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Caleb caught Izzy’s eye and frowned as he started toward her. The look on her face told him she’d overheard every word.
Chapter 16
Izzy finished giving a brief statement to the uniformed officer and started to turn back toward Caleb. In truth it had been very brief. She had merely confirmed that she’d been renting a room and that she and Caleb had arrived to find the room door ajar and her next door neighbor hiding in the closet. She hadn’t mentioned what she did for a living or why she was in town in the first place. The nervous man thanked her for her time and left her standing beside her car. Caleb finished giving his statement to a third man who’d arrived several minutes ago. This man wasn’t wearing a uniform but a suit and tie. She didn’t need to overhear the conversation to conclude the man was Caleb’s superior.
She hadn’t given any indication that she’d thought Barnes had done anything wrong. She had been attacked, she’d reminded the officer. And she had been pinned against the wall by her throat. She’d left out the part where she’d broken free and gotten in a shot of her own. He could’ve had a weapon, she told the officer. There had been no way to know. No, she didn’t recall whether or not Barnes had identified himself as RCPD. It all just happened so fast, Officer.
Caleb was no doubt being grilled with the same questions. He was calm and collected, especially for a man who’d just beaten the living shit out of someone. He answered every question, some of them more than once, although Izzy couldn’t really hear them all. When he was finished, he gave the suited man a curt nod then turned toward her. As he reached her car, he said, “You’re coming home with me.”
Izzy silently agreed that staying at the Rainbow was a bad idea, but she hadn’t considered the alternative that he was proposing. She hesitated while thinking it over, which apparently caused Caleb to re-think the offer.
“Or… I know a hotel where you can stay,” he amended. “I know the owner. She’ll cut you a deal.”
Izzy considered the offer, though it was likely that she couldn’t afford an actual hotel—even at a discount.
Now he seemed to regret his proclamation that she’d go home with him, which put her more at ease with the idea, actually. Not an hour ago she’d seen this man beat a suspect to a bloody pulp. She’d known rough cops, dated rough cops, and rough men in general. They weren’t always dangerous. Izzy’s job, now that was dangerous; and in order to do her job as well as she did, she’d honed her instincts and her ability to read people to a razor sharp edge. It had saved her life on more than one occasion. It seemed that though Caleb Barnes seemed relatively safe, he was a bit of a mystery—even to his closest friends. It intrigued Izzy, but it didn’t bother her. She couldn’t forget his fingers on her throat, his insistent but gentle touch and the look of genuine concern in his eyes.
She handed him the keys to her Charger. “I’ll go home with you.”
He glanced over his shoulder at the people watching them, then turned back to her. He opened his mouth, closed it again. He didn’t seem to be in the mood to argue so he slid the keys from her hand.
As they rolled past the older officer’s squad car—the loudmouth, as Izzy silently dubbed him—Caleb hit the gas, kicking up dust and loose gravel. He might have been just getting a feel for the clutch, but she somehow doubted it. When they turned onto the cross street, he shifted smoothly from first to second and powered into a left turn. She had to admit she liked his driving, but that didn’t blind her to the man entirely.
“Your jacket’s clean,” she said as he cruised through a yellow light without slowing down. “No flags. No infractions.”
He was quiet for a few moments. “I was under the radar,” he admitted. “But I fucked up. Or I’ve always been fucking up and it came down on someone else’s head. I put assholes away,” he said somewhat defensively. “I put them away for a long fucking time.”
“You frame them?” Izzy asked bluntly. There was no point in pretending she wasn’t aware of the possibilities. She dated cops. She worked with cops. She knew cops. The car slowed just a bit and he turned into a large gravel lot. Izzy thought it looked like a commercial garage. Over the low-slung, slate gray building, the sign said, “Burnout.”
Caleb pulled the parking brake but left the engine running. He unfastened his seatbelt and turned to face her fully. “No,” he said firmly, but he didn’t seem to be offended at the question. “I don’t frame them, Izzy. I don’t have to. I give them some rope and let them hang themselves.”
