That sounded like an accusation, making him grin. “Only a few minutes.” Lacking her modesty, he stretched and got out of bed. “I’ll take Cash out, then how about we shower?”
Still a little foggy, she dropped her gaze over his bare body and swallowed. “Together?”
“Yes.”
Another look, longer this time.
Much more of that, and he’d be sporting a boner. “Alice...”
Her grip on the blanket loosened. “Okay.”
It was a nice thing, to be wanted so much by Alice. “Be right back.” He pulled on slacks, grabbed up his wallet and cell phone, and by the time he hit the door, Cash was with him. “Good boy. You’re learning, aren’t you?”
Cash waited like a gentleman while Reese attached the leash, and on the way down the steps, he only pulled Reese off balance twice.
The progress the dog made pleased him. In such a short time, Cash had learned to hold it until he got outside, and he hadn’t chewed up anything in, oh, a day or two. Definitely getting better.
Alice had a lot to do with that. Her gentle, calm nature went a long way toward reassuring Cash and helping him recover from any past abuse. The fact that Alice worked from home, so therefore spent more time with the dog, helped, too.
She was a good influence—on Cash, on Reese.
But she still had those damned secrets.
Reese took out his phone and dialed Rowdy.
On the fifth ring, Rowdy answered with a grouchy, “What the f**k, Reese? Do you know what time it is?”
“Sleeping in?”
“I had good reason.”
Ah. “Company, huh? Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be. Was time for her to go, anyway. Hang on a sec.”
Reese heard Rowdy talking low, heard a grumbled female protest, insistence from Rowdy, then the louder sounds of a woman scorned.
Had Rowdy wakened her just to tell her to leave? Brutal. But that was Rowdy, hard-edged, coarse and apparently inconsiderate to women.
Not his sister, who he cherished.
And being truthful, Rowdy had never been inconsiderate to Alice either.
Reese winced, remembering how he’d gotten answers from Alice last night. But damn it, he’d had good reason.
What possible excuse could Rowdy have for kicking a woman out of bed?
Feeling like a hypocrite, Reese considered calling back when Rowdy might be less occupied. He was about to disconnect when he heard the woman’s complaints soften to pleas.
Low conversation, followed by a gruff, suggestive laugh, filtered through the phone lines.
A door closed, bed springs squeaked and Rowdy said, “So what’s up?”
Unbelievable. “You’re alone now?”
“Yeah. And given I was occupied for most of the night, I’d like to get a little more sleep. So unless you have a good reason for this call...?”
“I do. I wanted to talk while I’m outside with Cash.”
“Meaning away from Alice?”
Exactly, but Reese didn’t want to say that. “The girl that Alice helped yesterday—do you know anything more about her?”
“Not a thing. She’d already taken off on a bus by the time I caught up. I asked, but Alice said she’d only given the girl money, not bought the ticket, so she didn’t know where she was headed.”
Reese didn’t buy it. Alice wasn’t one to leave things to chance. “You believe her?”
“Hell, no. Alice is a little too sharp for blind trust.”
That Rowdy knew her well enough to understand that rubbed Reese the wrong way. “She told me the girl had a unique tattoo.”
“Told me that, too. So?”
Damn it, he did not want Alice confiding in Rowdy. Jealousy was a son-of-a-bitch, so Reese did his best to deny it.
He heard a toilet flush, heard water run. “You still there, Reese?”
“Yeah.” Pinching the bridge of his nose, he said, “It could be unrelated.”
“I need coffee, so if there’s a point to this, let’s get to it.”
“All right.” Going to the requisite tree—the spot Reese now thought of as his “taking out Cash tree”—he leaned against the trunk and gave Cash enough leash to explore. “Peterson found a similar tattoo on another girl.”
“No shit? Maybe a new fad, huh?”
“The girl was dead.”
Rowdy fell silent. “You said it was like the tattoo Alice described?”
“From what I could tell, yes.”
“One girl running, another dead, both with the same tat. That’s one hell of a coincidence.”
“I know.” Since Alice often surprised him by joining him outside, Reese kept watch on the apartment doors while telling Rowdy what he knew about the tattoo. “You think you can keep an eye out?”
“Sure thing. I’ve already noticed a couple of tattoo parlors not that far from the mall. I’ll check them out.”
“Thinking of getting inked?”
Rowdy snorted. “Not my thing. But I’m buying a bar, so I scoped out the area.”
Buying a bar? That was news to Reese. “You’re serious?”
“Yeah. Alice didn’t tell you?”
Damn it. There was a lot Alice didn’t tell him. “She hadn’t mentioned it, no.”
“It’s not a big deal. I figured since Pepper was settling down here with Logan, I may as well do a little settling of my own.”
A bar counted as being settled? To Rowdy, probably. “Is it nice?”