Chapter 16
Wyatt couldn’t take his eyes off Adeline. She’d worn her usual, jeans and a tee. Didn’t matter to her that everyone else wore their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes, including him. Addy was Addy and she didn’t change who she was for anyone.
Right now, she was deep in conversation with his mom and sisters-in-law while they cleaned up the kitchen.
He’d offered to help but his mother had insisted that no men were allowed in her kitchen.
Watching from his position in the living room where the men were lamenting the latest political scuttlebutt and drinking spiced cider, he smiled as Adeline gestured magnanimously.
She never had been able to talk without her hands.
The Christmas music playing in the background prevented him from overhearing the women’s conversation.
But that didn’t really matter; watching her was entertainment enough.
More so than what she wore, her hair had held him mesmerized since he’d picked her up at that shabby motel.
She’d worn it down and his fingers had itched all evening to tangle into that long mass and just get lost.
God, how he’d missed her. He’d tried not to.
Especially after that first year. For nine long years he had focused on his work to prevent obsessing about her.
He’d been successful, for the most part.
He’d dated. Even had a six-month relationship a couple of years ago.
But he just hadn’t been able to make himself feel for anyone else what he had—no—what he still felt for Adeline Cooper.
His brothers and father had urged him to move on.
To get her out of his system. His mom was the only one who’d understood how he felt.
She glanced at him now and smiled. He knew what she was thinking, but Wyatt was relatively certain that getting her hopes up was a bad idea. A really bad idea for all concerned.
Adeline . . . Addy—he’d called her Addy back then, he might as well now.
She refused to talk about the past. As a cop, she was still the same in many ways.
Like when he’d taken her to the impound yard to see Prescott’s car.
She’d climbed in and sat behind the wheel—just sat there—for long enough to have the staff whispering among themselves.
But that was Addy. She liked to get the feel of a case firsthand.
Liked to touch the things the victim had last touched.
In the beginning of her career, the other deputies had made fun of her seemingly bizarre need to feel the evidence and the scene. Wyatt had exchanged heated words with more than one of his colleagues when Addy hadn’t been looking. He would have done anything to protect her.
Then he’d let her down in the worst way. But it had been the only way to save her.
“So.” His older brother clapped him on the back. “Addy defied her uncle and came back here to work this case. Interesting.”
Wyatt shot him a look. Jason had questioned Addy during dinner.
How were things in Huntsville? Was she engaged or married?
Divorced? Any kids? What were her thoughts on the Prescott case?
His older brother might not be a cop but that didn’t stop him from utilizing less than polite interrogation tactics.
“I think you’ve asked enough questions for tonight,” Wyatt commented, a clear warning in his tone. “This isn’t your boardroom.”
Jason shook his head, probably the same way he did when he was about to chastise his top executives at Chem Corp.
“It’s been nearly a decade, buddy. And you’re still obviously hung up on her.
What’re you going to do when she leaves again?
You going to follow her this time? Go rushing after her wherever she runs? ”
Wyatt went nose to nose with his brother. “I don’t want to hear your—”
Thomas, the youngest, pushed the two apart. “This is not the time.” He glanced toward the kitchen. “It’s Christmas Eve, for Christ’s sake. Can’t you two stop the bickering for one night?”
The Henderson patriarch joined the huddle. “Listen to your brother, gentlemen.” He looked from Jason to Wyatt. “This has gone on too long as it is.” His gaze settled on Jason. “Wyatt has enough on his mind right now without you getting into his personal business.”
“Yes, sir,” Jason acquiesced. He bopped Wyatt on the shoulder with the side of his fist. “I should learn to keep my mouth shut where certain subjects,” he sent a look at the women in the kitchen, “are concerned. I just worry about you, that’s all. You know I do.”
Wyatt released his frustrations on a big breath. “I guess that’s what big brothers are for.” A pain in the ass.
Thomas lifted his mug of spiced cider. “To family,” he offered.
“Hear, hear,” his father agreed, clinking his mug against his youngest son’s.
Jason and Wyatt did the same.
It was Christmas Eve. And for the first time in a very long time, he was spending it with Addy.
What’re you going to do when she leaves again?
His brother’s admonition echoed inside Wyatt.
Wyatt would simply do what he’d been doing for nine years.
Miss her.
