Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1) (18 page)

He dug inside his duffel bag and shoved the condom over himself, then returned to her. He spread her legs, teased his fingers over her wet folds and then slid one inside her. She wrapped her hand over his cock and drew him close. Desperate to have him fill her. She gasped as he impaled her.

“I do need you,” he whispered, his words raw. “It’s not fair to you, but I do.”

“Life isn’t fair. Not all the time. So we grab each good moment that we can and hold on tight.”

He drove hard, and she felt his need, his fear that he wouldn’t see her again, in each desperate thrust. She met him, hip to hip, fingers digging into his back. Needing to hold on to him, to never let him go.

His mouth slammed down over hers, devouring her as though she were his last meal. She bit his lower lip, shocked to taste blood when they kissed again. They’d never made love like this, hard and rough. The ferocity clawed at her, wild and reckless, and shot crazy heat straight to her heart.

He cried out her name with his release, and she followed him. Unable to speak, but repeating his name mentally like a chant. She couldn’t lose him. Not again. She felt the same as she did before she went to the doctor for her follow-ups. Holding on to life in case the news wasn’t good. Knowing two words—”It’s back”—could spin her right into battle again. She was in a different battle this time, but it was every bit as important that she win. That
they
win.

It took a while to come down. To breathe normally.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he shifted so that they were side by side. “I shouldn’t have taken you like that.”

“Are you kidding me? That was
incredibly…real.
Wild and raw. I took you as hard as you took me.” She drew her fingers down his face, rubbing away the blood on his lip. “There are a lot of things in life that aren’t fair, Raleigh. But loving each other is one of the things that’s right and good. We aren’t losing that.”

Mia and Raleigh found their way to the bed sometime during the night. Though in a sleepy frame of mind, they’d discussed going out to the deck again, but Raleigh had a good point: the news of his arrest would be out, and reporters might be skulking around.

She woke alone, afraid he’d left. The bathroom door was ajar, the light off. After throwing on a robe, she nearly ran out to the living room—no Raleigh—and then the kitchen. She stopped, taking a breath when she spotted him leaning against the counter gazing out the window, looking at nothing in particular. She guessed he was a thousand miles away. Or perhaps at the lake where the truck was found.

She came up behind him, sliding her arms around his waist. “Penny for your thoughts?”

“Just trying to think of anyone who could have wanted my father dead that Rose might have missed. I didn’t have much to do with him in the last few years, so I don’t know what he was up to. Once in a while, the bartender at Shady’s called me to haul his ass out of there. And I did, but more for the bartender, who’s an old friend from high school, than for my father. I should talk to him.”

“Did you come up with any suspects?”

“Only me. Sullivan didn’t tell me time of death. It may be hard to tell with the condition of the body.”

“Did you see it?”

“He showed me pictures, hoping for some kind of reaction. Guilt, maybe?” He lifted a shoulder. “All he got was shock. I hated the man, but that was a gruesome way to die.”

She poured two glasses of orange juice and handed him one. “We only know when he disappeared.”

“Or the last time anyone saw him. When was he missed? He could have been lying low at his trailer for a day or more before he was killed.” He swigged half his glass, shaking his head. “I’d like to think the sheriff’s office will be running that down, but I doubt it.”

“Then we can.”

He winced, then touched his lip where it was cut.

“I bit you,” she said. “I should feel ashamed, but I don’t. We needed to blow off steam.”

He leveled a sly look at her. “Next time it’s my turn to bite. And scratch.” He turned to show her the nail marks on his upper back.

She traced the marks. “Look what I did to you!” God, she’d been an animal! “Okay, maybe I do feel a little ashamed.”

“No, don’t. It made me crazy. It was all I could do to hold back. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Don’t hold back, Raleigh. Never hold back.”

She pushed off her robe and snaked her arms around his waist, looking up at him. “Brand me. I want to feel you, too.” She drew her fingers down his bare chest, though not hard enough to break skin.

He did the same down her back. “I don’t have nails.”

“Then use your teeth.”

He tilted her head and lifted her hair. His teeth scraped the skin, pinching where he nipped the flesh between her neck and shoulder.

“Harder.”

He pulled back. “I can’t. I can’t hurt you.”

No way was this man a murderer.

“It’s okay, Raleigh. You’re imprinted on me anyway. My body. My soul.”

He trailed his hands down her back, squeezing her ass and pulling her hard against his body. She melted against him. How had she lived without him all these years?

His phone rang from the counter. With a reluctant sigh, he released her and picked it up. “Yeah…oh. Sorry about that…no, that’s all right. I understand.” He disconnected and dropped the phone back on the counter. “That was Peter at the garage. A couple of customers called to see if I’m working today. They’re uncomfortable. He thought I should take a few days off until this passes.” He braced his hands on the counter.

