Hotshot P.i.. B.J. Daniels

       Chapter Three

      Clancy glanced warily across the bay at Jake Hawkins’s lodge. The shades were drawn; she could catch no sign of movement behind them. The blue outboard was still moored at his dock, a boat she assumed he’d rented to get to the island. She looked at her watch, surprised to find it was earlier than she’d thought. Then she turned her gaze again to Jake’s lodge across the small bay. The coast looked clear. She picked up the overnight bag and her purse and opened the back door, expecting Jake to suddenly appear and block her escape.

      As she stepped out onto the small back porch, she glanced apprehensively behind the lodge. While she found no one hiding in the lilac bushes that brushed the back side of the building, she did see something that stopped her cold. Slowly she put down her purse and overnight bag and moved toward the first lilac bush. Some of the branches along the lodge side of the bush had been broken. They hadn’t been yesterday afternoon when she’d returned from jail. She was sure of it. She’d stopped on the porch to dig out her key and picked up the sweet scent of the lilacs, now in full bloom. And she wondered where she’d be this time next year when they bloomed. In prison?

      Clancy brushed back the branches, not surprised to find the grass beneath the kitchen window crushed where someone had stood, looking in. Through the glass Clancy could see her coffee cup at the table, the chair pushed back from where she’d sat last night. Someone had stood on this very spot, watching her!

      She crashed her way out of the lilacs as if the person was at her heels. Scooping up her purse and overnight bag, she rushed down the beach toward her dock. Who had been at the window? The same person who’d called her down to the dock and tried to drown her? It hadn’t been a dream, her mind screamed. No more than the crushed grass beneath the window.

      With relief she passed the old boathouse, and Jake didn’t jump out of the shadows to stop her. All that stretched ahead now was the dock and her boat waiting beside it. The sun danced on the slick surface of the lake, golden. The tall pines shimmered, a silky green at the edge of the water. She took a calming breath. The air smelled of so many familiar, rich scents. Safe scents she’d grown up with. But she was no longer safe. From Jake. From the phantom in the lake. From the real live person who’d stood looking in her window. As long as she kept sleepwalking, she wasn’t even safe from herself.

      She reached the dock without incident and started down it, walking as quickly and quietly as possible. A sudden flash of memory tormented her. A hand coming out of the water. Grabbing her ankle. Pulling her. She walked faster, fear dogging her steps.

      Just a few feet ahead she could see her boat, a yellow-and-white inboard-outboard; a coat of dew on the top and windshield glistened in the morning sunlight. Once she reached it and started the engine, Jake wouldn’t be able to stop her. The thought buoyed her spirits.

      She shot a parting glance toward his lodge. Jake must still be asleep. He’d been so adamant about shadowing her every step last night, this seemed almost too easy. She smiled to herself, imagining his surprise when he woke and found her gone, as she untied the bow and started to swing her overnight bag into the hull.

      “Good morning!”

      Clancy jumped, nearly tumbling backward off the dock. She swallowed a startled cry, pretending she wasn’t trying to get away and his catching her wasn’t a problem. Jake grinned up at her from the bottom of her boat, where he lay sprawled on a sleeping bag, his arms behind his head.

      “Going somewhere?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at the overnight bag still clutched in her hand.

      She cursed under her breath.

      “If you’re set on a life of crime, Ms. Jones, you’re going to have to be more devious,” he said, getting to his feet. “And jumping bail.” He wagged his head at her. “Bad idea.”

      Clancy groaned. This man was the most irritating—She took a breath, trying to still her anger as well as the silly sudden flutter of her heart as he vaulted effortlessly from the boat to join her on the dock.

      “Level with me, Clancy,” he said, his voice as soft and deep as his gray eyes.

      The sound sent a tiny vibration through her, igniting memories of the chemistry between the two of them as teenagers. She wondered if it was still there and hastily brushed that errant thought away.

      Having to deal with this man on top of everything else was too much, she told herself. She didn’t have the time or energy for this. Nor did she need the constant reminder of what she’d lost ten years ago—or how much more she had to lose now.

      “Where are you going so early in the morning?” he asked as he stalked toward her, backing her against the edge of the dock, trapping her.

      Clancy had to tilt her chin back to meet his gaze. He’d cornered her in more ways than one. And she acknowledged that it wasn’t going to be easy to get rid of him. But getting rid of him was exactly what she had to do if she held any hope of clearing herself.

      “If you must know,” she said, coming up with the first plausible explanation that popped into her head, “I’m going to see my lawyer.”

      Jake pushed back his baseball cap. “Good, I need to see your lawyer, too.”

      She shot him a look. “You’re going like that?”

      He glanced down at his rumpled.chinos and T-shirt, then looked up at her as he rubbed his blond, stubbled jaw. “It kind of makes me look dangerous, don’t you think? Like a man who has nothing to lose?” He gave her a slow, almost calculated smile. “And anyway, what choice do I have? If I were to shower, I’d barely have the water turned on before you’d be hightailing it to wherever you’re in such a hurry to get to.”

      That was exactly what she had in mind. She wished he didn’t know her so well.

      He stepped back to allow her room to get into the boat. “But I’m a reasonable man. I’ll even let you drive your boat.”

      “You’re so thoughtful,” she said, but didn’t move. Outwardly, she gritted her teeth and fumed. Inwardly, she plotted. She would dump Jake. And soon. She had to. She just didn’t know how yet.

      * * *

      WHEN CLANCY DIFN’T make a move to get into the boat, Jake swung back in and offered her a hand. He’d hoped his disposition would improve with daylight. It hadn’t. If anything, the late-night adventure, his phone conversation with Kiki and trying to sleep in the bottom of a cold boat with his clothes on had left him even more irascible. Add to that, the gall of Clancy thinking she could get away from him this morning.

      He’d been on this case less than twenty-four hours, and he felt as if he’d been beaten up by somebody twice his size. He didn’t like the feeling he was being manipulated by not one, but two females. Kiki had hired him for reasons he could no more fathom than he could walk on water. And Clancy. At one time he thought he’d known her better than he knew himself. But that was years ago and a lot of water under the bridge. For all he knew, she was a killer. Let her rot in prison for all he cared.

      You’ve become a cold-hearted bastard, haven’t you, Hawkins. Reluctantly, he admitted it was true. Something had died inside him that day at the trial. He’d lost Clancy, and he’d lost his father. Only, Clancy had voluntarily chosen to leave; his father hadn’t.

      He watched her flick a glance at his outstretched hand but make no move toward it or the boat. Instead, she brushed her hair back with her fingers and looked toward shore as if she were thinking of making a break for it. Silently, he dared her to try. So help him, he’d take her over his knee and”Clancy,” Jake said softly. “There’re a few things you should know. One, I hate being lied to. Two, these dirty little secrets of yours? I’m going to know them all before I catch a plane back to Texas, and you can bet the farm on that.” He extended