Morning Cup of Murder (10 page)

“I could have killed you,” he growled.

“I think someone else already tried,” she returned.

“Do you have any idea how close I came to shooting you? I had my gun aimed at your head, Lacy. If you had moved…” He broke off and glanced away. “What are you doing here? Please tell me someone kidnapped you and dumped your body inside this house.”

“Um, sure, that’s what happened,” she said shakily as she tried to sit up.

He growled in frustration and pushed her back down. “Just lie still for a few minutes. You have a giant goose egg on the back of your head. It’ll be a miracle if you don’t have a concussion.”

Gratefully, she sank back to the ground and closed her eyes. To her surprise, he began gently running his hand over her head in an almost motherly gesture. She resisted the urge to lean into his touch, realizing how badly she needed comfort and reassurance. Right now she wanted nothing more than for someone to hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay.

“What happened?” he asked after a couple minutes. “The truth.”

“I came here to have a look around.” She paused when he groaned. “Someone else was already here. They bashed me in the back of the head. I don’t know what happened after that.”

“I think that’s about the time I arrived,” Jason said. He reached for her hand and gripped it tightly. “Do you have any idea what might have happened if I hadn’t shown up? Or, even worse, if the other person hadn’t been here, and I had been the one to find you? I could have shot you, Lacy. I would have had my gun drawn as soon as I realized there was someone here. One wrong move and I would have killed you.” He squeezed her hand until it became painful.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. “That didn’t happen.”

“But it could have.” His voice sounded oddly choked as if he couldn’t stop the mental image of what might have been.

Reaching up, she lightly brushed his cheek with her fingers. He blinked at her in surprise, but he couldn’t be as surprised as she was by the gesture. She wasn’t usually one to make physical overtures of affection.

“Are you going to arrest me?” she asked.

“Breaking and entering is a crime,” he answered.

“Technically I didn’t break. The door was unlocked. I simply entered.”

“Trespassing is still a crime.”

“The woman who owns this house is dead. Who is going to press charges?”

His face darkened and his lips pressed together in a grim line. “Lacy, if you didn’t have a head injury, I would shake you. What were you thinking? Even though you want to try and dance around the issue, you broke the law. Do you know what kind of position this puts me in?”

She let him stew in his anger for a minute before answering. “But, Jason, this proves my grandmother didn’t do it. Why else would someone be in this house if not to cover his tracks? I have to clear her name because no one else is going to do it. You know your detective thinks the case is all wrapped up. I can’t let my grandmother go to prison for something she didn’t do.”

“He’s not my detective, and you can’t go around breaking the law, putting yourself in harm’s way in order to try and solve this case.”

“If I don’t, then who will?”

I will,
he wanted to say, but he couldn’t. His hands were tied. If he bucked the system and asserted her grandmother’s innocence, he would be out of a job quicker than he could blink. His only chance of helping her was to remain where he was and work within the system.

He sighed and sank back slightly on his heels, realizing as he did so that he was still holding her hand, his thumb gliding gently up and down her palm. Her skin felt smooth and soft and he stifled the sudden urge to let his lips skim over her hand. Right now relief and worry were mixed together and so acute that if he gave in to his desire to press her hand to his lips, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to stop there. It would be just his luck to have the state patrol show up unannounced and find him making out with a suspect on the floor of a sealed house.

“If I let you go, you have to promise never to do anything like this again. If I catch you breaking the law again, I’m going to have to do something about it,” he said, trying to sound stern despite the raging attraction to her that nearly diverted all other, more coherent thoughts. Even half-conscious and sprawled ungracefully on the floor she was pretty.

“I just wanted to have a look around,” she said, sounding very much like a little girl who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

He almost smiled at her pouty tone. He sort of liked her helpless and at his mercy, but he should have known it wouldn’t last. Putting her hand on his shoulder for support, she forced herself to a sitting position. Then, after wincing a couple of times, she shakily stood to her feet. He stood along with her, ready to catch her if she fell over. After swaying gently a few times, she seemed to find her balance.

“I’ll drive you home,” he volunteered.

“It’s okay, I walked here. I can walk back.”

He released air through his teeth, forcing himself to remain patient. “Lacy, you are not walking home in the dark with a head injury. You’re riding with me.”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “I don’t want to ride in a police cruiser like a criminal.”

“You
are
a criminal,” he reminded her.

“Not officially,” she said.

He swiped his hand over his face, feeling suddenly exhausted. “Just get in the car before I carry you. I’ve been working for twelve hours, and I don’t have the patience to deal with your issues tonight.”

Her jaw dropped in an affronted expression, but he ignored her and took a step closer, herding her toward the door. She turned on her heel, swayed, regained her balance, and marched toward the door with her head held high, her long hair trailing indignantly behind her like the angry swish of a cat’s tail.

He made a quick tour of the house, securing all the doors and windows that should have been secured earlier by the state’s forensics team. It was unlike them to be so unprofessional as to leave a door unlocked, but Jason was too tired to think of such things now. He tucked the puzzle of the unlocked door away in the back of his mind for later inspection.

When he slid behind the wheel of his cruiser, he knew she was angry at him. She sat beside him in the front passenger seat with her arms crossed over her chest. It took exactly three minutes of silence before she rounded on him.

“What issues?” she asked.

“Huh?” he asked, sparing her a glance before turning back to the road.

“You said you didn’t have patience to deal with my issues. What issues?”

He wanted to bite his tongue for his stupidity. Had he really said that out loud? “It was nothing. Just forget it.”

“No, I think I want to know what you meant,” she said. She turned to face him, leaning her back against the door.

