Playing with Fire (10 page)

Before she could say anything he got
in his car and drove off, leaving her standing there,
dumbfounded.

She might not know a lot of things,
but one thing she knew for sure – taming Trent Torres sounded
exhilarating.

Trent hummed to the radio and drummed
his fingers on his knees as Fitzer drove past Scripps Aquarium.
“Man it’s a great day.”

Fitzer gave him a dirty look. “What
the hell is going on with you? Did you get lucky last
night?”

Trent shook his head. “Nope, and I’m
totally fine with it.”

“Is it that chick from the
motel?”

The way Fitzer said the word ‘chick’
didn’t sit well with him, but Trent brushed it off. “Yeah, it
does.”

“Something about her is shady. It
seems like she’s hiding something.”

Trent shook his head. “Naw, she’s
not.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I asked! Why all the
questions?”

Fitzer shrugged and took a left turn.
“Because I’ve got an investigative nature. It’s why I became a
cop.”

When it came to his personal life,
Trent wanted to tell Fitzer where he could stick his investigative
nature.

“Leave Noelle alone.”

“Are you sure that’s her real name?
Sounds kind of made up to me.”

Trent wanted to backhand him.
“Seriously? Of course that’s her real name.”

“What’s her last name?”

Trent shrugged. “I don’t
know.”

Fitzer laughed out loud. “So you went
out on a date with a woman you met on a B & E call and you
never found out her last name. That doesn’t seem very bright to
me.”

Trent hated to admit it but the rookie
had a valid point. “It never came up.”

“She shows up in a U-haul with
Arkansas plates, doesn’t give her last name, seems to hate cops,
and yet she doesn’t set off any warning bells in you? What kind of
cop are you?”

Trent was about to be the kind to
throw his partner out of a moving vehicle. “Plenty of people move
here in U-hauls with possible fake names and vague pasts. It’s
California, moron. Do you know how many people do that every
day?”

Fitzer shook his head. “You tell
yourself whatever you want, but something is up with
her.”

The topic of Noelle was dropped there,
but enough had been said that Trent’s mind churned all
day.

When they finally returned to the
precinct at the end of their shift, he logged onto his desktop
computer and typed in the spotty information he did have on her -
her first name and where she came from.

While the software did the search, he
prayed it came up with nothing. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
She fit the description on a missing person case from the
Batesville PD.

Ethics said he called them to notify
that she was found, but as quiet as Noelle had been, he wondered if
she didn’t want to be found.

And what about the people she didn’t
want to find her? She’d never said who ‘they’ were. He read the
general information on her, name, height, weight. But the part that
stopped him from picking up the phone was the statement
provided.

“Miss Dupre is feared in
danger and may be suffering memory issues due to recent head
trauma. Her mother contacted the Batesville, Arkansas Police
Department after she disappeared from her home. Her purse, with her
identification in it, was left at her home.”

Noelle may be withholding things about
herself from him, but the emotions he’d seen when she spoke of her
mother were genuine. If her mother was dead, then who was using
that to trick unsuspecting law enforcement?

He shut off the monitor and headed
home to shower before he was to pick her up. That would give him
enough time to collect his thoughts so he could ask the questions
he needed her to answer.

Noelle tried all day to not think
about the fact that Trent wanted her to meet his best friend. It
really was a big step. In the past, when she’d introduced her
friends to Lenny it didn’t take long for them to stop calling or
coming around.

Now, making it worse, was Delphine and
her teasing. Even at this moment, she was kicked back in her desk
chair, filing her nails and dropping not-so-subtle hints on what
she thought about Noelle meeting Trent’s friends.

“If that man starts driving you east
and doesn’t stop, don’t be surprised when you arrive in Vegas at
some tiny drive-thru wedding chapel.”

Noelle stood near the lobby door
waiting to see Trent pull in so she could make a beeline for it.
“Would you stop already. He doesn’t want to marry me.”

“How do you know that?”

Noelle looked at Delphine as if she’d
grown a second head. “Uh, probably because we ain’t even talked
anything about marriage. It’s only the second date for Pete’s
sake.”

Delphine shrugged. “I met my third
ex-husband on a Tuesday, was engaged to him on Thursday, and
married him a month later. And if he hadn’t been a lying, cheating
bastard we’d still be married.”

Noelle couldn’t help but laugh. “Well
then I can see why you are already expecting him to marry me. Going
by your timetable we’re moving slow as molasses.”

Delphine nodded and tossed her nail
file onto the desk. “Hell I thought he was moving that slow after
he didn’t try to sleep with you the day after he met
you.”

Noelle waved her off. “Men don’t think
of me like that.”

“Maybe where you came from, but I can
tell you he looks at you like you’re breakfast, brunch, lunch,
dinner, and dessert.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Oh, but I will. And I wouldn’t be
surprised if he doesn’t want to go that far sometime in the near
future.”

Noelle hadn’t thought too much about
them being that intimate. Kissing and touching was one thing, but
going all the way was another story. Sex had never been the
seductive, panting-for-more act that she saw on television. It had
been an expected occurrence, a chore, a task to check off the to-do
list Lenny always made for her.

Truth be told, she felt about as
inexperienced as a virgin. Especially since all she knew was how to
lie there and wait for it to be over.

But her body told her what her mind
didn’t know and that was that she did have those carnal needs and
desires. Every time Trent came around her heart pounded, her skin
tingled at his touch, and each kiss added to the slow burn within
her.

