Kiss of a Stranger (Lost Coast Harbor #1) (4 page)

To her shock, Jared answered on the first ring, though he yawned through their entire conversation. It was far more likely that he hadn’t gone to bed than that he’d woken early. He mumbled something about the studio apartment above the video store being available. Maddie claimed it and hung up.

Gabe eyes were back on her, as intent as ever, but there was something more this time. Confusion, and even a bit of humor. “You still have a video store?”

Maddie couldn’t help smiling. “Lost Coast earned its name in a few ways. The cliffs made it too dangerous to build Highway 101 out here. When that happened, the town was pretty much cut off from the rest of the state. We’re a bit stuck in time, and that’s not an accident. Technically, this whole stretch of California is the Lost Coast, but we’re the only town that changed our name to reflect it. We chose to embrace the isolation. If you stick around, you’ll get used to it.”

He grimaced, a reflex he tried to cover up. If the thought of staying in town bothered him so much, why the hell was he here?

“You’ll need to see Jared at the Hastings Properties office in town, but he only shows up when he feels like it. My friend Bree has been trying to get her keys for days. He said he’ll be there for the next two hours, but I wouldn’t count on that.” She wrote the address on a piece of paper but hesitated before handing it to him. “If he’s not there, come to my house tonight. You can sleep on the couch. Bree will be there.” She added the last sentence in a hurry, so he wouldn’t think she was offering anything more than a place to sleep, then she scrawled her address below the other one and slid it across the desk.

Gabe studied her writing before folding the paper and slipping it into his jeans pocket. Her eyes followed the movement, the way his strong hand slid across lean hips.

Maddie almost rolled her eyes at herself. It was a freaking pocket, for god’s sake. And she had a date soon with another man, one who had plenty of his own pockets. She needed to focus on that.

It was too bad it took her a few minutes to remember Declan’s name.

Gabe walked across town, barely noticing where he was heading. Maddie had given him directions, and he’d pretended to need them, but he already knew the rental office was on the corner of Maple and Broad streets, a block beyond the central business area. Gabe knew where every Hastings business was located.

He’d pictured his first days in Lost Coast hundreds of times, but he’d never dared believe it would go this well. It couldn’t have gone better if he scripted it. Not even a full day in town, and already he had a job, apartment, and a bit of cash, all courtesy of the very family he intended to destroy. Plus, he’d made an impression on the office assistant who had access to the kind of information he needed.

Maddie wasn’t immune to him. Every averted gaze said that he bothered her. There was no hint of fear when she looked at him, even after she learned what he was. There was something else hidden in her eyes, though. Something he couldn’t put his finger on, but it bothered him.

Gabe focused on all the things he
did
want to put his fingers on, starting with that dark brown mane. Watching her attempt to force the unwieldy strands into submission, all he could think about was how much he wanted to remove the pins and watch the thick strands tumble past her shoulders

Then there were her eyes. Her delicate pale skin. The long limbs that reminded him of a dancer.

But his mind kept returning to her expression of horror when she learned where he slept. The way she did something about his situation, instead of saying the right words, then leaving him to his fate. Maddie acted like it was nothing, like it was perfectly normal to take care of another person. She was genuinely kind.

She was also so uptight. So determined. He’d never met a woman who needed to lose control more—and he could be the one to make it happen.

Gabe groaned, glad there was no one around to hear. Maddie was his way in. She was his connection to Oliver Hastings, and that’s what he needed to focus on.

The rental office was closed, as she’d said it would be. He allowed himself a small smile. He could now tell her in all honesty he’d tried to get the keys.

He turned back toward the town square, ready to grab lunch at the diner he’d passed on his way in.

A fist rammed into his face.

Gabe stumbled but recovered fast. He planted his feet and got his hands up.

A brown-haired giant stood before him, glowering. For a second, Gabe wondered if Paul Bunyon had come to life and traveled to Lost Coast Harbor.

The man wasn’t just tall. He was covered in thick muscles, every one of them tensed. Gabe had worked out daily in the prison gym, but this man made him feel almost dainty.

This man he’d never seen before in his life.

