Don’t Play With Odin by Cynthia Eden
Chapter Seventeen
Maisey’s eyes opened. The water kept pounding down on her, and it felt good. Not as good as Odin, of course, but…
Did anything else feel this good?
His head lifted. Very slowly, with his eyes on hers, he eased out of her. He lowered her until her feet touched the bottom of the shower, and then he was carefully washing her. A gasp sprang from her lips as his big fingers slid over the folds of her sex.
Was she supposed to get turned on again, so soon?
Before she could push against those wicked fingers, he’d pulled back.
His bright eyes pinned her. “What am I going to do with you?”
Love me forever. The words just rolled through her mind, and she almost said them. Almost. They almost burst out of her the way so many rambles did, but Maisey caught herself at the last second. Her lips clamped together, and she stared at him in horror.
OhmyGod. When had it happened? When had she done this? When had she fallen for her PI?
“What is it?” His knuckles slid over her cheek.
I love you. This was too soon. If she said those three words, she’d probably freak him out. She didn’t want to freak out Odin. She just wanted him.
Maisey shivered. Even though the water was warm, the shiver rocked her body because she was suddenly aware that she was in way, way deep with Odin.
“You’re cold. Come on, baby. I’ll take care of you.”
And he did. He got her out of the shower. Dried her off. Carried her to bed and eased her under the covers like she was something precious and fragile. He handled her so carefully. As if she mattered.
Maybe she did. Maybe this was more than sex for him. It was certainly a hell of a lot more for her. But she didn’t know what to say. So she stayed quiet.
Odin turned off the lights. Climbed into bed with her. Pulled her into his arms. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.”
His hold tightened. “You’re scared.”
Absolutely terrified. She’d never been in love before. Never come close. But she knew this was it. Odin was it. “Wh-what do you mean?”
“You talk when you’re nervous. You go dead quiet when you’re scared.” A pause. “Did I do something that made you scared?”
No, I did. I went and fell in love with you.
“Maisey?” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “I can’t fix it if I don’t know what it is.”
“I feel like I fit with you.” A whisper.
A soft laugh. “I think we happen to fit pretty damn well.”
No, she, um, didn’t mean sexually. Though—yes. Maisey turned in his arms. “I’ve been alone a long time.”
He brushed back her hair.
“I told you that I was left at a hospital when I was a kid. I never knew my mom. Never knew if she was the one who put me there or if it was someone else. I was left, and whoever left me never looked back.” It was too dark for her to see his face. Too dark for him to see hers, so he wouldn’t notice if a tear or two slid down her cheeks. “It was a small town. You would have thought that someone would notice a pregnant woman who was suddenly minus her baby, but that didn’t happen. Maybe—Pop thought perhaps she’d been someone who drove through town. Someone who was looking for a safe, good spot for her baby girl to grow up.”
“Pop?”
“My adoptive dad.” His image slid through her mind. His grizzled cheeks. The humor that had always sparkled in his dark eyes. “He was the sheriff. He and his wife adopted me. Pop told me…” He’d told her this a hundred times. “That he looked at me and knew I was his. He told me that some people just fit you, and you know it.”
Another press of Odin’s lips against her temple.
“It’s because of him that I first started watching crime shows. We’d stay up late watching them together. Get lost in them. He would always want me to try and solve the cases with him.” She could see him so clearly in her mind as he sat on the edge of that old, sagging couch. “My mom was the town’s librarian. When I wasn’t trying to solve crimes with him, I was reading with her. My life was good. It was quiet. It was safe.” A slow exhale. “Until that safety ended.”
“Baby…”
“The town was supposed to be perfect. A place where you know everybody and everybody knows you.” She swallowed. “But how well can you really know anyone? I told you before, I get that evil can hide. And Pop figured out that one of the guys in town—this fellow who went to every PTA meeting and city council meeting—he’d been pulling robberies left and right two cities over. Pop went to confront him, and instead of surrendering, the guy ran.” And that was when things ended. “But he didn’t run far. He blamed my dad for destroying his world. For making his perfect illusion shatter.”
“It was the bastard’s own fault. Your dad was doing his job.”
She nodded. Yes, that was what she thought, too. But… “He went to the library. The only library in town. He knew my mom worked there, you see. The sheriff’s wife. He went there, and he shot her.”
“Fuck. Maisey.”
“His name was Jeremiah Harrison. He’d bought candy from me when I did school fundraisers. And he shot my mother.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“There was a standoff at the library. Biggest thing the town had ever seen. Jeremiah just wouldn’t give up. He would not surrender. He came out shooting. Pop stopped him, but Pop…he didn’t live long after that.” A ragged breath as the pain squeezed her heart. “He wasn’t wearing his vest. He should have been wearing his bulletproof vest, but I think he didn’t care about himself. Not after he knew what had happened to Mom.”
She could feel the tears on her cheeks. She hadn’t told anyone else about her parents. She’d moved away. Started fresh. Tried to leave the pain behind. But Odin wasn’t other people. She needed to tell him this. “I buried them both on the same day, and I never went back to that town.”
His fingers slid over her cheeks. Tenderly wiped away the tears that she knew he couldn’t see. “I want to take your pain away.”
“You do. You have.” That was why she had to finish. So he’d understand. “Pop said certain people fit you, and you know it.” Just say it. “You fit me, Odin. Fit me in a way no one else ever has. I’m scared because I haven’t felt this way before, but the truth is…I think I’m falling in love with you.” Then she held her breath because…
It’s too soon. He won’t feel the same way. I should have just held back. But once she’d started talking…
“Can you forget what I said?” Maisey blurted into the silence. “Sometimes, I overshare. That was obviously a major overshare. You don’t need to feel that you have to say anything back to me. I mean, you can just be like, ‘That’s nice’ and sort of leave it at that. There is no pressure. I don’t expect anything.”
