still joined, and the intimacy of their embrace was something Regina would carry with her forever.
CHAPTER 33
Sawyer eased out of bed the next morning, careful not to wake Reggie. She was all curled up, dead to the world, and he couldn’t help the smile that eased the strain at his forehead.
He reached down to touch the curls that spilled across her cheek. Beautiful. She was so beautiful. His need for her went far beyond the physical. He’d found physical release in a lot of places over the years, but he’d never found anyone who soothed the ache in his chest like Reggie. He never would.
No, he wasn’t good enough for her. Never would be. But for some reason, that didn’t matter to her. For all his faults, she still claimed to love him. And want him.
Something happened when he was around her. She always managed to find his cracks, slip inside him and worm her way into his heart. She’d inserted herself so deep that he had no desire for her to ever find her way out again.
Despite the fact that he had to share her with two other men, men who loved her, she still managed to make him feel like he was the only man in the world.
Discomfort settled into his chest when he thought of Hutch. He turned away, knowing that what had happened would have to be settled. It wasn’t a confrontation he relished, but for Reggie, he’d do anything.
Reluctantly he left her sleeping. He took a quick shower and headed downstairs. Hutch was in the kitchen as he’d expected.
When he walked in, Hutch looked up, and Sawyer could see the guarded look in his eyes. The silence made Sawyer uncomfortable, and he slid onto a bar stool and tried to act casual.
For a while, only the bang of pots and pans echoed through the kitchen. Hutch set out the ingredients for pancakes without looking back at Sawyer.
“Look man, let’s just forget it happened,” Sawyer finally said.
Hutch stopped stirring the batter but didn’t look up right away. He slowly let the spoon fall against the bowl, and when he finally did look at Sawyer, there was a lot of regret in his expression.
“I was wrong,” Hutch said simply. “I was an asshole, and neither you nor Reggie deserved it.”
“Okay, we’re good then,” Sawyer said, eager to get on to other things.
Hutch sighed and frowned. “No, this needs to be said. What happened had nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. You pushed some buttons, but it has to do with issues I had with my old man. I freaked out on you, and the thing is, I know you’d never hurt Reggie. I know that. And I need for you to know that. I owe you an apology, but more than that, I owe you more respect than I gave you.”
Sawyer shifted uncomfortably on the stool. “I got you. We’re cool.”
Hutch relaxed and resumed stirring the batter. “You iron everything out with Reggie, or did I fuck things up between you?”
“She set me straight,” Sawyer muttered. “We’re fine.”
Hutch grinned. “Yeah, she decked me.”
Sawyer jerked his head up. “For real?”
Hutch rubbed his gut with his free hand. “Yeah. The heifer packs a mean punch.”
Sawyer laughed, and he was astonished at the lightness he felt. Relief. Hope.
Hutch caught his gaze and stared him in the eye. “I’m sorry.”
Sawyer shook his head. “We’re good.”
Cam walked in carrying a handful of electronic equipment, a frown smeared across his face. He dumped the stuff on the bar with a clatter.
“Been out shopping?” Sawyer asked with an arched eyebrow.
The frown didn’t ease from Cam’s face.
“Either of you two know what the hell this stuff is?” he asked.
Hutch leaned over and perused the collection. “Looks like surveillance equipment.”
“Yeah, my thoughts too,” Cam replied.
“Where’d you get it?” Sawyer asked.
“Good morning,” Reggie said as she entered the kitchen. She offered the three of them a smile, and only Cam didn’t return it.
She slid up next to Hutch first, snuggling against his side. Then she looked down at the stuff on the counter and froze. A peculiar expression crossed her face, followed quickly by a spark of guilt.
Sawyer frowned. This didn’t bode well.
“I found it here,” Cam said darkly. “Cameras. Recording equipment. It was surrounding the house.”
Sawyer continued to stare at Reggie. “Got any ideas where it came from?” he asked her.
She stepped away from Hutch as Cam turned his surprised stare on her.
“Uh, it’s mine,” she said in a low voice.
“Yours?” Cam’s frown got deeper. “What the hell is going on, Reggie?”
She wiped her hands down the legs of her jeans and bit absently at her bottom lip.
“I had it installed. While we were in Houston,” she added.
The lightbulb came on. Sawyer saw the unease in her body language and knew that whatever explanation she came up with, he wasn’t going to like it. The others were quickly catching on as well.
“Is that why you were so keen to get us all to Houston?” Sawyer asked.