10:37 p.m.
“Jason doesn’t like me very much, does he?”
Wyatt slowed for the turn into the Shady Oaks parking lot. “What makes you say that?” He damned sure wasn’t going to volunteer any information. But Addy was no fool. She’d sensed Jason’s disdain.
A good kick in the ass was what his older brother needed. This—Addy—was none of his business.
“Oh, I don’t know.” She reached under the seat for her weapon, then for the door as he parked in front of her room. “Maybe it was the way he glared at me for most of the evening. Or the heated looks he sent your way every time you said a word to me.”
Damn it. She’d noticed more than he’d suspected. “Jason’s just—”
Addy climbed out before he could finish the statement. Wyatt shut off the engine and caught up with her at the door to her room.
“You know how older brothers are,” Wyatt commented, playing off the whole notion as if it were no big deal.
She shoved the key into the lock, then looked at him. “No. Actually I don’t.”
Addy didn’t have any brothers of her own, but she had male cousins. “You know what I mean.”
“I know what I felt.” She twisted the key, then the knob. “G’night, Wyatt.”
“We should talk, Addy.” This was enough with dancing all around the past.
She sighed. “You keep saying that but,” she countered, “there’s nothing to talk about. It’s been a long time.” Addy looked at him then, really looked. “There’s nothing to say. Too much water has gone under the bridge. It’s all irrelevant at this point.”
“Addy, wait.” He nabbed her by the arm before she could go inside. “There are things that need to be said, no matter how much water has gone under the bridge. And it damned sure isn’t irrelevant.”
“Fine.” She turned her face up to his. “Then say what you have to say. If that’s what it takes to put this behind us, just get it over with so we can focus on the case.”
He wasn’t sure saying the words would ever be enough for him. “I was wrong.” His chest cramped. “What I did was wrong. I’ve had a long time to consider what I should have done. And I should have backed you up.”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “That’s what you should’ve done. But you didn’t. Okay.” She reached for the door again. “I’m glad we had this little talk.”
He didn’t let go, pulled her back around and manacled her other arm to keep her from jerking out of his hold. “So you’re never going to forgive me?” The feel of her hair draped over his hands almost undid him. He wanted to release her and thread his fingers through that sexy mane.
“I’m done talking, Wyatt.” She flattened her palms against his chest and gave him a push to get him out of her personal space. He didn’t budge.
“Maybe I don’t deserve your forgiveness,” he went on, fury pulsing through him. “But I don’t want you to think I haven’t paid a price.”
“Oh, gee, that’s too bad.” She tried to shake off his hold.
“I hate to think you’ve suffered all this time.
Let’s see.” Her lips pinched in fury. “My own family threatened to kill me if I didn’t leave.
Only because my boss, the damned sheriff, had plotted to have me killed and it didn’t work out.
I had to move away from everything I’d ever known.
” Fury blazed in those blue eyes. “Oh, and let’s not forget how the man I loved kept his mouth shut when he knew the truth.
I think maybe I paid a little more than you, wouldn’t you say? ”
Her lips trembled and he lost any hold whatsoever on his sanity.
His mouth covered hers. It was a mistake, he knew.
But he had to kiss her. She fought him at first, but then she gave in and kissed him back.
So many times he’d dreamed of kissing her again.
Had awakened with his heart pounding after dreaming of touching her.
His fingers released her arms, plunged into her hair the way he’d longed to do all night.
He cradled her head, kept her mouth fixed firmly against his when she tried to pull away.
Then her body relaxed and she surrendered to the kiss.
No more thinking. He reached out with one hand and opened the door.
They stumbled into the room. He kicked the door shut behind him.
Her fingers were fumbling with the buttons of his shirt. He carried her to the bed. They fell onto the mattress together.
“What the hell?”
He froze. “What?”
She lifted a handful of garments. “What’s this?”
The light on the bedside table was dim, but there was sufficient illumination for him to see that the garments she held were ragged—no, torn or cut.
Wyatt pushed up onto his hands, stared at the jumble on the bedspread beneath and around her. Her clothes, jeans, T-shirts, underthings, were scattered over the bed. Not just scattered . . . ripped apart and then scattered.
Addy scooted away from him and off the bed. She reached down, picked up a bra. The straps had been torn off. The cups were shredded. “What is this shit?”