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“The police took me back there and I packed up everything.”
“Did any of the officers help?” he asked.
“Two.” She seemed to see where he was headed with this. “Yes, but no one walked away with a painting or a disk. They just made sure you didn’t try to kill me while I told them what needed to be packed, and they did it. I watched the entire process.”
He ignored the part about him killing her. As far as he knew, the police didn’t know that Simon had hid the disk in a painting. Simon was dead so he couldn’t have told them and Zeke wasn’t about to tell them since he’d changed sides no doubt long before all of this had happened. So the police wouldn’t be looking for the painting. That meant either of them could have unknowingly packed the painting with the disk, never suspecting what they had in their hands.
> “Is it possible you missed the painting—it was small, so maybe you overlooked it and left it behind?” Especially if Simon had hidden it.
She shook her head. “I gave up the studio so everything was packed and cleaned out. There really wasn’t anyplace to hide anything.”
He nodded. “So where is everything you boxed up?”
“In storage.”
He rolled his eyes. “I gathered that. Okay, darlin’,” he said, his gaze locking with hers as he stepped toward her. “What do I have to do to get you to trust me?” he asked, his voice soft as he cupped her cheek.
She tried to step away from him, but he pressed her to the wall with his body. She smelled clean and a little citrusy. He sniffed her hair, breathing her in.
Her big blue eyes were on him. He removed her glasses and tossed them aside; her eyes widened. He could feel her breath quicken. Her heart was a hammer in her chest. She really was something.
As he bent to kiss her, she tried to turn her head away but he was still cupping her cheek, still pinning her to the wall.
She glared at him as he lowered his mouth until his lips were only a hairbreadth above hers. He felt her breath catch as he lowered his mouth to hers.
He kissed her gently, slowly, carefully. At first it was to show her how things were going to be but somewhere along the way he felt things change. Not so much in her as in himself.
Her mouth was paradise. There was a shyness to her, an innocence he’d seen the first time he’d laid eyes on her and yet hadn’t believed. It was still there though beneath the bravado. And he was surprisingly touched by it.
He drew back to look into her big blue eyes. She looked like a deer caught in headlights. Her tongue darted out to touch her lower lip. She looked scared and excited all at the same time. He could feel her heart pounding beneath his. Something had changed between them and he already regretted it.
Sometimes he hated his job, hated that he had to use people, to gain their trust, to hurt them.
He especially hated that in the end he would hurt Willa St. Clair.
* * *
WILLA LOOKED PAST him, her eyes growing wider. He swung around, going for his weapon, expecting to see someone behind them.
The room was empty. He blinked as he swung back around with the gun in his hand and faced her.
Willa stood smiling smugly. “I think we need to establish some ground rules,” she said calmly, although he could see she was anything but.
“That was just a ruse?”
She cocked her head at him, still smiling. “Just like that kiss of yours was to make me think I could trust you.”
He holstered his weapon, eyeing her warily. He understood now how she had managed to survive this long. And maybe the kiss had started out that way, but it had changed. He thought about calling her on it. She’d felt something. He knew because he’d felt it, too. But she was right about them needing some ground rules.
“Have you heard the story about the little boy who cried wolf?” he asked as he stepped closer.
“I like the one about the wolf in sheep’s clothing better,” she said, and held up her hand. “That’s close enough. Rule number one: Keep your hands off me.”
He grinned. “That won’t be easy given that your neighbors think we’re lovers and up here right now going at it on your bed.”
She flushed and he had a flash of the two of them on the bed doing just that. He took a step back as he felt himself grow hard at the thought.
“What?” she asked, frowning.
