Rocky Ride (Thompson & Sons) (9 page)

“Don’t move,” the older officer in front of him warned, the nametag on his uniform spelling
MACKIE
in bold black letters. “Greyson, check out his story.”

“Company name is on the side door of the truck. My name is Mitch Thompson, and I have no idea what’s going on.” Other than his arms already going numb from the awkward position.

Greyson held up the envelope Denis had abandoned. “This one?”

Mitch nodded.

The police pointed at the truck. “Everything in there belong to you?”

“It should. Papers are in the glove box.”

Greyson nodded. “Keep cooperating, and we’ll check out your story.”

He vanished, leaving Mitch in the company of five officers, a couple of whom were systematically emptying desk drawers.

“Sit,” Mackie ordered, pointing at the flimsy plastic reception chairs positioned against the wall.

Mitch sat.

He watched out the window as a large group of officers led a line of cuffed and controlled workers into police cars, the yard filled with neon blue and red flashing lights.

Inside the office, police were now working at computer screens as well as the files. Mitch’s stomach was in his shoes as the activity continued. This wasn’t something small and innocent he’d stumbled into—not with this many police on the case.

Greyson was striding back already, and Mitch’s hopes fell further at the icy expression the man wore.

He stomped through the office entrance and handed the envelope back to Mackie. “Numbers don’t match the ones on the vehicles still in his truck.”

“What?” Mitch snapped. “That’s impossible.”

Greyson turned a cold eye on him and lifted the box Mitch had picked up from the craft store, the flaps on the lid swinging open. “Planning on doing a little Vehicle Identification Number etching, were you, Mr. Thompson?”

Oh fuck. What the hell had Katy bought? “No—I swear there’s been a mistake.”

Mackie shook his head as he grabbed Mitch’s arm and escorted him from the building. “Then we’ll sort it out down at the police station. Right now you’re under arrest for suspicion of involvement with grand theft auto.”

Chapter Seven

M
ITCH’S EXPRESSION
remained stone cold as Anna waited behind the counter for him to be escorted from the holding cell he’d been stewing in for the past three hours.

Anna fought to keep from swaying, pushing aside the lightheaded rush that struck at seeing him in one piece. Her adrenaline count had to be off the charts—wakened from a solid sleep full of dirty sex dreams, she’d jerked on her clothes and hightailed it to Calgary as quickly as possible after Mitch had called.

Fortunately, showing her police identification had given her a chance to talk to the head officer of the raid. Detective Mackie had been more than reasonable, especially once they’d spotted the mix up on numbers between the manifest Mitch had presented and the bills of sale.

It was a mistake that would have been found eventually, but with the sheer number of arrests made that day it would have taken a lot longer to prove Mitch’s innocence if she’d been someone off the street.

“You okay?” she asked Mitch as he joined her.

He dipped his head, but avoided meeting her eyes. “Do I need to do anything before we get the hell out of here?”

Detective Mackie rose from his desk, holding out a thin envelope. Mitch eyed it with suspicion. Anna grabbed the papers as Mackie explained. “Receipt for the items you brought in. I can’t let you back into the yard today—you’ll have to make another trip to pick up your transport. Sorry for the inconvenience, but the teams are working through there nonstop.”

Mitch nodded then pushed past Anna to the exit door without another word.

Anna paused. “Thanks for your help, sir. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me and help fix this mistake so quickly.”

Mackie’s gaze lingered on Mitch’s back where he waited by the door, shoulders rigid under his jacket. “Let me know if there’s anything else you need a hand with.”

Mitch had to be watching, because he had the door open as soon as she was within touching distance. Only he didn’t storm through like she expected, instead letting her step past him as he rotated to face the office.

“Detective Mackie?” Mitch called back.

The man looked up from where he’d returned to his paper-strewn desk. “Yes?”

“Thanks.”

That was it. No waiting for a response, Mitch caught hold of her and pushed her before him, out of the building and into the parking lot.

Anna couldn’t blame him for not wanting to stick around. “Come on, I parked over here.”

She linked her fingers through his and tugged him in the right direction. He squeezed once, then let her lead. Silence accompanied their walk.

He grunted in surprise, though, when they turned the corner. “You drove my truck.”

“You had a full tank of gas.” She looked up at him. “I hope that was okay.”

“Damn it, Anna.” Mitch pulled her to a stop beside the driver’s door and hauled her into his arms. The hold he had was less of an embrace and more as if he were drawing strength from the contact. Anna wove her arms around his waist and clung tightly. Waiting for him to get past the moment. Hoping he’d open up and talk…

Realizing that she wanted more intimacy—she wanted to know what he was feeling inside—and that knowledge turned her heart over in a weird flopping motion.

Mitch exhaled long and hard, his breath heating the side of her cheek. “Thank you for coming and getting me. Thanks for keeping my ass out of jail.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Mitch,” Anna pointed out. “They would have found the proof eventually.”

Mitch opened his door and gave her a hand in. “Eventually might have meant time behind bars, and trust me, I’m not game to repeat that experience ever again in my life.”

He slid in after her and held out his hand.

Anna was in too much shock to understand what he was asking for at first. “Oh, your keys. Right here.”

She dropped them into his palm before examining his face closely.

Mitch’s dark eyes were pinned on hers. “You didn’t know I got arrested once?”

She shook her head. “Too many speeding tickets?”

The side of his mouth twitched. Almost a smile. “I’m surprised you never heard about this. I was hanging out with a bunch of friends during high school, and things went a little too far. Playing chicken with their fathers’ tractors ended badly—we destroyed property and the tractors. Unfortunately, one of the gang had pot in their pockets, so when the RCMP showed up and we all got hauled into the station we had that to deal with on top of it all. I ended up alone in a holding cell all night, and a juvvy arrest that’s since been purged from the records.”

