Seeing Red Read online

“Maybe we shouldn’t talk.”

  “No, maybe we should. I don’t want to be your dick-of-the-week, Summer.”

  A laugh burst out of her at that. “Well, then. How about we take this one day at a time?”

  “I think with you, we’ll go minute to minute. And now that you’ve turned me around so many times I don’t know whether I’m coming or going, are you going to tell me the other thing you needed to tell me?”

  “Oh my God, I’d nearly forgotten.”

  “What now?”

  “Did you know Braden’s leaving?”

  “What do you mean, leaving?”

  “He’s with Chloe tonight. It’s their good-bye. He said he isn’t the stick around type.” A stab of guilt went through her because she’d become the same type. “I thought you’d want to know.”

  “Yeah. I want to know.”

  He said this so grimly she frowned. “What aren’t you telling me here?”

  “Nothing I’m supposed to.”

  Her heart sped up, and her stomach dropped. “I know Braden’s quiet and sort of mysterious, but he wouldn’t hurt anyone. If you could have seen the way he looked at Chloe tonight…”

  He swore at that, muttering to himself, then glanced at her again. “He has a police record.”

  “He’s been arrested?”

  “Yes. And his name isn’t Braden Cahill. His real name is Brian Coldwell. Did you know that?”

  “No.” Her thoughts raced uncomfortably. “You’ve been busy,” she said slowly.

  “It’s my job.”

  “You’re good at it.”

  “Not good enough.” He slapped an open palm on the steering wheel in frustration, shook his head, and sped up.

  Chapter 19

  It was somewhere near one in the morning by the time Summer watched Joe walk away. He’d taken her to his boat, waiting until she’d gotten into his bed and closed her eyes before he’d left. Though he’d told her he had to work, she still felt as if she’d pushed him out of his own home.

  His bedroom was small and shaped like the top of a torpedo, with the bed against the curved wall, which was lined with high, narrow windows. He had a heavy blue comforter and soft matching sheets that smelled like him, which was to say incredible. She kept pressing her face into his pillow.

  Pathetic.

  Reaching for the phone, she called Chloe. She knew the call wouldn’t be welcome but she had to check on her after what she’d learned tonight about Braden.

  Chloe answered her cell phone with a very breathless, annoyed “Yeah?”

  “I just wanted to see how you’re doing,” Summer said.

  “I’ve had three orgasms and I’m going for four, thanks for asking. Now don’t call back.”

  “Chloe.”

  Chloe sighed. “What?”

  “I need to talk to you about Braden.”

  “No.”

  “Chloe—”

  “Okay, stop. Stop right there. You always followed your gut and it got you the world. Now I’m going to do the same, only my world is right here lying next to me.”

  “He has one foot out of that world, remember?”

  “Hold on a sec.”

  Summer heard her cover the phone and murmur something softly, and then Braden’s equally soft reply. After a moment, Chloe came back. “I sent him to the kitchen for whipped cream. So what is it? What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Braden has a police record, and he’s using a different name from his last job.”

  Chloe was quiet a moment. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry. God, I’m so sorry. Want me to come over?”

  “I don’t need a babysitter. Look, whatever this stuff’s about, I believe in Braden. He’s a good guy, Summer.”

  “I want to believe that too. I really do. Just…be careful.”

  “Yeah. I will.” Chloe clicked off, sounding much more subdued than she had, and Summer hated that she’d been the one to cause it. She picked up her phone again to let her mom know where she was. She didn’t know if Camille would worry, but maybe it wasn’t about that so much as Summer just needing to connect.

  But Camille didn’t answer her phone. Concerned, she called Tina’s house.

  “Yes, she’s here,” Bill told her. “The two of them are in the hot tub singing show tunes over a bottle of old scotch.”

  Summer laughed in surprise. “They don’t drink scotch.”

  “They don’t usually hot tub it either, but your mom found some old stuff in the boxes that came out of the warehouse.”

  “What stuff?”

  “Your dad’s. Just an old partially written manuscript and some notes. And the bottle of scotch. She decided it’d aged enough.”

  “Maybe I should come over and try to cheer her up.”

  “Actually, she’s not sad,” Bill said. “They’re out there laughing and talking. And singing, let’s not forget the singing. I think it’s therapeutic. Me, I need a run to the racetrack for my therapy.”

  “Too bad Del Mar isn’t open all night, huh?”

  “Babe, you ain’t kidding.” He huffed out a breath but she could tell he was smiling. “Want me to give her a message?”

  “I’ll call her tomorrow. Just watch after them, okay?”

  “I always have.”

  In the early dawn light, Joe leaned back against the trunk of the Camaro. He was watching Chloe’s condo and sipping a Red Bull. It’d been that or a dozen doughnuts, but he refused to go back to stress eating simply because his life had been turned upside down.

  And it had been turned upside down. It wasn’t work either, though he was in the middle of several difficult cases, with Creative Interiors at the top. He’d had many such problems this year. He’d learned to separate out his emotions from the practical aspect of his job.

  Or so he’d thought.

  But enter one Summer Abrams. Or reenter.

  From behind him came a whine. He’d left Ashes asleep on the passenger seat of the car, having some sort of a dream that involved twitching her feet and ears. Probably dreaming about eating his files, her favorite pastime. Reaching through the window, he stroked a hand down her little body, over her plump belly, and she quieted. Just because of his touch.

  Hard to believe he’d gotten to the ripe old age of thirty and could still have such a small thing grab him by the throat, but it did. He’d never had any pets as a kid, hell it’d been hard enough to survive without that worry. As an adult, he’d always been too busy. The people in his life were important to him: Kenny, his other coworkers, the women he’d dated…but none had ever required his care the way Ashes did. He’d always figured he’d think of such a responsibility as a chore.

  But he didn’t.

  With the jolt of caffeine humming through his system, he straightened as the front door of Chloe’s apartment opened, and out came the man he’d been waiting for.

  Joe knew the exact moment Braden saw him. Not that the younger man’s feet faltered, or that his body language changed in any noticeable way.

  But his face went carefully blank.

  Dead giveaway.

  “Morning,” Joe said, and reached into his car to bring out another can of Red Bull.

  Braden eyed the can, then Joe. “You waited out here for who knows how long to offer me a kick of caffeine that tastes like cow piss?”

  “I don’t think it tastes like cow’s piss. At least not if it’s good and cold.” With a shrug, Joe opened the can himself. What the hell. “And for your information, I waited out here—for two hours, thanks for asking—to find out what the hell you think you’re doing, skipping town right now.”

  Braden lifted a shoulder. “What’s wrong with right now?”

  Joe took a long sip of the drink. Between realizing he’d done the unthinkable and moved Summer in with him, then getting no sleep while he sat in his office staring at the files of the fires, and now all this caffeine, he’d be lucky if poof, his head just didn’t explode right off his shoulders. “Leaving n