Joker in the Pack (Blackwood UK #1)

Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

“WHO’S THAT?” I hissed as we pulled up outside Lilac Cottage.

A blond-haired man stood in the front garden, eyeing up my windows. I say blond—his close-cropped hair was so light it was almost white.

“It’s okay,” Nye muttered, forgetting to open my door as he got out to greet our mysterious visitor. From the way the guards were sitting in their car, relaxed but alert, I assumed he wasn’t my burglar. Could this be the locksmith?

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to the lovely lady?” he asked when I got near.

Nye didn’t look as if he wanted to, but his manners came to the fore. “Liv, this is Spike. Spike, meet Olivia.”

Spike took my hand and kissed it, and Nye glared at him with murder in his eyes.

But Spike only laughed. “Easy, mate. Treading on your toes, am I?”

“No.” Nye sounded like a sulky toddler.

“Whatever you say, buddy.”

“Can we just talk about the house? Where are the weak spots?”

“Where aren’t they?”

“If you were going in, how would you do it?”

“With the Blackwood car out front, it would have to be around the back. That door’s practically cardboard. I’ll fit a deadbolt, but it could do with being replaced.”

“Then replace it. What else?”

“The old tree next to the house is an invitation to any burglar. You might as well hang out a red carpet. It’d take me thirty seconds to climb into the bedroom at the back.”

And I’d thought it had so much character. “Really?”

“Yeah. Except I didn’t need to today because it only took me fifteen to get in through the kitchen. The place is a nightmare—full of hiding places. What’s with all the junk? A thief wouldn’t know where to start in that lot. Reckon that’s your only saving grace.”

“Which is our first problem,” Nye said. “My theory is that our culprit’s looking for something Olivia’s aunt hid before she died.”

“Good luck with that. What is it?”

“That’s the second problem—we’ve got no idea. Her husband and son were both known thieves, so possibly cash or an item one of them stole.”

“Where are they? Can’t you persuade them to tell you?”

The way Spike said that sent shivers down my spine. I looked at Nye, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“They’re both dead.”

“Natural causes?”

“One yes, the other in prison, so not likely.”

“Prison? Have you tried finding his cellmate? Mine used to tell me all sorts of shit. Your man might’ve been the type to talk.”

Cellmate? Spike had been in prison? I took a step backwards and eyed up the screwdriver in his hand.

Nye seemed disturbingly unbothered by Spike’s revelation.

“Good point. I’ll look into it. Any other ideas?”

“Nope, but you’ll be the first to hear if I get a brainwave. You really lucked out with this case, didn’t you?”

Nye looked at me. “Yeah, I did.” There was no hint of sarcasm.

I didn’t understand him. Why look at me like that? Why say those words when he’d turned me down?

“So what’s your plan?” Spike asked him, waving a hand at my windows and turning the conversation back to Lilac Cottage.

“What do you recommend?”

“Apart from new doors, I’d suggest locks on the windows, motion-activated floodlights outside, and CCTV cameras to cover each side of the building.”

“Isn’t that a bit excessive?” I asked.

“No, it’s not,” Nye said. “Do it all.”

“I’ll get started right now.”

Spike had helpfully left the door unlocked, and I followed Nye into the hallway, anger simmering inside me.

“How dare you invite a criminal into my home?”

“Do you mean Spike?”

“He said he’d been in prison.”

“He did three months for beating up the drunk driver who killed his wife.”

“Oh.” My indignation leaked away. Who wouldn’t want revenge in those circumstances? “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken like that.”

“And I should have explained. In the interests of transparency, Spike was a burglar—one of the best—but the police never got near him.” Nye must have seen the steam coming out of my ears, because he hastily added, “He’s gone straight now.”

“How do you know that? He could just be, what do they say, casing the joint?”

Nye chuckled. “Trust me, babe, he’s not. When he was inside, he spent three months away from his baby daughter, and he won’t take the chance of that happening again. As soon as he got out, he started his own company. Now he advises householders how to stop people like him.”

