Chapter Five #2
He smiled back, offered a little wave from where his hand sat at hip-level, but it wasn’t until she stopped two tables in front of him to chat with an elderly couple that he realized his mistake.
There was no way she’d magically have found a soft spot for him in the span of twelve hours.
But for the brief moment that he’d thought that smile was directed at him, damn if he would have done anything to keep it on her face.
When her head turned his way, the look of utter contempt she shot him was more in line with what he’d expected. Damn if she wasn’t just as beautiful pissed off, though.
His cell rang, and he paused by the bar to answer it, reasoning that the table by the speakers wouldn’t bode well to talk to whoever was calling.
“’Lo?” he half-whispered into his cell.
“It’s me,” Cammie’s voice came through the music.
“Wow. That was quick. What’d you find?” He smiled wanly as Aurelie sauntered up to him, her hips leading the charge.
She stood, hands on her waist and no hint of anything but wrath on her face, inches from his face.
She pointed to the sign above the bar that said, Make love, not phone calls.
He chuckled, then mouthed I’m sorry, and pressed a finger to his open ear.
Aurelie sighed, a throaty sound that made him half hard, then turned to walk away, a wafting scent of coconuts and lime left in her wake. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.
“Well, from what I can tell, the mysterious land baron was behind bars but has been released.” Jace was stunned silent. He could hear the bustle of LA in the background, the honking, yelling, a cacophony of noise he was used to, but had never appreciated.
“He was in prison?”
Aurelie glared at him from behind a drink menu, her thick but groomed brows pulled in tight. She caught him looking and pulled the menu over her eyes.
“Yup. And get this, his ex-wife is the one who put him there. He beat the sense out of her one night and went to jail almost immediately. The prosecutor was some hard-ass from the town you’re in named Sophie something-or-other and made sure he never saw bail.”
Sophie? It couldn’t be Brad’s wife, could it? The town was small, but was it really that small?
“Was it Connors? Sophie Connors?”
“Yeah, actually. Why? Do you know her?”
“She and her husband are my neighbors. I met them last night, actually.” The music in the bar picked up.
“Well, shake her hand if you get a chance. If it weren’t for her, who knows what the creep would be up to.”
“What’s he doing buying up farms in town? Are the hotels just a cover?”
“It doesn’t look like it. His name is Isaac Puckman, and he’s not a nice guy from what I found out.
Has a couple priors for nasty bar fights where he put the guy in the hospital, but they got knocked down to a D-and-D.
Then a couple DUIs that magically disappeared.
Sophie’s the only prosecutor who made anything stick. ”
Jace closed his eyes. This was bad. For the town, for his neighbors, but especially for Sophie and her friends. If this guy had the power and funds to buy up half the town while he was still incarcerated, there was no telling how far his reach went, or what he would do with it now that he was out.
“Thanks, Cammie. I’ll call you later with an update.”
“Be careful, Jace.”
“I will.” He hung up the phone and found himself in front of Aurelie. She’d sat with two women, both in scrubs as if they’d just gotten off shift.
“Can I borrow you a sec?” he asked. Her frown could have been answer enough, but she hesitated, then said something to the women and got up to meet him.
“Thanks. I’ve got something to tell you, something that can’t wait.” He slid them into an empty booth and waved the server over with a smile.
“Everything can wait. The right time and place exist for a reason, Jace.”
“Says the woman who eviscerated me in front of my new neighbors,” Jace teased. When her eyes pooled with moisture, he cringed, regretting the stab. “To be fair, I’m here to have a good time, too, but this can’t wait.”
And just like that, her wounded expression was replaced with the familiar ire aimed at him.
“I’m not here to have a good time. I’m here to find out information about who is ruining my town so I can mobilize people to help me fix it before…well, before I can’t anymore.”
His curiosity was piqued. Until she couldn’t? But he—they—had bigger fish to fry. Sly, dangerous fish.
He pulled the newspaper he’d swiped from the restaurant entrance and slapped it on the table. Jace made a mental note to call the paper and subscribe. After the scoop that morning, he couldn’t get away with not being on top of the news around there.
Jace didn’t take his eyes off of her as she read, noting the same anger he’d felt flit across her face, only to be replaced by a steely determination set in her jaw. That was the woman who’d blown him away the day—and night—before.
“Yes, that’s why I’m here. To get to the bottom of this. Someone in this town has to be aware, and no more cowboys can sell this idiot their ranch. You, included.”
