Torn - Cynthia Eden Page 0,23
off—nearly running away. He seemed to do everything fast. Life passed at high speed for him.
She headed toward the alley on the side of the building. Long, narrow. Empty. Her gaze slid over the cobblestone path back there. The place appeared to have been freshly cleaned. There was a puddle of water, as if the area had been hosed off recently.
Footsteps sounded behind her. Victoria turned and saw Wade approaching. She bit her lower lip, then had to say, “You shouldn’t have let him think we were taking this case.”
Wade shrugged. “Don’t know that there is a case yet. We’re here. Why not look around a bit?”
Why not? “Because we’re supposed to be searching for Kennedy Lane. That’s what Lucas hired us to do.”
His lips tightened. “Kennedy’s been gone five years. We both know we aren’t going to find her alive.”
His words made her chest ache.
“But Melissa . . . there’s hope with her.”
She tore her gaze from his and looked back at the alley. “She could have hooked up with someone last night.”
“You heard Jim. That wasn’t her style.”
Victoria’s cheeks burned. I just hooked up with you last night. A hookup that she was very deliberately not talking about. “Sometimes, those close to you don’t realize who you really are. They think they know . . .” She shook her head. “But they only see what you let them.”
“Is that what you do?” His voice roughened. “You let the team at LOST see part of you and hold the rest back?”
“We aren’t talking about me.”
“Aren’t we?”
Her shoulders straightened. “There isn’t anything back here to see. Someone hosed off this area.” She turned around and walked toward him. “We need to get back to the case we were brought in to cover.” She started to skirt around him.
But Wade moved, deliberately blocking her path. “What if I told you . . . I want to learn about all the parts you hold back? That I want to know all of you?”
Won’t ever happen. It couldn’t happen. Not with Wade being the kind of man that he was. Oh, sure, he had a hard edge. He knew how to fight and play plenty dirty. But the man was an ex-cop, for goodness’ sake. That kind of went hand in hand with being law abiding. And her past?
Her secrets?
Not so law abiding.
“I’d say too bad,” Victoria told him quietly as her chin lifted the smallest bit. “Because that won’t be happening.”
He leaned toward her. “Into your bed, but not your head? Is that how it works?”
The breath she sucked in felt cold as it filled her lungs. She’d worried that sleeping with him had been a mistake, but at the time there was no way for her to pull back. In that moment, she’d just wanted him too much.
Now, her cheeks iced, matching that cold breath, and she pushed around him. Her steps were fast and hard, but he caught her at the edge of the building.
His fingers curled around her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
She stilled.
“I’m fucking this up, and I don’t know how to stop.”
Breathe. Play the game. Act as if you have control. “Stopping is easy. You just walk away.”
“That’s not happening.”
His words sounded like a threat. She opened her mouth to reply.
“Hey!” a sharp voice called out. “What’s going on over there?”
She looked back.
A tall, broad-shouldered man with dark coffee skin rushed toward them. “There a problem here, ma’am?”
Wade stiffened. “No problem,” he said, and a hard smile curved his lips.
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t asking you, buddy,” the guy fired back. “I was asking the lady. Because from what I just saw, she was trying to get away from you and you pulled her back.” He edged closer, casting a suspicious glance Wade’s way. “So I’ll say again . . . is there a problem here?”
Victoria slid away from Wade. Some of her hair had come loose from her ponytail, and she tucked that lock behind her ear. “No problem. My partner and I—” Those words felt awkward. “We were just—just looking for a woman who didn’t return home last night.”
The man’s dark eyes narrowed and he pointed to Wade. “He looks like a cop.” Then his hand slid toward Victoria. “You don’t.”
“Me? No, no, I’m not.”
“Then what are you? And how long do you plan to hang around my bar?”
His bar? She shot a swift glance back at Wade. Then she focused on the man, who still stared at both her and Wade suspiciously. “My name’s Victoria Palmer, and