Murder in Texas, page 10
“Apparently I wasn’t spending enough time with him, and he thought I was in a bigger relationship with my business than I was with him,” she said on a shrug. “Demanding that I choose between a guy and my livelihood wasn’t the best play.”
“Sounds like a losing proposition,” Dillen confirmed. It was a mistake he would never make with someone like Liz. Her business was her independence. It had been hard fought, and she’d done an amazing job. Any man should’ve been proud to be by her side, not whine because she couldn’t coddle him every five minutes. “I’m guessing he wasn’t as driven as you are.”
She shook her head. “He had a trust fund to back him up.”
“So? You could have one, too,” he defended.
“I mean, sure, I guess that’s true,” she said. “But why would I want Duncan Hayes’s money? He would have held it over my head and ruled my life.”
“I’m guessing your siblings felt the same way or they would have stuck around town,” he said.
“We’re all so independent. I can’t imagine anyone being happy under Duncan’s thumb,” she said. “I’ll never know how my mom put up with him for so many years.”
“She had six mouths to feed after losing her husband,” he said. “I’m one hundred percent certain she did it for you guys.”
Liz compressed her lips into a frown.
“You’re right,” she said after a thoughtful pause. “And that’s probably the real reason I’ve been determined not to let anyone in. I saw the hurt in her eyes when my father died. I witnessed how Duncan took over. And the spark in her just died for a long time.”
“Losing someone you truly love can knock the wind out of you,” he said. He and Liz weren’t so different after all. Both kept everyone at arm’s length as a survival tactic.
“What about your mom?” Liz asked, turning the tables. “Do you mind if I ask what happened to her?”
The timer dinged, so he took a break from the conversation and cut the second pizza. After filling their plates with round two, he sat down and contemplated whether or not he wanted to discuss his mother.
Why the hell not? They’d talked about a host of other subjects. He realized Liz was a good listener and he actually liked talking to her. He’d never really opened up about his past before. There was something special about Liz he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“My mother left after dropping me off to my first day of kindergarten,” he began. A sharp pain in the center of his chest had him wondering if talking about his mother was a good idea. He didn’t go there with anyone. Not even Pop had talked about her after that day. “She said all these things to me that my five-year-old brain thought was to comfort me to get through that day. But no, she had other plans.”
“That’s so unfair,” Liz said with the kind of compassion that was balm to a wounded heart. “You didn’t deserve to have that happen to you.”
“I appreciate it,” he said, getting choked up talking about the past. “But it’s good to finally tell someone. It’s like this has been bottled up inside me for so long that I’ve become used to living with the anger.”
“What did your mother say, if you don’t mind my asking?” she said, reaching across the table to touch his hand.
“That I should be brave,” he said. Liz’s touch had a soothing effect like he’d never experienced before. “That it didn’t matter what else happened, I was going to be okay. I could handle whatever came my way. She’d said she was certain of it.”
“You were five years old,” she said, twisting up her face in disgust. “You needed a mother.”
“Someone forgot to tell her that,” he said. “The funny thing is she never said that it wasn’t my fault. So, when she wasn’t there to pick me up after school and the office had to call Pop, I blamed myself.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” she said with the kind of conviction that said she believed every word. “You deserved so much more from her.”
“Apparently five years was all she had in her as a mother,” he said.
“Have you tried to locate her now?” she asked.
“Why would I?” he asked. “You don’t have to tell me twice that you don’t want me in your life. Once is all it takes.”
“No one could blame you for feeling that way,” she said. “Even though you deserved so much more.”
“Looking back, she must have realized Pop was on the spectrum,” he said. “I always wondered if she was afraid that I was different, too. If that was the reason she didn’t love me enough to stick around.”
“That’s a horrible burden for any child to carry alone,” Liz said, standing up and moving around the table. She brought her hands up to cup his face while locking gazes. His heart practically exploded in his chest.
He stared into the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. The fact he could look into those eyes all day wasn’t something he wanted to think about right now. All he really wanted to do was bury himself inside her and get lost.
His pulse thumped. His heart pounded. His breath quickened.
“I figured it out,” he finally said, hearing the huskiness in his own voice.
“Sure,” she said. “But that’s a lot of trauma for a kid to handle. What did your dad say?”
“That’s the funny part,” he continued. “We never brought her up again.”
“So you spent your entire childhood believing you did something to run your mother off,” she stated. “Is that right?”
Denying it would do no good. So he didn’t.
“The only thing I’d like to do right now is kiss you,” he said. “But I won’t do that unless you ask me to.”
“Dillen Bullard,” she started, leaning toward him, “I’d very much like for you to kiss me.”
Chapter Twelve
Liz was used to asking for exactly what she wanted in every area of her life, except relationships. Until Dillen. Until now.