Regina tried to quell the panic knotting her throat. This wasn’t the way she wanted to explain things to them. She’d wanted to come clean with them, not be found out like she was sneaking around behind their backs. Which was in fact what she’d done.
She sighed and flopped onto a stool.
“Reggie?” Hutch prompted.
“A friend of mine owns a security company. High-tech stuff. Does a lot of police surveillance contract work. I asked him to wire the place while we were gone.”
“Okay, why?” Cam asked. “I mean I understand why since the place was broken into, but why did you think you needed to keep it a secret from us?”
“Because you didn’t know the whole story,” she said in a low voice. “I didn’t want you to know the whole story.”
“Well, by all means, do share,” Sawyer drawled.
They were annoyed. But she knew they’d be more pissed before the end of it.
“I was trying to protect you,” she said. “All of you. I have reason to believe that the murder, the attack on me, the break-ins here and at Birdie’s . . . and the car bomb were personal to Hutch.”
“What?” Hutch exclaimed.
Sawyer and Cam looked equally stunned.
“I don’t know that for sure,” she said mildly. “Misty Thompson was someone Hutch dated. The rest of the connections are self-explanatory. And the night she was murdered, the man called me Reggie and told me it was ‘time to make him pay.’ ” She glanced at Hutch, wincing as he paled even further. It wasn’t the way she would have wanted to break the news to him. The victim’s name was public knowledge, but Hutch wasn’t very tuned in to the local news.
“My department followed the reasoning that it had to do with my father since he’s high-profile, wealthy and a politician. But when Birdie’s place was broken into, the only room disturbed was Hutch’s.”
“Goddamn it, Reggie, why didn’t you tell me any of this?” Hutch demanded. “Don’t you think I had a right to know if someone was trying to kill people close to me? That someone had already died because of me?”
“It wasn’t my decision to make. My department wasn’t convinced, and they were investigating every angle. They wanted to question all three of you . . . today. But they made an arrest and got a confession for the murder, so it wasn’t necessary after all.”
“That’s bullshit,” Sawyer said bluntly. “Tell me something, Reggie. Why did you decide to stay? Why the sudden about-face? I’d bet an awful lot that it had nothing to do with us protecting you, or that you even suddenly decided to quit fighting the attraction.”
The blood drained from her face. This was what she was afraid of. Them making the connection. It hadn’t been like that, damn it, but she knew how it looked. How on earth was she supposed to convince them otherwise?
“He’s right, isn’t he?” Cam as
ked in a voice that sounded dead. “You were protecting us, weren’t you? You moved in so you could keep an eye on us. Hell, you even set up an elaborate surveillance system to monitor the house. You never had any intention of giving us a chance.”
“That’s not true,” she blurted. “Goddamn it, Cam. That’s not fair. It wasn’t like that.”
Hutch was pale, and he looked decidedly unsteady. “Fair? You want to talk about fair, Reggie? You lied to us. When have you ever lied to us?”
She couldn’t bear to look at the hurt in their faces. They looked completely and utterly betrayed.
“I didn’t lie,” she said quietly. “Not about us.”
“You look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t stay because you were protecting us,” Cam bit out.
She stared back at him unblinkingly. “I can’t tell you that, Cam. I did stay to protect you, but that wasn’t the only reason. Haven’t you figured out yet that I’d do anything for you? All of you?”
Sawyer swore and turned away from her. A crack ricocheted through her chest, nearly splitting her in two.
“How hard?” Cam bit out. “How hard did you have to look for an excuse to stay with us? At least be honest now, Reggie. Would you have ever stayed with us if you weren’t worried about our safety?”
She froze, unsure of what to say, of how to say it. Yeah, in the beginning, she’d needed all the prompting in the world to agree to something so outlandish. That didn’t make her an evil bitch, for God’s sake. What mattered, what should matter, were the conclusions she’d come to since. But maybe she’d been wrong, because they didn’t appear to trust her very much after all.
“I’ll take your silence as all the answer I need,” Cam said in disgust.
The phone rang, and Cam yanked it up, his face dark with anger.
“Hello,” he barked.
He paused for a moment then thrust the receiver toward her.
“Your chief,” he said shortly.
She took the phone, damning the timing. She didn’t have time for work shit. She had to make this right with the guys. But Cam wasn’t waiting around. He turned abruptly and stalked away. Fear took hold. A knot formed in her throat. Cam never walked away.
With trembling hands, she raised the phone to her ear.
