“Friends don’t break into houses. Get your hands on your head and don’t move,” she ordered, stepping away from him.
“Don’t call the police,” he urged. They stood in the unlit hallway, but his eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could see that she was a beauty. She wore cutoffs and a T-shirt that hugged fantastic curves. “I was in the service with Mike,” he continued. “I’m a friend. I thought I might have someone following me so I needed to get into the house to see Mike under the cover of darkness.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said, edging away from him.
“I’m telling the truth.” He glanced beyond her and saw what she was trying to reach. A cell phone, plugged in to be recharged lay on a nearby table.
“Don’t call the police. I’m Colin Garrick. You can ask—”
“Colin Garrick is dead,” she said flatly and took another step. She was inching back, now definitely too far away for him to attempt to retrieve his pistol.
“I am Colin. Really. Everyone thought I was killed but I survived.”
“I’m calling the police and they can learn your identity.”
“Give me a minute and listen!” he exhorted. “Someone is after me, which is why I broke in—I’d hoped to find Mike. Where is he?”
“He’s not here,” she said, still cautiously easing away from him.
“I promise you, I’m who I say. I’ve known Mike since we were little kids,” he persisted, rushing his words in an effort to get out information that would convince her of his identity. “We grew up together, went to the service at the same time. If you’re his wife, you should know things about us when we were kids, where we lived—”
“I’m not his wife. I’m the baby-sitter.”
“Look, can we have this conversation without you holding a gun aimed at me?” She didn’t lower the gun.
“Who are Mike’s best friends?”
“Boone Devlin and Jonah Whitewolf were his best friends when he was in the service. I don’t know who his friends are now.”
“What was Jonah’s wife’s name?” she asked, still leveling the gun at him.
“Kate,” he answered, and the woman’s eyes narrowed.
“Did Boone Devlin have any brothers or sisters?” she asked.
“He had eight. Nine kids in his family counting him. Ken, Zach, Izzie—” As he talked, he saw her eyebrows arch. She blinked as if deeply surprised and he hoped he was getting through to her.
“If you’re Colin, you gave Zach Devlin a special present on his nineteenth birthday. What was it?”
For a moment Colin went blank and a sense of panic gripped him. Boone’s younger brother Zach’s twenty-first birthday had to have been years ago. Even at the time, the gift hadn’t been a big deal, Colin was certain.
If she went for the phone, he would have to stop her then get out and away without talking to Mike. He tried to remember the gift, thinking of Boone and his younger brother. Her eyebrows arched higher, and he could see his chances of convincing her slipping away.
“My first rifle,” he snapped the second he recalled the incident.
To his relief, her eyes widened and she stared at him openmouthed. “You’re Colin!” she whispered and he was surprised by her shock. They were total strangers. “No one else could know about the rifle except you and Boone,” she said.
“My pistol—” he reminded her.
“Oh!” She lowered his gun, turned it and held it out to him. “You’re really Colin Garrick,” she repeated, still sounding stunned.
“That’s right.” He tucked the pistol back into his jeans and got out a handkerchief to wipe blood from his cut lip. “You must take martial arts.”
“How did you get in?”
“I cut a windowpane. I’m sorry, but I need to be careful. I don’t want to bring any more danger to Mike than I already have. That’s why I slipped in this way. Will he be home soon?”
“Why didn’t the alarm go off? I had it set and switched on,” she said.
“I cut the wires. You don’t have a phone now. Sorry.”
“I should have known. You guys—” she said, shaking her head. “They think you’re dead,” she repeated.
He dabbed at his neck and saw more blood on his handkerchief.
“Come with me, and I’ll get something for your cuts,” she said and turned. He followed her, watching the sexy sway of her hips and remembering the feel of her pressed against him. He shook his head as if to clear it. It had been a long time since a female had stirred his desire and this was not the place or the time for that to happen.
When she switched on a hall light, he admired the oil paintings on the walls, the polished hardwood floor and the crystal chandelier. “It’s difficult to picture Mike in this house,” Colin remarked. As he looked around, his attention riveted on the woman.
In darkness she had been attractive. In light she was stunning. Her flawless peaches-and-cream skin was perfection. Lush curves and long, shapely legs made him remember exactly how it had felt to hold her close against him. Enormous, thickly lashed, luminous blue eyes gazed at him with a disturbing sharpness.
Her thick, lustrous brown braid didn’t look as if a hair of it had been ruffled; he knew he looked as though he had survived a dogfight. He had the beginnings of bruises, his shirtsleeve was torn and he was bleeding from various and multiple scratches.
He realized he was staring at her. She was looking just as intently at him, which surprised him. But then everything about her amazed him, including her swift resistance and his getting tossed onto his backside.
“They don’t know you survived,” she repeated, her gaze going over him intently, a furrow wrinkling her forehead.
“For a long time no one knew otherwise,” he said, still scrutinizing her. Standing only a few feet away from her, he could detect her enticing perfume.
“When will Mike get home?” Colin persisted, trying to pull information out of her and wondering why Mike would tell the baby-sitter about him or his days in service, much less about the gift of his old rifle to Zach.
“Tomorrow,” she answered, and Colin swore under his breath.
“You’re bleeding,” she said. “We were going to do something about your cuts.” She led him down the hall into a large yellow-and-white bathroom with chairs, potted plants and a sunken, black-marble tub with gold fixtures. Motioning him to a chair, she opened a cabinet to retrieve small bandages, ointment and gauze. As she did, his gaze roamed freely over her. She took his breath. The thick braid was dark brown and he could imagine her hair hanging free.
She walked back to him and as their gazes met, he could feel the tension snap between them. Startled, emotions tore at him. He hadn’t felt this electricity with a woman in years. Not since—Abruptly he yanked his memories from the past. He didn’t want to feel anything now. He couldn’t afford to.
“If you’ll turn around, I’ll clean the cut on the back of your neck for you.”
He stood. “I’ll shower and wash all these cuts, then you can help me with the ones on the back of my neck.”
“I didn’t know you were a friend,” she said, studying him as if he had dropped from another planet.
“That’s all right. You just defended yourself and did a damn fine job of it.”
She nodded