If You Hear Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense (9 page)

Detective? Us? You’re a cop?
Arching her brows, she interrupted Prather. “Excuse me, Ezra—do you work here?”

Please, please, please say yes
, she thought. Forget the fact that he hadn’t called her. If he worked here, she could totally forget that, because she already knew he’d do something more than Prather.

Hell, the person who’d greeted her at the desk had been more helpful than Prather.

Footsteps, drawing closer—the steps sounded uneven, like he put more weight on one foot than the other. She’d noticed it before, but it was more obvious this time … she thought.

“Sorry, Lena. I’m with the state, and I’m on leave. Of course, I don’t think the deputy really works here either. Seems he just pretends to.”

Well, hell. But the sense of disappointment faded as a slew of other emotions swarmed up to surprise her.

He was closer, now. Close enough to touch. Close enough to pick up on a few other things, too, like the slow, steady cadence of his breathing and his scent—he
smelled good. She remembered that from the two other times she’d been this close.

The sound of his voice, the woodsy, male scent, the warmth of him, the entire package had her heart racing and she had to forcibly throttle down. He’d made it clear he wasn’t interested enough to call, so she wasn’t going to humiliate herself by letting him see just how … interested she still was.

But that heat didn’t want to be ignored, and for about five seconds, she couldn’t think of a damn thing beyond him.

Her heart skipped a few beats, her breathing hitched, and liquid warmth spread through her, starting in the pit of her belly and spreading outward until it encompassed her whole body.

Cool it
, she told her libido.

Said libido didn’t want to listen. It had been being ignored for way too long. Lena was too much a control freak to let lust drag her along on a choke chain, though. Inwardly, she wrestled it into submission and outwardly, she just smiled.

“I must admit, I’m inclined to agree with you about the deputy and his lack of interest in working.”

“Are you now?” That sexy voice rumbled out, stroking her senses like a velvet glove. “Since he doesn’t seem to give a damn about doing his job, I think he probably needs to go get somebody else.”

“Look, King—” Prather snapped.

“Somebody else, Deputy. Or I’ll find somebody.” The authority in that voice demanded obedience.

Prather gave in, stomping away. He grumbled under his breath and not a thing he said was complimentary, but Lena was content to tune him out. She’d much rather talk to Ezra than Prather—even if she was still pissed, even if she was still sulking over the fact that he hadn’t called.

“You okay?” he asked as the heavy tread of Prather’s feet faded away.

“No, I’m not. I’m fucking pissed,” she bit off. “That moron actually had the nerve to imply I should get a live-in companion to stay with me at night.”

For about fifteen seconds, Ezra was completely silent. Finally, he said, “He implied what?”

“You heard me.”

“Why?”

The obvious dismay in his voice soothed the raw, ragged edges a little. So what if he wasn’t interested? At least he didn’t view her as some sort of weak, helpless invalid. Forcing herself to smile, she shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I guess he views blindness on the same level as Alzheimer’s or something. Moron.”

“I think moron is being kind when it comes to him,” Ezra said. He was quiet for a moment and then, softly, he added, “I’ve got to say, I wasn’t exactly expecting to see you here today—you’re pretty much the last person I was expecting to see.”

“Am I?”

“Yeah.” Ezra resisted the urge to shift on his feet—he wasn’t some high-school kid who’d been caught cheating on his girlfriend. It was a phone call. Not a lifelong commitment …

But it was one he’d really wanted to make.

“I’m sorry I never called you,” he blurted out, feeling the hot, slow crawl of blood as it crept up to stain his cheeks red.

He hadn’t even realized he was going to mention it.

Lena’s reaction was to laugh. A low, amused chuckle that had him blushing even more—exactly as if he
was
some idiot high-school kid who’d been caught cheating.

“No, you’re not,” Lena said, shaking her head. “Look, it’s no big deal. It was a phone call—you changed your mind. No harm, no foul, right?”

“I didn’t change my mind.” Swearing, he shoved a hand through his hair and started to pace. The stiff muscles in his leg protested, but he ignored them. There weren’t many places to sit and all of them put him too close to her. “I wanted to call. Hell, I’ve still got the number sitting by my phone, even though I don’t need it—I had it memorized before I pulled into my driveway. But …”

“But what?”

He blew out a breath and turned to look at her. The sight of her, shit, it still hit him like a punch, straight in the solar plexus. No other woman had ever hit him like that—not even Mac. He’d liked her—in some way, he’d even loved her, although it wasn’t the kind of love that would have him down on bended knee, and both of them had known that.

This woman in front of him, though, whom he had seen exactly three times, now? She hit him, knocked the breath out of him, and left him standing on uncertain ground.

“I came back to Ash because I needed to get my head on straight—went through some bad shit not too long ago. And it dawned on me that the last thing I needed was to get involved with anybody.”

“I wasn’t aware we were anywhere close to getting ‘involved,’ ” Lena said. “We had dinner once. You had my number. That’s a far cry from a declaration of marriage. It’s not even anything we could call a casual dating relationship—I think we’d need at least two or three dates for that.”

“I look at you and feel anything but casual,” Ezra muttered. “Shit.”

“Ahh … what?”

“Nothing. Look, I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry, okay?”

She looked like she wanted to say something, but then she just sighed and averted her face. “Fine. You’re sorry. It’s over and done with.”

“Yeah. Over and done with.” He hesitated a second and asked softly, “Friends?”

A deprecating smile curved her lips. “Friends. Sure. Why the hell not?”

Shit, what a fucking mess
. Ezra absently rubbed the heel of his hand over his chest. The forlorn, tired expression on her face did bad, bad things to him. He’d backed away from her after one fucking date because she made him feel things he knew he wasn’t in any shape to feel—not while his head was still so screwed up over Mac.

