Meanwhile, Back in Deadwood (Deadwood Humorous Mystery Book 6) (40 page)

“Not all of my family, just the females. It skips generations, sometimes several.”

“But it didn’t skip you.”

“Nope.”

“Executioner,” he tried it on for size. “Ms. Wolff knew.”

“That and more, I suspect. Unfortunately, she’s too dead to explain how.”

He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. “Who do you kill?”

“Non-humans mostly, I guess.”

“Like the Juggernaut.”

I nodded, searching the crowded sidewalks below. Were they down there? Watching? Waiting for me to step outside, vulnerable in a drunken stupor?

“And the others,” I added.

“What others?”

“I don’t know yet.” I looked over at him, trying to gauge his reaction to my news, but the shadows hid too much. “According to Aunt Zoe, I’ll find out soon enough. What I did to Mr. Black’s twin alerted the others that I’m here. They’ll be coming for me now.”

“Mr. Black?”

“The twin I didn’t stab at Mudder Brothers that night.”

“His name is Mr. Black?”

“Yes, but you can’t tell a soul or he’ll come for Ray.”

“Your coworker, the jackass?”

“Yes. He’s the one who told me the other one’s name.”

“Ray Underhill actually helped you?”

“Crazy, I know, but these are cuckoo times.”

Doc nodded slowly. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because when Prudence confronted me today, she reaffirmed Aunt Zoe’s warning about my family being a target.”

“This warning was what you left out earlier when you told Cooper about what happened at the Carhart house.”

I wrapped my arms around my midsection, holding in the weight of this killer business. “Harvey heard Prudence’s bleak prophecy about my future. He understands the risks now. I suspect that’s what had him off his feed, as Cooper put it.”

“The risks to you and your kids.”

“To him, too, if he and his shotgun continue to act as my so-called bodyguards.” I looked down at the street, swallowing the trepidation that was making me hesitate to continue. “And to you,” I added in a quiet voice.

Over a growing din leaking through the floor from the bar below, I heard the sound of clothes rustling. “You’re worried about me?”

“Of course.”

“Why?”

Just one word from him, and yet so many answers flooded my head, none of them safe for my heart’s sake. “Do I have to spell it out for you?”

Footfalls came toward me, floorboards creaking. “I like to hear you spell.”

I turned. He’d come halfway and then stopped.

“They didn’t just kill Prudence’s son, the last of her line.” My voice wavered. I cleared my throat. “They murdered her husband, too.”

His poker face gave no reaction. Didn’t he get it?

“Doc, I’m a killer from a long line of killers. An executioner lacking in finesse, according to Prudence, who shared my vocation before they slaughtered her and her family. Hanging around me could be bad for your health.”

Still a hard mask—no grimace, no wince, no rejection. Hell, couldn’t he give me something? I was teetering out here at the end of the plank, a dark abyss swirling below.

“Listen, Doc, if you want to walk out of here and never look back, I’ll understand.”

His gaze narrowed. “That was my line.”

“It’s a good one.”

“Because it was honest. Come here, killer.”

I crossed the floor, the dress making me feel like a waddling idiot.

His dark gaze held mine, but that was it, no other touching. “You and your kids are in danger.”

It wasn’t a question, but I nodded anyway.

“It’s about time we found out what you are and what you’re capable of.”

I grunted. “I’d rather just be a single mom with two kids.”

“Single, huh?”

“Well, I mean not necessarily single, but … of course I don’t expect you to want to … you see, I’ve been single a long time so I just … Damn it, Doc, I’m making a big fucking mess of this.”

The corners of his mouth twitched. “You sure are.”

I raised my hands in exasperation. “What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to be honest.”

What did he think I was doing when I started down this I’m-a-killer path? “Honest about what?”

“What’s really going on here.”

“I thought I was.”

“We’re dancing again, Violet.”

I might have been a little tipsy, but I knew for a fact we were currently standing still. “My feet are planted firmly on the floor.”

He took my hand, lifting it to his lips. “Mine aren’t,
cara mia
.”

Gomez was back, minus the moustache. That was an abrupt shift from reality. “Don’t you understand, Doc?” My heart began to gallop at the sight of his lips flitting across my knuckles. “This is your opportunity to walk away without getting dragged into something that could go south fast.”