“Yes, sir,” she said by way of greeting.
“I need you to come in,” he said, cutting straight to the point. “DA wants to meet with you. There are some holes in this case we’re trying to sew up.”
“Sir, this really isn’t a good time,” she began.
“I’m sorry, Regina. I need you here. This is too important. Can I expect you within the hour?”
She sighed and closed her eyes. Damn, damn, damn!
“Yes, sir. I’ll be right there.”
She punched the Off button and slowly put the phone down on the counter.
“I’ve got to go. I can’t put this off,” she said in a low voice. “We’ll talk about this when I get back.”
“Will you be back?” Hutch asked coolly.
Her gaze flickered up to his, and she couldn’t hide the hurt in her expression.
“Do you want me to come back?”
“We only want you back if this is where you want to be,” Sawyer interjected. “But maybe you ought to be thinking about why you’d come back. Because you being here out of some fucked up sense of obligation or you wanting to protect us from the big bad wolf? I don’t want you here for that. This isn’t about some stupid ass equipment, Reggie. It’s about you and us and the fact that maybe we’re tired of putting our lives on hold when you have no intention of giving us what we want. And hey, maybe it’s not what you want. That’s cool. Just say it. But quit jerking us around.”
Panic rolled through her like a locomotive. Had they finally reached the end of their patience with her? Numb. She was numb from head to toe. And then she looked up and saw the dead look in Hutch’s eyes.
She turned and walked out of the kitchen. It was either go now or break down in front of them.
She heard the crack of a fist meeting a wall, and she flinched, but she didn’t go back. She couldn’t go back until she had the time to convince them that she loved them and that she wanted to be with them. Always.
She only hoped to hell they’d listen to her this time and that she hadn’t used up her allotment of second chances.
CHAPTER 34
Regina drove into town with her chest so tight she thought she was going to split open. All she wanted to do was wrap up with the chief and get the hell back home.
“You’re looking much better, Regina,” Greta said when Regina entered the reception area of the police station.
She didn’t feel any better. Not now. “Chief still in? I’m supposed to meet with him and David Conley.”
“Let me buzz you in. He’s with the DA now.” Greta picked up the phone. “Regina’s here, Chief. Want me to have her go back?”
Greta gestured to the hallway and nodded at Regina.
Regina walked to the chief’s office and tapped at the door. When his call came to enter, she pushed open the door and ducked in.
David Conley rose from his seat and turned to acknowledge Regina. He was a younger DA, but he was a hard-ass in court, where it counted. He’d won reelection in a landslide.
“Regina, you’re looking better,” the chief said as he gestured for her to take a seat next to David.
“I’m feeling much better, sir,” she lied. “I hope to be back at work on Monday as we discussed.” But for the first time, returning to the job didn’t hold the appeal it had even a day ago.
The chief nodded.
“You’ve got the right guy in custody?” she asked, cutting quickly to the point. She didn’t have time to spend exchanging pleasantries. Not when her entire future was dangling by a thin thread.
Both the chief and David nodded.
“We have his confession,” David said. “We’re still collecting evidence, but it’s formalities. I read your statement, so I know you didn’t get a good look at him and couldn’t provide a description, but do you think you’d recognize him if you saw him again?”
She frowned. “I just don’t know. Sorry. It all happened so fast. I might be able to ID his voice, but he didn’t say much. Just the one line about him waiting for me and making ‘him’ pay.”
David grimaced. “That’s the only angle we haven’t been able to shore up.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “What do you mean?”
“His connection to you and who he meant to make pay. He’s admitted to the murder, and he provided cursory details about the crime. Location, motive, et cetera. But there was no mention of you, why he attacked you or what his motive was for doing so. We were hoping you’d remember something else about that night that might help us.”
She flashed an uncertain look at the chief. “So you don’t know if you have the right guy?”
“That’s not what we’re saying,” the chief responded evenly.
“Everything adds up,” David broke in. “Except his connection to you. He’s admitted to the murder; however, he hasn’t said a word about the break-ins or tampering with your vehicle.”
“You think he’s copped to a murder he didn’t commit,” she said.
“I didn’t say that either,” David replied.
“Then what are you saying?”
“There are two possibilities,” David said. “One, that the murder and the attack on you that night have nothing to do with the break-ins or the bomb and we’re looking for two different suspects. Or two, that we’ve got a guy in custody who for whatever reason has confessed to a murder he didn’t commit. I’m leaning toward the