“What the fuck?” Gabe spat out a bit of blood.

“You’re Gabriel Reyes.”

Gabe was more pissed that the man knew his name than that he’d sucker punched him. He’d never stepped foot within the town limits before last night. The only people who would know both his face and name were the ones who followed his case.

People who had reason to do that would have an interest in his guilt or innocence. Like the people who set him up.

“Who are you?” Gabe didn’t drop his hands.

“You owe me a truck, you bastard.”

It took Gabe a few seconds to understand. “You mean the truck that got confiscated?” He studied the enormous man with fresh eyes. “You own the trucking company used that night. You’re Adam Rogers.”

“Damn right. The same company you used to transport those guns. Planning to pay me back?”

Most of the time, Hastings Shipping used their own vehicles, but they contracted a lot of work out to Rogers—and it had been a Rogers truck he’d been driving the night he got caught.

This asshole helped set him up, and now he complained because he lost a vehicle?

Gabe attacked. He rushed Adam, grabbing him around the waist and slamming him to the ground. He got a knee up into the man’s balls. Outside, that went against the unspoken manly code of fighting, but years in prison taught him that codes meant nothing.

If you wanted to win, you played dirty.

His right fist smashed into Adam’s face, then his left. “A truck? You’re worried about a goddamned truck? You owe me six years, you fucker.
Six years
. How do you plan to pay that back?”

Gabe wanted to keep going, wanted to pummel this man until his nose was ruined and blood ran from his lips, till Adam couldn’t open his eyes for the bruises surrounding them.

But Adam had plenty of his own rage—and with his height, he had leverage, as well. He bucked Gabe off and rolled into a crouch. Gabe did the same, reining in an anger that scared even him. It used to be he could control himself.

Lots of things were different now.

They stared at each other, panting.

“What do you mean, I owe you six years?” Adam Rogers enunciated each word.

“What do you think I mean? That’s how long I was locked up because someone decided to add a few crates of semi-autos to the cargo. You really gonna stand there and act like you had no idea what was going on at your own company?”

The man’s lips thinned and a muscle in his jaw pulsed. “You’re lying.”

Gabe laughed without humor. “Why would I lie? What could that possibly get me?”

The man held the crouch, ready to attack at any moment, but Gabe saw the gears in his mind turning.

“Why’d you come back here?”

“I’m not returning to the scene of the crime, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I’m thinking you’re here for another shipment and plan to get it right this time.”

“You’re not doing a lot to help that ‘big and dumb’ stereotype, are you? Yeah, I came back to commit another felony in a town where everyone’s suspicious of me and watching my every move.”

“Then why are you here? Money?” Adam didn’t take his eyes off Gabe’s face. Gabe knew what he saw: snarling, savage rage. “No. You want revenge, don’t you?”

Gabe didn’t confirm it, but he didn’t deny it, either.

Adam exhaled and stood. He remained tense, but he no longer looked like he wanted to break every bone in Gabe’s body. “That doesn’t mean you’re innocent. Guilty men can want revenge, too. Especially if someone screwed you over.”

Still wary, Gabe rose as well, watching for any sign the man was ready to resume the fight. “Oh, I got screwed. And I won’t stand here and claim to be an innocent man. But I didn’t know the guns were in the truck until the feds stopped me.”

Adam narrowed his eyes, debating whether to believe the claim. “You think I had something to do with it?” Adam’s voice had an edge. Not guilt. Anger.

“Someone put guns on one of your trucks. Someone at your company told me to follow a back road, the kind cops don’t patrol.”

Gabe thought he could hear Adam grinding his teeth.

“If that’s true, why did you take the main road?”

“Because I got a flat tire and was running late, so like an idiot I ignored the warnings going off in my brain like road flares and took the direct route. You know the rest.”

“What did these guys look like?” Adam pressed.

Gabe ran his hand across his scalp and exhaled. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “The truck was already loaded when I got to the depot, and I got a phone call with the route. I knew something was sketchy, but the money was so good I ignored it.”

Maybe he shouldn’t make fun of Adam for being big and dumb. He hadn’t exactly been a brain trust himself when it came to that job.

