Chapter 31
Mac Dempsy had relieved Wyatt for overnight guard duty, and then Wyatt had returned this morning, sending Mac home to get some sleep.
“Do you think anyone saw you arrive?” she said.
“Almost positive the answer’s no,” he said, heading straight for the coffee pot. “I came in an unmarked car and parked on a back street.”
“Do you have any idea who these people are?” From what she understood, these two men were low-life criminals and not the smartest crayons in the box. How could they evade every law enforcement agency in Red Grove? It wasn’t like the town was a major city like New York or Chicago.
“We’re still chasing leads that are going nowhere, but we’re closing in on them.” He poured a cup of coffee. “We’ll catch them, Matti. If not when they come here looking for Sam, it will happen somewhere and soon.”
“I’m all for the soon part.” Exhaustion lined her brother’s face, and if he wasn’t careful, he was going to work himself into the hospital. She glanced at Ryan, who was reading one of his medical journals. At least there was a doctor in the house should her brother collapse on them.
Ryan’s participation in all this worried her. He wasn’t trained for this, had never handled a weapon in his life, and had a hurt wrist that was still in a brace. If something happened to him, she’d never forgive herself for involving him in her problems.
“I’m just a lookout,” he assured her when she expressed her concern. “An extra pair of eyes and ears for your brother, or whoever is packing a gun here at the time. Believe me, those men show up, I’ll be the first to let them play the hero.”
It was with that assurance that she didn’t tell Wyatt to tie Ryan up and haul him away where he’d be safe.
Although, if they tried that, Ryan would just find his way back.
She knew that about him. The man had proved he had single-minded focus from the time he was eight years old, going for what he wanted and getting it.
By that afternoon, Matti was close to climbing the walls. She was ready for something to happen. She got her Kindle, but she kept reading the same page over and over. She finally gave up and tried to find something on TV. That couldn’t keep her attention either.
“How long do you think—”
“The same answer I gave you the last two times you asked,” Wyatt said. “No way to know when they’ll show up, or if they even will. My guess, they’ll hit us at night if they do come.”
Ryan—who’d taken a nap after lunch, had read a medical journal from cover to cover, and was now watching an old war movie with Wyatt—appeared calm and worry free, as if men with guns weren’t expected to barge in at any moment.
Same for Wyatt, like it was just another day at the beach for the two of them. It was maddening. She stomped to the window for the thousandth time and peered out. She was ready for whatever was going to happen to happen.
“A watched pot never boils,” Wyatt said.
She glared at her brother. “Shut up.”
After Ryan said something to him that she couldn’t hear, Wyatt stood. “I need to make some phone calls. I’ll do that in Sam’s room.”
“Come here, Matti,” Ryan said after Wyatt disappeared down the hall. Even though she was annoyed with him, too, she went. When she reached him, he took her hand and pulled her down next to him.
“What did you say to Wyatt to make him scurry away?”
“I asked him if he wanted to be the one to calm you down or should I.”
When he crossed his eyes and made a funny face, she couldn’t help it, she laughed. “So you get stuck with me?”
“Yup. You’re too antsy to sit still and watch a movie, so what shall we do?” He tapped his lips as if thinking, then snapped his fingers. “I got it. Let’s play Never Have I Ever.”
“Are we in high school now?”
“You’ve lost your fun, girl.”
She scowled at him. “Have not.” She kind of felt like she had, though.
“Have, too. Come on. This will take your mind off why we’re in this house. I’ll go first. Never have I gone skinny-dipping. True or false?”
An image of him skinny-dipping popped into her head. It was a very nice picture, but no, he’d been completely focused on becoming a doctor since he was eight years old. She just couldn’t see that Ryan doing such a thing. “True.”
“Wrong.”
“Seriously?”
He grinned. “Seriously. Senior year, me and Becky McCoy, my girlfriend. You ever skinny-dipped?”
“No.” But now, she wanted to. With him.
“We’ll have to do it sometime. Your turn.”
She thought for a moment, then remembered Eric Hill. “Okay, here’s mine. Never have I hooked up with one of my brothers’ friends.”
“Hmm.” He tilted his head and studied her. “I think false.”
“Nope, but I wanted to. He was Aiden’s friend, and I had the biggest crush on him. He was twenty and I was sixteen. I…” She shook her head. She couldn’t tell him that.
“Oh, no, you don’t get to almost tell me something and then stop. Out with it.”
“It’s too embarrassing.”
“Even better. Tell me.”
“Ugh. Why did I even go with that one?” She huffed a breath.
“Fine. Aiden brought him to my sixteenth birthday party. After a while, the guys drifted off to the backyard. A little later, Eric came in to use the restroom, and I was waiting for him in the hallway when he came out.” She put her hands over her face. “Do I have to finish this?”
“No stopping now, Matti girl.”
“I kissed him.” She dropped her hands to her lap. “He didn’t kiss me back. He was horrified, actually. I’m still embarrassed to this day, and any time I see him now, I can’t even talk to him.”
“That’s not surprising. To him you were his friend’s little sister, and to us guys that made you off-limits. Plus, a four-year difference wouldn’t matter now at your ages, but to a twenty-year-old, sixteen is almost robbing the cradle.”
“Yeah, I get that now. At the time, though, I was devastated.”
“Still crushing on him?”
“Lord no. I was cured of my crush that very night.” After making a fool of herself, she’d fled to her room and hadn’t come out until the next day.
She’d been on pins and needles waiting for Aiden to confront her for trying to kiss his friend, but he never had.
She took that to mean that Eric had never told him about the disastrous kiss, for which she’d be forever grateful.
“That’s good because now I won’t have to kill him.”
She blinked. That was rather drastic. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”
“Okay, I won’t tell you.”