It’d been eight hours since we had started surveillance on Cole Moody. Kipp had gone into the home the moment we arrived and still hadn’t come out. Not to say I wasn’t opposed to Kipp’s leaving, it’d been the good part.
The past days had been a strain. At first I ignored him and returned his anger tenfold, but my resolve didn’t last long. Not only did my mind spin about my feelings for him, but he continued to give me the silent treatment and only answered Zach’s questions. He made little eye contact with me and I didn’t know what hurt me more, his lack of interest or my own interest in him.
The one ghost I didn’t want to ignore me did and the weight of everything had begun to take its toll on me. I was physically, emotionally and undeniably exhausted.
I dropped my head into my hands and rubbed my eyes. When I lowered my hands, I glanced over at Zach. He studied me intently.
“We haven’t had a chance to talk yet and I know something has been going on.” His gaze got all serious-like. “You need to give Kipp a break.”
I narrowed my eyes. “If you try to defend him for one second, I’ll castrate you.”
“That’s not what I’m saying.” He laughed. “It’s just, try to understand what he’s been through. I take it from the way you’ve been acting the past couple days, he’s being a little harsh with you?”
“Harsh is too mild of a statement.” A complete jackass would’ve been more appropriate. “He’s barely said a word to me and I have no idea what I’ve done.”
Zach looked at the house before he returned his gaze to mine. “It’s not like Kipp to be petulant. If he’s behaving so harshly, something is bothering him.” His expression softened, as did his tone. “He’s been through a lot, try to remember that.”
Why did Zach have to be a voice of reason? Kipp had been killed, had earned the right to lash out because of it and be rip-roaring mad that he’d been stripped of his life.
So lay the problem, I kept forgetting he was a ghost. Something I needed to remind myself more and more as the hours trickled by.
I’d seen ghosts before who became angry about what happened to them, but the way he acted seemed personal. His anger appeared directed at me and after I confronted him, he didn’t deny the accusation. Not like it should have mattered since his ignoring me had been for the best anyway.
You asked for this distance, remember?
“Fine, I’ll take his grumpiness, but if he says one nasty word to me, I’m outta here.” Zach nodded in understanding. I focused back on the file and forced myself to not think about the utterly irritating—simply delectable—ghost.
Another hour passed before Kipp melted through the chocolate-brown front door and strode toward the truck. I looked at the glove compartment and didn’t dare glance toward him. “He’s coming.”
“About damn time,” Zach exclaimed.
Kipp swept through the door and settled into the backseat. “I watched a wicked UFC fight in there.”
I repeated the line, not even wanting to acknowledge his presence, but my beating heart and sweaty palms were enough to tell me I couldn’t keep it up.
“You’ve been in there for eight hours,” Zach said. “What else did you do?”
“Cole slept, played with the kids, worked out, jerked off and made plans for tonight.”
“He did guy stuff,” I responded, still focused on the navy plastic in front of me. Kipp’s lax tone told me he remained in the mood he’d been in for days—nice to everyone else but me. I suspected if I looked back, I’d see the same pissed-off eyes staring back at me.
Zach shifted in his seat to look at the backseat. “Anything else stick out?”
“Nope.” Kipp rested his feet on the console next to me. “Cole seems like a straight-up guy.”
I scowled at his feet, and if I could’ve pushed them off, I would’ve. What was he trying to do, ensure I remembered he was there? As if I could forget. Not responding to whatever he was attempting to do, I said to Zach, “Cole’s a good guy.”
Zach shook his head slowly, buckled his seat belt and started the truck. “The nice ones are always the worst type of killers.” He glanced back at Kipp again. “Are we calling it a night?”
“No,” Kipp responded. “Tess is going to seduce him.”
I spun around to face Kipp, uncertain if I had heard him right and more than horrified if I did. “I’m what?”
“What’s wrong?” Zach asked.