“I understand perfectly.” He led me over to the shadow-dappled wall next to the door. “What are you wearing under that dress?”

“Doc, you could suffer the same fate as Prudence’s husband.”

“I know.” He leaned down and captured my mouth in a slow, heartbreaking kiss. When he came up for air, he ordered, “Turn around. I want to show you something.”

“How can I see it if I have my back to you?”

“Trust me. Turn.”

Frowning, I did, facing the other way.

“Now put your hands on the wall.”

What in the hell? “Did Cooper deputize you?”

“Do it.”

I did it, wondering what was next. A pat down for weapons? The snap of a rubber glove?

I felt a tug near my ankles. Then I heard a tearing sound. “What are you doing?” I looked over my shoulder.

Doc was kneeling on the floor at my heels. “I told you I was going to rip this dress off of you.”

He tore the dress seam that ran up the center in the back, ripping it clear up to my thighs.

My legs were finally free. “Thanks.” I started to turn. “That was driving me—”

“Put your hands back on the wall,” he said, still kneeling at my feet.

“What?”

“I’m not done. Turn around. Spread your feet apart.”

My body began to tingle in anticipation. “What are you doing, Doc?

“Finding out if what you said was true.”

Oh jeez, was he really going to do what I thought he was going to do? The shadows weren’t deep enough to hide my flaws, leaving me too exposed for comfort. “Doc, that’s not my best side.”

“I beg to differ,
cara mia
.” His fingers started at my ankles, his touch tender, tickling, and then they slid up to my calves, leaving a searing trail in their wake. “Close your eyes.” His tone left no room for argument. “Let me show you why I’m not going anywhere tonight.”

I obeyed again and leaned my forehead against the cool plaster, pushing all fears and inhibitions from my thoughts. This was Doc touching me, making me writhe and ache. I was safe with him.

His fingers traveled higher, caressing as they climbed. He lifted my dress, inch by inch. His lips singed up the inside of my leg, his tongue licking circles on the tender skin of the back of my knees. My thighs quivered in anticipation.

He bit my inner thigh just above my knee.

I moaned as a shot of lust rocketed through me. “Doc,” I whimpered, needing more of him touching me. More of his mouth, his hands, his tongue, his …

“I said I was going to taste you tonight, Boots.”

My dress lifted higher, cool air tickling where his tongue had left a wet trail behind. I gulped, sweat coating my skin.

He nibbled his way up the back of my thigh, and then grazed his teeth along the trembling inner flesh.

I ached deep, clear to my core, turned inside out by his fingers teasing closer and closer to where I really wanted him to touch, needed him to touch.

My dress shifted up onto my hip bones, the satin whispering around my waist.

Doc sucked a breath through his teeth. “Sweet Jesus.” He slid his free hand up the back of one thigh, his fingers spread wide across my skin. “You were telling the truth.” Then his touch feathered across my bare bottom, caressing and tickling each cheek before trailing down my other thigh. He came so close to where I needed him, yet so far as he teased first with his lips, then his teeth, then his tongue.

“I don’t like to lie to you.”

“Really?” his knuckles grazed across me, making everything inside of me tighten almost painfully.

I gasped. “Really.”

“Then tell me what you
really
want me to do to you.”

“Touch me.”

He slid up behind me, his suit fabric rasping over my bare skin. He took one of my hands and placed it where my dress was bunched up at my waist, making me hold up the fabric. “Where?”

I rocked my hips back into him. “Everywhere.”

“That will take all night,” he pushed my hair aside and kissed the nape of my neck. “There’s no way I can last that long, not with you moving against me like that.”

“Then start here.” I caught his hand and planted it south of my belly button.

His palm slid downward but paused, his fingers almost touching but holding back. “Show me, Boots.”

I covered his hand with mine, guiding him to the exact spot, helping him touch me how I needed it. His woodsy scent surrounded me, making me feel tipsy with lust. Pleasure spiraled higher and higher, taking me up with it. I heard a zipper somewhere in the midst of the passion fogging my brain and moaned a “yes” as Doc’s touch moved faster, circling me ever closer.

