Raye Morgan - Baby Dreams

Well, she didn’t. And she wasn’t about to go where such things inevitably led. What she really had to do was get out of here.

“I…I just can’t, that’s all. Let me go. Come on.” She looked up at him beseechingly. “You know, deep down, that I’m not a criminal. Just let me go and I won’t tell anyone you ever saw me. Nobody will know and…”

“Stop it,” he demanded, frowning at her as his fingers tightened on her arm. “Don’t get all worked up. There’s no point to it.” He jerked his head toward the outside world. “You hear that wind? You can’t go out in this storm, no matter how innocent you are. You’re stuck here. You might as well relax.”

Relax? Relax? When every nerve ending was quivering inside her? She took a long, deep breath and closed her eyes.

He was right. She couldn’t go anywhere until morning. At least she wasn’t huddled in her car on the side of the road, wondering if she was going to freeze to death.

She opened her eyes again and managed a bleak smile. “Okay,” she said softly, pulling away from his touch and turning back into the room. “I guess I’m more tired than I realized.”

But her gaze flickered from one corner of the room to another, looking for a possible escape route, something he noted with a cynical gleam in his eyes. He took hold of her again, by the shoulders this time, just to drive the point home. “Don’t get any more ideas, lady,” he said firmly. “You’re not leaving here until I let you go.”

She stood stock-still, her gaze icy. It was obvious to her that she was going to have to defend herself against him—or at least, against letting him beguile her in any way. “You’re touching me,” she said. “That’s not allowed, is it?”

His fingers tightened, and so did his mouth. She was getting to him at last. Anger was smoldering in his dark eyes.

“Isn’t it?” he said softly. “It all depends on whose rules we’re following.” But he released her, standing back as she flexed her shoulders and glared at him.

“You’d better just hope I don’t get any bruises,” she said smartly. “I’ll charge you with police brutality.”

His head went back. “You know all the buzzwords, don’t you?” Real anger shot through him like a hot gulp of whiskey.

Those were city words, words he hadn’t heard for a long time, words he had come here to forget. Around here, he was a part of the community. Everybody knew him. Everybody turned to him with their problems, with their worries, anytime they needed help—not every time they needed a scapegoat. No one here would ever think to charge him with brutality. It made him angry to have her bring city words and city concepts here. He reached out and took up the handcuffs, then turned toward her with a glint in his eyes.

“Tell you what,” he said, eyes narrowing. “I’m going to have to put the cuffs back on you.”

She shrank back. “No!”

He moved toward her, holding the cuffs up where she could see them. “You tried to make a break for it, lady. You’re not cooperating like you should. There’s no reason not to suspect you might do it again. You don’t have a leg to stand on.”

She glared at him, but when she spoke, she worked hard to keep her voice low and polite. “I’m sorry I did that,” she said, backing away as she spoke. “I won’t do it again. Honest.”

He watched her for a moment, dangling the cuffs before her. “It’s your choice,” he told her at last. “As long as I can trust you…”

“Oh, you can trust me,” she assured him hurriedly. “Believe me, you can trust me.”

He hesitated. She was saying the right words, but the look in her eyes told him she was feeling anything but meek. Still, what was he going to do, tie her up?

No, he reminded himself. He was going to put her in a cell.

And even at that, a part of him cringed. She was so pretty, so…

No. He turned and dropped the handcuffs on the desk. What was the matter with him? He’d locked up prettier women than this, back in Los Angeles. There was that time he’d been in on that raid of the porno movie set in Burbank. And the time he and his partner had broken a ring of young women who pretended to sell cosmetics door-to-door but were really casing the houses for visits later on in the night. And Doris, the sticky-fingered contortionist. Gorgeous women, every one. He’d locked them up without a qualm. And he was going to do the same here.

But not yet. They still had paperwork to finish. It could wait.

Rafe Lonewolf, sheriff, and Billie Joe Calloway, con artist extraordinaire. This was going to be some night. He looked at her narrowly, and she looked right back. It was evident that whatever had spooked her a few minutes earlier was under control now. She had her confidence back, and her spirit.

She plunked herself in the chair and he sat back down in front of the typewriter, and she watched for a moment as he filled in spaces on the form.

He was just a man. And as the song went, she’d known a lot of men before. Now that her pulse had calmed and her nerves had steadied, she couldn’t imagine what had upset her so much a few minutes earlier. She couldn’t let this situation, this man, this night, get to her. She was woman, she was strong, and all that. And he was just a man.

And she was no victim. She could hold her own, and she could act like an equal. She could, in fact, go on the offense. That was often the best defensive strategy anyway. Put him off his guard. Keep him guessing. She wet her lips and launched her game plan.

“That’s quite a little Hitler complex you’ve got there,” she said, speaking softly, as though she were musing about an interesting detail rather than accusing him of being a world-class despot.

He glanced up, determined not to take her too seriously. “No. I’ve got a cop complex. That’s all.”

“Hmm,” she reflected, studying her fingernails. “Suspicious, cynical, mean. It can’t be much fun going through life like that.”

He leaned back in his chair and looked at her as though she’d brought up speaking ancient Greek as a recreational activity. “Fun isn’t what life is all about,” he reminded her.

She nodded. “You’re right. But it sure does help you get over the rough spots.” She glanced around the room. “What do you do around here for fun? Or is arresting innocent people the way you get your kicks?”

“No. I work. I sleep. I read.”

She stared at him. Suddenly she was really concerned. “That’s it?” she said incredulously. So that was the answer, that was what made him so mean. He was a grouch because he was badly socialized. Hope surged again. Cami was a can-do woman, and she liked nothing better than finding potential solutions to problems. She’d been struggling with this problem, this man, for about an hour now. And finally she saw light at the end of the tunnel.

Nothing could be simpler. All she had to do was make friends with him, like you would a snarling dog, bit by bit, offering a snack, extending a hand…

“Listen, you need to break out of your routine,” she told him kindly. “You need something new in your life.”

“Thanks, but no thanks.”

He didn’t look grateful for her sensitive suggestions. Still, these things took time.

He typed another line in the form and she frowned, trying to think of something to offer him. “You know, I’m probably a faster typist than you are,” she said. “Would you like me to fill it out?”

She could have sworn he was rolling his eyes, but he didn’t turn back to face her, so she couldn’t tell for sure.

“No,” he said simply.

“Could I get you a fresh cup of coffee?”

“No, thanks.”

Her mouth tightened. If he wasn’t going to cooperate, this experiment in the building of an understanding between them was going to be harder than she’d thought at first. A tiny doubt tugged at her. What if he were incapable of unbending? What if he were just born mean, and that was that? But she couldn’t accept anything so hopeless. She was made of sterner stuff. She pressed on, thinking hard.