He takes my hand over the table. “Yeah, sure.”
Brock
I sit in the car across the road from Tully’s mother’s house. This is the last place I want to be but it’s a necessary evil. I blow out a breath as I wait. According to their usual schedules, her mother and stepfather should be leaving for work any minute now. The garage door goes up, and I drop my head. Her stepfather pulls out and I watch his car disappears down the road. I wait another twenty minutes. Is her mother ever leaving?
I tap on the steering wheel as I wait, and I think back to the last time I was here. I frown as I remember how happy I felt. Tully had just agreed to move in with me.
We could have been so good together if only she hadn’t fucked it up.
Her words from last night come back to me.
I love you, I made a mistake.
I clench my jaw as my anger begins to resurface. I’ve never been so angry with anything or anyone in my entire life as I am with her. She thinks that she can just waltz back in here, click her fingers, and I’ll run to her like a puppy dog?
I don’t think so.
I’ll never trust her again.
That horrific thirty-hour flight home from London is ingrained into my soul.
I will never, ever put myself in a position to be hurt like that again.
She can go to Hell… or marry Simon. Either way, I don’t give a fuck.
Finally, the front door opens and her mother walks out. She gets into her car and I watch it slowly pull out and drive down the road.
Okay, let’s go.
I knock on the door. Come on, answer. He’s unemployed. Fuck knows what time he drags himself out of bed.
I knock again, harder this time.
No answer.
Shit, he may not even be home.
I bang on the door. “Brad?” I call. “It’s me, Brock.”
Silence…
I shake my head in disgust. Come on, man. I don’t have the fucking time to be waiting here all day for you.
I bang hard again, and I hear a creak from inside. I put my ear to the door and listen. Footsteps.
Yes.
I step back, and the door opens. Brad is wearing only his boxer shorts, and he looks dishevelled as he frowns and scratches his head.
“What the fuck, man? What time is it?” he moans.
“Seven-thirty.” I smile.
He frowns at me.
“Can you hack?” I ask.
“Huh?”
“I need an I. T. person to hack computers for me.”
He scratches his head again. “Yeah, I can hack.”
“Do you want a job?” I ask.
His brows rise in surprise. “What?”
“I’ve been looking for a person I can trust for a while.”
Brad’s face falls. “Is this some fucked up way to get back with Tully?”
I look at him flatly. “No, Tully and I are done with.”
He stares at me.
“I’m serious, I don’t want anything to do with your sister. No offence.”
He frowns.
“I do, however, want some information on your stepbrother Peter.”
A smile crosses his face. “What kind of information?”
“I think he’s up to something,” I say.
“He would be. He’s a seedy prick.”
I smile. “You and me and are going to get along just great. Get dressed. You start your new job now.”
I knock on Tully’s door at 8:00 p. m. Jes picked her up from work and has been here with her until I arrived. I’ve been with Meredith all day and I’m about to go out of my mind. That woman is annoying as fuck. Rourke, Tully’s partner in the lab, is coming to talk to me. Apparently, there is more news that could help us with the case.
Tully opens the door and smiles warmly at me. “Hi.” Her hopeful eyes search mine and I clench my stomach. She’s freshly showered and smells… like home.
Stop it.
I walk past her into the apartment. “Please, take a seat,” she says in her husky voice.
I feel my cock harden, and I bite my bottom lip. Not now.
What is it with her? Every time, every single time I’m near her, my body is aroused whether I like it or not.
I need to learn how to shut it down, and I need to learn quickly. I drop to her couch, watching her as she sits opposite me. I get a vision of her laughing above me in Hawaii when I told her I loved her, and I frown. The memory hurts.
She begins to talk about her day, but I can’t hear a word she’s saying because her scent is making so many memories wash over me.
The beach, time out… love.
I have no control with her. I couldn’t even open the door when she was outside my apartment because I knew if I did…
This is stupid. Get the information and get the hell out of here.
She says something and crosses her legs, tucking up underneath her bottom. I can see the muscles in her thighs. I get a vision of her muscular thighs up over my shoulders, and I remember how good she felt around me, how her arms felt around me…
Jesus Christ.
This is the worst form of torture.
Perspiration beads on my forehead as I try to concentrate on what she saying.
What if…? No.
I watch her talk for a moment, but I can’t concentrate on a word she’s saying. My eyes are focused on her big, pouty lips.
One more time…
No.
Rourke knocks on the door and Tully jumps up to answer it. “Oh, hi,” she says as she lets him in.
I wince. For fuck’s sake. The last time I saw this guy, I dragged him out of his chair at the restaurant.
“Brock, this is Rourke,” she introduces us, her nervous eyes flickering between us.
I shake his hand. “Hello.”
He forces a scared smile. “Hi.”
I need to apologise before I say anything. “Ah, listen. I’m sorry about the first time we met.”
“You scared the crap out of me. I ran all the way back to the office.”
I smirk. “Sorry.” Who fucking admits that? Even if it’s true, this guy is a dork. A chickenshit dork. “Take a seat,” I say, and they both fall onto the couch. “Tell me about this new information you have.”
Rourke and Tully exchange glances, and I know they have talked about what they are going to say to me.
“Well, this makes me uncomfortable to say out loud, but I feel that in order for you to understand my theory, I have to tell you everything,” Tully says.
I frown.
“Remember when you were wanting to know who was driving a police car with the number plate that you had?”
“Yeah.” I look between her and Rourke. Rourke nods at Tully, urging her to go on.
“Peter was driving that car.”
My eyes narrow. I fucking knew it.
“B-but,” she stammers. “I don’t think he did this. At least, if he is involved, I know he didn’t kill the girls himself. He must have a partner.”
“Why?”
She swallows nervously and looks between us.
“Peter is gentle. He’s a dick, but he couldn’t kill a fly when we were kids. He can’t even watch boxing on television because he thinks it’s too violent. He’s just not capable of physically killing these women.”
“I don’t think-”
She cuts me off. “There’s more.” She pauses and blows out a big breath. “You know how Rourke thinks the lab is bugged?”
“Yes,” both Rourke and I answer.
“Yesterday, when you were all in the meeting downstairs, Rouke, Peter came to the lab.” She swallows and pulls her hand through her hair.