Witness Seduction (13 page)

“You have to listen to me right now,” he began, his throat tight as he looked into her gorgeous eyes. “I know you’re angry with me, and I don’t blame you for that, but please, Marley, just hear me out.”

“Okay,” she said softly.

“I need you to understand how much danger you’re in.” An eddy of fear swirled in his stomach but he ignored it, trying to remain calm as he laid it all out in front of her. “When I first moved in next door, I suspected Patrick would come back for you. Not to hurt you, but to convince you to leave town with him, or maybe just to say goodbye. I suspected he was obsessed with you, and when he sent that email, I knew it was a matter of time before love, or infatuation—whatever you want to call it—pushed him to see you.”

Marley unclasped her hands and pressed them on her knees. “And now?”

“Now he wants to hurt you.” He sank into the armchair Hernandez had occupied earlier. “He was across the street for who knows how long, and he must have seen us together. He also has to know I’m with the DEA, because he saw me there during the warehouse raid.”

“So he thinks I’m working with the cops.”

“Or at the very least, sleeping with one.” He flinched when he saw her eyes darken. “What he did to your locker was an act of violence, and it’s an indication of what he wants to do to you.”

“I know.” Her bottom lip quivered. “I know the danger, Caleb. I can feel it. Where are you going with this?”

“Someone needs to stay here in the house with you,” he said. “And I’d really appreciate it if you wouldn’t object. You need protection.”

“Okay,” she said without any argument.

“Though I’d prefer it if you’d agree to stay in a safe house,” he added.

Bitterness flickered across her face. “I’m not leaving my house, Caleb. Patrick has already turned my entire life upside down. I won’t let him chase me from my home.”

He’d known she’d say something like that. “Then an agent will stay here. Grier is going to find out what happened tonight. We might get lucky and he’ll waltz back to White’s house, unaware that we found his hideout, but I’m not holding my breath. He was probably in the area, saw the police activity and took off.”

“So search the neighborhood,” Marley burst out, sounding frustrated.

“We are. Units are combing the area as we speak, though my gut tells me Grier will be long gone by now.”

“But he’ll be back.”

“He’ll be back,” Caleb echoed. “He might consider it too risky to come to this house, but he’ll find a way to get to you, Marley. I’m certain of that.”

She released a shaky breath and turned her head away, but not before he saw tears forming in the corners of her eyes. He wanted so badly to pull her into his arms and comfort her, but he knew she wouldn’t allow it.

“You probably shouldn’t go into work for a while,” he continued. “It’ll be too hard to protect you there, and today Grier showed us that he can find a way into the hospital without getting caught.”

Marley’s jaw tightened. “So I’m just supposed to sit around and wait for him to kill me?”

“He won’t kill you.” Caleb’s pulse sped up at the mere thought. “I won’t let him.”

She fell quiet for a few long moments, then cleared her throat. “It can’t be you, Caleb.”

“What can’t be me?”

“The agent who stays here. I don’t want it to be you. Or your partner for that matter.”

Something shifted in his chest. There, his heart had officially cracked in two. He wanted nothing more than to stay here with her, to protect this beautiful, generous woman who had once trusted him so willingly—and so misguidedly. It killed him that she didn’t want him around, though he understood perfectly why that was.

But God, he wished she would trust him now, to protect her, at least. He’d still be next door, but what if that wasn’t close enough? What if he wasn’t fast enough?

His palms began to sweat and he rubbed them on the front of his pants. “No,” he finally said, his voice sounding hoarse even to his own ears. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving you, Marley.”

T
HE SHRIEK OF SIRENS
reverberated in the night, causing Patrick to sink farther into the bushes. He’d been hunkered down in the small park directly behind Marley’s cul-de-sac for the past hour, ever since he’d heard that first siren wail in the distance. Seconds from hopping the fence at the edge of the park, he’d been forced to retreat, and now he hid, waiting for the opportunity to get the hell out of here. Evidently the cops had discovered his hiding place, which sent a rush of fury to his gut.

A flash of color caught his eye, and he peeked out to see a cop car cruising along the street in front of the park. Patrols. They were obviously casing the entire neighborhood.

“Damn it,” he muttered, ducking into the bushes again.

What was he supposed to do now? He’d planned on going for the money tonight. The black backpack slung over his shoulder contained the syringes and sedatives he’d stolen from the hospital earlier this afternoon. He still couldn’t believe he’d walked in undetected and managed to break into one of the medicine cabinets. Managed to leave Marley a nice little message, too.

Now his plans were shot to hell. It could’ve been so easy. Break into the house next door to Marley’s and stick a needle in that cop bastard’s throat before he knew what hit him. And then, with the cop in a drug-induced slumber, Patrick would get his money from Marley’s bathroom while she worked the night shift. He’d considered going back to the hospital after that, waiting outside in the parking lot for her to come out. Even contemplated forgiving her for sleeping around on him. God knows, starting a new life would be a lot more fun if he had someone with him.

