Those lanky shoulders moved up and down. “No one.”
“I can strangle you again. This time Nell isn’t around.” Killing the kid might release some stress.
His hands came up in defeat. “Fine. I might have been a curious kid. I thought I was a hacker. I got into the tiniest bit of trouble with some suits.”
Fuck. Suits? More like feds. Feds were the ones who showed up on a dude’s doorstep when he got handsy with someone else’s accounts. Yeah, if the FBI was interested in the kid, then maybe he really could help. “Did someone come see you?”
He shrugged again. “I do a little work for the government from time to time.”
Then he was really fucking good, and Bishop needed to look into him. “Sure, kid. Just check her e-mail. Find out what you can. I’m staying out at the Mountain and Valley. Get in touch with whatever you find.”
He’d promised Bill he would solve her problem. He glanced back in the room, and she was smiling up at the deputy.
“I will,” Stark said.
“And give her a ride back up the mountain, will you?” Bishop asked. He could do this from a distance. “She doesn’t need me.”
Bishop stepped off the porch and drove off up the road. Toward that bar she’d mentioned. Hell on Wheels. Sounded like his speed. He could use a drink.
Chapter Three
Nell picked up her broom, eager to get something done now that Rye had completed the obligatory report. She glanced around. No Henry. He was probably getting some fresh air on the porch.
She still couldn’t breathe thinking about how he’d kissed her. She’d been kissed before, but those tiny pecks and awkward fumblings seemed in another universe with what Henry Flanders had managed to do. She could still feel his lips on hers. Not tentative and waiting for her to take the lead. Nope. Not Henry. He’d just taken what he wanted, and wow, that did something for her.
She couldn’t allow her female hormones to turn her into a crazed sex addict. But wouldn’t it be okay to just be a little bit crazy? What was one step down from addict? Enthusiast. Yes. She could be a crazed sex enthusiast.
Of course she had to actually manage to have sex first.
“Nell, what do you know about that Henry fellow?” Rye Harper asked, his eyebrows arched as though it wasn’t the first time he’d asked her.
She could get lost in her own head. “I met him at Mountain and Valley an hour ago. He’s friends with Bill.”
“An hour ago?” If Rye’s eyebrow moved another inch, it would climb right off his forehead.
Nell flushed, but tried to hide it by crossing her arms over her chest and sending him her sternest look. “Are you judging me, Ryan Harper? Do you think I haven’t heard the story about the new cart hostess at the golf course in Del Norte? How long had you known her before you…well, escorted her into the bushes and got to know her in a biblical sense?”
A slow smile spread across Rye’s face. “I get your point, darlin’. I really do, but Beer Bringing Becky is a little less lethal than the man you were playing around with.” He frowned. “Though she could cut me off from beers. I hadn’t thought about that. Oh, well, we didn’t talk very much. The next time I see her I’ll pretend I don’t know her, and she’ll think it was Max who didn’t call.”
She knew she should lecture him on the whole turnabout twin thing, but her ears had caught on something else. “He’s not lethal. He’s a college professor.”
And a cranky one at that, but she was rapidly coming to the conclusion that his demeanor was likely brought on by a negative environment. She’d heard many professors complain about how rough it was to get tenure. Publish or perish. The ivory tower could crumble right beneath Henry’s feet if he didn’t have tenure. Yes, that was likely what was making him so crabby. And she suspected he ate too much red meat.
But she wasn’t sure how much that mattered since she could still feel her lips tingling and it had been a good forty-five minutes since he’d touched her and kissed her and thrown her on her bed.
She wasn’t a dumb girl, just a cautious one. She knew what would have happened if Seth hadn’t interrupted. She would have lost her virginity to a man she barely knew, and Rye Harper would have been sitting in her devastated living room listening to the whole thing. She knew how embarrassing that would have been.
And yet she was still a little mad at Seth.
“Nell, all I know is I haven’t seen a man move quite as fast as that one did,” Rye said, closing up his notebook.
She frowned. “You were watching?”
Rye Harper was completely immune to her sternest look. It really bothered Nell. “I wasn’t watching the sex stuff, but I damn straight wanted to see if Seth could save you from your rapist.”
She sighed. “Do people really think I don’t like men?”
Maybe Bliss was less tolerant than she thought.
Rye winked at her. “Honey, Seth is just a kid. He believes anyone who isn’t interested in him is likely a lesbian. Well, he hopes that. I happen to notice the way you look at a man when he takes his shirt off. You’re not disinterested, you’re just picky, and that’s a good thing to be, Nell.”
She wasn’t so sure about that. Her pickiness meant she was a twenty-five-year-old virgin. It wasn’t that she placed a special value on her hymen. She didn’t. She just hadn’t been moved to get rid of it. Maybe she did place a special value on sex, though. She’d heard one too many fairy tales. She wanted to be in love.
It was stupid, but she thought she might be able to love Henry Flanders. There was no intellectual reason to believe in the idea of love, but her heart had softened the minute she’d looked at him. She couldn’t take her eyes off him when they were in the same room.
Why wouldn’t he come back? She didn’t like not being able to see him.
Would he find her obnoxious? Lots of people did.
“I like him, Rye.” Why did it take such courage to admit that?
Rye gave her a brilliant smile. That was what she loved about Bliss. She could talk to almost anyone and they were open and happy to be engaged. This was a family. She’d spent years with only her mother for company, but everywhere she turned in Bliss she found a brother or a sister. Sure, it meant she had no private life, but privacy was overrated. “I’m glad, Nell. You deserve a great guy. And I stand perfectly ready to beat the shit out of him if he isn’t worthy of you.”
“Ryan!” She was a nonviolent person.
He shook his head, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Nope. I’m not going to feel bad. Every woman needs a couple of men who are willing to kick some ass for her. You don’t have any men. So me and Max will step up. Stef, too. You’re a nice girl, Nell. You need brothers.”
Tears filled her eyes. She should completely disavow the whole violence angle, but she had to admit the idea of having a few men who cared enough to look out for her made her want to cry. “Thanks, Rye. I really do like him. I’m a little scared though.”
Rye reached up, smoothing her hair back in a perfectly nice brotherly gesture. “You have to try, Nell. Nothing in this life happens without some risk. One day some sweet thing is going to come through this town and she’s going to be perfect. She’s going to love me and she’s going to love Max and I believe that. I have to. I can’t stand the thought of not having a family, but I’m weird. I worry deep down that it won’t happen. I think maybe I’m too weird, you know.”
She hugged him without reservation, throwing her whole body into it because Rye Harper was a wonderful man and he should know it every second of the day. “You’re not weird. You’re wonderful and Max is wonderful.” Max was a crabby man but someday some amazing woman would fix that. “You’re going to get married and be so happy. It can happen, Rye. I believe it.”