Chapter 8
“C’mon, Dezzy. It’s a couple grand.”
She’d paid for the coffee Ray was sipping, along with the untouched cinnamon roll in front of her stepdad. He swept his gaze out the café’s window toward her shop. “You’re doin’ good, ain’t ya?”
Dez simmered. Keeping her hands around the mug of her latte, she struggled to keep her temper in check. “Maybe if you’d stayed out of jail, you wouldn’t need money right now.”
He turned up his palms and chuckled, his thin eyebrows—the same shade as the ginger hair on his head—raised in mock humor. “You can’t seriously think that’s my fault. You know how your momma gets. Charlene was pissed and just wanted to get me back. That’s why she reported the car stolen.”
Dez’s eye twitched. “No. My mom reported the car stolen because you took it despite her telling you not to and drove drunk. She was afraid you’d kill someone.” Her stomach churned with nauseating emotions. This time last year, Ray’s actions had finally broken her mother’s spirit.
Now, she’d have to call her mom and let her know Ray came around to bug her, and he’d be off to Charlene’s as soon as he found a way to clean himself up and get some cash.
Ray pressed his lips together and shook his head. “No, no, no. I’d only had two—”
“Bull.” She slapped her hand on the table, making the fork in front of his pastry jump. A few whispers sounded around the diner. “Bull,” she repeated more softly. “You were three times the legal limit and drove into a fucking bank, Ray. Your gaslighting won’t work here.”
Ray’s eyes darkened. A shadow crossed his face, reminding her of the chilling times he’d been drunk and lost his temper. He’d never been physical with her mom, Dez would have killed him, but he’d been cold and harsh. His enigmatic personality could be flipped on and off like a light switch.
Damn him for coming back here and rousing all this anger inside her.
For years, she’d worked on elevating her consciousness, finding peace, love, and calm inside herself.
An interest that had intensified over the years as she expanded her reading to books on personal transformation.
And all it had taken was Ray waltzing back into her life to make her want to go on a violent rampage.
Clearly, she had some emotional blockages and triggers to work on.
Ray must have picked up on her no-bullshit attitude because his expression changed to indignation.
“It’s twenty-five hundred dollars, Desiree.
That’s all. Hell, I’ll take two thousand.
Then I’m gone for good. I’ll even leave Charlene alone.
I just need a hand up. I’ve only got the money in the bank that I had when I was arrested, and it won’t last long. ”
“Not with your drinking and spending habits it won’t,” she shot back.
The bell of the café dinged and she looked over Ray’s shoulder at the newcomer. Aiden’s big, broad shoulders filled the doorway, and then he stormed into the café. He yanked his shades off and his eyes blazed a line of fire toward the man in front of her.
He looked pissed. Uber, uber pissed and ready to kill.
“Oh, shit,” she mouthed.
Ray tensed and swiveled in his seat. “What the—”
Aiden’s hand clamped down on Ray’s shoulder. “Raymond Lester? We need to have a chat.” He yanked Ray out of his seat.
“Aiden, wait.” Dez scooped up Louise’s takeout coffee cup and followed the men out of the café.
“Get your hands off me,” Ray hissed, yanking his arm out of Aiden’s hold. “What’s this about? I’m trying to catch up with my daughter—”
“Stepdaughter,” she said, stopping on the sidewalk next to Aiden.
Aiden’s eyebrows sunk low over his eyes, and he looked as if he wanted to put his fist through Ray’s face.
She placed her hand on Aiden’s vibrating forearm. “Um, so this is Ray.” A tremor shook her voice as she stated the obvious. “He’s just here—”
“I know why he’s here.” Aiden didn’t take his laser focus off Ray. “Mr. Lester, I’d like to have a word with you at the station.” His tone now held a hint of professionalism dipped in rage.
“’Bout what? Like I said, I’m having a visit with my”—he shot an annoyed glare her way—“Stepdaughter. Have I done something wrong, Officer?”
“Ms. Zimmerman has had some threats made toward her. I’d like to verify your whereabouts on certain dates, and that information is at the station. If there’s a reason you’re unable to prove yourself—”
Ray chortled. “Of course not. I’ve got nothin’ to hide.”
“Great.” He opened the back door of his car and Ray reluctantly slid inside. Shutting the door, Aiden turned to her. His expression softened, but his body language revealed he was on high alert. “Are you okay?”
She rocked on her heels. “I’m fine. He wants money.”
He nodded slowly. “Doesn’t surprise me, but I still need to rule him out.”
She lifted her hand in acknowledgment.
Some of the tension left his body, and his fingers twitched at his side as if he wanted to touch her. “Are you still good for me to pick you up around five?”
She tilted her head and squinted up at him. The sunlight caught the green depths of his eyes, making her loins clench. “Yeah. I need to pick up some clothes though.”
“We can stop on the way to my place.”
“Great.” She kept her tone even. It would be more efficient for her to take her car, which was still in the back parking lot of her shop, and run to her house, but if she’d learned anything in the last two days it was that being alone wasn’t a good idea.
She moved her attention to Ray, who was scowling in the back of the cop car. If she had a dollar for every time she’d witnessed his arrest . . .
Only this time, his scowl was deep and unapproving because he blamed her. Her esophagus burned with warning. Maybe she’d been wrong about Ray. Maybe he did want to cause her harm.
