Scene of the Crime: Black Creek Page 12

  Their movements became more frantic, his strokes faster as he felt his climax approaching. She cried out his name as her muscles tightened around him. That was his undoing.

  Waves of pleasure washed over him and he shuddered with the intensity of his release. He rolled to the side of her, momentarily breathless.

  “Wow,” she said.

  He laughed. “Wow is right, and please don’t ruin the wow by telling me that this shouldn’t have happened.”

  “Why would I do that?” she asked with a teasing smile. “We’re both consenting adults who know the score.”

  Mick rolled over on his side to face her. “Friends with benefits?”

  “Exactly,” she replied as she slid out of the bed. “I’ll be right back.” She bent down and scooped up her panties and nightgown on the way to the bathroom.

  As she disappeared, Mick rolled over on his back and stared up at the ceiling. He should be thinking about the case. He should be thinking about what their next move should be, but instead his head was filled with Cassie.

  Friends with benefits, he’d never really liked that term. Either it was a relationship or it wasn’t. He’d been guilty of casual sex with female friends, but for some reason in this case it didn’t feel right.

  She was predictable, a creature of habit, and was certain that relationships were messy and filled with the kind of chaos that would be intolerable. He released a deep, long sigh as he also realized he was precariously close to being madly in love with her.

  * * *

  THERE WAS NO AWKWARD morning after, but Cassie had begun to realize that nothing was awkward with Mick unless she made it so.

  As they drove the short distance to the Dew Drop Café for their meeting with Sheriff Lambert she couldn’t help but replay the night before in her mind.

  It had been wonderful. It had been magic. More than that, as she drifted asleep in his arms she’d felt completely safe and secure, a feeling that was rare for her. He scared her because she never felt as if she got enough of him.

  A part of her found it far too easy to desire spending every night in his arms, seeing that teasing light in his eyes over her first cup of coffee each morning.

  “I hope the Dew Drop Café breakfast is as good as their burgers,” he said, pulling her from her thoughts as he parked in front of the small eating establishment. He cut the engine and turned in the seat to smile at her, his eyes twinkling with a teasing charm that had once set her teeth on edge and now cast warmth over her. “I seem to have worked up an appetite overnight.”

  “I would’ve thought you satisfied your appetite overnight,” she teased back.

  His grin widened. “You definitely have potential, Cassie Miller. When you let yourself go and have a little fun, you take my breath away.” He frowned suddenly and got out of the car.

  Cassie hurried after him wondering what in the heck that was all about.

  Lambert was already there at a back table with a cup of coffee in front of him. Greetings were made as Cassie and Mick joined him.

  As Mick began to tell the sheriff about the various events that had occurred to them in the past three days, Cassie’s thoughts immediately returned to the reason they were here.

  Mick told the man about Cassie being trapped in the sauna, about the near miss with the car and finally about the near-death experience on the river.

  Before Lambert could reply the waitress arrived to take their orders. “You should’ve called me the minute you got off the river,” Lambert said once the waitress had departed.

  “What could you have done?” Mick asked. “We didn’t see the shooter and your men would’ve wasted a lot of time searching a thickly wooded area that wouldn’t have yielded any clues.”

  “You don’t know that,” Lambert protested.

  “The man we’re after, or rather the man who is after us now, is far too smart to leave behind any evidence that might identify him,” Cassie said.

  Mick leaned forward. “Tell me, Sheriff, you know the locals in your town. You must have a gut instinct about who committed the murders. Maybe somebody who didn’t make it into the official reports?”

  Lambert took a drink of his coffee. He appeared to have aged since the last time they’d seen him. Weary lines cut out from the corners of his eyes and his frown appeared permanently etched into his forehead.

  “I’ve got no evidence to tie anyone to these crimes,” he said. “But my gut instinct is that Derrick Black has something to do with them. This whole town-naming issue has driven him over the edge.”

  “But he had alibis for the times of the murders,” Cassie said.

  “True. When the Armonds were murdered he was supposedly working late at his headquarters. A couple of his workers confirmed the alibi.”

  “Would they lie for him?” Cassie asked.

  Lambert hesitated a moment and then slowly nodded. “Probably. Like I said, Derrick is desperate to keep the name of the town the same. His whole identity is tied into his relatives being the founders of the town, that the town is named after them…and him.”

  “Derrick Black doesn’t strike me as the type who would actually get his hands dirty. What about Jack Bailey?” Mick asked.

  “Derrick and Jack provided alibis for each other for the Tanner murders, and Jack’s girlfriend said he was with her on the night the Armonds were killed.”

  “Is there anyone else on your radar?” Cassie asked.

  “Not really,” Lambert admitted. “We’re a town of good people. We didn’t have these kinds of problems before all the honeymoon nonsense.” The waitress arrived with their orders, once again halting their conversation.

  “I do intend to check some alibis for yesterday at the time you were on the river,” Lambert continued as he cut into the thick piece of French toast he’d ordered. “Do you think your cover has been blown?” he asked before taking a bite.

