Shame on Him (15 page)

“And thank God for that. Are you sure you want to stay here tonight? There’s no shame in going somewhere else until we can get a bead on this guy,” Ted tells me.

“I’m not going to be forced out of my home. I’m staying here,” I tell him adamantly.

Besides, at this point, it could only be one of two people who did this. I made a lot of phone calls today about Stephanie and Miles. I’m guessing one of them found out about it.

Ted sighs as he shoves his small notepad into the inside pocket of his suit coat. “Fine. But I’m stationing an officer in a patrol car outside for the rest of the night.”

Before I can argue, I hear Dallas’s voice from the doorway. “That won’t be necessary. I’m going to stay here with her tonight.”

Seeing him standing in my house, so large and looking more than a little ticked off, all of the adrenaline coursing through my body since the attack leaves me in a whoosh
.
I suddenly want nothing more than to run over to him and have him wrap his arms around me.

Ted looks back and forth between us. “Lorelei, this okay with you?”

I drop the hand holding the ice to my face and nod. Dallas’s eyes narrow when he sees the bruise that I’m sure is forming on my cheek. It feels like it’s on fire and the whole side of my face aches, so I’m sure it looks less than pleasant.

“All right then; we’re done here. If you can think of anything else, give me a call. I’ll just need you to stop by the station some time tomorrow to sign the report once we get it typed up,” Ted tells me.

Dallas doesn’t take his eyes off of me as Ted walks up to him and smacks him on the back before walking out the door. The other officer follows him, closing the door behind himself.

I can hear the tick of the clock hanging on the wall above my head. In the quiet of my house with Dallas standing so far away and looking like he’s about ready to punch the wall, I finally lose the battle of trying to be strong. My eyes grow blurry with tears and I look away from Dallas as they fall.

He’s next to me on the couch in an instant, wrapping me in his arms and pulling me against him. I sink into him and let myself cry. He runs the palm of his hand down the back of my head over and over as he rocks me slowly back and forth. When I’m all cried out, I pull away from him, wiping the tears off of my face and wincing when my fingers brush over the bruise on the side of my cheek. Dallas picks up the towel with ice in my hand and presses it gently against my cheek.

“I’m going to kill whoever did this to you,” he mutters, brushing a strand of hair off the other side of my face.

“I’m pretty sure I know who it is.”

He pulls back to look at my eyes. “Does this have anything to do with why you wouldn’t return my calls all day?”

I sigh, taking the towel out of his hand and holding it myself. “I’m sorry about that. I should have called you back. I just . . . I don’t know how to do this.”

He looks at me in confusion. “How to do what?”

“This! You and me. Whatever
this
is. I finally stood up to my parents and I’m doing something for me. I just went to my ex-husband’s wedding. I don’t know how to do all of that and deal with what’s going on with us at the same time.”

Dallas slides off of the couch and gets down on his knees in front of me, resting his hands on top of my thighs.

“You don’t have to
deal
with anything involving us. I don’t know what this is either, but I’m not about to walk away from it.”

The tears are back again, this time pouring out of me so quickly that I don’t even bother trying to swipe them away. Dallas reaches up and does it for me.

“Other than the shiner on your face, are you hurt anywhere else?” he asks.

I shrug and take a few deep breaths. “My shoulder and my hip are killing me from when he slammed me into the floor, but it’s probably just bruises.”

A look of pure fury washes over Dallas’s face when I casually mention this and I quickly try to calm him. “Don’t worry; I got a few good hits in. He took an elbow to the eye and a kick to the face.”

Just then, Snowball races into the room and right up to Dallas. I cringe, waiting for her to bare her teeth and hiss at him, but she just sniffs his jeans and then sits back on her hind legs.

He reaches down and scratches her behind her ears. She purrs and rubs her face against his hand.

“Are you kidding me? I rescued you from a life of loneliness and all you’ve done is hiss at me since I brought you home. You are such a hussy,” I tell her in annoyance. Of course she turns and hisses at me before going right back and rubbing herself all over Dallas.

I kind of don’t blame her. If I weren’t in so much pain right now, I’d be doing the same thing.

Dallas laughs and reaches down, scooping her up into his arms and holding her at arm’s length in front of him.

“Why does this cat look familiar?” he asks.

I wipe the irritated look off of my face and stare down at the towel in my lap, pretending I’m fascinated with the flower design.

“Oh, my God. Did you take this cat from Covington’s house? Oh Jesus, that’s where you guys got the e-mails too, isn’t it?” he asks.

“Hey, you were being a total jerk at the time. I had to do something to get the upper hand. And besides, it was Kennedy’s idea,” I tell him lamely.

He shakes his head with a hint of a smile. “It’s good to know I was completely wrong about you at first. You do have balls. And by the way, so does your cat.”

He turns Snowball around and she hisses at me. I mean,
he
hisses at me.

“That could be why he hates you. You’ve been calling ‘him’ a ‘her.’ I’d be pissed at that too,” he says with a laugh.

He sets Snowball down and we watch as he runs off to another room.

“So, let me guess? Stephanie or Miles?” he asks, running his fingers gently over the bruise on my cheek.

I sigh. “Even though they’re both suspect at this point because I called around about each of them today, it had to be Miles. He was wearing a mask, but there’s no way that was Stephanie. She doesn’t strike me as the type of person who would—or even could—attack someone. Plus, I didn’t feel her huge boobs against me when I was pinned to the ground.”

