Chapter 36
Clover frowned as Micah barreled his way into her house. She’d left her brother’s place hours ago and had hoped she’d managed to avoid the conversation Micah was determined to have with her. “Yes, please come in,” she gritted out. She was about done with the men in her life just taking over.
“Our conversation from before isn’t finished.” He turned to face her, looking all adorable, and ugh, she hated that she’d kissed him once.
Biggest mistake of her life. Because now she knew what his lips felt like against hers, how damn good he kissed.
And she wondered if that translated to other things.
The man was so damn smart he’d probably read all there was to know on pleasuring a woman before he’d even had sex the first time— Oh my god she had to stop! Stop, stop, stop, she ordered.
“Are you even listening to me?” he demanded, his green eyes laser focused on her.
She turned away from him and stalked to her living room, mostly because she needed to get her dumb brain under control.
He followed her and when she turned she found him staring. He blinked once. Twice. “What the hell is this?”
“It’s called laundry.” And fine, she was playing catch-up for weeks so her couches were quite literally covered in her clothes and towels.
She’d also washed her bed linens and curtains because that was what she did when stressed, so there was even more than normal.
“How about you help instead of just staring?” she snipped, not expecting him to actually pitch in.
But he dove right into a pile of towels and started folding—the correct way. Not the lazy way. Huh.
“Why are you staring at me?”
“I’m just impressed you know how to fold towels.”
“I feel like I should probably be insulted, but other than my brothers, most of my friends let their laundry pile up like…you.” His tone was dry.
“Hey!”
“I’m just playing.” His lip quirked up ever so slightly, and damn it, she wanted to kiss him again.
“So why are you here?” She knew, but she wanted him to start talking. Because the faster he did, the faster he could leave.
“Because you made it sound like you were going to go after Louis Cain by yourself and that would be a big mistake.”
“I’m not going to go after him.” She was just stalking him a little bit. Or a lot. Because she was convinced he’d had something to do with her friend’s disappearance. Or maybe even…murder.
Something Clover was trying hard not to think about, even though it made sense. A horrible, horrible, sense.
“I can hear the lie in your voice.” He moved fast, already done with the stack of towels, and had moved on.
“Don’t touch my…stuff!”
He held up a hot pink thong, eyebrows raised, then set it back on the couch, but yeah, she saw the heat in his gaze.
“It’s never happening!” she shouted, then winced. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with her? Oh, so much, she knew that.
Micah paused, watching her with those intense green eyes she wanted to lose herself in. “Me touching your panties?”
“No. I mean, yes. But nothing is happening between us. I know I kissed you, but that was a mistake. And it won’t be happening again.”
“You didn’t like it?”
She blinked, but then forced her expression to go full-on haughty. “Not really.” She felt bad lying, but not that bad. Not when he was just so damn distracting.
His eyes narrowed so she ignored him and picked up a pair of jogging pants.
“Anyway,” she continued, hoping he’d drop it, “you don’t have to worry about me chasing down Cain, so you can just…not worry about me.”
He grunted and fluffed out one of her curtains, glanced around the living room. “Was this set over there?”
She nodded and he disappeared into her garage, came back in with a ladder and hung up her curtains for her while she continued folding. “Are you going to say anything else?”
“I’m trying to choose my words carefully. I know you’re lying to me about not going after Cain. Because I know you’ve been following him. And before you ask how I know, I’ve been following you.”
Her mouth fell open before she could stop herself. “What!”
He shrugged, completely unapologetic as he climbed down the ladder. “Not going to apologize, if that’s what you’re waiting for. Because let me remind you that you came to me asking for help.”
“I know I did…but you can just forget everything.”
“That’s not going to happen. And since it’s clear that you’re going to run straight into danger, you’re going to work with me.”
She started to argue but then paused. “Explain.”
“I never stopped digging into him. Unfortunately it sounds like he’s got federal protection. Or at the very least he’s a CI for the FBI. Which won’t give him immunity, but…if he’s feeding the Feds enough information to take down bigger fish, they’ll keep him protected to an extent.”
She inwardly cursed.
“So we’ll just have to be smarter than him and the Feds if you want to bring him down.”
“I just want to find my friend,” she whispered.
“I know.” The expression on his face said that he really did understand and care.
And that hit her right in the chest. “So you’re not going to cut me out? You’re going to let me help you bring him down?”
He sighed and picked up one of her kitchen towels, began folding. “I’ll help you find your friend. But you’ve got to listen to me. You can’t just run off and do your own thing. Cain is too dangerous for that. And so are the people he works with.”
“Then don’t keep me in the dark ‘for my own good,’” she said in a slightly mocking tone. “And I won’t have a reason to do things on my own.”
“Fine.” His jaw clenched and it looked as if he wanted to say more but then he simply picked up another hand towel and began folding.
Okay, then. That was that. They were going to figure out what happened to her friend Ilena. And if it turned out Cain had been involved in her disappearance…they’d cross that bridge when they got to it.