Freefall. Jodie Bailey

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СКАЧАТЬ with both feet and sinking fast.

      The steps passed, and a door creaked open. There was silence, then the same door closed again.

      “Got it.” Cassy’s voice floated into the closet and sent a familiar tremor down his spine. “Good thing I left it in my truck or I might have dropped it when...when I tripped coming into the house.” Her footsteps slowed as she neared the closet.

      Shane pressed his forehead tighter to the door, his hands flat-palming the cool wood. She was so close he could almost feel her.

      She picked up speed and passed.

      He’d always known he’d see her again someday. The army was too small, their jobs too specialized, to avoid certain confrontation. But of all the ways he’d imagined a reunion, this wasn’t one of them. Sure, he’d known all along it wouldn’t be roses and kittens, but he never figured he’d be hiding in her coat closet bleeding from a stab wound in his arm.

      And he’d never imagined he’d feel anything other than coldness for the woman who’d thrown their marriage to the pavement and ground it under her boot heel. Shane leaned his head against the door. God, help me. I can’t fall in love with her again.

      * * *

      Cassidy dropped to the sofa and bent to untie her bootlaces, doing her best to act normal while her mind searched for topics that had nothing to do with explosions or Shane. He could stay in her closet all night if he wanted, but she hoped he’d slipped out when she ran to answer the door. The more distance between them, the better.

      “Are you okay?” Jackson settled in beside her. “You’re all jumpy.”

      His closeness in the semidarkness was disconcerting. Something in his manner was off, like he was trying too hard to comfort her, his movements and facial expressions a too-bright caricature of his usual self. “You try thinking you’re being fire-bombed on your home turf.” And then come home to find a man you never wanted to see again hiding in your closet. That’ll light up your nerve endings. “What did you need my laptop for?”

      “Mine’s fried. I left it plugged in at the office, thinking I’d go back and finish some reports after dinner, but the storm had other plans. That was why I had to ditch on dinner. Lightning hit our building. Good thing all of the other computers were hooked to surge protectors. It looks like I’m the lucky one who got zapped.”

      “That’s good.” She went to work on the knot in her other boot, the pressure of the day deafening her so she heard only half of Jackson’s story. Typically, his brotherly presence was comforting. Tonight, though, every word out of his mouth sliced cuts in her raw nerves.

      “That’s good? What is? That my computer got fried?” His voice wagged with amusement that didn’t match the events of the day.

      “No. That the others are okay.” Cassidy jerked her shoelace. The knot grew tighter instead of working loose.

      A soft scrape and a thud drifted in from the kitchen, and Jackson looked up, tensed as if to spring. “Did you hear that?”

      “Hear what? It was nothing.” Let it be the sound of Shane leaving her life forever. Nobody would hear her complain about that.

      Jackson snatched the flashlight from the coffee table and stood. “Was the power off when you got home?”

      “Yes, but—”

      “And did you get a cat since I was last here?” He eased toward the door to the kitchen, voice lowered.

      “No.” Cassidy rocketed off of the couch. Jackson couldn’t go in there and find Shane sneaking his way out the door. There was no telling what he’d think. “I’m sure it’s—”

      “Somebody’s in your house,” he whispered as he edged toward the kitchen.

      “Jackson!” Her voice held all of the authority she normally reserved for wayward privates. “There is nobody in my house.” Why was she protecting Shane? As soon as she figured out why he was camping out in her closet, she’d probably call the police just to prove her point. If she did that, though, it would bring the authorities—and her chain of command when they got wind of it—into her personal life. The sigh that escaped was a fitting punctuation mark at the end of this day. It wasn’t worth the hassle.

      Jackson hesitated, bobbing the beam of the flashlight in her direction, his expression dark in the reflected beam from the light. “Are you sure?”

      “I came in that way. And nobody could get from anywhere else in the house to the kitchen without walking right past us.” Cassidy perched on the edge of the couch and hoped her voice was convincing as she reached for her bootlace.

      Annoyed indecision flickered on Jackson’s face in the dim light. “What are you playing at, Matthews?”

      Since when did he refer to her by her last name? “The only thing I’m ‘playing at’ is too much adrenaline and not enough food in my system, okay?”

      With a last glance toward the kitchen, he walked over to the couch, settled the flashlight onto the table, and sat down next to her again. His eyes stayed on her, probing. “And you’re one hundred percent sure you’re okay?”

      “I’m fine.” She jerked the laces free and yanked her boot off her foot, fighting the sudden urge to throw it at her friend. This day—and the man in her kitchen—had gone to her head.

      “Uh-huh. You act like everything’s perfectly normal.”

      Well, let’s see. A toasted Honda. Her ex hiding in her house. Everyone in her life going cuckoo at once. Yeah, normal was all over her house. “Too much went down in too many places today.”

      “Other than things going boom?”

      “It’s like my whole life went boom.” Cassidy pressed her big toes together. It was too hard to breathe while split in two, her thoughts in one room and her body in another.

      He eyed her like he had something to say, then pressed his lips together and stood. As he shouldered her bag, he said, “Thanks for digging this out of your car for me. I can bring it to you Monday morning.” Jackson pulled the door open and paused with one foot inside and one on the concrete of the front porch. “You sure you don’t want me to check out what went bump in your kitchen?”

      “It was nothing. And I’ve been to war. Three times. I can take care of myself in my own house.”

      He flipped a mock salute as the streetlights flickered on behind him and her AC unit hummed to life.

      “See? Nothing to worry about.” Cassidy gripped the doorknob tightly and willed Jackson to leave before she told him about Shane or said anything else she’d regret in the morning.

      He tossed a wave in her direction without looking back and wasn’t halfway down the sidewalk before Cassidy shut the door and bolted for the kitchen. If Shane was still in that closet, he had a lot of explaining to do, then he’d have to get out of her life forever. The last thing she needed was his messing with her head. And he was definitely messing with her head.

      Slipping in her socks on the tile, she gripped the door handle to steady herself, then yanked the closet open. Only her coats stared back at her. Shane was gone.

      * СКАЧАТЬ