Haynes, K. R. - The Light in Her Eyes [In Her Eyes] (Siren Publishing Classic) (18 page)

Mick just grunted, not giving away anything.

Walking into the kitchen, Randall took his seat again. Mick popped the top of the beer left out for him. Leaning his hip against the kitchen bench he stared across the room at Randall. “So, mate, what’s up? It sounded pretty urgent. Has the sick fuck made another move on your sweet thing or something?”

Clearing his throat, Randall took a quick swig of his beer before answering the question. “Yeah, he left her another message.”

“Shit.”

“Yep, and the thing that pisses me off the most is the bastard’s stepping up his game, too, Mick.”

“How’s he managing that?”

“The latest message left for Chloe, well, let’s just say it wasn’t good, Mick. Not good at all.”

Randall watched as Mick’s eyes roamed around the room. “Where is gorgeous by the way?”

“Sleeping.”
Well, Randall hoped she was still asleep. Chloe needed the rest. He had been hard on her this morning and the rest would do her good.

“So what’s the plan? I take it you need me to help you get this fucker, right?”

“Yeah, and I also need you to watch her while I’m on call in a couple of days’ time. Chloe won’t like it but too bad.”

“Done. Don’t worry about her, mate. I’ll make sure your gorgeous is safe as houses while you’re working.” Taking another swig of his beer and swallowing the cooling liquid down, Mick cautiously asked him, “So level with me here, mate. What are we are looking at?”

“Not sure yet. All the evidence or what little we have been able to retrieve has come back clean. No prints or no fibres to identify the bastard targeting her. I’m having all the evidence retested though to be sure.” Randall pushed back on the stool and walked over to the bin, dropping his empty bottle into the trash. He began to pace as he spoke. “What I can’t get my head around is why someone’s targeting Chloe to begin with. Plus he knows about me, Mick. He knows that she’s my lover and that I’m a cop on active duty.”

“So we have a stalker on our hands then. Experienced one, do you think?”

“Perhaps. Shit, I don’t know.” Running his hands through his dark-blond hair, Randall raked his brain for the answers that weren’t there. “Shit.”

“What if the stalker targeting Chloe is only targeting her because she’s an easy target?” Holding up his hand to stop Randall from speaking, Mick said to him, “Let me finish, mate.” With a nod of his head, Mick continued. “Chloe could be a secondary mark because she can’t defend herself. Maybe this bastard is biding his time till he can get his hands on the real target. Have you thought about that scenario, Randall?”

“Who the bloody hell is the real target then if it isn’t her? She has no family here. She only has a handful of friends if that.”

“And she has you, mate. She has you.”

“Yeah, she does.” Randall smirked to himself, remembering how he had taken Chloe up against the wall only hours ago. “Hey, wait up. Are you suggesting that this bastard is only targeting Chloe because of me?”

“It’s highly possible mate, highly possible indeed. We should definitely consider this as a possible angle before we go about dismissing it out of hand.”

Randall paced, his mind working overtime at the suggestion that Chloe wasn’t the main target, he was. Shit, her life could be in danger because of his stupid arse? Fuck. He needed to think logically for a minute. If he indeed was the main target and Chloe had only become a target because she was an easy mark then this bastard would have to know about their past relationship. That would be the only reason why someone would start targeting her on the night he pulled her over.

Chloe had to have been followed that night. The bastard must have seen their reaction toward each other, even though there was no outward recognition on Chloe’s part except for in her eyes. That begs the question, how close had the stalker gotten to her?

Close enough to see the flash of recognition in her eyes?

Did that mean the bastard knew about her memory loss as well?

Hell, was there even a link between his job and her stalker?

Fuck.

Man, his head was killing him just from thinking about all the hows and whys of it all. He rummaged around loudly through the kitchen drawers, searching for something that would ease the ever-present ache behind his eyes. Randall heard the soft, sleepy feminine voice that made him stop and smile at hearing the sound.

“God, can’t a woman get some sleep around here? Why the hell are you making so much goddamn…ahh, noise?” Chloe seemed to stumble in her rant as she entered the room. Randall sure hoped she had thrown some clothes on before coming to find him. The last thing he wanted was for her to flaunt her nudity to his old mate. “Oh, hey there, Mick, sorry, I didn’t know you were here.”

Turning slowly to face her, Randall didn’t bother to hide the slight smirk curving at his lips at the sight of Chloe, standing half naked dressed in only
his
shirt and nothing else. Hell, the sinful little minx had only managed to do up a couple of the buttons on the front of the shirt she had thrown on. Randall could feel his cock stirring in his jeans at the sight of her. Her gaze drifted over his naked torso, making his dick even harder. Then of course she had to taunt him with her little pink tongue. He watched as it slithered and danced across her oh-so-kissable lips.

“Well, hello, gorgeous. Sleep well?” Mick drawled to her as Chloe stalked across the kitchen floor to where Randall stood watching her.

“Well, I did until someone woke me up, not mentioning any names, Jon.” Chloe turned and winked at Mick before directing her attention back to Randall. “What in god’s name are you looking for anyway?”

“Headache. Need some pills. Do you know where they live?” he asked her before brushing his lips against hers.

“I’ve got some in my purse. I’ll get them for you if you promise not to wake me up again.”

“I can’t promise you that, precious. Not when I have needs that only you
can take care of,” he said with a sly smile gracing his lips.

Chloe blushed at his words and the unsubtle meaning behind them. She all but bolted out of the room before Mick could comment or see her blushing. Reaching up for a glass and filling it up with water, Randall waited for Chloe to return with the pills he needed.

