The Past Between Us. Kimberly Meter Van

hell wasn’t going to shoot her—though another agent might’ve, seeing as she’d already committed an assault against an officer—so he went old school.

      This time when he tackled her to the ground, he didn’t waste time trying to subdue her. She kicked and bucked but he reared back and cut a clean right hook across her jaw.

      She stilled and went limp beneath him. Thomas exhaled loudly, wishing to hell he hadn’t had to do that, but he figured it was the lesser of two evils at that moment.

      “Damn it, Cassi,” he muttered sharply, feeling like shit. It went against his personal beliefs—men who hit women were scum—but she’d given him no choice. Still, even knowing this, it didn’t lessen the feeling he’d just crossed a line. A good agent didn’t let the past affect his actions. If he’d hesitated, she would’ve gotten away and he would have had to explain why to his superiors.

      Pulling his handcuffs, he made short work of securing her. He climbed to his feet and took a quick look around the cramped apartment. Ugly was the appropriate word for it, he thought as he made a short circuit. Peeling yellowed wallpaper covered the walls, and brown, matted carpet covered the floor. He doubted anything in this place belonged to Cassi. From what he remembered, thrift store garbage wasn’t exactly her decorating style, which told him she’d rented the apartment furnished. There was nothing personal in this space, nothing that would suggest she actually lived there. She had the essentials but nothing else. The occupant of this house lived a transient existence. Here today, gone tomorrow, which fit Cassi’s M.O. Still, he opened a few drawers and rifled through the contents. A grim part of him was hoping to find evidence of drugs because maybe he could understand why she’d turned so bad if he found she suffered an addiction. But when his search came up empty, he couldn’t say he wasn’t relieved, too.

      No pictures, no personal effects. What a lonely life, he reflected for a minute before returning to where Cassi lay unconscious. He’d lied. He’d wanted to know her story, her reasons, but he’d be damned if he let himself slide down that slippery slope. He didn’t cause her to make her bad choices. He had to keep sight of that before he went and did something foolish, like trust her to tell him the truth and then fall hook, line and sinker for her lies.

      Thomas hoisted her onto his shoulder, grunting under the weight and taking care not to notice the plump, round curves of her ass right at his face. There were a million different reasons why he shouldn’t be attracted to her, but his hand itched to touch her and it only served to sour his mood further.

      Why Cassi? Of all the women in the world…why her? There were too many memories, too many unresolved feelings, just flat out, too much of everything. He’d been a fool to take this case but what was done was done. He’d see it through, no matter what. And he absolutely would not give in to the strange and inappropriate urge to give that firm ass a nice squeeze.

      He passed a neighbor or two but didn’t stop to explain why he was carting away an unconscious woman on his shoulder, nor did he flash his badge. Funny, no one asked any questions. That said a lot about the neighborhood she was living in. Definitely a far cry from the digs she was accustomed to, that was for sure.

      Cassi had lived in the rich part of town where they grew up in Bridgeport, West Virginia. Her house had been the most lavish, ridiculous piece of masonry Thomas had ever seen. Cassi came from old money and she’d enjoyed all that it had afforded from top-shelf education to high-society circles. Hell, she’d even had a coming-out party when she’d turned sixteen just like they did in the Old South. His upbringing hadn’t been so privileged. Until he’d been put in Mama Jo’s care, his home life had been hell. He didn’t like to spend much time remembering those days. And there was no reason for him to, either, but a memory floated unbidden from his past. Odd, given the circumstances, but it flashed real and tangible before he could stop it.

      “You like her,” a young Christian had said, his voice wise for a twelve-year-old kid who still slept with a ratty teddy bear that smelled so bad it probably scared away vermin. Owen glanced up from whittling on his ash twig, interest in his eyes at their brother’s sudden proclamation. “So why don’t you just ask her out or something?”

      Thomas’s face had colored. “I don’t like her,” he protested. “We’re just friends. Nothing wrong with that.”

      They were down by Flaherty’s Creek behind Mama Jo’s house “stayin’ out of mischief” as per Mama’s instruction.

      “It’s s’ okay, you know,” Christian said, skipping a rock across the water, listening as it splashed to the other side. “If you like her, I mean. She’s pretty.”

      Thomas followed Christian’s lead and threw his own rock, giving a short, victorious smile as it skipped one more time than Christian’s rock. Finally, he shrugged. “It’s not like that,” he said. “She’s not like most girls. She’s—” he scratched at his head “—I don’t know, special. She doesn’t notice that my clothes aren’t brand-spanking-new or that I don’t have a bunch of money like the rest of those dumb Yanks do. She thinks I’m funny, too.”

      “Funny-looking, you mean,” quipped Owen with a smothered grin before returning to his whittling.

      “Ha-ha. Go back to your stick or I’ll tell Poppy Jones a thing or two about you.”

      Owen narrowed his stare at Thomas, his green eyes darkening. “You wouldn’t dare.”

      “I would.” Thomas gave his brother his best shit-eatin’ grin. “Like how you stare at the back of her head during class with this dopey look on your face.”

      Christian cackled and slapped his knee. “You guys both got it bad. You won’t see me drooling over some girl. You gotta get them on the hook before you reel them in. And whatever you do, don’t let them get their claws into you. If you do, you’re done for.”

      Both Thomas and Owen shared sour looks but they couldn’t exactly say anything to the contrary, because even as the youngest, Christian had the girls going nuts over him. In fact, they trailed after the kid like he was made of chocolate and they all wanted to take a bite, but Christian never let anyone catch him…at least not for long.

      Owen straightened and examined his work. A rudimentary, but not half-bad-looking bear totem stared back at him. He tucked the finished work into his back pocket and went to stand by Thomas. “You know, you’re right. Cassi is different than other girls. She’s cool and I hope you two stay friends a long time. I mean it.”

      That quiet statement resonated with Thomas, striking a chord deep inside him. “Thanks, man. Me, too. Yeah…I mean…” He shifted on the balls of his feet and admitted something private. “It would be cool if we did but she’s got all those rich friends…I don’t know. I don’t really fit in with her world.”

      Owen knew a thing or two about not fitting in, but he shrugged and said, “Who cares what her rich friends think? Cassi wants you in her world so forget about them. She’s the one who matters, right?”

      “Yeah, I guess,” he agreed.

      “So make the most of it then. And don’t let her go.”

      Thomas shoulder-bumped him with a grin. “Look at you all wise and stuff.” They shared a laugh and then Thomas sobered. “Thanks.”

      Owen grinned in answer and opened his mouth to say something but he never got the chance. Christian barreled into them both with a loud battle cry and they all went tumbling into the creek for one last cutthroat game of Drown the Rat before the sun set on the horizon.

      The recollection of their laughter drew a soft smile from his lips. He didn’t know why that memory, of all the ones tucked away in his mind, rose to the surface but at least it elicited warmth instead of pain, like the ones before he came to live with Mama Jo.

      As far as he was concerned, his life before age twelve didn’t exist. Shaking off the odd melancholy, he grabbed his cell phone and stopped short of giving his superior a status update. He figured there was no rush. The prisoner was secured and it was a five-hour drive back to headquarters. With nothing