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Jonas shouldered through the heavy wooden door, holding it open barely long enough for Kate to emerge onto the sidewalk beside him. He drew a deep lungful of chill autumn air. It did nothing to cool the temper that had been simmering since they'd sat down at that table with Lazarus. The door swung shut behind them, muffling the thud of the music.
He glowered at his partner, who studied the traffic, her features calm but watchful, seemingly unaffected by the surroundings they'd just left. No matter how long he worked undercover, places like that always managed to make him feel like he needed a shower...or fumigation...or both.
Surroundings Kate had once worked in, where men had come on to her. Made lewd suggestions to her. Slid their hands over her.
He knew it shouldn't bother him, but it did. It bothered him a lot. He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets.
Kate glanced his way. "Everything okay?"
"Peachy," he muttered.
She regarded him narrowly, then shrugged and went back to watching the traffic. "I did some calculations, by the way. By the time we pay Jimmy’s friend, we'll have a grand total of thirteen dollars and sixty-seven cents left in Dave's account. We'd better hope that car has a full tank of gas. And that your stash is where you left it in Jersey."
"Jennings said there was more in the savings account. Take that. I'm good for it," he replied, his tone curt to the point of rudeness.
Kate pressed her lips together, and for a second he thought she might call him on his foul mood. He almost wished she would. A good argument might distract him from the "me Tarzan" urges that made him want to march back inside and take on Lazarus and every other male in the place.
But Kate said nothing. Stuffing her fingertips into the pockets of her jeans, she started walking back toward the alley where they'd left the SUV. Irritated all over again, Jonas fell into step beside her.
"I'd forgotten how loud that place is," she remarked, sticking a finger into her ear and wiggling it. "Can you believe I lasted six months there? It's a wonder I had any hearing left by the time I was done."
"I can't believe you worked there, period," Jonas retorted. "Please tell me you broke the fingers of anyone touching you the way that jackass in there was doing."
She dimpled a grin up at him. "And put my tips at risk?"
"It's not funny," he snapped, his hands bunching into fists in his pockets.
Kate stopped walking. She crossed her arms. "Right," she said, her good humor dissolving. "You've been like a bear with a sore ass ever since breakfast, Burke. Just what the hell is your problem?"
Jonas looked down at her. For the first time ever, he noticed a smattering of tiny freckles across the bridge of her nose. He swallowed hard and grated out the truth. "You. You're my problem."
Then, because she might read too much into the words—and because they had somehow robbed him of air and he could think of no other way to rescue himself—he added in a snarl, "You working there. Dealing with those perverts. Being touched like that. What the hell did you think you were doing, Kate?"
She scowled at him. "My job." Her enunciation was precise. "Damn it, Jonas, yesterday you looked down your nose at me because you thought I was a desk jockey. Now you're ticked off because I got my hands dirty—"
"It's not your hands I'm concerned about!"
"Well, the rest of me is none of your business either!"
The fact that she was right made him even angrier. The fact that at this moment he desperately wanted her to be his business made him downright furious.
Heat crept up from under his collar into his cheeks. His fists curled tighter. He didn't want this. Hated that she could do this to him, tie his insides into knots like this. Hated himself even more for the part that wanted to give in to the possibilities...the promises he'd seen in her eyes and felt in the brush of her skin against his.
The part of him that made him reach for her not because he cared, but to prove he didn't.
The startled query in her eyes as he hauled her roughly against his chest might have made him reconsider if she hadn't lost her balance and fallen against him. But the wonderfully soft, feminine fullness pressed against him, coupled with the feel of her hands clutching at his shoulders and the scent rising from her, cost him the last vestiges of control.
He kissed her.
For an instant—a brief, world-spinning, reality-altering instant—she responded. Her mouth opened to his rough invasion, her tongue tangled with his, her body melted into him, and Jonas tasted both heaven and hell in the same heartbeat. Heaven because he held Kate in his arms; hell because that's where he'd be when she was gone.
But he barely had time to register the quasi-poetic thought before Earth and reality were simultaneously and unceremoniously restored with a bone-jarring thud. From an ignominious position flat on his back on the sidewalk, Jonas blinked up at the sky.
"Dude," drawled a teenage boy with a snicker as he shuffled past, hitching up his drooping jeans.
Kate was nowhere to be seen.
Jonas's brain kicked back into gear. She'd dumped him. Dumped him on his ass and left him here, and he'd been so consumed by dizzying, never-before-reached heights that he hadn't seen it coming.
He should have, however, because he'd sure as hell deserved it.
***
How dare he?
Kate ground her teeth together as she stomped along the sidewalk, swiping at the tears blurring her vision. One spilled over, tracking down her cheek, and she sniffled inelegantly. Fury churned with betrayal in her breast, becoming into a quagmire of emotions she didn't know how to even begin sifting through.
Damn him to hell and back...how dare he? She'd had her share of kisses over the years, but never one that compared to what had just happened. Never one that carried such anger behind it.