“All right. I’ll see you in a few hours. If you need anything, just give me a call.”
After Aiden drove away, Dez swung her gaze to the café and her cheeks warmed.
Several wide-eyed stares met her through the glass.
So much for keeping her relationship—could she even call it that?
—with Aiden on the downlow. The way he’d looked at her, the boyish grin and the heated stares, hadn’t escaped her notice and sure as heck wouldn’t escape that of the townsfolk.
By morning, there’d be rumors.
* * *
“I said I ain’t done nothin’ wrong!” Ray’s voice pitched to a near yell.
Aiden’s temper ticked. He wouldn’t give Ray the satisfaction of knowing he’d rattled him, but oh, fuck, it took some self-control. “Glad to hear that. All I want is an alibi for Sunday night, early Monday morning. If you cooperate, I won’t call your parole officer.”
Ray’s pale, freckled face turned tomato red. “Fine.” He stood and dug into his pockets, pulling out a lighter, a partial pack of cigarettes, some change, dirt, a shitload of lint, and some crumpled receipts.
The junk spilled onto his desk and Aiden resisted the urge to shove the shit down the loser’s throat.
Ray returned to his chair and flattened out the receipts. “This one’s for beer I bought in Denver,” he said, pushing the slip of paper across the desk. He flipped through a couple more then shoved them all at Aiden. “Go to town.”
Aiden accepted the receipts and read the time stamps. The beer had been purchased Monday night at 11:19 p.m. The next receipt was for a motel room in Denver purchased a few hours prior, and the last receipt was a bus ticket to Whistlemore, purchased at 9:43 a.m. today.
Well, shit.
“Excuse me a sec.” Aiden stood, went to the photocopy machine, and made copies of all the receipts. Returning, he dropped the original slips of paper in front of Ray. “Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Am I off the hook? ’Cause I wasn’t here for the incidents, right?”
Aiden bit his tongue, not wanting to reassure the man in any way and encourage him to pester Dez. “Like I said, thank you for your cooperation. This will help build our case to find who’s been harassing Ms. Zimmerman.”
Ray swung his lower jaw to the side, his mouth slack. “You a friend of hers?”
Aiden blinked twice.
Ray nodded. “Fine. I don’t have anything against Dezzy, though. She’s a good girl. I’d never do anything to hurt her.”
“Stealing her mom’s car and putting her through hell would hurt her.”
Ray held out his hands. “It’s not like that. Charlene and I have our troubles, but she loves me. She just forgot.” He let out a loose laugh then rubbed his hands on his thighs. “Am I free to go?”
Swallowing the thick pill of pride, Aiden flicked his wrist. “Yeah, we’re done here.”
“Good, good. I’ve got a tour booked in the morning I don’t want to miss. Hopefully Desiree will join me.” He collected his junk from the top of Aiden’s desk, not missing a coin. “You have a nice day now.” He smiled and slinked away from Aiden’s desk.
Damn if it didn’t feel like a snake slithering through his fingers.
He’d been wrong about Ray.
Maybe.
It wasn’t impossible that Ray had purchased his beer and found a way to Whistlemore and back between the hours of 11:30 p.m. and 9:30 a.m. But he also would have needed to be in town Sunday night to throw the brick through Dez’s shop window.
It wouldn’t make sense for him to make three trips there and back .
. . unless he was smart and knew how to hold up an alibi.
Considering his past, that was unlikely.
Aiden folded his hand into a fist. Someone else was after Desiree, and that threw a wrench into everything he’d laid out in his head.
She had to have an enemy, an ex-lover, someone who would want to hurt her. None of this made any sense.
He turned back to his computer and finished up his paperwork. Just after 4:00 p.m., he bounced early. He made a stop at the grocery store, picking up more food than was necessary, and then grabbed a cake from Rosie’s Café before going back to Dez’s shop just before 5:00 p.m.
His heart beat fast in his chest as Dez waltzed out of her store. She approached his car, her lips full and smiling, the juicy flesh tempting him just by being there. So much for keeping his thoughts platonic.
She dragged her fingers through the strands of her hair. God he loved the way the wavy dark curls accentuated her smooth, sun-kissed skin. She wore a pink sundress, the hem reaching mid-thigh, and it looked classy yet sexy on her tight frame.
She wriggled her fingers in a hello as he leaned across the seat and opened the passenger door. She tucked herself into the car, smooshing her purse that looked more like an overnight bag into the footwell. “Well? How’d it go with Ray?”
The last thing he wanted to do was talk about that lowlife, but she had a right to know. “For now, his alibi seems solid. He had receipts to prove his whereabouts. Of course, we need to verify with his bank that he used his debit card at those places.”
She clicked her buckle into place. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
“I still find it odd that he’s here while all this is going on.”
She lifted a slim shoulder and the sun caught the yellow hues in her eyes, making them glisten. “Ray has an uncanny knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
He grunted. “I’m not convinced.” He shook off all the feelings of unrest and lifted his mouth in a smile. “Other than a stop at your house is there anything you need?”
“Nope.”
He pulled away from the curb and headed in the direction of Dez’s house. For now, he wouldn’t hang on to thoughts of Ray. Not when Dez’s cinnamon scent and essence surrounded him like a cashmere blanket.
Fuck, he was in deep.