Don’t think about that right now
, he told himself. It was the last thing he needed—the absolute last thing he needed.

“I had some idiot kids out joyriding on my property last night, did some damage. Came in here to file a report on it. What brings you in here?” he asked.

Lena grimaced. “Don’t ask.”

“Too late. Already did.” He’d heard some of it … and it hadn’t settled that well. Screaming. She’d heard somebody screaming. “Why don’t you tell me about it?”

“Why?” Lena asked wearily. What in the hell did he care? Shifting in the chair, she crossed her legs and listened as Ezra moved across the linoleum floor, his footfalls a bare whisper. If it wasn’t for the faint unevenness she detected in his gait, and those rubber-soled tennis shoes squeaking on the linoleum, she doubted she would have heard him at all. “What does it matter what I’m doing here?”

“Isn’t that kind of what friends do? Ask how the other is doing?”

Friends. Lena curled her hand into a fist and tried not to think about the knot of disappointment that had settled somewhere in the vicinity of her heart. He hadn’t called because … what was it again?

Irritated all over again, she started to tap her fingers on the arm of the chair. “Look, you know what, Ezra? I
don’t think friends will work. I’ve got plenty of friends. If you’re here to get your head on straight, fine. You do that. But you don’t need some mock ‘friendship’ with me to do that. So you can shelve the mock concern, too.”

Ezra was silent for five seconds, but she could feel the intensity of his stare, all but burning into her. “Did it occur to you for even five seconds that I could have just walked away when I saw you in here? I didn’t need to come over here. Didn’t need to humiliate myself and admit to anybody—much less a beautiful woman that I’m seriously attracted to—that I’m a total asshole.”

“And exactly when did you humiliate yourself?”

“Oh, fuck it,” he muttered, shoving upright. He started to pace, but the muscles in his leg decided he wasn’t going to pace and the leg tried to buckle under him. Swallowing the groan of pain, he slammed a hand down on the table and managed, just barely, to stay on his feet.

“Ezra?”

Blood roared in his ears and he barely heard her soft voice above it. His heart raced in his chest and a cold sweat broke out all over him. Carefully, he eased his weight back against the table—it was either that or end up on the floor. Breathing shallowly, he waited for the wave of pain to pass and that was when he realized Lena was on her feet and moving closer.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine,” he gritted out.

She brushed her hand against his arm. Ezra nudged her away and said, “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. You’re sweating. What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” he bit off. Sourly, he added, in an echo of her earlier question, “What does it matter?”

She scowled. “Are you sick?”

“No.” Snagging a chair, he spun it around and used the table and his good leg to maneuver himself into it.
“Look, I messed my leg up a few months ago. Acts up sometimes. Pushed myself too hard yesterday and now I’m paying for it. That’s all.”

“What … what did you do?”

With a dry laugh, he said, “Careful, Lena. You’re almost acting like a concerned friend there, you know.”

“Jackass.” She glared at him and then sighed, returning to her chair. “Let’s try this again, okay? I mean, I liked you a few weeks ago. And even right now, when I’m trying to not like you, I find myself still wanting to like you … even when I don’t want to, and yes, I know that doesn’t make sense. So let’s just wipe the slate and try this again. Maybe we can try … well, being friends.”

Studying her from under his lashes, Ezra debated on whether he should tell her or not—there was no way he could look at her and think friends. But he could fake it. After all, how likely were they to be around each other?

“Okay. Friends. So, about my leg … I messed it up on the job a few months ago. It’s still trying to heal.”

“A few months ago? You must have messed it up something awful,” Lena said, her brow puckering in a frown.

Yeah. Steel plates. Two surgeries. Safe to say he’d torn it up something awful. But he didn’t go into detail. “Okay, so I gave. Now it’s your turn. You want to tell me why you’re here? What’s the deal with this screaming you say you’re hearing?”

“I don’t say I’m hearing it. I heard it,” she bit off.

“Okay. What’s the deal?”

Frowning, she said, “Why?”

“Call me curious. Besides … isn’t this what friends do?”

Was it wishful thinking or did he not sound quite so … dismissive? Annoyed with herself, Lena started to swing her foot back and forth. Prather had gotten under her skin with those sly little jabs. And having Ezra here? Man, that was making it worse … so much worse. He
got under her skin, too. In so many ways … oh, so very, many ways.

“Friends or not, Ezra, I’m already freaked out by this, and I don’t want to have to go into detail about it any more often than necessary,” she murmured.

Besides, she’d just met this guy.

Even if she’d had one rather nice date with him, she didn’t really know that much about him, and those screams had her … unbalanced.

W
ELL
.

Law hadn’t been kidding, Hope decided as she slowed to a stop.

Ash, Kentucky, had a roundabout.

A town square.

More stop signs than stoplights and she’d actually had people waving at her as she drove through town. It didn’t make her feel welcome, although she imagined the smiling townfolk probably hadn’t planned to freak her out.

It wasn’t exactly their fault that small towns made her teeth grit and her skin crawl and her hair stand on end.

If there was one thing that Hope Carson had hoped to avoid, it was small towns.

They absolutely freaked her out.

She felt trapped in them.

Hell. She
had
been trapped in one.

A horn honked behind her and she jerked herself back to awareness, realized she’d been sitting there, staring stupidly at nothing for the past minute or so. Waving at the driver behind her, she pulled forward and found a parking spot off to the side of the county building. Although it was Sunday, there weren’t many open
spaces and she could see people bustling all over the place.

It might be a small town, but it was a lively one.

With curious, curious people.

Feeling the weight of the stares, she debated about whether to just turn around and leave town.

She could get in touch with Law and tell him she’d changed her mind.