In Too Deep (4 page)

Piper glanced at her mother’s
clasped hands. The gold Claddagh wedding ring mirrored the one her
father always wore. She cleared her throat, swallowing the memories
before they overwhelmed her. “None of us are willing to let you use
the house to clear Ben’s debt—Ben’s especially adamant. So I’ve
come to help for about six weeks until his ankle’s healed enough to
skipper again. Dad wouldn’t have wanted you to risk your home to
keep his dive business operating.”

“
I’m grateful and very touched
that you’d do this for your brother—stubborn as a mule though he
is.” Glenna squeezed her hand, her fingers a cool, soothing balm on
her flushed skin. “Have you arranged for somewhere to
stay?”

“
Oh. I thought I could sleep in
Shaye’s old room.”

“
Darling, I’m sorry. I turned it
into another paying room a couple of months ago and right now it’s
the busiest time of year for the B&B. I’m booked to the gills
for the next two months.” Glenna shrugged a shoulder under her
chiffon blouse. “If you’d rung to say you were
coming...”

She hadn’t told
anyone
in
Oban of her plans, because up until the plane had left the runway
in Wellington and turned toward the southern city of Invercargill,
she had half-convinced herself she’d chicken out and change her
mind.

“
It’s okay, Mum. I’ll bunk in
Ben’s spare room, or with Shaye if she’s got space—”

Glenna shook her head before Piper
finished speaking. “Ben’s rented his house out over the summer
season to bring in some extra cash—he’s staying in West’s
downstairs room. Shaye’s sharing a house with the new
schoolteacher, Kezia, and Kezia’s little girl, and goodness,
there’s barely room to swing a cat in their tiny place.”

She tapped one peach nail against
her matching shade of lipstick and then clapped her hands. Piper
respectfully resisted an eye roll. Her mum, ever the drama queen.
“I’ve just thought of the perfect solution.”

She whirled around in a swirl of
chiffon and Chanel. “West, dear? A word, please?”

Piper’s palms were damp, so she
tucked them under her elbows.

Any idea, any perfect solution
followed by West’s name, couldn’t turn out well.

***

Glenna beamed and gestured him
over.

West slapped his father’s shoulder
and strode across the kitchen. “What’s up?”

Behind Glenna, Piper looked like
she was in the process of swallowing a lemon.

“
We’ve a bit of a problem with
where Piper’s going to stay, but then I remembered your spare
room.” Glenna moved closer, and laid her hand on his forearm. His
gaze jolted to Piper’s, even as Glenna continued speaking. “—And
though Ben’s downstairs, I’m sure you could squeeze Piper in for a
wee while?”

Piper. Just down the hall from his
bedroom. The idea ranked up there with kicking himself in the balls
or a self-inflicted root canal.

He glanced again at Piper, who if
she opened that mouth any wider would start attracting insects. “I
don’t think—”

Piper blurted, “I’m not
staying—”

West shoved his hands into his
pockets and cleared his throat. “My office is in the spare room.
It’s not designed for someone to—”

“
Pffft.” Glenna patted his cheek,
like he was still thirteen years old and offering a lazy-assed
excuse of why he couldn’t stay to help Ben stack firewood. “Listen
to you, Ryan Westlake. I saw your office the other day and you’ve
got that futon sofa-bed tucked in the corner. Piper doesn’t need
much room, do you darling?”

Piper uttered a strangled,
“Mum!”

An out-of-control steamroller had
nothing on Glenna Harland. “You, Ben and Piper were always thick as
thieves growing up, weren’t they Bill?”

Bill grunted in acknowledgement
but West caught the undercurrent of humor in the clipped
sound.

Piper finally found her voice. “I
don’t want to impose on West. I’ve brought my sleeping bag and I’ll
just find a spare bit of floor somewhere—”

“
Don’t be ridiculous. My daughter
is not sleeping on the floor and you wouldn’t be imposing on West,
I’m sure.” She turned back to him. “Right, dear?”

Like Piper, Glenna had piercing
hazel eyes and he got the full intimidating force of them from
both
women. One woman demanding he accept her request, the
other demanding he deny it. One woman had been like a mother to him
when his had taken off with another man, and the other?

