Pip eased away from the arm under her pillow and the other across her hip to slither from the bed like some kind of thief avoiding a security alarm. She gathered last night’s discarded clothing, following an impressively long trail from the bedroom to the lounge room, pulling items on as she went.
As she tugged her T-shirt over her head, two arms grabbed her from behind and she let out a scream, instinctively jamming her elbows hard against whatever surface presented itself before spinning around and lifting her knee, which made contact with something not particularly hard. The move was followed by a coarse, breathless curse.
Finally managing to get her head out of her T-shirt, she gasped as she found Chris doubled over and breathing hard.
‘Oh my God, I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was you,’ she said, horrified by the pain she’d inflicted.
‘Didn’t know it was me? Who else would it bloody be at this time of the morning? How many men do you keep stashed away in here?’ he panted.
‘I just meant—well, you were asleep a few minutes ago when I left the room,’ she finished in a rush of exasperation.
‘Are you always this violent in the morning?’
‘No. Only when someone sneaks up and grabs me.’
‘Jesus, I won’t make that mistake again,’ he muttered, gingerly sitting himself on the bar stool across from her.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked when neither of them had anything else to say. He wasn’t looking quite as pale as he had been a few moments earlier, and she only now took in the fact he was bare-chested, wearing only his jeans from the night before.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked, still wearing a bit of a frown, for which she couldn’t altogether blame him.
‘I’ve just been a bit on edge,’ she said, running her hands along her thighs nervously. ‘There was an intruder in my house a while back. He was waiting for me when I got home one night and I … I just haven’t … I’m so sorry if I hurt you. I took self-defence classes afterwards. My best friend, Lexi, made me go. I’ve never actually used them on anyone before.’ She knew she was babbling but she couldn’t seem to stop.
‘Hey,’ Chris said, his voice gentle as he reached out a hand. ‘It’s okay, come here.’ He tugged her close and held her against him. ‘Being jumpy after something like that is completely understandable. I’m the one who should be sorry, not you.’
‘Not too many people know that it still affects me like that,’ she admitted.
‘Do you want to tell me about it?’
Her first reaction was to shake her head and say no freaking way—but standing there, settled between Chris’s thighs and encircled by his arms, suddenly she felt brave enough to talk about it. ‘It was in the lead-up to the trial,’ she started softly. ‘I’d been out to a work function and got home pretty late, and as I walked inside, he was just standing there.’
She squeezed her eyes tightly and buried her face a little deeper into Chris’s chest. His arms tightened around her and she was back in that warm, safe place once more.
‘He had a balaclava on and all I could see was two wide holes, just staring back at me. I turned to run, but he grabbed me and threw me on the floor. I remember hitting my head on the table and being dazed, but he just kept picking me up and throwing me around the room like I was a rag doll.’
She felt Chris’s hands soothing her back as he let her talk. ‘His hands were around my neck and I tried to prise them away but he was so strong. He had this strange look in his eyes—like he was smiling. The more I struggled, the tighter he pressed against my neck.’ She stopped and closed her eyes tightly as the memories swarmed in. ‘I remember searching for something to use to get him off, and I hit out at him, and he let go for a second.’
Suddenly she was back in the memory of that brief moment of respite—taking a deep breath of air and feeling life flow back through her. That’s when she saw the blue and red flashing lights on the wall across from the front window and she knew help was coming. She rolled onto her side and launched to her feet. ‘But he grabbed my leg and dragged me back down, and all I remember thinking was that he was so heavy—I couldn’t move and he was crushing me. But then he sat up and he had his hands around my neck and I couldn’t breathe.’
She remembered the wild look in his eyes as he pressed a knee hard against her chest and the pressure of his fingers around her throat. ‘I passed out,’ she said, staring at the wall across the room blankly. ‘Apparently someone heard things being knocked over and called the police. I never did find out which neighbour saved my life that night,’ she said with a tight smile. ‘I woke up in hospital, unable to speak or swallow. I had a fractured larynx, a couple of broken ribs and a punctured lung.’
