Chapter 16
The rich scent of coffee brewing teased Ronnie into consciousness. She lay in bed a moment wondering who was making coffee, then remembered the night before, Gavin’s news and that he’d stayed.
It was Gavin making coffee, she told herself, knowing it was most likely.
Still, something in the back of her head told her to get up and be sure.
She would be the kind of idiot who ended up strapped face down to a bench, taking it up the ass in some billionaire’s playroom, then in a cage the rest of the time.
All because she hadn’t bothered to make sure the coffee that woke her was her brother’s and not some stranger.
She threw the blanket off and touched the lamp on the nightstand, turning on the light as she threw her legs off the edge of the bed.
Glancing around, she didn’t see Opie anywhere. Had he woken Gavin? Was that why her brother was up at this ungodly hour. She checked the clock. Almost five.
She bit back the groan that threatened to escape as she stood. First things first, make sure it’s Gavin moving around, then coffee. If she had to be up this early, she needed caffeine to fuel her brain.
Aware that she still hadn’t confirmed it was Gavin, she slipped quietly from her room, then down the hall, she was still in the living room, around the corner from being able to see who was in the kitchen when she heard him whistling to himself.
She didn’t bother to bite back her groan as she remembered that her brother was a morning person.
Mornings were not her friend, and she’d long held a belief that morning people weren’t to be trusted.
Except that the one person she knew she could trust, no matter what, was one of those sick and twisted people.
No longer needing to stay quiet, she shuffled into the kitchen and glared at Gavin as she went to the coffee pot, put in a fresh pod, moved her favorite mug, a yellow one with goggles and overalls under the spout and hit the button to start the magic.
She stared at her cup, willing it to fill, but also taking comfort in the goofy smile on the cup. She knew it was a character from a kids movie, but she didn’t care. The tiny creatures that were always so happy to please made her smile.
“I didn’t mean to wake you up. I just couldn’t sleep any longer.”
Ronnie bit the inside of her lip to keep from growling. “I thought with all the traveling you’ve done, you’d sleep in for a change.”
Gavin’s laugh grated across her nerves.
“It may only be five here, but it’s eight at home. This is sleeping in to me.”
She briefly wondered if duct tape would make him shut up, if only for ten minutes until she could drink her first cup.
Then she would be able to handle his cheerful, morning-person personality.
She managed to nod, hoping he would take that as a hint and stop talking.
Her coffee was almost done, then she could have some.
As soon as the machine let out the puff of steam indicating it was finished, she picked up the cup and turned to the refrigerator.
Normally she would drink it black, but this morning she pulled out the chocolate syrup and added a healthy squirt before putting the bottle back inside.
After a quick stir, she took a long drink, the chocolate adding a nice flavor, but more importantly, it had cooled the drink until it didn’t scald her throat as she gulped it as quickly as she could manage.
She was only half-way through the cup when someone knocked on her front door. Immediately, her gaze flew to Gavin. She stared at him eyes wide for an eon. In reality, only a second or two had passed. The knock came again.
“Since you didn’t plan to be up, I take it you’re not expecting anyone?”
Ronnie shook her head. “Not me. Maybe it’s for you?”
Gavin shook his head as he headed for the front door and the knocking that was coming yet again.
“No one knows I’m here. It can’t be for me.”
There was a moment of silence. Ronnie could only imagine what was happening. If it was her answering the door, she’d be checking the peep hole to see who was out there.
“Looks like your wet dream is here,” Gavin called back.
She heard the dead bolt click open as she tried to figure out what the hell he was talking about.
The low rumble of voices made its way to her, but she couldn’t make out what was being said.
She was still trying to figure out what Gavin had meant by the wet dream comment, when she heard him calling her name.
“Veronica!” There was a strain in his voice she couldn’t place with just answering the door.
He had to have called her a couple of times without her answering to have started using her full name. She straightened from where she was leaning against the counter and went to see what was going on.
