Double Dare Part 20

13.

JESSE WAVERED between amus.e.m.e.nt and irritation as he watched Audra lead the investigating officer around by the...nose. between amus.e.m.e.nt and irritation as he watched Audra lead the investigating officer around by the...nose.

"She's not much into cops, is she?" Rob Dutton asked, a scowl creasing his freckled forehead. Jesse's partner leaned against a doorframe, tapping his pen against his blank notebook.

Jesse just shrugged, trying to ignore the sick knot in his belly. He'd had no idea Audra's warm, s.e.xy charm could take on such a sharp edge. Her mood didn't bode well for him. How would she take his eventual confession?

"You think it was Larson?" he murmured, indicating the trashed office.

"Pretty sure," Rob agreed. He glanced at the nasty missive he'd pulled from Audra's wall, the angry words glaring through the clear plastic of the evidence bag. "Even though the guy's a notorious wimp, I'll put an APB out on him. Walk me out, huh?"

Jesse frowned.

Ignoring Audra's questioning glance, he followed Rob out of the apartment. A soft evening breeze stirred the dark night. The two men were silent until they reached Rob's car, lit by the streetlights.

Jesse frowned again at the note, sealed in an evidence bag. You're not getting away with it. Give it back, b.i.t.c.h. Or you'll pay, and pay big. You're not getting away with it. Give it back, b.i.t.c.h. Or you'll pay, and pay big. Apparently Davey was getting desperate. Apparently Davey was getting desperate.

"We picked up a bimbette tonight," Rob said without preamble. "While she was shoveling dirt to get her a.s.s out of trouble, she tossed a few clumps at the triad. She also said she was stiffed on a deal. She was supposed to pick up a handoff of goods a week or so ago at The Wild Thing from ole Davey boy."

Ahh. Last piece of the puzzle. Jesse nodded his satisfaction. Audra was clear. A few knots he hadn't even realized he had loosened in his shoulders.

"You don't seem surprised." Rob took the evidence bag and tossed it into the backseat before leaning against the car and crossing his arms.

"I'm not. You weren't in the office this morning, but last night I'd discovered where the cash came from. As far as I'm concerned, Audra's clean. Nothing ties her to the triad or Larson except an accidental meeting."

"And the goods he pa.s.sed off in the bar," Rob reminded him as he got in his car and started the ignition. "You might want to keep that in mind. Especially since whoever tossed the place obviously has a hard-on for your girlfriend."

Jesse winced at the reference to Audra. But there was no condemnation in Rob's eyes, just sympathy and a hint of worry.

"Don't wait to break the case against the triad," Jesse ordered. "Larson's a threat to Audra. Pick him up, maybe we can get him to roll on the them."

"You're kissing your promotion goodbye if you don't pull down the big boys. You know that, right?"

With a nod, Jesse shrugged. He wordlessly watched Rob drive away. The promotion had been important. Proof that he was as good a cop as his father. But it wasn't worth Audra's safety. Nothing was.

Between the bimbette's confession and the break-in, Audra was pretty much cleared. But, unfortunately for Jesse, it moved her cleanly from suspect to target.

And shoved her right back to the off-limits list. If he thought sleeping with a suspect was dirty, sleeping with someone under his protection was simply taking advantage.

Five minutes later, Jesse confirmed the drive-by schedule with the uniformed officers before closing the door behind them. Then he eyed the s.e.xy woman across the room from him.

"Well, that wasn't quite how I planned to start off our wild night of hot loving," Audra said. Her tone was joking. But the stiffness of her smile and the stress bracketing her eyes gave away her turmoil. Even so, she stood in her usual, hip-c.o.c.ked s.e.xy stance and gave him a wink.

Was it any wonder he was crazy about her?

"Crime has a way of ruining the mood," Jesse shot back, figuring she'd appreciate the joke more than his observation of her emotional state. "I'll help you clean this up, huh?"

She looked around silently and then gave a sigh and a shrug. From where they stood, they could see the barely touched living room and bedroom, and the very trashed room that served as her office. Other than Davey's mess, her place was s.e.xy as h.e.l.l. Much like Audra herself.

"Did you want to come home with me?" he asked as they gathered CDs and books to put back on the teak shelving unit between the bedrooms. "Is there someplace else you'd rather stay tonight?"

"Stay? What are you talking about? I'm staying here."

"Here? You heard what the cop said. You should find someplace to stay until they catch that dirtbag who did this."

"Cops say lots of things. Most of them irritate me, so I rarely listen." At his frown, she shoved the last handful of books on the shelf, the red paperback spines w.i.l.l.y-nilly and teetering precariously, then stood.

