Hooked (A Romance on the Edge Novel) (37 page)

“That’s all a nice fish tale, but who’s to say part of Aidan isn’t just like his father? A part he can’t control. I’ve seen it happen before. Dual personalities: one tows the line, the other is psychotic and believes that if I can’t have her, no one else can.” He ran a hand through his short hair. “Sonya, Aidan doesn’t have an alibi for the night of Kendrick’s death. Nor can he verify his whereabouts for when your window was shot out. Not to mention, he had the perfect set up to mess with your skiffs.” Garrett indicated the Harte’s camp up the beach.

“Yeah, but you’re forgetting, I’m his alibi for when Wes was hurt and for the damage that was done to the reel.”

“Maybe he had an accomplice. His dad? His uncle? Possibly both of them?”

Sonya vehemently shook her head. “I don’t buy it. Aidan wouldn’t do that to me. He loves me.” He’d told her that very afternoon how much he still loved her, and she believed him.

“Psychotic, remember?” Garrett tapped his temple.

“He might be troubled, but he isn’t psychotic.”

“Sonya, right now, you can’t trust anyone. You can’t let whatever you feel for Harte cloud your judgment. You need to be on your guard.”

“What about you? Should I be on my guard against you?”

He paused. “Yes.” Then his next words threw her into the deep end of the pool minus a lifejacket. “For starters, there’s part of me who hopes you’re pregnant, because it’ll insure that I’m part of your life, regardless if you want me to be or not.”

“Whoa.” She held her hands in front of her as panic and pleasure warred inside her. “Back up the boat.”

“Babe, the boat’s sailed.” Garrett took a threatening step, scowling down at her. “Do you have any idea what I want to do with you? How hard it’s been to concentrate on my job today having you within reaching distance and not being able to touch you?” He hauled her against him now, his body making an impression on hers that caused her knees to weaken. He lowered his face, the breath of his words caressed her lips, prompting them to part with wanting. “If Harte feels about you half the way I do, I feel sorry for the bastard.” Then he crushed her lips under the plundering pressure of his.

Her world tipped, or was it Garrett pulling her off her feet? Either way, she knew the ground she walked on was shaky at best.

Rather than do what she should and put an end to this, Sonya scaled his body, wrapping her legs tight around his waist. He groaned and swiveled. Crushing her in his arms, he pressed her against the cold metal side of the Jeep.

“I’ve wanted to take you into my arms all day.” His teeth nipped down her neck. “Kiss you like this.” His lips conquered as they persuaded. She felt his frustration, his confusion, his need. “I felt impotent standing by while Judd questioned you like a criminal.”

She giggled like a teenager and it felt fabulous, liberating. “You sure don’t feel impotent now.”

“Far from it.” He gave her a devilish grin that promised dark and wondrous things.

They fumbled to free clothing, Garrett cursing the stubborn zipper on her jeans. Salt air had a way of corroding all metals. She didn’t care about the cold air hitting her backside as he freed the zipper and tugged off her pants, not when Garrett made her feel like she was in the middle of a raging bonfire.

“You’d better damn well have a condom with you this time, cop.”

“I bought a pack at the cannery this morning,” he panted. “We’re good to go for twelve.”

She choked out a laugh. It was heady to not think of consequences, responsibility, or restrictions and, for once in her life, just live in the moment.

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY-
O
NE

Sonya straightened her clothes, and watched until she could no longer see Garrett’s taillights on the Jeep they’d just made desperate love against. A tickled smile seemed to be permanently fixed on her mouth. She’d never done anything so reckless. It felt exhilarating, and naughty, and she didn’t even question her reasons for having her way with him. Or did he have his way with her? It didn’t really matter, for they’d both had their way and then some. She turned and found herself humming as she sauntered down the beach, taking pleasure in the magical moonlight, the rhythmic waves, and the stirring breeze heavy with the promise of rain.

“Enjoy yourself,” Aidan bit out from the dark shadows of the alder bushes that marked the trail leading up the bluff to the cabin.

Sonya squeaked back the scream trapped in her throat. “Aidan? What are you doing?”

“Waiting for you.” The tone of his voice caused the hairs on the back of her neck to rise.

Could Garrett be right about Aidan? Was there another side to him? Because she sure as hell didn’t recognize the man in front of her right now.

“Why were you waiting for me?” Had he seen her and Garrett together?

Had he watched?

Maybe Garrett’s suspicions were correct and Aidan hadn’t been scaring off a bear earlier. She scanned him for weapons but didn’t see anything except the fisted hands at his sides.

She shivered.

“I
wanted
to talk to you.” He stepped from the shadows and the light from the moon shone over the sharp angles of his face, making him look like one of the dark characters in his graphic novels.

“What about?” She swallowed and yearned to take a step back, but held her ground on shaky legs.

He motioned to the empty beach behind her. “Doesn’t matter now.”

“Listen, Aidan, I don’t need to explain my actions to you. I’m free to do what I want.”

“Right.” He glanced away from her, his nostrils flaring, his jaw flexing, then he turned back to her. “Damn you, Sonya.” He grabbed and yanked her into his arms, his mouth crushing hers.