“Wait—”
Alone
? “Where were the rest of the guys? And weren’t your parents called?”

Mitch nodded even as he got them on the road and headed back north. “All our parents were. The rest of the group got bailed out, including the friend with drugs. Everyone, except me. Mom and Dad came to the station, found out what I’d been up to, then went home.”

“Holy—really? That sounds so not like what I know of your Dad.”

“I think if it had been Dad alone, he’d have caved, but my Mom—the woman had nerves of steel.”

Anna twisted sideways on the bench seat to face Mitch. “You weren’t even sixteen, right? If your mom was still around.”

“Summer I was fifteen. Mom was already fighting cancer. She looked me in the eye and told me I could be anything I wanted to in life. And that some times things would happen that weren’t fair, but that a lot of the time what happened to me would be a result of my actions.”

“Consequences.” Tough lesson to learn at any age. “So they left you overnight.”

“Picked me up in the morning, took me out for the biggest breakfast I could eat. Told me they loved me, but if I ever got arrested again, they’d be damn disappointed.”

He shut up then, lips pressed tight, both hands clutching the wheel tight as if he needed his full concentration to drive. Anna stared out the window for a bit, letting the warm air from the heater blow over them as she leaned against his side. The miles flew past, the sunlight shining on the wintery wonderland already growing fainter. Days were getting shorter all the time.

Time sped past. A steady blur of night and day, more work and more play, but all of it spinning together and mixing into one grey mass that was indistinguishable from the next.

The never-ending forward roll right now made her wonder where exactly she was headed. She had her job, in spite of the frustrations. She had her family, no matter that they weren’t always on the same page.

The goals she’d set over the past years didn’t feel like enough anymore.

Because of Mitch…

Where was this going? Was this going anywhere, the relationship between the two of them? He’d said he wanted more, and that the physical side wasn’t enough.

Mitch was a good man. He had a family who loved him and cared for him. He had things he was passionate about, more than just burning up the highway on his bike.

He was opening up more as time passed—and there was that theme again. A constant loop in her brain. Time
was
passing. In the end, things would be different than they were now.

Where was this going? What did she want?

Could she offer him more than what he already had?

“Why did you call me, Mitch?”

He stiffened, and Anna kicked herself. The question had come out of the blue for him. She softened her tone and caught his arm carefully. “I mean, I’m glad you did, but…”

“Why not one of the boys?” He cracked a real smile for the first time since she’d picked him up. “Can you imagine giving them this kind of ammunition to hold over me during every fight from now to eternity?”

Anna held his arm reassuringly.

Mitch glanced at her. “I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, and I hoped you’d be able to help me. I’m sorry if that was taking advantage of what we’ve got happening.”

“Of course it wasn’t. I’m glad it was so simple to spot what had gone wrong.”

There was a short pause before he spoke softly. “Can we keep this on the quiet? I don’t want to upset Katy.”

Oh. Katy must have been the one who wrote down the wrong numbers. “When Mackie and I went through them, we found the bills of sale were correct, and there were only a couple digits slipped in other places.”

Mitch nodded. “And if it had been a normal day, with a normal parts drop, that kind of mix-up would have meant nothing. We would have found the mistake when Denis and I went over the papers, compared them to the bills of sale, and fixed things. Done.”

“It was the raid that complicated matters.” She was glad they had found all the missing details. “You guys picked a good salvage yard for selling off parts,” Anna teased lightly.

He shook his head. “Years it’s been that we’ve used that place. Denis has been rock solid for
years
. I can’t figure out what the hell he was thinking setting up a chop shop.”

“Tight times means people sometimes make stupid mistakes. Or greed—thinking it’s easy money.” She squeezed his thigh. “I’m sorry you got caught in the middle of it.”

“Anyway, I don’t want Katy to know. I’ll obviously tell Dad we need a new salvage yard, but she doesn’t need more on her plate right now. Not with everything she’s dealing with after the accident.”

His devotion to his family caused a lump to rise in Anna’s throat. She deliberately bumped him with her shoulder. “Tell her what?”

Finally a laugh escaped him, even though it was a small one. “You’re golden. Thanks.”

“Hey, all charges were dropped, which means it never happened,” she pointed out.

Mitch draped an arm around her shoulders and hauled her in as close as possible. “Sorry if I was a little abrupt back at the station. I swore I’d never get into a situation where I’d be arrested again, and I never have. Hated to get caught up just because of a mistake.”

Anna offered another squeeze. “You didn’t do anything wrong. That was proven. Try to forget it.”

He fell silent, only this time it was a more comfortable silence. Anna turned up the radio, cuddled into his side and got lost in her thoughts.

They drove for over an hour before making a pit stop for gas and drinks. Mitch cracked open his coke while Anna twisted off the cap of her drink and peeked under the lid. She snorted in derision before she could stop herself.

“What’s so funny?” he demanded.

“It says ‘You will journey to your heart’s desire’. The only journeying I currently have planned doesn’t involve my heart’s desire.” If she could even figure out what that was. Anna shook her head then took a long drink of the sweet orange liquid.

“Hey, don’t knock it,” Mitch said. “Maybe you’ll get a chance to go to some great conference for work.”

While interesting, she doubted that was her heart’s desire. “If it’s held in Hawaii, I’m game.”

“Maybe you’ll win some hot-shot constable-of-the-year thing for all your hard work. They appreciate you at the station.” Mitch stroked her shoulder lightly. “I think you’re pretty awesome.”