Bodychecking (16 page)

Bella turned, slowing down her car and gripping the Mace in one hand. A police car was parked near the crime scene, and two beat cops were standing nearby, deep in discussion.

Bella slowed on the empty street and rolled down her window. The female uniformed cop turned to regard her suspiciously. She was model-beautiful with perfect bone structure and gorgeous eyes and a tall, lean body, yet she needed a few lessons in ironing her clothes, putting on makeup, and finding the perfect size for her. Bella noticed stuff like that. Probably too much.

“Excuse me,” Bella’s voice shook as much as her hands.

The woman walked over to her, slightly annoyed. “Yes, ma’am?”

Bella almost cringed. She hated being called “ma’am.” It reminded her of how old she was. “I was attacked in this neighborhood several weeks ago. I think it would’ve been worse if a homeless man hadn’t spooked him.”

The woman leaned in the window. Her bored gaze shot to Riley and back to Bella. “What’s your name, and I’ll alert the detectives on the case.”

“Bellani Maxwell.”

She scribbled something on a note pad and turned to walk away, dismissing them.

“Officer, please tell me one thing?” Bella called out the window. “Did she have an S carved in her left breast?”

“We don’t discuss details of an ongoing investigation. If the detectives see any similarities, I’m sure they’ll be contacting you.” The officer returned to her partner, and both officers proceeded to ignore them.

Bella drove home at the speed of a ninety-year-old, not stopping for that shake she’d promised Riley. He didn’t say anything, but he did reach over and pat her hand. “It’ll be okay, Aunt Bells. They’ll catch him.”

Bella nodded, fighting off the bile rising in her throat. Her attacker might have killed this woman. Bella had been lucky. This other woman wasn’t.

“You did your part. You reported what you knew. Several times.”

Bella nodded slowly. Reporting him didn’t give her much comfort. Their victim had been a single mother of a two-year-old. Somehow Bella felt responsible for at least a portion of what had happened, even though she recognized the ridiculousness of such guilt.

Riley watched her with his old eyes and said nothing further. When they arrived home, he went to bed while Bella sat in the living room watching old movies and gripping her pepper spray.

* * * *

Feeling ridiculously clingy and paranoid, Cedric corralled his panic. Bella had probably gone to bed early. That’s all. He tried one more text message as he lay on his queen bed in another anonymous hotel room. If it wasn’t for his obsessive film study of the Sockeyes’ next opponent, he probably wouldn’t recall what city they were currently in.

Leaning back against the pillows, he tried to entertain himself by flipping through the channels. His phone beeped, and he leapt for it, almost falling off the bed.

Hi, long night babysitting Riley. Will call in a.m.

He breathed a sigh of relief as some asshole started pounding on his door. He flipped off the TV and lay quiet, hoping they’d go away. They didn’t. Resigned to his fate, Cedric opened the door. Rush and Brick spilled in, followed by Cooper. Brick held a pizza box high over his head as if he were a waiter balancing a tray of drinks.

“It’s fucking midnight,” Cedric growled. He shot Coop, who seemed smugly pleased with himself, an accusatory death glare. The bastard had put the guys up to this.

“The boys wanted a pizza before they called it a night,” Cooper said with not an ounce of apology. In fact, the dickwad smirked.

“And since when do you do what the boys want?”

Coop shrugged a shoulder and snagged a large piece of pizza dripping with cheese and mounded with toppings. Cedric’s stomach growled, and he licked his lips. He’d been so preoccupied with worry over Bella, he hadn’t realized he was starving until he smelled the pizza. Now he was ravenous.

Pointing with his pizza slice, Brick, clad only in a pair of shorts, grinned. “I told you, Smooth is lovesick. He’s been lying here pining for his woman rather than joining his compatriots for dinner.”

“Compatriots? That’s a damn big word for you, Brick.”

Cedric’s insult was met with raucous laughter. He ignored the idiots. His eyes locked on the pizza, which was going fast, and his stomach demanded action. Brick was already on his third slice, and Rush was a two-hander. Coop had finished his first and was eyeing a second. Cedric dived in, grabbing two slices for himself. He wolfed them down in an uncharacteristically messy fashion, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his sweatshirt.

They devoured the pizza like piranhas, talking between bites about hockey. Finally, Brick yawned and Rush’s eyelids drooped. The kids partied hard and collapsed harder.