But now…now everything had changed.

He peered out again, breathing a sigh of relief when he noticed the cruiser had disappeared. He needed to make a run for it. If the patrols turned up nothing, the cops might start searching the area on foot soon, and he couldn’t afford to stay in this damn park all night.

He crept out of the bushes and stayed in the shadows, using the oak trees for cover, his guard on high alert with each careful step. Rocks lined the edge of the playground. He bent to pick up a decent-size one, then kept moving. He neared the sidewalk, his gaze darting up and down the street, and finally he zeroed in on a beat-up old Toyota with rust coating the doors. There was no telltale flash of an alarm as he approached the decrepit vehicle. Perfect car to hotwire.

Fingers tightening over the rock, he glanced around the dark, deserted street, then smashed in the driver’s-side window and held his breath. No alarm sounded.

He was in business.

Rapidly, he opened the door and slid into the car, his hand reaching under the dash and yanking out a bundle of wires. Two minutes later, the engine rumbled and Patrick sped away as if his life depended on it.

Because it kind of did.

He drove fast. His breath came out in sharp puffs, growing steadier the farther he got from Marley’s neighborhood. He glanced in the rearview mirror every two seconds, but no police cruisers appeared behind him. No flashing lights. No sirens.

Relief pounded into him. Shit. That had been close. Too close.

When he decided he was far enough away—he’d driven for a good half hour—he pulled up at the curb in front of a small strip mall and let the car idle.

Then he slammed his hands against the steering wheel in fury.

Damn it. What the hell was he supposed to do? He needed that money.

Then you’re just going to have to get her to bring it to you.

A slow smile stretched across his mouth. Yeah. Yeah, that could work. Marley would have to bring him the money. But how? How could he get her to— He straightened his shoulders, the smile widening.

And just like that, he knew exactly what he needed to do.

M
ARLEY LIFTED HER HEAD
in surprise. Caleb stood in front of her, his broad shoulders squared, his defiant expression making it clear he would not back down.

“I know you’re angry with me,” he began. “And you should be. I lied to you, and I abused your trust. But the only thing I lied about was what I do for a living. Everything else was real, Marley.”

“Forgive me if I have a little trouble believing that,” she replied.

“It’s true. I’m still the same person. I never lied about my background. I never hid my personality.” His voice grew wry. “Don’t you think, if I was playing a part, I’d choose to be someone more charming, more likable? I know I’m flawed, Marley. I’m rough around the edges, I’m too serious, too intense, too…broken.”

Her heart squeezed in her chest. No, she would not allow herself to be swayed by his words, no matter how earnest they sounded.

“That could have been part of the act,” she said, wincing at the feeble pitch in her tone. “Make yourself out to be…to be
broken
so I’d feel some silly urge to fix you. You knew I was a nurse, that my job means I like to help people. Maybe you wanted me to help you.”

“Remember when you told me it’s okay to talk about things that hurt you? Well, for me, it’s never been okay. Do you think I liked telling you about the day I found my mother overdosed on the floor? That it was all part of some sick game? I’ve never told anyone about that before.” Caleb made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat. “I didn’t plan on opening up to you, Marley. It just happened.”

“Yeah, it conveniently happened.”

He flinched at her harsh retort, but the determination on his face never wavered. “I won’t leave you. Grier will try to get to you, but I refuse to let him. Did Hernandez tell you what happened to the last woman who got involved with Grier?”

She nodded, unable to speak.

“Well, I won’t let that happen to you. You can be angry with me all you like—you can hate me if you want—but I’m not leaving this house. If I left and something happened to you…” Agony clung to his husky voice. “I’d never forgive myself. No matter what you believe, I care about you, and I’m staying right here to protect you.”

She tried to ignore the rush of warmth that heated her belly. There wasn’t a single false note in his heart-felt words. Was Gwen right? Was it possible Caleb truly did care for her? Patrick had covered up the fact that he was a criminal, had lied about his very nature. But Caleb was a cop, a man who’d sworn an oath to protect others, and now he was determined to protect her. If anything, that made him honorable, but did it excuse the lie he’d told her?

She sucked in a slow breath. “Caleb—”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he interrupted, jutting out his chin. “Even if I have to sit on the front porch all night, even if I have to stand on a ladder outside your bedroom window, I won’t leave.”

As if a higher power were eavesdropping on their discussion, a loud crack of thunder sounded from outside. Seconds later, rain poured from the sky, pounding against the house. Marley turned to the window in disbelief, watching as raindrops streaked down the glass.

