Читать книгу Most Wanted Woman - Maggie Price, Maggie Price - Страница 7

The instant the stranger stepped through the tavern’s front door, a weight dropped on Regan Ford’s chest, pressing against her heart so hard she could hear the panicked beat of it in her ears.

In his denim work shirt and worn jeans he looked tall, tough and sinewy. He stood with his feet wide, chest a bit forward for balance. His right leg was slightly back, as if keeping an invisible holster out of reach.

Cop! her senses warned.

The quick, instinctive fear of cornered prey had her swiveling toward the cash register. Fear barreling in like a locomotive, she rang up the pitcher of beer she’d just served to the pair of grizzled regulars gossiping about the day’s catch. Keeping her back to the man, she focused her gaze on the mirror that spanned the length of the bar. Her breathing grew shallow as she studied him through the gray haze of smoky air.

His thick, black hair brushed the wrinkled collar of the shirt that was rolled up at the sleeves to reveal muscled, sun-bronzed forearms. The faded jeans molded powerful legs. Dark stubble shadowed his jaw. There was a ruggedness about his tanned face that reached all the way to his eyes. Eyes that looked as sharp as a stiletto while he studied his surroundings.

Was he here for her? Had her flight from the law—which had begun exactly one year ago today—come to an end?

While a country song about the misery of lost love crooned from the jukebox, Regan did a quick survey of the patrons who sat shoulder to shoulder at every table and overflowed the booths. Except for a few stools at the bar, the only vacant seats belonged to the people crowded onto the dance floor. The panic sizzling through her made her want to cut and run, try to lose herself in the crowd, then slip out the back door where her car was parked. But if the cop was here for her, he’d be armed with more than just an arrest warrant. He would have a gun, and be within his legal rights to pull it while pursuing a wanted murderer. Her trying to make a break right now could get an innocent person hurt. Killed.

Regan reminded herself that people in this cozy, out-of-the-way town wouldn’t just stand by and watch him drag her away. She thought of Howie Lyons, the night shift cook working in the kitchen. Mindful of trouble that sometimes broke out when alcohol mixed with rowdy customers, Howie kept a Louisville Slugger stashed beneath the grill. Then there was Deni Graham.

Regan swept her gaze around the tavern’s dim interior until she spotted the blond waitress. Dressed in a snug red tank top and tight jeans, Deni stood at a table, laughing and flirting with six men while she jotted their orders on her pad.

Regan conceded she didn’t know her coworkers all that well. Wouldn’t let them get to know her. But she felt sure they would help her if the cop slapped a pair of cuffs on her. She would demand they call Sundown’s police chief, remind him it was within her rights to be locked up in his jail while she fought extradition to New Orleans. During that time, she could maybe figure out a way to escape and run. Again. For the rest of her life, she had to run.

Hands unsteady, she tidied the liquor bottles lining the bar’s mirrored shelf while she watched the cop through her lashes. A not-so-subtle masculine power drifted with him as he strode toward her across the peanut-shell-scattered wooden floor.

A faint, liquid tug in her belly had Regan blinking. For a year she had been dead inside. No laughter, no warmth, no feeling. That some sort of primitive awareness of this man, this cop, could spark something inside her had her spine going as stiff as a blade.

“Josh McCall!” Deni squealed then engulfed the stranger in a hug and gave him a smacking kiss on the mouth. “It’s about time you came back to Sundown.”

Regan eased out a breath. The waitress’s familiarity with the man went far toward assuring her he wasn’t there at the devil’s bidding.

Still, she was positive he carried a badge. Knowing that kept the prickles of fear at the back of her neck. She knew better than anyone there was no one more capable of treachery than a cop.

With the jukebox now between selections, the crack and clatter of pool balls drifted from the back room. Regan rolled her shoulders, attempting to ease her tension and turned in time to see the man send Deni a grin that was all charm.

“Long time no see, angel face.” They stood close enough to the bar for Regan to hear his voice, which was as smooth as the move he made to extract himself from Deni’s embrace.