His back muscles knotted into
steel barbs.

Going cold turkey off the drug
that was Piper nine years ago, he opted not to put into words what
she once meant to him.

But she meant nothing now. So
really, after he’d moved past his initial knee-jerk reaction, Piper
staying at his house temporarily would only be a minor irritation.
Personally, he couldn’t care less if she even warmed Smitty’s bed
at night. Except he’d feel a smidgeon of sympathy for the old
fella.

So West hurled the ball back into
Piper’s court. “If she needs my futon, she’s welcome to
it.”

He took an indulgent moment to
wallow in Piper’s poleaxed expression.

***

Piper sent West a look that
could’ve shaved stubble off his smug face.

Sanctimonious prick.

He knew—of course he knew—her
mother would give her the third degree if she insisted on finding
somewhere else to sleep. And no doubt he presumed that she’d
overreact. The old Piper, the wiseass teenager who couldn’t control
her temper, would’ve lost it. The new Piper, the seasoned police
officer who’d learned to somewhat control her tendency to blurt out
whatever popped into her head, would not.

So she closed her mouth with a
snap and forced her lips to peel back into a smile. “Thank you.
That’s very kind.”

“
All settled then—and you’ll both
come for breakfast with Ben and Shaye for a family meeting.” Glenna
rubbed Piper’s arm. “I’d best be off. Bill—?” Bill turned from
where he was trying to slip out the back door. “Be a dear and close
up for Ryan tonight, will you?” She blew him a kiss. “West can take
Piper home. My poor baby’s ready to drop.”

“
Righto.” Bill gusted out a sigh
and trudged back through the kitchen. “I’ll nip into the pub and
turf out the hardcore hangers-on.”

Few could resist a direct request
from Glenna. Except Piper, who had finally learned how after being
away from her mother for so many years.

She whipped the towel off her
shoulder. “I’ll wipe these counters down.”

“
Don’t be too long, you’re looking
decidedly peaky.” With a toodle-oo wave, Glenna swept out the way
she’d come—leaving her and West alone.

Piper’s heart tapped out a little
two-step routine.

West leaned against the stainless
steel counter. “I’ll finish up here and take you home. My bike’s
around the back.”

A vision flashed into her mind of
sitting precariously balanced on a mountain bike’s handlebars while
West pedaled madly behind. The bemused disbelief vanished when she
remembered the old motorbike he’d slaved over as a teenager. “You
still have the Suzuki 250?”

She put some distance between them
by crossing the kitchen to slot the roasting pan back in its place
under a countertop.

“
No, I sold the Suzuki years ago.
Got a BMW now.”

“
Really?”

“
An R100-GS.”

“
Oh…nice.” This conversation was
so awkward-high-school that she expected to begin her next sentence
with the word “like” and giggle uncontrollably.

Why was she acting like a
dumbstruck teen when men dominated her everyday working
environment? Some of them hot men—and men in
uniform
. Yet,
for all the jokes her friends made about handcuffs and batons, none
of her fellow cops got under her skin with one sardonic glance like
West had. “Look, give me directions to your place and I’ll make my
own way.”

He raised both eyebrows but didn’t
shift from his casual stance. “It’s almost eleven, and as Glenna
said, ‘You’re looking peaky.’ I’ll take you home on my
bike.”

Sitting behind West, snuggled up
against his back with her arms around his waist? Not going to
happen. She ignored the lurch in her stomach and slowly dried her
hands on the kitchen towel before draping it over a
rail.

Piper untied her apron and tossed
it into the hamper. “I’m a cop who’s used to long hours and hard
physical work whether I’m peaky or not. I’ll walk. Just give me the
directions. Please.”

“
Your call.” His tone mild, West
rattled off a series of lefts and rights.

“
And where’s the spare key? I
don’t want to get Ben out of bed to answer the door.”

“
It won’t be locked. You’re not in
the city anymore, Piper.”

“
Right.”

