Authors: Ronica Black
Before long, the night air became cooler. They drove until they hit the mountains to the north of Valle Luna. This area, in the heart of a desert preserve, had yet to be developed, and Erin recognized the protected park as they climbed up the paved road. She had never been to the top of these mountains and was awed by the breathtaking view of the valley below.
Liz slowed the bike as they came to a large level area overlooking the city. She parked parallel to the drop and cut the engine. “Turn around,” she said.
Erin reluctantly stood, hating to be out of the stronger woman’s arms. Still holding on to the bag, she repositioned herself on the bike, looking directly into the beautiful face of Elizabeth Adams.
“Go ahead, look in the bag,” Liz suggested.
Erin pulled out a twenty-ounce bottle of Coke, some aspirin, and two small bags of potato chips. “What’s all this?” she asked, instantly craving the Coke.
“My own little hangover prevention kit,” Liz said with a smile. “Thought you could use it.”
“Thanks.” Erin unscrewed the bottle top and took a swig.
“I know it’s a little unconventional, but the Coke always helps to settle my stomach and the chips always sate my salt cravings.”
“Sounds like you’ve had a few wild nights.”
Liz chuckled. “One or two.”
“Uh-huh.” Erin took another sip of Coke, before looking back up into Liz’s incredible blue eyes. “So why did you come get me? How did you even find me?”
“Your two detective friends came to see me tonight at La Femme.”
“Who? Patricia?” Erin was suddenly sober.
“And some guy,” Liz confirmed.
“Why?” Surely Liz was not being harassed again. “I told them that you didn’t do anything, they should leave you alone.”
“They were trying to find you. Patricia seemed upset and I thought you might be in trouble, so I came looking for you.”
“Why would I be in trouble?” Erin’s stomach curled with anxiety. She had no idea what was going on with Patricia.
“Well considering the condition I found you in, it’s a good thing I took the time.”
“I just wanted a drink.” Thrown by the idea of her colleagues coming to La Femme to look for her, she asked, “Why was Patricia so upset?”
“I don’t know. And when I told her I hadn’t seen you, she got more upset, like she didn’t believe me.”
“She probably didn’t.” Erin knew how much Patricia despised and distrusted Liz.
She had told the other detective she needed some time on her own. Why the search party? She felt in her back pocket for her cell phone and flipped it open. One missed call from Patricia, and there was no message. It certainly wasn’t anything to cause great alarm. If something were really wrong, wouldn’t Patricia have kept trying to reach her? Wouldn’t she have left a voice message? Puzzled, she closed her phone and slid it back into her pocket.
“You know, I felt bad tonight, when I saw you like that. I feel like it’s my fault,” Liz said. “That maybe you’re all torn up inside over what you did for me in front of the cops you work with.”
Erin shook her head. “I did the right thing by you.” She met Liz’s eyes. “I won’t lie to you and tell you that it hasn’t caused me some grief and possibly more in the future. And that does upset me. But I guarantee you that it’s not the only thing troubling me right now. It’s a lot of things.”
“Your life.”
“Yes. We all have trouble in our lives, don’t we?”
“Some more than others,” Liz said quietly.
Erin caught a glint of sadness in her eyes and reached out, gently placing her hands on Liz’s. “Talk to me.”
Liz nearly trembled under the warm and caring touch, the gesture almost too much. She was quickly losing the battle within herself over Erin McKenzie, her dark and desolate soul surrendering to light and love. She looked away, hating how emotional and easily moved she was. How could this have happened? How did this woman do what no other ever could?
Gathering her nerve, she eased her hands from Erin’s, the warming sensation spreading like a virus in her blood. “I need to tell you about Jay,” she said, almost in a whisper.
Erin touched her hand again. “What do you want to tell me?”
“Jay is messed up.” Liz wanted to withdraw, but she needed Erin’s strength. “She’s got it in her head that she needs to protect me like she did when we were kids.”