She came up behind him, pressing her cheek against his back. “It
will
pass. Why don’t we eat and see what we can find out?”

An hour later, they were at the Three Oaks Mobile Home Park. Raleigh parked in front of a white structure that was badly in need of washing.

“Is this where you lived?” she asked, watching the shadows in his eyes.

“The last few years I was with him. Before that it was a van. Or someone’s couch. Their back porch.”

“God, Raleigh. Have you ever told anyone about your life?”

“It’s not something I tell the chicks, to impress them.” He gave her a wink that soothed her troubled heart. “Doesn’t work as well as the ex-con thing.”

“Well, I’m impressed. Again, that you came out so well.” But he didn’t see it that way. She remembered how he’d wanted more for Cody than turning out like him.

The door on the home next to Hank’s opened, and a woman who had to be in her fifties stepped down the metal stairs. A cigarette dangled from her mouth, and her robe was at least a year past its life span, the edges fraying.

She squinted. “Raleigh, that you? My contacts aren’t in yet.”

“Yes, ma’am, it’s me.”

“Always so polite.” She descended the last step and walked over. “Heard about your dad.”

“Raleigh didn’t do it,” Mia blurted out.

“Lola, this is Mia. My girlfriend.” Raleigh gave her a secret smile. “Lola lived here when I did.”

Lola took her in with what looked like a predatory gleam. “Hmm, pretty and protective. Sweet. Nice to meet you, Mia.”

Mia nodded. “Likewise.”

“Look, even if you did off him, you probably had good reason. He was a scumbag of the highest order.”

Raleigh flicked his gaze to his father’s home, then back to Lola. “Has someone from the sheriff’s office been by to question you?”

“They asked me a few things. Did I hear any fighting going on a year or so ago? Had you been around? There’s a lot of fighting, and if you’re smart you ignore it.” This she said to Mia. “We mind our own business round here. I told ’em I hadn’t seen you in years. Your daddy, he complained that you wouldn’t loan him any money. That was when he was trying to hit me up for some. Wah, wah, wah, like I gave a shit.” She took a puff of her cigarette and blew smoke out the side of her mouth, along with the word “Asshole.”

“Do you remember the last time you saw him?”

Lola crossed one arm over her stomach and planted her other elbow on it. She seemed to be contemplating as she sucked in another lungful of smoke. “You know, it was May something. Or early June. He was asking for money to buy his kid a birthday present. I was disgusted that he was using you as an excuse to slime money off me. I told him to suck a big—well, I demurred.” She gave Mia a wink. “Love that word, ‘demurred.’ “

“Did he say it was for me?” Raleigh asked. “My birthday’s in October.”

“No, he didn’t. So it was probably his other kid. Didn’t see him around as much. He always freaked me out when I did, though. Looks so much like you, I thought I’d gone back in time.”

Raleigh herded her back to the subject at hand. “So it was that day, when he asked for money. Did he leave the park?”

“Yeah, after he tried the usuals round here. Every woman he ever screwed and then screwed. The man either has—had—a shit pile for a memory or he thought we were all stupid. He tore out of here. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think he came back after that. Ever.” She shrugged, and the robe slid off her bony shoulder. “I didn’t really think much of it.”

“I guess you wouldn’t.”

“The police checked the mobile home. Took his computer, a few boxes of stuff.”

“Maybe they’ll find a threatening email,” Mia said. “Or evidence of drug dealing or something.”

“If they bother to look,” Raleigh said. “Thanks, Lola.”

They tried to talk with a couple of others who Raleigh said lived there when he had. They weren’t quite as forthcoming as Lola, or as friendly.

She and Raleigh said nothing until they got back into the car and headed out of the park.

He draped his hand over the top of the steering wheel. “It appears that he was killed that night or maybe early the next morning. Which, unfortunately, keeps me at the number-one-suspect place.”

“But that’s given what we know that the police don’t.”

“What if they question Cody? He
is
Hank’s son, after all. And what if he cracks?”

“He won’t. He’s too afraid of losing you.”

“That’s the problem, Mia. His fear will give him away.” Raleigh’s phone rang again, and he glanced at the screen. “It’s Grace.”

“Maybe there’s some good news.”

He didn’t look hopeful when he answered, and his expression only dimmed from there. “All right, we’ll meet you out there.” He gave her directions to his cabin. When he hung up, he said, “The sheriff obtained a search warrant for my place. They’re probably already out there. Grace said they ‘accidentally’ didn’t notify her right away.”

“Yeah, right.”

Raleigh made a turn and headed out of town. He took a long, worn asphalt road into an area that she remembered being completely desolate. But there was construction going on now, signs for a shopping center. Beyond that, though, it grew lonesome again.

She wrapped her fingers over his on the gearshift. “I remember when you first brought me out here.”

