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"I kept you from falling asleep at least."
"And if you change your mind about the house..."
"I'll let you know."
She smiled.
He waited a beat, then said, "You wanna go get a cup of coffee or something?"
"Thank you, but I can't. Roger is expecting me."
"Oh. You don't want to keep Roger waiting."
The bitterness behind his words was unmistakable and prompted her to declare, "He's being very sweet."
"Good. That's good."
"When you and Officer Gonzales came to the house, that was an isolated incident."
"So you've said. A bunch of times."
"Well, it's true. Roger regrets that night. Deeply. He's sworn never to raise a hand to me again."
"A groom shouldn't have to swear to something like that, though, should he?"
"His contrition is sincere."
Dodge's expression remained skeptical, which compelled her to convince him.
"Roger thinks the beating outside his gym was a random, aborted mugging, and I've never told him differently."
Dodge didn't really give a damn if Campton knew he'd been the one to attack him, although he'd just as soon the department not get wind of it. But he figured Campton himself protected him from anybody in authority finding out. Even if the woman-beating asshole guessed, or learned through some other means, the identity of the man who'd jumped him, he wouldn't file a legal complaint against Dodge, knowing that if he did, his ill treatment of Caroline then would be made public. Nor was the millionaire likely to challenge him in private, because men who hit women were usually cowards.
It suited both men to leave it alone. But in a perverse way, Dodge wished he could rub the son of a bitch's nose in it.
"He remembers the mugger whispering something to him," Caroline continued. "But he was on the brink of unconsciousness and can't recall what the mugger said."
Dodge looked even more skeptical.
"He considers himself lucky to be alive."
"He is," Dodge said bluntly.
"Since the beating, and his pain
ful recovery, he's been extremely sweet. I think the scare caused him to rearrange his priorities. In any event, he's gone back to being the Roger I first met. He can't do enough for me. He's charming and thoughtful. I've fallen in love with him all over again."
He said nothing, but his eyes turned stony.
"You're basing your low opinion of him on that one incident," she said with heat. "You've never seen the real Roger. The night he slapped me, he wasn't himself."
"No?"
"No. If you could see him now, compare the two, you'd realize that. I'd never seen him act that way before, and certainly not since you beat him up."
"So he changed his spots because of my attack, his brush with death? That's what you think?"
"Yes."