“Have you spoken with her since all this happened?” Erin asked.
Liz shook her head and let out a shaky breath. She was never this emotional, not even about her own sister. It was Erin McKenzie and the way she sat looking at her. With warmth, caring, and unconditional understanding. Things she had never seen in anyone’s eyes before, things she knew she would forever be drawn to.
Looking away, she finally managed to continue. “I told her to leave you alone, and to stop the killing.”
“Do you think she will?”
“I hope so. I just can’t figure it out. I’ve never known her to be violent. I don’t know where this is coming from.” She looked back to Erin. “I’ve got a private investigator following her to make sure she doesn’t do anything she’s not supposed to. But last I heard, she’d left Alabama, and now I don’t know where she is.”
“Alabama?”
“That’s where we grew up.”
She felt Erin squeeze her hand and she swelled with emotion deep within her chest, wanting to tell Erin everything. From her horrible childhood to her countless lovers, she would tell her all of it. Because for once in her life, she knew she had found someone who would understand. She knew also Erin would accept nothing less than noble behavior from here on out.
“The detective doesn’t know where she is now?” Erin asked gravely.
“I haven’t heard yet.”
“Why haven’t the police found her? I don’t remember reading anything in your file about a sister.”
“That’s probably because there’s not much to find. Jay’s my half sister. We were both illegitimate. My mother breezed into town after she’d had us, saying she couldn’t care for a baby. So my aunt took us.”
“She just dropped you off and left you? Never saw you again?”
Liz nodded. “We were raised and schooled by my aunt. I, for the most part, didn’t even have a medical record until I broke my arm and needed surgery. And after a certain traumatic instance, Jay pretty much lost her sense of reality and wouldn’t even stray far from the house. Not many people knew her.”
“My gosh. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Liz managed, her throat tight. “It’s something I got over a long time ago.”
“Thank you for telling me.”
“I said I would. And I’ll tell you more as I know it. In regards to Jay, my private detective will make sure she doesn’t hurt anyone else. I just don’t want you to go crazy over all this.”
Erin leaned closer across the seat of the bike. Her eyes were no longer unfocused as she gazed at Liz. “What I’m going crazy over is you.” She reached out and lightly touched her cheek.
Liz breathed deeply at the warmth of the touch and clasped the hand that elicited such powerful reactions in her. Turning it over, she lightly kissed the palm. She finally knew some of the reasons why Erin moved her so, but she also knew that she would most likely spend eternity trying to discover the rest.
Erin shuddered across from her. “You don’t understand how much I think about you,” she whispered breathlessly. “I’d never been with anyone…”
“I was your first?”
“Yes.” Erin looked embarrassed.
Liz sat in silence, dumbfounded. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, fearing that maybe she had rushed the encounter or been too aggressive.
“What was I supposed to say, exactly? Besides, nothing happened that I didn’t want to happen.”
“So, you didn’t just sleep with me for the sake of the case?”
“No, of course not!” Erin sounded almost insulted. “I may have been undercover, but I wouldn’t do that.”
Relief washed through Liz. It felt good to know that what she had felt was most likely mutual. “But that was weeks ago,” she said under her breath, silently reliving the wonderful encounter in her mind. “There’s been no one since?” A dull, heavy sensation fell upon her insides as she thought of Erin with another woman.
“Once.” Erin’s eyes pleaded for understanding. “It was a mistake. I thought I could…I don’t know, erase you. But every time I closed my eyes, I saw you.”
Liz lifted Erin’s chin to look into her eyes. She remembered how crazy with lust she had been after her first experience with a woman. And it seemed that Erin, like her, was having difficulty in erasing their encounter from her mind.
Swallowing emotion, she said huskily, “I understand. And I want to see you again. Soon.”
“I want to see you too,” Erin replied.
“Call me. Any time.” Liz took a pen from a small satchel on the side of the bike and gently wrote a phone number in the very palm she had just kissed.
