DevilMayRide

13
Despite Maeva’s and Terry’s protests Sadie left their house and drove back to Dawn’s. She let herself into the house using her spare key. It took two trips to carry in her overnight bag, Hairy in his carrier, and all his food and his litter box. Sadie checked on Dawn, who looked like a beached whale taking up her whole queen-sized bed. Then Sadie fell into a fitful sleep on the futon in the nursery.
Sadie was woken by Hairy’s fuzzy butt against her face. He had decided to make himself comfortable and had no trouble hopping onto the low futon bed.
“Get lost,” Sadie mumbled, pushing the rabbit to the floor.
She tried to pinch her eyes shut, but it was pointless. She swung her legs out of bed and reached for her cell phone. The glowing display announced that it was five thirty in the morning and she had five missed calls. She checked her voice mail and discovered the first message was from Scott Reed.
“Hey, Sweets, call me.”
The next four voice mails were from Zack. One, just checking in. Number two, did she get to Dawn’s house safe, because he’d tried Dawn’s house at eleven and she wasn’t there? Number three was a rambling message about a fire in Kenmore and instructing Sadie to call him back right now. She didn’t listen to his fourth message.
Sometimes it sucked having an ex-cop as an employee. He had too many connections willing to fill him in on such trivial things as an inferno at a house where she’d helped uncover a couple bodies and one baby with a goat.
Sadie got to her feet and stretched. Her T-shirt pulled against her shoulder blade and she winced.
You’ve been branded. They think they own you.
Maeva’s words rang in her ears. Terry had gently covered the burn with antibiotic ointment and a strip of gauze, but Sadie could tell that the wound had already fused to the bandage. She didn’t want a scar. Especially not one in the shape of a goat head in a pentagram, thank you very much.
Suddenly the room she was in and Dawn’s entire house felt too confining. She wanted to be home. To set her shambled house to rights again and to try to regain control of her life. But she didn’t want to leave her sister.
She heard the flush of a toilet down the hall and realized she wasn’t the only one awake. Sadie dug into her overnight bag for clean clothes. Once she was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, she headed down the hall toward the kitchen and the smell of coffee. Hairy caught up with her, his nails click-clacking on the hardwood as he hurried along, probably hoping for some kind of treat.
She was surprised to find Aunt Lynn at the kitchen table with the newspaper. She looked up and smiled.
“Coffee’s made,” she said.
Sadie took a mug from the cupboard and filled it.
“I didn’t know you were staying here,” Sadie said, grabbing a seat across from her.
“When I called to chat with your sister last night, she mentioned John was out of town and you had house trouble. I didn’t like the idea of her being home alone so big and pregnant, so I came for the night.”
“My mother’s driving you crazy, isn’t she?”
“Just a little,” Aunt Lynn admitted.
“Sorry to hear about your place getting broken into. That’s terrible. I should count myself lucky that rarely happens in my town.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Dawn said it looked like a hurricane hit your place.”
A hurricane of assholes, Sadie thought, but she didn’t know exactly what Dawn had told her, so she didn’t offer details.
“Well, if you’re not busy today, I’m sure Dawn would love to have you keep her company,” Sadie said.
You can make sure no satanic fiends try and cut her baby from her belly. Sadie’s hands shook a little at the thought.
“I’ve got work to do, but I’d like to go home first and start the cleanup process,” Sadie said.
“We could help if you want,” Aunt Lynn offered.
“Thanks, but I’ve got it under control. I’d much rather have you taking care of Dawn, helping her relax.”
“Oh, there won’t be much relaxing going on,” she said. “I’m sure Dawn will have me folding baby clothes or out shopping for baby stuff. She’s got the nesting bug big-time.”
“So I’ve heard.”
Sadie finished her mug of coffee and washed it out. Then she fed and watered Hairy before making sure she showed him where she’d placed his litter box.
Before she left the house, she went to say good-bye to Aunt Lynn.