"Look, I'm sure he had good intentions. Serve and protect, and all that jazz. But this is my home. No lowlife is going to drive me out of it. Like I told the cop, I have no idea why someone would threaten me and definitely have no clue what that note was blathering about. Besides, that one guy in the jeans, the one you were so chummy with?" She shot him a look that made Jesse's shoulders twitch. It was a combination suspicion, curiosity and underlying trust. "He said they'd be doing drive-bys and keeping watch on my place."

Jesse rose and stood over her. Trying to throw off his guilt over ignoring the question in her eyes, he offered his fiercest frown. "Drive-bys are all well and good, but they are no guarantee of safety. Are you willing to take that chance? Willing to go climb into your bed and hope he won't be back?"

Rather than turning pale, stuttering or even looking thoughtful, Audra lifted her chin and gave a chilly smile.

"Let him try."

"Fine. Then I'm staying with you."

Her cold smile turned to steam and she gave him a look hot enough to melt his shorts. Beneath it, though, was a vulnerability he'd never imagined in Audra.

If he'd had any illusions of keeping his hands off her until after the case was closed, that look shot them straight to h.e.l.l. But not tonight. That'd just be wrong. His body was putting up a fierce argument, but Jesse tried to convince himself he wasn't led by his d.i.c.k.

"Look, you've had a rough night. The break-in, the threat. You're probably emotionally overwhelmed right now." He ignored her wide-eyed stare and gestured to the now tidy hallway. "I'll stay the night, but on the couch. I'm not going to take advantage of you in a vulnerable state."

Audra's jaw dropped, a look of blank shock on her face. After five excruciatingly long seconds, she burst into laughter. He wasn't sure if he was relieved to see she wasn't overwrought, or offended.

At the sight of her delighted grin, he settled for relief.

"I can't remember the last time anyone took advantage of me. It sounds fun, though. Wanna take turns?"

She took a step toward him and her foot hit a string of beads, sending them flying across the room with a reverberating rattle. They watched as the string hit the wall, bright red orbs flying every which way on impact.

Jesse grimaced at the mess and glanced back at Audra to ask her where she kept her vacuum. His heart clenched at the sight of her face, silent tears swimming in her huge eyes.

With a barely audible groan, Jesse stepped forward and pulled her into his arms. Her scent, the heady richness of it, wrapped around his senses. Jesse rubbed her shoulders and murmured comforting nothings as she pulled in a shaky breath.

"You okay, babe?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said against his shoulder. "I'm just p.i.s.sed. And a little freaked that someone would hate me enough to break into my home and mess it up so bad. It's hard to fight someone when you have no idea who they are or how you p.i.s.sed them off, you know?"

Jesse winced. He had to tell her. As much as he'd like to put it off, to protect her-and, if he was honest with himself, protect his place in her life-he had to clue her in.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Jesse realized once he'd arrested Dave Larson and kicked his a.s.s for breaking into Audra's apartment, he'd likely thank the guy for bringing her into his life.

That was, if there was a chance she'd still have anything to do with him after she learned the truth.

With a heartsick sigh, Jesse knew he didn't have a choice. It was time to confess. Both for her own good, and to find out if she had any idea what Dave had been trying to hand off that night.

But d.a.m.ned if he wasn't positive his admission was going to screw him but good with her. And not in the way he'd enjoyed last night.

FEELING LIKE a wimpy idiot, Audra sucked in a deep breath and tried to tamp down the fear whispering in her head. That note had been so angry. a wimpy idiot, Audra sucked in a deep breath and tried to tamp down the fear whispering in her head. That note had been so angry.

Audra shuddered. Then she frowned. How dare someone come into her home and threaten her. As she'd told Jesse, she'd be d.a.m.ned if some dirtbag was going to mess with her or scare her out of her own place.

Or worse, screw with her s.e.x life.

With that in mind, she took a deep breath and cleared her face. To push back the fear, she pictured Jesse naked, his hard body poised over hers just before he took that wild plunge of pleasure.

She pulled back and gave him her let's-get-dirty let's-get-dirty look. look.

"Since you're staying the night, why don't we go in the bedroom and get comfortable? I can deal with this mess tomorrow. I had other plans tonight, and I'll be d.a.m.ned if some loser is going to keep us from having fun."

Audra watched the expressions chase across Jesse's face. Maybe it was stress overload, but she was definitely getting a weird vibe off him. It had started when he'd been all chummy with that cop. And now he had a guarded look in his eyes. It was as if all emotion had been wiped away, giving him a blank, official kind of look. The kind Child Protective Services had always worn when they'd come to check on her mother.

She tried to brush off the sick feeling in her stomach. But the tiny hairs on the back of her neck wouldn't lie down, and she suddenly felt like hurling.

Audra had never fallen apart in front of a guy before. Never let her rarely admitted vulnerability show. She'd never felt an emotional connection with a guy that made her feel safe enough to even consider it. Until tonight. Until Jesse.

