“I might have stuck it in his path. Maybe. Sort of.” She winced, and it was so damn cute that I wanted to laugh, but I knew it was the wrong thing to do. Not with Shelly. It would just encourage her. “Him hitting his head, though, that was his own fault.”
I turned quickly to look at her, and caught the rigid pose, like she was waiting for a beheading. “He hit his head?”
“Yes.”
“On what?”
“The side of my fist, the first time. The lamp post, the second time.” She clenched her fist, and that was my first glimpse of her bruised knuckles. I pulled over and parked.
I picked up her hand and held it gently in mine. “You’re hurt.”
“Oh, that’s nothing.” She waved her free hand in the air.
“Is it broken? Squeeze my hand.” She clutched my hand in hers, and a flood of heat shot straight into my gut. “I don’t think it’s broken.”
“It’s not.” She didn’t pull her hand back.
“I’ll be right back.” I got out of the car and went into a nearby restaurant, then came back with a bag of ice. I placed it over her swollen fist. “Don’t ever do that again,” I said quietly.
“I didn’t want him to get away.”
“How did you know he was who I was looking for?”
She rolled her eyes. “He came running from the back of the building you’d just gone in. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out.”
“You could have just let me catch him.”
She opened her eyes wide and stared hard at me. “Because that was working so well for you. You’ve cornered him no less than eight times in the past six weeks.”
I pulled back out into traffic. “How do you know that?”
“I read through all your files.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
“Shelly…” I began. But I had no words. Not a single one. “Don’t lie to me again,” I finished lamely.
“Are there parameters that are acceptable?”
What was scary was that she was completely serious.
“No. Lies are not acceptable at all. Not when they could affect my business. If you knock somebody flat on his ass, you have to tell me, because I might have to make up a story to lessen the damage.”
“You mean you would lie about it instead of me.”
I rocked my head back and forth as I thought about it. “No, but I can set up the situation so that it’s presented in the best possible light.”
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay?” Did she just agree? I thought she did, but with Shelly, you never could be sure.
“Okay,” she said again with a nod. “Can we go and get something to eat? I’m kind of hungry.” She laid a hand on her stomach just as it let out a loud grumble.
“Kind of? I’m kind of scared after hearing that.” A grin hovered in my mind, even if I didn’t let it show on my face.
She turned and whispered to me, “I only consume men who are weaker than me.” She smiled a slow, sultry smile and, quite frankly, it scared the shit out of me. She tapped her finger on her temple. “Mentally, of course. Not physically.”