Break Away Read online

  “You’re one of her people now.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Leaning is how she shows her affection.”

  “At a hundred pounds that’s a lot of affection.”

  Zoey turned her face up to his, her brows lowering into a frown. “What happened to you?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “I don’t?”

  “No.” He sighed. “Let’s go sit inside. I need a couple of aspirin and then I’ll tell you.”

  She reached out to his shoulder and when she’d pulled him down to her level, she laid a kiss on his cheek below the bruise. “Have you had dinner?”

  He’d always thought moms kissing their kids’ hurts was silly, but now he’d have to rethink that. He shook his head, and even that hurt.

  “Come over to my place then. I’ll give you an icepack for that shiner and warm something from the freezer for dinner.”

  He found himself following her back down the driveway and into her house, where the colors and textures or whatever it was that made the space uniquely Zoey’s immediately helped to relax him. With a hand on his arm, she propelled him to the couch. “Take your shirt and the vest off so you’re comfortable, then you can sit, put your feet up if you like, and relax. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  When Zoey went into the kitchen, Levi looked at the couch, thought what the hell, and did as she’d suggested. He peeled off his shirt and the vest, leaving on his white t-shirt. His head ached so badly that instead of sitting, he lay back on a soft pillow and, with his feet hanging off the end of the couch, closed his eyes. Lucy flopped down next to the couch and he dropped a hand to scratch her side. There was the sound of the refrigerator opening, the rattling of ice, and then water running.

  The couch dipped and he opened his eyes to find Zoey sitting next to him, a glass of water in one hand and a white plastic bottle of ibuprofen in the other. “Sit up for a second.” He pushed himself up and she shook out three tablets and handed him a glass of water. He downed the pills and lay down, closing his eyes. He needed to tell her about Clauson, but at the moment he was thankful she was holding off on the questions.

  “Here,” she murmured. She placed a cool icepack wrapped in a towel over the side of his face. Her fingers lifted his hair and she pressed a warm kiss to his forehead. “Rest for a minute.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Levi opened his eyes and frowned. He hadn’t intended to fall asleep. The icepack had slid onto the pillow and he set it on the coffee table. He glanced around the room. Lucy had abandoned her spot by the couch and was doing her bearskin imitation splayed on her belly in front of the cold fireplace. Zoey sat at the little dining table tapping on the keyboard of a laptop. She’d changed into cropped stretchy pants and a tie-dye t-shirt. She had a wide green band around her head, he guessed to keep her hair out of her face. The most incredible smell of something baking made his stomach rumble, reminding him that lunch had been a long time ago. He pushed himself up and Zoey glanced over.

  “Hey.” She rose and crossed the room to sit beside him once again. “How are you feeling?”

  “Better.” And he was. The throbbing in his cheek had dulled, and the headache was all but gone. He snagged her wrist and, with his eyes on hers, brought it to his lips. Her hand smelled of soap. “Thanks.”

  “You looked like you could use some TLC.” A light flush spread from her neck to her cheeks. It was kind of sweet that simply kissing her hand could fluster her.

  “I guess I did.”

  The impulse was too strong to ignore. He leaned back against the cushion and tugged her down until she was leaning over his chest and pressed a kiss to her lips. He was becoming addicted. To her scent, to that flash of heat in her eyes, to the way he felt centered whenever he was around her. Her hand slipped to the back of his neck, and instead of keeping the kiss light as he’d intended, he took it deeper.

  She opened her mouth, tongue tangling with his, the taste of her heating his blood and sending it spiraling straight south. Her response felt like a slow, smooth slide into heaven. He shifted until she lay fully on top of him, cradled between his legs, a position that brought her hot center into perfect alignment with his hard-on. She pushed herself up his body and he groaned.

  “Jesus. You’re making me crazy.” He took her mouth again, then moved his lips over her chin, her collarbone, the flower-scented area below her left ear. Every bit of her tasted better than the last, and the breathy little sounds she made had him feeling like he could gobble her up in one big bite.

