Chapter 10
By the time Nico walked into Rusty’s that night, it was well after ten p.m. Things were winding down, the novelty of an active police investigation and a killer at large evidently wearing off as residents gradually returned to their regular evenings at home. It was good. It gave law enforcement some much-needed room to breathe and do their work in peace. Only thing was, they hoped it didn’t mean locals were using the respite as an excuse to become complacent.
Nico’s eyes searched the restaurant for any sign of Lexie, finding none. Maybe she was out the back somewhere? Or in the lady’s room? Could be that she’d already gone home for the night, in which case, he’d make a trip out to her house to make sure she was alright. He checked his phone again. No reply to his last message—one of two he’d sent her in the past hour, plus a call she never picked up. Knowing full well he was acting like an overbearing asshole, Nico couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. He hadn’t heard from her all day, didn’t know if she had plans, or was going out of town, or accidentally dropped her cell in a toilet and that’s why she hadn’t checked in. Hell, he didn’t even know if she had another man casually warming her bed. She had no obligation to tell him anything, after all. But still, total radio silence seemed off, and he knew his insides would continue to churn until he knew she was safe.
“Hey. Wade, right?” he said to the hulking man behind the bar.
He looked up from the glass he was polishing and gave Nico a once-over. “You must be the new cop that’s got all my girls swooning.”
Nico snorted. “If I am, it’s news to me. I’m, uh, looking for Lexie. Is she here?”
“Nah, man. She had the lunch shift today.”
“Oh. Any idea where she might be now?”
“Home would be my guess.”
“And my chances of getting her address off you would be . . .”
The way Wade’s hands stopped moving mid-task and his chin slowly lifted made Nico think of his own reaction whenever guys used to come sniffing around his sisters. It also made him consider his next words carefully as he took stock of the man’s sheer size and power. Simply put, if he didn’t want to give up the information, there’s no way in hell Nico could force him.
“I just want to make sure she’s locked up tight for the night, that’s all.”
“Mm-hmm.” Wade stowed the clean glass on a shelf and grabbed another from the drying rack. “Didn’t think to try calling?”
“I did. No luck.”
Wade considered that. Without saying a word, he reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out his own phone, dialing what Nico assumed was Lexie’s number and holding it up to his ear with a frown. When she didn’t pick up, he clicked off without leaving a message.
“Tell you what,” he said, sliding his cell back into his pocket. “After closing, I’ll go by and check on her.”
“Or I could save you the trouble and do it right now.”
Wade leaned both arms on the bar. “Look man, no offense, but I don’t know you. And I sure as shit am not giving out Lexie’s address to some random. We clear?”
“You know I’m a cop, right? I can just run her name through a database and get it that way.”
“So go do that then,” Wade said, unbothered.
Shit. Nico didn’t want to waste the time it would take to go down that road when the information he needed was right here.
“You know, I wish I could be pissed about this, but honestly, I’m glad she’s got someone looking out for her.”
Wade smirked. “Have a good night, Lieutenant.”
“Hi, Nico!” An exuberant redhead with hoop earrings and a friendly smile came up behind Wade and rested her elbows on the bar.
“Hi . . .”
“I’m Vikki,” she said.
A pause while Nico tried to dredge her face out of his memory bank. “I’m sorry, Vikki, have we met?”
“Not officially,” she laughed. “But word travels fast around here. You’re already a household name. Isn’t that right, Wade?”
Wade only grunted, going back to polishing glasses.
“So, what brings you in tonight? Lexie’s not here.”
“I know. I was actually just asking Wade for her address to go see her, but apparently, that’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?” She looked between them, clearly wondering what she’d missed. Then it clicked. “Oh, Wadey.” She tsked. “You are such a sweetheart, but you really have no idea how to read women, do you?” To Nico, she added, “I think she would love to see you. She lives a few miles out of town. Just follow the main road south until you see a turn for Shepherd’s Road. Her place is another five or six miles from there. Red mailbox on the left. You can miss it, so pay attention.”
“Jesus Christ, Vikki!” Wade exclaimed. “How do you even know that?”
“She had me over for coffee last week.”
Wade was annoyed, but the damage was done. Instead of chastising her further, he turned a pointed finger on Nico. “Alright, listen. We’ll be closing in a couple hours. The second that sign is turned, I’m calling Lexie again. I don’t get an answer, I’m in my truck and hunting your ass down. Got it?”
“Relax, big man.” Nico backed away, smiling. “Thanks a lot,” he said to Vikki, throwing a cheeky wink her way for good measure.