His lips curled into a half smile.
“I’ll probably beat you back anyway, but if not, my office is on
the top floor, and the linen cupboard is in the hallway. Make
yourself at home.”

The beer she’d drunk earlier
curdled at the thought.

Chapter 3

“
You’re off
your game, boy.” Bill leaned in the doorway.

West looked up from behind his
office desk, straightened, and slid the desk drawer shut. “All
locked up?”

“
Tighter than the Virgin
Mary.”

For the first time that evening,
he really looked at his dad. Purple shadows bruised the crinkled
skin under his eyes, and everything about him sagged, including the
two woolen jerseys he wore, even though the temperature inside the
pub was warm enough to be comfortable in only a shirt. “You look
like hell. Did you stop to eat tonight?”

“
That girl of yours bullied me
into a sandwich. Didn’t want anything else.”

West sat forward with a frown.
“I’ve told Shaye before you’re meant to—”

“—
not Shaye. Piper.”

“
Oh.” He aligned a pen next to the
desk pad and straightened his stack of invoices. “I forgot to tell
Piper to make sure you take a break. And she’s not my
girl.”

Bill cocked a finger at him.
“Waiting for that. As I said, since she waltzed back in the door,
you’ve been off your game.” He rubbed a hand through his white hair
and yawned. “I am beat. Bloody old age.”

“
Go to bed. I’ll look after the
rest.”

“
Thought Glenna told you to drop
the girl home?” Bill chuckled. “Though how the bleedin’ hell she
ended up staying at your place—should’ve seen your face,
boy!”

“
Ms. I’m-so-independent Harland
declined a lift with me, saying she was quite capable of walking.
She left about ten minutes ago.”

Bill’s gaze slid to the rain
zigzagging down the office windows. “In this?”

“
Bit of rain never killed
anyone.”

“
True, true. She’ll miss the turn
to your road in the dark.”

“
More than likely.”

Bill scratched the back of his
head. “Ah well. As you say, bit of rain never hurts. Might cool
that temper of hers.”

West snorted and moved around the
desk to collect his helmet. “Yeah. That’ll happen. I’d better go
find her.”

West shooed Bill out the kitchen
door in the direction of the tiny cottage he and his younger
brother, Del, had grown up in on the corner of Due South’s
property. He’d have fobbed Piper off at his father’s place if the
cottage’s second bedroom hadn’t been stacked halfway to the ceiling
with Bill’s junk.

He changed into jeans, tugged on
an ancient leather jacket, and headed outside. Temperamental
weather was a fact of island life, something he was sure Piper had
forgotten while living in the capital city.

Rain like automatic gunfire
plinked onto his helmet as he strode to his bike, tucked away under
a covered car-port. His plans of a quiet beer alone were screwed.
The last thing he wanted tonight was to deal with a Harland temper
tantrum. Why had he caved to Glenna’s demands?

He straddled the bike and twisted
the key. Revving the accelerator, West guided the bike onto the
road and headed along the foreshore, tires hissing across the wet
asphalt as he changed gears. He passed the wharf, where the
streetlights abruptly ended. Surely a street savvy cop wouldn’t
walk off into the night without a flashlight? Or maybe it was Boy
Scouts that were prepared for any eventuality. He sure as hell
wasn’t prepared for Piper. He swallowed thickly and concentrated on
riding.

The bike’s headlight illuminated
the narrow lane leading to his place, and he stopped parallel to
the entrance. A gust of wind howled over the crest of the hill.
Branches rattled and the rain hammered down so hard it bounced.
West squinted through the trees to see whether his house lights
were on. Nope. Which presumably meant she’d walked straight past.
Piper was likely halfway to Horseshoe Bay, if she hadn’t fallen
into a ditch.

With a sigh, he continued on. Less
than a minute later, a solitary figure appeared through the curtain
of rain. Shoulders hunched, thumbs hooked into the straps of her
backpack, Piper trudged single-mindedly toward him. He braked
slowly and rolled to a halt, dropping his feet to the ground. Piper
kept walking, head down. Either the driving rain had drowned out
the sound of his bike or, knowing Piper, she’d chosen to ignore his
presence.