  She wiggled until his erection was nestled more firmly where he wanted it despite the layers of clothing. It must have been where she wanted it too because she made a little hum of satisfaction.

  His hand on her neck brought her lips back to his. Tongue, teeth, and the sweetness of Zoey made him want more. He flipped so she was under him. He braced himself with one arm while he skimmed his hand under her shirt, over the smooth skin of her belly, and found her gloriously braless. He cupped her breast, his thumb grazing over a nipple, and he caught her gasp with his lips. He had it in mind to tug her shirt up and off when a loud buzz from the kitchen broke the moment.

  “What the hell is that?” he murmured, hand moving to the other breast, his lips now busy on the underside of her jaw.

  “Timer.” She pushed against him.

  “Ignore it.”

  “Can’t. Dinner will be ruined. And you’ll really like dinner.”

  “You’re killing me.”

  She kissed him and pushed up.

  “Oh good lord.” The words came out in a groan when she ground against him. He wasn’t entirely sure it was an accident.

  He reached for her but was grasping at nothing when she slid out of reach. Standing, she gave him a swift kiss on his chin and retreated to the kitchen. He took the icepack from the coffee table, debating whether to hold it to his crotch to cool things off or return it to his cheek. Deciding against either, he rolled off the couch to follow her. She twisted the old-fashioned timer in the shape of an egg and the buzzing stopped. With padded mitts she opened the oven to pull out a deep ceramic dish topped with a browned crust. It smelled amazing.

  “What’s that?”

  “Chicken pot pie.”

  “Really? You made that?”

  “Yep. I made two about a month ago and froze this one for a night like tonight. Feed Lucy while I cut up a watermelon to go with the pie, then you can see if it tastes as good as it looks and smells.”

  Thirty minutes later, Levi was swallowing the last bite of crust from the generous portion of pie Zoey had heaped on his plate. “That’s the best damn thing I’ve eaten in a month, which says a lot because my mom brought me lasagna when I first moved back. This is better. I’m never buying a frozen chicken pot pie again now that I know how good it can be.”

  She took a sip of her wine and smiled. He loved how the gesture warmed her eyes. “Glad you liked it.” Her expression turned thoughtful and maybe a little wistful. “I want to learn more about you being a cop. Tell me something you love about your job and something you hate about it.”

  He sat back in his chair. “Love about it? That’s easy. I love making the world a safer place. Sometimes it’s messy because there’s always someone who gets caught up in other people’s shit and it messes up their life. But taking a bad guy off the streets who’s a danger to other people? That’s what does it for me.”

  “What do you hate about it?”

  He thought for a moment. “I hate when I’m in uniform and walk into the grocery store or wherever, and there’s some lady with poor parenting skills. Her kid is giving her trouble, and she points to me and says, ‘Look, there’s a cop. He’s going to arrest you and take you to jail if you don’t behave.’ And then you’ve got this poor little kid staring at you with big eyes, learning from his mom that cops take kids away from their parents.”

  “Geez. What do you say?”

  “I carry badge stickers, and I get down to
the kid’s level and tell them I don’t arrest children. Then I give them a sticker. And I usually tell the mom to cut it out.” He shrugged. “Beyond that, there’s not much else I can do.” He turned his wine glass in his hand. “Same questions back at you about being a wildlife biologist.”

  She smiled. “The absolute best thing about my job is that I get to work outdoors and go to some of the most beautiful places in the world. Also, I have a hand in protecting plants and animals that are at risk. I also like the education aspect, like when I team up with rangers to do talks at the campgrounds. That never gets old.”

  “Anything you dislike?”

  She shrugged. “Some of those talks include climate change. It’s part of our job to educate the public about the impact a warming planet is having on ecosystems in the Sierras. But every now and then we’ll have someone who wants to argue with us. They’ll deny science, deny climate change, and accuse us of having some sort of political agenda. With my job, I see the impact of climate change every single day, but these people want to challenge me about it. You can’t even have a conversation with them because they don’t accept basic facts as facts. And I’ll get off my soapbox now. Sorry.”

