Chapter 17
Two days later, Anna looked out the window at the prison as Owen pulled into the concrete parking structure, feeling oddly anxious. She tried to never let nerves in on her job. It was a male-dominated field, and since revealing anxieties was the best way to show weakness, she’d gotten really good at never showing too much.
But seeing Shady Joe again after all these years, and inside prison at that, was going to be hard on several layers. “Normally, it takes four to six weeks to get approval for a prison visit,” she said. “How did you get us approved in two days?”
Owen turned off his truck and looked at her. “I’ve got a connection.”
Vague, of course. He was good at vague. He was also good at smelling delicious. Not to mention his very male energy, which was so big it took up most of the air space in the vehicle. In fact, if she closed her eyes, she could still almost feel his arms wrapped around her that night they’d taken each other apart and then put each other back together again.
He smiled. “You’re thinking about it.”
“It?” she asked coolly.
His smile turned carnal. “Don’t worry, I’m thinking about it too. Until there’s a second time.”
“No. No second time.” She was already in danger of becoming too attached.
“I don’t know,” he teased. “The way you’re looking at me, I feel like there’s definitely going to be a second time.”
“It was a momentary lapse in judgment.” She hoped he was buying this, because she sure wasn’t. “You caught me in a weak moment, that’s all.”
He laughed.
She opened her mouth, but then she remembered she’d been the instigator. And why the hell was he looking so irresistible just sitting there? He was bossy, stubborn, an immovable stone, never revealing his feelings or emotions, guarding them like his heart was Fort Knox.
No, wait. That was her. She was Fort Knox. Annoyed at the both of them, she got out of the truck.
Owen did the same, looking pleased with himself.
“What?”
“You like me,” he said.
“Do not.”
“Do too.”
“Do not.”
He smiled. “Do not.”
“Do too.” Shit. She smacked her own forehead. “Ugh.”
“Let me guess,” a woman said, walking past them in the parking garage. “You’ve been married for more than five years.”
Anna let out a little unintentional growl from deep in her throat while Owen just laughed. Then he leaned in and kissed her frowning mouth until she was senseless. Pulling back, he whispered, “Do too,” and then started walking.
Jerk.
After a few steps, he stopped, tipped his head back, and stared at the concrete above them as if at war with himself. When he turned to face her, his expression had her stomach sinking to her toes.
“In the spirit of honesty,” he said, “I need to talk to you about something.”
Oh boy. She had to work to keep her expression even, but nothing good had ever preceded those words.
“A few days ago,” he said, “one of my aunt’s caretakers said Ruby told her a story about Santa Claus coming into her place and stealing from her. At the time, I didn’t think it relevant.”
“But it’s relevant now?”
He looked at her for a moment. “I’ve been doing some research on the suspects as I’ve had the time, just to see if I could learn something new. I couldn’t sleep last night and was reading some of what I’d collected when I saw a pic of someone who resembled Santa Claus.”
Her heart thumped so loudly in her ears she could scarcely hear herself talk. “My dad only looked like Santa during the last year of his life because self-care was hard for him and he was too proud to let me help him. You’ve seen pictures of him from the time of the crime. He didn’t do this.” God, I hope he didn’t do this. “It’s just a coincidence that Ruby fingered Santa. Maybe she dreamed it.”
“That’s one theory.”
“And the other?” she asked, not willing to jump to conclusions on Owen’s hidden thoughts. She wanted him to spell them out, hopefully before she passed out from the anxiety of it all.
“Here’s the thing,” he said. “My aunt can’t hold on to short-term memories. If this wasn’t a dream, if it’s something that actually happened, it would’ve been a long time ago.”
She gave a deep sigh of relief. “Like when the necklace and coins were stolen from her house. Way before my dad couldn’t keep up with his own grooming.”
He nodded. Then shook his head. “But then again, it could’ve just been an illusion. Or she was watching old holiday movies. There’s really no way to tell. I just didn’t want to keep something like this from you.” He started to walk again, but she caught his hand and tugged, reeling him in for a hug.
And maybe in what was the best part of her day, he wrapped her up tight. Soaking in his strength and warmth, she closed her eyes, comforted, and hoped he was too. Wait a minute—was she actually signing on to the Trust Owen program? Seemed like it.
The air shifted, and suddenly comfort made way for something else, something sensual and hungry. It sharpened all the more when Owen slowly dragged his mouth up the side of her neck, kissing her just beneath her ear, which threatened to melt her knees. “Owen—”
Footsteps broke through her lust haze, and she looked up to find a woman about her age, model gorgeous even with her hair pinned back in a ponytail and little to no makeup, wearing a guard uniform. She winked at Owen, blew him a kiss, then got into a car and drove off.
“Let me guess,” Anna said dryly. “Your connection.”
Owen reached for her hand. “I’ve got a lot of connections.”
“Of the been-naked-together variety?”
He wisely ignored this, leading her toward an elevator. When the doors closed, he looked at her, his eyes amused. “Jealous? Even though you can’t make up your mind on whether or not to keep me?”
Ha. Little did he know just how much she wanted to keep him.
“Kate and I saw each other exactly twice,” he said. “Years ago. She decided I was a flight risk—accurate, by the way—and now we’re just friends.”
“Again, how is it all your exes still want to be friends with you?”