“I’m not seducing anyone.” I glanced back at him and as I suspected, the hardness in his eyes remained. As cold as a winter’s morning and the hard look sent a shiver of unhappiness straight through me.
“You will,” Kipp responded in a curt tone.
“Seduce someone?” Zach repeated in blatant confusion and he turned in his seat to look at me better.
“Cole has made plans with a buddy to go to Coyote Ugly tonight. We need you to try to pick him up.”
I couldn’t believe what he suggested. He had to be out of his damn mind. “You want me to flirt with a killer?”
“Will someone tell me what is going on?” Zach sighed, clearly frustrated.
Kipp shook his head. “I doubt he’s the killer.”
Sure, he appeared confident, but it did nothing to reassure me. “And how can you be so sure?”
“I’m a detective.” Kipp shrugged. “Intuition tells me Cole isn’t our guy, but you can never take chances. We have to test him and see how loyal he is to his family.”
Insanity at its finest. “So what, you want me to go to a club and throw myself at him?”
“Ahh…” Zach drawled in understanding. “Now I see.”
Kipp’s eyebrow arched in the most arrogant of ways. “That’s the idea.”
Zach nodded. “Might just work.”
They weren’t thinking straight. The situation might have been normal for them, but I wasn’t a cop. I had never been brave and I definitely wanted no part of conversing with a killer. “But, but, but, what if he gets me alone, then guts me?”
Kipp’s eyes wavered in their harshness and amusement swam through their depths as the side of his mouth curved. “I’ll be with you to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
“Kipp will go with you,” Zach said in the exact moment.
Their determined expressions said my choices were limited and being backed into a corner wasn’t where I liked to be. My aggravation over the past days had reached its limit. “And just tell me, why should I do this for you?”
Kipp shrugged. “You did agree to help.”
“I never agreed to get involved and put myself in danger. Besides, you’ve been nothing but a total ass to me for days and I still have no idea what I’ve done.”
Zach opened the door in a jiffy. “Oh look, an elderly woman needs help crossing the road. Best I go help her.” He was out with the door closed behind him in a second flat.
I didn’t have to look to see there wasn’t a woman there. Zach just didn’t want to face the impending conversation—the one that had been hanging over us since the day at the police station.
“About that.” Kipp gave a sweet-as-sugar smile. “I guess I should apologize.”
“Apologize?” I shouted. “You’re fucking kidding, right? You think that if you just say sorry it’s going to make up for it all. Oh buddy, you don’t know me well, but you’ll need to do better.”
“I’m not sure there’s anything I can say to explain the way I’ve been acting.” He paused. “The only thing I can tell you is that I realize I was wrong to take out my frustrations on you. I apologize if I’ve caused you any trouble.”
I inhaled deeply through my nose. “Not good enough, pal. What the hell has been wrong with you?”
“If you missed what I just told you,” he said with a bite to each word, “I guess I need to spell it out for you. I don’t want to tell you what has been wrong with me.”
Was he born stupid?
“In fact, I didn’t miss it, I heard you clearly, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let it go. I deserve to know what I did to upset you so much. You’ve barely said one word to me and I’m the living person in this equation. I should be ignoring you, not the other way around. So you have to own up to it and tell me what the hell has been going on.”
He shook his head. “It’s nothing.”
My irritation set my blood on fire. “Nothing? So, you have been Mr. Nice Guy to everyone else except me, but I’ve done nothing wrong?”
He folded his arms over his chest and looked at me with pure arrogance. “That’s right.”
The staring contest lasted minutes and neither of us had moved an inch. We were getting nowhere, and whatever it had been, clearly he’d gotten over his issue. He did apologize and I’d learned from Caley long ago to let go—to know when defeat was inevitable and to stop pushing. Instead of continuing and beating my head against the wall of Kipp McGowen, I snorted. “And you call me difficult.”
He grinned, apparently pleased over his win. “You can’t have it both ways, you know.”