She rounded the corner to see an arm stretched through the door, hand wrapped around her brother’s throat as a voice she couldn’t place growled something at him that she was too far away to make out.
“What’s going on?” she asked, hurrying toward Gavin and the door.
“You okay, firecracker?” a voice came from the doorway.
“Demon?”
“Yeah, babe. You okay? Who is this?” The hand he had wrapped around Gavin’s neck didn’t seem to be squeezing, only holding him.
“It’s my brother. Can you let him go, please?”
“Is that true? You her brother?”
Gavin nodded slowly. Demon stared at him for a couple more seconds then released him before turning to look at her.
“I got more information on Jim Bob and a few other things. We need to talk.”
She stared at him a moment, her mind felt like it was fighting two feet of snow and ice to process what was going on around her.
“Come on in.” She turned around and headed for the kitchen. “I need more coffee.” She drained her cup on the way, then started another cup while she waited for the men to join her.
“Who actually goes by Demon?” Gavin asked as they made it around the corner.
Ronnie looked at her brother for a moment, wondering why he was asking this.
He knew who Demon was, they’d talked about him.
Then it occurred to her. Gavin didn’t want Demon to know he’d researched him, or at least not yet.
She wondered what her brother was up to, but didn’t say anything.
She didn’t know where he was going with this.
“It’s my call sign.”
Gavin frowned. “You don’t look like law enforcement.”
Demon shrugged. “The cops aren’t the only ones to use call signs.”
Ronnie wondered why Gavin was doing this. He’d told her he’d looked into the man she was tailing, he knew all this. She shook her head and pulled her cup from under the coffee maker as soon as it finished then turned to look at them.
“Either of you want coffee, help yourself. I need to drink this before I’m ready to deal with either of you. Give me ten minutes or so and I’ll be mostly human.”
She moved around the bar, pulled out a stool and sat. She didn’t care if they had coffee or not, as long as they didn’t expect much out of her until she’d finished this cup.
“She’s useless until she gets enough caffeine in her. You want some coffee?” Gavin asked, moving to the coffee maker.
“Please.”
Gavin put a clean cup under the machine and went through all the steps to start it brewing then went to the fridge and started pulling things out.
“If we wait for her to come back to the land of the living, we won’t get anything to eat until noon.” Gavin set the carton of eggs on the bar then turned back to the refrigerator. “Do you have any bacon?”
“Bottom drawer,” Ronnie answered automatically.
Gavin continued digging, setting things on the counter then going back to the fridge. He moved around her kitchen as if he lived there. It wasn’t that he was here that often, but when he did visit, she wanted him to feel at home.
“You hungry?” Gavin asked Demon.
“I’m not starving. I ate a couple of hours ago, but I wouldn’t turn down food.”
Ronnie turned to Demon. “A couple of hours ago? When did you sleep?”
“Haven’t had time.” He shrugged.
She watched him, eyes narrowed as she sipped the black nectar that would hit her brain here any moment then it wouldn’t feel like the oil in the gears of her brain were bogged down with peanut butter or something equally sticky and hard to move through.
She wasn’t sure, maybe she’d come up with a better analogy once her brain functioned again.
She wasn’t going to hold her breath though.
Gavin went about cooking while Ronnie finished her coffee. When the cup was empty, she stared down at the bottom for a few seconds before setting it in the middle of the bar and laying her head on her bent arm and closed her eyes.
“You okay?” Demon asked.
She opened her eyes and found him frowning at her.
“Need more sleep. Or another gallon of coffee.”
He didn’t respond but shook his head, picked up her cup and went to the coffee maker.
“How much coffee does it take?” Demon asked Gavin, his voice soft.
“Anywhere between two and four cups.”
“Crap, how long is this going to take?”
Someone closed the machine and hit the start button.
“Shouldn’t be too much longer. That’s her third cup.”