“I swear, Josh, it seems like an eternity since you’ve been here.” She tugged him the few remaining steps to the bar while giving him the once-over. “You look as good as always.”

“So do you.”

Deni slid a palm up and down his arm. “When’d you get to town?”

“Just now. I wasn’t sure what I’d find in the cabin’s pantry so I decided to stop here first.”

She fluttered her lashes. “Maybe you’ll stay in Sundown long enough this time for us to get together?”

When he eased a hip onto one of the bar stools, his gaze met Regan’s. For the space of a heartbeat, his eyes focused on her so completely it was as if she were spotlighted on an otherwise empty stage.

That one searing look, along with the whispers of awareness already stirring her senses, made Regan’s throat go even more dry.

He gave her the merest fraction of a nod, then shifted his attention back to Deni.

“I’ll be here about three weeks.”

Just then, Howie’s voice bellowed an order number through the open wall hatch between the kitchen and the bar.

“That’s my cue,” Deni said. “You want your regular for dinner, Josh?”

“You bet.”

While Deni sauntered toward the kitchen’s swinging door, Regan steeled her nerves and slid a napkin onto the bar. She couldn’t exactly ignore a customer.

“What can I get you?”

“Corona.” When he shifted on the stool, light fell on the thin scar winding out of his collar and up the right side of his neck. “I’m Josh McCall.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“You’re new to Sundown.”

She turned to the cooler, met his gaze in the mirror. His eyes were intent on her face. Too intent. “Right.”

“Been here long?”

“A few months.” She retrieved a bottle, twisted off its cap.

“Have relatives around here?”

“No.” She topped the bottle with a lime wedge. “Do you?”

“More like extended family.” His eyes were so deeply brown it was impossible to see a boundary between pupil and iris. “So, where’s home?”

What should have been a simple question was as loaded as a shotgun that had been primed and pumped. “Here. There. Everywhere. I’m a gypsy at heart.” Regan had rehearsed the response so many times it now sounded normal.

She settled the bottle onto the napkin, then wiped a cloth across the bar, its gleaming wood nearly black with age.

“Sounds like you’ve known Deni awhile,” she commented.

“My family owns a cabin here. We used to spend every summer in Sundown. Mostly now we make it here for holidays.” He took a long sip of his drink. “The South.”

“The South what?”

“You’ve spent time in the South. There’s a trace of it in your voice.”

Regan kept her face blank, her hands loose while her insides clenched. “I’ve been in that part of the country a few times,” she improvised. She’d practiced endless hours to lose her native Louisiana accent. The fact he’d pegged it within minutes had her nerves scrambling.

“What about you?” She placed a plastic bowl of unshelled peanuts beside the beer bottle. Despite her inner turmoil, her voice remained steady. “Where are you from?”

He eyed her while he snagged a peanut, cracked it. “Oklahoma City. Ever pass through on your way to here, there and everywhere?”

“No. Is your family’s cabin on the lake?”

“Yeah. It sits just to the west of your boss’s house.” He popped a peanut in his mouth, chased it with a swallow of beer. “You know it?”

“Yes.” Since just standing there had her wanting to jump out of her skin, she plunged her hands into the warm soapy water in the small metal sink and began washing glasses. “I wouldn’t call it a cabin. It’s one of the biggest houses on the lake. And sits on the lot with about the best view of the water.”

“Point taken.” He palmed more peanuts, began shelling them onto the cocktail napkin. “When my grandfather bought the land and built the house, he made sure the place was roomy enough for all his kids, then later the grandkids. The entire McCall clan’s descending here for the Fourth of July. I volunteered to come down ahead of time and make repairs.”

“The holiday’s weeks away. Is the house in bad shape?”

The shot glass she was currently rinsing had Regan glancing at the big bear of a man seated at one end of the bar. Seamus O’Toole owned several used car lots in Dallas and was an avid participant in Paradise Lake’s annual fishing derby. He’d been here an hour and already had empty shot glasses stacked in a pyramid before him.