“I’ll see you two later. Could you do me a favor and keep Dawn’s alarm activated, even when you’re home?”
“Well, sure, but you’ll have to show me how. I don’t have one of those darn things myself.”
Sadie showed her aunt over and over how to activate and deactivate the alarm, and then she wrote out the step-by-step process on a large sheet of paper and pinned it to the wall next to the keypad.
Twenty minutes later she steered her Honda up her driveway and parked inside her garage. Before she opened the door, she steeled herself for the carnage inside. Her plan was to make a pot of coffee and drink her way through it as she methodically picked up all that had been dumped from drawers and cupboards.
When she walked into the house, the first thing that hit her was the smell of coffee. She froze where she stood in the mudroom until she gathered the courage to open the door leading to the rest of the house. Definitely coffee smells. Then the sound of a closet opening and Sadie wished her gun was in her hand instead of on the top shelf of her closet.
“Are you just going to stand there or what?” a male voice called from the kitchen.
“Zack?” Sadie let out a whoosh of a relieved breath and hurried toward his voice. As she walked into the kitchen, her feeling of relief was followed quickly by annoyance.
“What are you doing here?”
“Nice to see you too,” he grumbled. He took the drawer he’d been filling and slid it effortlessly back into the gaping hole in the counter.
She looked around and realized the kitchen had already been cleaned. All the cutlery on the floor and the broken dishes had been tidied.
“Guess you didn’t listen to my message? I said I’d be here to help you clean in the morning.” His hair was mussed, there were dark circles under his eyes, and his chin was in need of a shave.
“It’s six thirty,” she said drily. “In my world it’s not officially morning yet.” She pointed to her coffeepot. “A couple cups of coffee might help. Oh and I did listen to your other messages. I just must’ve missed that last one.”
He sat down at her kitchen table and sipped coffee from her “I ♥ Seattle” mug.
“Thanks for helping out.” She grabbed a mug from the cupboard and filled it with coffee. When she walked past him, she noted the faint smell of booze. It gave her pause. With her back to him she said, “I don’t want you to think I’m not grateful.”
“You sure as hell don’t sound grateful,” he drawled. “You sound pissed.”
“And you sound like you’re hungover.” She sniffed the air. “Or maybe you’re still drunk.”
“I’m fine, but, yeah, I had a few last night.”
“And yet here you are at the crack of dawn cleaning up my place. I’d say that’s above and beyond the call of duty.”
“We’re friends, right?” She heard him get up and walk behind her. “Why wouldn’t I help out a friend if her place gets trashed?”
He stood only inches away and she turned to face him. “About when you kissed me. I don’t want things to be awkward between us.”
He nodded and placed his hands on either side of her on the kitchen counter, pinning her in.
“So that means I can’t help you out in a crisis? Help you tidy your house after you’ve had a break-in?” he asked, his voice low, and his sexy dark gaze sank into hers.
She ducked under his arm and grabbed her coffee mug.
“I got lots on my mind,” she said.
“Like setting fire to the Kenmore crime scene?”
She whirled to face him, trying to hide the guilt that was no doubt all over her face.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Like hell you don’t,” he said, his lips tightening into a straight line. “Let me guess. You and Maeva decided to go out there and confront an evil spirit that tried to burn you alive, and figured the best way to handle it was to set an entire community on fire?”
“It wasn’t like that,” she said quickly. “We didn’t start the fire. Louise suggested a smudging would help and—”
“Who suggested a what?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah, it does,” he said, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her close. “Everything about you matters to me, Sadie.”
He cupped her chin in his hands then and kissed her. His mouth was warm and insistent. It would’ve been easy for Sadie to lose herself, but she shoved him away.
“You can’t keep doing this. Maybe before . . . last year . . . after we, you know . . . damn.” She crossed her arms across her chest and simply glared at him. “You’re a year too late, Zack.”
Zack combed his fingers through his dark hair.
