“No, this is the best plan for now. But, Alisha, I’m going to stay there with all of you whether you like it or not. I know the place has a couple of extra bedrooms in the main house. I’ll bunk in one of those.”
Bad idea. So why did she feel safer, just knowing he’d be nearby?
Because she was frightened, shaken and... She’d need his help. Nathan Craig was good at his job and he could go where others didn’t dare go. He found people. Good people. Scared people. Lost people. And sometimes, the worst of people.
“I can see those wheels turning inside your head,” he said when she didn’t retort right away. “What are you thinking?”
She twisted to stare at him as they turned onto Creek Road. “I don’t have much of a choice. I need you—I mean I need your experience and expertise.”
Her head told her to be logical, while her heart shouted that she did need him, too. She’d always needed him.
But she’d been fighting that need since she’d first met him the summer after her senior year. Funny, how he’d been on the fringes of her life for most of her life. Around but always out of her reach. Once, they’d been so close. Teenage sweethearts. But they were both adults now. Professional and on a case. Nothing more. Because neither one of them had anything more to give.
Tonight, he’d saved her. Alisha couldn’t forget that.
“Don’t worry,” he said in a tight tone, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. “I’ll stay out of your way. I’ll have plenty to keep me busy.”
Justice. The man always wanted justice.
Well, so did she, but she sure hadn’t planned on getting it with Nathan’s help. She didn’t want to spend her holidays chasing after a killer, but her instincts told her the murderers would keep chasing after her.
“I’ll be busy, too,” she said. “I just want this over.”
“Are you referring to this murder investigation or being forced to keep me around?”
“Both,” she admitted.
Nathan pulled the truck up to the quiet, looming house and switched off the motor. “We’ll have to wake them and I’ll need to hide my truck in the garage.”
Alisha stared at the stately redbrick mansion trimmed in white columns, the rows of tall windows now looking vulnerable instead of comforting, the big evergreen wreath on the door reminding her of all the holidays she’d spent here.
Too many memories for tonight, coupled with Nathan being here beside her. A great weight of fatigue and shock pushed at her soul. “Yes. Let’s get inside and do what we have to do.”
Nathan quickly came around the truck and opened her door, his gaze scanning the old oaks and high shrubs and then the driveway and parking areas. “At least the backyard is gated and fenced.”
“We have security lights and alarms everywhere.”
He helped her down, his hands on her waist. Alisha stared up and into his eyes, really seeing him for the first time in a long time. He had always been good-looking, but that world-weary cragginess that shadowed his face made him handsome and mysterious. His eyes, so cobalt blue and shimmering, held too many secrets and his dark hair, always unruly, curled against his neck. A rogue sweep of heavy bangs shielded his frown while his gaze held hers.
He was off-limits and yet, right now, she wanted to reach up and brush those thick curls off his forehead.
“Thank you, Nathan,” she said instead.
“You can thank me when this is all over,” he replied, removing his hands as if he’d been burned.
Alisha accepted that, the loss of his touch already moving through her with aching clarity. Grabbing her briefcase, she hurried to the double doors of the carriage house entryway, where an open portico separated the garage and the upstairs apartment from the main house. Glancing up at the enclosed upper breezeway, which allowed people to move from the garage and second-floor apartment to the main house during bad weather, Alisha breathed deeply and shivered in the late-night cold. She had a key but she rang the bell instead so she wouldn’t scare her grandmother by slipping into the house.
“Alisha?”
Hearing her grandmother’s sweet voice over the intercom brought tears to Alisha’s eyes. “Yes, Granny. It’s me. Sorry I’m so late.”
“Come on up,” Bettye said, buzzing the door open.
Relief filled Alisha’s soul but with it came the letdown of adrenaline and the horrible realization of what she’d witnessed. Her hands started shaking but she held her briefcase with a death grip to keep from falling apart.
Nathan stepped up and placed his arm across her shoulder, tugging her close. He then took the heavy bag. “I’ve got you,” he whispered as he pushed open the door for her. “Don’t fall apart on me now, okay?”
Alisha swallowed her fears and the delayed reaction to everything she’d been through in the last few hours. “I’ll be all right.” She didn’t want to fall apart and she didn’t want him to be kind to her.
But she didn’t push him away. She did need Nathan. And not just to help her stay alive. The strength of his grip reminded her that he’d once made her feel so secure. That feeling had returned tonight, but she’d have to get it out of her system.
Bettye Willis met them at the landing where the stairs from the portico doors met the second floor in a wide entryway. A small table held a sparkling ceramic Christmas tree, the smell of cinnamon-and-spice potpourri lingering in the air.
Bettye took Alisha into her arms in a tight hug. “Alisha, we were beginning to get worried.” Stepping back to get a good look, she said, “I sent Judy on to bed.”
Then her grandmother saw Nathan there in the shadows. Her surprised gaze moving from Alisha to him, Bettye asked, “Mr. Craig, what are you doing here?”
Nathan smiled at Bettye. “That’s a long story, Mrs. Willis.”
“He’s here to help me, Granny,” Alisha said, hoping her grandmother wouldn’t press. “We can explain in the morning.”
Bettye scoffed that away. “I was up reading,” she said. “Come into the kitchen and I’ll make you something to eat. And then you can tell me what’s really going on.”
When they hesitated, her grandmother put her hands on her hips. “You do realize that while I’m old, I’m not completely hapless and senile. Alisha, you would not bring Nathan Craig here in the middle of the night without an extremely good reason.”
Alisha shot Nathan a warning glance. “I’ll explain then, Granny. No need to keep you up all night wondering.”
“That’s unbelievable,” Bettye said after Alisha retold what had happened to her. Turning to where Nathan sat in front of a half-eaten roast beef sandwich, she patted his hand. “I’m so thankful Alisha thought to call you, Nathan.”
Nathan stared at the cookie waiting by his plate and then glanced at Alisha, concern hitting him in the gut. What if he hadn’t answered his phone? What if he hadn’t been at the cabin?
He wouldn’t think about that. He was here now with her and she was safe. “Me, too, Mrs. Willis.”
“Call me Bettye,” the older woman said. She wore a blue flannel robe to keep warm in the wee-hour chill of the spacious art deco–style kitchen. “More coffee?”
Nathan held up his cup, thinking he wouldn’t get much sleep tonight anyway. “Thank you.”
Alisha sat holding her mug, absorbing