Page 30 of Crossing the Line (Whitecap)

I gave in to whatever this was, hoping she’d say her piece and move on quickly. “All right, then. Let me have it. Say what’s on your mind.”

I could see it on her face that my reluctant acceptance of this dressing down took her by surprise, but she quickly banked the shock and dove right in. “You probably don’t know this yet, because you’re a man, therefore bred to be the stupider of the sexes, but you were, hands down, the luckiest son of a bitch in existence for catching Sawyer’s eye. There isn’t a better woman out there than her, and she actually felt something for you. In the years I’ve known her, this is thefirsttime that’s happened. You might not get how big that is, but trust me, it’s huge.”

Jesus. She’d have been less effective if she’d just kicked me in the balls the moment I opened the door. Each word out of her mouth was like razors slicing through my skin. I really was a son of a bitch.

“I don’t know what happened the other night—and just to dumb it down so your pea brain gets it, what I mean by that is, I don’t know what you did to fuck up so epically, but I know you like her. I saw it written all over your face, so don’t bother denying it.” She paused in her tirade, looking at me questioningly when I remained closed-mouthed. “Wow. You’re really not going to deny it.”

“No point. What you said is the truth.”

She let out a huff, some of her ire fading, but I could see she was still working hard to keep a hold on her mad. “And here I was, looking forward to getting to slap some smart into you.”

I fought back the grin trying to curl my lips. “Would it make you feel better if I gave you a free shot?”

I could have sworn she pouted at that. “No. It’s no fun if you see it coming.” She blew out a deep breath. “If you like her, why the hell did you run out of there, leaving her to think she’d made a fool of herself?”

Christ, this woman didn’t pull any punches, and I could see it in her stoney expression, she wasn’t going to let me get away with not answering. “It was never my intention to make her feel like that. I fucking hate that I did that to her, but I had my reasons for needing to get out of there. My leaving was best for her, trust me.”

“Oh what a load of bullshit,” she snapped. “I can’t stand it when people claim that hurting someone was in that person’s best interest. It’s a cop-out. An excuse to make the person doing the hurting feel better for being a dick. Plain and simple. And if you’re the kind of man to make a lame-ass excuse like that, youdefinitelydon’t deserve another second of my best friend’s time.” She whipped around on her heel and started down the walkway, pausing only long enough to shout over her shoulder, “Get your shit together or go back to where you came from.” Then she was gone.

Feeling like I had weights pressing down on my shoulders, I closed the front door and threw the lock. Grabbing the Glock from where I’d stashed it, I moved through the house and returned it to where I kept it hidden—safely out of sight but within quick reach if I needed it. With no other delays, I tapped the screen and hit Lincoln’s name. It barely finished its first ring before his voice came through the line.

“Before we get into what the hell is goin’ on over there, I need to know right now, do I need to pull you off this case and assign it to someone else?”

A growl rumbled up my throat before I could stop it. “Not a fucking chance.”

“Jesus,” he hissed into the phone. “You went and developed feelings for her, didn’t you?”

“It’s not going to have any effect on how I do my job,” I stated instead of answering in the affirmative. At this point I wasn’t so much worried about him knowing the truth as I was that he’d send one of the other guys down here to take my place.

That wasn’t going to happen.

“Fuckin’ hell,” he bit out. “What happened?”

“Look, Linc. It’s not a big deal, okay? There was...” Christ, how to explain it. “A slip.”

“There was aslip? What the fuck does that even mean?”

“There was a kiss,” I admitted. “But I put a stop to it and made things clear.” Or tried to, at least. What that woman made me feel muddied the waters in the worst way. Nothing was clear, it was a goddamn murky mess of confusion. The only thing I knew for absolute certain was that I wasn’t leaving Whitecap until the threat to her and Renee was extinguished for good. “It won’t happen again.”

“And I’m assuming since you’re still breathing, Dalton doesn’t have a clue about any of this.”

“You’d assume right. And it needs to stay that way. At least for now.”

He blew out a heavy sigh, probably scrubbing at his face. “You sure about that? I’m not certain you’re seeing things clearly anymore. You know as well as I do how bad things can go when men like us get tunnel vision on a job. You’re not seein’ the whole picture clearly.”

“I see everything perfectly,” I assured him. “If anything, this shit has tuned me in even more to the importance of why I’m here. She’s created a life for herself here, Linc. This isn’t just her home. She and her girl are stitched into the fabric of this place. I’m not going to let anything fuck with that, even if that means keeping Dalton and Charlotte in the dark a little longer.”

“Think that might be more Charlotte’s call than yours.”

I gritted my teeth so hard the muscle in my jaw trembled. “Then you’d think fucking wrong,” I snarled. “That sociopath already tracked Charlotte down. He knows exactly where she is. We can take every precaution known to man, but one mistake—just fucking one—and we could lead him right to her doorstep. We only had a tiny taste of what he was capable of when he sent his man after Charlotte. What do you think he’ll do if he finds out the wife he’s been hunting all this time, the one he’s convinced half the world isdeadjust to cover his own ass, took off because she was pregnant with his kid?”

“Shit,” he hissed.

“Exactly. You feel the need to send someone else down here because you don’t think I’ve got my shit in check, that’s your call, man. But I’ll save you the trouble and tell you now, I’m not leaving. Not a goddamn chance. Only way you’re getting me out of this town is by putting Knightly in the ground so Sawyer and Renee are safe. You get me?”

“I get you,” he answered in a low, knowing tone. “But just a piece of advice, brother. I’ve been where you are, and I nearly lost Eden by keeping secrets.”

When he’d first met his woman, her estranged brother had been a suspect in a string of burglaries and a possible homicide. Lincoln had been asked to get close to her to see what he could find out, and inevitably ended up falling for her.

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