“I swear, you planned this,” she grumbled, shaking her head at him. “Now I’ll spend the whole night picturing you getting soaked on the porch, or struck by lightning while standing on a ladder.”

His lips twitched, but he didn’t say a word.

“Fine,” she said. “You can stay. But this doesn’t mean I forgive you, Caleb.”

“I know.”

They stared at each other for one long moment, and a kaleidoscope of emotions spun around in her body. A part of her wanted to break the distance between them and find solace in his strong arms. She wanted to feel his firm lips pressed against hers, his dark stubble scraping her cheek. But then there was the other part of her—the angry part—that looked at him and remembered the cameras next door.

The sound of the front door opening interrupted her thoughts. Her pulse quickened, as a feeling of foreboding shot up her spine. She’d been on edge ever since the incident with her locker, and she found herself jumping at shadows, startling at the merest sound. She kept expecting Patrick to pop out of a closet or blaze into the house with a gun.

Her heartbeat slowed when Caleb’s partner appeared in the doorway, shaking out his clothing and sending water droplets onto her parquet floor.

“Hernandez left for the hospital to get Mrs. White’s statement,” AJ said. “The other officers from the SDPD are continuing the patrols, and our guys are setting up posts around the neighboring houses. Are we heading next door?”

Caleb shook his head. “I’m staying here.”

His partner’s eyes flickered with surprise. “All right.”

“Keep your radio on, and your eyes on the monitors,” Caleb said brusquely. “If Grier decides to come back tonight, we’re going to see him.”

With a nod, AJ bid an awkward goodbye and left the room. Caleb walked him out, and she heard the metallic scrape of the lock sliding into place. He returned a few seconds later and said, “You should go up to bed. It’s past midnight.”

Marley was quite aware of the fact that they were now completely alone. The same way they’d been alone last night, when they’d made love for hours in her bedroom. A traitorous flame of desire licked at her skin.

No. No way. She couldn’t let herself be tempted by this man. No matter how gorgeous he looked in his all-black get-up, with his dark hair falling onto his proud forehead.

She stumbled to her feet. “Yeah, I should go upstairs.”

To her dismay, he followed, trailing after her as she climbed the stairs to the second floor. “I guess you can sleep in the guest room,” she offered, gesturing to the doorway across from hers.

He shook his head. “I’ll stay outside your door.”

Annoyance tickled her throat. “For the love of—”

“I’ll be right here if you need me,” Caleb cut in. “Now stop arguing and go to bed.”

She rolled her eyes. Fine, if he wanted to be all macho about this, she would let him. So what if he chose to sit on an uncomfortable hardwood floor all night? That was his problem.

The first thing she did after she walked into her bedroom and shut the door was make a beeline for the window. She closed the drapes, her lips thinning as she pictured Caleb’s scary partner next door, watching her on the monitor. She fought the urge to give him a big fat scowl. Instead, she took the higher road and turned away from the window, heading to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

Ten minutes later, she slipped under the covers and stared up at the ceiling. Outside, the rain continued to pound against the house, drumming out a staccato beat on the roof.

Sleep did not come. She was too keyed up and afraid, unable to erase the memory of what Patrick had done to her locker. That angry red word, designed to scare, to accuse. She pushed the image from her mind, only to have it replaced with one equally disturbing—Caleb sitting outside her door. He was actually prepared to spend the night there. In the morning, his back would be throbbing, his legs stiff from— God, she was such a bleeding heart.

Or maybe she was just looking for excuses to invite him into her room.

Marley sighed in the darkness. Why couldn’t she just stay angry with him? She shouldn’t want him around. After Patrick’s betrayal, she’d banished her former fiancé from her heart and mind. Had had zero desire ever to see his sorry face again. So why wasn’t it that way with Caleb?

She lay in bed for eighteen more minutes, watching the red numbers on her alarm clock roll over. Finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore.

Groaning, she pushed away the comforter and got up, bare feet padding toward the door. She threw it open, and sure enough, Caleb sat on the floor, his head resting against the door of the guest room.

“Get in here already,” she mumbled.

He shifted, one hand on the gun holstered at his hip, the other behind his head as a makeshift pillow. “I’m fine out here.”

She set her jaw. “Seriously, come in. I can’t sleep knowing you’re spending the night on the floor.”

“I—”

She held up her hand to silence him. “Stop arguing,” she mimicked, “and come in.”

Looking extremely reluctant, Caleb stood up and followed her into the bedroom. He eyed the bed, and she noticed his throat working as he swallowed. She knew exactly what he was thinking. She was thinking it, too, and her body grew hot as she remembered everything they’d done on this bed only last night.

A wave of longing hit her as she thought about Caleb’s hands touching her skin, the seductive swirl of his tongue, the strength of his body as he drove into her, over and over.

“Now what?” he asked with a sigh, turning to her for his next orders.