For the second time that morning, adrenaline flowed through Gabe, but Adam stood perfectly still, as if their fight hadn’t affected him. Gabe suspected the man’s earlier anger was the exception, rather than the rule.

To his annoyance, Gabe started to believe the guy really hadn’t known his trucking company was involved.

When Adam spoke at last, his voice held the determination of a man who’d made a decision and would follow through, no matter the cost. “I’ll look into it. If it’s as you say, I want the truth as much as you do. This is my company. My name. While I do that, you’ll stay in town. We’re not finished.” It wasn’t a request.

He had no other plans, but Gabe bristled. Free men didn’t need to take orders.

“You got any more information to go on?” Adam asked.

Maybe Adam really was ignorant about the illegal shipments, but Gabe got where he was by being too careless. Too trusting. He shook his head. “Not a single thing.”

Chapter Four

M
addie couldn’t stop fidgeting. She washed all the dishes, even though she’d sworn she was done cleaning up after Bree. She took out the trash, then put a load of wash into her ancient machine. She walked up and down the stairs three times for no reason.

Bree went to bed at the same time Maddie usually did, and still she waited, nervous energy humming below her skin like electricity.

When the clock struck eleven, she knew Gabe wasn’t coming. It had been dark and drizzly for hours. No one would be out in this weather if they had a warm place to be. Just because Bree hadn’t been able to pick up her keys didn’t mean Gabe hadn’t managed to catch Jared. He’d had all day, after all.

Maddie dressed for bed, pulling on a set of blue pajamas covered in yellow ducks. She washed her face and braided her long hair to avoid tangles.

She turned off the porch light. When she was halfway up the stairs, there was a soft knock at the door. Maddie froze.

She needed to count to fifteen before her stomach settled and she was able to take a deep breath.

Maddie walked back down the stairs with equal parts excitement and trepidation. She was about to, quite literally, open her door to trouble.

When she saw Gabe standing on her front porch with those hot eyes and the small smile that undid her in ways a full grin never could, she almost slammed the door shut.

This was a terrible idea.

“You came,” she said stupidly.

His lips quirked, and she wanted to bite back the words.

Instead, she opened the door wider. He stepped into the foyer, then took off his coat and hung it on a peg next to hers, as comfortable as if he’d done so for years.

Maddie’s mouth went dry. He’d used part of the advance to buy new clothes. Instead of the ill-fitting hoodie, he now wore a Henley that hugged every muscle. The top two buttons were undone, and her eyes lingered on the skin revealed by the open neckline.

“I thought you must be in your new apartment. I was about to go to bed, so you cut it a bit close. Were you at Donnelly’s?” She made herself stop talking. It had been a long time since any man had stood in her foyer, let alone one that looked like Gabe.

“The bar? I don’t drink.” He spoke the words absently, as if it was a simple fact.

“Oh.” She didn’t know what to say to that.

He slid his eyes toward her. “I never had a problem with it, if that’s what you’re thinking. I just don’t want to lose control. And I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I didn’t realize how late it was. I was walking around.”

“Where?” Lost Coast wasn’t that big. He could have explored every street twice in the time since she’d last seen him.

“Nowhere, really.” He headed into her living room. Everything in it was second hand, picked up at garage sales and from friends who were redecorating their homes. There was one of everything—a couch, coffee table, rug, all the comforts of home—but none of it went together.

Gabe wasn’t looking at her furniture, though. He walked straight to the corner and ran his fingers across the leaves of a ficus, his eyes almost soft.

He moved around the room, studying each plant, touching a few others with gentle fingers. “It’s like a jungle in here.” Gabe’s hand hovered near the orchids she kept on the mantel, but he resisted the urge to stroke the temperamental plant. “They’re all real, too.”

“Of course they are,” Maddie said, indignant. She might not be able to keep a relationship alive, but plants were another matter. They thrived under her care.

She wasn’t prepared for his expression when he turned to her. He looked…grateful?

“You don’t realize all the things you miss.” It didn’t seem like he was talking to her.