Reach For the Spy (9 page)

“Oh.” He sat in silence
for a while. “You don’t pull any punches, do you?”

“I try not to.”

After another short
silence, he spoke again. “I don’t think your relationship is
weird,” he said quietly. “After my wife died, I went through a time
like that.”

I turned to him in the
half-light. “I’m sorry. I was so absorbed in my own drama, I didn’t
even think to ask if you’d been married.”

He shrugged. “It’s
okay. It was twenty-five years ago. It’s old news.”

“Twenty-five years?” I
peered at him. “Jeez, how old were you?”

“I was twenty. She was
nineteen.” He sighed. “We had to rush the wedding a bit because she
was pregnant, but I would’ve married that girl no matter what. I
was crazy about her.”

“What happened?” I
asked softly.

“She died in
childbirth.”

“I’m so sorry.”

He shrugged again. “I
spent a lot of years afraid to get attached. I just found a warm
body and took a little comfort now and then. But now, I’m okay with
whatever happens.” He took my hand gently. “So I know where you’re
coming from. If you just need a warm body some night, I can be that
for you. No attachment.”

I stared out over the
darkening fields. I still felt fragile after the strain of the day.
I could lie back right now on this warm, grass-scented hillside and
let Tom Rossburn soothe my aching body under the big sky. Just a
short chance to forget everything and take a little comfort.

Not counting my late
husband, Hellhound was the only man I’d slept with in... Jesus,
nearly two decades. I deserved a chance to sample the herd, dammit.
There was nothing stopping me. A nice, willing man was sitting
right beside me. No strings attached.

I sighed. There were
always strings. It was too complicated. It was too dangerous for
him. And I had a sneaking suspicion that despite his past, or maybe
because of it, he was ready to get attached again.

“Thanks, Tom. I’ll keep
that in mind. But I don’t think it’ll happen.”

“Why not?” He wasn’t
demanding, just asking.

“I just... can’t.”

“Why are you being
faithful to him when you know he won’t be faithful to you? You
deserve better than that.”

“I’m not being faithful
to him. I just... there are other reasons.”

“Aydan.” He leaned
forward to meet my eyes. “Are you afraid of him? Is he abusing
you?”

“No!” I stared at him
in shock. “Arnie would never hurt me. He’s the gentlest man I
know.” I realized how implausible that sounded as the words left my
mouth. With his ugly bearded face, tattoos, and biking leathers,
Hellhound made a frightening first impression. ‘Gentle’ was not the
first adjective that came to mind.

“If he’s the gentlest
man you know, then you need to get to know more men. He was rough
with you today. If he does that in public, what’s he like when
you’re alone?”

“No, no, he was just
horsing around. He’s not like that.” I threw up my hands. I knew I
was sounding just like every abused woman on the planet, defending
her abuser.

“Tom, thanks for being
concerned. I wouldn’t put up with abuse. And I don’t believe Arnie
would ever hurt me. Or any woman.”

“Okay.” He rose. “I
have to get back.”

I stood, too. “Me, too.
It’s going to be another long week.” I peered through the falling
darkness at him and hesitated. “Can we just... be friends?”

He squeezed my hand.
“Friends, for sure. With benefits, if you want that.”

“Um… thanks. Good
night,” I said awkwardly.

“Good night.” He swung
into the saddle and I listened to the receding thud of hooves.

I dragged myself into
the shower in the morning. After another night of desperately
trying to run away while my dream feet refused to move, I was
exhausted and edgy. Despite my determined effort at a positive
attitude, dull dread of the day weighed down my body like lead
chains.

I caught myself at the
breakfast table with my head propped in one hand, inches over my
bowl while I mindlessly shovelled cereal into my mouth. I shook
myself and sat up straight. Get a grip.

Hoping for a boost, I
brewed myself a cup of caffeinated tea instead of my usual herbal
and headed out the door.

At the Silverside
Hotel, I perched in the grubby chair. After organizing the papers
the previous week, I’d cleaned the desk and computer, so at least
that was an improvement. On the downside, Bill Harks had taken to
leaning on the back of my chair and breathing down my neck for
extended periods.