Placing his hands on her hips, his fingers dug into her sensitized skin as he pulled her on top of him. She straddled his thighs, all while locking gazes. Her heart had never pounded so hard against her rib cage. Her lips had never burned to kiss someone so much. Her body had never ached to feel someone moving inside her to this degree. To say she was stepping into foreign waters was an understatement.
Rather than run away from her feelings, she embraced them. There would be consequences, but she couldn’t focus on those right now. All she could do was surrender to the tide washing over her and through her.
Dillen’s lips were tender against hers at first, right up until his tongue slipped inside her mouth. Then his mouth covered hers with bruising need. Their breaths came out in gasps as she brought her hands up to his shoulders to anchor herself, digging her fingernails into his skin.
Her body hummed with need.
The air in the room crackled with electricity as he drove his tongue deeper. She bit down on his bottom lip, scraping her teeth across it as she released it. He groaned with pleasure, egging her on. Her full breasts were flush against a solid wall of muscle.
Tension between them escalated pretty damn fast. Another minute of this and she would definitely pass the point of no return.
Pulling on every ounce of willpower, Liz pushed off his shoulders and stood up. She shook her hands and paced a couple of laps around the small space, willing her pulse to return to normal.
She risked a glance at Dillen. The smirk on his face was a mile wide. He looked to be struggling about as much as she was.
“That can’t happen again,” she said, realizing kissing Dillen was dangerous territory.
“It probably shouldn’t,” he said, sounding less determined than she was to keep this relationship platonic. But then he was used to casual relationships. Liz might not go all in with the men she dated, but she gave as much as she could with her obligations. Running her business was her first priority. A man like Dillen could derail her focus.
Liz released a slow breath, trying to steady her racing pulse.
“You have to admit, that was a damn good kiss,” he said, the corners of his mouth still upturned.
“No one’s denying that,” she said. “It’s a good part of the reason it can’t happen again.” It would ruin her for other men, but she wasn’t quite ready to own up to the fact to Dillen. He didn’t need to know the full effect he was having on her body and soul.
It was most likely the circumstances surrounding them. Emotions were heightened overall, and they were both looking for some form of release. Sex with Dillen would do the trick. She had no doubt it would blow her mind. But that would make it worse when she walked out the door and returned to her normal life.
“We can’t afford the distraction,” she finally argued. No one, not even Dillen, could disagree with that.
“No,” he said on a sharp exhale. “We probably can’t.”
Besides, sex would be a form of blowing off steam for both of them, and she wanted it to be more special with Dillen.
Did she just say she wanted to have sex with the man?
Her brain was playing tricks on her. She searched for a distraction. Her gaze landed on the table. Food. Right. Pizza. “Our meal is getting cold.”
“So it is,” he agreed with a long, slow nod.
A quick headshake later, and he repositioned to face the table, picked up a slice and chewed on it. His expression turned serious after clearing his throat.
“We need a way to find this blonde,” he finally said. “I didn’t see anything on Pop’s computer.”
“Now you know what to look for,” she pointed out. “What about pictures from his phone? Mine sync up automatically with my computer.”
“I’ll check, but Pop hated being on the computer,” he said. “I highly doubt he took selfies with a lady love, but it never hurts to investigate.”
“Considering the fact that much of my sales are online, I don’t know what I’d do without my technology,” she admitted.
“I could do without most of it, honestly,” he said. “I hate the thought of being glued to a device.”
His line of work wasn’t exactly tech friendly.
“I can imagine being out on a mission might make for bad internet connections,” she said.
“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” he said with the kind of seriousness that made a shudder run through her.
Then his face broke into a wide smile. “Military joke.”
She smiled back, making eye contact, which wasn’t the best of ideas. As long as she kept a healthy distance from the man, she’d be fine. Being close to him was a different story.
Liz reclaimed her seat and finished off the last bites of pizza on her plate. After, she stood up and moved to the sink with her dish. Dillen joined her, standing beside her. She took a wide sidestep to put some distance between them. Being flooded with his spicy male scent was a bad idea while she was still feeling vulnerable to him. Give her a few more minutes, an hour, and she’d be good to go. Right now, though, it took an enormous amount of restraint not to lean into the man and pull from his strength.
Since he didn’t seem as bothered, she figured the pull was much stronger for her. Her self-control needed to be on point from here on out. Besides, he would always see her as a Hayes, a princess.
“The past few days are really hitting. Do you mind if I wash up and take a nap?” she asked, suppressing a yawn. More caffeine wouldn’t help in a time like this. Stepping away from the attraction with Dillen, she felt tired in her bones.
“Go ahead,” he said. “The shower in the main bedroom is nicer. You might want to use that one.”
She nodded, remembering she had suitcases in her trunk. “I totally forgot about having clothes and toiletries in my car.”
“Where?” he asked. “I didn’t see anything. Since you were going home, I figured you already had supplies waiting there.”
“My trunk, but I’ll—”
“Don’t sweat it,” he said, pulling out her key. “I’ll just grab your stuff and be right back.”
