What She Saw Read online

  Part of her wanted to claim tiredness and just be done with it for the night, but another part of her quickened a bit. What if they saw a transfer? Hadn’t she already decided that she wanted to break out of her rut?

  “Sure,” she said.

  The diner was busy enough when they arrived, but not too busy, and they couldn’t get seats by a window. Not that it mattered, Haley thought. If there was going to be a cargo transfer of any kind tonight, it was unlikely to happen when there were so many people around.

  Buck spoke when they were seated. She noted that he had chosen to face the window. “I’m sorry I can’t recommend the broiled lobster or the beef tournedos,” he said with a charming wink. “I think you already know this menu pretty well.”

  “Another time for lobster,” she smiled back, as if they were any normal dating couple.

  “Did you manage to eat before the performance?”

  “Not a thing. I got nervous again.”

  “But don’t you know just about everybody who was there? Wouldn’t that make it easier?”

  “Actually, I think it made it harder. If they were all strangers I’d never see again, I doubt I’d have been half as nervous.”

  He laughed, and the sound drew the attention of other diners. Haley looked down as she realized how many guys were looking their way, and wondered if this was going to make life harder for her after Buck left. Until now, the excuse of never seeing a customer outside of work had worked pretty well.

  But Hasty would keep an eye on things. In fact, she no sooner had the thought than Hasty appeared at their table.

  “Hi,” he said, measuring Buck and then looking dubiously at Haley. She almost wanted to sink, wondering what he thought of her. But the whole town had been gabbing, as near as she could tell, so this couldn’t possibly surprise him.

  “Hi, Hasty,” she said, hoping she looked relaxed.

  Buck stuck out his hand. “Buck Devlin,” he said.

  Hasty wiped his hand on the towel at his waist and shook Buck’s hand. “I know who you are.” But then Hasty seemed to catch himself, and he smiled in a friendly manner. “Be good to our Haley, hear?”

  It sounded nice, but the intention was clear. Haley felt her cheeks heat. Did everyone in this county think she needed a protector? She wasn’t exactly a kid anymore.

  “Funny,” Buck said amiably, “I got the same message from the sheriff.”

  At that Hasty laughed. “Okay, okay. I’m not trying to play the heavy. Just don’t like to see my girls go someplace they might regret.”

  With that Hasty strolled away, pausing to talk to a few other people before returning behind the counter. Meg came up to take their orders and Haley chose something light so it wouldn’t keep her awake. Buck, she noticed, ordered as if he were about to run a marathon.

  “This is so embarrassing,” she said after Meg walked away.

  “Why? I think it’s nice you have so many people concerned about you. That should make you feel good.”

  “But they’re acting like I don’t have an ounce of sense.”

  “No, they’re acting like a wolf has just walked into a sheep pen. You’ve told me yourself this place isn’t like the big, bad world beyond. I come from out there in that big, bad world. Their concerns are reasonable.”

  “Are they? Do I have a reason to be concerned?”

  “I hope not,” he said after a moment. “Dammit.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, I’m so out of practice talking to a woman it’s not funny.”

  “Why?”

  “Bad experience a number of years ago. I pretty much limited myself after that.”

  “Honestly? You’re afraid?” The thought astonished her. He didn’t seem like he was afraid of much.

  “Self-protective,” he corrected. “Not afraid. I just don’t see getting involved like that again until I get to know someone really well. I jumped before I looked last time.”

  “Oh.” Well, there was little chance he was going to get to know her well. Her stomach sank, so she forced herself to sip her soda and pretend everything was fine.

  “Look,” he said after a moment, leaning toward her and lowering his voice, “I hope you don’t have a reason to be concerned. The last thing I want is for you to be hurt in any way. But the truth of the matter is I want you like hell. I keep on wanting you. I tell myself to ignore it, to squash it, that there’s no way it could be good for either of us, and I keep right on fantasizing about you and wanting to touch you in every way possible.”

  She couldn’t have imagined a less romantic place for such a declaration, and she had to fight not to look around to see if he’d been overheard despite how quietly he was talking. She could feel her cheeks flaming as brightly as if she were having another allergic reaction.

  “Told you I’ve forgotten how.”

  She swallowed hard and shook her head the tiniest bit. “Actually,” she said, and cleared her throat when her voice came out funny, “actually, that’s the nicest thing a guy’s ever said to me.”

  “Really?” He sat back looking amazed. “Is everybody around here blind?”

  She felt her flush deepen. How in the world could she respond to that?

  “You don’t have to answer that.” He reached across the table and covered her hand with his almost tentatively, as if he expected Hasty to suddenly arrive with a cleaver. “There are some things you need to know about me.”

  Her heart climbed into her throat. This couldn’t possibly be good, especially following right after what he had said about wanting her. That had lifted her high instantly, and now she was sure she was about to crash.

  “I don’t always walk the line,” he said. “That’s part of the reason I’m sitting with you right now.”

  Her heart thudded heavily. “What do you mean?”

  “I get in trouble. Well, I got into trouble. I was working on a case, the order came down to drop it, and I didn’t drop it. I pursued it and found out why some people had tried to call me off. It’s not good to embarrass generals.”

