Chapter Thirteen
They got back to the ranch and ate dinner, but Bree wasn’t done looking into this. If there was one thing all her experience with computer coding had taught her, it was that when the coding led to a dead end, you had to step back until you could find a way around whatever had trapped you.
Carrico seemed to be a dead end, but maybe Bree just needed to find a way around him and see if anything else was there. Perhaps the guy was just what he appeared to be: someone who wanted not to be sent to a supermax prison so he could continue to receive visits from his daughter.
But Bree had spent a big chunk of her life within an organization that had fooled the entire world into thinking they were good and altruistic, when really they were emotionless, sadistic bastards.
Tanner was a good man who wanted to believe the best of everyone. He got that from his parents. Bree had heard the story of how his father had been killed in the line of duty because he’d trusted someone who had then shot him.
She didn’t think Tanner was gullible in any way, shape or form. But she was going to look more closely at Carrico before giving him the benefit of the doubt. Research him impartially and dispassionately to make sure he was truly a dead end and not involved in all of this somehow.
And she wasn’t afraid to bend a few laws to do it, regardless of Tanner’s opinion.
Her emotional stuntedness was working to her advantage in this case. She didn’t give a rat’s ass about Carrico’s sob story if it meant clearing Tanner’s name.
A couple of hours later, she was glad she’d stayed the course, despite Tanner’s repeated attempts to get her to put away the computer for the night.
When she found it, she could barely believe her eyes.
“Tanner, I found something.”
He looked up from whatever type of sporting event he was watching. Football, maybe? She wasn’t good with sports.
“I don’t even know what you’ve been looking for the past two hours.”
“I think our friend Carrico may not be as innocent as we thought.”
Tanner flipped off the television and walked over to her. “What makes you say that?”
This was where it got a little bit tricky.
“Because Carrico is currently in a lower-security prison, he has access to email. It’s monitored, but he sent a message to two separate guerrilla mail accounts—which are temporary and completely anonymous addresses—one eight nights ago and one four nights ago. ”
“The nights before Anders and Newkirk were killed.”
Bree nodded.
“What did the emails say?”
“The first one said, Last fall the beautiful flowers made me smile although they soon withered and flew away. The second, Every laugh makes me think of pudding.”
“Okay, definitely weird. But the messages don’t sound suspicious or dangerous to me.”
Bree had recognized the foursquare cipher as soon as she’d read the email. It had taken her a little while to break it, but not very long. “There’s a code. A cipher.”
Now she had his full attention. “You’re sure?”
She turned the screen so he could see the words the highlighted code provided.
Newkirk tomorrow.
She scrolled down so he could see the other one: Anders ASAP.
Tanner let out a low curse. “Who did those messages go to? Is there any way of finding that out?”
“The proxy is anonymous, so I can’t get much more information without significantly more illegal effort, and even then it’s iffy. It’s an anonymous, encrypted email that uses a VPN to reroute and hide the IP address. Sites like these are utilized when people are trying to be...covert.”
He collapsed down in the chair next to her, still staring at the screen. “Covert. In other words, illegal.”
“Not always. Maybe they’re cheating on a spouse or something. But yeah, illegal in this case. I know the words themselves don’t prove anything...”
“But the fact that they were sent within hours of both men being killed, and that Carrico knew both of them, is significant. More damning than what they have on me.”
She smiled. “That’s what I thought, too. That’s good, right?”
“It’s definitely a start.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at her more closely. “You said we can’t get the other email without you being more illegal? That means even getting this much was illegal.”
She shrugged. “Yeah. But just a little. And if it leads us to the real killer then who cares, right?”
“A judge is going to care.”
She cringed. She wasn’t used to thinking about things like judges. “You don’t have to give the sheriff’s department specifics, just point them in the right direction. Even Whitaker couldn’t be dumb enough to miss this if it’s staring him in the face.”
He laughed, and it sounded more carefree and Tanner-like than she’d heard most of the week. Her heart did another tumble.
He brushed a finger down her cheek. “Damn it, woman. What am I going to do with you?”
His hand reached into the hair at her nape, and he pulled her into his lap with a quick tug. She hardly let out a little laugh of her own before his mouth was on hers.
The kiss started out light, playful, with Bree draped over the back of one of his arms and the other moving in gentle circles on her hip. But before long the kiss turned much hotter and demanding.
The needs in her body were hot and demanding, too.
She wanted Tanner.
She hooked an arm around his neck, pulling him closer, deepening the kiss herself, not that he seemed to mind. When his lips moved down her jaw to her neck, she couldn’t stop the moan that fell from her lips.
She hadn’t even known it was possible to feel this way. Like everything was on fire and burning and there was nothing more she wanted than to be consumed by the flame.
Tanner wrapped one of his big arms around her waist and stood, raising them both easily with his strength, and took a step toward the bedroom.