Demon didn’t respond, at least not that she could hear. She lay there listening to the sounds of the two of them moving around her kitchen while the caffeine she’d already consumed.
A moment later she heard the clink of her cup hitting the counter.
“Come on, sleeping beauty. We’ve got things we need to talk about, and I need you upright and functional for this.”
She opened her eyes and found her cup sitting right in front of her face.
The goggle framed eyes staring right at her.
That was better than the other side she guessed.
Though if it had been her giving him coffee, she would have set it so the little yellow naked butt was what he saw when he opened his eyes.
The thought made an amused smile skate across her face as she lifted her head and picked up the mug.
“I saw that, firecracker. What made you smile like that?”
She finished sipping from the mug, and lowered it to the counter. “I was just thinking that if I’d given you the cup, I would have made sure it was mooning you.” She turned the cup so the butt was aiming at him, and she was essentially, mooning him, even if it was with her cup.
He opened his mouth as if to say something but closed it and shook his head without saying anything.
“How long have you two known each other?” Gavin asked as he poured eggs into the skillet.
Her eyes went wide as she tried to figure out what to tell her brother.
“Not long,” Demon said before she had a chance to figure out what to say. “But I like where it’s going so far.”
“It’s not the way it sounds.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them.
That made it sound even more like what he thought.
She let her head fall forward, planning to let her forehead smack the counter.
There was a small hope that it might knock some sense into her.
But her head never hit the counter. Instead, she hit something soft.
Well, softer than the counter she’d expected.
Ronnie lifted her head and found the back of Demon’s hand lying on the counter where she’d dropped her head. She looked up at him, confused why he would do that.
Demon didn’t say anything but scowled and shook his head. She rolled her eyes.
“Gavin, this is the guy I told you about, Jenning’s cousin.” She didn’t have to say that he was helping her. She’d already told him that much.
“If that’s who he is, why is he showing up here at five A.M., and why did he threaten me when I answered the door?
How did he know I wasn’t your boyfriend?
” Gavin’s voice was surprisingly reasonable, considering everything going on, what they’d discussed last night and what had happened this morning.
She didn’t bother looking at her brother as he asked his questions. Instead, she kept her gaze on Demon’s face and lifted one brow. If he was going to be answering for her, she’d let him answer this one too. She was curious about the answers too.
“You told me last night that you weren’t seeing anyone.
” One corner of his mouth quirked up, making her remember how his lips had felt against hers.
“Then there’s that the car in the driveway is a rental, which told me either it’s stolen or he’s not local.
” He never looked away from her. It felt like he was talking to her, not answering her brother’s questions.
“How do you know where I live?”
“I’ve got connections, firecracker.” His half smile spread into a grin with that.
Ronnie didn’t know what to say to that so she turned her attention back to her brother. Gavin was in the process of portioning the eggs onto tortillas already warmed and on plates.
“I just saw you last night. Has something changed since then? How much change in what?” She glanced at the clock, then inwardly cringed. She hated seeing anything earlier than six A.M. “Ten hours.”
“More than you’d think.” He leaned forward in his seat. “I gave your name to a friend of mine, the same friend who’s helping me find the information on Jim Bob. He did his thing and let me know a few things.”
She frowned, and stared into the dark surface of her coffee.
She wanted to know what he’d found about her, to know why he was looking into her in the first place.
Not that she had anything to hide, but that wasn’t the point.
What right did he have? She looked up to find Demon watching her, one brow lifted as if challenging her to say something.
That’s when she remembered how she’d known where he worked, the amount of research she’d put into him when she thought he was her skip.
“What was so important that you showed up here at the ass crack of dawn?”
“You’re in trouble, firecracker, and I’m not about to let anything happen to you.”
She stared at him. How had he found that out?
How had he known without talking to anyone what her brother had come here for?
Or was he talking to the same source? She had to wonder if whoever was telling Gavin about her all the way in Vermont was the same person telling tales to this near stranger. Was it possible?