Home > Twice Bitten (Argeneau #27)(13)

Twice Bitten (Argeneau #27)(13)
Author: Lynsay Sands

Wyatt didn’t hesitate, but immediately chased after her. He cast a wary glance toward the woman on the porch as he did, but her focus was wholly on her daughter, her expression strained and concentrated in a way that kind of gave him the heebie-jeebies as he followed Elspeth down the driveway. She was heading for a white Mazda, a cute little two-door sports car, he noted and frowned at the hunted look Elspeth cast over her shoulder toward the house.

Eyebrows rising, Wyatt glanced over his shoulder as well and saw that Martine had given up her concentrated expression for one that was . . . vexed. That was the only description he could think that fit. The woman looked vexed, and for some reason, in that moment, she made him think of the thwarted evil stepmother from a Disney film.

Almost embarrassed by the thought, Wyatt slowed as he neared Elspeth. She had reached the driver’s side door, but paused as she spotted him approaching. Expression wary, she withdrew keys from her coat pocket and murmured, “Thank you for bringing me my jacket.”

“No problem,” Wyatt said easily, and then debated what to say next. He was quite sure that straight-out asking what the women had been talking about was not going to get him the answers he sought. It also wouldn’t get him another one of those amazing kisses they’d shared, which he probably shouldn’t be worrying about right now, but—

Well, hell, he was a guy, and kissing, along with everything that might follow, was pretty much taking up ninety percent of his mind at the moment. It was purely Elspeth’s fault. Just standing close and looking at her was making him want to experience that kiss again.

Christ, he’d always been offended when he heard women claim men thought with their dicks, but that was what he was doing right now, Wyatt acknowledged with self-disgust.

“Did you want something?”

Wyatt shifted his gaze back to Elspeth at her tense question, and then simply asked, “Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m just . . . I have to go to work,” she muttered, avoiding his gaze.

Elspeth was a terrible liar, he decided with amusement. “I’m sure Gran said you start work around eight or nine at night and it’s barely even six thirty yet.”

“Yes, well, I have to . . . pick up something first, so I’m leaving a little early tonight,” she muttered.

This time she didn’t avoid his eyes and he was quite sure she was telling the truth. She planned to go straight to work from wherever she was headed now. But she wasn’t comfortable even discussing whatever she was doing first. She looked half-guilty, as if she was giving away something she shouldn’t, and he suddenly recalled her mentioning an emergency earlier. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t explain if he asked her about it, so he let that go for now and simply said, “Right. Well, I was just going to run out and pick up some flowers or something for Gran as an apology for forcing Oscar on her tonight. I could pick up whatever you need while I’m at it and save you a trip.”

“Flowers?” she said dubiously. “At this hour? Most flower shops close at five or six and—as you said—it’s almost six thirty now.”

“I stopped at a gas station on my way in from the airport yesterday and they had flowers there. I was just going to go grab some of those for her,” he said, making it up quickly.

“Oh, yeah, gas station flowers are really going to make up for Oscar,” Elspeth said, rolling her eyes.

“Maybe not, but it’s a start,” he said defensively. “I’ll get her something nicer tomorrow.”

“All you need to give her is love and support. That’s what she truly wants from you,” Elspeth said softly. “Your grandmother is a wonderful woman. She’s perfectly capable of looking after herself, and she needs you to believe that.”

“I do,” he said gruffly. “At least, I’m starting to believe it.”

“Well, good,” she muttered, and opened her car door.

A dark, rust-colored stain on the white leather of the driver’s seat immediately caught Wyatt’s eye and he stiffened. It looked like dried blood to him, but he only got a quick look before she slid into the vehicle and sat on it.

“I have to go.”

Wyatt shifted his gaze to her face to see that she was eyeing him a little anxiously.

When he didn’t respond, she added, “But thank you for the offer to pick up what I need. It was kind. I’ll see you soon.”

“Yeah, soon,” Wyatt said and then, realizing that he was holding the top of her door, he released it. She immediately pulled it closed. Wyatt eyed her briefly through the window as she started the engine, and then he turned to continue down the driveway. He’d parked on the road rather than block the parking spots allotted to the renters when he’d arrived the day before. But now that he knew the basement apartment hadn’t yet been rented out again, he’d park in the spot meant for that apartment’s tenant when he returned later . . . after following Elspeth to wherever she was going. The woman had secrets, and he planned to find out what they were before he kissed her again . . . and hopefully bedded her. Maybe.

Wyatt grimaced at that last word, but knew it was true. He wanted to know whether she really didn’t remember him or not, and what the hell she and her mother had been talking about with the using him and execution talk, but he wasn’t fooling himself. If Elspeth got back out of the car right now and offered herself to him, he’d probably be hard-pressed to recall the questions he wanted answered. His mind would no doubt shift to lizard brain and his concentration would all be on the quickest way to get her clothes off, and whether he dared just do her right there on the front lawn, or whether he could find it in himself to take the time to try to find somewhere to do it that wasn’t the spare bedroom in his grandmother’s apartment, or her bedroom in her apartment with her mother and sisters there.

He might be able to make it to the backyard, Wyatt supposed, glancing around the quiet street. It would give them a small semblance of privacy for him to rip her clothes off and revel in her body.

The sound of the Mazda’s engine drew Wyatt from his thoughts as he reached the SUV he’d rented. He saw Elspeth bring it to a halt at the foot of the driveway and look both ways as he slid into his own vehicle and started the engine. Spotting him in the SUV, she tossed him an anxious smile and wave, and then pulled onto the road, headed in the direction his vehicle was pointed.

Wyatt glanced back at the house to see Martine’s shoulders sag as she turned to reenter the house. His gaze slid from the despondent woman to Elspeth’s Mazda, and then he shifted into gear and pulled out to head up the street behind the little car, but his mind was replaying the entire encounter in his head. The shared kiss, the argument he’d overheard, the stain on Elspeth’s car seat.

Wondering if that stain really had been the dried blood it looked like, Wyatt made sure to keep a safe distance between their vehicles. He was determined to find out where the woman was going, and was happy to play detective to do it.

Twenty minutes later Wyatt found himself in downtown Toronto. It was nearly another ten minutes, though, before Elspeth pulled into a multilevel parking lot.

Wyatt didn’t pull in behind her. Instead, he glanced around at the businesses nearby as he continued up the road. He turned at the first cross street, circled around, and turned back onto the road just as she hurried out of the parking garage. He’d barely noticed her rushing toward the street when the car in front of him stopped abruptly. Slamming on his brakes to avoid hitting the white sedan, Wyatt watched Elspeth rush across the road in front of the stopped vehicle. Traffic coming in the opposite direction had stopped as well, he noted with surprise. Toronto drivers weren’t usually this polite or accommodating, he was sure. At least, cars stopping to let jaywalkers pass wasn’t something they did in Vancouver as a rule.

As he watched, Elspeth gained the opposite curb and hurried through a bloodred door fronting an otherwise nondescript building. Wyatt’s eyes ran over the small unassuming sign above the door and he frowned as he read, The Night Club.

A loud honk behind him drew Wyatt back to the fact that traffic was moving again. Removing his foot from the brake, he let the rental ease forward, but cast another glance at the door Elspeth had slipped through as he went. What the hell could Elspeth be “picking up” in a nightclub? Besides booze and men, that is. Surely the emergency hadn’t been her nipping out for a drink or a quickie before work?

   
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