  He shook his head. “You have nothing to apologize about. You’re doing exactly what you should be doing. And despite the naysayers, my bet is there are a lot of folks who listen to your talks and learn something valuable. Maybe they’ll be motivated to step up and do their part.”

  “Hopefully.”

  He liked this, talking with Zoey, learning about her, seeing the gold in her eyes light up when she showed her passion for her work. She sipped her wine, and he found himself stalling, delaying when he’d have to crash the evening and bring up Clauson. “How’s Charlie doing?”

  There was that smile again. He was absolutely becoming addicted. “He started a new job in the computer center at his dorm. It’s what he wants to do, but I worry because until people get to know him, sometimes they treat him like he’s a freak.”

  “He has to learn to deal with that. You can’t protect him all the time.”

  “I know that. But I also know how easily hurt he can get. I’ve always looked out for him and it’s hard to turn that off.” Zoey sipped again, gaze steady over the rim of her glass. She set it down carefully. “Are you going to tell me how you got the bruise on your cheek?”

  He pushed his cleared plate back. He’d mention Clauson and the awful memories would return for Zoey. But she needed to know, and she was strong. She’d deal with it. “I arrested Paul Clauson today. He’s been living in Hangman’s Loss for the past ten months.”

  Her indrawn breath was quick and sharp, matched by shock. Then her expression hardened and her words came out in a snarl. “That bastard. That fucking bastard. I bet it was him who hit me. Here I was not pursuing it because I thought it was an accident. That whoever had done it would lose their license and because of that maybe their job and they’d be homeless, but it was him. Did you arrest him? Did he punch you in the face? Did you punch him back?”

  “I arrested him, and yeah, he punched me in the face, and being the guy wearing the uniform, I didn’t punch him back.” Levi pointed to the bruise. “This bought him the ticket to jail.” Then he paused. “Clauson is going to make bail.”

  “I’m not afraid of that pervert. If he tries anything with me, I’ll kick him in the balls like I should have done back then.”

  “Zoey, you stabbed him in the hand, and he’s wearing that scar. I’d say you protected yourself admirably. But he’s twice as big as you. I don’t want you close enough to him to kick him in the balls. We got a warrant to search his house and found enough weapons to outfit a small army. Some of the guns are illegal to possess in California so we’ll have more charges to add. We also confiscated his computer and we’ll search that.”

  She set down her wine glass. “Do you think he’s responsible for everything that’s happened to me? The hit-and-run, messing up my porch, the pole dancer post?”

  “We’re looking into all that.”

  “Getting hit by a car aside, don’t the other things seem kind of minor for him? I’m not saying Paul isn’t capable of doing mean things, but they seem kind of low-key.”

  Which was something that had been bothering Levi, too. “A lot of the time that’s how harassment starts.” He raised her hand when she opened her mouth. “I know, we think things started for you with getting hit by a car, which is a giant step up from low-key. I’ll be questioning him tomorrow once he’s got his attorney lined up. At this point, your name hasn’t been mentioned. He thinks we were at his house because of noise complaints from his neighbor.”

  “He liked country music, the twangy my-dog-up-and-died kind.”

  “That’s what the neighbor reported. But I need anything else you might remember from since you moved back to town. Think back to anything that happened that maybe you dismissed at the time, that could have been Clauson targeting you.”

  Zoey shook her head. “There’s nothing. I’ve told you everything.”

  He reached across the table to pick up her hand. “Once we question him, he’ll know you’re involved, and when he makes bail, he’ll come out pissed.”

  “If he’s been after me, he’ll know that’s why you were knocking on his door.” Her fingers tensed around his. “You’re afraid he’ll come after me.”

  “The thought’s crossed my mind. He’s also pissed at the neighbor. We confiscated Clauson’s weapons for the time being. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have others stashed somewhere else.”

  She pulled her hand free. “I’ll be careful.”