His hand slid under her chin. “You should.”
“I should—what?”
“You should expect the whole damn world. And that’s what I want to give you.”
What was he saying?
“I don’t know what I feel, Maisey. I just know that I feel more for you than I ever have with anyone else. I like it when you smile. Sometimes, I think I’d do just about anything to see your dimples wink at me.”
He would?
His lips brushed over hers. He’d found her mouth—unerringly—in the dark.
“I like it when you’re excited about something that you’re telling me and your eyes get extra golden as they light up. You’ve got the most gorgeous eyes I’ve ever seen.”
That was so sweet.
He gets grumbly when I tell him that he’s sweet.
“I like the way your body responds to mine. Like you were made for me. I was made for you.”
“I’m rather fond of your body, too,” she confessed.
“I don’t feel too big or rough when I’m around you. Everything feels just right.” Another kiss. “Like we fit.”
She blinked quickly so that more tears wouldn’t fall.
“I don’t know much about love. Didn’t have those teen romances in school. Most girls steered clear of me. Then it was battle after battle. No time for anything lasting.” His words were careful. “I would like to try something lasting, with you.”
Could he feel the frantic pounding of her heart?
“I want to try everything with you.” Odin’s voice seemed to fill the darkness around her.
“I would like that very much.” She was the one to arch up toward him. To find his lips in the dark this time. Happiness was blooming inside of her. When she’d walked into Trouble for Hire, she’d never expected her life to change this much. Now, she couldn’t imagine her life without Odin.
She was in his arms. Safe. Warm. And he wasn’t saying he loved her. She truly hadn’t expected the words back. But what he was saying sure sounded good to her. It sounded like a beautiful start.
***
A phone was ringing. The quick peal of sound yanked Maisey from sleep. She jerked upright, pulling from Odin’s arms.
“Yours,” Odin rumbled.
Hers. Her phone. Ringing on the nightstand. She squinted at the glowing screen of her clock. Two a.m. A late-night call again. She knew it had to be the jerk they were after.
“Keep him talking,” Odin ordered as he sat up beside her. “We’ll get the trace.” He jumped from the bed. Grabbed his own phone and sent out a quick text to someone.
Maisey reached for her phone. Swiped her fingers over the screen as she took the call and turned on the speaker. She wanted Odin to hear every word. “Hello?”
“Help me…” Whitney’s voice.
A pang shot through Maisey. All sleepiness had vanished. Her mind was ice-cold and awake.
“Come…help—”
“Stop it,” Maisey ordered bluntly as she shoved back hair that had tumbled over her eye. “I know this isn’t Whitney. You’re using a recording, and you’re jerking me around. Either talk to me for real or I end this call.”
Silence.
She stared fearfully at Odin’s shadowy form. Had she just screwed up? Would the caller hang up on her?
“You think you’re clever.” Not Whitney any longer. But still, not the caller’s real voice. Distorted. Robotic. “Solving the big mystery. Hunting the killer.”
She sucked in a breath that just seemed to chill her lungs. “What do you want from me?” Her hand fisted the sheets and pulled them against her chest.
“I wanted you to stop playing Nancy Drew. But you didn’t. I tried to warn you off, but you just couldn’t take a freaking hint.”
Her heart hammered frantically in her chest. “What did you do to Whitney?”
“She’s gone. She won’t be coming back.”
Dead. Whitney is dead. That was what Maisey had feared all along.
“Soon, you’ll be gone, too, and you won’t be coming back.”
“I’m not scared of you,” she said.
“Yes, you are.”
Her fingers were shaking as she clutched the covers.
“You think you can hide behind the boyfriend, don’t you?” A taunt from that robotic voice. “But you can’t hide behind a dead man.”
Her fingers stopped shaking. Her whole body stiffened. “Don’t you dare touch him.”
Laughter.
“Don’t!” Maisey snapped.
But he hung up on her.
“Got him,” Odin said with satisfaction.
Her head whipped up. Maisey realized she’d been glaring at the phone. He threatened Odin.
Odin had turned on the lamp. His phone was pressed to his ear, and he was listening to someone. One of his contacts? The cops? She didn’t know.
“You’re kidding me,” he snarled. His eyes turned to slits. “Hell, yes, I know the location. I’ll be right there.” He dropped the phone.
“Where?” Maisey leapt from the bed. Hauled the sheet with her.
“Armageddon.”
She had no clue what he meant. Frantic, she shook her head.
“That’s the name of War’s bar. The bar that is located right beneath the Trouble for Hire office. The caller is either at the bar or at our PI office.”
She dropped the sheet and ran for her closet. “If he’s there, then so are we,” she called out as she hauled on clothing as fast as she could. “We should call the cops. Get them to close in.”
A phone was ringing again. Maisey shoved her head out of the closet just in time to see Odin take the call.
“What is it, Jinx?” His words were snapped out. “Shit. Now? Are you serious? Yes, we’re coming. Hell, yes, you need to keep Clay alive. Keep Ramsey off him.” He shoved down the phone and hauled on his own clothes. In seconds, he was racing for the door.
Maisey ran with him. She grabbed his arm. “Stop! Tell me what’s happening.” Though she had a scary feeling she knew.
“Ramsey just arrived. He’s storming for Clay’s door. If we don’t stop him—well, we both know what he’ll do.”
“But it’s not Clay.” Not if Clay was next door. Not if the call had come from the bar or the PI office. “It’s not him.” He couldn’t be in two places at once.
“We need to make sure Ramsey realizes that. Before he does something he can’t take back.”
Something like…killing Clay Prescott.
