Waters Run Deep. Liz Talley

the time she made the gate to the mansion, she was done. She gulped air as she crunched down the long, winding drive at a slow walk. The cemetery appeared as she rounded the corner and she shivered despite herself. Her grandmother had claimed to have second sight and the ability to commune with the dead. The sudden prickly feeling had to be a leftover freakazoid gene rearing its ugly head.

      The sound of a car behind her had her scooting off the road and checking over her shoulder. Gray government car.

      Nate Dufrene.

      Her heart took a gallop that had nothing to do with the run she’d just completed.

      He slowed beside her.

      She stopped.

      “Wanna ride?”

      “I’m almost there. And I’m pretty sweaty. Wouldn’t want to get your seats wet.”

      His gaze traveled down her body and up again before meeting her eyes. The look was leisurely, not perfunctory, and his checking-out of her sweaty body made her throat tighten and awareness ignite in her blood. “I don’t mind.”

      Her mind screamed get your butt back to the house and leave sexy Nate Dufrene the hell alone. Her libido, however, told her to take the candy the man offered and climb into his car like a naughty little girl. Damn, it was hard to ignore candy like Nate.

      “If you don’t mind,” she said, walking around the car and pulling open the passenger door. She sank inside and angled one of the vents onto her face. Nate turned the AC on high and shifted into gear, rolling slowly toward the historic home where he’d been raised.

      The car smelled like plastic, mingled with the slight scent of citrus cologne that suited the man sitting next to her. She inhaled, sucking in cool air and Nate Dufrene. Both were good.

      “You run often?” he asked, casting an inquisitive look her way.

      “Three or four times a week,” she said.

      “You look like you could run circles around me.” He drove really slowly. On purpose? Or did he hide pawpaw tendencies behind his gorgeous brown eyes and lumberjack body? Maybe he wanted more time with her?

      “You look fit enough,” she said, glancing out the window. No sense in trying to sound flirty. That had never been her game. Besides, she shouldn’t have climbed in the car with him, shouldn’t have gotten close enough to drink in his clean smell and seductive voice.

      “Oh, yeah? Maybe we can go for a run together,” he said, as the house came into view.

      Her body tightened unwillingly as thoughts of other things they could do together flitted through her mind. She glanced at him, unable to help herself and shrugged as though his presence wasn’t affecting her at all. Which it so was. Lord, what was wrong with her? Goal: prove to Ace she could do a phenomenal job as an investigator so she could make more money and get better assignments. Barrier: hunky detective.

      “Is that a ‘yes’ or a ‘maybe’?” Nate asked, swinging into the gravel parking area out front. “Because I’ll be around. I think keeping an eye on the Keene family might be something our department needs to consider in light of the threats they’ve received.”

      “Really? Figured we left danger back in L.A., so I doubt it’s something the local authorities need to worry about. I’m sure you have much more exciting things to pursue.” She reached for the door handle, but his big hand on her arm stopped her. His touch was warm, even on her heated flesh.

      “Just a second,” he said.

      She glanced at him, not able to read his expression or his eyes. “Yeah?”

      “What did you say you did before becoming a nanny?”

      Alarm uncurled in her belly, choking out the weird sexual energy that had been humming for the past few minutes. “A real-estate agent.”

      “With what company?”

      “Why? You looking for a house in the Valley?” she asked, jerking her arm away. “I worked as a real-estate agent for several years in Nevada. What’s it to you?”

      “You lived in Nevada?”

      No. “Yeah. Are you checking up on me or something?”

      “Why so touchy?”

      She gave him a dead stare. “I don’t like people implying I’m a liar.” Even if she was one. This undercover gig was hard to keep up around a guy like Nate. He seemed to smell bullshit from a mile away. She’d have to be extra careful to not let her guard down around him. Or anything else.

      “I didn’t imply you were a liar.”

      She arched an eyebrow and climbed from the car. “I’m not an idiot. You implied all over the place.”

      She didn’t wait for him to say anything more. She needed to get away from him. Get a shower before she had to pour Spencer’s cereal and play happy nanny for the day. Hopefully, Ace or his best hound, Jimmy, would break the case by finding the weirdo who threatened five-year-olds back in California so she could go home and pick up another assignment, preferably something that didn’t involve watching SpongeBob twelve times a day. But until then, she’d do what needed to be done, even if it meant lying her ass off.

      Nate stared at her as she gave herself a mental pep talk. He didn’t turn off the engine and he didn’t follow her, which was probably a good thing. She felt way too vulnerable around that man. What was he doing here anyway? Didn’t he have a job to do? Something more important than skulking around Beau Soleil implying she was something other than she was?

      Her thoughts tripped over each other as she walked around the flowered path toward the kitchen door. She’d grab a yogurt smoothie before she went up to her bedroom.

      Nate’s mother met her on the path.

      “Did I see Nate pull up?” The woman looked worried.

      “Yeah, he actually gave me a ride.”

      “Good. He needs to see this.”

      For the third time that morning, apprehension flooded her. “What?”

      “Someone left a present on the back doormat.”

      CHAPTER FIVE

      NATE STARED AT THE dead bird lying on the sisal mat. A folded piece of paper lay beneath the fanned wings framing the missive with grotesque flourish.

      “Who would do such a thing?” Picou asked, staring down at the poor creature. The mockingbird’s soft gray head was flung back with beak open, giving a tragic appearance.

      “Did you touch it?” Nate asked his mother, glancing to where she stood with lips pressed together, arms crossed as if warding off a chill, which was ironic since the day felt smothering already.

      “Of course not.” Picou sniffed. “I watch Law and Order.”

      He nearly smiled. “Good, Mom, good. I’m going to go back to the car to grab my kit and call this in. Stay here and don’t touch anything. Where did the nanny go?”

      Picou shrugged. “Inside? Maybe to check on the boy?”

      Made sense. Yesterday had proven the boy’s mother wasn’t exactly the most responsible person on the face of the earth, so Annie’s instinct to find and secure the child was good.

      His mother looked a little spooked, but that was to be expected. Dead birds and presumably threatening notes brought back bad memories—memories that were about to be waded through regardless of the movie people and their harassment problem. He’d read the file on Sally Cheramie early that morning when sleep escaped him—the results had left a wake of acid churning in his stomach. Part of him wanted to toss the file aside, smother the query into his sister’s disappearance, but facts didn’t lie. The woman might be more than a desperate charlatan looking to get rich quick. This inquiry