Once outside, he pulled out his phone and tried Lexie one more time. “Hey, it’s Nico,” he told her voice mail. “I’m coming to see you. I hope that’s okay.”
Lexie felt herself slipping into oblivion and did absolutely nothing to stop it. Why would she? The warm water, the lavender, the rose petals she’d sprung for just because she could—all of it was amazing. Every inch of her body, from her aching feet to her tense shoulders, softened, relaxing into the bubbles until there was nothing else. No psycho killer. No Kyle. No decisions to be made about Nico and all the things she’d love to do to him behind closed doors, and have him do to her. There was just this moment, this bliss, this perfect, beautiful, magical—
The sound of knuckles rapping on wood made her stomach flip over and her eyes spring open.
Who the hell?
She had no idea how long she’d been soaking, but as she dragged herself from the tub and wrapped a robe tight around her waist, she realized it must have been a while, judging by her pruney fingers. With no time to properly dry herself off, she padded barefoot down the hall and into the foyer to investigate.
A cold sweat broke out on her skin the same instant she remembered that the bulb in the patio light had blown, and she had yet to replace it. Dammit, she should have listened to Paul. Should have let him install security cameras or an alarm system, like he’d offered time and time again. Should have grabbed something more dangerous than a rolling pin from the kitchen, which she currently held in shaky hands as she approached the front door.
What if it was him? Oh, God, what if a cold-blooded killer stood on the other side of that door, mere inches from her? What if—
Get a grip, she ordered herself. If it is, do you really think he’d knock?
The thought calmed her nerves enough for her to find her voice. “Who’s there?”
“Lexie? It’s Nico.”
Her knees almost buckled. “Nico?” Holding the rolling pin in one hand, she unlocked the deadbolt with the other and opened the door a few inches. “You scared me. I thought—I don’t know what I thought. What are you doing here?”
“Sorry, I tried to call.” Soft lamplight from the living room spilled out, illuminating his weary face. He wore a white t-shirt atop bootcut jeans with a leather jacket that was clearly a well-used favorite. “I just—I wanted to make sure you were okay. You know, I’ve been busy today and hadn’t heard from you, so I thought—” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry if I’m overstepping here.”
“No, no. It’s fine.” She let the door swing open, breathing a sigh of relief that she wasn’t about to die, and took a step back, allowing him enough room to enter if he wished. “I was just, um, taking a nice long bath.”
He didn’t move, but his eyes dropped from her face to her body, and something flared in them. A glint in the dark. Barely perceptible, especially when he cleared his throat and studied the floor a second later. Then she realized, her wet body, clad in nothing more than thin satin, was now on full display. She didn’t need to look down to know her nipples were hard pebbles against the fabric, the chill of the evening air giving her goosebumps.
She crossed her arms. “Did—did you want to come in?”
“Uh . . .”
“Just”—she retreated further, leaving the door hanging open—“just give me a minute. Please. Make yourself at home.” Then she bolted back up the hallway and into her bedroom.
Taking a few minutes to change into yoga pants and an oversized sweater, Lexie finger-combed her hair, applied a little balm to her lips, and returned to find Nico pacing the foyer. He’d closed the door behind him but made no other move to get comfortable.
“Would you like a beer?”
“Sure.”
She led him into the open plan space, covertly noting his reaction to seeing her home for the first time. As his gaze swept over anything and everything, she tried to imagine what his fresh eyes would make of it, what it all said about her as a person. After her father died and left her the house, she’d agonized for months about whether it was okay to sell off half the furniture in it and start fresh. Finally deciding—with Annie’s help—that it was, she opted for a simple, yet tasteful style. Two fawn-colored couches with big, comfy cushions sat facing each other on top of a weaved wheat rug, a reclaimed wood coffee table between them. To break up the earthy tones, she’d draped a white throw over the arm of one, a green checked blanket over the other, and strategically placed a couple of indoor potted plants in the corners. Gold candlesticks graced the mantel, along with some framed photos and a stack of her father’s favorite books. Across the room, her dining table was round with wrought iron legs and a timber top. A bright green bowl full of fruit sat in the center and four matching chairs underneath. The kitchen was Lexie’s favorite. She’d had the countertops redone in butcher block a few months ago along with low-key white-plank cabinetry. It was modern but still cozy.
Popping the rolling pin back in its drawer on the way past, she went straight to the refrigerator and opened a beer for Nico and one for herself.
“What were you planning to do with that?” he asked, amusement leaking from every word. “Roll me out and bake me?”