“You’re absolutely sure he’s safe?”

Nye walked over to me and took both of my hands in his. “Liv, believe me when I say that if there was the slightest doubt in my mind, he wouldn’t be here.”

Just like that, I went weak at the knees again. How could Nye do that to me with one look? One long, smouldering look.

A beeping noise sounded from outside, and I rushed to the front window in time to see a truck reversing up the driveway.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

I wasn’t expecting any deliveries. With the cottage still stuffed to the gunwales, I hadn’t been remotely tempted to follow in Aunt Ellie’s footsteps.

“I’m redecorating my apartment, and I had a spare sofa going, so I got someone to deliver it here. I figured you could do with somewhere to sit.”

I reached the truck as two men carried the first piece of a luxurious pale grey leather sectional onto the tail lift.

“Nye, that looks brand new.”

He shrugged. “I’m not home much.”

“It’s very kind of you, but I can’t possibly accept it.”

“I knew you’d say that, which was why I didn’t tell you it was coming.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he cut me off before I could speak.

“You’re doing me a favour, taking it off my hands. I need the space.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. And it’ll save me from spending another night on the floor.”

I understood he was trying to be kind, but those words stabbed me in the heart. I’d offered him my bed, and he’d made his position quite clear.

But I had to be gracious. “I’m very grateful.”

“Anything for you, Liv.”

Nye parked himself in front of his laptop while I started lunch. Nothing fancy, just a few sandwiches seeing as we’d already eaten pastries at Carol’s. But I’d only got the fillings out of the fridge when Tate phoned.

I saw his name flash up on the display and stifled a groan. It was a conversation I didn’t want to have. Yesterday, once it finally clicked that Tate was basically Edward with more tweed, I’d vowed I wouldn’t go running back to him, especially after the way he’d dismissed me so rudely. Even though Nye didn’t want me either, I’d rather be single than mould myself into a man’s accessory once more.

I sighed as the phone kept ringing, and I slipped out of the kitchen to take the call. No point in putting off the inevitable.

“Olivia, I need to apologise for what I said yesterday.”

“It’s okay. Apology accepted.”

He couldn’t help it. I realised that now. Tate was one of those men who always had to know best.

“Thank you, darling. I really shouldn’t have flown off the handle. I’m just worried about you, that’s all.”

His reasonableness made me feel even worse. “You don’t need to worry, I promise. Nye knows what he’s doing.”

“Let me take you out for dinner to make it up to you.”

Yes, Edward all over again. Everything could be fixed by three courses, as long as the restaurant served pretentious food at ridiculous prices.

“It’s a kind offer, Tate, but I’m not in the right frame of mind for any of this right now.”

Gah! Why couldn’t I just come out and say what I really felt? That someone else had replaced him in my affections, unrequited or not?

“I guess I can understand that. A rain check, then?”

“Okay.”

“I’ll call you in a day or two; we can slot something in then.”

Why did he make me sound like a business meeting?

“Uh…”

His voice softened. “I’ll be thinking of you, darling. No other woman has affected me in quite the way you do. Until we meet again, I’ll treasure the softness of your lips against mine.”

Those words didn’t have the effect they once might have done. Old Olivia would have swooned at his feet, but in the past few weeks, I’d learned more about myself and the future I wanted.

However, I still struggled to put that into words. “I’ll be thinking of you too.”

Grrr. Olivia, you’re a coward.

Angry with myself for being so weak, I headed back to the kitchen, where Nye had inhaled a bag of crisps in my absence. I picked up the empty packet and put it in the bin, then carried on with the sandwiches.

“I’ve got people out looking for Ronnie’s cellmate,” Nye said. “Plus, I’ve got Ronnie’s police files. His name came up in connection with a fair few burglaries, and only the local bobby’s incompetence meant he didn’t get banged up for those too. Fucked up the chain of evidence, according to my source.”