As he lumbered into the
office yet again, I squelched my irritation and concentrated on my
entries. Even at nine o’clock in the morning, I caught a whiff of
alcohol on his breath when he loomed over me from behind. I’d been
working and trying to ignore the sound of his breathing for about
ten minutes when I felt the touch on my hair.

It wasn’t noticeable
enough for me to comment, and in fact I thought I’d imagined it the
first time. A couple of minutes later, though, there was no
mistaking the feel of his hand stroking down my back.

I stood immediately and
turned to face him, Eddy’s warning ringing in my head. “Don’t touch
me.”

“Geez, you’re uptight.
Relax.”

“Get away from me. I
don’t work until you leave.”

“I’m paying you.” His
hard little eyes squinted even smaller. “Sit your ass down in this
chair and give me what I’m paying for.”

“I am giving you what
you’re paying for. You’re not paying for the privilege of touching
me.”

“Well, I’m paying more
than anybody else in town. Seems to me I should get some extra
services for that.”

Shit, I’d had a bad
feeling that extra charge was going to come back and bite me. But I
was exhausted and on edge, and I was feeling distinctly threatened.
My temper flared despite my best efforts to control it.

“You’re paying extra
because your working conditions are disgusting. If you want to pay
regular price, you’ll have to let me take the work home.”

His enormous hand shot
out, remarkably fast for such a big man. He crushed my wrist in his
grip and yanked me toward him. “You’re gonna work here. And I’m
gonna get what I’m paying for.”

Adrenaline flooded me
as I glared up at him from close range. “You have exactly three
seconds to let go of me.”

“Or what?” He grabbed
my breast and squeezed. Hard.

Pain and fear turned
into violent rage in a split second. I didn’t even consciously aim
the vicious kick that connected solidly with his crotch.

In the second that it
took for the impact to register in his brain, I was already jerking
my arm out of his grasp. As he started to fold, I locked my fists
together and used my coiled-up momentum to unwind into a whistling
two-handed blow that caught him in the side of the face.

The desk rattled when
he hit the floor. Completely out of control, I snatched up the
ledger book and flung it savagely at his head.

“
I quit,
asshole!
” My voice was harsh and unrecognizable even to my own
ears. I stood panting for a few long seconds, fists clenched, using
all my willpower not to kick him into a bloody pulp while he lay
there clutching himself.

At last, control won by
a tiny margin and I let out a wild roar of frustrated fury and
stomped from the room.

I shoved past the two
incoming staff members and forged straight out to my car to burn
rubber out of the parking lot, mindlessly heading for the
highway.

Common sense whispered
that I was far too upset to be driving.

I pulled the car over
at the small community park and got out, shaking all over. Still
driven by a massive overdose of adrenaline, I launched myself into
a berserk sprint, circling the park until my heart threatened to
burst from my chest.

My knees suddenly gave
out between paces, and the jolt of my body hitting the ground
knocked some sanity back into me. I lay sprawled where I’d fallen.
My pounding heart darkened the edges of my vision while I gasped
for air.

The ground vibrated
with the rapid thudding of feet approaching at a run.

For shit’s sake, could
this day get any worse? I’d thought I was completely alone, and the
park was surrounded by trees. Nobody should have been able to see
me.

I groaned with the
sheer injustice of it all and resisted the urge to pound my head
against the ground. For one thing, it would be embarrassing to get
caught doing that. For another thing, I couldn’t lift my head
yet.

“Aydan!” Kane’s voice.
“
Aydan!
”

What the hell was he
doing here?

I concentrated instead
on the more urgent question of how to drag more air into my burning
lungs.

Then his large hands
were rolling me over and brushing my tangled hair back, his tense
face hovering above me.

“I’m… fine,” I
gasped.

He whipped out his
phone and punched a button. “I’ve got her.”

He hung up and stared
down at me, his fingers on my pulse. “What happened?”

“In... a minute,” I
panted. “Gotta catch... my breath.” I sucked air a while longer
while he frowned down at me, still holding my wrist.