“No, there’s just a lot of minor repairs that need to be done.”

McCall’s comment had her looking back at him. She saw that his gaze had followed hers to O’Toole.

“Maybe you’ll have time to get some fishing in,” she said.

“Maybe.” He glanced toward the kitchen door. “I spotted Etta’s car parked in the back. If she’s in the office slaving over the books, I’d like to stick my head in and tell her hello. Give her a kiss.”

“You’re a friendly neighbor.”

“More than. Etta’s like a second mom to me and my brothers and sisters.” He took another drink. “To tell you the truth, I’m crazy in love with your boss.”

Regan arched a brow. Etta Truelove was a vibrant sixty-something widow with ten grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and a fiancé. “Does Etta know how you feel about her?”

“I tell her all the time.” His mouth curved in a wide, reckless grin. “One taste of her apple pie, the woman owned my heart. If she would dump A.C. and run off with me, I’d die a happy man.”

Regan was sure that glib talk and grin tumbled women like bowling pins. There had been a time in her life Josh McCall would have had the same effect on her. And, yes, she admitted, there was something about him that, despite her panic, her fear, had her heartbeat kicking hard. But she would ignore that something—easily ignore it—because she’d learned too well that you never knew, not for certain, what was under a cop’s smooth words and smiles.

With the glasses washed, she retrieved a rag and began drying. “I guess you haven’t heard about Etta’s accident.”

He set his beer aside while what looked like genuine concern settled in his eyes. “What accident?”

“She broke a bone in her foot when she slipped and fell at the marina.”

“Is she okay?”

“Well enough, considering she has to stay cooped up in her house with her leg in a walking cast. She can hobble around using a cane, but the doctor doesn’t want her on her feet for any length of time. He’s banned her from work because he knows she’d start tending bar the minute she got here. Just to make sure she follows the doc’s orders, I confiscated her car. That’s why it’s parked out back.”

“I’ll stop by her place when I leave here. Find out if she needs anything.”

“It’ll be dark out by the time you finish dinner,” Regan said. “Sundown’s got a prowler running around, so people are nervous. I’ll call Etta to let her know to expect you.”

He frowned. “What kind of prowler?”

“Beats me. He wears black and creeps around at night.” She brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “Etta mentioned him the day she hired me, so he’s been at it awhile.”

Regan felt a rush of relief when Deni stepped to the bar with a tray heaped with empties and a pad of orders. She’d spent enough time talking to McCall. Far too long in his presence that was unsettling on numerous levels. She planned to spend the rest of her shift—and his entire time in Sundown—avoiding him.

She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Let me know if you need a refill.”

“Sure. Before you go, tell me one thing.”

“What?”

“Your name.”

She hesitated. “Regan.”

“Nice name. Unusual.”

She’d thought the same thing when she saw it on a tombstone. She scooped a bag of peanuts from beneath the counter. “I’ve got work.”

“Okay. Nice to meet you, Regan.”

With dusk melting into darkness and the mellow notes of a guitar sliding from the stereo, Josh steered his red Corvette convertible along the road that ringed Paradise Lake. His mind wasn’t on the night air that flowed like warm water across his face, the soothing music or the shadowy groves of oaks and glimpses of shoreline that zipped by.

His thoughts centered on the bartender.

Although a booth had opened up just as Deni served his hamburger and fries, he had remained at the bar. While eating, he watched Regan draw beers, mix drinks and refill bowls of peanuts with single-minded intensity.

She was petite, slim and sleek. The white blouse she wore had been tucked into the waistband of jeans snug enough to whet a man’s appetite.

Her hair was as black and shiny as the lapel of a tuxedo, and it hung straight to her shoulders. She had wispy bangs that ended just above brown, gold-flecked eyes. Eyes that had reminded him of a cat’s—watching and waiting.