Scratching under his arm, Brick stood. “Night, Caps.”

“Night,” Coop said.

Rush tagged along after him, waving as he went out the door. Following them, Coop opened the door a crack, making sure they went to their room.

He shut the door with a click and sank into the easy chair in one corner. “Watching out for those two is a full-time job.”

“Don’t I know.”

“I miss the good ol’ days when you were on a mission to nail every puck bunny within a ten-mile radius of every arena, and you kept watch on those guys while you partied together.” Coop stared pointedly at Cedric, who offered an insincere, apologetic smile in return.

“My partying days are over.”

“Because of Bella?”

“I guess you could say that.”

“You guess?” Cooper gave his friend a sideways glance that called bullshit.

“Yeah, Bella, but she’s in a bad way right now so we’re taking it slow.”

Coop groaned and blew out a breath. “The shit in her life along with Fawn’s illness has to be a relationship killer.”

“I’ve pretty much died a thousand deaths and none of them were pretty.” Cedric leaned back against the pillows, hands behind his head, and stared at the ceiling.

“I’ve lived through that particular hell myself, not knowing if we had a future and desperate to have one.”

“I know. I don’t want to go back to my hedonistic lifestyle. It doesn’t have the appeal it once did.”

“Hedonistic, huh?” Cooper nodded slowly. He’d never been a huge partier, but in their younger days playing in Florida, he’d managed to get into his share of trouble, all instigated by Cedric, who’d been damn proud of his ability to involve straight-laced Coop in his escapades.

Now none of that crap seemed so important anymore. He looked back on those days as shallow and inconsequential with remarkable similarities to his father’s fixation for aligning himself with politicians and corporate bigwigs. The old man had been the epitome of rising beyond the level of one’s incompetence. Cedric wondered if he’d ever been competent at anything other than schmoozing with the right people and marrying well.

Cedric wanted to be judged by his merit, not his ability to bullshit. Of course, he had to admit he was good at bullshit, one of those traits he’d inherited or absorbed from years of observing the master.

“You’re scaring me,” Coop said, but Cedric saw the smile in his eyes.

“I’m scaring myself.”

“Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it; you’ve been on fire this road trip.”

Cedric couldn’t explain that turnaround either, other than he’d finally separated his personal issues from hockey. He’d scored a hat trick one night and a goal the other two nights, all wins for the team. They were in the middle of the pack in the playoffs, and he liked their chances. He was optimistic about his chances with Bella too. He had faith in them.

“You haven’t exactly been a slouch out there either, Coop.” As usual, their conversation turned to hockey.

“The whole team is in the groove, and it’s a sight to behold.”

“Yeah, it’s fun.”

“It is,” Cooper admitted with a smile on his face. “I’m liking where we are right now.”

“But we have a long way to go. If we stay healthy, we’ll make a run at it.” Cedric leaned back against the pillows, lacing his fingers behind his head. “Imagine playing for the Cup. I’d almost given up on it happening, but not anymore.”

“Yeah, I know. Being purchased by Ethan Parker has been the best thing to ever happen to this team.”

Cooper hadn’t said that a year and a half ago when the billionaire Seattle businessman first purchased the team and relocated it to Seattle. It’d taken him longer than his teammates to warm to the rainy city, but he’d finally fallen in love with gray skies, green everywhere, and the blue of Puget Sound.

Cedric absently rubbed the fish tattoo on his upper arm. The entire inaugural Sockeyes team had the team logo tattooed on their arms to commemorate being the start of something special in this city.

“About Bella—” Cooper steered the conversation back to her.

“Like I said, we’re taking it slow, but we’re making progress.”

“We? As in a couple? Or as in Bella?”

“Both.” Cedric closed his eyes, suddenly tired.

“A word of advice. Woo her.”

“Woo her?” Cedric laughed. “Seriously? I’m hearing that word come out of your mouth? The man without an ounce of charm?”

Cooper grinned sheepishly and stood, stretching and yawning. “Yeah, woo her. Wine her, dine her, take her flowers, write a poem or a love song. Women love that shit.”

Cedric chuckled. “You’re a lost cause.”

“Welcome to the club, my man.” Cooper walked to the door. “Night.”

“Good night. See you at breakfast.”