And now? Now he was pulling away, distanced and cold. With that closed look on his face.

All bad signs.

"What's up?" she asked.

"I have a confession to make. Something I need to tell you." His casual tone sounded forced, as if he didn't want to scare her off.

Audra bit her lip. From his tone and the look on his face, she didn't think she was gonna be giddy with delight over whatever it was he wanted to share.

Since it didn't look like she could put off the conversation until she'd regained a solid emotional footing, Audra gestured that he go ahead. Jesse swallowed uncomfortably and winced. Then he gave a shrug and took her hands.

"Okay. Here goes...I'm not just a computer geek. I'm a cop. With the Cyber Crimes division of the Sacramento P.D."

She blinked.

Huh? A cop?

Son of a b.i.t.c.h. The longtime bad girl in Audra pulled back a few inches. Her entire body tensed up, her defenses going to automatic full alert. That would explain his ease with the cops who'd tramped through her house. His private powwow with the one in charge.

"Okay," she said slowly, trying to figure out if the anger building inside her was because he was a cop, or because he'd lied to her. "Why didn't you tell me this before? I thought you worked with computers."

"I do. Work with computers, that is. Cyber crimes are just that, computer crimes. I spend most of my time working with a keyboard."

"Oh." Should she be relieved? Had he actually lied? Maybe not, but it sure as h.e.l.l felt like it. Audra forced herself to unclench her teeth and smooth out the furrows digging into her brow. "That would explain why you were so chummy with that dude tonight. The cop in jeans."

"He's my partner," he confessed with a grimace.

"Partner? Why...? What's going on, Jesse."

Needing to be away from him, Audra stepped back. Still able to breathe in the spicy scent of his cologne, she took another step back. She needed all the distance she could get to clear her head and get a freaking clue as to what was going on.

"I was in the club the night we met because I was on a case," he confessed.

"I thought you just said you worked behind a computer?"

"Usually, I do. But I went undercover. It was a dare, of sorts."

Of sorts. Audra winced at the memory of that night and her own dare. Of how and why she'd hooked up with Jesse.

"I was there tailing the dork. That guy you'd had the 'sort of' dare date with. Remember him?"

Audra nodded slowly.

"Dave Larson, that's his name. He was there to make a connection. To pa.s.s off a chip of stolen IDs. He's involved on the fringes of a Chinatown-based crime ring and was selling the information to them. My plan was to identify his connection, trail her back to the crime ring."

"Her?" It was finally all clicking together. Audra's stomach had stopped swirling, now it was clenched like an angry fist. "If I remember right, the only woman that geek hooked up with at the club was me."

"Well...yeah."

It didn't take her long to connect the dots. Betrayal slapped her with a stinging blow.

"You think I'm a criminal?" Shock made her tone sharp enough to cut gla.s.s. She'd thought he was different. Someone who looked at her and, yeah, recognized she was a bad girl, but realized that didn't mean she was a bad person. But no. Jesse was just like all the other jerks in her life. He'd not only had low expectations of her, he'd pegged her for a criminal.

"Look, that's not the point right now. What matters is that I'm sure it was Larson who broke in here and threatened you. You have something he wants, Audra. I need to find out what it is and get it so I can protect you."

Audra swore she felt her heart actually crack. Pain like she'd never felt, even during her father's prolonged illness and death, poured through her. Her breath caught at the intensity of Jesse's betrayal. At the misery of realizing he not only didn't return her feelings of love, he'd used her.

This was one h.e.l.l of a time to find out that whole stupid cliche was rooted in reality. A red film of betrayed anger glazed her eyes, and Audra glared to clear her vision. She grabbed on to the fury, glad to have it there to s.h.i.+eld her from the misery tearing at her heart.

"Not the point?" she hissed over the pain. "You think I'm dirty of some crime and that's not the point? You used me. You slept with me, all the while thinking I was a...what? A criminal? An accessory to something?"

"Don't make this into more than it is. There was a lot of evidence against you."

"Why? Because I talked to some geek? How the h.e.l.l does that make me look guilty of anything except bad taste?"

"It was the money in your company's account. The trip to China. A lot of little things," he said in a stiff tone, misery clear in his eyes.

Audra didn't care how bad he felt. He deserved it. After all, he'd done the unforgivable. He'd made her open her heart. And for what? A police investigation? She pressed her hand against her stomach.

"You checked me out? You poked into Simply Sensual's finances and investigated our business?" Outrage made her words shrill. She thought back to that night, the club. Then the parking lot. How could she have been so stupid? She'd been worrying about forgetting a d.a.m.ned condom and the whole time she should have been worried about her blind trust. What Wicked Chick worth her stilettos didn't sense a setup?