the conversation.”
Will hid his surprise. “You expected him to call?”
“Yes,” she said, chin up. She glanced at Carina and her confidence wavered a fraction. “He called earlier,” she admitted softly. “I hung up on him. Then I hit myself for being so stupid. It took him fifteen minutes to call back. I had enough time to get it together.”
Will barely noticed Mario and Carina exchange a glance. “Robin, he’s not going to stop until he goes after you.”
“Then I’ll kill him.” Robin turned and lifted up her sweater, revealing a holstered gun in the small of her back. Will didn’t know why it bothered him that Robin was packing, but he was frustrated. Private citizens shouldn’t have to carry weapons to feel safe, but Robin obviously had cause for a CCP.
Will asked, “Do you have a death wish, Robin?”
“What do you want? You came here yesterday, did your duty. Warned me only eighteen hours after I heard about his escape on the TV news.”
Will bit back an argument. “Do you have a CD player?”
Robin held out her hand and he tossed back the CD.
She played it through the bar’s speaker system. Hearing Glenn’s voice coming from all around gave Will the chills. He looked at Robin, saw that she was having a difficult time listening to it again. He marveled that she had the wherewithal to set up the recording in the first place. It took brains and courage. She caught him staring at her, averted her eyes.
Will’s jaw clenched tight. Glenn would kill Robin if he had the opportunity, and Will vowed never to give him that chance. Between her private security and San Diego PD, Robin would be safe.
“He’s going to kill you,” Robin said, her voice cracking at the last moment. She cleared her throat. “He killed my friends to hurt me. He thinks killing you will hurt me, too.”
Will’s head spun. Robin was concerned about his safety? Glenn had baited Will by dropping Robin’s name during interrogation, and was now baiting Robin by dropping Will’s name. Theodore Glenn was playing on their personal fears, and doing it damn effectively. Will couldn’t let him in.
Right.
“What phone did he call you on?”
“My house phone,” Robin said.
“Is it listed?”
“No.”
Mario said, “But that doesn’t mean anything. Unlisted numbers are easy to get if you know what you’re doing.”
“Or he could have help. Someone who’s been keeping an eye on Robin while he’s been in prison.”
Robin sat heavily on a bar stool and Mario took her arm. “Are you okay?” the security expert asked, his voice concerned. Will felt a pang of jealousy. He should be the one consoling Robin.
“Why? Why would anyone want to help a killer?”
“You’d be surprised,” Carina said. “Sometimes they don’t even recognize that they’re aiding and abetting.”
“He’s not going to get to you,” Will told Robin. “I won’t let him.”
Carina reached behind the bar and popped out the CD. “I’m going to call this in, get our people working on tracking down the number he called from. It might take a little time to get the information out of the phone company, but we should have it by the end of the day.” She nodded at Mario. “Let’s check out the security system while I make the call.”
“I already-um, right. Let’s do that.”
They left. Will was alone with Robin. Her chin tilted defiantly up, jaw clenched. “Robin, please. You never let me apologize.”
She blinked rapidly. “You never tried.”
“Hell yes I did!”
Her jaw dropped. “Your idea of a fucking apology was pathetic! You accused me of bringing it on myself, that what I did naturally made you doubt me.”
“I never said that!”
“I guess you didn’t have to.” She turned from him. He went to her, put his hands on her shoulders.
“You read things into that night that weren’t there,” he said.
“Did I?”
“Dammit, Robin! I was wrong. I should never have-but I admitted that. Right then and there.”
“Some things you can’t take back.” She sounded so lost, so lonely. Will hated hearing her anguish.
“I-” What could he say? That he was sorry? Again? How many times could he apologize? As many times as it took for Robin to forgive him. It pained him that he hurt her, and he’d do anything to take it all back, but that was in the past. And right now, nothing he could say would take away the pain and anger that stood like a brick wall between them.
He turned her to face him. She was so close. So beautiful. Her eyes, damn, her eyes highlighted her kind and generous soul. How had he ever doubted her? How had he questioned her loyalty? Her honesty? Her love? He touched her jaw, her skin so smooth and flawless she could have been eighteen as easily as the thirty-one he knew she was.
His thumb skimmed her lips. A faint cry escaped her throat. Will remembered holding her that first time, when he’d taken her home after she came to him at the police station to ask what the police were doing about her friend’s murder. They’d gone to dinner, and had a few drinks, and she told him everything about RJ’s and her friend Bethany Coleman. She’d been drained, and he’d never felt so protective of a witness.
Now, he needed to touch her again. He bent, touched his lips to hers.
A hint of a kiss wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. He sank into her like a dying man, thirsting. His hands found the nape of her neck, rubbed, held her, devoured her lips.
He’d get on his knees and beg her forgiveness if it would help, but maybe, just maybe, his kiss would be enough. His kiss would show her how sorry he was. His kiss would prove Will had never stopped loving Robin.
She gasped, not expecting him to touch her. To put his lips on hers. She wanted to give into him, to hold on and let him take her away to the moon as he’d done before. After Sean, it had taken her years to let a man into her heart. The one man she’d opened up to was this one, this cop, and he’d sliced her to the bone with one question.
She put her hands up. Her heart wanted Will back, her heart wanted to forgive him, but her head knew the truth. That there would always be doubt in his mind. He hadn’t believed her then, when he’d claimed to love her. Why would he believe her now when they had nothing but regret and bitterness between them?
She’d done nothing wrong and he hadn’t believed her. She’d seen it in his eyes. Heard it in his voice. She couldn’t live with that shadow of doubt between them.
Using all her emotional strength, Robin pushed him away. There was nothing more that she wanted except to bring Will Hooper home with her. To have him protect her. Save her, not only from a killer, but from deep, numbing loneliness. Even with her business, her painting, with all that she did, she went home alone every night. The hollowness grew, and she was drowning in her empty life.
But Will Hooper was not the man she could allow into her world. Not again. No matter how scared she was, how lonely she was, she wouldn’t, couldn’t, let him get close.
He stared at her, his smoky blue eyes pained. They mirrored her heart. She swallowed. “You have the CD. I hired a bodyguard. You don’t need to come by anymore.”
He stayed silent for a long moment. The tension between them was palpable. She wanted to touch him. She wanted him to hold her. She wouldn’t allow herself to flinch, to show even one iota of interest toward Will Hooper.