Lexie smiled sweetly. “Actually, I was going to wallop you over the head with it.”
“Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
“How did you know where I live?” she asked, passing him his drink and moving to sit on one end of the couch.
Nico took a seat at the other end. “I wrestled it out of Wade.”
Almost inhaling the first sip on a laugh as the visual hit her brain, Lexie coughed a few times before gasping out, “You’re kidding.”
“Yes, I am. One hundred percent. Have you seen that guy? I mean, I can hold my own in a fight, but if he ever came at me”—he nodded like he’d thought it through—“I’d be a little worried.”
When the giggles finally subsided, Lexie braced an elbow on the back of the couch and leaned her head on her hand. “Was it strange? Crossing over the bridge you . . .”
As her words trailed off, she wondered if he even knew before driving out here tonight that the route to her house would take him past the site of his accident. Being her only way into town, she’d of course had to face it a billion and a half times already, but she wasn’t the one who’d been stuck in a wreck, bleeding out, dying . . .
He frowned. Then realization dawned in his eyes.
“I didn’t recognize it,” he admitted, starting on his beer. “But it’s been a long time and, like I said, I don’t remember much from that day.”
“So, missing person’s detective, huh?” she said when it became clear that he wasn’t going to say more.
“Former,” he corrected.
“That must have been an interesting job.”
Nico inclined his head. “It had its moments.”
“Do many people go missing? I mean, you know, in general?”
“Probably more than you’d like.”
He chuckled when she felt the blood drain from her face.
“A lot of those aren’t necessarily kidnappings,” he assured her. “There’s cases of mental health, drug and alcohol problems, homelessness, suicides. Kids running away from home, sometimes running from abuse, people just wanting to escape their own lives. Plenty of missing persons are found, many of them safe and sound.”
Hesitating, Lexie asked, “And the ones who aren’t found?”
Nico looked away. She couldn’t be sure, but something about the way he reacted told her he carried a lot of pain around that question.
“Can’t save everyone,” was all he said.
Choosing to try and shift the conversation into easier territory, she asked, “What made you want to join the police force?”
“It’s been a long time since anyone’s asked me that,” he replied, coming back from whatever dark place he’d been in moments before. “I’d hate to bore you.”
“Hey, you owe me for interrupting my bath.”
“And you can’t think of a better way for me to make up for the inconvenience?”
Lexie grinned as she brought the glass bottle to her lips. “I can, but someone told me I deserve better than that.”
As she took a long pull of her beer, she watched Nico absorb her words, loving the way he worked his jaw and took a deep breath. She’d made him uncomfortable. Good. About time the shoe was on the other foot.
“Okay,” he said. “I was just out of school, working construction. One night, I stopped off at a convenience store on my way home from work. It wasn’t late, maybe around seven. I remember I was starving though, the hot dogs on the warmer made my stomach growl so loud the clerk looked at me. Funny how you remember small things like that.”
Lexie mimicked his smile as he continued.
“When I got to the counter, there was a man ahead of me asking for a pack of cigarettes. Shady as all hell, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it. Until he pulled out a gun and started screaming at the clerk to give him all the cash in the register. He was cooperating but the gunman just kept shouting at him, making him panic.”
Nico picked at his fingernails as he spoke, no doubt recalling the cocktail of emotions that must have stampeded through him in that moment. Terror. Helplessness. Confusion. Lexie had felt them once too—recognized the imprint they’d left in him.
“It was just impulse,” he continued. “But something told me this guy was going to pull the trigger regardless of whether he got the money. And a second later he did, so I charged. The clerk went down as I tackled the gunman. I didn’t even think about it, just took him to the floor as hard as I could. I don’t know where the gun went, all that mattered to me was that it wasn’t in his hand anymore. And I held him there with everything I had until cops started grabbing at me, saying I could let go.”
Lexie felt her face soften, warmth and compassion stirring inside her for the young man he’d once been.
“Something happened that night,” he said. “I felt this amazing rush run through me, this weird sense of pride. I knew if I hadn’t done what I did, he probably would have gotten away with it. I guess it felt good to right that wrong, you know?”
“And the clerk?”
“He lived. It was just a flesh wound, got clipped in the arm. Far as I know, he’s still running that little store.”
“Wow,” she breathed. “That’s intense.”
“Tell me about it,” Nico laughed. “Definitely not what I had in mind for my evening plans.”
Lexie shook her head. “How does that saying go? We make plans while god laughs?”
“Guess you just do the best with the hand you’re dealt. Not that I’m complaining. For the most part, my hand has been pretty damn good.”
