“Yeah. Him I’ve met.” By this time they were done eating. He stood and dropped some cash on the table.
“What, you don’t want my impression?”
He flashed her an unreadable look, then grabbing her hand, pulled her up and toward the door in one smooth movement.
“What are we doing now?”
“Going home to discuss your impressions of date number eight. In detail…”
9
JACOB’S CELL BUZZED as he led Bella into his house. It was Ethan. “Make yourself at home,” he said to Bella. “I have to take this.” He moved to the laundry room off the kitchen and flipped open his phone. “Madden.”
“She with you?”
“Yes.”
“I’m glad she’s safe.”
There was something in Ethan’s voice that tipped him off. “What do you have?”
“The print from the first shooting. The crime lab found marina sand in the tread.”
“We need to have the marina checked out.”
“Already there. Checking the hotels, motels and all the boats. There’s something else. The second gunshot vic. Banning Jefferson. Apparently he goes solely by a nickname. B.J.”
Oh, Christ. “Bella’s sixth date.”
“Yeah. We didn’t catch it earlier because B.J. wasn’t on any of his IDs.”
Jacob stared sightlessly out the laundry room window. “Bella wasn’t the target today.”
“No,” Ethan agreed. “That would be Tyler Scott, date number three. And if he’d been hit, it’d have made three from her list of eight.”
“Which puts me on the short list.”
“Yeah,” Ethan said grimly. “It does.”
“I’ll watch my back.”
“See that you do. We’re sending a squad car to your house, as well as to the other guys on the list. It leaves us strapped, but we have to stop this perp.”
Jacob shut his phone and went into the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of wine, two glasses and his laptop.
Bella had wandered into the living room, and was standing with her back to him in front of the huge picture window, looking out to the gentle rolling hills that lined his property. “It’s so pretty out here.” She turned and looked at him. “The land is beautiful. Are those your horses?”
“One’s mine, one’s my brother Wyatt’s.”
“The one in Afghanistan, flying for the air force.”
“Yeah.” Jacob set the laptop on the coffee table and poured the wine. “As for the land, I bought it a long time ago, before Santa Rey spread out this far. Back then, this place was a POS.” He held out a glass of the wine.
She looked at it, then into his face. “Am I going to need that?”
His gaze didn’t waver from hers. “Yes.”
She sighed, then took it and sipped. “So. POS. Piece of shit?”
“Got it in one. I redid a room at a time, assisted by a brother or two. Took almost four years, but it’s getting there.”
She sipped some more wine, looking around her at the oversize, comfortably worn furniture. The only other adornments were a huge plasma TV on the wall and a variety of sports equipment.
“I keep meaning to put all that away,” he said.
“Your house is big and warm and feels lived in, like a real home.” She said this almost wistfully as she met his gaze. “Tell me what you’ve got, Jacob. I’m strong enough.”
“I know.”
“Then just put it out there, like ripping off a Band-Aid.”
“All right.” He took the wineglass from her fingers and set it aside, then pulled her closer, nudging her down to the couch. “Two things. The guy hit on the other side of town. His name is Banning Jefferson. But he goes by B.J.”
She looked at him for a beat before it struck her. “Oh my God.”
He took her hand. “He survived, Bella. Remember that. He’s going to be okay.”
“I need to see him.”
“Tomorrow.”
She stared at him, and he braced for a fight, but in the end, she simply nodded. “Thing two.”
“Thing two.” He looked into her eyes. “Today’s shooting. You were with Tyler Scott. One of the eight.”
“Yes, he came for dessert. He-” She gasped and covered her mouth. “The bullet was meant for him.”
“It’s likely.”
She surged to her feet. “The others. We have to warn the others-”
He straightened and grabbed her before she could run for the door. “They’re all being protected.”
“And you?” She pulled back, gripping his arms in her hands, her fingers digging into his biceps. “You’re in danger, too, just by being with me. You have to go.
“Bella-”
“Oh, God. You can’t go, we’re at your house. Okay,
He pulled her back against his chest, wrapping his arms around her from behind. “I’m not sending you away.”
“But-”
“We’ve got men on the shop, on all the dates, and now here, as well.”
“Really?”
“Yes. And don’t forget, the perp doesn’t know where I live, my home address wasn’t on my profile. The guys were punking me, not trying to get me stalked and shot at.”
“That’s right,” she murmured. “I keep forgetting you weren’t on that date by your own choice.”
“Maybe not at first.” Turning her in his arms, he stroked a finger down her temple, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “But that changed pretty quickly.”
She stared up at him. “When?”
“When a pretty, wild-haired brunette showed up, willing to have a first date that involved adventure seeking and getting her hair wet and her hands dirty.”
She smiled at him, some of the panic leaving her eyes. “So what now, Jacob?”
“I want you to show me the profile you filled out, the one that the singles club used to line up your eight dates.”
She moved back to the couch and opened his laptop. She waited until he leaned over her and typed in his password, then using his browser program, she accessed her e-mail and then opened a Word document. “Bella?”
“It’s pretty detailed.”
He knew because he’d seen the one the guys had filled out for him. There’d been some innocuous questions, like favorite foods and colors. And some not-so-innocuous questions, like sexual likes and dislikes. And fantasies. The profile wasn’t to be shared between any of the daters, only used to line up potential matches and, the club promised, would be destroyed afterward.
The guys at the P.D. had bullshitted their way through Jacob’s. Since Bella hadn’t had her so-called friends “help,” most likely she’d answered truthfully, which meant that by allowing him to read her profile, he’d be reading her innermost thoughts and desires. It would be like peeling back the layers of the real Bella.
She made a sound that said “screw it” and thrust the laptop at him.
He looked at her, but had no idea what to say, so he began to read. Her favorite color was the color of the sun because it made her happy. Her favorite food was, surprise surprise, dessert of any kind. Her favorite clothes were