Finally.
She wrapped her legs around his hips, her arms clasped tightly around his neck as his lips moved back to hers. Keeping her pressed against him as he walked.
He slowed momentarily as he moved them through the bedroom door, and she tensed. She didn’t want him to stop. She felt like she’d been waiting for this her entire life.
She brought her lips back to his, kissing him deeper. It was the only way she could think of to let him know without words how much she wanted this. She threaded her fingers into his thick dark hair and kept their mouths fused.
Whatever it was she was trying to communicate, Tanner understood. His fingers on her hips gripped her closer—strong, secure, confident.
She knew he would take her wherever she wanted to go.
A FEW HOURS LATER, Bree woke up. She stretched, not even for one second trying to keep the smile off her face.
She’d had no idea.
No idea that two people could be as close as she and Tanner had just been. The things that lawman could do with his hands and lips ought to be illegal.
And was she supposed to have known that there were spots on her body—innocent spots on her body—that he could use against her so succinctly?
The backs of her knees.
The spot just below her ear.
Her navel.
And he’d found—and paid attention to—every single freckle she had.
She was never, ever going to be able to look at her body the same way after what they’d done.
And they hadn’t even had sex, technically. When Tanner had laid her on the bed and told her there was a lot more he wanted to show her tonight that didn’t include intercourse, she’d been skeptical. Thought it was just another way he was trying to keep distance from her.
She’d been so wrong. He’d definitely not been trying to keep his distance from her.
Afterward, he’d carried her exhausted, sated body into the shower. The water had perked her up a little, and she’d convinced him to show her what he liked.
It was only after the hot water started to run out that they’d finally left the shower. Tanner had dried them both off and tucked her body next to him in the bed, turning out the light.
Curled up next to him, she’d drifted off to sleep cognizant that she’d never thought she’d ever have this sort of intimacy with someone, much less someone she cared about as much as Tanner.
Never thought she would feel as cherished as she did right in that moment.
She’d fallen asleep happier than she’d ever been, Tanner wrapped around her like her own personal blanket.
But when she reached over for him in the bed now just a few hours later, he wasn’t there.
She waited a couple of minutes to make sure he hadn’t just gone to the bathroom, but it didn’t take her long to realize that wasn’t the case.
She glanced over at the clock. It was almost 4:00 a.m., too early for him to be out doing any chores or getting ready for work. Maybe he’d gotten hungry. She grinned again. They’d certainly burned enough calories. She wouldn’t mind a bite to eat herself.
But when she came out of the bedroom, she found him asleep on the couch. And not just in the accidentally-sat-down-and-fell-back-asleep stance. He had taken out a pillow and a blanket and made himself a little bed.
Away from her.
“Tanner?”
He’d been a cop for too long to wake up groggy. Even in the dim light, she could see awareness in his eyes. “You okay, freckles?”
“Why are you out here sleeping rather than in the bedroom with me?”
Suddenly everything she’d been feeling—all the closeness and intimacy she’d been celebrating—melted away. Obviously, he didn’t feel the same connection between them, or he wouldn’t have come out to the couch to sleep as soon as he could untangle himself from her.
He shook his head. “Whatever you’re thinking, stop. This isn’t what it looks like.”
She wrapped her arms around her middle, trying to fortify herself. “It looks like you were sleeping out here rather than sleeping with me. Is that not the case?”
He let out a sigh. “Yes, but not because I didn’t want to be next to you. Believe me, there is nothing more I wanted than to sleep with you tucked against me, especially after the things we just did together.”
Honestly, she wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. Tanner wasn’t a liar. She knew that down to the very marrow of her bones.
But years of insecurity and knowing how bad she could be at interpersonal situations ate at her. All the possible mistakes she could’ve made and not even have been aware of it.
“Did I do something wrong?” she whispered. Except for in the shower, she’d definitely been more on the receiving end of pleasure than the giving end. “Was I too selfish? I didn’t do enough for you?”
He flew off the couch and pulled her into his arms. “No, Bree. Hell, nothing like that. It was amazing for me. All of it—especially watching you come apart in my arms like that—was amazing for me.”
She could hear his heartbeat under her ear, but it didn’t reassure her the way it had when he’d pulled her against him a few hours ago.
The urge to flee was overwhelming. To get away and be by herself. It was so hard to feel like she’d grown so much only to see herself spiral back down into the need to run.
But maybe that would be the best thing. “Look, I should probably go. Maybe stay at my house since everything seems to be working out for you professionally-wise.”
His hands came up to cup her cheeks, tilting her head back until she was forced to look at him. God, looking at him right now was so hard.
“No. No more running. I want you here. I want you with me.”
She sucked in her breath. “I don’t understand.”
He kissed her forehead. “Just give me a chance to explain it to you, and if you still want to leave, then I won’t stop you.”