Lone Wolf Lawman Page 15

  But Ogden had been there all right.

  Weston had managed to get only a glimpse of him, but there was no mistaking that it was Ogden.

  “Any luck finding Ogden?” Addie asked him.

  Weston had to shake his head. For the past two hours, while the marshals were making their way back to the safe house, he’d been on the phone, trying to locate the man. But no one knew where he was. Jericho had sent several deputies to comb the woods near the attack, and they hadn’t had any better luck finding him than Weston had.

  “What about Canales and Boggs?” she pressed. “Anything else on them?”

  She already knew parts of their update, that one of the deputies had found Canales and Boggs. Or rather just Canales and his driver.

  “We verified that Boggs wasn’t within fifty miles of the attack,” Weston explained. “He was at a fund-raiser. That doesn’t make him innocent,” he quickly added. “Because Boggs could have hired someone to fire those shots.”

  That someone could have been Ogden.

  Though Weston had to admit he hadn’t seen a gun in Ogden’s hand, and since those shots had come from a rifle, a weapon of that size would have been hard to miss. Of course, Ogden could have discarded the gun when he realized his targets were getting away.

  And one of those targets appeared to be Canales.

  Appeared being the key word. Canales had escaped without so much as a scratch, so maybe he only wanted them to think he’d been in danger.

  When Kirk took the final turn to the safe house, Daniel and Weston glanced around to make sure no one was following them. No one was. They had the road to themselves, just as they had for the bulk of the drive away from that nightmare of an attack. Eventually, they’d have to do reports and such, but for now Weston just wanted Addie off the road and someplace safe.

  “Jericho hasn’t had a chance to fully question Canales yet,” Weston continued, talking to her. “But Canales claims he was out there because he got a phone call from Ogden asking him to meet him.”

  “And he went?” There was plenty of skepticism in her voice. Weston felt the same way.

  “Canales says that Ogden was threatening to derail the campaign by claiming to have proof that Boggs is the Moonlight Strangler. Canales said he wanted to get that so-called proof from Ogden.”

  “Yes, I’ll bet he did. If the proof exists.” She paused. “You think maybe Ogden managed to get a DNA sample from Boggs?”

  “It’s possible.” Anything was at this point, but if Ogden did indeed have proof that Boggs was the Moonlight Strangler, then Ogden had a huge target on him. No way would Boggs let him live.

  From the front seat, Daniel finished his latest call and turned to look back at them. “We found the owner of those cows. A small-time rancher not far from the road. Someone tore down his fence and herded the cows out of there. The guy doesn’t have a record, or a connection to any of our suspects.”

  So it was another dead end.

  Kirk pulled to a stop in front of the safe house, and Daniel got them inside while Kirk put the car in the detached garage. Probably so that the vehicle wouldn’t be out in the open. The place was in the middle of the sticks, but if someone happened to drive by, those shot-out windows might cause them to get suspicious. Soon, the marshals would have to swap out vehicles, but since it was nearly sunset, that probably wouldn’t happen until morning.

  “You should try to eat something,” Weston reminded Addie once they were inside.

  “Maybe later. I need to catch my breath first,” Addie added and headed for her bedroom.

  Weston didn’t get overly concerned until she shut the door. Oh, man. She was probably on the verge of a meltdown.

  “You think she’s okay?” Daniel asked while he set the security system.

  “Probably not.” Weston went after her. He gave one knock on the door before he opened it.

  And his jaw dropped to the floor.

  She sure wasn’t falling apart but rather undressing. Addie already had her jeans unzipped and off her hips.

  “They’re too tight,” she said, slipping them all the way off. Her short top gave him a nice view of her panties. Blue with little flowers. “It was making me queasy.”

  He doubted that was the only thing making her queasy. Unlike him. He suddenly felt a lot of things, but queasy wasn’t on the list. Seeing Addie half-naked gave him all sorts of bad ideas.

  And memories.

  After all, they’d had a steamy kissing session in this very room the day before. A session his body reminded him of right now.

  She glanced out into the hall. No marshals nearby but Weston closed it just in case they came by and got a glimpse of Addie searching for something to wear in the bag she’d packed. She finally pulled out a pair of gray flannel pajama bottoms. Hardly hot. Well, on anyone else, they wouldn’t be.

  But this was Addie.

  With those curves, she could make a brown paper bag look hot.

  “You’re staring at me,” she pointed out.

  “Yeah,” he admitted. “I’m trying to convince myself that it’d be a good idea to go in another room. Away from you. Away from the memory of just seeing you nearly naked.”

  Her eyebrow rose. “And?”

  “I’m failing.”

  Addie managed a very short-lived smile. “I do a lot of failing when it comes to you.”

  Weston didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean?”

  “I didn’t remember what needed to be remembered while I was with the therapist.”

  Hell. Not that. “Well, it might help if I could stop people from shooting at you. Nearly dying every day can put a damper on lots of things—memory included.”

  “Some memories,” she whispered.

  And just like that, they weren’t talking about the hypnosis anymore. At least he didn’t think they were. Addie wasn’t falling apart as he’d predicted, but she was obviously beating herself up over something that wasn’t her fault.

