His To Keep (11 page)

Grace slid Nic an apologetic look. “Sorry, honey. I went off on a tangent there. So you’re leaving tomorrow? How long will you be gone?”

“Couple days,” he muttered then concentrated on shoveling food in his mouth so his mom wouldn’t ask him any more questions. Luckily, Grace and Frank started talking about one of her cases, leaving him to think.

Annie had been having guy troubles for a while now. Damn, and here he’d been pawing her, adding to her problems, making a complete ass of himself. And putting her in danger.

But, God, it had felt right to kiss her. She fit perfectly in his arms. And she had responded to his every touch.

He couldn’t get what she’d said out of his head.

Desire. Need. Chemistry. That last one was probably more like it. At least for Annie. He knew exactly how he felt about her. Had for years, but had never been able to say the words.

When she was eighteen, she’d still been too young.

After he’d been shot, he’d considered telling her, had let himself think about the possibility. He’d learned an awful hard lesson about how fleeting life was.

But she’d never come to visit him. He knew she’d come home with Janey from college. He’d waited for her to show up, prayed she would without him having to ask for her.

But she never had. He’d respected her obvious indifference and he’d stayed away.

Now… Hell, he didn’t know. She’d thrown him for a loop tonight. Good thing he was going away for a few days.

Chapter Six

Friday afternoon, Nic picked up a wrench, determined to get this nut to cry uncle.

The garage was closed for the day. Mags and her father-in-law, Nic’s Uncle John, owned the business and they always closed early on Fridays.

He and Toni had the garage to themselves. Usually they spent Sundays working on the vintage Indian motorcycle Nino had bought only weeks before he’d died. But last Sunday Nic had been in Baltimore searching for Tiff Jones’s scumbag ex-husband who had somehow managed to elude him. Because he couldn’t keep his mind on the job.

And just a few minutes ago, he’d scraped his knuckles open trying to get this nut off. Because he’d had a flashback to the last kiss he’d shared with Annie. He’d been having those flashes all week.

“Hand me that socket wrench, kid.”

Toni popped up from the other side of the bike, where she’d been changing the spark plugs. She’d inherited Nino’s aptitude for motors. Nino had been as good, if not better, than Nic with anything mechanical. If it broke, they could fix it.

“Here ya go.” Toni handed it over the seat with a flourish worthy of an emergency-room nurse. “Didn’t you get that free yet?”

His lips twitched at the mock disdain in her voice.

“You just worry about getting those plugs in, kid. Hey, how was the dance?”

Silence descended. All Nic could hear was AC/DC singing about shaking all night long from the boombox on the counter along the wall.

Finally, she said, “It was okay. I don’t think I’ll go to another one, though.”

Nic hesitated before speaking, knowing from experience he was entering dangerous teenage-girl territory. “Oh yeah? That bad, huh?”

Getting up on his knees so he could see over the bike, he slipped Toni a look and noticed a faint blush on her cheeks.

“No. I mean, it was fun dancing with my friends, but…” she shrugged again and didn’t finish.

His eyes narrowed. “Somebody give you a hard time?”

There was that shrug again. “Nah. It’s stupid. This guy…”

Again, she hesitated, but Nic had heard the magic word. “What guy?” he said through clenched teeth.

She sighed, “Tim Patterson,” then shot a look toward the door. It remained closed. She must have seen what she wanted because she said, “He asked me to dance.”

Okay, that didn’t sound too bad. “And?”

“Oh, never mind.”

It took a huge effort, but he said, “Okay” and returned to the nut. He’d discovered this tactic with Janey. If he waited long enough, she’d eventually tell him everything. He just had to be patient. As patient as he could be, anyway. He never seemed to have enough. Just look what had happened with Annie—

“It’s just… I don’t know how to dance with a guy.”

The defensive tone of her voice bit right through to his soul. Damn and double damn. If Nino had been alive, he would’ve taught her to dance. It’s one of those things dads did with daughters.

Nic had two left feet. But if Toni wanted to learn how to dance, he’d find a way to teach her. He’d watched her take her first steps, helped her ride her first bike. The only thing he hadn’t been able to do was save her father.

Careful not to show anything other than casual interest, he stood. “Want me to practice with you?”

The look Toni gave him radiated pure joy, making him smile in return.

Then she shrugged and tried to downplay it. “Sure, if you don’t mind.”

Walking over to the CD player on the counter, he wiped oil from his hands with a rag and dug around for what he wanted. When he found it, he popped out AC/DC in the middle of “Hell’s Bells” and put in Led Zeppelin.

“Come on. Let’s see if I even remember how.”

* * * * *

“Hey, Annie, you seen Nic today?”

Jimmy stood in her office doorway, his normally cheerful expression clouded with concern.

“No, I haven’t.” She stopped typing Grace’s report on a runaway wife, her attention held by Jimmy’s obvious concern. “Is something wrong?”

