“She used any excuse she could to see me.” That was common knowledge. “But…are you talking about more than that?”
“I’m talking about when she came out here at night.”
“You mean…late at night?”
He lifted his hands from the steering wheel. “Yes, late. Once every other week, at least. I’m sure there were lots of times I didn’t know about. But if you two had something going, it’s none of my business. That’s why I stayed out of it.”
“We didn’t have anything going!” Cain’s patience was wearing thin.
Evidently, Levi could tell by his shock that he was being honest. “She didn’t come up here to—” he lowered his voice, even though there was no one but the dogs to hear them “—you know, be with you?”
Cain scowled. “Not the way you think. I haven’t slept with her since before we divorced ten years ago. And I’ve never invited her over at night. Hell, I didn’t even invite her over during the day. If she came here, it was of her own accord. I’d already learned my lesson.”
“What was she doing when she came here at night, then?”
That was what Cain wanted to know. “I have no idea,” he said, but he thought it was high time he found out.
Sheridan sat on a double bed in the Fairweather Inn on Main Street, facing her best friend. She had the key to her uncle’s place, but she wasn’t ready to return there, wasn’t sure she’d ever want to stay there again. The motel felt safer, more neutral.
“I can’t believe you didn’t call me,” Skye said, still angry. “We’ve been so worried. Especially Jonathan. He’s on an important case or he’d be here instead of me.”
“I’m sorry. I…I didn’t know what to tell you. Or him.” She and Jon were no longer dating. They hadn’t viewed each other in a romantic light for more than two years. But they were closer than ever, best friends. “I figured he’d try to talk me into leaving if I called him.”
Skye glared at her without speaking.
“Besides, I don’t have my cell phone,” Sheridan continued. “The battery’s dead and I have no clue where my charger went.”
Skye’s mouth twisted. “What about loverboy’s phone?”
Sheridan shot her a dirty look at the loverboy reference. “I didn’t want to use Cain’s phone to make a long-distance call—”
“That’s such an excuse!”
Why argue? It was a hundred percent true. She’d been hiding from everyone who might warn her against doing what she had, in fact, done. She’d never gotten over Cain. The impulse to stay with him had gotten the better of her common sense. That was all. And she didn’t want to leave Whiterock for fear the mystery would drag on forever. She was determined to expose the man who’d tried to kill her, to keep fighting for the truth.
“Didn’t you want a little emotional support? Or were you happy getting what you got instead?” Skye said snidely.
“Stop it.” As chagrined as she felt for not being more sensitive to her friends’ concern, Sheridan was growing irritated with Skye’s unrelenting digs. “You have no right to be such a smart-ass.”
Skye almost flew off the bed. “I’ve got every right! You were nearly beaten to death two weeks ago. You don’t think that’s something I should know? What if Cain hadn’t taken such good care of you? What if you’d died? You’re one of my best friends, damn it!”
“But it’s my life! I can screw it up if I want to!”
Skye flounced back on the pillows and used the remote to turn on the television. “Well, I hope it was worth it.”
At this point, Sheridan was pretty sure it had been. An interlude like the one she’d shared with Cain was difficult to regret. She’d never enjoyed making love to anyone the way she’d enjoyed it with him. That had to count for something. There were people who went their whole lives without experiencing that sense of giddy excitement, that bone-melting desire. So what if it couldn’t last? At least she’d felt it. At least she knew it was possible, that it was real.
But she’d caused Skye a lot of worry, trouble and expense. She owed her an apology for that. And she’d probably upset Jonathan even more. “Skye, I was completely out of it for probably…I don’t know, eight or nine days. You can’t hold the first week against me.”
Skye sulked as she watched some movie on TV. “You could’ve had Cain notify your family and friends.”
“The police tried to contact my parents, but they were on their cruise.”
“What about me and Jon?”
“I was getting around to it,” she mumbled.
She tossed the remote onto the bed. “When? Next month? After we’d filed a missing person report and mourned you as dead?”
Sheridan got up and rummaged through her suitcase for a nightshirt. “Will you please calm down?”
Taking a deep breath, Skye frowned but didn’t say any more until the next commercial break. Then she attempted a calmer approach. “That’s how I learned you were hurt,” she said. “I finally got through to your parents.”
“They told you where I was?”
“They said you were staying at Cain Granger’s until they could make other arrangements for you. But that was enough to tell me you were in trouble. It isn’t as if we don’t know about him, Sher. He’s almost all you talked about in that victims’ support group where we met. I know what he means to you and how guilty you feel….”
“So you came to rescue me from him.”
“I came to see what the hell’s going on and to bring you home. It was me or Jon, and he couldn’t leave, not really. Jasmine wanted to join me, too, but she’s in Virginia.”
Sheridan changed into a T-shirt of Cain’s she’d accidently grabbed while packing. “If you talked to my parents, you knew I was okay.”
“Did I?” Skye challenged. “Let me tell you something. Jasmine called me this morning—” she glanced at the clock “—I mean, yesterday morning.”
A tremor of foreboding went through Sheridan. Jasmine had undeniable psychic abilities, which she used to help police solve various crimes, many of them high-profile. Sheridan didn’t really understand how Jasmine did what she did, but she’d seen her friend’s visions come to pass often enough that she no longer questioned them. “What’d she say?” Sheridan had to ask, even though she dreaded the answer.