When she came marching back into the room moments later, Chloe had all the buttons on the shirt done up and had thrown on some sweatpants for good measure as well. Hell, she looked damn cute with that sleepy look still adorning her face and her hair all messed up, and it made his cock even harder. Groaning inwardly, Randall accepted the pills Chloe popped into his hand, throwing them in his mouth and chasing them down with the water.

Dumping the empty glass in the sink he tugged Chloe into his side. His hand lingered on her hip, showing his old mate his ownership of her. “Are either of you two hungry? Because I know I sure am.”

“Yeah, I could do with a snack, mate.”

“How about you, precious, are you hungry?”

Chloe turned slightly in his embrace and laid a hand on his bare chest.
“How about I make us all something to eat and then we can all
go
sit in the lounge room and discuss whatever it is you were discussing before,” Chloe suggested to him.

“Sounds good to me, gorgeous,” Mick answered.

Randall wasn’t so sure he wanted Chloe involved in this conversation he had going on with Mick. She was too fragile, too delicate. She definitely didn’t need to hear the ins and outs on how they were going to catch the one after her. However, if Chloe was a secondary target then her thoughts on who knew about them when they were teenagers would be invaluable. Also her input on who knew about her memory loss could help figure out who was behind all this.

“Fine,” he grumbled to her. “Sounds good.”

Leaning down, Randall traced the shell of her ear with his lips, while caressing her still-red ass with his spare hand, whispering his warning into her ear, “Don’t go getting any ideas about going after this bastard by yourself, little girl. Or your ass will be mine.” Chloe shivered against him at hearing his words. Good.

Slapping her playfully on the ass, Randall left Chloe to fix some food for them all. Grabbing a couple of beers from the fridge, he handed one over to Mick while saying to him, “Let’s head into the lounge room and continue our discussion in there.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chloe nearly died when she walked into the kitchen and discovered Mick was in there talking to Randall. She hadn’t even known he was coming over. Hell, they were both lucky she was partially dressed when she walked into the room. Christ, she would have died of embarrassment if she had walked in on them all nude.

The only reason she had awoken was all the crashing coming from the kitchen.
Of course it had turned out to be Randall searching noisily in the cupboard drawers looking for something to take for his headache and not an intruder.

Pulling out some fixings for sandwiches from the fridge, Chloe tried to keep an ear on what the two blokes were discussing in the lounge room. She could only make out bits and pieces as they both kept their voices fairly low. Well, most of the time. Obviously Randall didn’t like the way the conversation was going at the moment. His voice became louder and more irritable the further the conversation went.

Grabbing a bag of crisps from the cupboard above her, Chloe decided it was time to calm the situation down before they both got into some kind of fistfight. That certainly wasn’t something she wanted to have to clean up after they were done belting the shit out of each other.

As soon as she walked into the lounge room, both men stopped talking and turned toward her. “Well, at least I know who you were talking about then,” she said, shaking her head at them. She held the bag of crisps out to them. “Here, I thought you could make a start on these. Lunch won’t be much longer.”

Mick took the bag from her hand and delved into the crisps like a starved man. Randall on the other hand scowled at her. Resting her hands on her hips, Chloe raised an eyebrow up at him. “What? You’re not hungry anymore?”

“Oh, I’m hungry, precious. Don’t worry about that.”

She couldn’t help but shiver at his tone. “Well, then stop screwing up your face like that. It will only give you wrinkles.” Chloe turned on her heel and left the room then, leaving Mick to almost choke on the handful of crisps he had stuffed in his mouth. She heard Randall tell him to “shut the fuck up” when she left them.

She giggled to herself in the kitchen while she finished preparing all the sandwiches. Telling Randall he’d get wrinkles was funny. God, the man could be so damn serious at times. He needed to lighten up a bit. Sure, she was in danger and discussing it was probably hard as it brought it more into reality. But hell, he didn’t need to scowl at her all the damn time either. Her smart-mouth remark would probably cost her ass later on.

Shrugging her shoulders, she said, “Oh well, too bad. No harm, no foul, right?”

“Who are you talking to, lover?” His words whispered over her, causing a delicious thrill to race throughout her body at hearing his voice.

“No one in particular…” Glancing over her should at him, she said, “What are you doing in here anyway?”

“It’s my kitchen, isn’t it? And thought you might need a hand,” he offered to her.

Chloe
narrowed her eyes briefly at him, as she mulled over his cryptic answer.
“Oh, well I’m almost—ouch—done.”
She spun around to face him, only to discover her was smirking at her. Rubbing at her now stinging ass cheek, she couldn’t believe it. Randall had spanked her ass in the kitchen! Of all the places to be spanked, the kitchen sure wasn’t one on her list.
“What the hell was that for?”

He raised an eyebrow at her questioning him
and pointed a finger toward the lounge room as he spoke to her.
“Do you really think I would let you get away with that sassy remark back there? Or did you think you got away with that one, little girl?”

No, she damn well knew she hadn’t gotten away with it. However, she hadn’t expected him to follow her into the kitchen and spank her ass for it either. That’s for sure. Heaven help her,
she could feel moisture dripping from her core. She was so aroused he could take her now if he wanted to. Her pussy was that wet, all because he what? Spanked her ass in the kitchen and spoke to her using that Dom voice of his. Did she not have any self-control when it came to this man? Obviously, she didn’t if her current state of arousal was anything to go by.

It didn’t help her case, either,
knowing Randall wouldn’t take care of the ache between her legs because they had company in the next room. Chloe wished she could rub her thighs together for a bit, to release some of the tension building inside her core.