Or such longing.
She thrust aside the secondary thought. Whatever it might have morphed into, whatever it might have stirred in Jonas—
Or in you, the little voice added. She snarled at it in her head and brushed away another tear. It didn't matter what it might have become, only that it had been delivered with such fury. Such—
Possessiveness? her voice inquired, and something in the pit of her stomach gave a traitorous flutter. Her breath snagged in a throat that had tightened painfully. Damn. Damn Jonas for kissing her like that, and damn her body for responding, and damn, damn, damn.
Taking a deep breath, Kate paused in the doorway of a building to get her bearings. Nothing looked familiar. She closed her eyes. Great. Now, on top of everything else, she'd managed to get herself lost? She took another steadying breath. Easy does it, Kate. This is Cornwall. It's not big enough to get lost in, remember?
Besides, she was nowhere near ready to return to Jonas just yet. A walk would do her good. Steeling herself, she stepped back onto the sidewalk, aiming her steps toward the river and the path that ran for miles alongside it. She wondered whether Jonas would be looking for her, or whether he would return to the SUV to wait. Then she wondered whether he and the SUV would even be there when she did return.
She scrubbed the last of the tears from her face, telling herself she didn't care. Knowing she lied.
Damn him. Just...
Damn.
* * *
Jonas melted into the shadows, his back hugging the grimy brick wall at the rear of the vacant store where Kate had parked Jennings's SUV. He stood rigid, not daring to breathe. Had the two cops seen him? Seconds ticked by. The low murmur of voices reached him, but he couldn't make out any of the words. No footsteps approached.
He edged forward and risked a peek around the foul-smelling Dumpster that separated him from the vehicle—and from the police car parked beside it. Cardboard boxes lay strewn across the ground, the remnants of his and Kate's failed attempt to hide their vehicle for a few precious hours.
One of the cops stood beside the four-by-four, shining a flashlight into the interior. The other sat in the cruiser, talking on the radio. The light from the cruiser's interior dome showed no one in the back seat. They didn't have Kate. Yet.
Jonas leaned against the wall again. So if they didn't have Kate, where the hell was she? She’d been gone for hours. He'd been sure she'd head straight here—he’d picked himself up and dusted off his butt within a few seconds, then set out after her, but she'd been nowhere to be found. He grimaced. Nowhere that she wanted to be found, he corrected.
The sound of soft, careful footsteps reached him, not from the direction of the cops in the alley, but from the street behind him. One of their colleagues?
He drew back to listen, waiting. The stealthy steps drew closer, then paused. Jonas braced himself. Ran through his options if it was another cop. None of them were good. Bloody hell, where was K—
A head poked around the brick, and the light from a street lamp glinted off blond curls. Swiftly, reflexively, Jonas reached out and snagged Kate, pulling her against him. His other hand covered her mouth, muffling her squeak.
"It's me," he whispered as her heat wafted up to surround him. Kate stiffened, then nodded. He took his hand away and she stepped back, taking her warmth with her. I'm sorry, he wanted to add. So very, very sorry. But too many words increased their risk of discovery, and apologies would have to wait.
Silently, hoping she could see him in the shadows, he pointed toward the SUV, then held up two fingers. Kate's form nodded. She jerked her head toward the street, and the two of them picked their way back out to the pavement.
They walked quickly but in silence, sticking to the side streets where there were fewer cars. Fewer lights. More time for Jonas to absorb Kate's presence beside him and try to shunt aside his relief at her return. Shit, but things were spinning out of control fast. He cleared his throat. Save the panic for later, Burke. First things first.
"They'll be combing the town for us now they've found the vehicle," he said. "They'll go to Lazarus's bar."
"Jimmy's cool," Kate replied. "He owes me."
"So you keep saying. It must be quite a debt."
"I was put into place in his bar because he’d been implicated in a smuggling ring. The investigation proved he wasn't involved, and he got to keep his place."
"The investigation, or your investigation?"
Kate shrugged one shoulder as they passed beneath a corner street lamp. "I asked the right questions of the right people. That was my job."
Jonas suspected it had been more than that, but he didn't argue. "Even if he stays quiet about us, someone else at the bar will talk."
"Probably."
And their ride across the river wasn't scheduled for another two hours. The cops could talk to a lot of people in that time. Jonas followed Kate's turn onto another side street, matching his stride to hers.
"This is going to be one hell of a long night," he said.
She gave a soft snort. "Oh, yeah."
More walking. Then it was her turn to break the silence.
"They'll tow the SUV," she said, her voice quiet. Subdued. "And we still need to get to the rendezvous point for our ride. I'm thinking we find a bank machine, then see if we can get a taxi driver who's willing to keep his mouth shut. Does that work for you?"
"Absent any other options, it works fine. But first..." Jonas reached out and caught hold of her hand, pulling her to a stop and curling his fingers through hers. "First, I owe you an apology, Kate. And then—" He looked down at her. "Then I think we need to talk."