Suddenly his own anger kicked into high gear. His emotions were already in overdrive after this exhausting day, and he found himself spoiling for a good fight. “Fine. You want to know what your issues are? I’ll tell you. You’re headstrong, stubborn, proud, and an emotional recluse. A guy would need dynamite and a blasting cap to chip away at the barriers you’ve put around yourself. You might as well wear a flashing sign that reads ‘Stay Away.’”

They pulled up in front of her grandmother’s house. He would have opened her car door for her, but she had already stepped out and slammed it behind her when he reached her.

He trudged behind her as she marched up the porch steps like a freight train, anger evident in every step. She reached to open the door, but he stopped her by laying his hand on her arm.

“Let me search the house before you go in,” he said.

“No. Go away.” She reached for the door again, but he put his arm around her waist and drew her back against his chest. He expected her to fight him, but she didn’t. She remained stiff and unyielding, holding herself as far away from him as she could.

“Lacy, the person who attacked you might know who you are,” he whispered. Their contorted position put his mouth very close to her ear.
 
“He could be waiting in your house right now. I need to search the premises; let me do my job.”

She didn’t relax, but she didn’t protest further. He let her go and she stepped away from him, still keeping her eyes trained toward the dark horizon.

He took her key, opened the door, drew his weapon, and walked inside. Although his first impression upon entering the house was that it was empty, he took his time making a detailed sweep, checking the basement and closets.

“It’s all clear,” he said when he stepped back onto the porch. Lacy remained silent, still looking away from him. He sighed. “Look, Lacy, I’m sorry. We’ve both had a lousy day. I didn’t mean to unload on you.”

She rounded on him then and he resisted the urge to take a step back from the cold fury in her green eyes. When she put her hands on her hips and advanced on him, he did step back until he butted against the front of the house. She kept coming until she was only a few inches away, and then she unleashed the full power of her rage.

“You think I have issues? Well maybe I do, but I have good reason for my issues. What reason do you have for your overpowering fear of commitment, Jason? Soon you’re going to find yourself as a forty year old cliché--chasing younger girls and reliving your glory days while the rest of the world settles down to responsible adulthood. Why don’t you take a look in the mirror before you start handing out insults to me? I may be an ice princess, but I have a good reason. You have always been the center of everything. Your life is perfect. What’s your excuse for your emotional barriers? Don’t pretend you don’t have them because I’ve seen them, and they’re as solid as mine.”

She stood in front of him, her hands on her hips, her chest heaving with anger, and her long hair streaming around her face in wild disarray. Her cheeks were flushed, she was frowning, and he was certain she had never looked more beautiful. Instead of feeling upset by her reprimand, he found himself forgetting everything they had just said to each other.

“You’re right,” he agreed. “We’re both a mess.” Tentatively, he reached out and put his hands on her waist. She gave him a wary, surprised look, but she didn’t back away. Taking that as a sign of encouragement, he pulled her closer, reeling her in slowly like a fish until she was pressed solidly against him. “Do you think it’s possible our combined issues cancel each other out?”

“No, I think we’re a horrible combination.” Her palms flattened against his chest as if she were going to push him away, but instead she circled his neck and clasped her hands behind his head, standing on her toes to move closer to him.

“So do I,” he agreed. He closed his eyes and bent to kiss her when his lapel radio crackled to life.

“Unit five, checkup,” the dispatcher said.

Jason froze. “What time is it?” He checked his watch without waiting for an answer. “I got off duty an hour ago. I was supposed to report to the station for shift change. I’ve got to go.”

Slowly her eyes opened and she stared up at him, dazed. Was he saying he was leaving? Now? “You’re going?”

He smiled and touched her cheek with his index finger. “I have to.” He paused to speak into his radio, and then he turned to look at her again. “I could come back after I go to the station and retrieve my car.” There was a question in his statement.

Thankfully some sanity was beginning to return to her overheated brain. “Thanks, but I’ll be fine.” She unclasped her arms and stepped back out of his embrace.

He almost shivered from the new chill in the atmosphere. He wanted to be angry with her for rebuffing him, but she was correct. Together, they were a horrible idea. Better to keep things at the level of friends, if they could even be considered that. After all, they had less than nothing in common. He straightened and moved away from the wall.

“See you around, Lacy. Stay out of trouble.”

She put her hands on her hips once again and frowned as she watched him walk down the steps. “I never look for trouble,” she called after him.

“And yet it has a way of finding you,” he called over his shoulder. Then he got in his cruiser and drove away.

Chapter 10

Not until Lacy undressed for bed a few minutes later did she remember the journals she had slipped into her waistband. Jason’s bullet-proof vest was undoubtedly the only thing that had kept him from noticing the journals when they shared their latest embarrassing embrace.

She pulled the journals from her waistband and smacked them on the kitchen counter, too angry even to look at them right now.
Issues
. Jason had accused her of having issues, and the most frustrating part of the whole thing was that he was correct. Of course she had issues, how could she not after her fiancé dumped her for her sister?

Robert had been her first love, her first everything. Before him she had barely dated, but with him she had let down her guard entirely, giving him her complete trust. And what had he done with that trust? Shredded it. How could she ever trust anyone again, especially someone like Jason who looked too good to be true, told her repeatedly he didn’t want her, and alternately ran hot and cold?

Lacy slammed a few cupboards until she found her grandmother’s pain reliever. Checking the date on the bottle, she realized it was like most of the medicine in the cupboard: outdated. Still, what was the harm in taking pain reliever that was too old? Her head was killing her and there was nothing else, so she popped a couple of pills and downed them with water straight from the faucet, not even bothering with a glass.