Part of her wondered if it was a good idea to bring everything inside. This was a temporary stop on her way home.
Before she could mount a protest, Dillen was heading for the front door. He returned as she finished loading the dishwasher and set the pair of suitcases down in the kitchen.
“I’ll be in the office if you need anything,” he said before turning toward the hallway.
She wasn’t touching that statement with a ten-foot pole. Need was a tricky word when it came to Dillen. Besides, she’d vowed not to need anyone a long time ago.
* * *
FOCUS WASN’T NORMALLY a problem for Dillen. Shifting his thoughts to more productive ones had been his lifeline on missions. So why did he keep circling back to the kisses he’d shared with Liz?
They’d been hot, came the quick response from a voice in the back of his mind. They had been—he couldn’t deny it. What he couldn’t understand was why they trumped all others. Liz was beautiful, there was no disputing that. And sexy as hell. There was a strong but vulnerable quality in her that drew him in. She could handle herself. And yet he wanted to step in and be her hero.
He needed to remind himself of the fact she was as close to royalty as one could be in these parts. Except after getting to know the real her, the word didn’t ring true any longer.
Booting up the computer, he took a seat and rolled the chair closer to the monitor. What had he missed before?
After spending the next hour digging around, he realized this was probably a dead end. For one, Pop hadn’t had an automatic picture sync, like Liz had mentioned. Secondly, Pop had rarely sent emails. His inbox, however, was full of ads for services like treatments for a larger sex organ and women who wanted to satisfy him.
Dillen blinked a couple of times at the brazenness in some of the scams.
Pop had had the internet along with a camera and microphone, which was how he’d taken calls from Dillen. The equipment was old but had gotten the job done. Dillen had been on Pop to upgrade for a few years now, but Pop could be stubborn when he’d really wanted to be.
His cell phone might provide better answers, but it was lost. Was there a way to recapture the data?
There had to be.
Dillen glanced at the clock. It was after hours on a Wednesday night. The call center for Pop’s cell service was open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Dillen grabbed his own cell and made the call.
“This is Jordan, how may I help you?” the perky male voice answered after he’d sat in the queue for a long wait for a representative.
“I’m trying to access cell phone data for my father’s phone,” Dillen explained.
“And what is the phone number on that account?” Jordan asked.
Dillen supplied the number and waited.
“Are you a primary account holder, sir?” Jordan asked.
“No, I’m not.”
“Oh,” he replied, sounding a little deflated. “I’m sorry. I won’t be able to share any account information with anyone who isn’t primary on the account.”
Dillen muttered a curse underneath his breath. “Is there a supervisor I can talk to?”
“I’m afraid she will give you the same answer, sir,” Jordan said. “Is there any chance you have a court order or power of attorney?”
How did Dillen say he hadn’t expected his father to die?
“No,” he stated.
“Then I’m afraid there isn’t much I can do to help you,” Jordan said. “Is your father available? I can give the information to him.”
“No,” Dillen repeated, not wanting to go into detail with Jordan about a suspected murder. “My father passed away unexpectedly.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Jordan said with compassion in his voice. “I really wish there was more I could do. Unless you have documentation and then I can direct you to our website, where you can make a formal request.”
“It just happened, so it’ll take a minute to get my ducks in a row. I appreciate you trying to help,” Dillen said. The customer service rep had gone out of his way to be friendly.
“You’re welcome,” Jordan said, his voice returning to a level of perky Dillen would never achieve even if he tried. “It was my pleasure.”
Dillen ended the call before smacking the flat of his palm on the desk. What else could he do to get the information? Calling back and pretending to be his father came to mind. Of course, he would need to have a lot of information on hand. They would most likely want a social security number, possibly an account password. That’s where he came up empty. The other information was probably here in the metal filing cabinets. He would need to dig around and find it anyway now that Pop was gone.
A shot of caffeine would be nice about now. He’d been in the office for two hours hunting for a break. It was getting dark outside. Their late lunch probably qualified as dinner, but he wanted to have something in the house just in case Liz woke up hungry.
He had a hunch she wouldn’t appreciate waking up to an empty trailer. She’d been through a lot in a short amount of time. Again, her loyalty to Pop came to mind. Sticking around when she’d easily could have left Pop alone in the hospital wasn’t something a self-absorbed princess would do.
All his preconceived notions about Liz Hayes were breaking down when he looked at her actions.
Dillen put on a pot of coffee. There was something comforting about the smell of dark roast. Being here in the trailer made him feel closer to Pop. His heart clenched at the thought that his only family was gone, and his mind started spinning out when it came to taking the next steps. Would he sell the trailer? It seemed wrong since this was the only home he’d ever known. But why would he keep the place? Leave it here, empty, and who knew what would happen.
Rosa and Macy would keep an eye on the place. He could count on them to keep watch. But what practical reason could he have for staying put?