“Apart from taking a rough trip down the riverbank that one time,” she teased.
“I wouldn’t change that either,” he said, capturing her gaze. “It brought me to you.”
Lexie didn’t shy away this time, didn’t dip her head or hide her smile. Instead, she let herself be held in those honey-brown eyes.
She reached out and clinked her bottle on his. “I’ll drink to that.”
Things felt so easy with Lexie. They drank, ate chips, laughed, talked about anything and everything, and not once did Nico’s thoughts drift elsewhere, which for a guy married to his job, was saying something. Truth be told, Nico had never intended to get this cozy with her, having decided long before his transfer that this was just a temporary stint. A quiet reprieve from the noise of the city and—if he was lucky—an opportunity to make peace with the Rileys and slay his demons for good. Which made the fact that he was still sitting here on Lexie’s couch, talking about his childhood, his family, and whatever else she wanted to know about, disconcerting. And as much as it scared the shit out of him, he seemed to be developing feelings for her, feelings he couldn’t put a name to if he tried—but he suspected they weren’t one-sided. The more they spoke, the more he felt something from her that hadn’t been there before. An openness. Not quite trust, but something in the ballpark. Whatever it was, Nico had the distinct impression that she didn’t offer it lightly, and no matter what happened between them, he planned to be very, very careful with it.
“So, explain to me why you’re going to the trouble of studying Business and Economics just to open a bookstore?” he asked, clearing the empty bottles from her coffee table. “You could do all kinds of things with that qualification, run any kind of business. Do people even read books anymore?”
She rolled her eyes like he had no idea. “Because it’s what I want. And since I like you, I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that awful thing about books. Of course, people read books. People will always read books.”
Nico cocked a brow at her from the kitchen. “Did you just say you like me?”
“Don’t let it go to your head,” she said, standing. “Anyway, when I get the finance sorted out, I’m hoping to rent the empty shop space on Main Street; it’s been boarded up since the travel agent closed and nobody else seems to want to do anything with it. I’ll add a café in the back, hire a couple of staff. It will be beautiful, like Barnes Noble, only better.”
“You’d need to renovate to make it suitable.”
“Obviously.”
Nico tucked his hands in his pockets. “I could help you out with that, if you want.”
“We’re talking a long way into the future here, Nico.” As her laugh faded, a kind of sadness replaced it. “Who knows where you’ll be by then.”
“Are you so sure I won’t still be here?”
Idiot.
Now he was playing games with her. She’d already assumed he would move on eventually, so why was he dropping hints that he wouldn’t?
She shrugged, saying nothing.
“Well, wherever I am, there’s nothing stopping me from visiting you,” he said as they made their way back into the foyer to say goodbye. He dared inch closer, enough that she was forced to tilt her head back to see his face. “Is there?”
Lexie’s breathing changed, became shallower, but she held her ground.
“I guess not.” When he made no move to retreat, she cleared her throat and said, “So, tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“What does the future hold for Lieutenant/Detective Nico Dominici?”
Nico’s eyes roamed her face, taking in every detail. She didn’t have a hint of makeup on, and he loved it. Loved seeing the real her. Having been left to dry naturally, her hair was all wavy and damp, falling over her shoulders in a tempting tumble of gold. He could feel her breath on his skin, the heat of her body. Could see the wet sheen on her lips, evidence of her licking them after finishing off her last beer.
“I can’t imagine being anything but a cop,” he said. “I never wanted to do anything else. Probably be doing it until I’m too old to hold my own, then I’ll retire with a measly pension, get a cane, and shout at kids who walk on my perfect lawn every day on their way to school.”
She laughed. As she reached back to grab the door handle, Nico was caught off guard by the heavy disappointment descending on him now that it was time to leave.
“But is that all?” she asked. “No vision of yourself climbing the ranks or ending up somewhere in particular? Captain Dominici, perhaps?”
He put his tongue in his cheek, and her eyes lit up at the hint.
This time, it was she who moved closer. “You can tell me.”
He considered her question, then forgot all about it when his eyes landed on her mouth again, the way she had the bottom lip tucked under her teeth in that way that drove him mad. Unable to help himself, he stepped closer to her, closing the small space between them. She backed up against the door and gasped as the latch clicked closed again.
“What are you doing?”
Nico used his hand to tilt her chin toward him, thumb lightly pulling at the lip she was no longer biting. “This,” he whispered.
He gave her every opportunity to stop him.
She didn’t.
And as his mouth closed over hers, he knew there would be no going back.