It had taken her a while, but she’d finally managed to fall asleep on the thin straw mattress she’d been given only to wake up sometime later to find him glaring at her. Without a word, he’d scooped her up into his arms and carried her downstairs to his room, where he continued glaring at her as he tucked her in. In the morning, she tried to climb out of his bed and go back upstairs before anyone could find her only to have him glare at her until she took the hint and lay back down.
He’d kept her hidden in his room for the rest of the week, making sure to bring her food and cold cloths to wrap around her ankle. He also made sure that her chores were done so that his mother didn’t have a reason to come looking for her. At night, he brought her dinner and a book from his father’s collection and read to her until she fell asleep.
“Stop stealing my dog,” Thomas said when Shadow jumped on the bed and settled by his feet.
“Then, I wouldn’t have an excuse to come downstairs at night,” Aileen said, rolling onto her side with a sleepy little murmur. She closed her eyes and focused on keeping her breaths even while she waited for her favorite part of the night.
“Aileen?” Thomas whispered softly a few minutes later. When she didn’t say anything, she never did, he whispered her name again before she felt him shift on the bed seconds before she felt his arm wrap around her and pulled her closer. As soon as she was in his arms, he released a soft sigh as she felt his body relax against hers.
“Aileen,” Thomas whispered one last time as she felt his lips press against the back of her neck and-
She was losingher damn mind, Ashlyn realized as she found herself reaching for a man who wasn’t there. Telling herself that it was just a dream, Ashlyn reached back and turned off her alarm even as she found herself staring at the empty spot on her bed and-
“There is something seriously wrong with me,” Ashlyn said, shaking her head in disgust as she climbed out of bed and found herself wondering how she could miss someone that never existed.
By the time she pulled her hair up into a ponytail and stepped onto the treadmill with her iPad, she was focused on everything that she needed to do today. She went through her email, checked her bank account to make sure that the check from the insurance company had been deposited, she read two articles, and listened to a podcast. Thirty minutes and five miles later, she was climbing off the treadmill and-
“Today, we’re going to be making a three-tier lemon cake perfect for any occasion,”came the warm announcement that had Ashlyn slowly turning around to find her television on.
“You’re going to need three eggs...”
Frowning, she glanced back at her bed to find the remote lying in the middle of her bed with the pillows stacked against the headboard. Never taking her eyes off the bed, Ashlyn slowly reached back and pulled the gun that she’d secured to the side of the treadmill free.
“Make sure that your lemons are fresh...”
Without a word, she scanned the room before she looked under the bed, noting that there was no one there before she stood up and made her way to the closet. She opened the door, made sure that it was empty, turned around and-
“I’m definitely losing my damn mind,” Ashlyn decided as she stood there, taking in the blank television screen before her gaze flickered to her left to find the remote back on the nightstand and her pillows spread out across the head of the bed, where she’d left them.
After one last glance around her room, Ashlyn put the gun back, grabbed a change of clothes and headed to the bathroom, all while promising herself that she’d finally take that vacation that she’d been promising herself for the past two years. Between this last case, the missing girl, and the insane workload that she’d been carrying for the past five years, she was running on fumes.
And now, she was dreaming about a man that didn’t exist and starting to imagine things, Ashlyn thought with a heavy sigh as she turned the shower on. At least it took her mind off the problem at hand.
Figuring out a way around Detective Black’s ultimatum.
She could go over his head and take her chances, but something, mostly the fact that he’d lived up to his reputation asan asshole, told her that it probably wouldn’t go over well. She could go back to the original detectives for each case, but since they had no idea why Detective Black requested the files in the first place, that would probably be a waste of time.
That left her with two options.
Tell the family that she’d reached a dead-end and that there was nothing else that she could do or work with the man that she couldn’t stop thinking about. Neither option appealed to her, mostly because there was no doubt in her mind that Shayne was hiding something.
She already knew that the whole lost-long brother story was bullshit, but what she didn’t know was why he’d gone through all that trouble to get close to a police detective in New Hampshire. Detective Black wasn’t rich, he didn’t have political ties, and he wasn’t handling any major cases at the moment that would draw attention, which only left her even more confused.
It was most likely the reason why she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She loved puzzles, loved figuring out how all the pieces fit together, but she hated not having all the answers even more, which was probably why she became a private investigator.
Whoever Shayne was, he was a distraction that she didn’t need right now, Ashlyn thought as she finished her shower and forced herself to think about how she was going to convince Detective Black to change his mind. Every time she found herself thinking about Shayne, she forced herself to focus on everything that she knew about Detective Black, this case, and all the possibilities that tied all the cases together.
By the time she went over everything in her head, she was in the kitchen reaching for the only thing that was going to help save her sanity only to realize that she ran out of coffee, which was odd since she always made sure that she had coffee. Frowning, she double-checked the cabinets before she finallyaccepted defeat and placed coffee on her shopping list before she headed for the door. She turned off the alarm, grabbed her bag off the table by the door and made sure that her gun was safely inside, along with her pepper spray and taser gun before she set the alarm and headed out the door.
Two minutes later, she was walking through the front door of the small coffee shop down the street and-
“Yer late, lass.”
-found herself wondering why a man who clearly hated her suddenly couldn’t seem to stay away.
CHAPTER 8
“What exactly am I late for?” the woman who’d haunted his dreams asked as she sat down at his table and helped herself to the coffee he’d ordered, making his lips twitch.