  “What’s your schedule tomorrow?”

  “I’m in the field. I’m partnered with a new guy. We’re going out along Rock Creek to Little Lakes Valley. Lucy will be with us.”

  “Who all knows where you’ll be?”

  She shrugged. “People in my department.”

  He thought for a minute. “You’ll take a Forest Service vehicle?”

  “Yep.”

  “Okay. Check in with me when you can during the day.”

  She nodded. Levi picked up his dishes to take to the sink. Zoey followed, shadows darkening her eyes. She set down her dishes and he caught her hand, tugging her toward him. He took her other hand and brought them both up to his lips.

  “You’re not alone in this, Zoey. I’ve got your back. Brad does, too, and the rest of the department.” He used his teeth to nip lightly at her knuckle. “Do you want me to stay with you tonight? I could sleep on the couch.” He’d rather be in her bed with her, but if she wasn’t ready for that, he’d suck it up.

  She was already shaking her head. “Paul is in jail tonight, so if he’s the one messing with me, I’ll be safe. And I really hate the idea of changing how I live because some asshole wants to scare me.”

  “Bravado will only get you so far. Sometimes you need to rely on others. That’s what I’m here for.”

  ***

  By the end of the week Zoey would be done with her current pika survey. Driving from the Forest Service office, she cranked up the air conditioning. Lucy rode in the backseat, panting despite the blast of cold air.

  Today Zoey had partnered with another wildlife biologist, a recent college grad and new hire named Jorge Padilla. It had been nice to have someone to work with. Lucy had found another patch of snow and spent an hour enthusiastically digging and rolling in the cold stuff. Zoey had spotted a golden eagle plunging from the sky to capture a rabbit. She loved her job.

  Because pika were poor body temperature regulators, the concern that climate change and warming temperatures would threaten the species made her current project imperative. In the talus slopes where she and Jorge had spent the day, they’d found the animals were doing what they usually did in the summer. Fecal pellets gave evidence that they were eating, and she’d documented drying vegetation that formed the hay piles the pika brought under the rocks to store for the winter. The mammals didn’t hibernate, so they spent much
of their summer preparing for the cold winter. She found it reassuring that at least at her current project location, the little mammal seemed to be doing fine.

  She let Lucy out of the car and her baby immediately looked toward Levi’s cabin. “Sorry, girl, your guy isn’t home.” She’d called Levi to check in as he’d requested, and he had passed on the news that they were trying to hold Clauson longer, but that he might make bail. That had cast a pall over what otherwise had been a good day. Levi had mentioned that he’d be at softball practice that evening and invited her and Lucy to come watch.

  Zoey and Levi were at that in-between place. They’d hooked up, he’d asked her out on a date that had yet to be arranged, and he wanted her to check in with him during the day. Sure, that had been partly because of her evil stalker. But the check-in had gone both ways as he’d shared his day with her too. Being connected with someone like that was nice, but also a little unnerving. She had been doing fine on her own, not needing anyone, and with no one besides Lucy depending on her. Now she was feeling like half of a couple, and despite the obvious plus that the other half was Levi Gallagher, it made her a little itchy about where the whole relationship thing was going.

  That itchiness was exacerbated even more because at odd times during the past few days, she’d found herself wondering what being in love felt like. She’d never been in love. She’d dated, had lived with the cheater who’d given her Lucy, but didn’t think that had edged over into love.

  She’d been more pissed than brokenhearted when she’d kicked him to the curb. Was there some sort of “I’m in love” checklist? Think about him all the time? Check. Heart rate speeds up when his name is mentioned? Check. Want to lick him like a popsicle at the most inappropriate times? Check.

  How many checks before they tallied up to love? She could call Eva. This was exactly the kind of thing her friend would know the answer to. But Eva was a Gallagher cousin, and she worked with Maddy, so there was way too much risk of her friend spilling the beans. She might not intend to, but Eva liked to talk, and beans might be spilled nonetheless.