“You mean Graham?”

He glanced at his screen. “Yep. Know him?”

“He came round after the first break-in. Someone had to remind him to fingerprint.”

“Asshole. Hardly surprising Ronnie and his father got away with what they did for so long.”

“So, what now?”

“We wait.”

“That’s it?”

“My team are out doing the legwork. I get the best job.”

“What’s that?”

He grinned at me. “Looking after you.”

How could he be so flippant? Didn’t he understand how much he hurt me last night? I couldn’t stay near him, but when I stomped off into the living room, he came right after me.

“Shit. I said something else wrong, didn’t I?”

A tear rolled down my cheek, and he wiped it away with his thumb then rested his forehead against mine.

“I’ve never felt like this before,” I confessed.

“Babe, you don’t know me. I’m not the man you think.”

“Then why don’t you show me who you are?”

“Fuck. I shouldn’t be doing this.”

He leaned down and kissed me, softly at first, but within seconds his tongue tangled with mine as we grabbed at each other with a fervour that bordered on desperation. Fire burned through my veins, and only one thing could extinguish the heat.

Okay, make that two things. The piercing wolf whistle that came from outside had the same effect as a bucket of cold water.

I looked up like a guilty teenager, only to see Spike grinning at us through the window. Nye scowled as his friend gave us a round of applause.

“Steel toecaps, mate, that’s what you need,” he shouted through the glass, no doubt referring to his earlier comment about treading on toes.

“Shit, Liv, I lose my mind around you.”

Guilt clouded Nye’s eyes, and my heart sank. He was going to tell me the kiss was a mistake, wasn’t he? That it shouldn’t have happened. I hastily attempted to build a wall around my fragile heart, but every time I picked up a brick, it crumbled.

“But I like it when you lose your mind.”

“Really? If Spike had turned up five minutes later, I’d have had you stripped naked and bent over the couch. I wasn’t thinking.”

Holy cannoli!

I cupped his cheek with my hand, and he clutched my wrist, holding me to him.

“Don’t be angry. Neither of us was thinking.”

“You’re too good to be on display like some cheap trash.” His face softened. “Liv, your pulse has gone crazy.”

“I’m waiting for the bit where you tell me you don’t want me again,” I whispered.

He pressed his lips against my forehead. “It was hard enough the first time. Saying it again would kill me.”

The fear faded away, and as I melted against him, I felt his heart beating every bit as wildly as mine.

“So what do we do now?”

“I have no idea. This is uncharted territory for me,” he said.

“I’ve always told myself I should explore new things.”

Nye’s cock twitched against my hip, and he groaned. “Babe, you can’t say that right now.”

Another twitch. Actually, more of a vibration. “I think your phone’s ringing.”

“I know. I’m ignoring it.”

“But it could be important.”

“Yes, it could.” Still, he didn’t move.

The caller hung up but tried again a few seconds later, and from the way we were positioned, I’d have been a very happy girl if the buzzing didn’t stop.

“You need to answer it.”

“In a minute.”

“Uh, if you don’t, those vibrations are going to give me a problem.” I could only imagine how red my face must be.

Nye laughed as he shifted enough to get his phone out of his pocket, but he still didn’t let me go.

“Nye Holmes,” he barked once he’d answered.

I could only hear his end of the conversation.

“You have? That was quick. Where is he?” A pause. “Make sure he stays there… I’m on my way.”

Had his team found a lead?

“We’ve got to go,” he said, already shrugging into his leather jacket.

“We?”

“I’m not leaving you here without me.”

I barely had time to grab my coat and bag before he shepherded me out into the BMW.

“Where are we heading?”

“I’m going to talk to Ronnie’s ex-cellmate. You’re going to a safe house while I do it.”

A safe house? Were things really that bad?

“Will it be dangerous? Your meeting?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s not very comforting.”

He cut his gaze to me, then flicked it back to the road. “I care about you too much to lie.”