Page 10 of On the Chase
“Why are you here?”
The jump back to his original question threw her off-balance, and her answer came out sounding hesitant. “Just visiting Jules.”
He waited, watching her steadily.
Racking her brain for a reason he would believe, all she could think about was that room in Martin’s house. Grace decided to go with the truth—in a somewhat altered form. “And I needed to get away from my ex-boyfriend.”
By the way his face hardened even more, she knew right away that it had been the wrong thing to say. “He’s dangerous?” he barked.
“No. Just a jerk.” Noah wasn’t a jerk, though. His uncle was—well,jerkwas a very mild word for what Martin was—but Noah had been nothing but sweet to her. Although her common sense told her that he had to have known his uncle did very bad things, another part of her felt guilty for convicting him without even talking to him about it. Maybe he was ignorant of his uncle’s true nature, or maybe Noah didn’t know exactly how deadly Martin really was. Grace just couldn’t believe that Noah—kind, considerate Noah—would be okay with having her killed. There was no way he could have hidden a monster of that magnitude under his perfect-boyfriend exterior.
“Will he follow you?”
Grace yanked her mind away from her real ex-boyfriend and refocused on her fake one. “No. He’s lazy, as well as a jerk. He’s a lazy jerk.”
Jules ducked her head in a way that made Grace think she was hiding a smile. For some reason, that, plus the affectionate hold Jules still had on the cop’s hand, eased a few of Grace’s fears. Jules wasn’t scared of him, and she wasn’t acting as if he was one wrong answer from hauling Grace away to her death, so Grace allowed herself to believe that this conversation would end well.
And that was when the second cop showed up.
Chapter 4
As Hugh drove away from the VFW, his discovery ate at him. The last few days, he’d just dismissed the feeling that he was being watched as paranoia, so finding evidence that someone quite possiblyhadbeen spying on him was deeply disturbing. Lexi whined from the passenger seat.
“It’s okay,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm. By the dog’s anxious expression, he wasn’t succeeding very well. “It’s probably nothing. After all, who’d want to stalk me? I’m just not that interesting.” Drumming his fingers against the wheel with frustration and pent-up adrenaline, he frowned and glanced at his injured leg. “Especially lately.”
His spare radio—the radio he was not supposed to have—beeped, and Hugh jumped. Immediately, he felt like an idiot. Since when did the radio startle him? He was normally calm and steady. This whole mess was turning him into a nervous, trembling Chihuahua. On the radio, Theo informed dispatch that he’d be taking his lunch break and gave his location as Jules’s address. Without hesitating, Hugh made a U-turn and headed in that direction. If Theo thought he’d be getting some alone time with his hot girlfriend, then he was in for an unpleasant surprise. Hugh needed to talk to Theo about the situation immediately. He smiled a little. For some reason, ruining Theo’s fun made Hugh just a little bit happier.
Lexi was staring at him from the passenger seat.
“What?” he asked defensively. “I need to talk to my partner about this whole potential stalker deal. Besides, I haven’t seen Jules’s rug rats in a while. I’m trying to be a good uncle Hugh, that’s all.”
The dog turned to look out the window.
“Whatever,” Hugh grumbled. “You’re always so judgmental.”
Lexi ignored him, her attention focused on a Lab playing in a yard they were passing.
After bumping across the extremely long and poorly maintained driveway that led to Jules’s house, biting back curses every time his leg was jostled, Hugh parked behind Theo’s squad car. As he turned on Lexi’s window fan, he saw Theo standing in the open doorway, facing in. Hugh bounded up the steps, ignoring the shooting pains in his thigh—as well as the unwelcoming glare Theo shot him—and tossed an arm over his partner’s stiff shoulders.
“Jules wouldn’t even let you in?” he asked in mock concern, taking great pleasure in Theo’s obvious irritation. This was so much more entertaining than he’d expected. “Well, we all knew it couldn’t last. I mean, look at her, and then…well…” Hugh dropped his arm so he could gesture at Theo’s unamused form. “There’s you. And you can’t even say you have a good personality.”
“Hugh, stop,” Jules scolded, although he could tell she was holding back a laugh.
Hugh winked at her and then glanced at the crowd of kids. His smile of greeting slipped away as his gaze locked on the woman standing on the stairs. He didn’t know her.
If he’d ever seen her before, he would’ve remembered.
She was gorgeous, tall and sleek and just Hugh’s type. Her hair was true black, the kind that showed blue highlights in the sun, and her tan skin emphasized the unusual light-brown color of her eyes. They were lioness eyes. Terrified eyes.
Eyes of a woman with a secret.
Hugh bit back a curse. Something wasn’t right. He’d only recently agreed to quit looking into Jules’s background, and now another mystery woman had landed in his town, with scared eyes and a gorgeous body and…no! The last thing he needed was to get sucked into this woman’s mess, whatever it may be.
Shaking off the strange spell that had come over him, Hugh mentally hunted for words, even as he marveled at his tongue-tied silence. Hugh didn’tdosilence. Even in life-or-death situations, he’d never had words fail him before. Right now, though, with those lioness eyes watching him, he scrambled to find something to say until finally settling on the very lame “You’re new.”
“Yes.” Even her voice was beautiful. Husky and low and hinting of late-night, sexy things.
Hugh cleared his throat.Focus.“That was a hint. For you to tell me your name.”
