Page 120 of Hard to Hold
I was all for the sex. No arguments from me on that front. However, the rest was new for me. I hadn’t had a relationship since my early twenties, and that one hadn’t been nearly as time-consuming as this one was.
Truth was, I didn’t know how to do relationships. Especially not with two people, although that was what I wanted in the long run. I just hadn’t expected things to escalate so quickly. I knew a big part of that was due to Amy and her past, but someone had to put the brakes on, and I figured it might as well be me.
Plus, it would do Wolfe good to see that I wasn’t going to jump through hoops for him. I'd never been that guy, and no matter how hard or how fast I was falling for Wolfe and Amy, I refused to ever be that guy.
Now I just needed to figure out how to balance it all out.
If that was even possible.
Kelly
“Sir?”
I peered up from my desk, my eyes scanning the man who’d rudely interrupted me. “What is it?”
“Remember how you told me to let you know if that Jane Doe file was ever opened?”
An icy tremor raced down my spine as I sat up straight. “Yes.”
“Looks as though someone’s been checking into it.”
I masked my expression, not wanting to let on that this was possibly the worst news I could’ve received.
“Do you know who?” I asked, keeping my tone casual.
“Detective Joanna Tannenbaum.”
Son of a bitch.
I should’ve known that woman was going to be trouble. She’d only asked me about Amy at least half a dozen times since I'd concocted the story of Amy going to take care of her sick grandmother. I had no idea why Jo was so interested, and I didn’t like the fact that she was so fucking nosy.
“Did she say what she was looking into?”
“No, sir. She actually claimed she hadn’t looked into it, but her IP address was used to access it.”
“Thank you, James.”
“Yes, sir.”
When James turned and left the doorway, I leaned back in my chair, my chest burning. I knew I shouldn’t have let this go on this long. I should’ve taken care of her long before now. But after I'd been promoted to Houston police chief, I had gotten a little lax. I had more to worry about than the stupid woman who should’ve been six feet under.
And maybe lax wasn’t the right word. I had to admit I could’ve taken care of her long before now. I'd tracked her from the day she left the hospital near Embers Ridge. I'd kept tabs on her when she stayed with that nurse, then when she hopped from motel to motel. There for a while, I thought she was going to leave the state, but she never did. Instead, Amy backtracked to that damn small town. She bought a house and settled in not too long ago. I figured I had time to deal with her. After all, a year had passed, and no one had tied Jane Doe back to me.
So, I had backed off these past couple of weeks. I wanted to let her get comfortable, to think I wasn’t going to come after her. There’d been some masochistic pleasure in knowing that I could get my hands on her whenever and wherever I wanted. She couldn’t run from me, and she damn sure couldn’t outsmart me.
But the fact of the matter was, she should be dead.
It was true, from the second I'd laid eyes on her way back then, I had wanted her fiercely. I'd been excited to take her virginity, to ride her hard, to make her submit to me. Only that damn uncle of hers had caused problems from the beginning. And after I'd had to take care of them, Amy had changed. She’d become a headache over the years, and I had no idea why I'd kept her as long as I had.
And then she’d thought she could just leave me.
I could still feel the rage burning just under my skin. It had never gone away completely since the day I'd sat at my desk and watched as she moved through the house and packed her things. But she had hesitated. I knew she wouldn’t leave me. She didn’t have the gumption. She was too stupid to make a decision like that on her own. But I'd been tired of waiting for it. Admittedly, she’d gotten braver. So, I'd followed my instinct that morning when I had hightailed it back to the house.
And that was when the rage won out. I'd been blinded by fury to the point I hadn’t been able to stop beating her. But she just wouldn’t die. It was as though she had something to live for, but I knew better.
When she had finally stopped fighting back, I had knocked her unconscious. She’d suffered so many broken bones, and I figured the broken ribs had punctured her lungs. Hell, I'd figured if her injuries didn’t kill her, the elements alone would have. That was the only damn reason I'd dumped her out in the middle of fucking nowhere. I knew she didn’t have any family, no friends. No one would be looking for her. And when I'd been asked about her, I'd fabricated a story about her moving up to Pennsylvania to take care of her ailing grandmother. It had been hard to let her go, I'd explained, but necessary.
At least the last part had been true.
