Chapter Fifteen

Peace of Mind

The phone rang and my eyes opened.

Tate’s painted shoulder and back were all I could see. I was curled into him and it was dark but the moonlight was shining in through the windows.

I felt his fingers wrap around my wrist that was dangling at his stomach, holding firm keeping my arm where it was as he lifted up. Once up, he let my hand go and reached for his cell on the nightstand.

I left my arm draped around his waist and snuggled closer. Lifting up a bit to rest on my elbow, I pressed my nose against his back then turned my head so my cheek was there as my arm around his waist tightened and he answered the phone.

“Jackson,” he growled, this growl due to sleep.

I listened to the silence. Tate listened to the phone.

“Who?” he asked his voice no longer holding even a hint of sleep. “Right. Where?” he went on and then listened. “Right. Fax or e-mail?” he listened again. “Right,” he repeated then said, “Next time, Thyne, do me a favor and let me in on this shit before it gets to this. Yeah?”

Hmm. He didn’t sound sleepy anymore but he also really didn’t sound happy.

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” Tate confirmed then flipped the phone closed.

He tossed it on the nightstand and turned toward me. I moved back to accommodate him and his arms slid around me, pulling me close again when he was facing me.

“Got a situation, Laurie,” he muttered.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Fugitive, probably armed, definitely dangerous. Why the f**k they let this guy out on bail is anyone’s guess. He’s serious shit.”

For the first time it struck me that he hunted fugitives that could be armed and definitely were dangerous. But then again, fugitives by definition of being fugitive were probably pretty dangerous, especially to the person who was hunting them in order to halt their fugitive status. I had no idea why this didn’t sink in before but I figured it did it then because he received a middle of the night phone call where they called him in during “a situation” thus giving his occupation a reality it never had before.

My arms around him got tight.

“Who’s Thyne?” I asked.

“Bail bondsmen in Denver. He’s got two local guys he uses for the small time shit, calls me in when he has problems. He tried to find this guy usin’ local talent which was a mistake. Those boys take less of percentage because they’re part moron but not moron enough to know no one’ll pay them for bein’ part moron. Thyne is cheap and part moron too so he pays ‘em. This guy is probably in Mexico by now.”

My arms got tighter.

“Do you have to go to Mexico?”

“Fuck, I hope not,” he muttered and I hoped not too. Mexico was a long way away and I had enough trouble thinking of Tate hunting a dangerous fugitive, I didn’t want to think of him doing it a long way away. “He’s faxin’ me the particulars. I gotta get on the road.”

My arms got even tighter though I whispered, “Okay.”

His hand slid up my back and his fingers sifted into my hair to cup the back of my head.

“Kiss me, baby.”

I used the moonlight on the angles of his face to aim and found his mouth. The minute my lips hit his, he rolled partially into me, forcing me to my back in the bed, and my mouth opened as did his. My tongue slid inside, he growled against it and when I absorbed that in my mouth, a small moan escaped my throat. His head slanted one way, mine tilted the other and my kiss turned into a kiss.

I was breathing heavily and holding on tight when his mouth disengaged and his tongue slid along my lower lip.

Then he stated, “I want you to stay here. Look after Buster.”

I blinked in the dark at his close up, shadowed face.

Then I asked, “Sorry?”

“I’ll leave the keys to the Explorer and the house on the kitchen counter. Garage door opener is in the truck. Take the Explorer into town, I’ll call Deke to bring it back. The alarm code is three five six one. To set it, you punch in the number and hit the red button and you got a minute to get into the garage. To disable it, hit three five six one and hit the green button. Once you enter, you got a minute to do that too. When you’re goin’ to sleep for the night, doors secured, windows stay closed and you hit three five six one and then the blue button.”

“Um…” I mumbled, not keeping up with him. “Sorry?”

His arms tightened and he rolled to his back, pulling me with him so my torso was resting mostly on his chest.

“I want you stayin’ here,” he repeated.

“To watch your cat?”

“Yeah, to watch Buster. And ‘cause I have an alarm.”

This belatedly penetrated.

“You have an alarm?”

“Don’t use it when I’m home. You’ll use it when you’re home without me.”

I felt something silken slither through me.

“When I’m home?” I whispered.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“But, my room at the hotel –”

“Want you stayin’ here.”

“But, the hotel –”

“Want you in my bed.”

That slithered through me too.

“Tate –”

His fingers sifted in my hair, cupping my head again and bringing my face close to his.

“Could be gone a day, could be gone two weeks. I want you texting again and when I get my phone calls at night, I wanna know I’m talking to you while you’re lyin’ in my bed.”

That silken thing started to wrap tight around me and it didn’t feel bad at all.

Even so, I whispered, “Tate, I don’t know.”

“I do. You’ll be safer here.”

“The hotel’s safe,” I told him.

“Carnal Hotel ain’t safe,” he told me.

“Ned and Betty are right across the way.”

“Ace, first, to find this place, you gotta know where it is. Second, to get to work from here, you gotta be in your car, a fact I like since it’s a f**kuva lot safer than you walkin’ to the hotel after your shift. Last, my alarm goes straight to dispatch. Boys’ll know I’m gone, they’ll also know you’re stayin’ here. They get the warnin’, they won’t f**k around. Carnal PD is mostly shit but I got some friends there that are good men. They know my woman is here and the alarm tells them you’ve been breached, they won’t f**k around and they got trainin’ and guns. Ned don’t have that.”