Then, with slow deliberation, she tilted Erin’s face and kissed her. She had to fight the urge to take in more of her, to conquer Erin’s mouth with her own. She felt so good, unlike anything she had ever known.
They pulled apart slowly. Erin’s eyes gleamed with tears. “I don’t want to let you go,” she said.
“Hey.” Liz cupped her beautiful face. “I’ll see you again soon.”
“I know.” Erin made a visible attempt to pull herself together. “I think it’s just everything. It’s all getting to me.”
Liz stroked her hair away from her face. “It’s going to be okay. I promise it’ll all work out.”
A tear rolled down Erin’s cheek. “I hope you’re right.”
“I’m always right.” She kissed Erin’s forehead. “Now let’s get you back to wherever you’re staying so you can get some rest.”
*
Erin awoke the next morning to find Patricia staring at her from the end of the bed, a coffee mug in her hand. Sleep, heavy and cloudy, pulled at her consciousness, making it difficult to focus. Bright sunlight cascaded through the window, casting a warm glow across the sheets. Squinting, she forced herself to sit up.
“Did I wake you?” Patricia sounded barely awake herself.
“No. I’m used to people staring at me while I sleep.” Erin offered a tired smile but got none in return.
“Where were you last night?” Patricia asked bluntly.
“What?” Erin was not sure she’d heard correctly. The look on her friend’s face was one of distress, and her question didn’t seem to fit with the pain in her eyes. “I went out for a drink. Like I said.”
“Were you with Adams?”
Erin hesitated, truly thrown. “For a little while.” Alarms penetrated the fog in her mind and she was suddenly fully awake. “Why? Is something wrong?”
“You tell me, Mac.” Patricia’s voice was thick and scratchy.
What the hell?
“I don’t know what you’re saying.” Erin didn’t like the tone of Patricia’s voice, and she certainly didn’t like where this was going.
Why was Patricia making it her business to discuss something that could only be hurtful? Erin wasn’t an idiot. She knew Patricia had feelings for her, and it was no secret how she felt about Liz. Obviously Patricia was having some problems letting all this go. Why else would she be so upset?
“I’m asking you a simple question,” Patricia said in a taut, hard tone Erin had never heard her use.
Shaken and upset by the questioning, Erin matched the unpleasant tone as best she could. “I went for a drink, just like I told you I was. Liz showed up. She said you were in her club looking for me, so she got worried and came looking herself. We went for a ride in the mountains, then she dropped me back here. Satisfied?”
Patricia stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “Do you have any idea how bad this sounds?”
“Why would it sound bad? She’s not guilty of anything.”
Contempt replaced any remaining concern in Patricia’s expression. “Are you really so naïve you believe that? Or is it something more? Are you involved with her?”
Erin hesitated over the question. Was she involved? Technically, no. Not yet. And maybe never. But that was her business and no one else’s. “What does it matter if I am?”
Her response seemed to trigger something in Patricia. The ice melted from her stare, and fiery anger blazed. “Do I have to spell it out for you? She’s still a murder suspect. The fact that she saved your life only means she didn’t want
you
killed! It doesn’t prove a damned thing about her role in the other killings.”
“You’re saying she’s still under investigation?” Erin thought of the sergeant and his determination to nail Liz any way he could. Was it only Ruiz who wanted her to go down? She stared at Patricia, and her heart thudded madly in her chest. What was her real agenda? Could she trust her at all?
“I’m saying you are implicating yourself.” Patricia’s chest rose and fell with her heavy breathing. “There are people who think you’re involved with her and you’ve been covering for her.”
“That’s not true.” Erin’s mind raced. How could anyone who knew her believe that? “What do you think, Patricia? Do believe what they’re saying?”
“Of course not. And I’ve been trying to tell them. But frankly, Mac, I can’t keep it up. Especially when you’re off secretly meeting her. Maybe if you stopped seeing her, I could better plead your case.”