Authors: Erin Nicholas
“Maybe he’s…a cop,” Isabelle said trying to defuse Shane’s panic but not give anything away. She tucked the dragon pendant into her purse as she jogged to keep up with Shane. He dodged around tables, heading for the kitchen and, she assumed, the back door.
“And maybe he’s not. I prefer to be the one going to the cops instead of the other way around. If he is, then us showing up at the precinct will be in our favor,” Shane said.
Yeah, until they blew the whole thing by telling Shane what was actually going on before the adventure had even gotten started. She wanted this game to happen. This was much better than talking about her fibromyalgia for three hundred more miles. They stepped out of the back door of the restaurant and Shane quickly looked both ways, then headed to the right. The alley was shorter to the left, but that also led in the direction where the SUV was parked.
It also led to where their car was parked.
“Do you know where the station is?” Isabelle asked, wishing she could kick her sandals off. It would make keeping up with Shane easier. He had longer legs and he was in better shape, no doubt about it, and the small, one-inch heel on her shoes wasn’t helping her out at all.
“No.” They got to the end of the alley and he looked around. “Can you search for directions on your phone while you run?”
“I bought a new lamp the other day while I was on the elliptical.” She pulled her phone out with one hand, but had to pull out of Shane’s hold so she had both thumbs to hit the buttons. She continued to jog, trusting Shane to keep her from smacking into a tree or lamppost, but typed a response to the last text she’d gotten from Big Time about the mission instead.
We’re headed to the police station with the pendant.
She had no idea if they would relay the message to Bradley or if her text would go straight to him or if anything would happen at all, but the typical participant probably didn’t call the cops in.
Suddenly Shane grabbed her arm and pulled her through a doorway.
“Hey,” she grumbled.
“Let’s give him a few minutes to lose track of us,” Shane said.
She looked around. They were in a little book and gift shop.
“You don’t think he saw us?” She infused her voice with a bit of concern. She wasn’t truly worried. Though if Harris was also playing this game and wanting the end prize—and Isabelle wondered what the prize for getting to the drop site first was—he was going to truly be trying to get the necklace from her. She wasn’t worried that things would get violent, Surely Big Time wouldn’t allow that. But Harris wouldn’t let them get away easily.
“Don’t know. I guess we’ll find out if he comes in here,” Shane said dryly, peering through the window.
“Well, even if he does, he wouldn’t do something in a public place, would he?” Though she had to admit that there weren’t a whole lot of people inside the shop at the moment.
“You never know,” Shane said. “I don’t like to gamble on stuff like that. This will give us a few minutes to figure out where we’re going and maybe throw him off a little. But he’s going to know we went inside somewhere when he drives the street and doesn’t see us. He’ll come looking.” Shane ran a hand over the back of his neck. “We need to get rid of that necklace.”
She quickly Googled the information he’d asked for before. “Here we go,” she said, handing her phone over to him. “The police station is on First and Cherry.”
“Okay.” Shane looked around. “Now if I knew where we were right now, that might actually be helpful.”
Isabelle moved farther into the store. Pretending to be browsing through the display of bookmarks near the front counter, then picking up a miniature porcelain unicorn, she made eye contact with the woman dusting the shelves a few feet away.
“Hello,” the woman greeted with a smile. “Anything I can help you with?”
It would seem pretty suspicious to ask her to point them to the police station. “I was wondering if you have a book club of any kind that meets here?” Isabelle asked instead.
The woman’s smile brightened. “We do. Our romance book club meets the second Tuesday and our mystery club meets the third Wednesday of every month.” Predictably, she bustled toward the front counter and produced a flyer, handing it to Isabelle.
“Are you interested in the romance or the mystery group, dear?” the woman asked.
Isabelle glanced at Shane who was still standing near the front door, pretending to read the backs of the books on display on the first table, while actually watching the street.
It gave her a thrill to watch him in police-mode.
Thank you, Emma
. Seeing Shane get all official and determined was sexy.
“Romance,” she answered. “Definitely romance.”
She thanked the woman for the information and headed back for Shane, typing the bookstore’s address from the flyer into her phone and calling up a map of Mitchell.
“We’re about twelve blocks from the station,” she told him, handing him the phone.
He glanced at the flyer in her hand and grinned. “Nicely done.”
She shrugged, pleased that she’d been resourceful.
He studied the map. “We’ll have to get back to the car. I haven’t seen him drive by, so we might be able to sneak back the way we came.”
Another little shiver went through her and she admitted that it was adrenaline.
She looked up at Shane. He didn’t seem entertained exactly, but he didn’t seem overly concerned either. So far so good.
But she did wonder if Emma had considered the fact that Shane was a cop. He wasn’t going to be okay with guys chasing them for long.
All they had to do was get the pendant to the cops twelve blocks away. That would make Shane feel better. Maybe it wasn’t according to the game plan, but the Big Time guys were going to have to get more creative in that case. Or call Emma with a refund.
“Okay, let’s go,” she said.
“Let’s see if there’s a back entrance.” Shane took her hand again and they wandered farther into the store, pretending to browse as they went.
They stopped at the taller bookshelves, looking over the selection while moving surreptitiously toward the rear of the store.
Isabelle found herself in a book section she was fairly familiar with. Books on spicing up a couple’s sex life. She’d read a few of the ones on display, but one caught her interest and she pulled it from the shelf, flipping to the table of contents, then paging through to chapter four.