For what? he wondered.

When a yellow warning sign blipped in the high beams of the car’s headlights, Josh downshifted. Seconds later, the ’Vette reached the razor-sharp bend in the road the locals had dubbed Wipeout Curve.

He felt the ’Vette’s raw power as it whispered through the treacherous turn. Any other time he would have cleared his mind, eased back and savored the ride. Tonight, his thoughts remained on a slim, dark-haired stranger.

He had noticed her the instant he walked into the tavern. Noticed, too, that while she worked the register and straightened liquor bottles, she surveilled him in the mirror behind the bar. He was used to feeling a woman’s gaze, but instinct told him Regan’s study of him had nothing to do with hot-blooded attraction, and everything to do with cool-eyed suspicion.

“Interesting,” he murmured while the guitar’s soothing notes mixed with the night air. It was also of interest that she’d failed to give him her last name, nor had she revealed where she was from. It hadn’t been lost on him that every question he’d asked about her, she’d turned back on him.

Just because he’d been on suspension didn’t mean he’d gotten rusty when it came to spotting some nifty evasion tactics.

His mood darkened as the reminder of the past month threw a mental switch, rerouting his thoughts. The bitterness over having been accused of planting evidence in a rapist’s apartment was still there, simmering with a foul taste he’d almost grown used to. What he would never get used to was how his nearly losing his badge and the job that defined him had hurt his family. A law enforcement family, in which cops were the majority and wearing a uniform was a matter of pride.

He respected the badge and the law. He had just found it sometimes necessary, while coming up through the ranks, to circumvent the letter of the law in order to get what he needed to take down a guilty bad guy. No harm, no foul…until he’d been at the right place at the wrong time, and his reputation for stretching the rules had gone far in having a hell of a lot of cops suspect the worst of him.

And, yeah, he had looked guilty—who knew better than a sex crimes detective what evidence was needed to score a slam-dunk conviction on a rape? The whole squad had known he’d spent uncountable off-duty hours trying to track down the vicious six-time rapist. And stretching the rules innumerable ways just to get the bastard’s scent wasn’t something he’d shy away from—but crossing the line wasn’t one of those ways. The finger-pointing in Josh’s direction, the insinuation that he’d planted evidence had him close to quitting the force in a rage. And then he’d thought about his family and what the badge meant to him. So he’d swallowed back that rage and in the end managed to clear himself.

Now that he was back in the department’s good graces, he intended to toe the line a little closer when he reported back to duty.

Another mile down the road Josh steered into the drive of what he’d considered his second home for his entire life. The three-story structure was an architectural masterpiece. Built on a sloped, heavily wooded lot and made entirely of cedar and glass, it had a broad wraparound porch and a wide chimney built of local rock that had been weathered to a soft gray. Beyond the lush back lawn lay Paradise Lake, its rambling shoreline coiling like a snake across the Oklahoma-Texas border.

Josh climbed out of the car. Instead of heading for the house, he strode across the drive and skirted the hedge that separated McCall and Truelove property.

Although only a single porch light glowed beside Etta’s front door, Josh knew from memory that the two-story house was painted a pale blue with white shutters. A wooden swing suspended on chains dangled from the porch’s ceiling.

The air around him sparked with fireflies as he headed up the walk lined by plants that formed shadowy shapes in the night. By the time he reached the porch, the front door had swung open.

“Joshua McCall, if you aren’t a sight for sore eyes.”

The woman standing behind the patched screen door, soft light glowing behind her, was tall and lean with a helmet of iron-gray curls framing a square-jawed face. She wore a short-sleeved yellow cotton dress that hit her midcalf.

“So are you.” Frowning at the snow-white cast on her right leg, he jogged up the porch steps, gripped the screen she held half open and dropped a kiss on her forehead. He couldn’t remember when he’d actually met the gregarious tavern owner and her late husband. They had just always been permanent fixtures during his summers at the lake. As had their two sons who had wreaked havoc with the McCall brothers.