She fanned herself and took a deep
breath. “Is it getting hot in here?”

Delphine laughed out loud and slapped
the desk. “You look a little flushed honey, but I think it’s more
to do with whatever is turning them wheels in your
head.”

Noelle put her hands on her hips and
was ready with a retort when she saw Trent pull in. “Though this
conversation has been delightful, I’m gonna leave now.”

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t
do!”

Noelle shook her head and laughed as
she opened the door and walked out to the parking lot.

Trent was in a pair of black cargo
pants and a light blue polo shirt. His hair was damp around the
ends and she could smell the fresh scent of his soap from several
feet away.

“Hey there, handsome.” She winked at
him and gave him a kiss on the lips. Surprisingly he didn’t draw it
out like he’d done before. It wasn’t as if he rejected her kiss,
but there was definitely a lack of his normal charisma.

“
You were practically
running to me. Is everything alright?”

She nodded and laughed. “Yeah, but
Delphine was razzing me so I ‘m overly happy to see
you.”

He smiled and wrapped his arm around
her waist. “I’m happy to see you too. Shall we get out of here
then?”

She nodded and he led her to the
passenger side.

He opened the door and bowed. “After
you, Miss Dupre.”

What he said didn’t hit her at first,
until the thud of the closing door snapped her to attention. Noelle
sat frozen in the seat with her mind whirling a million miles a
minute.

When he got into the car it only took
Noelle one look at Trent’s face to see he knew. How much he knew,
she didn’t know, but from his expression it was just enough to
bring the truth out.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

“I’ve got some explaining to do,
huh?”

Trent nodded with an encouraging
smile. “Yeah.”

Noelle took a deep breath, trying to
decide where to start. Though she knew she owed him an explanation,
the fact that he’d snooped enough to know her last name unnerved
her. “First I have a question for you. Did you turn me
in?”

He turned in his seat and rested his
arm across the steering wheel. “What would I have to turn you in
for?”

She shook her head. “Nuthin’. I didn’t
do anything wrong. All I did was get away from a very bad
situation. But I know that others involved will manipulate things
to make it look like I did something.”

He eyed her suspiciously. She didn’t
appreciate that he was in ‘cop’ mode. It made her want to clam up
just out of spite.

They stared each other down. A moment
later Trent finally asked, “Is your mother really dead?”

Her mouth fell open and she gasped,
not expecting that at all. “What kind of question is that? Of
course she’s dead. She’s buried with the rest of her family at the
cemetery in Sulphur Rock if you want proof.”

Noelle felt the sting of tears burn at
the corner of her eyes. The fact that he could even question she’d
lied about her momma’s death hurt deeply.

Trent reached out to place a
comforting hand on her shoulder but she jerked away. “Please don’t
touch me.”

He nodded. “That’s fair enough. And I
didn’t ask that because I doubted you. I needed to know for sure
because of some information I have.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “What
information?”

He leaned back against the car door
and looked like he was settling into his seat. “You tell me about
you and I’ll tell you what else I know.”

“Really? Here in the car? You’re gonna
start interrogating me?”

He shrugged. “I’m not leaving until we
clear the air. We could go to your room, but I think this is less
distracting.”

Noelle rolled her eyes when he flashed
her one of his wicked smiles. “Now is not the time to be joking
about sleeping with me!”

He held up his hands. “Geez, Noelle
calm down. Look, I don’t want to even be having this discussion,
alright? For me, joking about that makes this feel less
heavy.”

She let out a sigh. “Fine.
My name is Noelle Dupre…and
yes
that is my real name - Noelle Angeline Dupre to
be exact.”

“Besides you being born on Christmas
Eve, your mom must have really loved the holiday to go with that
name.”

She couldn’t help the smile. “It was
her favorite. We scrimped and saved all year for Christmas and even
then it was nuthin’ others would think was spectacular. But it was
enough to get a real tree and a good meal. She hand made almost all
of my gifts.”

Noelle wiped at the moisture at the
corner of her eye and continued. “Anyway, when I was twenty I met
this guy I thought was real charming and sweet. He wanted to sweep
me off my feet and I let him. Within a month I moved in with him.
Within six months the charm and sweet wore off and his true colors
came out.”

Trent’s face was blank, but she saw
the muscles around his mouth tense. “How so?”

Noelle realized she’d never truly said
the words out loud, thinking if she didn’t say them they wouldn’t
be real. But they were. Still, she couldn’t look him in the face
when she said them.

She looked out her window and
whispered, “That’s when the abuse started. It’s when he first hit
me.”

Trent swore vehemently under his
breath and something in Noelle froze, waiting for the explosion.
But there wasn’t one.

After a moment she looked up and could
see the anger in his eyes, but realized it wasn’t directed at her.
The tension eased a bit and his reaction made her feel protected
instead of threatened.

“How long did it go on?”

“Years.”

“Why?”

She felt stupid to admit the truth.
“Because he would apologize and the thoughtful Lenny would come out
again. I wanted to have the love my momma never had. I wanted it so
bad that I made myself believe that in time he would
stop.”

“But he didn’t, did he?”

She shook her head. “No, it got
worse.”

“What do you mean by ‘love your mom
never had’?

Noelle never talked about
the other person who helped create her; she never referred to him
as
dad
or
daddy
, he hadn’t done
anything to have the honor of that title.