“Hey, is it true that your sleep is often disturbed?” Shane asked, coming around the corner from the next aisle over.
She looked up from the chapter on various sexual positions for the couch. “What are you talking about?”
Shane’s eyes were on the book he held as he came toward her. “It says here that sleep is often disturbed in people with fibromyalgia. Did you know that chocolate and bananas can both help with mood and sleep?”
She stared at him. “What are you reading?”
He held the book up. “
Living and Loving with Fibromyalgia
.”
“You’re reading about fibro?”
“Well…” He looked back down at the book then up at her. “Yeah.”
She felt tears sting her eyes. When he’d left the table at the restaurant, he hadn’t been happy. Then everything with the necklace had happened and they hadn’t picked that conversation back up.
“Is that okay?” he asked, looking concerned.
“Well, yeah,” she said, echoing his words to her. Then she sniffed.
She’d hidden it from him for so long and had worried about how he’d react and now that he knew and he was trying to learn about it and what it really meant in her life—it made her feel…
She stepped close, sandwiching the two books they held between them. “Thank you,” she whispered, then kissed him.
Shane’s hand came up to cup the back of her head and she gripped the sleeve of his shirt, but the books kept them from getting too close. That didn’t seem to bother Shane though. He kissed her like only he could. When he kissed her, it was like everything else he did—he put everything into it. He didn’t need his whole body. His mouth was enough to make her feel protected and cherished and hot and needy all at the same time.
They broke apart several moments later.
“Thank you,” she said again softly, coming down off her tiptoes.
His hand lingered against her hair, stroking over the back of her head. “We have a lot more talking to do.”
For some reason, that made her stomach flip with nerves. She managed to nod. Because yes, of course, they needed to talk more.
She’d wanted him to say he loved her. Or that it would all be okay. Or that he was glad he knew, but that it didn’t change anything.
But it did change things.
She hadn’t been managing her symptoms as strictly as she should be. She needed to take care of herself now that she knew what was going on. She couldn’t keep up the pace she’d been trying for and still be a good employee, sister, daughter and girlfriend. They were both going to have to make some changes if this was going to work.
She didn’t know if Shane was willing. She didn’t know if Shane knew if he was willing. He didn’t have all the information he needed to make that decision.
She forced a smile and tapped her finger against the book he still held. “This is sweet of you.”
He didn’t reply to that. Instead, he moved past her, pulling his wallet from his back pocket. She re-shelved the book about sex positions for various rooms of the house. Vanilla. That was what they needed to try for a while.
She watched him pay the woman for the book, then come back to her.
“We better see if we can get out of here,” he said, taking her hand again.
“I’m right with you,” she said, pressing against his side.
She needed to feel him right now. She wanted his heat and strength against her, not because of the guy who was outside looking for them, but because of the silent enemy trying to pull them apart from within.
She could outrun the guy. She couldn’t outrun the fibro.
The feeling of frustration and injustice that she’d only recently acknowledged started to well up, but she squelched it as they got to the back door without being noticed.
“Okay, we’re going through the door, to the left, to the end of the block. Stick with me,” Shane instructed.
“Definitely.”
Shane took a deep breath, then twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open.
Shane stepped out first, dropped her hand, and immediately swung left and started jogging. Isabelle was right behind him but had taken only two steps when she felt a hard yank and was swung around by the hand on her purse handle. It was Harris.
“I want the pendant.”
Damn. He’d found them.
“Shane!” she yelled.
Harris yanked again on her purse. She felt it slip off her arm, and made a grab for it a second too late. When he tucked it against his stomach and spun away from her, she felt her mouth drop open. Wait a second—he was really stealing her purse? Taken off guard by the unexpected move, Isabelle was slow to respond when he took off down the alley.
She heard the pounding of Shane’s feet as he came up behind her.
“Dammit!” he swore. He spun her to face him. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Fuck.” Shane looked down the alley. “I’m going after him. Stay here. Go back inside. Wait for me.”
She nodded and he wrenched the door to the bookstore open and pushed her inside.
“I’ll be right back.”
The door shut between them before Isabelle thought to say anything. Like,
Don’t hurt him
. Shane was a cop. Who knew what he might do if he thought he was in pursuit of a true criminal?
She also hoped they didn’t scuff up her new purse.
She wasn’t sure how long she stood there wondering if she should be doing something else—and wondering what else that might be—but she was startled when the door suddenly opened again.
Shane was talking to her, handing her purse to her, and then pulling her up against his chest.
Hey, if this was real, she would have most definitely launched herself at him, relieved he was back in one piece. And damn, having Shane kick into protective-cop-mode was hot. Besides, the whole idea here was to make sure Shane had fun on this trip too, right? She knew a few things he thought were a lot of fun.
She put her arms around his neck and he caught her with his hands under her butt as she wrapped her legs around him.
They kissed hot and hungry. She didn’t need much of an excuse to kiss him like she’d thought she’d never see him again. She ran both hands up into his hair and his fingers gripped her butt as he turned and pressed her against the door.
She felt the buttons on the front of her shirt give, then he filled his hand with her right breast.
She bucked against him, pressing closer, her heels digging into his ass.
“Ahem.”
Isabelle heard the store owner clear her throat but she couldn’t quite bring herself to let go of Shane. He, on the other hand, pulled back slightly, searching her eyes.