  Cassie looked at Mick. She was so afraid that if their cover had been blown then she was responsible. She hadn’t played her role appropriately on the first day they had arrived in Black Creek.

  “At this point I don’t think he’s made us as FBI agents but we’ve definitely got his attention,” Mick replied.

  “So how do we move forward from here?” Lambert asked. “What do you two plan to do?”

  As they ate their breakfast they discussed what the plans would be for the next couple of days. It was Mick’s belief that the killer was deteriorating and the result was his abandonment of his pattern. He was losing control and now wanted, needed, Cassie and Mick dead as quickly as possible.

  They kicked around the idea that it was also possible he was pushing a public killing to bring attention to the other two murders, to make sure that everyone in the area knew that it was no longer safe to honeymoon in Black Creek.

  They left the café with a plan in place. Cassie and Mick would return to the Sweetheart Suites and resume their roles as newlyweds. Only now whenever they left their room they would be shadowed by two FBI agents for protection.

  “Sheriff Lambert is definitely in over his head,” Mick said as they began the drive back to Black Creek.

  “He looks like a man ready to fall over from exhaustion,” she replied.

  Mick frowned. “I just hope we haven’t fallen into some sort of tunnel vision by focusing on Derrick and Jack and the whole motive being about trying to destroy the honeymoon business in town.”

  “But that’s all we really have at the moment that makes any kind of sense,” she reminded him. “And Sheriff Lambert certainly had no other potential suspects to offer up.”

  She settled back into her seat and looked at the car clock. They would be back in Black Creek by ten. The whole day stretched out before them. “So, what are our plans for the rest of the day?” she asked.

  He smiled. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me that. I seem to recall on our list of activities was miniature golf. Feel up to it?”

  “Feel like I could beat your ass,” she replied with a sm
ile of her own.

  “Ah, a challenge. I hope you golf better than you play rummy.”

  They bantered back and forth playfully until they hit Black Creek’s city limits and then they both grew somber. The game had suddenly gotten very real to Cassie. They were intentionally putting themselves out in the open and depending on others to keep them protected.

  “Home, sweet home,” Mick said as he pulled in front of their little cottage.

  “It was supposed to be the point of attack,” Cassie said as she got out of the car. She felt as if she had a bright red target on her back and didn’t really relax until they were inside the walls of the suite.

  “You look scared,” Mick said.

  “Aren’t you?” she countered. “Even with a couple of agents shadowing us a bullet could come from any direction.” She didn’t mind doing her job, but she preferred to do it as safely, as smartly, as possible.

  The room telephone rang, surprising them both. Mick answered, grunted a couple of times and then hung up. “That was Agent Sam Hunter from next door. The listening ears in the next cottage have heard your concerns and in just a few minutes one of those agents will be providing us a couple of vests to wear under our clothes.”

  “Then thankfully all we’ll have to worry about is a head shot, and your big head makes a much better target than mine,” she replied.

  He narrowed his eyes in mock sternness. “Maybe I liked you better when you didn’t have a sense of humor.”

  She laughed. “What makes you think I’m kidding?”

  Any reply he might have made was halted by a knock on the door. The same tall, sandy-haired man who had stepped outside of the cabin next door on the first day of their arrival stepped into the room with a large dark plastic garbage bag.

  He introduced himself to Cassie as Special Agent Bob Hastings and then pulled two bulletproof vests from the bag. “It will be me and Agent Jacob Tyler shadowing you.” He looked at Cassie “I’ve worked with Mick before and his fat head definitely makes a better target than yours.”

  A nervous giggle escaped Cassie. She immediately swallowed it as she took her vest and went into the bathroom to put it on beneath her blouse.

  It would be easy to forget that their every word was being monitored by a team next door. Thank God last night had happened in Cobb’s Corners rather than here. The idea of those agents next door hearing her every moan, each gasp that she’d made while making love was horrifying.

  As she put on the vest, she had a feeling of a train rushing toward her. She suspected that the perp would make a move on them within the next twenty-four hours. His failed attempt at the river would have enraged him and he would be desperate to finish the job.

  The end of the assignment was imminent and she should be glad, especially if the bad guy was caught and her and Mick were still alive. Besides, it would be good for she and Mick to get back to their own lives.

  But instead of relief, the only emotion she experienced as she stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror was loss, and the weary acceptance that soon she would be back in her neat and tidy and lonely world.

  Chapter Ten

  The Honeymoon Haven miniature golf course was as hokey a course as Mick had ever seen. The first hole had a bride and groom kissing and the goal was to hit the ball between them, and the second was a tall wedding cake with a hole in the top.

  It was difficult to focus on the game while wearing a bulletproof vest and with two FBI agents lurking nearby. Cassie, too, obviously didn’t have her head in the game. Her eyes were in constant motion, looking first one way and then the other.

  If they’d been in a true golf contest they both would’ve lost, and by the fifth hole they’d stopped any pretense of keeping score.

  As if afraid that she’d screwed up before, whenever Cassie wasn’t looking around or putting the ball, she was all over him. She kissed his cheek and rubbed up against him and lit a fire inside of him that threatened to burn all of his concentration away.