“How’s your foot, Etta?”

“Healing too slow for my liking.” Her scowl emphasized the network of lines around her eyes and mouth. “Come in and sit, Joshua. I can use the company.”

“You’re sure it’s not too late?”

“Not for this night owl.” Leaning on a cane, she limped across the living room filled with furniture positioned on an earth-toned rug. Colorful candles and crocheted throws added to the room’s sense of comfort.

“Who’s this?” Josh asked, pausing to stroke a finger over the jet-black kitten curled on the recliner.

“Anthracite. She’s a stray who wouldn’t leave.”

“Especially after you fed her, I bet.”

“What else was I supposed to do? Poor thing was starving.”

Josh scratched behind one furry ear, and was rewarded with a purr. “You named her after coal?”

“Scotty did,” Etta said, referring to her youngest grandson. “When he saw the kitten, he decided she looked like the coal he’d learned about in science class.”

“Good call.” Leaving the kitten sharpening its claws on the recliner, Josh followed Etta along a hallway. When they neared the kitchen, he raised his chin. “Do I smell apple pie?”

“You do. I decided to bake tonight and just took the last of the pies out of the oven. Could be I had a premonition you’d show up, looking too thin for your own good.”

Blame that on his suspension, he thought.

He followed her into the kitchen, painted in soft yellow, its white-tiled countertops sparkling beneath the bright overhead light. “Have I told you I’m crazy about you?”

“Every time you want pie.” She waved him to the small metal table. “Have a seat and I’ll cut us some.”

“You sit.” Placing a hand on her bony shoulder, he nudged her to a chair. “Everything still in the same place?”

“Nothing’s changed.” Etta shifted a stack of mail to one corner of the table. “There’s tea in the refrigerator.”

Minutes later, he had slices of pie and glasses of iced tea on the table. Josh settled into the chair across from hers, lifted his fork and dug in. The warm pie tasted like heaven.

“How’s the family?” Etta asked before taking her first bite.

“Mom and Dad are rocking along. Everybody’s married now, except Nate and myself. He’s fallen for a gorgeous ex-cop from Dallas. He and Paige just moved in together.” Feeling a tug on his sock, Josh looked down in time to see Anthracite attack his shoe. Chuckling, he scooped her up, settled her onto his lap and went back to his pie. “I figure it’s only a matter of time before Nate calls and tells me to rent a wedding tux.”

Etta regarded him over the rim of her glass. “Think it’s time you found a girl of your own?”

“I got tons of ’em,” he drawled.

“You’ll settle down when you find the right woman.”

“She’ll have to find me because I’m not looking for her.” The simple fact was his life had always run more efficiently solo. After Nate moved out of the house they’d shared, Josh had discovered how much he savored living alone. Made things less complicated. Just like women whose idea of the perfect relationship was a good time, a fast ride and a friendly parting.

As he popped the last bite of pie into his mouth, his gaze settled on the stack of mail on the corner of the table. “Is that a digital recorder?” he asked, plucking up the long silver piece of metal that sat on top of the stack.

“Michael bought me that gadget,” Etta said, referring to her eldest son. “I use it to record reminders. Like when to take my medicine. I call it my memory box.”

“Smart.”

“The thing tends to startle me when my own voice comes out of the blue, telling me to take my pills. There’s already enough going on around Sundown to make a person nervous.”

Josh set the recorder aside. “I heard about the prowler.”

“Whoever it is has been peeping in windows for months now. Chief Decker hasn’t had any luck catching him.”

Josh frowned. From working sex crimes, he knew that prowlers sometimes turned out to be Peeping Toms, who had the potential of escalating to indecent exposure, then more serious sex crimes. Like rape. His own career problems had been due to one man’s zeal to take down the six-time rapist.

“How were things at my tavern tonight?”