  She gasped. “No!”

  “Yes. In this case, the perp was a prominent man’s son. In the process of going after him, I got shot.”

  “Oh, Buck, no!”

  “Yes. I can’t give you the details. Believe me, they’re so highly classified now I could spend a long time in jail for telling you. So let’s just leave it at that. A very important man stood to be embarrassed and have his future wrecked because of something his son had gotten involved with. So I had to be shut down. I was. Firmly. I took a bullet that bruised my spine and paralyzed me for a while, and then I was swiftly discharged for medical reasons. Part of the bullet is still lodged in there. It won’t cause any problems, but it was a good excuse to usher me out. And I got the message. Don’t mess with the big dogs.”

  “That’s not right!”

  “Doesn’t matter. I’d become a loose cannon. I’d disobeyed a direct order. If it hadn’t been too messy, I’d probably have been court-martialed. The quietest way to deal with me was medical retirement. Of course, if I’d been in any condition, I might have been stupid enough to fight it. The order was unlawful because it obstructed an investigation. I could have made a case, but it probably wouldn’t have gotten very far. Most people are more concerned with their careers than I was.”

  “But that’s awful! If the son did something wrong, he should have gone to jail.”

  He shrugged one shoulder, gently stroking the back of her hand with his fingertips. Delightful shocks ran through her entire body. “They dealt with him another way. I’m pretty sure he got the message, too. Jail isn’t the only answer for some things. My mistake for not accepting it.”

  “How can you call that a mistake?”

  “I’m a little older and much wiser now. In some situations, some people are almost untouchable. And what’s more important? Putting someone in jail, or just stopping them from whatever illegal thing they’re doing? Sometimes the latter is the best answer. Ther
e’s also another way to look at it.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Why ruin a good man’s career because of something his son did?”

  She looked down at his hand on hers and pondered. “A lot of people get hurt by what their kids do.”

  “Of course. But the military officer corps is a very tight-knit elite, and appearance counts for a lot. More so than in most civilian positions. Hell, a divorce can end your hopes of rising high. Imagine what having a criminal for a son could do? So this guy was important, he was on his way to the top, he was widely liked and supported, and everything would have come crashing down because of his son’s failure. I get it. They were fast-tracking him for a lot of good reasons, and they didn’t want him knocked off the track.”

  He leaned back, taking his hand from hers. Meg served them their dinners, his steak and eggs, hers a fluffy omelet with mushrooms and green peppers. Haley looked down at her plate but barely saw the food.

  “Anyway,” Buck went on when they were alone again, “at the point when they called me off, I wasn’t sure who I was dealing with. I just knew I was close to solving the case. I didn’t care what they said, I was going to finish it. That’s what I was paid to do. What’s more, I’ve got more that a little bulldog in me, and I wasn’t about to give up my bone. I wanted the answers.”

  “And that’s the thanks you got for being a good cop?”

  “They did thank me. They could have crushed my career, put me behind a desk pushing papers, and I’d never have seen another promotion. Instead they gave me a Meritorious Service medal, a promotion, a full medical disability and retirement.”

  She studied his face, which revealed little. “How does that make you feel?”

  “Glad I’m not the one in jail.” He shook his head. “The point I’m trying to make here is that when I take the bit between my teeth, I don’t quit. Stubborn might as well be my middle name. Plus, I hate unsolved puzzles. So I walked into a thicket in defiance of orders, rightly or wrongly, and I came out better than I had a right to expect in the circumstances. Does it chap me? Hell, yeah. But some things you just have to accept.”

  Haley knew all about accepting things. She’d had a lot to accept herself. “It just doesn’t seem right,” she said finally.

  He smiled crookedly. “Fairness, right and wrong—they’re things we impose on the world. Life isn’t inherently fair. I think you know that.”

  “I do,” she said reluctantly, thinking of how life had treated her mother. Picking up her fork, she started on her omelet before it turned cold. “So is that why you decided to start driving? To get away from all that?”

  “Maybe in part. I like being on the road. It’s mostly peaceful.”

  “Until lately,” she said a little tartly.

  “Obviously.”

  Conversation trailed off as they ate, giving Haley the opportunity to think over what he’d told her. She decided that he’d probably been more upset by what had happened than he was letting on. Of course, he’d had to make peace with it afterward, but at the time it must have seemed like a terrible betrayal.

  “How much more school do you have?” he asked eventually.

  “That depends. First I’m getting my LPN, so I’ll spend most of the coming year working at the hospital, being trained on the job, so to speak. There’ll still be some classroom stuff, but mostly it’ll be hands-on. I’m looking forward to that.”

  “And then?”

  “I plan to work for a few years and save some money, then go for my RN. Well, actually, I’m thinking about a bachelor of science in nursing.”

  “Will that take long?”

  “Two or three years, depending on me, mostly. And where I decide to go.”

  “So you can’t do that here?”

  She shook her head. “This is just a junior college.”

  He smiled. “Big plans.”

  “I’ve had a lot of time to dream them up.”