Finally, I drew a deep,
unsteady breath and shoved myself into sitting position. My T-shirt
was stained with sweat and coated with prickly grass clippings from
the freshly mown lawn. Apparently I’d scraped my elbow when I fell,
and I noticed a small bloodstain on the shirt, too. Great.

“Aydan, what the hell?”
Kane demanded. “Your heart rate was nearly two hundred. What
happened?”

“Long story.” I was
still a little breathless.

“I’ve got time,” he
assured me grimly. “Can you walk to the truck?”

“In a minute.”

I brushed the grass off
my shirt front and jeans while he did the same for my back. He
started to pick the grass out of my hair, but I stopped him. “Never
mind.” I delved into my trusty waist pouch and pulled out my
hairbrush.

When I’d divested
myself of most of the grass, I heaved myself up onto trembling legs
and let him escort me to his Expedition. At least we had no
audience. Gotta love a small town on a Monday morning.

Kane settled me into
the passenger seat and went around the vehicle to swing into the
driver’s side. He fixed me with a stern eye. “Now. Everything.
Start to finish.”

I sighed. “I had a bit
of a disagreement with one of my clients.”

“So I heard. From the
RCMP.”

“Oh. Shit.” If I’d had
any adrenaline left in my body, I’d have panicked. Fortunately I’d
used up the year’s supply, so I achieved faint dismay.

“What happened?” he
asked again, his cop voice firmly in place.

“Bill Harks at the
Silverside Hotel hired me last week. He decided he wasn’t getting
all he was paying for and decided to help himself. He grabbed my
boob and hurt me. I kicked him in the nuts and hit him in the face
and left. Oh, and I threw a book at his head, too. Is he dead?”

“No,” Kane said, his
expression unreadable. “But he’s angry. He wants to press
charges.”

I slumped forward and
beat my forehead gently against the dashboard. “Please, shoot me
now.”

“I don’t think that
will be necessary. It was clearly self-defence on your part. A
sexual assault charge will settle him right down. I’ll deal with
it.”

I left my forehead on
the dashboard and mumbled, “Thanks,” to the floor.

“But, Aydan, what were
you doing here? Why were you lying there in the middle of the park?
I thought you’d been shot or something.” This time, the cop voice
couldn’t conceal the edge in his tone.

I sighed and stared at
the floor some more. “John, I’ve never been so close to beating
somebody to death in my life. I just couldn’t... could barely
control it.”

I realized my fists
were clenched when he took one in his hand and stroked it until I
released my fingers.

I took a deep breath.
“I just had to blow off some steam. I wasn’t even safe to drive. I
don’t know what I would’ve done if anybody had gotten in my way. So
I just came here and ran in circles.”

I spoke into his
silence. “I know. Pathetic. Sorry. I’ve just been on edge
lately.”

“Aydan.” His hand
tightened on mine. “You’ve had the week from hell. You were
attacked, and you reacted. You took out a man twice your size. You
are absolutely not pathetic. You’re amazing.”

I was grateful for the
curtain of hair that hid my flaming face. “Thanks,” I mumbled to
the floor.

He held my hand for a
few moments longer. “Do you need help to sit up, or is that just a
comfortable position?”

I groaned. “Both,
actually. Kidding,” I added as he reached for my shoulders. “I can
manage.”

I heaved myself upright
and slumped against the passenger door. “How the heck did you find
me? Better question, why did you even know you should look?”

“I’m a spy.” His mouth
quirked.

“Funny man.”

“One of the employees
at the Silverside Hotel called the RCMP. Witnesses placed you
charging out of the hotel looking furious, leaving Harks lying
beaten semi-conscious in the office. They knew who you were,
obviously. You’re easy to identify.” He gave me a wry look.

“The closest officer
was down at the detachment in Drumheller,” he continued. “So they
called me, since I was in their records as the officer in charge
when you were abducted in March. As soon as I got the message, I
fired up the tracking system and locked onto your cell phone.”

“Thanks for rescuing me
again,” I told him. “Do I have to go and talk to the RCMP now?”

“No, I’ve taken your
statement, and I’ll straighten it out with them. I don’t think
there will be any problem, under the circumstances.”

I sighed. At least
there were some advantages to working with spies. The ability to
make assault charges go away, for one thing.