She hesitated. “We’ll share the bed. It’s big enough for both of us.”

“Marley…this isn’t a good idea.”

“I don’t care. It’s one o’clock in the morning, I’m exhausted, and I can’t sleep knowing you’re sitting on the hard floor.” She marched to the bed and got under the covers, then shot him a pointed look.

Caleb seemed ready to protest again, but finally he just nodded, a resigned light in his eyes. Slowly, he removed his gun and holster and carefully placed them on the top of her dresser. Then he glanced down at his clothing, as if trying to figure out what the heck to do.

Marley averted her eyes as he reached for his zipper. She heard the soft rustle of his clothing falling to the floor and then he was lowering his big body onto her bed. The mattress sagged from the weight of him. Her pulse sped up.

He didn’t get under the covers, just lay on top of them, flat on his back with his arms pressed to his sides. She was on her back, too, suddenly feeling nervous and slightly upset with herself. Her fingers tingled with the need to touch him. From the corner of her eye, she saw his bare chest rising and falling with each breath he took. And his masculine scent wrapped around her, spicy and musky and totally intoxicating.

She curled her fingers into fists to keep from reaching over and touching him. Staying completely still, she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but her mind refused to shut off. She suddenly remembered something, and rolled onto her side to look at him. “What did you say to Hernandez in the hall?” she asked.

“Nothing important.”

“It seemed important,” she said. “And when he came back to question me, he was actually being kind of…nice. So either hell froze over or you got him to change his mind about me.”

Caleb went quiet for a moment. “I reminded him that you’re not Amanda James.”

She wrinkled her forehead. “Who?”

“AJ got me a copy of Hernandez’s file, which included the last case he worked.” Caleb paused. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this.”

“Don’t you think I deserve to know why he’s treated me so badly?”

He paused for a second beat, finally letting out a breath. “Amanda James was the girlfriend of a guy Hernandez was trying to pin a series of bank robberies on. She insisted she had no idea what her boyfriend was doing, that she played no part in the robberies, and she was inconsolable when Hernandez brought her in for questioning. She was just a kid, barely nineteen, and Hernandez felt protective of her.”

Marley propped herself up on her elbow. “What happened?”

“The boyfriend was arrested but the judge let him out on bail. The day he got out, he and the girl robbed a grocery store, trying to get money to skip town. They ended up killing three people, including a ten-year-old kid.”

Marley sucked in a breath. “Oh, God, that’s awful.”

“Yeah, it was,” he agreed. “It turned out James knew about the robberies all along, she’d even participated in some, and Hernandez looked like a total fool.”

Despite herself, she felt a pang of sympathy. “And then Patrick and I came along, and the Bonnie and Clyde thing was happening all over again.”

“He didn’t want to make another mistake, but he took it to the other extreme. Too lenient on the first suspect, too harsh on the second.”

“I still don’t like him,” she said. “I get now why he was so hard on me, but I’m not sure that’s a good enough reason to totally railroad someone.”

“I agree.”

They fell silent, and she lay there watching the rise of his chest, the way he stared directly at the ceiling as if he couldn’t bear to look at her.

“Was it honestly real?” she whispered.

That got his attention. Very slowly, he turned to face her, looking into her eyes. “It was real,” he murmured. “I lied about my job, but I didn’t lie about who I am.”

“And who are you, Caleb?”

“I’m…I’m just a man. I make mistakes. I obsess over the job sometimes. I’ve never been in a serious relationship, probably because I’m used to being alone. I’ve always been alone.”

Each word sent an ache to her heart, until it squeezed so tight in her chest she could barely draw a breath. His voice was heavy with emotion, his face showing vulnerability she knew he hated to reveal.

“But not with you,” he said, so quietly she had to lean forward to hear him. “I don’t feel alone when I’m with you.”

She couldn’t help herself—she moved closer to him. Their faces were mere inches apart. Alarm bells rang in her head, warning her to stop this insanity before she fell into the same damn trap as before.

“It was real,” he said again, his breath warm against her face. “More real than anything else in my life, sweetheart. All these years I’ve gone through the motions, done my job and made conversation with my coworkers. I pretended to be normal, all the while knowing I wasn’t quite whole.”

She shivered as he lifted his hand to touch her cheek, tenderly caressing her skin. “I wasn’t pretending with you,” he finished. “I lied, but I didn’t pretend.”

God, what was she supposed to do, to say? This was the most open he’d ever been with her. His gruffness and cool composure was stripped away, leaving him bare and raw and
honest.

Was she an idiot for wanting so badly to believe in that honesty?

Sensing where her thoughts had gone, Caleb’s voice became desperate. “I’m not lying to you, Marley. It might be better if I was, because then I wouldn’t have to feel…whatever it is I feel for you. It scares me.
You
scare me.”