Beachcomber Investigations by Stephanie Queen

Author:Stephanie Queen [Queen, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
Published: 2015-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

Shana finally walked in his back door after a tense hour, during which Dane felt like hundreds of burning embers covered his body and were slowly singeing through his skin to devour his insides in a firestorm. A vee of sweat soaked through his T-shirt and he could not sit down. He paced and refused to take a sip of whiskey in spite of Acer’s suggestion that he could use it. He drank ice water and waited for the governor to return his call. David hadn’t called either.

This time he didn’t jump when he heard the crunch of tires on his crushed shell driveway. The sound turned off the burning torture like a switch. She was home. The goddamn woman had finally returned and he was free. He leaned back against the kitchen sink and watched the knob turn on the back door. When the door opened, he picked up the glass of whiskey and poured the contents down his throat. Not even the normally stinging liquid bothered him—his throat may as well have been made of ice. He felt nothing.

Shana stepped inside and when he put his glass back down on the counter gently, she walked up to him and put her arms around his waist and leaned into him and rested her head against his chest.

“Shana.” He wrapped his arms around her and felt like he’d stepped into the kitchen of his childhood—the one where his father was still there and his mother had just taken cookies from the oven and the sun shone and his biggest worry was whether Santa would bring him a new bike for Christmas. A long-ago and short-lived world—one he never thought about. But he felt it now. Then the flash of that memory evaporated and he was left with the comfort and warmth against the iciness of his world.

“Dane.” She pushed back from him.

Acer poured a glass of whiskey and handed it to her. She nodded, took an unladylike sip and said, “Where’s Cap?”

The stun-gun slam of her words made him blink. He immediately shored up the crumbling cement of his defenses and refroze his emotions. Fool that he was, he cared about her, but she wasn’t his and he’d damn well better remember that.

“He’ll be here. Tell me what happened. From the beginning. And leave nothing out.” He didn’t add “this time” but it was understood. He knew she understood based on the tinge of pink hitting her cheeks, rising from her neck.

“I told you. A guy in a car—or it could have been a woman—sideswiped me. I saw the car coming in fast and jumped over the hood. The car took off and by the time I recovered all I could do was catch the plate.”

“What else? What did you get from Mrs. Whitaker?”

She smiled at him. “Down to brass tacks.” She motioned to Acer for another drink. It wasn’t like her. She was holding back. His blood stirred. His chest tightened. He pushed back with a calming breath and returned her smile.

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