  Addie took a deep breath, sank down on the foot of the bed. “What did you think the first time you saw me?”

  All right. That didn’t clear up much for him. Weston had never considered himself a pro at figuring out a woman’s mind, but this was more confusing than usual.

  “And it’s okay to lie,” she quickly added. “I’d rather not hear that you saw me and your first thought was ‘she’ll be good bait for a killer.’”

  Weston wasn’t confused at all about this answer. “That wasn’t my first thought. And that isn’t a lie. Truth is, when I first saw you, it was pure attraction.”

  But that was a partial lie. It didn’t tell the whole story.

  “I felt as if I’d been hit with a sack of bricks. Good bricks,” he clarified. Though it hadn’t exactly felt good at the time. “You were so beautiful that I had to remind myself to breathe.”

  Tears watered her eyes. The little smile returned. “Now, that’s romantic.”

  “I’m not sure it was all romance I was feeling. Parts of me were just thinking sex. Well, one part of me anyway.”

  “That’s okay.” She stood, rubbing her hands on the sides of the pajama bottoms. “Parts of me were thinking the same thing about you.”

  “Really?” That gave him another hit of the fiery hot heat that he needed to start cooling down. “You were sort of an emotional mess. I figured sex was the last thing on your mind.”

  “Not sort of. I was an emotional mess. But seeing you seemed to cut right through all of that. The first time you kissed me, I could have sworn everything stopped. My heart. Any thoughts in my head.”

  Yeah. For him, it’d been like more bricks. Bad ones, that time. Because he’d known she was the only woman he’d ever want to kiss again.

  Not exactly a comforting thought for a lawman living a lie.

  She blinked away the tears, and her chin came up. He could see her steeling up for the next set of memories. The post-sex ones where he’d crushed her into a million little pieces.

  Wh
at she didn’t know was that he’d crushed himself, too.

  “Will you ever forgive me?” he asked.

  She didn’t answer him. Not right away. “I’ll forgive you if you’ll give me something.”

  Before he jumped to say anything, Weston tried to think this through. “What do you want?”

  Addie came to him. Put her arms around him. First one, then the other. “I need you to help me forget. Even if it’s for a few minutes, I just need this noise in my head to stop.”

  Well, it wasn’t a big declaration of feelings. Something Weston wasn’t sure he wanted anyway.

  “So...you want sex?’ he clarified.

  She shook her head. Kissed him. “I want sex with you. You’re the only one who can get me through this.”

  Flattering, yes. Could he do it?

  Oh, yeah.

  But that nagging feeling in the back of his head shouted out one big question. Was this the right thing to do for Addie?

  “If it’s too much to ask...” she started.

  “Sex with you isn’t a chore,” Weston interrupted. “But I want to make sure something else won’t work just as well. Something that won’t mess with your mind afterward.”

  She closed her eyes a moment, and when she opened them, he saw pretty much all he needed to see. The need. It went bone-deep in her.

  “I don’t want anyone or anything else,” she whispered. “Just you. Right here, right now. We’ll deal with any mind-messing later.”

  Addie stared at him, clearly waiting.

  “Did I convince you?” she asked.

  Hearing one of his favorite lines aimed at him nearly made him smile. Nearly. However, it was hard to smile when her body brushed against his.

  Weston took that as the move of a woman who was certain of what she wanted. And yes, it convinced him.

  He didn’t deserve, but he’d take it. Not just the kiss, either. He took her. Into his arms, pulling her close to him.

  His body instantly geared up for sex. And he knew it’d be good. But gearing up for sex was just the start. There was no way he could get Addie into bed again and not have it change their lives forever.

  The question was—how would it change things?

  Weston mentally repeated that, tried to come up with the consequences, but those thoughts flew right out of his head when he deepened the kiss.

  This was wrong on so many levels. The danger breathing down their necks. The emotional complications from the pregnancy. Addie should be resting, but judging from the way she was kissing him, there’d be no rest for either of them.

  Part of him wanted to stop, but there wasn’t much common sense left for him. Just more of that feeling he’d just been hit with more bricks.

  “Three months is long time to go without you,” she whispered, her breath hitting his mouth. “And I don’t count the third base yesterday.”

  That was enough of a green light. Of course, with his erection testing the limits of his boxers, almost anything she would have said to him—other than stop—would have been a green light.

  Well, she wasn’t saying stop.

  And Weston didn’t, either.

  He caught onto her top and slipped it off her so he could kiss the tops of her breasts. She helped with that, too, by unhooking her bra so he could taste her the way he wanted. She was warm, her skin like silk but she tasted like something forbidden.

  Which she was in some ways.

  That’s probably why it only fired them hotter, and it didn’t take many of those breast kisses before Weston wanted a whole lot more. Addie clearly wanted more, too, because the battle started to get them each undressed.

  He had the easy part, and while Addie was still grabbling with his shirt, Weston reached over and locked the door. In the same motion, he pulled off her pajama bottoms and her panties. In just a couple of moves, he had her naked and back on the bed. Where he kissed her.

  On her stomach.

  And lower.