‘Did they catch him?’ Chris asked after she went quiet once more.
Pip shook her head. ‘No. He just vanished.’
‘Did you manage to get a look at him? Give any kind of description?’
‘I caught a glimpse of his neck—he had a green snake tattoo. That’s the only helpful thing I could give the police,’ she said dolefully. Pip eased away and rubbed her hands across her face in an attempt to erase the horrible memories. ‘They couldn’t turn up anything.’
‘You said it was in the lead-up to the trial? Did they make any connection to Knight?’
‘Nope,’ she sighed. ‘But it was pretty obvious who sent him. The only thing the man said was, “Keep your mouth shut,” but they couldn’t put that down completely to a warning about the trial—it could have just been a warning to not yell.’
‘Too much of a coincidence not to be related, though, with the timing,’ he mused.
‘All I know is I’m sick to death of it running my life. I thought once Knight was convicted, everything would go back to normal, that I’d be able to write this book and get everything out on paper so it would free me to move on … but it hasn’t. I can’t write. It’s like he took that away from me too—the one thing I could always depend on.’
‘Maybe it’s just too soon for you to write the book?’ Chris suggested.
‘The publisher wants it out while it’s still relevant. I signed a contract,’ she said with a sigh. ‘If I’d known I was going to have this much trouble I wouldn’t have agreed to it,’ she finished miserably. But who would have thought her writing would be something that would let her down?
‘Is this why you’re so interested in the Bigsby case? Because you’re avoiding the real issue with your book?’
‘Who are you, my editor?’ she asked, but she gave a small smile.
‘It’s just that it all makes more sense now.’
‘I’m not here in a journalist capacity.’
‘But you can’t help yourself,’ he grinned.
She hesitated before screwing up her nose a little. ‘No, I guess not. But I am genuinely angry about the way Bert’s been treated all these years. Living with all this.’
‘If he’s innocent,’ Chris reminded her pointedly.
‘I think he is,’ she declared.
‘You’re supposed to keep an open mind about the case before you decide on innocence or guilt,’ he told her, shifting slightly on the stool.
‘Come on, you can’t tell me you don’t get a gut instinct straightaway every time you investigate a crime?’
‘Sure I do, but sometimes emotion can blind you to certain things. I try to stay neutral until I’ve got all the facts before me.’ He shrugged, and Pip’s gaze followed the movement and then continued down over a chest lightly dusted with dark hair, and she remembered the feel of his warm skin beneath her fingertips. ‘You can’t argue facts.’
‘So what’s your gut telling you about the bones?’ she asked.
He slanted her an off-centre smile and leaned forward to kiss her.
‘Seriously? You’re going to use that to distract me?’
‘Is it working?’ he asked, kinking an eyebrow.
‘Yes. But you’re just lucky I’m not officially working this story—because you, Detective Jarrett, would be in big trouble trying that on a journalist just doing their job.’
‘I only do it to the ones I think are sassy and cute.’
‘Sassy and cute, huh? Well, I guess I’ve been called worse.’ She saw him wince slightly as he moved to get off the stool. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked, eyeing him warily.
‘I’m fine,’ he said, managing a brief smile.
‘I can get you a bag of frozen peas,’ she offered.
‘I think I’d rather let you knee me again than willingly hold anything frozen over that part of my anatomy,’ he said darkly.
Pip bit back a laugh as she leaned in and softly kissed his lips. ‘It’s not exactly how I imagined the morning going,’ she said regretfully. ‘I was coming out to make coffee to bring back to bed.’
‘Can’t say I was exactly picturing my balls being driven up into my throat, either,’ he said with a wry twist of his lips. ‘But I guess you could make it up to me with some tender loving care.’
She held his sleepy gaze and an answering shot of arousal coursed through her blood as he pulled her against him again. ‘It’s the least I can do,’ she murmured, leading him back to the bedroom.