Harbour Falls (37 page)

We were finally bare, skin to skin. And it felt so good, so right, so different from the night at the cottage. Our kisses slowed, stopped. Our eyes met, our souls now bared as well. Adam’s strong hands were everywhere—cupping my breasts, skimming over my hips, tracing up the sensitive insides of my thighs, sliding along my core.
God help me.
He drove me crazy with lust. Had I ever wanted someone like this? I wanted Adam to conquer me, invade me. I wanted Adam to fuck me. I moved with the rhythm he set as his fingers played me like an instrument. And if I thought I could ever want Adam more than this, I realized I was sadly mistaken when he lowered his body and put his mouth on my sex. His lips, his tongue, the things he was doing drove me wild. I raised my hips up to give him more access, and he gripped my ass…hard. “You like this?” he asked smugly, glancing up from between my legs.

I did, oh I did. But all I could do was let out a moan of pleasure. His lips traveled back up my body, until our mouths met once more. My hands trailed down his chest, lower and lower. When I grasped him in my hand, he inhaled sharply, “God, Maddy, that feels good. Don’t stop.”

I stroked his full length; he was so hard, so heavy, so thick. Desperate to feel him inside of me, I pulled him down to me. He settled between my legs. Lightning flashed, illuminating the room once more. Adam pulled back slightly, his eyes—so, so blue and as stormy as that first night when I’d awoken on his sofa—met mine. No words were necessary. As he’d said, we’d waited long enough. And with no hesitation Adam plunged into me, eliciting a gasp from me. He stilled, burying his head into my neck, “Are you OK?” he murmured against my skin.

“Mm-hmm,” I responded.

Words eluding me, my mind clouded with desire. Adam remained still, buried deep inside of me, but unmoving. Not that I didn’t savor the invasion, but I could feel him smiling against my neck. He was teasing me.
Damn him
.

“Adam,” I huffed, circling my hips, “more.”

“What do you want, Maddy?” He chuckled. “Tell me what you want.”

Writhing wantonly beneath him, I said, “Just fuck me, Adam. I want to…fuck.”

The words sounded erotic as they fell from my lips, and Adam must have though so too. He pulled out almost all the way, very slowly, and then plunged back in, making me cry out in pleasure. Faster, faster, he pumped into me. Harder and harder. He gave me everything I wanted, and more. “Oh my God,” I breathed out. He felt so, so, so good.

We soon found a rhythm, moving with desperation, lust, but also with love. With thunder echoing out to sea, Adam and I were one, united in body, united in heart. And when our bodies reached an almost-simultaneous crescendo, for the first time, it felt like we were united in soul.

Adam was finally closing the deal with the Boston client, which was a relief. It meant his frequent business trips of late would slow down considerably, allowing us more time together.

“Yeah, but I’ll be home by late afternoon,” Adam reminded me in return, and then he suddenly smiled slyly, blue eyes dancing. “And I know just what we’re going to do. We won’t even have to leave the island.”

“What?” I queried. “Does it involve leaving your bedroom?” I arched an eyebrow. If it involved spending more time here, I was game.

Adam tousled my hair playfully. “Yes, naughty girl, we’ll be leaving the bedroom.” he said. “But I’m keeping the juicy details secret until tomorrow.”

“Adam!” I chastised, swatting lightly at his chest and feigning a pout.

He caught my hand easily and pulled me to him. And just like that, our words were silenced once again.

Thursday night turned into Friday morning, and somewhere during that time frame the electricity was fully restored to the island. Reality was slowly creeping back in. And our brief respite from the troubles of the real world ended completely when Adam left for Boston. Before departing, however, he’d awoken me with a soft kiss. Proclamations of love were uttered from both of our mouths, but his secret surprise for later in the day remained unspoken.

I couldn’t sleep after Adam left, so I got up, showered quickly, and dressed for the day. Once I reached the kitchen, I toasted a bagel and glanced out the glass panel windows that ran along the back of the house.

In contrast to the past forty-eight hours, this day was positively sparkling. It was as if the heavy rains had washed away all the darkness. But then I remembered my life was still in turmoil. The Harbour Falls Mystery was no closer to being solved than it had been the day I’d arrived on Fade Island. Jimmy was dead, and according to the morning news, Ami was still missing. Worst of all, I was probably close to being arrested, seeing how I was unfortunately linked to both cases.

The walls were closing in, and time was not on my side. The more days that passed with no new leads, the more likely it was that the police would take me in. Even if I wasn’t officially charged with Jimmy’s death, I certainly expected to be asked to come in for more questioning. So it was imperative that I find answers. And quickly. As if to underscore my last thought, my cell rang at that very moment.

Without looking at the display screen, I answered with a hesitant hello.

“Maddy.” It was my dad, thank goodness
.
I needed a dose of my father’s levelheadedness.

But his tone was grim, so I asked, “What’s wrong?”

My father took an audible breath and exhaled slowly. This couldn’t be good. “I just got off the phone with Detective Mitchell. He wanted to give me a heads-up…” He trailed off.

“Dad?” My voice trembled. “What kind of a heads-up? What’s going on?”

Following another unsteady breath, he began to explain, “Some small-time drug dealer who hangs out at that dive, Billy’s, has been running his mouth.” —Zeb, I thought— “He was taken in on some kind of parole violation late last night, and they found drugs on him.” The mayor coughed, clearly not approving, and then continued, “Anyway he’s promising to testify against you in exchange for leniency in his own charges.”

I groaned, and my dad added in a strained voice, “Please tell me you don’t know this guy, Maddy. He’s a drug dealer, for God’s sake.”

“I met him once,” I confessed. But I didn’t intend to detail my brief and disconcerting interaction with Zeb to my dad, so I only added, “He was creepy.”