  He really liked going lower, and the kiss must have been right where Addie wanted it because she froze. For a couple of seconds. Then she made that sound. That moan of pleasure that went through every inch of him.

  “No. You’re not finishing things that way,” she insisted, latching onto his hair. “No third base this time.”

  Well, that only left one thing, and Addie was working hard to make sure that happened. She hauled him away from the lower kisses, all the while battling with his jeans. Since she just wasn’t very good at the whole undressing-a-man thing, Weston helped her. He managed to get all the necessary clothes kicked or pulled off. He’d have bruises, but they’d be worth it.

  Their bodies were in a frenzy by the time Weston made it back up to her mouth, and even though that brainless part of him was pushing him to take her now, he took a moment just to look at her.

  Oh, man.

  Would he ever be able to see her like this and not feel as if someone had sucked all the air from the room? He hoped not.

  “Homerun time,” she murmured.

  It was. And it darn nearly felt like a homerun when he pushed inside her. That kick was more of a punch from a heavyweight’s fist now, and it took him a moment to rein himself in enough to find the rhythm Addie needed.

  Not that she needed much.

  Maybe because of the three months without, or maybe the adrenaline and nerves was playing into this. Either way, it didn’t last nearly long enough. Addie slipped her legs around him. Her arms, too.

  And she flew into a million little pieces.

  “Do this with me,” she begged.

  That was the plan.

  Again, it didn’t take much of an effort. Addie had done the hard part by taking him to the brink, and Weston let her climax finish him off.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Addie woke up in Weston’s arms.

  He was naked. So was she. And she had settled against him as if she belonged there. Even more, she’d actually slept, something she hadn’t managed to do for a while. Not since the attacks had started.

  Apparently, Weston had a cure for insomnia.

  A cure for a lot of other things, too, since now even hours later, she could still feel the slack pleasure sliding through her. Of course, that pleasure was already starting to slip away as the questions came. Well, one big question anyway.

  What was next?

  In just six short months they’d be parents. Forever bonded by the child they’d created. But that didn’t mean that bond would extend to more of this.

  Addie glanced at his bare chest and got another dose of the heat that only Weston could dole out. If they stayed around each other, there’d definitely be more of this.

  And that’s why she had to be careful.

  Sex could cloud things, especially her judgment, and she didn’t want to jump into a relationship with Weston until she was sure that was what he wanted.

  “Go back to sleep,” he whispered. He never even opened his eyes but idly brushed a kiss on her forehead, pulled her closer to him.

  “Do I snore?” she asked. “Is that how you knew I was awake?”

  Probably not the best question after sex, but it bothered her that he could tell without even looking at her that she hadn’t been sleeping.

  He laughed. A low and smoky sound that fanned more of those flames inside her. Of course, anything at this point would have fanned her flames.

  “No snoring. The rhythm of your breathing changed.”

  She thought about that for a second. “You were tuned in to that?”

  He lifted one eyelid, peeked out at her. “I’m tuned in to a lot of things when it comes to you.”

  Mercy, the man knew just what to say to turn her to mush. And to make her even more confused.

  “Want to talk about it?” he asked. Apparently, he also had the tune-in ability to read her mind.

  Addie didn’t want to talk about it, not until she’d sorted out her feelings for him. That might take a while. She didn’t even get a chance to tell him that,
though, because his phone buzzed.

  She groaned, checked the time. It was only ten o’clock at night, but she figured anyone calling now wouldn’t be delivering good news.

  Weston groaned, too, and maneuvered himself to a sitting position so he could grab his phone from the nightstand. He groaned again when he saw the name on the screen.

  “Boggs, what the hell do you want?” Weston snapped when he answered the call. He put it on speaker, but Addie was so close she would have had no trouble hearing whatever the man had to say.

  “We need to talk,” Boggs insisted. “Now. I have something to tell Addie. And it’s important.”

  All right. That got her attention, and Addie sat up, as well. Weston seemed more riled than curious. Probably because he knew they couldn’t trust anything Boggs had to say.

  “What do you need to tell her?” Weston demanded.

  “I’ll only say it to Addie and you face-to-face.”

  Of course Boggs would want something like that. Since he was a top suspect not just for the attacks but also for being the Moonlight Strangler, Addie didn’t want to get anywhere near him unless he was behind bars.

  “Is this a joke?” Weston cursed. “It has to be because you know a meeting with Addie isn’t going to happen.”

  “It has to happen.” Now it was Boggs who groaned, but it didn’t sound like it was out of frustration. Was he upset about something? Maybe over the fact they were close to catching him?

  “If it has to happen,” Weston continued, “then it’ll happen over the phone. If you’ve got something to say to Addie, then start talking.”

  But Boggs didn’t do that. He hesitated. A long time. “It’s too late. Everything has been set in motion.”

  Weston looked at her, no doubt to see if she knew what he was talking about, but Addie had to shake her head. Still, this sounded like the start of an admission of some kind of guilt. Weston must have thought so, too, because he hit the function on his phone to record the conversation.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Weston pressed when Boggs didn’t continue.

  “I’m talking about Addie. And those memories she had from childhood.”

  That rid her of any remnants of the heat she’d been feeling just minutes earlier. “What memories?” she asked.