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“Okay, well—” Sheriff Anderson tucked his notepad and pen in his chest pocket. “—if you happen to see Brandi, you give us a call. Thank you for your time. I’ll get outta here and let you guys get on with your day. Sorry to bother you. With luck, little Brandi just spent the night with one of her friends and is already on her way home.”
“This have anything to do with the girl you found in the ditch a while back? We got something to worry about Derek?” Luke asked.
“Well, I can’t say one way or the other right now. Things bein’ what they are, I just want to make sure everyone in my county is accounted for until we catch this guy. Until then, we’re just going to be extra careful around here.” Logan nodded philosophically, loped over the railing and barged through the hedges like an orangutan, and more of that ice melted. The kid was harmless. Whatever happened, it wasn’t on him. Luke knew that with the certainty of more than just a parent; he knew it as surely as he knew himself innocent of whatever this was. However, whatever had brought this to their door, it had sealed Luke’s childhood friend off completely behind the badge he wore. And the owner of that badge was staring after his son like he had his eye on a target.
Chapter 10
Def Leopard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” wailed through the peaceful countryside like an audible orgy. The rock song was as out of place to the surroundings as the tatted-up and blowtorch-wielding pixie in coveralls was. Nevertheless, there she stood. A black steampunk-looking helmet obscured her face. A heavy paint-splattered apron weighed her down from neck to ankle. The torch in her hands glowed like a fucking light saber, and Jax stood mesmerized in the open barn doors.
Sparks flew. The twisted steel monstrosity in front of her glowed and smoldered and practically breathed as she danced around it like a sorceress. She was spellbinding. The metal seemed to liquefy under her whim. It flowed and bent and swirled. Her sculpture did her bidding with an effortlessness that marveled him. Called to him. Time ceased to exist for Jax as he watched her creation come to life. The swirls arced and swooped like ten-foot waves crashing onto shore. Within the waves, tentacles began to take shape, threaded and weaving within the frothing sea of steel, and Jax could almost feel the sea creature striving to break free of the ocean’s depths. Within the center of the tsunami, a new shape began to take form. A face, crude at first then more refined. It was fierce in its power and beauty. The struggle for freedom was etched in every line of the sea creature. Satisfaction and triumph just within reach gleamed in its jewel-like eyes.
And Jax coveted. Not just the art, but the artist creating it. She was as much a part of her creation as if it were an extension of one of her limbs and with a talent so blaring Jax wondered how he’d never heard of her before.Talent like this should be world renown, he thought in blatant awe.
“If you’re gonna keep watching, you should put on some eye protection.” The torch shut off abruptly, and Kiki tugged the face mask up to reveal a face flushed and drenched in sweat. When she closed her mermaid eyes and chugged from a water bottle she pulled out of her baggy overalls, Jax couldn’t help but wonder if this was how she looked during sex.
He let his gaze and his imagination wander as she drank. Bewitched. That’s the only explanation he could come up with. There she stood, sweaty, possibly smelly, covered in dust and grime from head to toe and dressed up like Jennifer Beal’s welding stand-in forFlashdance. Why in the hell did he find her so attractive?
“You don’t want to burn out those beauties.” She took a couple steps to her workbench and rummaged around until she found what she was after. “Here you go.” Kiki turned and tossed a heavy pair of protective lenses his way then went back to her art before he caught them.
“I’d listen to her if I were you.” Andie materialized beside him like she apparated from Hogwarts. Jax jumped about a foot in the air and fumbled his heavy glasses. “Jeezus! How long have you been standing there?” His question was more demand than inquiry, but she rattled him so completely there was nothing he could do to retain any amount of cool. So he just went with it.
She smirked and nudged him in the ribs with her elbow before slinging an arm around his shoulders in camaraderie. “I told you she’s brilliant.”
Jax relaxed, looked back toward Kiki and her masterpiece, and smiled. “Mesmerizing.”
“Mesmerizing. Yeah, that’s a good word for her. She is that when she’s in the zone. Sometimes, she does this in the studio and makes the creation of it as much a part of the art as the finished product is.” Andie smiled fully then, and pride shone in her eyes. “Those pieces usually sell before they’re done and typically go for triple what her other works do. All of them are other mediums though. Welding and iron work requires eye protection, and boy do the sparks fly. Too risky in a studio environment.”
Jax was fascinated. “I bet. So, what other mediums?”
“Oh, you name it; my girl can create it. She’s a freakin’ artistic force of nature.”
Jax tore his gaze from the beauty in front of him and found himself captivated by a whole different kind of art then.
Every line of Andie’s face was perfect, even in the harsh unfiltered sunlight. Andie’s skin glowed with a healthy peachy tone. Her hair would give a Disney princess security issues, and her lush figure made him weak in the knees. If the woman had one inkling of the power she could wield over the male species, she’d overthrow the government and declare herself Queen Ruler Supreme.
Jax felt his heart rate not quicken but rather intensify so that he could feel every beat of it in every part of his body. Desire was what fueled him, he realized, a deep primal desire that he hadn’t felt to this degree for any other woman. He wanted her beneath him, over him, surrounding him. He wanted to sink into her plump, supple body the way he longed to plunge into the lake on hot August afternoons. She was a feast just beyond his reach. Andie was the oasis in a desert to his parched and desperate castaway. A delectable mirage just beyond his reach.
Jax’s gaze tracked when she gently rested a hand on her lower abdomen.
And she was carrying another man’s child.
“Fuck.”
“Sorry?” Andie turned to smile up at him. Her own heavy glasses looked like a throwback to the ‘80s, and Jax felt that warm tug at his heart he was getting used to feeling whenever she was around.
“Nothin’.” He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and took a moment to enjoy the silky texture of it before letting his hand drop. “Just accepting my fate.” Her brows wrinkled at him above her shades. “Okay,Risky Business, enough lollygagging for me. You called for a plumber. Here I am.”
“Well, thank you kindly,Riddick, but I asked you for a referral for a plumber. I didn’t mean for you to turn all Tim the Tool Man on me.”
“Tim the Tool Man?” He stepped nose-to-nose with her, fighting the grin that always teased at his mouth when she bantered with him. “Is that a dig? Are you implying I’m going to make things worse?”
Andie didn’t appear to be holding back her smile. It shined so bright he was glad he still had his shades on. She simply beamed at him. “You already cook, do chores, and manage the books for this place. I never thought for a second leaky faucets were also a part of your repertoire.”
“You’d be shocked at the number of tricks I have up my sleeve.” He dashed a thumb over her brow to smooth out the wrinkles her surprise was furrowing into them. Her hand reached for his and she twined their fingers together.
“I’m shocked you would think I’d let you add that title to the many you already carry around here. Honestly. You do too much.” Both her cool hands now held his one and she looked up into his eyes with such earnestness it’s no wonder he was unaware of Luke until the man spoke from right behind him.
“Oh for fuck’s sake.” Luke’s mumble was as familiar to him as his own voice, and Jax felt those dueling emotions he always felt whenever the other man was around. Longing and hatred.