After Cooper left, Cedric stripped off his clothes and crawled between the cool sheets. He fell asleep spooning a pillow and wishing it was Bella.

Bella couldn’t recall ever looking so forward to seeing Cedric, except for when she was horny for sex. While she wanted to have sex with him sometime soon, it wasn’t just the sex she missed. She missed Cedric. That was the new part. Or at least admitting it was new. Every time he left on a road trip, he took a piece of her with him, and she didn’t feel complete until he came back.

He’d been a star ever since the attack, treating her like a fragile princess. The old Bella would’ve balked at being treated with kid gloves, but this Bella didn’t mind so much.

The team had flown into Seattle early Sunday morning. To welcome him back, she invited him over Sunday night and cooked spaghetti. She warned herself if she did this domestic crap too often, she might find she liked it, which would never, ever do. Or Cedric might actually expect a home-cooked meal. She might be a new, improved version of Bella, but she didn’t plan to go so far as to become domesticated. Or would that be domestic?

The murder had thrown her off her game and set her back a few steps, but she pushed forward regardless, refusing to let the bastard who’d attacked her win. Today, she’d gone grocery shopping by herself and attempted to contact the detectives on the murder case since they’d never called her back. She didn’t have any luck getting through so she left a message.

Cedric threw his arms around her as soon as she opened the door. His strong arms cuddling her close felt damn good. She raised her face to his for a kiss, and it lasted longer than she’d planned, weakening her knees and curling her toes like it had before the attack. She was making progress and proud of it. When they parted, she smiled up at him, and he smiled back. Something in his gaze startled her, something too good, too scary, to contemplate. She extricated herself from his arms and slipped into the kitchen to stir the spaghetti sauce. Cedric followed her and rested his fine ass on the edge of a barstool at the kitchen counter. The fact that she’d noticed and appreciated that fine ass definitely showed improvement.

“So what’ve you been doing for the last week?” he asked, sounding as if he were making conversation, but she wasn’t sure that’s all it was.

“I—” She snapped her mouth shut, hesitant to tell him the truth.

He tilted his head, and his blue eyes narrowed, as he studied her face. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He’d read her perfectly. Bella had made a career out of keeping things on the surface. She didn’t tell anyone her deepest darkest fears, hopes, or dreams. Not even her sisters. Yet, she’d run to Cedric right after the attack and told him everything. Why not tell him about the murder and her suspicions?

“Bells.” His voice dropped an octave, and he came up behind her and rested his hands on her hips. She turned and hugged him tightly.

Tonight being in his arms felt so safe, so right. Funny she’d never noticed how right he felt before. Maybe because they’d been rutting like pigs all night long, and she’d never taken the time to enjoy anything but his body. And a very fine, sexy body it was. She’d deprived herself of this man for far too long, but she’d need to do so a little longer. Until she got her personal act together, she couldn’t drag someone else into the mess that was Bella. Then again, maybe she’d already dragged him into it.

“Later,” she hedged, putting him off. “After dinner.”

He regarded her shrewdly, as if reading her too well and suspecting she wouldn’t want to talk after dinner either.

Dinner was a success, and Cedric cleaned his plate multiple times. Afterward they crashed on the couch and watched—what else?—hockey. Cedric didn’t bring up their earlier conversation, but Bella knew he wasn’t going to drop it. Most likely he was waiting for just the right time.

Cedric slanted a sexy, lopsided grin her way, his blue eyes hopeful. “Come to our next home game. It’d mean a lot to me.”

“A lot, huh?”

“A damn lot. Come on, Bells. My mission this set of home games is to get you out and about, within your comfort zone, of course.”

“Of course,” she added with a wink and a smile. He was right, as always, and it didn’t irritate her as much as it once had.

“Really? You’ll go?” He looked as eager as a teenager asking one of the popular girls out on a first date. How could a woman turn down someone as adorable as this man? Bella couldn’t.

“Yes,” she answered as he covered her face with big, messy, noisy smooches.

Bella started laughing until he silenced her with his mouth. Her body forgot to be fearful and melted into him, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. They kissed, slow and easy at first, building to an urgency, feeding the raw need racing through her veins and fogging her brain. She forgot why sex with him was a bad idea or why she’d been afraid, especially of this man, who’d never been anything but wonderful to her.