“Violet,” Doc kissed the shell of my ear, and then traced it with his tongue.

I arched back into him, my breath a gasping pant.

He pulled his hand free.

I cried out. “Don’t you dare stop, Doc.”

He grasped my hips. “I told you I was going to take you hard and fast tonight.”

“Yes!” I shifted, opening up to him, wanting that to happen as much as he did.

Without another word, he slammed into me, all of the way, driving me against the plaster.

I cried out, my fingers curling around his, everything exploding behind my eyes as waves of pleasure rocked me. He held still a moment, letting me ride out of the wake.

“That was incredible,” I said when I could speak again.

“We’re not done. Hands back on the wall, Boots.”

Tonight, I was his to command. I moaned as he sparked another fire to life inside of me, fanning the flames with each thrust, with each heated whisper of how good I felt, how much he craved me, how much he fantasized about me. Then he reached up, cupping my breast through the satin, his fingers pinching and rubbing, and he told me exactly what he wanted from me.

My body obeyed in a flash, my self-control shattering. I cried out with release, my voice lost in a sudden cacophony of shouts and yells coming up through the floor from the bar below.

Never before had a man marked me like this, all aggression, power, and lust. Never before had I been so willing to let one. But it was Doc, and I’d been putty in his hands from the first time he’d touched me. Tonight was no different … except something was.

Something in him.

I pushed back into him, capturing his hand that was exploring my chest. I lifted his fingers to my lips, biting the tips of several and then licking them better.

“Violet,” he growled in my ear, straining against me, moving faster. “Do that again.”

I did. This time I bit harder, licked longer, sucked on the last one.

He swore at the ceiling, then slammed me into the wall with his final push, holding me there as his muscles quaked all around me.

“Holy shit, Boots.” His forehead rested on my shoulder, his hot breath fanning my skin where the dress dipped low.

I reached my arms up and back around his neck, kissing the underside of his jaw when he raised his head. “So what was it you wanted to show me?”

He chuckled, sliding a kiss across my lips. Then he pulled away. When my dress was back down and his fly was zipped, he turned me around to face him, his eyes dark, mesmerizing as he stared down into mine.

“I don’t care that you come from a long line of killers.”

“You don’t?”

“No. You know why that is,
cara mia
?”

I shook my head, wondering what Gomez line would follow next. “Why,
mon cher
?”

He slid his hands up my arms, over my shoulders, cupping my face, making my heart roll onto its back and purr. “Because I love you,
querida
.”

Then he leaned in and kissed me, slow and tender, hypnotizing my lips and tongue.

But not my brain, which stumbled to a dazed stop.

Had he really just said what I’d thought he said? The actual four letter “L” word set between “I” and “you”? Or after all of these months of being head over heels for him, was I now having post-sex hallucinations?

When his mouth gave me a second to come up for air, I stared up at him. “Did you just say …” I trailed off, afraid to repeat it aloud and then have to remove my foot from my mouth if I’d misheard him. Then another possibility made my blood cool. “Are we still playing Gomez and Morticia here?”

A police siren chirped outside the window before Doc could reply. Red and blue lights flashed over the plaster walls. I suddenly realized that all was silent downstairs—no bass beat, no din of conversation, nothing. Only a periodic blast of monotone voices from a police scanner coming up through the old plate glass windows.

Doc towed me over to the front of the building, keeping us off to the side, out of view.

“Is that—” he started.

“The three musketeers,” I finished. “Hey, that cop is holding Thing, isn’t he?”

“I think so.”

We watched as another cop opened the back door of the cruiser and waited for Claire, Katie, and Natalie to crawl inside. He shut the door behind them, knocking on the roof once they were caged.

Doc put his arm around my shoulder, kissing my temple. “Well, Tiger, looks like you’re going to have to step foot inside the Deadwood Police Station again.”

“Damn it.” I watched the cruiser cart them up the street toward the cop shop. “I have a feeling this isn’t going to end well.”

* * *

Doc and I managed to slip downstairs and into the bar without anyone seeing us come in through the back stairwell door. I waited out front, my Morticia wig in hand, while he got the low down on why the three musketeers had been hauled away.