“Look, things were different then. It wasn’t the right time. You came to stay with me because someone had just tried to kill you. You needed comforting and I dragged you into bed. It was wrong. I should’ve at least waited until you were stronger.”
“Oh, and now that I’m being chased by bikers and hunted by satanic ghosts, it’s time to pick things up where we left off?” Sadie asked with bite. At his defeated look she continued. “I don’t remember you holding a gun to my head last year. As a matter of fact, I remember being pretty damn willing.” She allowed a small smile at the memory. “But, God, Zack . . . we’ve worked together nearly every day since then and you’ve barely looked me in the eye. Any time we accidentally touched, you jumped like you were in pain. And now, now you suddenly make a move for round two?!”
“I guess I figured if I left you alone, things would work out. That I could go back to the way we were before.”
“And?”
“First you nearly passed out at that shed after we got the baby. After that, that evil spirit, or whatever the hell it was, hurt you, and then Curly almost killed you, and now this!” He waved his arms to encompass the house.
“So you’re not exactly coming to the conclusion that what’s between us is bigger than the both of us, right?” Sadie said quietly. “This is about you needing to protect me. Be my rescuer. Again.”
“It’s not just that. It’s—”
She put her hand up to stop him and took a moment to swallow the lump in her throat.
“It looks like since you’re not a cop anymore, you can’t help but rescue the damsel in distress.”
“I’ve tried to get you out of my head!” Zack shouted. “I tried because I thought it would be a disaster, but . . .”
“But what?”
“But, yeah, I guess it’s bigger than both of us,” he said, his voice low. “At least it’s bigger than me.”
He hooked his finger in the waistband of her shorts and pulled her body to his. Then he lowered his mouth and kissed her slow and passionately until she was breathless. When he released her mouth, he pressed his lips to her neck and traced a line of kisses down her throat while his hand slid under her shirt and found her breast. The feeling of his hands on her was new and yet familiar. Like she’d been holding her breath and waiting for it forever.
Somehow they found her bed among her tossed belongings and they couldn’t remove each other’s clothes fast enough. When he discovered her bandaged shoulder, he didn’t ask—he just murmured, “Poor baby,” and placed gentle kisses all around that spot. She lost herself in the feel of his hands as they roamed her body. Thoughts of protest bloomed in her head, but Sadie pushed them away. She only wanted to feel. When he entered her, it was as though every nerve in her body sang with pleasure.
Afterward she lay curled against him. His head rested on the top of her head and they didn’t speak. It would’ve been great to just fall asleep together, but the world was not going to allow that.
A cell phone rang and she recognized the ring as hers. Sadie rolled over and searched their pile of clothes for her phone but couldn’t find it.
“It’s probably Jackie,” Sadie said to Zack. “She’ll be looking for work today. I’ll just let it go to voice mail and call her later.”
She rolled back toward Zack, but immediately after her phone stopped ringing, Zack’s started.
“Jackie must be trying you now.” Sadie had always told Jackie to try reaching Zack for information about jobs if Sadie herself was unavailable.
“Leave it,” Zack said, his voice tight.
But Sadie already had his phone in her hand. She was handing the cell phone to Zack when she noticed the display. The incoming number said that the call was coming from Zack’s own home. Sadie’s breath caught. She answered the call before she could stop herself.
“Hello?”
“Hello . . . um, Sadie?” Jackie’s voice, sounding half-asleep, answered. “I’m sorry, I thought I was calling someone else.”
“He’ll call you back,” Sadie replied, unable to keep the hurt from her voice.
She hung up, got to her feet, and flung the phone at Zack. He caught it deftly before it could hit him square in the face.
“I can’t believe this! You left her in your bed to come into mine?” Sadie shouted.
The misery in Zack’s eyes was evident. But he didn’t deny it.
“Do me a favor and talk to your lover after you’ve shut my door behind you,” Sadie said, storming out of the room and heading for the shower.