a tarp on the ground, “but I do it
right. Ten years ago I’d be out here alone with nothing but a
sleeping bag and some matches, but now I try to enjoy it a little
more. It doesn’t stop me from camping, it just means I have to be
more prepared when I do.”

I helped Drex put up a
tent so spacious we could stand inside it. We spread out down
sleeping bags and fluffy pillows on top of a thick air mattress, and
hung up a lantern that cast a soft, pink glow.

I must have done this
before, maybe when I was very young. All of the sense memories were
there – the feeling of sliding the metal tent poles into the nylon
slots and the sound of the zipper as it opened the door. After camp
was set up, I stretched out on a sleeping bag and sighed with pure
contentment.

“You’re a natural
at this,” Drex said, sliding in beside me.

“I think you’re
right,” I said. “Maybe I was on a solo hiking trip, after all.”

“Maybe. You didn’t
have much equipment.”

I frowned. “What are
you talking about? Panties are equipment.”

“Agreed, but they’re
equipment of a very different kind.”

“I can’t argue
that,” I said, slinging a bare leg over his.

He pulled me against
him. “Well, you could, but you’re going to kiss me instead.”

Just before sunset, we
hiked up a hillside to a cliff overlooking the valley. The wind had
picked up but it was still warm, and the horizon glowed pink and
orange.

We sat side by side on
a rock, catching our breath. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said
after a minute of silence. “Actually, glad isn’t the word.”

I slipped an arm around
his waist. “What’s the word?”

“Let’s see.
Ecstatic. Beside myself.”

“Beside myself is two
words.”

“Two words that are
very accurate.”

He smiled at me and my
heart plummeted to my feet. I was certain that no man had ever looked
at me that way. He couldn’t have. Even if someone else had tried,
he wasn’t Drex, and only Drex could give me that incredible
combination of intense physical chemistry and affection. Together,
they felt way too much like love.

“And what’s your
word?” he asked. “I’ve spilled the beans, now it’s your
turn.”

“Word,” I said.
“You mean I don’t get two?”

“You get as many as
you want.”

I watched the sun sink
behind the cliffs in the distance and thought hard. One or two words
to describe something almost too meaningful to understand.

“You’re taking your
time,” he said. “I’m not sure if I should be flattered or
worried.”

“Flattered,” I
said, leaning my head against his shoulder. “Definitely flattered.”

“I can be very
patient,” he said. “You don’t have to tell me right now.”

“Later will do?”

“Absolutely, but only
if I get something in return.”

I nudged him. “Why do
I have a feeling that something doesn’t involve talking?”

“You have a very
naughty mind,” he said, laughing his deep, contagious laugh. “But
I like that about you.”

“You inspire me. What can I say?”

As soon as we returned
from our walk, Drex lit the lantern and stripped us both naked. I lay
next to him on the sleeping bag, staring at what had to be the most
beautiful male body on the planet.

“I like you in a
dress and heels,” he said. “But I like you even better the way
you are tonight.”

“Plain Jane?”

He smiled with only his
eyes. “My Jane. There’s nothing in the way of your beautiful
skin.”

His fingers wandered
down my rib cage to my hip, where they swirled around in soothing
circles.

“You didn’t like
the garter belt and stockings?”

“I love the garter
belt and stockings,” he said. “I just love what’s in front of
me right now even more. But there’s one little thing that’s
bothering me.”

“What?”

“Two little things,
actually. Your wrists.”

“My wrists?” I held
them up in the lantern light.

He pretended to inspect
them. “They look a little bare, don’t they? Like they’re
missing something?”