“And in all those twenty-nine years, has anyone ever told you you’re abusive?”
He shook his head. “And I’m planning on keeping that record clean.”
Katie couldn’t believe she was having this conversation with him. “You’re an intelligent man; surely you don’t believe what you’re saying?”
“I can’t and won’t change how I feel about this, Katie. If you believe something long enough it becomes a part of you, and I’m not changing that belief now.”
“I always believed I would only ever be Jake’s little sister, and Mom and Dad’s baby girl. No substance to me, not bad to look at, and nice to be around, but would never amount to much more than a good wife and mom.”
His mouth kicked up.
“I’d say you’re beautiful and sexy as hell, and damned good in bed. From what I hear you’re not a bad cop either.”
“The point here is, Cubby, that like you I believed something only to have that proved wrong.” She’d slowly come to this realization since returning home, but he didn’t need to know that.
He thought about that while he looked at her, and Katie held her breath waiting for his verdict.
“Maybe; maybe not, but I’ll tell you one thing, sweetheart, you had me twisted in knots six years ago, and that hasn’t changed much. In fact it’s worse, but it’s lust I’m talking about, nothing more.”
“Same goes,” Katie lied. If all she had was a few nights of passion, then she’d take them and maybe in that time she could convince this idiot to take a gamble on a relationship. If not, she’d been brokenhearted before. At some stage it would pass, the only problem being that this time it would take a lot longer.
He held out a hand toward her and she came around the bed and took it.
“So while you’re here, how about we have some fun, princess?” He picked her up as if she were a child and lowered her so she was straddling his body. “You okay with that?”
He slipped his hands under the shirt and ran his warm palms up her body.
“Yes,” she whispered, closing her eyes as his hands settled on her breasts.
“Good; and whatever is going on with Brady stops now.”
“N-nothing is going on with Brady, we just run together in the mornings.”
His hands stopped. “Really?”
“Of course! What do you take me for?” Pissed off that he doubted her, she tried to wriggle free but he held her still. “I slept with you, did you think I would then turn around and do it with him? I’m not some cheap floozy—”
“Right, gotcha,” he said, pulling her down so he could kiss her. “Sorry, my bad there, and same goes.”
“It better,” Katie said, mollified.
“And now let me apologize properly.”
Cubby wasat his desk when Brady walked in two days later to look over the whiteboard he’d set up. He had Jilly and Melanie’s photos up there, and the locations each were found. He had a map of the surrounding area and plenty of arrows and words but no answers.
“Hey, Sheriff, I just heard that Jilly’s funeral will be tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I got the autopsy report here,” Cubby said. “Be a hell of a day.”
“I’m not a local, but have to admit to falling for this place and its people, and yeah, it’s going to be hell.”
Cubby watched Brady wander up to the board and look at it.
“So I did some digging into Elijah Willis. Seems he was last seen four months ago about a day’s drive from here in the town of Brandt. Trail went cold again after that, but it’s possible he’s moved this way. I’ll keep looking.”
“Thanks, Brady, I’d appreciate you taking the lead with that, because I have some other stuff to follow up on, but I want pictures of him handed out to Rick, Tank, and Rona, and sent out to the surrounding towns. If he’s around I want word on that, and people to know what they’re looking for.”
“Sure, I’m on it.” Brady ambled out and Tank and Rick wandered in.