  “You’re going to pay for this later,” he warned her as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed the underside of his jaw.

  “Just doing my job,” she replied.

  “Just warning you.” He wrapped an arm around her back, holding her close against him. “You’re starting something I’m going to want to finish.”

  “Fat chance.” She danced away from him, her blue eyes teasing in a way that shot straight to his heart. “Besides, have you forgotten we have alien ears in our room?”

  “Have you forgotten we don’t have any ears in the bathroom?” He grinned as her face blanched and knew she hadn’t thought of that.

  As they finished up the game, Mick’s thoughts flew a million miles an hour, jumbled thoughts about the case, about their suspects and finally about Cassie.

  Their pretend love game was becoming far too real for him. It was becoming easy to imagine them together when this was all over.

  Just his luck, he thought ruefully. The first woman he had believed himself in love with had been too needy, and the second woman he was falling in love with professed to want, to need, nobody in her life.

  “I can’t wait to get out of this vest,” Cassie said as they walked back to their suite. “It’s itching like mad and it’s so hot I feel like I’m melting.”

  “We’ll cool off for about an hour or so in the room and then around five head out to dinner at the Loving Couples Café.” He knew she’d want specific places and times for the remainder of the day.

  “Sounds like a plan,” she agreed.

  Once inside the room Cassie disappeared into the bathroom to take a shower and Mick removed his vest, kicked off his shoes and stretched out on the bed.

  He closed his eyes and thought about their short list of suspects. Neither Sheriff Lambert’s team nor his fellow FBI agents had managed to come up with any additional suspects.

  However, they were all working under the assumption that the murders had been committed as some sort of statement against the potential name change of the town.

  What if that assumption was wrong? That knocked everyone off their suspect list and left them with absolutely nothing.

  It was obvious the killer had homed in on Cassie and him, and that meant the only hope of catching him was when he made another attempt on their lives. The very idea of a killer after Cassie scared him to death. He knew she was a trained agent and he respected her ability as such, but as a man he had a fierce need to protect her from any danger.

  She came out of the bathroom, and that surge of need welled up inside him, the need to protect her at whatever cost.

  “Feel better?” he asked, glad that his emotions didn’t alter the tone of his voice.

  “Much.” She sat on the edge of the bed.

  “I was just thinking that maybe when this was all over it would be nice if we had dinner together back in Kansas City,” he said.

  She jumped up from the bed as if he’d goosed her and stared at him. “Why would we want to do that?”

  Because I love you, because I don’t want my time with you to end. I want more nights with you in my bed, I want more days seeing you smile, hearing your laughter.

  “I don’t know,” he finally replied. “It was just an idea.” He studied her beautiful features intently. “Would it really be so bad for us to have a relationship outside of this pretend one?”

  She frowned and motioned him toward the bathroom. It was at that moment Mick remembered that their conversations were being monitored by the team next door. He’d gotten so caught up in his own thoughts, his own desires, he’d forgotten they had an audience.

  He got up from the bed and followed her into the bathroom. She closed the door and then turned to face him, a touch of anger darkening her eyes.

  “What do you think you are doing?” she demanded.

  He shrugged. “I thought I was kind of asking you out on a date.”

  “But why would you even do that? You know I don’t date.”

  �
��No, you skip right to the good part,” he replied dryly.

  “Low blow,” she exclaimed with a swift intake of breath.

  “You’re right,” he admitted with a touch of shame. “It was a low blow. I just… I just like you, Cassie. I like you a lot and I thought it would be nice to see you after this assignment is over.”

  She stared at him for a long moment, a nerve pulsing at the base of her neck. “We will see each other,” she countered. “At the field office.”

  “You know that’s not what I meant.” A slight edge of frustration crept into his voice. “Would it be so awful if we tried it out together? If we actually date and see where it goes?”

  “It would go straight to hell.” She crossed her arms over her chest, her body language letting him know she was completely shut down. “We’ve had this discussion. We both know it would never work.”

  She was right of course, they’d talked about how it would never work between them, but at the moment he couldn’t remember specifically why.

  “Let it be, Mick,” she finally said.

  He shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned back against the glass shower door “I just think it’s a damn shame, that’s all.”

  She tilted her head to one side, her eyes narrowed with wary curiosity. “What’s a damn shame?”

  “That the parenting you got as a child is going to haunt you for the rest of your life, that you are going to hold on to your structure and control until you’re an old, lonely woman.” He pulled his hands out of his pockets, pushed off the shower door and left the bathroom.

  He returned to his previous position on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. What had he been thinking? He shouldn’t be surprised by her reaction to his idea of them dating. He’d come at her out of nowhere. Hell, he hadn’t even realized he was going to say what he had before all the words had fallen out of his mouth.

  Stupid. The whole thing had been a stupid idea. He’d allowed their roles here to get too deep into his head. He’d allowed her laughter to enchant him, her natural warmth to heat him, the core of her heart to touch his.