Page 27 of Loving My Enemy

He was right and I couldn’t explain it. “Hell if I know. Something about that guy rubs me the wrong way.” But I couldn’t deny that his words only enhanced my doubts about Elka. What kind of woman just up and left her parents after they’d already lost one child?

“Bullshit,” Ty said. “What’s the deal with you and Elka? I’m not judging, and I won’t give you any shit. I just want the truth.”

“There is nodeal, Ty. I don’t trust her, haven’t since I spotted her on the side of the road when she blew into town.” I knew it sounded irrational, but it was the truth. “Think about it: she’s too young to move to a small town for no reason unless she’s hiding. She works for herself but somehow has money to rent that cottage. It doesn’t make sense.” And until it did, I knew I needed to keep my distance.

“Bullshit,” he said again. “There are all kinds of reasons she could have left that aren’t bad. Maybe she was escaping an abusive relationship or maybe she only stuck around her parentsbecauseof her brother. Maybe it was too painful to stick around after he was gone.” He raked a hand through his hair and blew out a breath, leveling me with a sympathetic look. “I know I didn’t do big-city homicide like you did, Antonio, but I’m good at reading people and Elka is good people. She’s kind and she’s sweet, and yeah, a little on the hippy-dippy side for Texas, but I like her.”

That was exactly the problem. I liked her too. Everyone did. Because that’s how good manipulators were. They snowed you so completely that it was difficult to tell up from down. “I still want to run background on her. That guy just gave us probably cause.” It was a weak excuse but one that would be overlooked if something came up.

Ty shrugged and took a seat behind his desk. “If that’s what you want, go ahead. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Me too,” I told him honestly and made my way back to my own shoebox office. Nothing about the PI’s story felt right, but like Ty said, his story gave me the excuse I needed to find out more about Elka.

An hour later, I had everything that was publicly available on Elka Louise Nyland, including the two years she’d attempted to go to college only to never attend any classes, as well and the five-million-dollar life insurance policy she’d cashed in before leaving her family in the dust.

Women. They were all the same.

Chapter 16

Elka

All the ingredients were laid out on the island counter, again, ready for a real attempt at making chili. It was already past seven and I’d given up hope that Deputy Vargas would show up. It was clear he was in the market for some kind of casual hate-sex. I’d spent the entire day working on new products and fulfilling orders, which meant I could spend the rest of the night on this. Cooking chili.

I laughed as I thought about the ridiculous sight I made, knowing that if Austin were here, he would give me a hard time and probably mock me for the Kiss the Cook apron I wore. He’d probably lecture for me letting Antonio touch me so intimately given the way he’d treated me from the second we met.You’d be right,I said to him, acknowledging what a bad idea it had been and what a worse idea it was to fantasize about what we’d done. And to wish we could do more.

We couldn’t and that was that.

“Back to work,” I growled in frustration because thoughts of the man wouldn’t stop distracting me. Thankfully the bell chose that moment to ring and I knew that his company was the only thing that could remind me what a terrible idea it was tofantasize about him. “You’re late,” I told him when I opened the door and returned to the kitchen.

“Paperwork,” he grumbled close behind me.

My body tingled with the intensity of a live electrical wire and I made sure to keep my distance. “I’ve done everything that needs to be done because I wasn’t sure if you planned to show, so there’s nothing for you to do.” With my back to him, I added oil to both pots and turned on the fire.

“I can keep you company.” It was a nice offer but we both knew he’d rather pull out his own fingernails.

“Not necessary. If it’ll make you feel better, you can tell Janey you helped.” It was no skin off my back. In fact, I’d rather he take credit for something he didn’t do than sit there and stare at me.

“I thought we were starting over,” he said, voice low and sexy, almost like he was flirting.

“I never agreed to that.” And I wouldn’t. Just because my body found him irresistible didn’t mean my heart and mind would let it go beyond wanting. Longing.

“How was your day?” he asked.

“Seriously?” He nodded and leaned against the counter. “My day was fine.”

“Mine too. Thanks for asking.”

It turned out trying to cook two types of chili at once was too much with a six-foot-three distraction so close by, so I turned off one of the burners and added the base vegetables to the other. “You work with your best friend, so that isn’t surprising.”

“What about you—do you have a best friend?”

Why was he suddenly acting so interested in me? It didn’t make any sense and I was going crazy trying to figure it out. “Not anymore.”

“What about family? My dad died when I was working in New Orleans so it’s just me and Mom now. She’s a handful—always butting into my business whether I want her to or not.”

A meddling mother sounded both nice and and foreign to me. “I wasn’t born in a lab, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Are you close to them?”

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