Etta’s question diverted his thoughts. “The place was packed.” Leaning back, he watched the kitten climb up his chest, wincing when her razor-sharp claws stabbed through his shirt. “Howie’s burgers are still gold. Deni’s as big a flirt as ever. Your new bartender is…interesting.”

“Regan’s a pretty little thing, isn’t she? All that dark hair and those big brown eyes.”

Cat’s eyes, he thought again. Watching and waiting. For what?

“I baked an extra pie for her,” Etta added, sliding her plate aside. “The girl’s way too thin. She hardly ever sits still and she eats like a bird.”

“And brings to mind a raw nerve.”

“How so?”

“Cops get used to people getting fidgety around them—goes with the job. But what I do for a living didn’t come up, so it wasn’t that.” He sipped his tea. “I can’t put my finger on why I made Regan nervous. Yet.”

Chuckling, Etta patted his hand. “Joshua, men who are all rakish charm and promise of trouble to come have given women the jitters since the beginning of time. You’re no exception.”

“You think that’s it? My charm made Regan itchy?”

“What else could it be?”

“Yeah, what else?” He thought about how effectively she had evaded his questions, divulging next to nothing about herself. “Does Regan have a last name?”

“Doesn’t everyone? Hers is Ford.”

“Regan Ford,” he said, trying it out. Regan Ford, hailing from no particular place, yet sounding to him more like the deep South than anywhere else. “I take it you checked her employment record and references before you hired her?”

“I didn’t need to. My instincts told me to take a chance on her. She’s living in the apartment over the tavern.”

With the kitten now propped on his shoulder, Josh crossed his forearms on the table. “You gave her a job and a place to live without running a background check? That’s not wise, Etta.”

“My late husband had a philosophy about the tavern business. Never water down the whiskey and, when it comes to employees, follow your heart.” She raised a shoulder. “I had a good feeling about Regan, so I offered her the job. The apartment over the tavern was empty, so why not let her live there?”

“Why not check her out first?”

“Like I said, I had a good feeling about her. Anyway, I had her work the same shift I did the first month she was here. Time has proven me right about Regan. She works like a trooper. The register has never come up short on her shift. Now that I’m stove up, Regan adds up all the receipts, makes the bank deposits and balances the books. She handles the ordering. You think either Howie or Deni, or any of my day workers could do that without making a mess of things?”

“I doubt it.” Like most cops, he had a healthy distrust of all mankind. Knowing that Etta had turned over her bank account to a woman she hadn’t checked out didn’t sit well. At all.

“Regan’s got a caring soul,” Etta continued. “The day cook makes me lunch and Regan brings it here. She takes the time to sit with me on the porch and visit. She runs the vacuum and dusts. Does my marketing. And cooks dinner for A.C. and me here every Sunday on her night off.”

“You ever ask Mystery Woman where she’s from? Where she’s worked?”

“No.”

He settled his hand on Etta’s. “You’re letting a woman you know nothing about handle your money and basically run your business. Who’s to say she won’t empty your bank account and disappear? Let me look into her background. Check her references. I can call Nate, have him run her through the national crime database.”

Etta’s blue eyes met his squarely. “Joshua McCall, do you own a part interest in my tavern?”

He sighed. “No, ma’am.”

“Then leave my business to me. I may not know everything about Regan, but I know what matters.”

It was all Josh could do not to remind Etta of the drifter she’d trusted a few years ago. The guy had tended bar only a week before he cleaned out the safe then disappeared.

Etta pointed a long, sturdy finger his way. “While we’re on the subject, I want you to understand that I’m fond of Regan. I don’t expect she needs to get all stirred up over a man who goes through women like water.”

“I don’t plan on doing any stirring in that area.” He glanced at the pies cooling on the counter. “I forgot to stop by the mini-mart, so I need to drive back into town. How about I drop off Regan’s pie while I’m at it?”

“Sounds good.”

He set Anthracite on the floor, gathered up the plates and carried them to the sink. What he did intend to do was look after Etta’s best interests. Which meant finding out all there was to know about Regan Ford.