I closed my eyes for a second and tried to look sheepish. “Gah. Sorry! The land starts to look the same, and it’s not like there are house numbers this far out.”
She laughed with me. “No worries.”
I stepped back, gave a little wave and headed back to my car. I heard the door close, and I took one last moment to look around.
No trees by the house. No shrubs or plantings to hide behind. No pets, inside or out. One driveway in and out, unless accessed by foot. The roof was as steep as my father had pointed out, and I could see a few skylights up there. Newer ones, so they were surely wired.
The woman didn’t seem like someone who’d just bought a five million-dollar Viking dagger, but I had to assume her husband, the movie star, had the hobby.
I pulled back onto the road and headed toward Sparks. I had more studying to do and had to come back for recon, but at least I had a solid house layout and a personal visual of the roof. A plan was coming together for a nighttime break-in. I had to identify when the Straights would be out of the house. I also had to figure out what to do about my bedmate. Sex was great and all, but Hayes was going to be a cockblocker for my robbery.
I drove around the curve of the long private drive and hit the brake.
There, blocking my access to the road, stood a truck.
A truck I recognized all too well.
Hayes had followed me. The asshole!
I gunned the car like I was going to crash into the side of the truck, only stopping at the last possible minute, my tires sliding on the crushed gravel, almost close enough to touch the paint of his truck.
Yeah, I was driving getaway cars before I was out of middle school. I had not lost any high-speed chases since I’d joined the sheriff’s department. I definitely knew how to handle a vehicle.
Of course, Hayes, the bastard, didn’t even flinch. He just sat in the front seat of that truck watching me. Waiting.
I threw open my door and climbed halfway out of the car, gesturing impatiently. “Get out of the middle of the road!”
Hayes rolled the passenger side window down and shook his head. He looked sexy as hell in a baseball cap–he had yet to adopt the cowboy hats more commonly worn in Montana–and a t-shirt that stretched around his bulky muscles. “Not until you tell me what’s going on. Why the fuck you’re wearing a wig.”
“Hayes. Move. You have no idea what you’re interfering with.”
“So tell me.”
I looked around as if someone could see us. “I can’t. It’s police business. Now move it, or I’ll arrest you for obstruction of justice.” It was a sad day for me when I started using my job to cover my tracks, but hey–a girl had to do what a girl had to do.
He tilted his sunglasses down. “Uh huh. So… this doesn’t have anything to do with stealing a Viking dagger to sell to Gabriel Burns?”
My stomach dropped like a brick to my feet. I wanted to both puke and cry at the same time. Knowing Hayes was aware of the worst of me hurt more than anything Burns had done to scare and manipulate me last night.
I sat there stunned, having no idea what to say. All I could do was blink, flush furiously and try to come up with a lie. Instead, I asked the truth.
“How… how do you know about that?”
He gave me a pointed look. “Baby doll, don’t insult me. I saw those men leaving your house, and you think I’d leave it alone. We tapped into your security feed.”
Of course he did.
“We?”
“We. My team. All of us at Alpha Mountain.”
“You watch my security feed.” I didn’t state it as a question.
“When I want answers you won’t give me. That involves your safety. Come on,” he said, tipping his head. “Follow me to the end of this road and pull over. We need to talk.”
Waves of both clammy panic and itchy heat swam down my midsection. I felt as caught as I had that night the police picked me up in Seattle with the Empress ring on my finger. Frozen and blank. All I could do was nod and get back in my car. Follow Hayes a mile down the road where he parked under a tree.
He got out and opened my door. “Get out.”
Numbly, I removed my seat belt and obeyed.
He fingered the red wig. “Red, huh?”
I couldn’t seem to answer him. I couldn’t even swallow down the lump in my throat. He put his hand at my lower back and guided me to his truck. “Climb in, baby doll.”
In the back of my mind, I considered my options. Bolting. Fighting. They were all absurd, but even if they’d been viable, I wouldn’t. It was Hayes. I owed him whatever it was he was about to demand. Not because we were in a relationship. Not because we’d had sex a few times. But because he was a good man. I respected him.