What kind of trouble was she in? Did it have to do with the phone conversation he’d heard earlier?
Ethan climbed out, then made his way inside the building to where Roy was sitting behind his desk.
“Roy, I’ve been given this car in payment for a trip in the bird. I don’t need it, and have nowhere to store it, so you have it and give it to your boy.”
“I can’t take that from you, Ethan.” The man looked stunned.
“You were just telling me how you need to get your boy a car, so you can and you will.” He slapped the keys on the desk and left them there. “You’d be doing me a favor, Roy, so nothing else needs to be said. You take care of the paperwork and we’ll call it even. It’s a blue sedan parked out front, so go park it underneath in my slot when I leave.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
Lifting a hand, Ethan left before Roy could say anything further. He rode up in the elevator to his apartment on the top floor and unlocked the door.
Surely two good lies in one day wouldn’t get him into too much trouble.
What was going on with Annabelle Smith? She’d looked scared when he found her looking at her car. Scared and alone, and Ethan had never thought of her as vulnerable. She was a she-devil, yes, sexy as all hell, yes, but vulnerable wasn’t a tag he’d ever labeled her with. Yet he had today, twice.
He pulled a soda out of his fridge, popped the top and drank deep. There was a mystery there and he wanted to know what it was. She’d come to Brook for a reason, and he wanted to know that too.
Looking at his watch, he decided to make her wait thirty minutes. That’d be time enough for him to sell the car, get the money, then make his way back without raising her suspicions. Standing at his window, he looked to where she was sitting on the bench. He couldn’t make out much from this height, but he could see she was still there and alone, with no one hassling her. A woman couldn’t look like she did and not draw attention, and he wasn’t having anyone near her when she was vulnerable.
After swallowing another mouthful of soda, Ethan headed for his safe. He opened it, took out some cash, and counted out five thousand dollars. He put them in a roll, then pulled on a jacket and placed the roll in the inside pocket.
She obviously needed cash and he had lots, so he’d give her some and she’d think it was from the sale of her car. There was no other way Annabelle Smith would ever accept money from him.
She frustrated the hell out of him. The first time they’d met, she’d acknowledged him then hadn’t looked at him again. Ethan wasn’t a vain man, but he understood that women found him attractive. Annabelle had never looked at him as anything but a pain in her very sweet, tight butt. She’d curled her lip at him, snorted, scoffed, abused and generally shriveled his manhood whenever he was in a five-foot radius of her, and the hell of it was that Ethan wanted her badly.
Her scent drove him crazy, an elusive, subtle mist that he could smell whenever she was near. Her car had smelled of her and his body had reacted predictably. Her mouth was usually painted in bright colors and it was like a beacon screamingkiss me.
This is insane, Gelderman. The woman can’t stand the sight of you and you still want her.
He swallowed the last of his soda, crushed the can, then went into his bedroom to pack an overnight bag. Maybe that was why he wanted Annabelle Smith so much, because she showed no interest in him. That put his sanity into question, because he had plenty of warm, willing women in his life, but he wanted the cold, abusive one.
He zipped the bag shut, picked up his keys and headed out the door, then took the elevator to the basement. He left the building at the wheel of his Bronco, and ten minutes later he pulled into a park beside the water and went to find the woman who occupied far too many of his thoughts.
Stopping before her, he realized she was sleeping. Her body now relaxed, head resting on the hard wood of the backrest. Ethan had no idea how she’d managed to achieve that state, given that around them were cars, plenty of people and a fair amount of noise.
He’d never observed Annabelle Smith still, her luscious mouth silent. She was a beautiful woman. Her face was oval, her nose perfectly straight, cheekbones brushed with soft color, and her lips a deep raspberry that invited him to touch. He’d fantasized about that mouth wrapped around various parts of his body or kissing him senseless. She always dressed in bright colors; it was her thing, Jake had once told him. Today she was wearing emerald pants, a scarlet top and sandals. She looked like an exotic bird, although now something had clipped her wings, and he wanted to know who or what.
Stepping closer, Ethan ran a finger down her cheek. “Annabelle, honey, time to go.” She didn’t wake slowly, instead sitting bolt upright, eyes wide with panic. “Hey.” He touched her arm. “It’s me, Ethan.”
Her eyes closed again briefly, and then when she opened them, there was Annabelle Smith.
“Christ! You nearly stopped my heart, Gelderman.”
“Well, now, that would be a shame.” Ethan took her things to his Bronco and she followed.
“Did he like the car?” She climbed in beside him, already fully awake. Ethan envied that; he always took a while to function after opening his eyes.
“He did. He went straight to his bank and gave me this.”
Ethan started the car as she began to unroll the notes. He saw her hands clench briefly before she began counting.
“But surely this is too much?”
It was, but Ethan was relying on her lack of knowledge about car prices to pull this off. “I drove the car up, then said for him to take a look and name a price.” He shrugged as he slipped on his aviators. “He did, I agreed, and that was that. We need to sort out the paperwork, but other than that you are now carless.”
Her hands clenched again and Ethan had more proof that selling her car had been hard. Obviously she needed the money, and he was sure that phone conversation he’d overheard had something to do with it