The look deserved a slap in the face, but since I couldn’t hit him, I clenched my fist as a substitute. I should have left it alone, but of course, my curiosity always did get the better of me. “What do you mean both ways?”
“You can’t hide from yourself and expect people won’t hide from you.”
This ghost was about to be hell bound. “Don’t you dare go there! I mean it. Don’t try to turn this shit around on me. You’re the one who has had a stick up his ass for days. The problem is yours, not mine. Got it?”
His jaw clenched before he answered, insolently. “Heard loud and clear.”
Silence fell between us as we glared daggers at each other. Zach obviously took the lack of conversation as a sign to return to the truck. He opened the door, slid back in his seat and looked at me.
I sighed in either resignation or annoyance—both were equally strong. “I do this, then what?”
“We rule Cole out,” Zach answered. “Kipp’s got a nose for these things. If he’s sending you in, he doesn’t think Cole’s the killer. But without testing him first, there’s no way to know for sure.”
That sounded good and all, but there had been one little fact they had yet to consider. “How do you know he’ll like what he sees?”
Kipp laughed with no amusement to it and he glanced out the side window. “Trust me, he’ll like you.”
The gentle look in Kipp’s eyes before he turned his head, plus the softness of his voice, all said one thing—longing. It simply confused me. Moments ago, he’d been tough, arrogant, blaming me for his past petulance—none of that showed now.
“So, are you in?” Zach asked, drawing my focus away from Kipp.
As much as I’d been confused by Kipp’s reaction, I still had enough sense to remember to find a way out. I wouldn’t give in so easily. “Are there no undercover cops you can call in?”
“There are, but we’re under time constraints.”
Dammit! “Isn’t there…can’t you find…what about…” I hit a dead end. “Fine, I’ll do it.”
“Good.” Kipp sounded thoroughly pleased with himself. “Tell Zach to take you home.”
I scowled. “And just why do I have to go home?”
“You need to change…” Kipp’s earlier expression washed away into haughty smile, showing he enjoyed my apprehension, “into the woman no man could refuse.”
Before I could form a solid way out, I’d been home, whored up and was heading back downtown. Even though the drive was quick, I felt Kipp’s gaze on the back of my head, and that made it feel like a lifetime. My thoughts remained on the longing I’d seen earlier and the yearning look in his eyes.
I’d been so lost in my own feelings, I didn’t realize we had arrived at Coyote Ugly Saloon until Zach turned off the ignition. Memories of the last time I’d been there and Kipp’s dirty words swept through my mind, but as quickly as they surfaced, I stuffed them away. I had enough to think about it without bringing my unstable emotional state into the mix.
Tonight, no line of people awaited entry and I cursed, then I could’ve found a reason to not go in. I focused back on the door handle, willing myself to open the door. “How did you talk me into this?”
“It’ll be fine,” Kipp responded, already standing outside the passenger-side window. “Do what you have to do and get out.”
“You’ll do great.” Zach said, encouragingly.
“Easy for y’all to say, you don’t have to act like some slut.” I joined Kipp outside, pulled on the jeans presently riding up my crack. “I haven’t worn these pants since high school.”
It was nearly impossible to breathe, and that was definitely a good thing, since it forced me to suck in my stomach, which became necessary considering the black lace skintight shirt that stopped just below my breasts. The choice of clothing hadn’t been my idea.
“Just be happy you still fit into them,” Kipp stated matter-of-factly. “Most women would be pleased by that.”
“Well, if these pants split open,” I stepped away from the truck and approached the bar, “I’ll send you to hell myself.”
“I think I’m already there,” Kipp whispered, so soft that if I hadn’t been paying attention, I wouldn’t have heard him.
I parted my lips to respond when the bouncer said, “Identification?” I glanced away from Kipp to find a burly fellow with a shaved head and dark goatee.
“Right.” I handed the bouncer my driver’s license, but discomfort filled me. What had Kipp meant? Did the funk he’d been in lately haunt him that much?