My father said nothing. I had no idea what he could be thinking, so I asked quietly, “What did he say about me?”

More throat clearing and then, “He’s claiming you were more than, uh, friends with Jimmy Kingston. Claims he saw you there with the bartender a number of times and that you looked rather
close
.”

“That’s a lie!” I cried out, cursing Zeb. “An outright lie.”

I didn’t know which was worse, my dad knowing I’d had some sort of interaction with a sleazy drug dealer, or him thinking I’d had something going on with Jimmy. Ugh.

I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing for it all to be a bad dream. I silently wondered if—in addition to saving his own ass—Zeb was getting back at me for not taking him up on his unseemly offer of drugs. I recalled his leering stare when he’d hinted at his “payment plans,” and I almost lost my breakfast. Instead I started to cry.

“Maddy,” my father soothed, “I know he’s lying. This dealer is just looking to get out of trouble, and he thinks he can bargain with testimony against you. He’s nothing more than an opportunist scumbag.”

Yeah, an opportunist scumbag Detective Crowley was probably salivating over at this very minute. He finally had what he needed to issue an arrest warrant for me. If Zeb were willing to testify that I’d been having some kind of a physical relationship with Jimmy, then the police could claim my motive was possibly one of a lover scorned. Even though the whole idea was ridiculous, that, coupled with the circumstantial evidence, could be enough to convince a jury that I’d killed Jimmy Kingston.

At least my dad was still on my side. If Mayor Fitch ever lost faith in me, I didn’t know if I’d have the strength to keep going. But with him (and Adam) believing in me, I knew I had to fight.

And I needed to take action
now
. Answers that could potentially save my ass were not going to come to me while I sat here at Adam’s compound. I was going to have to go out and find them. On my own, since Adam wasn’t due to return from Boston until closer to dinnertime.

In that moment I made a decision. If I didn’t find anything new by the time Adam got back to Fade Island, then I’d tell him the things I had yet to mention—like my having met this Zeb character on one of my trips to Billy’s. And I’d ask for his thoughts regarding the scratch I’d seen on J.T.’s arm. And then I’d go to the police. There were far more things I’d kept from the police, but I trusted Hoffman would keep me from getting into too much trouble. I’d take the “honest” route my father had proposed days ago. Until then, though, I planned to search with renewed intensity.

With the clock ticking on my new self-imposed time limit, I hastily ended the call with my dad. And then I grabbed my jacket and headed out to the Lexus. A crisp blast of wind hit me as I walked across the driveway to my car. Though it was sunny, the November air was icy and brisk. I sat down in the driver’s seat and tried Adam’s cell. I wanted to get him up to speed on what was happening, but the call went straight to voicemail. No way was I leaving a message detailing the updates—especially the stuff about Zeb—so I hung up.

Tapping the cell to my chin, I pondered the one thing that could potentially blow the lid off this whole mess.

The photograph
.

Enough days had passed that it should have arrived. But there had been the storm and, consequently, no ferry service yesterday. No ferry service equaled no mail service. Today, however, the weather was fine, and the ferry would be running on its regular schedule. So I put the Lexus in gear and raced toward town, my focus on reaching the café and getting my hands on the mail.

When I reached my destination, I parked in my usual spot out front and hurried in. I headed toward the coffee bar in the back, glancing around in the hopes of possibly seeing Helena on the premises. I’d not heard much from her since Monday—the day Jimmy had been murdered. And I had yet to apologize for involving her in my explanation to the police for being in Harbourtown. I didn’t even know if she was mad. Since that day she’d left only one brief voicemail, asking me how I was holding up. She hadn’t sounded angry, but I’d left her a couple of voicemails in return and still had yet to connect with her. I hoped she wasn’t avoiding me on account of what had happened in Harbourtown, but I had the sense something was definitely up.

Nate’s voice bellowed out, breaking me out of my musings. “Maddy!” he exclaimed, pulling me into a bear hug once he reached me. Well, at least
he
didn’t seem to be upset with me, I thought, as I hugged him in return.

“What about that storm?” Nate asked, stepping back. “You and Adam lose electricity up on that end of the island too?”

“Yeah,” I answered, “but it came back on sometime before morning.”

He nodded and then shot me an odd look, like maybe he was contemplating saying something of more import. He had to have been aware of my current status as a murder suspect, but I doubted he, or Helena for that matter, really believed I was capable of something like that. Seeing that they were friends with Adam, I suspected they fully comprehended the nature of false accusations. There was so much I wanted to say, and I wanted to start by apologizing for involving Helena.

But when I started to say, “Nate, I’m sorry. If you and Helena—” He cut me off.

“Maddy,” he said softly, “whatever it is you’re going to say, just know that it can wait. We know you’re innocent. Nobody in this café suspects you of anything. Don’t lose sight of that.”

Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, and I could only nod in response. I really wished Helena were there to tell me herself, but Nate’s words still meant a lot.

“Let’s change the subject,” Nate said, noticing my watery eyes. “So what brings you to the café today?”

I thought about asking where Helena was and if I could talk to her, but then I remembered my actual reason for being there. So instead I cleared my throat and inquired, “Has the ferry been around with the mail yet?”

Yep, best to get back on task. I’d talk with Helena later. Nate had pretty much confirmed she wasn’t mad at me, so I’d just catch up with her next visit.

Nate eyed me curiously, surely puzzled by my sudden urgent interest in postal delivery. “Yeah, it’s here,” he responded, taking a step back and reaching behind the counter to grab several parcels of mail. “Brody dropped it off a little while ago.” Handing me a small bundle of envelopes, he added, “You expecting something important?”