“I’m not selling. I’m staying.”
Her eyes flashed with something else, then. Surprise? Maybe. But something more intense, too. He couldn’t get a read on it.
“You had better tell me what the devil is going on in the next two minutes, Jace, or I’m leaving.” There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she meant that, too.
The server came over then. Ignoring a penetrating glance from Aurelie, Jace ordered another round of whiskeys.
“A rum, for me, please,” Aurelie added. “On his tab.”
“I’ll take theirs, too,” he said, pointing to her friends and chuckling. Aurelie actually smiled at him, with teeth and everything. Damn, she was cute when she didn’t seem to want him dead.
It didn’t take long for him to grow serious, however, and he launched into what Cammie had discovered. As he recapped their conversation, the gravity of the situation settled in around them both.
Her eyes grew soft around the edges, and she met his gaze, an apology written in her expression, supported by her hand clasped over his.
“Now I wish it were you,” she said, her voice as quiet as he’d ever heard it. He hadn’t thought Aurelie understood the concept of an inside voice until just then. “This is worse than I thought.” He nodded in agreement.
“Can you get a hold of Sophie? I think we need to let her know what’s going on since she put the guy away. This might be just a coincidence, but it could also be the start of a calculated manipulation meant to retaliate.”
Aurelie sat back against the red leather and let out a long sigh.
“She’s in court tomorrow morning, so she’s likely already asleep. But she’ll be home in the evening. I can go to the main house when she’s off and tell her. I have to. Isaac’s ex-wife is Sophie’s business partner. They’re opening a clinic and shelter for women who were hurt like she was.”
“Shit. So, this is bigger than just Sophie.”
“It would seem.”
“Shit.”
Aurelie giggled. “You already said that.”
He’d gotten used to being attracted to her surliness, her singular need to destroy everything dangerous in her path, but this… This side of her was alarmingly captivating and disarming. And sexy as hell.
“I meant it.”
“So, what do we do while we wait?” she asked.
He smiled, winked. Why the hell did he do that? He wasn’t a Hollywood creep who preyed on women, but there was something about this woman that had him acting without thinking past the nose on his face.
She scowled, but he didn’t miss the way the corners of her lips curled up, how her eyes danced. His mind went to the night before when he’d caught her talking to herself, and she’d called him handsome. So, the attraction went both ways.
Interesting.
Also interesting was the fact that not a soul had stopped by their table to ask him to sign something or to gush about how great he was in the fifth installment of a car chase franchise that had first put him on the map almost a decade ago. He could get used to just being a face in the crowd.
“I’m teasing,” he said. “I’d actually like to know a little bit about you.”
“Why?” she asked, her voice laced with suspicion again. What would it take to earn her trust?
“Because you make me smile. Isn’t that enough?”
“Fine,” she spat. Okay, so they were back to square one. He was more than willing to start over with her. “What do you want to know?”
“Let’s start with where specifically that lovely accent is from. All Brad said was the islands. I’ve traveled all over the Caribbean, and I don’t recognize it.”
“What makes you think I’m from the islands at all?”
He raised his eyebrows and bit back a laugh. Slowly, his gaze slid over her yellow tunic and aqua pants, the mother-of-pearl earrings that almost touched the delicate collar bone peeking out of her shirt. He waved his hand down the length of her, Vanna White-esque, as if to say see?
“Yes, well, I guess maybe I do stand out a little here.”
“I’d say,” he said, chuckling.
“I’m from Turks and Caicos. The north island.”
“I’ve never been there, but it’s on my bucket list. And you met Paige there?”
She laughed again, this time a full, sultry song that sent shock waves directly to his groin.
“That’s a long story, but the short version is that I met Paige there when she was working in my clinic for a year. It took a minute for me to trust her, but when I let my guard down, we were inseparable. She’s more like a sister to me.”
“Hey, how are you with dogs?”
“That’s a question I don’t mind answering. They’re better than most humans I know,” she said.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Jace said, the burn of the whiskey dampened by the warmth in his stomach. She liked dogs, huh? “But anyway, tell me more about you and Paige.”
“My mom was sick. Paige helped her die with dignity and comfort.” Aurelie’s eyes lit up when she spoke about her friends. It said a lot about her, somehow endeared her to him more, if that was possible. He touched her wrist, and she didn’t slap him away.