a number. “I’m never farther away than a phone call.” Bringing her the piece of paper closed the distance between them. Her body drank in the heat of his intensity. “Usually, I’m much closer than that.”
She took the paper and stepped away to enter the number in her phone. Now that she knew she had to meet Brenda, the clock ticked on the day. She and Ty gathered their things and headed out. Hearing and believing what he’d said had taken the cold edge away from being alone in this fight. But as she drove to town followed by Ty, an unsettled question burned into her. How much closer did she want him?
He still felt her near his skin. It had been an hour since they’d left the kitchen. The drive to town hadn’t helped cool him down. Pretending to be interested in a revolving rack of comic books at the front of the small local bookstore still couldn’t shake the resonance of her in him. She was standing down the block on the far side of the street, outside her boarded-up shop. She and the insurance broker had gone inside, come back out and now discussed several pages of paperwork on the Asian woman’s clipboard.
Even from this distance, the warmth on his chest that had started in her bedroom persisted. It had come as a quick shock. He’d been so focused on the danger outside there’d been no time to assess where in her house he was or what that might mean. Once the car had left, though, the intimacy of standing so close to Mariana in her bedroom bolted, hot, through him. He was in her house to protect her. He was there for Frontier Justice, and following through with the attraction he felt was beyond a bad idea. There was no certainty she was feeling it, too. The way her hand had lingered in his when he’d helped her up had definitely encouraged the idea, though.
Sleeping lightly in the drafty guest room had calmed his body down, but not his mind. The boldness of the Hanley Group’s attacks and follow-up intimidation only showed just how hard it would be to dislodge them from getting what they wanted. Mariana had to be safe. Ty had to stay sharp. Could he maintain that edge while giving in to a sudden desire for the woman he was there to protect?
The questions continued to stab at him while he watched her from the window of the bookstore. The insurance broker was wrapping up her business with a handshake and a hug with Mariana. Ty pulled a comic from the rack and took it to the front counter, cash already in hand.
The white woman behind the counter smiled genuinely. “I like that one. It’s dark.” She rang him up and handed over the change.
“Sweet.” He pocketed the change and gave her a wave with the comic as he headed out of the shop. So far, from what he’d seen of the small town of Rodrigo, there was nothing to support the sinister business that had come down on Mariana. People were generally open and nice. A couple of locals had given him hard looks, but that was expected everywhere.
He hurried across the street and down the block. Mariana turned from the direction the insurance agent walked away to face him. She was tired—he could see the exhaustion—but still strong as hell. He wanted to put his arm around her shoulders, give her something to lean on, but couldn’t risk invading her space. Instead he would support her how he could. He moved close enough to tell her, “You’re doing amazing.”
Her thin smile barely registered. “It doesn’t look good in there.”
“Can I check it out?”
She nodded and swung the door open with a bracing breath. “No power, so we have to use flashlights.”
The floor was still wet and the room was close with the smell of damp wood and paper. He ditched the comic book to the side and used the flashlight on his key chain to sweep across the space. Everything he could see was either burnt or soaked.
Mariana’s voice shook. “The refrigerator went off with the power. All the apple butter and pies have to be scrapped.” She coughed, but he heard it as a cover for a sob.
Immediately he was at her side, shoulder to shoulder, giving her as much of himself as she would take. “I saw how many apples are on your trees. This can all be built back.”
Her eyes squeezed shut and she leaned into him. “There’s no one to harvest.”
“There will be.” Determination rose in him. “We’ll push the Hanley Group back.” He hated seeing her bullied, and feeling her pushed this close to defeat drove him to rage. “They’ll be so scared of you they’ll never set foot in this county again.”
She opened her eyes and searched his face. “You’d better be telling the truth.”
He promised through a clenched jaw, “This is no lie.”
Her hand coiled around his. He held her tight, hoping to tell her everything with the touch. She whispered, “Tell me again.”
“I’m with you to the end.” No matter if the electricity that passed between them was real or just his imagination, if she bridged the gap to come closer to him or never approached, his resolve was set. And he couldn’t wait to punch a hole through the Hanley Group and send them running.
“You’d better mean it.” A deep fury heated her voice. “Because if we’re going to fight, I’m going to burn them down.”
Her energy fueled his. “All the way down.” The two of them balanced on an edge. They’d said all they could with words. He needed to taste her strength. Was he drawing her closer, or was she stepping to him? Her gaze flicked to his mouth. Her lips parted. He knew this wasn’t a good idea and refused to stop. Their faces grew nearer.
The front door of the shop opened with a blast of sunlight. He and Mariana immediately parted and his hand instinctively hovered near his sidearm. A silhouette took a cautious step into the shop. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw the curious expression on the black woman’s face as she glanced from him to Mariana and back.
“Sydney.” Mariana immediately walked to the woman in her midthirties. Ty remembered getting a glimpse of her last night, when he was watching the front of the store as the firefighters were wrapping up.
“I hope it’s okay I came by. I saw you around...” Sydney scanned the burnt and soaked shop with concern and hurt in her eyes. She stroked a hand down Mariana’s arm.
“Of course.” Mariana squeezed her friend’s shoulder. The front door remained open, illuminating the genuine caring between these two women. “This is Ty.” Mariana turned toward him. He approached and shook Sydney’s hand.
The woman inspected him carefully. “You helped her last night?”
“I did.” It was easy to tell that Sydney’s sharp perception would crack through any attempts at evasion.
“Did you know trouble was coming?” Sydney tilted her head, still wary. Mariana stood by, watching.
“I knew there’d been trouble for a while, but I didn’t know it would be that bad.”
The woman assessed him up and down. He’d thrown a light jacket on over his hoodie and knew his pistol didn’t print through. Still she pierced him with “Cop?”
“San Francisco. But,” he added quickly, “I’m here on vacation.”
Sydney chuckled. “You really know how to relax.” She clicked her tongue and walked deeper into Mariana’s ruined shop. “What station in San Francisco?”
She clearly knew the deeper workings of the city. “Tenderloin.”
That got her to raise her eyebrows. “Tough spot.”
“Where I grew up.” It had gone through a lot of changes since then, and continued to transform as the city evolved.
“I did junior high in Oakland.” Her shoulders loosened up and she appeared like she wasn’t squaring him up for attack or defense.
“I’ve got a cousin out there.”
Sydney