Page 16 of Love on the Run

“There must be a mistake somewhere. I just want to get going…”

“In the car you stole,” he finished.

“That’s not what I was going to say.”

“I’ll bet. You must think I’m dense.”

Callie had no response to that. She just stared at him.

“Or were you thinking that I’d just buy your story and let you waltz out of here?”

“Buy?”

“Did you think I wouldn’t try to verify what you told me? Your story sounded pretty good, Calista. But it’s not true. And you’re not leaving until I get the real story. All of it.”

“You’re not going to let me leave?” she asked incredulously.

“Not until you tell me what really happened.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“A police officer insisting on the truth? I don’t think so.”

“Are you always so unpleasant?”

“Only when I’m being lied to,” Jake responded.

“I can’t believe this.”

“Well, that makes two of us.” He smiled tightly.

“Look, I don’t really care what you think. I just want to go.”

“Yeah, go. But you’ll be walking.” Jake grabbed his keys off the table and ostentatiously dropped them in his pocket.

“What, you actually think I’d take your car?”

“That’s how you got your last one, isn’t it?”

“You jerk,” Callie said furiously. “You think you know what kind of person I am? You think you knowanything?”

“I don’t know, that’s my point.”

“Yeah?” Callie glared at him. “Well, get used it, because you never will.” She dropped the bag to the floor and stalked back to the living room. She moved too quickly, making pain shoot up her leg, but she’d rather die than show it. So she headed over to the porch door and stepped through. She was having trouble breathing, which always happened when she got angry. And the reason she was angry was that Jake was absolutely right. She sat down on the low stone wall surrounding the wooden deck, facing away from the house. She couldn’t get his expression out of her head. It was a look of contempt, and she wished she’d never seen it. In fact, she wished she’d never met him.

* * * *

Jake tried to forget about the woman currently sulking on his porch, but his thoughts kept flickering back to her. Right after she had fled, Bruiser had given Jake a look that he’d never seen before, and then trotted after her. Her! “I feed you, damn it,” he muttered at the retreating dog. Then he went to his office, hoping that the piles of paperwork that seemed to be necessary in every type of police job would distract him from Calista.

He struggled at it for a while, but soon enough he admitted that it was hopeless. It was about eight o’clock now, and neither of them had eaten yet. Jake got some cereal out, and pulled two bowls out of the cabinet. Then he walked to the porch door. Callie apparently hadn’t moved the whole time she’d been out there. Bruiser lay on the stone wall right next to her, and she was rubbing his ears. Jake thought he’d have to get back on her good side if he wanted her to tell him the truth. And part of himknewshe had a good side.

“You want some food?” Jake asked through the screen.

“Not from you,” came her muttered reply.

“You need to eat.”

“Then drop me at the nearest gas station with a mini-mart. Then I can hitch a ride back to California.”

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