Dallas chuckles. “Stephanie has huge boobs?”

I scoff and smack him in the arm. “Oh, please, like you didn’t notice.”

He pushes himself up off the ground and grabs my hands, pulling me up from the couch and into his arms. “Baby, I haven’t looked at anyone’s boobs since the first time you insulted me.”

After what he just said to me a little bit ago, I actually believe him. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I press the unbruised side of my face against his chest.

“Come on, let’s get you to bed. We’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

As he leads me down the hall to my room, it hits me that I might just be falling in love with Dallas Osborne.

CHAPTER 19

D
allas didn’t want to leave me alone this morning, but he said he had a meeting about another case he had to handle quickly and I promised him that I would call him immediately if I saw anyone suspicious.

I know he trusts that I can take care of myself, but it’s kind of nice to have someone worry about me. After a quick phone call to my mom, I find out she didn’t go through with the tattoo. At least that’s something I don’t have to worry about right now.

I didn’t want to bother Kennedy with what happened because I knew she was away with Griffin and quite possibly getting proposed to. As I get in my car to head to the police station to finish the report, I check the clock and figure she’s probably home by now.

“Why the hell didn’t you call me last night?” she answers.

“Well, hello to you too,” I reply with a laugh.

“This is serious, Lorelei. Someone came into your home. Whose ass do I need to kick?” she asks.

“You’ll be happy to know that I did just fine kicking some ass on my own,” I tell her.

“Did you use the eye gouge and the head butt?” she asks excitedly.

I laugh at her exuberance. “No. I used my elbow to his eye and my foot to his face.”

Kennedy sighs. “I think I’m going to cry.”

“Enough about me; how did it go with Griffin? Did he pop the question?” I ask.

All joking aside, when she speaks next, I really do think I hear tears in her voice. “He did. It was so romantic. It was first and ten and Notre Dame had the ball. He passed me a can of cheddar cheese Pringles and the ring was at the bottom.”

Only Kennedy would think that was romantic.

I congratulate her and tell her to make up a story that includes flowers and a string quartet to tell Paige, otherwise
she’ll
be the one crying.

Pulling into the police station, I can’t keep the smile off of my face as I make my way through the doors. Regardless of how the evening started off last night, it ended pretty well. We’re getting close to finishing this investigation.

I wave to a few of the officers as I make my way to the front desk to ask for Ted. I have to come in here a lot to file reports for Fool Me Once and also to speak to officers for my court cases, so I know pretty much everyone in here by now.

“Hey, Lorelei. Ted said you’d be stopping by to finish that report.”

I smile at one of the younger officers as I step up to the front desk. “Is he here?”

He nods and points down the hall behind him. “Yep, he’s in his office. You can go on in.”

I tell him thanks and head off down the hall. As I get closer, I can hear Ted’s voice talking to someone. I slow down and listen for a second. If he’s in with someone else, I’ll just go back out to the lobby and wait until he’s finished. I start to turn around and head back down the hall when another voice makes me pause.

“I swear—I’m making sure nothing gets screwed up,” Dallas says.

My heartbeat speeds up. I know I should just continue back to the lobby, but something keeps me rooted in place.

“I don’t like this at all, Dallas. I’ve got people up my ass wanting this case solved,” Ted replies.

“Believe me, I don’t like it any more than you do. Obviously she doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. Look what happened last night,” Dallas tells him.

What’s that supposed to mean? Someone attacked me and I fought back.

“She wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near this case,” Ted complains.

“I know, and she’s not. Not really. I just let her believe that. Why do you think I’ve been spending so much time with her? I don’t want this screwed up any more than you do,” Dallas answers.

I gasp and my hand flies up to cover my mouth.

“I trust that you know what you’re doing and that you’ll solve this case. Just get it done. The faster you find out who killed Richard Covington, the sooner you’ll be able to stop babysitting my sister’s friend.”

Both men laugh and I squeeze my eyes closed to keep the tears at bay. They move on to other topics like sports and the weather. I turn and run back the way I came.

The officer at the front desk calls to me as I race past. Swiping angrily at the tears, I compose myself before I turn to face him.

“Hey, we just got a report in from the ME’s office on the Covington investigation. I know I’m not supposed to show this to civilians, but I heard you were working with Osborne on this thing. You want to look at it before I hand it over to him?” he asks.

Sucking up my wounded pride, I walk back to the desk and grab the report from his hand. Scanning through the pages, my eyes zero in on the section showing the traces of particulates that were found on Richard’s clothes. My jaw drops when I see one unusual item in particular. I thank the officer and quickly hand the file back to him, exiting the police station before Dallas and Ted realize I’ve been there.

Starting up my car, I quickly back out of my parking space and peel out of the lot. Dallas won’t have to worry about “babysitting” me for much longer. I just solved this case and he can kiss my ass when he finds out I did it on my own.

Pulling into Stephanie Covington’s driveway, I take a few deep breaths to calm my nerves as I walk up to her front door and ring the bell.

The door is swung open moments later and my mouth drops open in shock. Standing in front of me isn’t Stephanie, but a very butch-looking woman. She’s a few inches taller than me, with short, spiky blond hair and enough muscles to make a bodybuilder jealous. That isn’t what has me momentarily speechless, though. The black eye and busted lip she’s currently sporting does.