Fear surged inside her like a gale storm. Her arms were pressed to her sides with the force of his hold, his body urgent against hers, bowing it until she felt he’d snap her in two. Aidan was stronger, and desperate. They were utterly alone. Breathing became difficult, and she whimpered as she realized how precarious her situation was.

Suddenly his mouth released hers, and she gulped in air. His bruising hold gentled. His breathing was labored, and his eyes wild. Those eyes searched hers, and she knew he saw the fear and panic swirling in hers.

“I’m sorry, Sonya. Please—” he closed his eyes as though in pain “—don’t fear me again.” He dropped his forehead to hers and just held her. Gone was the monster and back was the man she’d cared for. “
Damn it
,” Aidan said without any heat and Sonya thought she heard tears in his voice. “He’s a
stinking fish cop,
Sonya. How is he preferable to me?”

“I’m sorry.” She tried to swallow her own tears climbing up the back of her throat, but a few slipped past her. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. It just did.” A fat raindrop splattered on her forearm.

“Heaven help me, neither can I.” He buried his head in her neck. “I wish to God that I could.”

Another raindrop smacked the side of her face and then the heavens shuddered on a sob.

“Where the hell have you been?” Earl asked, followed by a hacking cough that turned Aidan’s stomach. “You’re wetter than seaweed. Don’t you have sense enough to get in out of the rain?”

“Give it a rest, old man.” Aidan grabbed a beer and twisted the top off, taking a long swallow. He normally didn’t drink, but his heart was breaking and the pain was about to kill him. Seeing Sonya loving Garrett, in a way that she’d never loved him, had Aidan needing to drown out the image seared in his memory.

“Ooh, the boy’s getting a backbone,” Roland commented from a dark corner of the lantern-lit cabin.

“Yeah, of a jellyfish.” Earl chuckled at his own joke. Aidan took a deep drink and tried to wipe his thoughts of Sonya and Garrett clutched together against the side of that Jeep. Why couldn’t she have ever let go with him like that?

“So, what had you out in the rain?” Earl asked. “In dire need of a shower?” This time both Earl and Roland cackled.

“I’m sure it has something to do with that pretty drift boat captain on shore leave next door.” Roland elbowed Earl. “Don’t you think?”

“Gotta be. Only a woman could tempt a man to stay out in the rain, when he should have the good sense God gave him to come in out of it. So, things square with you and Sonya?”

“You could say that,” Aidan muttered, taking another swig of the beer and dropping into a chair. The liquid was bitter against his tongue, but the more he drank, the more he found the taste palatable.

“About damn time. You gotta date set?” Earl asked, a smile twisting his normally stoic face, making him resemble the Joker in Batman.

“A date?” Aidan asked, confused. “For what?”

“A wedding, boy.”

It was Aidan’s turn to laugh, though the sound held no humor. “There’s never going to be a wedding between me and Sonya.”

“Don’t tell me you screwed things up again.”

His whole life was nothing but a series of screw-ups. None as big as the screw-up he’d made of his relationship with Sonya. “Yep, I sure did. Fucked it up big time, Pops.” He finished the beer, thumping the bottle down on the splintered table, and without a second thought, reached for another.

“Watch your mouth, boy.” Roland indicated the loft where Aidan knew Lana was not sleeping, though it was quiet as church up there.

“Why? No one else does around here.” He toasted Earl and Roland. “Just following the examples given.”

“If you followed my example, you’d make Sonya change her mind,” Earl said, his lips twisting into a cruel line.

“What?” Aidan scoffed. “Like you did with her mother?”

Earl’s chair scraped against the scarred-plank floor as he leaped his feet. “Shut the hell up. You will not talk about Kyra.”

“Why not?” Aidan shrugged. “You have no problem discussing Sonya, but not your own failed attempts with her mother?”

The fist came out of nowhere, slamming into Aidan’s cheek with the force of a sledgehammer. Shit, he’d forgotten the lights-out power of Earl’s right hook. It knocked him out of his chair and flat onto his back on the floor, his beer spilling into a puddle next to his head.

He should get up and hit the bastard back, but it was just so much more comfortable here on the floor. Besides, the colors swirling in front of his eyes were pretty.

“Get up, you sorry excuse for a Harte,” Earl said.

Aidan made out his blurry image looming over him. Now why would he get up for more of what he’d already received? See, he
had
learned a thing or two.

“Earl, leave the boy alone,” Roland said, though his voice seemed to come from far off in the distance, instead of across the small room. “Can’t you see he’s messed up over Sonya? When’s the last time you saw the boy help himself to a brewski?”

“What he needs to do is put Sonya in her place.” Earl kicked Aidan in the side, seeming satisfied with the grunt of pain that escaped. He walked over to his chair and retook his seat. “Damn kid never learns a thing. Too much like his sorry bitch of a mother.”

Aidan continued to lie on the floor with no desire to get up. His only thought before blackness took him was that he wished he’d been able to finish the last of his beer before it was spilled on the floor.

What a waste. Much like himself.