He hesitated then smiled, though she could tell he’d forced it. “Nah. Nothing important. But if he calls in, tell him I want to talk to him, okay?”

“Jimmy, wait.”

He stopped and turned but couldn’t hold her gaze. Then she knew something was up.

Even though she and Jimmy were close, she’d never taken advantage of their friendship the way she was about to. “What’s going on?”

An indiscernible look in his pale blue-green eyes, Jimmy leaned against the doorjamb, running his hand through shaggy black hair. “What do you mean? There’s nothing going on.”

Bingo. Jimmy always fiddled with his hair when he lied. It’s why he’d never make a decent investigator.

Nic barley ever showed any weakness.

She put her hands on her hips. “Cut the crap. I overheard Nic on the phone the other night.” There. She’d surprised him. But she wasn’t about to apologize for eavesdropping. She worked here, too. His parents trusted her enough to hire her. And damn it, she was scared. In the past week Nic had been gone, she’d worried every single day about what he was into now. “Don’t lie to me. What’s going on?”

Jimmy lips twitched, as if he wanted to smile then thought better of it. “It’s not my story to tell. I’m sorry, Annie.”

She huffed, but she hadn’t expected Jimmy to cough up anything important. Nic was his brother, after all. And family loyalty was everything to the DeMarcos. If Nic didn’t want anyone else to know what was going on, Jimmy would slit his own throat before telling.

“So do you know where he is?”

She nodded. “He left me a voice mail, said he’d be at the garage.”

Jimmy’s smile returned. “Would you mind doing a little errand for me?”

Chapter Seven

Music leaked from every corner of DeMarco Garage.

Annie heard it the second she left the air-conditioned coolness of her car. The early May afternoon had turned into a warm one and her cap-sleeved sweater and linen skirt clung to her back and legs. A closed sign hung in the window of one of the bay doors, but the music belied someone’s presence. She saw no one in the office to the right of the bays, so she walked around the side. Finding an unlocked door, she pushed through.

Throbbing guitars and a harsh scream heralded her arrival. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust from the harsh sunlight to the dim interior. The only lights shining were those on the far side of the building, and her view was obstructed by a pickup truck on a lift, minus its wheels.

Threading between wheeled carts and heavy machinery, she walked around the truck and caught her breath at the sight before her. She fell back before she knew what she was doing, not wanting to disturb them.

Nic led a young girl with a long dark ponytail around a bare spot on the concrete floor. The girl watched her sneaker-clad feet more than Nic, but when she looked up, the expression on her face was nothing short of worshipful.

Annie couldn’t help a small smile. Nic must be immune to that look by now. He’d certainly gotten it enough from her when she’d been around this girl’s age.

The girl had to be family. She had the distinctive dark hair and DeMarco nose. Jimmy was the only DeMarco she knew who hadn’t inherited that nose.

She’d take a bet that this was Toni, Nino’s daughter. She hadn’t seen the girl for a few years.

Nic never took his eyes off of her and he wore a smile she’d only ever seen him give Janey.

When she was younger, Annie had lived for the day he’d flash one at her.

He never had.

Holding the girl loosely in his arms, Nic walked her in a slow circle in time to the music, trying to lead her. The top of Toni’s head had several inches to go before it met Nic’s chin and her left hand barely reached his shoulder. Both were dressed in ragged jeans—cutoffs for Toni—and holey t-shirts covered with grease.

To a woman who usually dated guys in thousand dollar suits, Nic was the sexiest man she’d ever known.

Hitching in a deep breath, she tried desperately not to sigh. And failed.

Somehow, Nic heard her. His blue gaze arrowed straight to where she stood, half hidden by the truck. She immediately straightened, and Nic and Toni stopped dancing.

She couldn’t tell if he was angry. He didn’t look angry. He looked…sad and happy at the same time. He’d been smiling at the girl, but his eyes… Oh, those eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

And that voice. Raspy and deep.

“I… Nothing. I’m sorry to interrupt, but your brother had something for you.” She held out the large manila envelope Jimmy had given her. She’d never have opened it, but she couldn’t help wondering what was in it.

Nic’s expression tightened but he didn’t reach for the envelope.

Toni looked from Nic to the envelope to Annie, her expression as curious as only a pre-teen’s could be. And when she looked at Annie, that curiosity turned to faint jealousy.

Annie knew exactly how she felt. She smiled at Toni.

“Hello. I’m Annie Reed. You must be Toni. I’ve heard a lot about you from your cousins.” Annie offered her hand. She’d always hated the way adults had addressed her as a child, with pats on the head and condescending smiles.

Toni took her hand immediately. “Nice to meet you, Miss Reed. Do you work for Aunt Grace and Uncle Frank?”

“Yes, I do. And please call me Annie. I’m sorry to interrupt, but,” she directed this at Nic, “Jimmy thought you’d want to see this. He couldn’t bring it over himself.”