Page 58 of Out on a Limb
I turned to look out the windshield. “You should like me. I keep saving your ass.”
“You got to see my boobs out of the whole deal, so don’t act like it’s been a completely selfless act.”
“I didn’t go into it knowing I was going to see your boobs.” I headed toward the only other place I could think of to go. “I sure as hell didn’t walk back there expecting you’d be hanging from a tree.” I couldn’t stop myself from peeking her way. “Topless.”
“My top was still there.” Collette was back to staring at her phone. “It was just not where it was supposed to be.” She suddenly sat a little straighter. “Oh shit.”
“What’s wrong?” I tried to look at her phone as I drove, but I was beyond tired, and there was no way I could manage to do both without killing us. “What’s happening?”
“Alan just drove past my house real slow.” Her eyes were glued to the screen as I made the last turn, pushing the gas a little more. I wanted to see what she was seeing.
I whipped the truck into my driveway, pulling to a stop right in front of the garage before shutting the engine off and leaning closer. “Has he come back the other way yet?”
Collette shook her head as we both watched.
Waiting.
The front end of a car barely came into view, sliding along the curb at a ridiculously slow speed before coming to a stop. Only the right front panel was in the frame, and the quality of the feed made it impossible to tell what color it was.
But there wasn’t a doubt in my mind it was Alan’s car.
“What’s he doing?” Collette brought the phone closer, like she’d be able to see better.
“He’s watching your house.” This time the wrong thing came right out. Not even the thought of filtering it to slow its escape.
I held my breath.
“At least he’s not going to have to listen to me bone a lady of the evening.” Her eyes slid my way as a little smirk lifted her lips.
“I’m sure he’d love to listen to you bone a lady of the evening.”
Her nose wrinkled. “He’s so gross.” She turned toward me. “He tried to hit on me at my eighteenth birthday party.”
NowIwas the one ready to kill Alan. “You’re kidding.”
She shook her head.
I assumed Collette led a charmed life, filled with money and connections and all they offered.
Apparently they offered the opportunity to be an old man’s side piece. “He’s a creep.”
“He’s a lot of things.” Collette’s face fell just a little as her eyes went back to the screen. “Including my granddad’s best friend. If Alan tells my granddad I stole from his office then he’ll fire me on the spot.”
He’d have to show up to fire her on the spot, and right now her grandfather’s absence was going to work in our favor. “Then we just have to make sure no one realizes it was you who did it.” I opened my door and climbed out of the truck I’d owned since I was sixteen. By the time I got to Collette’s side she was already leaning out, looking at the house in front of her. “Whose house is this?”
I tried to pick apart the expression on her face. Eyes a little wide. Jaw a little slack.
Surprise or shock.
It could go either way.
I fished out my keys. “Mine.”
She slid all the way out, eyes staying on the front elevation as she closed the door behind her. “I should have guessed that.”
I still couldn’t quite tell if her reaction was good or bad. “Why should you have guessed that?”
“It would be weird to take me to someone else’s house, right?” She glanced down at her phone, but only for a second before her eyes snapped back to the small, enclosed courtyard leading to the front door. She reached out to run her fingers over the leaves of the passionflower vine climbing across the arch I’d build to support it. “You have a passionflower. My grandmother brought one back from South America for the garden.”