“You were thinking, What the hell am I doing?”

She shoved him. “No. I was nervous, though. I
knew
what I was doing. Or what I was going to do.”

Make love with Raleigh for the first time. A stolen afternoon when she was supposed to be at the beach.

“Well, you should be asking yourself ‘What the hell am I doing?’ now.”

He turned onto a gravel road with
NO TRESPASSING
signs warning of imminent death and destruction. Off to the right a newer road cut in, one she didn’t remember. “That’s where they were doing the construction?”

“Yes. And where my dad was found.”

The brush grew high alongside the road. As they rounded a bend, sun reflected off the windshields of two police cruisers parked by the cabin. Mia glanced in the rearview mirror. A T-Bird with a front license plate that read
BIRDIE
followed close behind. Grace gave them a wave as she pulled up beside them. Within seconds she was stalking over to Sheriff Sullivan, crooking her fingers.

He handed the warrant to her, smug as could be. They traded words as Raleigh remained by the car, letting her do her job. He watched Cassidy and another deputy walk out with sealed paper bags.

Grace came over, her cheeks red with rage. “I will be talking to Judge Crandall about this.”

“What are they looking for?” Mia asked.

“Blood evidence. The murder weapon. They’re taking all knives found to check for blood.” Grace eyed the deputies setting the stapled paper bags in the car. “Is there anything inside that might cause us trouble?”

Mia bristled. “You think he’s guilty?”

“Calm down, honey. No, I do not. But things can be misconstrued, and, with Sullivan after Raleigh, he’s going to be grasping at straws. We also have to think about what it’s going to look like to a jury.”

A jury. Grace thought this might go to court. The idea of it clamped around Mia’s stomach.

“I have a couple of hunting knives,” Raleigh said. “Every guy who hunts and fishes does. But there won’t be any of my dad’s blood on them. And they won’t find any of my father’s DNA inside my cabin, either. He’s never been inside. But if one of my knives is close in size to the knife marks,” Raleigh said in a low voice, “it’ll be one more thing the prosecutor will present as evidence, right?”

“Afraid so, circumstantial as it is. Of course, I’ll move to strike it.”

The crime-scene analysts didn’t take long, since the cabin wasn’t that big. The officers exited without any more bags, and Mia swore that Sullivan looked disappointed. Jerk. On the other hand, that was a positive sign.

“I’m going to dog Sullivan for information on what they took.” Grace patted Raleigh’s arm. “Stay calm. And positive.”

Raleigh didn’t look the least bit positive even as he nodded. A few minutes later, everyone had cleared out.

Mia slid her fingers between his. “The sheriff didn’t find what he wanted.”

“But all he needs is a few pieces of the puzzle, even if it’s not the right picture. I know, I know, I’m not being very positive.” He rubbed the back of his neck, the tension clear on his face. “I wish Pax had been here. Then again, he got in trouble for warning me about the arrest.” He pulled out his cellphone and sent a text:
Sorry that you were reprimanded for giving me a heads-up.

“Let’s go back to the cottage. We can work on the yard, burn off some of this restless energy.”

A few seconds later, a text came in.
It’s gonna work out just fine. Will call you in a bit. BTW, Cass went ballistic. He’s fired. TTYL

“Holy…” Raleigh shook his head and laughed.

“What?”

“Cass was being his usual dick self when he retrieved me from my cell. I might have incited him just a little when he didn’t know that the captain of the jail was standing a few feet away.”

She grinned. “Just a little?”

He indicated an inch between his finger and thumb. “Didn’t take much. He tried to hit me. According to Pax’s text, he got fired. In my defense, the captain indicated that Cassidy had been a pain in the ass for a while.”

Mia snorted. “Serves him right. As long as Pax doesn’t get fired, too.”

“He said it was going to work out fine. And his daddy wants him there, so he’ll no doubt pull strings.”

A few minutes later, Mia’s cellphone rang, and she answered.

“Hi, Mia, it’s Marta. I wanted to let you know that we just hit the four-thousand- dollar mark for the legal fund.”

“That’s wonderful! Thanks so much for telling me.”

“Please pass my thoughts on to Raleigh. I know this must be very hard on him. Poor guy can’t swing a break.”

Mia glanced over as Raleigh opened her door for her. “You’re right about that. But we’ll take all the good news we can.”

“Good news?” Raleigh asked.

“That was Marta, at the bank. People are donating to your legal fund. Four thousand so far!”

He dropped into the seat a minute later, his puzzled expression adorable. “My what?”

“I set up a legal fund yesterday and asked Marta and Peter to spread the word.” She leaned forward and kissed him. “See, not everyone thinks you’re guilty.”

“Four thousand dollars?”

“And counting.”

It was the first glimmer of warmth she’d seen on his face in a while, but it didn’t last long. He started the car and backed up.