  “Where do you want to wind up eventually? What kind of nursing? A big hospital?”

  His questions provided the perfect opportunity to forget about everything else and focus on something that didn’t leave her unsettled. She was only too happy to talk about the specialties she was thinking about down the road, and her indecision about whether she wanted a big hospital or a small community hospital. She warmed to her topic so much that she was startled to realize they were finished eating.

  “Wow, I ran on!”

  “I enjoyed it. It made a nice change from my obsession.”

  His obsession being whatever was happening with those shipments. The reminder caused a tiny trickle of ice to run down her spine.

  “What are you going to do?” she asked him.

  “Not here.”

  So she let it go for now, passing on dessert because it was so late. She didn’t feel particularly eager to go back to her apartment, but there was nowhere else to go.

  Worse yet, he said goodbye to her in the parking lot. Just a quick hug and a peck on the cheek, nothing meaningful, and certainly nothing to be misinterpreted. Then he said good-night and started walking toward the highway and the motel.

  Unhappily, she started her car, eased out of her parking place and headed out of the lot. She hadn’t driven very far down the highway, moving slowly because she was so reluctant to go home, when Buck was suddenly there, trotting alongside her car and tapping on the window.

  She stopped and he slid in quickly, shoving a duffel onto the floorboards.

  “Go,” he said.

  “What was that all about?”

  “Unless someone was paying awfully close attention, they think I’m back in my motel room.”

  “That’s important why?”

  “Because from there I could see the entire truck-stop parking lot.”

  And his rental car was parked out there, she realized. It was a great bit of misdirection. But to what end?

  “I’m thinking about getting rid of my rental in the morning,” he remarked as they drove.

  She almost didn’t hear him because she was busy wondering why he was coming with her. Everything that interested him was at the truck stop. All of a sudden her head was buzzing with questions.

  “Buck?”

  “Yes?”

  “Why didn’t you drive to the college?”

  “I like walking and it isn’t all that far.”

  “It’s going to be a long walk back from my place.”

  “I like walking.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “About what?”

  She reached the traffic light in the center of town. At this time of night it blinked red in all directions. She stopped and looked. “You just said you’re thinking of getting rid of your rental, right? Why?”

  “Because it makes it look too easy for me to get around.”

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry, I’m confusing you.”

  “Just slightly.”

  “It’s really simple. If everyone thinks the only thing I have to drive is my truck cab, they’ll be looking out for that.”

  “Oh. Will you need my car?”

  “Not tonight.”

  They turned onto a quiet street two blocks from her apartment.

  “Let me out here,” he said.

  She braked and gaped at him. “Buck, what in the world?”

  “I have to meet someone. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  He leaned over, pecked her cheek again in an almost brotherly fashion that annoyed her, then climbed out with his duffel. “Morning,” he repeated, then slammed the door.

  She stared after him as he walked down the street, then accelerated toward her apartment. She had lost her mind, she decided. Completely and totally. She had given her trust to a man she didn’t know, one who was now acting suspiciously enough that if she had two brain cells left she’d be wondering if he was involved in this mess.

  What she never expected when she pulled up at her apartment was to see a car in a usually
empty slot nearby. She could see a shadowy figure inside it.

  Her mouth turned dry and she hesitated. Maybe she shouldn’t get out. Maybe she should just go somewhere else for the night. Like the sheriff’s office, or some friend’s. Not that she felt comfortable about calling any of them out of the blue for a bed, especially when she wouldn’t be able to explain it.

  But as she sat there, motor running, trying to make up her mind whether there was any reason to be afraid, the car’s door opened and a woman climbed out. A split second later she recognized Deputy Sarah Ironheart despite the civvies.

  Sarah came up to the driver’s side and bent down, waiting for Haley to roll down her window.

  “Hi, Haley. I just wanted to tell you how great you were in the play.”

  As if, Haley thought. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Is something wrong, Sarah?”

  Sarah’s smile became gentler. “Not a thing. I just thought we could have a glass of milk or something, gab for a couple of minutes. Do you mind?”

  Something was definitely wrong, Haley thought. Her every instinct kicked into high gear and her heart found a faster rhythm. Damn, she was getting sick of not knowing anything and being nervous about everything as a result.

  She climbed out of the car, bringing Buck’s roses with her, and walked into the building with Sarah. Sarah Ironheart was much older, married and the mother of two. They didn’t move in the same circles at all, and there was absolutely no reason Sarah should have gone out of her way to come talk to Haley about the play.

  Something was going on, all right. She just had to find out what it was. She hoped Sarah would at least tell her when they got inside.

  She didn’t say much as they climbed the stairs. Sarah did all the talking, about the play, about her kids. Once they were inside the apartment, though, everything changed.

  Sarah made no bones about checking out the two rooms. “Everything look okay to you?” she asked Haley.

  Haley glanced around. “Yes. Now will you tell me what’s going on? Did something happen?”

  “Not that I know of. I just know Gage asked me earlier to be here when you got home tonight and check things out. Consider them checked. He also asked me to make it look like a normal social visit. I hope it looked that way.”