Ryan dipped his chin again, and then turned to Chrissy. “You okay, Miss Szarek?”
“I—” She still looked confused. “I’m okay,” she finally finished.
“Can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that.” Ryan breathed a sigh of relief before turning back toward the house.
Chrissy waited until he disappeared inside before looking at Wolf. Her mouth was open but no words came out.
“A burner on the stove was left on with no flame,” he explained.
She lifted a shaky hand to her forehead. “I-I made myself a cup of tea. But I don’t remember leaving the gas on. Maybe I… Shit!” Shock wallpapered her pale face. “That’s the absolute last time I take one of those pills. I don’t care how much my shoulder hurts. I could’ve killed myself. I could’ve killed you and Officer Ryan!”
He cuddled her close, glad she seemed to suffer no ill effects from exposure to the gas. Glad too she wasn’t fighting to scramble out of his arms. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. It could’ve happened to anyone who’s been through what you’ve been through.”
“No. You saved me.Again.” She looked so beautiful in the rain. Like a water nymph. “Risked your neck to save mine.”
He could have demurred, he supposed. But he wasn’t the demurring kind.
“I reckon if I’m goin’ to die, I’d like to do it with you in my arms. Just like this.”
A shadow of emotion darkened her face. He couldn’t name it. And it was gone so quickly he didn’t have time to study it.
She placed a gentle hand on his jaw, and his breath strangled in his lungs. When her eyes drifted down to his mouth, he felt her gaze like a physical touch.
His lips parted of their own volition and he watched, mesmerized, as her pupils dilated. Then she leaned forward, ever so slowly, and pressed her mouth to his.
He was usually the president and CEO of Careful, Measured Thought. But every reason why he shouldn’t kiss her back leaked from his brain.
Folks liked to say that hope springs eternal? Well, it absolutelyleaptinside his chest.
Or maybe that was his wide-open heart.
Chapter 21
1:22 PM…
The sullen sky brightened to a less gloomy gray, and the fat raindrops sliding down the windshield became little more than a smattering of mist.
This allowed JayJay to see the precise moment the uniformed officer retook his position on the front porch as if nothing had happened.
As if moments ago, he hadn’t been running around like a chicken with his head cut off opening all the windows. As if several minutes beforethat,Ricky and Mateo hadn’t hopped Chrissy’s back fence, snuck in through the back door JayJay had covertly unlocked, and turned on Chrissy’s gas stove. As if they hadn’t lit the candle in her living room. As if JayJay hadn’t been waiting with her heart in her throat for the whole lot tokaboom!
Several times in the intervening minutes, she’d been tempted to call the whole thing off. To run inside and switch off the gas and save Chrissy from the terrible fate of burning alive. She’d grabbed the door handle to do just that at least a dozen times. But Chrissy’s words in the hospital had always stopped her…
The big guy looked familiar somehow, but I can’t put my finger on where I’ve seen him.
Soon Chrissy would recall where she’d run into Mateo. JayJay had no doubt of that. Chrissy’s mind was a steel trap.
Once Chrissydidremember, her next move would be to point that disheveled detective JayJay’s way. After that, everything would fall like dominos. Everything JayJay had built for herself and her family.
Damn, shit, piss, and fuck!
“Looks like this plan failed too.” She rubbed a hand over features she knew were heavy with weariness.
“Hey, hey! Don’t look at me.” Ricky lifted his hands in the backseat. Both he and Mateo, the latter of whom sat beside her in the passenger seat, were soaking wet and wrecking her leather. But she had bigger fish to fry than ruined car upholstery. “I was all prepared to incapacitate the woman, but there was no need. Chick was out like a light. Did I mention she was in her tub?”
Oh, yes.Only about a dozen times since he’d returned from his little mission. JayJay would rather remove her own appendix with a fork than sit and listen to him rhapsodize one more time about how long and tan Chrissy’s legs were or how sweet her tits were. Just the thought of Ricky ogling Chrissy while she was out made JayJay sick to her stomach.
“So what?” Mateo turned to scowl back at Ricky. “You’re saying it’smyfault?”