He shrugged. “Because I’m good at being friends?”
She snorted, and he went brows up.
“Okay,” she said. “That’s undoubtedly true. But I think something else is true as well, that you’ve got some sort of man barrier, where you think that you’re open, but in reality, you’re no more open to letting yourself fall in love than I am.”
He tilted his head to the side as he considered this. “I guess I figure it’s better to keep someone in my life as friends than to not have them at all. If you could, if things had been different with your exes, would you want to be friends with them?”
“If someone had been friend-worthy.”
He nodded, all amusement gone. “Guys are dicks,” he said. “Every one of us.”
“Not every one of you,” she said softly, and their gazes locked and held until the elevator doors opened.
Owen kept his eyes on Anna as they went through the whole rigmarole to get into the prison. He knew this couldn’t be easy for her, facing an old acquaintance of her father’s, and when she hesitated at the window, he gently pulled her around to face him. “Hey, you know you don’t have to do this. I can go in alone.”
“No, I need to see him. I need to look into his eyes when he talks. If he talks.”
He respected that. He also respected her for an impressive inner strength. It wasn’t going to be easy to enter this hellhole to see someone she’d known once upon a time. And there was something else. While he’d started to doubt Louis Moore had been involved in the theft, he knew Anna’s thoughts were going in the opposite direction. She was afraid he might not have been whom she’d thought.
Yes, Owen wanted to find Ruby’s necklace, quite badly, in fact, but he didn’t want to do it at the expense of her memory of her dad.
Twenty minutes later, they were at a table in a common room when Shady Joe was escorted in. Medium height, with a body gone soft with age, his gaze locked in on Anna as he sat.
“You’re my second visitor today,” he said. “Thanks to you, I’m a regular socialite now.”
She looked confused. “What are you talking about?”
“Ever since that interview with you came out, treasure hunters are hot to talk to me about the Ruby Red’s whereabouts.”
Anna looked at Owen, then back to Shady Joe. “How did the treasure hunters connect this with you?”
Shady Joe leaned back, practically puffing out his chest. “Gotta be a lucky guess, because I can promise you there’s no proof of anything out there.”
“That sounds like an admission of guilt,” Owen said.
Shady Joe snorted. “I’m not admitting to anything I’m not already doing time for. Besides, there are other suspects.” He met Anna’s gaze. “Your dad, for one. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for your loss. I didn’t know him all that well—”
“You used to drop Will off at our house when I was young,” she said, eyes narrowed. “You don’t trust someone with your kid that you don’t know well.”
Shady Joe shrugged. “You’re giving me more credit as a father than I deserve. Truth is, I was crap at it. Ask anyone. Hell, ask Will.”
“I’m asking you,” she said. “And why do you sound so proud of yourself?”
He shrugged again. “I’m doing the time, getting a clean slate.” He smiled, leaning back in his chair like he was a king with a doting audience. “Maybe you should just ask me what you came here to ask.”
“All right,” she said. “Did my dad have anything to do with the heist or not?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
She slapped two palms flat on the surface of the table and started to lean in, but Owen quickly put a hand on her arm, directing her attention to the guards watching over the whole room with an eagle eye. “Easy,” he said softly.
When she blew out a breath and lowered herself back to her chair, Owen looked at Shady Joe. “Answer her question.”
“Or what? You going to call the cops on me?”
Realizing this guy was all arrogance and swagger, he knew they needed a new strategy. “Let’s go,” he said to Anna. “This guy’s full of shit. There’s no way he could’ve pulled this off, he’s not smart enough.”
Shady Joe’s easy smile faded. “Do you know what I’m in here for, son? I pulled off a bank heist.”
“Yeah, and you got caught.” Owen let his tone say exactly how unimpressed he was.
The man leaned in. “Maybe there’s also a lot I didn’t get caught for.” He eyed Anna. “Your dad too, by the way.”
“Still don’t believe you,” she said.
“No? Well then believe this: if someone like me had done this job—and I’m not saying I did—no one would ever find where the loot was hidden. Why risk having someone else know where it’s at so they could try to steal it out from under me? Hell, I wouldn’t have even told my own son. That idiot would do something stupid, like sell it to the wrong person and get caught. Or worse, blow the entire wad. Literally, up his nose.”
Anna sucked in a breath. “Will turned to drugs?”
“Will’s weak.”
“Unlike you,” Owen said, appealing to the guy’s ego.
An oily smile curved Shady Joe’s mouth. “Now you’re talking. Listen,” he said to Anna. “The only reason I’m in a cell and your dad isn’t is because he turned his back on the life he’d been living and went straight.” He made a show of looking around. “Can you imagine your dad living out his last days here, sick and weak, an easy target?”
Owen stood up, holding his hand out to Anna. “He’s got nothing worth knowing. Let’s go.”
“Your dad wasn’t nearly as innocent as you think he is,” Shady Joe said to their backs.
Anna hesitated. Owen tightened his grip on her and kept walking. “Not here.”
They were outside before she spoke. “We got nothing from him. We should’ve pushed harder.”
“Anna, he wasn’t going to tell us a thing. We’ll find another way.”
“How?”
“I don’t know yet, but we’ll figure it out, I promise.” He wasn’t big on promises and, as a result, rarely made one. But this promise he intended to keep.